THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

daz378

thanks to dear old dad and hes 3 tins of meat a week , i were a de facto prepper i am now going to have to become more active , i have the meats so will concentrate on tinned peas , mixed veg beans etc to complement my existing stock......... Organised funeral today decent respectable quality services ordered cost was a shock but its all covered .... not given a date yet..... take care appreciate coming here for my daily 5 minutes of sanity

Ryanna2599

Sorry to hear about your dad Daz...

GreyQueen

Oh daz, I'm sorry for your loss. Even when someone has had a good, long life, it's never easy to lose them.

Have been catching up on a few days' worth of MSE as have been (voluntarily) offline for a few days whilst busy about other things. Interesting posts all - and sending good wishes to the RV for a full recovery. I recall when my cousin, who is only 5 ft tall, was choosing her motorbike, she couldn't have the ones she really wanted as they were too heavy and, if she dropped one, she didn't have the strength to pick it back up again.

I have an inherited P@shley Princess, which is a very heavy, trad ladies' pushbike but, if I used it for more than the shortish distances to and fro the allotment etc, I would have to go for a lighterweight frame, as ME/CFS makes it effortful over longer distances. For what I use if for, it's a sturdy workhorse.

The loss of strength and agility as we age isn't something pleasant to think about but it's something which isn't going away, regardless, and it's best to pre-plan for it rather than be caught by circumstances. I see a lot in the course of my working life where folk have stayed on too long in houses with very steep stairs (and the only bathroom upstairs) and huge gardens. far past their family-raising years. And then are stuck with an unmanageable living arrangement when in their eighties or nineties.

Oftentimes, large parts of the former home are redundant or inaccessible, the person ends up living in a couple of rooms downstairs and the rest are unvisited, full of truck and clutter, prey to colonisation by pests, damp etc. It's all too common and sad to see.

monnagran

Oh, GQ you are so right. I have seen too many of my parents generation clinging on to their family homes to the great detriment of their health and their family's peace of mind.
We had to move my father when he was 90 from the house he had lived in for over 50 years. It took two of us all of one hot summer. It wasn't so much that he was a hoarder, I mean he didn't go out and buy things - perish the thought - but he never threw anything away. The word 'thrift' went through him like a stick of rock and absolutely nothing that might possibly be useful again was ever discarded.
It was a useful deterrent to my brother and I. Both of us are severely de-cluttered now.

As I am closer to 80 than I like to admit, I am now looking for a bungalow to spend my declining years in, (I love that phrase 'declining years' it makes me think of faded rose petals for some reason) and I am doing it now before I have to rely on my poor children to do it for me.

I have always been fortunate enough to live in houses of great character and when I look round the bog standard bungalows on offer I have to admit that my spirit shrivels.
However, I am now prepping for my old age -well, older old age - so must be practical.
All on one level, small garden, near a shop, near a bus route, yawn, yawn.

x

elona

I have joiners repairing the staircase as it was not safe - we think the previous owner may have taken over from the mid landing downstairs and botched the job. The creaking was so sad it sounded as if it was about to splinter and break :eek:

The idea is that I can be safe and comfortable downstairs while there are spare rooms and bathroom upstairs so family can stay over if there is a birthday etc and a get together. Problem is that the previous owner bodged so much I am still finding things needing redone properly.

I am still blushing but this may give some of you a laugh. Sunday lunch and middle dd had brought her BF. Table set nicely in conservatory - all of us pretending to be normal!!!! I came back to the table with more food to find them all riveted to the garden. A bit of the decking had worn away and a mouse had popped up and was sauntering around with a nonchalant air :eek: The blasted thing kept giving a repeat performance as if it were Frank Sinatra. The way DDs spoke afterwards you would think I had given the thing a gilt edged invitation and planned to adopt it.

The joiners have said some of the wood on the decking is rotten so they will strip it back - take care of the field mouse or mouses
and repair it so no one puts their foot through!!!

I am also going to see what they can suggest for the upstairs bedroom with sloping ceilings so we have a little storage that is built in but does not make the room too small.

The house is a tip as some things need to get done so other things can get started. Gardener is going to bring bolt cutters for the padlock and chain on the back door so I can take the wheelie bins and recycling boxes in the back out of sight.

Over a year and I am still finding stuff that could kill or injure us .

I suppose the good news is at least we are finding them.

An online supermarket just came with stuff that is either too heavy to carry or that I can't get in this small town. I now have ingredients for some favourite recipes so very pleased and have frozen onions, herbs and peppers so I can cook something without having to go out. The amount of building work needing done means I like to stay nearby in case of new disasters.

elona

monna

My bungalow cannot be describes as bog standard as it has been extended and is stone which we love.

Due to the bodging there are times I almost long for a bog standard one;)

Sigh - it will be lovely once it is done! I hope.

Hugs to all

[Deleted User]

MONNA I have the same reasoning behind wanting to move closer to the girls plus while we can I'd like to be more use to DD2 with the grandchildren when they need me and I'm beginning to find the train journey there and back a bit of a trial both from the 'train not being on time, arriving at all or bus replacement' view which is every journey these days, the rolling stock is old and rickety, the track infrastructure is old and rickety, the staff who work on the trains are unfailingly helpful and polite and do a great job but there are ongoing and apparently unsolvable differences between staff and franchise owners that cause untold problems when travelling and the overcrowding and thoughtlessness/noise/behaviour of my fellow passengers. Uncomfortable broken seated carriages don't do a lot either!!! We had moved here to Hampshire when He Who Knows parents started having age related crises which necessitated our intervention and it's a long way to have to drive (back to mid Kent in our case) particularly when you have children still at school and I don't want the girls to be in that position with us.

Modern housing stock is dire isn't it? adequate but with tiny rooms, no cupboards and a half postage stamp garden and all the ads on rightmove look like set dressed show houses, how I'll have the brass neck to put our 'lived in' home on the market and expect anyone to come round without shuddering is a mystery!!! Do they go in like the BBC for a 'homes' programme and 'tidy it' all up and put in props to make houses look 'posh' or do peoples homes really look like magazine photo shoots these days? mine doesn't and we have 'things' and 'books' and furniture and photographs and pictures and ornaments.......no hope for us then is there?

I hope your 'home' finds you quickly and that you can be your own woman again and make 'home' as you want it! xxx.

jk0

I think it's sad to relinquish your old home for a bungalow unless absolutely necessary. I'll be getting a stairlift when the time comes.

Edit: BTW, my last home was a bungalow. It cost a lot to heat, as of course the bedrooms weren't warmed from below.

fuddle

I'm relieved to hear you're thinking of moving further north to be near your girls Lyn. It's times like now when HWKs isn't feeling too good (how is he today? And how is RV mar?) and I can see you're torn between staying with HWKs and seeing your girls. They both need you but for very different reasons.

If I can make an 1850's pit house into a home anyone can make anything into a home. Homes are who we are, houses are just walls and beams.

I think you're all sensible because I have been the carer in houses which don't work for the less abled person and it's heart braking. I want to see my years out in my little pit house but I doubt I'd get a stair lift fixed safe enough, given we're divided by a single brick width next door and my sofa stick out in front of the kitchen door so a wheel chair? I doubt it. I'd best not mention the hill I live on. I will try though, especially as I will have very little in the way of a choice and even if I sell, what then? I couldn't afford a bungalow or a sheltered accommodation flat. So in many respects your larger homes enable you to have some choices in your retirement. You'll make the right choices because of your outlook but I hope you don't mind the above. I just wanted to give my dear friends of mine some perspective. Go find that perfect for circumstances home, look beyond how the bricks are laid and the shape of the roof and fill it with all your life's precious belongings, your attitude to life and enjoy making it home because if theres one thing I know about it's that any house can be made a home.

Now that I've dared to teach my lovely grannies how to suck eggs I shall go and toddle off. x

[Deleted User]

Hi FUDS He Who Knows is feeling better today thank you, he's had 4 doses of the anti biotic and it's working so that's a relief. I will go to DD1 tomorrow if that's still the case, he has 7 days worth so he should be OK.

I think we're very lucky to have the house to sell so we can move and perhaps downsize just a little, 4 bedrooms is too much for just 2 of us and we don't use the upstairs spare rooms unless the family come to visit. I will be looking for a comfy 3 bed house with a garden and that's where the difficulty lies, modern homes just don't have land with them so by necessity I'll be looking at something built before 1960 and that's likely to mean refurbishment will be on the books, but we will get the garden with the veg plot. We can take our time and make sure we get it right!!! I will have to cull my possessions though I've got way too much and am building up a goodly collection of things to go to a boot fair when it warms up a bit. Sadly I can't see any gaps though so I'll have to look with different eyes and shed quite a lot more!!!

How are you today small one? hope you are on the mend? xxx.