What Preps are you doing this week? Part 12

[ForgeCorvus]

The back door has two mortice locks, but the top half is glass. Still, risk of burglary is pretty low here, and they prefer to come in from the front. At the front, I have a mortice lock as well as the Yale, and a London Bar on the frame. Plus an alarm.

Film the glass if you haven't already and don't leave keys in locks....... A shared house I visited had the Escape keys hung above the back door about four inches out from the corner of the wall (so you could find them in the dark by running your hand up the wall).
That way they were near the door but not visible from the outside

[Frnc]

The back door has two mortice locks, but the top half is glass. Still, risk of burglary is pretty low here, and they prefer to come in from the front. At the front, I have a mortice lock as well as the Yale, and a London Bar on the frame. Plus an alarm.

Film the glass if you haven't already and don't leave keys in locks....... A shared house I visited had the Escape keys hung above the back door about four inches out from the corner of the wall (so you could find them in the dark by running your hand up the wall).
That way they were near the door but not visible from the outside

Good idea. I was thinking about putting film on the glass, but forgot about it. I've put it onto my new all in one things to do list, which resides as a sticky on my desktop. Am safe for another year, anyway, as it's a building site at the moment.
We don't leave the keys in the door. But they are easy to find if there's a fire. And we mortice lock the front door at night, because the top half is glass, so the Yale could be easily opened.

[Frnc]

Got some stuff out of the prep room and into the loft. Mainly winter stuff, eg spare duvet and slippers.

Did a bit of thinking about my 'instant front garden'. There are 9 plants in total. One plant has grown quite a bit, in just a few weeks since I got it. It's a shrub called Skimmia Fragrans. It doesn't grow very big. I have another shrub that's a dwarf rhodedendron. Both had flowers when they arrived, but only the Skimmia has now. I think I'll plant them in the autumn, in the ground. If the Skimmia gets any bigger I might re-pot it earlier until the autumn.

I've made some notes, and arranged the note in order, eg right hand side, left hand side. In the middle is the tree I got last autumn.

Originally the front garden was just paving slabs laid on the soil, with weeds constantly growing through. I got them collected by licensed disposal team for £40. I put down weed suppressant and a 80 litre bag of bark.

As you can see, I've not even removed most of the labels yet. I've got two in terracotta pots, and they'll probably stay in those permanently. There are three smaller bamboos on the left. They'll probably stay in pots, but in larger, teracotta or ceramic. The little golden grass thing, I might put in the ground and have a go at dividing it eventually.

[GillyBee]

Just remember to keep them watered and fed as those pots will run out fairly fast.

[Britcit]

Spent a few more hours at the peat bank. Luckily my wife came to help as my back is playing up. Just another couple of hours hard graft and we should have enough for our winter needs.

Still got a few more veg to plant out yet. I am rather late this year, but with our long long days through summer, they should catch up. It already dosnt get fully dark at night now, and it won’t be long until my 2 cockerels are crowing at 1.45 am.

We were thinking of moving this year, but have changed our minds. This means I can forge ahead with a new vegetable garden layout. I have to move it from its current location as we need the space for an animal run. Will be investing in a poly tunnel, and building terraced beds as the new spot is a near 45deg slope. South facing though so worth the work.

[Frnc]

Just remember to keep them watered and fed as those pots will run out fairly fast.

Yeah, thanks, I've been checking them most days, and giving them some water if they are getting dry. I can do it all from the outside, even though my house is a mid terrace. I fill the watering can, and go across next door's, through a gate, and down the entry to the front. So I don't have to worry about treading dirt into the hall. Also I have two plants in pots at the back to water.

[Snowhunter]

Still got a few more veg to plant out yet. I am rather late this year, but with our long long days through summer, they should catch up.

I would't worry, a neighbour got everything sown early, and has had awful germination, as low as 20% of a lot of things. I only got most of my seeds in trays and modules a week ago and almost every single one of a a few hundred has popped up. It has just been so cold at nights for so long this year.

[Frnc]

Replaced some first aid items. Ordered plasters. Updated FAK spreadsheets and sorted (sort puts the new items in date order).

Someone is supposed to be coming round to buy my architects' chair and standing desk, fingers crossed. Part of my de-cluttering. Emptied prep room waste bin, after knocking it upside down. Fortunately nothing messy in it. Almost got rid of all the visible clutter in my room now. Just a few things on top of the wardrobe. Bugout sleeping mat, box of coin towels, pair of lightweight wellies. Those will have to go in the prep room. And a wheeled suitcase. Might put that in the loft.

Did a Sainsbury's shop. Got some extra long life naans. The curry I bought off Amazon has a shorter than normal shelf life, November. But not a problem, I can use 5 packets by then. I get 2-3 meals out of each. 3 is a bit small, but I need to watch the oxalates.

Ordered an extension lead. I want to get newer ones anyway (fire risk), but I'm also cutting down the number of unsightly cables, by routing it differently. I have about 10 things plugged in permanently in my room, plus a few that are only occasionally plugged in. This will have 6 plugged in permanently, and be more or less invisible. Most of the others are also more or less hidden. So that just leaves my TV which has a short lead, so is plugged into an extension lead on the floor underneath it, along with the doorbell ringer. I can also plug my charger for the vac/strimmer/drill in that. I like to keep an eye on lipo battery charging for obvious reasons.

The vac by the way is pretty uselesss. It picks up dust, but nothing solid, not even small things. My 30 year old Panasonic is infinitely better. It's surprising really, because the strimmer and drill are good. The drill struggled with brick, but that was probably more down to the bit.

[mcprepper]

The back door has two mortice locks, but the top half is glass. Still, risk of burglary is pretty low here, and they prefer to come in from the front. At the front, I have a mortice lock as well as the Yale, and a London Bar on the frame. Plus an alarm.

Film the glass if you haven't already and don't leave keys in locks....... A shared house I visited had the Escape keys hung above the back door about four inches out from the corner of the wall (so you could find them in the dark by running your hand up the wall).
That way they were near the door but not visible from the outside

Home security bothers me … not day to day as nobody comes here and only have a couple of neighbours who we know very well and trust. More in the event of societal collapse etc (although if anybody actually made the effort to get up here I’d probably invite them in for a cup of tea ).
House has 4 external doors and every one of them has glass. Also 2 external doors into the garage (which also both have glass). Basic locks on all of them. We’ve got a gravel drive which is noisy and two dogs who bark at anyone who appears so I guess that is our security. Might look into the glass film mentioned - didn’t know it was a thing!

[Frnc]

The back door has two mortice locks, but the top half is glass. Still, risk of burglary is pretty low here, and they prefer to come in from the front. At the front, I have a mortice lock as well as the Yale, and a London Bar on the frame. Plus an alarm.

Film the glass if you haven't already and don't leave keys in locks....... A shared house I visited had the Escape keys hung above the back door about four inches out from the corner of the wall (so you could find them in the dark by running your hand up the wall).
That way they were near the door but not visible from the outside

Home security bothers me … not day to day as nobody comes here and only have a couple of neighbours who we know very well and trust. More in the event of societal collapse etc (although if anybody actually made the effort to get up here I’d probably invite them in for a cup of tea ).
House has 4 external doors and every one of them has glass. Also 2 external doors into the garage (which also both have glass). Basic locks on all of them. We’ve got a gravel drive which is noisy and two dogs who bark at anyone who appears so I guess that is our security. Might look into the glass film mentioned - didn’t know it was a thing!

They are used to hold all the glass together in the event of the glass shattering. But even the thickest is just a plastic sheet 0.5 mm thick. A burglar could easily cut through it. It might slow them down a few minutes. A grille or bars would be a much stronger defence. Thinking about it though, even if I did my back door window, they could just smash the living room window, or one of the kitchen windows. Or the front door or front living room window.

Retractable custom made grilles are an option, but they are going to be expensive, like £ hundreds or thousands, and a lot of work to fit, or even more expense to have fitted.