Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

Get one from Aldi and "save" £15-odd.

I've examined the one I got, and it seems well made.

Bare in mind, unlike a normal rucksack, it won't be in use on a regular basis.

BTW. For a BOB, you might want one with an outside pocket or two.

Saves having to empty the thing, every time you want a drink.

[Deleted User]

daz378 wrote: »

will start filling the gaps on Saturday..... the little stuff you forget like drawingpins/safetypins etc.

For the little (and some of the not so little) stuff, £land and £world are your friends.

Shelters, space blankets, ground sheets, water bottles, pouches, ponchos, compasses, mugs, plates, medicines, plasters etc., all for a mere 100p each.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

I can see a few other ways to shave a few ounces here and there but they require changing a few things.

Sometimes it's not worth losing something, just to shed a tiny amount of weight.

For instance, I could leave out my razor and cartridges.

However, being clean shaven makes you feel refreshed, which I think is worth the extra 0.85oz (24g) in my BOB.

Perplexed_Pineapple

Out of interest, Bedsit Bob, what sort of emergency shelter do you have in your BOB? I've so far got one of the large orange polythene "survival bags" but open to suggestions. The survival bag might be ok for one or at most two nights in the open but not much more than that I would think. So I was wondering about replacing it with some sort of lightweight tarpaulin that could be used (with a bit of cord or rope) to improvise a shelter with a bit more utility, not sure how that would work in practice so maybe some experimentation is called for. It's quite possible that you would have better protection against the elements with a good waterproof/Goretex type jacket and trousers than with the survival bag concept, although a higher price the investment might be worth it.

the_cake

Full of admiration for your BOBs ... many thanks for giving me such food for thought, although in a SHTF situation I think we would try and stay here: rural, and has most of what we might need: woodburner, our ever-increasing food store, we even have a well (currently capped, and we have never tested the water, but apparently the local chemists will do it!). We also have our animals to look after ....
Went to a car boot at the weekend and found a very fine catapult: need to dissuade the pesky squirrels from living in our loft. We have already blocked all possible entrances under the roof with squished up chicken wire, but they removed it and cheekily chucked it on the path.
I will be losing my part-time shop job next week (town is really depressed and sales have been pathetically low, so shop is closing, like so many others here), so am very grateful for our food stores, built up slowly over the past few months. On the bright side, I will have more time for really getting to grips with the veg. garden, and trying to grow as much as possible. Also plan to get a dehydrator ... sorry, seem to be rambling on! Sleep well, preppers.

[Deleted User]

Perplexed_Pineapple wrote: »

Out of interest, Bedsit Bob, what sort of emergency shelter do you have in your BOB?

I have an Emergency Shelter from £land.

The whole package (which includes 20' of cord) weighs just 5.2oz (148g).

I also have a 2 man tent, which I can grab, on the way out the door.

On the down side, that's an extra 6lbs to carry, and it can't be attached to the BOB.

That means no travelling fast across country.

Of course, if I can take the car, then the sky's the limit.

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Sometimes it's not worth losing something, just to shed a tiny amount of weight.

For instance, I could leave out my razor and cartridges.

However, being clean shaven makes you feel refreshed, which I think is worth the extra 0.85oz (24g) in my BOB.

That is a very true statement, and I agree wholeheartedly. My thoughts were to boot out a fullsize deodorant for a travel one (smaller and lighter) and I'll boot out a small bottle of shampoo for a few sachets of same. I once had a big pkt of shampoo sachets from the 99p store but used them all up travelling. Will look for more.

Some people might think having toiletries at all is being a bit over-fussy but there is an important side to such things; hygiene in critical to health and morale. F'rinstance, I have a lipbalm in there, one with sunscreen which won't melt in high temperatures. It was fine in 100 degree heat. Dry lips crack and split. As well as being miserably-painful, such a wound opens your body to infection, which could weaken and perhaps even kill you. If you have a comb, you can remove parasites from your hair, as well as tidy yourself up.

I have a very small nailbrush in the washkit, and nail clippers. Keeping nails short and clean can prevent infections. I've learned a lot from friend and neighbour SuperGran, who was a nurse all her life and a Guide mistress for 40 years. You wanna scrub under them nails, people.

As I've mentioned before, I'm employed by the local authority as a customer services peep. We're the frontline for a big chunk of what goes down in this city, and the LA has emergency plans which it enacts on us from time to time without warning, to prepare us to decamp at zero notice from our main office to a subsidary office, should the main buildling become unusable.

As we're working a lot of sophisticated computerised telephony and other systems, in close co-operation with the Police and other agencies at times (I've had to help out on murder investigations before now ) me and mine could be seen to have a moral duty to our fellow citizens by minding the fort in a crisis. What we use requires quite a lot of training and you couldn't just drop someone into the systems and expect them to be able to use them.

Soooo, I may well be obligated to be in the city, in a semi-tidy condition, doing my job to help the rest of the residents manage in a crisis, whilst also being involved in that crisis myself.

It's something to think about, anyway............ Of course, in an event of prolonged power outage, we'd be down to pens and paper and doing the best we could in the circumstances, which would be a lot less than we could do with the phones and the pooters working.

Ultimately, the best in the circumstances is all any of us can hope to achieve.

PS; if you are in a powercut or the water supply goes off, please don't call the local council. Many dozens of people here do, whenever either of those things happen, and councils don't run those services for you.

D&DD

This is whats in my red bag and constitutes our main first aid kit which in event of emergencies would be grabbed first.

Creams

Anthisan
Arnica
Intragel
Waspeze
Fucidin
Neosporin antibac
Germolene
Sudocreme
Savlon
Tea tree oil cream
Benadryl ointment
Acriflex Burn cream
Various steroid creams
E45

General stuff
Needle nose tweezers
cotton wool pads
lolly sticks
neoprene supports (S,M,L) for elbow, wrist,knee and thighs
Dehydrated towels and flannels
N-95 masks
Everyday facemasks
Disposable aprons and box of surgical gloves
Handgels and antibac spray
medicine syringes

Then I have
Conforming bandages all shapes and sizes
Slings
Eyewash and bath,patches and eye pads including bandages
Eyedrops
OPSITE dressings all sizes up to full spine size
Steristrips most sizes
Plasters
Strip plasters and scissors
Dressings and micropose tapes
Arnica spray
Olbas oil
Melatonin
Petroleum jelly
Surgical spirit
Epsom salts
Spray plaster
Piriton and benadryl syrups
Iodine tincture
Lip balms
Vics rub
Remegels
Codeine phospate syrup
heat pads and cold pads
Dettol antibac block soaps and soap leaves
Nurofen patches
Ralgex spray
Burns kit
Matches and water purifying tabs
Immodiums and dioralytes

And the usual assortment of painkillers and vitamins

[Deleted User]

Morning all, on the shelter front I have a heavy weight poncho which is also a Basha shelter, in the SHTF I can wear it and have my rucksack underneath it and then with some cord, or bungees turn it into a waterproof shelter, got it years ago from Fleabay, if that is any use. The weight of shampoo, soap etc can be done away with if you buy one of those all purpose bars from an outdoor centre that do people washing, hair washing and clothes washing from the same product, DD1 who does expeditions to far flung places swears by them as they have to carry all thier own gear, says they work really well, Cheers Lyn xxx.

thriftwizard

I have a very small nailbrush in the washkit, and nail clippers. Keeping nails short and clean can prevent infections. I've learned a lot from friend and neighbour SuperGran, who was a nurse all her life and a Guide mistress for 40 years. You wanna scrub under them nails, people.

Oh yes, indeed you do. I also have tweezers in my washbag, more for splinters & removal of foreign bodies than for eyebrow tidying.

Wondering here why our £land (or similar) stores NEVER seem to have any of these useful things that everyone elsewhere seems to find? Admittedly I don't get to them often - our council/landlords (mostly the same people) will not tolerate any such useful shops in our little town, only "upmarket, aspirational shopping destination" Names need apply for empty shops - but I've been looking for months just for space blankets and never found anything more useful than parcel string, which I already have a lifetime supply of!