What Preps are you doing this week? Part 5.

[lsnduck]

I finally found some time to start clearing the garden for planting. We built some raised beds for veg last year and this is their first winter. The high ones at the back are good, but the low ones at the front have retained moisture much better than we anticipated and the soil is a lot wetter than ideal. Also, if my cats aren't careful I'm going to be shoving corks up their bums.

I have been slowly building the food pile, and buying tinned food that we wouldn't normally use to see if we are happy to stock it (mmm, beans and sausages, disgustingly delicious).

My wife bought me a flint and steel for my birthday, so I'm going to be spending the summer setting fire to things/practicing my survival skills.

[Deeps]

I finally found some time to start clearing the garden for planting. We built some raised beds for veg last year and this is their first winter. The high ones at the back are good, but the low ones at the front have retained moisture much better than we anticipated and the soil is a lot wetter than ideal. Also, if my cats aren't careful I'm going to be shoving corks up their bums.

I have been slowly building the food pile, and buying tinned food that we wouldn't normally use to see if we are happy to stock it (mmm, beans and sausages, disgustingly delicious).

My wife bought me a flint and steel for my birthday, so I'm going to be spending the summer setting fire to things/practicing my survival skills.

I was the same, the only tinned food we used was tuna and beans really but I started branching out, there are all sorts of "disgustingly delicious" things out there in cans. Try the cheap chicken in white sauce (Asda do them, I've not seen them in Tesco for a while), on its own its nothing special but its great for adding stuff to and somewhere on here there's a curry recipe using it although you can use your imagination. Have you had a look into dehydrating ? You can do whole meals so if you're catering for fussy eaters you can tailor them.

[itsybitsy]

I finally found some time to start clearing the garden for planting. We built some raised beds for veg last year and this is their first winter. The high ones at the back are good, but the low ones at the front have retained moisture much better than we anticipated and the soil is a lot wetter than ideal. Also, if my cats aren't careful I'm going to be shoving corks up their bums.

I have been slowly building the food pile, and buying tinned food that we wouldn't normally use to see if we are happy to stock it (mmm, beans and sausages, disgustingly delicious).

My wife bought me a flint and steel for my birthday, so I'm going to be spending the summer setting fire to things/practicing my survival skills.

I was the same, the only tinned food we used was tuna and beans really but I started branching out, there are all sorts of "disgustingly delicious" things out there in cans. Try the cheap chicken in white sauce (Asda do them, I've not seen them in Tesco for a while), on its own its nothing special but its great for adding stuff to and somewhere on here there's a curry recipe using it although you can use your imagination. Have you had a look into dehydrating ? You can do whole meals so if you're catering for fussy eaters you can tailor them.

Marks and Spencer tinned meat is the way to go, in my experience; it's seriously good. Tinned mince/chunky steak/curries/chicken in a white sauce. All good meat. No crap. Tastes good.

[lsnduck]

Have you had a look into dehydrating ? You can do whole meals so if you're catering for fussy eaters you can tailor them.

Dehydrating is something on my list to look at in the longer term. I am quite time poor at the moment, so am prioritising getting some basics laid down first and then spending more time researching other things later on. Also the house is full of the detritus of children, so another item will be hard to accommodate without a bit of shuffling around, which itself takes time.

Marks and Spencer tinned meat is the way to go, in my experience; it's seriously good. Tinned mince/chunky steak/curries/chicken in a white sauce. All good meat. No crap. Tastes good.

I'll look into that, thank you. I was planning on popping into Marks over the weekend (I like to run my clothes into the ground, and some of my smalls are developing holes I can't quite live with anymore) so I'll try a couple of tins while I am there.

[ForgeCorvus]

Have you had a look into dehydrating ? You can do whole meals so if you're catering for fussy eaters you can tailor them.

Dehydrating is something on my list to look at in the longer term. I am quite time poor at the moment, so am prioritising getting some basics laid down first and then spending more time researching other things later on. Also the house is full of the detritus of children, so another item will be hard to accommodate without a bit of shuffling around, which itself takes time.

Marks and Spencer tinned meat is the way to go, in my experience; it's seriously good. Tinned mince/chunky steak/curries/chicken in a white sauce. All good meat. No crap. Tastes good.

I'll look into that, thank you. I was planning on popping into Marks over the weekend (I like to run my clothes into the ground, and some of my smalls are developing holes I can't quite live with anymore) so I'll try a couple of tins while I am there.

Thats probably not Store Policy...... I think they prefer you to buy the stuff and take it home before eating it

[Arzosah]

I had a bonfire in my incinerator! And now the ashes are ready to be put into the area I've put aside for them to "mature".

And I used my little spyderco knife very, very carefully, to get batteries out of their cradle in a device, and into a mains charger

I'm also working hard on getting more sleep, which is definitely a prep.

[ukpreppergrrl]

Try the cheap chicken in white sauce (Asda do them, I've not seen them in Tesco for a while)

That's probably because I've bought them all from Tesco!! It has become my go-to comfort food! With boiled rice and frozen peas. I feel like I'm 8 and it's school dinner time (I loved my school dinners!)

[Deeps]

Try the cheap chicken in white sauce (Asda do them, I've not seen them in Tesco for a while)

That's probably because I've bought them all from Tesco!! It has become my go-to comfort food! With boiled rice and frozen peas. I feel like I'm 8 and it's school dinner time (I loved my school dinners!)

I add dehydrated onion, leek, mushroom, garlic an chilli to it and cube tatties and shallow fry them. Its the for shizzle ma nizzle. Had it the other weekend under a tarp in the snow for that proper comfort food.

[ukpreppergrrl]

That's probably because I've bought them all from Tesco!! It has become my go-to comfort food! With boiled rice and frozen peas. I feel like I'm 8 and it's school dinner time (I loved my school dinners!)

I add dehydrated onion, leek, mushroom, garlic an chilli to it and cube tatties and shallow fry them. Its the for shizzle ma nizzle. Had it the other weekend under a tarp in the snow for that proper comfort food.

Ooh...minus the chilli (not a chilli fan)...sounds yum! I've not tried using a tin as a base for adapting a recipe I just shovel it in as is! Time to be more experimental...

[ukpreppergrrl]

So today I dug my mountain bike out of the shed...where it's languished for the 16 years I've been in this house, not that it was used much in the 9 years before that when I bought it! The problem has always been that the reach is too long for me - I feel like I'm doing push-ups when I ride it which is very tiring. The frame is the right size, it's just the reach. I've been toying with buying a new bike which fits me better, but finances are not going to permit this. It seems a waste of a resource to have it sitting there in an unusable state when it could be quite a valuable asset at some point. So, after much googling, I've purchased a short quill stem for it (took some time to find out what it was called so that I could look for it!) which is 30mm as opposed to 90mm in length front to back, thus reducing my required reach by 6cm! Two new tyres and inner tubes (they're somewhat flat! ) and for £40 all in I'm hoping to have a bike that I may actually ride occasionally...and will be there as a useful form of transport should the need arise! Planning to clean and lube the bike over Easter and fit the new parts as they arrive!