THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

ALIBOBSY

All this talk of bacteria and bugs reminds me of something I read that said the best thing you can do to avoid illness is to learn to not touch your face with your hands during the day, we touch so much stuff you can't just keep washing or using handgel constantly. Its the areas of the face that are moist so to speak, so eyes, nose, mouth and ears were bacteria and the like can multiply.

Thinking about it may have read the same or simular on this thread

Ali x

Karmacat

A government flooding review has just been released.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-flood-resilience-review

maryb

First thing I do when I get back home is wash my hands. Always. And I'm always on at the DDs not to touch their faces

Was horrified watching my SIL cook and after cutting up raw chicken she wiped her hands on the J cloth she used for wiping the worktop:eek::eek: and she was a trained health professional.

I shout at the family if they dry their hands on the tea towel, I always have a separate hand towel in the kitchen. And they both get chucked in the wash as soon as they are really damp, I get through about three or four a day

But I don't use bleach or antibacterial spray in the kitchen. A lot of the germ killing action of washing your hands is literally just washing with water and rubbing your hands together.

DigForVictory

We're reasonably prepared for rain in Lancashire - the floods were not a vast shock, and thanks to the various hills, I was in a phone chain to overnight an evacuated family.
I relaxed when the Sally Army stood down the church hall it had prepped, but if they'd filled it, they also run an exchange where folk with sufficient loo roll can swap it for soap, beans etc. Admirably facesaving way of helping those with far too little in emergencies "trade" their way to being fed & clean.

We learned quickly to monitor drains - if one gets blocked, water puddles & then accumulates. One spectacularly wet year saw my husband lying down in 3" of water to unblock a drain. Soaked to the skin, he then took a shovel to the main road. I thought he was shovelling water & worried, til I realised he was lifting rocks hidden under the water from the road surface, & dumping them into a bucket. Motorists were delighted - fewer dubious clonks from underneath whilst driving Very Carefully. The bucket he then emptied beside the house & went back to dig more - "free drive, love". I still park the car on it years later.

mardatha

Maybe with the concerns re antibiotics we all need to get slightly paranoid re germs, handwashing, etc. You always read that the Victorians were very clean and rabidly hygenic - it would be life and death to them, and it will soon be that for us as well.

Cheapskate

mardatha wrote: »

Maybe with the concerns re antibiotics we all need to get slightly paranoid re germs, handwashing, etc. You always read that the Victorians were very clean and rabidly hygenic - it would be life and death to them, and it will soon be that for us as well.

Spot on, Mar. I have several friends who antibac everything to death - they and their kids are always sick with something - whereas our bog standard wash your hands before and after various activities seems to keep us all fit and well. Plus, I think that a few 'ordinary' germs need to be ingested to give your immune system practice for when a nasty bug comes along. I've clattered my children before now for wiping their hands and faces on the tea towel...! :rotfl:

In my nearly 50 years, I've had antibiotics twice, 2 of my sons had a few courses for horrific ear infections, but we all manage with the occasional paracetamol/aspirin, or OTC cough mixture.

A xo

fuddle

37 fit and healthy with pneumonia and fluid on both lungs in the summer. I needed 4 different antibiotics to help shift it (fluid still there on one side) and constant oxygen for 5 days.

I've been tested for everything imaginable to try to find out why. The medical profession don't know and I don't know why.

My point being that it's likely I could be dead by now had it not been for the antibiotics. This atypical pneumonia is bigger than any soap or anti bacterial spray and it's put the fear of God into me because I am clueless how it happened so clueless how to prevent it. For a prepper that bliddy annoying!

GreyQueen

Someone I know ended up in a medically-induced coma in the ITC this summer, due to pneumonia. Came out of nowhere, so fast, no one knows why or how. Mercifully OK now but scared the rest of us. Dunno if there are some really bad bugs around, but it's a sobering thought, if it's striking down relative youngsters like fuddle's generation. Anti-biotics are lifesavers and do need to be carefully preserved for those cicumstances, not doled out casually, including to livestock to make up for poor husbandry practices.

I had handwashing re food prep dinned into me as a young girl. Before starting food prep, again before handling raw meats or fish, then right after handling them.

I go from one decade's end to another without a gippy tummy but I do follow the habit of washing my hands whenever I come in, or whenever I have touched the communal bins. And the business about not touching your face to stop bugs easily crossing the mucus membranes and getting into your system is sound.

But some things just happen, even to the most prudent individuals.

I was quite surprised when conversing with a council food safety officer to find that it's acceptable for a food selling premises to have things like on-site made sandwiches which contain things like meat or fish out in non-refridgerated counters for up to 4 hours. So long as they are either sold or returned to a fridge after the 4 hours have elapsed.

I don't know about you, but I personally wouldn't leave a tuna sarnie at room temperature for an hour, never mind up to 4 hours. I would also think that a pattern of room temp-refridgeration-room temp would be a great way to culture bacteria, but I'm just a lay person.

GreyQueen

This may be of interest:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-08/louisiana-officials-demand-self-reliant-locals-stop-surviving-flood-without-permissi

pineapple

maryb wrote: »

First thing I do when I get back home is wash my hands. Always. And I'm always on at the DDs not to touch their faces

Was horrified watching my SIL cook and after cutting up raw chicken she wiped her hands on the J cloth she used for wiping the worktop:eek::eek: and she was a trained health professional.

I can be a bit lax about washing my hands but I'm obsessional about other things! Don't have a dishwasher but every washed dish is rinsed under searing hot water. Plus that way, the dishes mostly dry themselves.
Sometimes I cook chicken thighs for the dog. She has to avoid phosphorus so I cook without the bone. I hold the chicken with a fork above the pan and snip the meat etc off with scissors and the meat goes straight in the pan. Don't touch the chicken at all or put it down on anything. The scissors and fork go straight in the sink to be rinsed and washed separately - ie not in the bowl with other stuff. If a bit of the meat does touch the work surface I use a wet wipe then kitchen towel to clean. Wouldn't dream of using anything that isn't disposable.