Preparedness for when

BessieBooBoo

GreyQueen wrote: »

BBB, thinking of Soylent Green? _pale__pale__pale__pale_

Gack!:eek:

(Tightens tin foil hat...)

[Deleted User]

agreenmess wrote: »

and just wanted to say that I'm just starting up prepping, does anyone have any tips or advice for starting up??

I'd say start with the obvious, ie. lamps/candles (check out £land ASDA and the like - a tenner should get you A LOT of candles/tealights, and don't forget to get some matches/lighters), and maybe a camping stove and gas (less than £15 from B&M)

Follow that with keeping a month's supply of food and drink (and no I don't mean booze - I mean tea/coffee, sugar and milk) in the house.

That doesn't necessarily mean buying a month's supply and storing it away, but rather keeping enough stock in the cupboards (using and replacing) to stretch to 30 days.

Add water storage (for at least a week - preferably a month), and a 1st Aid Kit.

After that, add to your preps, as and when you can afford it.

[Deleted User]

mardatha wrote: »

BedsitBob yes - a circle of min 9 tealights, with a grill tray laid over them, resting on bits of wood, will boil a kettle in 25 mins.

I've just done an experiment.

I put a camping kettle, containing 1 pint of tap water, onto a (unused) Hexamine stove, containing 6 tealights.

It took about an hour, but the kettle did boil. :cool:

metherer

Welcome agreenmess

To echo what others have said, start small but do start.

I would think about what type of scenario you envisage, and work from there. For example if yo live in a tower block then something like the foot and mouth quarantines won't be as high on your list as perhaps power cuts and gas leak evacuations.

My parents live on a farm so during foot and mouth I couldn't see them for some time as they couldn't drive two counties for risk of passing through an affected area and taking it home with them. I was in college at the time. On the other hand if there is a gas leak it is only because dad has had too many beans! So, their preps are all bugging in rather than out.

Be realistic about what you might face, and start there. Time and money allowing you can prep for less pressing situations later on.

metherer

GreyQueen wrote: »

Above all, it's important to pay attention to what's happening in the world. Not just what the mainstream BBC or ITV or Sky News has to say, either. They're The Establishment, and they'll be among the last to tell you what you really need to know!

GreyQueen what sources do to recommend? Thanks

ALIBOBSY

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I'd say start with the obvious, ie. lamps/candles (check out £land ASDA and the like - a tenner should get you A LOT of candles/tealights, and don't forget to get some matches/lighters), and maybe a camping stove and gas (less than £15 from B&M)

Follow that with keeping a month's supply of food and drink (and no I don't mean booze - I mean tea/coffee, sugar and milk) in the house.

That doesn't necessarily mean buying a month's supply and storing it away, but rather keeping enough stock in the cupboards (using and replacing) to stretch to 30 days.

Add water storage (for at least a week - preferably a month), and a 1st Aid Kit.

After that, add to your preps, as and when you can afford it.

I think that BB gives a good start up point there. TBH even if you don't think the world will go completely, basic preps for stuff that is very possible or likely just makes sense.

I think most of us have our stores, but I think most on here don't go to the extremes of those in the US buying MRE's and such. We are stocking food as much for stuff that is likely to happen as not. For us we are self employed so when we have a good week I know I can stock up on stuff or get and approved food stock up order in, then on quiet "tight" weeks we can live on what we already have. Having stocks means being able to take advantage of best prices and bulk buying. I also include in this having preserves and frozen stuff we have grown/foraged which are cheap/free investments in food for later in the year.

A store protects you against huge price rises or possible food shortages and is great when income fluctuates. Its also great when you get a blanket of snow not to have to go out as you are stocked up.

Candles and windup torches are useful in power cuts-being semi rural with still quite a lot of overhead power cables here we get several cuts a year, and as children of the 70's we recall the power cuts. Again his is a real possibility in the next few years so worth prepping for.

Look at your area, what is the most likely things you might have to be ready to deal with. We picked up a fire extinguisher and fire blanket in Lidl for bargain prices "just in case". I can see from my window now a house that had a fire just a couple of years back-non smokers, modern house, low risk but it happened.

Try not to obsess or worry about it, just make a few little plans and preps-just what you feel comfortable with and you will have peace of mind and "insurance" if things do go badly.

Good luck

Ali x

craigywv

Good evening all, well that's me back from Turkey had 2 lovely indulgent weeks away and now am rearing to get back into prepping mode. good to here your all well xxx and hello newbies(waves ). got suitcases away in cupboard and first on the to do list has been done.....gather the blackcurrants and make jam. got 12 jars sitting snugly in larder, next is the raspberries ! when is the time to pick my cabbages they are love heart and are like mutants in the veg plot! do I leave them in the ground longer or do I pick and freeze them now.....answers please xxxx feel a mammoth e$bay coming on so will bespending looooooooooooong hours doing that. I have ordered my oil for the winter as I can deffo feel autumn approaching. washed all winter coats and out on the line. leaving big blankets into launderette in morning as far too big to hand wash. great to be back , look forward to reading all your posts xxx

ALIBOBSY

To ev1 saying they feel autumn on they way I am hanging onto summer here lol. The only thing is I want all the fruit/foraging that will be ready in autumn, but hang on to the sun lol.

Picked a load of ripe rose hips on our walk today with the kids, so will be making rosehip syrup or jelly tomorrow. Found we have shed loads of Himalayan balsam down by the river and found a few recipes online for the flowers and seeds, the seeds actually taste quick nice and nutty and seem to be able to be used like other seeds in/on baked stuff, and sort of like a grain or lentil in curries and the like. I love the thought of making use of an invasive "weed" like this.

OH had a little walk later on with the 2 youngest DD's-our kids don't like to stop moving and love to go out, our own fault really and DD2 spotted a tree with "loads of fruit Daddy". It is on some waste/inbetween land where a footpath cuts through from the village green to the houses near us. It is a VERY full plum tree. The plums brought back looked and tasted just like Victoria plums and were yummy so may have to pop back in the next day or so to take advantage . OH reckons its between the other "council/developer" type trees that get stuck on those in between bits of land and so he wonders if its been a plum chucked down on the ground and grown itself. Perhaps this is the first year it has fruited enough for us to notice it.

Going to little sisters tomorrow at her new house, she has inherited a number of fruit trees, greengage/plum/apple and a load of fruit bushes and she is not the preserving /baking type so I may be coming back with even more fruit so the jam pan will be busy for the next few days. Thinking of prepping some fruit and freezing it to cook later.

Anyone else get people asking you what you are doing when you are picking stuff, around here people seem genuinely pleased stuff isn't just wasting on the ground and are interested in what you are going to make. You also spot the odd "fellow" picker with their bags/sticks and even gloves .

Ali x

thriftwizard

Anyone else get people asking you what you are doing when you are picking stuff, around here people seem genuinely pleased stuff isn't just wasting on the ground and are interested in what you are going to make.

Sometimes they're pleased & interested, Alibobsy, sometimes they're not... I'm still recovering from the lady who was upset that we were foraging the huge pears in the little disused orchard in the town centre, with not just permission but encouragement from the owner, who didn't want to be sued if one fell on a passer-by's head or someone's child got stung by a wasp attracted by the heaps of fallen fruit - "But what about the dear little squirrels...? Whatever will they have to eat?" You'd have needed all the squirrels in Dorset & Hampshire to make a dent in that lot, believe me. And they'd never have eaten them all in the week or two before they started to rot. And then there was a gentleman who stopped and stared fiercely at me when I was harvesting a few elderflowers, down at the riverbank, a couple of months ago. Didn't say anything, just stared, frowning, arms folded... I moved on, but I'd got enough anyway, and left 99% of them to turn into berries. And it's public land.

Delighted to report that the older generation seem to have remembered that Waitr*se may not be the saviours of mankind after all. I was down at Mum's yesterday & she opened one of her multiple wardrobes for something. And in the bottom were stacks of juice cartons, water bottles, tins & packets, all carefully in date order. Interesting; when they lived out on the edge of town, they had hardly any stores, relying totally on a weekly delivery. Looks to me as if something (probably not my nagging!) has made them realise how fragile their "system" was... they may be elderly but they are both highly intelligent & (mostly) switched on. They were both very Establishment & up 'til now they've tended to laugh at my doomerish tendencies; something's changed.

pineapple

That was a great summary Greyqueen. I don't pass muster on all of that myself. The document thing is a really important one. Only last year we had men round here laying new gas pipes and one of them was saying someone thought they had smelled gas and I thought this is one scenario where I should have had a bag ready as well as documents backed up. :eek:
Of course the real doomsayers believe the UK will one day be swamped by a b* big wave. I don't think that's likely but I did check out the nearest high points just in case! Also it might be useful to have a map of the highest points in the UK.
Just on matters geographical, there were some Americans featured in a programme about Wales today - they were on a tour. One of them said he thought Wales had the nicest scenery in England - nearly choked on my tea! :rotfl: