What Preps are you doing this week? Part 10

[GillyBee]

How long before a Daubentons gets to a useable size? I have a cutting of Daubentons Panache but while it has definitely established and looks happy it is only just over a foot tall. Will I see any use next winter or is this something for
next year?

[jansman]

I checked the squashes growing in the garden yesterday. At an easy ,quick glance, I reckon there will be two dozen! I have large woodpiles covered in tarps right now,so I’ll get some planks on top for the cropping to stand on to season later up the line. When seasoned properly they will last until Spring,although we like eating them anyway! It’s an absolute runaway crop this year. Great!

Got a good amount of batteries charged ( for nothing , via solar) ready for Winter . Picked up another USB charger too. I plug those in the tv when it’s not solar. The telly is on anyway.

Today we are going to town,so I will pick up a few packs of firelighters ready for turning the heating on. I carry plenty,but come Winter I don’t want to have to chase them. When we are in Home Bargains I will pick up 6x10kg bags of smokeless coal too. I have a huge amount in stock,but theirs is fairly priced,and it is a good ‘investment’.

If anything should happen electricity or gas - wise to the market,we are covered for the entire Winter. Solid fuel particularly makes one extremely aware of power supply!
Whilst shopping we have a few items to drop on the pantry shelves. ‘Nice’ stuff rather than staples. We have plenty of staples.

Regarding electric: We have built the money up in the electricity fund (we are all electric) so if we want to flick on the radiators/ infra panels rather than lighting the stoves,the money is there aplenty for the Winter .We don’t leave the stoves unattended to be honest,and 9 times out of ten ,they are lit mid afternoon.They are safe,but I am very safety aware. Given my frequent travels to hospitals this is a good system for us.Whatever happens,we stay warm.Also we have easy use of tumble and washer too.

[jansman]

How long before a Daubentons gets to a useable size? I have a cutting of Daubentons Panache but while it has definitely established and looks happy it is only just over a foot tall. Will I see any use next winter or is this something for
next year?

Give it a couple of months or so. When it goes ,it goes!

[Frnc]

Spending a bit of time figuring out emergency bike repairs. I have some notes from what people posted on here, plus some I took watching youtube videos. I need to try to learn it all, plus condense it to something I can print. Some of it has two different ways to do the same thing, some I don't fully understand. I don't have space to get to my bike*. Added some more duct tape to my bike bag, wrapped around my mini pump.

*The roof job is still ongoing. They did a fair bit of work last week but the weather was bad on Friday.

The rain in the UK is due to the jet stream being over the UK. It is normally further north. South of the jet stream is baking heat. Italy has a second named heatwave.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Spending a bit of time figuring out emergency bike repairs. I have some notes from what people posted on here, plus some I took watching youtube videos. I need to try to learn it all, plus condense it to something I can print. Some of it has two different ways to do the same thing, some I don't fully understand. I don't have space to get to my bike*. Added some more duct tape to my bike bag, wrapped around my mini pump.

*The roof job is still ongoing. They did a fair bit of work last week but the weather was bad on Friday.

The rain in the UK is due to the jet stream being over the UK. It is normally further north. South of the jet stream is baking heat. Italy has a second named heatwave.

What bike repair bits are you having trouble understanding?

[Frnc]

Spending a bit of time figuring out emergency bike repairs. I have some notes from what people posted on here, plus some I took watching youtube videos. I need to try to learn it all, plus condense it to something I can print. Some of it has two different ways to do the same thing, some I don't fully understand. I don't have space to get to my bike*. Added some more duct tape to my bike bag, wrapped around my mini pump.

*The roof job is still ongoing. They did a fair bit of work last week but the weather was bad on Friday.

The rain in the UK is due to the jet stream being over the UK. It is normally further north. South of the jet stream is baking heat. Italy has a second named heatwave.

What bike repair bits are you having trouble understanding?

Maybe I should start a dedicated thread, pick one bit to start with, go through it systematically. I'll figure out where I'm up to first. Need to think it through before I can even say what I'm not sure about.

EDF BILLS AND GOVERNMENT REBATES:

On a separate topic, just got my EDF 6 months bill. Mega confusing. At first I thought they'd ripped me off £134, which is 2 x £67 government payments. But later it seemed to balance itself out.

You paid us £618
Used £326*
Balance should be £292 in credit
But it is only £158**
They deducted £134 refunded. But that was from the government! Why have they deducted it from my payments???!

However I added up all MY figures for usage. Came to £462. *Which just happens to be £136 more than the £326 they said I'd used.

So it seems right in the end.

They reduced my DD to HALF what I was paying last year. This will be too low, but I'm not arguing.

There is also the gas and electric totals lower down the bill. These add to £438 which is noticeably lower than my £462, but a lot closer than the £326 useage on the top of the bill. I think it's something to do with VAT on the amount the government chipped in.

I paid £619
I used according to me £461
** 619 - 461 = £158
CORRECT!

[itsybitsy]

Spending a bit of time figuring out emergency bike repairs. I have some notes from what people posted on here, plus some I took watching youtube videos. I need to try to learn it all, plus condense it to something I can print. Some of it has two different ways to do the same thing, some I don't fully understand. I don't have space to get to my bike*. Added some more duct tape to my bike bag, wrapped around my mini pump.

*The roof job is still ongoing. They did a fair bit of work last week but the weather was bad on Friday.

The rain in the UK is due to the jet stream being over the UK. It is normally further north. South of the jet stream is baking heat. Italy has a second named heatwave.

What bike repair bits are you having trouble understanding?

Maybe I should start a dedicated thread, pick one bit to start with, go through it systematically. I'll figure out where I'm up to first. Need to think it through before I can even say what I'm not sure about.

EDF BILLS AND GOVERNMENT REBATES:

On a separate topic, just got my EDF 6 months bill. Mega confusing. At first I thought they'd ripped me off £134, which is 2 x £67 government payments. But later it seemed to balance itself out.

You paid us £618
Used £326*
Balance should be £292 in credit
But it is only £158**
They deducted £134 refunded. But that was from the government! Why have they deducted it from my payments???!

However I added up all MY figures for usage. Came to £462. *Which just happens to be £136 more than the £326 they said I'd used.

So it seems right in the end.

They reduced my DD to HALF what I was paying last year. This will be too low, but I'm not arguing.

There is also the gas and electric totals lower down the bill. These add to £438 which is noticeably lower than my £462, but a lot closer than the £326 useage on the top of the bill. I think it's something to do with VAT on the amount the government chipped in.

I paid £619
I used according to me £461
** 619 - 461 = £158
CORRECT!

Your utility bill dissection has nothing to do with prepping.

[shed the state]

I am still working on communications.
We are doing some experimenting with our local group tomorrow using PMR radios. Seeing what sort of range we can expect over different terrain etc.
I have just fitted a CB SSB radio to my truck. I am having problems with the SWR on the antenna I was given. My suspicion is, it is not for 11m and could possibly be for 2m. I will be fitting a 2m SSB rig to my truck in the very near future, so that will be ok. I have ordered a new CB antenna, and that should be with me mid week.

[jansman]

An interesting one here now. Food storage. When I took ill at the end of last November,our income simply dumped. As a result we used our prepping food storage. One would! We not only stored in our indoor pantry,but also in the secondary building outside ( dry lined and shelved brick outhouse). In there were sealed buckets ( extra) of pasta rice,dried spuds along with tinned and jarred foods. And two chest freezers. Several of those buckets went to the local food bank so that the date would allow it to be issued to the needy. However,even though I am pedantic about Best Before dates,in an emergency- real emergency- these would have done a good job keeping our bellies full!
As my remaining time on earth is now limited , we are arranging ease and simplicity for my wife. As a result we have reduced the amounts of stored food,as it won’t be eaten properly - date wise - by my wife on her own. Today when I did breakfast ,we had tinned tomatoes that ran out at the end of this month. The very last of the ‘outdoor’ food storage.

Regarding ‘Best Before’ and ‘Use By’ that’s your business. As a lifetime’s career butcher I obey rotation dates as a professional habit. There are reasons too,but that’s how Chez Jansman does it…

A lot of previous storage items we have cut right back too. I am a big fan of pickled anything! My wife is not. So we are down to very basic storage there. We are increasing what she likes on the opposite side though. When the worst happens,then this will avoid both physical and financial waste. The shelves,buckets and new freezer now contain what we reckon to be four months easily of emergency food ,( for one person) were the’ emergency’ meaning there were no shops. Rice ,pasta,dried and tinned spuds can be teamed up with whatever else ones hands can be laid on. The garden is a big one there.

And that’s the point. Our storage at the beginning of my health problems has lasted this long ( tinned and dried) for 7 months. Right now at this point,our garden is cropping heavily . Today we are eating cabbage,spuds,runner beans and the first marrow! Ok ,there’s a nice piece of lamb in there,but in an emergency,using that veg with dried staples would be more than acceptable.

We’ve proved that the food storage works when a personal emergency raises its head. Therefore it would work in any emergency.

[Frnc]

Got delivery of steri-strips, melolin dressings and plasters. Replaced BOB ones that had no date, but were about 5 years old. Had to buy more than I needed, so I put the extras in my > 7 days bag. Checked through my bike bag FAK. No date on the plasters, so replaced those, and made a spreadsheet. Made a note in calendar to replace Clinell wipes in a few months. Checked my Home FAK spreadsheet, all in date. I keep the home kit (St Johns Small Zenith Workplace) in a washing up bowl, which is great for holding extras like saline, eye wash baths, sterile wound wipes and plasters.

Did a full check on Imodium etc recently as well, so I think I'm all up to date. I keep those on a separate note, with Dioralyte and Senokot. They are in several locations - bedroom, BOB, bike bag etc.

Created a page on my phone for prep stuff. Basically a few notes for emergencies. You can put a note widget or a folder widget on the page. So key notes are easy to find. Eg emergency evacuation grab list. Of course most is already packed. I put a folder of emergency bike repairs on the page as well.
I have a separate page for weather apps, and another for map/navigation apps.

One website I particularly like for weather is called met check. They don't have an ios app, so I keep Firefox on my weather page, with the tab ready for instant access. It's good for showing the amount and probability of rain in a very visual way.