Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

I don't have any of those - I feel inadeqately digitalised now.

Heck, I don't even know what a lot of them are, come to think of it. Ned Ludd, my one true hero................

Perplexed_Pineapple

Possession wrote: »

Interesting list of sites you need to remove your accounts from if you want to go off-grid. US-based but interesting nonetheless.
http://time.com/85918/delete-accounts/

I don't think you need to delete your accounts to go off-grid, just ignore them. If you move away from the address and phone numbers associated with the account you are effectively dumping them anyway. Anyway, they have clearly omitted the very important and omniscient MSE account from that list :rotfl:

Butterfly_Brain

does anyone remember the wonderful adam hart davis? I found this on You tube called when the oil runs out, fascinating ideas on there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggzfqRTzJ9M

mrsmortenharket

Evening all.
Sorry I lurk more far more than I post.
It's such an interesting thread. And it's got me prepping.
I hope you don't mind me asking for help. I've dug over my raised bed. It's full of ants. It's awful. How can I get rid of them from it?
Thanks x

ALIBOBSY

mrsmortenharket wrote: »

Evening all.
Sorry I lurk more far more than I post.
It's such an interesting thread. And it's got me prepping.
I hope you don't mind me asking for help. I've dug over my raised bed. It's full of ants. It's awful. How can I get rid of them from it?
Thanks x

There are various powders and sprays you can buy, but there are some home ideas that are cheaper. I have heard of pouring boiling water over the nest, but one I discovered last year and have used is mix icing sugar and bicarb on a one to one ratio and use this in place of a bought in powder. The ants eat the icing sugar because its sweet and have to eat the bicarb because its mixed in. The bicarb reacts with the acid in the ants and kills them (they blow up supposedy). I found there were lots of ants for a day or so, then none a few days later. You won't get rid competely in a garden though, just may get them to move on.

Ali x

Frugalsod

Perplexed_Pineapple wrote: »

I agree those are a good thing to have but I doubt it would have helped the lady in the article, if you look at the photos the car was upside down and it looked as though the windows would be broken anyway, she probably had her legs trapped under the steering rack if not crushed by the engine block (it said she was going to lose her feet). Always worth making sure that someone knows when and where to expect you. Wouldn't be suprised if no mobile coverage in the area in the photo, looked pretty rural and coverage not universal even here...

If you look there is a seat belt cutting blade in the handle which would have cut her from the seat belt. While the windows glass was broken it might not have been open enough for her to escape. It would have been hard to break the glass further with her bare hands.

GreyQueen

Morning all.

Perplexed Pineapple, many congratulations on the arrival of your new allotment, and may you have a long and happy partnership. It's a landmark in the old style preptastic lifestyle, getting your own allotment. When I got my lottie letter I was bouncing like Tigger on speed, I was sooooo happy.

You're slightly late with the potatoes but it isn't too late to get a crop at all. You will need to be aware of the risks of blight, as your spuds will be growing in the height of the risk period.

You might like to look at this site: http://www.blightwatch.co.uk/content/bw-Home.asp

Even us civilian gardeners can sign up for email alerts of blight being spotted in our areas and the Full Smith Periods, the combination of temperature and humidity which activate the blight spores. It's quite fun, too, makes you feel an important part of the agri-onomy.

I get slightly upset when I hear of people going all-out to kill ants which are minding their own business in the garden. I can see the problem if they're under slabs, or patios or foundations, as their tunnelling and grain-by-grain soil removal will destabilise structures, but if they're in the soil, I let them get on with their own business.

I grew up watching ants as we always had a nest of them right outside the back door and at some point in the next few weeks, the winged fertile ants will be escorted out by the workers, who are much smaller than they are. It's entertaining to watch them chivvy the winged ants up nearby grass stalks, to get a bit of elevation before takeoff. I can almost imagine them as the ground crew of a plane, in their co-operative effort to achieve a launch, with little ant supervisors in hard hats going Left hand downabit, steady with that port wing, STEADY - launch! Plus I've seen a gang of them take down a cranefly, disable it and tote it off underground. And a porter train of them taking leaf fragments into their nests.

Ants are fascinating; they have whole cities and even farms underground. Yes, it was a bit of nuisance when they came indoors, but you just learned not to leave a jam-smeared knife on the countertop, which is no bad habit, anyway.

Lots of plants don't go in until April-May anyway, but you'll need to get a wriggle on with some things. Now I have sown my parsnips, at least Dad will be off my case, lol. And the frost-tender beans won't be sown yet anyway, unless you're starting them under cover.

Due to the mice thieving all my ground sown peas, I now have my sitting room full of peas sown into TP tubes, standing in fruit punnets, standing on trays. It's a tedious process but at least I'll have the fun of watching them grow. I'm still a big kid with plants and I never get over the thrill of something actually germinating.........tragic, I know, but there you go.

Busy day at the workplace, and then dropping in on a pal and a shedload of errands via phone and interwebs - I have a list of stuff to do post-work. Which is tedious because I really want to get boiled linseed oil from the hardware store and treat the wooden shafts of my arrows.

Work; the curse of someone with many pastimes.............

D&DD

Morning all


I'll pass that on to my mum Ali,thanks, she has problems sometimes in her kitchen with them.


I have the field mice back again,swarms of birds and squirrels..
I don't do anything about any of them as they don't damage anything (famous last words)...


Off to hospital today with DS2 so not much'll get done and I've got a list as long as your arm will have to catch up tomorrow.


Still got around 8 bags of loganberries to use up,my bushes are absolutely groaning this year so thinking about dehydrating some when I pick them to save on freezer space.I prefer loganberries to raspberries so at least its a good problem to have!!


BB thanks have bookmarked to watch later,hows the recovery going???


Right better get a shift,will read properly later on have a great day all XX

[Deleted User]

The whole fruit garden looks as though it's going to be a bumper crop this year, I've never seen so much flower on the trees and bushes. If they all set and come to maturity I think it will be an amazing harvest. Even the wild things seem to have an abundance of flower buds ready to pop and the hawthorn is just covered. I just hope it's not the precursor of a very bad winter, I don't know if the old folk law of good crops = bad winter holds true, we'll have to wait and see but it would be a good thing I think to take advantage of this bounty and squirrel things away just in case.

DawnW

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

The whole fruit garden looks as though it's going to be a bumper crop this year, I've never seen so much flower on the trees and bushes. If they all set and come to maturity I think it will be an amazing harvest. Even the wild things seem to have an abundance of flower buds ready to pop and the hawthorn is just covered. I just hope it's not the precursor of a very bad winter, I don't know if the old folk law of good crops = bad winter holds true, we'll have to wait and see but it would be a good thing I think to take advantage of this bounty and squirrel things away just in case.

Ours too Mrs L, if you can call one quince tree, 3 raspberries, a newly planted rhubarb and a loganberry a 'fruit garden' that is . The quince tree is a dwarf patio one and lives in a big pot. It is covered in blossom and looks beautiful . It is my favourite thing in the garden by a long way. There seems to be a lot of bloom on the hedgerow blackberries too

I still have a mountain of frozen berries, so I must follow up some suggestions on here for how to use them up before the next lot come along