The Editors’ Preps for the Week

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities.  They also share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, 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!  This week’s focus is on early harvest time.

JWR

Dear SurvivalBlog Readers,

This past weekend the Rawles family traveled to a very remote area of Eastern Oregon to rendezvous with relatives in order to watch the Solar Eclipse in totality. It was spectacular! We saw the corona feathering out from the sun at totality. It was so beautiful, the Diamond Ring phenomenon, which was the highlight for us, the near total darkness, which came on in seconds at the height of totality and lasted a little more than two minutes. We could see blue skies on the edges of the darkness far away, and the stars and Venus.

Just before totality the children played with objects that made pinholes to see the sun’s partly occluded shadows (crescents) on the ground. We saw the crescent shadows of the sun through the leaves of a Locust tree, through the mesh of some Crusher hats, and through making a lattice by interlocking our fingers. It was an awesome lifetime experience. The children were amazed and all of the children said that it was indeed a Lifetime experience that they’ll remember forever.

Prophetic Meaning?

In addition to the Eclipse being a natural phenomenon, I am also of the opinion that this could be a prophetic sign pointing to judgment of our nation. Time will tell! We have to say that it’s very interesting that only five days after the Eclipse, our country is getting hit by Hurricane Harvey. Time will tell us if it will be as bad as they say it will be. If some other natural disasters come in short succession after Harvey then I’d have to say that Judgment is upon on our nation and that time will be short. The other thing I wish to say is that judgment falls on a nation that applies pressure on Israel. We need to pay attention to what our government is doing to Israel.

Currently there is a US delegation in Israel trying to force a ”Peace Process” agreement on Israel which is trying to divide the Land of Israel and give it to the Palestinians, who are the Idumeans, the children of Esau. Whenever one harms Israel, the Apple of God’s Eye, God’s judgment comes upon that nation. In addition to the gross sin in our nation and our meddling with Israel, our nation is ripe for judgment. For God loves Israel and is Jealous for her. See Joel 3 and Zechariah 12. It is truly time to repent and get right with God and to prepare ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually for the days that are coming. We don’t know what God will require of us and we need to be ready in ourselves and to help others for what ever may come.

Harvesting and Preserving Garden Produce

Since returning home, we’ve hit the ground running. We have begun the harvest of the garden and are acquiring foods to can that we cannot grow or are not yet producing for us. Thursday night Lily picked early apples at a friend’s and will be making apple sauce with them this weekend. She has picked two gallons worth of yellow beans, blanched them and froze them, also a gallon of Purple Pole beans. Additionally, the green beans were hiding their fruit on me and I found them ready to be picked, Friday and picked 3.4 pound of those. I have frozen three more gallons of Zucchini. We’re awaiting a call for us to pick up four cases each of peaches and tomatoes from an Amish store. Our greenhouse tomatoes are for fresh eating, at this time. We really need another greenhouse just for tomatoes and peppers. Are you hearing this hint, Jim?

I’ve also harvested nine pounds of carrots, thus far. We have multiple beds of carrots, some of which we’ll mulch and over winter through to spring. These carrots, I’ll be washing peeling, chopping, blanching, and freezing. Others that I will pull later, I’m going to put in dirt and see if I can overwinter them in our “Cold Cellar”. I didn’t have very good luck with carrots last year, and plan to try it again with a different medium of soil/sand/clay mix.

Volunteer Potatoes – Harvest Time

On Friday Lily, dug our volunteer potatoes and did some serious weeding along the way. Many of the weeds at the end of summer seem to get seriously desperate to propagate themselves and are furiously growing out seed heads much sooner than their predecessor relatives did, which I pulled earlier in the summer. Therefore it is a major battle to pull those seeded weeds before they drop their seeds. So in harvesting the volunteer potatoes, I have, so far, dug 34.8 pounds and there are still a whole lot more scattered around. They’re a mix of reds, whites and purple/blue potatoes. The purple/blues will be saved as Potato seed for next summer. I also found one of my potato plants with a seed ball growing on the bush part of the plant, it looked like a little tomato. There actually were two. The first one I picked and cut in half to make sure it was fruit and not a tumor or something. So, I left that plant alone and plan to go back to it and collect those seeds, later, and see if I can start potatoes next year from my own seeds.

Camping Skills

Our eclipse trip was also good practice for our back country camping skills.  We had originally planned to “bushwhack” dry camp out in the Malheur National Forest.  But we lucked into a campground spot near the town of Mount Vernon.  Even there, the kids got a chance to practice the camp cooking and dishwashing skills.

Jim’s Projects

Jim (“JWR”) took delivery of six tons of grass hay, and stacked it in the barn.  We still need to get an additional 12 tons in under cover before winter. Hay stacking is always great exercise.  It seems to work slightly different muscle groups than wood splitting and rock hauling.  So between all of these activities each summer, I end up with good overall muscle tone.  I also get back to my ideal body weight of 185 pounds.  By the end of each winter I’m usually about 7 pounds heavier.  But I suppose that is pretty typical for men of my age.




19 Comments

  1. We will soon be making and canning applesauce. We will also can chicken and ground beef in near future.

    In terms of the eclipse having some prophetic meaning about coming judgement, I would say we are already under God’s judgment in the US. It is just a matter of how much worse will it get. My wife and I were talking just last night about how quickly things have deteriorated. Things almost inconceivable just less than five years ago are gaining traction. Just a few examples: 1) First grader sent to principals office for ‘misgendering’ a classmate. 2). BLM and Antifa calling for open armed revolution and ‘expropriating’ I.e. stealing others property because “we” did not earn it. 3). The call by many to remove monuments to our national heritage. One of the signs of God’s judgement is a lack of wisdom in men’s actions. In addition I see little evidence of repentance. These rapid changes have resulted in our personal decision to speed up our time table for relocation. God speed to all Survival Blog readers

  2. I always turn an ear to Jonathan Kahn on prophecy issues. Interesting that it was an American eclipse. I see it as a stop sign. You can speed right through an intersection ignoring the sign and get away with it until someday you have a collision.

    And then there is the September 23rd alignment in the sky: “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.” Oh my….

    1. “But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? when a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” – Deuteronomy 18:20-22

      Jonathan Kahn prophesies:

      September 13, 2015 is the 7th and last Shemitah
      The Four Blood Moons
      The Harbinger

      The only conclusion in light of Deuteronomy? Johnathan Kahn is a FALSE PROPHET

      In regards to the August 21st, 2017 Solar Eclipse:

      If the totality of the Bible is about God’s chosen people, His Holy Land (specifically Jerusalem) and the relationship between them, why would a solar eclipse that is only visible in the United States and not the Holy Land have anything at all to do with the Holy Land. To link those two is tantamount to astrology. (And we know how the Lord feels about His people dabbling in such things… Deuteronomy 18:9-14, Isaiah 47:13)

      1. On Mr.Kahn, I couldn’t have said it any better myself. True prophets of the Lord are NEVER wrong. About ANY prophecy. If they are, well, that settles the argument. As far as the eclipse goes, maybe it is a sign of Gods judgement, or maybe simply another sign of the wonders and beauty of his creations. But I don’t believe Gods warnings and judgements and communications are reserved solely for the Holy Land. The new covenant makes it clear that Gods people are everywhere and of every race and nation. This is not to discount the importance of the geographic region of Israel and its neighbors to Christian faith, but there’s no evidence that God communicates physically only to that region.

      2. From Lily,

        Solar Eclipses are associated with judgement on the Nations and Lunar Eclipses are signs for Israel, so I have heard. This Solar Eclipse is a sign and a warning for the United States, since it was only seen over our country. It is a warning us to repent of our gross sin/immorality and corruptness, and in addition to our sin, our Government is putting pressure on Israel to give their Land Inheritance to the Palestinians which is an affront to God since it is HIS Land and HE gave it to Jacob. Therefore these two things: sin and our pressure against Israel has made our nation subject to God’s judgement and that Solar eclipse could very well be a warning sign for us to repent of our sins and to back off of Israel, before it’s too late. The eclipse occurred almost on the first day of the month of Elul which on the Jewish calendar begins a 40 day period of repentance before Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement, which falls on the 29/30 of September. I heard that when Jonah was sent to Nineveh to preach repentance to the Ninevites, the Ninevites had just seen a Solar Eclipse. Jonah told them that they had forty days to repent, and if they didn’t repent of their sins; judgement would fall. We know they repented. Maybe, this is the same for us at this time??? Maybe we should take this period of days seriously and be on our knees begging God to forgive us of our personal sins and the sins of our nation? Who knows, maybe we can change the Lord’s mind about our country??? May WE ALL seek to understand the mind and will of God.

        Lily Rawles

        1. I will not dispute that eclipses are usually associated with judgement. What I am disputing is your application of it to the US. The Bible is about the chosen people and the Holy Land. The only eclipses recorded are those that directly affected the Holy Land, either the Holy Land directly or a nation that was occupying and/or neighboring Israel. The eclipse was a particularly effective warning because the inhabitants did not understand why they occurred, though we do.

          However, the dates that you are using are meaningless. The Jewish calendar is a Lunar calendar. As such all eclipses will occur on (or just before) the first of the month. Since Yom Kippur occurs 10 days after the new moon, it will always occur 40 days after any eclipse that occurs in the month of Elul. In modern times, we calculate that date, but in bilical times it was declared by visually seeing the first sliver of moon after a new moon. There is no coincidence there. Eclipses always happen on the first of a Hebrew month.

          Our nation is under judgement because of our sin. It has been under judgement for years. Look around… When God judges a nation, he always gives them a bad king. The nation then either destroyes itself under the bad king or weakens itself to the point where some other nation destroys or occupies it. This is fairly well understood by many. There are no exceptions to that in the Bible. Not only have we had a long string of bad kings, God allowed us to choose those kings ourselves. We have been under God’s judgment for a very long time. There is actually no need for supernatural involvement in judgement because it is “natural consequences”. There are supernatureal indications that have occured in the Bible (such as hand writing on the wall), but they were not “natural” things like regularly occurring eclipses.

          Be careful in basing theology on “I have heard”. All things must be tested against the Bible (ultimately, tested against the Torah). You cannot add extra-Biblical information and declare it from God. Just because you heard it or read it does not make it true (or even relevant. Do not make the mistake that many evangelical churches make and assume that the Gospel is United States-centric. It is has always been, currently is, and will always be about Jerusalem (the footstool of God).

          1. We Christians, wherever we abide, are chosen people. A land, a nation, is only holy in respect to its’ relationship with God. Jonathan Kahn is highly despised by those others who consider themselves the only chosen ones because he was a Jew that converted to Christianity and therefore they trash anything he has to say.

          2. RT,

            “Then David the king stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building” 1 Chronicles 28:2

            “For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.” 2 Chronicles 7:16 (Emphasis added)

            When the Lord returns, where do you think you will be worshiping Him? In Jerusalem at His footstool! The only reason you are not there right now is because His people (adopted people included) are in the diaspora. When He returns, they will be gathered and brought home. Jerusalem is key – forever.

          3. Sorry Ralph, i respect your love for God and the scriptures, but i can’t find any reference to the landing strip’s whereabouts in the Bible. The New Testament is more relevant on such topics (hint: “new”).

          4. RT,

            “landing strip” is a somewhat flippant term when used to describe something as critical to our faith as the second coming of our LORD, is it not?

            If you can’t find any reference, then you are not reading the Old Testament or Revelations. It’s all through there. By the way – “forever”, as spoken by God, literally means to last forever. If the “forever” in the Old Testament doesn’t mean that, then what makes you think any promise you derive from the New Testament is really going to last?

            When you say “New Testament”, which one are you referring to? There is only one “Old Testament” that is accepted by all Christian faiths. I can think of at least 10 different versions of “New Testament”. Let’s see, there is the Protestant version, The Roman Catholic version, the Greek Orthodox, Slavonic Orthodox, Georgian Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Syriac Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Orthodox Tewahedo and the Assyrian Church of the East. That covers about 99% of known Christendom. All of these are different, some up to about 25% different in content from the others (not only in books included, but in actual content of some of those books.) It’s the dirty little secret of church. They all claim that “their’s” is the only correct version. The term “New Testament” is a construct created by the early Catholic church. It’s a construct of man, not God.

            Also, are you suggesting that the Son came to contradict the Father? I sure don’t read that in the scripture. You’re going to have to produce some scripture to back that claim up. Basically, what you are saying is what I talked about in the beginning of this thread. You have a very U.S.-centric view of the Gospel. If you are saying that the New Testament “overrules” the Old Testament, then by the definition given by God, you are proclaiming a false Gospel:

            “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.” Deuteronomy 13:1-4

            Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.” John 5:19

  3. Tomatoes have finally straightened out and are producing in abundance. Probably start canning this week. Pablano and Jalapeno peppers are coming on strong now. Tobacco needs picked and hung to dry, got get that done this week. Our old pear tree is producing huger quantities and for some reason the pears are actually ripening on the tree, which has never happened before. I have no idea how or when we’re going to get those canned.
    Much of the problem time wise is my wife is back to teaching now and I’m still recovering from shoulder surgery and not much help with the harvest. 10 weeks out now and still not back to work or getting more than 2 hours of sleep at a time in a recliner. I’m a custom gunmaker by trade (muzzleloading) and have been able to do a few 1 hour sessions at the work bench doing some engraving, but that’s about it, my patience is wearing thin…..

  4. Looking forward to canning Turkey. I use the method where you cook the turkey from frozen. It takes longer but since you are not preparing it for a dinner it really doesn’t matter. I take advantage of sales around Thanksgiving. I cook the turkey on day one and when done I let it cool somewhat then put it into the fridge overnight. On day two I take the turkey apart. Not like cutting it for a table presentation I essentially simply remove all the meat putting all the non-meat portions into a large pot that has 12 quarts of water heating. This step is pretty easy and takes less than 45 minutes. Let the pot simmer for at least 3 hours then filter out the solids. Then you are ready to can. I put about 1 1/2 lbs of meat in a quart jar and top it off with turkey broth. An easy 7 quarts of turkey meat with a second canning of 7 quarts of pure broth. I usually try to do two turkeys but it is so simple that you could easily do six turkeys in a week. I have gotten turkeys as cheap as $.18 a lb. That broth makes the best turkey gravy and it tastes like Thanksgiving whenever you use it.

  5. I also got to see a total eclipse, and the coolest thing was that during totality all the insects began their nightly singing. It only lasted for about two minutes, but it was amazing. There were some very confused crickets, cicadas, and other twittering beasties.

  6. You know I really don’t have a problem with the nation of Israel. I do have many problems with the government of that nation. Some of the problems I have with the government of our own nation.

    Let’s not confuse the nation, with the government of that nation. There is a big difference between the two.

    Both Israel and the U.S. have the same problem, scumbag politicians.

  7. I got lucky with an excellent estate sale. The gentleman was a collector of anything mining, farming, and hand tool related. I picked up a few items I thought were very well priced that included two scythe blades, pitch fork head, and some pullies for about $10. I’ll be going back Sunday when everything is 50-75% off to get some more items I felt were well over priced and to stock up on more hand tools for the ranch. On the home front out American Guinea hog finally had her piglets so we have 6 new piglets running around.

  8. Planetary events are not in the same category as natural earth-bound events. That is quite a spin on the Israel reference she made. I did not detect any sentiment in her comment concerning Israel, but i did in yours.

  9. Mira,
    Actually, Yom Kippur is one of the Lords Appointed Times from Leviticus 23 (otherwise known as The Day of Atonement – Leviticus 23:26-32)

    It just so happens that the surrounding countries of modern Israel took advantage of the fact that they were not working and attacked on that day. Israel still won the war, but it is far from a celebration. It is a day of atonement and a very solemn occasion representing God’s judgment upon mankind. It’s kind of like when you were a kid and your parent was angry and punishing your sibling. You were very solemn during that time.

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