The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

CCW007

r.a.i.n.b.o.w said:

CCW007 said:

I do love elderflower champagne, so easy to make! I'm eyeing up my elder bushes already, won't be long.

I tried making elderflower wine once...just the once...had it brewing in big 5 litre bottles in my kitchen, all seemed well, until one day, it made a strange noise, and I went to investigate. One of the bottles had farted, and the kitchen smelled like rotten eggs! I tentatively sniffed all the bottles. I couldn't have drunk any of it, the stench was awful

Ugh, sounds grim. Not surprised you only tried once!

Going to the garden centre / feed provider today to get feed for the ducks and chickens.  I stocked up hours before lockdown and probably still have 2 - 3 weeks left but I'm not prepared to let it run too low and with garden centres reopening from Wednesday I can imagine it will be a nightmare trying to get in there. 

I also managed to get an extra 10 ex-commercial hens the day of lockdown because I knew eggs were hard to find and I wanted to help our neighbours - it's amazed me how many of our neighbours who have never bought our eggs before now do regularly.

I hope I can pick up some compost in the garden centre at the same time, our local Co-op is selling it but the only time I have been in they were sold out.

We've got a problem with our bread machine, twice recently it has had an error code which is just a general fault but googling it there is a capacitor which is prone to failing within 5 years - we worked out our machine is probably 10 years old 😳.  We've ordered a new capacitor which we hope will solve the problem because it seems like bread machines are still in short supply.  Fingers crossed that solves it for the time being.

MingVase

My dad's elderberry wine exploded spectacularly in the pantry in the middle of the night once.. my mother nearly had a breakdown

pineapple

The one bread I can't get online is sourdough sliced. Otherwise fine. Plus got all types of flour, yeast, baking powder, bicarb.....

Greenglockenspiel

The government is now suggesting wearing masks in crowded places, and has published guidance on how to make them yourself: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-face-covering/how-to-wear-and-make-a-cloth-face-covering

[Deleted User]

I've just been looking online at predictions following on the slight easing of the lock down in other countries and it looks as though without exception infection rates are on the rise again in all of them so I think it's a possibility that the same might happen here.  Sorry if that's gloom and doom but what I want to say is that as preppers we perhaps should UP our prepping as much as we can in these constrained times in case we in the UK get the second wave too and are put back into lock down on a firmer basis than we have been up to now. I am looking at preps for next winter through to this time next year and hoping that drugs, treatments or a vaccine will evolve in that time period and give us a real hope of being able to live a normal life again.  I think it would be sensible to put in preps for the possibility if you can.

MoneySeeker1

Drugs and treatments may emerge - and let's all hope so.

But I think the chances of a vaccine are slim and the chances of many people having one (if it is invented) are even slimmer. I've seen the "technical" info. on what such a vaccine might/probably would look like. Literally - as in a human-made design that would show up on the screen of a smartphone and indicate vaccination status - or otherwise.

A very very dangerous development imo - as many of us would never scan up on said smartphone with the appropriate screen picture of obviously human-made markings just underneath our skin. The worrying thing about not having "the Mark" being that there's a good chance we would be Locked Out of many things in society (ie not allowed access to this, not allowed access to that and basically frozen out of many aspects of Our Lives). This would be a huge problem - even for those of us that couldn't be prevented from getting our income (as it's pension or some other such non-human-contact type way) and couldn't be prevented from having a home to live in (as we own our own - and don't have to rent one).

So - it would be absolutely essential if a vaccine ever does emerge (which I doubt) for it to be capable of being administered in a way that would NOT have visible evidence to show either way - so that no-one could be checked with a smartphone or the like and then Locked Out of society for not having it.

From this - it's very clear that indeed it would be much the best thing if a vaccine does NOT ever get invented - IF there was going to be any sort of "marker" or documentation or any other 'proof' provided as to who had had the vaccine - and who hadn't. So it would be better for Society as a whole never to have such a vaccine - if a vaccine being available meant a huge swathe of the population being "sent to Coventry/Locked Out of much of their lives" because they'd chosen not to have it.

elsien

MoneySeeker1 said:

But I think the chances of a vaccine are slim and the chances of many people having one (if it is invented) are even slimmer. I've seen the "technical" info. on what such a vaccine might/probably would look like. Literally - as in a human-made design that would show up on the screen of a smartphone and indicate vaccination status - or otherwise.

Do you a link for that assertion?

MingVase

I can see a good few people being  "locked out of much of their lives"  if they choose not to have the vaccine...

elaine241

Hello all
Survived my weekly trip to town without mishap or anxiety. It was quieter than usual I think due to the cold wind blowing. No queues in either of the shops I went to . Everything was in stock , social distancing going well and actually not a bad experience all round!
As for elderflower champagne I can no longer even contemplate drinking it , let alone sniffing it! I made a great batch one year with lemon peel added for extra flavour. It fermented well and produced a lightly fizzy pleasant drink; and that was where I really should have left it!! I decided it was a bit too boring so decided to doubly ferment it by adding extra sugar and leaving it to ferment a few days more. The resulting drink was very refreshing, and tasted really nice. One evening my friend and I decided to sample the champagne and proceeded to over indulge to a very great extent!! Rolling drunk I managed to collapse in bed at god knows what time!! The next morning was the mother of all hang overs for the both of us; in fact neither surfaced until well into the evening! To this day, many years later, neither of us can smell elderflower anything and that includes cordial!!! LOL Those who are contemplating making it you have been warned!!!

VJsmum

I must be a bit dense, Ceridwen - i am not sure what you are saying?  Do you have any links to reports / studies that might explain it?