The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

elaine241

I registered for Bookers and had a wander round as my card wouldn't work even though I was "set up". They were limiting business customers to three Large bags of flour (any type) and three large containers of oil so shortages are expected and shop keepers and restaurants are being limited to what they can buy.

Today I managed to make a cold frame out of a scavenged frame and re using the remains of my poly tunnel cover secured by cable ties. Sounds v heath Robinson but it is very functional and I can fit several seed trays and pots in easily. I have lined the base with the bricks salvaged from old storage heaters hoping they will absorb some heat and radiate it out at night when it is cold. It is placed against a brick wall again to try and capture some heat. The poly tunnel sheet has also covered several raised beds hoping to keep in the heat and keep it dry so I can work the soil once the mini ice age that's going to hit us finally disappears in a few weeks!

 Typical! We start lambing from about Tuesday, we have had a few already, and the poor little mites are going to be freezing cold unless we try and bring them indoors. Trouble is the ewes really do not like being indoors and will stress , fret and may not have any milk as a result, we can not win! Best we can do is hope they lamb outside , we spot them quickly, and get them into a pen asap.

LadOnTheHill

I noticed shortages of oil in Bookers a couple of weeks ago, but it was only the huge containers. Perhaps they've had trouble getting them in and are limiting buying accordingly.

I've been down the garden today and harvested some of the kalettes that were bolting. It's quite tasty, similar to purple sprouting. No problems with pests, either, apart from some whitefly. The cabbage white butterflies left them alone too, which surprised me. I'll definitely be growing them again.

LadyHarriet

LadOnTheHill said:

I've been down the garden today and harvested some of the kalettes that were bolting. It's quite tasty, similar to purple sprouting. No problems with pests, either, apart from some whitefly. The cabbage white butterflies left them alone too, which surprised me. I'll definitely be growing them again.

I wish I'd been able to grow brassicas (ANY brassicas!). We love kalettes and I swear the message went out to every bloomin' cabbage-loving pest in Devon last year 

euronorris

I avoid brassicas due to the pests. I can't keep them well covered enough to keep the pests out, so just don't bother with them.

The elephant garlic I planted in the autumn ia coming along nicely. Some volunteer radishes, and what I presume are volunteer flowers, have also sprung up in the trug.

I managed to get my potatoes in, and my onion sets, and I started off some tomato, pepper and mange tout in my s3edling tray and brought that inside onto the windowshelf. Didn't have the energy for anything else as stoll battling a cold. I do plan to get some more stuff started off soon though, hopefully this weekend.

RAS

Happy_Sloth said:

RAS said:

Oil - sunflower and the healthier rape seed (assuming not allergic) aka vegetable oil back in stock after a ropey fortnight, and budget pasta. Microwave rice still very erratic but got basmati for the foodbank.

Can't get ginger biscuits.

.... there better NOT be a ginger biscuit shortage that would be a disaster. 

And..

Just when I mention it, they re-appear for the first time in about 2 months.

Supplies are just really erratic. The other supermarket now have veggie baby food again after a similar interval when it was all meat, or nothing on the shelf.

Must try and pot on the lettuce seedlings ASAP and the leeks are just germinating.

DigForVictory

Husband leafing through adverts for rucksacks (being rebadged as bug out bags) pointed out the new “refugee” bags which hitch onto the rucksack waist strap. The look like the old fashioned perambulator, with a bike hitch.

When TEOTWAWKI lands, I will TWOC something from the riding school (Himself thinks a wildeyed French ration pack a bad idea for some reason - to each their corners of experience)

Si_Clist

DigForVictory said:

 ... When TEOTWAWKI lands, I will TWOC something ...

Had to laugh last night when reading a book about the Gulf wars.  I'd met TEWT before, that being a Tactical Exercise Without Troops i.e. a paper exercise, but its nocturnal counterpart the NEWD was new to me.  It's a Night Exercise Without Darkness ...

pollyanna_26

Does anyone recall Vanoonoos original SHTF threads? Lots of excellent info there but we seemed to have a huge focus on Zombies heading our way  over the hill and devised some pretty bizarre solutions, GQ used to remind us of tin foil hats and OPSEC,

I pinned the whole thing before Zippy started the new one and there were some very helpful posts on many subjects,

I remember Bedsit Bob who trawled the shops looking for bargain helpful gadgets and there was lots of info on numerous subjects.

There were supposed to be links to it but I never found them though I still have the entire thing.

I think you're farming in Wales Elaine and there's probably a similar thing there, Cumbria , Lancashire and up through Northern regions in to Scotland lambs have hand knitted woolly jumpers to get them through the cold seasons. Often knitted by volunteers but I've met shepherds and their families who knit to keep the lambs warm in bitter weather.

RAS my mum used to make her own ginger Biscuits and cakes in the 50s and 60s using powdered or  jarred ginger.

The nearest big city was Liverpool very cosmopolitan, And many ethnic communities who settled there brought their foods and ingredients  to the markets.

To this day Chinatown and many other communities are there. My dad and both Grandads were looked at as strange on their allotments as they grew Garlic and  some less common herbs.

I think the Grandads must have been growing Ransomes as they grew wild in Ireland before they crossed the Irish Sea.

When my dad left the Royal Navy after his escorting the Convoys duty in WW2,He retrained as a Chef spending time abroad in the Knorr kitchens and made some wonderful soups sauces and other things.

He was growing Garlic as I always have although here on the coast wild garlic and other things pop up from time to time.

My organic flat leaved Parsley has turned perennial as have other herbs so hands off gardening .

I did grow a tall shelter bed before planting the garden and it's created a micro climate.

pollyx

thriftwizard

I've been lucky enough to be given a cold frame by a neighbour who wasn't using it & needed the space back. It's a big one; two of the glass roof panes were missing but I've replaced them with acrylic panels; literally 1/10th the price of a similar new cold frame, including postage. I've also been turning KeyKegs from a local pub into big bell-cloches & have refurbished an old but still-working large propagator that another neighbour gave me when she gave up her plot. It's not a standard size - about 2½ normal seed-trays - and had lost its rigid lid, but I've made it a new one with bent wire & thick clear-ish polythene from a deceased polytunnel cover. It has variable temperature control, which is wonderful; my "seed mat" was literally roasting my poor seedlings at about 40℃. So hopefully there will be vegetables! But after last year, I'm taking nothing for granted...

annieb64

Wonder what happened to Bedsit Bob. Didn't he have a cat?

I'm  slowly building up my stores again after moving. We probably won't be able to grow much this year but DD has an allotment and is generous about passing on any surplus.