April seemed a busy month even though I felt like we were home more and not running to appointments, school events, etc. I’m not sure if I did a whole lot of prepping because I was focused on some other things like making money and keeping living things alive.

We got baby chicks on April 5th. I got my batch of 16 from Murray McMurray’s in Webster City. I have all layers again, and they have been fun so far. We are now into the teenage feather skittish phase. I have moved them into bigger quarters which makes them happier, but they like to run every time they see me grab their feeder. I hope to keep them in the shop until the beginning of June and then integrate them into the big coop with the four queens in their current residence there. I have never done this before, so it should be interesting.

Plants are still alive and just waiting for the weather to warm up so they can be planted. The temperatures look promising for the next two weeks, so hopefully, we will be in the garden soon. I also need it to quit raining for a few days to till the garden. The rain has been a blessing, but I will argue that the wind has not been a blessing. The wind has been atrocious and is causing much damage to my trees.

My Grandma Rene passed away on April 7th at the age of 101. She lived a full and wonderful life. Her life was not without difficulties and trials, but she would just say that the work still needed to be done. During her funeral and afterward, I was reminded that a productive life is a good life. Until dementia claimed her memory six years ago, she was busy doing something productive like baking, cleaning the house, and gardening. I learned a lot from her and wished I had a book to reflect on her memories and lessons. Maybe I should write one…

On the blogging front, please check out the new website! Patrick from Ninja Wolf Studios has done a fantastic job of making the site clear, concise, and easy to navigate. I would highly recommend him. I also plan to get more posts out now that my life is settled down somewhat again. Sometimes I am not sure what to write about after eleven years, but opportunities keep presenting themselves. You will also see some more affiliate advertisements. We have some big bills to pay and money to save to purchase this farm!

What I hope to get done this month:
– Planting the garden
– Planting an apple tree and two elderberry bushes
– Being deliberate about eating my home-canned foods to free up more jars for summer canning
– Continuing to be more conscious of our food waste and eating up food before it goes bad
– Find a piece of gutter and downspout to set up a rain catchment system at the chicken coop

I also need to figure out how to make some of my tasks easier in the next few months. I will have an empty nest for most of this summer. This summer, my youngest is working as support staff at the Lake Okoboji United Methodist Camp. This is a great opportunity for him, but for me, this means I will be losing my right-hand man. I figure this is as good of a time as ever to figure out how to simplify things for me. This fall, he will be a senior in high school, and I will have an empty nest sooner than later.

So what is on my mind…

In terms of prepping, my thoughts have been closer to home. How can I make things more prepared at home? We can get so worked up about world events (rightfully so) and forget our focus. You should always be looking out for number one, and that is you. This is even more so when you are the only one actively preparing in your home. Your family comes in a close second. Your home, health, preps, security, and safety should be your main concerns.

I feel like that is forgotten in the preparedness community sometimes.

Will bad things happen? Yes, but you need to ask yourself what is most likely to happen to you, your family, and your home. I will bet that being worried about a nuclear war will not be in your top five. I am not saying that it’s not a concern. However, job loss, food supply issues, natural disasters, financial emergencies, and health issues will be a greater concern than getting nuked. Could I be wrong? Yes. Am I wrong right now? No. Truthfully, I am more worried about a cyberattack than a nuclear war. That seems more likely to happen globally than anything else in that realm.

In my house, we are more dependent on electricity than I am comfortable with for any reason. Could we live without electricity for the short term? Yes, but I still would like to increase our odds of not having issues. Could we live without electricity for the long term? Possibly, but not comfortably. This gigantic push towards everything being electric worries me a lot because we do not have a grid that can handle that. I keep asking myself what I need to do at home to ride out the inevitable blackouts when the grid is overloaded. I have made strides in my preps for that, but I still need to do more work in that area. I have a handle on my top five areas to be prepared in, but I don’t have this sixth area covered as I should. This sixth area overlaps the other areas, so I feel this needs my attention.

I’ve also given more thought to who I am offering shelter to if S does hit the fan. We have already experienced that in a way and lived 15 months in a multi-generational setting when COVID happened. It was a good experience and I hope to write about what I learned through all of that. However, more people than that will be living under one roof. Plus, we have another family who would be joining us. I need to think ahead about what I could do in that situation.

Sometimes the scenarios we think about do not seem likely. However, in my top five things to be worried about, these things could happen to a close family member or friend also. I know already that I would not be able to say no to them or turn help away from them. I need to think about what I would do for them and how I could help in planning my preparedness efforts.

Thanks for reading,
Erica

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