Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

This is mine.



£130 from Argos.

Had to be that small (stop sniggering), as it had to go under the counter.

Fortunately, living alone, I don't need a huge amount of freezer space.

Frugalsod

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I wonder if it would be a viable idea to rig up a smoker in the garden at short notice to preserve meats and fish if we did have a power out for a long period? I don't currently have one but do have the plans for making one and it would certainly enable the meat etc. to be kept for a little longer rather than eating it all at once rather than lose it. The other thing I'll throw in as an idea is that it's apparently quite easy to build yourself an outdoor clay oven, I've seen a couple of different celebrity chefs actually do this on the TV for pizzas but it doesn't take a huge amount of skill, materials or space and if you had the wood and knew how to fire it up it would give you a means of cooking if you had no open fire or woodstove, an idea for many of us perhaps???

In the house I'd like to rig up a hanging rack above the heat source both for drying washing and for keeping crispbreads old swedish style. Traditionally they were made when there was plenty of flour and were dinner plate sized with a hole in the middle and then were hung on a pole close to the ceiling above the cookfire which kept them crisp and dry right through the winter months. Washing? how about an old style dolly tub (for this read 1/2 a blue barrel and a washboard along with a wringing post (medieval gadget) set in the garden. Would never be easy but might be better than doing all the hard work by hand.

There are some simple designs for passive solar dehydrators that would save wood as well.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/yago143.html

Though google solar dehydrators and look at some of the images and see what you could make yourself.

[Deleted User]

Cupboard Beds (ie. beds with cupboards built around them) aren't a new idea.

My father slept in one in the 20s.

maryb

I find sleeping in a confined space unbearably claustrophobic - though I can usually take, or preferably leave, fresh air. Sleeping in a small cabin on a boat, I had to have the hatch open above me and I couldn't cope with an enclosed berth. Not sure I'd cope with a cupboard bed

jk0

GreyQueen wrote: »

jk0, I once saw a series of brief video clips of controlled explosion demolitions of very tall multi-story buildings......and one of WTC 7 at the end of it.

Ab-so-lutely identical.

ETA, haven't got the above-mentioned clip at hand but have this one; http://www.nuclear-demolition.com/911-wtc-7-demolition-wtc-7-collapse-video.html

Because fire just reduces a multi-story building to dust in under 10 seconds, doesn't it?

Thanks GQ. Crikey, it never crossed my mind anyone would be daft enough to trigger nuclear explosions in the middle of New York.

Edit: I think you are thinking of the link I posted in December:

jk0 wrote: »

Enjoy:

https://archive.org/details/scm-97654-investigate911-promo7

thriftwizard

My aunt slept in a cupboard bed, a huge great thing (well, to a then-7-year-old, back in the 60s) built into the corner of the big front bedroom of her terraced cob & thatch cottage. There was another smaller one on the opposite side wall, which fascinated me although I was never allowed to sleep in it as one of her brothers had died in it, aged 4; the little back bedroom, where I stayed, had a narrow iron-framed bed, a gigantic dark carved wardrobe taking up all of the end behind the door, & a marble washstand in front of the little window. I've been trying hard to remember more about that house, which from Google Earth has now been "done up" & sports a fine slate roof but no chimneys.

The front room had been the village post office when she was small - that'd have been in the 1900s. A door in the corner hid the start of the very steep, tight-turning staircase & presumably stopped heat escaping up the stairs. The downstairs back room had the big black-lead range (the parlour had a 50s gas fire) and a solid square table which was probably as old as the house, with a variety of mismatched chairs. There was a "Sheila Maid" type washing hanger above the range. However the kitchen facilities, and the "bathroom" such as they were, were outside at the back. A big chipped china sink & wooden drainer under a tin roof on one side of the yard with one of those little over-sink water heaters (though she usually used hot water from the kettle that was always simmering on the range) and an old copper in a kind of cupboard on the other side, with a larder cupboard in between. A tin-roofed "outhouse" complete with a galvanised bath hanging on a nail, on the other side of the yard; the whole yard drained down into a central drain with channels leading to it on either side; you could watch the washing-up water gurgling away down it. Unlike our garden two-holer, it was a flush loo though, and before I was 11 the yard was roofed in with clear corrugated plastic; a huge improvement, she felt!

I will always remember how wonderfully soft & warm her old feather mattress was. Her curtains were heroic, great slabs of ancient brocade with tattered pinkish linings at the front, but pretty little rosy prints with a blue gingham border at the back; the walls were about 18" thick and the front bedroom windowsills were seats with velvet cushions, from which you could see all the goings-on in the village. And whilst everything always felt damp, I don't remember any mildew or nasty smells, or ever being cold there, and she always attributed her smooth, soft skin to not having central heating.

Lots of food for thought... it was all pretty much as it had been from time immemorial, and many others were still living the same way. The cottages didn't have gardens; they backed onto a commercial orchard and had allotments over behind the church. I now know that that's standard in many European villages; the dwellings clustered close together for warmth and security, the growing spaces outside the confines of the village, usually close to a natural or channelled water supply.

If the 'leccy was off for days, would we still have piped water, I wonder?

[Deleted User]

Probably not and if the pumps stopped pushing the stuff out into the watermains we'd have a real devil of a time clearing the stagnant water if they ever did start pumping again. All sorts of nasties could be breeding in the non flowing water pipes couldn't they. When DD and I went on holiday to the Orkneys she'd booked us a few nights at the National Bird Observatory on North Ronoldsay and as we got there we saw a notice at the airport saying they'd got cripto sporidium in the islands water supply and it wasn't even safe enough to wash your hands in. There was plenty of bottled water though and even though we had to be careful with it and wash in boiled bottled water heated in the kettle it was OK and we didn't find it too difficult to cope with. We kept clean with a good all over wash every day and even managed a hair wash in a very limited amount of water, it was fine, the hardest thing was remembering not to turn on the taps. How it would have been with limited supplies of bottled water I couldn't say but I daresay they and we would have managed somehow.

westlothianlass

Hi all,
We would be okay foodwise for a few weeks, but i realised I didn't have enough catfood, nothing too difficult to overcome but it would be easier if I had some more, so added to shopping list. Also realised we don't have many treats stashed away, and I'd be grumpy cow with no crisps or chocolate for weeks. Again not necessary to keep the body together but would certainly help the soul:rotfl:.

House wise were pretty lucky, the coal fire in the living room is the original and still has the old range oven attached. However it's an old draughty cottage so we need to insulate the roof better and get some thick cosy curtains.
The two bedrooms also have open fires which is lovely, if a tad messy at times, or maybe it's just us who are messy .
Wll. X

[Deleted User]

If I ran out of cat food, Buggalugs would manage quite happy, on a few spoonfuls of my Cheese & Broccoli Pasta n Sauce.

pineapple

maryb wrote: »

I find sleeping in a confined space unbearably claustrophobic - though I can usually take, or preferably leave, fresh air. Sleeping in a small cabin on a boat, I had to have the hatch open above me and I couldn't cope with an enclosed berth. Not sure I'd cope with a cupboard bed

I find even sleeping in a tent claustrophobic. Plus I struggle with buildings which have a spiral staircase in a narrow space.
Not about to take up potholing any time soon... :rotfl: