THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Karmacat

Ha, I feel I can hold my head up as a prepster again (well, you always can, no matter what level of preparedness, but ... ) anyway, I was hunting yesterday online for a stove-that-uses-twigs, yes? I mentioned Kelley Kettle, Mrs LW mentioned a Mini Fire Spout, which took me to a Shayson Titan backpacking stove, which had the double walled construction I'd remembered about by then.

And I hoicked out my 90% finished home made rocket stove, fully intending to dismantle it and throw it out, and then realised what I was doing :o:o so I gave it one more go.

Victory :j:j:j

Its now 95% made, I found these guys https://www.thebugoutbagguide.com/best-rocket-stove-diy/#comment-36129 with the best video I've ever seen about how to finish off the top of a home made one - I just hadn't got it! So I pulled the top off mine to refit it - thank heavens it came off in one go, I had a fitment for the top I'd already drilled holes in - I just used brute force :eek: to get the tinsnips between the holes, I'm shocked I managed it. The hole isn't quite the right size because the tin inside is set wonky :cool: but that can be seen to with some fireproof cement.

I'm not going to faff about with the edge of the outer tin, creating a sort of crenellated effect, its too difficult - but I have two fittings, one off a cast iron barbecue, and the other off a domestic gas stove, that will sit on top of the rocket stove, and provide the necessary air flow.

I fully expect people to skim the above - I'll post pics to my blog eventually, which will make it more comprehensible, but I just saved myself £25 minimum, or £60 if I'd bought the Kelley I was going for :j:j:j

Off out on a local adventure now

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[Deleted User]

Well done that KARMAKAT, gold star for thrift and innovation and milk bottle top medal for being clever and perseverance!!!

GreyQueen

Nice one, Karmakat, I'll keep an eye out on your blog.

Spent 3 hours on the lottie today and can report that 550 paracord (from the army surplus place) has its outer fade ever-so-slightly from 11 months out in the elements but is otherwise unharmed.

Yup, I took down my paracord-and-bamboo-pole runner bean structure from 2016 and dug through the ground, had to use the mattock to extricate the extensive root system of the self-sown ruby chard which was growing right in the bean line (and which was the excuse for not taking it down).:o Said chard was 5 ft high and reaching higher when felled, with a stem as thick as my wrist. Only I could end up with salad veggies taller than myself without even trying.

Have left a batch of 2016 runner bean seeds from Nan's garden soaking in a tubbyware and will go back to sow them in the open ground.

Interestingly, bearing in mind that this is peak season for allotmenteering and that it has been a pleasant sunny weekend, there are many plots which have had little or no attention and which are reverting to hay meadows.

Obvs, one cannot know the personal circumstances of dozens of strangers, and what challenges they may be facing which are taking their time away from gardening, but I find that a lot of new(ish) plot-holders aren't stayers. Work commences in a burst of enthusiam, but effort quickly tails off.

Perhaps having an allotment has become a bit of a lifestyle thing, somewhat aspirational, and folks take one on not understanding that it's pretty perspirational, too?

I've just been chillaxing with a cuppa and reading a blog which has a weekly feature called What Did You Do For Your Preparedness This Week?

How do people feel about running a featurette in the thread along this nature? Interested, or not?

My preptastic doings this week - apart from gardening - include finally getting the extra 10 litre water carrier (£1.50 chazzer) sterilised with Milton tablets. It will shortly be rinsed and fresh-filled with tap water and tucked in the dead corner formed by the undersink cupboard and the washer. It's a decent-size space but the access to it is very narrow, so it has limited utility.

I find myself favouring the 10 litre container over the 25 litre ones (due to not being particularly strong) and also favouring them over the 2 litre bottle, as one container takes up less floor space then 5 bottles and is very easy to move and re-fill.

[Deleted User]

Very interesting idea GQ and one that would allow our individual sides to surface and undoubtedly add much input and useful info to the prepping melting pot.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

Interestingly, bearing in mind that this is peak season for allotmenteering and that it has been a pleasant sunny weekend, there are many plots which have had little or no attention and which are reverting to hay meadows..

snap at my allotments GQ. 50% were looking like hay meadows this morning, several look as though they have been abandoned. Its a shame but many don`t want to know when the elders say that rotovating bindweed and couch grass is not a good idea, so they do it and it looks fine, until the warm wet weather arrives. Some are certainly not away and are well, just observed some walking into houses with cans of beer. They`re not natural gardeners and I think outdoor bbq is more their thing. Yes, it was a fashion, trouble is that they are leaving it much worse than when they took it on. I am shattered, did 3 hours too and both arms are aching. I also tended out mutual courtyard, someone has to do it so the magic fairy did it, again

maryb

I am gourmet cuisine for all itchy bitey stingy things but I have found a recipe for insect repellant using essential oils which works for me
Mix together equal parts of citronella, lavender and clove essential oils (clove can be a skin irritant, so for children or sensitive skin you might prefer equal parts citronella, lavender, geranium and rosemary).
Pop a few drops of each in a spray bottle, top up with water, add a tablespoon of vodka and spray on your skin, hair and clothes as often as you need to.

A few years ago when mozzies were particularly bad ( and before I had discovered this) someone recommended the homeopathic remedy Ledum. It may be the placebo effect but those bites stopped itching remarkably quickly

[Deleted User]

Our plots are mostly under cultivation and looking fertile and productive but we too have people who come in and work like demented beavers for the first couple of months, plant things and then don't come back to do any maintenance and then don't understand why all their hard work produces a good crop of weeds. The drop out rate amongst new allotment holders is fairly high but we have a great many 'old hands' who like us have had the plots for over 20 years and mostly they keep the plots in good order. We're a community and as people get older and perhaps can't do all the physical that they used to someone or other will rotavate the plot for them, help put down the weed suppressant membrane or just join them on the general work for the plot and help them grow a decent crop, our pal Norm is 85 now and still comes over regularly and when he gets tired one of the 'Gang' will sit him in a chair with a coffee and finish the job he's started. It keeps him happy and keeps him fit, long may it continue!

Our prepping for this week has been shedding some surplus possessions via a boot fair, working the plots in the garden and planting up more beetroot and lettuce seedlings in the polytunnel and making plans to put up the garden netting and grow our outside French climbing beans purposely to dry for a winter crop of dry haricot beans to supplement the protein in our cold weather diet. Also having been given 3 trailer loads of freshly cut oak logs we've been processing them to go into the wood store to season for the winter after this to keep us toasty warm. We've also finished planting up the greenhouse with tomatoes and peppers and planned which varieties to prioritise for eating, drying or chutneying/pasta saucing, the moneymaker will go in one of the outside beds later on as the 'bread and butter' workhorses when we're frost free.

GreyQueen

I detest the rotovator as I have seen so many examples of the false sense of accomplishment it gives the newbie plot-holder.

Have seen many a plot which is waist-high in couch grass and other weeds (and with the dreadful horsetail, which has infested one-third of the site including my plot) churned up to bare earth and looking very handsome.

At this time of year, give it just six weeks and the grass will be as high and the perennial weeds as tall as 2-3 ft and it looks like a haymeadow which hasn't been touched since Shakespeare was a lad.

I don't even dig with a spade, because I have no interest in slicing & dicing horsetails, bindweeds, docks and dandelions into chunks, each and every bit of which will grow a whole new plant. Folk look at you as if you're a bit of a daftie for doing it old school with hand-tools but sometimes, old school is the way to go.

Cappella

Many thanks for the insect repellant advice everyone. I'm covered in dabs of calamine lotion as I type this and will try the other suggestions when I can get the ingredients.

Our allotments are just the same in terms of length of stay of new plot holders. MrC collects the rents (we're a council owned,self-managed 90 plot site) and so far 12 'new last year' plot holders haven't renewed their leases, and their plots are knee deep in twitch, dock nettles and brambles. The committee will cut the weeds down and the waiting list is long so they'll be re-let but I don't think people have any real idea of the sheer amount of continuous work involved in just keeping on top of things, let alone starting from scratch. I agree about rotavators GQ, but our mantis tiller has been a godsend to me this year. The soil had been winter dug, and back forked to keep it weed free first though, and we just use it to create a fine tilth to plant into. The secret is to clear the weed before tilling, not to turn over perennial weeds with it:) I have a brilliant old very narrow onion hoe that I use daily to keep the weeds under firm control. "Never let a weed see Sunday" the old gentleman who had the plot next to ours told me 30+ years ago, and he was right! It's frustrating though watching next doors dandelions, bindweed and cleavers wandering from their plot onto ours.

Our prepping this week has been mainly on the allotment front; planting peas, French and runner beans, sweet corn, squashes and courgettes. I've also sorted through and sterilised our hoard of jam and pickle jars and made 6 jars of rhubarb and ginger chutney to start to fill our almost empty preserves cupboard.
We've also had to clean and sterilise two hives. The colonies (late swarms so we weren't too surprised) hadn't made it through the winter and we will need the hives for any strong swarms MrC takes this year.
I've had one disaster though. Tried making my own yoghurt for the first time in years and it was very nasty indeed. Wish I could find my old recipe/method. Part of next week's prepping will be to go through my cookery books and recipe folders and try to locate it, and to CS a lit that just don't work for us:)

GreyQueen

At work, we are asked to capture the reasons why folks give up their plots as the council is desperate to find out why so many new plotholders are failing in their first year.

Oftentimes, I mentally replay a convo I was part of when several of the old boys (median age late seventies) scornfully attributed the failures to folk watching 30 minute gardening programmes on the telly and imagining they'll do 30 mins a week and it'll be fine.

Funnily enough, I don't actually spend that much time on my allotment * and, over winter, sometimes don't even visit it for a month. Plus, I go away for the weekend to visit my family about every six weeks and I even lost several weekends this spring due to having two go-rounds in 10 weeks with very nasty colds which decimated my office.

Last weekend's sum total of gardening was 2 hours on a Saturday afternoon then I made a flying (5 minute) visit on the Thurs evening to water the cold frame and dump compostables and then nothing until yesterday when I spend 2 hours clipping my grass path..........

The trick, though, is consistancy of effort and that's something you have to really apply yourself to.

I tell people that an allotment is like having a demanding secret lover; when you're not with them, you're thinking about them and scheming to get back up there in fragments stolen from your other duties........:p:p

* I have a full-size lottie, 300 sq m and it's all cultivated bar a grass path up one side, the bit the shed stands on and the 'patio' which is beside the shed and shares its 6x 8 ft footprint.