THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

thriftwizard

Oooh, MrsLW, I have plot envy! We're not allowed trees, or greenhouses, or independent fires; there is a bonfire patch but it's currently fenced off & not in use because people kept trying to burn weeds, which we are supposed to compost on our plots, but they've just banned open composters too & told us all to get "daleks" - which I hate, they just seem to breed flies and take forever to produce any usable compost! Sigh... obviously I've never quite got the hang of those, but my open heap at home steams on cold mornings! At the end of the day, we're still producing courgettes & beans (by the ton! Another tray went into the freezer this evening) and the winter veg are galloping upwards; the rules & management may be a bit of a pain but the ground is healthy & productive. I'm doing my best to keep it well-fed...

A big batch of quince jelly got made today; I may be hamstrung on the digging front but am putting the time to good use anyway. We have two quince trees - at home - and it's always a scramble to use the fruit up, though it does keep well and smell lovely. And I found some more crab apples yesterday; just a small handful, but I know where there are more. The wind this weekend should bring some of them down. It's an enormous tree, about 4 times the height of our fairly-large Blenheim Orange, and the fruits look & smell just like tiny, tart Golden Deliciouses, which make a lovely pink jelly. There are still blackberries in the hedgerows, too, and I've just started a batch of blackberry wine off. It's amazing how much more I can achieve - if that's the right word - now I have the odd moment of spare time.

maryb

Good Lord Angie, your committee sound like they have a serious case of bossiness. Is it council run or allotment association? Just about anything goes on our site. You aren't supposed to have bonfires during summer but if someone is taking on a plot and has a large area to clear they indicate they will look the other way - no houses very near.

Nargleblast

What, no prepping today, chaps and chappesses?

For my part, having in recent weeks built up a store of food in the fridge, freezer and cupboards, I have been able to stay indoors during today's wet and squally weather. It is good to know you don't have to go to the shops in 40+ miles per hour winds!

GreyQueen

Nargleblast wrote: »

What, no prepping today, chaps and chappesses?

For my part, having in recent weeks built up a store of food in the fridge, freezer and cupboards, I have been able to stay indoors during today's wet and squally weather. It is good to know you don't have to go to the shops in 40+ miles per hour winds!

I'm currently on yoo tube watching nutty amuricans making diversion safes and hidey holes in their homes and possessions. Plus tips from UK security experts about making your home less likely to be burgled.


F'rinstance, you peeps with venetian blinds, should always have the vanes tilted UP since if they are tilted DOWN, you can see through them from outside.

thriftwizard

maryb wrote: »

Good Lord Angie, your committee sound like they have a serious case of bossiness. Is it council run or allotment association? Just about anything goes on our site. You aren't supposed to have bonfires during summer but if someone is taking on a plot and has a large area to clear they indicate they will look the other way - no houses very near.

The sites are privately owned, maryb. The Family have been leading lights of the organic movement for many years and have very firm views on how one's staff & the local hot-polloi should conduct themselves & their stewardship of a small portion of their land! So the rules are quite wide-ranging and strictly enforced; it's that or no allotments. The one exception is that the site managers turn a blind eye to the use of Round-Up, slug pellets & other "harmless" substances which they view as a necessity & The Family's insistence that they shouldn't be used as - somewhat optional!

DigForVictory

Is it prepping to clamber over sacks of donated wnter clothing to inspect the detail of a dashed handsome single bed - to ensure it was up to spec for my about-to-leave-home son? (It had to be robust, bolt together & standard single size.) It passed all my criteria, being a 1950s build by a purveyor of bedframes to Her Majesty and I even waggled my husbands folding ruler across bits to check the size was resoundingly Imperial. There was even change from £100! (Possibly even after delivery, too.)

Certainly prepping had a moment - my BOB was very nearly relocated back into the house & I was affectionately vehement that That Stays In The Car. It came in brilliantly wedging the chest of drawers securely in place.

I am struggling to figure how his departure will affect our planning - but I do know that I have a tender eye on the fire evac procedures for him. All these velux windows & no real opening onto the street windows. I worry...

GreyQueen

Sounds like a bed kid bruv had in our chidlhood home. When the 'rents decided to change it in the '90s (even I could see this was a bad idea) the woman next door asked for it. Not sure if it's still there but was built like a tank so potentially still in service somewhere.


The diversion safes were amusing although I question the wisdom of hiding your cash in a tube of prungles or hiding in any kind of comestible or inhalable volatiles.


A woman known to my family was burgled and, as well as all the usual things burglars take, they took every single edible item from her home. Contents of storecupoards, spice rack, fridge, freezer, drinkies, cans, pasta, you name it, they took it.


Obvs, not a standard modus operandi, but having alcohol stolen is pretty normal. The polis told her they were pretty sure they knew who'd dunnit as the style was typical of these villians and if she stood at her window (they didn't specify front or back) she would be able to see the suspect's house. They were never charged with her burglary but did go down to Her Maj for others.:(

DigForVictory

It's the sort of bed I recognised from My Great Aunt & from a godfather's mum's mother in law - head and foot end & solid iron predating hiroshima in between.
And this morning himself has leapt from the matrimonial bed saying "This Is The Last Weekend we have you" - far as I know I'm jamboreeing next & seeing my parents the weekend after but if I stop posting please call the police...

thriftwizard

Eeeek, DfV, that sounds - worrying!

We too have a bed that's nigh on immortal. It was bought from an elderly clergyman when DS2 managed to wreck a 6-month-old brown leather-effect double whilst practising his rugby tackles. I refused to buy him a new one (heartless mother!) but was happy to invest in something secondhand although a few months sleeping on the floor wouldn't have done him any harm! But he needed the storage space underneath, as he was in the smallest room. What came up inside my budget was a stunning old double with beautiful walnut head & footboards, the original sprung iron base & a more recent but still ancient Slumberland mattress. The gentleman selling it had been born in it, as were all 4 of his siblings, and he was the same age as my mother, now 92; it had been given to his parents as a wedding present. So it's nearly 100, not much younger than the room it's now in.

When DS2 left home the first time, it was commandeered by DD1, who is very happy on it to this day, with the addition of a memory foam mattress pad, old linen sheets, a wool duvet & an old patchwork quilt. She's been offered the chance to choose a new one, but refused. "It's a happy bed, and it's just right with your grandmother's desk!" (This is the girl who made me drive 40 miles each way to pick up a £30 carved oak wardrobe...) DS2, in the meantime, bought himself another brown leather monstrosity, which lasted all of 14 months before collapsing. They really don't make things liked they used to...

ivyleaf

"It's a happy bed!" I love that, thriftwizard