Preparedness for when

bluebag

mardatha wrote: »

I'm too knackered to get off the couch today... using the time to think up things to do when am back in action. One thing I was thinking of is this -
If the shops were shut NOW - no cheating! - would you be able, honestly, to provide 3 meals a day until for example Monday? Would you have every single thing you usually have? Or would you run out of bread/milk/salt/potatoes? Just be honest, sit and think it out

No! I'd run out of ciggies and jellabies in a few days and become a rabid zombie in no time flat.

Must see to that supply deficit in short order. Loads of food and bread and stuff but completely missed the essentials. facepalm!

Thanks for the brain shock.

GreyQueen

cornishchick wrote: »

I ed survive for a few weeks on the stores I have , no problem with eggs as freeze them, plus use powered egg replacement. Cheese, I have a few waxed ones brought ys after Christmas . The thing I would run out of is cigarettes :eek: or coffee which would not be safe for the general population.. Need to get a store of this in..
X CC

Ps. How do I know if my spuds are ready to dig up? I've experimented with growing some in sacks and tall tubs.
Thanks x

Usually when the tops have died back naturally. They won't get any bigger after that.

I'd be good for most foodstuffs for a lot longer than Monday; have about 12 litres of UHT semi-skimmed milk, each which would last me about 3-4 days. Several months' worth of everything else.

Have now got the backup hard-drive back in it's packaging and in a tin, so hopefully EMP-proof there. My files are backed up onto a USB stick in another tiny tin in the BOB. I also have the windup radio in yet another tin; have been dropping my hands on smallish rectangular tins at the bootfairs for pennies each.

Bob, am most covetous of that torch, where did you get it? Please tell me not Home Bargains/ B & M as they don't have them here.......I was in a 99p Store this afternoon and meant to buy one of those little LED lanterns which run on 4 x AA batteries, which I think you product-tested for us and found worthy. If memory serves, and increasingly, it doesn't.

Well, me and mine at work are on our summer-long effort to try to persuade the public that not everything which flies around outside in summer needs to be annihilated. We don't do the birds or the bees. We'd rather not do wasps, but if they're depriving the householder of the use of a room, it's a bit of a beggar. Lots of rats about this year. We happily poison rats, filthy beggars that they are.

Now, there would be a potentially useful low tech but valuable trade to persue in a post Peak Oil world; ratcatcher. Several terriers and a stout set of gloves and boots......hmmmm.

In line with my advice about eyetests, I rocked up to my own optician after w*rk and am having my peepers checked next week. Gawd, but I hate that puff-on-the-eyeball thingummy wotsit, cringe cringe. Really hope not to need new winders this year as it was a major expense getting my first varifocals last summer.

Okay, better see what the wicked of the world are up to wanders across to t'Hedge........

VJsmum

Well I have just been shopping (before I saw Mar's post) so I will be ok beyond Monday. Before the shop, we had run out of fresh milk completely - though I had about six litres of soya milk(DS is intolerant to cows) a litre of UHT, a tub of marvel and a couple of tins of evaporated. Can you do anything to turn condensed into fresh? I have a couple of tins of that too. Oh and about another 5 or so litres of long life soya. So I guess we'd have been ok.

Everything else I would have coped if I hadn't shopped (though we're down to one egg), though some meals might have been interesting.

Bread we have in the freezer and on top of that have wraps, muffins and crumpets as well as bread mixes and the wherewithal to make in any case.

I would like to learn to make bread without the use of bread maker or oven - can you do it on a gas ring (down boy, bedsit bob)

So note to self is to make sure we don't get so low on eggs and maybe have a bit more milk provision.

VJsmum

Double post

GreyQueen

'Ullo, VJsMum, I've ironed today; one shirt, 3 hankies and a pillowcase. Pillowcases are usually all I do iron, bedlinen wise.

I've seen bread dough rolled out into strips, spiralled around sticks and cooked over campfires. I should think you could also bake on cast-iron cookware on a fire; traditional griddles and perhaps a cast-iron Dutch oven.

You just need a strong enough heat source and some way of keeping the dough out of the actual flames until the bread bakes. I think I shall have to conduct some early autumn open air cooking experimundos on the allotment, once the bonfire ban comes off.

I've cooked pigeon pie on open fires that way. That was proper from scratch cooking; first they gave you a dead pigeon - I know how to unzip a pigeon really fast and I'll gladly tell anyone not particularly squeamish. Works on other birdies, too.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

Bob, am most covetous of that torch, where did you get it?

99p Stores.

I thought the price would've been a clue.

The 4 cell lanterns are currently available at £land.

[Deleted User]

VJsmum wrote: »

can you do it on a gas ring

I would imagine so, but it might be rather uncomfortable.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

I know how to unzip a pigeon really fast and I'll gladly tell anyone not particularly squeamish.

Do they unzip like rabbits?

[Deleted User]

For those preppers who don't like dried milk, in their beverages, I may have the answer.

Mokate Carmen Coffee & Tea Whitener.

Tried it in a cup of tea, and it tastes to me, like a cup of tea made with liquid milk.

Available from the 99 Stores.

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

99p Stores.

I thought the price would've been a clue.

The 4 cell lanterns are currently available at £land.

'twas the RAC bit which was confusing me. I was in a 99p Store today and they didn't have those but they did the 4 x AA ones, which I've not seen in the Land of the Poond, either this year or last.

You unzip pigeons by pulling their wings and head off and poking your thumbs (knuckle-to-knucke) down the neck hole and deftly turning the bird inside out, thus exposing the breast meat (just don't Bob, okay?!) without all that messy business with plucking.