Preparedness for when

COOLTRIKERCHICK

BettiePage wrote: »

Are these 'Willies' (PMSL) genuine from this seller do we know? I'd like a pair of Aigles, but not sure how to spot fake ones?

I wouldn't have a clue,


All I know at the mo, is that I need a decent pair of 'willies' that I can feel comfortable and safe in...


Tried looking at john Lewis, ASOS etc, but they only do Hunters..

greenbee

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I wouldn't have a clue,


All I know at the mo, is that I need a decent pair of 'willies' that I can feel comfortable and safe in...


Tried looking at john Lewis, ASOS etc, but they only do Hunters..

Not sure where you are, but I got my Aigles in Scats, for less than via the link you sent.

It might be worth looking in your local farm supply shop or similar rather than online. That way you can also try them on.

GreyQueen

Morning all.

Flat calm here at the moment but a heavy grey sky so am expecting it to start tipping it down shortly. Prolly just in time for me to walk up to work, because I'm lucky like that.

Had a call from someone yesterday about sandbags, a business owner outside the city. Exp we don't even issue them to our public, only to the emergency services on request, or a neighbouring local authority on request (we don't have that many, full stop) and recommended he talk to his local authority and also look up hydrosnakes. Here's hoping he was able to sort something out.

When I heard Camermoron saying no expense will be spared to help the flood victims, I bethought myself two things a) he's lying and b) he thinks that this fiasco could bring down his government.

I'm pretty much convinced that a) is the living truth and am 50/50 about the probabilities b). The next general election is a while off but we could always see a vote of no confidence bring down the grubbyment and force an earlier election.

We will have to wait and see. If any politician, local MP or even at councillor level, isn't out there in waders helping their constituents and making every effort to have the media report their tireless efforts to bring help to the suffering, they are fools and will probably lose their seat at the next election.

What people are going through personally now, will be one of those life-time defining experiences. This isn't business as usual, a blip, something which will be forgotten in a few months or a year or two. This is something which will break some people and be a tale you tell to the grandchildren. The Great Flood of 2014.

If politicians don't realise the seriousness, they haven't got the sense of day-old chicks and deserve to lose power and a darned sight worse and better make sure they'll well-guarded at certain times and certain places.

As to what the bankers are up to, I'm not an insider. I don't know insiders in banking. I know a few in insurance but not banking. My educated guess from extensive reading is that there will be massive bank crashes and that governments, inc EU member governments, will 'bail in' from depositors' accounts in a last-ditch attempt to save themselves.

I feel this will be counter-productive. It might seem a short-term fix but it will reveal to everyone what a minority of people already know; if you have money in the bank, it ain't your money, and can be taken from you, temporarily or permanantly.

This breach of trust will rock some people to the core and will cause a loss of trust. You'll see the removal of funds from banks and an uptick in the purchases of home safes, thicker mattresses and domestic burglaries. People will not know where to turn and there will be fraudsters abounding, offering get rich quick schemes and 'safe havens' for your dosh.

As to prepping becoming 'respectable', I expect that it will be so. Householders who have had to charge about all over looking for sandbags will want to have some by them for future emergencies. People are learning more about their plumbing and sewage systems and may want to make some longer-term changes in light of what they know now.

The bug-out bag will seem a practical item for those who have had to flee flooding homes with virtually no notice. I'm looking at those in the floods in chest-high waders and thinking those things are probably sold-out across parts of the country right now.

Yeah, we live in interesting times. I'd be pretty pleased if this horrible government fell, but I wouldn't want to trade a single stranger's flooded home to achieve that, but we are where we are.

mardatha

I said to the RV on day 2 of the Sky coverage that this could bring down the govt - would have seen a motion of no confidence by now if we had a real opposition.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

GQ... that was such a heart felt, straight from the heart, straight talking post....


Talking about giving the government a vote of no confidence/bring them down etc.. over the last few days I have been looking up on how you do it, and then, by some strange quirk it did happen, then what would the other parties do for us??? it seems that every government leaves a mess for the next incoming government... think we are pooped whatever happens.. and this is soooo the time to make sure we get our own house and affairs in order and look after ourselves... and put 2 fingers up to the government and the banks etc...


Even though I do have a fair bit of food in etc... I do think there is a cut off point in how much you can buy,, even with eating tins well past their best before dates....




Yesturday I was so cold in work I got myself one of those military jumpers ( they look like a skinny knit jumper) OMG they are sooooo warm... I am def going to get more of them, for up the smallholding, PLUS I think as a 'prepper's bit of clothing, they would be great, for keeping you warm outdoors, or if your heating goes off etc...

pineapple

greenbee wrote: »

Karmacat - you can get sandbags from builders' merchants. Some sell sand and bags separately, others sell them filled. Out local place fills them to order. I've got some proper sandbags, but mostly bags of builders' sand which I haven't bothered to decant into sandbags.

I have a degree in sandbags! - having had to use them for months due to a drainage problem at the back. I got some from a builders merchants but they didn't come ready filled. I had to decide what type of sand and what type of casing and they filled them for me. And there was me thinking a sandbag was a sandbag was a sandbag...
Anyhow just to say if you have a choice, avoid using that sacking/hessian (or whatever you call it) as a casing. The sand seeps out which gets worse as the fabric rots. The other thing is you can also bolster your defences with any spare bags of winter grit. Any barrier is better than no barrier.

greenbee

Thanks Pineapple.

I have 20 bags of builders sand, 12 bags of sharp sand (it has cement in it, so I'm not sure this is quite such a good idea...) and 6 hessian bags which you are right in saying are useless, but I'm hoping they are better than the alternative, which is nothing.

As levels are down today, if my hydro pads arrive earlier enough, I'll head off and see what I can get hold of. But with demand being what it is, I suspect there won't be much out there. I might get some gravel, as I can use that on the drive afterwards

I will stock up properly with sandbags in the summer when everyone has forgotten about this, and I've had a chance to build somewhere try to store them.

pineapple

Well said GQ.
I'm worried about land stability round here so apart from planning relocation I started packing my 'go bag'. A bit late in the day but better than never! I still need to get copies of documents and perhaps a sheet of info/contacts (also copied onto memory stick). So for the moment it's original documents. Plus clothing and other items but no Bear Grylls gear at this point.

grandma247

LOl at those photos. Me thinks they all remember what happened to Bush so they are anxious not to repeat his mistake. At least they didn't just fly over the floods.

In stocking up it is probably best to think in terms of one week at a time.
Even one day at a time could be important. You can't prep for long term indefinite situations unless you have a place big enough for storage.

Dry foods don't take up loads of space but you will need a lot more water with that. My next buy will be a vacuum pump to store dry stuff in vac. sealed jars with metal lids. The food will then keep a very long time so long as it is kept out of the light.

If you only have a tiny amount to spend on stocking up then take one day at a time and list what you need for that day. Buy one thing at a time extra to your normal shopping.

In a real bind you can heat food on a candle. Look out for one of those chocolate heating things (forgotten what they call them) in a charity shop they have a space for a tealight at the bottom and a dish in the top. It is usually big enough for a tin of beans or soup.
I have tried a tealight under the metal racks on my cooker and it did work. Just don't expect anything straight out of the fridge to heat quickly

GreyQueen

The answer is that even if the government fell this weekend, or next week or next month, it would do beggar-all to allieviate the misery. Storms answer to no one and floodwaters can only drain away as fast as gravity and, where applicable, pumps can move them. We aren't the Netherlands and we don't have their infrastructure and wealth of experience of managing low-lying polders etc.

A new government, of whatever stripe, would be hampered by the expectations that they'd fix everything and fix it soon. Even making the enormous leap of faith that they were all good and decent people (hollow laughter to be imagined here) there's no way they can deliver to everyone's satisfaction. So euphoria inevitably cycles into disappointment, disillusion and rage. There won't be a chicken in every pot, a job for everyone who wants one, etc etc.

This rinse-and-repeat pattern is inevitable, but it doesn't mean that it won't be happening again, either at the next scheduled general election, or sooner. We shall have to wait and see.

Longer term, some hard questions have to be asked and answered, and massive capital expenditures are likely to be incurred. For example, the prudence of having a railway line on a cliff? Of some of our urban sewage systems dating back to the Victorian era. Of allowing householders to cover their gardens over with impermeable surfaces to facilitate carparking or labour-saving.

Of allowing development, even if it is portable park homes, on flood meadows. Of continuing to defend lands originally reclaimed from the sea and now sunken below sea level. Of how many trees we have in relation to how many roads and paved surfaces. If we actually should turn around and say sorry, we are a very small, very crowded island and we cannot allow tens of thousands of people from elsewhere to settle here every year, not because we don't like you, but because of logistics.

All of these things are controversial. None of us like being told what to do, we like to do what we want, within reason. It's a mental leap to say to several millions of people that their paved-over gardens cause some forms of flooding because there are so many of them, and please dig them up and plant things instead.

To say to a landowner that they need to commit to planting trees, and willows, to slow down te rush of water. To say to some others, we won't defend this part of the country and your land, your home will be lost and you are now beggared and impoverished.

These are hard thoughts and hard choices, and we mostly shy away from making them, and kick the can down the road, as the Americans phrase it. Trouble with can-kicking as a philosophy, is that you eventually run out of road.

ETA grandma247, do you mean a fondue pot?