What I Did To Prep This Week: August 30th – September 5th 2020
Hello Pack. We welcomed a new tribe member into the fold this week. The hard working bundle of furry cuteness featured above is Bear.
He was not our puppy initially, but since he kept sleeping on the patio at our back door, eating at our house, and curling up in our lap every time we hopped onto an ATV, he became ours. And I am so glad he did!
One would not think that a Rottweiler would make a superb livestock guardian dog – but apparently they would be wrong, at least in Bear’s case. He is the best behaved dog on our hill, and was the quickest learned when it came to barnyard etiquette.
He reminds me of my Chow dog, Fluffy that lived to the ripe old age of 16 and a half. I gave Fluff rabies shots but that was it. All of his doctoring beyond that was conducted by me and done 100 percent naturally.
Bear’s coloring is nothing like Fluffy’s, he was blonde. Fluff was part Chow part cute, I used to say – I have no idea what else he was, perhaps Rottweiler due to the little similarity in each dog’s little oval shaped “spots” around the eye area – but Fluffy’s were darker.
Anyway, Bear is going to be huge like Fluffy, fluffy like fluffy, smart like fluffy, sweet like Fluffy … get the picture. This little dog that I didn’t really want around that adopted us has already become a beloved member of our survival homestead.
I wish I would have gotten to name him, he really seems like a Duke to me, but he already knows his name so it is too late now to change it.
Bear learned rapidly that the ducks, chickens, guineas, goats, and the pig were definitely neither chew toys, nor a snack. He helps to round up wayward chickens that fly into my apothecary patch without harming them at all, and does equally well with the goat kids.
This little four month old puppy is just as good at guarding the homestead as he is working it. Having more dogs around the better both now and during a survival situation. We are well stocked on dog food and all of our canine pack members are great hunters of small game in their own right.
In other preps this week, we harvested wheat and did some seed preservation of both it and seeds from other traditional garden crops. Our son-in-law has now shown a keen interest in gardening since he has made some healthy eating dietary changes.
Adding more skilled labor and not just strong young backs to the gardening projects is always welcome.
This Week’s Questions:
- Do you keep dogs to work or protect your livestock and your home? If so, what breeds, and why?
- What do you see as your prepping strong points at this moment in time?
- If the country goes pear shaped after the election – riots, etc. how are you prepared to respond and survive?
- What did you do to prep this week?