Preparedness for when

Butterfly_Brain

Got a nice sharp Draper tools axe today reduced to £8.99 in Wilko's to add to the prep shed......Yes I have preps everywhere :rotfl:Luckily for me DH is on board with the whole prepping thing.
As for the dreaded constipation, I have a tub of epsom salts in my medicine preps, I don't usually need it because the metformin I take empties you out quite violently at times :rotfl:

siegemode

lobbyludd wrote: »

lol! if water was out longer than a few hours, the water company and council would be transporting bottled water in, like they have in the UK every time the water has gone off for an appreciable amount of time (from personal experience).

Unless it was a very big SHTF scenario where the army couldn't be mobilised to get people water supplies and charities/councils couldn't get through, in which case you'd have to have your own lake.

that's not to say I don't keep water in the house, I have 50litres that is rotated, but mainly in case of short cut-off's, because I don't want to have to rush out in the middle of the night and I can't abide queueing. But in real life, "Becky" would ring some friends, some family, go to the school, check with neighbours. Someone would suggest she walk to the nearest river to get water to flush her toilet so that it wasn't unsanitary, the kids would be just fine not washing for a day or more, including their hands (camping, mine are ferral for weeks on end the only water near their bodies that from streams when they are building forts in them, with no ill effects).

She would not be some scared snivelling wreck within less than 24hrs because the water has gone off and her husband is away. Like most people in most "crises", she would cope and adapt because that is what humans are supremely adept at doing.

I'm all for prepping for whatever you want, and do, but people are resourceful, even those who don't prep. a bigger worry than "becky" would be frail little old men and women who have outlived family and friends, and can't physically adapt.

I beg to differ.
Part of our town had no water for 24 hrs :eek: 18 months ago.
I had never thought of myself as a prepper but stocked up in case of financial crisis and only drink bottled water as I hate our tap water. I like to have at least 5 x 5ltr bottles at all times. I discovered when going to bed at 2am that the water was off, I figured no worries no doubt it would be back on when I woke up, but no. We waited and waited and waited. The water company had the same message on their phones as well as their website, it changed every couple of hours giving an estimate of when the water supply would be restored. We were frugal with the water we had but I had only got 3 x 5ltrs at the time as I'd not been well and hadn't got to the shops. By 6pm I was getting concerned and we decided to try the shops. The shelves ere bare and we met other shoppers who were desparate and had been searching further afield so we decided to make do with the little we had left in the hope it would last. If we needed to we'd go to mums the following day.
The water was finally restored about 1am thankfully.
We had at least got some water and managed but there was a panic in town and all small shops, 2 major supermarkets plus shops and supermarkets within 6 miles ran out of water. At no time did the water company bring in water. My optimism prevented me from joining the frenzie of panic buyers and the stories of arguments and even fights was alarming.

wondercollie

Well, I'm a happy Mum. Just saw my son on the news filling sandbags in Calgary. Don't know how long he'll be there though. He texted home he'll be away anything from 72 hours to 7 days. Mind you Medicine Hat and Drumheller are the next on the too be flooded list.

People have been really good down there. Because the shelters are swamped (with people not water) people have been making meals and taking them in. There is a drive up here to send new pillows, bedding, etc. down there. Basements have totally filled up.

The Saddledome has lost it's jumbotron and some team memrobelia. The Stampede? Nobody knows but it looks like a washout.

nuatha

vanoonoo wrote: »

hi all, is it today that nuatha is getting ceremonial? if so very best wishes x

hope you're all well, I am recovering from download festival

xx

Thank you all for the good wishes, Herself is now Mrs Nuatha, we had a fantastic day, I'll post something soonish with with some details. It was wonderful to logon yesterday evening to see PMs and posts wishing us well.

lobbyludd wrote: »

lol! if water was out longer than a few hours, the water company and council would be transporting bottled water in, like they have in the UK every time the water has gone off for an appreciable amount of time (from personal experience).

Unless it was a very big SHTF scenario where the army couldn't be mobilised to get people water supplies and charities/councils couldn't get through, in which case you'd have to have your own lake.

Approx 20 years back two of the local towns were without water for 4-5 days due to mains water pipes shattering with sudden changes in temperature and then a big freeze. It took 36 hours to get bowsers deployed although pallets of bottled water were dropped off a few hours earlier.
People were fighting to access the bottles in some areas, though in others people rallied round and made sure every house had a case of water.
Within a few hours the first lot of bowsers were empty - though it surprised me how many households didn't seem to have anything of reasonable size to carry water in. The ground around the bowsers became sheets of ice due to water spills and people forgetting to turn the taps off.
As the second delivery of bowsers arrived most people seemed to think that the crisis was over. Among the second lot of bowsers were some with spring loaded taps which had to be held open, some had conventional taps. The next morning all the bowsers with conventional taps had been drained, large areas of ice around the bowsers showed that someone had just opened the taps and left them running - even worse the bowsers that could not be drained that way had been used as toilets.
Even if as and when the mysterious "They" manage to spring into action and avert the crisis, you can't be sure some body won't accidentally or deliberately make it worse.

VJsmum mentioned golden linseed for constipation. The whole seeds store for years in a coolish dark area, the ground seeds make one of the better egg replacers (one tablespoon ground linseed, two tablespoons hot water, mix well and stand till luke warm).

pineapple

Mucho congrats Nuatha. Here's wishing the two of you a long and happy life together :beer:

mardatha

Bit OT here, but talking of supermoons and loony battyness (or batty loonyness).. my spooky forum has been overrun with it the last few nights! We've had the lot - demons, dark entities, presences, and even on one fabulous occasion, a goblin.
I sometimes worry over what I'm sharing a planet with.
Congrats Nuatha !

Perplexed_Pineapple

lobbyludd wrote: »

on an entirely different note -and if prepping for an end of the world... extreme situation, I've not seen anyone mention (although not read back)
a) salt: although we are warned against eating too much and everything preprepared is laden with it, it is essential for humans to live, it's a preservative for food and can act as a topical antibiotic (as can sugar paste) and as a steriliser. Difficult to get in the wild unless near the sea. Was a highly priced commodity in times gone past.
b) fat: there are essential oil/fat dissolvable vitamins etc that humans need external sources for, and lack for extended periods, causes big health problems. Vegetable sources are hard to process yourself, and animal sources don't store that well in any sort of heat.

Very important, this. Salt is very cheap and vital to all sorts of processes. Supermarket bread contains more salt than homebaked because the salt speeds up the bread rising - the yeast needs it to work. Well worth having a couple of packs tucked away.
Fats, vegetable oil lasts for a reasonable time, the other thing I try to keep in stock is ghee (clarified butter). It's very useful for cooking, good for Indian style breads and lentil dishes (tarka daal, mmmmm.....) and unlike vegetable oil it contains appreciable amounts of vitamin A and D which are quite difficult to get from non-animal sources. Shelf-life of tinned ghee is about a year before the best-before date (might well be good beyond that, haven't tried) and you can get it from the Asian shops and from supermarkets. If you wait until it's on special offer it's about the same price per pound as ordinary butter, otherwise in our T3sco it's quite pricy.

pineapple

Perplexed_Pineapple wrote: »

the other thing I try to keep in stock is ghee (clarified butter). It's very useful for cooking, good for Indian style breads and lentil dishes (tarka daal, mmmmm.....) and unlike vegetable oil it contains appreciable amounts of vitamin A and D which are quite difficult to get from non-animal sources. Shelf-life of tinned ghee is about a year before the best-before date (might well be good beyond that, haven't tried) and you can get it from the Asian shops and from supermarkets. If you wait until it's on special offer it's about the same price per pound as ordinary butter, otherwise in our T3sco it's quite pricy.

Brilliant tip thanks. I'll be hot footing it to the nearest Asian supermarket tomorrow! Actually I have a good stock of butter (always bought when on offer) in the freezer but that's not much good if the leccy goes off .
I also keep a stock of organic cold pressed virgin coconut oil. It has all sorts of uses.
Anyway, me and the family dog seem to have had a variety of ailments recently. I think it's because when you get to our age, moving parts can start to fail - that's if they don't drop off all together , But now that I have given the dog a new lease of life - it's my turn now!
I've ordered a TENS unit - one of the cheaper ones but it has had good reviews. It strikes me that if you want to cut down reliance on pain meds - especially in some future disaster scenario - this could be a useful piece of kit. I'll report back

Butterfly_Brain

Congratulations Nuatha and Mrs Nuatha

Wondercollie, It warms my heart when people get together to help those in dire need. I hope that your son stays safe x

Forgive me Pineapple, but I thought that salt kills yeast and sugar makes it grow. Salt is used as a preservative more than anything.

Perplexed_Pineapple

I think it's a bit more complicated than that. Too much salt will kill yeasts for sure, but it's important to have some salt for the yeast to work I think. I'm no expert though!
Nuatha many congratulations, I hope you and Mrs Nuatha have many happy prepping years ahead of you :j