THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Cheapskate

Hello, preppers, not been for a long time (again!) due to Building Work (deliberate caps) that took forever and had us without cooker, heating and washing facilities for about 6 weeks, and no interweb to speak of for a time!! :eek:

We've overspent a bit on the renovations, and definitely overspent at Christmas, but it included a trip to late dad's childhood village in Scotland, so more of a need than a want. Consequently, we need to rein in the spending and get back to OS ways - have really missed 'chatting' to you lot!

I now have a multifuel stove and huge range cooker, both of which will have to earn their keep. Going to build a wood store at the bottom of the garden and start foraging properly, but 'twill have to be bought in fuel for now. All the stuff that came out of the pantry needs stocktaking to do some meal plans over the next few weeks - I foresee lots of stews, soups and pasta bakes, with a hefty addition of tinned pulses/beans. :rotfl:

Happy new year to you all, regulars and new faces - glad to be back! :j

A xo

GreyQueen

:eek: Guys, spare me a happy thought; my riverside neighbourhood is presently under flood warnings from the Environment Agency. The next few hours could get..... interesting.:eek:

I had the automated warnings come in the last few mins via landline, mobile and email. I've gone down and given the river a Hard Stare and it's safely between its banks atm, who knows what the next few hours may bring?

REALLY hope it doesn't rain tonight.

If I disappear offline for some time, I may have water in me electrics. Am now beginning my in-house flood plan and will be moving my livestock and machinery to higher ground.

Oh, that was the advice for farmers, not householders. I'm to prepare a flood kit (or pick up my BOB).

I have got my wellies to hand and will be making some other preps. I will keep an eye on the river in the next few hours, there's only about 30m of tarmac between me and it.

People have boated in my neighbourhood before now, we're classified as being at moderate risk of riverine flooding but, if it floods, the EA describes the situation as 'severe'.

Hey ho, welcome to 2017. Lovely weather for ducks!

Si_Clist

GreyQueen wrote: »

:eek: Guys, spare me a happy thought; my riverside neighbourhood is presently under flood warnings from the Environment Agency. The next few hours could get..... interesting.:eek:

Good luck, GQ. We can't compete with that, although we're currently expecting the electric to go off at any time on account of a bloke with a spade digging a hole in the road in order to effect a repair to a neighbour's sewer pipe nicked an 11,000 volt power cable at luchtime. This has resulted in four blokes sitting waiting in three vehicles with the engines running ever since, waiting for the cable joiners to come out and put a plaster on it, in order to do which they have to pull the plug.

The gas men have not long since departed after putting some road plates on top of their hole, which is no more than 20 yards from the sewer pipe hole, but on the other side of the lane. At one point we had gas, water, electric and sewers all here, but alas telecom didn't turn up to complete the full set of utilites.

But whatever, all prepping done for powerlessness, so we look forward to the test ...

(The gas men's current hole is the latest episode of a saga which began a week before crimble. Three distinct leaks and three separate holes in 7-8 yards of road. You would not believe the number of man-hours that blokes in hi-viz have spent of late looking down holes in this road ...)

maryb

Oh Lord GQ fingers crossed. I don't think there's much rain forecast overnight so here's hoping. Assume it's tide related as in heavy rain producing high levels meeting higher than usual tide? What time is high tide in your neck of the woods?

greenbee

Fingers crossed GQ. Do you have a friend on higher ground on standby to offer you shelter?

GreyQueen

:j Just had an update and the crisis has passed (tidal-ish area here, estuarine not actual seaside IYSWIM).

I reckon it was my Hard Stare wot sorted it out.:rotfl:

Si Clist, these guys who clipped the cable, did they end up with an unexpected perm?! Sounds a bit hairy where you are. Hope your utilities stay on.

Just been talking to SG and she was reminiscing about the winter of 62-63 when they had to fetch their water from standpipes because the pipes had frozen. Not something you'd be expecting, more like what you'd see in a drought.

Well, I'm happy that I won't be paddling tonight but it's not a bad thing to have a little jolt out of one's comfort zone. There are markers on various buildings in my 'hood with the floods of previous years recorded. Plenty of draught for rowing boats and the photos to prove it.

I was just saying to SG that our 5 inch water main is about due for another blowout, happens every few years around this point on the calendar. She agreed, but we'll wade that stream as and when we come to it. The civil engineers (and I like civil engineers, they're so informative) told me that it'll keep happening. We were standing beside an 8 ft deep hole in the road looking down on someone's hard hat at the time.

greenbee, SG's flat is on an upper floor, I would retreat there as necessary. I even have her key if she's not home.

greenbee

Glad you have a contingency plan, even if the crisis appears to have passed.

My dad was at uni in the winter of 62-63. In a room over the gate, so with 5 outside walls and a tiny gas fire that he had to feed with coins accessed by external stairs! But it meant they could escape after lockup, as the river froze so they skated!

GreyQueen

Gosh, they used to lock people into universities back then?

My Dad was working on a farm at the time. He can recall a bottle of squash in his haversack freezing solid during a brief-ish motorbike commute. And the prices for veggies went high because it was so hard to get anything off the fields. Even things which weren't normally marketed, like the tops of sprout stems (y'know, those cabbage-y bits?) were very saleable.

At one point they were given pick-axes and had to chisel veggies out of the ground. Prices were so high that it was worth going to extremes.

maryb

It always surprises me how far up a river the tide can have an impact. When they had that bad flooding in Kent a couple of years ago it was because they had to open the sluices and allow the river to flood the countryside because the incoming tide up the Medway meeting the downcoming runoff would have flooded Tonbrige which isn't anywhere near the coast. Part of the problem was that the river basin is heavy clay at that point so didn't absorb the rain very well.

Given that all of these factors were not exactly unpredictable you can understand the more rural residents' fury when they opened the sluice gates with virtually no warning giving them no time to prepare

maryb

They did have lock-ins, especially at girls' colleges. All visitors out by 11.30.

It was considered highly amusing to the high-spirited among the male undergraduates to set off the fire alarms at 3am and see exactly who had been locked into these temples of virtue