Preparedness for when

greenbee

GQ will be jealous of me... I got a new bow saw and some drill bits from Santa

esmf73

I gave oh an Allen key and a chain saw blade........... Made entirely of chocolate! Really realistic chocolate tools. Cheaper than the real thing!

mardatha

Anybody potentially affected by floods (or rats in their plumbing) this is what you need - copied from another forum..

http://www.drainageonline.co.uk/Drainage-Pipe-and-Fittings/Non-Return-Valve.htm

Hillbilly1

Thanks Mard! Have got rid of the rats nesting under the greenhouse, but never know if their relatives plan revenge...

Happy Christmas everyone!

We had a low-key day, and today the only shopping is paint and grout from B&Q... the DIY continues. Just kitchen tiles and skirtings to go... and the dreadful 80s louvred doors on the fitted wardrobe. Would really like new ones, but sanding and painting is MSE and is giving a nice New England/holiday feel!

Planning more prep in 2013, using nectar points again in Argos for some and Tesco vouchers for food!

vanoonoo

hello all - seasons greetings - keep warm, dry and hydrated x

mardatha

Sat at the fire nice and dry and slurping Cointreau. Just doing what I'm told!

GreyQueen

LittleBrownFrog wrote: »

I'm a long-time lurker on this thread - just 'outing' myself to wish everyone here a very Merry Christmas, and to say a big 'thank you' for all the useful bits and pieces I've picked up here. (As well as an enormous 'thank you' for making me feel that maybe I haven't lost the plot after all, regardless of what my family might think )

Welcome, hun. I supposed we could term it coming out of the [STRIKE]Armageddon cupboard......[/STRIKE] closet.

greenbee wrote: »

GQ will be jealous of me... I got a new bow saw and some drill bits from Santa

I'm jealous. SuperGran bought me a LED keyring torch. I already have one on my main keyring but think I will add this to the supplementary keyring, the one with the shed and lottie gate keys which I don't need every day.

Santa brought me chocolate, new socks and cash. I like cash as the Army Surplus and other places are willing to exchange it for all sorts of preptastic toys. Lemme at it in 2013.

Mar, glad you're enjoying your Cointreau. I had sherry yestereve. Which was surprising as I was drinking St*lla (Mum knocked her glass all over my lap). With the fab reflexes born of many a disreputable night in a pub, I captured the glass before it hit the deck but ended up with a lapful of sherry...!

Hope everyone is warm and well and has a fave tipple and a pet to cuddle. I have the 2 family cats.:D

ginnyknit

My gift off DD was a kilo of basmati (ys) and 6 packets of Oxo's (same ) and choccies, most of which is for the WW3 pantry - except for the obvious choclate which needed consuming for HS reasons.

I am working on streamlining the house and my chores to make room for better stocking up. I have plans to organise the shed for water storage and a cunning plan to make a wormery out of 4 Christmas tree buckets that OH picked up for 10p each. I think it will work but we shall see. Need to study how wormeries function maybe tomorrow after my first sip of alcohol in 4 years has worn off - small sherry, decided to drink it instead of wearing it like GQ.

In my bid to avoid SM's apart from tinned foods (and ys) I am going to plant a salad bowl tomorrow as I am sick of paying the price of salady stuff. i cannot grow the sprouted seeds successfully as they always seem to smell funny,do not want to buy a sprouter so have always used jam jar with muslin on, can anyone suggest a better way?

Think I had bette rgo to bed, the sherry is affecting my fingers as I put 3 s's in successfully :rotfl:

mardatha

I've tried to grow salad in winter before but it doesn't work up here. It goes limp and white and faints . A bit like me some days.
I'm getting all excited re New year, is much better for me than xmas. Just starting to plan the veggie planting and choosing flowers..
Had a great time last night as I found my DVD of the Mummy - the Boris Karloff 1930s one which is very very scary :eek: so I watched it on the laptop with earphones and a wee glass of liquid courage

2tonsils

Glad to read that you all celebrated Christmas/Yule/etc in your own ways. We had a lovely time way up in the mountains in Northern Greece...it was very cold , but dry and sunny all the time we were there. We walked for miles and miles around the lake and ate lots of healthy local food like wild boar casseroled with baby onions in a sweet cinnamon sauce...and fillet steaks with wild greens from the mountains ...and fresh brown trout from the lake. It was a good idea to go and get away from it all for a while.We had a really great time.

I got a really good air rifle for Christmas and despite it being over 30 years since I went shooting targets I am pleased to say I am still a very good shot. My other half got an air pistol and we have been invited to join a group of friends target shooting so now we have another interest to add to the others.

I also got some money so bought some local honey where we stayed which was less than a third of the price of supermarket stuff here. As you all know, honey does not go bad over time so it will go with our stocks for emergencies. I also brought back some very good Tsipero...its a bit like moonshine but smoother and its the best cure for flu or a bad chest ever. I tried it hot with honey in the cafe and it was lovely....and lethal....I rarely drink and it went straight into my blood stream LOL.

I have just been catching up with the news as we had no internet signal where we stayed. It seems the austerity measures have hit a brick wall as over 54 percent of people cannot afford to pay the road taxes on the cars and are taking them off the road (You hand in the plates at the tax office). The receipts for heating oil are down over 75 percent so putting up the excise duty on it has not raised any extra cash at all and now Athens has a problem with smog again due to all the wood fires being lit again.

The local ladies here did some carol singing and a Christmas fayre and raised an incredible 12,000 euros to help out local families in need. Fantastic effort!

We are now on a storm warning for the next few days but at least we made it home safely. The area where we stayed is expected to get heavy snow and high winds over the weekend. We didn't want to risk getting snowed in up there.