Preparedness for when

mardatha

The only thing I can think we would need to evac for would be another Lockerbie, a plane landing on us. But weird unthinkable things do happen don't they!

mardatha

Mrs L - what about sheep? Do they feed them on grain at all?

GreyQueen

Evening all.

Glad that you're safely back at the homestead, Mar; admit I cannot hear the words Harvey Nicks without coming over a bit Ab Fab. I had an AF moment when watching Britian's Biggest Hoarder recently, the one with the rich guy living off his inheritance in that lush 5 story townhouse which he'd turned into the city dump.

Anyroad, he and his ex are trying to sort thru a rack of his clothes and she pulls out something and remarks on how hideous it is and he says "It's Versace!" and I swear I heard Edina.

Re bugging out, I think this stay/ go is a hard call. Sometimes, if there is a hillside about to engulf your home/ 10 feet of water outside/ the place is on fire/ the emergency services are ordering you out, it's pretty unequivocal. You go, because to stay is to risk injury or death.

But in the case of rioting? Is it safer to be indoors than out on the streets? Almost certainly. And if you have to flee your home, you will become a refugee or displaced person, entirely dependant on what little resources you can carry and the goodwill of strangers. Who might be agencies of the state, or goodhearted fellow citizens, or utter evil nutjobs with their eyes on the main chance.

Thing is, once you're out there, you're reliant on a lot of factors beyond your control.

I'd leg it in a Noo Yawk second if the place was on fire; this a tower block and piped for gas. Could get a bit woo-woo. Shoebox Towers blew up once before (human stupidity) and several people lost their flats and it's a miracle no one was hurt.

If we had a lengthy grid-down situation, with no water or sewage service, places like mine would become a hotbed of disease, so I'd consider bugging out if the alternative was cholera or summat equally ghastly. If it was a case of civil unrest, I'd lie very low, keep very quiet, listen (very softly!) to my windup radio and monitor the situation as it evolved. And such decisions as I did make would be based on the least-worst choice at the time.

A tale from the GQ family archives:

In the earliest years of the twentieth century, one of my relatives moved across into northern Europe as their employer had emigrated. Just in time for a war. He got stuck in occupied territory in WW1. He stayed on after the war.

Early in WW2, it became clear that something similar was going to happen again. The old man (the original emigree) declared he wasn't going thru that again and decamped back to Blighty. His adult son, a married man with teenage children, hestitated.

Because he didn't think it could be that bad. Because he hadn't the experience. By the time they realised it was going to happen for real, they ran to the channel coast and tried to get ship. There were a lot of desperate people trying to get ship to Britain.

They were too late to the coast. The ships stopped sailing. After a few days, they had to return draggle-tailed to the city where they'd have an uncomfortable few years as bilingual Brits whom the Gestapo took a lively interest in. Their 16 y.o. daughter was twice taken away by the Gestapo and twice they managed to get her back on the slender detail that as a Brit citizen, she couldn't be taken as a forced labourer at 16 like the locals, she had to be 18. Her hair fell out with the shock and even 60 years later she'd shiver if she'd hear German spoken. Their son ended up as a slave labourer in a factory back in Germany.

Everyone survived, but they went thru a lot of horrible things, things which would have been avoided if they'd listened to their old Dad/ Grandad..............

**********
I think we (collectively, as a culture) suffer from complacency. We've had some really comfortable decades and people think this is how it always was, and how it always will be. Their normalcy bias is very strong, they literally don't entertain the thought that things might go wrong.

If everything is always for the best, in this best of all possible worlds, why prep? Nothing can or will go wrong, and anyone who dares to think differently is a fool. Soooo, we of the preptastic nature end up feeling a bit tin-hattish for having a modicum of self-preservation and putting some items in place to ease our way in the event of the disruption of business-as-usual.

I don't happen to agree with this worldview, of course. But I wish more people realised that what happens to sheep is that they get fleeced - regularly. And even eaten.

D&DD

I STILL forgot to mention ukpreppers2 on tonight after doomsday preppers 2 full hours of bliss staring at full shelves..

MrsL its a crazy system by the sound of it,we don't have the room to grow all the feed here for our herds so we import it, then send the surplus herds overseas..meanwhile small farmers are paying a premium price for fodder/feed due to our weather destroying their stuff,hence raising their prices while the cheaper stuff is sent abroad,you just couldn't make it up really could you??


Off to water the crops XXX

[Deleted User]

I don't think they feed grain to sheep as such MAR apparently it gives them acidosis and other digestive problems if they have too much, but just having a quick browse of the contents of concentrates it would appear there is a little grain of some sort in most of the commercial feeds.

GQ I love the idea of sheep being fleeced, giggle, giggle,giggle, you iz wikid!!!!!

mardatha

Ok then I can relax, because we don't eat much beef at all, very rarely have a stew.. eat a fair bit of lamb though

Shropshirelass

Thanks everyone, starting to get my head round it. RAS I think I can manage to plan for 'Bug-in' and 'Bug-out in medical situation'

A few months ago I cut my hand washing up after tea and needed stitches, we had to rush off the 18 miles to local A&E. Of course that was the day I had noticed the fuel was low, but decided to re-fill the next day - so we had to stop at a 24 hour garage and fill up with expensive stuff. Luckily A&E was quiet and I was in and out, stitched and anti-tetanused in 2 hours.

I already have a few plans in case of getting snowed in over winter, or power failures. We did talk about buying a calor gas heater or similar, may be a good time to look for one now. Need something to store water, we don't drink 'pop', and we use UHT milk (don't use much), so puzzled about getting containers.

D&DD we have been so lucky about not needing to evac (in last 14 years anyway) I think security might become an issue, but several of our neighbours are big tough farmers, and we all keep an eye on each others' properties. We did have a break in a few years ago, burglars were eventually chased down the road leaving their loot on the front lawn.

Guess there may be a few pop guns around here too! though we don't have any at present, we have both used guns in the past. Fortunately being armed is not considered necessary in this country at present.

[Deleted User]

D&#8517 wrote: »

30 secs evac plan

Car/house keys
Purse
cashbox(documents)
kids
animals

My 30 secs evac plan is:-

Grab BOB and run like ****.

Perplexed_Pineapple

It's an interesting idea to be grabbing a cashbox with documents, which I guess would be fairly heavy for a BOB although ok in a car. I have the family documents (birth certificates etc) rolled up in one of those tubes you use for posting, not too heavy but good protection. Passports are all together (although it would be pretty bad to be needing to leave the country). I want to scan other important documents like insurance certificates onto a USB stick, maybe with some scans of family photos and some prepperish e-books for good luck. Also, email copies of important documents to yourself (you can encrypt or password protect them if you like). It's most unlikely that there would be a SHTF situation where the entire internet goes down, short of a EMP type event.

VJsmum

Has anyone cooked on their Kelly Kettle? I have made a few cuppas now but not tried cooking.

I ask because I am off to Glastonbury in 3 weeks. DS (14) and I are going by coach (cos it was the only tix we could get) so we take what we can carry - although I am hopeful that the furthest we must carry anything is half a mile. We have tent, 2 sleeping bags (mummy style) 2 bed mats, inflatable pillows, minimal clothes, a lamp, some baby wipes (all the ablutions that will take place for 4 days :eek:) and a kelly kettle. I would like to take some food stuff but am limited by the KK and the weight. (I also have some pound shop staples - foil blankets, luminous guy ropes, mess tin) - any ideas or experience?

I realise this isn't strictly a SHTF scenario - but it could be practice