Preparedness for when

ivyleaf

Frugalsod What do you use your mixer for, apart from (presumably) bread? You obviously get a lot of use out of it

moneyistooshorttomention

I did buy one of those measurer gadget cones a while back and my personal experience was I didn't really "relate" to it and it went a bit rusty anyway.

What I do like is my American-style set of "cups" for cup measurements and also measuring spoons and I am gradually learning and starting to find them handier. My porridge for breakfast is the quarter cup from the set, a helping of couscous is the one-third cup from the set and so on.

[Deleted User]

If we have no electricity or an uncertain supply all the most careful plans to cook things and keep them in the freezer will mean losing food stocks. Cans are more expensive but have the advantage of being shelf storable and needing no power source to maintain their viability as usable foods. Until that day, unless the actual date is known? freezing is fine but could lose you stores if it happens unexpectedly. Cups are fine too, I find the cone easy to use and it's in daily use here guess it's horses for courses!

GreyQueen

Frugalsod wrote: »

There was an article recently on Zero Hedge about the luxury bunkers for billionaires. It made me think where is safe for a billionaire in a case of upheaval?

Private jets can be downed by a revolutions airforce or even simple missiles.

Private yachts will be easy to find and almost none have any provision for growing crops or creating what you need on board.

Bunkers can be buried under concrete to trap the occupants. How many bunkers have the facilities to dig themselves out? Even a safe room in a fortified house might keep people out for long enough but the plan might change to keep you in your safe room permanently.

If they flee across borders a vengeful regime could simply hunt them down with drones and agents. The Russians have been killing dissidents like this for years.

:)I've seen articles including photos in the msm, never mind the Hedge, all about the luxury bunkers for the rich. And thought to myself that if I was a super-rich paranoic, I would not be doing business with a bunker-builder stupid enough to put their bunker's location and specs all over the meeja where any tom, di ck or harry can read all about it, and log details for later action.

The trouble with the super-rich is that they are highly dependant on people who aren't super-rich. Cooks and cleaners, drivers, yacht crew, bodyguards and other security specialists, you name it, you can bet your last farthing that they have some menial doing all the important and necessary stuff for them.

And menials have the keys to the castle. And may decide that they want a piece of the wealth for themselves. Or to settle some scores. Or be co-opted by others to gain access to their wealthy masters.

And those numpties preening on Rich Kids of Inst+ram are some of the biggest idiots going. Daddy worth a few billion? You just put a big label on yourself - Kidnap Prospect - even now, never mind what might happen post or during SHTF.

++++++++++

Have spent 5 hours playing in the dirt and have eaten the first strawberries and have the first broad beans in the steamer. Nomnomnom.

Memory_Girl

mardatha wrote: »

Scottish weather forums muttering about a bad winter to come. Anybody on here in Scotland will know that we've had a very poor cold year so far. Maybe best prep for a winter like 2010.

Checks Tablet making supplies ... only enough for 8 batches .. better get prepping!!

MG

Blue_Doggy

I've lurked here on and off for a while, having started thinking about these potential problems since 1999 and the Y2K potential problems, and even looking back to the Great Storm of 1987 (when the place I was living at the time lost power for over a week, and roads were closed for a couple of days).

My stores tend to be long-term items, so mostly tins, which have the added advantage of containing water, or other liquid, which means not having to use my valuable potable supply for cooking, and the cooking water can mostly (with some beans not!) be used as a veggie stock for soup. Plus tinned food has been cooked in the canning process, so can at a pinch be safely eaten cold. The only downside (apart from the lost tin opener!) is the weight if it needs to be transported.

I still have my oil lamp from 1987 (with oil), and have always kept candles (including stubby ends), matches and jam-jars with string handles to make lanterns. I've never liked to live anywhere with only one source of energy; water could be a big problem, and waste disposal a nightmare.

I'm another one who would bog out on foot, preferably cross-country, if things went really badly wrong. Years ago I read a book called "The Death of Grass" by John Christopher, which I found a reality check.

moneyistooshorttomention

Been eating my own strawberries now for about a week:D. Yer proper fresh fully ripe version with loadsa cream it was today:p

Should be able to get my garden turning out a good bit more produce soon and I'm planning on the more unusual the better (well....as prepping websites sometimes say "Why would they take the food growing if they don't actually recognise that it IS food?"). That sounds like a valid point - and anyway I like being a foodie forerunner...two birds one stone. You name something I've never heard of and I'm wondering if it will grow here..

Frugalsod

ivyleaf wrote: »

Frugalsod What do you use your mixer for, apart from (presumably) bread? You obviously get a lot of use out of it

I use the glass blender to make home made baileys, cold soups bases.

The metal blender for soups, great for using up left overs.

The food processor for grating cheese when lazy. Making peanut butter and also oat meal biscuits. Soon home made nutella and possibly butter. Pasta base. Breaking biscuits for banoffee pie base.

The main bowl for making cakes, bread, pizza bases. Whipping cream for banoffee pie topping.

Mincer for making mice from whole meat. Soon will look start chorizo and sausages.

Rasper for grating parmesan, slicer for cutting veg.

Pasta maker for pasta, from pasta base.

Multimill for crunchy peanut butter, mayonnaise but not successfully yet. Chopping small quantities of ingredients.

GreyQueen

I've read Death of Grass, too.

One thing which happens when law and order isn't working is that persons of a criminal nature take the opportunity to do what they do anyway, and to do them more frequently and viciously. Which would include such things as rape and robbery, mayhem and murder. In the Balkans, people used lawless opportunities to settle scores. It'd happen here, too.

I would be very reluctant to bug out in this country, because you would instantly be vulnerable to predators and in danger of dying from exposure. You don't need any spectacularly-awful weather to die of exposure even at these latitudes, even in summer. Nor do we have large sparsely-populated areas where you can hide out. If it's sparsely-populated, there is usually a very good reason, like high moorland, mountains etc.

Also, in cities, there is more likely to be a timely response to a call for help, and more likely to be a priority for getting utilities back on. My previous flat was on a main road in the city and when there was a powercut, it took down the traffic lights by the house as well. We were never off-supply for more than 20 mins, whereas in the countryside, some of my rellies are off-supply from anything from 1-3 days several times a year.

If there was a long-term outage of water (or loss of electricty taking water down with it) I would eventually have to consider bugging out if disease broke out. I'm not talking Ebola but ordinary water-borne diseases like cholera. We've had the Black Death in my city, and the place was a charnel house as so many died. I know where the plague pits are, and some of the houses which were standing then are standing still. Infected people were boarded up inside some of them to die.

One thing about my job is that we get dozens and then tens of dozens of calls within minutes whenever the water or electricity goes off. Not that the council provides either of these services, but the public en masse call us when they're not working. I've seen half the city lose its swater supply in minutes, we could almost track the fault by seeing which postcodes were off, and where the pressure was dropping rapidly. And I spoke to the call centre at the water company, and they told me they didn't know they had a problem until the public told them, and they didn't know where it was until they'd done some investigations.

One failed electric pump took about 20,000 homes off-supply with no warning. Think about that, and be very very afraid.

sb44

As well as rice, pasta, tinned veg etc I have decided to buy some calorie laden foodstuff, this is a typical list for one week, doesn't include veg etc.

A lot of these are things I wouldn't normally buy as I have the time to make meals from scratch at the minute, of course that would change if the SHTF, especially if we lost power.

I will have about 20 gas canisters (although that wouldn't last long) to go with the 2 portable gas stoves, a tealight type burner stove (that uses surgical spirit in the burners etc), made a penny stove and have a rocket stove in the back garden.

Anyway, foodstuff, mostly from Lidl, what do other members think. Don't forget this is just the base of the meals for one week. We wouldn't buy most of it normally but, come the crunch and food wasn't being delivered to local shops etc, we would have something to eat. We have tried all of it, except for the Bockwurst.

Idea for 7 day basic meals to build upon.

All tins and jars

Jar Bockwurst sausages £1.39 Lidl

Large tin Chilli Con Carne £1.99 Lidl

Tin lean Corned Beef £1.99 Lidl

Chicken in White Sauce £1.29 (lots of chunks of chicken breast) £1.29 Lidl

Tin Premium Stewed Steak £1.99 Lidl

Spam £1 on offer at most places (not had for years but is is calorie dense)

Tinned Corned Beef Hash 74p (half price in Tesco) surprised how much lean corned beef was in this, far more beef than spuds!

So basically, as a last resort and without wanting to use much fuel to cook, I plumped for this lot, plus you could eat all of it cold from the tin (god forbid if needed too).

Lots of calories in most of the food which would be needed to just keep the body running.

Is it worthwhile stocking up on these type of things in bulk, ie for at least 6 months?

I have enough of these items for just two months at the minute.