Editors’ Prepping Progress

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:

Fall weather is now rolling in, with full force. A so-called “atmospheric river” has a series of La Niña-driven storms lined up, across the northern Pacific Ocean.  In short, we are expecting a very snowy winter in the Inland Northwest.

To be ready to plow snow on short notice, I positioned our time-proven “fence” made of  2x4s across the bed of our pickup, just behind the wheel wells. That keeps six 80-pound sandbags from shifting forward. Those bags are, as the song goes: “…just for weight, dear…”  Sitting alongside them is a 4-gallon plastic container of sand — a re-purposed cat litter jug. That jug is there in case we need to pour any traction sand in a hurry.  This time of year we also carry tow chains in both our pickup and our SUV.  And, of course, we habitually carry a snow shovel, at least one sleeping bag, and spare heavy winter coats, this time of year.

Now, Lily’s report…

Avalanche Lily Reports:

Dear Readers,
This week the weather was mostly cloudy with rain and snow showers at our elevation.  On Thursday morning we even had a trace of snow stick on colder surfaces, like grass and the vehicles for a couple of hours in the morning. Yep, first snow.  The extended forecasting seems to say we could have four inches by around the 11th of November.  But the forecast is ever-changing, so we shall see.

Jim set up our two grow lights in our guest bedroom, so I can start seeds for more greens that I hope to move out to the greenhouse later on under triple plastic. I planted Pac Choi, Kale, lettuces, Lamb’s Quarters, Claytonia, Cilantro, and a few others.

The greens in the greenhouse are growing but very slowly.  I have also been harvesting greens that are under clear plastic totes out in the garden, for our salads.

I transplanted nine surviving Rosemary slips that I started in August into larger pots. They are in the house for the winter situated in a south-facing window in the great room.

Before our trip back east, I harvested all of my green cherry tomatoes from the greenhouse and put them in a brown paper grocery bag, on returning home, I found more cherry tomatoes growing in the greenhouse. Before a hard frost, I harvested those green tomatoes and put them in the brown paper bag.  This week I sorted through the red and orange now-ripened cherry tomatoes, washed them, and froze a lot of them.  I also put a bunch of them in soil in three-inch pots to overwinter in the greenhouse.  I will water them periodically through the winter. Hopefully, as soon as the right temperatures arrive in the spring they will germinate for me.  I also saved seeds from some of these tomatoes.

I worked the soil in a section of the Main garden to plant garlic.

I picked some elderberry umbrels from the orchard, and dehydrated them.

This week I have done a fair amount of domestic pursuits.

This week I made my own type of Pierogis with Einkorn flour that I ground, our own ground beef, potatoes, onions, garlic, and oregano from our garden.  The only thing storebought was some nutmeg.  I have some French Canadian Background, so I remember the wonderful tasting meat pies called Tourtiere that my Nanny used to make for our Christmas Eve family get-together.  As an adult, I don’t enjoy hot spices, so I adapted this recipe for our own tastes. I will have Jim publish my recipe in the Recipes of the Week. I cultured it on top of two cast iron baking pans on top of our wood heating stove.

I made yogurt this week for Jim and Miss Violet using two quarts our cow’s milk and six tablespoons of the sheep yogurt I have been buying for myself — as the culture for it.

I made sourdough bread from my own sourdough culture.

Cabin Fever has me already deeply cleaning the great room, rearranging furniture, and changing covers on the couch and our chairs.  I like the change in there for now…  😉

Again this week, I have been walking often, not as often as last week, but still a lot.  It feels great to be outside exercising in the crisp air.

I have been deeply in the Word of God this past week literally devouring it.

As of Thursday and Friday, I have been deeply in the Book of Acts.

Earlier in the week I was seriously comparing the Old Testament with the New Testament in the book of Revelation.

I have several series of scriptures that excite my heart that I would like to share with you. Please dig inyo these, for your own study:

The Return of Jesus

Jesus returns at the 6th Seal.  He will return on Rosh Hashana during the Fall “Feasts” Moedim/Appointed Times of the Father. We believe this might be sometime between 2027-2029?

When Jesus returns all eyes will see Him!  There will be no mistaking Him.  So don’t believe anyone who says the Messiah is here, before then!

I like using the Blue Letter Bible application to look up words in the Bible.  I looked up the Word Clouds.  The Father and Jesus are always described as “Inhabiting thick, dark clouds”.

Jesus went up to heaven in the clouds, after His resurrection and spending forty days teaching the disciples before ascending to Heaven.

Jesus will return in the Clouds

The first place in scripture where we get a prophetic word of Jesus coming in the Clouds is in Daniel: