Preparedness for when

Karmacat

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

it's a relative of Ramsons/wild garlic and has had a few very bad years but this year is making up for lost time in the south. Does it stay or does it go? as a prepper I feel it would be useful to add flavour as a gardener it's an invasive pest. How would you deal with it???

Keep! Keep! It's beautiful, its edible, it doesn't need to be looked after, and most of us like the flavour! Why would you kill it? **sobs quietly into hankie**

[Deleted User]

Pleeeeese don't cry I'll leave it in peace as long as it doesn't invade the lawn 'cos He Who Knows is a devil with the lawnmower (see previous evidence of what happened to my tiny little primrose and snowdrops this year) and I won't be able to keep him off it!!!

Karmacat

**peeps out from behind tear-stained hankie**

Yay :j:j:j

Anything in the lawn has to be fair game, unless you're going full-on wildflower meadow, and that doesn't usually work

thriftwizard

Not exactly a bug-out bag, more of a bug-out vehicle, really! As I often need to shift heavy/large items at very short notice, or lots & lots of smaller ones, I run a small camper-type van as my everyday/only vehicle. So I always have a first-aid kit, the wherewithal to make a meal or a cup of tea, a means to keep warm & dry on me; the seats are covered in old blankets which serve many purposes but can always be slept under too. I don't tend to carry spare clothes (boots & a raincoat excepted) except ones that I'm selling on; I might have to meet an unexpected future dressed in finery from the past! But I can actually live in my vehicle, short-term, at least. Lights & fridge are solar-powered, so I'm not dependent on mains hook-up like the big RVs.

I do have a BoB, which lives in a prominent place in my bedroom, ready to roll at short notice, containing a couple of changes of clothes, nightclothes, bathroom stuff, passport etc. Thus has been very useful over the last few years, given elderly relatives who may be rushed into hospital at short notice, some of them elsewhere in Europe. But my Plan A in case of major disasters is to bug in, as we're pretty well situated here. One Never Knows, however...

jk0

That sounds so cool Angie. May we see a photo of your 'van?

thriftwizard

Here you go, jk0: the interior, soon after we got her. She's acquired a few more blankets since then, old pure wool plaid ones. And a tiny quilt that protects the work surface from bumps & scratches.

Karmacat

That sounds wonderful, thriftwizard! It looks beautiful, too.

Can I ask about the solar ? Do you have a solar panel that you unfurl, or are there solar "tiles" on the roof?

ivyleaf

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

We've got Alkanet all over the village too IVYLEAF and it's a dyers plant, the root produces Madder/rose pink I think. I've always thought that's why you find it near rivers as Dyers Yards were usually situated near waterways for the processes involved. It's a pretty plant though but very easily spread.

That's very interesting Lyn! We're not that far from a river as far as seeds spreading is concerned (sorry, hope that makes sense), and there used to be a silk-screen printing business a couple of miles away for well over a century. Wonder if they produced their own dyes as well? I might get around to finding out next time I'm in the library where the local archives are

ivyleaf

greenbee wrote: »

Be careful with alkanet. Some variants of it can cause a burn-like skin reaction.

Oh yes, I always wear gloves when I need to handle it :eek:

Ha ha, jk0, yes I soon realised it couldn't be dug up completely The good thing is that each individual plant spreads out a lot, so you don't have to pull up many of them to make the garden look a great deal better

ETA She's lovely, thriftwizard!

[Deleted User]

Not today but tomorrow (today will be awash with washing on garden lines) we are going to give Fatima (our OzPig) an airing and I'm going to make us a nice meal from the store cupboard without using anything fresh that isn't currently in the garden so plenty of fresh herbs and some asparagus will be included. I'm going to try to do this right through the summer to create some palatable meals so that I can then stock the Armageddon cupboard with ingredients to make them from. In extremesis any food will keep you alive but if I can find nice tasty dishes that we will enjoy then that will be a real morale boost when we will most likely need it. I think tomorrow will be a veggie curry as I know I've beans and spices and onion granules, tins of veg and dehydrated veg from last year and also some yoghurt in the fridge and loads of fresh mint in the garden to make a raita from, also lots of rice. Will be an interesting experiment to see what can be made with what I've got!