Preparedness for when

ALIBOBSY

GreyQueen wrote: »

The biggest problem in Dec 2012 in my city was that a helluva lot of our council houses and flats (not the tower flats, they're on communal heat) had been ungraded to combi boilers and 2012 was the first really bitter winter since these things became commonplace.

Combi boilers have something called a condensate pipe. Which goes out through the wall and is made of copper. Which froze, causing the boilers to shut down. Which caused the gas engineers to run around like headless chickens. One told me that they were cutting the pipes off to get the boilers up and running again. Should you have a combi boiler, now's the time to get that pipe lagged.

We had that with the condensate pipe, but OH found a YT video explaining it and defrosted it with a hairdryer. He then found out ours is in two parts, one bit to the outside and one bit from the boiler down to the second peice (does that make sense). So we could disconnect the pipes and let the drips of water go into a jug underneath. Now the pipe is fully lagged, but we can do the backups ie defrosting or disconnecting if we have to.

Ali x

ALIBOBSY

daz378 wrote: »

The last ship....sky 1..... premise is that a naval warship on a 6 month silent mission.....have been looking in the antartic for an ancient virus ... in the 6 months most of the world as succumbed to the virus .....quite good... yet another survival show. Waiting in my local kebab shop .. a guy storms in how dare you treat my daughter like this ....very upset ... i was intently reading my paper and when ready grabbed my food .. before violence ensued.... wonder what happened afterwards

Set a season pass for this here as well daz lol.

Ah us preppers and our survival tv/film/books :rotfl:

Ali x

ALIBOBSY

Just thought I might post a little sum up of the Icelandic situation as the mainstream media seems to be ignoring it completely.

The current rifting eruption is still going strong and the volcanic gas levels in parts of Iceland have been dangerously high at times.

The advice given is that "people who feel discomfort are advised to stay indoors, close the windows, turn up the heat and turn off air conditioning. Use periods of good air quality to ventilate the house". There are daily forecasts regarding air quality and gas movements by their equivalent of the met office.

The icelandic authorities have issues instructions on the LW radio channels to use for the emegency broadcasting system and some gas warnings have already made use of mobiles to send a warning text to everyone in a particular town or area.

The caldera at Bardabunga shows no sign of calming down, still getting high mag earthquakes around the ring of the caldera and the ice of the glacier over the top of it show signs of further subsidence and developing cracks. Grimsfjall volcano is also showing strong signs of inflation, but this may or may not be linked to the magma movements elsewhere. Plus quakes at Tungafellsjökull volcano again no one knows if this is linked or not.

This is already the biggest eruption in Iceland since the 19th century and SO2 levels are the highest measured since they started measuring in 1970.

This is clearly a once in many lifetimes event and the mainstream media don't seem interested. What worries me is if things go as many experts seem to think they will that the media will jump on it and go the other way and panic people too much.

This may well be very big, and the gases will spread and effect most of europe, but it isn't a EOTWAWKI event for most of us. Feel bad for the Icelandic though.

Read an interesting tip that in Hawaii to counteract SO2 and other acidic gases they soak a towel or flannel in water and baking soda, place the cloth on the back of a fan and run it. The air is pulled over the cloth and the acid gets neutralised. Supposedly two small fans can keep a whole house clearish-as long as the flannels are kept wet. Also as per the Icelandic advice putting the heating on with windows and doors shut creates a positive pressure in the house and helps keep the gases out.

Lucky for us at the moment the high pressure over us in the UK has bounced the gasses over us and on towards Sweden and Norway where people have smelt the gas (think rotten eggs smell yack), now drifting over northern Russia but of course the further it goes the more dilute it gets and the less harmful.
Also read that if you smell it the levels are low and shouldn't cause to much trouble, unfortunately once at dangerous levels SO2 numbs the nose and you can no longer smell it :mad:

Some amazing scenes on the webcams with lava under aurora last night, should be more tonight I suspect. None seem here in Lancashire, but will have a check tonight again.

Ali x

GreyQueen

Thanks for that, ALI, the meeja is all looking Scotlandwards, but that doesn't mean that Iceland isn't going to do something important. I must admit to being distracted by other things, so will get back on the Icelandic websites.

I've been in NZ in volcanic areas and know that rotten-eggs smell very well so would recognise it like a shot. If it's very strong and you're immersed in it, your sense of smell eventually deadens to it, and only reactives once you've been out of it and returned to it.

Have stayed in a town called Rotorua in NZ which is actually inside a caldera - part of the Southern Hemisphere's Ring of Fire of volcanoes. You walk along the streets and steam is coming out of the drain gullies by the kerb, it's quite something to behold.

ALIBOBSY

Saw this link for a scale illustration of the size of the lava fountains

http://www.visir.is/staersti-gigurinn-i-holuhrauni-ad-na-70-metra-haed-og-fer-staekkandi/article/2014140919557

Its in Icelandic, but jump to 30 secs in for a shot of the fountains with cars driving past in the foreground looking like toy cars.

Ali x

thriftwizard

Quite right to bring it back to everyone's attention, Alibobsy - it's all a bit "out of sight, out of mind" but there's still a LOT going on under the Earth over there. Could all come to nothing, but the amount of seismic activity is unprecedented since we've been able to "see" what's going on down there.

On a totally selfish level, I have now booked DS3's air ticket for a week today & am crossing my fingers it'll keep off that long so I won't have to drive him 800 miles & come back again, alone, on a shoestring & with a fairly shaky grasp of French as she is spoken...

There are 14 jars of Plum Butter (or thereabouts; I think it jelled before it "reduced" enough, so maybe it's really spicy plum jam) cooling on my saucepan racks. Horror of all horrors, that was my last shelf full of jam jars, and I still have apple butter to make. I made a plea for more on Feecycle and a lady 5 miles away responded that she had a bag full to spare; I didn't like to ask how many that was, but a 5-mile car journey for a handful of jam jars wouldn't have been very economical! So I invented some other errands to do down that way too, but luckily it's a good big bag full; about 15 jars. I will have to stop preserving for this year after the apple butter, though, as my "larder" shelves are now full to bursting. Maybe I could do some housework instead, but that's probably going a bit far...

GreyQueen

thriftwizard wrote: »

Maybe I could do some housework instead, but that's probably going a bit far...

:eek::eek::eek:

Nooooo!!!!!!!!!!! Anything but the housework. I could do the dishes as finished supper a few mins ago. I could, I should and I probably would, but not just this moment............I want to lie on my couch and ease my aching back. Five hours digging, I tell thee, FIVE HOURS. But I have turned the Feral Meadow back into bare soil and haven't dug up a toad. Disturbed a common newt, which I rehomed gently, and upset any number of small beetles which had to scurry for cover.

This piece of land is now ready to start the great manuring project, which will involve me going walkabout with the wheelbarrow down to the common where the travellers keep their ponies tethered and collecting what the Americans delightfully call horse apples. Will need mega lots of trips but have about 6 months to do it. Probably faster to pony-jack the critters and move them up to the lottie to drop 'em in situ, as it were.

Some authorities describe gardening as a gentle form of exercise. Gentle as opposed to what, sez I? I find it bliddy hard work. But I have had an excellent harvest of rusty nails and more bits of random bricks than I knew were in there. My cache of rubble which will eventually head to the rubble section at the tip is growing rapidly.

I ate a strawberry today. Had 4 last week. Could have made it 5 but some bliddy slug or snail had eaten half of one already and I just didn't fancy it.

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

I expect to see the next 30-40 years which I can expect to live being rather less comfortable and certain than the last 30-40, which had plenty of moments to enjoy. I don't think a lot of people have a clue that we're effectively living in the last of The Good Old Days and that things are going to be changing a lot, and that people who are presently mid-life or younger will be living these changes.

I agree with everything that you said. The problem is that politicians are beholden to big financial backers who have a vested interest in the status quo. If we had a more independent government then we might have a range of alternatives rather than few options. We have squandered our oil revenues and we could be truly energy independent if we had invested some of our oil revenue into alternative energy research. Peak oil was a theory right back in the 1970's so they cannot deny they did not think it would happen.

If I had the money I would build a passive house with an excess of solar panels and even a windmill if I could. Then switch to an electric car. Then I could even earn something from the excess energy.

At some point there will be a point at which point oil companies and governments will not be able to hide the fact that oil supplies are collapsing and that fracking is yet another con. When that happens energy prices will rise very rapidly and then the majority of the public cannot afford to commute or heat their homes then the fun will begin. Preppers will have a significant advantage in being ahead of the curve. My plan is to cut my living costs to the point that I can cope with any cost of living increase or income collapse. Then the majority of people will be protesting on the streets long before me.

Frugalsod

It appears Hollywood thinks that there is something about prepping.

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/dystopia-is-the-new-western-the-rover-doomsday-preppers-the-walking-dead-and-our-obsession-with-the-end/

[Deleted User]

Regarding the condensate pipe.

It's not a foolproof solution (the pipe will still freeze if the temperature falls low enough), but the old T-Piece on the end trick, as used on toilet cistern overflows, should lower the temperature at which freezing occurs.