THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

mardatha

We've got snow on here, forecast says "heavy and prolonged" so we won't get the road cleared today again. Some people getting fedup, we've been snowed in since Tues night and they were really wanting to get back to work tomorrow. School staying shut. I'm quite happy though

[Deleted User]

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

and also some foil 'shelters' which fold out into a double walled triangular shape and are long enough and wide and tall enough to crawl inside and create a warm space.

Is this what you are talking about?

[Deleted User]

Precisely that, they're not terribly substantial but I'd weigh the ground corners down with pieces of wood (less likely to damage them than stones) specially if there was wind. They fold up the same size as the foil blankets and are feather light. Any extras in an extreme situation will to make things more comfortable are OK no?

Just looked on E.bay and they are called emergency foil survival shelters, come in at around £5 each with postage and also spotted some foil emergency outdoor sleeping bags too which I might just invest in, £1.52 from China if I'm remembering rightly and free postage.

GreyQueen

I've got several of those foil blankets and one of the triangular shelters (£land, years ago) and I have also seen a suit made from his material comprising of overtrousers and a parka. More expensive, but potentially very handy, particularly if you have to move about rather than huddle.

Takeaways from recent experience; you can lose one of your YTs in the snow (happened to a pal, pushing someone's car). The YT model with a webbing strap across the instep would have prevented this. I may be modifying my own YTs with a h.m. version of this from the sewing stash, I have webbing and velcro aplenty.

Although there were about five days' warning of severe weather, a near-nongenarian lady of my acquaintance required emergency reprovisioning from outside by Wednesday. This would have been easy enough to avoid and involved someone finishing work early and slithering around town to run an errand. Lesson; heed weather warnings, bread is freezable and UHT milk is a shelf-stable supply.

Travel. Whether your daily commute or other travel; have supplies; water, snacks, warm clothing. How many street shots in online newspapers/ people IRL here have I seen hatless, gloveless, with thin coats worn unfastened, falling all over the place as they try to walk in trainers or slick-soled fashion boots? Many!

Be careful. There have been fatalities due to falls including one young adult, and deaths due to over-exertion. It's recommended that the over fifties don't shovel snow. By cardiologists. Cold makes everyday activities harder at all ages and can tip the vulnerable over the edge into a life-threatening situation.

Try to avoid being part of someone else's problem by not doing, shall we be blunt, effing stupid things which endanger your life and the lives of others who will have to deal with the consequences. I have seen some absolutely unbelievably stupid things done in this weather. :mad:

[Deleted User]

[QUOTE=GreyQueen;73971403
Try to avoid being part of someone else's problem by not doing, shall we be blunt, effing stupid things which endanger your life and the lives of others who will have to deal with the consequences. I have seen some absolutely unbelievably stupid things done in this weather. :mad:[/QUOTE]

spot on, I agree 100%. I saw my 84 year old `macho` but asthma suffering small male neighbour shovelling a path down to the lane. He wheezes enough as it is. Unbelievable :mad: his wife 2 decades younger and retired, was a gp. She struggles to carry the 15km bags of pellet fuel in when they could have gone onto all electric heaters during this short time. All it took was advance thinking. Him slipping hard would have meant an ambulance, impossible down the steep hills to us, putting other people at risk and yes I am feeling cross too. What is it with these people? Look at me perhaps!!

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

Try to avoid being part of someone else's problem by not doing, shall we be blunt, effing stupid things which endanger your life and the lives of others who will have to deal with the consequences.

That's why there's a D, at the beginning of DRABC.

[Deleted User]

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

£1.52 from China if I'm remembering rightly and free postage.

It's amazing what you can get from overseas, for very little money.

I got this for £5-11 including delivery (currently selling for £4-65 including delivery), and it's brilliant.

fuddle

I am beginning to wonder if clearing snow exacerbated my yet to be medicated and only just discovered heart condition. I cleared the shared path on Tuesday. Now I would prefer to just leave the snow to accumulate because at least it's something to grip too and a softer landing if I do fall but my neighbour is 70 this year and insists on clearing it. It makes me feel guilty so I did it.

Long story short I'm still dealing with (although gradually getting better) right sided chest and shoulder pain. My heart can't cope with the amount of blood going through it in normal times so shovelling that snow was acstupid thing to do. Although a blessing as I'm now on beta blockers and don't have to wait in the investigation stage any longer, I have had a shock.

I'm 38 and it's only because of frequent infections that my condition has been picked up. Non of us have anything to prove to anyone and allowing age to dictate behaviour whether that be ego boosting ones invincible macho self or trying to stave off guilting feelings because of fear of judgement from others. I was stupid.

I have previously walked miles a day, slogging myself up a hill and never experienced chest pain from it. GQ I can understand why cardiologists don't advise snow shovelling. It doesn't feel like hard work but that 5 minute job has likely landed me in a bit of bother.

thriftwizard

Where do you get foil blankets?

OH still has the one he was given on finishing the London Marathon last time he ran it. In 1983...

But I also have a stash of the ones from £land in my van.

GreyQueen

I'm very sorry to hear that you have a heart condition, fuddle, but pleased that you are starting to get appropriate treatment. All good wishes for better health in future.

I suspect there are millions of us wandering around with undiagnosed problems of this nature, just waiting for the ill-circumstance of activity/ temperature/ stress/ intercurrent disease, to manifest themselves.

We've been living in a culture for at least two generations now which is very youth-centric and in denial about the physical changes for ageing, and when they start. I was rocked back on my heels by the concept that the biological definition of early middle age is your early thirties! But, if you can get over the shock, and think for a moment, with a lifespan probably falling into the late seventies/ early eighties, you are hitting the halfway point by the middle-thirties.

I'm in my early fifties, so cannot be considered to be middle-aged any longer, unless I am sure I shall see a century, and then only just.......:p

It's warm and sunny here and the snow is melting rapidly and I am seeing grass for the first time in a few days. I like it. I shall toddle out later on and wear the YTs over shoes instead of wellies, ready to remove them when I go into shops/ encounter already thawed pavements.

Tomorrow, after work, I shall take my strong newspaper trolley up to the coffee shop to collect the grounds they save for me, I've kept in touch with them as I wasn't going to bust a gut moving 10 kg + of coffee (plus the trolley is probably another 3-4 kg on its own) in snow. They know to expect me tomorrow.