Weekend Preps?

[DoYouRememberJustinBobby]

I thought it would be interesting if we had a regular weekend thread where we talk about the prepping we are up to each weekend? I hope that's ok?

Here's what I have planned (and done) so far:

• Clear out guttering on extension (if there is blockage it leaks through on our dodgy extension and makes that entire corner of house cold and wet for winter)
• Buy AA batteries to keep in car with our smaller torch.
• Print out copies of insurance (house, car, life, contents, pets) details for our quick exit bags.
• Use last of blackberries to make and store jam.
• Take train to work on Sunday and walk the route back. It's about 6 miles and I'd like to see how long it would take me when carrying all of my work and gym gear.
• Take our boys to wilderness class. Hopefully learn as much as they do, they have some impressive knot skills and are learning to identify "useful leaves".
• Finish knitting a blanket for our bed with my bargain bag of 20p charity shop wool.

Which preps are you working on this weekend?

Cider is great because you don't need to buy yeast, it's a natural fermentation. I do know how to make wine and distill ( although distilling is illegal, so don't do it, I hasten to add..). I can also make wild yeast starters for bread. Not sure how I'd deal with cider making without electric, would need to rig up some sort of weight driven crusher I suppose. No shortage of apples around here though!

Interested to know Justin bobby 's technique as 43 litres is a hell of a lot of apples to get the juice!

weeds We have family in the industry (going years back), so are very lucky to have a proper cider press.

Our plans to prep for the coming weekend include:

Brewing beer
Pickling onions
Trying out our fondue kit for cooking other things
Learning about faraday cages
Researching wood burning stoves for our dining room
Buy another hot water bottle.

Do you have the wood for a stove in future years? (Or right now if it has dried properly of course.)

We have some stored in a barn from the old owners and we have some land which has a wooded area. Said land is a fair distance from the house in the case of emergency times however we would obviously be chopping well in advance and seasoning the wood for some time before using.

Sounds good.

Brewing beer
Pickling onions
Trying out our fondue kit for cooking other things
Learning about faraday cages
Researching wood burning stoves for our dining room
Buy another hot water bottle.

I recall dining in a very expensive Swiss restaurant once and the fondue dish was filled with a winey/herby mixture into which you popped pieces of meat you'd speared on the forks - to cook. I'd maybe experiment one evening with some of that cider.