THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Cappella

I posted on the Prepping for Brexit thread when it opened
MrsLW but I disliked the direction it seemed to be taking so I stayed here where everyone is so helpful, and now I'm glad that I did.

I watched part of the newsnight programme about Brexit last night and the issue of the government advising people to stockpile food to see themselves through the first weeks struck a chord with me. Today I've bottomed the pantry (sorry, northern expression it means emptied and cleaned out thoroughly) audited my tinned stuff and am planning a healthy restock.

It's silly not to be prepared and I've had to let stocks get very low for various reasons but I'm determined that we will be safe, not sorry if the nasty brown smelly stuff hits the whirling sharp blades next March.

Anyway, quite apart from Brexit there are far more worrying issues. Farmers are already feeding this year's hay to cattle, as the fields aren't greening up as usual, which meanss that it's quite likely that there won't be a second hay crop this year. Which means that either food prices will rise steeply or the supermarkets will keep them artificially low and farmers will go out of business.

In an uncertain world I want to be as prepared as I can be for us to be able to cope with whatever life throws at us.

jk0

Afternoon all.


Remember a few weeks ago, I was thinking I regularly swap universes to ones where I never bought the thing I'm looking for? Today's missing item was a spirit level at my rental place, that I spent half the day looking for. I bought another on the way home, so am quite sure the missing one will be waiting for me tomorrow.


However, has anyone viewed the clips suggesting we all inhabit a video game? One of the signs of a game is suggested to be glitches in the game. Like, err maybe things disappearing, and reappearing when the 'screen' refreshes?


Actually, it feels like a game someone is playing with me when buying another item makes the missing item appear!

GreyQueen

I think I live IRL, jk0, but there are some days when I feel that my life is sliding sitcom-wards at a rate of knots.:rotfl:


Been talking to folk who keep horses. Professionally, I mean. I'm hearing of paddocks which aren't just yellowed grass but are actually dustbaths and horses already being fed hay intended for next winter. The thoroughbreds belonging to one pal always get supplementary feeding 365 anyway, but they do love to graze.


If hay is being used now, it won't be available in the winter. If folks have to buy in, what little there is on the market will be very expensive. Some businesses could slip into the red with only a little adverse pressure.


Contractors are combining. The prudent ones have a water bowser following the combine around. Many folk don't realise that dust is prone to catching fire. An old trick, if you've got an ageing combine and need a replacement you cannot afford, is to 'forget' to clear the dust out of it and allow it to go up in flames. Ooops, nice new one on the insurance (as told to me by yer actual farmers, not a folk myth, btw).

Re wind-up merchants, well, we've had a few over the years, and they get bored eventually and go away.

Preparation is, to my mind, simple prudence, common sense, and good housekeeping. Would anyone want to run out of the last roll of TP? Or have to order in a takeaway they couldn't really afford because there was no food in the house? Or overspend at the convenience store because you'd lacked the wit to stock up at better prices in a proper supermarket? To push and shove in crowds when you could be resting indoors with a small libation?


Or sit in the dark in a powercut eating cold food and deficient of a brew-up when they could be dining by candlelight on something they'd cooked on their camping stove whilst listening to something pleasant on the solar/ battery radio or playing some nice board games with the family?

Heck, I know which side of that I come down on - cheers! :beer:

moneyistooshorttomention

jk0 wrote: »

Afternoon all.


Remember a few weeks ago, I was thinking I regularly swap universes to ones where I never bought the thing I'm looking for? Today's missing item was a spirit level at my rental place, that I spent half the day looking for. I bought another on the way home, so am quite sure the missing one will be waiting for me tomorrow.


However, has anyone viewed the clips suggesting we all inhabit a video game? One of the signs of a game is suggested to be glitches in the game. Like, err maybe things disappearing, and reappearing when the 'screen' refreshes?


Actually, it feels like a game someone is playing with me when buying another item makes the missing item appear!

I know what you mean - because a specific incident where I looked and looked and looked again for a possession I knew very well I still owned (both in its regular location and other locations as well) and it just wouldnt "turn up". But I went to the cupboard I "knew" it was in every single time I wanted it and "mentally insisted" I absolutely knew it was still there. Come the umpteenth time I went to that cupboard for it - and there it was again:huh::huh::huh:

I read a comment somewhere on the Net recently by someone that has stuck in my mind since. It was to the effect that I (ie the Real Me) is "somewhere or other" reading a book in effect that is entitled My Current Life and I'm focusing on it and think it's "Real" - but, if I could just switch my focus, then I could "read a different book" instead about an Alternate Life and be equally convinced that it was Real. I can definitely get what they were on about and it's sometimes like I turn and watch a tv programme in one corner of the room (Universe) sometimes and could, equally well, turn and watch the tv programme going on in the other corner of the room (ie Universe) or I could just switch the tv off altogether and think "Blow the fantasies". I do have a distinct suspicion that Life is really a tv programme/book we are so thoroughly absorbed in that we think it's Real. Then some of us come to the point (usually way in later life) where we do have the ability to "switch the tv off/close the book" if we decide we've had enough of the charade that is called "Having A Life on Earth".

Somehow that stuck in my mind - and in conjunction with Shakespeare's phrase of "All the world is a stage and all of us merely players" and I do wonder sometimes whether I could manage to "switch my focus" sometimes from the book that goes "In West Wales for this part of a life that spans mid-20th century to mid-21st century" and swop to a book I would prefer reading instead iyswim or just walk out of The Library and go "Blow that - I'll do what I want to now...".

daz378

yes due to the farming situation been buying extra tinned veg and i already had quite a few tins in....im not judging either way on brexit ...in fact getting sick of it.....just like an objective assessment of possible supply consequences .... im moving from passive to active prepping.....getting a new boss at work ..... potential anxieties hopefully not realised

skittycat

Hi, I only just found this prep thread
I've been looking at prepping for a while but with the whole EU mess it sort of feels a bit more twitchy.
I've got a small veg and fruit garden on the go but with not so great health its hard to keep on top of it all.
My husband thinks I'm nuts but goes along with it all anyway. I'm sure he won't complain when the homebrew is ready to drink :beer:

moneyistooshorttomention

I don't "get it" re the concerns either way re Brexit in some ways.

There are always going to be "alarums and excursions" about summat-or-the-other and currently it happens to be Brexit. Last decade it was summat else. Next decade it will be summat else again.

So - it just makes sense to do "what we can/when we reasonably can" and bear in mind the vast majority of people will do "what suits them personally - and blow anyone else" regardless.

So we think on generally.

Right now - I'm thinking "Just as well I replaced some curtains in my house with Very Thick indeed and lined ones" - as that means I'm better able to shut out the sun whilst it's currently too hot. There's another possible friend that might come over here for a visit soon - so I've got my preparations piling up for that (ie for friends generally coming here visiting) and compiling a list of "Places They'd Probably Like to Visit" and so on.

If I know I need "Someone Else's Skills" for something-or-other then it's best to try and get them asap - just in case. The Just-in-Case could come up from a variety of things - they move to elsewhere in the country (eg a noticeable number of local tradespeople have a tendency to go off to England for work at intervals) or they move elsewhere in the world (if they aren't from this country in the first place and decide to go back).

If someone might find an excuse to get a noticeable amount of our money out of us at some point - it could be wise to be in a position to say "You can't have it - I've spent it already" if it's money they arent actually rightfully entitled to, but might make an excuse to try and get hold of it.

So - there's always an element of the motto "Be prepared" on the one hand - but one has to remember "There's A Life to be lived" on the other hand.

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

Cappella wrote: »

I watched part of the newsnight programme about Brexit last night and the issue of the government advising people to stockpile food to see themselves through the first weeks {snips}

I didn't see the programme - I've been slowly prepping for the possibility that the sheep/zombies will panic buy if/when these no-deal advice leaflets start to be distributed, with the idea that I'd need 3-7 days of supplies until new stocks start to trickle in. With the above "first weeks" info, are we talking April next year? And how long is that "first weeks" string? 2, 4, 10 weeks?


What is the shortest time I should prep for, given that I'm starting from a standing start?


:money:

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

Porridge oats - what's the best long term storage solution for them, please? I'm THINKING something similar to flour - into the freezer for as long as poss/until opening then into airtight plastic tub... is this the best way to preserve them?


Thanks

mumf

r.a.i.n.b.o.w wrote: »

Porridge oats - what's the best long term storage solution for them, please? I'm THINKING something similar to flour - into the freezer for as long as poss/until opening then into airtight plastic tub... is this the best way to preserve them?


Thanks

Take the packet,unopened,and put it in an airtight container.Keep it in a cool,dark place.This whole freezing,to ' get rid of bugs' is an American thing,as they have lower food hygiene standards than us.I am sure someone will shout me down,but when was the last time you bought rice,oats,pasta in the UK that was crawling?