THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

DigForVictory wrote: »

You did specify how it was to be packed? As a Christmas stocking of that might be memorable, but not in the best way.

That said, a clearly labelled sack of the stuff ("Not Fermented til 2027") could also contain a small [tough] box of handy articles like cash, spare ID, and other little prepping handy to haves that you really do not want someone wandering in & helping themselves to.

And o you gardeners, check your anti-tetanus status? While you are booking your flu jab? Seems the offspring are covered almost unto death thanks to all the shots they had before they left school but us parents may have let it lapse & benefit from a top-up. Not least as better to have the answer dd/mm/yyyy when the nurses ask, than face being repaired whist a bit of you is warmly commenting that someone's just stuck a needle in...

After all, when else do you ever get asked 'when did you last have an anti-tetanus shot?' As my experience suggests exclusively when I am sat awaiting running repairs to injuries sustained gardening. It is nice to see the nurses' surprise when you can smile back & recite the date. Grab such small victories as you can, by preparing for the not necessarily inevitable!

Worst of all would be if the Christmas Stocking happened to be of the fishnet variety.



This season's Flu jab has to wait until I've shaken off whatever it is that one of the kids at school thoughtfully shared with me on Monday afternoon and is doing its best to get past my palate into my nose, throat and chest. I don't normally catch things, thanks to my somewhat hysterical immune system not only obliterating all incoming bugs, but also deciding that bits of my own body are in need of destruction :cool: , so it's done well to get this far (much attempts to gargle with salt water - and spluttering). The pharmacist round the corner is not only happy to give them for free, I found he was actually very good at administering them (puts them in from above into the shoulder muscle, rather than through the side, saying that he thinks some vaccinations fail because inexperienced or overworked staff at clinics don't realise they've injected into fat instead of where they need to go). Which should be by this Saturday, I think.

Tetanus - when the old cat was ungrateful enough to sink her teeth into my thumb when I was stopping her from choking to death on a piece of plastic. The full lifetime course is five vaccinations - I can definitely say I've had three (at 16, about 28 and 35 because I asked for them) and remember one vaccination when I was in Infants' School at 5 (where the nurse gave you 'sugar for the donkey' - ie, a polio vaccination at the end), but if I were to damage myself in the garden or with felines, I'd be straight down the doctor's just in case I haven't had the last, even if it doesn't actually need medical attention in itself. Or if I'm travelling overseas [laughs at the thought of actually going on holiday] - I'm at work most of the time the GP is open/the nurse is available.

The advantage of a brief stint working for the NHS Clerical Bank a couple of years ago means that I know I have immunity to Measles, Mumps and Rubella - the first two because I had them as a child, the former happening two days after I had the monovalent vaccination (no nonsense here about it causing Measles, we were all incubating it at the time of the injection) - and Rubella because of the vaccination at 11. Don't know about TB, as they can't test when you're on Methotrexate, but I didn't need the vaccination at 15 because my skin test came up in a lovely circle of bumps, so I am probably still immune - it was good enough for the hospital Occupational Health and they approved me to work there, at any rate.


The ones that do concern me somewhat are the meningitis ones. They weren't available when I was in the target groups, but nobody seems to be particularly keen to provide anything - but then again, the horror on my old GP's face when I said I was interested in working in Bat Conservation and would need a Rabies shot to do it was enough to put me off asking for more.

Quick note on that - it's time for the crepuscular beasties to relocate to Hibernacula at the moment, so we could find ourselves with an uninvited guest flapping about (or, sadly, brought in by overenthusiastic animals). If that happens, DO NOT touch them with bare hands, whether they are alive or dead. If still flapping, open the window, switch the lights off and close the door until they leave.

Use your gardening gloves if you do have to handle one (alive or dead), keep the bat if it looks ill, is injured or dead (contact details on the Bat Conservation Trust website or your local Bat Group) and if you get nipped, scratched or dribbled over by one, go straight to the doctor armed with printouts from the internet. It's not actually Rabies you can get from them, it's a similar virus which the Rabies vaccination also protects against, but it is possible to catch it and die from it. http://www.bats.org.uk/pages/-bats_and_rabies-1099.html

mardatha

I live in the same kind of place as Pineapple. We need solid fuel here. If it went through the roof in price I would die of pneumonia the first winter. The radiators on their own don't even start to heat the rooms. I'd have to get a son or a neighbour with a chainsaw to get me wood, but that isn't really hot enough up here. Wonder what would happen re peat?

fuddle

Are you able to cut peat up your way Mar. I guess it's wet enough.

mardatha

No peat here that I know of, that's more through the west Fudds. But the coalman and the garden centre sell it in bags and somebody here burns it because you can smell it.

[Deleted User]

We've been offered and taken AN ALLOTMENT.....back to the prepping then. HWK happy, I'm happy and the soil here is unbelievable, I now have utter carrot envy from those on the next plot over, oh my, happy now!

fuddle

It's not like you could go out and dig it up anyway Mar. There's someone in our street that still has a coal bunker. Today I heard that familiar sound of coal sliding into the bunker. Sent me right back I can tell you.

What is the site like Lyn? Have you much to do to make good? Has it a shed and green house? Talk about good timing!

[Deleted User]

Lovely site, level and good soil and glory be, no stones. We were on a river plain back in Hampshire and the gravel rose up from under in a never ending supply! We've a nice little shed with a mature grape vine wrapped round and up two sides of it, currently awash with lovely ripe black bunches of grapes! we've a damson and a plum tree, an asparagus patch and some nicely established globe artichokes. Most of the rest is covered with strawberry plants and some old gnarled currant bushes and raspberry canes which we'll get rid of, We have a broken down compost bin which will have to be replaced but we've been given a greenhouse by one of DD1s neighbours which is just too big to go beside the house where we thought we'd put it so that might just end up on the plot! it's 8x8 square and will grow all we need. We're away from the site entrance and close to the water supply, the plots all round are well tended except for the 1/2plot attached to ours which is derelict but I have hopes it might be offered to someone who will work it properly, the one next to ours is obviously with someone new and they're doing a great clearance job. So exciting!

GreyQueen

:j:j:j Hooray for Lyn's new allotment, sounds like you've landed on your feet there. Happy Gardening.


Been on my plot every afto-evening this week for anything from one to one and a half hours. Weather's great and I'm getting busy to do as much as possible before we go back onto GMT, which means I will not be able to garden on a weekday for a few months, boo, hiss.


Have been expecting my new credit card at some point this month and it landed today. Guess what - it's contactless. Would you adam-and-eve it, a contactless credit card, what could possibly go wrong?!


My credit card is with the same bunch of shysters as my current account and three debit card renewals ago, the sent an unsolicited contactless card. I walked into branch and told the floorwalker I wanted to talk to someone about my new debit card, and she immediately assumed it was about getting a non-contactless one. They've never tried to palm me off with another.



Bearing my mind I've refused to be contactless for debit cards, you'd think they'd leap to the presumption it would apply to credit cards, also? Nope, in very small print it tells you to contact them if you want a non-contactless card. Sigh. Something else to fit into a busy life, being opted into things I don't want really annoys me.


Today's allotment session involved some more pyromania, as I am slowly processing my way through the burn pile. Once I have caught up, I will slowly empty the builder's bag of twiggy carp inherited from Plot2's previous Management. Am spreading this stuff out on the bare earth which will be the 2019 tater patch, allowing it to dry somewhat, then burning.


Turning nasty stuff like couch grass into useful potash is a happy thought, no?:rotfl:

fuddle

Brilliant Lyn, just brilliant. All you need is your flask and your fork.

GQ I have a lovely friend on the plots. She's new, like me, and is a female amongst the males. The only thing is she has a bee in her bonnet about burning. It's a man thi g apparently and no need on an allotment. I like to think I'm forward thinking enough to not follow the fella folk but I do have the odd fire - weeds! Now I can say that I'm burning for potash accumulation, so thank you for that wee bit of knowledge. Worth your weight!

GreyQueen

The majority of plotholders on my row (about one-fifth of a big site) are female, all ages from twenty-something mums with the babies in the pram to the retired, with me and my pals squarely in the middle.


I don't know any female up there who doesn't love bonfiring and had never imagined in a million years that it was a gendered pastime. Most people (of both genders) seem to adore bonfires. The one a pal had yestereve cooked our tea for us (baked spuds).:rotfl:


Some folks are anti-bonfire on pollution grounds. I smile to myself when the same person drives a car and/ or flies off on holibobs but whimpers righteously about a bit of smoke a few times a year.


Some bits of plant materials would take many years to rot down, and some of them can regenerate after years in the compost pile, such as horsetails, couch grass, bindweed. There are also some diseased materials which are better burnt than left around rotting. Not to mention the space issue; I am in process of getting 149 m sq of couch grass off Plot2 and there isn't enough space to stash those turfs and still do some actual gardening.