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:
I took advantage of the good weather this week to get started with my annual firewood cutting. I started out with cutting up some deadfallen trees and one severe “leaner”, here on our ranch. Next, I cut up a large fir tree that had fallen across our elderly neighbor’s fence, less than 10 yards from our south fenceline. He offered me the wood. In response, I immediately offered to cut it up and drop it off in front of his woodshed, but he refused. So it ended up in front of my woodshed.
On Thursday, I cut up and hauled out a couple of blown-down White Fir treetops in the adjoining National Forest. Both of these treetops were right near a road, so they were easy to get to. They had both broken off a couple of quite large firs. Just these tops were about 18 inches in diameter at their butt ends and they had limbs that were the diameter of my forearms. It was a couple of hours of good exercise.
Now, Lily’s part of the report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
We had a gorgeous dry and sunny bluebird skies and warm afternoons this week, with temperatures going as high as seventy-two degrees. We also had some very hard frosts at night with a temperature low of twenty-five degrees. Brr! We had some cold early mornings.
This week the Vultures, Swallows, and Blue Herons returned to our valley. The Herons came in, in the evening. I had been in the house, so I didn’t get the low flyby greeting from them this year as I did last year. But they landed in a giant Grand Fir tree that is on the edge of our orchard. The top of it was blown off by the last windstorm we had in March. So they had a great place to perch on the branches to look around their northern domicile. I happened to look out the picture window as they landed in the tree. They were so big, that I grabbed my binoculars to see what they were and then realized it was our Blue herons. So I ran outside to greet them. I yelled to them: “Welcome Back!”, and “Did you have a great flight?” “Where is the third one of you?” “It’s really good to see you both again!” Etc. After greeting them for a few minutes, I went to separate the mom sheep from their lambs for the night and to hold mamas down for the Bummers to nurse. Then, when I went back inside and looked out the window to the tree, the herons were gone. But I saw them the next morning frolicking in our meadow. Our turkey girls that overwintered on our ranch have disappeared for the summer. They have left to find some Tom Turkeys, and to raise their clutches. They usually return to the ranch in July.
Late one night, I heard a Wilson’s Snipe call, just once. We usually don’t hear them much until the end of May and all of the month of June, then they go silent. I’m watching for the Mountain Bluebirds return. They are so beautiful.
This week I rototilled the Main garden, three of the beds. There are more beds that need to be rototilled in there, later. Then I planted sixteen rows of potatoes: Adirondack Reds and Purples, Purple Vikings, Purple Golds, French Finger and Bannana, Yukon Golds, Kennebeck, Red Chieftains, some unknown whites, etc. I also planted beet seeds and set out Purple Cauliflower seedlings. The Purple Cauliflower may have been a mistake to plant out this early….
One of the unplanted plowed beds, I worked to pull canary grass roots out of to prepare or planting later in the spring. The beds where I planted the potatoes were worked on last spring, so I don’t expect too much grass in them this summer…
The garlic is sprouting and is about six inches high.
I planted some mixed lettuces and mustard greens in the Greenhouse.
We are eating from the Green House Kale, Miner’s lettuce, Swiss Chard, Pac Choi, Beet green salads nearly every day.
This week, I dug up many Dandelion crowns and roots from the garden. I chopped the greens, washed them and dehydrated a bunch of them and put a bunch aside to stir fry with onions for dinner. They were a bit strong flavored. I scrubbed and peeled the roots, roasted them for two hours, dehydrated them, then chopped them in my Vita mixer for Dandelion root tea. I drink quite a bit of Dandelion root tea.
I cleaned out the Meat and Fiber Flock Sheep shed, the cow shed, the Hen house, the loafing area and the open barn: the stall with the grain and all of our tools, and the section where the hay was stacked. We have just about four weeks left of hay for our animals. The grass better get growing.
I am milking the ewes in our Meat and Fiber flock sheep, daily, and the cow, several times a week.
May You All Remain Safe, Blessed, and Hidden in Christ Jesus,
– Avalanche Lily, Rawles
o o o
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.