What Preps are you doing this week? Part 6.

How are you preparing
jennyjj01
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 6.

Post by jennyjj01 »

jansman wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 6:00 pmHowever, lofts were never an area meant for food storage, owing to wild temperature fluctuations. Also, as they are places that are infrequently visited, vermin make their home quite often.
Agreed. I've logged the temperature up there over 6 months with a USB data logger. It's way too hot in summer.

A bit damp too if I look at the deterioration in some of the cardboard boxes and sticky labels that fall off. Thus I double bag perishables with silica gel pouches. Tubs/Buckets in future.

So. I agree. not ideal: Must do better. But I'm not going to panic, just make improvements.
I guess that's why I post here, to garner ideas.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
jansman
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 6.

Post by jansman »

Deeps wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 6:13 pm
jansman wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 6:00 pm Good housekeeping is the secret of pest control. I keep aviary birds, fowls and rabbits. I keep them regularly cleaned and debris swept, feed and bedding pest proof ( or protected via poison and traps). Our pantry is no different. Sealed and rodent- proof containers for foods that vermin can get into, and bait stations in case. I operate the way that we have to at work( by law) as if it’s good enough there , then it’s certainly right for my home.

However, lofts were never an area meant for food storage, owing to wild temperature fluctuations. Also, as they are places that are infrequently visited, vermin make their home quite often.
We're in a relatively new build and we occasionally hear mice in the wall, we have a lethal moggy too. I've not noticed any rodents in the loft but we have had the odd bird get in, for the life of me I can't figure out where. As you point out, lofts aren't ideal for storing food and water, the temperature fluctuations don't do it any favours. Saying that, I've had to start storing some stuff in a shed as I've lost my garage to a granny annex. I'm keeping an eye on things, fortunately no rodents, as I have cat and dog food in there (amongst other stuff), some in plastic boxes, some not. Its a good excuse to ring that site I posted to see how much the postage would be for a delivery to sunny Alba. That's next months prepping budget blown....
Get some bait stations down. Simple preventative.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
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Deeps
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 6.

Post by Deeps »

jansman wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 6:27 pm
Get some bait stations down. Simple preventative.
Aye, probably a good idea. Although if I lock the moggy in there anything up to an antelope would be getting its tatties. :lol:
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diamond lil
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 6.

Post by diamond lil »

We heard scratching inside the walls but then it stopped. Never once saw a sight of a rodent! The rat man said our loft was full of droppings so there must've been a lot of rats. Yukkk.
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diamond lil
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 6.

Post by diamond lil »

Deeps lol I'd love to see your cat!
jennyjj01
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 6.

Post by jennyjj01 »

diamond lil wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 9:28 pm We heard scratching inside the walls but then it stopped. Never once saw a sight of a rodent! The rat man said our loft was full of droppings so there must've been a lot of rats. Yukkk.
EEk. Was this your external cavity walls or internal plasterboard walls? Did it stop as a result of them taking poison? Awful to think of their little mummified corpses still in your walls! :mrgreen: :oops: :shock: I think just a few rodents can make an awful lot of droppings.
I'm going to get the bait stations real soon.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
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diamond lil
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 6.

Post by diamond lil »

This is a 1930s house with solid brick walls Jenny. The scratching came from the wall between us and next door. And it stopped long before the Rat Man came with his poison. I wondered if it was them making a way in through the foundations or something. It was horrible to listen to and the cat was scared :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
jennyjj01
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 6.

Post by jennyjj01 »

OMG. Just watched a youtube vid of ten rats dying on a glue trap. What a horrible invention. It made me feel ashamed to be human.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BylN_v4rbGM

I think I'd feel better with a humane trap like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn0i-6qNyH8
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought

Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
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Deeps
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 6.

Post by Deeps »

diamond lil wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 9:34 pm Deeps lol I'd love to see your cat!
Lil, he's the loveliest, friendliest cat, he even plays with the cat across the road (although he has a long standing feud with the one down the road). He's a rescue and has food and abandonment issues. If he see's you walk down the road he wants to follow and he's very vocal, he's also very demanding with food. If Her Maj doesn't get herself down the stairs to feed him, he'll bite her heels or take a swipe at them, he's learned not to try that stuff with his dad as he gets clattered. I've watched him go over our back fence several times a day and come back with mice. He's had a couple of rats that we've known about too, I had to break the back of one of them. He's dragged a magpie into the house..... Basically, he's a pain with it and I think he's encouraged the dugs who are also into the mice despite being retrievers.

He's not our most prolific cat, we had half of a double act of farm cats, inherited him off my brother and he was the 'second fiddle' to his brother. They were assassins, did the whole Serangeti thing and between them gubbed a few hares, pheasants and that. Had to drag them in through a top window when my brother and his ex was away. Because the cats looked after themselves, they could go away on holiday and leave the window open for the moggies. The boy we inherited (couldn't of had the Alpha because of the princess we had) was the top cat around here until he died, there weren't as many houses and he ruled the place. We still haven't figured how to introduce another cat into the mix, Her Maj has always had a couple but we've been down to one for a few years, the current cat is probably a bigger issue than the dugs, it all stacks up though.

If you fancy a visit, you're more than welcome.
jansman
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Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 6.

Post by jansman »

We have two Toms like that. Just came downstairs,as I am coughing my lungs up with Bronchitis at the moment ,but I digress... Eric ,the eldest of the pair,has the remnants of yet another mouse in the fireplace.Yesterday,Stanley,the youngest,brought in a Starling,alive. That made a mess!

As pro!ific as they are at hunting though,we still have mice,lots of mice,around the birds.Its a Winter thing that I am prepared for.You cannot beat POISON! I like a body count too,so traps are a good second line defence.Oh yes,and those glue traps are brilliant. I have zero love for rats,they are filthy ,destructive creatures,that spread disease. I had Weils Disease when I was seventeen,caught whilst river- swimming.It is spread by rat piss.I lost half my bodyweight in ten days,and went canary yellow.I was lucky that my liver was not permanently damaged.When you take your dogs to the vet for vaccinations,Leptospirosis ( Weils Disease) is one of them.It is spread by mice too. Don't get happy- clappy ,and live-catch- release-to-a-happy -place.Kill 'em! :D
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.