Preparedness for when

COOLTRIKERCHICK

To help 'prep' it might be worth not shopping in supermarkets, and then maybe at diff times of the year, go a week or so without actually shopping for anything...


I done a challenge thread a few years back basically to go a month without shopping in the supermarkets, I actually managed more or less a year...


I think doing this now and again.. will help you focus, and give you little mini runs of certain sinarios etc..


Also maybe trial runs with using back up gas camping stoves in the house for a day or two's worth of cooking etc..

[Deleted User]

pineapple wrote: »

Next don't even think of living wild off the land unless your name is Bear Grylls :rotfl:

Or Lofty Wiseman.

Or someone trained by said individuals.

[Deleted User]

mrsmortenharket wrote: »

Occurred to me last night that if our water went off, we'd have none.

With the switch to Combi Boilers, I think a lot of households would be in the same position.

FEMA suggest, as an absolute minimum, you should have 72 hours worth of stored water.

[Deleted User]

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

Also maybe trial runs with using back up gas camping stoves in the house for a day or two's worth of cooking etc..

A good idea.

Not only will it give you an idea of how well you would cope, but it'll give you a RL indication, of how long a gas cartridge will last you.

Knowing that one 220g cartridge (in a B&M Bargains gas stove) will boil 11 Litres of water, is all well and good, but most of us will be doing a lot more, than just boiling Litres of water.

[Deleted User]

I think that in the first few days of the aftermath of a real emergency having enough stores of every kind in place in your home would be a safer bet than having to go out looking for them. The first place that hungry people would go is the shops in your locality and then on to the bigger supermarkets/garden centres and then to the out of town retail parks. There will always be those who will loot any shop for anything they can get, best left to their own devices I feel. Having stored supplies would mean you could hunker down, stay out of sight and with a little luck let the civil unrest that is inevitable run it's first and most dangerous phase. There will be problems after that as food stocks will have been used up and water will be hard to obtain but in that period you would have used up most of your stores and even if you were broken into at home, there would be very little to take by then. That's where the skills of foraging, knowing how to find and make safe drinking water, make a shelter to at least keep you warm and dry and all the other things we know will come into thier own. There will inevitably be people prepared to use any means to get what they need but if they don't find the stores because you've already used them up they'll likely look elsewhere as long as you don't stand in thier way when they are looking. I may be wrong but that would be the time to leave built up areas and seek safety in less populous places and then you'd need those skills to stay alive yourself. It might make you an asset to any group who have abandoned the built up areas but don't have the knowledge of survival themselves. I hope we never have to find out, but plan B always seemed a good idea to me and probably plan C as well.

[Deleted User]

It's stopped raining, but it's still overcast and miserable.

twiglet98

mrsmortenharket wrote: »

Sometimes I'm confused about this prepping.

I mean if something utterly dreadful happens, so the world is at and end, I would rather not be here. Also this is due to me reading too many post apocalyptic books!

My preps will be for if we had a power cut for a while. I need to stockpile water as well. Occurred to me last night that if our water went off, we'd have none. Not good with 5 of us. So you just buy a load of 2l bottles of water? I couldn't carry anything heavier I don't think.

I think society would break down fast if the s really did hit the fan. Quite scary really.

I did buy a couple of 5 litre bottles of water when BOGOF in M0rriso0ns a year or so back, have used it and refilled them, but when the family were all still at home we used to get through 3 litre bottles of orange squash pretty quickly (my kids rarely had squash but DD's bf likes it and as he lived here for several years, and was 25 when he moved in, I could hardly ban it on grounds of its nutritional inadequacies!). I've kept some bottles and keep 15 or so filled with tap water, washing and refilling 5 at a time on rotation each month. I tip the old water into a slimline water butt that has never collected rainwater, thinking it could still be drawn off for washing if not drinking. I'm in a rural area with only one close neighbour and the supply of water, electricity and phone to our cottages are subject to various idiosyncrasies.

Probably with the elder kids having moved out and youngest coming and going, I could reduce the amount stored, but they don't prep AT ALL so would descend here if necessary. This is apparently the only place they can pick up a couple of loo rolls at the weekend...!

[Deleted User]

Well, that didn't last long.

It's raining again.

mrsmortenharket

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Well, that didn't last long.

It's raining again.

Weather utterly horrendous here today as well. I am also cold. Have to go back out in it as son No1 needs to see the gp for hay fever meds. He'd suffer in the aftermath of the apocalypse with no hay fever meds!

paidinchickens

Can I just ask

I've never suffered from hayfever but this last week I've been terrible, even today while it's raining my nose and eyes are burning. Can you still get it when it's raining?