Preparedness for when

Caterina

fayhare wrote: »

Caterina It wouldn't be advised to can houmous at home as it is not recommended to can anything which is that thick. Mainly due to the heat not getting to the middle and also cos the lids may blow off! Think of when you boil thick soup and how it splatters and spits.

But you can easily do dried chickpeas with some garlic thrown in and then keep tahini on hand which is what we do. Chickpeas come out fairly soft so you can whip up houmous in no time.

D&DD Your preserves look so pretty, OH often catches me admiring ours in the cupboard!

Thanks fayhare I love homemade humous, but don't often make it. I use dried chick peas a lot for soups stews and felafel, we all love them! I cook them with a piece of Kombu seaweed, which helps tenderise and adds iodine, calcium and other goodies to the stock, I have loads of Kombu, you only use a tiny bit and it lasts forever!

Sunshine4

Welcome 2 tonsils,

I am also interested in hearing about your experiences in Greece.

GreyQueen

Me, too, please. I've visited Crete three times and find myself wondering about the people I met there and how they're coping these days.

2tonsils

Thank you so much for your lovely warm welcome. On the face of things Greece is much the same, with a warm welcome and great hospitality for visitors, hot sunshine and a stunningly beautiful country. But underneath it all the Greek people and foreign residents are worrying about their future.

The austerity measures have hit most very hard indeed. Many pensioners were reduced to just 300 euros a month to live in and many families have around 600 for all of them to live on, for all bills, food etc. These pensions are about to be cut again and in some cases the families will receive nothing at all.

Most supermarkets are collecting donations of food and giving it to the needy. There are soup kitchens in major cities like Athens and the church is feeding many, including school children when they go back.
At the moment very little money is going to schools. They have no books and there is no money for heating oil this winter. There is talk of sacking teachers and closing schools from the government. School buses are unlikely to be running this year so I have no idea how the parents are going to cope in rural areas when they have no money for petrol. Its currently 1.95 a litre for the cheapest and heating oil is going to be 1.65 a litre...the same price as road diesel here.

Despite the social security health insurance we have to contribute to (min about 300 euros a month contribution) we now have to pay in full for medicine and pay to see the doctor because the pharmacies are owed billions by the government and will not give the health system any more credit.. Old folks cannot afford to pay this on their cut to the bone pensions. There are more cuts to come next month but I have no idea how they can save more money.

We had extra tax added to electric bills last year which depends on your house size and if you have a car. If you could not pay you were cut off from the electricity. It has just gone onto the next bill to cover 2012 and will be in five payments. We have a house and car and despite a low income we have been taxed on our UK pension (my husband is disabled ex Navy) even though it was taxed previously. We have to put our lovely home up for sale as we cannot afford to live here if they keep increasing the taxes and things to pay for like meds and medical care. I wanted to stay here forever in this house, but that does not look likely now. However, there is nothing selling on the housing market so we are stuck here for the near future.
Biggest fear is that the euro crashes suddenly and we have a few weeks with no money and no shops to buy from, no supplies imported....you can imagine the chaos. So Prepping to cover all eventualities. Sorry about the long post......trying to inform you all where we are at the moment...its not looking good...but I am the eternal optimist!;)

GreyQueen

Oh my gosh, that's a hard road to travel. I have listened to some radio documentaries (no TV) and knew about the pension cuts and the electricity price hikes but what you've described is just awful.

I can't begin to imagine how people will cope.

I really liked the people I met on Crete and they seemed to be very hardworking people, with their tourist season running April-November and then back up to the family farms in many cases to harvest the olives. Can think of certain individuals and can't help but wonder if they can sleep at night for the worry of it, if they have enough food or healthcare.

The gutting thing is that economic history shows that there is only one way to get out of the current situation; massive default on debts. I feel Greece will inevitably have to crash out of the euro and wonder how long the politicians will make the people suffer the dreadful austerity before they come to the same conclusion.

(((hugs))) to you and others in the thick of it.

mardatha

Aw tonsils at least now you've got us Prep as hard as you can and do what you can - but I agree healthcare is something you can't always prep for.. can you get meds sent over from here? ie over the counter stuff, would that help? Or would that not go through customs maybe. You could try somehow to grab anybody coming over and get them to bring you stuff - somewhere on the net I once found a website that did that. I think it was an ex-pats one, and they had UK and Scots and Americans all bring over people's fav food and sweeties . Sounded sensible to me. There's also a house-sitters website, I found one. People live in your house to look after your pets, while you come home for a visit to family. Or if you have an extra room then advertise a holiday break. In fact, we'll probly all come!

[Deleted User]

Hello 2tonsils, come on in the water's fine!!!!

Thank you for sharing the dire situation currently existing in Greece, I hope things stay managable for all of you. It is a real object lesson to us over here, firstly because whatever problems we are currently having are so much smaller compared to what is facing all of you and secondly because we will be able to learn so much from your ways of coping as the situation progresses. Cheers Lyn.

westcoastscot

Hi 2, sounds a dreadful situation, and difficult to believe isn't it that this situation can evolve in the 21st century. Sounds like you are coping really well in a very scary situation.
Nothing of use the add, just wanted to add my support here on the thread that we're behind you.

Selfishly wanting to ask as I don't follow politics particularly closely anymore - does anyone think we're heading towards a similar scenario ourselves? Wish I understood more about it all.

WCS

vanoonoo

hi 2tonsils and welcome - is it time to consider coming back to the UK? i have a friend who rode the storm in eire and for a long time refused to come back to england as she felt she'd invested so much over the water that it surely could only get better. then earlier this summer she had to come back to the midlands for family reasons and although things are emotionally tough for her i think financially she sees that she is currently better off here than over there, so I wonder if it would be similar for you and your husband? regardless, welcome and we hope to be able to both help you and learn from you KR noo

ETA: what's the zombie situation like over there

vanoonoo

westcoastscot wrote: »

Hi 2, sounds a dreadful situation, and difficult to believe isn't it that this situation can evolve in the 21st century. Sounds like you are coping really well in a very scary situation.
Nothing of use the add, just wanted to add my support here on the thread that we're behind you.

Selfishly wanting to ask as I don't follow politics particularly closely anymore - does anyone think we're heading towards a similar scenario ourselves? Wish I understood more about it all.

WCS

really really dont want to end up in a political debate but my personal opinion is that as long as we are not in the euro we might be ok but there is much intervention needed in the plans of our coalition government. ugh.