To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug-out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those –or excerpts thereof — in the Odds ‘n Sods Column or in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!
Jim Reports:
After some delaying distractions, I finally got the pipe underground for the branch water line to our orchard. Also, this past week, I re-wired the tail lights on our box trailer, and I did some ammunition shopping for one of my local consulting clients. Oh, and I spent a day helping a friend move his fifth-wheel camping trailer.
It is starting to feel like fall, with cooler temperatures, a bit of rain, and the first traces of fall colors on the trees. It feels good to be ready for winter!
Now, on to Lily’s report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
This week, as of yet, no frosts. Just a few light drops of rain here and there. Still quite warm weather.
I rototilled another section of the Main garden and planted peas, radishes, and winter rye for cover crops.
I harvested plums, froze four gallons, dehydrated a half gallon, made fruit leather and plum vinegar. I’ll let you know how the plum vinegar tastes in a month or so.
I made the blended fresh apple, pecan. walnut, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and dehydrated it into pancakes, again. They are so yummy.
I cleaned the cow stalls and sheep shed.
I brought from the garden into the house (to the guest bedroom with growlights) three celery plants. From the greenhouse, I brought into the house herbs that won’t survive the winter in the greenhouse: rosemary, thyme, Tarragon, one pot of Hungarian peppers, one tomato, and a pot of sweet potato slips. I also filled two totes with fresh garden soil to plant greens in.
I harvested sage and lemon balm and dehydrated them. I harvested and dehydrated a quart jar worth of broccoli.
Thusfar, I’ve frozen four gallons worth of tomatoes that ripened in our cold cellar room.
I’ve been saving and drying lots of veggie seeds from the garden produce over the past two months.
I harvested many winter squashes that appeared ready to be harvested. The ones that were not yet ready I have left growing on the vines.
The Fall golden raspberries on the Primo canes are going gangbusters. We’ve been eating them and freezing them. They will produce until they are killed by a hard frost. The red raspberry primocanes just began to ripen at the end of this week.
May you all have a very blessed and safe week.
– Avalanche Lily, Rawles
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As always, please share and send e-mails of your own successes and hard-earned wisdom and we will post them in the “Snippets” column this coming week. We want to hear from you.