Preparedness for when

ginnyknit

Im guessing you all have good first aid kits? I need to top mine up. I have pushed Oh's meds order a little earlier each month and now have an extra weeks meds stashed but need a few extra bandages , I realised this when I sprained my wrist the other day.

Valk-scot, thats the wind -up lamp we have and it wasn't working the other day, Oh took it apart and fixed it quite easily, quality is obviously worth it.

Be aware if you get suet from AP thats on offer, read the weight - though suet is heavy a 'bargain box' would double up as a playhouse for a child - ask me how I know??? - I have been palming off suet to the birds for a year now, we have very very fat birdies :eek: all the better to eat :rotfl: the wood pigeons only of course.

Caterina

Thank you Helen2k8 I had a feeling that Ghee was made like that, there is something very similar, in fact pretty much the same, in Sardinia, called Ociucascgiu - literally: Oilcheese. Small world!

My mother used to cure lard, covered pieces of pork fat in a mixture of salt and coarse pepper, we used to eat it between thick slices of homemade bread, sometimes with sliced onions on it, makes me hungry even thinking about it.

valk_scot

Flood Alert for my area of the world.

I live on top of a hill, there would have to be a major ecological disaster and the sea level to rise 200m or more before it was lapping at my door but it doesn't half muck up the local transport links when the river backs up over the bridges in turn. And the access to Tesco is on the flood plain, eek. I'd have to go to Asda! We are used to it here though, we know the alternative routes to use. So does everyone else local of course.

nuatha

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Just wondering what anyone's contingency plans are for a. If the shtf while you are away from home and can't get back quickly and b. if something happens to your home while you aren't in it and destroys your stockpiles and equipment?

Are these scenarios that we simply can't plan for? Maybe emergency stuff should be kept in sheds or garages if possible?

We have caches of kit at two other locations, which sounds grand and expensive but really isn't. OH tends to go camping with her mate and mate's hubby so there's a full set of kit there. As we've upgraded kit, the old kit is stored at MIL's, this means there is kit for the nieces and nephews as well as friends to use. When we started thinking in terms of prepping we added the bits that were needed that weren't already there, mainly stoves and fuel. The kit here is based around either backpacking or festival camping (the latter also being used on the occasions that OH and I camp together)
We all keep overnight bags in our cars, which would typically have a couple of changes of clothing as well as the emergency gear. This gives us the flexibility to stay over at friends on a whim and still turn into work looking presentable as well as covering us for being stranded due to weather etc.

Loosing access to our kit and stocks is still possible, in which case its Plan B, fall back on the what if thinking and the learned skills. If the brown stuff has really gone splat, then its the ability to adapt what you know to your situation that will make the difference, stocks will run out (or be looted) and kit will breakdown, run out of fuel or be lost.

GreyQueen

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Just wondering what anyone's contingency plans are for a. If the shtf while you are away from home and can't get back quickly and b. if something happens to your home while you aren't in it and destroys your stockpiles and equipment?

Are these scenarios that we simply can't plan for? Maybe emergency stuff should be kept in sheds or garages if possible?

Caterina I think you need to weigh up the odds of something happening that would mean you would be forced to eat meat. If there was something I couldn't/wouldn't eat for any reasons, particularly ethical ones, I don't think I'd be reintroducing it to my diet just in case of an end of the world scenario.

It isn't possible to plan for everything but a little prepping can go a long way.

You're obviously a sorted lady of great competance and good sense but some people do silly things like go out to drive 100 miles in the middle of snowy weather without a jumper or a coat or a pair of shoes/ boots that they can walk in. The car is their garment. If the road is blocked and the heating is off in the car they're uncomfortable and potentially at risk.

If you're not sensible, other people have to aid you, often at great inconvenience and occasionally mortal risk to themselves.

I live in a tower block. It's almost a living organism with very complicated integral heating systems and plumbing which require specialist engineers to tend to it. If the power is out and/ or there is a catastropic injury to the building such as the aforementioned gas explosion, we could all have to bail out with seconds to go in fear of our lives.

That gives me a distinct set of risk factors from someone who, for example, lives in a detached home in a small village.

When I was encamped in the sopping wet woods with the Mad Bushcrafters last September, we were in a constant string of Atlantic gales. On the second night a huge larch came down across the trackway, narrowly missing the team Landrover and blocking the trail off the mountain. We're talking the size of tree which two people could just about link arms around and there it was, blocking us in.

Half a dozen people sawed it up in less than half an hour with 2 four foot long double-ended saws and dragged it off the track with muscle power alone. You've sworn it was a chainsaw gig if you'd seen it and we were miles from the nearest one of those. Good job we did shift it, too, as mountain rescue brought a casualty off the hill down that track in their Landie later that day.

In darkest suburbia, a rough night saw a street tree come down in my parents' road and block half the cars in and people couldn't begin their commute until the Council had sawn it up and it was a mere stripling of a 30 y.o. sycamore. Thing was, no one had a saw or a clue about dealing with it.

So, stuff happens, often with little or no notice and it helps to be a wee bit prepared, but each to their own.

smileyt_2

Interesting posts about vegetarianism. I'm a vegan, entering my seventh year of veganism. This is both an ethical choice and because I was vegetarian but then discovered I am allergic to dairy produce. But, like anyone else, if I was starving I would eat whatever in order to survive.

Sorted out my storecupboard yesterday so it is much easier to see the gaps. I found out that I have 14 tins of tomatoes but only 10 boxes of teabags :eek:.

Helen2k8

smileyt wrote: »

only 10 boxes of teabags :eek:.

:eek::eek::eek:

Popperwell

smileyt wrote: »

Interesting posts about vegetarianism. I'm a vegan, entering my seventh year of veganism. This is both an ethical choice and because I was vegetarian but then discovered I am allergic to dairy produce. But, like anyone else, if I was starving I would eat whatever in order to survive.

Sorted out my storecupboard yesterday so it is much easier to see the gaps. I found out that I have 14 tins of tomatoes but only 10 boxes of teabags :eek:.

I really need to take my store in hand again...

smileyt_2

I am part of another preppers' forum. A few of us are meeting in central Manchester for a couple of hours or so on Sunday 23rd September. If anyone from here would like to join us, please pm me for details.

skintscotslass

valk_scot wrote: »

Flood Alert for my area of the world.

I live on top of a hill, there would have to be a major ecological disaster and the sea level to rise 200m or more before it was lapping at my door but it doesn't half muck up the local transport links when the river backs up over the bridges in turn. And the access to Tesco is on the flood plain, eek. I'd have to go to Asda! We are used to it here though, we know the alternative routes to use. So does everyone else local of course.

Me too Val *sigh*

I stayed later at work tonight to avoid the worst traffic. Last time there was flooding on the bypass it took hours to get home! So not too bad a commute home.

There is a fab picture in next weeks Radio Times featuring one of the Doomesday Preppers (starts next Wed 5 Sept, 10pm, National Geographic). This guy's stash include 4,380 freeze dried meals with a 20 year sholf life and canned pork, beef, chicken and turkey (amount not specified) with an expiry date of 2027. Its amazing!!!