Preparedness for when

Caterina

Thank you Mardatha for reviving this thread. Refreshing my wannabe prepping instinct, which had gone dormant now that we are much better off (DH better job, mortgage paid, savings). Honestly, I have gone soft!

The first two things I am going to do are: relearn how to drive and to cycle. In March we bought a car to travel North to visit DH's aunt, who was like a mother to him and he needed to go very frequently to help his cousins care for her. She has now passed away and we still have the car, which we use very little. I haven't driven for 11 years and was never a confident driver, but I see that it could be a very useful skill to relearn for emergencies! Re. cycling, I have a bike in the shed, the twins have theirs handy, DH does not have one but I could gt him one easily, know someone who is selling hers and would give it to me at a good price. But I need to relearn and also have my bike serviced and fixed, it would be good to have transportation in emergency and if problems with petrol distribution etc.

I can see that I have a long way to go. One of the things DH and I want is a wood burner in the kitchen in addition to our cooker. You can buy dual fuel gas and wood cookers but they cost a fortune, it is much more economical and practical to have the two separate items. I want a wood burner with a cooking ring, as we have a reasonable store of wood and whenever it goes down I always scavenge more from skips or other places. We already have a wood burner in the living room but not with a cooking ring, so it is good for stuff like porridge and lentils but not a full meal. I want to be able to warm the house and cook in case of fuel emergency.

What are people doing about water? I think I read somewhere that plastic bottles cannot keep water safe for very long. We live in inner London so not much space for water butts in our small garden, we have 2 at back and a smaller one at front, but probably we would need more in an emergency.

Looking forward to reading more and restocking my stash of food in the meanwhile.

grandma247

If you have plastic dustbin bags and cat litter you can still use your toilet by first using a mop and bucket to empty the remaining water in the base of the toilet then place an opened bin bag in the toilet. Add a small amount of cat litter then leave a bucket of the litter by the toilet with a trowel or something. Each time your "toilet" is used just cover with a little layer of cat litter and close the lid to keep out flies. Tie up the bag at the end of each day and put a fresh one in place, put the used one in the bin or designated area till you can burn or dispose of it.
If the disaster were prolonged you could empty out the recycling bin and put your toilet bags in it.

Not quite caught up yet on page 5 now.

valk_scot

rachbc wrote: »

Disappointed that no one has mentioned checking on vulnerable people locally - infact some are even taking of hiding the fact they have provisions.

very very sad

I have to say that in the event of a real and prolonged emergency I would be taking care of my own family first. Of course I would be checking on elderly neighbours etc, when that last big snows hit here a couple of winters ago we in our very snowed in cul-de-sac all pulled together in a big way with the younger, fitter folk doing all the stuff like essential errands, dog walking and digging out of paths. And I was happy to loan out extra blankets, sleeping bags and stuff like welly boots. But if for example the food supply lines went down with no forseeable likelyhood of getting more I'd be wary of handing out so much food that my family might be badly affected. I wouldn't be letting any of my elderly neighbours starve to death, obviously, but off the top of my head we've got eleven households with a total of fifteen elderly folk in the street, and my food stocks are designed to last four of us for a month. How would that work then?

[Deleted User]

I have a woodburner in the lounge which will be so useful in an emergency situation, it is an inset one, it sits in the recess of the fireplace and that means I have a shelf 18" x 8" to cook on. I make soda bread on it in 2 rectangular mess tins, you just need to cook the bread for 40 mins, turning the tins over once every 10 minutes. Perfect bread. I got 2 half moon saucepans years ago and they again fit it perfectly so I can cook anything from stew, to rice pudding on the stove. I recently won a fish kettle on e b*y for £5 and invested in 3 small kilner jars which fit inside it and I am able to cook 3 different things at a time in a water bath. The water can then be used for washing up. You can cook really successfully even if you don't have a cooking plate. It pays to practice to get timings right, and takes a lot longer than on a conventional cooker, but the end product is very palatable. Hope this helps Lyn x.

Penny-Pincher!!

If I had to leave the dog, then I would leave loads of dry food and water, plus he'll have the pond to drink from. He is chipped and collared with postcode and mobile number. He uses a cat flap, so quite independent anyway, so would have shelter etc.

OH has a lot of camping/living skills in extreme situations, so don't think we'd die of lack of heat, food or water.

mardatha

Very true Grandma and you always get them! We're doing no harm here, if people choose not to prep then fine, is up to them.
Mrs L you said what I came in to say !! Just think people - you're grabbing kids and stuff and jumping in the car... what's everybody else doing? THE SAME! so the roads are going to gridlocked and cars will overheat and it wil turn to custard very fast ... leave the car! Bicycle or walk. Get OS maps of your area, find the railway lines and the old roads and the footpaths and just go.
Bug Out Bags we'll do soon

valk_scot

A lot of folk do seem to be worried about "surviving" with no heating but really, remember it's only within the last 30 years or so that central heating became the norm in houses. The first house I had with central heating was the one I bought eighteen years ago, before that we had houses with a gas fire in the living room and no heating at all in the bedrooms or bathrooms. We wore a lot more clothes in the house, that's all, and had things like hot water bottles and lots of blankets. And I don't remember the gas fire going on at all from April to September, we simply didn't expect the house to be cosy warm all the time and to walk around in a t-shirt. You'll only really suffer dangerously in cold weather without any source of heating if you're really young or really old, in poor health or undernourished or if you've got inadequate clothing, bedding or if your house is not weathertight as to leaks and excessive drafts.

So one of the things to do in preperation is to make sure your house is as sound as possible, fix the roof and top up the insulation. Put draft excludes on inside doors as well (watch out for ventilation when using gas appliances of course) Get in some extra bedding, old blankets and duvets from the charity shops can be washed or aired out on the line and if you're really cold you're not going to care if they're second hand tbh. Make sure you've got extra layers of warm clothes, socks, thin hat for wearing indoors and fingerless gloves are great for indoors as well. A couple of cheap fleece blanket/throws for the sofa.

The maxim while camping is to heat yourself, not your space, so hot drinks are good here too. Fuel will be scarce of course so when you do make hot drinks or soup, keep a little extra in a Thermos for when you start feeling cold. Having something warm ready always helps. Have a hot drink before you go to bed.

You can put your PJs on under your clothes in the evening so you're already warm when you go to bed or fill up a hot water bottle an hour ahead and chuck that under the duvets. Doubling up keeps you warm too so if the kids want to share a room or bed let them, or have them in with you. Have the cats or the dog too, it may be unhygenic but it's better than shivering.

I remember when the winters were really cold when I was a girl we'd put our next days clothes under the pillow and get dressed under the blankets before making a run for the bathroom and the warmer living room. Or my sister and I would get dressed behind my dad's big armchair in there. We even got washed in the living room in a basin of water rather than brave the freezing bathroom. It was all just routine and we were used to making sure we didn't get too cold as it was harder then to warm up again.

My point being that it's better to adapt your routines in a difficult situation rather than to stress too much about how to maintain your routines, iyswim? We all knew how to live in unheated houses back then and it's not like we're a different species or less healthy in general now.

mardatha

Water - re England I'm not sure, somebody else will have to answer that one. It's one thing we'll never be short of up here My SHTF plan for water is to use the wee burn near us, I live at almost 1000ft and the source of the burn is a wee bit higher up the hill, so we would need to go up there and take the water from as near the source as poss and then use tablets to purify. We've also got a bigger river nearby as well.
I keep some bottles in the house but not many as it takes up a lot of room and some people say it doesn't keep that long unless in glass bottles.

Possession

The evacuation scenario worries me because the children might well be at school and I would not leave them. School is a drive away, not walkable, at least not by me with my knee replacements. There must be plenty of people with mobility issues that couldn't contemplate walking a long distance either.

mardatha

But on the other hand schools would be well protected and looked after by the police and authorities, maybe kids safer being there ??
Brilliant post valkscot and very true!