THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Nargleblast

Dammit! That's us off Kim Jong Un's Christmas card list, then!

maryb

Looks like Hurricane Harvey is going to be bad news for Texas. Hopefully most people will have had enough warning to prepare as best they can. Thinking of them

GreyQueen

herbily wrote: »

This is going to sound really random, but does anyone know how long an unopened can of paint would last? The cost seems to be going up and up - I've been offered some paint that I can't use right away, but would use next time I repaint a room, and it seems like a potential prepping item, but not if it's just going to go solid in the tin.

Very probably several years, but there are factors to consider. Are you contemplating storing oil-based paint or emulsion paint? Where will you store is? Paint won't keep as well if it's subjected to extremes in temperature, such as outside in a shed, or up in the loft.

I've known emulsion, even when opened, to be usable several years later - if I have to leave a part can, I stretch cling-film across the top then put the lid back on, as I think this helps to create an airtight seal. You can also store paint cans upside down, so that any skin which forms on the surface will be underneath, IYSWIM. I'd never dare do that without putting them in something like a bowl or a bucket, just in case they leak.

If you think you can use an emulsion in < three years, and it's a freebie, I'd be tempted to take a chance and accept it. HTHT.

***********

Had a mega-harvest yestereve, 19 kg of veggies, curcubits and runner beans. My bike baskets, fore and aft, were so laden, plus the backpack on my back, that I had to wheel the bike home rather than ride it.

jk0

Here's a new one for me...

I should have had four pints of milk on the doorstep (30ft from the road) this morning, but there were only two. First I thought my milkman must have been running short, but I see there are four circles of ice on my cool packs that I leave in my cool bag.

Yes, I know it's Reading Festival at the moment, but that is miles away from me. I hope my milk thieves hate the taste of skimmed milk!

[Deleted User]

GQ, how on earth do you get the energy to process 19kg of veggies, after working on the allotment too? I bring veggies back in my panniers, downhill but I still go `doh` as then even wrapping and putting in the fridge is a chore

MrsLW, I am living more and more in my own bubble. We`ve both been through so much scary, frightening stuff, like the cuba crisis and so on. Its enough of a worry wrt living healthily and worrying about the children and grandchildren. I don`t listen to much news these days, not worth the stress
I am prepping/planning for next year, allotment is a big part of what I do, not just house stuff and am making sure that what I will be growing is easy and if there is much, then is also storable and freezable. Hence me nurturing celeriacs this year, never grown them but they have required watering often and leaves cutting off often, ie too much work, so my forward planning prep will be no more celeriacs but butternut, which will store and freeze in chunks and which I have grown several times and they are easy

Field to the side of me came to a halt yesterday afternoon, moisture must be too high, so now they (farmers) will wait with bated breath for a hot sunny day and then they will start at 5-7 and go on until dark. Field was cut but the stalks will be too wet. Oilseed rape was on target but having seen how it is processed, I will never use unorganic, then again it probably goes into car diesel.

Re paints, I am having success with four year old paints. I usually stand myself on the lid then use packing tape. If it is very special paint, like my lime render paint, then I decanted some into a lock n lock, seal with parcel tape and put into a large zip lock. I used some of that two days ago, for outside touch up with a little sponge brush, paint was as good as new

moneyistooshorttomention

I can sympathise with "living in own bubble". I suspect sometimes its the nicest people that feel the need to do so - rather reinforced by the last time someone said that it was one of the gentlest/nicest people I've come across personally (ie Bridget Strawbridge was saying that up on her Facebook page).

I try to "dip my toes in" just enough to keep a general idea of how things are going in the world and to take what protective action I feel I can personally. I've found that I've read enough of what's happening in "the world" across the years that I've been able to develop enough cynicism to help avoid some of the worst stuff (eg down at one level - I was too cynical to take on an endowment mortgage for instance - and got a repayment one instead). So - a degree of knowledge helps bring a degree of (useful) cynicism imo.

Right now - I'm not sure whether to follow closely the Korean saga on the one hand or the fact that it's now 10 years since the financial Crash and the murmurings about whether it could happen again (and worse this time). So I admit to not following the Korean saga to any extent - but keeping a "steer to one side" of it weathereye on whether there might be a financial Crash again and I've been organising my finances to get necessities first (eg work on my new-to-me house) and putting stuff that could wait indefinitely (if it darn well must...:cool:) down the bottom of my List of things still to get.

So - yep...the garden is as "up and running" as it can be whilst I wonder when I'm going to have the thousands of £s necessary to remove all the "concrete garden" aspects it's still got from previous owners. But getting things well in hand to grow in what earth has been "released" from "concrete" so far.

[Deleted User]

We have a very healthy and thriving stand of celeriac KITTIE, in the garden beds along with a large amount of leeks, it's more the watering aspect that they need, copious amounts and every day. We leave them standing and harvest as we want them and being in the garden rather than on the allotment if the weather IS bad it's much easier to harvest them. Getting to be a good size too and butternuts which we usually have a massive harvest from have failed entirely this year and we have from 6 plants 3 little runty ones which will not be worth harvesting. We DO however have around 9 huge and healthy looking pumpkins which will make soup and savouries I rather think until we are all pumpkind out this winter!!! Oh the vagaries of the British weather and the plant kingdom!!!

thriftwizard

Definitely a good year for pumpkins here too! I doubt we'll be entering the giant pumpkin contest which my friend usually wins hands-down with a 14-stone monster - you'd be astonished to see how little that becomes when it's dehydrated & whizzed up into flour - but we have a number of biiiiggg pumpkins up the hill in her garden, and more coming along on the 'lottie. Good job my old neighbour was from Oklahoma and had 101 good ideas for cooking & preserving pumpkins! Squashes are doing well so far - Turk's Turban, mainly, which has puzzled the site manager, who seems to think I'm growing random things & can't get his head around the fact that they are supposed to look like that. I've yet to see him patrol my plot him with a Geiger counter but it's only a matter of time - but the courgettes are all beginning to turn up their toes now. The beans have got into their stride now too & I'm wishing I had more freezer space, not for the first time.

herbily

Thanks for good advice on the paint storage, peeps - it's white gloss paint (interior), for skirting boards and doorframes, so I won't need to use a lot at once. It can go in the hall cupboard - it's cool but not freezing. I knew you guys would know what to do!

chirpychick

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I try to "dip my toes in" just enough to keep a general idea of how things are going in the world and to take what protective action I feel I can personally. I've found that I've read enough of what's happening in "the world" across the years that I've been able to develop enough cynicism to help avoid some of the worst stuff (eg down at one level - I was too cynical to take on an endowment mortgage for instance - and got a repayment one instead). So - a degree of knowledge helps bring a degree of (useful) cynicism imo.

Right now - I'm not sure whether to follow closely the Korean saga on the one hand or the fact that it's now 10 years since the financial Crash and the murmurings about whether it could happen again (and worse this time). So I admit to not following the Korean saga to any extent - but keeping a "steer to one side" of it weathereye on whether there might be a financial Crash again and I've been organising my finances to get necessities first (eg work on my new-to-me house) and putting stuff that could wait indefinitely (if it darn well must...:cool:) down the bottom of my List of things still to get.
.

Do you think another worse financial crash is on its way?
We just about survived the last and I have to admit, would be much more better prepared for the next, thanks to what we learnt previously!

We applied for an allotment yesterday, the waiting lists are long but I'm hopeful, we've no idea if we will be moving yet but if we don't I don't want to put off the dream of an allotment.

Everything is so uncertain in our house it's nice to have that to look forward to.
We went through all our finances yesterday and made plans to be more frugal, discussed all redundancy and new job possibilities and are now starting to prep. I've noticed a trend of value foods dropping in price then being withdrawn from the shelves entirely, anything we use and that is non perisheable im going to buy extra and store, I decided even if we move we can take it, if we don't we still need food!

We are going to put into plan a lot more stringent plans for saving money and also surviving with no gas and leccy or using very little etc if SHTF any tips would be great.