Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

This evening I made a brief trip to my allotment; 15 mins bike ride each way and 15 mins on the plot. I fetched down about 20 kg of onions, in two nets, in the bike basket.

They were heavy but nothing my built-like-a-tank Pashley couldn't handle and nothing my middle-aged-not-too-vigourous self couldn't pootle along at twice walking speed with very minimal effort.

The puskbike is an excellent force-magnifier in terms of speed and ease in transporting loads. You don't have to be young or fit to bicycle, you just move along at the right speed for you.

An now cooking a simple meal incorporating h.g. runner beans which will be in the tum less than an hour off the plant, great way to eat fresh food.

My allotment is giving up its harvest and beginning to move into the autumn mode, where is import fertility with manure and other natural additives, and the leeks which will me my mainstain winter veg are sitting pretty. I love the seasonality of gardening and how it remind you of the necessity to plan in time, as well as space, and that you really need to be thinking 1-2 years ahead, minimum. Plus the discipline of looking after the barn (shed) and the tools.

[Deleted User]

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I would have a freezer full of pork that would have to be eaten.

Which, if you have an electric cooker (or the gas goes off as well), is going to be difficult to do.

[Deleted User]

Frugalsod wrote: »

I doubt such an event will be overnight anyway. Or if it does get to that stage it will be foreshadowed by events elsewhere and in the news.

Not necessarily. An EMP attack, or, more locally, a substation failure, would have no warning.

[Deleted User]

greenbee wrote: »

You must be getting a different letter to me:

"Have your circumstances changed?

You may remember you told us nearly two years ago that you didn't require a TV licence. As we mentioned at the time, we're now writing to you to find out if your circumstances have changed. etc... etc...

The different letters are probably because GQ hasn't officially told them she doesn't require a TV Licence.

Can I ask, GQ, if the letters are addressed to you by name, or just to the Current/Legal Occupier"?

GreyQueen

The Legal Occupier.

They've never had my name, at any of the addresses where they've harrassed me. I've refused to give it to them on grounds that I don't have TV and therefore don't need to appear on their database.

I believe I'm correct in that I can refuse to give my name to any organisation if I like, other than the Police?

[Deleted User]

Karmacat wrote: »

I've only been tv-free for just over a year, but they haven't sent me anything since I stopped the licence and informed them online once.

The problem with communicating with them is, it gives them information, to use against you.

Blue_Doggy

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Here's a thought.....If the power was out too how would you go about doing what needs to be done? How long could you cope for? Interesting to see what answers come back on this one!

If the power were out, then unless the water companies have powerful enough generators and fuel to run them indefinitely, I fear we will be literally up sh*t creek very quickly, as the waste water depends on pumps at some stage to take it away :eek: . There's a limit to how many buckets of water can be tipped down the loo if it is going nowhere. :eek::eek::eek:

So, ... has anyone got the instructions for making a (decent) earth or composting toilet? And how will folk with no garden cope?

Not that it will matter very much, because the lack of police or civil authority will probably see "bandits" (for want of a better word) running the show and taking what they want from anyone who looks as though they have something to "share".

(Army? What Army? Is there any left?)

[Deleted User]

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

we know people with land where he could practice and even hunt rabbits etc.

Do you know how to skin and dress small game?

[Deleted User]

you can wee into a bucket and you can line the existing loo with a couple of black plastic sacks, you won't be able to flush and you need sawdust/sand/earth to scatter on top of the poo to keep smells down, you'd have to seal the sacks VERY tightly and store them out of the house if that was safe or in the house in the coolest, most distant place from your living quarters that you could. the wee could be tipped as far from the house as you can and is not going to give you problems as long as you aren't using an open water source which it could contaminate. You'd have to dispose of the poo sacks away from your dwelling as and when it was safe to do so, choosing somewhere that wouldn't impact on anyone else. In medieval times human poo was dug out of the pit it was deposited in when the pit was full and when it was aged it was spread on the fields as fertilizer, if you could make your earth closet you'd in time have a useable resource.

Blue_Doggy

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

you can wee into a bucket and you can line the existing loo with a couple of black plastic sacks, you won't be able to flush and you need sawdust/sand/earth to scatter on top of the poo to keep smells down, you'd have to seal the sacks VERY tightly and store them out of the house if that was safe or in the house in the coolest, most distant place from your living quarters that you could.

I can't really see it catching on long-term, although in the absence of much electrically-driven entertainment ...

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

the wee could be tipped as far from the house as you can and is not going to give you problems as long as you aren't using an open water source which it could contaminate. You'd have to dispose of the poo sacks away from your dwelling as and when it was safe to do so, choosing somewhere that wouldn't impact on anyone else. In medieval times human poo was dug out of the pit it was deposited in when the pit was full and when it was aged it was spread on the fields as fertilizer, if you could make your earth closet you'd in time have a useable resource.

Seriously, though, we'd be dependent on everyone else being properly public-spirited and sadly the evidence available for the hygienic disposal of poo of the canine sort doesn't fill me with confidence that human poo would be carefully treated.

(Apologies to all for having dragged the thread down into the sewers!)