Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

Morning Preppers, whatever else happens we won't be short of water will we? Hope all of you in the South West are safe and dry and Indoors!!!!! It is going to be an interesting week of weather methinks!!!

Morning SUZITIGER and PINEAPPLE, welcome to the ranks, we love it when new friends come to join in, nice to have you with us.

Hugs to everyone that has worries, everyone feeling poorly, everyone else too because it's the kind of day when a hug might just help. Stay warm, stay dry, stay safe, Cheers Lyn xxx.

Butterfly_Brain

I think that I have created a prepper monster! DH is now talking of building an open air kitchen in the garden with a roof and sides, so that we can cook out there in all weathers using a cobb cooker and kelly kettle ( Meaning me, cos he can't cook if it is not a fry up, and he even has the heat too high on that :eek:) So Guess what I am getting for Christmas :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

GreyQueen

suzitiger wrote: »

Hello :wave:
I have decided to join you if I may, I used to be a part of the workhouse thread and I miss it, I saw some familiar faces on here so thought, why not

I will try my best to read through everything but I will probably have to skim. :rotfl:

Hi suzitiger, recognise your username from the Tougher threads, nice to see you again.

pineapple wrote: »

I'm a long time prepper/.lurker. I am not sure if everything would ever go totally belly up (though I don't rule it out) but prepare for any number of scenarios - like fuel shortages, shops being emptied, cashpoints being emptied, bank closures, civil unrest, pandemic, chemical etc attacks, power failures, extreme weather....
You can't prep for everything and I'm not sure if I would want to live in a 'mad max' type world anyway - but I at least plan to be able to hunker down and sit out a situation for a few months. Meanwhile anyone want a ton of budget white pasta? This idiot stocked up then decided to go low carb - ot at least restrict herself to the brown wholemeal stuff :sad:

I agree with you there; if the whole world went Mad Max I'd only survive a few hours after my last lot of prescription meds anyway as have been artificially kept alive for 10+ years now.

My prepping is to ride out the bumps and lumps of life, as health is precarious, no one can say that they have a secure job and various other problems. I always tell myself that no one ever thinks bad things will happen to them personally; there are lots of very surprised people in this world.

I've just finished a newly-published book from the library Flu and You; a history of influenza by George Dehner. It's layreader friendly but very thorough and interesting about the history of pandemic flu and that the world is constantly on the edge of another pandemic. The revised death toll from the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 has been calculated to be 200 million and ordinary seasonal flu is a heavy duty illness which kills people every year.

And I expect most of us will have had a least one experience of being knocked off our feet by the flu as one of it's characteristics is a rapid onset and prostration. Good reason to have food in the house, OTC medicines and chocolate to ease you through the miseries.

I have a tradesman here at the moment working on my flat and we were having a little chat about what I was doing (scanning receipts and warranties) and I explained that I was getting copies off-site for possible proof-of-loss for insurance purposes, in case the block caught fire.

I've heard a series of anecdotes from him about homes where he has attended, in the course of his work, which have been damaged by fire or flood which rendered them suddenly uninhabitable and in most cases, there was no insurance. An eye-opener and stresses the importance of both having insurance and having the correct level of cover.

Most of my belongings were purchased secondhand but most of my appiances are new and just pricing up the replacements is eyewatering. It's a good idea to review what you have covered and to check the new prices from time to time (annually?) to make sure that you still have insurance at the correct level.

I overheard someone who worked in insurance telling someone that they ALWAYS dispute the policy owner's valuation of their goods as a matter of principle but that if they challenge the insurance company, they immediately roll over and pay up as it's not financially worth it get into a protracted fight.

The person they were talking to, not in insurance, remarked that wouldn't it be simpler just to pay up the first time and the insurance employee was horrified and protested that they couldn't just do that! Yup, the shareholders wouldn't like it.

This is a household name insurerer btw not a mickey-mouse outfit. I filed that away for future reference.

Uniscots97

GQ, I had that from my former insurer (large name firm) after my kitchen flooded. The kitchen I had wasn't made anymore and they only wanted to replace half my kitchen. It took a lot of angry calls (and threatening them with Watchdog) but they finally agreed. They'd asked me to get quotes then sent in a firm they found who were supposed to do the work in 4 days. 30 days later the work still wasn't finished and insurance tried to wriggle out of it till I said well you picked them not me! The said firm managed to 'accidentally' knock down my dining room wall and wall into the garage. Fun (NOT) believe me!

pineapple

This thread reminds me that I need to get back ups of all my important documents - including warranties. I guess it wouldn't harm to have a few laminated as well.
I forgot about price rises in my earlier scenarios. Hopefully I saved more by beating these than I have lost through the occasional silly purchase :mad:. Also 'saving money' is one way of talking round a reluctant other half .
You just have to keep an eye on which items are rocketing.

Since someone told me you could freeze butter, I only ever buy when on offer - so I have loads in the freezer!

GreyQueen

Yeah, I was well past 40 before I twigged that butter and cheese freeze just fine. I just took the last block of bargain cheese out of the freezer today so will have to keep my eyes peeled for a good deal. Got stocked up on Anchor at 40p a block earlier in the year so should be good to go.

In terms of valuing your stuff, I think the biggest pitfall is that whilst we remember the big ticket items, we fail to remember the lots of smallish stuff which can add up to quite a bit.

I mean, if I had to buy all my bedlinen, towels, teatowels etc new, the outlay would be several hundreds and that's just the contents of one small cupboard...........

The worse-case scenario, unless something very bizarre happens, would be a total loss due to fire or catastrophic flooding. I'm sure we've all seen pix of the ruination which either of those could inflict upon your home.

I remember reading a blog by an American lady who lived in a part of the country prone to wildfires, in which case they would be doing an emergency evac at very short notice. She suggested keeping the originals of all your important docs well away from the area in a bank safety deposit box as well as having go-bags and a car bag (in case the emergency happened when she was away from home and couldn't get back).

Be a good idea to have your insurance policy docs scanned and copies off-site, too. And I have a laminator and am planning to make myself an energency numbers list, things like Transco for gas escapes, the water company and family and friend numbers, too. A checklist for people with multiple family members or more complicated lives than my own might be a useful thing to have; things to do, things to turn off, things to take, for those situations where you might have only a few mins to get out and need to be organised.

Obviously, it if was SHTF and the place was burning, you grab your go bag without delay. Only people are irreplacably-precious but having some kit stored off-site can make a crisis much more managable.

OK, off to do a few prepperish little bits whilst waiting for a tradesman................

Quick Q Do you know where your stop tap is? Do you have an internal one and an external one? Have you tried turning them off? Do they turn? You don't want to be having the new washer delivered or having a crisis and water all over the shop before your find that you either can't find them or that they've seized up.

Back in the day when I used to drive a Ford van, I liked the fact that when you lifted the bonnet, the things you needed to check on had bright yellow tops. Maybe a stop tap could be identified with bright paint, wrapped in bright electrical tape, have a laminated label attached to it.

Uniscots97

GreyQueen wrote: »

Quick Q Do you know where your stop tap is? Do you have an internal one and an external one? Have you tried turning them off? Do they turn? You don't want to be having the new washer delivered or having a crisis and water all over the shop before your find that you either can't find them or that they've seized up.

Back in the day when I used to drive a Ford van, I liked the fact that when you lifted the bonnet, the things you needed to check on had bright yellow tops. Maybe a stop tap could be identified with bright paint, wrapped in bright electrical tape, have a laminated label attached to it.

In my grandparents house (built 1930's, their next door neighbours house is causing all sorts of trouble as it turns out they can't sell their house as they don't own all the land, some lord from 1860ish does! but thats another story), my Grandpa did all the wiring, plumbing etc himself. He sadly passed away last year (he was 90), but OH and his nephew do a few odd jobs for my Gran. OH's Nephew is an electrical engineer and was surprised to see the level of detail my Grandpa had gone to. Red taps for stop valves (and markings on the floor and ceiling in the loft pointing you in the right direction), wiring which was done in the 60's which would put most of today's to shame!

2tonsils

Yes, I think most of us prepare for the things that are most likely to affect us. I am still very concerned about the state of European finances and its not looking good for Greece in the near future. I am well aware of what they plan to do if Greece crashes out of the Euro and it would mean I would not have access to money or food for a few days at least. So we have emergency supplies, fuel and water to last us till the emergency is over.

We also get other events like horrendous weather, such as we've had for the last three days.... but today is beautiful, 25 degrees and sunny! Earthquakes happen all the time here , mostly small ones, but I am aware that one day it could be the big one.

Solar flares are also a possibility of course , as they are for most of the world. There is a chance of quite a large flare in the next week or so. It would affect some but not others. I do think we could cope without the electric here as we often have long spells without it in the winter months. We had no electric for two weeks when our cables got fried in a storm a few years ago. I found it strangely peaceful with no tv or electrical things and I loved having the wood burner on and candles lit at night.

I do wonder about civil war/unrest and whether we would be affected by it. We live in a small mountain village and know most of our neighbours well. I guess the problem would be in the town mainly and the big shops and banks would be targets as well as government buildings.

Right, off to hoover the front room....if the SHTF anytime soon I want the house to be clean and tidy!!!!!!

2tonsils

I do know where both stop taps are...both internal and external. I also know how to turn on the pump for the rainwater tank under the house. The electric can be turned off at two different places as we have two separate circuits and everything is trip switched here. In an emergency the fire brigade have been told they can use our huge water tank to put out a nearby fire.

I can also change a wheel on the car and do emergency repairs if necessary to get me out of trouble.

suzitiger

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Morning Preppers, whatever else happens we won't be short of water will we? Hope all of you in the South West are safe and dry and Indoors!!!!! It is going to be an interesting week of weather methinks!!!

Morning SUZITIGER and PINEAPPLE, welcome to the ranks, we love it when new friends come to join in, nice to have you with us..

GreyQueen wrote: »

Hi suzitiger, recognise your username from the Tougher threads, nice to see you again.

Thanks for your welcomes guys, and yes Greyqueen I recognise your name too
What is this mad max that you speak of, I want to be clued in :rotfl: