Preparedness for when

sb44

kittie wrote: »

wow sb44, brilliant I already have those food saver lids and the vac pump is a brake bleeder, which I have now bought

:TThank you so much:T, that will be such a useful bit of kit to have as I already have dozens of kilner jars

ps, I deliberately don`t ever use the thanks button now as it was being used in a kind of devisive way on another thread

Thanks Kittie.

I def need to start using my foodsaver canisters more, I have about 12, all bought off ebay for next to nothing.

I tend to just stick a lidded jar in them and seal the jars that way and then end up having empty canisters which I should really use more.

I should use them in the fridge but we only have a medium sized fridge so would have to adjust the shelves to fit the larger canisters in.



Don't know if you are aware but there is a Foodsaver group on yahoo, mostly USA members but good for picking up tips.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FoodSaver/

You need to become a member of the group to be able to view the posts.

sb44

I stumbled across a way of cooking whilst on YouTube last night, may be of interest to others, I had never heard of them, how to make a rocket stove.

From bricks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz2ssyGfg58

From tin cans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_810450&feature=iv&src_vid=P6ValmUnjz4&v=yRLR07GRgvQ

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-Rocket-Stove-from-a-10-Can-and-4-So/step8/Light-that-bad-boy-up

[Deleted User]

I put that group in my forums sb44, thank you

dh just came back with a stack of satsumas, so most of them are now in vac jars. I only have one empty one left

I had a brilliant time this am, vacuuming stuff. Linseeds, chopped hazels, chopped walnuts and brazils, all bags just had the corner snipped before placing in a special vac bag, which I can re-use. All now under the stairs and have released a whole fridge drawer. I always keep fruit and veg cold but nuts etc don`t go rancid when vac sealed and kept in a cool place. I have made room in an easier cupboard and now have the vac sealer more at hand. Am getting a free range chicken at the weekend, which I will joint and vac seal in portions before freezing as it stops freezer burn

sb44

kittie wrote: »

I have made room in an easier cupboard and now have the vac sealer more at hand. Am getting a free range chicken at the weekend, which I will joint and vac seal in portions before freezing as it stops freezer burn

I wasn't using mine as it was tucked in a cupboard so have made room on one of the worktops for it, I have def used it a lot more since doing that.

Yep, it def stops freezer burn, I used to throw away tons of stuff which I no longer recognized!

One tip I found was to seperate rashers of bacon, roll them up, freeze in a plastic bag, then put that bag (with corner snipped off as you said) into a foodsaver bag.

That way, if you only want a couple of rashers you don't have to defrost the whole pack.

Not sure if anyone has seen this but some of it is quite interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOLuIApyNPc

Wendy Dewitt comes in just after a minute.

Popperwell

unixgirluk wrote: »

Hello All, how is everyone? Where i work have large carboardboard boxes in reception and are asking for donations for the food banks. They have a list if suitable stuff which seems quite sensible. It is all quite frightening really I've not seen things like this since I was a child (early 80's and the miner's strikes). Now I would love to help but now having to pay out to fix the car (unexpected bill) I am not in a position to help anyone. I do feel bad. I have most of whats on that list but thats for us whilst we have no wages (temp workers, both of us so no wages over christmas or new year and first wage will be 18th jan). Anyone else having a guilt complex?

I totally understand you feeling that way. But though a big generalisation those who have the least often give the most. The other week I did buy food and gave to the food bank on the town but if you did so each week even £1 a week is £52 over the year.

I have started going to church again more often, even if you do the same again there's another £52 if you give to the collection. If I have to use a taxi to church and back there's £6 every journey there's £166 annually so just doing those three things There's £270.

It is so easy to spend the little that you have but knowing I could be in need of help myself in the future as so many will, it is difficult.

I know my own income will reduce still further in 2013 paying for essentials like rent, food, council tax, utility bills, home insurance and bedroom tax. And you have to pay fares to/from work or try to run a car that again means repairs, insurance, MOT tests, road tax, petrol etc

In work/out of work life just seems a struggle for many. As you say it is the uncertainty of knowing in your case that you'll even have a job so you have to try and offset anything that will change your situation.

oldtractor

I agree Popperwell

GreyQueen

nuatha wrote: »

In a discussion about best before dates, we'd covered various political decisions on the length of dates* used when the discussions turned to other products. One of the crowd worked for a major pharmaceutical company in product development. Her view was that the best before dates on drugs were fairly close to the safety margin. Yes there is a margin of safety, but that was mainly there to take account of variations in storage and transport conditions, and given that you didn't know the details of the supply chain then even if you had ideal conditions at home you couldn't be sure you were safe even a week or two after the date.
Unfortunately the usual look, smell, touch, tests used for food are of no use when it comes to drugs.

I was told about 2-3 years ago by a hospital pharmacist that they (the hospital) used to routinely-remove the medications which patients had brought with them from home and replace them with fresh ones from the pharmacy but due to cost cutting this practice had ceased. It was done in case the patients had done stupid things with their meds like keeping them on the tops of radiators. Dunno if this is NHS-wide or particular to my hospital.

I keep my meds in a drawer in my living room and in my bugout bag, switching them as necessary. I also have some in my bag and pocket at all times. Since I'm being kept alive by them, I treat them with great respect and care. In a permanant SHTF situation, I wouldn't be able to live without them and if the pharmaceutical industry wasn't making and distributing them, I'd be a goner.

It p's me off no end, but gives me added motivation to be very careful of my well-being as I'm more vulnerable than most, although I'm a strapping great lassie and you'd be surprised to know I was chronically ill if you met me. I aim not to be a casualty if humanly possible. Best to take care of yourself and free up resources for those who cannot help themselves like the very young and the very old.

2tonsils, thanks for the explanation of your water problem. I'm a nosy one, aren't I? The detail of life has always fascinated me. My Mum's childhood home had a hand-pump (big ole cast iron thingy) to bring the water up. Apparently, it brought up slugs with it. Yeuch. And, according to a survival book, if you ever need to eat a slug, the best (least-worst?) way is to swallow them whole *shudders*

Re life expectancy, doing the family genealogy has revealed that as far back as we can get, being common types (early 1600s) my ancestors were living until their mid-eighties or even early nineties centuries ago. What was dragging the averages down were the infant deaths and those women who were dying within days or a week or two of childbirth. Sad to look at the dates and feel the human misery behind the bald facts.

There were also accidental deaths, accidents with horses and carts/ waggons being very commonplace. One of my great-grands died of being head-kicked by a horse in the early twentieth century.

If you survived the childhood years, and didn't succumb to childbirth complications, you had a pretty fair chance of making old bones esp if, like my people, you were living in the country areas where there was more fresh food and less pollution to contend with.

It makes me cross when the media misuse averages to take into account infant and childhood deaths which shows that people in the centuries immediately before this one were dropping dead in middle age or younger. It's balderdash; the misuse of the mean average instead of the median average. Look at your own family records, wander around old cemetaries and you'll find plenty of people living just as long as we're living now.

Honest doctors will admit that public health measures and better sanitation save more lives than they ever could, which is why we're so vulnerable when these things go wrong.

Well, I am now the temporary custodian of Season 1 of the original Survivors which I plan to start watching shortly. Mebbe some good tricks there to learn.

Dippypud

GreyQueen

LOL, Dippypud, like the list.

Well, just watched the first installment of Survivors. Very thought-provoking. And a bit of a trip down memory lane; rotary dial telephones, flares, truly awful haircuts, naff decor, slam door trains, I can remember all that stuff.

Got some more stuff to think about, inc the irrelvance of a fiat paper currenncy post-SHTF (unless as tinder or t.p, substitute). But right now it can buy you lots of preptastic stuff which has lasting utility..........I'm on it.

sb44

Quite a bit of SHTF stuff ie 582 pins on this Pinterest board.

http://pinterest.com/crafti142/be-prepared-emergency-planning-a-whole-lot-of-othe/

Off to have a browse.