Preparedness for when

2tonsils

D&DD I took my other half to the doctors on Thursday to see the doc about the virus...so he gave him some meds and told me if I got it (which he thought I would) to go back and get the same antibiotics. It starts like an allergy but then develops into a chest/throat infection quickly. Nasty it is, I hope it doesn't keep spreading as we have a lot of old folks in the village. A lot of people are walking around coughing though, with no hand or hanky over their mouth...I hate that! Not only bad manners, it spreads viruses so quickly.

You can buy antibiotics and other meds over the counter here but I prefer not to take anything I don't have to take. I eat very healthy and make sure I get plenty of nutrients, fresh air and sunshine. It's about a year since I last took antibiotics.

Talking of solar lights as you were...we carried a box full over from Argos thinking they would be great for marking our path out at night..unfortunately they melted in the sun LOL

They were not very bright even in the summer after charging in bright Greek sunshine....but the solar torch I bought at Lidl's is very bright and still going strong on the first charge I gave it on the window sill. I use it every night and its lasted ten days so far. I am very impressed with it except for the fact it looks too much like a mobile phone. People keep picking it up all the time thinking its a touch screen and put their dirty paws all over the solar panel!

Just watching Asterix at the Olympic games....sound is French and it is dubbed in demotic Greek....but we are laughing our heads off anyway....its very visual comedy!

D&DD

Mar I struck lucky for my slowcooker when this was posted here
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/24265781#Comment_24265781 its not available now though sadly..lowest they have is 120w and I get confused how that transfers to volts (help someone!)

When I got a tv/dvd combi for DS3's room I made sure we got one that has a 12v connector so I can use that too *god forbid he has no tv in a powercut*

Same goes for dvd player 12v

PC charges through the weza as does gameboys etc (all the useful stuff as far as the kids are concerned)I can also recharge batteries with it.


The weza lets me plug stuff straight into it,use a cigarette thingy or connect straight to the battery for jumpstarts etc.

I have a stovetop/camping kettle so no need for a 12v one but they do make them and are pretty cheap.

I'd love a wavebox (12v microwave) but have several other methods of cooking so no need for one although they're so cool lol

As Nuatha said if you do a search for 12v equipment/caravan equipment loads come up..fridges,coolboxes,heaters

(DavidC over at L was also very helpful in helping me understand in plain english how mine worked )

Thanks for the flask help all and MrsL thanks I was looking at the ones on ebay as they're the same price as from Ukjuicers are you having fun with yours yet??

[Deleted User]

Oh yes D & DD it cooks a mean pearl barley if you leave it overnight!!!!! I've also got a thermal cooker, a sort of modern day hay box which is also very useful. Mine is designated as a rice cooker (not the electric type but retained heat type) and that is a very useful thing too. That came from E*bay but I can't remember the price as it was 5 or so years ago. Worth a consider perhaps, Cheers Lyn x.

D&DD

2T I'm much the same hate taking drugs this may help during the winter months

1 onion sliced
1 tblespn ex virgin olive oil
handful shitake or any mushrooms sliced
1 clove garlic crushed
1 thick slice of ginger (I use top of my thumb size)
2 pints marigold stock or homemade veg stock
3 lge carrots sliced
1 sweet potato chopped
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 head broccoli
handful of fresh chopped parsley

sweat onions in oil til transparent add mushrooms,garlic and ginger.cook for 2 minutes pour in stock,carrots,sweet potato and barley and simmer for 40 minutes.Add broccoli and simmer for 10 minutes.Remove ginger chunk and liquidise or serve as is sprinkled with fresh parsley.

I make a huge vat of this and freeze it in small portions then if one of us starts to feel poorly out it comes :rotfl:

2tonsils

Thanks for the recipe D&DD..unfortunately I can't have barley as I am Celiac but I could put quinoa in. My endocrinologist has told me not to eat dark green veg ie broccoli, spinach etc as I have a serious problem with my thyroid and they can worsen it..the rest sounds good though. I made cream of mushroom and celery soup yesterday, it was lovely.

mardatha

Ok pet TY for that - we don't use any of them thingies so I can stop bothering about a battery now

nuatha

2tonsils wrote: »

Talking about the lurgy, I was horrified to hear just now that the man who flew to Glasgow while he was suffering from the killer Congo fever has now died. I know the disease is not airborne but he must have come into physical contact with many people. He was sick when he set off from Afghanistan to Beirut, sat in the airport, went through customs searches, then onto the plane to Glasgow. Through the airport, drove home, so sick his wife phoned the ambulance then on to the hospital. Would have been taken into A and E and waited, then onto isolation ward, then transferred to London where he was put into secure isolation.
I really, really hope that no one came close enough to be infected by him, but I do feel they are playing down the risk. It only takes exposure to his blood or bodily fluids and with him ill and sweating medical staff and others must have been exposed to some risk. I hope I am wrong....

That comes so close to one of the World Health Organisation/CDC nightmare scenarios. I'm hoping that there was no contact spread.

D&DD wrote:

Nuatha many thanks for posting about the gobags especially as your OH is so poorly I send my best wishes for a speedy recovery its awful when they're in there as you really can't settle to get anything done at home can you? If theres anything we can do please ask X

Thank you for the very kind offer - which reduced a usually rough, tough Northumbrian hippy to tears (which were welcome )
You're right its hard to settle and distraction therapy seems the better option, but as I mentioned upthread, its where being prepped does pay off.

. . .
I've just been batching up my rechargeable batteries I got some new ones recently which knock spots off any I've tried before..they are supposed to hold a charge for 2 years too
called eneloop if anyones interested.
The uniross are ok but I've a feeling I'll be replacing them all eventually with these ones.

I also purchased a few Rolsner led torches for stashing around the house which I've been pleasantly surprised by considering just how cheap they were on amazon
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rolson-Tools-61760-Torch-Batteries/dp/B002Y5XNBM/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349541740&sr=8-1-fkmr0

I shall look into the eneloop batteries. I gave up on the Uniross quite some time ago in favour of ones with double the amphour capacity. (Think the brand was MP) Three or 4 years on the length of time they retain a charge has diminished to a few weeks, but they will still see me through a weekend of photography or power my handheld computer for a week.
The Rolsner LED torches perform well above their price, there's been one in my Every Day Carry for nearly two years and spares in the cars and fuse cupboard.

mardatha wrote: »

Nuatha, sending love & light & strength to your wife xx
D3, I'm interested in things that run off a 12V battery - when I said before I wasnt interested in anything that runs off a battery I didn't mean that kind of battery (arggh lol confusing!) I meant totty wee piddly batteries that last 25 minutes and then fall out! Tell me about gadgets that run off 12V batteries please.
When the power goes off here, so does the repeater that runs mobile phones... not sure if that affects the internet too?

Thank you Mardatha
LED lights have far less drain on batteries than the old incandescents did.
If you use a router to access the internet then the router will be down. A 3G dongle wouldn't work if the mast is down. One of the old stingray USB ADSL modems should work while you have power for the laptop as would an old dial up type modem

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

Nuatha, I'm so sorry to hear that your OH is in the hospital and please accept my best wishes for her full and speedy recovery.

You post about go-bags in this set of circumstances was very thought-provoking. I have personally been admitted (twice) for a stay of several days straight from A & E and it causes major logistical problems for my relatives, as well as the stress and anxiety.

A few years before he retired, my Dad developed the signs of a retinal detachment whilst at work. 40 years previously the other eye had gone so he knew what he was looking at. He called Mum (already a pensioner and 5 mins away) and she fetched him by car and drove him 15 miles to their local hospital. They confirmed detachment and referred them another 20-odd miles to the big teaching hospital where they admitted Dad.

At this point Mum and Dad have covered a big loop across 3 counties and are still 30 miles from home. With no jammies nor even a washkit. Major nuisance.

Five years back it was me admitted rather suddenly (gangrenous peritonitis), OH was away camping with mates a couple of hundred miles away. Inlaws to the rescue, they didn't know about the bag in the boot of my car, but had enough spares of necessities that throwing a hospital bag together was fairly straightforward. It only since then that we've discussed the idea of prepping, but they had the foundation of a lifetime of being OS and "Being Prepared"

Preppers in various forms are more common than most folk seem to think (or perhaps I've just been extraordinarily lucky)

GreyQueen

I suppose OS-ers tend to be practical, commonsensical types, or persons who aspire to develop those aspects of life more deeply, so perhaps it isn't so surprising.

After all, a lot of general housekeeping/ personal care issues are a form of prepping. We don't tend to wait until we have a headache to buy some paracetamol (or whatever), we usually have a few to hand, nor do we discard the remainder immediately the headache has passed as experience tells us there will be another along by and by.

If you drive, you know there will be frosts, so you restock on de-icer as we head into the colder weather.

I have a small fire extinguisher mounted on the kitchen wall; a gift from a safety-consious friend. I'm nearly 50 and have never in all this time needed to quench a domestic fire, but you can better believe I'm not going to be binning it.

A pal of mine with severe OA takes a charged mobile to her bedroom and leaves it on the bedside table. This is because her fluctuating condition could deterioate so suddenly overnight that she might wake up bed-bound. It's happened before. And there are friends she can call, who have the keys to her home, who can ride to her rescue.

I'm old enough to recall the shenanigans of the 1970s and regular powercuts, strikes, shortages of some foodstuffs etc etc and don't take it as a given that there will always be water out of the tap and electricity available at the flick of a switch.

I do derive a certain wry amusement from the attitude that some people maintain, in the real world, that inconvenient or unpleasant things can never happen these days because...........? And they can never qualify this belief, but it seems to be a form of blind faith in the wonders of technology/ the benign power of Them to save us all from whatever might befall us.

One thing I firmly believe in; being an adult means taking responsibility. And that means trying to make sure that you've made provision for helping yourself in various circumstances, so as to free up emergency resources for those who cannot help themselves; the children, the elderly, the sick and disabled. I wouldn't want to take critical resources/ emergency personnel away from the most vulnerable because I'd been foolish and not taken care of my own issues when I had the chance.

boultdj

mardatha wrote: »

Nuatha I don't want anything with batteries. We do have longish powercuts here but the other thing I fancied was a solar light for the back step for when OH goes out for coal. Is there a solar setup that would do that? How does it work?

Try Arg*s,sorry can't do link's:o, we got 1 when we moved here and it's quite bright, it's in the outside light section and it's a motion sensor one, if that's any help to you Mar.