The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

DigForVictory

Si_Clist said:

Would anyone who's actually been out into The Big Wide World today care to give us hermits a clue as to what percentage of the folk they saw were wearing any kind of face covering?

In Tesco, I saw 4 others wearing face coverings but we were all fairly scrupulous about distancing so overtaking & having a gawk wasn't that large an opportunity. I popped into B&M to see staff wearing masks, pulled down to chat more easily, & thought Outta Here! (They didn't have the compost I wanted anyway.)

MrsLW your tranquil familiarity with how to get the eating off a pigeon & just some of the many fun ways with bits of deer leave me awed. A touch nervous, not to say pensive, but admiring & maintaining a very scrupulous social distance) My pub quiz team with you on may not win prizes but we'll all eat better! (Once saw a glorious Raquel Welch type figure sketched in a rabbitskin bikini. I think I'd spend a bit more time with the foliage making myself a suitably covering caftan - carefully chosen I could then wilt it for soup later)

Sunspots? No wonder Virgin's broadband keeps going down...

My in-case-of-civil-unrest-bug-out-to location is rather too far away & anyway up for sale. I need to review the local area but am currently minded to break into the local library. Taking a few odds & bits with me (pity a TWOCed horse would be so noticeable - maybe a more rural library?) naturally. 

thriftwizard

Well, I do, but I'd be very loth to leave here as I'm within easy reach of those Offspring who've left home & in most respects we're pretty well situated. However, my go-to would be the village my wider family live in, 40 miles West of here. There would be space for us all, between my mother, my brother's & my nieces' homes, and it's a place with lots of resources; I also have friends of my own living locally too. Not on the tourist trail as such, it has a small supermarket, local shops selling local, seasonal produce, two surgeries & a pharmacy, a dentist, hairdresser, chippy, hardware shop & pet shop, plus an agricultural supplier & the factory of a national drinks brand, hence there's at least a chance of employment for the youngsters, and a few gaps in the local market for the entrepreneurially-inclined. It's inland but the coast is within easy reach & although it's off the beaten track the transport links to larger places are decent; there's a small river & an allotment site too. It's higher than we are here & often colder in winter, but not by much! Snow lies, though, which it hardly ever does here.

It's not an easy 40 miles; public transport down here is pretty much non-existent unless you want to go into the city, but there is a coastal bus service that runs from 4 miles south of here to 4 miles south of them (and 4 miles north of my 3rd brother, 80 miles from here) from March to September. Fuel not being an issue, we'd take my van, or OH or DD1's car; walking or cycling would be very hard as there are some mighty hills between us! If the main roads were blocked (as often happens) there are cross-country routes that are no further, but involve a lot more up-and-down! 

However I'm hard put to think of a scenario where we'd be better off there than here; exceptional flooding would be the most likely one as we're quite low down, but it'd be a not-within-recorded-history event. Which doesn't mean it couldn't ever happen, but hopefully not within my lifetime!

elaine241

I can not say I have a bug out location as we are pretty much in the sticks anyway. If we had to leave the house we would probably decamp to the farm buildings just up the road. We would have water, electric (if still on) shelter in the form of my caravan/farm buildings, cooking facilities, guns, guard dogs, machinery/tractors etc a veg patch secondary to my house one, chickens, sheep etc etc. If we had to totally get out of dodge we have a quad with a trailer, horses which could be used as transport/pack, other tractors/trailers etc , loads of camping gear, bicycles, guns, bug out bags, food supplies, water supplies/filters and a good idea of the local landscape and where to go to avoid the masses! We would know plenty of areas to avoid detection and hunker down totally out of sight. Hell I almost sound like I am prepared for this! LOL

Tink_04

Which way are you increasing your preps going forward apart from growing and storing more food?

I have started growing but I’m not very good at it and with a full house there is not much space for more food! 

We waste hardly anything food wise and cook from scratch a lot, we have 2 freezers which are both in full use and a good rotation but that is just to feed us on our small food budget.

I have always just prepped for job losses or illness but not much bigger than that. Maybe a back to basic prep list going forward can help people? 

Stay safe 

Tink

daz378

It depends  in what context you had to bug out too....i haven't a specific location..... although i do have  a BOB ...if i had to run to the hills or Forrest...my woodskills are very sketchy ....i do however have a pocketbook version  of an   SAS  survival guide  ....would be  a very steep learning curve as i become hungrier and hungrier

GreyQueen

Hi Elaine, the really easy way with woodpigeons or any fowl bar waterfowl, was taught to me by the Mad Bushcrafters; twist the wings off, putt the head off, put your thumbs dow the neck hole with their knuckles back to back and turn the bird inside out, thus releasing the breastbone and attached meat. Saves a lot of time and messing around with feathers.

Floss

GQ, you're welcome in my back garden anytime - warm pigeon salad is a lovely dish, as is pigeon pie with a proper gravy!

littlemoney

elaine241 said:

mothernerd said:   I have downloaded a sewing pattern for face masks and I am making several so that I always have one in the car or farm truck.

Mothernerd - Can you provide a link to sewing patterns please. Thanks

mothernerd

It's elaine who has downloaded the sewing pattern for masks. I haven't really bothered about masks as I've only been out a few times and chosen quiet times like Sunday evening. I have worn gloves (or had them with me) to press cash machine buttons or crossing buttons and in case I needed to hold onto the rail to get up the steep steps onto the canal bank. 
I have usually met very few people and we've all been good about giving one another space. I did step out into the road on a Sunday evening (on the bridge over the canal) as a woman and a young boy on bicycles were coming the other way as I reached the top. I did look both ways and there were only 3 cars in sight and quite a long way down the road. The little boy looked as though he was about to lose control of his bike and plummet down the slope so I went out into the road and then back on the pavement when we had passed. Most people seem to use the pavement on the other side of the road. 

-taff

I think to be properly prepped you need your own farm, livestock and seed bank and the means to protect them.

Just noting how difficult it was to get hold of food if the supermarkets don't have any should ring alarm bells with anyone deadly serious about prepping...

A friends sister and partner once told me they' d identified a cave in Snowdonia they would retreat to and had made directions to it with a list of essential items to take with them. Trouble is, unless you have your own food source, you'll starve anyway. Of course you can always go down the road of humans for food.