Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

mrs_lds wrote: »

Great to hear the perspective from Greece on what is going on. If more people were educated on prepping and being self sufficient there would be less stress all round. I feel bad or those in the Caribbean and USA after sandy struck. People are now looting for food and essentials.

Very true. It's shocking to see such images after only a few days of interruption of electricity, water, food and fuel. Gives a scary foretaste of what would happen in a protracted grid-down situation.

And those poor souls have wintry weather incoming on top of all their other woes.

I've had a few interesting remarks from surprising RL sources in the past few days; some people are looking at what befell after Sandy and extrapolating a similar situation in their own lives and realising that they're woefully unprepared for even minor disruptons.

It may be that some people will be motivated to do a little light prepping as a result and will thus be a tad more comfortable and secure in a bad situation as a result.

2tonsils

I have been on the hurricane emergency relief sites tonight and I am not very happy with what I have been hearing (well, reading). In one case a man with a business took three lorry loads of food and clothes over to New Jersey and was turned away after driving across country all night as the collection point told him they didn't have enough volunteers to sort it out for those who needed it.


The second story was a team of Alabama power workers who took equipment all the way to New Jersey only to be turned back because they were not in the power workers union.....

I also read that 'first resonders' are going out to the areas but no one else will be allowed to help until they give the all clear....I can understand this from a safety issue...but its getting colder, there is another storm on the way and some of these people have nothing, no power, food, water or even sewage removal. They literally have nothing left....... they desperately need help and its already been three days....

All the help seems to be piecemeal and there seems to be no central organisation to co ordinate things to make the help get there quicker.

I agree, a good thing to come out of it is the fact people are thinking how they would react in an emergency and how they can prepare for such things.

I am worried about the way the politics is going here and I am warning people I know locally to prepare for the SHTF.....I think its going to be around the middle of this month....but it may even happen before that in my opinion. I get told a lot of information before it hits the news and its not looking good.

missrlr

Quote of the week from DH .... Whilst discussing the aftermath of the Storm Sandy and that people are without heating, lighting, food and water to my comment along the lines of it's dreadful there was less preparing before given the notice they had.

His response: yeah well with this house we would be ok there's enough here to eat for a few weeks.

My response: yep, so how do we cook it, what about water, what about heating?

He went quiet and has been seen perusing toy, sorry gadget, sorry equipment sites ..

Is this the LMB for prepping I have been awaiting?

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

Thanks for the tips re USB drives, Nuatha, it's great to have input from all different people with all sorts of life experience. I haven't got a vast amount in my PC, certainly nothing which would require security protection, but it'd tick me off to lose correspondence, photos and recipes and various bits & bobs.

I have both a CD and a DVD drive but the DVD is play-only (at the time I bought this pooter there was a price premium on writable DVD drives). Would it be as good to write the files to CD and store off-site (hi Mum) Sorry if that's an ignorant question, I'm a bit of an innocent abroad in computerland, having come to this malarkey late in life.

You're very welcome.
CDR would work, the only disadvantage being they hold less data than a DVD. For maximum compatibility buy 74 or 80 minute CDR (650 or 700 MB) the mini ones are cute but don't work in all types of drives and the 90 minutes ones can have compatibility issues.

Keep a copy on CD(s) in your flat and at your Mum's and a further copy on a thumb drive as EDC, that should cover most eventualities. When you add to the information, write a new set of CDs (that's usually the bit that gets forgotten). If you don't have one, invest in a CD Labelling Pen (a pack of three or four can usually be found in poundshops) some inks will damage CDs. Store them either in jewel cases or cardboard sleeves (if you have a few then a CD wallet will work just as well) basically you just need to protect them from scratches.

There aren't any ignorant questions, there can be bad answers and people who forget they had to learn the basics and fail to explain clearly.
HTH

[Deleted User]

Morning Preppers, I subscribe to Permaculture Magazine and this month they are showing a Pocket Woodstove that fits inside a tobacco tin. Google GREEN SHOPPING POCKET STOVE if you'd like to see it, price quoted in magazine is £25.50p Looks as if it would be useful, Cheers Lyn xxx.

GreyQueen

Thank you so much, Nuatha.

The trouble is with my generation is that we didn't get pooter stuff as part of our education and picked it up at random (and partly at night school, in my case). I use them for leisure and all my work stuff is on computers but, as a wise friend pointed out, you don't know what you don't know sometimes.

And sometimes, what you missed out on is soooo elementary that you're embarrassed even to ask. I shall get cracking on it soon, after I've done a little housekeeping in my files to dump anything which I deem unnecessary.

Missrlr, congratulations in getting the DH into joined-up thinking mode, and may he spent his own money on preptastic gadgets for your mutual comfort, security and enjoyment.

As well as my usual mode of frivilous-and-shallow thinking (oooh look something shiny new trashy novel about werewolves I wanna read that where's my next chocolate bar) I have been known to cogitate at a deeper level, usually whilst gardening or doing housework.

Lots of people have very powerful resistance to any idea of change, don't they? Particularly changes which are unsought, unpleasant and uncomfortable.

It's human nature to seek comfort and security and it's the same for me, but I can entertain the possibility of the heat being off, the lights out, the food stores shut or empty and work out what I'd do without all the usual things. Without feeling the urge to clamp my hands across my ears and go lalalalalaLA with increasing volume until the talk about the scary stuff goes away.

Some people clearly feel threatened by the idea that things might not be the same as they have been before and that their responses, attitudes, lifestyles etc will have to change as a result of factors beyond their control.

Of course, most factors are, always were and always will be beyond human control.

The wealthiest and most powerful nation state on this planet sits vulnerable to extreme weather events, of which Superstorm Sandy is just the most recent installment.

It's accutely-uncomfortable to see our fellow beings in distress and not to be able to help them personally. It's also instructive to see how ill-prepared so many people were, despite 2 clear days warning, and how the former (and unneccessary, as it turned out) Hurricane Irene evacuation had lulled people into complacency about the potential severity of Sandy and caused them to decide to stay when they could have fled.

Looking at pictures of large downed trees obstucting roads and other things, often flat on the ground, I was reminded of what happened on my bushcraft course last Sept.

We were high on a private estate in the Lakes, in hilly, rocky sopping wet (mostly) larch woods in the way of a series of ghastly gales tearing in from the Atlantic. On the second night a particularly ferocious gale took down several trees, including a mature larch which had previously been split about 10 feet up and was beside our camp and leaning out over the trackway.

When we resurfaced at dawn, we were cut off from the outside world by a tree trunk laying across the track. It was so large that it would have taken nearly 2 peoples' linked arms to stretch around it. The group's Landrover was on the wrong side of the fallen tree but mercifully not under it and we were several miles from the nearest road, never mind the nearest chainsaw.

What happened next was that the course tutors simply took 2 OS double-ended saws from the storage tent, one 4 feet long, the other 5 feet long, and with a person on each end, our group of 8 cut this trunk into several sections and manhandled it off the track in less than 30 minutes. And before breakfast.

I would have found it hard to believe that so few with such simple tools, which most of us had never used before in our lives btw, could have done it so quickly. And when a mountain-rescue Landie came down that track with a casualty later that day, I bet they were glad we'd done it, as the track was through a very steep forested area and going off-piste, even with 4WD, would not have been possible.

I'd doubt that there are many saws like that in NYC or NJ nor many people who'd know how to use them. And working in a local authority call centre, I know exactly what mayhem ensues even in a southern English city not prone to extreme storms when gales rip down trees, or even parts of trees onto roadways and homes.

Local government resources are stretched very thinly at present in the UK and getting thinner with every round of budget cuts and all of us need to think that if we ring up The Carncil it might be some considerable time before they can come to our aid.

[Deleted User]

GQ - It behoves us all to keep knowledge alive in diverse ways doesn't it? Just because it might be handier and easier to use an electric tool doesn't mean you don't need to know how to use a manual one. I've always felt that knowing how to do everyday things at the most basic level is as useful as keeping up with the latest technical developments. I can go and buy a ready prepared rabbit/pheasant/fish from the supermarket/shop but I still know how to skin,gut,butcher/fillet a freshly caught one. I can go into my kitchen and turn on my cooker to make a stew but I can also go out and collect firewood, light it with a flint and steel and cook my stew on that too, I can go to a shop and buy any fruit or vegetables that I need but I can also grow them in my garden or on the allotment and know how to store and preserve them too. There really is a NEED to keep old skills alive and working to give us a secure future, if that sounds zealous it isn't meant to, I just feel that modern living is a little precarious at the best of times and I like to think I am a little self sufficient in most things, Cheers Lyn xxx.

GreyQueen

I'm entirely in agreement with you, Mrs LW.

I can sew perfectly well by hand but there are some jobs for which machine stitching is preferable on grounds of strength, neatness and speed. But I still do minor jobs by hand and if the leccy was permanantly-off would have to do the major ones as well. I can sides-to-middle a bedsheet in 30 mins with the machine but it would take hours by hand.

I can cook on a campfire and would do so in the grassy communal area outside if I needed to, but only after several days of no gas to the stove. I can use various methods to light fires but would always go to the easiest, but I think it's a necessary part of adult development to know the alternative methods.

After all, what we now treat as uncommon and even survivalist skills was just everyday housekeeping in times past and people would have thought nothing of it.

When I was an 18 y.o. student, I watched another 18 y.o. student attempt to start a bonfire by holding a match to the side of a tree-trunk with the diameter of a dinner plate.

Now, as we were both studying for degrees, I expect we were amongst the top 20% of the population in terms of measurable intelligence but commonsense and intelligence don't have to co-exist.

I grew up in a household which had fires until I was 12 and I was responsible for setting the fire and splitting logs for kindling, so I had to introduce this lad to kindling and building up the fire to the point where it can take a tree-trunk sized log. He was a fast learner but he'd never had to light a fire from scratch before.

In the modern world, we are often highly-specialised in terms of what we do to earn our livings, and what we choose to do for our leisure, and the general handy-person bodger type is becoming rarer and rarer. Bring 'em back, I say.

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

The trouble is with my generation is that we didn't get pooter stuff as part of our education and picked it up at random (and partly at night school, in my case). I use them for leisure and all my work stuff is on computers but, as a wise friend pointed out, you don't know what you don't know sometimes.

And sometimes, what you missed out on is soooo elementary that you're embarrassed even to ask. I shall get cracking on it soon, after I've done a little housekeeping in my files to dump anything which I deem unnecessary.

I believe we're a fairly similar age, in my case 50 next Feb.
My introduction to computers was because of ME, I was no longer strong enough to continue operating a manual typewriter or financially able to pay a typing service. Eventually becoming a freelance geek allowed me a way back into the world of work which I could cope with and manage the ME.
Elementary questions are the vital ones, they often lead to a wider understanding. And people brave enough to ask them, means more people understand the issue (since most people won't ask).

Looking at pictures of large downed trees obstucting roads and other things, often flat on the ground, I was reminded of what happened on my bushcraft course last Sept.

We were high on a private estate in the Lakes, in hilly, rocky sopping wet (mostly) larch woods in the way of a series of ghastly gales tearing in from the Atlantic. On the second night a particularly ferocious gale took down several trees, including a mature larch which had previously been split about 10 feet up and was beside our camp and leaning out over the trackway.

When we resurfaced at dawn, we were cut off from the outside world by a tree trunk laying across the track. It was so large that it would have taken nearly 2 peoples' linked arms to stretch around it. The group's Landrover was on the wrong side of the fallen tree but mercifully not under it and we were several miles from the nearest road, never mind the nearest chainsaw.

What happened next was that the course tutors simply took 2 OS double-ended saws from the storage tent, one 4 feet long, the other 5 feet long, and with a person on each end, our group of 8 cut this trunk into several sections and manhandled it off the track in less than 30 minutes. And before breakfast.

I would have found it hard to believe that so few with such simple tools, which most of us had never used before in our lives btw, could have done it so quickly. And when a mountain-rescue Landie came down that track with a casualty later that day, I bet they were glad we'd done it, as the track was through a very steep forested area and going off-piste, even with 4WD, would not have been possible.

I'd doubt that there are many saws like that in NYC or NJ nor many people who'd know how to use them. And working in a local authority call centre, I know exactly what mayhem ensues even in a southern English city not prone to extreme storms when gales rip down trees, or even parts of trees onto roadways and homes.

Local government resources are stretched very thinly at present in the UK and getting thinner with every round of budget cuts and all of us need to think that if we ring up The Carncil it might be some considerable time before they can come to our aid.

Just a little knowledge and access to simple tools can go a long way. Knowing something can be done is a good start.
Another consequence of the cutbacks is the complete loss of expertise, so the chances are that when you get a response they don't have the knowledge and experience to solve the problem.

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

GQ - It behoves us all to keep knowledge alive in diverse ways doesn't it? Just because it might be handier and easier to use an electric tool doesn't mean you don't need to know how to use a manual one. I've always felt that knowing how to do everyday things at the most basic level is as useful as keeping up with the latest technical developments. I can go and buy a ready prepared rabbit/pheasant/fish from the supermarket/shop but I still know how to skin,gut,butcher/fillet a freshly caught one. I can go into my kitchen and turn on my cooker to make a stew but I can also go out and collect firewood, light it with a flint and steel and cook my stew on that too, I can go to a shop and buy any fruit or vegetables that I need but I can also grow them in my garden or on the allotment and know how to store and preserve them too. There really is a NEED to keep old skills alive and working to give us a secure future, if that sounds zealous it isn't meant to, I just feel that modern living is a little precarious at the best of times and I like to think I am a little self sufficient in most things, Cheers Lyn xxx.

Very well said Mrs LW.
Apart from being blessed with an insatiable Elephant's Child, that is predominantly the reason I pursue and practice this particular path.
(Not to mention the positive reinforcement of being able to cope with problems because some forethought and preparation has meant several potentially major crises have simply been the source of anecdotes.)

grandma247

I am closer to 60 than 50 and I remember a teacher saying that women would not be able to use computers. It's a shame he is not likely to be alive today but possibly he saw the start of home computers.

I learned to use a computer in my late 30's at college so I could teach my 5 year old son. He soon overtook me though and started using keyboard shortcuts that I certainly did not teach him. He can take his own computer apart, mend it and put it back together now.

GQ the only stupid question is the one that is not asked.