Preparedness for when

Paul_Varjak

mysterywoman10 wrote: »

This thread is amazing so many amazing good ideas.

Pigeons are nice to eat though my OH calls them B52's we cover all our crops with nets that we can.

Here in North Lincolnshire, during the autumn, we get thousands of Canada Geese flying overhead twice each day. At least you get a warning sound so you can dive inside the house for 15 minutes before the all clear!

2tonsils

Just a quick catch up, still have days of warm sun mixed with torrential rainy grey days...the weather is totally strange this year.

Good news on the jobs from, I posted my resume yesterday online and got two job offers this morning, both in China at reputable schools . I have sent off my details in full and they are going to interview me via skype. I am shocked at how quickly they got in touch with me. Have started the online course as well so pretty busy . I have changed the hours of working online for the real estate agent to early morning so I get it over and done with. She was pushing her luck by adding extra ''urgent'' work and emails at all times of the day so I have pinned her down to the two hours she pays me for.

Have got the plasterer in the house from tomorrow doing the hallway and another builder fixing the pipe that leaks onto our patio from next door (their landlord is paying for that repair).

Lots of things going on here politically and we will see what the Troika bring later in the week. The first flights arrive tomorrow so no doubt the tourists will be wandering around like lost souls in the strange weather. We went to the beach today and a large landslide had blocked the road where the coaches have to travel to the hotels. No sign of it being repaired where the earthquake cracks have gone straight through the road either.....honestly, you would think they would get it sorted! There again, none of the beaches have been cleaned yet after the winter storms. Disgraceful...

maryb

Someone posted the Wartime Kitchen and Garden on their booklist, thought this might be a useful link
http://www.earthlypursuits.com/AllotGuide/AllotGuide.htm
It's all the Ministry of Food Gardening guides for 1945

Last year was DIRE for growing. I made three sowings of perpetual spinach which normally grows like a weed and NOTHING. Same with French beans and although I had a few runners , the crop was nothing like it usually is. Half my courgettes produced one very small fruit and then gave up, and I should have been overwhelmed. My carrots were pathetic - the size of a pencil and about three inches long. Potatoes did Ok but they were late and small.

The really irritating thing is I have been threatened with eviction from the allotment for not cultivating it. I will admit, I gave up to a large extent in September because I had to have another op on my hand and couldn't clear the plot for winter. But up till then I had been trying but everything just rotted in the ground.

I know there is a big demand for allotments but I suspect, in my case, some of the demand is from a friend of the secretary.

So this year, I am concentrating on things that will hopefully germinate regardless of weather, so that a cursory inspection will show that it is being cultivated. One of the beds is nicely ridged now I have all my potatoes in, and tomorrow I am digging over the pea and bean bed and putting up the bean poles and pea netting. Looks like I have been busy even though it is too early to actually sow beans.

I smiled when I saw GreyQueen say how much work purple sprouting broccoli is because that is one of the things I have decided to grow. It should occupy quite a lot of space and the netting I will have to put round it will look impressive.

I'm damned if the secretary's next door neighbour is going to inherit a plot that took four years to clear of a whole load of builder's rubble, a half dug pond, and enough brambles to scare off the prince in Sleeping Beauty

DisreputableDog

D&DD, I've been running out of books to read so will try some from your list, thanks! If you like David Moody your other suggestions must be good too as far as I'm concerned.

The only book I can think of, off the top of my head, is the SAS Survival Guide! Bit extreme for everyday prepping perhaps But there is some great information in there. I'll have a look through the stacks for some other useful or entertaining titles.

Dog and I are currently living in a spare room So the only things I will be growing this year are my precious chillis: I can't live without them, they're already pricey enough, and they will be fine on the window sills. It gets me down sometimes, as I look out onto all that country side that I can't plant anything in! Might have to look into guerrilla gardening... Although knowing my luck, I'd scatter some oregano seeds somewhere only to find out a few years later that oregano has taken over the county and killed everything else :rotfl:

GreyQueen, I run my little business from the same room that Dog and I live in, so your storage suggestions are really inspiring! I'm in the process of my spring re-organisation at the moment so may have to try to implement some of your ideas.

Made the mistake of going to Sbury on Friday (no choice, as I have to go when I can get a lift at the moment). It was packed, queues were chaos. When they opened up a new check out one fella lost his temper because he didn't get there first! They only close for one day! A timely reminder that supermarkets are the last place to be either in a SHTF scenario or even an annual public holiday. :eek:

They do have 3 bottles of strawberry cider for £5 though, which isn't bad. If the offer is still on I may stock up on a few as a treat for the summer. After all, I think trying to brew in The Room as well as everything else might be pushing it!

Oh! That reminds me! There is a book called Booze for Free, which I haven't read, but is on my list. I browsed a friend's copy and it looked quite good. If you like to make your own booze it might be worth looking at.

Rosemary_Jane

elaine241 wrote: »

I think I may invest in a Kindle as Ama*on seems to have quite a few titles.

Hi Elaine,

yes, there are a lot of Kindle books on the subject - many of them free; some are good, some are rubbish - check the approx page count (some cheeky **'s call seven pages a book!!

But you don't need to buy a Kindle. Why not download the free Kindle software to your PC or phone?

Then you can read the books on the screen (not that easy on a phone). If you later decide to get a kindle or tablet, all the books you've bought can be downloaded onto it (you can have your books on up to four devices at once - though they have to be registered to your own Ama*on account)

R

Paul_Varjak

I'm just sending my 8 year-old desktop to a school in the Philippines. I installed the kindle software on that and downloaded loads of FREE Kindle books. Not much chance of downloading books in the Philippines, especially in a rural area of Mindanao, where there is no internet connection or even any other computer at the school!

They always have to be prepared for disasters in the Philippines - typhoons are very common there and also volcanoes and earthquakes in some regions. Remember Mount Pinatubo in 1991? Not only was that the second biggest eruption of the twentieth century but it was also accompanied by a typhoon and preceded by a massive earthquake just 8 months earlier.

mysterywoman10

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

Here in North Lincolnshire, during the autumn, we get thousands of Canada Geese flying overhead twice each day. At least you get a warning sound so you can dive inside the house for 15 minutes before the all clear!

We have them all the year around as we live close to a couple of small old quarries that are now small lakes. Overrun with them is no understatement LOL. The mess they leave is unbelievable!

They need culling to be honest, lots of meat on them OH is anxious to come up with a recipe. Although probably a bit big to shoot with an air rifle, they graze so you could probably get one with a net of some kind

Paul_Varjak

Here, we have a cement works in the village near the base of the chalk escarpment that gives way to low-lying clay soil - the two essential ingredients for cement. So, there is a large quarry partially full of water and the geese travel between there and Read's Island in the Humber Estuary twice each day.

Also on Read's Island you can find around 5% of the UK's population of avocets; not surprisingly, it is an RSPB sanctuary (the avocet is RSPB's symbol) who are now trying to save the island since the floods of 2008 shrank the island by half. Despite being only a few hundred acres, there is also a sizeable population of fallow deer on the island.

katieclampet

Just been catching up & making a note of the book suggestions. Love the idea of a book club, have always been drawm to eotwawki & diaster type fiction. I have read last light & afterlight, and highly rated them.

I have also read World War Z, by max brooks, which is a zombie eotw book, and really well written.

Dark Grid, by David Waldron is teotw via an emp/loss of all power theme, and is about a family, with young children, rather than a gun toting guy who meets up with a young woman (who is always beautigul under the tattered clothes and muck!)

At the moment I am reading Sub Zero, by Edwin Page, which is unusually set in the uk, and is very good, with quite a plain writing style. I wont give anything away, but the theme is snow, snow & more snow!

I watched Revolution on sky, and it was a bit dissapointing, it seemed like a very "disney" version of teotwawki, but it might improve. I did root for the mum that shot the bad guy who was going to steal their food, and threatened her daughter! Good for her.

katie

BigMummaF

Hooda thunkitt

An Di@mond watches TEOTWAWKI films & worries about how to survive it, & Dr D@vid Bu11 is a full on Prepper, especially while in LA where there's earthquakes & such.

Yay!!! We are in esteemed circles folks :rotfl: