Preparedness for when

annie123

the_cake wrote: »

Thanks MrsLW - we also have loads of red ants, and I am SO tired of getting bitten by them every time I garden, I have just ordered a 5kg tub of diatomaceous earth. I have never used it before, so would love to hear from anyone who has. I figured it would do the slugs, ants, and as the cats are keen hunters might also tackle their inevitable worms and fleas too!

I use for food grade DE for lots of things.
In the garden it will kill ants any anything with a hardcase, so that includes ladybirds so don't put it in spots where they may hibernate in winter.

My DS uses it on his cats and rabbits to stop fleas, and DD on her dogs for the same.

My son gave some to a friend who lived in a flat above a shop that had a problem with roaches and it worked better than the pest control they had paid an arm and a leg for.

In dry weather it can help with slugs and snails when I tried it but as soon as it got wet either via rain or watering the plants it didn't help.

I use an empty hair colour bottle with DE in but you can buy puffa bottles to put it in as it's difficult to spread thinly otherwise.

No link to the people below just thought they gave a good range of the uses for it
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Diatomaceous-Earth-Powder-500g-Pure-Fresh-Water-Sourced-Food-Grade-/121199372997?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Poultry&hash=item1c380baac5

GreyQueen

Morning all.

Was busy on the allotment and on preptastic matters yesterday. Well, the allotment is a prep in and of itself, now I come to think of it.

I'm only getting a small quantity of strawberries this year, which is what I anticipated as I broke up a 4 y.o congested strawberry bed and the plants are smallish in this, their first year away from momma. They are trying to sucker like crazy and I'm removing runners several inches long twice a week, both to keep the plants contained in their new beds and also to make them use their strength for growing well themselves, not raising little 'uns.

I'm letting the autumn-sown broad beans dry out of the stems, but have harvested a random self-sown one by the compost bin, and had a lovely feast. Will be eating the spring-sown beans in real time, and freezing some, the others will finish drying indoors and then be added to stews etc.

elaine, deeply envious of all the space and resources you have to prep. By gum, but my entire home is about the same space as a couple of shipping containers, probably less. Have you seen all the different ways of tricking them out on the web?

Is your new sewing machine a Pfaff? If so, they're not particularly exotic as have been kicking around in the UK for donkey's years. We used some of them at college and they're pretty reliable.

MrsLW, yes, smart to get the fuel wood in. The longer it dries, the better it burns, and I can't but think that it'll go up in price as we go into the cold weather. Wool blankets are great things, we have some in the family from WW2. Grey army ones. Have occasionally had to darn a hole in one, but that's not exactly onerous, to keep such a useful item in service.

I also bought a cellular blanket for 50p and have that stashed. They're a bit old fashioned and a lot of younger people may be unaware that their structure holds a lot of warmth, particularly if sandwiched between other layers or under the bottom sheet. I also have one of those acrylic teddy-bear type blankets, also from a chazzer and love it irrationally.

I was thinking about stealth inflation this morning. Y'know, the combination of rising prices and changing contents size, which leads you to be robbed both coming and going.

Couple of f'rinstances. Amplex roll on deodorant. Used to contain 65 ml and cost 59p. Bottle size shrank to 50 ml (as did most of its competitors' bottles) and price went up in 10 p increments and is now 89p. Without bothering to do the maths exactly, that's nearly 50% price hike for the same amount of product.

Or Sains Basics Teabags. 80 for 27p in a cardboard carton wrapped in cellophane, 300g product. Only that's disappeared and now they are 15p for 40 in a plastic pouch. At first glance, I was just annoyed at the less-recyclable packaging and having to buy two units instead of one to get the same number of teabags, but thinking it represented only a 3p price hike. Only it's more devious than that, as the 80 bags in the original packaging weighed 300g of tea, and the 80 bags in the 2 packages are 2 x 100g of tea, you're down one third of product and up 3p in price.

Stealth Inflation. Anyone else seeing this? And then there's the loss of quality in ingredients; a chocoholic friend of mine is dissing Th0rntons atm.

jk0, if your socks have smallish holes, say under 10 p size, and it's not the case of the whole heel or toe area having worn thin, have you considered darning them? It's quite a restful thing to do whilst watching telly or something like that, and keeps useful items in service. All you need for most sock darning is a needle and thread and any round surface can substitute for a darning mushroom, like a smallish orange. Not that darning mushrooms are expensive or difficult to obtain, as any haberdashery dept/ sewing store should be able to sell you one for a couple of quid.

ATM, you may not feel that this is a worthwhile use of your time, but if SHTF and the supply of new socks dwindles or disappears, we'd all have to take better care of what we have and maximise its lifespan.

I like darning things, the simple under-and-over basketry type effect is quite pleasing, but then I'm pretty patient with handwork and have also been known to embroider and knit, as well as do patchwork.

I found a delightful little booklet called The Handbook of Country Crafts for 10p, and it's very much of it's era (1973) with its stone-polishing and sticking-seashells-onto-a-lampbase craftiness, but there's some stuff in there about plants, dyestuffs and rush-craft which interests me. And it tells you how to make corn dollies, which I haven't done since about the time it was published.:rotfl:

I also found a modern reproduction of A Plain Cookery Book for The Working Classes, originally published 1852 and dedicated to Queen Victoria! I'm expecting it to be more a comedy read than anything else, but for 30p I thought I might gain something useful.

The bargain boxes of random stuff outside chazzers or in front of car boot stalls are always well worth a browse, in my experience.

[Deleted User]

A couple of years ago DD1 bought me for christmas a couple of very heavy duty wool blankets from a surplus store, they were part of international aid packages and smell unbearably of camphor. Two years of hanging them on the line in the hottest sun, wind etc has lessened the smell a little but it's still so strong that they have to live in the summerhouse and we can only use them for laying on the lawn in the summer, indoors the smell just pervades the whole house and makes us cough. Any ideas as to how I can remove this awful niff and actually be able to use them as blankets???

thriftwizard

I found a delightful little booklet called The Handbook of Country Crafts for 10p, and it's very much of it's era (1973) with its stone-polishing and sticking-seashells-onto-a-lampbase craftiness, but there's some stuff in there about plants, dyestuffs and rush-craft which interests me.

Had a go at rush-weaving a few weeks back, and have to say, it's wonderfully relaxing, quick & pratical compared to, say willow-weaving, or winding a warp for a shafted loom. It took less than an hour to turn out a table mat, which has taken a battering with hot & heavy things since without showing any distress. I'd love to do a whole-day course now & learn to do hats & bowls, and how to recognise, harvest & prepare English bull-rushes, but can't find anything reasonably local & don't want to spend too much time, fuel & money going elsewhere! But I'm pretty sure I have a copy of that book somewhere...

I picked up a copy of Warne's 1895 "Model Cookery and Household Management" at the car boot yesterday & am hugely entertained by the bizarre adverts, as well as intrigued by the recipes & info on preserving & pickling. This one may not be for re-sale, despite apparently being worth 10 times what I paid for it, which is considerably more of a mark-up than I usually make.

Mrs LW - have you washed them? I know it's not so easy if you don't have a 10.5Kg washing machine (which I do happen to have, having had 5 kids close together, which means a whole lot of mud & make-up) but a soak in the bath, drain, refill several times to rinse (no sudden temperature changes or agitation) finish with a vinegar rinse, a long drain & a few days on the line. I doubt if that would get rid of it altogether but it wouldn't harm them. Apologies if you've already washed them 5 times without result!

westlothianlass

Hi all,
I've had a lot of success with diatomaceous earth, used it in the house like shake and vac, and on chickens and cats.
Thanks for the mention of army blankets, I've been keeping an eye out for cheapish wool blankets, and never thought about army ones. A quick dander on fleabay and I've managed to pick up a couple at very reasonable prices so I'm a very happy bunny.
MrsLW only thing I can think of is a vinegar and water soak before hanging outside to dry.
Planning a shop tomorrow to replace, or increase some food supplies, I don't like what is going on around the world, so many worrying situations.
Hope everyone has a lovely sunday
WLL x

charlies-aunt

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

A couple of years ago DD1 bought me for christmas a couple of very heavy duty wool blankets from a surplus store, they were part of international aid packages and smell unbearably of camphor. Any ideas as to how I can remove this awful niff and actually be able to use them as blankets???

Newspapers are good odour absorbers - could you try folding them up with a few sheets in each fold and then covering up with a layer like a parcel and leaving for a week to see if the smell will
transfer to the paper?

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

I was thinking about stealth inflation this morning. Y'know, the combination of rising prices and changing contents size, which leads you to be robbed both coming and going.

Couple of f'rinstances. Amplex roll on deodorant. Used to contain 65 ml and cost 59p. Bottle size shrank to 50 ml (as did most of its competitors' bottles) and price went up in 10 p increments and is now 89p. Without bothering to do the maths exactly, that's nearly 50% price hike for the same amount of product.

Or Sains Basics Teabags. 80 for 27p in a cardboard carton wrapped in cellophane, 300g product. Only that's disappeared and now they are 15p for 40 in a plastic pouch. At first glance, I was just annoyed at the less-recyclable packaging and having to buy two units instead of one to get the same number of teabags, but thinking it represented only a 3p price hike. Only it's more devious than that, as the 80 bags in the original packaging weighed 300g of tea, and the 80 bags in the 2 packages are 2 x 100g of tea, you're down one third of product and up 3p in price.

Stealth Inflation. Anyone else seeing this? And then there's the loss of quality in ingredients; a chocoholic friend of mine is dissing Th0rntons atm.

It is the way that the companies are trying to pass on inflation without the public noticing. Though we do notice. They might dress it up as a health change like smaller one person portions for the same price. Though I am noticing the price increases because so much of what I eat is now made from scratch so there is no way to hide the increase, but I am not impacted by the downgrading of ingredients for the same reason. It is a remarkably short sighted move by the suppliers because once you dump the quality it is very expensive to get the reputation back. The one cheat that we need to be aware of is the latest scam from US statistics called Chained-CPI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Chained_Consumer_Price_Index

the_cake

Many thanks for the feedback on diatomaceous earth; I am looking forward to its arrival - and the slugs' and ants' departure!
Re blankets - I think wool will always be warmer than fleece, even though fleece is sumptuously soft .... I have been collecting wool blankets for the last couple of years, when I find them at car boots or charity shops. I wash them very carefully in cold water, dry fully in the sun, then store them with lavender bags in a blanket box. I grow lots of lavender, but am too lazy to sew proper bags, so every summer I just put some fresh lavender heads in the middle of a nice piece of thinnish cotton (unused good quality men's hankies from a c.s. are excellent!) and tie it up in a little bundle with a nice bit of ribbon. This, and the fact that the blankets are clean, stops them getting motheaten. I found a beautiful, brand new kingsize double cream cellular blanket for £5 in a c.s. last year. I also like the Welsh wool ones that the National Trust sell....
MrsLW, good luck with getting the smell of mothballs out of those army blankets - it's not a nice smell, is it? Nothing further to suggest, sorry!

Butterfly_Brain

This is deeply disturbing and I wonder if that is what our grubbyment is instigating as well, especially with the water canon that Bojo wants to deploy in London

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jun/12/pentagon-mass-civil-breakdown

Basically they will target peaceful protestors and treat them like terrorists.

[Deleted User]

Thanks for all the ideas over my smelly blankets, I'll give them all a go unless the first one works. I've got newspapers so I'll start off with laying them up in newspaper and see if that helps. I haven't washed them as they are almost too heavy to lift when they're dry and my machine will only take 6 kilos but I like the idea of spraying them with vinegar water and leaving them on the line in the hot sun for drying, you lot are all really clever, you know that??? Lyn xxx.