What Preps are you doing this week? Part 9

[jansman]

I am currently charging batteries and power packs with my little solar charging system - thanks Yorkshire Andy Mrs J and me are charging phones and tablets with power packs at the moment to save a little bit of electricity,and the sun recharges the packs for nothing.Every little helps.

I went fishing at first light this morning to beat the heat. I went ultralight,and went with the idea “ I need to go and get some grub in this emergency “. I also observed the game and fowls in the area.No problem! Plenty of fish,and could easily haven taken rabbits,pigeons or ducks had I needed to.

Got home as the temperature hit 20 degrees ( the fish went off the feed ). Then I processed a load of firewood and kindling. Given the apocalyptic fuel predictions we can’t have enough.In fact, I have set the Kelly Kettle up outside along with two vacuum flasks. We drink a lot of tea,so once a day I am planning to boil water and store it in the flasks. At the very least we can use it for washing up.As Winter approaches,and the electricity price goes orbital, I want this simple little tool available to use. Kettles are,of course, one of the electricity hogs.

This afternoon I am going to start some home brew,pickle some beetroot and then get some quotes for upcoming house insurance - a very good prep in my opinion.

[gamekeeper752]

got myself a outbacker firebox oven stove thing
set it up in the garden as not sure which shed to put it in yet made a few brews with it to settle it in then on Sunday dis a little roast dinner roast chicken legs and roasted spuds and veg from the garden on the top hob
the only problem noted was I couldn't get it above 180c to really crisp every thing down
it was enough for the 3 of us and as I have tons of wood good for a winter of power cuts
just need to buy an angle for the wall and I could possibly run it in the house via the gas flue if things really go TsUP

[Frnc]

I have a question. I ordered a small solar panel to charge my powerbank. Thing is, lipo batteries don't like heat, and the panel needs to be in the sun. So how do I charge it up without knackering it through heat? Obviously it needs to be in shade, but is a bit of cardboard going to be enough? I could get a long lead and run it to better shade, but does that affact how well it charges? I suppose this only applies to heatwaves, so maybe I just avoid those.

[Rusty74]

trip to our local b&m today to take eldest lad there,so went in myself and noticed there veg and flower seeds where half price so picked a few packets up ready for next year and i still need to find some sprout seeds as i want a go at growing them next year along with some black tomato's...

[Arzosah]

i still need to find some sprout seeds as i want a go at growing them next year along with some black tomato's...

Sprout seeds are on Amazon, but you can also use the dried lentils in the shops - much cheaper than paying gardening prices

[jansman]

i still need to find some sprout seeds as i want a go at growing them next year along with some black tomato's...

Sprout seeds are on Amazon, but you can also use the dried lentils in the shops - much cheaper than paying gardening prices

Wow! Is it possible that you could expand on the details please? I have zero knowledge of sprouts.

[Arzosah]

i still need to find some sprout seeds as i want a go at growing them next year along with some black tomato's...

Sprout seeds are on Amazon, but you can also use the dried lentils in the shops - much cheaper than paying gardening prices

Wow! Is it possible that you could expand on the details please? I have zero knowledge of sprouts.

Absolutely. At Sainsbo, 500g of organic red lentils (might as well get the very best) is £1.50 for 500g. On Amazon, 250g of non-GMO broccoli seeds costs £9.99. The difference

Remember when I had the blog? I ran a sprouting experiment, not that I did it regularly, but definitely wanted to do it once, to see, and I used supermarket seeds for that. In italics below are my conclusions, with the bit about the origin of the seeds in bold.

Watering
I have a tendency to drown indoor plants, but I did really well with these:
watered once and covered them with a paper towel for 3 days, until they were properly poking their heads above the soil.
When I watered them subsequently, I used a small, purpose made watering can with a rose on it, instead of an ordinary kitchen jug – for people who over-water, this is a seriously brilliant idea.

Seeds
I didn't use expensive seeds, I used green lentils from Sainsbury, £1.15 for 500g, and soaked them for 24 hours. This was almost too long, as I was just starting to see the tips of the shoots coming out. I'd go for 20 hours next time.

Trays
The supermarket trays are so easy to re-use, so accessible, and free, but they have their problems. The first harvest, because I couldn't see the bottoms of the stems, I left them too long, they were turning brown, and I lost maybe 10% of the crop to this effect. Not important today, of course, but if I was in real need of these nutrients, that's too much to lose. I suggest that any tray used might be better to be only about an inch high, and then you can see much more easily when you should harvesting. If they were flatter than the supermarket trays, that would help too.

Harvesting
This was great, because I ended up treating them as cut and come again plants – the same little tray got me a total of four harvests, just roughly chopped up and sprinkled over pasta or something. It certainly felt like a proper portion-of-fruit-and-veg, not just a little sprinkle.

Growing Medium
Just an inch or so of a bog standard potting mix from any big store – B&Q, Wickes, Wilko, Poundland, whatever's easily available to you. At Growing Underground, they use a hydroponic liquid circulating through a kind of web of filaments made locally from recycled carpet, and after being used for a while, they're transported a few miles to a biomass power plant and used for fuel. My equivalent of supermarket topsoil is now sitting in my compost bin, of course.

Plant Protection
If you look online, you can see that people grow in propagators, to avoid draughts and keep a better, more even heat for the plants. I didn't use any for this experiment, and these days, with the extremes of temperature we've been having, I think you'd need to be very proactive about taking the protection on and off, so that the little microgreens don't die from overheating.

Lighting
LED lights are also popular. I didn't use any, but having a set overhead would extend your ability to grow more food more quickly. Nor would you have to turn your tray so often to catch the light coming through the window. They can get really expensive, really fast, but I'll certainly be buying a bulb, one that fits an ordinary lamp.

May all your Microgreens be Marvellous.

[Arzosah]

And on a personal note, I just tested positive for covid - 2nd pink line arrived after 2 minutes. I'm not a happy bunny, and I'm off to bed, taking my electric fan, my kettle, my phone and my mug and a couple of teabags with me. I may be gone for some time, though not for the same reason as Captain Oates

[Yorkshire Andy]

And on a personal note, I just tested positive for covid - 2nd pink line arrived after 2 minutes. I'm not a happy bunny, and I'm off to bed, taking my electric fan, my kettle, my phone and my mug and a couple of teabags with me. I may be gone for some time, though not for the same reason as Captain Oates

Don't forget the lemsip and the duty free

Get well soon

[Yorkshire Andy]

Continued my wiring progress is going well just held up by waiting for the postman for some crimps... Found a duel battery charging module on a box so the cheap windmill can be added if needed and can trickle both batteries I might just bang the unit on the board anyway then it's there if needed I've left space anyway if shtf I can soon bang the windmill up to provide additional charging it's not as impressive as I hoped but every amp charging helps especially on the short winter days

Got all the heavy wiring finished ,

Most of the solar controller, mains charger , and control wiring done plus the 12v input fuse box which is on the common negative side as per the charge controllers requirement need to add a few usb ports whilst I'm on I can prep for that and just leave the wiring ready for another day...