Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

While it might work in an open type lamp, it is unlikely to work in Hurricane lamps, due to the woven wick getting clogged with the heavy oil.

WT Kirkman have advice on this subject, and I quote.

NOTE: DIESEL, BIO-DIESEL AND OLIVE OIL ARE NOT SUITABLE SUBSTITUTES FOR ANY OF THE APPROVED FUELS AS THEY HAVE A FLASH POINT OVER 200 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT

http://www.lanterns.us/faqs.htm

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

I met some potters who used to make these. The archaeologists told them to please be careful where they left them as they were indistinguishable from the Roman originals........:rotfl:

Somewhere round here is a box containing a dozen of the things, three are genuine dig finds, which three is the problem

Here's a random thingy; rushlights. Readers of historical or fantasy fiction may have heard the term. It refers to the soft rush, a spiky grassy type thing which grows in boggy ground. Or slightly boggy bits of otherwise sound meadowland.

You can cut it off at ground level and carefully unpeel the green outer husk. The inside is pure white and looks like a long line of extruded polystrene. Which you can set a light to and use as a lamp of sorts. You will need a kind of holder for this, naturally.

Now there's always something interesting to do when out on walks, hey?*

You can soak the stripped pith in melted tallow (i believe mutton is regarded as the best) for a longer lasting light. Leave a strip of the outer husk in place for support as the pith can go floppy on its own.

Nice to "see" you nuatha, how are the wedding preps going? And have you ever read Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters, the bit where Nanny Ogg remarks on the choice of wedding day for Verence and Magrat............?

I'm probably behind where I should be at this point but everything is just about there apart from the catering - I need several days chained to the kitchen, still I've three weeks before I need to panic
Midsummer is celebrated on July 4th in these parts - due to the Pope stealing 11 days from people's lives.
We're both fans of pterry.

* You can also take down the dead and dried stems of Giant Hogweed in the wintertime and use them as spears; the stem is a bit thicker at the base and the root is longish and it balances very nicely as a thrown object. I was a free-range child.............

Make sure the're dead first, the sap isn't pleasant.

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

While it might work in an open type lamp, it is unlikely to work in Hurricane lamps, due to the woven wick getting clogged with the heavy oil.

I certainly wasn't recommending its use in hurricane lamps, merely a lamp that it could be used in.

JayneC

GQ I think I've read Selco's piece, certainly sounds familiar. At Off Grid festival a couple of years ago I attended a workshop about compost loos (I know how to have a good time:D). The important thing to reduce nasty bugs is to keep the poop and the pee separate. The poop is fairly innocuous if it's dry and covered with a carbon based layer such as sawdust, woodchips or even shredded card or paper and will decompose into humanaure;) and pee is an excellent fertilizer too;) So a few buckets and you're ready to 'go'

Thanks for the oil info BB, I remembered seeing the olive oil lamp tutorial previously nuatha which is why I thought of it. My lamps are not hurricane lamps and I could improvise alternative wicks to use olive oil.

RJ I hadn't seen the solar water purification before, that's worth knowing, thanks.

I'm working on a BOB, but like lots of others I plan on staying put if possible. I live on the edge of a small town which is on the coast and surrounded by farmland, a 20 min walk and I'm in open countryside. It's all up hill, otherwise it might only be a 10min walk lol! So hopefully I'm in as good a spot as I could be all things considered. My own large garden would be better than a lottie but it's not far - a 10-15 min walk, in fact I'm considering it as a temporary bug out location in event of emergency (when I get a shed;))

pineapple

Today I downloaded Reminder Fox - an add on for Firefox. I last used it 2 or 3 years back. So how freaky was it when it came up with my former shopping and to do list! Even worse - some of it is still 'to do' :eek: I really must get to grips with my procrastination - it's a wonder I get anything done at all. Anyhow seeing as this weekend could constitute our summer, I planted some round carrots (I got them accidentally, I didn't realise there was such a thing) and runner beans. More than last year seeing as they seem to cope with bad summers.
So far I've not seen many slugs but the snails are out in force on my bit of grassy hillside. Cue light bulb moment. Instead of lobbing them over to my neighbour's garden maybe I should be learning how to cook them. I googled it and came across a warning not to eat raw snails. Really? What a disappointment! Oh and best find a 'reputable snail retailer'. :rotfl: Anyhow apparently it's do-able but you have to 'purge' them first. This recipe recommends feeding the little b*ggers with lettuce or bran for 7 to 10 days beforehand. http://farmingfriends.com/can-you-eat-garden-snails/
Darn it, a lamb chop might end up cheaper. Plus by that time they might have become little individual characters with names.

Possession

In case it's of use to anyone: (portable camping stove £6.94)
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/portable-camping-stove-only-6-94-free-delivery-cpc-1563483

mardatha

LOL pineapple - and you might paint their wee shells pink and blue to go with the names..
Back to normal weather here, 7C grey and windy, waiting for the rain to hit. Ah well summer was nice while it lasted.
I hope al the BOBaggers have a place ready to BO to..!

[Deleted User]

Morning all, I've been thinking, always dangerous!!!!! I've come to the conclusion that all the preparation in the world will only, if you are very lucky and in the right place at the right time, get you through the initial disruption period and out the other side. What then??? I think that would depend so much on the circumstances that prevailed at that moment in time as to what you did next. It's all very sensible to have BOBs and survival equipment to cope with an emergency period but where from there??? You couldn't take all your stores or equipment with you if you should have to evacuate home base, so do any of us have a plan for after an event??? other than going back if possible and salvaging what is left to begin again, what would be the plan if that wasn't possible. I think we would head for somewhere coastal as it would be an easier accessible source of food and try to make a shelter somewhere with a supply of fuel, I'm thinking wood here, but I haven't formulated a LONG term plan, I'm not sure that I can without knowing the circumstances at the time. Does anyone have an ultimate long term plan for the future after TSHTF??? Would be an interesting exercise to think that one through, Cheers Lyn xxx.

thriftwizard

Lyn, I think the only thing you could rely on being able to keep with you under such dire circumstances is knowledge. GQ's bushcraft type of thing to keep you alive in the immediate circumstances, but then knowledge of how, what & where to grow, how to prepare, cook & preserve what's available, how to get the best out of any resources that present themselves to your attention, how to survive tribulations that might seem minor at the moment but could be life-threatening without, say, antibiotics. And even how to identify potential resources so that you can utilise what others have passed by.

Sincerely hoping it never comes to that, but have been garnering nuggets of information, polishing them up into knowledge & hopefully translating some of them into wisdom, for the last 40-odd years, ever since I realised that there was something deeply fragile about the arrangements we've constructed for ourselves. And most importantly, trying my best to pass them on, to my own kids (who mostly just laugh) and anyone else who's genuinely interested.

ETA: there's another vital thing that can't (easily) be taken from you: the can-do attitude. Being able to break things down into achievable steps, keeping on keeping on, not letting the whole overwhelm you & finding something to laugh at even in the darkest moments.

GreyQueen

Morning all.

JayneC, I was always fascinated by the long drop composting loos at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Mach. Putting a scoop of sawdust down after doing your business. And the wonderful book choices there , such as How to S--- in the Woods. * These things are useful to know.

Living in cottages in tiny hamlets growing up, Mum's family didn't have toilets, bathrooms or running water. The privvy involved digging a deep hole in the garden and positioning the shed over it. Hole was filled in as necessary and the shed moved. Water was hand-pumped up from the (redundant) dairy at the foot of the garden.

This was Grandad's job until he got too poorly with cancer in his old age, then it became Mum's job. She remarks that the garden grew the most wonderful gooseberries...........:rotfl:No one in the family got sick and they lived into their 80s.

That was the 1950s out in the sticks in Englandshire. By the time I was born in the 1960s we'd moved up in the world, oh yes indeedy; we had a cold water tap INDOORS, still no bathroom but the outside privvy was emptied once a week by the nightsoil men.

By the early 1970s we lived somewhere with a bathroom, flush lavvy and hot and cold running water and were using the old tin bath as a paddling pool. The changes I've seen and I'm not yet 50, the things my Nan can tell, and she's 90 in a fortnight.

People managed their own waste fairly handily in rural areas but it was a lot more problematic in towns and cities. I've read some harrowing social history of my city back in the days of the slums. There are some very old people still alive who can remember those hard times as children.

I think water-bourne disease would be the major risk in any prolonged situation where potable water couldn't be distributed. There are so many of us in such a small country, and lots of people are clueless about managing their own wastes, even household rubbish sorting into recycling bins seems beyond the ken of some residents. We've had to send officers out to residents to explain that soiled disposable nappies aren't recyclable and shouldn't be in the recycling bins and this is why they're not getting picked up by the crews. And even then, some folks think we're having them on.:mad:

If you can get your hands on an old household manual from the late 19th or early 20th century, or a reprint of same, it's well worth a browse. There's nearly always a chapter on something like Managing the Sickroom, as home nursing of pretty nasty and communicable diseases would be something a housewife would expect to take in her stride. Those skills are well-worth knowing, with updates for more-recently gained knowledge.

Radio 4's File on 4 this weekend had a pretty scary documentary about the antibiotic resistant superbugs which are being detected across the world (n-w England is a particularly bad spot) which might be of interest if you didn't catch it in real time. The bu88ers are evolving in hours, in some cases, to out-manoever their ABs. Never mind worrying about alien invasions, the enemy is well and truly within.

Glad to hear it, nuatha, I shall be raising a metaphorical glass to the happy couple on 4th July then. I knew about the Giant Hogweed sap since I was a wee girl, thanks to Dad. For those who haven't had the pleasure, it causes the skin to be hypersensitive to the sun and gives you a nasty rash. Giant Hogweeds are 6 feet or more tall, so not likely to be mistaken for anything else. Leave them alone unless they're completely dead and dry, is what I was always taught.

Right, going to have a little tidy-up as some preptastic things need to be secreted deep into the cupboards, in case someone should wander in unannouced and realise that I am One of Those People.

Going back to the weeding this afternoon. It's like the proverbial painting of the Forth Road Bridge; you get one bit finished and it's time to start again at the other end.

Have a good BH day, everyone, GQ xx

* Carefully. You only hover over a spiky or stinging plant the once.

GreyQueen

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Morning all, I've been thinking, always dangerous!!!!! I've come to the conclusion that all the preparation in the world will only, if you are very lucky and in the right place at the right time, get you through the initial disruption period and out the other side. What then??? I think that would depend so much on the circumstances that prevailed at that moment in time as to what you did next. It's all very sensible to have BOBs and survival equipment to cope with an emergency period but where from there??? You couldn't take all your stores or equipment with you if you should have to evacuate home base, so do any of us have a plan for after an event??? other than going back if possible and salvaging what is left to begin again, what would be the plan if that wasn't possible. I think we would head for somewhere coastal as it would be an easier accessible source of food and try to make a shelter somewhere with a supply of fuel, I'm thinking wood here, but I haven't formulated a LONG term plan, I'm not sure that I can without knowing the circumstances at the time. Does anyone have an ultimate long term plan for the future after TSHTF??? Would be an interesting exercise to think that one through, Cheers Lyn xxx.

I suspect that nature would take it's course with me long before we got into the long term, as I require medications which have only been available for the past 70 years or so, and are a product of the manufacturing and distribution systems of an advanced society.

Having said that, I wouldn't just count out my pills and expect to die on a predicted date, I'd do my level best to last, in case business as usual could be resumed in some form in respect of health care, or that my whacked-out metabolism might somehow re-activate.

As I see it, there would be a variety of levels of difficulty, and the responses would have to be modified according to the status of the day. People who couldn't modify their behaviour and their expectations wouldn't do very well.

I've read that the hunter-gatherer population of the UK, pre the adoption of farming, was about 15,000. Yes, that low. And that the range of the daily forage would have been about 20 miles.

And we have about 70 million people in the UK.

If you think about what would happen if (and I'm afraid in my darkest hours I think when, not if) the world we know with it's wanton use of oil ended? We were not independant for food in the 19th century and our population is many times larger now than then. Even with Dig for Victory and all that, people were on short rations and the convoys were still getting through with some food, praise be to their courage.

I've heard the Greens posit that a reasonable carrying capacity for the UK, assuming largely self-sufficient farming, is 15 million.

So, if you do the sums, and imagine what would happen if we became hungry and desperate, if law and order broke down, if the health service collapsed.......... a huge chunk of the population would have to die before we got anywhere near a level where we could sustain ourselves from our own endeavours.

We'd all have some of our beloved family members in the lists of the lost, wouldn't we? Or be among the fallen ourselves.

If a Last Light/ Survivors type crisis event occured (my worst nightmare) those left standing would have to forage from such foodstuffs as are on hand. Even if you know how to garden and are actively cultivating, there's an order of magnitude before you could ramp up towards producing most of your own food, preserving seasonal gluts, gathering together fowl and small domestic lifestock, hunting etc. If the disaster struck in winter, it would be months before there was much to eat in the fields.

You would also want to make use of the canned, bottled and dried goods already in existance before they were lost to natural spoilage over time, exposed to the elements, eaten by vermin.

Longer term, if you needed to settle to maximum advantage on a largely-depopulated landscape, you would be best advised to look for good farmland and pastureland, with a steady water supply, and in an area not expected to suffer the extremes of weather. A river or stream with a good head could be used to drive a water mill for turning grain into flour and/ or driving a limited hydroelectric system. You'd need woodland, preferably mixed native forest, not blasted conifer plantations.

These places are identifiable already; I get my breadflour from a watermill/ windmill complex. Windmills are relatively-modern inventions but watermills are much older. There was a watermill on that particular site recorded in the Domesday Book, and there has been a mill ever since. It might have been there a millennnium before that, because the mill is in the right place to serve the agricultural land around it, and the stream which powers it doesn't fail.

Edge environments, such as sea coasts, rivers, marshes etc offer maximum opportunties. A defensible position might be relevent. An offshore island could offer a controllable environment and a barrier against spread of diseases.

It would be unutterably grim. Our species has clawed back from extinction before and we'd survive as a species if there were only a few thousand people of reproductive age left on the whole planet, but it'd be brutal for those few.