Preparedness for when

thriftwizard

Babes in arms might make good TV, though there might be a backlash if anything untoward happened, but arthritic grandparents don't! People can only take so much reality, you know...

And yet the skills & wisdom that those grandparent possessed is probably what kept us going as a race... interesting that the elderly are just regarded as a nuisance now. When my kids want to mock-insult me, they tell me I'm old, so what would I know?!

moneyistooshorttomention

Well, I got as far as 20 minutes into just watching the tv programme (ie 10000 BC) and wimped out due to that gutting of the deer going on. Yuk!

Got as far as thinking "Well, the programme makers obviously didn't think old people had much of a part to play in that society then....:cool:". That old woman couldn't really have been only 65 could she? Her voice and appearance were much older than that of a 65 year old and I would have put her as 20 years older than that from both those things. I'm not much younger than her and I'm nothing like as "old" as she is and am still middle-aged (if late middle-aged). I think they must have deliberately chosen a very "old" 65 year old and for someone to be that "old" at that age she must have had a very hard life I'm guessing and that was probably a set-up hoping for a dropout right at the beginning (ostensibly on "old age" grounds - but really down to her personal health/hard life).

Am guessing the vegetarian is another set-up and she will be leaving the show soon?

Stone Age not a place for cissies then - or even "southern Softies" watching on tv:rotfl:

jk0

Being a 'Big Brother' fan, I was interested to see the 10,000 BC programme.

I did feel it was a little unfair that the expert left them to their own devices after two days though. Real cavemen & women would have been taught about survival from an early age by their own parents, not just two days worth.

Therefore, shouldn't the expert have stayed throughout the series, so that the participants and viewing public learnt the skills thoroughly?

Mojisola

jk0 wrote: »

Being a 'Big Brother' fan, I was interested to see the 10,000 BC programme.

I did feel it was a little unfair that the expert left them to their own devices after two days though. Real cavemen & women would have been taught about survival from an early age by their own parents, not just two days worth.

Therefore, shouldn't the expert have stayed throughout the series, so that the participants and viewing public learnt the skills thoroughly?

I'd be interested in a programme that did that (like the ones with Ruth, Peter and Tom) but I suspect that the directors want drama and fights and tears rather than education.

[Deleted User]

I think programmes that don't instruct and teach are dangerous when it comes to survival (I haven't watched this one, just read your comments) as in a real survival situation you NEED to know how to do things, NEED to know what to do to make a shelter, Need to know what is safe to eat and what isn't, NEED to know how to source firewood and clean drinking water. It's not an option not to if you want to live!!! Making a voyeuristic programme where people are put into such a difficult setting and then walking away and leaving them might, for some, make entertaining viewing but if that is the only way some of the population have of judging what to do in a SHTF drama for real, not a lot of chance of them surviving is there?

OK we've just watched the programme on catch up and my biggest question so far is why did this particular group of diverse souls get selected for this level of hardship? Some of them seem oblivious of what lies ahead to the point of utter foolhardiness. The other very worrying aspect is that even the 'safety experts' didn't think of fly infestation on what are not fully processed skins, doesn't fill me with confidence for the rest of the set up. It might make for interesting watching but with the expert walking away and leaving the group completely unsupported I don't feel we will learn many skills to help us in extremesis. What they have shown so far is how completely unfitted this bunch of people are at the start of it to survive unaided to the end of the first week. I could be very wrong though and it might have pertinent content in future episodes, jury's out!!!

nuatha

jk0 wrote: »

Being a 'Big Brother' fan, I was interested to see the 10,000 BC programme.

I did feel it was a little unfair that the expert left them to their own devices after two days though. Real cavemen & women would have been taught about survival from an early age by their own parents, not just two days worth.

Therefore, shouldn't the expert have stayed throughout the series, so that the participants and viewing public learnt the skills thoroughly?

That would be a very different type of programme - the advance publicity makes it look more like a cross between big brother and I'm a celebrity.

Mojisola wrote: »

I'd be interested in a programme that did that (like the ones with Ruth, Peter and Tom) but I suspect that the directors want drama and fights and tears rather than education.

There is the BBC TV's Living in the Past, from the 1970s along with the follow-up programmes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp23AtKECPQ is the the followup documentary, I don't know that the original series is available anywhere.

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I think programmes that don't instruct and teach are dangerous when it comes to survival (I haven't watched this one, just read your comments) as in a real survival situation you NEED to know how to do things, NEED to know what to do to make a shelter, Need to know what is safe to eat and what isn't, NEED to know how to source firewood and clean drinking water. It's not an option not to if you want to live!!! Making a voyeuristic programme where people are put into such a difficult setting and then walking away and leaving them might, for some, make entertaining viewing but if that is the only way some of the population have of judging what to do in a SHTF drama for real, not a lot of chance of them surviving is there?

Agreed wholeheartedly. The value in the Victorian Kitchen Garden, Edwardian Farm and the more recent medieval castle feteaturing Ruth and team isn't that they detail and show everything, but at least they try to cover a range of bases and educate the viewer in the basics. Knowing something is feasible is a major step in working out how to do it, having been shown some of the tricks needed is wonderful, being left to flounder might be ok on a TV program with a hotel just minutes away, but even then could lead to serious problems.

[Deleted User]

I'm 67 and also a 'Southern Softie' and I sat through the whole silly programme saying what they need to do is......... and when all had gone wrong, i.e fly infestation on meat they did what they should have done the day before or at daybreak on the second day and built smoking units to dry the meat off and allow it to keep for a bit longer. The maggot/fly egg infestation was avoidable and I'm a 21st century citizen and I know that even with my southern softie background!!! The token older person in all of these fly on the wall programmes (sorry, I know they're real flies!) can often bring balance and a certain level of life experience that is pertinent to the situations they find themselves in, we're not all useless old hulks that can't hack it!!! I can flint knap with the best of them and dress out a carcass with a flint flake and for the real world the offal from that deer would have been processed first and eaten, not the muscle meat but then they wouldn't have been able to show the heart and liver crawling with blowflies the next day would they?

FurryBeastOz

I sat through the whole programme cringing - if the fire was so late - wrap the meat. Why was the latrine so close. Why didn't they appoint someone first to hand out jobs. They might not have been perfect but it would have stopped them all standing around like idiots. And I really hope it was the producers who forced those idiots into high heels and wedges or I fear for the human race. I think it is a real shame that the older lady couldn't go on - she'd have ended up running everything I think.

FurryBeastOz

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I'm 67 and also a 'Southern Softie' and I sat through the whole silly programme saying what they need to do is......... and when all had gone wrong, i.e fly infestation on meat they did what they should have done the day before or at daybreak on the second day and built smoking units to dry the meat off and allow it to keep for a bit longer. The maggot/fly egg infestation was avoidable and I'm a 21st century citizen and I know that even with my southern softie background!!! The token older person in all of these fly on the wall programmes (sorry, I know they're real flies!) can often bring balance and a certain level of life experience that is pertinent to the situations they find themselves in, we're not all useless old hulks that can't hack it!!! I can flint knap with the best of them and dress out a carcass with a flint flake and for the real world the offal from that deer would have been processed first and eaten, not the muscle meat but then they wouldn't have been able to show the heart and liver crawling with blowflies the next day would they?

My husband almost hit me with my commentary! But he didn't complain during the blackout at the weekend when I managed to provide lunch/dinner/hot drinks and lights with nil notice -

[Deleted User]

He Who Knows doesn't entirely buy into the whole prepping thing either but is happy to let me 'do my own thing' when it comes to feeling safe. He does however appreciate it that when we have really rotten weather or power cuts or one of us is poorly I can usually say 'Never mind, I've got something upstairs that will fix it!'. He also quite likes playing with the kelly kettle and oz pig in the garden in the better weather and approves of the woodstove, solar lamps, and polytunnel to overwinter crops so I'm getting somewhere with him over the years!!!