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Preparedness for when

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  • elaine241
    elaine241 Posts: 437 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Hello All
    Just catching up and popping in.

    Sorry Greyqueen but sod the tap water I'm wine all the way! Lol Although I do make my own from kits or fruits etc.

    Im surviving half term atm and it usually proves a strain as I seem to gain at least three or more extra kids whose parents send them to the farm to play. Que empty cupboards, mud through the house ( more than usual) and the usual mayhem half a dozen boys bring. Tonight my two plus two friends are camping in the bottom field, once again preps raided for campsite cooking.
    My eldest (10) is a great Bear Grylls fan and as a result hes decided to liberate a lot of my preps without me knowing :-(. Gone are some of my emergency space blankets, penknives, camp cooking pots, etc etc even tho I have given him his own!!! SO dont think your preps are safe just because they are hidden from passing visitors etc watch out the "prep pincher" well may be closer than you think!

    I am a bit worried that he takes all this survival training etc too seriously. The other day the dog caught and killed a young rabbit. Did I have young boys crying cos Thumper got murdered? Did I heck!! The little bu*gers skinned it, gutted it, jointed it and roasted it over an open fire at their den!
    I happened to mention they could catch the grey squirrels and eat them as they are on the menu in London restaurants; they were then discussing the best options to catch one, drop traps etc
    I seem to have raised a couple of survivalist kids who would go feral if the SHTF!
    I am now going to have to do a full stock take of my prep cupboard and replace those items that have been used. I think I will have to be more imaginative when it comes to hiding places!



    "Big Al says dogs can't look up!"
  • jk0
    jk0 Posts: 3,479 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Ha ha Elaine. Your story reminded me of my African friend.

    He cannot hang onto any of his tools as it seems traditional to allow his countrymen to borrow anything they need. (Which of course never comes back.)

    As a result of this, he literally has nothing. I had to lend him a saw yesterday. :)
  • sb44
    sb44 Posts: 5,203 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    Speaking of SHTF and food storage.

    I have seen the usual lists, ie dry goods, tinned meat, tinned fruit/veg, powdered milk etc, but have just had a thought about cheese.

    Has anyone had any experience regarding keeping waxed cheese unrefrigerated, for long periods of time?

    I have read that the wax protects the cheese (if not too hot), so may be worthwhile adding some Babybel to your long term storeage list.
  • mardatha
    mardatha Posts: 15,612 Forumite
    Personally I'd rather starve to death than eat the horrible stuff sb44, so I don't know lol
  • nuatha
    nuatha Posts: 1,932 Forumite
    elaine241 wrote: »
    My eldest (10) is a great Bear Grylls fan and as a result hes decided to liberate a lot of my preps without me knowing :-(. Gone are some of my emergency space blankets, penknives, camp cooking pots, etc etc even tho I have given him his own!!! SO dont think your preps are safe just because they are hidden from passing visitors etc watch out the "prep pincher" well may be closer than you think!
    Has he been watching James Garner in The Great Escape?
    He may well be keeping his own preps in case the SHTF.
    I am a bit worried that he takes all this survival training etc too seriously. The other day the dog caught and killed a young rabbit. Did I have young boys crying cos Thumper got murdered? Did I heck!! The little bu*gers skinned it, gutted it, jointed it and roasted it over an open fire at their den!
    I happened to mention they could catch the grey squirrels and eat them as they are on the menu in London restaurants; they were then discussing the best options to catch one, drop traps etc
    I seem to have raised a couple of survivalist kids who would go feral if the SHTF!
    The really bad news is that sounds very like me 40+ years ago.

    I am now going to have to do a full stock take of my prep cupboard and replace those items that have been used. I think I will have to be more imaginative when it comes to hiding places!

    Good luck (and whispers "Paperwork" :)
    sb44 wrote: »
    Speaking of SHTF and food storage.

    I have seen the usual lists, ie dry goods, tinned meat, tinned fruit/veg, powdered milk etc, but have just had a thought about cheese.

    Has anyone had any experience regarding keeping waxed cheese unrefrigerated, for long periods of time?

    I have read that the wax protects the cheese (if not too hot), so may be worthwhile adding some Babybel to your long term storeage list.

    If you've got somewhere with a stable temperature of 10-12 C then long term storage of real cheese is doable. (I've not tried this with mass produced supermarket cheeses) Waxed cheese doesn't suffer if the air is too dry or too wet. I've talked to a couple of cheesemakers about natural rind cheeses being vac packed after the two month mark for safer maturing, but haven't had the chance to try this myself as yet. (my experience has mainly been with cheddar types). An old fashioned pantry is almost as hard to find as a cellar these days but I've found I can use the north side of my garage (and add passive cooling if we get a hot summer).

    My father hated cheese, but loved an Aussie tinned cheese that was common during rationing, I never managed to find the right one, but there are still tinned cheeses on the market. (you can also get tinned butter, I've no idea how temperature sensitive these are, though I was eating non refrigerated tinned butter that survived the summer of 1976 so hopefully ok for long term ambient storage in the UK)
  • ivyleaf
    ivyleaf Posts: 6,431 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Elaine I'm hugely impressed that your children knew what to do with a dead rabbit :T
  • greenbee
    greenbee Posts: 17,841 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    nuatha wrote: »
    My father hated cheese, but loved an Aussie tinned cheese that was common during rationing, I never managed to find the right one, but there are still tinned cheeses on the market. (you can also get tinned butter, I've no idea how temperature sensitive these are, though I was eating non refrigerated tinned butter that survived the summer of 1976 so hopefully ok for long term ambient storage in the UK)

    They're not very temperature sensitive at all - we used to have them as cadets at school. Mind you, we used to stock up on tinned tuna and pot noodles to smuggle with us as all the food we were given was disgusting (must have been if pot noodles were preferable) :cool:
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    :)elaine, your boys sound like they've got the makings..... you should be proud.

    I went walking in the woods with my Dad this morning and we saw one part where someone has clearly been practising their bushcraft with shelters built against fallen trees. Dunno if it was kids playing (I spend a chunk of my childhood doing similar) or whether it was adults - we were a couple of miles from the nearest roads, and it was done with large quantities of substantial branchwood, one shelter being big enough to stand up in.

    Woods are crawling with ambulatory protein, squirrels on the ground everywhere scarfing the seeds from pinecones, plus we saw a roe deer. I reckon I could have blagged those squirrels with a thrown net, there were 4 on the ground nearby and they weren't nervous.

    :p Of course, if you started hunting them, they'd get nervous pdq.
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • Oh lordie, it really has hit the fan with the dog, I've just got home from my weekend away and he's taken the skin off the most prominent part of his tumour and bled and then some. Our vet is emergency cover only and not at the surgery so got him to Pets 8t Home and they fitted a collar to stop him pulling, which he is constantly since this happened so it just keeps opening up again. We'll get him to our own vet tomorrow but I think he won't be able to do much to help. Difficult times and anguishing over what is best for Docky. Not nice!!!
  • candlelight_2013
    candlelight_2013 Posts: 2,681 Forumite
    LYN I am so sorry, poor Docky, a difficult time ahead I think

    Much love

    Candlelightx
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