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:
The unseasonably warm weather is continuing, with high temperatures of 38 to 40 degrees F., most days. The lows have been right around freezing. Unless there is a change in the weather pattern, it doesn’t look like I’ll be doing much plowing, this winter. It has been so warm that Lily had me carry some bussing trays of sprouted greens out to the greenhouse. We’ll see how those fare. I may need to light a fire in the greenhouse woodstove if there is a very cold night in the weather forecast. If low temperatures persist, then those gardening trays may have to be brought back into the house.
I decanted five gallons of olive oil that we recently bought in bulk into six one-gallon glass repurposed cider jugs. This little project required six jugs because I only filled the straight-walled portions of the jugs, to prevent them cracking, when frozen. These all went directly into one of our chest freezers. I should mention that we’ve had great success with freezing olive oil, to preserve it. Most of that was purchased in plastic 1-liter bottles that we had bought, back when we were Costco members. We’ve found that the plastic bottles have sufficient room for expansion, as the oil freezes. In all these years, we’ve only had one bottle go rancid, after thawing out.
We’ve been busy this week, preparing for a family gathering this weekend. Lily can tell you more about that. Now, Lily’s part of the report…Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”