THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

GreyQueen

It makes sense, 'tractor unit' gets contracted into 'unit' which tends to be the term rather than the cab. Ever see a unit without a trailer behind it? Hoo boy, but they can shift!


And those vinyl-sided trailers (designed so fork-lifts can offload them from the sides as well as the rear), are 'curtainsiders' which is succinct and accurate.


My expenditures are normally in the sub-£10 bracket, thus the maximum allowable cash withdrawal at the ATM lasts me some considerable time. A quick looksee at my bank statement would tell you who my landlord is, to which authority I pay council tax, who's my employer, my utility company and my ISP. That's more than enough intel without telling people wher/ whene I shop and what I buy.


Just found a new-to-me prepper website called primalsurvivor.net. The articles I've read thus far are commonsensical and useful, I shall enjoy delving around the rest in coming weeks.

maryb

Anyone remember that song from the 70s "Convoy"

Cabover Pete with a reefer on. That was when it was more normal to have the engine compartment sticking out the front rather than under the driver and a reefer was a refrigerated unit.

But the line that always made me laugh was "....a thousand screaming trucks, and eleven long haired Friends of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus"

Karmacat

GreyQueen wrote: »

Just found a new-to-me prepper website called primalsurvivor.net. The articles I've read thus far are commonsensical and useful, I shall enjoy delving around the rest in coming weeks.

I saw that one. I particularly liked the detailed research on very small homesteads, and another one about communities.

mardatha

Flutrackers reporting that the flu season has started hard and early, with GP visits up 78% in England this week. Confirmed flu hospital admissions up 50%. And America is looking at the worst flu season for 13 years.
Better stock up on hand gel and wear scarves in crowded places.

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

Flutrackers reporting that the flu season has started hard and early, with GP visits up 78% in England this week. Confirmed flu hospital admissions up 50%. And America is looking at the worst flu season for 13 years.
Better stock up on hand gel and wear scarves in crowded places.

I've been refused an NHS flu jab this year for the first time in the 21 years since my diagnosis of the life-threatening chronic illness (one which suppresses my immune system). For which flu could easily see me in the horsepickle, according to the consultant who wants me to have the flu jab.


I queried it but, apparently, the grubbyment have changed the eligibility criteria, and I'm not innit any more. I'm getting a free flu jab via my employer later this month, thank goodness, otherwise I'd pay for one via B00ts. Who, at least in this city, have signage out saying they can't book any more over-65s into flu clinics any soomer than late Nov due to lack of vaccines.:eek:


Bearing in mind the gov have access to population data and know how many over-65s there are in the country, as well as how many otherwise eligible under-65s, it doesn't fill me confidence over their competance. Gawdelpus if we get pandemic flu because I don't think we can cope.

DigForVictory

I rather wish our Scout senior leaders would pay a fraction more attention to prepping & less to kilo-age.

They're getting rid of cast iron double ring gas burners as the hoses & regulators are all subject to H&S regs & must be replaced every 10 years. Regrettably, they have bought cheap plastic camping lightweight replacements that while lightweight physically are also lightweight in Every Other Sense - the hinges are going, the plastic has cracked, they are not up to year in year out abuse by cack-handed youngsters turned loose with large frying pans & the pancake batter and above all they have awkward nooks & crannies to clean. Oddly these newbies are also subject to the 10 year rule but they are "more portable". Gosh. In a camp full of child labour, I am unsold on portability being an issue. Two mops and a bit of rope & you can get even the little 6 years olds lugging one corner...

In a simple choice last Pancake day we went for the heavy iron lumps, cooked, had the fire drill (some of our scouts start cooking for themselves for the first time on our Pancake nights), & got everything cleaned & put away. This year we will just have to use the flimsy plastic things, presuming there are 4 whole & working. I can see a new line in the risk assessment "lit gas cooker falls off table". Prevent - with a couple of house bricks on either side, I'll suggest, along with repeated vehement warnings not to be wazzocks as skin grafts are not fun.

By absolutely no blinking chance a couple of the solid old guard found their way to a retirement home with me. Still with the wicked old pipes & regulators so I know what I am trying to replace.


It would appear that basic maintenance of paraffin pressure lamps is also beyond our remaining leaders (our quartermaster died tragically young, even by scout leader standards) & therefore two boxes were on the to get rid shelves. I peeked in, recognised the Tilley outlines & promptly added "could I have the pressure lamps - my chaps enjoy them". All by email so my indelicate drooling was less obvious. Aye sure, so I whipped back, tenderly hefted the two boxes into the boot & did a quick look around for any related-but-not-crated-with bits - two boxes near full of the right glass. All came home with me, and were gently dropped in front of Himself. Who looked in & nearly went from sat to heart-attack to bouncing off roofbeams - two Tilleys and a wall hanging lamp that would grace any BBC period drama. (Not all our kit is young but in the hands of loving quartermasters, it has worked. In these new ignorant kilo-counting days, our scouts need batteries more and lessons in "how to lift" less.)
That they were in military boxes, clearly cadet company illumination for the use of, with abundant clips for holding useful bits like jars & another glass wrapped in cloth in a tin deftly clamped to the lid and complete? It was like opening a wooden box to find the full Meccano set, plus spanners, nuts & bolts, cogs, belts & instruction manual All Still There!

I have to say, "lamps & stoves" is going to be so much less interesting & useful in this years program. Our new leader doesn't know, and of the other two one's moving elsewhere & the third has other enthusiasms than teaching the young how to coax pressure paraffin into cooperative light & that glorious soft hiss that says "happy camping" to me. (One of our Scouts started on a lamps night & while he was definitely uncertain at the start, when I suggested he ask about "the hiss" of his dad & grandparents, he looked thoughtful & next week came back loaded with family stories & filled with vim for "and when we were doing axes & knives?" He wore his brothers boots [with four pairs of socks] when we explained safety footwear was now required, and developed a very nice use of axe as well as mastering batoning.) I shall ensure a Tilley lamp is still available for lamps & stoves, just it'll be mine, and they can learn under my eye.

I know petrol will run out (possibly in my lifetime), but how are we for paraffin, does anyone know? Or should I dig a few storage pits, concrete flag wall them & line with plastic packing strips to minimise freeze thaw issues, and insert a few glazed stoneware jugs? Just to ensure that in a blackout, I can go looking for fuel with a trowel & crowbar. (I do have a coalshed but am told it is going to become a bikestore. Splendid - I'd like my front room & access to tea stash #1 restored.) Which may mean a bewildered cause of death "tripped & fell in the dark carrying several litres of antique chemicals" but so much more fun than just pneumonia. Also miword what an additional feature for the estate agent to list as I am hauled off to a carehome (clutching my collection of smallfilms DVDs so I do not have to watch the daytime TV)...

On a side thought the flu jab does not stay a sore point if within the hour of having it, you either go to the gym, saw a load of firewood, or otherwise get the upper arm muscles moving. Vigorous investigation of head height storage may mean you do not succumb to multiple issues this winter!

GreyQueen

DforV, if memory serves, parafin is derived from petroleum, so both get to run out together. 'Twas the advent of the oil age which helped save us from hunting every last whale to extinction.


Life would be so much easier if we hoomans had better night vision, hey? An ex-army lass told me that night vision takes about 40 minutes to develop fully, but can be lost in seconds with exposure to artificial light (we had that convo walking along an unlit back road on Barra in the Outer Hebrides btw).

ariarnia

At a pinch you can burn alcohol (ethanol) in an oil lamp. Just have to be careful because it's more volatile and burns with a blue flame that's harder to see. Gives out the same heat and can still be used for light with a mirror.

DigForVictory

I adore this site - I learn! And shall check out paraffin suppliers & storage techniques.
Yikes

If kept in plastic containers, 10-15 yrs. if kept air tight in cool dark space. Plastic is permeable and you will lose voliables. If kept in a metal non-rustable air tight container, it will last thru the next iceage.

but apparently dislikes freezing temperatures.

Frozen oil that defrosts too quickly is explosive.

Ah. More caution recommended then. Actually that site seems to be talking about fuels in various locations & the wonderfully varied additives for avgas. Which should never be used for lamp fuel unless you are out on a breezy moor with a respirator - the additives burn toxic. Ordinary paraffin, metal containers where possible & keep the water out by keeping brimfull.

In The Event I shall have to experiment with ethanol, always presuming I can see to brew by. Given the herb garden, I think tinctures will become trade goods. Now, we've that unloved sack of barley middleson is feeding the birds with (& thinking we haven't noticed). I must research distillation as the vague memories of school labs strike me as blinking effortful.

I re-learned (& taught!) the fragility of night vision when my torch-wielding scouts refused to believe their night vision would develop to tying ropes level if they just gave themselves a 5 minute chance. Only two had red filters... (Red light doesn't upset the night vision as much as raw LEDs - see this Wiki entry for how & why!)

Another time I may just shut them in the storeroom with a red light & *then* turn them loose. Just one nit with a phone & bamf. Restart the 5 minutes to basic. I have rarely yearned to Be In Barra so much as those idiots kept dumping far too many candlepower into assorted eyeballs...

mumf

I have 14 year old paraffin that I purchased when the local garage closed.He sold it from a pump,and it was cheap,so I bought 15 gallons,into 3x 5 gallon pladtic barrels.It hasbeen kept in freezing/boiling conditions in a metal shed.Now down to 2 gallons,and it still burns!