What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8.

[Arzosah]

There's Olio too, I think it's mostly free food, and an acquaintance of mine on another forum is a volunteer distributor, it goes to people who ask, the distributor keeps 10% as their "payment" for the work, and the rest goes to whatever local homeless charity they can find. Seem to be a lot of croissants, from what I can tell

[Arzosah]

Starting all over again with weeding the garden, sigh ... I'm trying to mulch as I go along this time, using neighbour's sawdust, from when he's been chainsawing found logs. I've found 3 hazel seedlings, a holly seedling, and some lemon balm seedlings, and potted them up for my brother and sister.

Also went a walk in the early evening - trying to get fit again after the fortnight of dizziness, not had it for 3 days.

[jansman]

Starting all over again with weeding the garden, sigh ... I'm trying to mulch as I go along this time, using neighbour's sawdust, from when he's been chainsawing found logs. I've found 3 hazel seedlings, a holly seedling, and some lemon balm seedlings, and potted them up for my brother and sister.

Also went a walk in the early evening - trying to get fit again after the fortnight of dizziness, not had it for 3 days.

Embrace your weeds,and think of them as plants in the wrong place. I use loose permaculture principles on my plot,and by this time of year I just let the garden ‘go’.I have bindweed ,which is a proper nuisance,but I shift the worst every now and again,and the crops do well ,regardless.

I do hope you are feeling better Arzosah,and as I keep saying to Mrs J., “ make haste slowly”. Those weeds can wait!

So,in the spirit of ‘Local’ ,we are continuing to forge links. The first lockdown taught many people the value of traders on their doorstep- us included- and to continue dealing with them. With the cost of petrol as high as it is ( and reading about that leads me to believe those prices are here to stay), we are reducing unnecessary journeys. I make sure that anything we pick up is when we are making a necessary trip. As I have to drive to work,a couple of days a week I come home through town. That takes me right past Home Bargains,B and M etc. So this week I have capitalised on the end of season compost sell- off. I now have enough for next season. Next week I shall call on the solid fuel merchant and start laying in smokeless coal and a few litres of paraffin for greenhouse and outhouse frost protection. By doing it that way,I am using no more petrol and saving my precious time.

I have also been looking at my passion for fishing too. When I am lazy ,I have a tendency to drive 12 miles to a favoured commercial lake. I shall still visit,but I have been concentrating on the river that is within five minutes walk from my house! I am,of course ,a Sport Angler, but if SHTF my hobby would easily provide food for us. My new,lightweight approach will also allow me to keep an eye on other local resources too. Well,that’s my little ramble over…got fowls to clean out now.

[Le Mouse]

Well my tomatoes now have blight so I shall be working out how to make green tomato chutney. I should be going out on another weeding mission like Arzosah, but I can't be bothered and my back is iffy again. I have been getting judgemental looks for the garden from the allotment holders down the way, so I better do some today at any rate. They know who my landlord is and I don't want to get in trouble. The upside of doing the garden is the opportunity to pick the blackberries that are round the side of the house.

I'm looking into a couple bits of storage furniture to make things easier in here. This place is tiny and there's no storage so it still looks a bit like a bomb site. Getting it sorted will ease my mind when people come round so they don't think I'm a hoarder

[diamond lil]

Apple tree absolutely covered with apples, so I've made a start on a year's apple crumble in the freezer

[jansman]

Apple tree absolutely covered with apples, so I've made a start on a year's apple crumble in the freezer

That looks a smashing garden.

[Le Mouse]

Apple tree absolutely covered with apples, so I've made a start on a year's apple crumble in the freezer

How wonderful!

[GillyBee]

Well my tomatoes now have blight so I shall be working out how to make green tomato chutney.

I seem to have been having the same problem with tomatoes this year. The outdoor ones all got blight and then a branch broke on a poorly supported greenhouse one. I have already made two small batches of green tomato chutney and a third is now in the offing. I gave up with the family recipe I was handed down as the family simply didn't actually like it but the BBC recipe here gets the thumbs up and is now my go to recipe. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/jan ... to-chutney


On the plus side we visited some local parkland today for backberry picking and found a large number of wild plums/damsons in the hedges. We will be going back in a few days with a tarp for more of the damsons. Most are just are a few days from ripe and will simply fall from the (large) trees to land on the tarp if the branches are given a shake at the right time.

[Arzosah]

Starting all over again with weeding the garden, sigh ... I'm trying to mulch as I go along this time, using neighbour's sawdust, from when he's been chainsawing found logs. I've found 3 hazel seedlings, a holly seedling, and some lemon balm seedlings, and potted them up for my brother and sister.

Also went a walk in the early evening - trying to get fit again after the fortnight of dizziness, not had it for 3 days.

Embrace your weeds,and think of them as plants in the wrong place. I use loose permaculture principles on my plot,and by this time of year I just let the garden ‘go’.I have bindweed ,which is a proper nuisance,but I shift the worst every now and again,and the crops do well ,regardless.

I do hope you are feeling better Arzosah,and as I keep saying to Mrs J., “ make haste slowly”. Those weeds can wait!

I mostly do think of weeds that way - but some are invasive and want to take over, like herb robert, and the ones that grow on abandoned building sites, and a ground ivy type thing? Plus pendulous sedge - I must have lifted up maybe 300? I didn't do any actual weeding today, I just cut about a third of the grass. I'm gradually letting plants from the borders colonise the grass, so it's full of alpine strawberries, sorrel, dandelion, and that one that looks like origami

Woke up nauseous and dizzy again today, I think my body wants me to be fitter - so from tomorrow, I'm going a walk, come rain, hail or shine. Started today by doing core exercises in front of the tv news.

The local thing is interesting - my radio ham neighbour is my most important link, so anything I can do *for* him, I'm on it - I was decluttering a granite pestle-and-mortar bowl because I couldn't actually lift it, so that went to him. Anything, really

Lil your apple tree looks wonderful, and you've done brilliantly with that courtyard!

Mouseagreed, having storage means you can hide the stuff so it's less obvious to visitors, even/especially like meter readers, if I ever let one into my home again.

[Arzosah]

Just setting up a ridiculously large order from Healthy Supplies - lots and lots of nuts and seeds, a fair amount of beans, an organic kombucha drink so I can grow a scoby and start making my own, flavourings (vanilla, organic turmeric) and kilos of salts that will be the start of Christmas hampers.