Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

Wind is picking up, and it's started to rain again.

It's been raining, on and off, for the last 3 days.

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Wind is picking up, and it's started to rain again.

It's been raining, on and off, for the last 3 days.

Relax, there's still plenny of time to build the ark. Better hurry off to Bee and Queue before they run out of gopher-wood.

Mar, you and your love for the white stuff. :snow_grin

And for the snow, of course. I'm pro-snow when seen from the window but anti snow in general. Seem to spend half my working day when it's snowy ordering refills for grit bins. Necessitated by residents scattering too much of the stuff (the equivalent of a 1 litre ice cream tub does a helluva lot and you don't get any additional benefit from over-gritting).

:mad: Plus the beggars in the lorries who go around stealing it by the binful, presumably so the can offer to grit householders' paths for a few notes.

Just been looking at the prices of cinema seats. You must be joking, my lovelies, I'll wait til it's out on DVD and rent the blimmin' thing. Or wait a bit longer and buy it.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

Relax, there's still plenny of time to build the ark.

I'm building one purely for goldfish.

It'll have several levels to it.

It'll be a multi-storey carp ark.

I'll get my coat.

nuatha

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Someone with that much income (well over £100,000), really should have a fair chunk of savings, against unemployment, illness, etc.

I've worked with guys who were on a £1000 per day who would end their week having spent more than their earnings on hotel bills and meals - and not realise. More common were IT contractors who struggled to pay their tax bill as they'd never set anything aside when they were earning. (By its very nature IT contracting is likely to have periods of not earning).

Most people seem to live to their income, if not beyond, and therefore are no more or less likely to have preps in place than someone on 5 times their income or a fifth of it.

Broomstick

Just popping by to say thank you to that discussion about freezer blocks. In my big kitchen clearout over Christmas I came across a load of unfrozen blocks (used in the summer for picnics etc) and since I'd just defrosted and begun to restock our freezer I filled half the top drawer with them just to help fill the freezer with something.

I've now realised that if we end up with power cuts I can just transfer the blocks to our fridge. (I'll make sure the insulated box has had a wipe out as well, just in case.)

Thanks again
B x

PS. Experiments with chocolate and freezing - both sorts defrosted fine but Mars took a bit longer and was difficult to eat semi-frozen. Twirl, however, was absolutely lovely, even semi-frozen, and would probably work really well crumbled as a topping on things like ice cream. All of this is now theoretical except for dire emergencies because I'm joining the weight loss challenge which starts tomorrow... (but I will hide a couple of bars in the freezer just in case )

metherer

Evening all, hope your hatches are all well battened. Oh, and Merry New Year one and all.

In answer to the question of whether I ever wish for an SHTF scenario, I can answer kinda. I obviously don't want anything severe, but an unexpected powercut that lasted up to 8 hrs might come in handy. In our area that would be v unusual, and it might just get people thinking.

As a kid I was quite used to that sort of event, and this was only in the early 80's in the dales.

I now live on the edge of a town, 15 mins walk away from 3 supermarkets, on major bus routes, etc. a lot of the folks i work with max out their c'cards to get the latest i-gadgets but think having a stocked up food cupboard is a waste of money, and could do with something to get them thinking.

Rant over.

Hollyberry

thenanny2die4 wrote: »

When we redid the living room, we went right back to brick, dealt with some damp issues and then lined all the walls with ridiculously expensive insulated boards before skimming. We also fitted carpet for the first time (we'd been putting up with a painted concrete floor up till then) and invested in really high quality underlay. DH is constantly topping up the insulation in the attic too.

Thanks for that thenanny, that's really substantial work. I don't think we can afford to go back to bare brick and re-line, but, it might well be worth going to carpet rather than laminate, as the vent blows a very chilly breeze up from the cellar below. I'll do a bit of measuring and pricing and see what I reckon.

Broomstick BAD suggestion on the Twirl. I can see I may have to try that out just to see how bad it is.

BB :rotfl: So bad, it's good.

metherer I hear you on the maxing out credit cards for gadgets. When I worked with people like that, I really wondered if I had landed amongst a different species. :eek:

Perplexed_Pineapple

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I'm building one purely for goldfish.

It'll have several levels to it.

It'll be a multi-storey carp ark.

I'll get my coat.

It may not be original but that's the best one I've heard all Xmas :rotfl:

thenanny2die4 wrote: »

When we redid the living room, we went right back to brick, dealt with some damp issues and then lined all the walls with ridiculously expensive insulated boards before skimming. We also fitted carpet for the first time (we'd been putting up with a painted concrete floor up till then) and invested in really high quality underlay. DH is constantly topping up the insulation in the attic too.

Thanks for that tn2d4, always on the lookout for new ideas in that line. We've put in a lot more loft insulation and invested in some heavier curtains over the windows but there is much more we can do I think. Don't quite know how far to go in this current place though since I think there's a good chance we'll have to move in the next year or so :think:
That's kind of exciting though since I'd be looking for a new place with my prepper-specs on, thinking as the agent waffles about local amenities such thoughts as "that's a good south-facing garden to grow our own" and "we could store a lot of baked beans in that unused corner cupboard" :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

They've recently put 12" of insulation in the loft.

I can't say the extra insulation is completely responsible (as this winter has been milder), but my gas usage has been a LOT less, than the same period last year.

[Deleted User]

It's raining yet again.