jennyjj01 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:15 am
CDT wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 9:47 pm
Hi all.
My partner is very reluctant and dismissive to the idea of any kind of 'prepping'. A year or 2 ago I disguised growing food as a fun little project we could do together and she went along with it, oblivious to the reasoning behind it. We've gone from a few little plants to 2 large raised beds (2m long x 1m wide) and loads of growing bags and pots. We have tonnes of potatos, onions, carrots, and also tomatos, leeks, rhubarb, strawberries and few other various bits on the go.
Last year (again it took some convincing) but I managed to convince her to let me fit a waterbutt for some rainwater collection. She's gone along with it but now with the garden growing to the size it has the waterbutt just isn't big enough especially with the dry weather currently, so I want to trade the waterbutt up for an IBC but once again she's not convinced by it.
Long story short, any tips on how to convince her or should I just do it while she's out one day
Hi Craig,
I did jokingly think that you could explain to her that it will be for watering the chickens and pigs that are coming next week.
Don't JFDI. Seriously. You could end up sleeping in, or buried under one of those raised beds.
Having read your posting history, I suspect the issue is not the IBC, but with difference in attitude which still needs working on. My heart goes out to you if you are still struggling to get the partner on board after the last few years. She needs to see the real benefits, and it can be a hard one to sell. You need to be reasonable and ask yourself if you are not being.
How much has she
really bought in to the food growing / Good Life aspect. Is it still with embarrassed reluctance, or does she take joy in it and in helping to get rid of all that precious food? How do you justify and manage the massive glut of perishable food? Or hasn't that been a problem yet? If there's even a hint that she thinks you are wasting time, energy and money growing food that you cannot use, then investing in an ugly IBC might be the last straw. It would be the same sin as if you spent all your free time at an allotment and all she got to show for it was a glut of parsnips and rhubarb.
Have you considered getting an allotment? You can be king of the castle there? But that comes with its own relationship risks.
4 square metres of beds and as much again as grow bags doesn't seem enough to justify the IBC for growing, so are you thinking it will be your potable water reserve? And as someone asked, are you on a water meter? That might help the discussion. But even metered water is very cheap. A cubic meter of water costs £3.08 So there's very little financial justification for one.
As to actually getting an IBC. There are members here with big smallholdings who use them, but if you are thinking of having one in a modest suburban garden, that's a big ask of the OH. It's the sort of prep I'd only consider at an allotment. Can't you just expand your row of water butts? Swap the 90L one for 300L and then daisychain the 90L one, which you later upgrade again and daisychain again.
? Grow the array slowly?
Oh.... And Green Algae might be a problem with white IBC. You really don't want that in your drinking water stash.
Anyway, Craig.... How goes your other prep ideas? Did you get acceptance of a massive reserve pantry or does your OH get miffed at the tins of beans behind the sofa, or wherever
? Did solar get off the ground?
Hey apologies for the slow reply, don't worry I havn't been killed yet.
I do agree the other half and I both have very different opinions on this. I think it stems from our work lives. I'm not massively educated (on paper) so I have generally always done lower paid unstable manual or warehousing work and such and have been on the receiving end of redundancies a few times with companies closing, etc. She on the other hand is extremely well educated and has a very well paying job, so she doesn't see the need to be thrifty, grow your own food, utilise free rainwater etc. I normally have to work 60 hour weeks to earn half what she does haha.
I would have thought when Covid first hit and you couldn't get basic food items from the supermarkets that this may have shown her that it never hurts to have a little bit of self sustainability, but she instead was just quite happy to pay more for stuff online or from Waitrose and what not. We are complete polar opposites....must be my dashing good looks that attracts us
but yeah this is basically the reason that she struggles to get on board with things.
We do have a large garden too so the growing stations dont really take up much space at all. Maybe for now i'll go with what you said and just get a bigger waterbutt or daisychain them. The reason for the IBC consideration was even though the current 90l is fine for watering the planters with the run of warmer weather we're having I find it's enough to water everything once and then reverting back to the hose pipe to continue until we get more rain. Currently we don't tend to have an over run of food from it and if we do have a larger than expected haul I do donate some to our lovely neighbours next door.
As with the other preps again I have my 3 week longer life food stash out of sight out of mind so she doesn't mind that and any solar ideas are all just living on the ideas board for now. I did buy some jerrycans for diesel storage but the fuel prices beat me to it so no point storage diesel when it's practically £2 per litre. Persistence may be the key ha. She does categorise me as a bit of a conspiracy theorist so that maybe doesn't help my cause
