Preparedness for when

hummingfridge

Mardatha I like your explanation - yes, a trial run of sorts!

I will replace the choc with some Xmas chocs I already have. I would feel much more guilty about tearing into those!

westlothianlass

HI all
Sorry ive not been posting, trying to study[STRIKE]/procrastinate/stare into space[/STRIKE] this week so have only managed to read and not post.
Its getting very cold here, and every day I wake wondering how much ice is on the car, and whether we have some white stuff (though must admit i'm rather fond of white stuff:D) but knowing I'm far more prepared that at any other time in my life gives me a warm glow, and a lot of that is down to you lot:T.
Not resting on my laurels tho as the toilet roll stash is not looking overly healthy and as for the chocolate i hang my head in shame.
Ive ordered my DH an emergency hand held chainsaw for his stocking so hope he is impressed:rotfl: (im blaming you GQ as your tale of chopping a downed tree when on your hol's made me go ooooh we don't have one of those).
Right i'm off to put the kettle on but will be back soon.
Oh and welcome newbies really lovely to have you join our merry band.
WLL x

Chipps

GreyQueen wrote: »

:hello: Hello and welcome from lurkdom, Chipps. Good to see people come out as preppers. I suspect there's a fair bit of it about, did we but know it.

Errm, without giving real world identifiers, is your "big town" on a floodplain or do they have any other reason to be encouraging people there to think about grab bags etc? I'm interested to know whether it's a local initiative based on a particular hazard of that region or part of something perhaps going nationwide?

Hi GQ, thanks for the welcome!
The leaflet is published by the Essex Resilience Forum, which seems to be part of the LA in association with police, environment agency, ambulance, fire services etc. So all the organisations that would be involved in any emergency whatsoever. That said, the [STRIKE]big town[/STRIKE] city is at the confluence of 2 rivers & the town centre did flood a year or so back. Mind you, our small town is also in a river valley which floods in patches on a regular basis, although we live on much higher ground (a fact which I only really recognised the significance of when youngest DS was small & I used to cycle to town with him in a baby seat & shopping in a front basket!)

If I've done it right (& there are no guarantees of that ) here should be the link for the leaflet - I managed to find it online.

Popperwell

Hello Chipps,
Thanks for the link, actually that's a pretty good leaflet. No one has done anything similar around here. Though some time ago in a council magazine they gave one paragraph over to the topic which was very basic.

mardatha

Wondering how many of us use hand gadgets instead of elect. How many gadgets are available in OS hand versions. I know proper strong good hand mincers are either hard to get or dear and that led to this post .We were just talking about how people couldn't live without all their stuff like breadmakers and kenwoods etc, and I wondered how many of us are actual real fulltime Wartime Farm type women who do it all from scratch and by hand... Not slighting anybody who doesn't, not a competition, just an idle ask lol

Uniscots97

mardatha wrote: »

Wondering how many of us use hand gadgets instead of elect. How many gadgets are available in OS hand versions. I know proper strong good hand mincers are either hard to get or dear and that led to this post .We were just talking about how people couldn't live without all their stuff like breadmakers and kenwoods etc, and I wondered how many of us are actual real fulltime Wartime Farm type women who do it all from scratch and by hand... Not slighting anybody who doesn't, not a competition, just an idle ask lol

I could do it by hand if I was pushed to, but chose some conveniences after badly breaking my wrist a few years ago. My Gran has an old cast iron mincer its fabulous but was bought from an ironmongers in the 30s I think. I have seen some hand mincers for sale, usually antique fairs and about £15-£20. The cheaper one tend to have the arm but no handle. Easy enough to make a handle for it. I've held off getting a breadmaker but my slowcooker is my friend, I nearly brained OH when he put the ceramic pot bit on the gas stove to make gravy and I heard a small crack! :eek::mad:

2tonsils

Hello everyone..Pleased to say I am still here in one piece despite the riots/politicians/ EU.....and various threats , natural or otherwise. Have just had a couple of really busy days but actually got a lot done in both of them. I even had time to get my hair done and it looks fantastic.....can't have my hair a mess even if this country is dropping apart LOL

I went shopping yesterday and got a load of stuff at 30 percent discount, mostly meat and fish (including smoked salmon). A few weeks ago I stocked the freezers and have been using that bit by bit, so now when I go shopping weekly I buy all the offers I can find. It has worked great for us and I have really good stocks of most things in now. I will keep on buying the offers as it saves us a lot of money and it means we try foods we would not normally buy.

I stayed up late to watch the vote on the new austerity measures. There is a tv station here that shows parliament live 24 hours a day (as they take votes here at midnight). It was quite exciting for politics, with major rows breaking out, the police being called in at one point, then the big vote with the politicians being forced to stand up and state their vote, yes, no or abstain. The fun came when some of them refused to vote and then resigned from their parties and left the building to be greeted by the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who were outside..... The vote was passed by just two votes but since then more politicians have resigned and the coalition is in danger of being forced to resign...which would send the Greeks to the third National election this year! I am not allowed to vote in a General election here although I have been a legal resident and paid taxes for the last 19 years!

The EU have now stated they will not make a decision on the money next week (it was delayed from August) so despite all the efforts, cut wages and pensions they are still not handing over the money. I just wish they would come out of the euro and have done with all the waiting from month to month.

My friend who forecasts the weather worldwide has had some major successes lately and now has a lot of sponsorship. He got ripped to pieces by the weather stations then they apologised when he was right about both the Hurricane and the current storm and how bad they would be.

I have asked him to send me his latest forecasts when he can stop concentrating on the USA and can turn his thoughts to the UK and Europe for this winter. I will post a summary on here for you all and some links.

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend at last. It's been a hard week as it seems some people I know here are feeling the stress and getting really sarcastic and back biting.......and I don't mean the Greeks either!

2tonsils

I have both hand and electric gadgets as we often lose our electric here in the winter during the storms. The worst was when we lost it for ten days and they had to replace all the wiring in the village we lived in then. Last year the wires on the post opposite to us starting shorting during a storm and set fire to a house next door but two.....its lethal here at times!

I have several ways of cooking food, I have a microwave, small oven and slow cooker but these are useless in a power cut (or strike in our case). I also have a gas hob and 3 spare big bottles of gas, a barbecue outside that runs on olive sticks or charcoal.....and a big open fireplace with a griddle/grill rack to cook on.

Most importantly I have a collection of very sharp knives in the kitchen and my other half keeps sharpening them for me.....I hate blunt knives, they are a major cause of injuries in kitchens! People put more pressure onto blunt knives and its easy for them to slip and do a nasty injury to someone.

I also keep a stock of food that can be eaten straight from the can and some cooked meats and meals in the freezer. I always have 3 containers of spring water in the kitchen so that is a total of 45 litres of drinking water in them. We collect it from springs in the village as the mains is not drinking water. I also have some bottled but I prefer the spring water.

fuddle

Mar, good question

I love my balloon whisk
Don't put my bread in a tin in the oven, I like it rustic
Can't do without my toaster really, when that give up I tried the grill but it was so time consuming and I burned a fair few slices.

When something brakes I try the OS way. When the microwave goes that won't be replaced and neither will the food processor.

Chipps

I guess I could do things by hand.... but so much easier to use electric whisk, food processor etc.
I like HFW's bread recipe, and always make that by hand rather than breadmaker. Although do use the BM for packet bread mix (I realise that sounds illogical!) But only use those packets for making rolls, & use the BM to do the dough.

I made some yesterday - pack made 10 rolls, so did 6 rolls & 4 belgian buns which we love!
They are soooo easy....

roll out the dough (after 1st rising) into a rectangle & spread with a thin layer of cheapo lemon curd.
Sprinkle on a generous helping of dried fruit (I use mixed fruit cos it's the cheapest!)
Roll up like a swiss roll, then cut into slices.
Place on a baking tray to rise, then cook for about 15 minutes (prob should be 200* but I was making cakes as well, so did 180* for a couple minutes more)
Once cool, ice with glace icing & put 1/2 a glace cherry on top (again, should do this when cool, but the gannets were hungry so iced & ate before the buns cooled down lol! It's a bit messier that way, but taste good!)