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Full Version: A big thank you
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I doubt anyone remembers me, but I was 'the woman who hadn't got a chimney'. I posted a lot some years ago, have lurked ever since, and just wanted to thank the members here for all the brilliant advice which has helped me enormously over the years, and made the present crisis (SO FAR!!!) a breeze.

Quick update: I realized from comments here (thanks especially to SS and BP) that my biggest problem was location, so I've basically worked like stink to make the money to relocate north. I now have a good size house in the country with chimney and giant woodburner, plus a garden full of fruit and vegetables. There still isn't room to grow as much as we'd really need in a major crisis, so I've kept up with the container gardening too, and have a large vegepod on the patio along with numerous potato bags, carrot and lettuce boxes, and trellised pots of climbing beans. I'd never really grown much before I started prepping, but have learnt so much from all of you guys - especially Mary - that I now have a really high success rate, even with cauliflower!

But your advice has really saved our bacon in the current crisis. We still haven't sold our original house (my husband still needs to do a lot of work down south so I spend a third of the year down there with him) and when Covid hit I found myself trapped in the wrong house! OK, I could have sneakily bugged out anyway, but it made sense both humanly and financially for us to ride out lockdown together, and thanks to all the prior prepping we had no difficulty at all. I always took to heart the motto that a crisis doesn't wait for you to be ready, and all the time I was working towards getting that new house I was also making sure the old one was still functional as a survival sanctuary. I'd always kept compost, topsoil and fertiliser stashed here in case we ever needed to rip up the flowerbeds and start a proper kitchen garden, and I'd also kept my seed stash up to date. Result = a jungle of container-grown vegetables all round the garden, which easily kept us going till I could get back up north. I also had all the obvious supplies of food, drugs (and bog roll!!), not to mention two boxes of Silverline respirators and gallons of sanitiser - we never went near the shops in lockdown, and went without nothing at all.

So, thank you to everyone. Even when you don't see members posting, you should know that we're still listening, and your wise advice helps more than just the people you're talking to. There's still so much I need to learn, and there are already a couple of questions I'm hoping to ask elsewhere, but I never really knew what 'be prepared' meant until I came here.

Thank you all.
Lou, Glad it worked out for you. Oop Norf is a bit friendlier usually.
Well Hello Lou ! I am so happy you got your place in the country ! Well done Lou ! And you out growing me ! ......really good to hear from you . Gave us a lift Lou .
Wow, Lou! Well done, you. A prepper success story! Glad we were all able to help you.
(11 August 2020, 10:33)Skean Dhude Wrote: [ -> ]Lou, Glad it worked out for you. Oop Norf is a bit friendlier usually.

Hi, SD! Yes, I actually came from Oop Norf originally, and only moved darn sarf for work. Wonderful to be home!
Still a long way to go, though. Another thing I've learned about prepping is that it's never, ever done...
(11 August 2020, 15:25)Straight Shooter Wrote: [ -> ]Well Hello Lou ! I am so happy you got your place in the country ! Well done Lou ! And you out growing me ! ......really good to hear from you . Gave us a lift Lou .
Hey, SS! Great to see you, but there's no chance at all of me 'out growing you'! I'm still excited when anything comes up at all, and am never likely to be in your league.

One thing you said that really helped me is a question you've asked more than once - and I hope you'll ask again. It was one late summer when I was feeling very smug after a great harvest of my favourite peas and beans, and you asked 'what have you got in the ground RIGHT NOW?' I stopped feeling smug immediately, because the honest answer would have been 'Er... not much!' Now I've got myself into leeks, carrots, parsnips, and winter cabbage, to say nothing of Second Cropping potatoes which I really adore - new potatoes at Christmas! I've also just started 'over-wintering', and while my peas were pathetic I had great cauliflowers in May and brussels sprouts in July - and all thanks to your question.
Please keep asking it - it keeps us all on our toes!
(11 August 2020, 17:43)MaryN Wrote: [ -> ]Wow, Lou! Well done, you. A prepper success story! Glad we were all able to help you.
Thanks so much, Mary. I suspect there's no such thing as a prepper success story until there's a real SHTF and we all survive, but I do feel I've finally started properly, and am really grateful for your encouragement.

Your own approach is the one I most aspire to, if only I can ever get enough land. Meanwhile I'm very lucky to have made closest of friends with a local farming family (sheep, pigs and chickens) which guarantees me eggs and meat if the worst happens, but I've now got them to start a little orchard (apples, pears, plums) and am getting them interested in starting a vegetable area with polytunnels on some of their spare land. Your posts have been absolutely invaluable in all this, and I'm constantly checking back through them for helpful tips.

Still, I've learned a lot of the practical side from my friends, and at least I'm now a pretty good hand at lambing - except for the triplets, which I always leave to my friends. I never knew three little animals could get themselves in such a tangle!