Preparedness for when

Butterfly_Brain

Thanks for that, I won't be able to get down town until Monday though

Popperwell

It said on the radio yesterday flour is increasing in price and therefore cakes and bread that is purchased in the shops will be more expensive.

wondercollie

It's -20 right now and the perky bunny on the radio just said with the windchill factor it feels like -30C!

I do love Northern Alberta in the winter. NOT!!!

But I did manage to get two shrimp rings on sale today to put away for Christmas and NYE.

GreyQueen

wondercollie wrote: »

It's -20 right now and the perky bunny on the radio just said with the windchill factor it feels like -30C!

I do love Northern Alberta in the winter. NOT!!!

But I did manage to get two shrimp rings on sale today to put away for Christmas and NYE.

:eek:Rather you than me, hun.

I have just finished watching a film called One Hundred Days *which has a post-SHTF theme. It's set somewhere in Ireland in late autumn/ wintertime, with two couples immured in a remote cottage some way beyond the nearest village. Something unspecified has happened about two months prior. There's no power, no radio, no news, just endless dreary waiting interspersed with short bursts of violence as threats from looters, inc the local Police.

The scenario in that film was essentially one of waiting; waiting for the lights to come back on, waiting for everything to be all right, and the gradual desperation when the stored food starts to run low/ is taken by force, when people realise that what they have isn't enough and that they're clueless about foraging, hunting or fishing. And the slow erosion of values.........and not a zombie in sight.

I'm not selling it terribly well, but it's superb, sensitive and ultimately quietly terrifying because it's so realistic. You can taste the tension, feel the dankness of the weather and believe the oscillations of hope and despair for the characters and the cinematography is great.

Very thought-provoking on the subject how people would manage a sudden forced transition back to pre-modern times. Makes me wonder how long I'd wait assuming that the situation was a blip and that things would get back to normal, before accepting that the S has truly HTF and the situation is as-seen for the foreseeable future.

************

I've checked my stored h.g. spuds and they're starting to sprout again, last de-shooted a few weeks ago, so I shall de-shoot them again tomorrow. Commercial crops are sprayed to stop this happening but we home growers have to manage this ourselves. I need to know more about non-freezer storage. Has anyone stored root veg in clamps? I have info about how to do it in one of John Seymour's books.

ETA Whoops! One Hundred MORNINGS! Sorry.

Hillbilly1

Thanks GQ - reminds me of:-

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-horses/

When the horses came - alot about waiting in an isolated community and how the arrival of horses gave them hope.

GreyQueen

Hillbilly1 wrote: »

Thanks GQ - reminds me of:-

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-horses/

When the horses came - alot about waiting in an isolated community and how the arrival of horses gave them hope.

Thanks, that's an awesome poem. Have bookmarked it.

I think if it does all go T*TS up (and our current industrial society is a historical anomaly and won't last forever) there will be a lot of problems which are far beyond the basics of keeping ourselves warm, fed and safe.

We'd see a great deal of mental distress, too. A lot of people went through the last WW and the WW before it and came out with their nerves shredded. And I think we would find hardships much harder to endure as we are accustomed to a life of far greater comfort and ease than people born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

I suspect that the long term future will involve a lot of trudging and that our descendants will laugh their handknitted socks off at the quaint idea that we struggled with flab and took ourselves to gyms to work off our excess in unproductive labour.

Hillbilly1

It is an amazing poem - a reminder that the old ways should not be forgotten.

mardatha

I tend to laugh my handknitted socks off now that people actually pay to go to a gym to lose weight/keep fit, when all they have to do is WALK a bit more
Agree re mental health but don't really want to go there, it's too sad. When you read books about the past that's one thing that shows between the lines isn't it.

mardatha

One thing I always wonder about. When I went to primary school, around the late 50s, loads of kids had chilblains, cold sores and that gentian violet on their faces, or iodine. I presume for things like impetigo but not sure. I wonder if that stopped due to better nutrition or hygiene or housing? Would that come back ..?

simmed

mardatha wrote: »

I tend to laugh my handknitted socks off now that people actually pay to go to a gym to lose weight/keep fit, when all they have to do is WALK a bit more
Agree re mental health but don't really want to go there, it's too sad. When you read books about the past that's one thing that shows between the lines isn't it.

Some people want to be strong and build muscle (especially important for people who want to remain thin whilst still eating liberally). Difficult to do that without a gym.