Preparedness for when

mardatha

We have no gas here GQ and most of us have calor - either camp stoves or full size cookers like mine. One house has an 88 yr old who is almost blind, and her next door pops into her with hot tea etc.
Getting cold here now, last night and this morning been 4c and I'm glad now that I knitted meself some wool/mohair socks I think our preps need to be based around keeping warm if what they're saying re climate is right.

GreyQueen

Just made a quick call to Nan; the advantage of being on a late today. Plus I have been up since 4 am so it feels like the middle of the day to me.

She said that not all the village was off, just their end of it (village is over a mile long stretched along the main road) and that people up the other end were filling flasks for others. Monday's lunch for Nan was 2 Weetab*x and milk. The freezer thawed but it was mostly full of HG beans so she'd re-frozen them and discarded some sausage rolls and ice cream.

Nan remarked that it was very boring without the TV or the radio (she didn't have a battery radio as an option) and that even with 3 candles going she couldn't see well enough to read. She joked that it reminded her of her young day, except that they were set up for no power back then.

Her bungalow used to have a coal fire, long since blocked off by the council but it stayed nice and warm from the electric storage heaters.

At no point did the company communicate with the affected households about what was going on and how long they might be without power. Nan was contemplating having auntie get the two parafin lamps from the back bedroom, real old school ones with big glass lanterns on them, but they haven't been used for so long I'm not sure that the parafin in them would still be viable.

All in all, could have been worse, could have been better.

[Deleted User]

How about something like this for you Nan, GQ, instead of the candles?



Much brighter (very white light) and safer than candles.

I find I can easily read by it, provided it's close by, rather than yards away in the middle of the room.

From the 99p store.

VJsmum

i used a poundshop lantern at glastonbury in my tent. it was fine for us to get changed and do teeth etc

two would have been enough for reading

Karmacat

thriftwizard wrote: »

Karmacat, ours too is on an outside wall; it has a short pipe that steam comes out of, with a cage over it. But it also has a small plastic pipe that joins onto the sink plumbing - it's next to the sink, and floor-mounted, as it's a biggie - under the draining board, and that's what drains the condensate liquid away. I believe in some cases it can go outside into a drain; they just took the easiest route for ours.

grandma247 wrote: »

I found it was the steam that condensed and dripped from the top pipe (exhaust?) causing a long icicle to hang from it and the drips also fell on the condenser pipe which then froze because the temps were so low outside, about -15. I stood for over an hour with a hairdryer to thaw the condenser pipe then applied two tea towels and a plastic bag to the pipe to stop it happening again. It was finally removed this summer but will get a foam cover this year.

:exclamati:o_pale_ Lightbulbs going on all over the place round here - I just went outside to look in the light, instead of posting from memory in the dark ... the boiler was installed in 2008, and it has a *socking* great length of condensate pipe! Four feet long? Its still weird, because its wrapped up in another layer of pipe, somebody's obviously tried to insulate it. Thankfully, its in a sheltered little corner, as the old coal bin sticks out and shelters it from the wind. But I insulate the garden tap nearby, and now I've understood what that piece of pipe is, I'll be insulating that too!

Thank you all :beer:

Butterfly_Brain

homesteadchick wrote: »

I prep because I just love self suffientcy. I have lost trust in the food industry, I think it is absurd that we eat food that's been flown in from all over the world, and I hate the consumerism attitude.
I think the economic system as we now know it will get much worse, and so I prep skills.

I keep chickens, I grown vegetables and fruit, and I raise rabbits for meat. I can slaughter and process rabbits, so I'm pretty confident I can handle other animals as well.

Next on my list is either an air rifle or a handbow and learn how to use that. But at this point in time, I simply can't afford it. Too bad huh?

Welcome to the tread anyway. :T

You can get a self cocking crossbow pistol from £29.99
http://www.ronniesunshines.com/latest-products/80lb-stealth-self-cocking-pistol-crossbow.html

Cheapskate

Pineapple, i'm with yorks h2o too, but can't find the things you mentioned there. I've just subscribed to the newsletter - is that the way to go? Anything that can either save water, though we don't have a meter I still hate waste, or help the wee beasties outside is good by me.

Had a couple of cold nights this week, so ramping up the preps a bit, mostly winter preps but other stuff, too, before the world and his wife have the same idea. Our main PC has gone to computer heaven this week, thankfully the nice PC man t'other side of town says the hard drive info is safe (phew - hundreds of photos safe!), but need to get the data onto a hard drive and now buy a new pooter. Using my ipad but def not the same as a desktop, like my regular keyboard too much! This is a minor SHTF moment for me this week, as I didn't back up my data *insert smacked hand smiley* :rotfl:

A xo

ArthriticOldThing

Hi all.

With regard to the stealing from jumble sales etc. I volunteer in our local church charity shop and we are the cheapest such place around - cheap as chips you might say - but people still steal. Ridiculous things like CDs - priced at 50p each(they take the disc out and leave the empty cover) - or ladies tops at 75p.

What really gets my goat though are those who exchange their tatty old shoes for newer ones on the rack and just walk out.:eek::eek::eek:

I like the look of that lamp BesitBob and am so sad we don't have a 99p shop anywhere near.:(

ALIBOBSY

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Hi there neighbour. :wave:

Yay love Lancashire. We are on the edge of Leyland,if you know where that is.

Ali x

paidinchickens

ArthriticOldThing wrote: »

Hi all.

With regard to the stealing from jumble sales etc. I volunteer in our local church charity shop and we are the cheapest such place around - cheap as chips you might say - but people still steal. Ridiculous things like CDs - priced at 50p each(they take the disc out and leave the empty cover) - or ladies tops at 75p.

What really gets my goat though are those who exchange their tatty old shoes for newer ones on the rack and just walk out.:eek::eek::eek:

I like the look of that lamp BesitBob and am so sad we don't have a 99p shop anywhere near.:(

No way :eek: