Prep Weird Stuff

 So here we go , one of my sad blog posts on the subject of prepping just to bore you all to death ...lol Now Mr Bah Humbug is all of a panic because theres a shortage of fishing hooks because they are all made in China and fishing bait is also getting very expensive in fact most hobby stuff is getting scarcer , i noticed that glue of various types is getting a bit thin on the ground the other day , but im not to worried i have mountains of craft stuff gleaned from my travels and im good at improvising anyway , do you remember making flour and water glue for scrapbooks many years ago? 

We had plums that ive bottled this week in a huge crumble that lasted for 3 days , asparagus from the freezer and carrot and swede mash as well , this was the time of year i had stored it all for , it just adds to the variety in our diets theres not a lot of fresh fruit and veg in a village with no shop and an overpriced community market for the wealthy . Seed potatoes were bought early and they seem to be vanishing quickly from the garden centers , theres tons of onion sets about so i picked up a mixed bag , the garden is still waterlogged and flooded but the kale is having a bit of a fit so i need to make some green powder in the dehydrator . I need to split loads of plants into pots just because there is talk of condemning the house we are in  , so thats yet another worry , they have a duty to rehouse us but it may well be in a tower block so im hoping to drag it out till harvest , we have to be careful that they dont put you in a B&B because theres no escape from them , thankfully him selves disability doesnt make it easy for them to get us out . Who knows what they will do the builders refusing to work on the house  has caused a big stink  and somebody locally has been on the TV about their ceiling collapsing and hit a family member so they need to do something 

Inspiration Failure

 Now i have a problem in life , its an enquiring mind thay doesnt stop . So i called in the butchers for a couple of slices of stuffed chine a well known expensive local delicacy and the young lad doing the slicing says would you like the bone ?  he charged me £3 for the damned thing that was a bag that heavy i could barely lift it . Now the chine is a huge lump of fatty back pork from a pig that has slices cut into it that are stuffed with a parsley mix and roasted , being a posh butchers they only cut the perfect slices off it leaving far more on the bone  than they use. it took ages to strip the meat which is basically ham from the rest of it 6 bags later thst will make amazing pies and sandwiches for the fishing season , but it also left a huge chunk of fat from the underside of the joint that i decided i would render to make flaky pastry . My gran always did this in the wash copper . Somewhere i had seen that it could be done in the slow cooker so i popped it in on the lowest setting and waited patiently it does take its time overnight and all the next day . Then himself said he could smell something burning , you guessed it had finally rendered and scorched a big lump of skin  ..AARRRGGHHHH still trying to decide if i can use it or the birds will benefit ..ho hum you have to try these things and theres still the actual bones to boil up yet . So £3 spent and an interesting experimental kitchen trial .

When

 When will the rain ever stop ? Its been warm enough to get on in the garden but its under water or just sloppy mud , ive potato sets sat tapping there feet, a bag of mixed onion sets, broad beans to set going its all very tedious and tapping my foot . So ive dug out my endless granny square bag and im trying to get going again with my daft hands just for something to do ..lol . We have heard no more from the builders and the council about all the urgent work they were going to do ..ho hum 

But in the scheme of things around the world lifes pretty good at the moment , ive been watching lots of weird you tube videos , Azerbaijan Grannies cooking , Polish girls cooking on wood stoves , Scrappers around the world , mental preppers who seem to be getting rather wound up about immigrants , best one this week was the gentleman going on about Chinese bio labs making viruses that kill none Orientals, all i could think about was how the UK would be endless Chinese takeways with no customers ? Im finding it hard to take life seriously . the news and press are worthless drivel not worth a visit . The Royals seem to be everywhere , it may be to distract us from the endless warmongering . Though at this rate next week it may be Prince Edward becoming a late life transsexual just to grab the headlines?  

Jumble 2024

 So lets take a look at the Lincoln Jumble Scene , the season having just got properly started , we have two Cat charities that do a jumble sale monthly in various villages and in the city  Lincoln Cat Care & Lincoln Cat in Crises  both are on Facebook . Then there are various others so it can take up most Saturdays . Advertising can be patchy so its play hunt the jumble on the internet . They all seem to have upped their prices to 50p entrance and 50p and upwards for the weird and wonderful stuff they sell . You get an awful lot of resellers on the clothing front so you need sharp elbows to jump into that melee . And theres a few dealers wading into the bric a brac but theyre a good source of useful household items and theyre cheap if your a shopaholic with a finance problem . I havent done a haul post for a while so heres a pic , plus i got a pile of Spiderman plastic plates because nobody has been blistering them in the microwave have they  GGRRRRR.  I got a WI preserves book because it had got some weird and wonderful variants on the chutney and jam front ,   a Beatrix Potter postcard book because it caught my eye, a magazine with a cover kit i liked ,  a pile of cotton yarn because i need more,,,honest  And to my daughters disgust a pair of vintage crochet covered wooden coat hangers , they tried to sell me a whole box of 70s fabric covered ones for a whole £2 but i just wanted the two pretty ones . I spent a happy hour and got a bag of  homemade sausage rolls and spent a whole £5............small things make me happy!!