Where's the April prepping thread? I'd start one but I don't know how to pin it to the top of the message board.

I don't have the option to pin topics neither or I'd pin it for you. i just checked too.

Is Penham alright? She usually post the thread.

The tomato plants are ready for planting out in the unheated greenhouse.  The trouble is we have been having some nights of frost, but the seedlings need to be planted soon, so I will just have to risk it.

Also I am making the annual batch of wood ash and urine fertiliser for the tomatoes.  ´

EdwinSm, wrote: The tomato plants are ready for planting out in the unheated greenhouse.  The trouble is we have been having some nights of frost, but the seedlings need to be planted soon, so I will just have to risk it. Also I am making the annual batch of wood ash and urine fertiliser for the tomatoes.  ´

I learnt a really useful tip that might help you. Fill any empty 2 litre milk bottles you have with water and place one next to but not touching each tomato seedling once it's planted out. You can stand them upright or lay them on their side, and the water will absorb heat all day and then release it at night to protect your seedling from frost. This obviously won't work with a large plant but it does with a seedling and a light frost.

EdwinSm, wrote: The tomato plants are ready for planting out in the unheated greenhouse.  The trouble is we have been having some nights of frost, but the seedlings need to be planted soon, so I will just have to risk it. Also I am making the annual batch of wood ash and urine fertiliser for the tomatoes.  ´

Is your greenhouse lined with polythene,like a sort of double glazing..?

Might help also to wrap pots with bubble wrap keep them warm and  cover at night..

Take care all 😷😉

I'm doing loads of prep this week as I went to a public meeting about earthquakes and it made me dust off our emergency plans and check everything. I've just got a few more fuel cans to buy and some geese food and I'll be done but I am revisiting all my preps over then next fortnight, just in case. We've changed our diet recently due to one of us being diagnosed with a wheat allergy, and in case you didn't know, wheat is in absolutely everything!!!!!

Mine is lined.  I have small homemade storage heaters in there too.  I never thought of the bottle of water though.  What a brilliant idea!

The homemade storage heaters go like this.                                                        Why this design?   The stuff was recycled building materials.

_{/ brick/      / brick/     / brick/     / brick/}                                                                                       These top bricks are black to absorb sunlight for extra efficiency.

_{\brick\             tea lights            \brick\}

^{------------------------------------------------   piece of slate}

^{\brick\                                            \brick\}

You can line your greenhouse with water bottles too. One winter I filled tons of them with water and stood them on the floor under the staging, and then put a single row of them on each of the two shelves of the staging against the glass. They worked fantastically at keeping the temperature up but come the summer they filled with algae and I couldn't be bothered to wash them out and refill them.

Thanks for all the suggestions...  My greenhouse has a back (ie north) wall of brick, following the pattern of a greenhouse I was familiar with in my youth (that wall was also the boundary wall).    So there is some brick mass, although not as much as Techno's design.  

If there threatens to be night frost after planting out I will wrap plants in a cloth (similar to the ones the farmers use to protect the early potato crop) and then spray with water.  The coldness of the air will go into the wet cloth but not into the plants sheltering underneath (or that is what I think the theory is)

Any suggestions on storing firewood?

We've just had 120 large pine trees felled and their branches shredded. We are now cutting 10 trees up every weekend into rounds, and then splitting them into firewood. The result is a huge, ever growing pile of freshly split logs. It'll take at 6 months for them to season before we can burn them and we're heading into winter here soon. We're looking at about 8 years worth of firewood. Ideally I'd like them under cover.

The problem I have is that out woodshed is full. I don't want to leave the wood outside on the wet ground as it'll rot. My hay barn is full of hay for the winter, and the other bays are full of sailing boats and tractors. Short of building a new barn, does anyone have any good ideas for storing this wood?

I'd be leaving them as whole logs for a few years, maybe cut them in half  for handling,make a few  square piles of them cover with  a tarp,and tin sheets keep rain off ,wrap till you need them .....

Take care all 😷😉

You could leave some uncut for several years, just out in the open.   One local man here does that with trees from his land (he also helps other people clear land so gets lots of wood from that as well).

Or if you are cutting and splitting then make an outside round wall with the firewood length-ways pointing in-out, and throw other firewood into the middle.   This is another local pattern.   But for 8 years supply...you might need then under a tarp.  Stacking wood takes a lot of time, but a lot more can be fitted in if properly stacked.  

EdwinSm, wrote: You could leave some uncut for several years, just out in the open.   One local man here does that with trees from his land (he also helps other people clear land so gets lots of wood from that as well). Or if you are cutting and splitting then make an outside round wall with the firewood length-ways pointing in-out, and throw other firewood into the middle.   This is another local pattern.   But for 8 years supply...you might need then under a tarp.  Stacking wood takes a lot of time, but a lot more can be fitted in if properly stacked.

Edwin I think that technique you suggested is called German stacking. I made a German stack on Saturday but it was unstable because we cut our firewood so short as the firebox on our Rayburn is small. I love the idea but it's for longer wood than ours unfortunately. 

Our latest idea is to stack it on pallets against the wall of our veg garden with upright pallets between every second pallet on the ground. Then we'll stack in these little bays and nail a sheet of corrugated iron across the top. I'm concious of creating a rat run under these pallets so will place them end out so our terriers can nose about underneath. We have big, fat, glossy brown rats here. They are the picture of health!!

Sounds good.  

Every autumn we have a work weekend at a camp ground on another island.   Then a tree or two are cut.  The fresh wood is stacked against the south facing wall of an old (rebuilt) barn, and the top covered with an old iron roofing sheet.   This is left out all winter, and the next autumn it is put into the wood shed.   [My job is to take the wood into the barn, and then stack the fresh wood - I leave the chain saws to others]

Yes, I'm ok, work has been horribly busy. I work in a women's domestic violence shelter. Thank you for starting the thread, I think it should be a sticky now. We have some of our garden planted, spinach, onions, broccoli, zucchini and squash. We have tomato plants started. The bell peppers and jalapeno peppers did not come up from seed so we might have to buy a couple of plants. 

We went to sam's club in our area and it was pretty empty.  We got most of our preps for the month and noticed a few funny things.  We saw that the prices were abiut the same as they were in 2020.  We spent around 300 dollars or so on a month's worth ot preps.  canned chicken was our go to while in shut down.  So we got some.  We loaded up on canned veggies, staples and a few other items.  Food court still closed.    We did ok considered the options.   Still have plenty of ramen and batteries,