What have done towards your prep?

[Pete Grey]

Power washed bungalow roof and cleaned out the gutters, one job less to do.

[Mortblanc]

I have to clean up the garden.

Lightning struck the big tree on the corner of the lot Friday afternoon. It blew branches ad chunks of bark for 50 yards across the garden. Left a streak of exposed bark for 50 feet from the top branch down to the ground.

Strike was 15 meters from the house lit up the whole world for a split second. If I had any hair it would probably have stood on end.

It has been raining constantly since that event and I am not going to clean up the lawn i the rain. It can wait.

I figure the tree is now dead.

[Pete Grey]

A neighbour or ours has 4 leylandii conifers 70 feet plus which he won’t have reduced , every time we have a storm we hope wind or lightning will fetch one down.

[Straight Shooter]

Stripped out the one polytunnel of tomatoes then set up some trestles .....brought in a pile of plants to over winter....the other polytunnel i will use to grow some stuff over the winter , carrots, lettuce , i will heat this polytunnel ........most all the raised beds are now stripped out dug over and manured ....the only things left are runner beans (mostly for seed) beetroot ,Jerusalem artichoke,fennel,peas,french beans, onions, garlic,carrots,chillies and Christmas potatoes .....update on the King Edward potatoes i planted in the failed raised beds (MB) great success MB made a good crop 30 lbs thanks to you ! .....all in all a good year to date on and around the garden.

Home Maintenance time ........renewed gutters on the garage , waiting on the leaves to drop so i can clean all the house gutters.....removed the gazebo covers and packed away , tarp'ed up the table and chairs out on the deck, and cleaned the deck....the small polytunnel (on the deck) is stripped of tomatoes and now filled with a fig and a bay tree along with wild child's Astor's and stuff.....she has done a pile of cuttings and collected ten zillion seeds.

Plenty of chillies to be dehydrated along with anything else i can get my hands on, made a big batch of MORE elderberry syrup (a big hit with the family and some friends) the batch produced seven gin type bottles ....all day that took ! .

Lit the wood stove for the first time last Wednesday .....within 2 hours it was up to 27.5 c ....going cold here at night ....but not us chickens , we let the fire burn out .....we use about a bucket of logs, today made a trip up to our mates pallet yard filled up the back of the 4x4 seats down and a full trailer full (block spacers) we will carry on every Saturday up until Christmas and into the new year building up our stockpile (mine is full) ......going to lift the roof on the lower firewood shed and extend the building ....will end up 30 ft x 10 ft ...this will allow the mini digger and power barrow a new dry home...work will start within weeks.

[Pete Grey]

Not much to do in the garden, just move pots into shed to over winter, benches will go in summer house with ornaments.

No outside work left to do, guttering cleared, painting done and all fencing sorted, but will power wash patio.

Fired up central heating for the first time since spring, working fine, moved some solid fuel for the little wenlock into living room (and some in rear porch) all ready to light up, this time last year was much colder and it was already in use.

I’ve drained the water tank of the camper van and will soon do the winter checks then put in the winter clothing and make sure both gas bottles are full, tinned food is replaced as it is used so no need to check the expiry dates.

Things seem to be going well.

[Straight Shooter]

Today....stripped the existing roof then extended the lower wood store , set up all the roof joist sheet carriers, used the old steel profile sheets to wall off the extended bit, the new profile roof sheets were delivered late 3pm so we changed up a gear , all ten sheets are fixed and we are in the dry ...ready for the rain forecast tomorrow (sat) finished by 6 pm , will make some double doors to secure the mini digger and beast next week but all is undercover and dry.

Off up the pallet yard first thing to fill the 4x4 and trailer with more spacer blocks from the pallets..... bottled up the elderberry wine (7) bottled up the cherry gin,apricot gin and apricot vodka , there is more to bottle and the sloe gin but that's a month away yet......feeling my age tonight, time for a good single malt !

[Pete Grey]

Our pond water level keeps dropping, seems like there’s a leak in the liner, that’s another job i don’t really need. Will have to look for a new one asap as the pond is backup water storage (mainly for fruit and vegs) after jerrycans and water butts.

[Mortblanc]

Plastic liner?

Sounds like work!

Perhaps you could just sink a new liner in over the old one.

Chances are that you will ruin the old liner trying to find the present leak anyway.

[Pete Grey]

The old liner is butyl rubber MB and has lasted 14 years, so i expect it is damaged and not gone porous as it should have lasted 20 years +.

And yes the plan is to empty the pond of plants and the usual crap and put in a new liner on top of the old one.

Where we notice any damage to the old one we will put a layer of fine sand over the area first or use a piece of old carpet to protect the new liner. Not a job we were expecting or wanted but it needs to be done.

[Straight Shooter]

Built up a retaining wall around the well i set up some weeks back , back filled with hardcore today and knocked up 1mtr cube of concrete and laid the slab surrounding the well head....the slab will become the home for the trailer .....great cardio work out .....but knackered now....took me two days in all....to be fair the sil was my bitch yesterday (day off) by mid day he was wishing he was back in work ....and not with yours truly ....aye i was bad to the bone!