THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Karmacat

Daz I'm glad you're good to go,and that you're going, so to speak have a brilliant time.


Loving what people are saying about our use of fuel - it's not likely to be the people on here who carry on in winter with strappy t shirts and shorts, as Mrs LW mentions. I'm burning my hedge cuttings, as I've (constantly!) mentioned, and that must add something to pollution, though as GQ says it's only just been laid down - I wish I could be burning it to keep warm, or maybe have a big pot of water over the incinerator to heat up ... in fact, at some stage, I might try that :rotfl:


But since I'm alive, I'm going to expend energy to keep myself alive. That's how any organism is. Through my choice, I'll be as frugal as I can, but thats it.

Witless

Karmacat wrote: »

Through my choice, I'll be as frugal as I can, but thats it.

I mostly agree, with one qualifier.

I intend being as comfortable as I can.

Karmacat

Witless wrote: »

I mostly agree, with one qualifier.

I intend being as comfortable as I can.

Absolutely! I was kind of including that in the "expending energy to keep myself alive" bit if I'm gonna expend energy, I'm gonna do it for comfort :rotfl: I'm just gonna get the max bang for the buck when I do it.

GreyQueen

I've sometimes performed the mental exercise of imagining a world without people (miserable) but with dwellings and other buildings sitting there undamaged and yours for the occupying.

In theory, you could commandeer anything as your residence; Chatsworth, the Tower of London, a two-up two down in Macclesfield, a Cornish cottage............

In pracitical terms, once the novelty of roaming around in a palatial abode had worn off, I think we'd revert to cottage-style living or living small in one corner of a much bigger space.

Why? Because we'd need something which we could heat easily (no double-height ceilings, please) and something human-scaled. A footballer's style luxe mansion with swimming pool wouldn't be much fun without someone to do all the work and maintain the pool and the grounds. Equally, a penthouse apartment in a glitzy tower would lose its lustre quickly with no lift (imagine trudging up 20-odd floors carrying cans of water and yelling 'gardiloo' as you hurled the contents of your pi$$pot out the window).:rotfl:

I reckon a snug little cottage tucked in a sheltered area with a garden and a nearby stream would be just about perfect.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

If they tip beyond a certain point, the consequences could mean sea level rises covering most of the world's most densely populated areas.

I've never understood this business of the sea-level rising, when the icecaps melt :huh:

Ice has a greater volume than water, so the sea-level should actually fall, when the ice melts.

thriftwizard

Erm, Bob, quite a lot of that ice is not floating on water, but sitting on top of landmasses like Greenland and Antarctica...

DigForVictory

Me too for retiring to a reasonably sized stone tent. Thick stone walls insulate. Two storey - I intend to live over the stable. An open fire but with the capability of easily heating water &/or cooking on said fire as well as warming my toes.
Where the devil I put the tools, books, freezer, dehydrator, jars of jam etc I haven't yet figured but given my height I can probably move into an ancient monument without physical headaches being of the short persuasion. The lofty spacious abodes I've seen in Bristol suit my 6'7 cousin very nicely thank you - but all his door are custom made or reconditioned antiques & I'd need a leafblower to dust the corners. Besides which, not enough local trees to heat the place & all the water appears to be either canal or piped. So long as I know what's grazing uphill, a stream will do, or better a spring... Looks like I'll end up retiring back to Wales or Scotland where such buildings still exist but noone fancies them. Or in some requirement village where I have all mod cons (right cons) and no autonomy when the power goes off. (Frankly, my MIL's residence terrifies me - it's a storage unit for the single elderly person.)

On the happier thought of expending energy to stay alive, proud to report son has given blood for the first time. (I drove him & two school friends, so we added three novices to the cause.) He's been asked to consider platelet donation but it's a trek to the specialist donation unit. Irony being said centre is a ten minute walk from my office but I'm not eligible to give anything other than support. At last, I'll know what blood group to embroider for his jacket patch!

mardatha

The amount of beautiful, perfect wee stone cottages left to go to ruin in fabulous prepper-type locations all over the Borders is gobsmacking. Driving through the hills you'll always come across a wee burn and a ruin beside it, complete with it's rowan tree (to keep the witches out). Hundreds of them and it's such a shame. People lived in them for hundreds of years then decided quite rightly that they wanted electric and piped water, and just abandoned them. And they are perfectly placed - not plonked in any wee space like new builds. Always on a raised bit to stay above floods, always facing south to get as much sun as possible. So sad.

DigForVictory

Which counties over the borders, how handy for reasonable road & rail access currently? What might planning for restoration be like & I remember our septic tank being a bit of a character (hated coffee grounds...) but I presume technology has improved.

A rowan to keep the witches out? And me a peaceable Pendle herb grower, honest. I love folklore, but my insurance prefers Yale...

[Deleted User]

We'll all know where to head with our prepping equipment and build ourselves a proper crofting community in the event of life as we know it going pear shaped. Think of the skill set we'd have as a community, we'd be almost a living encyclopaedia of useful skills and not those weird lot any longer wouldn't we?