Preparedness for when

Dippypud

D&DD wrote: »

GQ I think what worries me most is the housing changes which are coming in here from next year..we had the head honcho down from the housing assoc to one of our residents meetings and amongst the changes here,as well as the underoccupancy and suchlike, they are upping the rents to 90% of the current market rent for ALL new tenancies (I live in south london so you can imagine how much this will be!) This will affect mutual exchanges too and another change is no more lifetime tenancies,they are going to be reviewed every 5 years..I came home from that meeting speechless which doesn't happen very often!!

Next year is going to be very interesting indeed and I do hope your superiors are prepared to support you frontline staff XX

GreyQueen wrote: »

Ye gods and little fishes, how the hell do they think people are going to be able to afford that? And the review, what will be their criteria for ending a tenancy? That you currently have a good job (and that can change in a moment) so should move into the private -sector? Or that you've been an anti-social so-and-so, hence hit the road, Jack?

Our managers are good but some of the people we deal with have anger management issues and things get fraught enough already without adding something like this into the equation. Times past have included a gunman and an axeman as well as fisticuffs and vandalism to our premises so heaven knows what will happen. The security shutters are described as probably bullet-proof.

As I remarked to my brother, is that against handguns, sawn-offs, AK47s or BB guns? Not too happy about us punting our lives on a probably............ local goverment service is rather more exciting than outsiders may believe - and not in a good way.

Well, my local government pension will only be in the low hundreds per annum but my death-in-service grant is £33k and rising.........Brother is my nominated heir but has told me without missing a beat that he'd rather have me alive. Thus narrowly avoiding being disinherited in favour of the cat sanctuary............:rotfl:

Saw this today and thought that it could push people to the edge ...:o

http://www.housing.org.uk/policy/welfare_reform/bedroom_tax.aspx

Butterfly_Brain

I think that I will go and put a bet on.
The first minister who is assassinated .............IDS

[Deleted User]

valk_scot wrote: »

I think I will stick to dried eggs.

Though up till the early 70's it was still fairly common to preserve eggs in isinglass. It works by excluding the air, gas exchange can take place through the shell of an egg and this is what causes some of the chemical changes. Eggs in isinglass last for six months after the date of lay though they went a bit syrupy, according to my mum.

As I said, dried eggs....

where do you get dried eggs from? (sorry if asking a silly question!)

valk_scot

drinkupretty wrote: »

where do you get dried eggs from? (sorry if asking a silly question!)

I got mine from Tesco. There is an egg white only type in the baking aisle and the entire type was in the whole/health foods section last time I looked. It's pretty uninteresting tbh, I usually just buy it for breadmaking though there are recipes availible.

prepareathome

After Amageddon

Most definitely food for thought there, the scenario used is a pandemic which is not entirely off the wall and is possible.

I picked up another of the small wind up lanterns from Home Bargain yesterday as was so pleased with it. So have the bigger ones and now two smaller ones which give as much light. Need to buy some more tea light candles as down to last 100 which won't last long.

I picked up an unusual candle holder with shade in cs. It takes a long candle but instead of it sitting fully in the candle stick most of the candle slides into the candle stick and just wick above and as it burns down more candle moves up, so you can have the use of a long candle without worrying about it falling out of candlestick just like using a tea light but lasts longer.

prepareathome

rhiwfield wrote: »

On the SHTF preparedness theme, what about ill health/old age/accident/injury (all of which are likley/inevitable). How do you open your cans of beans with one hand or get in the bath with knee joints gone or manage the garden without grab rails by the steps. When the Zombies have mauled you a bit, or the medics have finished rearranging your bones, making a bracelet out of para cord is unlikely to be top of your priorities
.

A lot of that fits me now but I still want to make a bracelet out of paracord:D

suburbanwifey

she_who_can_not_cook wrote: »

yes i think you are right we know deep down ...thank you. i know this is not the same but i was mugged three xmas's back i very sillyly tried to fight off a six foot young male for which i got the bruises IF i would have just let him have my bag i would have been ok.. now that was a eye opener IF he had been holding a knife ect ect but when this type of thing happens you just go on instinct (sorry for going off subject )

Thanks for your response, I'll give you my thoughts on what you said.

Firstly, I am deeply sorry that some of the scum that permeate our society encountered you and hurt you, there is nothing more vile or repulsive to me than someone who hurts an innocent person to steal from them, they have no right to your bag or anything inside it, they choose to not work or try to gain what they need by legal means, scum who take from others, I know what I'd do to them if I was the legal system and it wouldn't be a useless ASBO or any of the other useless deterrents this country uses, which is why they continue to do their crimes.

When you were assaulted by the scum who took your bag, you had a situation whereby you have to access the risk factors in seconds. The youth could have a knife and trust me, they happily use them when someone tries to stop them. A bag and its contents, whilst deeply personal to you and possibly containing money you cannot afford to lose and other possessions that are extremely valuable to you can be replaced. All of it. Its loss is immense but its not worth losing your life for. In that situation, your exact situation, I'd let the scum take the bag.

However, in a survival situation - a thief comes to take your survival gear, without it you would die, period. We are talking a thief in a situation that would happily kill you to take what is yours, that they need. Everyman for himself in a true survival situation and it would be (we are talking a total breakdown of society here, whereby everyone would become more animal like and feral) in that situation I would kill or be killed - if he killed me I lose my life, if he takes my survival gear/rations - then I lose my life as a result of losing the tools and rations I need to survive. There are no options, kill or be killed. This is why in a total breakdown of society those that are to survive would need to be ruthless in their defence of themselves and their families. I would be, no question, anyone tried to even harm a hair of one of my cats heads even (cats would become food to the feral survivor).

A bag, purse, small possessions is not worth losing your life, however, losing your life by losing your rations, survival gear is worth fighting for. My opinion x

GreyQueen

rhiwfield wrote: »

Chard, steamed until it wilts, pressed/drained and served lightly salted with butter. Lovely

On the SHTF preparedness theme, what about ill health/old age/accident/injury (all of which are likley/inevitable). How do you open your cans of beans with one hand or get in the bath with knee joints gone or manage the garden without grab rails by the steps. When the Zombies have mauled you a bit, or the medics have finished rearranging your bones, making a bracelet out of para cord is unlikely to be top of your priorities

Not trolling, honest!!, just think its worthwile preparing for the known and probable before preparing for the unlikely/improbable.

You're not trolling, you're making valid points.

A number of years ago, we brought my Nan and Grandad an electric can opener after I noticed them struggling with a manual model. He's sadly passed away but she still uses it. She lives 50 yards from relatives and they assist her several times a day, without which she'd be unable to remain in her own home. My parents help weekly for one whole day as they are 30 mins' drive away.

However, we're talking about preparation on here, not trying to run around after the event making things like paracord bracelets (whose sole purpose is to be worn so that you have an easily-unravellable source of strong cordage with you at all times btw). They're not toys.

Human beings will do what human beings have always done prior to modern medicine and modern surgery; we will do everything in our power to survive, often in pain and with debiltating injuries. If we're hurt or aged beyond the point where we can fend for ourselves, and there is no one able or willing to protect us, we'll just die.

For people such as myself, just-dying will come sooner rather than later in a permanant SHTF situation as I've been kept alive by medication since 1997. I *should* have died back then although to look at me you'd think I was the picture of rude good health and that I look considerably-younger than my late-forties.

There are a lot of us in a similar boat and if you took away a modern society with a modern pharmaceutical industry, you'd take away our lives not too long afterwards.

Hence my personal worries not encompassing spending my dotage in a post-SHTF world of medieval levels of tech; I'd be dead within 30-40 hours of my last pill.

Bearing in mind that peak oil has been and gone, and that our oil-dependant lifestyles will become ever more expensive and unsustainable, it would be smart to move to places where you can easily access services such as small country towns. Look out for bits of good-quality land to grow food. Form a "tribe" of either your extended family and/or a sturdy friendship network to support you in your endeavours, as you do likewise for them.

It's sensible to review your lifestyle as you age, anyway, not wait until you can't get upstairs in your house to the only WC or find that you're stuck in the bathtub because you ignored the warning signs and didn't move in time or change to a level-acces shower.

In their fifties, my parents took a £15k maturity from a savings product and invested it in their home. It provided an extra room downstairs with an en-suite shower room/ WC. They did this with a view to being able to offer my grandparents an accessible home if they needed to move in with us in their old age. It hasn't been used as that but it has meant that they've future-proofed their home against their own infirmaties.

For a lot of us, we live in rented accomodation. We don't have the rights to remodel our landlord's properties to future-proof them against our old age. We may not even be living in them at that time. A lot of major works will be unaffordable even to home owners.

Not being able to do everything is no excuse for not trying to do something. And none of us can know when our hour will come, or if we will personally have to endure a decade or two or three of increasing debility at the end of our lives. A man my father worked with lived only 5 days into his retirement aged 65 before having a fatal heart attack out of the blue.

I had an interesting convo once with 3 pals. Two blokes and one other woman. D'you know what? Only one of us would have been alive but for modern medicine? The other woman had been treated for a brain tumour, I have a rare and used-to-be fatal disorder and one of the men had been treated for a childhood injury that would have been fatal in pre-modern times.

:T Thanks for the chard recipes, I'm spoiled for choice but I have a lot of the stuff (all germinated since I lifted the spuds in July) so will be munching my way thru as much as possible.

Popperwell

What a thoughtful and well expressed post GQ...

mardatha

Always carry money on your person - jackets have inside hidden pockets, use them for a bank card and notes. Keep the bag for odds & sods and a purse with only change in it. That's what I do anyway.