Preparedness for when

mardatha

I always look for the exit when I go into any place - the RV says that's cos I'm bats. But am sure a lot of you in here do that too...?

ginnyknit

Craigywv am so glad you got a date for the redundancy. It must have been hell for you wondering. Now get on with your prepping girl and feel proud of yourself :beer:

MrsLW :j:j:j:j thank goodness, I couldnt look at the news last night cos I was thinking about you and yours. I would have been certifiable if any of mine had been over there. OH kept asking me if they had got home everytime I looked on here.

Still in the midst of our loft clearance - :eek::eek: we were going to do it at our leisure over the next few months but the LL wants to re-insulate so it had to be done by 23rd of Nov and it has caused so much upset. Ok we had a lot of junk to get rid of but there was a lot of stuff that we wanted to keep and it has upset OH no end.

My WW3 pantry is now full of stuff to sell then I can carry on prepping, I think I have a comfortable supply of stuff but still needs tweaking. One good thing I found 3 candle sticks which are safer than botching something.

[Deleted User]

GINNY - Thank you so much, have had a text to say they're driving home and will ring when they get there so I'm a much relieved Mum, thank you too to your lovely OH how very kind of him, it's so much appreciated,you are such a lovely bunch of folks, I'm really lucky to know you all, Cheers Lyn xxx.

craigywv

thanks Ginny! what do you mean your ww3 pantry is full of stuff to sell? not being rude but i must have missed your post explaining what ww3 pantry is...............im intrigued!!!!! tell me more pls xxx

grandma247

Lyn Just popped in to say I am glad your dd is home safe now.


Had a message from ds2 to say his friends in Pennsylvania are fine, they just had high winds and lots of rain.

craigywv

not very shtf but tescos clubcard vouchers are out double up points on all frozen food!!! thats great guess where my vouchers are going, also toys,books etc....

nuatha

missrlr wrote: »

The second step is to persuade him that a grab bag is needed. So I have complied a list of things needed for this and will hope he buys into this. I actually think we need two. One for e.g. Hospital stays and one for e.g. Bug out scenarios. Plus dog one and document one.

Currently we keep weekend bags packed in the boots of the cars (along with a box of car prep kit), these double as hospital bags. The Go bags are in a cupboard by the front door both contain photocopies of the important documents, but the ID documents are part of our every day carry (all the documents are scanned and on a secure USB drive and are EDC). The cat's bag lives with his carrier in the understairs cupboard, since having that any where else tends to freak the cat.
I'm also working on using the hidden storage compartments in the cars to add the equivalent of a hospital overnight bag for each of us.

vanoonoo wrote: »

uuuuuuurgh! eeeeeew! ack! *repeat to fade*

love the idea of your commune collective though :beer: - have there been any hiccups with red tape along the way? did you have to sign documents to say investments were part of the collective and not to be claimed back by individuals? I only ask as I remember having an issue with a joint purchase of a washing machine in a shared house and when one girl moved out she wanted to take it with her!

We didn't have major issues with red tape at all. Surprisingly since we went about things in a very ad hoc way. We deliberately kept things under the radar, no one was interested in turning this into a money making venture, we did add a small levy to bulk items to cover the costs of packaging (IIRC 1p per kilo). There were several members who would underwrite some of the bulk purchases (and would store whatever they had paid for) The only thing we got particularly organised about was the purchase of the retreat. That was bought on equal shares, with the provisio that shares could only be sold either to the group or to people previously approved of by the group. Missing two years of ground rent would result in the share being forfeited (never happened). We worked on consensus decision making, frustrating at times but overall worth while.
The larger group no longer runs, we had several members die, a few others move out of the area. We still have an ad hoc buying club, largely comprising of the remaining core members.

GreyQueen wrote: »

I'm going to look at getting a thumb drive and backing up my files onto it, and taking that with me (am thinking inside a small tin in case of EMP probs) in the BOB. Nothing particularly confidential on the PC as I never do banking etc online but it'd be a pest to lose stuff.

I was also thinking of scanning instruction booklets, warranties and receipts for my appliances and big-ticket household goods in case of having to claim on insurance in event of total loss. I've heard some insurers can be right PITAs if you can't prove you had X, Y or Z item in the first place. Would be about 30 mins work and might save a world of aggravation later on.

Many instruction booklets can be downloaded (I started doing this because I couldn't find them or never had them - second hand items tend not to come with instruction books. Makes sense to keep copies of receipts and warranties as well. I have a fairly extensive book collection, catalogued online to help reduce the buying of duplicates. I'm slowly working through the music and DVD collections for the same reason, copies of the catalogues also live on my phone (since that's what I can check when I'm tempted to buy - saved a fortune in not having a fourth or fifth copy of a book where I'm missing one or two from a series.

EMP protecting thumb drives, a metal box filled with insulating foam will work if you have a close fitting and over lapping lid. You can get drives made for survivalists, generally not cheap, and not all of them look like they will work. However the ideal to look for would be a solid metal case, lined with an insulator between the case and the electronics, you either want a screw on lid or a tight fitting slip on lid that has a substantial overlap collar.
I've seen some interesting steampunk designs that fit this criteria (and even waterproof ones) far cheaper than "survivalist" ones.

At the other end of the price scale, a repurposed "baccy tin" lined with insulating foam containing a pair of flash drives survived the attention of a focussed arc discharge emp generator in tests I was involved in a couple of years back. A more recent accidental experiment showed that unprotected USB drives can survive a washing machine, but I won't be in a hurry to repeat this one.

Mrs LW Pleased to read your daughter is safely back in the UK

Dippypud

nuatha wrote: »

The Go bags are in a cupboard by the front door both contain photocopies of the important documents, but the ID documents are part of our every day carry (all the documents are scanned and on a secure USB drive and are EDC). The cat's bag lives with his carrier in the understairs cupboard, since having that any where else tends to freak the cat.
I'm also working on using the hidden storage compartments in the cars to add the equivalent of a hospital overnight bag for each of us.
We didn't have major issues with red tape at all. Surprisingly since we went about things in a very ad hoc way. We deliberately kept things under the radar, no one was interested in turning this into a money making venture, we did add a small levy to bulk items to cover the costs of packaging (IIRC 1p per kilo). There were several members who would underwrite some of the bulk purchases (and would store whatever they had paid for) The only thing we got particularly organised about was the purchase of the retreat. That was bought on equal shares, with the provisio that shares could only be sold either to the group or to people previously approved of by the group. Missing two years of ground rent would result in the share being forfeited (never happened). We worked on consensus decision making, frustrating at times but overall worth while.
The larger group no longer runs, we had several members die, a few others move out of the area. We still have an ad hoc buying club, largely comprising of the remaining core members.


Many instruction booklets can be downloaded (I started doing this because I couldn't find them or never had them - second hand items tend not to come with instruction books. Makes sense to keep copies of receipts and warranties as well. I have a fairly extensive book collection, catalogued online to help reduce the buying of duplicates. I'm slowly working through the music and DVD collections for the same reason, copies of the catalogues also live on my phone (since that's what I can check when I'm tempted to buy - saved a fortune in not having a fourth or fifth copy of a book where I'm missing one or two from a series.

EMP protecting thumb drives, a metal box filled with insulating foam will work if you have a close fitting and over lapping lid. You can get drives made for survivalists, generally not cheap, and not all of them look like they will work. However the ideal to look for would be a solid metal case, lined with an insulator between the case and the electronics, you either want a screw on lid or a tight fitting slip on lid that has a substantial overlap collar.
I've seen some interesting steampunk designs that fit this criteria (and even waterproof ones) far cheaper than "survivalist" ones.

At the other end of the price scale, a repurposed "baccy tin" lined with insulating foam containing a pair of flash drives survived the attention of a focussed arc discharge emp generator in tests I was involved in a couple of years back. A more recent accidental experiment showed that unprotected USB drives can survive a washing machine, but I won't be in a hurry to repeat this one.

http://www.corsair.com/en/usb-drive/flash-survivor-usb-drives.html

[Deleted User]

Thank you so very much to everyone who has left messages to say they are glad DD2 is home and safe, what a lovely supportive bunch of people you all are, I'm really grateful to each and every one of you (humblingly too many of you to mention) who has cared enough to leave a message and share my relief and joy having shared my worry and fear over the past few very difficult days. I have never felt so cherished in all my life, you are all amazing, and I'm very lucky to know you, Love Lyn xxx.

I am also very glad to know that other peoples relatives and friends are also safe after what must have been a horrific few days, L x.

ginnyknit

craigywv wrote: »

thanks Ginny! what do you mean your ww3 pantry is full of stuff to sell? not being rude but i must have missed your post explaining what ww3 pantry is...............im intrigued!!!!! tell me more pls xxx

My Ds calls my prepping cupboard my World war 3 pantry, he didnt know it existed till recently when I heard the words 'Mum we ran out of tea bags' as I was busy at the time I said look in the cupboard in my office, the next thing I heard was 'Bl**dy hell woman' and peels of laughter. Anyway I piled my boxes of things to sell on fleabay in there right next to my pc so I can get listing it all. It also made me aware that I can actually fit a lot more stuff in there after I finish selling I just need another matching shelf unit from Ikea put it in front of the one I have and make my shelves double the depth :j