Preparedness for when

Doveling

The most interesting and thought provoking book I have read lately is "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake".

My mind went past the immediate content of the story to all the unknown possibilities which we haven't yet discovered within ourselves.

I think the genre is called magical realism; find that scary.

Mind you, I wouldn't open the fridge if I was in on my own for quite a while after watching Ghostbusters :rotfl: I am such a wuss

We are also overloaded with Anne McAffery and TP (MR.D's choice). I favour H.G.Wells and Isaac Asimov type books.

On the prepping side, my Mothers Day present from DD1 was a load of seasoned logs :j I have selected a slimmish one and put it in a vase on the dresser :rotfl:

Frugalsod - thanks for the link about cleaning stuff. Thinking about this in case I actually get around to cleaning anything :rotfl:

Welcome Cappella x

nuatha

Cappella wrote: »

Hello, could I please, possibly join this thread? It's not just the preparedness, though that's something I'm very interested in. It's that I've NEVER met anyone with the same taste as me in books!!! Especially TP who I was lucky enough to meet three times at conventions before the embuggarance- such a gentleman - but ALL authors I've read.
Realise this isn't the bookworms thread though so won't be offended if you say no.

Come in, be welcome.
Though communally our libraries post apocalypse might have a large amount of duplication, at least they'll have quality in their quantity.

On the SHTF side of things we have had two allotments for over 40 years (I'm old I'm afraid), have kept bees for 20+ years and although we live in a city we are mostly self sufficient in seasonal UK soft fruits and veg. Plus I have the pickle mountain of the north west in the understairs cupboard so that might be handy in an emergency

Age is never something to apologise for - I have hopes that my own will continue to increase for a while yet - not that I'm exactly a spring chicken.
I'm the other side of the country from you, there's a fair widespread geographical diversity hereabouts.

Karmacat wrote: »

Great image! Yes, your linkies were what I was thinking of - I wouldn't leave the oven on all that time either, I bought a dehydrator last year, running costs as low as a slow cooker.

A friend dries herbs, dehydrates soft fruit and makes fruit leather with just the pilot light of her gas oven, after initially taking the temperature up to 80C. I don't have sufficient space to add a gas oven, if I could find a domestic sized one that still used a pilot light.
A dehydrator is a useful gadget, if you have the space and can solve the condensation issue - mine used to live in the garage for that reason.

I love the Dresden Files - must, must, must read the books too :eek:

The TV series captured a lot of the flavour of the books, but the books are better (and still running) though how Chicago has survived Dresden is a mystery, he has a habit of things getting destroyed around him.

Hester - I always make sure to read your posts, I agree with Nuatha

Prep-wise, having a slight rethink on stocking levels - especially cleaning stuff, I think I bought way too much to see me through the winter, the shelf is still full, and I believe ordinary bleach goes "off", i.e. less effective, after a while? Do people remember talking about "pool shock", something like that, a bleach that lasts years, if necessary? Does anybody buy that instead of buying ordinary bottles of bleach?

I don't buy bleach, or much else in cleaning products. Without actually checking the cupboards, we'll have washing up liquid, bicarbonate of soda, borax, white vinegar, soda crystals, salt, soap, a range of essential oils, citric acid, isopropyl alcohol, water purification tablets and milton liquid. I also have a vat of swarfega orange and a large supply of dishwasher tablets - mainly cos I'm lazy .

Tjh1412

I'm currently reading how to prepare for end of world as know it, along with a reread of the discworlds; got given a huge box of books as a thanks for tree trimming so I'm going to be busy for a while. Storage of preps wise can anyone recommend some decent shelving units; thinking something similar to what they have on extreme couponers type thing?

NewShadow

Karmacat wrote: »

I bought a dehydrator last year, running costs as low as a slow cooker.

I've been looking this since you suggested dehydrating: https://www.sousvidetools.com/ncoty-excalibur-4-tray-dehydrator?gclid=CPGtlO7sq8sCFRSNGwodmbkHLg

I'm assuming the £30 one's aren't that great, but more than happy to be corrected...

jk0

I use Firefox browser, but find Zerohedge keeps crashing it these days.

Is it TPTB fighting back, or is it just my computer?

Karmacat

nuatha wrote: »

A friend dries herbs, dehydrates soft fruit and makes fruit leather with just the pilot light of her gas oven, after initially taking the temperature up to 80C.

Excellent idea! If I had a gas oven that actually worked, I'd do that - I actually use it as storage for food that I've dehydrated, thats how bad it is to cook, I use my little halogen oven.

The TV series captured a lot of the flavour of the books, but the books are better (and still running) though how Chicago has survived Dresden is a mystery, he has a habit of things getting destroyed around him.

They're not in my ebook library though they have actual books, I see that'll have to wait a little while.

I don't buy bleach, or much else in cleaning products. Without actually checking the cupboards, we'll have washing up liquid, bicarbonate of soda, borax, white vinegar, soda crystals, salt, soap, a range of essential oils, citric acid, isopropyl alcohol, water purification tablets and milton liquid. I also have a vat of swarfega orange and a large supply of dishwasher tablets - mainly cos I'm lazy .

Doh! This is a good opportunity to start making my own, you're right ... I wanted to buy the basics, and I forgot about it :o:o thanks for the reminder :j

Karmacat

jk0 wrote: »

I use Firefox browser, but find Zerohedge keeps crashing it these days.

Is it TPTB fighting back, or is it just my computer?

I don't read it on my laptop any more, just my kindle with the Silk browser - it freezes all the time on my Firefox, I think there's too many ads for my laptop to cope.

NewShadow

nuatha wrote: »

I don't buy bleach, or much else in cleaning products. Without actually checking the cupboards, we'll have washing up liquid, bicarbonate of soda, borax, white vinegar, soda crystals, salt, soap, a range of essential oils, citric acid, isopropyl alcohol, water purification tablets and milton liquid. I also have a vat of swarfega orange and a large supply of dishwasher tablets - mainly cos I'm lazy .

Erm... I've got washing up liquid, and basics washing machine powder. Plus, obviously soap and the like for washing moi.

I never quite understood what all the other stuff was for (obviously isn't a wife or mother). What's it for? I mean, vinegar's for chips...

nuatha

Tjh1412 wrote: »

I'm currently reading how to prepare for end of world as know it, along with a reread of the discworlds; got given a huge box of books as a thanks for tree trimming so I'm going to be busy for a while. Storage of preps wise can anyone recommend some decent shelving units; thinking something similar to what they have on extreme couponers type thing?

The automatic rotating racks you get in the States aren't available in Europe - you can import them but its serious money.
Industrial racking will do the job, and you can get it fairly easily. However a lot of it seems to have chipboard or MDF type shelves - these won't survive getting damp.
I have some Dexion rack shelving in my workshop that I picked up cheap from Ebay that works well. I also had some IVAR from Ikea that dumped the contents of three shelves in my face - the shelves are balanced in pins that can act as pivots if the load isn't balanced front and back.
Its surprising how fast the load on each shelf adds up if you do the kind of stock levels you see on those programmes. If you see a local shop going bust, then the rack shelving systems they use are just about perfect, if you have a flat wall to run them along (generally they work in four foot bays, other widths are available, but generally a lot dearer).

NewShadow wrote: »

I've been looking this since you suggested dehydrating: https://www.sousvidetools.com/ncoty-excalibur-4-tray-dehydrator?gclid=CPGtlO7sq8sCFRSNGwodmbkHLg

I'm assuming the £30 one's aren't that great, but more than happy to be corrected...

Personally I prefer the squarer trays with horizonatal air flow, though I've read reports of people getting decent results from the cheap round units I don't have enough faith in myself to keep rotating the trays etc. There are other brands than Excalibur with that configuration (Biochef are about half the price of Excalibur for example)

NewShadow wrote: »

Erm... I've got washing up liquid, and basics washing machine powder. Plus, obviously soap and the like for washing moi.

I never quite understood what all the other stuff was for (obviously isn't a wife or mother). What's it for? I mean, vinegar's for chips...

Malt vinegar's for chips.
White vinegar's for pickling onions, as a fabric conditioner, for cleaning windows, degreasing, removing adhesive, cleaning carpets, cleaning cooker hob, cleaning carpets, deodorising, clearing drains (with bicarb), removing tea and coffee patina, and the vinegar from the onions works well on chips (though not as well on fish IMHO).
Vinegar makes a fairly good degreaser, it isn't wonderful on grime - washing up liquid is better (or the Swarfega if I'm desperate and got used engine oil on the worktops).

I'm neither a wife or mother, though I do a fair amount of the housework - not always to my wife's standards I'll admit.

GreyQueen

Cappella wrote: »

Hello, could I please, possibly join this thread? It's not just the preparedness, though that's something I'm very interested in. It's that I've NEVER met anyone with the same taste as me in books!!! Especially TP who I was lucky enough to meet three times at conventions before the embuggarance- such a gentleman - but ALL authors I've read.
Realise this isn't the bookworms thread though so won't be offended if you say no.
On the SHTF side of things we have had two allotments for over 40 years (I'm old I'm afraid), have kept bees for 20+ years and although we live in a city we are mostly self sufficient in seasonal UK soft fruits and veg. Plus I have the pickle mountain of the north west in the understairs cupboard so that might be handy in an emergency

:hello: Welcome to the madhouse, you certainly sound like our kind of people.

jk0, I've pretty much abandoned ZH as my Firefox hangs all the time. Pity, because there's some interesting stuff on there, but life's too short to keeping bailing out via task manager. I blame the ads, too.

A day of intermittant rain, hail and the odd drop of sunshine. I went to the lottie and added 7 barrows of spent barley grains from the communal pile left by the organic brewery-pub to my soil. It sits in pile for a week or two then gets forked under. Baltic out, but I feel better for a blow-about.

Plus I harvested ruby chard and parsley which have both survived the very mild winter and added them to my lunchtime salad. Can't get much fresher than that, hey?;)

ETA; try bigdug.co.uk for shelving. I saw a paper copy of their catalogue a couple of weeks back and seems like lots of good stuff in there. I covet the trollies.