Preparedness for when

mardatha

My immediate preps need to be thick warm lined curtains. Sick of screaming howling wind and draughts here - not been really warm for days

GreyQueen

westlothianlass wrote: »

Hi all
Yule blessings to all x
Snuggled up here, hiding from housework or sales :rotfl:
Very happy bunny here, got a leatherman and a marble rolling pin from Santa (may seem a strange mix to RL peeps but knew you guys would understand).
Think I will play online and order some seeds for spring:D
Hope your all safe, warm and got a cuppa and a biccie to enjoy x

A Leatherman? I am officially envious now. Keep on hiding from the housework and sales, I'm hiding up on the outskirts of a market town and determined to be a sale-free zone once back in the city.

Unless I see a really good deal on Sl0ggi knicks, of course. I might be prepared to make an exception and unpadlock the wallet for that.

Mar, yur gunna have to get down off that hill if you can't bear the howling wind. Either that, or eat fewer baked beans.

Hollyberry

mar, WCS & craigy - been thinking about you in the gales & hoping all was well. BB - is it wild round your way too? Don't know who is located in any of the flooded areas - anyone here? If so, sending empathy - have been there a lot in childhood and know how devastating it can be. It's very windy here - bedroom window was rattling like crazy last night despite jamming it with paper - but the sun has just come out now.

Btw craigy - labrador was also bashful at performing in public, but could always overcome this if his head was in a bush, even if the nethers were still exposed. Dunno if that might help to speed things up while you are soggily awaiting a performance...

Have been working my way through the list of preptastic and useful things we need that I'd made pre-sales, so I've snagged bits like oven gloves (ours are getting painfully thin), a new pepper mill, extra fleeces etc at good prices. I was feeling a bit guilty about being "at the sales", but at least I have stuck to my list of necessary things. Apart from a small Kindle purchase, but at least that's been marginally prepping too - a pandemic novel.

thriftwizard

Staying out of sales here & prepping for the next onslaught - feeding 12 on Monday with both brothers-in-law, partners and one 7 y.o. in tow. The catering's not a problem but working out who to sit where is a little trickier as relations have been a little strained for the last 35 years after An Incident At A Wedding; politely so now, but not always that way. But the youngster usually manages to break down the barriers & get everyone smiling, albeit warily.

Still pondering that Christmas Eve journey to fetch DS1; I know we were very lucky & had nothing to worry about, though people within a few hundred yards were flooded and the 'leccy was down elsewhere in our little town. But there was something very surreal about the journey; advance a few hundred yards, find road closed due to floods/power lines down/accident/whatever, find a way round, advance another couple of miles, road closed again, find way through strange town centre & out the other side, road closed again, etc. etc. I don't think a Satnav would have helped (judging by the number of people swearing at their dashboards) and I actually have a reasonably good sense of direction, so generally knew whether I was pointing the right way or not, as well as a road atlas that lives in the car, but I'm very glad I didn't try to do it in the dark. I'm left with a real sense of how quickly things can flip from normal into something strange and quite disorientating. And also of how very helpless so many people seem to be when faced with things not proceeding as normal.

mardatha

That's a very good point TW, how fast things change in a crisis. Lifts it all out of the pages of books doesn't it?

GreyQueen

Interesting comment of Thriftwizard's about the challenge of finding the usual roads blocked, then the replacement roads blocked, and having to hack your way across to your destination.

Books ond sites about prepping suggest that persons intending to "bug out" have several alternative routes researched and test-driven. This isn't a bad idea for all of us, I think, to have alternative routes for our regular journeys. Also, if you know an area, you know where the dips in the road will gather lake-sized puddles, or where the river might come over the banks.

In my hometown, it's pretty predictable and happens badly at least once a decade (as in going into homes and shops) and minorly every 2-3 winters (flooding carparks, roads and fields by the river).

Of course, things like powerlines being downed and trees in the road are pretty unpredicatable, so you do need to have your wits about you if the weather is causing extreme and unusual events. Always good to have a paper road atlas. They're cheap as chips and could save you a lot of aggro.

Calm and mild here atm. The folks will be taking my Nan back home this afternoon, which is 15 miles each way on minor roads, all bar a few miles on an A road. Should be fine, if not, we know that part of the county like the backs of our hands and know the work-arounds. Most of the country roads are cart-tracks with tarmac on them and they often loop around and double-back on themselves. Some of the signposts seem not to have been re-instated since WW2.

I guess if you have to ask the way you is a furriner and deserve to be lost. Speaking of furriners, I was shocked to learn that my uncle's great-grandad came from clear across the area in the 19th century; 40 miles away.

I confuse people in RL by telling them I'm the product of a mixed marriage; one parent from each side of the county line.:rotfl:

Hard_Up_Hester

Many years ago I was chatting to a neighbour who was telling me he & his forefathers had always lived in the village. I asked his wife if she had always lived in the area as well, to which she replied with horror 'No, I'm not local I'm from Barkham,' This was the adjoining village!
Hester

thriftwizard

On one of my unscheduled detours on Monday I ended up finding a local community centre to a) use the loo, desperate by then! and b) ask the best way; the main road was closed & the town centre was closed, and the police manning the roadblocks in the town hadn't a clue how to get there without the main road.

There were two old boys at the information desk, so I asked them. They goggled slightly at me for a minute or two; I had an impression they don't often see women in sole charge of a car & navigation.
"You want to go via Nothertown, then," one eventually decided.
"Thank you! But how do I get to Nothertown, please?"
"Oh, that's easy! Turn right at the Golden Pot - it's signposted from there."
"Thank you. Erm, how do I find the Golden Pot, then?"
And they proceeded to give directions to this rural idyll pub by pub, so I drove slowly through & out of the town peering cluelessly at every pub sign. Luckily there wasn't much else on the road at that hour!

westcoastscot

Happy day after boxing day
Been really wild here but no damage - power off and on but mostly on - Christmas peaceful and quiet. So wish it would stop raining/howling though - really tired of it now. Stove appears to be sulking for some reason and not heating the radiators - shall give it good talking to in a min and clean out the ashpan, that should help.

Went out briefly today to look for more fresh veg - found a dearth so scurvy it is then :rotfl: Must try harder with the veg growing - it pains me to have such a tiny plot after the croft but must make better use of it.

Have done some hard thinking and have decided when my temporary extra hours are finished in july 2014 I'm going to stick with my core hours (17.5) and not take on any extra pieces of work. I miss being home all the time and am convinced that my long held belief is true - the money received for the extra hours does not compensate for the money lost in lack of time for cooking/sewing/gardening etc, nor the loss to my soul of knitting and reading time. I had thought to try and save to retire earlier than my projected 68, but would rather have my life (as i've always lived) than hope I live to 68, and my health does not deteriorate further.

Anyway off to make a birthday cake for youngest, and then get back to my knitting

Edited to add: interesting conversation about routes etc, we're in the fortunate position that there is only one road in/out, so when it is blocked for any reason we have the perfect excuse to stay home!

WCS

maryb

GreyQueen wrote: »

A Leatherman? I am officially envious now. Keep on hiding from the housework and sales, I'm hiding up on the outskirts of a market town and determined to be a sale-free zone once back in the city.

Unless I see a really good deal on Sl0ggi knicks, of course. I might be prepared to make an exception and unpadlock the wallet for that.

Mar, yur gunna have to get down off that hill if you can't bear the howling wind. Either that, or eat fewer baked beans.

sloggi 20% off in Debenhams atm.