THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

elona

GQ

Your scenario reminded me of the play "The admirable Chrichton".
A rich family were stranded on an island with the servants. After a short time the servants were the ones organising shelter, food, water etc and were the ones being looked up to for their abilities and strengths.

I don't believe in magic solutions and a planet for us to just move into. I do believe that the harder I work the luckier I get and doing one little thing is better than doing nothing.

We never know when the smallest thing will make a difference. Years ago I was at an evening event at dds school when a dd asked "Mum, a friend feels awful, do you have any paracetemol/ ibruprofen etc in your bag ? " I handed over a couple of tablets and found later that her friend had needed to have a doctor call later who said how fortunate she had had a couple of painkillers when she did as it had nipped things in the bud.

My gas hob can be lit if there is a power cut ( I chose it specially) and I have candles , tealights and a couple of solar lamps as well as a solar radio and a few bottles of water in case of works being done on the supply. That has been so useful over the last few years, especially when the 400 year old bridge collapsed and the army were evacuating people from their homes.

Have just ordered more ant killer as the front and back garden are over run with them. I found a home made recipe on pin*((est
but not sure what Borax is or I would give it a try.

The idea "what if?" has saved my bacon many times, whether it is having supplies in while I was ill,making sure I had some savings, extra prescriptions etc.

jk0

I just came across this on Youtube, which might interest anyone interested in handicrafts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBAdNZKED4w

maryb

Goodness, someone's feeling bilious - though am I right that there were even more posts? Anyway, even though I couldn't remember if I topped up my water containers inMarch or April they would have been fine for boiling and we had bottled water for drinking so yes, I consider myself reasonably well prepared.

But more importantly, I was glad we have a bit of resilience in the way the house is set up. We have one loo which fills from the mains. That was clearly out of action this time but it was handy when the cold water cistern in the attic sprang a leak and we had to turn the water supply to the tank off for a couple of days until we could get a plumber in. Conversely, this time, the other loo, which fills from the cistern was still usable, though we resorted to if it's yellow let it mellow.

But I'm glad that when we had some building work done a year or two ago, we didn't go with the plumbe's suggestion to switch to an entirely mains fed arrangement

Similarly, having the wood burner and some logs is extra resilience in the event of power cuts in winter. As well as being a lovely cozy source of warmth

[Deleted User]

Oh yes there were several posts of a rather scathing nature but they seem to have gone this morning, looks like we won't be able to fill that interstellar hot air balloon after all.....thinking caps on chums we need another way to escape!!!

Back to yesterdays Oil topic, I read today that the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Aramco) are going to spend $300 BILLION over the next 10 years to just find ways of maintaining the current level of supplies which is frankly just a teensie bit worrysome!!!

thriftwizard

I'd imagine the future to have rather more in common with steam punk than with star trek.

Oh excellent, my steampunk customers are a really lovely crowd! Very creative & inventive, and a whole lot of fun!

GreyQueen

thriftwizard wrote: »

Oh excellent, my steampunk customers are a really lovely crowd! Very creative & inventive, and a whole lot of fun!

Sound like a fun bunch of people. And I like their style.

Yup, the future belongs to those who can turn their hand to all sorts of things and who aren't too proud to get dirt under their fingernails. The future isn't going to be shiny individual aircars, it's going to be a lot tougher than the recent past. Let's enjoy it while we can, in the sure knowledge that we're likely to be revealed as the privileged generations living in The Good Old Days.

It's time to gather together with likeminded folks and share skills and form clans for mutual support, education, resource-sharing and the odd knees-up.

Knowing youse lot, the very odd knees-up......:rotfl:

[Deleted User]

If it involved us most likely very odd indeed!!!but loads of fun!!!

mardatha

One thing that worries me is that such a lot of knowledge has been lost. Good plain commonsense stuff that our grandparents would have learned by the age of 11, and hardly anybody now will know it. That will cost lives.

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

One thing that worries me is that such a lot of knowledge has been lost. Good plain commonsense stuff that our grandparents would have learned by the age of 11, and hardly anybody now will know it. That will cost lives.

Tell me about it.

Things I have seen IRL;

1. University student trying to start a bonfire by holding a match against a tree trunk. Whilst sober.

2. Grown man attempting to cultivate a derelict allotment on his knees using a small hand-fork. Older lady gardener gently suggested to him that he get a full-sized fork. So he did, but using it whilst still kneeling and by holding it by the top of the tines. Sober and not apparently suffering learning disability.

3. People who think the only way you can cleanse youself is to have a shower - strip-washing over a bowl/ basin of water with soap and a cloth never having occured to them.

4. Folks who cut a few slices off the breast of a roast chicken and sling the rest in the bin as inedible..........

It's very hard to fix stupid. Mother Nature has a habit of weeding dippy people out in a crisis.

[Deleted User]

Maybe survival of the fittest or those with enough sense to be cautious and inventive will kick in to play, we've collectively much knowledge between us and could probably fill all the gaps to give a relatively civilised future if we all found each other and contributed to a newly formed society. All we can do in reality is share the knowledge we DO have with anyone who is asking for it and learn as much from others with skills different to our own as we can if we find ourselves up to our ears in that future.

What really scares me is the total disconnect modern man has with our food not just the cooking/growing/preserving but the fact that most children don't know potatoes don't grow on trees or that beef comes from cows. It's disastrous and is a very modern development but how on earth is mankind expected to survive if that level of knowledge is all they have?