THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

moneyistooshorttomention

Nargleblast wrote: »

That's true, credit card companies are not interested in customers who pay all their statements in full every month, they like the ones who only pay the minimum payment because they will have them by the short and curlies for years and years.

But they need a certain size of customer base in order to be viable basically I would imagine and if we all think "Blow 'em - I aint paying for other people" and leave them en masse that could reduce their size noticeably.

Personally - I gave up flying deliberately some years back for a variety of reasons (personal and environmental) - but it's been clear in recent months that some airlines are about to "go down" and no longer be viable and it was a matter of "when" and not "if". If a non-flyer can watch the "signs and portents" - then I'm surprised that flyers aren't also watching them (if for a very different reason to a non-flyers ones) I must admit.

Nargleblast

Prepping-wise, I had my flu jab at work yesterday, this year it covers swine flu and the nasty Australian version as well as the usual villains. On the grapevine I heard from a friend of a friend that if it hits us here as bad as it has in Oz then we are snookered.

So, that little stash of elderberries I pulled from the freezer today and turned into two and a half litres of syrup will come in very handy, I suspect. We have been having elderberry syrup every morning for the past 3 weeks or so, much to the chagrin of OH and DS. Some men really don't know what's good for them!

[Deleted User]

No picture, because it was taken in the pitch dark, but this is Buggalugs snoring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr6sSIEtGlA&feature=youtu.be

fuddle

I did read about the problems Australia had through their winter Nargle. I'm already goosed this season so I'm scarfing my face and making no bones about obsessing over hand gelling right down to pressing the pedestrian button on the traffic lights. My girls dont know what is about to hit them each and every time they walk through the door!

I'm loving my hot elderflower nargle, its yummy!

Maybe, Money, that the customer base appreciate having the protection in place for their own purchases and look beyond 'paying for other people'. Who pays for the top that is taken back to the store that fell apart after 4 days? The consumer gets a refund because it's lawful to do so. Who takes the hit financially? The company? The suppliers? The manufacturers? It all has a knock on effect in terms of their margins, their costs and ultimately, I think, the end price to the consumer.

We, as consumers, decide whether we want to play that kind of game or not but consumer law protects the consumer from the bigwigs. Personally, I see consumer law as a positive in our society and can look beyond it as 'paying for other people' if it is something I choose to be a part of.

jk0

I wouldn't worry about credit card companies having to bear the losses when an airline folds folks. They'll just take the money back from the airline's bank account (or increase the overdraft) so the shareholders get less back in due course.

moneyistooshorttomention

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

No picture, because it was taken in the pitch dark, but this is Buggalugs snoring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr6sSIEtGlA&feature=youtu.be

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:I could hear ya' giggling in the background BB:rotfl::rotfl:

I must admit I laugh sometimes at what cats I know get up to.

Must be an easy life for some of them I think - programme for the day = have a good wash/have a good scratch/have a good look-around/have a little stroll and then rinse and repeat:)

[Deleted User]

Found a visitor in my bath yesterday.

Pound coin included, for size comparison.

[Deleted User]

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Must be an easy life for some of them I think - programme for the day = have a good wash/have a good scratch/have a good look-around/have a little stroll and then rinse and repeat:)

You missed out "have a good feed".

[Deleted User]

Cracking good spider BB, the paper was saying there will be 150,000,000 of them coming to visit a home near you (and yours) this autumn as it's been a very good summer for spiderkind and it's their breeding season now so they will be apparent in a way they weren't earlier in the year. They can grow to 7.5 cm can 'house spiders', I have a patent spider/wasp remover permanently on the window sill in the lounge (jar without a lid and a stiff envelope) and just pop the jar over the top and slide the envelope under before turning the whole caboodle upside down and chucking the 'beastie' out into the garden. I love the big 'harvest spiders' that are brown and white and sit in the middle of beautiful webs in the gardens at this time of year, in the eye of the beholder perhaps but I think they're wonderful!

GreyQueen

I love those harvest spiders, too, and was sorry to have to disturb one's web recently as I was treating the allotment shed and had to clear out the brambles which had grown over from another plot to touch the shed; the web was in there.

I rarely get big spiders in my groundfloor flat in the urban jungle and I think this is because I have a permanant cohort of those spindly ones which are apparently cannibals of other spider species. I do the glass-and-paper capture technique and throw them outside if I do see the monsters as they startle me and I figure I'm saving them from a grisly death at the hands of the spindlies.

Preps-wise, this coming weekend I will have the family over and will be harvesting the squash, which are pumpkins and butternuts, mainly. I've been reading blogs and there seem to be as much (sometimes) contradictory advice on harvesting and storage as there are people giving it.

General takeaways are to leave at least 4 inches stem when you cut the pumpkin off the vine. OK, but my pumpkins haven't got that much stem, I shall have to do my best. One should also check for any damaged ones and eat them first. Some authorities say wash the squash in very dilute bleachy water (to kill micro-organisms on the rind) and some say not. All recommend store in a cool dark place, some say on cardboard over shelving, some say hung up in nets, all agree don't leave sitting on cement floors..........

I have limited options; they're going on a high shelf in the bike shed, once I've lined it with clean cardboard. They'll be cool, dark(ish), out of the way and yet easily accessible for checking and using.

And, if my neighbours see me putting them in there, it'll just confirm their suspicions; that the wumman at No ---- is a trifle odd.