THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

DigForVictory

Lest anyone worry about reliable power & frozen stuff, here's an impressive American trick to see Just What Happened in the freezer when the lights went out.
1. Place a cup of water in your freezer.
2. Freeze the water until it is solid, and then put a coin on top of the frozen water and return it to your freezer.
3. Leave it in your freezer.
What does this tip accomplish?
It helps you determine whether or not your food has gone bad, or whether it refroze or stayed frozen while you were away.
For instance, if you return after you have been evacuated and find that the frozen water has melted and the coin has fallen to the bottom of the cup, you now know that all the food has defrosted and it should be thrown out.
However, if the coin is either on the top of the frozen cup or in the middle of the cup, then your food may still be okay. The top tells you that the freezer was still intact the whole time – the middle tells you that your food might have defrosted, but later refrosted when electricity returned.
This tip is also useful If you're required to leave your home (may it not happen but Prep!). For example, if you leave the cup in your freezer at all times and your power spontaneously goes out, you will have this neat tip to rely on.

Thought it might be a reassurance if you worry about power cuts & frozen stuff.

mardatha

Will do this today, we get a lot of powercuts and I don't trust my american f/f, it doesn't have good insulation.

Littlefrugalcottage

mardatha wrote: »

What you could do LFC is to go onto amazon and scoop up some 1p cookery books on cheap nourishing food. I swear by (I often swear during cooking. It comes waaay under sawing my own leg off on my personal satisfaction scale) - wartime cookbooks. Loads of cheap soups and stews that can be done in the slow cooker, my kind of cooking. If it's possible then get a couple of chickens - their eggs are a million times better than shop bought and with 2 wee hens and a sack of tatties then you have egg & chips for months. That's real prepping

I have a million and one wartime cookbooks! Sadly though it can be sometimes difficult to get the recipes the same when your Vegan! I'm just about to dust my slow cooker off for Winter, I've really missed it! Will be making curry on Tuesday and Sausage casserole on Wednesday . Was actually thinking of making some slow cooker bags up for the freezer so the other half can just put them in and leave them. When I broke my ankle earlier in the year these would of been lifesavers!

Shame about chickens to I'd love some ex battery ones but just don't have the space plus we have a rescued street dog from Romania and I wouldn't been 100% sure he wouldn't have chicken for dinner if you know what I mean!

DigForVictory wrote: »

Lest anyone worry about reliable power & frozen stuff, here's an impressive American trick to see Just What Happened in the freezer when the lights went out.
1. Place a cup of water in your freezer.
2. Freeze the water until it is solid, and then put a coin on top of the frozen water and return it to your freezer.
3. Leave it in your freezer.
What does this tip accomplish?
It helps you determine whether or not your food has gone bad, or whether it refroze or stayed frozen while you were away.
For instance, if you return after you have been evacuated and find that the frozen water has melted and the coin has fallen to the bottom of the cup, you now know that all the food has defrosted and it should be thrown out.
However, if the coin is either on the top of the frozen cup or in the middle of the cup, then your food may still be okay. The top tells you that the freezer was still intact the whole time – the middle tells you that your food might have defrosted, but later refrosted when electricity returned.
This tip is also useful If you're required to leave your home (may it not happen but Prep!). For example, if you leave the cup in your freezer at all times and your power spontaneously goes out, you will have this neat tip to rely on.

Thought it might be a reassurance if you worry about power cuts & frozen stuff.

This is a great idea! I'm going to do this when we go home. We don't have power cuts, but you never know when you've been out all day the power could of gone and then been put back on so this is a great tip!

thriftwizard

This winter's logs are in and stacked - and I'm as stiff as a board! Hoping that I won't have to do that again; there's already half a small tree (and a fair bit of a large eucalyptus) drying out for next winter, in another shed. I'll continue to scrump/liberate good wood as I come across it & will hope not to have to buy any in, next year. But I'll probably have to buy a log-splitter instead; my attempts to split the logs from my brother's (free) huge dead cedar were completely inept & unsuccessful!

There are always offers of logs from trees on our local Freegle group; a log-splitter would be a big help. Does anyone here use one, or have any recommendations for an affordable one for domestic use?

greenbee

I've got one Thriftwizard. It's a Wolf Creek Apache electric one. Think it's 7 tonne pressure. I love it - split the wood from 5 cedars with it over the course of 18 months.

Living_proof

For those who may be snowed up tomorrow make sure your equipment is easily availalble to clean the car and the ROOF of the car of snow!

mardatha

Woke up to a covering of snow and it's still on. YAAAAAY I LOVE WINTER :j:j:j

greenbee

Enjoy your snow Mar. We have rain.

And the fallout from the US elections to contend with. Wondering whether I can take the day off sick...

mrs-moneypenny

We've got rain here. Need to get a move on as busy all day. Better grab some warm socks for outside at lunchtime. We are undercover from the rain but it's still cold.

thriftwizard

Watery sunshine here, but there's a biting NW wind still. Glad I got the logs into the shed last night as the garden's a bit of a quagmire this morning. Off to our county town later to re-stock Mum's store "cupboard" but it seems our roads are in chaos; accidents here, there & everywhere. Today it's easy to remember that we're living on a smallish island pretty far north, and winter's on its way...