To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make 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 the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!
Jim & Lily Report:
Our family was traveling this week, so our only activities related to the blog and prepping was taking some wildlife and scenery digital photos that will eventually used in the blog.
Our neighbors kindly looked after our livestock and gardens during our absence. They watered, weeded, and harvested and 3.5 gallons of strawberries and 1.5 gallons of yellow and green zucchini squash. We feel so blessed to have such great neighbors!
This column will be back to its usual self, next Saturday.
In the interim, we look forward to hearing what SurvivalBlog readers have been doing, in the Comments section.
May you all have a very blessed and safe week.
– Avalanche Lily, Rawles
o o o
As always, please share your own successes and hard-earned wisdom in the Comments.
This week work cut into the hours to work and do things around the homestead but I did manage to Clean the gutters, Spray poison ivy with weed killer, Put 420 rounds of 5.56mm into stripper clips and bandoleers and move items from basement to new barn (generator, cords, ski’s small coal stove, etc.).
I put items up into pole barn loft for out of the way storage (no prying eyes)
Purchases this week included some canning lids and kerlix bandages.
Our well put stopped working last night so that is proving fun for everyone. Moved 2 five gallon jugs of water up stairs to use for flushing.
Our beef and pork supplier emailed to tell us our bulk order would be late. The blizzard/floods in the mid-west have already caused beef availability problems and huge orders of pork are going to China to offset their pig die off. Also, many of our local cotton growers switched to growing feed corn this year also due to mid-west flooding disasters.
Shopped the 4th of July sales (plus military discount) and stocked up on building supplies (screws, nails, lumber, hinges, hasps, quikcrete, exterior paint for the outbuildings, lube for the farm equipment, extra chains and discs for the saws, etc). Received several orders of “just in case” spare parts, bulk herbs (types which I don’t grow) and OTC meds.
Our pear and apple trees some how got fire blight bacteria and we had to severely prune 3 pear trees and 2 apple trees. Hopefully the trees will live and bounce back next season.
Garden is doing well; harvesting various amounts almost every day. Rabbits delivered their kits, but did have some problems with pre-mature babies, most likely due to the heat, but majority are doing well. Have new chicks hatching from the incubator then we turn them over to the broody hens to raise them.
We are hunkering down for the northern part of “Barry” for the next few days so our little country bridges may get flooded over. Comms may get squirly since we are satellite dependent and heavy cloud cover will impede access. Have lots of books to read.
Re: Novice Garden:
Still growing like crazy, but the beets were small and hard, so eating the small tops. The Early Top (OP) beets did not do well. The most useful early crop was spinach produced the first greens, with Swiss Chard coming in latter, yielding as much leafy greens that I can eat even while taking it off the plant daily. Giant Chard is the champ. They were densely planted, but because they are constantly trimmed, they are vigorous, and do not overwhelm other plants. The root crop is coming in strong as well, but I leave them to mature.
This method using cold weather, short season, open pollinated vegetables that provide nutrition shortly after a long winter, and will likely continue to provide beyond summer.. It is looking good. Staggering planting would further improve the yield, but I can barely use what comes from this small garden as it is. One technique to maximize the small garden is planting kale and rutabaga, and turnip in small containers that can be planted in the space where spinach once was. it is almost time to put them into large containers or the ground. Then it is hoped that these will take off and grow to full size. This wastes no space and no time. It is efficient.
Using the soil hard like this will require one to replenish it with compost in the fall. Up here in the Rocky Mountains, it is hard to find lots of good soil, so gardens will tend to be small and grown in colder temperatures than found in the valley. A small efficient garden requires less water, and will have become a hoop house this fall to grow kale, spinach chard and the others into winter. It can be done, if I can scrounge up the materials. I currently live on less than $100/mo, and find work hard to come by for crippled up old man, so I already operate much like hard times are already here. If I can survive now under challenging conditions, and I will likely be able to continue to do so once the Beast System is full operational.
Fighting deer in our orchard. Long term I’ll have a deer proof fence but it isn’t up yet. Trying an electric fence single wire at 12 to 16 inches. Hope this works.
I found good quality electric bikes and put them together a few weeks ago: Radwagon. Getting them tuned up by a bike shop this week. Getting excited about the stealth mobility.
I had a nudge to stock up on fuel today, so hauled a pickup load of containers to town, brought home tonight all filled. Then tonight’s news said refineries are shutting down due to storm Barry, so fuel will be less available and price will go up.
Still tending garden.