Preparedness for when

vanoonoo

been to costco for the first time today and was very very restrained altho we now have enough ketchup to last a year i reckon!

we bought a couple of birthday pressies too, things we havent seen in our usual shopping jaunts so I feel quite pleased with our spends.

I said to husband that come the armageddon, I'd head to costco derby, but he reckons so will everyone else so I might have to rethink my plans!

anyone else got a costco card?

vanoonoo

missrlr wrote: »

Hello

Am I allowed to come and hide here please? will i be allowed to Confess my prep obsession (really it is an obsession I get so stressed if I don't have enough in stock , DH now just let's me get on with it, but he draws the line at more than 9 months supply of any one item in the house ..... I am working on this)

Happy prepping all, my next target is the rest of the conservatory ......

you're welcome to join but I dont know about hiding - it's more a case of defending yourself sometimes! hopefully not often tho as you are mainly with like minded people in this thread thankfully! your preps sound amazing and very well organised! welcome aboard! :beer:

what are your thoughts on paracord?

vanoonoo

Fifer73 wrote: »

For others that may be interested in amature radio
information on your nearest club will be here
http://www.rsgb.org/clubsandtraining/

I just googled amature radio fife to finf my nearest club, as at the time didnt realise this site was here

I am mainly interested in the operating nights ( which i still have to see as my local club dont do this every week )
I have been told that my yearly membership will be £20 and £1 a week to go into the tea and biscuit kitty.

The foundation licence course gets done over a weekend and i really must do this to understand how all this comes together, cost wise is around £32

It might not be for everyone as most at my local radio club have different interests, operating ( like what i want to get my teeth into ) some do morse code, others are there to build and repair from scrach arials, and other bits of kit etc, and others for the wider communications.

Untill i get my first operating night under my belt, cant really post much more , my foundation course will be mid november as club needs another couple of people ( not just from this club , but local area ) to make it viable to do a group sitting for the foundation course. And again once i have sat this , will post on what its like.

keep up the good work preppers

:T didnt realise there was one really local to me and the next meet is this coming friday so as long as this cold is gone, guess where i am heading! :A thank yooooooooooooooooooooou fantastic fifer!

Popperwell

TeaCake wrote: »

Has anyone got any recommendations on the best place to buy tealights and small(ish) chunky non scented candles?

TeaCake, I think that I purchased my last of these at ASDA they have some larger tealights too but so far I have not found anything to put them in but they last upto 9 hours I believe.

mardatha wrote: »

Just a general Q re storing and keeping veg. What's your preferred option ?
tinned
dehydrated
frozen
..and why?

All of the Mar above except the dehydrator only because I haven't got one.:p Tinned(that's quite obvious)easily stored, long life. Frozen veg is still reasonably inexpensive and you get variety and can stretch it out over quite a lot of meals.

I'd like to use more fresh veg but only have cupboards. I may make more use of prepared veg as it is always on offer and you can usually stretch it over a few meals...and it saves on the preparation.

missrlr

Oh yes I have a C0stc0 card, where I was today. They now need many more lorries to stock Back up! You have to be a bit careful as the meat is only cheaper than my butchers )with the exception of pork for some reason) if it is on offer. Plus the Kirkland range is usually good, but the wash powder is a bit violent. Booze also can be expensive unless on offer. Cheese is usually good and the milk and cream are stupidly cheap! I buy cream and freeze it, fine for cooking but you need to be spot on with defrosting time if you want to use it as cream. Their clothes may be good but the Hunt3r Wellies aree not good value at the mo. the reacdt prepped stuff like cereal bars can be cheaper in Mr T if on offer.
Veg is great so is fruit if you can use it before it goes peculiar or store it somehow.

Regarding para cord. Always have a 10m length in both cars, on each floor of house and when I go out walking /shooting and so on. Plus have s stash of ex army stuff which is useful. also Very useful as is bodge tape and cable ties, a must for any travels, plus safety pins in every handbag, saved me a few embarrassing moment if a button has popped. But I also carry a sewing kit usually in the larger of my handbags ..... Oh and tissues and alcohol based hand wash ....

missrlr

I don't have a dehydrator, I must investigate ......

shegar

2T, thats not good, my hubbys carers son lived in Anthens greece for over his 22 yrs, hes just come home last week, because of all the troubles,no job,money etc.......

mardatha

I like Costco, good stuff but not extra cheap. Meat is brilliant.

Linda32

mardatha wrote: »

Just a general Q re storing and keeping veg. What's your preferred option ?
tinned
dehydrated
frozen
..and why?

Frozen for us as we have a fridge freeze and we bought a small table top one which we keep in the garage which houses the overspill. We have an allotment so it became necessary.

The spuds and onions keep better in a hesian sack which we got of ebay. We keep these in our entry. The spuds like it dry, dark and cool.

I was once asked on a forum what on earth an entry was so for anyone who dosn't know, its an alley way between your house and next doors house, between two terraced houses.

GreyQueen

:j missrlr, deep respect (and awe and a bit of envy ) I'd be a happy bunny if I had that amount of provisioning space. You go, gal.

It's been chucking it down outside since about 3 pm when I got rained off the lottie. Noticed the river was well up when I biked home past a place where the banks are more natural and there is a bit of flexibility for temporary flooding. Further down in the heart of the old city by my block of flats, the river is encased is steel and concrete banks. There's a fair bit of clearance most of the time but I never forget it's just 50 meters away.

Living on the flood plain concentrates the mind wonderfully, I find.:p As did reading something which I did understand (1 litre of water weighing 1 kilo) expressed in a way I hadn't; that one cubic meter of water weighs one tonne. Water isn't compressable, so a cubic meter of water will always take up the same amount of space and it will have to go somewhere. A flood is tonnes and tonnes of water hammering all in its path. Sobering, isn't it?

A lot of my prepping-type stuff is simply camping gear so not especially purchased for some theoretical future risk, but stuff I choose to have anyway (can't afford B & B so any odd bit of time away is the tent or a youth hostel). I've always favoured strongly-made practical clothes with lots of pockets and am never happier than running amok among racks of outdoorsy type clothing.

Trouble is, unless it turns up in TK Maxximus, it can be a bit pricey, but I do like Rohan clothing. I'm wearing a pair of their trousers which have stood up to 8 years of hard wear and have the advantage that they are some kind of amazing techy fabric which you can wear straight from the washer or, as happened to me this afternoon, get soaked to the skin in and then they will dry on you in about 10 mins. Beats the misery of being out and about in sopping wet clothes for hours, as sometimes happens when travelling, for example.

I lucked-out a few weeks back at the c.s. and got a longs-sleeved technical type top, which has been added to the bugout bag, which contains a complete change of clothing inc a fleece, hat and gloves, and several changes of undies and socks. And a wash kit and a travel towel.

A fairly easy-to-predict scenario at my block is a crisis caused by a natural disaster (the river being number 1 suspect) or an unnatural one caused by some erratic act by one of my neighbours. We've had a gas explosion caused by human idiocy once before and you can still see the scars from the rebuilding, if you know where to look.

We have some poor souls here with severe mental health problems, and some less pitiable individuals who are busily frying their little grey cells with drink and drugs. I figure if we had to do an emergency evac, it would be probably a temporary thing into somewhere like a local community centre, in which case a few bits and bobs would make it a lot more bearable, especially if one had to do a runner in pjs. A set of comfortable clothes and an ability to freshen up would be fantastic for the morale.

People are funny about the idea of preparing for hard times in general, in my experience. I suppose that we've now got the third generation coming to adulthood in a country with a social welfare system designed to protect us from the worst vargaries of misfortune. I'm damned proud of what people fought for and deeply-appreciative of things like the NHS but I wonder if there is a downside to this in respect that it can breed a degree of complacency.

I don't mean in those who are currently on benefits (or have recent experience of needing the state's help to survive) but in those who haven't experienced the "generosity" and have at the back of their minds the idea that there is an all-powerful and basically-benign State which will rescue them in their hour of need and therefore they don't need to make such provisions as they can for their future needs. Trouble is, the Govt can rewrite the rules on us very quickly, as many of us and our loved ones will have found to our cost.

Of course, none of us can prep (or buy insurance) against every eventuality but I regularly come across people who spend every penny they have, and then some, never thinking that the S may HTF in their personal lives. Even if it's a job loss, rather than mayhem or disaster, it can take a lot out of you to get back up and running again.

I suppose I have a wary nature as have chronic health problems which mean I cannot do a 40 hour workweek, and a CV of working in the not-for-profit sector which has exposed me to an awful lot of human misery, some of which could have been avoided or at least substantially lessened, by some pretty basic prepping such as a storecupboard of a few weeks' worth of basic groceries.

Ach well, we can only do what we can do, day by day. Good luck with whatever you're up to, fellow preppers.