What Preps are you doing this week? Part 7.

How are you preparing
ForgeCorvus
Posts: 3035
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:32 pm

Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 7.

Post by ForgeCorvus »

Arzosah wrote: Mon Aug 24, 2020 3:19 pm

One purchase *not* yet made is the DIY stuff at Wickes - I'm going to cave, and get raised beds, but I can't order them yet, my fencer has abandoned me so my side gate is stuck shut still. It will happen.
I build troughs out of pallet boards (supported on bricks) rather then landscaped raised beds, it means I can move them around as needed.

Good tradesmen are getting harder to find each year, we're still waiting for the roofer to come back and point the chimney (they finished the roof just in lock-down) :evil:
jennyjj01 wrote:"I'm not in the least bit worried because I'm prepared: Are you?"
Londonpreppy wrote: At its core all prepping is, is making sure you're not down to your last sheet of loo roll when you really need a poo.
"All Things Strive" Gd Tak 'Gar
jansman
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Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 7.

Post by jansman »

Today is my August Bank Holiday ( it's a shift rota thing). It's sluicing down right now,so another fishing trip is off.Yesterday's catch more than made up for it though! :D .Therefore,I shall use the time well by dehydrating a glut of tomatoes and pickling rather a large surplus of eggs.We really don't need so many fowls now,but I just like to have them around! :lol:

Got to go to town for some bits and pieces,and I may get some frozen veg for drying too.Our freezers are pretty full,and all this talk of Brexit/Covid/asteroid strikes :lol: may mean it is a good idea to get some extra stored. I shall refer to our dehydrating thread for more info.
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.
Arzosah
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 7.

Post by Arzosah »

ForgeCorvus wrote: Mon Aug 24, 2020 5:27 pm
Arzosah wrote: Mon Aug 24, 2020 3:19 pmOne purchase *not* yet made is the DIY stuff at Wickes - I'm going to cave, and get raised beds, but I can't order them yet, my fencer has abandoned me so my side gate is stuck shut still. It will happen.
I build troughs out of pallet boards (supported on bricks) rather then landscaped raised beds, it means I can move them around as needed.
Interesting! I want to pester you for details .... do you move the bricks as well? So they're not mortared in? And why do you move them, is that about buildup of pests etc? But do you rotate the crops a bit?

I have some lovely slats from a double bed that I could use - they're only about an inch thick, and maybe 6" high on their sides, they could be enough. In fact, there's quite a bit of timber debris lying about, I could probably do it short term with that. Energy levels and age are the issues, sadly. And torrential rain right now, as jansman pointed out.

On another topic, I have fun every day checking spaceweather.com - I do glance at projected CMEs, but really its about the Near Earth Asteroids - some of these are stretching the word "near" quite a bit - 20 times further from the earth than the moon is! They're counted in Lunar Distances on spaceweather - literally, the distance from the earth to the moon. Some are a lot closer - they had one that was 0.0 LD, which seems a bit of a misprint, but there are often ones that are less than 0.5LD. It's more for my astronomy interest (Pluto probably has a water ocean underneath all that ice!) but there's a tiny bit of crossover with prepstering.
ForgeCorvus
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Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:32 pm

Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 7.

Post by ForgeCorvus »

The troughs are one board long, roughly either a quarter or a half board wide ( I'll tweak that size to match an exact number of board widths) and three or four board widths high. The framing is on the outside (like a packing case) and is allowed to overhang the bottom a little to act as feet that then sit on loose bricks, this means there is a decent air space underneath so slugs and other undesirables don't have places to hide.
I drill a few large drainage holes in the bottom planks, paint the whole lot with a non-toxic 'fence-life' type product and if I'm feeling flush I line the inside with weed proof membrane.

Fill using sterile compost or WHY, not plain garden soil as part of why we do this is weeds (like ground elder :evil: ) are rife. We do one season with fresh stuff, one a quarter fresh and the rest recycled and one half and half then start the cycle again.
If possible we buy compost in the end of the year sales.... Frugal is a Prep ;)

We move them around depending on what we're growing and how much. Narrow ones are better for climbers, wide ones for bushy or space hungry things and deep ones for roots (that last one is based on advice as we've not grown a lot of roots yet).
jennyjj01 wrote:"I'm not in the least bit worried because I'm prepared: Are you?"
Londonpreppy wrote: At its core all prepping is, is making sure you're not down to your last sheet of loo roll when you really need a poo.
"All Things Strive" Gd Tak 'Gar
jansman
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Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 7.

Post by jansman »

I made a couple of raised beds using decking boards, which are pressure treated. Even better, I got them for zero cost as they came in with a load of scrap timber from my landscaping friend.
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.
Lemne
Posts: 286
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2020 6:44 pm

Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 7.

Post by Lemne »

Both our self employed incomes have been drastically cut since lockdown with mine stopping dead and keeping so for the foreseeable, hubs shut down for 7 weeks initially. Fortunately I work part time for hubs as well so have had a little furlough coming in. With furlough ending at the end of October and mortgage payments returning to full whack for us things are looking much harder. This week we are starting to cut back in preparation for then so it doesn't come as such a shock. Have got rid of the fibre broadband which never worked anyway, my broadband is slow as anything. Also knocked the free calls off as we don't have a permanent landline anymore (got a corded non electric phone for emergencies) and got rid of the tv package. I don't watch tv and hubs is watching less and less and will probs get rid of it all together in the near future. We are also pulling everything out of the storage unit we keep for our bikes and my work supplies and that is going before the end of October. That means bye bye to hubs road bike as we can't store it and he's spent 12 months doing it up.

One of the hardest things for me has been letting go of some of the ethical products I buy. I will be able to keep a few as most supermarket own brands are not tested on animals but it feels weird buying cheap white sugar instead of the unbleached raw one we use now. I use light olive oil to cook but am going to have to go to cheaper sunflower oil. Same with cleaning products but needs must

On the upside I have always bottled little bits in the past but have seriously upped my game in the last few months. Lots of cheap bargains at the supermarket at the end of the day being made into sauces and meals and bottled. Am building up quite a stash.
Arzosah
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 7.

Post by Arzosah »

Forge Corvus and jansman, thanks for that. I don't think I'd go for the work of making them moveable, it's about energy levels again. But I've realised I have a *lot* of bricks around, and I could certainly get enough together to make a base layer for at least a single bed. Rellies are all about having it done by landscapers and tons of soil imported all in a go, but with the difficulty we've mentioned in getting trades in, plus my own issues about re-using stuff that's in my garden, doing at least *some* of it myself is my aim. There's also a timber merchant about 20 minutes walk away, and I'll research their goods and prices as well.

I've taken the measurements of the garden, and putting it onto an Excel sheet - with the way the world is turning, I really need this garden to be properly efficient.

Lemne - its hard stepping down a brand, isn't it :( I used to eat a lot of organic, but I stopped. Now that I'm so near to getting my state pension, I've started a few organic things again. The only thing I never stopped using organically was eggs, just a personal preference. Good to hear your stash is growing.
jennyjj01
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Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 11:09 pm

Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 7.

Post by jennyjj01 »

You can Laugh, but today I harvested my first ever Onion crop.

Grown from sets in two trugs with no care or attention: 15 Onions weighing in at about 1400g.

I also have ONE tomato almost ready to harvest.
IMG_20200826_151347.jpg
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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Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 7.

Post by jansman »

jennyjj01 wrote: Wed Aug 26, 2020 2:31 pm You can Laugh, but today I harvested my first ever Onion crop.

Grown from sets in two trugs with no care or attention: 15 Onions weighing in at about 1400g.

I also have ONE tomato almost ready to harvest.

IMG_20200826_151347.jpg
Excellent! The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Growing * anything* edible is great. I never cease to be amazed by the subject.
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.
ForgeCorvus
Posts: 3035
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:32 pm

Re: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 7.

Post by ForgeCorvus »

Arzosah wrote: Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:13 am Forge Corvus and jansman, thanks for that. I don't think I'd go for the work of making them moveable, it's about energy levels again. But I've realised I have a *lot* of bricks around, and I could certainly get enough together to make a base layer for at least a single bed.
I've seen raised beds made by laying bricks 'drystone' and also by stacking in a solid "L" shape to act as corners for loose planks...... Your only limit is your imagination
Rellies are all about having it done by landscapers and tons of soil imported all in a go, but with the difficulty we've mentioned in getting trades in, plus my own issues about re-using stuff that's in my garden, doing at least *some* of it myself is my aim.
They don't get the point, part of it is about self reliance, part about re-use/re-purpose/re-cycle and partly about practicing for doomsday :lol:
There's also a timber merchant about 20 minutes walk away, and I'll research their goods and prices as well.
You've got a timber merchant you can walk to.... Wheres the "Insanely Jealous " emoticon when I need one?
I've taken the measurements of the garden, and putting it onto an Excel sheet - with the way the world is turning, I really need this garden to be properly efficient.
So you can build what you want, rather then what a contractor decides to give you


Jenny: Thats not a bad crop of onions for the space.
jennyjj01 wrote:"I'm not in the least bit worried because I'm prepared: Are you?"
Londonpreppy wrote: At its core all prepping is, is making sure you're not down to your last sheet of loo roll when you really need a poo.
"All Things Strive" Gd Tak 'Gar