Preparedness for when

Frugalsod

sorryImoved wrote: »

Water filtering product.

After looking at a lot of products I bought this from Am*zon.

Sawyer Mini water filtration system

Ultra lightweight - only 2 ounces.
Removes 99.99999% of bacteria and 99.9999% of protozoa, without using chemicals
Sawyer 0.10 Absolute Micron Hollow Fiber Membrane Screw On/Off Water Filter.
Drinking straw
Life Expectancy: 100,000 gallon (378,540 Litres) guaranteed so should last a lifetime.

Read the reviews. I have not had a reason to use this product but after what I read I had to buy a couple to have on hand.

Those are also on my wishlist. Combined with other water filtration systems will give much more flexibility. You would be better to not be reliant on one system alone. So my Lifesaver bottle is just one part of the solution.

GreyQueen

Frugalsod wrote: »

A welcome addition to any group of preppers. :beer:

I think Ray Mears ought to be an essential addition to each and every prepper household.

I had an interesting random convo with a friend yesterday, the curio dealer who is adding to my random education. We admired his latest Zimbabwean bank note (the one with the trillions and the picture of rocks) and a couple of other things, with me correctly guessing what a very random African item was (prize is a cuppa, consolation prize is also a cuppa).

Then he started to tell me how they'd discovered a 'flint' arrowhead in USA made from orange glass. He was a bit gutted that I knew this was possible having seen aYT video in the past 48 hours showing it being done with beer bottle glass. This one was made by a Native American, back in the day, who'd got some orange glass left as detritus from the railroad. and knapped it like a flint.

There ain't nothing new under the sun, is there? :rotfl:

Today is Tuesday which means it's also archery night. My new bow is 2 inches shorter and 6 lb more powerful than the borrowed one I was using which meant that the arrows were going a bit high on the target but I started to get the feel for it by the end of the session.

For those with an interest, on tradional bows, you don't have a sight, you draw the arrow back until the flectchings are alongside your cheek, and you have to work out by feel where your hand is, relative to where the arrow is landing, to adjust your position. This is called point-of-aim.

It's counter-intuitive with archery; if your arrows are going high, you need to raise your hand, and if low, lower it. If you're getting arrows in a line across the target, which could be a vertical or a horizontal line, you are moving the front hand supporting the bow at the release.

There are about 14 finely-tuned things which have to be done exactly right to get the arrow exactly on target. The best things to get are 'groupings' when all your arrows land close together. Because even if they're landing in the wrong section of the target, at least whatever you're doing wrong is consistant, and you can identify what it is and change it. When they're landing randomly around the target, you're doing a different thing wrong each time, which is harder to remedy.

You should also replace bowstrings about once a year, to keep that bow frisky. Spares for my bow are under £4 so I bought one to have by me. No bowstring and all you have is an elegantly-shaped stick.

Laminated in two very attractive woods, one dark and one light, sandwiched between matte black fibreglass, in my case. I did say it was a very pretty bow, didn't I?

Actually, as well as being a fun hobby, archery could be seriously useful for hunting or worse, if it all went horribly wrong in the future. Guns are one thing, but they're audible over long distances and require ammunition, whereas you can manufacture a bow of sorts in woodland in return for a few hours' labour.

My bow manufacturer says they're in Sherwood Forest, but I think they might be stretching the geography a tad for the romance of it. I was in Sherwood in 2012 and I didn't see them............

[Deleted User]

GQ if you're closer to West Sussex the WEALD and DOWNLAND OPEN AIR MUSEUM run a weekend course to make your own longbow every year. It's being run twice this year Friday - Sunday 7th - 9th March (which has obviously gone) and again on Friday - Sunday 21st - 23rd November - spec says learn to make a working bow based on the great bow of the hundred years war, starting from a single stave of laminated timber you will make your bow and then learn how to use it. Cost is £260, museum address is Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, Singleton, Chichester,West Sussex,PO 18 0 EU - phone number is 01234 811021, contact is Diana Rowsell, E.Mail is [EMAIL="courses@wealddown.co.uk"]courses@wealddown.co.uk[/EMAIL] It's a course they run every year and I know they get fairly booked up so if anyone is interested it might be worth seeing if they have an 'interested list' you could be put on to get a place in the fullness of time in the future. Lyn xxx.

pineapple

GQ your archery musings take me back to my schooldays. Our school announced that it was going to start an archery group and there would be a meeting for all those interested. I was fascinated and dragged my parents round every sports shop after they reluctantly agreed to get me the kit.
Then came the meeting. Every pupil in the room was a boy - there were no girls. I slunk away and never mentioned the subject again. What a wuss eh? I often regret that.

pineapple

On LBC in the early hours there was a discussion about renewed plans to have GPS in cars which would track your every move. You would essentially be charged per mile and even worse, could be penalised for say - undertaking short journeys by car when there were 'greener' alternatives. As one caller pointed out, how they would make allowances for people unable to walk or carry things far?
Now I might well have got this bit wrong as I was half asleep but I got the impression they would lift the money direct out of your bank account. The only good bit was that people would be charged at different levels according to their income.
Whatever - even if, as a low user on a low income above pensionable age, I benefited from this, I think this is a plan to be resisted. It's just another element of creeping intrusion into our lives. This is not the stuff of fantasy - other countries are also considering this.
No link to the latest as yet but similar proposals have been simmering for some time.

Frugalsod

pineapple wrote: »

On LBC in the early hours there was a discussion about renewed plans to have GPS in cars which would track your every move. You would essentially be charged per mile and even worse, could be penalised for say - undertaking short journeys by car when there were 'greener' alternatives. As one caller pointed out, how they would make allowances for people unable to walk or carry things far?
Now I might well have got this bit wrong as I was half asleep but I got the impression they would lift the money direct out of your bank account. The only good bit was that people would be charged at different levels according to their income.
Whatever - even if, as a low user on a low income above pensionable age, I benefited from this, I think this is a plan to be resisted. It's just another element of creeping intrusion into our lives. This is not the stuff of fantasy - other countries are also considering this.
No link to the latest as yet but similar proposals have been simmering for some time.

There are so many things wrong about this idea. It will penalise those that have to drive to work, many will be able to find ways around this and if it is to raise revenue the best way would be to add it to fuel duty. That would also be based on your milage and either encourage better driving or less driving. Sitting in congestion burning fuel will also mean that it discourages driving during peak hours or effectively costs you in more fuel. It would also not give the government access to your bank account, which with the governments data sharing plans would probably be immediately be passed to the inland revenue for over due tax collection. Make the tax disc a really low figure like £10 so that all vehicles are registered and put the taxes on the fuel.

jk0

pineapple wrote: »

On LBC in the early hours there was a discussion about renewed plans to have GPS in cars which would track your every move. You would essentially be charged per mile and even worse, could be penalised for say - undertaking short journeys by car when there were 'greener' alternatives. As one caller pointed out, how they would make allowances for people unable to walk or carry things far?
Now I might well have got this bit wrong as I was half asleep but I got the impression they would lift the money direct out of your bank account. The only good bit was that people would be charged at different levels according to their income.
Whatever - even if, as a low user on a low income above pensionable age, I benefited from this, I think this is a plan to be resisted. It's just another element of creeping intrusion into our lives. This is not the stuff of fantasy - other countries are also considering this.
No link to the latest as yet but similar proposals have been simmering for some time.

The technology for this will be compulsorily installed by EU decree in all new cars from 1st September 2015. (And some of you laugh at us who vote UKIP.)

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/ecall-time-saved-lives-saved

I know it says the system only activates in the event of an accident. (Yeah, right, and GCHQ only record the metadata of our phone calls.)

westlothianlass

HI all
I've been beavering away and prepping between my daily chores of earning a few bucks at work. Not looking too bad at the moment, though I do have a fizzy feeling in my tum that I should get some more bits and bobs just incase .

Garden is starting to look less barren with little sprouts of green loveliness poking through. We bought a medlar tree the other day (because I like its name and I don't have one :rotfl:) so look forward to it fruiting.

Right off to play with some spreadsheets :eek:
WLL x

mardatha

Hot today WLL, and my garden is taking off as well.
I have a gormless question for you all
All these blogs about growing your own food, having land to grow, blahdeblah. I have a biggish garden as this house was built in the late 30s. The back is mainly grass (because the RV likes grass lol) and also because we aren't fit or energetic enough to dig it all. I have loads of space and feel that I should be, and need to, grow veg in it.I've thought and asked and asked and thought... but I don't LIKE veg and only eat a little amount, mainly in soup. I do like turnip and I do like onions, that's it. I put in the Green Stuff because it goes into soup and is good for you. I quite like a salad but when I try to grow lettuce they scream, turn pale, and faint and that gets me annoyed. So my question is.....
What the hell should I grow?

jk0

mardatha wrote: »

Hot today WLL, and my garden is taking off as well.
I have a gormless question for you all
All these blogs about growing your own food, having land to grow, blahdeblah. I have a biggish garden as this house was built in the late 30s. The back is mainly grass (because the RV likes grass lol) and also because we aren't fit or energetic enough to dig it all. I have loads of space and feel that I should be, and need to, grow veg in it.I've thought and asked and asked and thought... but I don't LIKE veg and only eat a little amount, mainly in soup. I do like turnip and I do like onions, that's it. I put in the Green Stuff because it goes into soup and is good for you. I quite like a salad but when I try to grow lettuce they scream, turn pale, and faint and that gets me annoyed. So my question is.....
What the hell should I grow?

Do you like tomatoes? I buy expensive vine tomatoes to make Spag Bol every week. I think if I had some plants I would use any excess to make sauce to go in the freezer.