Preparedness for when

lovefullshelves

I have a question, how do I get a c.r.a.p.r.o.l.l.z. number:P OH told me off because I bout another 53 rolls at the w/e, they go in his train room and he can't use them as a tunnel!
I like Albert Bates 'post petroleum survival guide and cookbook', I think I've read it a dozen times. 'Self Reliance' by John Yeoman is good(been in the bath many a time), Sharon Astyk for preserving and family in crisis, Martenson 'the crash course' for economics and of course Richard Heinberg for all things peak, when I say full shelves I don't just mean food, 4 bookshelves, full, from paper making to chicken rearing! And everything inbetween.
maryb - bet the price of wheat products goes up if we have another year like last year, weetabix already can't get enough british wheat. We couldn't get on our land till april as it was flooded, now everything is late. This winter potatoes were worth nearly 3 times what they have been in previous years, we still have 38 rows that we couldn't take up last autumn, but they might make new potatoes:D
And they say we're heading for 2 degree warming whatever, six degrees by Mark Lynas is scary about climate change, another one who's spent time in the bath with me
OooOh I had a moment there, talking to my mate today and we decided that we hoped when the SHTF it does so while we're young enough to get through it. (basically get on with it now) Are we the only ones who want the EOTWAWKI(end of the world as we know it)
to happen sooner rather than later? xx

[Deleted User]

Lovefullshelves, which Sharon Astyk books do you recommend? I see she has several on Amazon.

Just ordered, Self Reliance and the Long Emergency is in the post

pineapple

lovefullshelves wrote: »

OooOh I had a moment there, talking to my mate today and we decided that we hoped when the SHTF it does so while we're young enough to get through it. (basically get on with it now) Are we the only ones who want the EOTWAWKI(end of the world as we know it)
to happen sooner rather than later? xx

I can see your point. It's like we know the patient is terminal but they keep having little rallies and the whole affair is drawn out with a lot of suffering along the way .
But in the demise of any system or 're-set' there is usually enormous fallout. I suspect I might be part of that fallout, so from a purely selfish point of view I'm kinda hoping the patient staggers on a while yet!

D&DD

[Deleted User] wrote:

Lovefullshelves, which Sharon Astyk books do you recommend? I see she has several on Amazon.

Just ordered, Self Reliance and the Long Emergency is in the post

Pinky you'll enjoy both of those really good reads I have this one by Sharon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Independence-Days-Sustainable-Storage-Preservation/dp/0865716528/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368776927&sr=8-2&keywords=sharon+astyk

Its good as it has a few recipes sprinkled in it too

[Deleted User]

How young counts as still young enough to make it through? I'm 65 and He Who Knows ia 68 but we'll still be up for doing our utmost to make it to the other side and beyond whatever happens and live as well and as fully as we possibly can. I'm too old will NEVER be in our philosophy, we'll brickbat every problem that comes our way and god help the world, we'll be up for everything!!!!! We might just have enough experience and skill to be useful too?

I also love the John Yeoman Self Reliance, probably the most thumbed book on my shelf, I have Depletion and Abundance by Sharon Astyk and also the Albert Bates, a very useful and practical book is Peak Oil Survival by Aric McBey for the things in life that really are necessities.

Believe me, It ain't over 'till the fat lady sings, not by a very long way!!! Cheers Lyn xxx.

GreyQueen

Morning all.

Was reading The Long Emergency again first thing as well as last night. Sobering stuff. Makes you want to grab politicians by the scruff of the neck, shake them soundly and demand what the HELL they think they're doing, even contemplating extending existing airports or building new ones?

lovesfullshelves, it's our dorm mother Vanoonoo who is the dispenser of the C.R.A.P R.O.L.L.S numbers. She's a busy bee lately but I'm sure if you'd like to PM her, she'd sign you up when she has a moment.

Re wondering when EOTWAWKI might arrive, I find myself in middle age facing perhaps another 30-40 years predicatable life expectancy; my people make their late eighties and early nineties and have done for several centuries . If I live so long, I will be in my nineties at the mid-century.

It's a worry, frankly; that medical care might be sketchy or non-existant, that food will be harder to come by, that the many wonderful conveniences of the modern era will be vanishing - just as my abilities to work around them are vanishing, too. I'd like to think I could have a new hip or knee if the alternative was extruciating pain and debility, but the technology which produces such wonders relies of oil, and on anti-biotics, and they're looking like being unavailable and ineffective before very much longer.

On a harsher note, I have several chronic illnesses, one of which requires a life-saving replacement drug therapy which wasn't available until just before WW2 and which wouldn't be available in a de-industrialised world without a pharmaceutical industry. The bottom line for me is no meds=death in a matter of days. So, I've been here on borrowed time for 15 years already, hope to be here for many more years, but who can tell? As a health-conscious person who got smacked down by biology at a young age, I feel a tad p'd off by it, but it is as it is, and there's no mileage in whingeing about it.

I don't find myself grimly wishing EOTWAWKI forward, as it will be bleak enough when it comes, and every year we're spared starvation, epidemic disease and other hardships will be a blessed year. I find myself wondering what life might be like in a hundred years time, if the great-grandchildren of people alive today might be leafing through our books with a sense of awe and disgust at what we had and how little gratitude and appreciation we showed.

On a lighter note, Mr T has Branston baked beans, as well as their own brand, at 4 for £1.27 and Sainsbugs Basics teabags have gone back to 27p for 80. Ones on shelf are in date til late 2014 so I have brought the inventory up to 16 boxes (each box is about 3 weeks' supply).

D&DD

I'm creeping towards 50 myself MrsL but the way I look at it is with age comes experience and wisdom *allegedly*
The knowledge we all have from a lifetime of hard work makes us a very valuable asset you know.

I think I worry most for my kids they all have good heads on their shoulders despite their health issues etc but they have been very cossetted by the modern world and I suppose because I am resourceful have never had to suffer real hardship.

Like a lot of others I wonder how they would cope..I would hope I have given them a good grounding in life and although they have their luxuries I would like to think I've still taught them how to live without them.

They have been taught to sew,cook,forage and grow stuff and am currently teaching them how to use the dehydrator.At least they'll have the know how if needed of how to do things and at least for now they don't have to use it unless they choose to.

[Deleted User]

GQ life in the future will echo how life was in the past, and it must have been so very hard, but we wouldn't be here today if our ancestors hadn't had the wherewithall to survive and thrive. Look back over the social history of all of us to pre roman eras, and it is entirely possible to see that life would have been harsh but liveable. It's so easy to look at what we have today and only see problems if what we are used to might be whisked away from us. In your case the medication would be a huge problem, but we're make of resiliant stuff us humans, and we're stubborn, I wouldn't just roll over and wait for the end, I know you wouldn't either, nor any of us. We have the advantage of books containing all the practical knowledge we would need, we'll make it !!! Cheers Lyn xxx.

Off on my travels for a few days to DD for a concert and she currently hasn't got broadband, so I'll probably not be around until Tuesday when I'm home again, Lyn x.

mardatha

One prep that is harder to do is to find a house that's suitable for old fashioned living... if you're in a high tech block then I'd get out of it and find a wee cottage with an open fire. Any amount of knowledge won't help if you have no means to heat yourself or cook.

BessieBooBoo

Hello all (waves to newbies) :j

Hope you poorly ones are feeling better, and all you carer's out there get enough rest and time for yourselves too.

On the subject of books, I've just read Age of miracles by Karen Thompson Walker and starting Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver. Both set in USA, but, interesting reading.

'Miracles' is about the earth's orbit slowing and what happens to the planet. Must admit that when I finished it was good to see the sun shining, birds tweeting, and the earth still spinning! Flight Behaviour starts with a huge number of butterflies in a mountain valley, just getting going with this, but, its about climate change.

Of all the SHTF scenarios I think this last one is the most likely; can see it happening with freak/unseasonable/late/early weather; tornados, drought, floods, landslides, etc. and that's just in the UK.

Apart from the peak oil situation too.... We really need to focus on prepping and skills for self-sustainability. Not just short term. Grow veg, but learn how to save seed too, grow perennial veg., fruit bushes, trees, know how to prune/care for them. Look at stuff which can grow in colder & wetter climates, and others that can bear drought. Hedge your bets! (Pardon the pun).

Do what you feel you are good at, be it sewing/dress-making, cooking & preserving, etc. that way you can provide for yourself and yours, and hire yourself out too. Don't forget the LETS groups, no cash just skills exchanges, this is where people will really need to pull together...

Hey sorry for the gloom and doom, I will try lighter reading soon!

Take care all and keeeeeeeep prepppppping!

BBB