The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Karmacat

annieb64 said:

I'm so sorry, Thriftygifty. My Dad died in the autumn. My thoughts are with you.

Thriftygifty said:

Thanks everyone. Sorry for your loss Annie. 

I'm so sorry annie, I should have included you too in my condolences.  Autumn is no time at all for such a loss.  

[Deleted User]

Weather much milder today and the forecast is for it to be milder and frost free from now on so currently planting out 2 x types of sunflower and some outdoor tomatoes in the shelter of the garden shed in the back garden borders.  We also have lettuce (salad bowl cut and come again) ready to go out but the sparrows have eaten most of the early seedlings of the same variety we planted a week ago in a big deep container on the patio. so I'm in two minds as to whether to plant them in the border yet or not.  Ornamental grape (edible but pippy so used for jelly) and the thornless blackberry against the back fence both going off very nicely and leafing up well.

Prepping wise as things seem to be less immediate with the covid pandemic I'm starting to use some of the stocks and will replace them as the summer goes on into the autumn which should keep grocery bills down substantially for a while.

VJsmum

thriftwizard said:

So sorry to hear this, @Thriftygifty. Virtual {{{hugs}}} can't take the pain & sense of loss away, but we're all thinking of you. Also {{{hugs}}} for @annieb64; they say it takes at least 2 years to "get over" the loss of someone close and autumn's not very far behind us.

Just wish spring would hurry up! At least it's warmer and this morning's rain is proper gentle English drizzle rather than trainee-monsoon or hurricane.

Yes, hugs to for you Annie - I'm not sure i'm over the loss of my parents and they died 12 and 4 years ago so it is very early days for you too.

I agree about spring.. it'll soon be summer and there is little sign.  ALthough today and yesterday are noticeably warmer than recently.  I won't be growing much this year as i lost half my veg patch for a wood store - as i seem to be not a gifted gardener it isn't a huge loss to be fair.  i've a few carrots going and some runner beans;  i'll put a few beetroot and radishes in but i think that might be my lot.  I made so much chutney from my green tomatoes last year that i don't need to grow green tomatoes this year as we'll probably still not get through it all.

[Deleted User]

On the back of it being warmer we've taken out all the logs for the woodstove from the baskets in the lounge and stacked them back in the woodstore this morning and we have one bay of the 4 available 2/3 full still so I think we got the amount we bought in last year round about right.  We've looked this morning and the good supplier locally is still offering kiln dried, barn stored wood so we're going to order in a full load which will almost fill us up in the woodstores.  We had the chimney swept in January and have booked the sweep again in July to be ready for the winter.  I believe new legislation over emissions has now come into effect and only dried wood can be burned but I'm not certain when it began/begins from as law.  I like the feeling of being stocked with wood by the beginning of the summer and we like to let our burning wood carry on drying in the stores until we need it again in the later part of the autumn.

thriftwizard

@boazu, I'm picking up on a lot of people on social media throwing the book at those of us with stoves - "should be banned" "killing the rest of us to be fashionable" "irresponsible" "uncaring" are the least of it, which is horrifying me; I'm not going to get rid of ours, though others have declared their intent to have theirs ripped out & return to a "more natural" open fire, which, of course, is worse!  But the anti-commenters don't seem to realise that. I can't get my head around the sheer vitriol; we have a stove because we live in a cold & draughty old house, which it would cost a fortune to retro-fit to modern standards, not to keep up with anyone. It's lovely and a real draw on cold evenings, plus we can & do use it to keep casseroles simmering etc.; however we didn't do it to be fashionable, but just to be warm. It's a pretty efficient one and you only see the merest wisp of smoke when we first light it, but sadly some of our neighbours will burn absolutely anything (free) and quite often we see black plastic-smelling smoke belching from their chimneys, which I think possibly should be picked up on. But does that make me the same as those who think anyone with a stove should be pilloried?

We do have mains gas here, but a number of my local friends don't, and the 'leccy's not 100% reliable in winter; aging infrastructure, so the mains runs down our road inside an iron pipe which is now rather rusty & "blows" every now & then. The housing stock is mostly old & not likely to be "upgraded" for all sorts of reasons - e.g. listing, "special architectural interest" or lack of resources. For some of us, stoves are the only reliable way to keep warm. I'm rather horrified at the blame-slinging, as I was when people started on anyone who drives a diesel. I need my van to earn my living, such as it is; petrol vehicles struggle to haul any weight up & down our hills & electric vans, so far, are only really for the likes of florists. Sometimes it seems that people will just turn on anything they've been told is to blame for all their woes, and at times like this I can well believe in the zombie hordes!

Don't think I'll be using that old Scots blessing, "Lang may your lum reek," any time soon...

[Deleted User]

Hi Thrifty, we had this new stove installed when we moved here almost 3 years ago and we went pretty thoroughly into the changes to legal running of stoves and what the new spec would be with the installers before we ordered.  We have a Dik Guerts specified 'wood burner' with a dedicated wood burning solid flat base, it burns clean and clear and we only burn fully dried and fully seasoned wood.  We can only burn wood, nothing else.  We get a little smoke when lighting it up, every stove does that but it's pretty smokeless as it's an ash burner  when it's away and we're left with the tiniest bit of powdery ash in the bottom of the stove the next day.  We have a relatively modern house but it's not very well heated, the previous owners have installed arty farty tall cylinder radiators and it's a massive room that is lounge with an extension that doubled its size linked to a fair sized dining area .  The kitchen is even colder as they had a full width extension put across the back of the house but left just the one small single radiator in the upper part that was the original kitchen so we need the stove to warm the whole area up when it's very cold (and it gets very cold here).  The stove is a comfort and conforms to the recently introduced new specifications so I'm happy to keep on using it and staying snug in the winters.

annieb64

thriftwizard said:

So sorry to hear this, @Thriftygifty. Virtual {{{hugs}}} can't take the pain & sense of loss away, but we're all thinking of you. Also {{{hugs}}} for @annieb64; they say it takes at least 2 years to "get over" the loss of someone close and autumn's not very far behind us.

Just wish spring would hurry up! At least it's warmer and this morning's rain is proper gentle English drizzle rather than trainee-monsoon or hurricane.

Even after nearly six months I keep thinking "must tell Dad that when I phone".You are right it does take time. 
I must admit of being a bit tired of having to listen to the "everything is taking extra time because of covid" spiel every time I phone a bank or investment  company while trying to deal with Dad's  estate. He didn't  have a lot of money but he seemed to like to spread his investments. He also seems to have kept every bit of official  paperwork  which he has received over the last forty years!

Nargleblast

annieb64, you just have to deal with one bit of admin at a time. You will get through it all eventually, and then you will have a lot of paper shredding to do. My OH kept payslips going back to the 1970s - for heaven's sake, why?

euronorris

Annie, I'm sorry for your loss also. I hope you are doing ok.

It's super frustrating, but so many financial institutions are backlogged due to covid. I often have to call them for information about new clients policies and its not uncommon for me to be on hold for an hour and then be told it will take '10 working days' to issue the information! Some are better than others, but sadly some are still working on very outdated systems.

I hope you can work through all the paperwork soon. It can be very time consuming (I have done it for clients before). Take breaks when you need to.

MrsCD

@annieb64, it would have been my mam's birthday this Friday, and when someone suggested it as a date for coming to do some work in Dad's bungalow, my dad and I looked at each other and wondered if it would be ok. My mam  passed away two years ago.  It takes as long as it takes....you know how you feel. My thoughts are with you. xx