Starting to think we may be stuck here for a bit......

[MaryN]

We live in East Anglia - Norfolk actually. A lovely county, although it was not my first choice for somewhere to live on returning to the UK from living abroad. But here we are, and although my feet are itching a bit, I suspect we will be here for a while longer until circumstances change.

I was delaying making any real changes to the property in case we decided to move on because it seemed a bit silly to spend too much money on alterations that might not necessarily appeal to buyers. However, I think I must now seriously contemplate "prepping" this place up - just in case.

So, the garden is getting a bit of a makeover. OH has made me some nice raised beds to enable me to grow some deep root crops - parsnips, carrots and suchlike - and we have spread manure liberally over the resting veggie patches in anticipation of boosting soil fertility for the coming season. I have now completed my little orchard of mixed fruit trees - one or two more apple trees to go in around the place later this year - and for now we have about 20 trees, all in good heart and as of last season all producing fruit. The soft fruit canes and bushes have been pruned and trimmed and are budding well. I have trained loganberry canes along fences and tied them in. I aim to ensure a good supply of fruit providing winter vitamins © to carry us through. There is more to do. I have a short length of blackthorn and hazel hedging to prune and manure. It will be a while before we get hazel nuts, but the blackthorn is flowering - fingers crossed for gin later this year. A good variety of herbs now flourish throughout the garden for flavour and herbal uses as necessary.

All this fruit and vegetable produce has meant I have needed to acquire an additonal freezer, and I now have 3. This is great because I can go for quite a time on what we grow and freeze, but it means we are vulnerable to power outtages - I am still working on rectifying that, and it may be a generator for temporary backup will be the thing until I sort out something solar. Does anyone have any experience of Generac generators??

My chicken flock is stable, and I have a good stock cockerel. Two decent sized coops provide plenty of space for the chooks and then some if I need to boost the flock. At the mo' I only have egg layers, but I will, if necessary, bring in meat poultry. Every now and again I bring up the subject to a sheep or two...... but so far OH has proved resistant. I may need to use bribery.

If this all sounds as if I am panicking a bit, you are probably right. Things do look a bit precarious at the moment, and I really should stop reading all these reports about food shortages, global warming, etc etc., but best to be prepared and all that stuff - I was never a Brownie/Guide but I understand the principle.

I'm still angling to have a look at that cistern under our office..... the carpet looks a bit tatty and could probably do with replacing, so I may just do a bit more scuffing and rucking, oh look at that.......