THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

oceanspirit

Like many of you here, OH and I are prepping for a short term disruption of the supply chain. Of more importance to us and more urgent is to prep for winter weather.

James Madden has made a prediction that most of December, including the Christmas and New Year period will be affected by snow this year. I know he makes a similar prediction every year, however our village was completely cut off for a couple of days due to the Beast from the East earlier this year and it took several weeks for the drifts to fully clear from the roads.

As a result of that experience, my preps are more concerned with not making us part of the problem and ensuring we can cope for a month without needing supplies. The most difficult of which is ensuring enough bottled gas for my central heating. I do have a wood burner and had double the amount of firewood delivered this autumn than I would usually buy at this time of the year.

My electric bathroom heater is tripping the fusebox so I need to get that looked at soon although it couldn't cope with the Beast's wind blowing through the air vents and I had to shut the bathroom and kitchen doors to keep the cold air out of the rest of the place. I do have a supply of hotel shower caps to put over the vents to see if that helps this time.

OH and I have been gradually building up supplies of prescription medication so we're ok for those and we have plenty of hot water bottles and wool blankets (as long as the moth repellent patches have worked throughout the summer!), candles, board games and books to keep us occupied for a long, dark winter. I even have curtains in both bedrooms now - only waited 11 years to get the poles put up.

My October and November supermarket deliveries will need to be increased slightly to cover December's, just in case supplies won't be able to get through. I have said to OH I'm not ordering anything special for Christmas as we are planning to be away if the weather is OK. If we are snowed in, we'll use the normal day to day supplies that we have in already, unless of course we can persuade hypno06 to lob over her spare tin of sprouts!

GreyQueen

kboss! We pride ourselves on our bonkerishness on here, don't shatter our illusions like that, you heartless wench..........! :rotfl:



Jesting aside, it's interesting to me that domestic practices which were once unremarkable bits of home organisation, such as having a good pantry and candles, have slipped into a territory that gets one sideways looks and sniggers in certain quarters.


Part of it is, I reckon, a reaction to the long and interrupted peace we've enjoyed for generations. Life has become very easy and comfortable, with many unheard-of luxuries from around the world becoming available 24/7/365 for modest costs. Folks aren't innured scarcity, many never having experienced empty shelves or even powercuts on a regular basis. Because it hasn't happened to THEM, it doesn't happen/ can't happen/ won't ever happen. So, preparing for it is just plain silly, isn't it?


A pal of mine is the secondmost head honcho in our ambulance trust. I will never forget what he told me about day 3 of a big freeze up - that's when the S hits the F as pensioner after pensioner gets brought into hospital with broken bones (usually hips) from slipping on snow and ice.


Why then? Because folks have enough bread and milk at home for a day or two, then run out and go out, and that's when people who do not bounce well due to age and fragility, end up badly hurt.


A broken hip in your senior years means you are quite likely to die within a year. So, for want of bread and milk in wintertime, you could die years before your time.



Yet there are usually days of warning of extreme weather incoming, such things as UHT milk, which is shelf-stable exist now, powdered milk has been around for a century, you can store bread in the fridge for a week or more, or for months in the freezer. Or even alternatives like cripsbreads, crackers etc. Tiny preps could save you getting a life-changing injury. Not difficult, not expensive, not wasteful. Why not do it?



Another pal drives HGVs. You know that bread in plastic wrappers, the various brands which aren't baked in-store? We used to have a bakery for that in this city of 100,000 + (which serves a rural hinterland of much greater population also). It was closed and the nearest commercial scale bakeries are 100 + miles away and the HGV agency is always going crazy to get drivers to do the bread run. You know they sometimes ring drivers up an BEG them to work? My pal has driving as his side hustle, he isn't always available if his main income-generating s/e work is busy but they ring and ring and beg and beg....... another person, a rellie, is with a company driving refridgerated foods around. He and his wife have to call-screen because his employer is always trying to give him more and more work.



Now, talk to someone who experienced the winter of 62-63 and extrapolate what would happen to our extended supply chain and JIT delivery systems if the trucks cannot roll. Are you scared yet? I certainly am, and I speak as a warehouseman's daughter and the relation of several HGV drivers.:eek:

Karmacat

That's a great post, GQ, thank you.

[Deleted User]

The whole of life is bonkers depending on which end of the spectrum you stand to view it, we're one side of bonkers BUT for prepping? it's jolly useful when there are problems and having extra stocks in hurts no one.

I don't actually care what the rest of mankind thinks of me as a person, I don't care for most of them so it's fine if people consider me lunatic fringe, the difference will be that come bad weather, disruptions to the food, electricity, gas, water, fuel supplies, I'll be the lunatic who is warm, fed and coping in my own home without needing baling out by the emergency services and they won't! Sounds smug written down but it's the truth. Let folk pour scorn and derision on us if it makes them feel superior but I'll have spare tea bags etc. if anyone here needs them and still have enough for our needs for quite some time.

THIRZAH

We could easily get disruption caused by Brexit and bad weather in March so I'm prepping as much as I can. If I don't use the extra tins etc then I'll use them up over the summer.

maryb

Went to Waitrose today and they had Duchy organic flours 25% off. Stocked up. I like to buy organic especially bread flour because I don't like what I've read about glyphosate residues and I think for sourdough, organic is worth it. Use by sometime in June 2019 so that should take us past Brexit. That's for white flour - I don't get on with wholemeal so I get my fibre from oats

[Deleted User]

Latest news is, if we do complete Brexit, the Large Hadron Collider will create a mini black hole, which will swallow up our galaxy.

You have been warned.

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Latest news is, if we do complete Brexit, the Large Hadron Collider will create a mini black hole, which will swallow up our galaxy.

You have been warned.

Nonsense, my dear, brexit will reduce us to the status of Switzerland; bilingual, full of chocolate and infested with daft timepieces.


I can think of worse fates........:rotfl:

DigForVictory

Argh! Scouts having a clear out & have Given Away the hefty gas burners. These we used every pancake day as the new plastic things were cracked & dirty whereas the heavy metal was robust & scrubbable.

Whilst I was fetching mountain biking from son where he fetched up tired. Ah well, I will just have to hope someone made a decent donation.

[Deleted User]

Now that will be one hell of a ride won't it? see you on the other side folks, hang on tight and enjoy!!!