Preparedness for when

moneyistooshorttomention

Daz

I used to wonder what they meant by talking about being a frog in a hot pot (ie saucepan of water that is steadily coming to the boil) - but I think that's a very apt description for the process that's been going on steadily for some years now and the water in the pot we are all sitting in is getting steadily hotter and hotter.

That has got me wondering whether "the worst" that can hit is on schedule for around 10-20 years time (ie when the last generation that had jobs/bought houses in more "normal times" has got to being elderly and, in many cases, ill and basically considered "out of the picture" by governments - ie my own Baby Boomer generation).

Many employers have been steadily working on the basis of changing wages and conditions to worse ones and its often been on the basis of carrying on treating existing staff as per normal and just imposing the worse wages/conditions on newer staff. Once the proportion of older staff still around reduced to a certain level - then employers "go for the kill" and try to get the existing staff too or just wait it out for them to retire/die off.

I wonder if that is rather what our Governments are doing in effect - and waiting for us Baby Boom Generation to die off/get too ill to bother with anyone other than ourselves personally and what the whole set-up is about is continuing to try and "kick the ball down the road" until we are basically out of the picture (with our awkward tendency to say how things used to be) and then "the balloon goes up".

greenbee

S_Wales_Saver wrote: »

Mrs L. I have been interested in the wonder bag for a while and have no problems making one. I don't have any cast iron but do you think it would work with AMC waterless pans?
They are a scary price, but mine were bought 40? years ago (maybe 45?) and are in daily use. You can't kill the things. Point is they are very heavy stainless steel and have a close fitting lid. That should be good yes?

I use stainless steel in mine sometimes and it's fine for stuff like soup, but stews/meat are definitely better in cast iron. Use the smallest pan you can for the volume of contents.

Doveling

S_Wales_Saver - I bought my cast iron casserole dishes in the sale at Sainsbugs and bought the oval ones which would fit snugly into an old cool box covered with an old wool blanket. The small oval dishes will also fit onto the top of the wood burner better than the round ones.

Cheapskate - we have a multi-fuel Stovax in the sitting room but think we will have a Morso for the dining room (I did want an Esse originally but wasn't impressed by a couple of reviews). It all depends on the size of your room and what you like the look of. I think it is best to get someone out to do a site survey and then take it from there. HTH

Daz- Have signed the petition. Did your Dad get his bill reduced?:)

Karmacat

nuatha wrote: »

I've a couple of tame electrical engineers when my head starts to hurt. Its useful at times.

I admire your foresight :j

The problem being if you are in the middle of an attack [chemical attack], you aren't able to decontaminate until you are out of the danger zone, by which time you may well be beyond decontam.

The only thing I can think of is to carry a full litre of water with you - and splash it over you when you're running as the aim would be to get yourself to medical help, not to deal with it yourself in full ....

Suddenly producing something like the mask you linked to is going to draw huge amounts of attention and suspicion at yourself. Prepping to survive an incident includes not being shot as a suspicious person.

:eek: You're right! You couldn't even hide it under a scarf - in gas attacks (and I've just been researching the gas attacks at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, as a relative was there) the instinctive reaction is to pull things away from their mouth and face. Hmmm.

Frugalsod

There is also a downside to being prepared for the very worst. If you were stopped on the tube with a gas mask, while you might be prepping for such an event, the authorities might not see it like that. They might actually think you are part of a gang planning an attack, which would be a reasonable reaction.

Though in the case of some poison cases they are colourless anyway so will not know that they are happening unless they have a distinctive smell.

[Deleted User]

S WALES SAVER I've over the years picked up both le creuset and aga cast iron casseroles from boot fairs, my best buy was a cast iron aga bean pot for £1.50 (they retail at £80!!!). If you have a le creuset seconds outlet near you they will be cheaper and if you have a factory outlet within reach, this summer I gor a 4.5 litre Denby cast iron casserole for £25.99 which is quite an outlay, but very much worth it. Al*i often have offers on cast iron cookware too so if you can find out when they do, you'd part with much less cash than buying one of the big brands. I always use the cast iron in the Wonderbag but when you think of it, the people they were invented for in South Africa would use whatever pot they had, it must work with most metals, just less efficiently than with cast iron.

Shropshirelass

Just de-lurking to say, cast iron pots are very traditional cookware in Africa. They make the best corn porridge, which has to cook slowly. For some reason they are much cheaper there, or should that be - much more expensive here!

Karmacat

I saw a very small cast iron saucepan in a local charity shop last week for £16 ... didn't buy it, it wasn't much more than a milk pan, but I'll be on the lookout properly now.

Thanks for the feedback on the chemical stuff, Frugalsod.

Frugalsod

Karmacat wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback on the chemical stuff, Frugalsod.

My pleasure. The problem is that to prep for everything you would need a large personal fortune and personal warehouse to cover every eventuality. It is also very unlikely. Prepping has an element of risk assessment and so you should prep for things that are likely to happen to you personally and that can be alleviated by some form of prepping. If you live in tornado alley then prepping for them makes sense. Prepping for flooding when you live up a mountain is not good.

Also very severe things like a large asteroid hitting the earth causing a mass extinction would be so bad that we really would struggle. I suspect that even Bear Grylls types would find survival tough when most life on earth was wiped out. Such things are impossible for individuals to prep for so why worry about them?

The things that I am prepping for are financial collapse of the banks again, which is certain but just a matter of when, since absolutely no effort has been made to reform the financial sector, and because it is possible for individuals to make some plans for this.

I am not worried about pensions because you could simply be yet another unsecured creditor to inadequate pension funds, and while we have not hear about pension problems they are there and growing ever larger thanks to ultra low interest rates. Most people are grossly under provided for anyway and so will depend on the state pension anyway, which is only becoming an option later and later anyway. Who knows they might even abolish pensions.

Most people should be making provisions for income falling and unemployment. When the next financial crisis strikes it will cause a surge in unemployment. That will also lead to a very significant drop in income, and then the possibility of having to move because you cannot afford where you live. While many people will hope that benefits will get them through the rough times they will have conveniently forgotten that they voted for a government that will clash the incomes of the unemployed of which they have just become a member of.

The other thing that they should be prepping for is climate change. It is now almost certain to happen, just a matter of how fast and how it will impact us. My plans are to try and reduce energy consumption and create a small way to power what I want from solar power. This also eliminates personal impact from power cuts, and rising energy prices.

Others are concerned that our governments are sleepwalking into World War 3 but if you are prepping generally you are probably as well prepared as you could be, unless you have kept and maintained that bomb shelter in the garden and have stocked it up.

Doveling

Not a happy Doveling.
Just had a phone call from dog owner's sister?!! Dog owner has changed her mind but couldn't bring herself to ring me.:(

I know he was only supposed to be coming for a couple of days trial but I think we both were aware, if he arrived here, he wouldn't be going back. Should have realised when she made a couple of excuses not to bring him last week.
Hope I made the right empathetic noises over the phone because I think I know how she's feeling.

Doesn't stop me from feeling though. He was gorgeous.