Preparedness for when

mardatha

I think bright cold sunny days are a lot better than this dark horrible low cloud we've had here for days, so bring on the snaw I'm ready!

alfsmum

MRSLW, GQ and all, thanks for the good wishes for Mum.

Need to find time this weeks to reorganise the prepping stores and see what needs restocking. Have bags of Mum's paperwork and other stuff we didn't want to leave in her empty house to find room for too. Have warned Dh there will be some major decluttering

Lovely to read about the geese flying over. We aren't near enough to any stretches of water to get many here so it's a real treat to see some passing through.

The one good thing about waiting half the night for the ambulance to arrive at Mum's was being able to stand outside in the early hours, listen to the owls and look at the stars. She has no streetlights in her lane so it's 'proper dark' whereas we have one right outside the house.

mardatha

I'm not anywhere near water but we're under the flightpath. I can mind always watching the geese, even at school, stopping everything dead to gaze up at that wild fantastic noise
We've got a couple of streetlights in our wee cul de sac but out the back garden and outside the village it's pure velvety blackness, I love star gazing. Gives you an amazing sense of the reality of life - how tiny we are and how insignificant eh?

RAS

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

has anyone actually worked out how much space every person in Britain would have if the amount of land in Britain was divided by the number of people??

The first good estimate I have seen was here:

http://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/articles/can-britain-feed-itself

If you want to follow that up I think Simon Fairlie's book Meat has assessments for Vegan/veggie/meat eating and organic and non-organic farming scenarios.

Some work in the US indicated that calorie intake would be increased by 20% if land not suitable for cultivation was used for grazing (wild or farmed animals).

The other issue is that in order to keep machinery or horses going if oil becomes difficult to obtain (as a price people will pay) some 15% of the land needs to be set aside for fuel crops.

mardatha

That's really interesting RAS. I think maybe Scotland needs to be separate though as we don't grow much wheat, mainly oats. And we could probably support less cows/more sheep up here as that's the only thing that can thrive on hill farms.

Challenge - I wonder if we could, on here, devise a good plain basic survivors menu plan for a week - the good cooks and planners amongst us could surely do that? I don't mean eating from your stash either - I mean long term over a year sort of thing..

I think we already do it really, this is what we eat -
Breakfast is porridge, with salt and cream.
Dinner is HM soup, with lentils barley and assorted veg.
Supper is an oatcake or sandwich, on cheese or jam.
So that leaves just one meal- Tea- to find meat & pudding for.

If we were stronger/fitter/better organised we could grow a lot more veg here as we;ve got a biggish garden. Now, post-Kelp, I feel ready and more able to do that. I think it's all about cutting out garbage and frills, and going to a wartime style diet.

[Deleted User]

That is a really good constructive idea MAR, perhaps 4 separate weekly menus one for each season with the different things available in each one?

RAS

mardatha wrote: »

That's really interesting RAS. I think maybe Scotland needs to be separate though as we don't grow much wheat, mainly oats. And we could probably support less cows/more sheep up here as that's the only thing that can thrive on hill farms.

mar

Whose was the historian who wrote the massive history of Scotland?

He quoted someone who thought that the potato was behind the growth in the Highlands and Island population. In a dry year the oats and bere did well enough to support the population. A bad year or series of wet years would lead to famine.

But in wet years potatoes do really well so once introduced allowed the population to survive when they would otherwise have been reduced.

Jeavons (How to grow more than you ever thought possible..........) worked out that the Irish Potato (as they call in the US) can provide the most calories per area of all food stuffs.

Add to that the scope on your area for dairy and meat production..........

westcoastscot

Hi Guys,
That's an interesting idea Mar. When we lived on the hill we ate seasonally, and the only things we bought in were flour, some pulses, sugar and salt (apart from treats that we wanted). We had access to our own meat (goat, pig and sheep) in smallish amounts over autumn/winter/early spring, and fowl over the summer, along with seasonal fish. We had goat milk with which we made soft cheese and butter (we used fat from animals for baking etc). We didn't grow oats but grew tatties, veggies, apples and soft fruit. We foraged also. We had chicken, goose and duck eggs. We made our version of pasta if we wanted it (and dried it over the stove on the pully!) It's definitely doable - we didn't have a huge amount of space but enough. It's a fair amount of work though - not just growing it but cooking/baking every day to keep everyone fed well to do that amount of work! A fantastic life though :-) I've got used to being on the mainland now but I still really miss it from time to time.
WCS

mardatha

Lovely mental pic of a pulley covered in spaghetti
I have read that RAS about Scotland and or Ireland, but can't remember who seddit. Am enjoying reading now but can't post cos am too busy knitting a sock!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

just had this on a facebook feed via a local radio station


BREAKING NEWS: The National Grid says the risk of a blackout this winter is at its highest since 2007. The average electricity safety margin in Wales and England will be only 5 per cent - less than half last year's level. It's because coal is being used less in industry, plus a decline in North Sea gas supplies


don't know where they had it from, but thought I would give you the heads up...