Preparedness for when

nuatha

Mad-Frog wrote: »

HI prep dudes? :hello::hello::hello:

while strictly not a SHTF thing, I assume you all have sturdy walking boots for your preps in along with you /bub moment?

Can anyone recommend me a good pair of walking boots>

Have been through three pairs in five years, various things wrong but last pair came apart from the sole so chucked, willing to spend a god some of money for a good investment? Been through 3 pairs in five years mostly just walking but with a holiday 'hazardous trek once a year maybe'?

Any help?

I thought I could, but apparently its been a few years since they were made - my Scarpa Sellas are heading for twenty years and on their third soles, my Bronzas must be a dozen years old but as full shank mountain boots have had a lot less use.
I like Hawkins boots but they don't stand up well to peat hag which is a large part of my local environment. A friend has managed well over a 1000 miles in some leather Brashers (including a chunk of time in peat hags).
Being an old stick in the mud, I have no experience of modern fabric walking boots.

mrsmortenharket

Mad-Frog wrote: »

Don't go

Most of us can read a weather forecast ( always accurate right?)

Trains in the UK, it floods, an awful nuisance in my job

I think we would all agree that disruption to our daily lives/commute is nothing to those who live on flood plains

Guess where our non council but in the next village but three intent end to build 400 homes, yep on a flood plain, with no school availability or dentists etc

Same happening here mad-frog. You don't live in Essex do you?!

daz378

waiting for a bt rep on chat to explain why im paying 32 pound a month when i rarely make more than 1 phone call a week....says average wait is 6 min been 30 min up till now...... bought hamlins guide to mushrooms and toadstools today 1.99 from the works bookshop bargain

GreyQueen

Evening all.

Re walking boots, I'm still in a mashoosive grump about a pair of Hi Tec £100 leather walking boots with less than 100 miles on them, albeit only just past 1 year old, which both tops detached from their soles. And I could not get any satisfaction from either the shop or the manufacturer because of their being past 1 year old.

So no more Hi Tec products for me, which will cause them no loss of sleep, I'm sure. And heard something very interesting from an experienced walking guide in her fifties who told me that no matter what you pay for a pair of hiking boots these days, you don't get much more than a year's use out of them.

Yet another example of loss of quality, so those like nuatha who have veteran boots, keep them and get them repaired.

We've been having fun and games at Shoebox Towers and the latest is that SG and I are having a small wager on how many days it is before Newbie Get (NG) gets his clock cleaned by Established Resident Get (ERG). ERG has had the preliminary confrontation without fistifuffs, the next step will rely on the conjunction of NG being an arris, ERG being drunk and then - pow!.....................they're both horrible barstewards and the Polis can sort it out.

Last time ERG lost his rag, a door went through and someone ended up with a concussion. NG is annoying me soooo much (join the queue, GQ, he's annoying half the block).

VJsMum, I was in Sloevenia, up in the villages around Lake Bohinj and Lake Bled (if memory serves, is that the one with the island and the church on the island?) and noted the veggie gardens, too.

They grow their runner beans up one, sapling-sized pole, about 10 feet tall, several bean plants to each pole. We also saw tomatoes growing under very artful dutch-barn type plastic shelters and couldn't figure out why, but the householder came out and we conveyed our puzzlement in mime and they mimed the reason - hailstones!

Although we were there in June, each village house has firewood stacked neatly around its walls and there were also very tidy stacks of firewood standing in rows, often roofed with a strip of corrugated iron with some bricks/ stones to weigh it down. I really liked the villages, they were very attractive and it seemed that I was looking at a culture which had its head on straight.

'Sides, the Sloevenes are majorly into hiking and about half the population is in the equivalent of the Ramblers Association. Rightous stuff. And they have WW2 bunkers in some of the mountains, some of our party were invited to visit one but I missed out on that, sob.

Frugalsod

I also think that Slovenia has not benefited substantially so far from being independent and so many still have that SHTF mentality which will serve them well if things deteriorate. Growing their own food also helps keep the food budget under control plus they know the provenance of their food far more than we do. Many parts of the world have not abandoned their traditional lifestyles like we have so avidly.

mardatha

Re the last sentence there FS - I think that's partly because because in this country, certainly in my country up here, it's so bloody hard to grow stuff. The season is so short and the stuff that will grow is so limited. Maybe other countries grow more because it's easier?

VJsmum

Yes Bled is the one with island on the lake. We visited Bohinj briefly. But we will go back - I was enormously taken with the whole place.

Off topic but I was also enormously impressed with the skill of the waiting staff, so attentive and knowledgable. It is truly a skilled profession over there, that we don't seem to have so much here - except in top dollar places.

Not sure on the walking boots, I usually go to TK Maxximus but accept that they won't last more than a couple of years. I took back a pair of shoes DD had bought at new look and had only worn for a week or two and the assistant actually said "you aren't meant to walk in them" :rotfl: after I explained DD had worn them to school. They were flat black shoes FGS, what was she meant to do in them? Anyway, after I had finished with the manager, I got my money back.;)

GreyQueen

I'd go back to Sloevenia at the drop of a hat, I really liked it there. We were a large party of about 18 and the restaurants around Lake Bohinj don't tend to be big. One lakeside place we favoured with our custom was very pleasant but our waitstaff were a young lad and an older woman who had been drafted in from her normal role as receptionist ('twas a hotel as well as an eaterie). They were both sweethearts, we were happy and chilled, she was very apologetic that her English wasn't perfect and it all went very well. At the end, we liked them so much we tipped heavily and she added up the bill and tried to give us the tip back, clearly thinking we had made a mistake.....:rotfl:

She seemed both phased and delighted that the excess was a gratuity for her and the waiter for being so lovely.

Ahh, Lake Bled.......we hiked there over the mountains on a very hot day, I have fond memories of sitting on the lake shore with my companions, bare feet dandling in the cold water whilst investigated by curious and ticklesome fish, eating ice-cream. Bliss!

Yeah, one thing I have noticed about paddling about in Europe is that even places which get extreme winters (like Sloevenia and Bulgaria) tend to have good springs and hot summers which lead to good growing seasons. And as someone who has lived in Scotland for years, I can testify that the weather isn't the most co-operative for gardeners but often grey and chilly even in 'summer' and that the pre-modern diet was pretty restricted.

Well, today is pertiddling down and looks set foul, so I'm glad that I did my gardening and my food shopping yesterday, and don't have to go out til tomorrow, unless I really want to.

At the moment, I haven't been up for long and am relaxing with tea, the elixir of life..........

[Deleted User]

Morning all, re hiking boots I've got a pair of Leather BRASHER boots that I've had for the past 15 years and they're as good as the day I got them. The uppers are a bit scuffed from use but the leather and stitching are still as good as new as are the soles and despite having walked considerable miles are not showing much sign of wear. They were over £100 when I got them back then which was enormously expensive but the quality has been worth it. The wonderful thing about Brashers is that they have a refurbishment service and will even re-sole them if needed, obviously at a price. So they are an investment and pricy but in my experience well worth the outlay.

1Tonsil

Very hot and humid here in Greece, although it seems like our weather has settled at last.

Problems for the farmers here as Russia has cancelled food orders for 180 million euros worth of fruit and dairy products from Greece in retaliation for the EU sanctions. 3000 lorries full of produce have been sent back to Greece and they have decided to destroy the food instead of giving it away so that prices stay the same....... can you believe that when so many are struggling here?

There is also worry about them cutting off our gas and oil supplies now as most of our supply comes from Russia.


I have been following Bertha and the UK and there have been some interesting developments on the charts. There are signs that smaller , fiercer storms are developing within the low and some of them may have high winds or tornadoes as well as torrential rain. The most likely to get them are Wales and Anglia at the moment, but the main low could well turn back on itself and to return to areas that have cleared up once. Please stay safe. This is not a professional forecast but my ideas from looking at the charts in Europe. There are squall lines developing. It will probably continue throughout today and into tomorrow. It may clear in your area then come back later. Have a safe and peaceful day