Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

jk0 wrote: »

I did try this about thirty years ago. I was trying to make homemade Dandelion Coffee. (Anyone heard of it?) I loved it, but it was pricey, so I went digging in the garden and roasted the roots.

I don't know what the roots would taste like to eat, but I can tell you that the coffee I made was vile!

I've heard of dandelion root coffee (and of it being vile) before, but I don't drink coffee and was thinking of something edible. If I ever give it a go, I shall report back on it.

thriftwizard

I have a cast iron skillet, if I hit somebody with it I'd almost certainly be looking at a dead body and have damaged myself in the process - its seriously heavy.

Use whatever you have to hand, and using it instinctively is by far the best way.

Oh dear - what I have to hand normally IS a cast iron skillet! Or a cast iron sewing machine - I could do some serious mischief with a Singer 99K...

nuatha

thriftwizard wrote: »

Oh dear - what I have to hand normally IS a cast iron skillet! Or a cast iron sewing machine - I could do some serious mischief with a Singer 99K...

I'm the third generation to use this skillet, I don't want to take the risk that I'd lose it - either through breakage or more likely as evidence in a court proceeding.
There again if I'm at home, there are far better choices of weapon to hand. In the kitchen there's a couple of knife blocks and my knives are sharp. there's a steel for sharpening knives - effectively a thin steel club. Living room offers spectacle cleaning spray, a broadsword among other items which could be utilised. My office offers additional swords, and a couple of quarter staves. The bedrooms offer a selection of walking canes, so at least I know I don't have to resort to the skillet.

I thought the 99K was the small portable machine - I've just googled it, it is, but its relative - if you're going to swing a 22lb+ sewing machine ... remind me not to upset you from within slapping range

[Deleted User]

Anything I've baked could be regarded as a lethal weapon if thrown by anyone but me.....you're safer if I'm aiming. I can bake things that make dwarf bread look like meringues, it's a skill that will make me a very desirable addition to any armoury in a post SHTF world!!!

nuatha

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Anything I've baked could be regarded as a lethal weapon if thrown by anyone but me.....you're safer if I'm aiming. I can bake things that make dwarf bread look like meringues, it's a skill that will make me a very desirable addition to any armoury in a post SHTF world!!!

Apparently dwarf bread is very desirable, I'm not sure where or why.

“The dwarf bread was brought out for inspection. But it was miraculous, the dwarf bread. No one ever went hungry when they had some dwarf bread to avoid. You only had to look at it for a moment, and instantly you could think of dozens of things you'd rather eat. Your boots, for example. Mountains. Raw sheep. Your own foot.”
Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

Jazee

I always worry that the things I could use as weapons against an intruder (and they are actual weapons) would most probably be used by them against me first.

nuatha

Jazee wrote: »

I always worry that the things I could use as weapons against an intruder (and they are actual weapons) would most probably be used by them against me first.

The actual weapons in my house are things that I spent years training with and therefore know how to defend myself from. I tend to assume an intruder will come equipped with a weapon they feel comfortable using and its unlikely to be a sword, 3-4 foot long bits of steel are seriously unwieldy in confined spaces, especially if you aren't used to handling them (and six foot quarter staves are even worse). I live in a relatively modern house - though not as bijou as GQ's there aren't the wide open spaces to indulge in Errol Flynn sword sequences.

Just about anything can be turned into a weapon, but you're right. If you can use it to defend yourself, then it can be used against you. Most intruders don't expect to meet someone equipped and ready to defend themselves and their property - though I'd be tempted to go for GQ's tactic, a disabling strike and getting the flock out of there. (Edged weapons do not readily lend themselves to disabling strikes, but to lots of mess, three nines and paperwork - generally I wouldn't recommend them (or anything else that means more paperwork). The big advantage of swords is reminiscent of a scene from Crocodile Dundee, when the intruder is armed with a knife, a much bigger blade is very intimidating. If the intruder is armed with a firearm then blades aren't much of a defence.

GreyQueen

Yeah, nuatha, there's an American saying about not bringing a knife to a gunfight. Although it has been noted, by FerFAL among others, that you won't survive a close-quarters encounter with a knife attacker even if you have a gun - it's all over too quickly.

Jazee, I have trained in a martial art called aikido, which is mostly bare-handed stuff. There is a sideline to it - swordsmanship - as traditional Japanese swordsmanship (kenjutso) is one of the roots of aikido. I'm pretty confident that I could break someone's collarbone with a downward slice from just above head height, which is the barehanded version of the same strike delivered with a bokun, the wooden replica of a samurai sword used in training.

I no longer have a bokun but there wouldn't be room to swing one in my bedroom anyway (light-fitting would foul it). I still know how to balance myself to use a baton most effectively with a double-handed grip and my weight balanced just-so.

Aikidoists can take knives off people (control the wrist, control the knife) but it's something you'd need to be very skilled and well-practised at doing IRL. I wouldn't contemplate it - not practised enough to bet the farm on it.

My sensei always used to tell us that relying on a weapon is dangerous because it can be taken off you and turned against you. No one is likely to detach your arm and beat you to death with it.

Which is why, if you're intending to use weapons, you need to have carefully-considered when and how, and what type, which is why my Sabat i e r knives are buried in a kitchen drawer and not in the bedroom.

I still think a hard and fast smackdown and run like flock is a workable plan, given my particular set of circumstances.;)

fuddle

Oh dear. I would have the choice between a fishing rod and a crochet hook! :eek:

There would be things we could use in the kitchen or tool box I expect. I'm just wondering if it's niave of us to not have something to hand upstairs etc. We don't prepare for an intrusion at all. Do preppers think we should? I suppose it would depend where lived. GQ do you keep stuff to hand in shoebox towers?

Do the same self denfense laws apply in the home i.e. resonable force against unjust threat? I suppose an unarmed potential robber stood at the bottom of the stairs with a knife jabbed somewhere would bring a lot of trouble to my door if they do. Anyone able to clarify?

GreyQueen

fuddle wrote: »

Oh dear. I would have the choice between a fishing rod and a crochet hook!

The crochet hook offers greater versatility, but has the possible downside of being small and fiddly and easy to drop. I have enough trouble keeping hold of the knitting pin not actually in the knitting.

At least once a week I am carrying a 5ft longbow around this city in its cloth tube, as I to and fro from archery class. And often get asked if it's a fishing rod. Probably going to be saying yes to that, from now on, and hoping that people don't twig that there is a cyclindrical carry-tube for arrows slung across my back.

Although the same kind of tube is used to carry papers so, if I accessoried it with an artist's portfolio, people might assume it held a roll of drawing paper.

Most people see what they expect to see, and don't really study on passers-by or other people's homes, as long as things are approximately normal. Never run if you're up to no good, for example, as people always look at someone running. And always rubber-neck at the Police, as conspicious avoidance of eye contact is something they'll pick-up on and wonder why you're trying to avoid their notice.

Fuddle, because of the layout of my flat (only external door and bedroom door three strides apart in a straight line, and the sitting-room opening off the hall before the bedroom door, and the kitchen opening off the sitting-room, it isn't feasible for me to think If I hear someone very bad kicking through the door, then I will run to the kitchen and grab the rolling pin.

There will be just enough time to kick off the duvet as I grab the rolling pin from its permanant position resting against the headboard. Then I will have to take down a would-be intruder because it'd be them and me in a 75cm wide hall and I'd have to go past them to get outside (yes, I could climb out of the bedroom window but with an assailant right there, there will not be time to do this).

Having been the victim of a drug-dealer kicking through my door and then firing up a flamegun outside (boy, was that a fun five day period - not!) I have a pretty good idea of how these things go. And they go very quickly.

Re what is allowable as self-defence, I am no legal expert but I believe that your response should be proportionate to the threat. The difficulty of that is what is proprtionate? And how do you make that call in a crisis? If I am a strapping man who knows how to box, and I come face-to-face with another strapping man as an intruder in my home, proportionate might mean smacking him in the face. And I might have a realistic prospect of doing that effectively.

As I'm a 50 + female with far less upper-body strength than a man, attempts at fisticuffs would likely end quickly and badly - for me. I am also not fit and well enough to effectively run from someone so, if I am to escape, I have to leave them behind me in an unfit condition to pursue - hence a painful blow of a disabling nature would be appropriate and, in my mind at least, proportionate. A judge and jury would have to decide what they thought of it, of course.

A thing which is always worth holding at the forefront of our minds when contemplating self-defence is that anyone attacking us has made a decision to do so. They will have their bodies flooded with adrenaline, and may have hopped themselves up for the crime with booze or other drugs. We, on the other hand, will be peacefully going about our business/ fast asleep, and ill-prepared for action. When something kicks off, it will be very very fast.

Although the other night when things got a bit interesting here, I was up on my feet a la rolling pin and wired on adrenaline myself in seconds - false alarm, thankfully.