Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

:T Shropshirelass, I'm thrilled that you moved into prep-mode so smoothly and that DH is now one of the Converted. Nothing like being able to have entertainment/ information (the wind-up radio) and lights and drinkies and hot foods when all looks bleak to make a person feel that the Prepping Partner is the sensible one, not someone with a few screws loose.

I came in from work and went back out to my bike shed (currenly sans bike as the Pashley is in the living room) and took the opportunity of some elbow room to sweep the floor (the shed is only 36 wide and just shy of 6 feet long).

I had removed the hiher value preps (butane stove and cylinders) the day after the break-in and decided to run an inventory and have a wee sort out in there, which I did in a few mins. I shall post about it on Hoarders so won't repeat myself here.

I'm also taking a tea break before returning to the bedroom where I am having a little re-arrangement of the preps. I like to have everything in my life as portable as possible. Something which the daily newsfeed of poor souls evacuating their flooded homes, or having to move stuff upstairs and hope for the best has focussed my mind on.

It recalled to mind an earlier version of my life when there was a serious likelihood that I would have to flee what was then my home. Personal not climate-related reasons, 'nuff said. What I did then was to mentally sort stuff into categories.

Some I couldn't take to my planned destination should flight be necessary and I sold or donated them. Others wouldn't go where I would have to go, on grounds of scale (large furniture) and I accepted that I would have to abandon them. Others were non-negotiables and coming with me. This was working backwards from a couple of hours to organise a flit.

As it happened, the circumstances changed and a flit wasn't needed but having thought through a worst-case scenario and taken steps and made plans meant that I was empowered rather than feeling at the mercy of the situation.

That's how I think of prepping. Not to be some kind of SuperPrepper with thousands of pounds' worth of kit and dozens of archane skills. Nor to have enough food or other preps to last years. As FerFal pithily put it on his blog, if you're coming to the end of your 12 month supply of t.p. and the shops haven't re-opened within a week or two of the start of the crisis, you should have left 11 months ago.:rotfl:

So, if you have torches and know where they are and that they work, ditto candles, lanterns, matches and lighters, warm and waterproof clothing, shelf-stable food and an emergency stove, you're probably better off than almost everyone in your neighbourhood. If you've entertained the possibility that you might have to bug-out to an emergency centre or a friend or relative, and have a bag packed, you are better prepared than most.

Ultimately, things are just Stuff. Things are mostly replacable, people and animals aren't. None of us want to lose out on our carefully selected and hard-earned possessions, or have our treasured homes damaged, but we're more important than Stuff.

Please enjoy George Carlin on Stuff https://duckduckgo.com/?q=george+carlin%2Bstuff

jk0

GreyQueen wrote: »

:T Shropshirelass, I'm thrilled that you moved into prep-mode so smoothly and that DH is now one of the Converted. Nothing like being able to have entertainment/ information (the wind-up radio) and lights and drinkies and hot foods when all looks bleak to make a person feel that the Prepping Partner is the sensible one, not someone with a few screws loose.

I came in from work and went back out to my bike shed (currenly sans bike as the Pashley is in the living room) and took the opportunity of some elbow room to sweep the floor (the shed is only 36 wide and just shy of 6 feet long).

I had removed the hiher value preps (butane stove and cylinders) the day after the break-in and decided to run an inventory and have a wee sort out in there, which I did in a few mins. I shall post about it on Hoarders so won't repeat myself here.

I'm also taking a tea break before returning to the bedroom where I am having a little re-arrangement of the preps. I like to have everything in my life as portable as possible. Something which the daily newsfeed of poor souls evacuating their flooded homes, or having to move stuff upstairs and hope for the best has focussed my mind on.

It recalled to mind an earlier version of my life when there was a serious likelihood that I would have to flee what was then my home. Personal not climate-related reasons, 'nuff said. What I did then was to mentally sort stuff into categories.

Some I couldn't take to my planned destination should flight be necessary and I sold or donated them. Others wouldn't go where I would have to go, on grounds of scale (large furniture) and I accepted that I would have to abandon them. Others were non-negotiables and coming with me. This was working backwards from a couple of hours to organise a flit.

As it happened, the circumstances changed and a flit wasn't needed but having thought through a worst-case scenario and taken steps and made plans meant that I was empowered rather than feeling at the mercy of the situation.

That's how I think of prepping. Not to be some kind of SuperPrepper with thousands of pounds' worth of kit and dozens of archane skills. Nor to have enough food or other preps to last years. As FerFal pithily put it on his blog, if you're coming to the end of your 12 month supply of t.p. and the shops haven't re-opened within a week or two of the start of the crisis, you should have left 11 months ago.:rotfl:

So, if you have torches and know where they are and that they work, ditto candles, lanterns, matches and lighters, warm and waterproof clothing, shelf-stable food and an emergency stove, you're probably better off than almost everyone in your neighbourhood. If you've entertained the possibility that you might have to bug-out to an emergency centre or a friend or relative, and have a bag packed, you are better prepared than most.

Ultimately, things are just Stuff. Things are mostly replacable, people and animals aren't. None of us want to lose out on our carefully selected and hard-earned possessions, or have our treasured homes damaged, but we're more important than Stuff.

Please enjoy George Carlin on Stuff https://duckduckgo.com/?q=george+carlin%2Bstuff

GQ, I wonder if you could get a steel door & frame attached to the walls a few inches inside your existing bike shed door?

I know it's a lot of hassle to go to for a place you're renting, but you aren't thinking of moving anytime soon, are you?

GreyQueen

It would be disproportionate to the low value items inside, but it's certainly something I would do to the house doors, if I owned a house. Even if I wanted to spend the money, my landlord wouldn't want it done.

As to whether I will move, I like to be, at all times, ready for a move. My last move was done with less than a week's notice when I finally got a council place in my early forties. A decade on the list and when it comes up, you have to move toot de suite. I've never lived anywhere longer than here in my entire life, child and adult.

But everything I own would fit in a luton van or even a long wheelbase Transit van and I could load and roll in a couple of hours, subject to having a gas engineer disconnect the stove. Don't like to be too tied down as one never knows what the future will bring. Heck, I might even get a transfer to a slightly-bigger flat or have the Towers sold out from under us for redevelopment.

The latter isn't beyond the realms of possibility, given that we're a big ugly lump of concrete sitting on a prime city centre site. I think if someone made our landlord an offer it couldn't refuse, they'd consider it. As the Towers age, the maintenance costs rise, and the probability of redevelopment increases............no point in fretting about it.

jk0

GreyQueen wrote: »

It would be disproportionate to the low value items inside, but it's certainly something I would do to the house doors, if I owned a house. Even if I wanted to spend the money, my landlord wouldn't want it done.

As to whether I will move, I like to be, at all times, ready for a move. My last move was done with less than a week's notice when I finally got a council place in my early forties. A decade on the list and when it comes up, you have to move toot de suite. I've never lived anywhere longer than here in my entire life, child and adult.

But everything I own would fit in a luton van or even a long wheelbase Transit van and I could load and roll in a couple of hours, subject to having a gas engineer disconnect the stove. Don't like to be too tied down as one never knows what the future will bring. Heck, I might even get a transfer to a slightly-bigger flat or have the Towers sold out from under us for redevelopment.

The latter isn't beyond the realms of possibility, given that we're a big ugly lump of concrete sitting on a prime city centre site. I think if someone made our landlord an offer it couldn't refuse, they'd consider it. As the Towers age, the maintenance costs rise, and the probability of redevelopment increases............no point in fretting about it.

Fair enough. How about this thing:

http://www.equiplogistics.com/buy/armorgard-tuffdor-td1-temporary-security-door.html?gclid=COu_q9nUybwCFSTMtAodDWwAhQ

I get the impression you can unclamp it and take it to your next place.

Edit: BTW, regarding gas stoves, you don't need a gas man to remove them. The gas pipe plugs in to the socket similar to a light bulb, and shuts off the gas automatically when you remove it.

Frugalsod

jk0 wrote: »

Even American news networks think British Security is laughable:

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2014/02/12/heathrow-airport-security-confiscates-mini-gun-from-toy-story-woody-doll/

While the customs officer did ask a superior it is a major fail on behalf of the supervisor not having any common sense. :mad:

GreyQueen

Frugalsod wrote: »

While the customs officer did ask a superior it is a major fail on behalf of the supervisor not having any common sense. :mad:

Commonsense is going out of fashion. I really feel that I am safer in the skies thanks to manicure kits, swiss army knives and kiddies' toys being confiscated.

And yet they let you board with shoelaces. Even the great long laces on hiking boots. Work of a few seconds to de-lace the boots and fashion a garotte. Lean over a person with a garotte and you have a handy hostage situation. And you can deliver fatal blows with rolled up magazines, have these people no imagination............?

Ban the really heavy duty glossies like Vogue, they're far too dangerous in the hands of the imaginative. And if they land on a carpetted plane floor and someone were to stand on them and slip over......tsk tsk.

jk0, my landlord requires that pros remove the bayonet and cap off the gas meter at the end of tenancies. The meter is only uncapped once the new tenant is in.

Shropshirelass

GQ it may be built-in, or predisposition to adapt, or open minded to working out a way to deal with situation, but I think (in my own case at least) it is something which developed with experience, i.e. not connected to age or intelligence, but to the direction your life has taken. Its good we can all share things in this space - makes our experience that much wider.:j
Thanks to disaster with lean-to greenhouse, after consultation with Himself, he is going to replace it with a store for his tools, including lawn mower etc,
(like this: http://www.waltons.co.uk/waltons-6x4-pent-metal-shed?gclid=CInLmNPdybwCFaQfwwodW1IAng)
and I am going to inherit the shed, and use the window sills in the conservatory, for growing my seeds etc in winter. Do you mind if I repeat that THE SHED!

Sorry for the excitement, but imagine the prepping possibilities.

Butterfly_Brain

This is on Infowars, and this is how the government will abuse our private medical records

http://www.infowars.com/irs-faces-lawsuit-after-stealing-60-million-medical-records/

http://www.infowars.com/virginia-department-of-health-acquires-childrens-medical-records-without-parental-consent/

http://www.infowars.com/us-homeland-security-now-tracking-medical-records-of-canadians/

http://www.infowars.com/fda-sharing-patients-private-medical-records-in-order-to-harass-integrative-doctors/

Also

http://www.infowars.com/europe-considers-wholesale-savings-confiscation-enforced-redistribution/

http://www.infowars.com/panicked-shoppers-fight-over-food-amid-snowpocalypse/

http://www.infowars.com/oregon-police-give-nightclubs-id-scanners-to-datamine-customers/

Stock market eerily mimicking pre depression era

http://prisonplanet.tv/index/display/id/5389


How are we supposed to trust any government?

jk0

I've just worked out why that security man at Heathrow confiscated Woody's gun:

Do you think he watched the film as a young boy, and still believes the toys come to life when they are out of sight, and might shoot someone?

metherer

Evening all, hope everyone is still safe and dry(ish).

Horrendous winds here last night, but only 3 fence panels down and we knew they were a possibility. Hoping no more go tonight, as we've used up our 'spares' (newer ones from further down the fence). The spares were on a section that runs alongside the house, so we've moved them to keep the garden itself dog-proof. What can I say, he doesn't like us watching him do his jobs (shy bladder) and we didn't want him able to hop over into next door and out onto the road.

Was talking to DSister today about my future plans, and it is reassuring to know she thinks I'm making the right decisions too. She's got a level head on her, and I'm working to turn her into a prepper-in-training!