Preparedness for when

vivatifosi

GreyQueen wrote: »

Y'know, that's the first time I've heard of Birmingham bars. London bars are not at all unknown around here. The Polis told me that they detest them as they defy even pneumatic battering rams. They're commonly fitted by drug dealers to their own doors............

The Polis don't always use the pneumatic battering rams, they also have the shaped steel ones (imagine a skeletonised oversized sketch of a rifle) which are known around here as The Big Red Keys.

RL Convo;

Bright and breezy female voice Hello! This is Police Control!
GQ (laconic) Hello Police Control, what have you broken?
Suddenly coy What makes you think we've broken anything?
GQ Because you usually call us to tell us you've broken into one of our houses or flats. Address......?

And thus it proved to be. Sometimes they call us to tell us they've broken down the door of XYZ Street and we check and tell them it isn't one of ours. You can almost hear them going ohsh*t.:rotfl:

Birmingham bars I think are like London bars. IIRC the difference is that London bars are shaped to fit over a Yale lock, whereas a Birmingham bar goes down the frame.

I have no problem with the police battering down my front door providing they pay me for it afterwards. I have nothing to hide and nothing that it is worth breaking in for (I may treasure my collection of old 80s vinyl of no particular value and random mix tapes, but I don't think anyone else would), it is just that when I was broken in previously, I did have my door frame jimmied and it cost a lot to put right. Replacing the frame that was inset, walls needed plastering and stuff. Thieving !!!!!!. In my case the S has already hit that particular F and therefore I am perhaps over-protective in order to feel safe in my own home.

ginnyknit

We used to have proper fire doors on these council house (now HA) and the polis couldnt have opened them with a tank, though one neighbour did try with his car. So when we reported that Oh had checked on an elderley neighbour and could see he was probably passed away in his chair we had to explain that they would have to smash a window. Hubby got the ' stand back mate, we know what we are doing' After raising much sweat in various officers using their ram they had to swallow thier pride and smash the window - yes we did the 'I told you so dance' in private. Also mentioned he hadnt been seen for a couple of days and his dog may be a little testy, they realised very quickly that it was also true. Now we have plastic doors and you could probably open them with a chocolate key! :mad:

Have settled with the prepping I have done to date as life is difficult at present but will do a stock take soon and see if any bits can be improved on. Im sure there is much more that could be done but needs must in other areas of life.

Seed planting is a necessity though and started the last few days. Have put all my pots of seedlings in bread type trays and anchored them firmly to the shelving in the greenhouse due to blusterly winds. Lost one of my small greenhouses in the recent storms - literaly it blew away and hid down the garden but was rescued only to find the top had gone through. I was puzzled for days till I found roof tiles smashed up in the garden and on further investigation a large hole in the roof. Roof now repaired and will be taking the gaffer tape to the greenhouse as its only a back up one and I have a new boxed greenhouse rescued from a skip to be investigated and put up.

sorryImoved

Mystery gas shortage at several stations 60 miles from where I live in Florida. Local news asking people to report in if stations are out. Really strange. Wonder what is going on.

boultdj

Strange in deed, hope you'v got a full tank and don't have to fill up for a while.

Si_Clist

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I know what you mean.

I keep mine in a folder.

You never know, they could be worth something as a "historical document" (or maybe a "Hysterical Document" ) in years to come, when the licence has been consigned to the dustbin of history.

We're really disappointed with the TV licence people. Last time we got the usual letter, we ticked the appropriate box and said if your chap lets us know when he's in the area, he's more than welcome to pop in for a cup of tea and a slice of stale shop-cake.

They never did reply and he still hasn't turned up. Maybe we should have put RSVP on the bottom ...

GreyQueen

sorryImoved wrote: »

Mystery gas shortage at several stations 60 miles from where I live in Florida. Local news asking people to report in if stations are out. Really strange. Wonder what is going on.

How does your gas get to the fuel stations? Presumably coming in from a depot via tanker, but does it come overland from somewhere like Texas or does it come in via ship? Are there pipelines? I vaguely recall that in the immediate aftermath of SuperStorm Sandy there were issues with tanker ships coming into ports in the NY state area to re-supply the fuel stations up there.

Y'know, although I know perfectly well your gas is our petrol, as our gas is something we run our cookers and central heating systems on, I still have to do a slight mental shift to understand your post. One language, two cultures.............:rotfl:

Hope it's nothing sinister but it would be good to get a handle on the local supply chains so you could interpret similar news in the future as to whether it's a blip or a SHTF moment.

Today I will be allotmenteering and will start potato planting. It's a tad earlier than last year but I will even out the growth by planting deeper than usual. The kicker is the late frosts which tend to appear circa mid-May. We've had a very mild winter in my part of southern England and have barely seen any frost at all, less than 10 frosty mornings in the past few months, but that doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet.

sorryImoved, an explanation for the above is that we have to do an elabourate dance between the last and first frosts and the growing season here in the UK due to our fondness for non-native veg like potatoes and some other things. Our growing season can be too short for some crops without protection at one or both ends. I don't imagine Florida suffers these issues.

Mind you, since the worst thing in the nearest body of water to my home is a shopping trolley, not an alligator, I can't grumble.:p

paidinchickens

sorryImoved wrote: »

Mystery gas shortage at several stations 60 miles from where I live in Florida. Local news asking people to report in if stations are out. Really strange. Wonder what is going on.

Really strange, I have my Chicken Licking head back on at the moment.

Hi Si Clist :wave:

PiC x

greenbee

paidinchickens wrote: »

Really strange, I have my Chicken Licking head back on at the moment.

:rotfl:

I love autocorrect

Chicken Licken for anyone who wants storytime

GQ - we've had a similar lack of frosts (further south than you) and I'm worried that rather too many bugs will have survived as a result. Although hopefully a few of them will have drowned :cool:

paidinchickens

blummin thing argued with me twice on the spelling then the sneaky thing still changed it!! between that and the cat I have no chance

Just in case anyone is panicking I don't lick chickens they're in the garden safe and sound lol

PiC X

GreyQueen

greenbee wrote: »

:rotfl:

I love autocorrect

Chicken Licken for anyone who wants storytime

GQ - we've had a similar lack of frosts (further south than you) and I'm worried that rather too many bugs will have survived as a result. Although hopefully a few of them will have drowned :cool:

Yeah, I like to see a few weeks of iron frosts, from my POV as a gardener. I think it helps thin out the pesties. Mild and wet isn't good.

I'm turning over cleared soil repeatedly, as in every few weeks between autumn and spring planting, and am turning up some soil-dwelling grubs and caterpillars. Which I exterminate by putting them on the steel toe of one boot and bringing the heel of the other down right on the top of it.

Those cutworms are beggars if you leave them alone, they take down a whole broad bean plant overnight. You go up first thing and there it is, severed at ground level with the leaves just starting to wilt. I also have the about-to-be potato patch, which had been a tussocky couch-grass field for years, baited with old spuds.

Got the idea from a book and it seems to make sense. Land cleared from grass is liable to have heavy wireworm infestation. Although I removed some of these squirmy little beggars when I cultivated, they are very small and squirm away from the light quickly. They are also a partiular pest of potatoes, tunnelling into the tuber.

And a resevoir of wireworm activitity can be encouraged by accidentally leaving spuds behind in the soil after harvesting. So, I have deliberately spiked some old tatties, about half a dozen, onto pea sticks and embedded them in the tattie patch-to-be. The pea-sticks are so I don't lose them. The intention is to dig them up right smartish and chuck them straight into the rubbish, in hopes of catching some wireworms with them.

One marker of how mild this winter has been is that at no point have I been accompanied in my digging by robins hoping to pounce on critters as I turn them up. Normal winters, you have little robin helpers from Nov-Feb, plus they stalk me when I have my sarnie lunch up there. This winter I've had no robins 'working' with me at all.:(

I killed massive amounts of slugs in 2012 (spaded most of them) as they'd reached pestilential levels on the lotties, and hardly saw any in 2013 (killed them too) but a lot of the slugs are those little greyish ones which live underground and they're not so easy to get as the huge ones which cruise around above ground and can live for 5-6 years.

Well, this ain't getting the work done. Have a pal coming up to the lotties about 10.30 am so need to get dressed and get at it. Dry and warmish day, by the looks of it, so all good there.

Laters, GQxx