Preparedness for when

cod3 · 1 September 2012 at 9:57PM

Choosing what you eat is being fussy. Choosing to not eat something for moral reasons is being fussy. Choosing to not eat something for religious reasons is being fussy.

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one, Jojo, as I can't see either of us budging

cod3 · 1 September 2012 at 10:00PM

fayhare wrote: »

Ahh Quorn gives me the fear cod3!

Reminds me too much of this
:rotfl:

PMSL Then you aint cooking it properly!

charlies-aunt · 1 September 2012 at 10:40PM

Our chimney sweep charges £28.00 for an "electric sweep" - done with rods + brushes and a powerful electric vacuum machine that removes all traces of all the soot.

Can I just say a word in favour of the humble OS fire brick

We have an open fire with big fire basket (installed when times were less economically challenging) and four firebricks are a good investment to reduce its capacity and str-e-t-c-h-h the coal, kindling and logs

Wilko are usually the cheapest for these

*zippy* · 2 September 2012 at 1:34AM

:hello: Hi

Sorry long thread so not read all the posts, but wondering what people are doing about pet foods?

One of our dogs has to have special food due to allergies, I can only get this online and it comes from abroad so there are often issues of it being out of stock. We also have chickens and as corn prices are going to rise I want to stock up for them too.

How many months pet food are you all buying as back up, hope you don't mind me asking, just trying to get an idea of what would be sensible

Have to sat thank you 2tonsils too for sharing the situation you are facing in Greece a real eye opener, glad you were able to prepare at least x

valk_scot · 2 September 2012 at 2:40AM

*zippy* wrote: »

:hello: Hi

Sorry long thread so not read all the posts, but wondering what people are doing about pet foods?

One of our dogs has to have special food due to allergies, I can only get this online and it comes from abroad so there are often issues of it being out of stock. We also have chickens and as corn prices are going to rise I want to stock up for them too.

How many months pet food are you all buying as back up, hope you don't mind me asking, just trying to get an idea of what would be sensible

Two cats plus a new kitten here. I usually bulk buy cat food when its on offer and keep about two months worth in the house, give or take. One of the grown cats and the kitten would take the food off your plate though so I think if they were hungry enough they'd eat anything. Mr Fussy Cat might be a bit of a slow started on this concept have to say. But in the final analysis most cats could probably find enough food outside to keep themselves fed. And then we could eat the yummy cat food to keep ourselves alive.

Anyway if there was a real starvation level food shortage pet animals would probably get eaten tbh, just before we started on Granny. The human survival instinct is very strong and would overcome most degrees of fussy/squeemish/taboos about foodstuffs eventually. It's happened before, it will happen again.

*zippy* · 2 September 2012 at 3:25AM

Thank you both

She can't eat any meat or poultry so that's what got me thinking today I need a plan. I've ordered a sack of food today, which I have to wait for until they have a delivery so think I'll check the use by date and then order one a month rather then every other to build a 6 month back up while spreading the cost.

Hope I'm on the right thread by the way, looked at the similar threads and wasn't sure, so apologies if this is more store cupboard related x

mrs_lds · 2 September 2012 at 6:58AM

I came across an interesting horizon pogramme pointing out that those that lived during the great depression lived longer during that period as people ate less. I really do think we eat too much today ( me included) and the body needs to occasionally rest from food. The article also pointed out fasting is beneficial. Just something to think about, when things have one to pot we obviously would cut back a lot nd ration what w e eat.

2tonsils · 2 September 2012 at 8:57AM

Pleased some of you are enjoying the comments about the situation in Greece and prepping. I am pleased I started early with it. At the time I had immediate concerns over forest fires here and prepared for evacuation at short notice. Then the strikes started and the fuel shortage so I prepared the food stocks to see us through. Then the long , very hot summer hit us and I had to think about stocks of water, resisting heat stroke and not getting burnt to a crisp in the 42 in the shade temperatures we have had.
Then the doctor pre warned me about the shortages of medicines, having to pay in full although we have medical insurance and that led to us stocking our essential meds and vitamins.

NOw the economic situation is so bad that we have to keep a stock of food and water all the time in case the euro crashes in Greece and all the banks stay shut till the changeover is complete.

Because the threat keeps changing (and of course, the ones above are local ones....I am ignoring the solar flares, earthquakes (a real risk here) and zombie attacks that might happen....

Off to make my gluten free bread for freezing in portions later. Will cook dinner as well, then save the leftovers in portions to freeze when they are cool. Then I have cooked food in one small freezer and uncooked in the other bigger one. Have a great Sunday folks!

mardatha · 2 September 2012 at 9:09AM

Our sweep just apologised last time that he was putting his price up from £15 to £20 because of the cost of diesel

His dad did the job before him,and he covers a huge amount of miles round the Borders. A lot of houses here burn coal, with backup central heating in oil or LPG. Very few are all electric. Somebody in this village burns peat, which is a lovely smell. We got that when coal was short and it burns well and hot.
But if you live in the middle of a town then you have to ensure you can get wood or coal before you start opening up the fireplace..:)

SpikyHedgehog · 2 September 2012 at 9:24AM

RAS wrote: »

Like it - although the absolute budget version would be a larger used can and a few nail holes bashed in the side.

In answer to the original query about cooking in power cuts. Even a candle or tea light will heat water to boil eventually (it could take all night but it would work eventually). Put it in a tin with holes bashed in it and stand the kettle or lidded pan on top. A couple of skewers or tent pegs fixed as per the demo above would ensure more stability and improve the draught, which makes more use of the heat.

Brilliant, thank you RAS, & Mardatha. I got a tea light stash last year & need to add to it, & got a millets own trangia set so I'd have the light weight saucepans etc to use with tea lights & grill pan & rack.

betony wrote: »

Caterina, this is botanically a variety of chicory, not, strictly speaking, a dandelion at all. It can be used in all the ways you would use dandelions, though, and is also very nutritious. They are both what's known as 'mineral accumulators' as the deep roots bring up nutrients from deep in the soil. Very health-giving, well worth growing!

Sorry for correcting you, but I'm very interested in perennial edible plants

Betony, can you use the flowers of chicory like the dandelion flowers?

GreyQueen wrote: »

I got the first Keep Calm and Carry On avatar on OS about a year ago, then Smileyt found the thingy which generates versions of this (I have the shortcut but it's on my home PC but I can post it in a couple of days if anyone wants it). Then there was a rash of versions of it and now I'm bored with mine. Shall have to find something both funny and appropriate.

Was poking around a boot sale this am looking for a variety of things but the one thing I didn't see was the stainless steel cutlery drainer which I wanted to have a play with. I'm sure I'll find one.

I have also seen a website about ultralight backpacking, more a blog, and this feller had a mini stove made from a drinks can, cheap and very simple. Where do people not in catering get catering-sized food cans, I'd like to have a play about.

If people are interested in bushcraft, but lack the money/ free time/ inclination to do a course, may I say that I found many of the same things as my intro level bushcraft course last year covered in a book (oh sugar, am away from home, haven't got note of the title). It was also in Waterstones, close to the pocket-size SAS survival manual, large format softcover about survival skills. Lots of stuff about shelterbuilding, water gathering etc etc and lovely line drawings and very clear. It was good because it showed things which I had been shown to do person-to-person in such a well-illustrated and well-described way that you'd be able to make it out from there.

D'you think the Guides would accept me at nearly 50? I feel there ought to be a club for adults who want to do this stuff, why should the kids have all the fun.

Today my prepping type activities were limited to the acquistion of some more candles for pence from the bootsale and the choosing of some offcut MDF from the pile of offcuts on the parents' woodshed which will have a set of Poundland castors and become a second homemade underbed rolling trolley for the canned goods.

Keep on posting, I love this thread to pieces. GQ x

I don't know about Guides,, as I've not been 1 since the early 80s, but find out about Scouts Active Support, amusingly also known as the SAS. It's for adults who want to be involved in Scouting, but not actually with children in a group. What exactly they do depends on the people in that specific group, but it's something they should do ;-)

I spoke to the group scout leader about preparedness, & the first 3 nights planned for scouts this term are pioneering, tent erecting & map reading - think he's taken on board my comments about it :-) DS1 has been put to be a young leader with scouts instead of beavers, so he's fully aware we need to prep for TEOTWAWKI ;-) & will take full advantage of the skills to be learnt. Think the children need a first aid night too, DS2 hasn't done 1 since he started beavers.

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Preparedness for when

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