THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Karmacat

mardatha wrote: »

I think anybody who remembers the winter of 1978/79 will be preppers. Everybody was on strike! I was in hospital having a baby (born on New Years day) and we had no hot food, no hot baby milk - we warmed them under the hot taps in the sinks - no sheets so they were giving us paper ones. Every single union was out on strike. Younger people have never experienced anything quite that bad - neither have I ever since!

I was a single "girl" (in my 20s, but certainly not a grown up woman ) in London, and I'm afraid I don't remember that winter at all Maybe it wasn't as bad in the south? Or maybe I should confess .... yeah, if I wasn't working and studying for a postgrad business thing, I was drinking ... yeah, thats probably it :o:o:o I'm embarrassingly late to the prepping party.

maryb

Flahavan's organic oats from Waitrose or Tesco but be careful - the packaging for their entire range is very similar and it's easy to buy the wrong type

[Deleted User]

Thrifty preparedness? He Who Knows was sorting out the woodstore last weekend and found one of the storage cradles had gotten old and rickety so repacked the good cradles and pulled this one out as too old to keep using. It sat drying out for a couple of days on the lawn and a few days ago he took it apart. Today he's been sitting out of the wind in the lee of the mini barn and chopped the whole lot of dry wood up for kindling, should be enough there to see us through to the end of the winter. Thrifty prepping because we 'scrounged' the cradle from local builders a few years ago in the first instance rather then them having to burn it on their bonfire for odds and ends. Tell me where the lunacy is in that??? it's a win-win situation for everyone in my eyes.

maryb

Incidentally related to prepping, did you have to prepare yourself to face mayhem at work yesterday Grey Queen what with it being a blue blooded super moon thingy? I know you have said in the past it all gets a bit weird round the full moon

Funny thing is, I have had the weirdest dreams the last couple of nights. last night I dreamed someone was trying to cut my throat:eek::eek: and I was trying to scream. Then DH woke me up because I was making a racket. I have never ever shouted or talked in my sleep.

Then I read that a lot of people have been complaining of weird dreams the last couple of days

GreyQueen

Things do get a little weird over the three days of the full moon and, to a lesser extent, on the new moon, too. I haven't been personally contacted by any customer 'under the influence' but I suppose there's still time.:rotfl:

I can remember the winter of discontent pretty well. I was a teenager at the time, still living at home. My memories of the seventies in general seem to encompass a lot of powercuts and various strikes over this and that. Electricity seemed to flicker on and off like fireflies.

My mother quite enjoyed the three-day-week, just needed the full paypacket which she didn't have. We managed; indoors heat was from a coal fire in the living room supplemented by a parafin heater in the kitchen. We used to go up to the garage on the estate where they sold parafin (esso blue, if memory serves) with a little two-wheeled trolley modified to take the can.

We also used to scavenge wood, including having an arrangement with a joinery place nearby to collect off-cuts of timber for the fire. It saved them a problem and helped us out. To this day, I am astonished at the amount of burnable wood kicking around for the taking, even in the city.

A pal has an 'arrangement' with a restaurant which occasionally gets a delivery of palletised goods. They call him, he collects on foot, carries said pallet home on his back and saws it up outside his wee flat to give to his family for their fires. There are a fair few enterprising wombles in any urban environment.

I've been cultivating my own Arrangements to facilitate various activities including allotmenteering. Personal relationships are key, imo, to a happy and preptastic life, and take time to grow, so I am busily tucking myself into a community of likeminded [STRIKE]nutte[/STRIKE] err, individuals.:cool:

maryb

I'm glad you've found some like minded people - you always felt you had to be rather reticent about sharing your views IRL other than with Supergran.

GreyQueen

maryb wrote: »

I'm glad you've found some like minded people - you always felt you had to be rather reticent about sharing your views IRL other than with Supergran.

Some of them are jokingly called my toyboys, since they are hipster dudes in their mid-twenties. I find it refreshing to have pals a generation younger than myself. I also do have pals of my own generation as well as people like SG, who is old enough to be my parent. Mixing it up keeps it interesting.;)

zeupater

GreyQueen wrote: »

Folks might like to look at thermodynamic hot water systems. They have panels on the roof and these provide the energy to heat the hot water tank. Tank requires a small electrical supply to power its 'sacrificial anode' which is an element designed to draw minerals out of the water. When it's fully gorged, it gets a bit smelly and is changed for a fresh anode, hence the term sacrificial.

My teeny-tiny council flat and its contents sip elastic trickery at 2.5 kwH per 24hrs and that's even with an MSE addiction, lol.

Hi

But take care to research the validity of any claims that may be made by salesmen on this product to justify their prices ... yes, the technology works, but some efficiency claims are outrageous .... there's a (long!) discussion thread on the G&E board from a few years ago where claims were questioned using logic/physics and a reasonable performance was estimated ... a few years later independent lab tests (which spurred newspaper articles) provided results which were pretty close to what the discussion expected!

... it's worth a read if you're bored at any time, but be prepared & make a mug of coffee first! .. :coffee: .. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4205509 ... happy reading ...

HTH
Z

ivyleaf

GQ Do you find, as I do, that as you get older, people of varying ages feel more and more like your contemporaries?
Mind you, i'm 64, so maybe you haven't reached the same stage but I now feel more comfortable than I used to when chatting to either people who are older than me or those who are much younger. Maybe it's just that I've stopped worrying about what they think of me iyswim

jk0

I have an interesting reply from Sammy Wilson MP regarding my concerns about the closure of the Northern Ireland power stations. I'm sure he won't mind me reproducing it here:

[FONT=&quot]Dear Mr K***** [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Thank you very much for your email and for the enclosed blog note.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I should point out to you that it would not even require the bombing of the Moyle Interconnector that links Northern Ireland to the rest of the United Kingdom. Even when it is working efficiently, and that is very rarely, this link is only capable of only delivering 15% of the power that would be used in Northern Ireland. You have quite rightly pointed out therefore that the decision that will result in the closure of Kilroot does make us more dependent upon the Irish Republic, though even the power from that source cannot be guaranteed because the interconnector between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland which would be required to make the power flow has not been built, it has not even received planning permission and will be subject to lengthy delays because of opposition by landowners to allow their land to be used for the pylons. The more worrying impact of this decision is that in a very short time the lights could go out in Northern Ireland on a regular basis because of the inadequacy of the power supply and the very heavy reliance we now have on renewable energy, which of course we know cannot be produced consistently.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I am pleased to see there is wider interest in this issue and I can assure you that as a Party we will be pushing for a re-examination of the outcome.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Sammy Wilson MP [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot](Dictated by Mr Wilson and sent on his behalf)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]