Preparedness for when

Popperwell

I'm getting even less troubled about dates on food...I've mentioned not following sell by/best before dates. I got some meat out of the freezer to put something else in and that went into the fridge. Days ran into a week I would think. Did I throw it out...No!

I browned in and then put it into the casserole/stew in the slow cooker and it has been thoroughly cooked and it is fine...once that might have been thrown out.

Though health comes first that is likely never to happen again...all I buy within reason must be used and not wasted.

Elona, I know where your OH is coming from with the age thing and his birthday. I keep telling myself "Age is only a number!" Not sure it's working though:rotfl:

But your answer makes sense too;)

All the best to him, I have got to the point where I sometimes wonder if we should celebrate Birthdays as hopefully every day is a bonus or as important. Though if health is an issue or a lack of money I could understand it being more difficult to be positive.

suburbanwifey

elona wrote: »

Mardatha

Good point but I don't think hamsters have sweeties

It snowed overnight so DH got all the snow off dd's car before she set off for work at 7.45. Just about half an hour later it started to snow again and ir is still coming down fast in very small flakes.

I am not going out in this but might have to venture to freezer in garage later for tonight's meal. DH has a "landmark" birthday and is not pleased at being a certain age. I pointed out the alternative scenario i.e not getting older and the implications and it shut him up a bit

Glad we went out for a new coat for dd yesterday as her old one was getting too small and she needs to go out today for medical appointment. Finally found one in T***o that is nice and warm looking, reasonably smart and a good price as well :j

So pleased we have food in cupboards and freezer, long life milk, breadmaker and lots of ingredients. Even better, I have books to read, some recipes I want to try (and some sweeties).

Gas canister for portable heater arrives this morning as previous one is empty so fingers crossed we should be all right.

DH's birthday meal will be things from freezer, home made prawn cocktail, sea bass or salmon with stir fry veg and home made apple crumble for dessert. I might try to bake a cake but I am useless at cakes so hope it is the thought that counts :eek:

2tonsils

Thanks for the links and the warnings about the weather.

Keep warm and safe everyone.

My hubby too had problems with a *landmark* birthday. He had a great day, enjoying all his presents and the collection they did for him at work, then sank into a mild depression that lasted almost a month! Eventually I gave him some hard words about the alternative and what benefits there are to getting older (for eg. we are mortgage free in our 40's etc!) and then explained that there is nothing one can do about getting older, it happens to everyone, even the President of the USA, no amount of money can stop time or the ageing process and tried to ensure he ended up enjoying the fruits of his age and also how lucky he was to reach that age, many die by illness or car crashes etc. It worked, he kicked himself up the butt and now he loves his age. I always thought I would be the one who would be upset by age, (I've always cared about my looks and been a little vain I suppose) but I love my life a bit more as every year passes plus everyone thinks I am around 10 years younger than I am (good skin, fab nutrition, positive mental attitude) so I don't give a stuff how old I am, recently bought myself a pair of purple Doc Marten boots, I dress a lot younger than I am and behave a lot younger than I am, he now does the same. Age cannot be changed, but one's attitude to it can

(I plan on being a wild old biddy one day !!! that's when I'm not on a cruise letting all the old men chat me up hehe)

Rosemary_Jane

kittie wrote: »

I recommend the spindle though, so incredibly relaxing and can be made from a cd and a dowel or £7 on ebay. Will spin nettle fibres, lol I sometimes see fluffy hair on people and spinning comes to mind.

Not only people, Kittie, not only people...

Knitting with Dog Hair: Better a Sweater from a Dog You Know Than a Sheep You'll Never Meet
www.amazon.co.uk/Knitting-Dog-Hair-Better-Sweater/dp/0304359955/

Or , for felting shed cat fur:

Crafting with Cat Hair: Cute Handicrafts to Make with Your Cat
www.amazon.co.uk/Crafting-Cat-Hair-Cute-Handicrafts/dp/1594745250/


As you can probably tell, I have fantasies about all these wonderful alternative ideas. Never do anything, mind, just dream...

R

maryb

Well I have a very happy DD2 as school is closed. Not sure why since we only had about 4 inches of snow and the council were very good, give them their due, and the main roads stayed OK throughout. They have even gritted quite a few of the side roads. It stopped snowing at about 5pm and buses were fine last night. Trains a bit delayed this morning but mainly planned cancellations so that they can combine them into longer trains which apparently makes them less likely to fail.

I can only assume it's an 'elf 'n safety issues in case one of the little darlings slips on a path to the cloakroom. But given that they have two resident caretakers I do feel that the answer to keeping the kids safe is by making the site safe not by denying them access to the site

suburbanwifey

Just thought I'd point you all into the direction of an online course I am enrolled on from the University of Pittsburgh, USA which is a free course entitled Disaster Preparedness. Its an 8 week online course, commitment is around 2-4 hours per week.

Linky

Course Syllabus

Disaster Preparedness: How we mitigate the effects of disasters on a personal, institutional, and governmental levels

During this course, students will gain an understanding of the Disaster Cycle, concentrating on the Mitigation Phase. They will examine disaster planning on a personal level, including developing a personal or family disaster plan. Institutional and governmental planning will be examined to gain an understanding of the process, the difficulties involved, as well as the successes and failings. Other issues to be discussed include: Attitude and Awareness, ethical considerations, violence, and compassion in light of the realities of disasters and their effects. The course will be designed to be interactive and include a great deal of input and discussion from the students.

Upon completion of this class, the student will be able to:

1. Discuss the elements of disaster preparation and response.
2. Demonstrate critical thinking in awareness, preparation and application of disaster response and management on a personal, local and national level.
3. Utilize critical thinking and psychomotor skills in the assessment of potential disaster and mass casualty situations.
4. Analyze the implementation of evidence-based, holistic, cost effective planning for disaster and mass casualty situations.
5. Analyze ethical dilemmas encountered in the specialty setting and the methods by which advanced practice nurses assist the patient, family and other health care providers with resolution.

Content will include:

• The Disaster Cycle and its evolution
• Personal preparedness
  • Communication
  • Security
  • Supplies and other stuff
  • Shelter, Food and Water
  • Comfort
• Preparedness on the level of institutions and governments
• Ethical considerations including Justice and the distribution of resources, Utilitarianism, and person responsibility
• Factors which limit mitigation such as personal freedom and financial considerations
• Examples and realities from disaster response such as Memorial Hospital after Hurricane Katrina and personal experiences from the faculty
• Attitude and Awareness

ALIBOBSY

Well that took me ages to catch up with the thread lol.

Ginny hope you feel better soon.

Someone mentioned buying Hobnobs, but I make the homemade ones or "twinks" from on here in OS. Easy to make and yummy fresh from the oven nom nom.

I watched that winterwatch thing about the big freeze in 1963, was interesting. I wasn't born till the early 70's, but had been told about the bad winter. But I had no idea how bad it really was.

I agree with other posters on here it was a different era, people who had been in the war, and were used to getting on and sorting things out with hard work and grit.

On the homefront the majority of families had the women at home, and as they showed she would be the one to queue for water, eke out food supplies etc. Many people now have no idea how to cook from scratch, make things last and use everything up.

I also couldn't see the RMT union letting their members get down and dig snow for hours at a time lol. Because of health and safety alot of things people just got on with back then would be banned now and I reckon far more shops/schools etc would shut. The economic costs would be massive and given the current state of many businesses if it happened now we could see more highstreet names going to the wall.

Thought we had got away lightly with the snow as it was melting yesterday and we could see most of the pavement and grass.

Woke this morning to another white out, even heavier than friday was and it getting heavier now. It stopped for about an hour at 10 so went out with the girls (their school was shut)and OH to make a snowman and snowball fights lol.
DS had to go to school, but they have rang to say they are now shutting at 12.30 so would have been alot easier just to shut this morning-must be a real pain for workers. We are OK as I am a SAHM that does a few bits of work from home and OH is S/E so will only go out if he has to when its like this.

Weirdly MIL only lives about 12 miles away and they have only had a light sprinkle.

Keep warm guys :T

Ali x

2tonsils

Well it was lovely here first thing..19 degrees and sunny so I went to the gym. By the time I finished it was truly blowing a gale with lots of dust in the air. We went to visit our friend on the marina and we nearly lost the car door when my OH opened it. In just a few seconds all the papers and contents of the dash were out of the door and heading towards the water. He just got to them in time but I thought he was going to go in as well. The water was really high, a sure sign of storms coming soon. I refused the invitation to go on the boat as I was scared of going up the moving gang way and the boat rocking and rolling would have made me feel sick in seconds lol ..so OH went on board and I stayed safely on the shore.

Came home and checked all the drains are clear for the storms expected in a couple of days. All okay and well stocked in the house. It was still warm and sunny and glorious. I went in the kitchen to make a prawn salad and when I returned to the lounge it had gone absolutely black, with the wind howling through the trees opposite.

I can now here the thunderbolts hitting the valley just up the road and it looks horrendous out there. Going to have to unplug everything again. We seem to be trapped between a deep freeze and hot stormy weather fronts.

I am glad you appreciated the warnings. I am pleased it helped you prep for what is comng. I am watching it on sky tv (till I unplug) and it looks terrible.The end of the month is looking pretty bad for the west of the UK.


It looks bad now but I am worried about the storms and deep frost coming our way from Europe. Where on earth did these storms come from in just ten minutes from a lovely sunny sky????? Going to light the fire as the last storm took our temperature from 15 degrees to zero in just a couple of minutes.

HariboJunkie

westcoastscot wrote: »

As we get more incomers here now we're more connected road-wise to the rest of the UK I see more people relying solely on electricity, which goes off routinely for varying lengths of time, I see people relying on getting off the peninsular for work - and we have road closures routinely - it all adds to the stress, both personally and on local services, and I see more people travelling to the city for grocery shopping - impacting greatly on our local trade. Supermarket delivery is just starting to appear here, which will also spell the end of our local stores I suspect - be interesting to see what happens next time there's a landslip on the Rest! - and I do feel there must be a limit to how reliant we can allow ourselves to be on the powers that be before it backfires horrendously.

I do recall that bread disappeared quickly, but most of us made our own and had stocks of bread flour. The only real problem was that sugar disappeared - so when stocks of those went we really missed it!

WCS

What people forget up here is that even if we don't have snow directly, we can be easily cut off from the rest of the world when the Rest or Tyndrum is impassable and the snow gates are closed at Bridge of Orchy. But it's just the way it is and we're all used to it.

BUT... Where else do we get such a great life with so few people and such an abundance of unique wildlife and the best scenery in the world? I wouldn't be anywhere else...

Very little snow here today and a wee bit milder so not panicking yet.

ps.. the Rest is treacherous today so hope you're not heading to the big smoke. x

Hollyberry

The lovely Mr O***o in the Lemon Van arrived early, and was an absolute sweetie as ever, so our cupboards are full to bustin' and I have a new slow cooker and torches. Hope he stays safe, and that his customers are appreciative. I know we are.

Yesterday's snow was sufficient to fill in the footprints to the bird table. The squirrels have been for their feed, and now the birds are having a relay to the seed and the water. The robin in particular is very chuffed to have found water available, so I feel much appreciated too. Just as well, as the gutter deposited a nice amount of overflow down my back as I snuck out the door. :eek: I feel a bit more awake now!

Seldom have I felt happier about working from home. And very glad not to have any meetings this week that I can't miss if necessary. OH has just left to go to his mum's; although we wouldn't normally go in weather like this, she's not long had an operation, and he wants to be sure she is ok. I've stayed behind here, in case he has trouble getting back and decides to stay at hers. That way there will be one of us near each of the mums in case we are needed.

Stay safe & warm.

RAS

ginnyknit wrote: »

We dont seem to have much snow, just a scattering. Tonight we took DGS home after his playday and I thought I would try lying in the middle of the road, curtesy of seatbelt wrapping itself round my leg. Dont think it was a good idea and am likely to be in rather a lot of pain sometime soon. Managed to wrench both knees bang my hands and my upper back is complaining loudly that it really doesnt like cold tarmac

ginny

Try to get hold of some comfrey; it is really good at reducing the pain in sprains and bruises. Only warning is that the ointment is dark brown and makes a mess of clothing; although I used it under a support bandage.

I slipped on the stairs in new shoes (no heel) last week and racked my pelvis and knee. Whanged on the comfrey immediately (was just going down to turn off the lights anyway) and topped it up at intervals.

Getting into bed was the hardest bit and I had to lasso my foot and wrangle the clothes under them as I could not lift my leg but by day three I was comfortable walking at near normal speed.