Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

Yes GQ I can already think of one place that has watermill that still grinds flour and they have a spring fed lake on site that is the head water to run the mill, that is a very good idea and as it has some farmland with it and is ruralish it might be a good choice in the long run, well thought, Cheers Lyn xxx.

mardatha

My worst-case scenario is a bit different. Mine is climate changing for the worse with Scotland becoming colder & wilder and harder to grow food in. Summers getting shorter and winters getting longer. Life would become very miserable in just a few years.

[Deleted User]

You'd have to come south MAR, we'd find room for you anyday, and you would pull your weight, that I do know, Cheers Lyn xxx.

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

My worst-case scenario is a bit different. Mine is climate changing for the worse with Scotland becoming colder & wilder and harder to grow food in. Summers getting shorter and winters getting longer. Life would become very miserable in just a few years.

It might go the opposite way, Mar, with the north of England and Scotland becoming warmer and drier than at present. You could find yourself living on some very desirable real estate, although it'd be a bit of a shock for the coos and the sheep.

I saw a fascinating map somewhere online, or a series of maps, rather. They showed what would happen to the UK if we experienced various levels of rising seawater. We would become a rather fragmented archipeligo, although people on the hillier bits would be fine. Not so good down here, would have to really up my swimming skills.

It interest me how we are very invested in things always staying the same. I saw something on the DM's website a few weeks ago about a place called Dunnich on the east coast.

Yeah, where's that then? My thoughts exactly. Never heard of it. Apparently it was a huge place for its times, major port, important and rich and it fell into the sea in a series of storms and now there's hardly a thing left to show it was ever there.

Whatever must that have been like for the people who lived there, sailed out of there, they would have lost everything if they'd've stayed put, inc possibly their lives, but at what point do you walk away? I try to get inside their heads and wonder if I'd have been first to leave or last to go.........

Enough already. I really must get to that allotment. Time, tide and blasted weeds wait for no woman.

Mar, you're gonna hate me but it's in the high teens and sunny here. If you need to evacuate, please come, we have sweeties....

mardatha

Sob! Snot fair! Grey, cold, wind howling through my double glazing -
no wonder I eat sweeties!

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

Sob! Snot fair! Grey, cold, wind howling through my double glazing -
no wonder I eat sweeties!

I'm bad. But you know I lived in your neck of the woods for 5 years and experienced 5 summers. At least, I think they were summers..........the days were pretty long, so it probably was summertime.

Going to the allotment for sure, now. With a sunhat on (but no sweeties, dammit!)

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

Glad to hear it, nuatha, I shall be raising a metaphorical glass to the happy couple on 4th July then.

Sorry for the confusion, we get married on Summer Solstice (and if there was a vaguely sane way of doing so I'd invite all of you). Reference to the 4th was in answer to your Discworld mention

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.

I'm fairly sure pleasure isn't the word I'd have chosen. My first encounter with the sap was clearing a new paddock for horses - they love it, but was a condition of leasing the land. After the first encounter with a petrol bush cutter, we used scythes and were well covered, bush cutters throw the sap everywhere.

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

And don't grab neetles thinking they're dock leaves or other suitable wiping material.

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.

Our BOBs are geared towards other sorts of emergencies. Depending on the nature of the emergency and our best guess as to the duration/scale we have several options.
Personal emergencies, eg emergency hospital treatment - BOB, gas leak or other definable short term emergency - BOB.
Power failures - stay put. Civil disturbance, action will depend on the trigger event.
We have friends who are also preppers and are each others primary bug out locations. We also have access to an off the grid property that is fairly rural. (We're coastal, small town, friends are uplands village) However that only deals with the short term situation, given recent events our usual food stocks are below their usual level, we'd probably manage 3-4 months of very basic eating (we are slowly rebuilding these).
Longer term survival comes down to knowledge and how we can adapt that knowledge to the actual situation. (and how widespread the brown stuff has hit the spinny thing) If its a relatively localised disaster then getting out of dodge may be the optimum solution, if its a national level disaster then staying put and working with what you've got and rebuilding a community around you might be the way forward.
However being known as a prepper with large stocks could just be painting a big target, balancing being a helpful and useful member of the community with OPSEC and more importantly PERSEC is going to be difficult.
Thank you MrsLW for making me think, now back to the kitchen, wedding cakes to bake.

Hardup_Hester

We got married on the Summer Solstice, or as near as we could get to it, work permitting. It will be 3 years this year.

nuatha

Hardup_Hester wrote: »

We got married on the Summer Solstice, or as near as we could get to it, work permitting. It will be 3 years this year.

I look forward to sharing your anniversaries. We're doing the legal bit at 2 and handfasting at 5 or at least that's what's planned, I suspect timings for the latter may change on the day.

mardatha

Can I be really really BAD here ? Well I'm going to be anyway because you're all sunny and warm and I'm freezing my lugs off up here in the frozen north ...
Soooo... if we were real preppers - should/would we not be living the life now? Should/would we be visiting supermarkets twice a week and grabbing bargains and smugly counting cans ? Would we not be out there grimly picking nettles weeds & roots to make soup with? Shivering our aspidistras off in a compost loo at the bottom (sorry) of the garden? Making each lentil last a fortnight?
Are we just playing at this? :silenced: