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:
This week I spent a lot of time in the garden. I removed some old raised beds, and then spent several hours rototilling those areas. I also rototilled the spot for a new strawberry patch inside the fenceline of our orchard. With the help of our neighbor and his tractor, we spread rotted-down cow manure on all of those rototilled areas. I plan to re-til those areas, before the ground freezes.
I’ve been busy with both my consulting work, and with fulfilling Elk Creek Company orders.
I finally got the trenches backfilled for the water system extension down to the orchard. That felt good to see that job finished. Now instead of cobbling together 650 feet of seasonal garden hose, we have four new freeze-proof hydrants, and we will just have to run a couple of 100-foot hoses inside the orchard.
Now, on to Lily’s report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
This week we had absolutely gorgeous Fall weather sunshine. Our Tamaracks are starting to turn color. Gorgeous! The highs have been in the mid-sixties with one light frost midweek. The Golden raspberries took it in stride and are still producing!!
The hard freeze and snow is expected to arrive by next Wednesday night, so it is time to wrap up the garden.
This is the longest growing season we’ve ever had, yet, since living here. My second or third summer here, we had a hard frost on August 17th! I’ll never forget that date because that was the earliest frost I had ever seen, and was shortest growing season I had ever seen.
This week Jim and I worked the gardens. We transferred the black raspberries and strawberries from the Main garden to the orchard. That entailed preparing the beds by rototilling and putting in manure and fertilizers and rototilling it again and planting the strawberries and then digging the holes for the black razes and putting in manure and mixing the soil and the manure and planting the berries. Whew!
Then we pulled up the raised beds that they were in. We had six-four by twelve beds. Our neighbor came over with his tractor to do the job, because we had put hardware cloth under the beds and grass roots had grown all through it making it almost impossible for us to pull up by hand.
Once the raised beds were removed, Jim rototilled that whole area of the main garden. A few days later our neighbor returned and used his bucket to spread manure all over the new garden area. Actually he left piles all around the main garden that I will be spreading out by hand next week. Then one of us will rototill it in before the hard freeze, hopefully.
Removing those six beds of Black Razzes, Strawberries, and Rhubarb, (I had moved it earlier in the summer), and and two rows of strawberries effectively doubled our Main garden space. I am so thrilled. I have plans for that garden next summer. Lord willing!
I harvested the rest of the Sunflowers, stripped the leaves from the stalks, gave those to the beasties and hung up the sunflower heads in the greenhouse to dry. The stalks, I also put in the greenhouse to dry. I plan to use some of them for stakes for some of garden infrastructure, next summer. Some will also be used as kindling once they are dry.
I harvested, washed, blanched and froze a gallon’s worth of broccoli.
I harvested the beets — about thirty pounds. Thus far, I blanched and froze the greens, eleven quarts worth. I love eating beets, both raw and cooked. I always have such a sense of well-being after eating them. Jim does not like them so much. 😉
I harvested the carrots. They were the largest I have ever grown. But it was only about twenty pounds worth. I didn’t measure the weight. These were washed, put in three-one gallon sealed plastic bags and put in the refrigerator. I have two more beds of carrots that I planted in August. They are quite small. I will be mulching and overwintering these this coming week before the hard freeze arrives. I will see how they do during the winter. We may be harvesting them come February…
Jim harvested the leeks, scallions, and last of the red onions. That was a heaping-full wheelbarrow! I still have to preserve them in some way this next week.
I harvested the parsnips, about ten pounds worth. On Sunday, I will wash them and put them in the refrigerator.
With the garden now expanded to more than double, I am hoping to double and triple the amount of root crops that will be grown.
I cleaned the sheep shed, Henhouse, and Heifer training stall.
I discovered an aphid explosion in the peppers and sweet potatoes that I had brought into the bedroom greenhouse. I harvested all of the peppers from the plants washed them and cooked them in a dish that afternoon. I had to evict those pots along with the two pots of parsley that didn’t take to being transplanted and being brought into the house. Then I had to wash the floor around where those pots had been located. The herbs and tomatoes still in there were not affected by the aphids, thankfully.
The the new bull, nursing mother cows, their calves, and another heifer were moved into the south pasture. We were trying to give the south pasture a chance to regrow its grass, but I noticed that several of the cows including my nursing mothers didn’t look so healthy, suddenly. Therefore, we moved them down there to get some greenery and more sunshine. They are looking better already just after five days of being there. We are continuing to feed them their hay ration there, since there isn’t enough grass to sustain them in that pasture. Maybe we will leave them there for the winter? It’s healthier overall. But then I won’t have a ton of manure in one spot for gardens next summer…and we won’t be able to milk at least one of them for a while. But anyway we still have to repair the railings around the corral and we need to reestablish the partition in the corrals to separate the mamas from their calves at night so we can milk in the morning… Maybe later, as you can see we are concentrating on the gardens, currently. Milking cows isn’t a priority for us.
The bull and steer are in the bullpen, while little Miss M. is in the stall. I am still working her. She is still fairly wild. She would prefer to run away from me than to let me pet her and work her. It’s only after about ten minutes of being with her, each day, that she relaxes and stands still for pets, pats, rubs, brushings, and talks. I hope more time and maturity will calm her down. I feel a little bit sad that she is not out with the rest of the cow herd, but the additional reason for isolating her is that I do not want her bred, yet, by our new bull. She is too young. Though she cannot see them, she is close enough to the bull and steer that she can hear and “talk” to them, so she is not totally alone.
The horses are in the meadows being lawn ornaments. I want to keep them separated from the cows in again this winter, because they are such hay hogs. The dominant horse just bullies everyone and eats more than her fair share of the hay. My nursing mama cows need as much feed as they can get. They don’t need that competition.
We have moose around this fall. I saw a young bull moose early one morning. It ran through our pasture in which our horses were residing. Its presence really excited our two horses. They ran tight circles and snorted a bunch as the moose ran through. Our neighbor has reported to have seen four different individuals, one young bull, a mature bull, and a female with a calf. How exciting! They are so beautiful.
Jim, Miss Violet and I hiked up to a gorgeous little alpine mountain lake last Sunday. The hike was a total of eight miles with a 1600 feet elevation rise. It was the longest hike Miss Violet had ever done. She lead us most of the way. What a trooper. We did it in four hours and forty minutes. We stayed at the lake for about fifteen minutes to eat a snack and then headed right back down again because it was cold and windy up there and it would be dark within two hours. We were all so excited. It felt so great to do that and to make such good time. We all are in a lot better shape than we had thought, and to actually complete a hike, make it to a destination without turning around part way, because of uncomfortableness or time constraints, was awesome. It has been at least six years since we have completed a hike, made it to the designated destination. We broke that previous trend, finally! Afterwards, I was high as a kite from the endorphins. I was so happy! What a cleansing that hike was! It took me a long time to get to sleep that night. We wanted to hike again this week but the garden work and water pipe system to the orchard situation was demanding our attention. Yes, we were sore afterwards and still are a bit sore five days later, but it was so worth it. I have a list of more hikes that we want to do, even in light snow.
Miss Violet and I, did go for a three mile hike around our neighbor’s property with his wife the next day. The rest of the week, our exercise consisted of all of the garden work. I will say that I have really picked up my walking pace when walking from the house to the barn, or to the orchard, etc., since that hike.
Jesus Christ is Lord! There is salvation from God’s Wrath in no other name, but the name of Jesus! If we belong to Him, He will keep us safe in Him no matter whether we live or die. Trust and Believe in the name of Jesus Christ from Nazareth the one and Only Son of the Living God the God who Created the Universe.
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.