What have done towards your prep?

[Straight Shooter]

The solar panels and systems are now generating away as of yesterday ......battery is at 60% right now ! , the installation guys have done a first class job .....very happy ......we shall see how good the system works as time go’s by ......giving the finger to the power company right now ! .......we are now looking at a new bigger freezer ,instead of four smaller ones we have now to save on power .....we are Looking to make savings Any Way we can in all areas of our housekeeping budget ......when we were first married I asked wild child how much house keeping money she needed per week ? ....she said “ I can manage on twenty pounds a week “ ......I gave her £10 and told her to struggle a bit ! .

Clearing out some of the raised beds ready for another crop ......filling some storage boxes with potatoes and carrots .....freezing peas and broad beans .......made some black currant jelly and some gooseberry jelly ....red currants are up next ....damsons are a month away yet ....some wine will follow ....rhubarb ! Got loads of it ! .....pulled off two full supers full of honey , all frames full ! .......however .....bad news down the big poly tunnel ...the big aquaponics system is not at all good .....the sil looks after that ......I think the pump is the culprit needs cleaning .....lack of flow ....less oxygen being produced ......I will be on the case by the end of this week ....lots going on at the moment .

[Straight Shooter]

The aquaponics system is now fixed .....as I suspected the pump ! .....I cleaned the filter and opened it up to full ! ...instead of turning the pump UP the sil turned it down .....I have dished out a suitable bollocking ! .

Been picking runner beans , cabbage , cauliflower and peas ....raising all the potatoes this weekend and have started reseeding for a second crop ......having a good clean up around the ground and clearing plenty of weeds ! ....the cauliflower crop I’m putting down to a fail at best .....carrots are very good ! .....will make good use of all the 30 kilo tubs with a second crop in the coming weeks .

[Straight Shooter]

Still on with the firewood splitting .....today I split just over a cord .......with my head ! ......onwards !

[Pete Grey]

SS you’re the Timber King of the valleys.

[Mortblanc]

No wood splitting for me these days.

We are still in what you would call 36-38 degree temps with humidity between 70% and 100%. Your clothes are wet in seconds after walking outside. Sweat simply does not evaporate.

You can see the air and inspect it well before you breathe it!

.

[Straight Shooter]

Making four hive floors four separators and two roofs today .....finally that should be it , on the hives contract ! .
We will be taking off more honey this weekend ......the same amount as a few weeks back .

The hens have settled into a routine the average egg count is around thirty one per week , that will do us .

Will be kicking over the generators and checking over gas stoves and lamps ......i will move these items to a new easy to get at position .

Another food prep inspection is due in a few weeks ! Really looking forward to that .......not .

[Straight Shooter]

Planted up seven 30 kilo tubs of Maris peer potatoes ......cleared a few raised beds ready for some onion sets ....blueberries are ready ! Picking loads of runner beans and french beans .....picked all the broad beans .

Had some bandsaw blades given me off John the farm .....ten bought as a job lot , I cut them to size and braised them with silver solder .....they are working fine and are now fitted to johns and my bandsaw ......the offcuts I will turn into another four blades later on in the winter ! .......charge on ! .

[Straight Shooter]

Finally finished splitting all the logs today at around six pm ......my shed was full to the roof , and now so is my sil’s shed plus more besides . Although we probably set for two years .....firewood has become a routine for us and has become part of everyday stuff , so no time to .....there are seven trees down around the ground so we will get stuck into them and harvest in the coming weeks ......then it all starts again .

The onion sets I put in for pickling are the right size for pulling this week , the damsons will be ready within two weeks ......apples and pears are coming on I think about another thee to five weeks .

The sil spun forty eight frames of honey today ...jarring up tomorrow .....yummy ! ....I will pick some blackberries this week .......some jelly and some wine ! .

The hens are doing great and a nice supply of eggs .....going to get a cock soon to cheer the girls up ! ....they have made several requests ....they don’t mind sharing they said ! .....speaking of hens it’s clean out day tomorrow so that’s my first job ..........charge on !

[Straight Shooter]

Picked some blackberries and had some cooking apples given me ....turned them into blackberry n apple jelly ....Made six jars .

Cleared out the small poly tunnel except for the tomatoes (three plants) in readiness for ten 30 litre tubes some potatoes , onions , turnips and carrots for a late crop . The runner beans are coming to the end now but there is plenty put up in the freezer should see us until January / February .

Going to try the test rig aquaponics to grow through the winter .....will heat and light up the poly tunnel but will make some improvements with extra insulation it may well fail but I have to try and see if works with a range of different veggies .....I will use my spare solar array for the pump and lights / fan ......might even try some vertical growing ! .

Been thinking of taking the mini digger down to the bottom ground and cut in a roadway and switchback and move the hens there and add some ducks , pigs and maybe a goat there is plenty of room .....but the roadway is the first job ......I might have a play in the coming weeks .....fix bayonets men !

[Straight Shooter]

Bought some dried beans , split peas , and soup mix today ......eight kilo total .....also eight kilo’s of pickling onions To go with my own onions I pulled this morning . Twelve packets of seeds for £1. 35 from Wilco selling them off ....all good till 2024 .

Ordered some more fermentation bins and dried yeast along with some other wine making bits , there are a glut of blackberries right now, going to pick more tomorrow enough to make three gallons of wine .

Looked in on John the farm yesterday , to find him complaining of the price of food .....and everything else .....

diesel and heating oil and the price of meat ! ( how could it be possible for things to become so bad so quickly ? ) ...easy John ...it’s called inflation ! It’s running at 10% right now and by years end it will be between 13 to 15% and those figures are from the BOE forecast .....so if you had savings account with say 10k in it ....it will be worth £8.500 by years end or that’s what your buying power would be reduced to .....trouble is people still look at the balance amount on their statements and still think they have 10k when they Do Not in reality, they just do not understand how inflation works to undermine their savings and rob them blind ! In a stealth creepy way ....it’s not that things are going up in price , it’s more their currency is loosing its value ! .

As the conversation carried on we talked about the days when women cooked meals from scratch using offal to create some of the most tastiest filling and wholesome meals anyone could eat ...and how this was achieved on a open fire or coal fired range ......( yes but hardly any women know how these days says John ) they all have mobile phones including the kids ....they can afford cigarets and cheap booze ....yet the kids need new shoes and cloths . There is no self respect anymore , they have lost their moral compass and can not find a way back even if they were looking ....they seem to think their behaviour is the norm .....I feel sorry for them kids ...where will they end up ? .....I said societal collapse has started already and like everything else going on these days it’s going to get a lot worse ! Pal . ( well I’m glad we are old .....we had the best of living a good life John exclaims) .

Sorry to banter on folks but there are lots of take aways from a good conversation especially from old folks ...they seem to know a lot more ! .