Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

Hi ALI that is such good news, and something I think you weren't expecting to happen at all, yes? It must be such a relief to you and the family, so pleased for you all.

We have had snow down here too, it's enough to be about 1" on the lawns but the roads and pavements are wet and it's not laying there. I've just walked the hound and it's really odd, snowing all the time in tiny little flakes but every now and then a huge gust of wind that whips them into your face like slivers of ice. The bushes look like waterfalls when that happens and the snow crystals just stream off the leaves like smoke, it's beautiful but very cold if it happens when you are right next to one, it goes down your neck and in your ears its strange, stay warm too, Cheers Lyn xxx.

Margaret54

Very cold here today. A little bit of snow falling but it might not come to anything. Put washing on the clothes horse after bringing it in from the line.
Made banana bread last night:) might bake again in a few days time. Watched last episode of Call the Midwife last night. I loved it and maybe there will be another series later on. Loved the music in it too. Keep warm everyone, and hugs to those who need one.

ginnyknit

we have a sort of feeble blizzard here, snow wafting around - Oh spoke too soon the suns out and the snows stopped - what the heck??

As for sewing machines I covet those all singing all dancing ones but will stick with my ex - treadle now leccy and my 15 year old swopped for a knitted doll one that does a bit of embroidery. They serve me well and dont cause me to swear too much.

DD&D welcome back hunny, we missed you tons :j:j:j

Am off to do a mammoth baking session to warm up the house and fill the empty freezer drawer. We have scones and muffins on the menu (double choccy muffins from AF no less). Am confined to barracks this week as no need or want to shop. So its sewing, crochet and a bit of fiddle and fart craftyness.

Will be buying some disinfectant type stuff and thought milton maybe a good idea?? - well cheap version. Dont do bleach as it brings back the horrors of an OCD mum when I was little but tablets could be stashed away for emergencies.

catznine

Hi folks! Been lurking for a while as not been very well with a rotten virus, couldn't breath very well and dr sent me for a ecg and then a chest xray, all ok thank goodness so 4 weeks on and still a tad breathless but coughing it away hopefully! It has meant staying in and so I have the crochet hook out and am working away at an aran throw for dd and her oh. It is very quick to grow and lovely and warm too. I have made it in colours to match their decor lol It is my way of helping them prep for bad weather/ future power cuts etc even if they don't think it will ever happen

I am so glad I did the granny square workshop locally as it is definately paying off with 4 throws made and 2 baby shawls. Now to decide which workshop to take next? Already done the patchwork one and have completed 1 memory quilt and several cushion covers as gifts. Whatever I choose has to pay for itself, there is a dressmaking course coming up but that is a lot of money as it spans 6 weeks but I see it as a great prepping tool and a way of ultimately saving money. They do silver clay jewellery, flower arrangements, knitting socks, rag dolls (done that one) beading etc., When I am better I will sign up for something. I had a rebate recently for something I should never have been charged for (watch those mobile phone bills) and want to use some of the pennies for prepping in some way. I have also negotiated a very low monthly contract as I hardly use the thing! So more pennies to save or use for prepping!

I have been given a book with instructions for knitting with old carrier bags and might give that a go soon!

Anyone else ordered the 10p mandarin oranges from AF? They only let you order 10 but a good price.

The more I have rested, the more I have read and some of the stuff out there is alarming (The end of Britiain article :eek:) but I feel so long as we can be pro active in our approach rather than panic the better we will cope.
btw thanks for all the book ideas Can I add "The Carbon Diaries 2015" by Sian Lloyd about a teenager and her family coping with fuel rationing. Although aimed at teens it is worth a read.

Great news about your bil Ali! :j

Hope your eyes improve soon DD and D

Lyn - loving your posts not just about your lovely dog but your posts are so descriptive!

Just read somewhere that there will be a Christmas Call the Midwife and a new series in 2014 :T Another fan here as well!

Well it has stopped snowing here, just very cold so off to make a bangers and mash meal for when dh comes home!

Catz x

RAS

catznine wrote: »

btw thanks for all the book ideas Can I add "The Carbon Diaries 2015" by Sian Lloyd about a teenager and her family coping with fuel rationing. Although aimed at teens it is worth a read.

Is that the one with the older sister who wrecks everyone else's carbon budget by going clubbing in Ibiza, the eccentric teacher and London floods?

elona

catznine

I got the mandarin oranges as well as onion bhaji mixes, stock cubes, squeezy veg stock,fancy olive oils for cooking and face washes and soaps and shower gels.

Amazed that the size of the chicken breasts I bought from the butchers are so big I could cut off a quarter of each to use in a stir fry tonight and still have a good size left to use as chicken wrapped in bacon another day.

Hug to all.

GreyQueen

Evening all. Bliddy freezing here, several degrees below zero and gawd knows what the windchill is. To give an idea, I have my rads cranked to the max and am still bundled up in a fleece and my trapper hat. There's a visual for you, poor chicks.

Excellent tip about the bleach tabs, I shall look out for them.

You can also use Milton to purify water; 2.5 ml of the liquid to 5 litres or water or 1 Milton tablet to 100 litres and allow both to stand for 15 mins before use.

I'm adding a few bits to my preptastic shopping list such as funnels and measuring spoons/ jugs. I want good quality metal ones, several. Think about how useful these are now and how handy they could be if we ended up having to decant fuel and pour from one container into another. I shall also go for a couple of water carriers, in addition to the 2 litre bottles stashed in nooks and crannies all over the place.

If SHTF a lot of us moderns would have to learn, and learn fast, about managing home hygiene and perhaps running a home sickroom, too. If there are any afficianados of old (as in early 20th or 19th century) household manuals, you often see a chapter on home nursing. Many of the things which they were nursing against are not a problem for us at present due to immunisation and better living conditions, but that isn't to say that we can ever be complacent.

Friend and neighbour SuperGran was a nurse all her life, straight from school until retirement, and a theatre sister for the latter part of it. I do believe you could probably find grubbier operating theatres than her kitchen. She's very consious of handwashing and especially scrubbing of the fingernails with a nailbrush. Lots of germs under there.

Have ordered Alex Scarrow Last Light today from the library and I want it already, hope they can get me one from across the county before too much longer as I'm dying to read it.

I've been giving a bit of thought to blending in, grey personhood, keeping a low profile, etc recently. Some of this is second nature. I grew up on a rough estate where it wasn't prudent to flash stuff as it was liable to be taken off you. The predators weren't outsiders but the people who lived around you.

I recall one time that all four of us went out as a family leaving Mum's pushbike chained in the front garden. To the downpipe.

Someone watched us go and calmly bolt-cropped the chain off and stole it away. For a long time after that, we'd leave the house separately some from front and some from the back door and rendezvous at the garage where the car lived on a different street. A neighbour of decades' standing wasn't so fly and ended up being burgled by neighbours when she went on holiday. Police got them for it; they lived just across the road from her. Lovely.

This was excellent training for life in some hairy cities and for the rough and tumble which is Shoebox Towers, so notorious a block that the Police who are headquartered clean across the county don't faff about when you tell them your postcode. If we call 999 from the Towers, they know to come down here with multiple units. Since I know fine well that some of my neighbours are crims (can read about it in the newspaper), and that there are plenty of others about who are desperate, I aim to keep low.

Part of that is making sure that if anything new comes into the flat, that it is shrouded in something like a tatty old black sack. And that if I carry shopping bags around, they are from the cheapest of cheap stores.Or have stuff in the trolley. And choosing my clothing, especially outerwear, to be unremarkable.

An idea I came across in my travels is about not looking too prepared, when you're out and about. Imagine you get caught up in a crisis. You could be minding your business in town in the middle of the day and get caught up in an armed bank robbery, in a smash-and-grab on a jewellers shop or in something gang related. I know people who've seen what they thought was a movie being filmed and it wasn't make-believe, it was the Police shooting live ammo at crims in the middle of a weekday in the middle of this city. This isn't the sort of place where you expect to have to duck and cover, but there is was, right there with no warning. And it was 200 m from this flat.

Trouble has a habit of exploding out of nowhere at times, so you want to pay attention to your surroundings without being obvious. You also don't want to be playing the hard man or the tough girl with your kit or clothing. You don't want to look like the troublemaker who'd get beaten or shot first to set an example to the others. You might, of course, be the toughnut with a can of pepperspray or a switchblade in your handbag and black belt, but you don't want to look like trouble unless and until you're ready to start it and confident you can finish it too.

I always mind what my martial arts instructor told me half a lifetime ago; if you carry a weapon it can always be taken off you and used against you. So be careful what you carry.

I don't wear jewellery at all because I don't care for it, but there will inevitably be more muggings and it may well be something to consider if you like a bit of bling. Or even pretend bling; imagine getting your face rearranged by a mugger over some cubic zirconiums, f'rinstance.:(

Right, I need more tea to return to operational temperature. I fear this may be a two-hot-water-bottle night, as Sherlock might have put it...............:rotfl:

catznine

RAS wrote: »

Is that the one with the older sister who wrecks everyone else's carbon budget by going clubbing in Ibiza, the eccentric teacher and London floods?

lol yes it is indeed that one! Just picked it up for a re read inbetween the wielding of the crochet hook (nearly finished the throw) and cooking dinner.

A good point about not drawing attention to yourself, or your dog for that matter as scarily we have had a spate of dog thefts in the area, a countrywide problem at the moment, especially "working" dogs which ours most definately is not. All a bit horrific really. Our dogs are our family not belongings! Keep an eye on your dogs when out and about or when in the garden. Don't advertise when you are going out either. Someone said they are being stolen for either breeding, hunting or even worse to be used in dog fights as bait!:eek: What kind of a world are we living in?

bluebag

GreyQueen,

Some very smart advice about keeping down low. The best way of getting out of trouble is not to get into it in the first place.

GreyQueen

bluebag wrote: »

GreyQueen,

Some very smart advice about keeping down low. The best way of getting out of trouble is not to get into it in the first place.

I'm slightly-famous among those who know me for being like McCavity; when trouble is around, I'm never there.

The last near-murder at the Towers, with the landings and stairs awash with blood, saw me out for the night. And I very seldom go out in the evening. I've also specialised in bailing out of bars and various other places when the instinct tells me to, so much so that friends know that if I suggest leaving somewhere RIGHT NOW that it's time to hit the road.

I was once car camping solo at a proper site when I had a very bad feeling about a bunch of young lads who were taking entirely too much interest in me and what I was doing. I was in my early twenties but, trust me, I was never a looker to attract so much attention. I think it was just because I was on me todd. It felt dodgy and as night fell, dodgier. And I'm a gutsy person who has camped solo in several places but I didn't like the vibe I was getting off that bunch one little bit.

With no warning that they could see, I was suddenly collapsing my tent and throwing it in the car and outta there in a couple of minutes and the likely lads didn't know what to make of that at all. Wretched rainy night, couldn't be bothered to pitch again on another site in the wet so drove for hours to get home.

I think we need to be aware that what we call intuition or even the heebie-jeebies is often a way of expressing something which you can't articulate rationally but can feel deep down in your hind brain. I'm a firm believer in listening to those hunches and acting on them. Knowing when to leave is an essential survival skill. Sometimes it's all you need.