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At one time when our preps were kept in an outbuilding, I varnished cans or oiled them, this was before we used the plastic crates, no need now.

Yes you are right Pete , plastic crates are ideal for storage ....but buy strong stackable ones , they can be expensive ....but cheaper in the long run . I use a lot of plastic keg barrels for grains , flour, pasta , rice and dried pulses .......I have insulated all the storage areas , floor,ceilings and all walls .....so long as you can control the ventilation it works very well .....a hard lesson learnt over many years , making many mistakes and throwing out loads of stuff ......but no more !

I’ve lost count of the plastic crates we have, all heavy duty, we use them for almost everything, they are the basis of our prep strategy......They stack to maximise storage space.....easy to check contents.....easy and quick to load the BOV.

I try and keep them around 30lbs max, it’s not too heavy for either of us to lift and stack.....For the heaviest crates (mostly canned food) I use webbing straps to strengthen them and keep the lids on.

I have ordered new door and glass seals for the wood burner , although no problems at the moment , best get some spares in stock , before tshtf .

We normally burn smokeless fuel (good stocks) in our stove over the winter but we have some logs for chilly spring evenings.

I rebuilt the stove two years ago, new bottom grate and pin wheel, and fitted a new door seal, I used new fire bricks but kept the old ones, we also have some fire clay and fire cement, a spare door seal would be useful.

Managed to get two 13kg propane bottles without paying a deposit, still looking for a reasonable priced portable gas heater, another source of heat should mains gas and electricity fail.

Should we be without mains electricity and find ourselves using batteries (AA and AAA) for our small devices, radios, walkie talkies, torches etc, obviously we will use “ordinary” batteries first before our rechargeable ones (ni-cads). I am considering getting a couple of sets of li-ion’s as they will last much longer as they can go through more than 2,000 charging cycles.

On the physical prepping side, actually doing something, due to the fact the workshop is chocker I’ve made up an outside bench with some tantalised decking boards I’ve been given , I expect Lady Grey to commandeer it for plant repotting .

SS did you ever get to the farmers market ?. It’s about time WE started to go car booting, always get some useful stuff.

I hope the car boot sales start up again but so far I have seen no evidence of that in our neck of the woods.

No Pete it’s not really opened up , and the markets that are open ....are a waste of time , not many stalls bother to turn up , after all they have had a hammering from all sides ! And may never return ! , in another post you mentioned a tyre repair kit .......which I did get .....I also bought two 3ft tyre levers .....could not find my other ones ....gone west I expect .

On with the garden ........cleaned the poly tunnel today , ready for sowing the veggies ......started turning over some of the raised beds and adding some fertiliser ......made a start on some more hive parts ( brood boxes and some supers ) ......off to pickup some birch from the saw mill tomorrow with the sil .....bird boxes , owl boxes and some bat boxes .....and anything else he dreams up ! ..........giddy up you old bastard !

Been strapping down all the hives and tying down everything that could take to the air ! In readiness for the storm coming in tomorrow “Eunice” shaping up to be a bad one ! Extremely high winds are expected .

I have protected some of the raised beds with polythene and battened them down using screws , all four poly tunnels are solid and protected with extra stakes and more concrete blocks to add a bit more stability .

Will make a start on the brood and super boxes tomorrow , I have run enough boards through the thicknesser and cut to size all components , just some router work then I can assemble .

“ okay chaps let the have it “