Preparedness for when

Confuzzled

GreyQueen wrote: »

After someone mentioned Hurricane Katrina on here a couple of days ago I decided to go to the library and get some books out about it. I know exactly where I was when it happened (Outer Hebrides) but I want to know more detail.

i would highly recommend When the Levees Broke that's the wiki link, i found part 1 of 2 on youtube. i believe it has the link for part 2 there as well, i suspect this is a legal download as it's very long and spike lee is well known for being an activist, anyway it's excellent viewing but i warn you to have your hanky and be prepared to be utterly disgusted with the human race, and also, at some points, very very proud of it.

Confuzzled

short_bird wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23536914

Wonder if they'd be useful around the time of the Full Moon as well?

i saw this story on russell howards good news of all places awhile back, made a wee tear well up just thinking how much good this man has done for so many

bet the electric companys are spitting nails though MUAHAHAHAHA :rotfl:

Confuzzled

the_cake wrote: »

We don't get any cold callers where we live now (too far out in the sticks!) but I do remember the occasion a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses came round when we lived in a village, and I'm afraid really enjoyed watching the recoil when my then-OH told them, with a suitable mad and evil gleam in his eye, that we were Satanists! Shouldn't laugh ...... but it did get rid of them quickly.

i was getting ready for a halloween party once (this was years ago back in the states) and the guy i was dating had a sword as part of his costume, anyway we both looked 'magical' enough to be a little disconcerting, so the jehovahs witnesses came to the door and i opened it wide enough for them to see him polishing said sword

sincere as anything i turn to him and say 'oh look honey, the sacrifices are here' you have NEVER heard anyone clamber down concrete stairs so quickly, and you know, they never came back either :rotfl:

i made the mistake of telling one that i was an aetheist, he actually kept shoving his foot in the door and trying to force his way into the house to 'save my soul'! i finally had to hit it pretty hard, watch him recoil then slam and lock the door

now if they come i just politely cut them off, say calmly that i appreciate them wanting to share but that i have my own religion that i am very happy with thank you, close door

they are so accustomed to being yelled at they normally stand there gobsmacked for a moment before leaving

BessieBooBoo

GreyQueen wrote: »

BBB, I personally think Stealth Pauperism is the way to go. I shan't have to make much effort to work this look.

The inside of the house is in very good order, but the outside had been allowed to get a shabby appearance so that she wouldn't look properous and be a target.

Sooo, maybe keep the cracked concrete and weeds, BBB.

Hello GQ

I intend to keep it up... It was all part of my plan, honest!:cool:

BBB

BessieBooBoo

mardatha wrote: »

Oh god. I t would be worth going over the Dark Side for that!!

(Starts chalking out the lines....)

BessieBooBoo

nuatha wrote: »

Apologies for the late reply.
Personally I keep security as discrete as possible - the exception being a couple of security cameras which are there to discourage some local kids throwing stones at our windows (an intermittent, but recurring problem*).

*Kids throwing stones is the reason we won't have either a gravel drive or use similar as a garden mulch - basically don't provide weapons that can be used against you.

Hello Nuatha

You make some great points. We are treading a fine line between getting complaints from our tidier neighbours (we are lucky we have one next door even less tidy), and trying to look like we are managing to keep above the breadline....

Don't want to let it go too much, so that it looks like we are squatting in our own house!

BBB

BessieBooBoo

Confuzzled wrote: »

i was getting ready for a halloween party once (this was years ago back in the states) and the guy i was dating had a sword as part of his costume, anyway we both looked 'magical' enough to be a little disconcerting, so the jehovahs witnesses came to the door and i opened it wide enough for them to see him polishing said sword

sincere as anything i turn to him and say 'oh look honey, the sacrifices are here' you have NEVER heard anyone clamber down concrete stairs so quickly, and you know, they never came back either :rotfl:

LOL

I did recall telling the JW's that they had a poor recruiting tactic of not allowing their members to take in blood transplants, and then ditched it, as it wasn't gaining them new members!

Naughty...:)

BBB

pineapple

Confuzzled wrote: »

now if they come i just politely cut them off, say calmly that i appreciate them wanting to share but that i have my own religion that i am very happy with thank you, close door

I have a sneaky admiration for the fact that they are prepared to put themselves out there for what they believe. What I don't agree with is the way, sometimes, children are hauled along. On the last occasion they had a Downs syndrome child in tow. Totally unacceptable imo.

GreyQueen

Confuzzled wrote: »

i would highly recommend When the Levees Broke that's the wiki link, i found part 1 of 2 on youtube. i believe it has the link for part 2 there as well, i suspect this is a legal download as it's very long and spike lee is well known for being an activist, anyway it's excellent viewing but i warn you to have your hanky and be prepared to be utterly disgusted with the human race, and also, at some points, very very proud of it.

Thanks for that.

One of the books I have out from the library about Hurricane Katrina is Not Just the Levees Broke which was written by one of the people featured in that Spike Lee documentary, Phyllis Montana-Leblanc. Harrowing stuff, but inspirational.

I commend it to you. One thing I take away from the many fine things in this memoir is that she observed that the hurricane didn't change people's core behaviours, it just revealed them.

Thieves stole, rapists raped, murderers murdered. And good people did good things, great and small.

**************
I guess a lot of the issues about the web's coverage of prepping is that prepping is seen as very much an American thing. Although we're (technically ) using the same language, our culture here in the UK as different. Not claiming one is better or worse, just different.

We also have a very small collection of islands with a huge population. There just aren't huge wildernesses to lose yourself in, although Rannoch Moor and a few other places give passable imitations. Generally, if an area in a highly-populated country like ours is depopulated, there are damned good reasons for it.

Usually, the weather is extreme, the soil infertile and the links to the rest of the country bad. The last of those three would be helpful if fleeing violence but the first two would make any attempts to settle long term very difficult.

If you bug out, you're now a refugee. You don't have the shelter of roof, walls and a door, even if they are modest they are a lot better than sleeping in a ditch. Imagine toiling on foot across country, perhaps surrounded by thousands of others, and preyed upon by bandits, or having to try to bribe your way past roadblocks. Not good.

In a long-term SHTF situation, without medical supplies, I am dead. I would have died in 1997 but for medications. That's my absolute bottom line, the survival issue which would kill me faster than thirst and a lot faster than hunger. So, I have to hope that the technocratic society continues to function 40 or so years into the future or I'll be an early casualty.

It p's me off. I mean, I can make nettle twine, garden, weave, make pottery, unzip game birds and do lots of useful things....I'd be an asset, dammit.:rotfl:

Sooo, I don't fret too much about mastering even more archane skills, although I wouldn't rule out studying something which caught my interest, just because it was interesting.

I think we're teetering on the edge of a financial collapse which could bring back Great Depression type conditions for a few years, and then see us re-set at a permanantly lower level when the oil crunch starts to bite.

Considering that a lot of people are in financial hardship already, galloping inflation and scarcity won't be kind to many of us. Much of my prepping is to see me safe (or as safe as possible) in a financial collapse which would be severe enough to disrupt business-as-usual for weeks or even months.

I'd only consider bugging out of my flat if it became more dangerous to stay than to go. I have friends on nearby streets and in the block itself, although family is about 30 miles away. If they needed me, I would make my way to them, but since I'm the prepper and they're not, the stash of food is at my end so they'd be better coming here.

mardatha

Where is the best place to get pkt soups? Have they usually a long date on them? I think I'm going to get a load of them in and start building up the stash again.