THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

GreyQueen

Having been involved with many rescued cats and dogs my observations are that animals often take on the same emotional traits as their owners.

A quiet, staid and predictable household tends to turn a nervy animal into a confident and gregarious one within a matter of months. Sometime within a matter of weeks. Because the animal finds itself in a peaceful environment where good things are predictable (cuddles and good food) and bad things don't happen. Conversely, I have seen previously-calm animals become nervy and jumpy when living in close proximity to nervy people.

Many animals seem to have a functional memory of only a few months. Traumatic events will be remembered longer, but day to day stuff blurs away. A friend who breeds horses tells me that they are the same and will only remember their people for a few months with no contact, and then they will forget you.

If you're keeping cats, it's worth remembering that they need their quiet places where they can hide away peacefully and also need to be left to get on with cat things (sitting and staring or sitting and snoozing mostly).

moneyistooshorttomention

That makes sense to me GQ - as my friend is having various problems imposed on them that arent to do with them (but are affecting them) at the moment. So I guess its not surprising that Puss is being a bit of a furry geiger counter of this at the moment.

Fingers crossed that all will settle down all round and Puss and friend can have a calm life.

daz278

good evening......found a rohann clothes store in nearby Manchester city centre ..... so appropriate to the current weather... next day off Saturday....will check it out......thanks to local council doubling the shelving space in kitchen cupboards are filling up nicely... thanks to dad giving me 2 tins of either ham/corn beef/salmon every week......bless him hes 83 walked back from cemetery last week about 3 mile........worried about labour implosion the far left are splitting us at the worst time......but from their point of view we have to become tory lite to get in to power ....still good old blighty not a bad place to live ....you all take care

pineapple

GreyQueen wrote: »

and also need to be left to get on with cat things (sitting and staring or sitting and snoozing mostly).

Nah those are 'pineapple' things.

milasavesmoney

ivyleaf wrote: »

We lived in the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium for a while, a long time ago when OH was in the army. I like it a lot, though my German is better than my Flemish as I learned it at school and spent several years in BAOR. Managed to dredge up some Flemish though when we visited Antwerp again a few years ago and took a train trip to the little town where we'd lived

Even now we always have mayo on our chips

Margaret 54 That programme sounds really interesting! I don't think it's been on over here, but I shall look out for it, thank you

DD1 was a foreign exchange student for a year in Liege Belgium. She was supposed to go to New Zealand but was switched at the last moment. She spoke zero French. She was sponsored by the Rotary Club in our home town and at the parent meeting they told us there would be no drinking of any alcohol by the students. Legal drinking age in the US is 21 yrs. She was 16 when she went over. When she came home she had learned to love beer and wine, spoke French and smoked. She still loves beer, quit smoking (unless she gets drunk) and still knows some French.

The man she married 15 yrs later was also a FE student that she met while there. Many years later, she was doing her surgery residency in Philadelphia and heard he lived there too. She looked him up, they fell in love, married and now I have the most glorious two year old DGD on the face of the earth...who is learning Spanish, not French. :rotfl:
Needs must. :beer:

mardatha

This seems to have turned into Over the Fence part deux - I'm feeling prepping-deprived.

cheel

Sorry, I'm obviously being too chatty:(

moneyistooshorttomention

Gardening is one of the best forms of prepping there is imo - if its food-growing. Saves on food bills and on health care costs.

I guess everyone knows the standard financial type advice - ie of £1,000 emergency money and having 3-6 months worth of income in savings. Be as debt-free as possible. Be as mortgage-free as possible. Don't do things you can't afford (widely ignored advice - but nevertheless true). Be well-stocked up with everything (food/cleaning materials/etc). Make sure your home uses the minimum amount of fuel possible to keep it warm (ie insulation, doubleglazing, etc, etc).
.....and a grab-bag of the "necessaries" if having a second "location" (eg office, allotment shed, etc).

Have I missed owt?:)

EDIT; My own personal thoughts would include making oneself as invulnerable as possible - trying not to give any "hostages to fortune" or anything. I was reminded of this in article I've recently read - in which the comment is made that Theresa May doesnt have any "hostages to fortune" and therefore it's much easier for her to be "strong" than it is for a lot of people.

I know that when I was still working age one of my definitions of being "as invulnerable as possible" was having enough savings by me that I could manage to turn down any particularly bad jobs I was offered if unemployed. On the other hand - if a job I had become totally intolerable then I would survive if I had to literally walk out of it without a job to go to (and the fact my employer knew that meant they were less likely, I felt, to make it that intolerable - basically because I was more confident in the way I reacted with them).

ivyleaf

milasavesmoney wrote: »

DD1 was a foreign exchange student for a year in Liege Belgium. She was supposed to go to New Zealand but was switched at the last moment. She spoke zero French. She was sponsored by the Rotary Club in our home town and at the parent meeting they told us there would be no drinking of any alcohol by the students. Legal drinking age in the US is 21 yrs. She was 16 when she went over. When she came home she had learned to love beer and wine, spoke French and smoked. She still loves beer, quit smoking (unless she gets drunk) and still knows some French.

The man she married 15 yrs later was also a FE student that she met while there. Many years later, she was doing her surgery residency in Philadelphia and heard he lived there too. She looked him up, they fell in love, married and now I have the most glorious two year old DGD on the face of the earth...who is learning Spanish, not French. :rotfl:
Needs must. :beer:

Aaw, that really made me smile mila

Oh cheel, don't worry! Most of us on here seem to be super-chatty at the moment. You could always join us on the Over the Garden Fence thread as well, that's a proper chat thread

Sometimes I do think it's quite hard to separate prepping chat from other chat.

mardatha is the RV better now? It sounded as if you were worried about him the other day.

cheel

ivyleaf wrote: »

Aaw, that really made me smile mila

Oh cheel, don't worry! Most of us on here seem to be super-chatty at the moment. You could always join us on the Over the Garden Fence thread as well, that's a proper chat thread.

Thanks ivyleaf, I may well do that.
I've removed anything that wasn't about preparedness :doh::doh: