THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

GreyQueen

Have some bottled water at all times stored in your home. I get to talk to the water company's call centre most months - folks tend to ring the council when the water goes off and we ring the water company and/ or check their website for outages.

Water can go off supply for several hours with no warning, so it's a good habit to do what their own employees do and fill the kettle before bedtime so you can get your morning caffeine hit in peace.

You can buy basics bottled water at 17p per 2 litre bottle, so this is an eminently affordable prep. I have 2 big and one small water carrier, two of which were purchased used for pence, scrubbed clean and sterilised with Milton and are changed out for fresh water every 3 months.

If the supplies are off due to a contamination incident at a water treatment plant, the suppliers will likely bring bottled water or water bowsers into the area. For outages of a few hours, you'll likely be left to your own devices. For SHTF, anybody's guess what'll happen.

Water is heavy (1 litre = 1 kilo = 2.2 lb)and, if you have to go to a bowser, you will need some kind of receptable to carry it home in. Preferably something with a lid to prevent spills and contamination.

I took the chance of picking up one of those heavy duty newspaper delivery trollies for £5 secondhand and have added a plywood base so it can be used to shift heavy loads inc, if needed, the 25 litre carriers which are almost more than I can lift.

[Deleted User]

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

So - what's the answer? Without fluids we die so what do we do in an emergency where the state isn't able to step up and provide water?

I guess it comes down to storing water, and, where possible, collecting it.

I store around 10 days worth, which, given I live alone, is 50L.

As for collecting water, aside from suitable containers to collect and store it in, it's a good idea to always have to hand, a filter kit and a decent supply of plain bleach.

maryb

A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter - if you're in the UK.-- Mila gets less for her money, an American pint weighs a pound (16 fl oz instead of 20).

Grey Queen that's a really good harvest - but were they effing?

GreyQueen

maryb wrote: »

A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter - if you're in the UK.-- Mila gets less for her money, an American pint weighs a pound (16 fl oz instead of 20).

Grey Queen that's a really good harvest - but were they effing?

No passers-by were heard to level that award but there were one or two individual spuds of sufficient caliber to feed four from just one tuber. I once grew a spud which weighed 1.2 kg on its own and that definately was an effing potato.:rotfl:

The two areas of the plot which were fortified with spent barley grains immediately before planting produced much larger spuds than the bit which was missed out - it'll be grained in the next few weeks.

My Dad was pretty darned impressed with the haul, I sent them off with five sackfuls (filled the boot of the car) and their Mondeo was riding low on its suspension.

G'night, all.

Karmacat

I like this whole thing about water storage: all those different ways of doing things.

Tiddlywinks, when you've got a full day at home, why don't you check how much water you actually use? In an emergency you'd probably use less, of course, and re-use much more strictly, but it gives you an idea.

As far as no ponds or rivers - have you checked on online maps? They're useful for all sorts of things, there are tiny little streams in my area, and their headquarters are often just drainage channels from sports fields.

GQ - congratulations on the potatoes!

maryb

Does that mean you're not eating many potatoes now Grey Queen? Seems a shame after all that effort

thriftwizard

GQ, that's a fantastic haul, I'm well-impressed & will be eyeing up the local brewery for spent barley grains next spring! I use coffee grounds a fair bit, as slugs really don't like them but most plants do seem to, but I'd never thought of looking to the brewery for gardening assets before! There's a big brewery in the town up the road to the north, and another in the next town up the main road east, and a micro-brewery's just opened in our own town, in the unit next to the little Emporium my stall's in. I'm sure someone will be able to spare me a few...

milasavesmoney

Bob's water setup is much like ours.

Maryb someone lied to me in my youth! I was taught a pint's a pound the world around as a way to remember the weight. Devastated. :rotfl:

GreyQueen

maryb wrote: »

Does that mean you're not eating many potatoes now Grey Queen? Seems a shame after all that effort

The great thing about the potatoes is how little effort is involved.

I planted the first earlies on March 25th, baulking them up as I went. That was the weekend before Easter. The weekend after Easter, I planted the main crop. The reason I can't do it all at once is the ME, it'd nearly kill me.

Then I just left them to their own devices, apart from pulling out half a dozen of the largest fat hen plants, the ones about 3 ft tall. Didn't do anything else to them for months, other than bask in the compliments of passing gardeners on the verdancy of the tater tops and their lovely flowers.

I've often thought how wonderful the spud is, in terms of yield for the effort. I always grow more than I need, to give to the family, but have kept less back this year for myself as I'm rationing tater consumption until I get my weight down and stabilised at a much lower level, which will be several months' hence.

thriftwizard, my lottie site has a long-standing plot-holder who works for an organic brewery. Their famous name would be very recognisable to any of the real ale crowd. He brings the spent grains, and the much smaller amount of spent hops, to the site. They get put in a communal spot and then it's first come and first served.

The trick is to use about a wheelbarrow full per square meter of ground, let it sit on the surface for at least a week in its heap (the grains are still pretty hot when we get them) then fork them into the soil. Worms love it.

Another brewer I know at another small brewery out of town gives their spent grains to a local dairy farmer as supplementary cattle feed. Dunno if it makes the milk boozy but the cows seem to enjoy it.:D

So, these useful grains are clearly a waste product of the brewing industry and they're glad to get rid, so the local small brewery might be your best contact.

I really must screw my brass neck into place and approach some local coffee shops about getting grounds to use on the lottie. What do you do with yours, quantities etc, please?

I always smile wryly at some people in various parts of the web (not here) who express the opinion that they'll dig up the lawn when the economy gets really bad overall/ they get really poor, and start veggie growing then.

What they don't realise is that there is a world of difference from working a soil to produce a good crop of veggies year in,year out, and just supporting a lawn and a few flowerbeds. And that you can't just switch a productive veggie patch on like snapping your fingers.

There are cottages in this country where the back gardens have been producing veggies and fruits for 500 + years. Often fertilised with humanure, too.;) But you need to learn what to do before you absolutely have to do it, as well as needing to have the drop on the weeds, not to mention soil-dwelling pests which love living under lawns and then tunnelling into veggies.

I lost two spuds to being hollowed out by slugs. One of the culprits was caught in the act and met a cruel end on the tine of my fork. Cold steel all the way, mes amis, cold steel - they don't like it up 'em.

thriftwizard

I just use the grounds at the bottom of my morning cafetière, GQ! (I just drink a couple of cups first thing, and redbush tea the rest of the day; not fond of instant coffee) Any spare liquid goes into the watering can, as number of our more precious plants are kept in pots now, thanks to OH's constant re-designing of the garden. Some trees & bushes just don't appreciate being dug up & moved at 6 monthly intervals...

My friend used to bring down carrier bags of (organic) grounds from her local posh caf! occasionally, too. However since they cut out the bus service between our towns, she's not been able to; now she has to travel down into the city & out again to get here and it takes an hour and a half, rather than the 20 minutes it used to, and that's a long time to nurse a leaky bag of soggy coffee grounds! I can't tell you what quantity I've used over the years, but it's been a good soil conditioner; the local permaculture guru would like us to open our little garden as a LAND site as it's so productive, but OH is resisting frantically. And it really wouldn't be fair to people of a private & retiring nature, to have people wandering around asking questions all weekend.

Sadly we don't have much space for spuds; I do have a few spud-bags on the go, but due to a proliferation of vehicles on the driveway, my space for placing those has diminished! I do miss my allotment...