THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

mardatha

Hope your dad will get sorted out and helped very soon daz xx

GreyQueen

daz378 wrote: »

Dr rang an ambulance today for dad settled in the ward now waiting for scan to diagnose poor mans very poorly.....just got back

((((((daz )))) really sorry to hear about your Dad. Hope they soon find what's wrong and help him to recover.

Re bus passes, I feel ambivalent. On the rare occasions I ride a bus - rare because of the extortionate cost of fares not because a car-less person like myself couldn't make good use of them - I am often the only paying passenger. Sometimes there might be one or two others of us actuallly putting our hands into our own pockets, but 95% of travellers are using senior passes.

On one hand, I wonder how many bus companies could continue in business without these pass-using passengers? On the other, I find myself a tad exasperated by the expressed opinion I hear from some seniors that these passes are 'free' rather than the truth which is 'free-to-me-because-other-people-are-being-forced-to-pay-taxes-for-them'. I also have suspicions that the constant price hikes for paying passengers are a ruse by the bus companies to cross-subsidise the costs of the pass-users.

When, every single time I use a bus (every few months) I've had to suffer a fare increase, and am a person an a low income less than many pensioners, this sticks in the craw. Plus, like many other non-pensioners, I live alone and could do with some gadding-about to improve my mood and opportunities for social engagement.

My city is facing gridlock, almost-as-bad-as-Lunnon-Town air pollution and general car-park-agageddon and could be muchly improved by issuing a free bus pass to every household who pays council tax here. Which is where the second-largest chunk of my income (one-twelth of net per annum) actually goes. Heck, if I paid less council tax, I could afford a few more fares of my own.

We need to reorganise transport so it begins to look daft to take a car (for those who have that option) on urban and suburban journeys.

climbs off soapbox

elona

Middle dd has stayed overnight and will do some panting of a bedroom upstairs this morning while I sort out a few more boxes.

Will try not to do what happened last time by opening DH's leaving book and finding myself in tears. If I concentrate on bulky things like pictures, umbrellas etc it should clear a lot of space and look less messy.

[Deleted User]

I'm gradually using up things from the freezer that surface as I work my way down, relevant to prepping and the decision to use ALL the home grown produce this year, and I keep finding YS items that I'm thinking 'why on earth did I buy that?' I think the temptation over YS items, particularly if it's a 'luxury' item needs to be avoided in this household at least. I'm seriously going to stop doing it and use the space in the freezer to batch cook and actually make meals we'll use in an everyday way rather than keep filling it with admittedly delicious but decidedly 'party' ingredients. YS needs really to be kept under control and limited to ordinary things for everyday use from now on!

Jazee

Mrs LW. I agree about YS stuff. Mostly just encourages eating the wrong things. I now stick to reduced meat mostly.

jk0

Flaming Waitrose seem perfectly happy to sell meat at full price on the day it expires. I am often caught if I am shopping in a hurry. What single person can eat six bits of chicken that evening? Thanks heavens for freezers, eh?

ivyleaf

daz Thinking of you, best wishes to you and your Dad x

elona ((HUGS))

Lyn It sounds as if you're enjoying your rhubarb experiments

Re bus passes - I don't have my state pension yet but am lucky enough to have an Over-60s Oyster Card (aka the Boris bus pass). I am so glad to have it, as I go out on my own more, to go to the library for example. Although we live just on the edge of the town centre I can't manage the walk both ways, so it means I don't have to ask OH to drop me off in the car. (Oh, just realised that's quite similar to what maryb said )

OH has a Freedom Pass as he's disabled, but doesn't use it much as he usually can't manage without the car - the buses to the town centre stop too far away from the shops since it's been pedestrianised.

Well, looks as if it will be a chilly Bank Holiday weekend. I ordered tickets yesterday to a craft show down in rural Kent which we go to most years, but it might be too cold to enjoy it!
DD1 usually comes with us, but she is still ill - a new x-ray yesterday showed her pneumonia and pleurisy has not improved at all in nearly 3 weeks so they are now saying it's viral and could take several weeks to clear :eek:

greenbee

GreyQueen wrote: »

We need to reorganise transport so it begins to look daft to take a car (for those who have that option) on urban and suburban journeys.

I agree completely GQ. The buses here don't run with routes/timing/frequency/speed that fits with everything else I need to do (but then I'm rural). In the time it takes the bus to get to the city I can get there, do what I need to and get back. I work full time - I don't have the luxury of taking half a day to go shopping!

elona wrote: »

Will try not to do what happened last time by opening DH's leaving book and finding myself in tears.

My dad was a hoarder, and oddly it is bringing my mother some comfort - we found the letters he sent home while on his 'gap year' in North America (a year at a university abroad when he was 17, before going to uni back home) last weekend and she's enjoyed reading them, although there are regrets that she didn't talk to him about this more before. We also found his schoolboy diaries from when he was about 10, and some of his first letters to his older brother who was away at school when he was little.

Lyn - I've pretty much stopped shopping. I get a veg box and a recipe box now as shopping was taking up too much of my time. If I'm passing the coop I'll drop in for a few extras (usually YS veg/meat/cheese), and have cut down from 3 freezers to less than one. It makes life less tiring.

jk0 - lots of SMs don't reduce till last minute on the day things go OOD. You need to check carefully. Or go a bit later when they're reducing! Waitrose final reductions tend to be good value.

DigForVictory

Just been reintroduced to tooth powder. (Not teeth ground up, the stuff you wet your toothbrush & & rub your teeth with. Or, if feeling properly historic, you forego the brush & use a carefully chosen bit of rag.)

I asked what it was made of - mostly baking soda - with cloves if going Elizabethan, sage to taste (and apparently a tooth whitener although how a green herb does that I do not pretend to understand) & shakes of sea salt & even Bentonite clay (not that 'period', but said to be especially good is you have the old metal fillings).

Google dental powder for more DIY ways, but go easy on the wood ash - it's *so* abrasive squaddies used it to gt rust off guns...

I'm not wholly sold prepping isn't just living the 21st century comfortable life using tools "forgotten" since we had electricity. I'm still thankful for both fluoride & antibiotics though & I'd hate to be pregnant in a prepping situation! Eep!

Daz - big hugs & all strength to you!

Karmacat

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I'm only talking about pensioners bus passes and it's a free world folks, just because I choose to use mine in one way doesn't mean anyone else can't use theirs in any way they choose to

:kisses3: to Mrs LW

I know I chipped in before, but I also agree with a lot of what GQ said upthread (I've run out of quotes ). It's a big topic.

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Well, I've just made the Rhubarb Savoury Spread I found a recipe for yesterday and it's surprisingly nice! It's very straightforward you just dice a rasher of bacon (I used a middle cut rasher from a pack of 60p Cooking Bacon) and dry fry it in a pan until it's brown but not crisp then add in 1 diced onion (red is the original recipe but I only had white so used that) and a couple of finely sliced sticks of rhubarb and cook it for around 10 minutes until the rhubarb is completely soft and breaks down and the onion is soft and cooked through. Add in salt and pepper to your taste along with a pinch of cayenne pepper, a pinch of dry mustard powder and a shake of ground ginger. We tried it hot on a cracker, very nice and I'm letting the rest cool off to see how it is when it's cold. It's a bit of a revelation as rhubarb isn't usually served in a savoury way here in the UK but I'll definitely make it again. The rhubarb Hummus will be made another day and I'll let you know how that is too. If you're feeling adventurous this might come as a nice surprise to your taste buds.

Thank you! This is much more encouraging for me to use it, I just don't want that amount of sugar on a regular basis.

daz378 wrote: »

Dr rang an ambulance today for dad settled in the ward now waiting for scan to diagnose poor mans very poorly.....just got back

Very sorry to hear this, daz, thinking of you.