THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Karmacat

Just got back ... Pineapple, thats a really interesting article you linked to, thank you. I prep for mundane everyday stuff, but I do wonder if we're living through the modern equivalent of the late 1930s or something similar.

No prepping here - I went away for a Sun caravan holiday, and though I did take a windup radio, I've just realised I don't'even know where any of my torches are thats *really* bad!

Research topic of the week (during a lurgy) will be kittie's mention of hot composting. It's a phrase I'm familiar with, but it might enable me to use a lot more of the stuff in my garden ...

[Deleted User]

Well, I go away for the weekend and come back to a huge bed of strawberry flowers and a decent picking of asparagus what's not to like? It's been a lovely warm couple of days, Friday was decidedly not spring like but yesterday and today seem to have tipped us over into real spring..... mind you I said that after the last warm blip and look what happened then! DD1 is going to have to earth up her potatoes yet again as they seem to have taken off and grown 6" over night in her garden. I could take a whole lot of this xxx.

[Deleted User]

The last couple of days here have been glorious.

It's currently blazing sunshine and the thermometer is reading 98f. :cool:

Cappella

It’s absolutely glorious here Salad weather at last and we have a brand new, workings outside tap so that I can easily wash our own bunching onions, radishes and salad leaves even though we have no kitchen!! Bliss:) You truly do not appreciate clean running water until you have to manage without it for several weeks. Tons of rhubarb on the plot as well so I have made a compote in the microwave for pudding. No asparagus ready to pick yet but it will only be a few more days now.
And biggest news of all. We have taken on, and taken over a hen pen on the plots. It belonged to a friend who is moving far away. We swore we would NOT have chickens again, and it will probably only be for a very few more years as the hens, though excellent layers, are 3 and 4 years old, but he made us an offer we couldn’t resist. I am ridiculously pleased about it. We may be getting older but we are not dead yet. :T

[Deleted User]

Yay.......chickens!!!

One of them will have to be Esme who also 'aitent dead' yet! and another one Gytha in concurrence with your ending to your last post M'dear! xxx.

thriftwizard

And a Magrat too, perhaps?

maryb

I've mentioned on another thread my DH is currently in hospital and will have a fairly long recovery even when he comes home so he was fretting about the allotment. With spending most of the day in the hospital every day I haven't had time to go up there so it's probably a jungle. However I thought I'd sow the runner beans and courgettes in pots at home so that will claw back a bit of the lost time

Crikey! I sowed the bean seeds yesterday morning and this morning two of them were making like the beanstalk Jack climbed up. Never had such good and fast germination sowing them direct in the ground. In fact we normally have to sow another lot before we get any germination

Be interesting to see if the courgettes do well that way too.

Anyway with luck if we have good weather DH will be able to sit in a deckchair and criticise the way I put the bean poles up.

ivyleaf

Cappella Chickens, how lovely :j

maryb I can just imagine you both on the plot with your OH overseeing the bean poles

NewShadow

Evening folks - stream of consciousness warning...

I'm getting to the point where it's a real possibility I'll buy a house in the next however long. Getting pulled around by the voices in my head and wondered if you'd mind giving an opinion.

Mostly it's - how do you know when you're ready to buy a house?

Houses available in target area from £99k to £150k. Was aiming for a 26% LTV by 2020/21 on a c.£130k house.

I could buy one now - or wait one or two years, saving a larger LTV deposit, or using the same % deposit for a more expensive (better?) house.

Trying to outline what's important and what isn't (to me - in rough order):

Yep
Walking distance to work
Decent internet
At least three rooms which aren't the kitchen/bathroom
Decent sized kitchen + somewhere to actually eat
Somewhere to dry clothes that isn't the middle of the lounge
Accessible storage for things like coats/hoover

Ish
GCH/double glazing - though not a deal breaker if cheap enough
I'd like a 'real' solid/multi fuel fire or a chimney I can convert back
Kinda prefer a bath but I have one now that I've only used twice in the last year
Would vaguely like space for a dishwasher
Would vaguely like wet room for washing machine/drying

Nope
I don't care about cosmetics or being ready to 'live in' as long as it's structurally sound
Don't care about parking

I keep dithering about a garden - I want an outside space for bins and to not have to bring them through the house but I don't 'garden' and likely won't really use the outside space.

Part of me would prefer a porch or sunroom but part of me debates putting in some raised beds for a bit of herb/vegetable resilience.

Is too big a problem?

There's a house on the market now that's 5 beds - there is no way I need that much space...thinking more expensive to heat/ maintain/ more to clean. But, when I am ready to buy, should I go for something like that because it's better to have too much space than too little?

My sig is based on waiting to 2020ish and given it involved relocating around 200 miles and changing jobs - that's realistic - but because it's feeling 'real', I'm getting twitchy feet...

WWYD?

Cappella

Mrs LW and TW

Yay.......chickens!!!
One of them will have to be Esme who also 'aitent dead' yet! and another one Gytha in concurrence with your ending to your last post M'dear! xxx.

And a Magrat too, perhaps?

:rotfl::rotfl:

And there is definitely an Agnes, a Tiffany, a Susan, and a Sybil!! No Angua though - do not want a werewolf in the chicken coop Off to reread Sir TP (any excuse:)) and find names for the other 5 birds.

MarybMake sure he has got either a newspaper or a god book with him:)Plot supervisors need distractions!!!

NewShadow that is definitely going to be a big decision to make. We have always lived in a small house, but the rooms are large, living room, sitting room, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms. At one time the biggest bedroom was split into two small ones, now it is one big room again with lots of space for clothes drying, storage shelves and all sorts of stuff. A smaller house is easier to clean, heat and maintain but I still hanker for a larger one. The only advice I would give though would be to look at the whole area, not just the house you are buying. A friend failed to do that and now really regrets moving on to the estate she lives on.