THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Winchelsea

Si Clist, you're absolutely right that what counts is how we use and/or conserve the energy we are provided with (whatever form that's in, and whether we're flicking switches and getting instant this or that, or whether we're chopping our own wood or using solar panels etc.)

About the power stations - I saw a good article put out by AERE, with a clear graph comparing emissions from wood chips, wood pellets and fossil fuels, factoring in the emissions implications of processing and transport. Even from Canada, the wood pellets are less harmful by a long shot than the fossil fuels they used for comparison. It was the level of emissions that made the difference - way above those from processing and transporting the pellets etc. (I may be able to find a link to the paper.)

I found this moderately reassuring!
(Sitting here wearing woolly socks and a thick cardigan with the thermostat set nice and low nevertheless!)

Winchelsea

AEA (atomic energy authority) not AERE, sorry. It was AERE when my DH worked for them in the 60s and 70s!

Karmacat

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Do you/anyone else have links to those articles [about asteroids] please?

Sorry, money, I wasn't on here yesterday. I can't find the article, I thought it was on ZH, but this is a listing from NASA of Near Earth Objects: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/

The one I'm referring to is the most recent on this table, 2017EA. At its closest approach, the distance between the centre of the earth and the centre of the asteroid was 0.05 of "LD" which is 384,000 kilometres, 19,200 k in other words. Satellites in high earth orbit are at around 35,780 k. Orbits are described on this page: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/OrbitsCatalog/

So, it was 19,000 k or so away. A tiny, tiny distance in astronomical terms, but it *did* miss :j

ETA - 19,000km *less* the radius of the earth, which is apparently 6,370km. Squeaky!

Save

jk0

I've just been drawing a little diagram for my gf to show her how Bank A can give their customer a mortgage at no cost, to buy a property from a customer of Bank B, as long as a customer of Bank B is also buying a similar value property from a customer of Bank A.

Now traditionally banks only used to settle up with each other at the end of the working day, so transfers used to take a day or two to happen. This was not ideal for house purchases so in the 80's they came up with the CHAPS system to give instant payment.

This would seem to give the problem that Bank A would actually have to come up with the money to send at 10am if the customer of Bank B was not intending to complete until some time later. They have solved this problem by making all the completions around lunchtime, and I believe most are also on Friday.

Am I on to something?

NewShadow

Karmacat wrote: »

So, it was 19,000 k or so away. A tiny, tiny distance in astronomical terms, but it *did* miss :j

Fun fact:

The (as the bird flies) shortest distance between the UK and New Zealand is 18,390 km - meaning, if I'm understanding your post correctly, it was as far away 'up' from our planet as New Zealand is from where you're sat now...

Karmacat

NewShadow wrote: »

Fun fact:

The (as the bird flies) shortest distance between the UK and New Zealand is 18,390 km - meaning, if I'm understanding your post correctly, it was as far away 'up' from our planet as New Zealand is from where you're sat now...

I love this stuff :j

Thats absolutely right in terms of my original post, but the next day I realised the stuff I added in the "ETA" which is why I came on here - its 19000km *less* the diameter of the earth, which is 6,000 burble something ... sort of Singapore?

In other preppity news, I am **still** shocked that my garden was in such a state. Bags and bags of weeds. And "stuff" that I've put aside for a moment and that has then been overgrown with weeds, which I'm now rediscovering, yes, its really that bad, even in a suburban garden thats only 35 feet long bad me, I might have been chucked off the thread if this had gone on much longer :o:o

culpepper

Karmacat wrote: »

I love this stuff :j

In other preppity news, I am **still** shocked that my garden was in such a state. Bags and bags of weeds. And "stuff" that I've put aside for a moment and that has then been overgrown with weeds, which I'm now rediscovering, yes, its really that bad, even in a suburban garden thats only 35 feet long bad me, I might have been chucked off the thread if this had gone on much longer :o:o

Our veg garden is like that too. we stopped working it due to a light fingered neighbour who kept contesting the boundary line making it impossible to fence her out.
As soon as she moved out, we got a fence erected.
Of course now,the area is a mass of weeds again so I am slowly clearing it back again.
I found the remains of the scarecrow yesterday and he went to dustbin heaven.

mardatha

I'm on a mission today to cut down the food bill. Being stricter about eating what we have, instead of getting more. Eating more eggs cheese and veg and less lamb and chicken.. We could live on far less - but after having lived on less all my adult life, I tend to sometimes tell myself why why not eat/buy/do what I like now? But that way lies RUIN :eek: lol so it stops here and now!

Karmacat

mardatha wrote: »

I'm on a mission today to cut down the food bill.

And thats another reason for doing my garden :eek: I'm pretty good in terms of planned shopping (though I'm very needy of protein, for some reason, which is always more expensive than the other stuff ) but I'm really planning on my garden, and foraging, making a little bit of an impact - this first year, I'm aiming for produce that saves me an average of #2 a week (hmm, my pound sign has disappeared) ... between fruit from my blackcurrant bush, raspberry bushes and quince, and green stuffs from all over, as well as foraged apples, blackberries, cherries and hawthorn leaves & berries.

About #100 and untold self reliance Not planting anything in rows though, nothing thats obviously "stuff to eat" - while I've been out there clearing away, its become obvious to me how overlooked I am if push came to shove, mostly by the neighbours on my party wall - and if there was any kind of problem, I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them, to put it politely.

Save

mardatha

Yep, don't do neat rows, just make them all look like "plants". I used to try and do the expensive stuff but then changed back to tatties, onions, leeks, and odd green stuff for soup, as that is what we eat. We don't even like salad so no point in lettuce. Food prices going up now/soon is a big threat I think. The other major prep is electricity prices, that's next on my hit list.
*sharpening my wee fangs today and feeling ratty*