As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

saveabobortwo

thats a good price for 3 tins of tuna and know there are bargains out there and thats the only reason i have nt started to panic but iam aware of the big price increases on alot of products as long as the bargains don t dry up with the drought hopefully we re be alright.

saveabobortwo

could possibly cause other problems?

freudianslip

saveabobortwo wrote: »

could possibly cause other problems?

yeah, prolonged drought can lead to soil erosion. I suppose all the 'healthy' stuff living in the soil will be killed off leaving the soil useless. I'm speaking as a laymen here though, that's as technical as I can go :rotfl:

Kimitatsu

ITs not just the drought which will affect energy prices. Germany has recently announced that by 2013 all of its nuclear power stations will be closed down now they have seen what can happen at Fukashima. This means they will be buying more gas and releasing less onto the spot market - as a nation we are reliant on the spot market as we are now a net importer of gas. We still have access to plenty but its only when the price goes up that the more marginal fields become profitable and so companies will drill and flow them.

Unfortunately in this country its not just gas to homes, we have several gas powered electricity stations, as well as coal fired ones. But we have let the coal mines (we have millions of tonnes of coal available to us) flood and so it needs a large capital injection to get them going again - with the short term view we currently have no one will want to do that for long term gain.

Spent a lovely weekend helping out a friend at the mind body spirit fair locally and met a herbalist, who is planning to run some courses on herbs and how to make them into tea, cream etc. Well she did by the time I had finished with her anyway :rotfl: It was really interesting as she said that if you walk people around a herb garden she tends to find that they instinctively know what is good for them, so that has strengthened my resolve to definitely build a bigger herb garden - especially if I know what I can use them for afterwards!

Still very dry here, we have had spits and spots of rain but nothing really to soak the ground enough. The wheat crops have not had enough rain at the beginning of their life and the dry weather now will sap anything else out of them - here the potatoes are constantly being watered which will also increase prices in the long run. I too will be putting in an order for some flour I think, it was great to see that shiptons also do wheat free flour, so I think I will try some of that too for DS2.

Right go and catch up with all the other posts.

ceridwen

I suppose maybe one of the factors in letting the coal mines flood and forgetting about getting much coal out of the ground in Britain was to do with killing the National Union of Miners off????

Well - I hate to say it - but it looks like that objective has been well and truly achieved now and the only smidgen left now is Arthur Scargill expecting to live in luxury on the Union dues paid by a VASTLY reduced number of men. Well - I think the rump of the NUM will see him off (hopefully...) in that respect and he's one solitary old man now.

So - maybes we ought (as a country) to be investigating the feasibility of how much coal we have left/whether those mines could be re-opened. Or are we up against the question - "Well - who would actually work down the mine these days actually? Precious few British people would be prepared to...." (I've got my excuse lined up - "I'm a middle-aged woman"....LOL..)

Me - I'm still wondering if the Government is going to start out giving really SUBSTANTIAL amounts of grant money to low-waged/salaried householders to stick those solar panels up on the roof. I cant afford it myself - but give me the financial wherewithal and the order will be going in next week...(this would have to apply to the HOUSE and not the houseHOLDER or I would still be unable to do it - as I would have to "hold my grant in reserve" unless/until I am able to move to a better house. Thus - I wouldnt be able to use it on my current house...).

Charis

oldtractor wrote: »

what price food come the autumn?

News straight from the local dairy farm (and we are not in the worst hit area for drought) is that the hay crop 'has no bottom in it'. They are getting it in early as it has already gone to seed but there is little nutrition in the short stems. That farmer is already using his winter feed to supplement the hay. So milk, cheese, butter, yogurt etc will also be affected. Either that, or if the supermarkets won't increase what they pay, more farmers will be bankrupted.

ETA: Oops, ChocClare, I didn't see yours before I posted this but it seems the West Mids are in no better state regarding the hay crop than your neck of the woods. I looked at a map of the rain in the UK for the month of May and only Mardatha's patch and Snowdonia seem to have had anything like the normal amount.

freudianslip

seriously? the supermarket can manipulate the price of dairy items? Please don't tell me that they have control over our farms and farmers too? Why shouldn't they pay more at cost? It's what the farmer needs surely, thats the price. Lets face it, they're guna put the price up anyway, they should pass this onto our farmers. Can you tell I dislike supermarkets? I| have boycotted the big 4 for nearly 4 months now. I've found I don't need them.

smileyt_2

Freudianslip unfortunately yes, the supermarkets call the shots and the farmers, by and large, have to dance to their tune. It's disgusting but that is the system we live in. (I would be happy to stand corrected on this if anyone knows different?)

I will be stocking up as much as I can in the next couple of months, but I'll be on JSA from next week so I'll be limited. I am going to plant as many beans as I can on my allotment as I can freeze or dry them to supplement winter food.

Have a good day, everyone. Mums whose kids are back at school today - hope you get to enjoy a peaceful cup of tea at least once during the day :rotfl:

mardatha

My dad and uncles were all miners and I grew up in a mining village. The old miners say there is hundreds of years of coal still lying underneath us. Thatcher (*&^%%*) killed the coal industry deliberately.I think its totally bloody madness to be sitting on tons of coal while at the same time buying in elect & gas that comes from all over Europe . The gas pipeline wanders wanders though many countries who could just turn it off whenever we fall out with them or whenever they need it themselves. If we're stuck out here at the end of the line then guess who gets switched off first!

Kimitatsu

freudianslip wrote: »

seriously? the supermarket can manipulate the price of dairy items? Please don't tell me that they have control over our farms and farmers too? Why shouldn't they pay more at cost? It's what the farmer needs surely, thats the price. Lets face it, they're guna put the price up anyway, they should pass this onto our farmers. Can you tell I dislike supermarkets? I| have boycotted the big 4 for nearly 4 months now. I've found I don't need them.

They have been doing it for years FS. All of the items that are fresh that you see for half price, what the big buyers do is they contract the crop at the beginning of the year from the farmer and then they TELL them they are running a promotion so they will only pay half the value so it can be passed onto the consumer. By that time the farmer has no choice but to sell at that price because it is too late to find another buyer (all perishable crops) and so at least they get something back.

I have a rant against cheap food for just that reason, farmers who are our guardians of the countryside are being driven to bankruptcy by the main supermarkets cutting each others throats in a bid for market share. All that happens is the only dairies that will be left will be the super dairies which house cattle in large sheds all of the time, or pig units where pigs never see the light of day. Already we are seeing the knock on effect of this with a new strain of MRSA being found in cattle which will pass itself through the food chain due to the overuse of antibiotics. Dairy herds used to all have names and the farmer could tell you exactly what they had fed them, who they came from and what medication they had been given, now they are just a number tag in the ear.

OK - breathe Kimi :rotfl: the hay crop here is rubbish too, £5 a bale currently off the field and that will go up in the winter :eek:

Mardatha - yes we do have hundreds of years of coal beneath our feet, but due to privatisation of the mines they were not able to compete with subsidised coal from the continent. At some point we will have to wake up and either start building nucleur plants at the rate of knots to ensure we have a constant energy supply or the coal mines will have to be renationalised. The upside of that is that although it would cost us money in the short term it would provide employment for whole swathes of society, you almost have to wonder if in the longer term it makes more economic sense as you would be taking people out of the benefit system as well as providing energy!

Currently the UK is supplied by two pipelines the zee pipe from the netherlands and the Nor pipe from Norway, so there is hope for one of them! However if British Gas had not been nationalised then there would be no issues because up to that point we were a net exporter of gas, because BG contracted a minimum amount of gas every year anyway :mad:

Think I am just turning into a grumpy old woman :cool: