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THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

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  • DigForVictory
    DigForVictory Posts: 11,903
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    edited 11 March 2018 at 4:44PM
    I'm a huge fan of pigs. The long snouted sorts are champion earthmovers, ploughing far more enthusiastically than any polluting machine, and not only do they eat almost everything, they manure the plot as well.

    Only problems are they can be escape artists, there's a pack of legislation & paperwork involved & you get human idiots coming over to gawk & or try to pet (or worse, feed) them. That aside, every allotment should have a pig available.

    As who else will rotovate constructively, fertilise, reproduce & make sausage, gammon etc when you need to load the freezer? (Hold on [if you can] til they've cleared any fruit windfalls - adds a glorious flavour!)

    Oh yes, and they are less fuss than teenage boys on at least four counts. Frankly, child labour is wildly overrated compared to pigs, who do not sulk if you refuse to lend your car [just one of the four agreed with a welsh pig breeder who is also mother of teenage lads.]

    ETA I googled & Pigs *Do* Eat Chickweed. Frankly, offspring dropping in my estimation.
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008
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    :) The humble porker is the foundation of peasant agriculture in northern Europe, much in the way that goats are for the Med and the Near/ Mid East.

    Wonderful things, pigs: amiable, intelligent, useful and, let's not beat about the bush, so very very tasty........... :rotfl:

    I would love to have the loaner of a porker or two for the new-to-me plot but alas, they're banned on lottie sites in this city.

    I haven't yet had the paperwork for the new plot, only the news I'm to get it, paperwork-to-follow, via email last Thursday, so I'm not doing a stroke until I have signed on the dotted line, in case it falls thru.

    :o I have prowled around on it, taken several photies with my new digi camera, and eyed up some useful as well as useless truck. I'm hoping ye outgoing tenant has left those items for moi but it's too early to start putting my mitts on things.

    I have moved 0.6 of a tonne of spent barley grains & a few hops from the communal pile to my lottie, each barrowload representing a 10 minute round trip. And forked them in, leaving that section of the lottie looking rather like a cake mix. It is an embryonic potato patch, am working towards sowing on Good Friday. I have volunteered my Dad to come and help and he's agreed with minimal resistance.;)

    Lottie II is 3.5 paces wide (some of that will be lost to a path) and 33m long. It contains; an unproductive plum tree, a compost bin, a compost bin with no bottom, a garden incinerator in good nick (:j), a wheelie bin, broken trellis, a rotting builders bag full of rubbish, lots and lots of loose rubbish and some things like crockery (half buried, will need further investigation).

    It's also couch grass from one end to the other, up and down like the ocean wave, and full of pernicious weeds.Betcha there will be a lot of grubs in that soil; leather-jackets, chafer grubs, cut-worms. The birds will have a field day, I've had blackbirds fighting over Lottie I with me on it today, for the rights to grubble in the soil.

    :beer: I'm so excited I can hardly wait to get on there with Cold Steel and my steel-toed DMs and show it who's da boss!
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • westcoastscot
    westcoastscot Posts: 1,404
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    Interesting to hear the rotovator stories :-)
    We loved ours - it did sterling work for many years on our working croft. Nothing really got the chance to grow back as we were all over it every day - we did keep a pair of pigs from spring to autumn who did a permanent job of clearing the ground.
    Best thing ever for clearing the ground infested with bracken? We were taken off the hill once by the RAF, on a medical evac - they couldn't drive us along the track to meet them (4 miles off road) so asked where best to land. I recalled that way back a nearby bits had been a tennis court, but now a field of bracken, so they hovered over it to make sure no big stones were in the way and landed. The bracken never recovered - it was amazing!!
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    edited 12 March 2018 at 6:56PM
    OK, not one to procrastinate, I decided I should assemble a Hospital Grab Bag, and here it is.
    11c8kdx.jpg

    Working clockwise from the bag itself, the items are:-

    Bath Towel
    Lip Balm
    Razor and Cartridges
    Shaving Gel
    Toothpaste
    Toothbrushes
    Soap
    Toilet Wipes
    Paper Handkerchiefs
    Slippers
    Pyjamas
    Plimsolls
    Underpants
    Reading Glasses
    Socks x 2 pairs
    Mobile Phone Charger
    Radio
    AA Batteries x 12 (6 sets for the radio)
    Headphones
    Paperback Book

    Still to be added is:-
    List of Medications
    List of useful Phone Numbers
    Money.

    Anything I've missed anyone?

    BTW: It occurs to me, it'll double as an emergency overnight bag, if I have to evacuate to a local church hall etc., or charge off to a relative/friend, at the other end of the country/world.

    EDIT: Added one item. A can of Deodorant.

    Not going to retake the photo for that.
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008
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    :) Looks pretty comprehensive, BB. Although at the rate I read, I'd need a couple of books.

    What about some deodorant? A fabric eyeshade such as you get for free in a complementary kit on some flights? Cutting out ambient light might help you rest better.

    :D I signed for my lottie this afternoon (electonically speaking), paid for it and charged up there on the pushbike and spent 80 miutes hauling stuff about and building a mahoosive bonfire pile. Gonna let things dry out in the heap for a couple of weeks (it's built around some knackered trellis so plenty of air circulating) then it'll be burn, baby, burn. :D

    Nights are really starting to pull out, I left at 6.30 pm and it wasn't fully dark then.
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • GreyQueen wrote: »
    What about some deodorant?

    Already spotted that and added it, but thanks for the suggestion.
    A fabric eyeshade such as you get for free in a complementary kit on some flights? Cutting out ambient light might help you rest better.

    Good idea. I'll get one tomorrow, and maybe some earplugs too.

    When I was in the other week, there was a guy in the bed opposite who could sleep not just for England, but for Scotland, Ireland and Wales too, and boy could he snore!!!
  • One thing that does occur is, what if I was to become unconscious en-route to hospital?

    They'd need to know what medications I'm on, and what I'm allergic to.

    Putting those details in a note, inside the bag, might mean they get missed.

    Any ideas?
  • Bigjenny
    Bigjenny Posts: 601
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    edited 12 March 2018 at 7:47PM
    Not particularly related to Bedsit Bob's post but it might be worth getting one of these http://www.lions105sw.org.uk/district-projects/message-in-a-bottle/, to keep in the fridge, they come with a sticker to place on the front door, especially if anyone live on their own.

    I got mine from the Boots Pharmacy as my Doctors Practice didn't know about them, not sure where else they are available from.
    "When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us" Alexander Graham Bell
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008
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    edited 12 March 2018 at 7:59PM
    Bedsit_Bob wrote: »
    One thing that does occur is, what if I was to become unconscious en-route to hospital?

    They'd need to know what medications I'm on, and what I'm allergic to.

    Putting those details in a note, inside the bag, might mean they get missed.

    Any ideas?
    :) Get SOS Talisan or a MedicAlert. You can get pendants or bracelet style. Medics and first aiders are trained to look for them. My lifesaving meds are listed in my SOS pendant, along with everything from next-of-kin, blood type, GP, consultant, NHS number, hospital number etc etc.

    The hospital have registered me with the local ambulance trust, so they know what to do if they find me in X. Y or z states. It only links to my home address, so no good if I'm taken ill/ injured elsewhere. I have some rather interesting and life-threatening health problems........
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • You know GQ, you mentioning SOS Talisman has struck a chord.

    I have the strangest feeling, that there's one in the house, somewhere.

    Now if I can just remember where it is.
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