What Preps are you doing this week

[moocher]

got my birthday present early I asked for gutters to grow strawberries in on the fence line, although you can use them to grow other thing in. The other half thinks I am mad but hey ho who doesn't have eccentricities

banshie13

To me that just sounds like a sane use of space

I tried that last year,and a hard downpour blasted the soil out of them. My strawberries are now in 3 fence pots and a unwanted parrot cage

[jansman]

The gutter growing space is rather a good idea. Got me thinking. Thankyou.

[nickdutch]

Picked myself up three butterfly tin openers. The reason for that is just incase one of them gets mucked up and I only have one... makes sense. Also the big expensive good looking tin openers with price tags to match the swagger of their sexiness really don't work very well (as past experience shows!) in the bigger picture and don't last much longer than the cheap ugly ones.

I am sure there are some people who do entertaining of big expensive people who need to have a tin opener to match the style of their kitchen, and for them its a (social) survival issue, but I aint one of them so it aint a survival issue for me.

Also picked up another 100 tea lights as wilkinsons was doing a bags worth for £2.

I was contemplating buying more bioethanol for the bioethanol fireplace, but there is an issue with that and that is that I still have a fair chunk of that left over from the previous year and if the only issue that I can forsee is a short term power cut, then I can't really justify buying another 24 or so litres.

[tolerance]

Hey guys and girls hope all is well.

I have officially fallen in love with elderberries this week. cant believe its taken me all my life to discover by far the tastiest wild plant I have come across to date.

I have started buying Prickly Pear cactus as well.....
Because its a great food source and it takes next to no looking after its brilliant


I had a strange realisation the other day I am sure some of you may have felt this way as well.
I was just thinking about prepping and why we do it and so forth and it really hit me how prepared I am now compared to 4 years ago when I started prepping. I don't know how I survived without it for so many years, I honestly must have been living in a bubble.

I felt quite overwhelmed by it all momentarily, Prepping has given me so much, but most of all a sense of real independence and freedom,

With that independence and freedom though I think it makes us Preppers realise how vulnerable as people we all are. It also makes us realise how un prepared our 'Society' truly is.

Before I started prepping I never thought about where the food comes from on the shelves in the supermarkets, It never occurred to me that power cuts can last longer than 2 or 3 hours, Or that people are willing to do what ever it takes to feed their families.
Now though nearly every part of my life is effected by prepping I could live an ok life without ever having to spend another £1 ever again thanks to prepping, Its taught me that the basics in life are all we need. We become so conditioned to buying this buying that and being part of this huge consumerist nation, That we lose touch with the things like food and water the necessities of life that we really need.

Prepping isn't a hobby or a fad or a paranoia its a way of life...

We have a different outlook to most, we don't get our needs and wants in life confused like most,


Its an amazing feeling to have that true independence and self reliance.
its a constant learning curve I learn new stuff all the time but its brilliant because as preppers we have so many different avenues and directions we can take, it almost seems never ending.

The worries of day to day life just seem to dissipate when you are a prepper, Does anyone else feel like this ? It just truly gives you a sense of control over your own life.


Sorry if I went on a bit.

[SooBee]

I like how you go on so please feel free. So many people seem to think that prepping is either too time consuming or just too much like unnecessary hard work. I think it is purposeful fun.

I am up to my neck in plums and apples - from a neighbour's garden. Today's task is to make pies and pie fillings for the freezer. I like to mix the plums with apples for pies. Yesterday I did several plum crumbles and added those to the freezer stocks.

Our local wild elderberries have done well and I intend to make jelly with them.
I can recommend elderberry port too if you want to give that a try for the winter ahead.

Next come the jams again...great with sponge puddings as a sauce.

[nickdutch]

Its an amazing feeling to have that true independence and self reliance.
its a constant learning curve I learn new stuff all the time but its brilliant because as preppers we have so many different avenues and directions we can take, it almost seems never ending.

The worries of day to day life just seem to dissipate when you are a prepper, Does anyone else feel like this ? It just truly gives you a sense of control over your own life.


Sorry if I went on a bit.

No-one, no matter what, is EVER totally self reliant and no-one no matter what is EVER totally independant. We are all connected and take each others time to help each other out and bring each other up.

Maybe I could say that I am less reliant....

You could say that a totally independant person would be in solitary confinement, but then he or she would still need a system to maintain the cells!

But, you are right. Knowing i have a first aid kit and a fire blanket and a few tins of food does make me feel a lot happier, even if having the foo in stock is just there to help with cash flow, its all moving in the right direction.

This way I should never need to blag money out of anyone, nor use a food bank and won't ever need to steal if I end up in the shtook. . . . .

. . . . .hopefully

[FEISTY]

got my birthday present early I asked for gutters to grow strawberries in on the fence line, although you can use them to grow other thing in. The other half thinks I am mad but hey ho who doesn't have eccentricities

banshie13

To me that just sounds like a sane use of space

I tried that last year,and a hard downpour blasted the soil out of them. My strawberries are now in 3 fence pots and a unwanted parrot cage

I think Jansman's comment about the soil being blasted out is relevant - given up on lightweight pots in my garden for the same reason - they also get blown all over the place in the inevitable winter storms and you would have to make sure you kept them watered in dry spells. They were talking about this very subject on the radio on Friday and Bob Flowerdew has given up on guttering and now plants one strawberry plant to a bucket, which I think would be easier to look after. If I were you, I'd Duck tape (or similar) mulching fabric over the whole guttering (not pretty, but neither is soil and damaged plants all over the place either) after you've filled it with compost and plant through crosses cut into that. You really will have to keep on top of watering and feeding. A drip feed right across the top of the compost, underneath the fabric would be perfect, but takes a bit more planning. I do know that 95% of the plants I've lost through being too busy to get out there and water have been in small containers or shallow soil and now the only time I use them is for seedlings and growing on. The sooner I can get them into deep soil or big planters the better. Having said all that, you are more likely than us to have better weather for strawberries, so I hope you have a bumper crop next year. Just to add, I think my husband has seen the benefits of the veg/fruit production in the garden this year and seems to be more interested in it. I'm seriously considering getting some ornamental bushes/trees replaced with those that give a crop too. Sadly, I have to report that my Heirloom Squash came to nothing (flowering and dropping off) when they started off so well and became triffids. I can only assume that they need constant sunshine/water/feed and are one of those things that I can't grow at the moment because I don't have the time and set-up for that. I'll maybe try again in the future. How are you fixing your guttering to the fence?

[jansman]

Hi Feisty. It was Moocher's comment about the soil.

[FEISTY]

Hi Feisty. It was Moocher's comment about the soil.

Oops! That's what happens when you're multi-tasking. Jack of all trades, master of none! Sorry Moocher!

[Yorkshire Andy]

i err ended up in lidl again....



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a Led wind up torch for £4