Summer Is a Great Time To...

• Practice your camping and backpacking skills.  Of course you should do these things in the fall, winter, and spring too but for beginners it is easier to work out the kinks of your camping skills when it is 80 degrees than when it is 20 degrees.
• Clean out the garage and review/repack your preps.  New batteries in flashlights and radios?  Check.  Bug out clothes still fit?  Check.  Packaged food need replaced?  Check check.
• Have your chimney cleaned and inspected.  Ditto for your furnace, gutters, and any other item on/in your home that would create a crisis should it fail at 25 degrees.
• Take a class.  Again it is easier to take yourself to a first aid or EMT course when the roads are clear and it is sunny out instead of in the dead of winter.
• Spend time with the family.  Before the kids head back to school, spend some time with them by teaching them valuable skills (WOW and GTA aren't valuable skills...I'm talking fishing and camping and beach combing and growing a garden-type stuff).
• Get ready for fall hunting season.  Get your rifles sighted in, have your kids (or yourself) take a Hunter's Ed course if it required, apply for permits/tags/special hunt permits/etc if this is required in your state, etc.
• Get the kids ready to go back to school.  Reviewing reading, reviewing math, getting school clothes and school supplies ready, going to bed at a reasonable time a week or so prior to the start of school...all of these things will prepare your kids to successfully jump back into school when it starts.
• Review all of your preps for natural and man-made disasters that are likely in your area.  People in tornado-prone areas are already getting a workout these past few weeks, ditto for wildfire-prone areas, flooding season is just around the corner, and of course there will be winter weather to deal with in a few months...are your preps ready to deal with whatever life might throw at you?
• Make some extra money to bulk up your emergency fund.  Mowing lawns and landscaping, helping people move, hauling...there are many things you can easily do during the summer to make some extra cash to add to your emergency fund.
• Get your car ready for winter.  Tire sales are a thing at this time of year, do you need tire chains for the new car?, cleaning your car is easier and more enjoyable in the summer than in the dead of winter...you get the idea.
• Go shooting.  The long days of summer will give you plenty of time after work to hit the range for a bit of practice.
• Garden, glean, and put some food by.  Those are old fashioned terms for sure but instead of relying on your local grocery store for every bit of food in your house, go for a bit of self sufficiency and do some late-season gardening, glean a farmer's field if that is an option, and practice your canning/freezing/smoking/jam making/etc skills.