The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Floss

@grace68 It is reckoned that antibodies only last about 6-8 months, so if you DID have Covid in March 2020 there will probably be few antibodies by now.

greenbee

Floss said:

@grace68 It is reckoned that antibodies only last about 6-8 months, so if you DID have Covid in March 2020 there will probably be few antibodies by now.

I had none at approx 5 months. T-cell testing might reveal more but is expensive and not particularly useful outside a research setting.

mothernerd

I was worried as I spent most of this month's food budget on meat and cheese (mostly to go in the freezer) as another layer of EU protection goes in October which means more paperwork and our gubbernment couldn't organise a raffle or write a simple form to save their lives (and seem to have no interest in whether anyone outside their immediate circle lives or dies - sorry if that's too political, willing to delete if it offends people).  

I made one or two small spaces in the freezer and can fit lots of meat and cheese in a small space - with unpack it and put it in labelled bags and take it out as I need it. Mum's fridge freezer is full as she dictated a shopping list several weeks ago predicated on her making fish pie (haddock, salmon and prawns which I am not allowed to use - don't think she's ever costed her dishes) meat and potato pie and a meat pie. Now ten years ago she could do all that regularly but in the last five years its been a once a week or more like once a month event. However I'm picking my battles carefully and will just wait for the penny to drop (and work my way slowly through the mountain of frozen fish I'm allowed to eat).

She's feeling better for which I am grateful. Her appetite was reduced and then she got the idea that I was using her money to buy all manner of exotic foodstuffs which I was hoarding in my room and that she was 'living on jam and bread' (and tinned soups, rice pudding, fruit, tuna, many different fresh fruits to tempt her to eat, marmalade which I ordered as I'd seen the jar was nearly empty - maybe she thinks there's a SM fairy who fills the cupboards. Despite all the money I'm allegedly spending, her bank balance is still going up.

So trying to restock the cupboards (and the bottom of two wardrobes in my room and the soupery in her room) without a litany of complaints. I'm still in limbo land - living at mum's bungalow. She's decided she 'can manage' and I should go back to my home except the last two times she's been really ill were in the middle of the night - I had to get her back to her bed and her legs kept going from under her. As we got to her bedroom door I felt my own knee crack, wondered briefly what would happen if we both went on the floor and decided it wasn't an option. 

At the same time as saying she wants me to go home, she locks the doors at teatime (back to the routine she had for her partner who had dementia - he's been dead more than 2 years and was in a care home for the last 18 months of his life), I didn't get to go to my house at all in July and only got as far as town twice and in May when I went to vote and told her I would be staying to wait for a workman she had DS2 and DS1 phoning and messaging at 6 pm because she didn't know where I was.

So I've told her that for the time being I will continue to sleep at her house (I use a CPAP machine and don't want to lug it back and forth) will stay if she's unwell, if she has an appointment or we are expecting a delivery but will try to go home (or shopping or even just for a walk) for at least a few hours on some days (my aim is 2 but struggling to do it once a week atm). I really enjoy the days I 'escape'. I knew I would probably be here longer than the original 3 month lock down but local lock down and then being in the highest tier extended it. My first low point was in October last year when I was hoping to do the 2 days to myself bit - at some points I haven't been allowed to go inside my house (mixing 2 households) or even just to sit in my own back yard (DS3 would sit inside the kitchen door and chat to me).

I had a meeting with the Practice Nurse a couple of weeks ago for my diabetic review but managed to squeeze in most of a mental health review (not the formal list but lots of issues came out whilst discussing my eating habits and my bandaged up ankle (mum wanted a birthday card with both 21st and grand-daughter on it, so what should have been a brief shopping trip - out of the taxi to get some diy items, straight across to the SM to spend a 10 pound survey voucher and taxi back - became twice as long as I had to go in the opposite direction and barely able to walk.

So the appointment let me vent. I accept that nothing about the way I look, anything I say or do or even who I am, will ever be good enough/ right for mum but I like me, so that's okay. I will continue to do what needs to be done for mum but will prioritise my own mental health. Sorry for taking up so much of your time (it wasn't meant to be a therapy session).

Several years ago I stocked mum up with soup for the winter. She can manage to heat a can of soup unless she's really ill so has one most days (with me doing a proper meal for her other meal). I ordered 10 - 12 of each of the varieties she likes and stored them in the bottom of one of the floor to ceiling cupboards in her spare room (now her bedroom), henceforth known as the soupery. She has very little kitchen space (mainly because she insisted on bringing far too many pots and useless gadgets from the 'hovel') so each week I fill the allocated 6 soup spaces with a variety. Despite everyone's scorn, the system worked very well so the second year I extended it to include items she used a lot with a long shelf life - beetroot, branston, cooking sauces, horlicks, tinned fruit (including prunes and grapefruit to top her porridge) and rice pudding.

Mum has no immune system and mine is compromised so from September to March we catch anything going, take a long time to get over it and mum suffers more than the average person (not sure sometimes if we have flu mitigated by the flu jab or just coughs/ colds/ sore throats which leave us as limp as dishrags) so the soupery is invaluable for when one or other of us is unwell (we have food deliveries but I used to top up with small shops and odd items mum wanted from different places). We both have a history of falls when it snows, so not needing to go out if that happens was part of my strategy.

Last year the autumn stock up was running out and I reordered (only about 3 months soups as different things needed in summer) in late January or early February. When I moved in the week before official lock down, I brought anything my son and his gf wouldn't use from my home stocks (mainly tinned pulses) and lots of herbs, spices and condiments - mum is a jar of cooking sauce person and lacked many things I use regularly. I did two mini shops after the hordes had been and gone (Morries on Wednesday afternoon, Little Arseda on the Friday) and those supplies saw us through the first six weeks before we were able to get a delivery (mum is clinically highly vulnerable but it was weeks before we got the letter) including a few bits for Easter. 

I had a polytunnel delivered on the Friday and set off growing what I could initially using any seeds I had and the limited amount of garden space mum allowed me. I ordered some veg plants to cover gaps that I hadn't had seeds for (or they hadn't taken). I did quite well despite mum pulling up parsnips and beetroot when they were only an inch long (weeds), throwing away peppers that were going wrinkly - hadn't swelled to their final size and casting aspersions on some of my other crops (what part of 40 week growing season did she not understand - I made her go and apologise to those cabbages when they grew). Most of all it gave me somewhere to go and helped me keep sane.

I've done a lot more this year (mum has conceded the back yard to me) but without a polytunnel and I have spent a lot of time building the structure of the garden (digging borders out until they were flat, adding a layer of stones to bring them to the height of the flags, installing a variety of raised beds and containers and then filling and planting). Most of my seeds were grown on my bedroom windowsill and potted on into the bottom halves of 2 l plastic bottles and in recent weeks I've harvested broad beans and dwarf beans, the first bed of plum tomatoes, courgettes and ridge cucumbers (lots more to come), potatoes (main crop is planted in 2 small filing cabinets behind the shed) and broccoli tops. Cabbages and other brassicas are coming along fine (I gave them most space last year as they were next to no effort - hm cardboard cabbage collars) and I haves a few more things I want to set off/ put in the spaces left by harvesting. I could do more with more time or money (mum's cousin made me 3 raised beds and I was promised his grandson to help with the heavy digging for a small monetary reward but mum decided i could manage so I've just plodded on (DS2 helped with tidying for several hours last Saturday - he can do in minutes what takes me hours spaced over several days)

So I will keep doing what I can despite opposition/ obstruction and visitations of idiots (mum's partners relatives) - some of them are not all bad just collectively a pain, insisting that all of life is a risk (not their lives they're gambling with), they don't need to wear masks and believe everything they read in 'the paper that supported Hitler'.

[Deleted User]

I post regularly on Flylady and frugal living but have always lurked on here.

One of my jobs over the next week is to put together an ‘emergency’ box in the event of loss of power / heat etc. So far on my (rather short!) list I have a torch, head torch, candles and matches. What would you add as bare basics please? 

I have a woodburner and LPG gas radiators. Always have lots of (free 😉) wood at home.

Foodstuffs I am on with - I already have a well stocked larder. 

Thank you xx

Karmacat

mothernerd, you're amazing in your dedication to your mum.  I'm so sorry you're struggling so hard yourself, and that your mum doesn't realise the amount of work you do on her behalf.

sparklyblonde - sounds like you've done well!  Is the woodburner ready to use, chimney swept and whatnot?  Batteries for the torches?  

I've ended up with rather a lot of candles  but at least they don't go off.  I also have quite a few types of camping stove, but not a huge amount of each type of fuel.  Enough, though.  And I've just restocked the tins, though more is always good.  

Si_Clist

Deleted_User said:

... One of my jobs over the next week is to put together an ‘emergency’ box in the event of loss of power / heat etc. So far on my (rather short!) list I have a torch, head torch, candles and matches. What would you add as bare basics please?

Get a power bank or two for your mobile phones, and check your first aid kit.  Our experiences in the 1987 hurricane taught us that the longer you're without power, the greater the risk of accidents.  Maybe also add anything which may help keep kids occupied when their phones and the internet can't?

euronorris

My craft boxes for little one are well stocked for that reason @Si_Clist I remember last year it wasn't easy to get hold of certain things in that area, so have added to it throughout the year and purchased some halloween and Xmas craft bits (to replace last years) as soon as they became available this year. I'm sure some people think me mad for it, but I know from experience that things go out of stock very quickly and I expect that to be worse this year.

I am wondering about making one of those insulated fabric bags that you can use to continue a long, slow cook of things. I forget the name. But they seem like a good idea to have to save what little cooking power may be available in the event of gas/electricity being shut off for whatever reason. 

Si_Clist

Deleted_User said:

... I have a woodburner ...

Just going back to this, if you're serious about being prepared, I'd suggest having a practice run or two to see what you can actually knock up by way of hot drinks and food using the woodburner and whatever implements you already have.  If nothing else, it might highlight something that would be worth getting.  That's how we found out we needed a "Welsh baking stone" aka slab of steel plate ...

C_J

After years of hankering after one, our woodburner is finally being installed in a fortnight's time. I see you can buy an expensive cast iron lidded pan in which to bake potatoes on the top of the stove - I was intending to have a go at using one of my smaller Le Creuset casserole dishes for this. Has anyone ever done this? Advice?  Thanks!

CCW007

Si-Clist's post sent me off to look at cooking on a woodburner and I found this site which is interesting:

How to cook on a wood stove - Our Tiny Homestead