What have done towards your prep?

[Straight Shooter]

Finished checking all the plastic bins 17 off and 11 plastic dust bins mostly all contain dried food ..grain,rice,pasta,lentils,beans and oats 80% of this total is inside Mylar have with have with oxygen absorbers ,all are excellent packed in 2009 to 2012 ...2 plastic boxes were bad 19 rubble sacks of tinned food I have thrown out some obvious and some dubious all are stored in the same room ....however tins were stacked on timber shelving and layered between each layer with 1mms plastic sheet ....as I have reported in the last ,I have added more ventilation to try to counter the tin problem but to no avail ...so a change is required ,a controlled temperature is needed with minimal temperature swings and good suitable ventilation ,and this is exactly where I will be going .

When I started prepping (food) I based all calculations on 15 family members (most all thought I was nuts) which was sort of ok by us, so what do they think now SS ! ....well a sort of polite your nuts but if it makes you happy attitude now prevails , I have tried my very best to educate them but have to admit defeat!...finally ,so all future prepping will be for mam and dad , I am sure they will be just find ! As I relinquish my responsibilities of a loving father ...who is nuts !

[Pete Grey]

SS you may think you are now prepping just for the two of you but if it comes to the crunch i bet they will all turn up, good luck with it. We just prep for two as the son is rarely in the country.

[Straight Shooter]

I am ok now Pete! Just had a bit of tity .....rhubarb wine ....just starting....cleaned all the house gutters this morning ,and needed it ...full of leaves . Going to split some firewood after lunch (with my head).

[Straight Shooter]

Dehydrator has been set up in the brew shed ,there will be plenty to get done,although this bit of kit gets used a lot ......I intend to increase more volume and a more varied supply of food ,with the advantage of less space to volume , storing in mason jars and Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers .

A smoker shed ....I have toyed with the concept for many years .....it's time to get it done ,I will get on with construction over the coming weeks .

[Mortblanc]

What is the plan on that smoker shed SS?

They used to be very popular over here. Every farm had one for curing the meat supply.

They ranged from simple shacks with a fire on the dirt floor to elaborate stone buildings with a stove outside venting smoke from the chimney into the building.

One of my friends family's was an old log structure that still had bullet holes from our Civil War around the door where the soldiers had shot the lock off the door to get at the contents.

[Straight Shooter]

To be honest MB the (plan) is only now forming , I have been watching a few YouTube reports to try and refresh my memory of what I saw my grandfather do over 60 years ago ...his was a small shed with a apexed roof ...built from timber ,Welsh slate roof ...set on a hill ... down the bank was where the fireplace was ....made from fire bricks with a steel door ..the chimney pipe run up the bank to the shed floor ( I have since been told this was to cool down the smoke ) .....so what size do I need ? Well let's start with fire size set against meat quantities to be cured and time required for the cure process ...any suggestions please please let me know .... any links ? Would be very welcome . I am told that grandfather ( a carpenter ) was so impressed with this method when he worked his way through USA then into Canada before he returned home to buy the small holding opposite from where I now sit...you could say he did well overseas .....he paid cash for the small holding .

[Straight Shooter]

Been replenishing the tinned stock I threw out , but reduced quantities , the small office is now being turned into another pantry....only the library will remain .

Worked out the position and size of the smoker shed but I am not going to drive straight in for now I need to gain some more knowledge first.

John the farm popped in yesterday with a load more Apple's (cookers) I will prep and freeze some and dehydrate the rest , I also have a load of onions to dehydrate .

[Mortblanc]

On that smoker shed I have a tip from the old days.

Draw a big circle on the ground and stick some stakes in the ground about a meter apart all around.

Then weave willow and hazel lathes in and out all around until it looks like a basket.

Smear mud on the lathes until you have a mud wall.

Stack poles along the roof until you have a cone shape and cover that structure with thatch.

Build your fire in the middle of the floor and let the smoke escape through the thatch.

Hang the meat from the poles forming your roof. The smoke hanging in the roof area waiting to dissipate through the thatch will cure the meat perfectly.

I believe that was how they did it in your area for the 7,000 years after farming arrived and before tins were invented.

[Pete Grey]

All vehicles are ready for the winter, lights checked, long life antifreeze, winter screenwash fluid, new wiper blades, battery levels topped up where they’re not sealed, tyres checked, shovel and grip matts at hand, boring stuff but important.

The garden has been put to bed, pool is netted to keep out leaves, garden will only need the odd tidy up, only the raised beds need tending.

SS i usually string and hang our onions in the shed, i’ve never dehydrated anything so i must do some reading up, it sounds a useful method of preserving stuff.

[Mortblanc]

Wen I am actively gardening my dehydrator runs 24/7!

I love to dehydrate veggies, especially tomatoes.

I got started doing tomatoes when I had a cherry tomato bush that went spaz on me and produced enough to supply an all you can eat salad bar for a year. I dehydrated many big one gallon bags of cherry tomatoes split in half and reduced to tomato chips.

They are great in soups and stews and I even like them crunched up into tomato bits and sprinkled on salads.

Lots of veggies dehydrate well.

You can also do jerky and powdered eggs.