THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

NewShadow

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

1) Know how to build a shelter

2) Know how to find/make drinking water.

3) Know what isn't safe to eat/forage and what is.

4) Know how to be and stay safe and in good health in different situations.

5) Have the knowledge of all this working order in your head and keep it updated and revised.

By whatever means you need to do them, all the above are all you really need to survive and thrive. Other than that learn as many old skills as you can to make a life without modern conveniences and aids as comfortable as it is possible to do and you might have a chance of making it through adversity

May I add one?

6) have a realistic view of your own needs and limitations and how these can change overtime

No point filling a 70l rucksack with all the supplies you could possibly ever need if you then can't lift and carry it for 100 yards :cool:

[Deleted User]

Oh yes! valid good point!

DigForVictory

We teach out scouts to light fires - and then, when they're out on trips etc & get a bit puzzled as to where they are, to stop, get a fire going & brew up.

If they stay puzzled, we have a fire to find them by & a brew to greet us with. If they figure it, they've the kit to make a hot meal, rest up & then carry on.

We reckon pausing to get a fire going & a brew on is time enough to learn quite a bit about what's going on around you & to make informed decisions about camping here, or changing layers, or checking where the waterproof stuff, or midge repellent is...

We've had leaders ride out potentially bad situations by pausing for a brew - it gives you thinking time, and that can be near-priceless.

moneyistooshorttomention

Can only agree re the way a lot of households seem to take it as a given that they will have a car - without first stopping to think whether they can not just afford it - but actually need one. In a city - then...no...many people can manage perfectly well without one. When I was living in my home city there were very very few occasions when it wasnt perfectly easy to just walk to or bus to wherever I wanted. When one adds up all the time actually spent in keeping a car on the road - filling up with petrol/looking for somewhere to park/getting repairs done - then its just not really worth it for many in those circumstances.

In more rural areas - ie where I am now - and few buses of an evening or Sunday and they are hourly (sometimes worse) then...yes..one can see a level of need for them then. But for those not absolutely "in the wilds" I think its possible to manage with a combination of those occasional buses/lifts and the occasional taxi.

Priorities indeed and different people do have different priorities - and hence I pay that organic price premium and everything that can be organic is organic basically - because one cant put a price on good health. Someone I know has a phrase "Your health is your wealth" and I couldnt agree more with them. It's also a priority to have a reasonable relationship with my conscience and recent articles pointing out that just in my own lifetime we've killed most of our insects off and most of some types of bird - with our chemicals and:eek::eek: and another reason to buy organic imo.

GreyQueen

An interesting thing about getting lost in wilderness; small children are apparently the easiest category of lost person for rescuers to find.

Why is this? Because they tend to curl up and stay put, whereas older children and adults panic when lost and often strike out in random directions and get themselves more abjectly lost from their last known point, which is where the rescuers will start their search.

The advice about stopping for a brew up is one I've read in many places as it short-circuits that panicky flight and gives us those vital moments to engage the brain fully. Sometimes, the right answer will be that there isn't enough daylight to hike out of where we are to where we need to be, or the weather is too dangerous, and we need to hunker down and wait it out.

Re the likely impossibility of toting a 70 litre pack full of provisions - yup, that'd be me, which is why the BOB and its off-site backup Son of BOB are 35 l packs. But one can also think laterally and we people who haven't the physical advantages attendant on being a strapping twenty-something male, can apply brain-power to boost our chances.

F'rinstance;

1. The Bug Out Bicycle, perhaps with bike trailer.
2. The Bug Out Buggy or Pram.
3. The Bug Out Shopping Trolley (those square ones with the buggy wheels on the front look particularly sturdy to me).
4. The Bug Out Golf Bag Trolley
5. The Bug Out Fishing Trolley............

Actually, I am particularly drawn to fishing equipment as it's usually in olive drab, sometimes comes in leafy print, and thus particularly appealing for those of us who would otherwise be tempted by the army surplus stores................. :rotfl:

Lindlou

Mary - I did the same as you. Now had my car 8 years..... I actually went to buy 2nd hand and somehow it worked out cheaper to buy new🤔 Definitely meant to lure you in to their system though. Thanks to reading MSE for several years, they failed....... I made it work for me.

[Deleted User]

Even a wheelbarrow would transport quite a lot of useful things and like GQ's list above is propelled by humanpower and not by fossil fuels. It also doesn't need insurance thus saving a great deal of money which would of course be completely useless in a post disaster situation!

elona

A bug out suitcase on wheels preferably in a frivolous colour or print
would go under the radar as obviously would be full of fripperies.

Thirty years ago DH and I were about to buy a new (well second hand) reliable car. We decided on what we wanted and were about to pay cash when the salesman tried to convince DH that the interest on our savings would be less than what we would pay on interest on the car. He was wavering so I took him aside for a few minutes and pointed out that 8% p.a. would be near 25% in three years just in interest. He protested I could not have got that right but I produced a bit of paper and pencil and got him to work it out by himself. Irony is that he was a Maths lecturer at the time.

We had similar discussions about our interest only mortgage and the idea of paying it off by ourselves instead of relying on a policy.

jk0

I almost wonder if the American conspiracy theorists are correct, and public schools (council ones here) deliberately skimp on maths teaching so that the public will be good little debt slaves.

GF was paying around 50% interest on the loan for her Smart Car! It originally cost £5000, and she was paying £240 a month for 4 years. Would have cost her nearly £12k!

[Deleted User]

Wheelbarrow is a one off payment and under £100. No road tax, you don't need a licence to drive one, depreciation is negligible, no servicing needed, no interest payments, no insurance necessary and only one tyre to go wrong which can be fixed with a puncture kit and a foot pump! You can get many years of trouble free transport in a wheelbarrow!!!