The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

VJsmum

We are drinking more regularly - generally having a 'sundowner' each night.  i have a double G and T and OH has a pint - we don't have more than that though so he is well under the recommended maximum and i am on it.  

What has changed more for us is our shopping habits - we now do a Tossco click and collect every 10 - 12 days supplemented by a trip to the farm shop and the butchers once a week.  It's working well for us, rather than queuing at supermarkets.  Tossco have sorted their website now and regularly release slots.  I've got a slot on Friday and have another lined up for the 24th.  OH says we won't go back to the old way of shopping but i think in normal times it's still quicker to pop to Aldi than sort out the online order and go and fetch it.  I will keep up with the farm shop though and have long used the butcher and will continue to do so - especially with this stuff about the American meat coming in.

Greenglockenspiel

We aren’t big drinkers but we have had a couple of bottles of wine during lockdown and OH has had a few mixed drinks when zooming his mates. I feel like I probably drank enough at university for a lifetime so tend to go more for a lime and soda.
We don’t have glass collection here and the bottle banks have been overflowing!
A gap in our preps has been discovered - our washing up gloves are starting to dissolve, we haven’t a spare pair in the cupboard, and they seem to be sold out everywhere I’ve checked.

elaine241

Si_Clist said:

elaine241 said:

On a different note is anyone drinking more during this trying time?

We're still the same as usual - Lidl gin and Waitrose Essential tonic each twice a week as a treat (total £2.57), plus half a pint each of home brewed beer every now and then at 62p the pint.  Also two batches of elderflower champagne totalling 30 litres made a fortnight ago for drinking during the hot weather that it was almost too late for, at 17p/litre.

Hmm I can never smell elderflower champagne again! In an earlier post I confessed to doubly fermenting my elderflower champagne and then getting absolutely blotto with a friend, unintentionally!!! We were so drunk neither could get off the kitchen chairs where we had sat down for a quiet drink after riding our horses. I don't know how strong it was as it tasted normal but we both had a three day hangover and many years later neither can smell cordial let alone champagne!!! 

Its all quiet here as the colder windier weather seems to have kept the joggers, cyclists and walkers indoors. I haven't actually made it out the door yet but I have to go feed the hens and the sheep dogs. I have made a sponge cake, banana bread and a batch of dough is rising in the kitchen. I wont bother watering the veg as the forecast gives heavy showers this afternoon. I will just water the chillies in the poly tunnel. I ordered some strawberry plants from grow your own mag and they turned up yday. The giant variety plug plants are huge and already flowering. The "free" 20 plants are small but they will be fine for next year.  I am saving any veg gardening for tomorrow as it is bloomin cold out there, almost tempted to light the fire!!

thriftwizard

Somewhat on the cool side down here too; I have lots of little plants shivering gently in the wind, but still nowhere to put them. I've finally received a response to my many (polite) enquiries as to the whereabouts of my new greenhouse, ordered back in April, but it's only that they're investigating... at this rate I'll need to rescue the almost-collapsed half-polytunnel & put it in the greenhouse space - not enough sunlight now, where it is - which will annoy everyone mightily & look a complete eyesore. Sigh...

Not so many visitors this weekend, now it's cooler! The roads & shops are very much quieter. It's spitting with rain, on & off, but not enough to save me going over to the allotment & watering the "captives" - i.e. the plants that are in containers or planted through weed-suppressant membrane, which water just tends to run off. They all have watering "funnels" made from upended plastic bottles with the bottoms cut off, but the rain's not so good at aiming itself into them, especially if it isn't falling straight down, and it's definitely a tad sideways this morning.

greenbee

I've got my greenhouse, and it's up, but there are 4 pieces of glass missing, so I'm trying to get hold of the supplier (who claims to be open over the weekend) to arrange for them to be delivered. The instructions were pretty much incomprehensible (although this appears to be down to them sending the wrong instructions, which was what made it impossible to work out which bits were missing until the end. However, despite all this the one (thankfully fixable) mistake the fitter has definitely made is something that is crystal clear on the instructions. There are no instructions on how the louvre vent goes together (that I can find) and it looks wrong, as it doesn't close... I might inspect more closely tomorrow when it's warmer!

I now have staging to put together, but again, I think that might be something to put off until I won't freeze doing it! Housework (or lighting the fire and reading) seems more appealing right now. 

euronorris

Well, I understand Matt Hancock referenced WSM in his press conference yesterday and said we had been put back into lockdown. Literally everyone in WSM was like 'huh? What?! Have we? No one told us. And certainly no one told the hoarders of tourists that descended last weekend when the weather was glorious!'.

It's beyond a joke. I honestly don't know how they expect us to trust them and the supposed science they are following when they blatantly lie, and pick and choose which bits of the science they want to follow! Grrrr.

I finally managed to get DH out of the house for longer than 5 minutes today. Went to a, quieter, local beach. Pretty cold today, and very, very windy, but lovely none the less and DD loved it! A lot more space to run around for her. A welcome break. Whilst quiet, still a fair number of people around. In better weather it would have been heaving, and we wouldn't have bothered.

boultdj

When I looked at the weather forecast for this weekend it came up as showers or heavy showers, so changed the meal plan to beef stew and dumplings, it's the wind that's cold, if you get in a sheltered spot it's quite warm, go round the corner and it feel's like it's back to winter.

prepareathome

Well, we are hunkering down as R has gone over 1 in our area and cases and deaths, it seems are increasing.  So hopefully have a small Iceland order coming Monday with the gaps in my stores plus a few bits coming over the next few days from Amazon.  Hopefully, if they decide to put our area in Lockdown my orders should still arrive.  
The way the government has been up till now is playing catch up so if they do decide to do it, the decision will not be made until Monday.

I am not surprised as last bank holiday every park in the area was packed and there were 10-mile tailbacks from the beaches which were crammed full.   So now we are suffering a perfect example of no social distancing and so transmission of virus increased and two weeks later numbers and deaths rise.  Textbook perfect.  

Hubby has said he is still willing to go shopping as some things cost more by buying online but he is nearly 66 ( pension in a month) and balding and a man which recent reports puts him in as nearly has high a chance of death as me if he catches it, so I would rather pay the extra.

I do have to go for bloods, so I plan to wear one of the 10 N95 masks I had in already with a normal one over it and gloves - those also I had in my stocks but only 100 of each as never thought of a pandemic when planning sadly.  More just bad flu and so didn't think would need masks long term.    I would defer them but cannot but I know nearest walk-in center that is doing them ( my Drs used to but not anymore since all this started) is running an appointment service so I will ring tomorrow as only just remembered before and arrange one.  I have plenty of hand gel as Avon are selling it now and my rep is making sure I get some and can stock up on it, especially for when the student goes back to Uni.

Speaking of masks I have ordered some of the metal strips you put over the nose and plan to get sewing them.  I have plenty of cottons but not sure thread count so ordered a 400 thread count single bedsheet from my favourite bedding shop on ebay, I know their quality is great and stands up well to bleaching and boiling ( female dogs and seasons mean daily bed changing, boiling and bleaching).    So this will be used for the inside next to face them can use the fancy cotton I have for outside and use good quality paper towels as filters until, if ever, I can actually get hold of filters. 

So now we wait and see what if anything changes now R over 1 here.

Si_Clist

prepareathome said:

... favourite bedding shop on ebay, I know their quality is great and stands up well to bleaching and boiling ...

Ooooooooooooh!  We're after some new sheets.  Care to whisper who that might be?

MoneySeeker1

This is where I'm confused and wondering what posters mean by "putting area into Lockdown" - as everywhere in the country is in Lockdown anyway - with most things shut and the added restrictions imposed on those of us in Wales and Scotland (grr!).

Presumably they mean changing from doing things "the English way" to doing things the "Welsh/Scottish" way:
- that "2 households" thing, rather than "6 people"
- that "no more than 5 miles if possible" thing

??