What Preps are you doing this week? Part 12

[pseudonym]

Too lazy to go shopping so I dug into my MRE main meals.

Purely for research purposes you understand.

[Frnc]

Think I've got a gardener sorted. Says he'll be here in a couple of weeks or so. I have no idea who he is, no online presence, just a mobile and a big van. But he was recommended by a gardener who has 100 5 star reviews, and he seems ok, and reasonably priced. He was a bit vague when I asked him how long he'd be here for on the regular visists. But he was offering to do extra bits and bobs after we'd agreed a price for the initial job, which is about half a day's work. He wants £100, and then £20 a visit after that. Seems to know his stuff.

Got 2 bins of prep stuff moved from my room to the prep room. Managed to get 7 large bins on the rack. One is still empty, and one has spare room. I'm trying to de-clutter, especially the landing and my room. Prep room is pretty full, but at least I can get in it now.

Lodger who's never here says he has no plans to move out for at least 3 months. If he does, I'll probably decorate his room, and move into it. I get my state pension soon, so I'm not dependant on having 2 lodgers anymore. I can always get one in my old room in the future.

[Frnc]

Too lazy to go shopping so I dug into my MRE main meals.

Purely for research purposes you understand.

Surely you have stocks of ordinary food? Even sharing with 2 lodgers, I have a couple of month's food in the kitchen, most of which gets rotated and eaten. I don't have any in my room or the prep room now, except a bin full of bisto and parley sauce.

[pseudonym]

Too lazy to go shopping so I dug into my MRE main meals.

Purely for research purposes you understand.

Surely you have stocks of ordinary food? Even sharing with 2 lodgers, I have a couple of month's food in the kitchen, most of which gets rotated and eaten. I don't have any in my room or the prep room now, except a bin full of bisto and parley sauce.

Yes I do, but I fancied a sweet and sour chicken and rice MRE which also need to be rotated and eaten.

[Arzosah]

Too lazy to go shopping so I dug into my MRE main meals.

Purely for research purposes you understand.

Surely you have stocks of ordinary food? Even sharing with 2 lodgers, I have a couple of month's food in the kitchen, most of which gets rotated and eaten. I don't have any in my room or the prep room now, except a bin full of bisto and parley sauce.

Yes I do, but I fancied a sweet and sour chicken and rice MRE which also need to be rotated and eaten.

"I really fancied it" is the best reason of all to dig it out of your preps

[Adjee]

Acquired an old small poly tunnel frame that I will turn into a covered chicken run to separate our breeding Orpingtons from our other chicken stock. Ordered our first batch of broiler chicken eggs for incubating. Had a successful natural hatching from our Muscovies kept 24 birds for meat and have traded the surplus for yes, you have guessed it, an old small poly tunnel frame! Geese have started sitting so that complements the ones in the incubator only issue is the ganders are guarding the sitting geese making for fun and games when dealing with them. Fingers crossed things continue this way.

[Sarini]

The propagator has worked better than I expected with the early tomatos and aubergines already germinating.

I've had to take a chicken to the vet to get some antibiotics. Being ex battery hens 3 of the 4 won't roost, they just sit down to sleep, they're pooping then sitting in their poop all night, one seems to have developed an infection. The vet recommended removing the comfy bedding to get them to roost and blocking off the nest boxes over night. I've been going out and putting them on the roosting bars each night, I'm sure they don't stay there but I'm hoping they'll get the hint!

Sowed more seeds at the weekend including some black oil sunflower seeds. It came from a bird food mix, I'm curious to see if they will germinate. Good future source of fat and protein if they do though

[Adjee]

I've had to take a chicken to the vet to get some antibiotics. Being ex battery hens 3 of the 4 won't roost, they just sit down to sleep, they're pooping then sitting in their poop all night, one seems to have developed an infection. The vet recommended removing the comfy bedding to get them to roost and blocking off the nest boxes over night. I've been going out and putting them on the roosting bars each night, I'm sure they don't stay there but I'm hoping they'll get the hint!

None of our chickens use roosting perches (many of the heavier breeds prefer not to) so we place a mixture of wood ash and sand with a sprinkling of DE added above this layer then top it off with a layer of straw again with another sprinkling of DE on the floor of all our coops.

If you prefer them on perches, make a wood ladder and place it at a slightly raised angle in the coop, the hens will slowly gain confidence climbing and being off the floor (most battery hens are not used to heights). We used this method with the first chickens we acquired.

[Frnc]

Been looking at some long term weather graphs for my area. Partly to check when heating can go off, and partly for knowing how cold it can get at night, should I be outdoors at night, which I will be in a few days.

April is about 3° colder than October. This applies to minimums and maximums. One October, I managed without any heating, but last October I needed it on some of the time. April mornings are only 3-5° on average, so heat will definitely stay on.

There is a difference though, depending on preceeding period. The house builds up heat in the fabric of the building over time, so one cold morning in Sept might not be noticed indoors, whereas the same temp outside in Feb would, as it would be colder in the house.

Outdoors I tend to think of below 9° as cold, eg for sleeping in a tent. Only in June, July, August and September do nights normally stay above 9°. Of course there is the odd exception, especially in early June and late September. And the last week in May could well be above 9 at night. 9° is the average minimum for the last week in May.

I found this site quite useful. I don't live in Woodford but I used that because the Met Office publishes data for there, as the closest historical data to me. https://weatherspark.com/y/41603/Averag ... Year-Round

[pseudonym]

More soup:

Found bigger containers on Amazon

Knorr Professional Soup Mix, 200 Portions (Makes 34 Litres) x2

1 Chicken, 1 Tomato

Should keep me going for a while.