Preparedness for when

pineapple

GreyQueen wrote: »

A lot of what is written by and for North Americans isn't applicable to us here in the UK. The country is too small and too densely-populated, and the less-populous areas are like that for very good reasons; climate, poor soil, remoteness from resources etc etc.

Living slap bang in the centre of a modest-sized city, with a lottie in the 'burbs, is very convenient at the mo. I would have to think seriously about bugging out in the event of a prolonged breakdown in sewage and water services, which would lead to a high probability of disease. Or, if law and order broke down and stayed broken down, and it became too dangerous to stay as a lone female in the middle of town. Otherwise, no to bugging out.

Which is how I feel. As a 62 year old with a dodgy back (and who knows what else), I don't see myself as Mrs Rambo . Nor am I likely to make it through by selling my body - they would probably demand a refund on their can of beans :rotfl:
I know another poster talked about taking direct political action against the system - well I guess there is a place for that. But another form of 'action' is to try to build resilience into your life - mental and physical. Including that of your children if you have any. And also to try to build some community (or even move to a ready made one) for emotional and practical support. Being a lone female is of course extra risk - but being a lone anything isn't particularly good.

mardatha

I've read an awful lot of books about the war - Nella Last got me into that. This was many years ago before she became famous. Yes, sometimes the ones who rally round and cope are the ones you'd never have believed. Also what struck me was wee things like scavenging bombsites for wood, building fires, and cooked bacon and make toast in the open, or using one-bar electric fires to make toast. Like Nella Last herself, a middle aged housewife cooking a good dinner on her living room fire. Water being cut off but one house on a street had an outside tap that still worked - so they let everybody use it.
Commonsense and good health are the major essentials - to me anyway.

elona

H7N9 is now 61 confirmed cases and 14 deaths (one last night) and a second case in Beeijing. (this is asymptomatic and only discovered by testing all contacts of the first case which makes it more worrying).

Not sure if it counts as prepping but ordered some bargains from AF, made a veg soup from odds and ends of veg and as DH has got a lot slimmer since working in the garden and is two trouser sizes down have managed to get him two new pairs of trousers - one at Boyses and another at a catalogue clearance place for about a fiver each for what looks like good quality stuff.

DD is getting better and will be able to go back to a planned return to work in about a week working towards full time gradually.

Pineapple

I will be 62 in August and don't think my "charms" are sellable - unless the words "good plain cook" are taken very literally.;)

If I get worried and can't convince DH to do an emergency run - which seems likely unless I can tell him I have seen some great bargains then I will just have to keep getting bits and bobs and hiding them in cupboards.

Mardatha

I agree with you about the commonsense and probably good health but as someone on medication will just have to do the best I can.

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

Nice to see you about again, nuatha, how is Herself? I think of you both from time to time, sending good wishes across the interweb.

Thank you, it is much appreciated. I lurk regularly even if I'm not posting.
Herself is officially a mystery, all the tests they can think of have found nothing wrong. She is coping far better than she was due to fairly high levels of opiates and is managing to carry out some regular activities - she's currently making her wedding dress. She's hoping to be allowed back to work in the not too distant future.

I'm about 7 mins' walk from the Central Library, otherwise known as my second home, and spend a lot of time reading. Space being severely limited at the flat, I only keep books which are likely to be referred to again and again.

This has led to a few raised eyebrows over the years, as the bookshelf is all non-fictions and heavily weighted towards practical matters; gardening, outdoorsy stuff, maps, bushcraft, first aid manual, plant identification etc. Just part of my life, I tell people, the other books come and go.

Having a bit more space, the bookcases aren't on general display, probably a very good thing for my reputation . I don't have easy access to a decent library (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).

...
Overall, I think the chief risks to our well-being are likely to be economic; the failure of the fractional reserve banking system, the political will to "do a Cyprus", inflation robbing our money of its spending power, looting of pension funds and similar.

I've seen a steady chip-chip-chipping away of quality of life in the past 25+ years and think that this trend will only accelerate.

I've been a fan of Ferfal's blog since you first mentioned it on (IIRC) the Tougher thread sometime back, thank you.
Generally I agree with you. I suspect that we won't have a EOTHWAWKI event, just a steady decline punctuated by some serious civil unrest.

elaine, a friend who was crippled up with arhritis from a young age said something to me once which I consider to be very astute; she commented that the people who survive aren't necessarily the strongest or fastest or toughest, the survivors are those who can take the most pain. Once the rubble had stopped bouncing, the survivors would be those who could face a new and unpleasant reality and roll up their sleeves and get on with building a new life under the new circumstances.

A very astute lady indeed.

RAS

GreyQueen wrote: »

elaine, a friend who was crippled up with arhritis from a young age said something to me once which I consider to be very astute; she commented that the people who survive aren't necessarily the strongest or fastest or toughest, the survivors are those who can take the most pain. Once the rubble had stopped bouncing, the survivors would be those who could face a new and unpleasant reality and roll up their sleeves and get on with building a new life under the new circumstances.

I do not know whether many of you recall the fire 1985 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airtours_Flight_28M ?

When the researchers tried to understand how it was that some people who were very close to the blocked rear exits survived and others sitting almost next to or across the aisle from working exits died, they discovered that the survivors were those who routinely checked the location of the exits when they boarded a plane. Some had no idea how they came to be outside the burning plane but had worked out the number of rows between themselves and the exits when they sat down.

That is why we have those demos whenever we fly; mentally rehearsing evacuation increases the chances of survival.

So thinking about options on here is one way of preparing for whatever the future holds.

I for one expect to bug-in if possible and part of that is trying to work with people in areas with few resources and build resilience there now rather that wait for STHF.

I would probably only bug-out if disease were an issue and then mindfully considering the risk of transporting infection.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

mardatha wrote: »

Pigeons in general can carry TB as well as other nasties - when we kept hawks we didn't let them eat pigeon if we could help it.
And yes, it's easy to talk about hunting with crossbows post-SHTF... but it's pretty horrible in reality if you can't guarantee a clean kill.

Would TB be an issue for us adults, seeing as we all either had the BCG or had already acquired immunity through the wild strain?

I'm thinking more and more about disease being the problem more than food; if there were lots of people moving around, there's more chance of somebody bringing something we didn't want with them.

So, do we stick to ensuring just the local things are covered - so checking about MMR if we aren't 100% certain we had them, checking we've had the full course of dtp? What about the extra things children are vaccinated against now? What about the sort of things we get vaccinated against if we travel abroad?

Obviously, we can't rely upon others to ensure herd immunity.

Serious questions. I've already had to be treated for giardiasis because a boyfriend had it - as the result of living in a converted house with lots of overseas residents at the time of a huge sewage leak. Nobody thought anything of his pain until he finally got to see a consultant and I embarrassed him by saying there was a thin layer of what looked like oil in the loo when I cleaned it after he stayed over.

The consultant thought nothing of it, but they had someone on the ball in the lab who read the comments and instigated some additional tests and found the parasite. One course of meds later, he was fixed and I was darkly muttering about medication side effects. But it's very rare over here. Or at least it was.

ALIBOBSY

I recall watching something with a guy on who had survived a hotel fire abroad when a lot hadn't. He said don't just ignore the fire/safety info on the back of the door when you arrive in a hotel. Just take 5/10 mins to read it and walk the escape route, note the number of doorways and turns to the stairs/exit so you have a rought idea even in a smoke filled hallway.

Simular to the fireservice advice about thinking what you would do if there was a fire at home. We have an extingusher (spelling?) on the landing so if a fire downstairs-most likely I think whilst we were in bed we have the smoke alarms to wake us. OH would check how hot the back of the door downstairs is. If we can get out downstairs the ex will help to ensure we can all get out or if the fire is still in very early stages we would get the kids out and OH said he might try to get it out-but ONLY if very early stages and not too much smoke, its not worth dying over things. The kids know if the alarm goes off, get up and go into DS room as he has a window over the garage-as we are also a semi if downstairs is out we could use this window to get out and either get into next door or try to get down-OH reckons he would hang and drop (with whatever we can get thrown down to land on, then get the ladder if time or if not he would go first followed by one child at a time handed down-then me.

Now to me these sort of preps are simply a sort of insurance. Best to think and plan now just in case. I must admit fire scares me, so I also have a fire blanket in the kitchen just in case as well.
But we have thought about flood issues and what else could happen. Like the carbon monoxide monitors I don't see these things as optional, but as protection for me and my family.

We don't fly often, but I would hope like the peeps on that terrible flight that got out, we did and would have a good look at the exits and pay attention to the safety information-too many people switch off.

Ali x

RAS

I know Jojo

wee bro used to lodge more or less under the flight path of a airport mainly used for freight from Africa and Asia.

Six month of erratic sickness and weeks off work looking yellow. Fortunately someone somewhere circulated all the local GPs to tell them that they needed to be alert to the possibility that patients had "tropical" diseases which acquired either from contact with flights or airborne debris from the planes' loos.

Cannot remember what it was but it took a while to recover.

mardatha

Elona - I think good health is an essential but didn't say I had it - Is more like wishful thinking lol. I'm 63 and bits drop off daily :D
Re tropical/infectious diseases that was the ward I used to work in, and the stuff that people bring back from "home visits" is awful.

[Deleted User]

mardatha wrote: »

Pigeons in general can carry TB as well as other nasties

Wouldn't thorough cooking kill the disease bacteria?