The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

[Deleted User]

DigForVictory wrote: »

What are you storing it in, Bob?

I use these.

Since I took this picture, I've bought two more.

As for the Water Bob, it's no use if the water suddenly goes off, without warning, because you won't be able to fill it, and I don't imagine you will want to keep it full all the time.

It's kind of like keeping an empty fuel can in the car.

[Deleted User]

DigForVictory wrote: »

I quite like the collapsible 20l "canteens" but do they stack & how many high is considered safe?

I don't think stacking them at all is a good idea.

From personal experience, they leak through the neck and taps, just sitting on the floor.

THESE, however, will stack, and are even moulded, top and bottom, to interlock when stacked.

They're also a lot cheaper, and hold an extra 5 litres apiece.

You'll probably be needing a TAP as well.

[Deleted User]

The cars were starting to freeze before 2200hrs.

DigForVictory

Oh it was a cold night. Just minus one at six this morning, but quite cold enough to have to get the engine going, heat the inside & scrape the outside & rub the lights clear! Ah well, my instructors were Very Clear. Its at minus five I have to thump sense back into my hands (I never remember to glove or mitten up First.)

I like the Jerry cans (although what on earth is Anti Glug Blue?! Ah, a little air vent to allow smooth pouring) but £6 for a tap? Ulp. Still, In The Event, that would be a very useful under £30 investment. Stored up on a pallet too, to make rodent attack more difficult.

I had an eye on the waterbob as my parents have the water turned off occasionally for municipal endeavours & not a skerrick about how much water you might need in a day just to drink & cook with let alone wash persons, plates, pans & ahem the loo. Nothing wrong with kit for known unknowns but for oneoff usage I agree, painful expensive.

Glad to hear definitively that foldable and storage really are not soulmates for water. Saves me all sorts of lamentation Finding Out, many thanks!.

[Deleted User]

Where is everyone??? the whole of MSE has been very, very quiet for a couple of days and the Brexit thread hasn't been posted on since the 7th.

We're off to Lidl this afternoon to do a tinned food top up, I don't trust the PTB to sort out the mess they've made of leaving the EU they seem far more interested in scoring points off the opposing parties in parliament than trying to come to any agreement between themselves and the leaders of both government and opposition are as bad as any of their elected MPs, it's a disgraceful thing to watch their conduct on the TV. So I will take some responsibility for us and make some judicious investments to give us food and light and warmth until the spring when we can begin to grow some food for ourselves and the lighter evenings will mean we can work later without needing artificial lighting. I'm actually wondering if an old fashioned wind up record player and some old records might be a fun thing to have around for entertainment in the future? while they're still available in second hand shops at a reasonable price, might be fun???

[Deleted User]

DigForVictory wrote: »

but £6 for a tap? Ulp. Still, In The Event, that would be a very useful under £30 investment.

Depending on how many in your household, you may want more water containers.

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency - an American agency, but still worth referencing) recommend 1 gallon per person, per day, for drinking (1/2 gallon), food preparation and hygiene, and allowing at least a 2 week supply.

Being that the containers we buy in the UK, tend to be in metric, treat 5 litres as 1 gallon.

Living alone, my water stock equates to a three week supply.

Should you have advanced warning (even just an hour) of a water supply failure, you can fill the bath (a bathtub holds around 80 gallons/363 litres), meaning your stock will be substantially increased.

Of course being able to fill the bath is not a given, so don't plan on being able to do it.

DigForVictory

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I'm actually wondering if an old fashioned wind up record player and some old records might be a fun thing to have around for entertainment in the future? while they're still available in second hand shops at a reasonable price, might be fun???

The only thing I know about the really Old Fashioned record players is they used wooden needles & the device that cuts those retails (when you can find them) at several hundred quid a pop. I do hope I'm thinking a bit Too Old Fashioned there.

The LPs may need careful choosing as the songs you recall with affection when found in vinyl form may be so worn you have to know the tune & timing to hear it. That said, they re-pressed things and re-released them, so there is always hope. Anything you dance to you may want plural copies of, as the 'dashing white sergeant' record we have skips gruesomely and while we might happily get stuck into dashing, we end up stripping willow or wherever the needle jumps to. (Mind, our Scottish Country Dancing is a sort of family rugby to music - it's very definitely not the pure form danced before Royalty....)

Jojo's suggestion of a bodhran makes a lot of sense, and the fun of sheet music is that retains usability for Decades. Says she with her father's copy of the Flanders & Swann songbook. (He has my book of Tom Lehrer - I think an exchange of hostages is indicated.) You can download & print off a lot of sheet music, and assemble your own preferred amusements ancient & modern? The only reason I can see why an eclectic mix couldn't be printed, bound & given as a different Christmas or Birthday present, before the fall would be copyright?!

[Deleted User]

DD1 has a bodhran and the complete set of wooden Merk recorders, plays and owns a clarinet, and a French horn and has an electric piano too as well as being an accomplished choral singer who is also sometimes a soloist, she sings first soprano so she could entertain if she had to and possibly earn a living from it? I just wondered if a wind up record player, like those from the 1940s/50s with the metal needles and some old records might be fun, nothing antique or valuable but the sort of thing we could use in the garden or at picnics, just a little portable one. The records I'm thinking of are the dance music ones, not modern vinyls and there are some classical music albums out there still that I'd enjoy too.

maryb

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Of course being able to fill the bath is not a given, so don't plan on being able to do it.

It's also worth checking your bath plug. Not much use filling the bath if it slowly empties. This may not be apparent over the length of time a normal bath takes but would be infuriating to discover if you were relying on a bath tub full of water for flushing the loo and came back a few hours later to find an empty tub

thriftwizard

It's the kind of thing you'd pay around £100 for at an Emporium, MrsLW, but you might strike lucky & find one at a car boot sale, auction or similar - that's where we find them! However if you buy through an emporium you should at least know that it's working - provided the label says so! And needles aren't necessarily a huge problem for the later models; I believe they were fairly standard & interchangeable with most models. They're not terribly complicated but that said, I've never refurbished one myself; I stick to sewing machines, typewriters and the like. Look out for one with variable speed control as some of those will play LPs & singles as well as 78s.