THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

maryb

I've still got a crateful of bags of dishwasher salt left over from 2010! I my defence, I did lose it when we had building work done and the house was at sixes and sevens. I'm still waiting for the next bad winter

GreyQueen

I had a squid on t'office sweepstake and m'boy Blaklion came 4th, bless him. I think our sweepstake prizes are only for the first 3 places but pleased he got around safely.

The only time I've ever been in a betting shop was earlier this year when a pal went to put some money on his own horse. I went with him and put a couple of quid each way - the little darlin' won at 16-1. The clerk was so uptight about paying out, you'd've thought it was coming out of his wages.:rotfl:

thriftwizard

Minor domestic emergency here today - the kitchen tap suddenly leapt up from its moorings and fell into the sink; both hot & cold water fountained right up to the ceiling! Luckily I was nearby and slammed my hand over the pipes, yelling for someone to turn the incoming stopcock off. That didn't seem to do much good, so OH took over & stuffed his thumbs into the holes whilst I turned off the boiler and the stopcock under the sink; eventually the flow died down. Luckily our handyman neighbour was in and came running over; turned out that our new tap (installed by a "proper" Check-a-Trade plumber a couple of months ago, rather than said totally-reliable handyman) hadn't been tightened up enough, and there's no lasting harm done apart from the fact that the ceiling above the sink is now visibly much whiter than the rest of it, so I shall have to get the sugar-soap & paint rollers out...

Makes me shudder to think that that might have happened when there was no-one in the house... you really don't expect the kitchen ironmongery to suddenly demonstrate considerable athletic ability.

Cheapskate

Morning preppers

Slowly getting back into prepping this week - yesterday I planted/sowed tomatoes, dwarf beans, runners beans, cress, courgettes, baby carrots, chives and some tree seeds - all in pots for now and half of them were freebies. Need some bigger, rectangular pots for salad stuff, then we should have some sort of small harvest later this year. Our garden is a dreadful mess still from the building work, but I will have time to sort it out over the summer, ready for autumn/winter prepping and planting.

I'm watching the news with a mixture of amusement and slight fear - partly as we have rellies in various parts of the world. Some may be affected if politics or summat like warfare goes pear shaped, but also if things alter our ability to move freely around the world, would hate to lose contact with them.

A xo

herbily

jk0 wrote: »

Crikey, these rats are clever beggars. For months now, I have had poison cubes in my man holes, behind the kitchen plinths, and a rat trap also.

Last week I had a bag of rotten carrots, so threw them away in my kitchen bin. Ratty obviously smelt them and chewed his way in and made a pig of himself. Poison & trap remain untouched.

Wednesday night I threw another bad carrot away. I also put the trap and poison in the cupboard with the bin. Poison & trap remain untouched, but carrot has gone, and there are bin-filings on the base.

Any thoughts?

Sorry, I've come to this post late in the day but - do you know anyone with a Jack Russell they'd lend you overnight? Or any other sort of ratting terrier? (Even Yorkshire terriers, if they're not too tiny and inbred, will give a rat a hard time, but their owners are generally convinced that their little fluffy baby "wouldn't hurt a fly".) A nice cosy bed in your kitchen overnight for a keen terrier might well put the rats off for a while.


I would lend you a greyhound but they're useless - mine completely ignored mice and the rat we once saw in a drainage ditch, but when a water vole crossed the lawn, they both went off in hot pursuit with me shouting "Stop, it's endangered!" (Fortunately the vole made it safely into the stream at the bottom of the garden.)

DigForVictory

<stunned with awe. Having spent hours and far too much on science, retreating back to Mother Nature's own bio-weaponry strikes me as genius!>
Reviews assorted mutts of my acquaintance and ponders etiquette of early morning phone calls...

greenbee

DigForVictory wrote: »

<stunned with awe. Having spent hours and far too much on science, retreating back to Mother Nature's own bio-weaponry strikes me as genius!>
Reviews assorted mutts of my acquaintance and ponders etiquette of early morning phone calls...

Or ferrets...

DigForVictory

Can absolutely see drowsy son trying to figure who has right of way - ferret in hunt mode or him fumbling for brew. Biology fundamentals. Suspect he'd retreat back to bed til he heard bacon frying.

greenbee

If he got in the way of the ferret he wouldn't be retreating back to bed... there would be blood. Lots of it

mardatha

I love wee ferrets, we always had them when my youngest was at home. We had owls too - you could always station a barn owl on top of the kitchen units jk0, and leave it overnight.. kitchen might be a wee bit messy in the mornings though.. but ratty would be no more