If things get tougher?

carriebradshaw

Icemaiden wrote: »

I pop the sugar in a bag and use the rolling pin, saves on electric too:cool:

Ice
x

I used to do it that way, but it seemed to take me ages & I haven't got the patience for it these days so I use the blender now

ceridwen

An article in "The Guardian/Observer":

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/nov/16/agriculture-food-shortages-climate-change

Good article - and how I personally see things going (that - and everyone growing everything possible in whatever space they have).

Only a couple of words I disagree with personally in that article "the population grows" - to quote a phrase "It doesn't have to be that way".

To coin a phrase "Think thrice before three" - ie think thrice...and more...before having a third child.

Thistle-down

dND wrote: »

Happytails, I second 2cats1kid. Best thing I ever bought and I wish I'd known about it earlier.

Me too. I often forget it's that time of the month.

Thistle-down

JenniO wrote: »

Pancake Syrup:

3 cups granulated sugar
1 ½ cups water
3 TBSP molasses
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp butter flavouring
1 tsp maple extract

Bring to the boil, stirring until sugar dissolves (a good rolling boil). Turn off burner, but leave pot on burner until bubbling stops.

I've made this recipe and it's been pretty good, but I've never found maple extract over here. I stocked up the last time I went to Canada. Make sure you don't accidently buy the "maple flavoured extract", it's foul.

Olliebeak

Asda in Huyton (Liverpool) - SP Curry Sauce was back to 8p per jar again .

But they're having a 'shuftie around' for all their 'Seasonal Stuff' - so much of the regular SmartPrice stuff is barely there.

Hi Pagangirl - we were affected by that powercut during the week as well - came as quite a shock didn't it! Made me determined to get an 'old-fashioned' plug in phone though. My land-line went down and the mobile network was overloaded due to folks having to use them instead - my mobile is a necessary for my work .

dianasnan

ceridwen wrote: »

Right - I've been discussing this idea when I was out today and have been told they are called "builders bags". Other names include: bulkbags, dumpy bags, aggregate bags, tonne bags and jumbo bags. "Builders bags" seems the most common name and I've been googling around - to date I've discovered them in 2 different sizes (the largest of the two was 3' x 3' x 3') and I'm thinking "that's not a bad size and I wonder if there are bigger ones out there". The websites selling them I've found so far are builders' ones and tend to sell in bulk - and, as far as I can see, the price each ranges from 40p (yay!) to £7 - presumably plus VAT either way? So - they're cheap.

I was told that builders often have them and just throw them away after use - :eek: - so 'twould be ever so environmentally-friendly to ask the local builder to throw them in your direction I would think;) - bit of a wash and I see no reason why they wouldn't do just fine for foodgrowing purposes - and readily capable of being folded up and packed away of a winter if wanted:D . Three in a 3' square feet size would be 9 square feet if my maths is correct (which is debatable sometimes!) and - bingo - enough for 1 persons veg. or a sizeable contribution to a family - done by the Square Foot Method.

Sounds feasible to me!:D

Good idea.

B & Q do a white builders bag for £3.99 90x90x80 cm and Wickes stock the Midi Hippo bag at approx £9 at about the same size or a ginormous one that would take a bathroom suite for slightly more.

[Deleted User]

I like my plug in phone a lot, its a BT decor from argos. I got rid of the dect phone and believe me peace descends when you can`t move the phone around the house. I can`t hear the new phone from all over this town house but hey I like it. Any phone calls are logged and I can see who rang. A bit like being on holiday away from the phone and it seems to slow the pace down

oystercatcher

ceridwen wrote: »

An article in "The Guardian/Observer":

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/nov/16/agriculture-food-shortages-climate-change

Good article - and how I personally see things going (that - and everyone growing everything possible in whatever space they have).

Only a couple of words I disagree with personally in that article "the population grows" - to quote a phrase "It doesn't have to be that way".

To coin a phrase "Think thrice before three" - ie think thrice...and more...before having a third child.

Most of the increased population is due to immigration

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article619244.ece

ceridwen

dianasnan wrote: »

Good idea.

B & Q do a white builders bag for £3.99 90x90x80 cm and Wickes stock the Midi Hippo bag at approx £9 at about the same size or a ginormous one that would take a bathroom suite for slightly more.

See what you mean. Tesco Direct also sell "Hippobags" and I see that the megabag version is £11.49 from them and £11.89 from Wickes (see your bit re bathroom suite - as the photo shows a bath sitting in one of the megabags - its described as 1.5 cubic yards in size - if my maths is correct - that would mean it was the equivalent of 4.5 square feet?). Focus DIY also have them. So choice of places to get them.

But - of course - 'twould be free if one gets one passed on by a builder - and nice and environmentally-friendly to re-use resources.

ceridwen

oystercatcher wrote: »

Most of the increased population is due to immigration

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article619244.ece

Errr....does that actually matter what the cause of overpopulation is?? Too many people in the world as a whole is what matters and any children people have will be living "somewhere" in the world - whether it adds to this country's population or some other country's.

As I understood it - many of the Eastern Europeans for instance who came here for jobs are now going back to their country of origin.

A "Western" child will expect a higher standard of living than ones from many other countries and will expect that - somewhere along the line (directly or indirectly)- another slice of countryside will be built on to provide them with a house once they are adults.

There is also the fact that child benefit doesn't stop at two children - it continues to be paid for all subsequent children currently - i.e. more money coming out of the Nation's Budget and not available for other purposes (eg NHS, education, welfare benefits, etc).

But - I will stop there....as I know many people believe that it is a person's "individual choice" how many children to have - even some people who say they are environmentalists. Those of us who worry about overpopulation know we will never change other people's opinions no matter what we say/no matter how much evidence we produce - so will be just left with "heartsink moments" every time anyone announces they are expecting Child No. 3 or beyond. I know all we can do is ask people to be responsible and then try not to be depressed for too long any time someone announces they don't intend to be.

(NB: I do accept that people who already have 3 or more children may have had them not realising how serious the situation is. I am only stating that we all now do realise the situation is extremely critical. I am aware that a large number of people have only realised that overpopulation is a major threat to us all in the last couple of years. I can't think of anyone I knew personally who knew at the time I was looking for likeminded "people in the street" who realised about this back in the 1970's. I only recall that I knew about overpopulation being such a problem back in the 1970's - as I was astonished at having to pay for contraception "in the circumstances" - as I investigated whether I would be paid any sort of bonus for NOT having children. Very disappointed when I found this didn't exist yet...)