What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Car flew its MOT. Only downside was the slow puncture ( brand new tyre too).Nail right on the edge of the side wall- so another new tyre. Aah well, that’s cars.

Few times I've toyed with getting a mechanical bead breaker And bubble ballence

[Le Mouse]

I had an *ahem* 'incident' involving my tyre and a kerb on Saturday and ended up spending 2 hours in a garage waiting for it to be fixed - ended up with 2 new tyres and they did a swap round, so new ones went on the back and older rear ones went on the front. The garage did wheel realignment as part of it, which has been a total blessing in disguise - no more weird squeaking noises and it feels like my car just runs so much better! The Hyundai garage couldn't find out what that squeak was but a tiny garage in the middle of bloody nowhere could! So when the guarantee thingy runs out on my car, I know where I'm going for services and MOTs!

Still trying to get this place sorted, slowly. I think the larder space will actually fit a lot more than I thought it would. I've got a cheap metal wheelie trolly from Argos as a test run and I'll fit a couple more of them in under the shelves if the test works out.

I'm liking living a bit more rurally. My neighbours have tables with veg plants and honesty tins out in their driveways and today I got two tomato plants for £1! This wouldn't have been possible where I used to live. Anything left out on a drive is grabbed or trashed straight away and an honesty box wouldn't last a minute

[Yorkshire Andy]

I had an *ahem* 'incident' involving my tyre and a kerb on Saturday and ended up spending 2 hours in a garage waiting for it to be fixed - ended up with 2 new tyres and they did a swap round, so new ones went on the back and older rear ones went on the front. The garage did wheel realignment as part of it, which has been a total blessing in disguise - no more weird squeaking noises and it feels like my car just runs so much better! The Hyundai garage couldn't find out what that squeak was but a tiny garage in the middle of bloody nowhere could! So when the guarantee thingy runs out on my car, I know where I'm going for services and MOTs!

You found a decent garage then

Good practice to put the new to the back axle it's easier to correct under steer than over steer ... That and most cars run the backs until they perish with age....

[Cocotte]

This week has a few tasks.
Removing invasive weeds (lupins)
Adding a removable sun roof/rain guard to the chicken coop.
Trying to get the chickens to sit on some pure bred eggs.
Renewing the berry bush supports.
Oiling garden furniture, tool handles and any other outside wooden items.
Changed tyres on the wife's car now it's back from the mechanic.
Putting in fence posts around the property line, painting chicken wire black and nailing it on, preparing for when the puppy gets older and wants to run off. Also good for the chooks.
Top tip: you paint chicken wire black it's nearly invisible. Good for many purposes. For us, the dog won't know how high it goes, but for others it might be a useful security feature.

Still need to do:
a deep clean of brewing gear
Paint the house
Paint front stairs
Scrape the paint off windows.
Give unused items to the inlaws.
Take down a winter storage area (pallets and tarp)
Dump the old lawnmower and it's 5 different problems.
Clear out the old compost pile that's been here since we moved in, full of rusty metal, odd plastic bits and the rest being wood ash.

Then the other 2 dozen tasks including building a greenhouse is for next week.

[Jerseyspud]

Today has involved a trip to the dentist for a temporary filling as my tooth broke in half

[Yorkshire Andy]

That's it I'm ordering the bead breaker and ballence

[jansman]

That's it I'm ordering the bead breaker and ballence



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I feel your pain mate. Damned nails have cost me two tyres in a month.

[Jerseyspud]

Catalogued all food that's arrived recently. Depressing that even though it looks alot that it only added a day calorie wise

Mind you I'd focused on protein so does explain alot

[jennyjj01]

Catalogued all food that's arrived recently. Depressing that even though it looks alot that it only added a day calorie wise

Mind you I'd focused on protein so does explain alot

'Man cannot live by bread alone: He must have peanut butter'


Calories : Cheap and easy : The foundation stash.
Flavour : Essential. You won't want to live for more than a day on just calorific foods.
Protein* : If you want to survive long enough to see your calorific food expire.
Vitamins : Meh! What am I a doctor.

What protein foods did you embrace and why? Long life meat and fish products are indeed expensive.

Adding various tinned fish to my rotating stock actually led me to discover that I liked it and probably enhanced my diet. But those tiny tins of sardines and mackerel are obscenely expensive per kilo. Home Bargain and B&M have some cheap tinned fish, but try before you buy, because some is rubbish ( while some is remarkably good )

I reckon soya mince is one of the best value for money protein stashes. But the trick is to use it to pad out / dilute what real meat you have stored. Pulses are also good for protein, but many of us in the West just don't seem to give them space that they deserve in our diet.

Soylent Green is forecast to be a popular protein source next year

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green

[Yorkshire Andy]

That's it I'm ordering the bead breaker and ballence



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I feel your pain mate. Damned nails have cost me two tyres in a month.

Found a decent local independent mobile tyre guy today I know him turns out he left the old tyre place I used to use dropping them in the manure.. from the look on his face he had a bust up with the owner but wouldn't be drawn on embellishing the story ... Small town can't really blame him

Explained to him how they quoted Mrs A £400 a few years ago for a full exhaust leading to her ring me in tears as she couldn't afford it (a matiz exhaust at the time was £100 for a full system on eBay)

and all she needed was a Flexi .. the front section cost me £30 on eBay posted plus a couple of clamps .. and about 2 hours one Saturday with a few tea breaks and a few swear words ... To put it into context the car had 35,500 miles ISH at its last MOT the exhaust was solid bar the flexi blowing

That blatant attempted mugging (car had 4 MOT passed after my repair) it had cost him my trade (car / trailers / my dad again car and trailers / my sister / my uncle the in-laws and My best man's business as a absolute minimum I told anyone who would listen and likewise Mrs A has done the same

I don't mind paying a honest rate but I won't be ripped off...

I had the wheel off the car and the replacement tyre ready plus an extension lead pulled out and I refitted it myself so he could get home which he seemed happy about on a Saturday evening £20 at the front door sorted

Ps my Lidl battery impact wrench is £50 well spent removed the 300nm magic gripping hub nuts earlier with no effort needed and it makes tyre changes a lazy task (always snug up by torque wrench ) it's got 100 nm setting which wasn't far out at all when I ugger duggered the wheel nuts back up

If I had space in the boot I'd Cary it full time