Preparedness for when

moneyistooshorttomention

charlies-aunt wrote: »

Nursing several nasty puncture wounds tonight after trying to wrestle our Hawthorn hedge into a more tidy shape. Despite wearing heavy gloves still got speared several times

I read a tip a while back re using welders gloves for trimming thorny plants. Sure 'nuff, it does work and I've cleared brambles without them "getting me" by wearing them.

Shoulda remembered to take them with me when I was clearing away a sloe bush during the week that was blocking a public footpath (as I landed up scratched by them). Good deed for the week done anyway. People can now get through that bit of footpath (as it was inaccessible before) - but the farmer is now at risk of them putting in health and safety claims from the bush injuring them when they do so - so hopefully will remove the bush altogether now. I'm on a mission now that I've found out people are legally entitled to take things into their own hands and remove obstacles to public footpaths:rotfl:

The snag to those welders gloves is I couldn't find any in womens' sizes, so had to buy man-size ones and my hands "swim" in them rather. Fingers crossed the manufacturers will update their range but, until then, man-size is a lot better than nowt, as at least you avoid getting scratched.

thriftwizard

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I wonder what brought each of us to prepping?

For some of us, the realisation that "normality" can actually fall apart very fast. That literally, one day everything's fine & dandy, or at least normal, then suddenly you are hurled into very strange territory. I was not quite 12 when my father died, aged just 52, from a massive heart attack; my mother was given 6 weeks to get out of the vicarage & had just £27 in the bank. She was 44, had two children (7 & 11) still at home and hadn't been in paid employment since she married at 21.

She coped brilliantly, which I shall thank her again for later on today. But somewhere inside this middle-aged housewife & market trader there's still a little girl who lost her father, her home and virtually all her belongings inside 6 weeks, and who can never take things for granted. And who looks on in amazement at some of the antics of friends & neighbours who have never had that kind of shock, who continually skate over ice so thin you can see the sharks circling underneath.

There's no way we can avoid all risks, and life would be extremely boring if we tried. But we can take sensible precautions, and know that at least we can feed our families for a couple of weeks, and cope with injuries or illnesses, or blackouts or fuel shortages, should things ever come unstuck again. And that we have some useful skills and knowledge to offer, should the things that come unstuck happen to be on a wider level than the purely personal.

I have a Monk that stands in the corner of my kitchen - although I live in an old Dissenters Church so probably not that surprising.

Thing is - I am a total skeptic ........ except I am not now :-)

MG

I've related the tale of our "monk" here before, so I won't bore you all with it again. But I too was a total sceptic.... who has now been forced to recognise that there are indeed more things in Heaven & Earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy...

[Deleted User]

My childhood was chaotic to say the least Mum and Dad had a personal war going on for all of it and Mums priorities were her cigarettes, sweets, magazines and going to the cinema. I can remember going with my baby brother to look in bins around the village for lemonade bottles which we could take to the factory and get 3d for and going to the chip shop for a pack of 'Batter balls' as there was no food in the house. Holes in shoes, hand me down clothes held together with safety pins and ketchup on bread were the norm. I prep because I learned how to make the most of very little and still survive. I have reserves of food, soap, extra pairs of shoes and coats waiting in turn for something to wear out etc. but most of all I have the knowledge that I can manage and the skills to enable me to do so. A much better state of affairs!

mardatha

My childhood was not happy either, with a mum who had mental illness and was often nasty and aggressive. Then early married life with a hubby who worked in the docks and was always out on strike.
Also I'm just naturally bloody minded and hate anything getting the better of me lol

[Deleted User]

What dosen't kill you my pet makes you stronger doesn't it? I hate not being able to get the better of things too!!! I guess that knowing you CAN get through tough times does give you a better fighting spirit and that must give you a survivors outlook on life and the attitude to have a go and make what you can of things!

Frugalsod

I was like nuatha always prepared for anything but it was not really called prepping in those days. My food cupboards were always pretty well stocked and so I coped with drops in income quite well. It was something I picked up from my gran who lived through the depression and told me about the hardships then.

For me it was the need to cut my expenses after the financial crisis and the awareness that things could go very wrong very quickly that made me rethink many things that I was doing. I greened my cleaning system switching to vinegar and bi carb for cleaning most things. Which is not only greener it saves money as well. Changing what I ate from ready meals to home cooked made a huge difference to my budget and allowed me to cope. The savings I made were ploughed into changes that would continue to help like a really good food mixer. Over time I have reduced the range of ready prepared items to an absolute minimum and this has also saved money.

The fact that the financial crisis still has the potential to blow up everything that made me look more closely at prepping. The impact of deflation to crush incomes was one reason why I concentrated on debt clearing first and building food stockpiles seems more sensible as events have turned out as I expected. The parallels to the past are incredible so I thought about bugging out plans but have now opted for a better bug in plan with a get home bag for when I am away from home. I think the best solutions are those that allow maximum flexibility when needed.

moneyistooshorttomention

Shtf down to powers-that-be not planning how to try and deal with overpopulation (and resultant extra water demands) and....my thoughts right now are with a "penpal" I have in California.

She "knows" whats what herself and we have similar ways of thinking in some respects and she has been talking about the fact she should really move from there for some time....but what do you do when you own (rather than rent) your home and your husband has been waiting some time for a decent job and has finally got one?

....and now the shtf is going to happen pretty soon now for California - with a NASA scientist warning that California is going to literally run out of water in a years time:eek:.

Feeling rather helpless. I've been telling her this will happen and reserves are getting low and she's confirmed she knows this....but what can you do? I know personally that its hard to have to move from an area when you haven't chosen to yourself - because of external circumstances - and sympathise....and then sit feeling helpless at the end of my computer screen when I receive her emails...

Ironic that I would cheerfully send her some of the excess water we have here in abundance in Wales if I could...courtesy of the amount of rain here.

GreyQueen

I think flexibility is the key for all happiness in life, as well as for good prepping. If you are wedded to the idea that things should always be a certain way, and outcomes are always to be exactly as promised on the tin, you will fare badly when smacked upside the head by reality. And life will continually move the chairs in the room, just as the music stops and you're about to plonk your rear down on what turns out to be empty space.

Persons known to me, along with several hundred of their colleagues, went to work one morning in their good secure jobs with their good secure pensions. By midday they were unemployed with no severence package and no warning and their pensions evaporated like dew on a summer's morning.

Two women I know went to their banks (no connection between these ladies whatsoever, nor their employers) and found their wages weren't in. With one, it was a screw-up with payroll and they arrived several days later. With the other, her employer had folded without warning, she was unemployed and never did see that month's salary.

Stuff happens. It happens to the decent and hardworking as well as the lazy and careless types. You can't expect not to have your share of troubles and difficulties, and some poor sods have more than a fair share of sorrows. You need to have a plan B, C, D and so on.

If you have considered the What Ifs? and put a few measures in place, even if that's £30 of shelf-stable groceries, water and some candles and matches, you are taking responsibility.

moneyistooshorttomention

One of the single biggest things imo that is necessary for prepping (at whatever level) is a certain level of cynicism. I am thankful personally for the cynicism that said "I don't think these endowment mortgages they are telling us are so great really are...." back in the 1980s (ie when I took on a mortgage) and generally repeating "I don't think so/I don't believe them" about things at regular intervals since.

Its quite a shock to realise just how many people will repeat things authoritatively as if they really know what they are talking about - but they don't.

Small town living (as I now have) has added an extra layer of cynicism I hadn't expected - as its possible to watch people at so much "closer quarters" and in more depth than in a city. With that, for instance, its become clear how many people want to be "in charge" in some context and regard themselves as being so/are regarded by other people as being so. But...the second you start looking for a concrete reason as to why they are the right person to be "in charge" (ie more intelligent/more capable/etc) you spot that Person A regards themselves as "in charge" purely on the basis of being a "local" and having lived in the area for many years and Person B (in a voluntary organisation) is treated as "in charge" because they tell other people that they are, even though they are a volunteer too (not paid a salary to be "in charge" of others) and so on.

There goes the last shreds of belief that the "cream rises to the top" and only the most intelligent/selfless/far-sighted people will be in charge - but quite a few people want to be in charge for no other reason than ego and they get to be because no-one challenges whether they are a fit person to be in charge or, indeed, whether there should actually be one person in charge. Useful microcosm of society as a whole to study and another illusion gone (ie I thought that at least people had a visible reason to want to be in charge themselves, such as higher income for themselves - but when income doesn't apply its clear how many egos are around that some people still want to be). Definitely seeing even more clearly why many of the people in Government cant be trusted to make the right decisions on our behalf and its one more reason than I thought it was...

[Deleted User]

I didn't believe my ears this morning when on the BBC News they said that last year during the dispute over Crimea with Ukraine the Russians actually contemplated using nuclear weapons??? MADNESS!!!!!!! I cannot credit that any power, no matter how desparate to prove a point would actually be prepared to deploy nuclear weapons for any reason whatsoever, what about the rest of the world? does it count for nothing at all??? Horrendous!!!!!