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!

JWR

Dear SurvivalBlog Readers,

This week was fairly typical for us for this time of year, with lots of firewood splitting and stacking.  We are wrapping up our outdoor gardening season, but will continue in the greenhouse for at least another month. This week we processed 10 quarts of tomatoes. We are beginning to harvest potatoes, but the main harvest won’t be until after the first frost. We are getting back into our regular homeschooling schedule. Jim cut down three more dead-standing Western Larch trees, but that wood will probably be stacked in place for the winter. We also picked up several gallons of honey from a local apiary.  – Avalanche Lily Rawles

HJL

Chickens

This week at the Latimer Homestead, we will be cleaning out the garden of expended plants and weeding around the fall plantings. Also, its time again to clean the chicken pen. We are closely monitoring the behavior of chicks and chickens, as they are gradually integrated. The chicks are now with their protector, their rooster, getting friendly. He’s struttin’ his stuff and letting them know who is king around them, but we are hopeful that he will be a good guardian and manager, as well as a father to future lines of chicks for us. We are spending a good deal of time out there with them and feeling a bit like chicken therapists, as we work to reduce stress and “make friendly” their environment. So far, adult hens are still laying well, which is the main goal, and chicks are getting big and seem healthy and strong.

Gardening

We remain quite busy putting up our daily garden product. Tomatoes are put up every other day by the gallons, and many other vegetables are also put away, mainly through canning but also freezing, freeze drying, and dehydrating, too. The winter squash are beginning to mature in massive quantities. In past years, we have only had a few make it past the squash bugs, so we are pleased with this bumper crop. Our battle efforts have won out against those pesky creatures. We’re still battling grasshoppers, but the population seems to be dwindling now that we are regularly baiting with NOLO.

Bugout Practice

With the Hurricanes in the Southeast and forest fires in the Northwest, we also have plans to test out our new generator and work on our portable water treatment system this week. We can’t assume things will work as we plan unless we periodically test them and practice using them!

o o o

Again, please share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments.