Preparedness for when

pineapple

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Oh deary me, I must pay more attention, I've just read Cheapies post and dashed back up to Craigys to make sure she said panties and not pantries!!!!! Phew!!!! glad I got it right!!!

Panties/pantries what's the difference? These days I could probably keep my lawnmower in both
I think we should quit worrying about power cuts. The time to worry is if an EMP/solar strike knocks out the whole flippin grid. And then it would be survival game on. But power cuts? Pah... We've been there before. Plus countries do manage with rolling power cuts. An inconvenience but quite do-able.

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

SpanishUK, I'm with Co-op energy and very happy

I've been with them since the start of the year and they're fine thus far. They set my DD based on my usage from the old supplier and my first quarterly statement revealed that I was about £8 in credit (I'm hoping to get the leccy consumption down a bit from its current 2.1 kWh per 24 hours).

Cheapskate, re the DM article, I've been hearing about this same thing for some days, our spare margin on leccy is going down from 4% to 1% now, which is a bit squeaky, don't you think?

I've heard from many media sources that there is a long established protocol that leccy will be diverted from huge commercial consumers to the domestic supply in short term crises. The reason given is to protect stuff at home inc the electric controllers on combi boilers.

Here at the Towers, we're on commercial boilers but they have electrical controllers. So after a power cut, even a brief one, they have to be reset manually by one of the 5 engineers in this city who have they keys to the boiler house. As a regular gas safe engineer told me (speaking of our boiler house) If you're not trained on commercial boilers, you'd be a fool to even go in there.

The gas boiler house runs the CH and hot water for the block, there aren't little boilers in each home. That's down and stays down til one of The Five comes to reset it.

If rolling power cuts become a feature (and I'm old enough to recall the fun of the 1970s) we'll have to give careful consideration to managing the cooling of our foods. F'rinstance, the operating instructions for my countertop freezer of 50 litre capacity states that it will retain a safe operating temp for 17 hours in event of a powercut if not opened.

I expect that full-sized freezers would last longer, but we need to consider these things and what could be safely re-frozen if wholly or partially thawed, and what couldn't. I know most of us will have home contents insurance with coverage for freezer contents, but we still have to make a judgement call on the day when confronted with a lot of softening, dripping products all over the kitchen.

I, too, have been coveting the pantRy out of doors and this called to mind a much cheaper version which I read about in the Rawles' book TEOTWAWKI. He was suggesting ways of hiding a "deep larder" to disguise it from looters. One suggestion I considered useful if you had your own garden/ outbuildings, was the redundant chest freezer.

Remove powercord and attatch metal plates over any area which stops the casing being an impermable barrier. Decide where to stash the item and then paint it in matte finish paint to match it's camolflague. His suggestions were painted brown to hide in a pile of old bricks, painted greeny-yellowish to hide in hay. You get the picture. You could paint it grey-brown and hide it in the woodshed, if you have one.

Depending on where/ how you live, the sky's the limit. If you haven't got a redundant freezer, I'm sure freecycle could supply one if you volunteered to collect a dud.

Obviously, this would be suitable covert storage for stuff which you didn't need access to constantly, hence the term "deep larder".

I'm in a tiny flat so have to be creative with storage, and would have to be so even if I was Norma Normal from Normalshire, instead of a tinfoily prepper. My current wheeze for storing cans is to put them into those insulated bags used for transporting sarnies, available in a variety of dimensions and colours/ patterns.

My rationale makes perfect sense to me so I'll share in case it has some use for anyone reading.

These insulated bags can be bought very cheaply (99p Store, chazzers, bootsales often have them at < £1 in unused condition). They come in a variety of shapes such as small oblongs for taking your pack-ups, to large tall or large shallow oblongs. I even have a very useful one which is tall and slim and fits perfectly in a niche between furniture. They have carry-handles of strong nylon webbing.

The cheaper ones aren't brilliant for padding but they do offer some protection to your cans from denting and also keep the dust off them. They come in both solid colours and patterns, to fit in with all styles of decor. ATM, I have a 99p Store oblong one sitting under the table in my living room. Pale blue with pink flowers. Several people have seen it and no one has asked why it's there (because it has 24 cans of corned beef in, which I was adding to over several trips and haven't yet given it a permanant home).

And, if you have to move your stash of canned goods, they're bagged in quantities which are liftable. Of course, that might make life easier for theoretical looters, which I why I have a few of them, contents deliberately mixed to provide a variety of nutrients, in deep cover where you'd virtually have to dismantle this gaff to uncover them (and no, not telling where).

**********

Does anyone still have a meat safe? We had one of these in my childhood, cream with a red top and trim, long since gone. But when Nan was turfing her one out of her washhouse a few years back, I took it into protective custody. I use it in the lottie shed to store the seeds in (maus-proof, y'see) but I have in the back of my mind that it could be re-deployed at home if necessary.

There are other OS things which might appeal to the crafty in us, such as crocheting those doilies which go over jugs and bowls etc to keep insects out of things. I just hate it when a wasp drowns in my Pimms.........:p

jk0

Cheapskate wrote: »

How much credence should we put in this? Given how much more we rely on electrickery now than the 70s, t'internet, mobiles, freezers, etc., what do you do if we end up back in the 70s with regular power cuts?

A xo

Haven't you got to love the illogicality of the suggestions?

1.) They close down coal generators in favour of wind power. Then, if the wind doesn't blow, they have to scratch around for staff to fire up the coal stations.

2.) Having shut down generation to save CO2, they ask offices and factories to close early. To make up the difference at the weekend, the staff will have to release more C02 driving to work on Saturday.

3.) Another thought: If the staff go home early on winter evenings, aren't they likely to go home and put the fire on?

mardatha

Just make sure you've got an ordinary tin-opener, not an electric one. Make sure you've got a way of cooking, and re housework and washing just do what you can. Housewives down the ages have coped without electric so we will
I honestly can't remember having any hassle in the 70s three day week - apart from lugging that bloody big pram up 7 flights of pitch black stairs in our flat... and the shortages of sugar and the price of tatties going through the roof lol.
One thing we've decided to do is to get a jenny, just for the freezer. I hate the things, noisy and smelly, but I want to store more meat and we sometimes get powercuts in winter anyway. Does anybody know how long you need to run it to keep the freezer temp low?

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

Just make sure you've got an ordinary tin-opener, not an electric one. Make sure you've got a way of cooking, and re housework and washing just do what you can. Housewives down the ages have coped without electric so we will
I honestly can't remember having any hassle in the 70s three day week - apart from lugging that bloody big pram up 7 flights of pitch black stairs in our flat... and the shortages of sugar and the price of tatties going through the roof lol.
One thing we've decided to do is to get a jenny, just for the freezer. I hate the things, noisy and smelly, but I want to store more meat and we sometimes get powercuts in winter anyway. Does anybody know how long you need to run it to keep the freezer temp low?

Morning, Mar.

Would there be something about this on the UK Preppers site? Gotta go to w*rk now, see y'all laters. GQ xx

[Deleted User]

Thinking on a bit further on the subject of intermittent power supply making life tedious, I wonder if part of the problems we would all face would be that we are used to 24 hour entertainment in our world, even nattering on here counts as that, let alone 24 hour TV and X Boxes and Gameboys and Radio and Music on tap. I am of a generation to be able to remember no daytime TV and the close down at 11ish in the evening, I can only say that at the time it was normal but even I would miss the availability of some sort of distraction when I am awake. It's one thing to turn off things because you want to, and entirely another to not have them available, it would make for some crossness due to the boredom factor. Also if the electric lights were off reading could be difficult. MAR has a good point about having a manual tin opener, perhaps it would be a useful exercise to look round our homes and list just what we rely on electricity to operate for us in daily life? also to look at what we have that doesn't need the electricity supply it might be helpful to post useful manual lists on here so we can think about getting alternatives to powered appliances? I'm sure that we all could manage to some extent, but to generations that know no other way of life, it would surely be a steep learning curve to have to manage without all the familiar things wouldn't it? Lyn xxx.

[Deleted User]

Having a look round indoors, things that I find useful without electricity
a hand crank sewing machine
a manual tin opener
a kettle that goes on the hob
solar reading lamps
a broom, brush and dustpan
an outdoor rotary clothes line
an indoor clothes rail in the utility room to dry things on hangers
a good sharp carving knife
a good sharp vegetable knife
1 steel knife sharpener (old fashioned one)
a cheese grater
books
a multi fuel stove
a wind up radio

I'm sure I'll add in more as I find things, one thing I must get is a wind up clock, even if it's only an old fashioned alarm clock and one thing I really covet is a wind up gramophone and records so I can have my music whatever happens!!!

RAS

Add

A hand whisk
A hand operated mincer
Wind up torch
Hand operated tools (screwdrivers, drill (2 sorts), ratchet screwdrivers etc).

Don't have the multi-fuel stove (yet) and really reject letting ex have the hand operated sewing machine. Have my eyes open for a replacement.

ginnyknit

I also think a good big flask is useful then if you need hot water ie for baby bottles you can keep some. There are so many things to think of and my brain isnt working well today but glad for all the idea's on here. Also useful for a cuppa which is a real necessity, as Bear Grylls says nothing keeps the spirits up like a hot drink.

mardatha

I need the solar lamp, got all of the rest sorted.
I like reading, and found that 3 candles in front of a mirror work fine.
We can use the stove as an open fire as long as we use ordinary coal, not smokeless eggs. So we're planning to get a load of that in before winter.
Did anybody mention hot water bottles?