Preparedness for when

homesteadchick

I don't like the start of autumn, because that means the end of summer.. and I love summer... ;-)

But yes, I can already smell it in the air as well.
This is the time where we get serious about our wood supply.
We do have central heating as well as the woodburner, but I try and use the CH as little as possible in winter.

Only to warm the house first thing in the morning until I can get a fire going.
We also try not to buy wood.
We gather and collect. People give us heaps of stuff, like old tables and cubboards and floorboards and pallets that we cut up and store for winter.

And I'm storing some of the veggie garden harvest.

I'm not really a prepper.. prepping for big stuff going wrong.. but I do like a bit of self reliance. And there's nothing better than putting another log on the fire while it's blowing a gale outside, knowing that I do NOT have to go out to shops or anything for days on end if needs be.

It's peace of mind knowing there is enough food and fuel to avoid panic when weather gets nasty, or stuff like that.
And I stock up on stuff when it's cheap.

I can grown a lot of vegetables, and we have chickens and rabbits.

oh and my neighbours think I'm off my rocker..

*grin*

ginnyknit

Homestead chick, its nice being off your rocker especially in a crisis when you are the one sitting in a warm house with yummy food. I do know however your sister is as nutty as a fruitcake, she must be to be friends with me :rotfl: OOOh you have a waterbath canner sounds like real prepping to me

I dont like gin but am tempted to hunt down sloes now and make it as I adore boozy chocolates.

What kind of prepper am I forgot to buy eggs, the only thing I wanted from the shops and I passed Waitrose, Asda and the co-op.

mardatha

BedsitBob yes - a circle of min 9 tealights, with a grill tray laid over them, resting on bits of wood, will boil a kettle in 25 mins. I've done it often because I thought it was amazing lol

[Deleted User]

HOMESTEADCHICK you have arrived at your destination if your neighbours think you're off your rocker, ours know we are, they have no doubts at all about the fact, but they still like us and if they don't entirely understand why we live the way we do they still give us any burnable wood they have cut from the gardens and even get their friends to bring us theirs too! What they do find difficult to understand about us is how we can be so content with what we have and not want the cruises and abroad holidays and new furniture and clothes that seem so important to them. One neighbour who I love to bits gets her husband to do all the cooking in their pristine new kitchen because she can't bear to see it untidy, I don't understand that at all!!! They deck their gardens, we grow veg, they have sculptured lawns we have the dog, they go to expensive restaurants we have fish and chips, and so it goes on but somehow we all rub along fairly well together and I keep them all supplied with jam an chutney, it seems to work, off your rocker is lots of fun isn't it? Cheers Lyn xxx.

JayneC

Hello all, been lurking as not been able to get on 'puter and can't get to grips with typing on my phone. Just wondered if anyone is planning to go to Wilderness Gathering?
http://www.wildernessgathering.co.uk/index.html
I know someone mentioned a while back about going, but can't remember who...
Anyways I'm planning to go with DS and recently acquired extra teenage boy;), hopefully we'll learn lots of interesting stuff. If anyone is planning to go and fancies meeting up let me know, either on thread or PM.

I too am noticing an Autumnal feel and although I love Autumn (apart from the spiders) I will miss the summer - it took a long time arriving!!Someone at the lottie was having a bonfire this eve and smoke smelt very Autumnal. I am loving my lottie this is my first year and it's been fab, even the battle with the weeds;) DS is very graciously listening with mild interest every time I list what I've harvested that day, bless him.
Anyways off to bed. Will try to post more often:D

suzybloo

Confuzzled, i am in the east of scotland too, our rowans are plentiful here but very green yet, along with the ros! hips, and the flowers have just gone off the elders, which is quite late, but like that the amount of elderberries looks amazing, if they ripen! Brambles are green pea sized here, but another 6 weeks should see them be ready to ripen, and be much bigger. Wild rasps are plentiful just now, if you know where to look ;-) fingers crossed for a bountiful autumn. Temperatures here were down to 8 last night, the first night for months that the window had to be closed a little, but a definite nip in the air!

I am prepping like mad as I am worried incase things get more difficult, our income has dropped by a third, and if that drops anymore we could be in a very difficult position. But hey-ho there are worse off than us, and there is plenty info on here to help us 'dour' it out as my granny used to say :-)

homesteadchick

JayneC: LOL! I know th!t feeling! I proudly show a handfull of ripe tomatoes , beaming with delight and husband doesn't even look up sometimes. he just nodds and mumbles like you do sometimes to a child showing you yet another picture: "yes lovely, well done.."

LOL!
But he eats them happily though!

MrsLurcherwalker: Thank you. And yes, you are right. It is lovely be off my rocker.
The neighbours are quite friendly, be it a little noisy. They don't understand my front garden full of veggies, a chicken coop and a double rabbit hutch...I don't understand their need to be constantly surrounded by noise. Be it the tv or the radio.

And when the baby bunnies were born they all gasped. "OH NO!! You've got baby bunnies!!"
(Like: DUH! That's what happens when you let daddy bunny play with mummy bunny)
They said:
"What will you do with all those rabbits?"

I said:
"When they are big enough I will let them go on a wintersports holliday"

Some of them are still trying to figure out what that means...;)


How lovely to be with people who embrace and welcome rather than judge and gossip!
Really,
you all have no idea!

I don't consider myself a prepper, but in the end, who cares what name you give it!?

I'm just interested in being kinder to the planet, saving money, and serving my family healthier meals.

I decided to raise rabbits after the latest horsemeat poohaa and the toxic corn animal feed.

I wish I had more space as I am very limited in my self sufficiency because I live in the middle of town in a normal smallish house in the middle of a row of 6 houses, with other people all around.

Space is limited.
I wish I could do more. But moving to the country is not an option. (although it's a big dream)

Thank you guys.
You have no idea.

GreyQueen

When I joined they didn't have the newbie avatar thing going, so Iwas spared. Don't know at what post-count it falls away, but keep talking, you're sensible and interesting.

Once upon a time, things which now fall into the heading of "preps" would have been called "good housekeeping" and "good husbandry" any person with a household who didn't keep these things going would have been a fool.

A very hungry, cold and possibly dead fool, too. And their children with them.

I work with a group of people who span their twenties to their sixties and fall midway myself. They're all good people and nobody's a fool but the twenty somethings worry the heck out of me sometimes. They live right on the edge of their income, don't carry cash, have debts, and have never lived in a world without an uninterrupted supply of electricity and central heating.

I've had a rather more knockabout life, being born and raised in a cottage with no bathroom, as have some of my peers at work. We are less phased by disruptions to business as normal and have clear memories of the 1970s oil crisis and powercuts etc etc.

So we are less complacent and less trusting and I think that is a good thing, overall.

Could I be nosey and ask how Mrs LW knows homesteadchick's sister? Is she on MSE too?

homesteadchick

GreyQueen wrote: »

Could I be nosey and ask how Mrs LW knows homesteadchick's sister? Is she on MSE too?

Yes. My sister is here too.
And has been for a while. She is the one that called me 'back'.
I had wandered off and lost my way onto other (social)media.

She lives in Scotland, and she is lovely and creative and makes beautiful cards and is funny and caring and has two beatiful daughters and I bet you know her.

agreenmess

Hello all, just started reading the beginning of this thread, on page six, and just wanted to say that I'm just starting up prepping, does anyone have any tips or advice for starting up??