What Preps are you doing this week

[Arzosah]

Congratulations to preppingsu and metatron!

M, how did the test go?

[moocher]

Just visited a landowner who advertised on the Landshare scheme (River Cottage). We have agreed to take on about 1/4 acre of land with raised beds plus huge (approx 12ft long) greenhouse to grow more veg. There is also an orchard of apple, pear and plum trees that we have free access to and a big bonus GRAPEVINES!!!
They just want someone to care for it all and in return have a small percentage of the produce. Two years ago the grapes went to the local vineyard and produced many bottles of wine.

Wow, this will be a move towards being more self sufficient. It is amazing.

Wow I'm on there an all the land I replied too no one responded to messages.

[preppingsu]

Wow.. that's really good news Su, you must be over the moon

It will require a lot of hard work to get it useable but there are some red onions, leeks, and masses of rhubarb already. The fruit trees haven't a huge crop (I think many people are saying that) but it might get us through the winter.
I am very pleased!!
I'll try and take some pics next time I'm there, some before and after shots!

[preppingsu]

Just visited a landowner who advertised on the Landshare scheme (River Cottage). We have agreed to take on about 1/4 acre of land with raised beds plus huge (approx 12ft long) greenhouse to grow more veg. There is also an orchard of apple, pear and plum trees that we have free access to and a big bonus GRAPEVINES!!!
They just want someone to care for it all and in return have a small percentage of the produce. Two years ago the grapes went to the local vineyard and produced many bottles of wine.

Wow, this will be a move towards being more self sufficient. It is amazing.

Wow I'm on there an all the land I replied too no one responded to messages.

This family had posted their land a year ago and we were the first interested people! Keep persevering, something will turn up.

[metatron]

Congratulations to preppingsu and metatron!

M, how did the test go?

The external antenna makes a big difference with heavy tree cover, as before you would quite often lose lock and have to wait 10 to 20 seconds once you clear the woods to get a satellite lock. Seemed to give very solid performance overall and being that the Garmin GPS60 is now discontinued the official Garmin antenna was only £5.

If I were to be in the market for a low cost rugged gps handheld at the moment, I would not pick a used GPS60 as lock time when you first power it up is still a little over a minute and Garmin's newer Garmin eTrex 10 (a friend has one) is a better device, although harder to use with gloves on.

The GPS60 has given me 6 years of solid service and I don't see myself upgrading it as it still fits my needs.

[Ferricks]

Just visited a landowner who advertised on the Landshare scheme (River Cottage). We have agreed to take on about 1/4 acre of land with raised beds plus huge (approx 12ft long) greenhouse to grow more veg. There is also an orchard of apple, pear and plum trees that we have free access to and a big bonus GRAPEVINES!!!
They just want someone to care for it all and in return have a small percentage of the produce. Two years ago the grapes went to the local vineyard and produced many bottles of wine.

Wow, this will be a move towards being more self sufficient. It is amazing.

Wow I'm on there an all the land I replied too no one responded to messages.

Moocher - stick with it, I belong to a small group (5 of us!) that have been campaigning for more allotments in South Lanarkshire for years. There is a 28 year waiting list. Given the land mass and demograph of South Lan this is insane (look it up).

Well - we still don't have any more BUT we have managed to get some land from the Salvation Army who run a homeless project nearby and have more land than they know what to do with. They ask for no money, no percentage of food, no commitment - they believe in giving forward for the good of the community. It helps them with their own objectives to serve and support and we are (literally) reaping the benefit now. 'don't want to bug everybody with the story on this thread but if anybody wants more info on the different things that we did to get land then feel free to PM me or I can start a new one and Su can post updates too!!!!.

Su - Congratulations

[smileyt]

Moocher, is there a community allotment near you?

I am just giving up my allotment after 12 years of desperately trying and failing to beat it into submission and produce something, anything, edible. I'm just not physically strong enough to do it myself. So the community allotment people who have the plot next to mine are going to take it over and I'm going to join in with them. This way I will actually get more produce to eat for much less individual effort. I know giving up my plot flies in the face of prepper independence, but what use to anyone is an overgrown plot? At least this way something good comes out of it. I will be keeping about four ( 4ft square) raised beds for myself, some raspberry canes, and the rest will be for community use.

[Arzosah]

Sorry to hear your situation, smileyt. Trying to look on the bright side, you're also strengthening your links with the local community - that could be just as important a prep in the years to come. You might get more tips on food production, too!

[scoobie]

Sounds like the best deal for everyone smiley...you'll get more produce and forge more local links. Adapt and survive, the prepper ethos

[moocher]

There are allotments but like everywhere a long waiting list,
When I lived in the forest of dean ,the amount of ruined apples I would see in gardens was my biggest pet hates,people were even to lazy to collect them and then put road side for free,
If I vaguely knew them I would knock an ask.