The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Wraithlady

DigForVictory said:

elaine241 said:

including ironing ducks with a steam iron to make it easier to pluck them ( I couldn't make it up!!). 

So next someone wants a quill pen, he's to go off with a loaded steam iron, blast the bird's backside, pluck a handful & run...  

And then you have to do it all again as quill pens are made from the (right-hand) flight  feathers of a goose. And then hardened/dried off for a couple of weeks (hot sand is the preferred option, apparently).

I think i might watch too many historical documentaries....

jk0

Wraithlady said:

DigForVictory said:

elaine241 said:

including ironing ducks with a steam iron to make it easier to pluck them ( I couldn't make it up!!). 

So next someone wants a quill pen, he's to go off with a loaded steam iron, blast the bird's backside, pluck a handful & run...  

And then you have to do it all again as quill pens are made from the (right-hand) flight  feathers of a goose. And then hardened/dried off for a couple of weeks (hot sand is the preferred option, apparently).

I think i might watch too many historical documentaries....

Would the feathers from the goose's left wing do for lefties?

thriftwizard

Swan feathers work fairly well... DS3 went through a stage of quill pens and sealing wax, between his typewriter phase and ancient coins.

DigForVictory

Wraithlady said:

. And then hardened/dried off for a couple of weeks (hot sand is the preferred option, apparently).

I think i might watch too many historical documentaries....

Er, you put your finger on why I keep m’lady mother out of our kitchen. It’s a mess but the layer of sand in the bottom of the oven startles those who aren’t given to researching historical claims the messy way.
A lovely mate was given a goose to cook & she kindly lopped the wings off & couriered them to us - fellow researcher but vegetarian - we got the weirdest look from the courier. Ah well, normality is overrated (but I really should clean out the oven sometime).

As for too many documentaries, given alternatives like parliament, covid updates & “reality tv”, not convinced you can. Mind you, we had cadw (Welsh heritage) membership & I don’t think we missed any of the south welsh castles. The lads seem to cope with the house but I suspect they think we ought to have yet thicker walls, our own well & at least one trebuchet. A lad should have ambitions. (One, I nearly sold as gun boy to a reenactor. Gosh, a fiver & his health, education, employment, religious instruction & even marriage would be someone else’s problem. Right up until the marriage element the lad was all for it!)

Floss

DfV, which south Wales castle was favoured amongst your lads? Mine loved Pembroke but I prefer Manorbier

[Deleted User]

We're nothing if not frugal in the Lurcher household, I was given a present yesterday by HWK who said I would like it and it was in the big blue Ikea bag on the patio.  Oh yes I DID! he's still clearing beds from our newly acquired allotment and they have had wooden boards edging small beds which he's removing as he clears and being a good thrifty boy he brought me home all the usable wood to go in the woodstore, a whole big bag.  Happiness is definitely firewood shaped in this household!

Another idea that came my way via t'intenet from the good old USA is being put into use today.  I saw on a blog I read that the lady had reused some 2 litre milk bottles that had been thoroughly cleaned and dried to store pulses and rice and grains in her pantry, because of the shape being tall rather than wide she'd managed to put a great amount of stores into a relatively small cupboard.  We've been getting 2 litre bottles in the pub box which I'd been saving for apple season so we could make and sterilize apple juice for store so I shall use them for dry goods and DD1 runs on the bigger 3 litre bottles which will do the job too and is going to save them for me.  I hope it will be a safer way to store dry goods as the pests that sometimes come with them ought to be as contained in the sealed milk cartons as they are in sealed glass jars.  I shall be able to decant packets of beans and grains as I get them and store very much more down in my store room than I have previously by laying the flat bottles on their sides on the shelves and stacking them 'brick style'.  I can write what's in them on the plastic lids which will face forwards.

Nothing to whitter about today but great satisfaction in looking at the back garden which is now full of runner and fine beans, herbs and tomato plants and the ornamental vine I put in last autumn that has edible grapes but very pippy has grown and is starting to climb up it's guide wires.  The fruit makes a really tasty grape jelly which has always been my 'base note' in casserole gravy.  I had a huge plant in Hampshire that had rambled right along a boundary fence and gave kilos of fruit every year.  Have hopes this one will grow to the same length and be trained along the trellis right along the back fence to last us years.

ancientofdays

MrsLurcherwalker said:

Not whittering it's just I don't do jam and he doesn't like strawberries other than that it's perfectly fine jam! I shall rehome it to the girls, what I am wittering about is we can't find the box that says no substitutes which would have yes left us jamless but not with something 3 x more expensive than what I ordered that we can't actually use.

I don't believe Morrisons have a no substitution box, at least if they do, we have not found it.

jk0

Leftie warning: Mail on Sunday link ahead.

For the open minded, this column is everything I have thought throughout this crisis. https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/05/peter-hitchens-were-destroying-the-nations-wealth-and-the-health-of-millions.html

Nargleblast

Interesting article, but clearly an example of hysteria from the opposite end of the spectrum from the Covid "We are doomed" scenario.
There is a virus that has killed many people, we are right to be worried and to take precautions. I believe lockdown has prevented many more from being infected and dying, but now we need to slowly get things up and running again, whilst still being mindful of the risks of infection.
Could  things have been handled better by a different government? I doubt it, a different government would've still made it up as they went along, just the same as other governments in other countries.

As is often the case, the Truth lies between the two extremes.

MoneySeeker1

jk0 said:

Leftie warning: Mail on Sunday link ahead.

For the open minded, this column is everything I have thought throughout this crisis. https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/05/peter-hitchens-were-destroying-the-nations-wealth-and-the-health-of-millions.html

I've taken to reading his columns latterly and thoroughly agreed with his latest ones and subscribe to his Facebook site.

It's a very surreal experience for me to read what he says - because my father (died 2 weeks into Lockdown) was a great fan of his and often quoted him. Hence I tend to read his columns with attention - and it's just like hearing my father talk sometimes in the way he did before so much illness got the better of him and his mind. So it does help a lot to read an intelligent, thoughtful person saying these things - whilst I know that, at the moment, I'm in a minority of 9% of the UK population that thinks this way and it's frustrating knowing that a noticeable number of the 91% that don't are going to change their minds and agree with us at some point - but they don't just yet.

Can PM you some Facebook groups you might be interested in if you like??