by Avalanche Lilly, Survival Blog:
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!
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JIM REPORTS:
I’m still down with a cold. I hope to be back to posting the full roster of blog posts by Monday or Tuesday. Lily will fill you in on what has been going on at the Rawles Ranch.
AVALANCHE LILY REPORTS:
Dear Readers,
The weather has been cold and snow showery and rainy all week. This week I have been moaning that it is “Soooo cold” I’m over it, now! I’m trying to be patient. I don’t like the in-between season business. If its going to be winter, be a proper winter with lots of snow so we can do stuff in it. Now that it’s supposed to be spring, Be spring!!!
Thus far Jim’s cold illness has bypassed me…
This week for the returning migratory birds, I saw a Red-Tailed Hawk and a Vulture.
Love is in the air! I have mentioned in the past that we have a wild female turkey who likes to dwell on our ranch with us during the winters. We have encouraged her residence by feeding her along with our chickens. Now our section of the valley has little to no turkey flocks. There are large flocks to our south and north. I have been praying that large flocks would become established here. The past few springs, Mrs. Turkey has disappeared for a number of months only to reappear with a few chicks. But those were promptly eaten by the resident Bald Eagles.
In the past week, I’ve heard a male turkey gobbling all morning somewhere off the ranch. I began to pray that he would find our Mrs. Turkey. On Thursday morning that boy was gobbling in our driveway near the chicken coop. I saw him. He is a handsome Tom. A real specimen of a bird.
I then saw our Mrs. Turkey nearby, on the other side of the barn and corrals. I had to arrange their meeting. I immediately went to the coop and retrieved some grain for both of them and called Mrs. Turkey in. Mrs. Turkey, you’ve got to meet this boy! Later I saw them eating it together. Yes! Maybe he will stick around and claim our Mrs. Turkey as his own and the two of them will form a flock here on the ranch. I pray that they will have success this year in rearing to adulthood a whole passel of turkey chicks. We need them in this neck of the woods. May this be the year!
Finally, on April 4th, I heard our yearly frog chorus for the first time this season. I believe that is the latest I’ve ever heard them, since moving here. I write down the dates I see and hear birds, frogs, animals, weather temperatures and anomalies. Heretofore, the latest that I had written down for hearing the frogs was March 31st.
We had only three chicks hatch from this incubation.
For the next incubation period after this hatching, I had collected 55 eggs, put them in the incubator, thought the temperature had been too low on the last incubation, therefore I raised the temperature gauge up just a smidgen overnight. The next morning the temperature was 107 degrees Fahrenheit on the thermometer in the incubator. It is only supposed to be between 98 and 101 degrees Fahrenheit. Oops, these eggs were fried. So I threw them in the compost and have been collecting another set since Thursday. I should have enough eggs to start a batch on Monday at the right temperatures in the incubator.
I transplanted my tomato seedlings into bigger pots. They were in three-inch pots to begin with. I put them in seven-inch and nine-inch pots. It is still far too cold at night to put them out in the greenhouse. So for at least two more weeks they will remain in the guest bedroom greenhouse under the grow lights.
I also transplanted all the pepper seedlings from one-inch pots into three-inch pots.
After transplanting, I immediately washed the pots they had been in. I am trying very hard to keep up with every project while the project remains small, just a few pots, then to wait until the end of the season and have a mountain of starting pots and trays to wash. I do not like long and involved jobs that take hours to do and are too repetitive.
