Preparedness for when

armyknife

GreyQueen wrote: »

An option for weight-training with a pack would be to use water bottles. I litre = 1 kilo, of course, and if you found yourself in a position where you couldn't carry on, you could drain out the water and carry home the empties. There's a very steep hill near me in the city where you can often see people training by running up and down with weighted packs (some of them are military types) as it's an excellent workout. One of my pals bikes home up that hill every day after work, it's excellent for cardio.

We don't have rocks in my neck of the woods, although there are some huge flint cobbles on my allotment. Regs say you're not allowed to remove them so I spend the growing seasons chucking them from one area to another as they get in the way. One got one caught up among the potatoes as I was harvesting (in my defence it was potato-shaped, smooth and beige ) which amused me no end. That was the year of the effing huge potatoes (copyright Mr Random Passing Youth).

One think I recall from packing heavy weights is that it makes one mile feel more like three, subjectively. But it's a lot easier to carry weight on your back than hanging off your arms.

Good stuff, though ideally I'd say the weight needs to be mainly resting on your hips via a substantial waist support/strap that's integral to the rucksack, so the weigh isn't pushing or pulling you back out of it's most efficient position.

nuatha

Frugalsod wrote: »

Very true, though My suggestion of simply walking with the weight would show peoples fitness or rather their lack of fitness. You could do it with full kit and live off it for several days but most people would still need to discover their first weakness and that is their basic level of health. Also for most people learning these skills in the safety of a garden for several days would be less frightening than jumping in at the deep end. By doing it with some weight be it rocks from the beach you could abandon these should your walk be too tough. The last thing that you want to dump is your survival kit on a training walk.

And not dumping your kit could show you just what you can do with some stubborn, but I do see your point. Very few people are anywhere near as fit as they assume they are. (This includes me)
I do try to monitor my capabilities and adjust for them - ME means they can vary considerably. My biggest aids are knowing my body well (I have no option) and being stubborn - though too stubborn or too often will put me flat on my back for weeks or longer.

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I'd add being a strong and supportive caring human being in the first place to the skills needed to survive, never losing your sense of humour no matter how daunting life becomes, never being more important in your own estimation than the meanest of your fellow survivors, maintaining a positive outlook on whatever situation you find yourselves in and never standing back and letting someone else do badly what you could well.

Thank you.

greenbee wrote: »

Yes, but there are green men, wind, marsh lights and mosquitoes...

Not to mention tigers
Most years I spend a few months around the fens, tis a wondeful part of the world apart from the lack of horizon.

My work suitcase (which is currently seeing my happily through a 10-day multi-city business trip with some stuff still unworn) is small enough to go as cabin baggage on some flights. But I ALWAYS put it in the hold. If your bag in on the plane, they can't take off without you, and believe me, they REALLY don't want to have to unpack the hold :cool:

(That, and by the time I've dragged my belongings round 4 or 5 client sites during the day, the last thing I want to do is drag it through security and round the airport... waiting times for baggage, with a few notable exceptions are generally pretty short now - having said that, keep your fingers crossed for me on Monday and Tuesday!).

I shall do, and you have both options that way.
I can fully understand not wanting to drag stuff un-necessarily - I still deplore the end of proper left luggage facilities.

As for not wanting to take off without me, its not a problem I've had but I can see the advantage.

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Possibly training for Selection.

They're keen to get in, then, this is no hill for wusses. Best free workout in town. You don't get many gradients that steep here, and this is a relatively hilly city, by the standards of southern England. Most folk can't even walk up it without stopping a couple of times for breathers. It's one of the few hills I won't cycle down as it's very hard to control your speed descending and, if you get it wrong, you'll be under a car before you know it when you run out of hill and run into the main road.:eek:

armyknife, I consider the hipbelt to be an essential part of a backpack, I even have them on my 35 litre daypacks, one of which is permantly loaded as a BOB and ready to roll. We ladies need to consider a few other things as well; our shorter backs, narrower shoulders and lower centres of gravity. I like Deuter packs and have my main daily hiker as one of their ladies models (although not far shy of 6 ft, I'm shortbacked and long-limbed and packs proportioned for men can distribute the weight uncomfortably for me). I also favour packs, even my daily 'town bag' ruckie with a compression strap across the chest. Really find it helpful and, of course, it's less easy for anyone to rip it off your back.

moneyistooshorttomention

Well, all this and a glitch with a fuel supplier that turned out not to be quite so "German" (ie efficient) as I thought and I've been making some of the refinements suggested here and think I've got the "paperwork" type stuff more refined that I could just "grab and go" if it came to it (never mind "wash and go" as per certain shampoo adverts of yore).

So my own thoughts are turning to having:
- whatever official type data I needed in current society to prove I'm me so to say
- grabbing "real" jewellery and cash
- grabbing handbag
- grabbing a couple of throws and ditto hot water bottles (how come a crisis is always cold?:cool:)
- mobile and lead
- Ipad and ditto (note to self = about blimmin' time and beyond that you learnt to use it MITSM:o)
- various glasses.

and my thoughts are turning to "Think Positive", as in if it all went tits up and my house went Whoopsie and gone then one rebuild later (courtesy of insurance company) and the rebuilt house whacked straight onto the market for sale and the insurance money would cover the house I wanted to buy in the first place and...very much "silver lining to the cloud" (as the what-I-wanted-in-first-place house is quite noticeably dearer) and thinking "Its an ill wind....etc....etc"/silver lining to cloud. So few months of rather a lot of extra hassle and then Life goes Back On Track as per Original Plan and a case of "Twas all for the best then in the end....".

Or have I got that wrong somewhere and missed summat out of my calculations? It does look like a trade-off between this house and all these possessions and house-I-wanted and fewer possessions (but enough....) once the insurance company had paid up....so a mental shrug of shoulders and "Oh well..sans fairy ann".

So, am I being over-optimistic or would SHTF actually give some of us a chance to Start Again and from a better base this time and actually work out for the best in the long run?

Isn't that sometimes a bit of a motto for Life, ie things didn't go according to Plan but, when evaluated some years later, and actually things going adrift had meant that things went more According to Original Plan than they would have done if they hadn't "gone adrift" in the first place from the "Make The Best of Things Plan" that had been adopted instead iyswim?

thriftwizard

MTSTM, that all rather presupposes that insurance companies are functioning in a post-SHTF scenario. As malfunctioning of our somewhat-fragile economy is one of the most likely causes of things going really awry, I'm not too sure I'd bet on them still being around to pay anything out after The Event.

moneyistooshorttomention

Which is a very valid point and I guess we all tailor our personal preps according to our own perceptions of things/things we would be prepared to try and live with.

Insurance companies going kerbluey and losing absolutely everything and that was that, ie no compensation for losing everything comes under my own personal "What would be the point then?" heading. Hence assuming "losing everything" would be a temporary scenario that insurance companies can/would be around to deal with - as I could live with that. But everything gone forever more = forget it (as far as I personally am concerned).

I guess we all plan according to our own personal Worst Case Analysis/what we could cope with and beyond that think "Blow it".

Hence part of my own personal worst case analysis is "what if Britain is no longer a modern liberal secular society at some point - and here's me in a womans body?":eek: and part (amongst a variety of reasons) of why I did my own personal SHTF scenario of decamping to back of beyond and a part of Britain where I thought things would be "dealt with" in a fairly firm fashion if anyone tried to impose the ways ever of a less modern/liberal/etc/etc society (and I've already been told my judgement was spot on there).

My own personal shtf being "ohmegawd - what about ISIS? and don't think sharia law wouldn't ever happen in Britain...as it apparently already is in some areas of some of our cities" and my supply of 4-letter words would soon emerge at anyone trying to treat me like a woman, rather than a person and I'd be in trouble....

I cant keep me trap shut if I know I'm right and I would be out there deliberately in mini-skirts and low necklines and landing right "in it" if ever our Society changed in that respect and insisting "This IS Britain....get used to it. When in Rome..." and that is the shtf I personally fear.

I don't think we appreciate enough sometimes just what a blessing a modern secular society is to live in - particularly for women. I count that blessing every day personally....having had boyfriends and friends from very different ones....

nuatha

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Well, all this and a glitch with a fuel supplier that turned out not to be quite so "German" (ie efficient) as I thought and I've been making some of the refinements suggested here and think I've got the "paperwork" type stuff more refined that I could just "grab and go" if it came to it (never mind "wash and go" as per certain shampoo adverts of yore).

So my own thoughts are turning to having:
- whatever official type data I needed in current society to prove I'm me so to say
- grabbing "real" jewellery and cash
- grabbing handbag
- grabbing a couple of throws and ditto hot water bottles (how come a crisis is always cold?:cool:)
- mobile and lead
- Ipad and ditto (note to self = about blimmin' time and beyond that you learnt to use it MITSM:o)
- various glasses.

To pick personal scenarios - ie ones that affect you and possibly some neighbours but the rest of society continues as normal.

A sinkhole opens under your house or adjacent, your foundations are affected, you are evacuated, its not safe to return to get belongings.
Electrical power to your location is down and won't be restored for 5 days. (Its -5 outside and there's 18 inches of snow)
your locations drinking water is contaminated, TPTB have no idea what the cause is. There's water bowsers in the street, but rumour is that someone is urinating in them at night.

Anyone those life has a chance of returning to a version of pre-SHTF normality.

A banking crash that takes your pension out, your insurance company collapses, in both cases there is a theoretical government insurance that will cover some of your losses, though it could take several years in court to recover some of your assets (or not as the case may be).

All of those are scenarios that have happened to someone in relatively recent history.

Frugalsod

thriftwizard wrote: »

MTSTM, that all rather presupposes that insurance companies are functioning in a post-SHTF scenario. As malfunctioning of our somewhat-fragile economy is one of the most likely causes of things going really awry, I'm not too sure I'd bet on them still being around to pay anything out after The Event.

Insurance companies are suffering badly as a result of low interest rates. I suspect when things to turn sour a few insurance companies might be joining the many banks going bust. That said there will be opportunities for new insurance companies as it will not be as if they had lost their life savings as a result of an insurance company folding.

Softstuff

GreyQueen wrote: »

The long term survivors are feral cats and stainless steel cookware. I swear I didn't just make that up, either.:rotfl:

I think I might have to read that :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

They're keen to get in, then, this is no hill for wusses.

They have to be keen, because Selection is like no other physical military test on earth.

There's no beasting, no chasing, no encouragement. It's all down to your own determination.

And if you fail to make the finish time twice, you are RTU'd without question.

And, just to make it really fun, Selection is never cancelled, irrespective of weather conditions.