Preparedness for when

mardatha

Apart from anything else - and I'm the very last person to be racist because I hate it with a passion - the UK is an island. With limited elbow room. And as you all know, if we get too many people we'll sink! :eek::eek:

mardatha

WCS all thoughts and plans for planting have vanished here - along with the garden. We have 10" of snow (the RV went out with a tape measure!) and a blizzard. It's the worst snow so far this winter, and comes right in the middle of lambing. Bet the farmers think gawd has got it in for them. Nobody in this street went to work today, it's set to last until tomorrow.

westcoastscot

Mar it's started to snow here too, and youngest went off fishing early this morning - is expecting it to be his last chance this week with gale force winds coming in. It's been so sunny lately I think I conned myself into thinking spring has come early, but it's always May/June isn't it? I've seeds on windowsills and in the airing cupboard - trying to get a head start this year so that plants are big enough to withstand the summer rain and autumn gales

I understand why folks feel the way they do about immigration, but I don't see things that way here on the west side of Scotland. The immigrants that our family know and know of get no assistance at all - they take the minimum wage jobs that no-one else will take, despite often being well qualified in their own countries, and work on cheerfully despite hardships. It does make me wonder at what their lives must have been like, if they prefer this? If you really want to depress yourself read up around immigration centres - grim places. Remember also that in the 50's immigration was encouraged and financially supported to fill post-war gaps in the workforce, so many now are second/third generation British.

BitterAndTwisted

mirry wrote: »

I am slowly building up a stock pile and wonder how long bleach,washing powder, washing up liquid would last for? As these items don't have dates on them like food. I would of thought they will last many years but what do I know:o

Oh yes, unopened they should last for decades, if not indefinitely.

My husband was watching a film about how to kill and cook a pigeon,which quiet frankly made me feel sick because I have a extreme phobia to pigeons..... I would probably end up starving :rotfl: But they seem easy to catch don't they, just throw some bread down and be ready with a net.

Wood pigeons OK. Most definitely not the ordinary feral ones, they're riddled with disease. If I was desperate enough, as a non-meat-eater and I had the skills, I'd catch and eat wood pigeons, no problem. They're organic and free-range after all. Some of the incomers in this area, the homeless and really destitute ones, have been catching and eating ducks, geese and swans from the local parks and rivers.

Someone mentioned about voting, and I think it's something a lot of us are trying to work out, I keep visiting the Labour Party/ukip facebook page to find out more about their policy's and the only one who seems to be addressing my concerns are ukip. From what I've read they are not anti immigration, they just want a sensible points system like Australia has and want us to leave the EU because as a small island we are under too much pressure with open door immigration. But I still can't decide, because the 3 other party's feel like "better the devil you know".

As the daughter of an economic migrant myself I have every sympathy with people who find themselves here on the lowest rungs of the ladder. But I still think that this country should have the right to decide which people get to enter and settle here. I don't think we want or need the world's unskilled, uneducated and uncultured here unless they are able and willing to contribute and integrate.

katieclampet

Hi all, been MIA due to a flu bug, felt really ill. Better now, but trying to take it a bit easy. It has made interesting reading, catching up with posts that Ive missed.

I had already decided to take some money out the bank, and spend it on some investment euipment. I bought a solar/windup radio, which is great. I have bought some seeds, got some pots and plan to grow few bits in my (very) small yard.

Although I had a good clear out of books when I got my kindle (I love my kindle) it was mostly fiction. So I have some shelf space, and plan to charity shop for some books that might be helpful wtshtf.

I am going to buy a few more candles, windup/solar lights and look at an alternative source of heat. Have a gas fire, but might be an old fireplace behind, so might be a possibilyt of opening that up.

Am also going to stock up pantry. Pretty well stocked up on tinned food, cleaning products (bought from tesco when they were doing DTD) ladies toiletries, and other bits and bobs, including bottled water.

Any suggestions of further stuff to stock up on?
Needs to have a long shelf life, but apart from that I am open to suggestions.

katie

maryb

I had au pairs when the DDs were at junior school and I was working. (When I die they will put in my obituary "She taught an entire generation of 18 year olds how to iron a shirt"). In later years they were nearly all from Eastern Europe. Two or three of them stayed on in the UK after their year with me because their boyfriends had come over. They shared crowded flats and worked two or three minimum wage jobs - something like Cafe Nero during the day and Pizza Express evenings. They were hardworking and cheerful but they were doing it to get some money behind them to give themselves the chance of a better life back home where their money went a long way especially back when the pound was strong against the Euro. They didn't intend to stay for more than three or four years. There was a point to their hardships when they were temporary and had a payoff.

The same doesn't really apply to our home grown youth - they can't really get ahead by a spurt of hard work in quite the same way unless they are funding themselves through uni. Meanwhile, the individually rational decisions of Ildiko and Lenka et al to take minimum wage jobs for a while meant that employers never faced wage pressure

BitterAndTwisted

But that's precisely what many, many young couples do in order to save up a deposit to buy a property. The job-market really is dire in some parts of the country, I don't dispute that, but it seems to me that some folks can't focus on the far horizon and have no conception of deferred pleasure, and that's what leads to resentment and disaffection.

Thus spaketh the daughter of someone who came to this country and started work as a live-in domestic servant earning farthings in order to send money home to her destitute family.

mardatha

I agree with WCS and see things the same way - maybe because we haven't as many incomers up here. In one Borders town the Poles have transformed a bad street into a bright cheerful clean one...it used to be full of students and druggies. I heard that from the HA workmen who used to dread going in there. I think incomers can sometimes invigorate and refresh areas that were stagnating.

elona

mirry

I think liquid bleach loses its strength so might be worth looking for bleach tablets as well.

I have been looking at the book people site and they have a collection of self sufficency books (12 for about a tenner) in case this helps anyone.

Pineapple

Thanks for the tip. I try to remember to use vinegar as fabric conditioner. I have lemon juice to clean microwave, 5 litre jug of vinegar to mix with cheap bicarb to unblock plugholes, microfibre cleaning clothes to cut down on chemicals and loads of toilet rolls, laundry liquids and shower gels stashed away. With four dds we get through a lot of stuff.

mrs_lds

katieclampet wrote: »

Hi all, been MIA due to a flu bug, felt really ill. Better now, but trying to take it a bit easy. It has made interesting reading, catching up with posts that Ive missed.

I had already decided to take some money out the bank, and spend it on some investment euipment. I bought a solar/windup radio, which is great. I have bought some seeds, got some pots and plan to grow few bits in my (very) small yard.

Although I had a good clear out of books when I got my kindle (I love my kindle) it was mostly fiction. So I have some shelf space, and plan to charity shop for some books that might be helpful wtshtf.

I am going to buy a few more candles, windup/solar lights and look at an alternative source of heat. Have a gas fire, but might be an old fireplace behind, so might be a possibilyt of opening that up.

Am also going to stock up pantry. Pretty well stocked up on tinned food, cleaning products (bought from tesco when they were doing DTD) ladies toiletries, and other bits and bobs, including bottled water.

Any suggestions of further stuff to stock up on?
Needs to have a long shelf life, but apart from that I am open to suggestions.

katie

I think herbs and spices are important as limited menus can become bland. Also do OT store cleaning products etc near food . I have loads of pasta out of date but still tastes fine tins tomatoes vegetables and tinned fruit, batter mixes dried egg . Manual tin openers are a must .
Store what you eat and eat what you store nd rotate food too