Preparedness for when

mysterywoman10

Thanks Popperwell

I think it's mainly food and non food items I need to stock up on. We have a lot of lamps, wind up, candles etc.

The bottled water is a problem because it take up a lot of space, so I suppose it would be a short term thing only? The amount you could store so is a water purifying system worth investing in. Although we do have some purifying stuff for our caravan water. It's surprising how much you can get through in a day we would use 45 litres on the caravan a day. That's with no showers (toilet water separate that takes a very small amount not like flushing a normal loo) just washing up and cooking, hand washing, teeth cleaning that sort of thing. We reduced it dramatically when in the snow by not doing washing up on board, and were managing on 10 litres a day.

I think to be honest it would be easier to survive on the caravan than the house, need to stock up on items for that as well!

Popperwell

Yes water purifying tablets would be an option...it really depends what kind of disaster befalls us...temporary or larger and we can never cover everything...I mean if the water stopped at the mains that would be serious. If there was a power outage or gas failed.

You can only do what you are able...

mysterywoman10

I've seen a nice place somewhere with a fully insulated chalet, multi fuel stove/hot water, mountain stream, 2 acres of woods and enough land to grow veg on. It's tempting just need to sell

Water stopping is more serious than loss of power, depending on whether or not you can find fresh water, none near where we live now.

You can only do what you can as you say.

D&DD

Some really thought provoking posts today thankyou very interesting reading.
Just chilling after my evenings t.v viewing

My top five items ooh

if we're talking just food

Coffee (or I don't function...)
Sugar for baking and preserves
Salt for bread and preserving
Yeast
Flour

I figure if I can at least make bread we'll be ok as I can forage a bit here and use the garden also,this is assuming we have water stored obviously..

5 non food supermarket preps would be

Water purifying tabs
unscented bleach (water purifying again if all else fails)
Ziplock bags
Foil
charcoal

I'm bound to have missed something REALLY obvious but it's late and I've had a busy day :rotfl:

Butterfly

Bread recipe is Mr Hollywoods totally the best I've ever eaten..

500g strong flour
10g salt
10g yeast
30g butter
320ml water

do give it a try its great.When I watched him do it I finally found out why my loaves are like bricks,I made them far too dry and used flour to knead.Use olive oil on the top,its a bit like kneading glue to start but it does eventually work to a lovely dough

D&DD

Book list continued *I didn't forget*

The Rapture Liz Jensen
The Long Emergency James Kussler
Swan Song Robert McCammon
I am legend richard matheson
Afraid Jack Kilborn
Earth Abides george stewart
lucifers hammer
monster island
a canticle for leibowitz
The strain trilogy Guillermo Del Toro
One second after
the road
Last light
After light
The reapers are angels#Day by day Armageddon
Black light
Metro 2033
One Conrad williams
Death of Grass (I also have the film of this I found on t'internet)

Have read most of the above now and most are worth a read

I can't list my kindle content as theres over 800 books on there now so ask away if theres any you want a review on I may well have read them :rotfl:

boultdj

lillibet_dripping wrote: »

Forgive me for de-lurking but have I missed something?
Where has 2tonsils got to?

Was wandering that myself, last thing she posted was about someone getting in touch about interview's.

GreyQueen

boultdj wrote: »

Was wandering that myself, last thing she posted was about someone getting in touch about interview's.

Last time she posted she was job hunting abroad so may be very busy right now. Hopefully, she'll pop in with an update; I do miss her posts.

I flicked Radio 4 on back of 6 am today and caught part of a farming programme. They were talking to a dairy farmer in his maize storehouse; he has 1 week's maize left. Homegrown maize. Last year, he fed his cows on h.g. into July, this year after a poor 2012 harvest, he will run out in 7 days. And the pasture won't have enough nutrients on it yet for the cows and what is he to do? If he buys it in, it'll beggar him.

Things like that bring it right down to ground level about how, for all our sophistication, survival is very basic; food and water, warmth and shelter, kine and kin. I like gardening for veggies. It's a no-nonsense zone. You do the work, and if the weather co-operates and the pests aren't too heinous, you get a crop. No room for fakery or flimflam.

I do see a lot of people start allotment-keeping with a great rush of enthusiasm and then cop out within weeks or months. Sometimes they never come back for a second visit! I realise that for some there may be major lifestyle changes such as illness personally or in the family which mean that they haven't got the time that they thought they would have. But surely this can't explain the 90% failure rate on new allotments?

The old boys, some who've been on our site for 40+ years and their Dads before them, blame this on the gardening programmes. People see Monty or whomever for 30 mins a week in an immaculate plot and think this is the amount of effort involved. I myself overheard an ex-lottie neighbour, when noobs, saying to his g/f about how they'd be able to keep up their lottie on an hour a week on Saturdays. I was biting my lip to not laugh aloud.

When kindly people offered them tips/ plants, they weren't treated in a neighbourly manner. They didn't last long and they never managed to grow anything but tired.

If we end up, temporarily or permanantly, grid down, life will get very hard, physically. Most of us (self included) haven't done hard manual labour consistantly, day in day out. We've had water from taps, cars to transport ourselves and our groceries, ease all around. We are in no ways as strong as people of our great-grandparents' generation, like the runty little old men my Dad worked with as a farmboy in the 1950s, who made no fuss about regularly lifting sacks which weighed almost as much as they did. Even doing the weekly wash was tough work.

I would think carefully about adding things which could be collectively banded as "force magnifiers" into preps. By that, I mean things which make a mere human being stronger, faster, more efficient.

The wheel is the greatest force magnifier. Have you got a bike or a trike? How about a trolley to pull behind it? If you're going to be carting stuff, inc possibly water carriers, do you have a sturdy trolley and was is it's kilo capacity? Hand tools magnify your force and a folding hand saw is an excellent thing to have and a proper bushcraft tool. You can get them with change for a tenner, although with all tools, it's better to buy quality than just the cheapest you can get. You might also want to consider what is humourously called The Univesal Key; a large pair of bolt-croppers. If you have to bug out in a total SHTF, you wouldn't want your vehicle blocked by a padlocked gate.

Wheelbarrows are the gardener's friend and I have personally moved many tonnes of organic material with them. If you have a bigger site such as a smallholding or farm, how about a 4 wheeled gardening barrow? Can you replace pneumatic tyres with solid tyres, thus avoiding punctures and the need to pump things up?

I stopped a bloke on the street once as I simply had to talk to him about the trolley he was hauling, very handsomely made from wood, flat and about 2/3 of the length of a single bed, slatted and strong. The front wheels were on a block which could turn independantly of the rest, making it more manoeverable. He told me he'd made it for the price of one day's hire of a transit van and used it for a local housemove. His top tip was not to buy wheels less than 12 inches in diameter.

A good tip about how to find out what you need to live is this; come home one Friday after work and turn off your water at the stop tap and your electricity at the consumer unit. If you have gas, don't meddle, just don't use.

I assure you that by Monday morning you will have learned a lot about your circumstances and will be bustling with ideas about how to prep for a more comfortable future.:rotfl:

mardatha

Slightly OT here but loosely relevant - I've got a problem. Lemme tell youz all aboutit.
I have too much rich (ex-chicken run) topsoil out the back.
I have very poor dry soil round the front.
I live in a row of 4 cottages, with access via my next door neighbour's garden. Her path is ornamental and pretty and a bloody PITA with wee cutesy steps all over - the coalman hates her .
I haven't got a wheelbarrow and even if I had one, there are the steps to contend with.
I therefore need to take the soil through my house. But what in?
I haven't got the strength to carry a humungous load, or the legs to do many trips up & down the steps at both my back & front doors.
The RV flatly refuses to haul soil anywhere and wishes I would cement the whole bloody lot and paint it green and pretend its grass.
As you see. A problem!! :rotfl:Any ideas gratefully grabbed!

GreyQueen

:eek: That sounds a major PITA. The only way I can think is to bucket it through bit by bit, mebbe a little every day? Blackmail offspring into helping their poor ole muvva?

Going oot for a wee whiley, see youse later.

mardatha

I've got a cheapy plastic pail, but am wondering about Ikea blue bags- have got some of them..