Preparedness for when

pineapple

mardatha wrote: »

geenbee my calor gas cooker is the best thing I own, I love it.
Pineapple, older people here used to always pop in and ask if we needed anything as they were going to the village but the newer younger people don't.

It's very sad. Where I used to live it was routine even in ordinary times. There again we were a group of only 20 houses so it was like an extended family (which had its negatives too )

calicocat

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

That is rather shocking Pineapple. Maybe it doesn't occur to people that there is any help they could usefully give - unless they are asked directly for it?

I was wondering what I would do if I spotted a house with flooding problems in the vicinity (and I can think of some that are at risk imo) and there are definitely some houses here that we know "cop it" regularly. Bar a couple of my immediate neighbours (who wouldn't be at risk anyway - the same as I'm not) who I would just leave to deal with themselves (long story of the way they've treated me behind that:().

For anyone else here though - ie strangers - then I guess I'd be looking for some visual cue as to whether help was wanted (eg people visibly sweeping out water/throwing out ruined goods)? If I saw that - then I think I'd probably say "Got a spare broom for sweeping that water out?" or "Need a hand removing that stuff?" or whatever seemed applicable from what I could see from those visual cues. So - yep...overall...I'd help if I could physically see that help was needed.

Maybe peoples reactions are down to whether someone has "trained" them into keeping an eye out for anyone looking "fragile"/helpless (ie in that case that would be my father then...). Maybe that's the thing and, if someone hasn't been "trained" into thinking that way - then maybe they don't tend to help? My nicest ex-boyfriend had been "trained" by his mother into keeping an eye out to see if anyone needed help. So - I guess parental upbringing is probably where that sort of viewpoint comes from?

How sad, and not what is portrayed as you say.

I does make you wonder. I've lived here only a couple of years so no real idea if folk here would help each other. However, I suspect not.

RAS

pineapple wrote: »

I am sure there will be many wondrous incidents of community spirit trotted out on the news in the coming days but there will also be a lot of people just left to get on with it.
The message is to try to build in 'self reliance' as much as possible, to have as many alternative forms of heating/cooking as possible and to maintain food and other stocks including things which can be eaten cold. Of course we all know this. That's why we are here! But it has certainly reinforced it for me.

I find the people where I will spend Christmas amazing. They are outside the village and some miles from the nearest town/shops etc. Last year was the first in some time when snow, ice or floods have not made life interesting.

When one car was obviously broken down and the other (optional 4 wheel drive) needed for work, the phone call came asking if a lift to town was needed in the neighbour's 4x4 for shopping or anything? When the weather is bad, people routinely check whether neighbours need anything before going to town and would not be upset if an early call to a worker requested a pick-up from the pharmacy etc.

For several years a multi-household team has teamed up to clear snow and ice, grit ice, usually more than one afternoon over the festive season. I think being a very small community, they have just developed this over the years. They are not best mates, there are some tensions and they certainly do not live in one another's pockets

When the road is "unpassable", the postie driving down the main road will spot someone out walking or driving, screech to a halt and dump a pack of letters and parcels with them for delivery to the hamlet. Or a message will be left for one household saying the post has all been left at the pub for collection.

It is not quite self reliance but realisation that they all benefit from being able to get home and get the mail, reduce their mileage and what goes round comes round.

With respect to part of pineapple's comment, I think that some people live their lives through a lens rather then interacting directly. Soaps provide a vicarious community but those watching may not know the people next door.

greenbee

calicocat wrote: »

How sad, and not what is portrayed as you say.

I does make you wonder. I've lived here only a couple of years so no real idea if folk here would help each other. However, I suspect not.

I've lived here for three years, and the community spirit was evident from the start (we had flooding the first year I was here). It works both ways.

moneyistooshorttomention

The level of community spirit is going to vary from place to place.

A lot of people will never encounter it. The first encounter with it I had, for instance, was in my 30s. Till then - city, then abroad, then abroad someplace else, city, town without any community spirit and I would have wondered what anyone meant referring to this.

It is possible for cities even to have community spirit - there was a time when people from my city were proud of my city and there was "community" there. Not now - its gone:(

Where I am now - its very mixed in the bit I'm in (there is an element of it in some respects and they astonish me with the amount of "division" to use a tactful word I notice on the other hand). A nearby place I spend quite a bit of time in has got it in abundance and I'm quite happy to join in with it there and that's part of why I prefer it there in many ways.

Hence I do think its largely down to childhood "training" (and not the community you are actually living in) BUT actually exercising that "community spirit" does indeed depend on how "community" minded that particular community is. Some communities are indeed exactly that. Most are probably pretty neutral. Some are....errrrm....."divided" and you lose count somewhat of how many "divisions" are going on.

pineapple

RAS wrote: »

For several years a multi-household team has teamed up to clear snow and ice, grit ice, usually more than one afternoon over the festive season. I think being a very small community, they have just developed this over the years. They are not best mates, there are some tensions and they certainly do not live in one another's pockets

This is exactly the way it was where I used to live. At times we needed a 'chain gang' to keep our unadopted lane passable. Also if it was difficult, the postie would leave mail at the pub and someone would collect it and bring it round. That said it was invariably the same people in the chain gang, the same 'someone' collecting post and the same people doing a bit of maintenance on the communal septic tank.

RAS

pineapple wrote: »

This is exactly the way it was where I used to live. At times we needed a 'chain gang' to keep our unadopted lane passable. Also if it was difficult, the postie would leave mail at the pub and someone would collect it and bring it round. That said it was invariably the same people in the chain gang, the same 'someone' collecting post and the same people doing a bit of maintenance on the communal septic tank.

Please to say that, based on my limit time there the only residents who were not in the chain gang were the weekenders, although they made their own effort at other times (Yay for a clear run at the right hand bend).

The post ended up with anyone (including next door's rellies staying over) except when it went to the pub, when only the drinkers were involved. Fortunately the septic tank was only shared with one house.

But I know what you mean. There are couple of hundred people on our plots and maybe thirty who run various events.

[Deleted User]

We've good neighbours who will always pitch in to help if there are problems, this end of the road is mostly retired couples with the odd exception but usually if someone needs a hand the menfolk will all turn out together and fix things. Someone usually has the right equipment for the job, whatever that job might be and also the relevant experience if it's a building, technical, gardening, DIY thing. I think if we had a weather event we'd ALL be hands on to help each other and the older folks we know throughout the village. Certainly if the power was out I'd have open house for anyone who needed to be warm and keep the stove alight and a warm room for the elderlies to be safe. I think we'd be able to feed people from supplies and certainly make tea from the teabag mountain. Property damage on a large scale would be more difficult though but I suspect the menfolk could make good and make safe small damage, walls down and shoring up is another matter though and we'd have to put people up which we would if needs arose.

thriftwizard

I have a couple of oil-filled electric radiators that I can use if the electricity goes off taking out the oil-fired boiler and CH with it.

Greenbee, I must be missing something here, but I'm wondering how you'll get any heat out of electric radiators if the 'leccy's gone off...?

RAS

Doh

Just occurred to me that the water stash is in the cellar. Now half of England would have to be flooded but in a cloud burst situation, I could imagine both the drain from the sink backing up and the the low sill on the cellar window being overcome.