make do and mend for tougher times

Popperwell

Our water company is more vague than Anglian water...good points about Vit D Spiky...

Evie, there are some very good sites out there regarding information about vitamin D and vitamins in general...

Byatt

I got through! :T All puss cats present and correct if a little hungry!

I had wondered if I'd tried harder (not sure how), I could have got through yesterday, but after seeing the devastation today, it would have been foolhardy and impossible. The road is covered with debris, rocks, stones, logs...people had been using full rock salt bags as flood prevention. :eek: (obviously prepared for winter!) The garden of the stranded puss cats had debris in it, so water must have been pouring out of the fields behind, and their outside stainless steel water bowl had completely disappeared. Anyway, I am so relieved they are ok, and put a load of food and water down just in case.

I know I need to put in place further measures for owners (food is running out, for one cat) and emphasise the importance of an emergency contact. Also need to carry extra bowls as not enough provided.

Byatt

Popperwell wrote: »

I'm not an EDF customer but if you are you can have a room temperature thermometer for free...

http://www.edfenergy.com/products-services/for-your-home/customer-services/hypothermia-and-how-to-resist.shtml

I'm with EDF, so that's where I must have got my free thermometer from. I might ask for another one, if they ever answer their phone!

Sunshine4

Morning everyone, and thank you for the welcome.

Byatt Glad you where able to get through this morning and home again safe. It looks so bad in some places on the news.

It is raining here now started last night at 10pm and still going it was quite heavy for awhile and now just light. So washing is going to have to stay inside for now.
Kittie I might just get the one you have on the wall that pulls out We could put that in our bathroom for all the light things to dry.

Had a look at the dehydrator, have put it on my wish list.

Hope everyone is safe

[Deleted User]

Morning Toughies, hope all are safe and accounted for after yesterdays weather happening, I am feeling rather glad that our house is a good 10 feet above road level as there were times yesterday when you couldn't see the front hedge for rain and the road was running inches deep. The local recreation ground was like a quagmire when the lurcher took me for a walk and the ground shook as we walked over it, very odd!

I have decided to try and freeze whatever crop we get from the allotment this year or preserve it in some way. It seems very sparse at the moment although we have just found some parsnips that we planted in the spring, I say found, they have germinated but it remains to be seen if they grow on. We are currently picking broad beans which are all going in to the freezer, as will the blackberries which are looking very heavy cropped this year. I just hope they ripen!

BYATT - You did so much more than most people would have yesterday, you mustn't put yourself at risk , no one would ask that of you. The puttys were all ok and the owners should be grateful that you went out in weather so dreadful!!

I hope today is a better one for all of us and dry even if it's not sunny. Stay safe everyone Cheers Lyn x.

ginnyknit

I have an age concern thermometer that appeared from somewhere - I am a bit obsessive about temps as I worked in a CS once that was rickety to say the least and was feeling odd one day when a nurse friend came in, checked me out and decided it was hypothermia - one of the first signs is depression and it was not nice :eek:

Evie men will fish even if theres 3 foot of snow and the fish have had the sense to hibernate. I wouldnt mind but Oh does the fishing where you can't bring any home - I really dont get it?? 'Hunters, no gatherers'

I love my Lakeland dehydrator, no more squishy veg languishing in the veg basket and no random bags and boxes in the freezer. Think mine was £50 ish. I dry anything and chuck them all in a lock box. I just bought a sack of onions for £1.99 from MrT so they will go in later and I will fry some to bag off for the freezer, you can actualy chuck them in a fry pan frozen and they work just fine.

I am useless at baked potatoes in the micro - they are never right. But the other day I did some and left one that wasnt quite cooked in the micro - it finished cooking in the residual heat and was perfect!

Evie74_2

[Evie men will fish even if theres 3 foot of snow and the fish have had the sense to hibernate. I wouldnt mind but Oh does the fishing where you can't bring any home - I really dont get it?? 'Hunters, no gatherers'

/QUOTE]

Ginny My DH is the same - if he was bringing home trout or salmon I'd be delighted! :rotfl:

Still dry(ish) here. This morning's garden inspection reveals that the evil snails/slugs have eaten most of the flowers on my pumpkin plants! Does anyone know whether this means there will be no pumpkins? It's only the yellow petals that have been scoffed - the middles are still there, and the odd very munched petal still hanging on. Apologies for asking a daft question: still very much a learner when it comes to growing veg!

Evie xx

fuddle

Mine too. He pays to be a member of a club that doesn't let you keep your catch. When pops was talking about his trout yesterday I was thinking chance would be a fine thing.

I've been out for some mint for a mint tea. It's gone! :mad::eek: There's stalks but no leaves.

Also, the black currents are ripening slowly but some of them have split. Does anyone know why?

Possession

To be perfectly honest, the only reason my children take vitamins, when we remember, is that I have so many from clubcard points collecting and health and beauty voucher days. So frankly I just want them used up! If we remembered them every day they'd probably be gone by now. I also like the children to have the Omega3 since they don't like oily fish.

smileyt_2

Hello Sunshine, Nellie and Bossymoo! Hope I haven't forgotten any newbies!

I don't quite believe it, but I think it hasn't rained here for 24 hours!!!! I'm just having a brew and some ryvitas with home-made raspberry jam before doing domestic stuff. I have awful period pain, but as raspberry leaf tea is supposed to be good for all things menstrual, I am convincing myself that surely to goodness raspberry jam will have the same therapeutic effect .... :rotfl:. Paracetamol may be more immediately effective ....

Actually, as I have a dehydrator, I may pick the raspberry leaves and dry them and try drinking them. May do the same with the nettles. I might as well make use of them if they're there, and at least I know they're clean. I might be able to crumble the dried leaves into soup in the winter. Ooh now there's a plan - I suddenly feel my OS mojo coming back! Would that work, Kittie?

Went to the lottie last night and sharpened my scythe. Nearly chopped my leg off with it - my hand slipped and the swing went awry. Luckily the force was halted by a large bramble so I only have a bruise on my leg and not a severed limb! Will definitely not be scything when tired or highly pre-menstrual again :eek:! I've realised that, after reading the instructions for the petrol-operated strimmer I bought, I am absolutely terrified of it and I daren't try it alone. I'm just glad I didn't try it out last night, goodness only knows what bits of myself I might have strimmed off! :eek:

Byatt glad you had better driving conditions today. The cats would have been OK with just water if their food had run out and you couldn't get to them today, but they would have been very hungry. The idea of carrying spare bowls with you is a good one - the pound shop always seems to have bowls.

Advice, please! Due to alopecia, I sport a 3mm crewcut. I'm wondering if I should say something at the end of my interview on Thursday, when they ask if you have any questions or anything to add? I don't want them thinking that my skinhead is a political statement or an aggressive statement of my sexuality - especially as it is clear from one of the organisations I do voluntary work with that I am gay. I don't have any tattoos or piercings so my appearance is conventional in all other respects, but I'd lay odds that none of the other women they may interview will have a crewcut! It's actually something I'm proud of, as I used to have long red hair, but when it started to part company with my scalp I decided I wasn't going to waste my life spending hours trying to hide it. So I did a sponsored headshave and raised £600 for charity. I just don't want my appearance to go against me at the interview. Thoughts, please?