Yep, That's pretty much it Jansman. I can remember Dad putting down fresh clinker each winter. He riddled out the cinders and then wet them down and packed them into the old stuff. I used to *ahem* help by running up and down the freshly laid clinker to pack it down. Dad used to use the garden roller(does anyone still have one?? Just a note, try to avoid falling over on new cinders.... not only do your knees get shredded but the pain from a mother's teatowel as it tweaks you for getting mucky just adds insult to injury.
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain~anon
Brambles wrote:Yep, That's pretty much it Jansman. I can remember Dad putting down fresh clinker each winter. He riddled out the cinders and then wet them down and packed them into the old stuff. I used to *ahem* help by running up and down the freshly laid clinker to pack it down. Dad used to use the garden roller(does anyone still have one?? Just a note, try to avoid falling over on new cinders.... not only do your knees get shredded but the pain from a mother's teatowel as it tweaks you for getting mucky just adds insult to injury.
I can remember my uncle definitely adding water and mixing it into a type of mortar or screen which he then smoothed with a float . I could very well be wrong about him adding cement or lime , I was pretty young at the time with far more "important" things on my mind than laying paths.
I still have a roller and surprise surprise it used to be my father's . To be honest I've used it more often for rolling felt flat on a roof than I have in the garden , mind it does take some getting up on a roof in the first place. Luckily it does come apart.
Bought 3 apple trees, 2 plum,1cherry from Tescos. £10 for 2. Going to plant them as soon as and keep my fingers crossed until I get fencing sorted. Had a lovely bed of winter broccoli which the one and only roe deer in the wood nearby came and ate to the ground
On friday I popped into sainsburys looking for powdered milk. When I paid I got a voucher for bonus nectar points. They were doing promotion and I got 5000 Worked out to be £25 which I spent today on more stores.
Had a bit of reorganisation of my GHB yesterday, keeping the aldi down sleeping bag in there now as it takes up hardly any room, and as you do, I tweaked a few other bits and bobs.
Currently got some pasta on the dehydrator, a lesson learned from this site, you can make your own 'quick cook' pasta by boiling the normal stuff and then re-dehydrating it. It only takes about 5 or 6 minutes to soften the second time. Got a wee trip coming up so something else to tick off the preps list.
Deeps wrote:Currently got some pasta on the dehydrator, a lesson learned from this site, you can make your own 'quick cook' pasta by boiling the normal stuff and then re-dehydrating it. It only takes about 5 or 6 minutes to soften the second time. Got a wee trip coming up so something else to tick off the preps list.
Do you crumble it, Deeps, or let it keep its original shape? I do wonder about that sort of thing - if fuel was really short, I'd be bringing pasta to the boil as normal and then putting it into a wide-mouthed vacuum flask I bought for 50p at a charity shop, letting it finish in there.... that said, I've vowed to use my dehydrator much more this year.
I just leave it 'as is', I've not had the need to break it up but you could, it would save space and it wouldn't affect the flavour. I packet it up into individual portions and if I'm using it with a home made dehydrated meal I throw them in together, usually the dehydrated meal first as they take a wee bit longer, it saves on gas and washing pots.
Dad used to use the garden roller(does anyone still have one?? Just a note, try to avoid falling over on new cinders.... not only do your knees get shredded but the pain from a mother's teatowel as it tweaks you for getting mucky just adds insult to injury. 
Worked out to be £25 which I spent today on more stores.
