The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

-taff

I think we do lose things as generations go on and then find them again later in life when we need someone to teach us. Things seem to go in cyces according to whats happening in society. I expect from this pandemic a lot of people will be re-evaluating what their lives could be and some will be devastated by what changes it has already wrought.

I remember watching the Two Greedy Italians where pasta making and cooking classes were being set up in Italy for those who were interested now but had previously been working and looking looking after children and their ives to be too busy to cook and hadn't learned. Kind of shocked me a bit because Italy and France and Spain to some extent are held up as places where everyone seemed to have the abiity to cook by osmosis.

I dont know enough about the disparity between the rich and the poor over generations since the WW2 for example, but I do know what house prices are now, i do know what the pay rates are for the lowliest jobs and I wonder how people manage now. It was difficult enough for me when I was working to get on any kind of ladder. And seeing locally how many food banks there are, and how many meals are provided I can just see the situation getting worse. If I could wave a magic wand and enable everyone to have three squares a day and the power to choose whatever life they wanted [ with the proviso that it didn't harm anyone else] then i would.

Prepping though is not a one way only road. Prepping is different things to different people. For me, it's a couple or more months of food with gardening and preserving thrown in for good measure. I don't extreme prep or have a bolt hole anywhere in case society completely breaks down. Hopefully, the people who want help or knowledge will cherry pick what they can or want to. Who was it saying they were wittering on? Looks like it was my turn tonight

Nargleblast

I think it's good to have somewhere to express our thoughts, share experiences and unload concerns. I had a work meeting the other day and we were given the opportunity to say what was on our minds. Some broke down, they were so tired and fed up and anxious for the future. I said I was sad and frustrated about how the virus situation was dragging on with no apparent end in sight. I said I was angry at the media, the politicians and some stupid members of the public. Despite thIs I said I was fine in myself, I am strong and I am not going down without a fight. And that is my standpoint. It's the survival instinct, the prepper in me. 

Thriftygifty

Also who you know plays a reasonable size part. I can't debate this topic it makes me uncomfortable based on my upbringing and our current situation but we will all have different options on fortune and fate and what it means to us. 

Whilst home schooling DS I was thinking about seizing the opportunity with him being home to teach him some OS skills. I was looking at possibly knitting and sewing and going into the garden to explore fire (safely) and getting started on the veg patch for this year, any other suggestions he is 5 but a grown up 5.

MrsCD

Good idea, Thriftygifty. Forest school at DD's school teaches children from a very young age how to use proper (not baby size) tools correctly, well supervised. They have a whale of a time and get lots of fresh air.

Thriftygifty

MrsCD said:

Good idea, Thriftygifty. Forest school at DD's school teaches children from a very young age how to use proper (not baby size) tools correctly, well supervised. They have a whale of a time and get lots of fresh air.

I was looking previously at some actual tools but child size they look really good, I quite like the handrill, I completely forgot about them. That's an excellent idea thanks, we could have a go at a bird feeder or something small. 

CCW007

-taff said:

VJsmum said:

It wasn't an attack, boazu - merely commenting that others are not so fortunate.  

 But shes already explained, it wasn't fortune on their part, it was hard work and denial of luxuries. They chose to do what they did to provide themselves with the life they have now. Anyone can change their life if they want to, barring physical illnesses of course. But change is scary for some people so the status quo holds.

Sorry but I don't agree that "anyone" can change their lives nowadays. I'm 43 and I honestly believe I am one of the very last generation for whom social mobility was possible.

Millennials have very little chance of a career without a degree, which precludes most care leavers and those from lower income families due to the debts they will have to incur just to get a job.

calicocat

Nargleblast said:

I think it's good to have somewhere to express our thoughts, share experiences and unload concerns. I had a work meeting the other day and we were given the opportunity to say what was on our minds. Some broke down, they were so tired and fed up and anxious for the future. I said I was sad and frustrated about how the virus situation was dragging on with no apparent end in sight. I said I was angry at the media, the politicians and some stupid members of the public. Despite thIs I said I was fine in myself, I am strong and I am not going down without a fight. And that is my standpoint. It's the survival instinct, the prepper in me. 

I like this post , makes me feel better. 

I haven’t  posted for ages . Too wrapped up working for the nhs right now......and what a disaster that is by the way. Utter fiasco from someone on the front line,  and it is only now getting really up to your neck in it type of disaster ...🙄🙄. February is going to be a blast .

We are getting fed up with general public who don’t adhere to rules.  We get fed up with shops who dont enforce the rules, and the parties people have. And the Gov not being clear let alone focused and actually implementing things efficiently . 

What is wrong with England. ??? Even the kids meals are a disaster  for Christ’s sake. Utter shambles. Wales has managed to see this through from the start........Why can’t we? It really isn’t rocket science . What it is is bad negotiation and companies who are clearly ripping everyone off.. 

I’m on a rant again. It’s why I stopped posting so I will leave again......🙄.

On a lighter note ......I just didn’t really need to go to shops in the first wave, and won’t and will  be able to survive for probably more than I realised at first this one as deffo prepped for this in the summer.

Always a positive of this wonderful thread 😃. 

GreyQueen

Polly, Wild Thing and her litter mate, the Queen of Sheba, were rescues taken on via a cat sanctuary in August 2005. Based on physical appearance, the vet gave them the notational birthdate of 1st Sept 2004. We always have rescues, sometimes they've moved themselves in, sometimes we've gone and acquired them deliberately.

Their backstory is that they were taken as kittens into a household which later did a moonlight flit, abandoning our girls who were nursing six kittens between them. You can almost connect the dots; selfish and ignorant people taking on cute little kittens as playthings, not knowing or caring that they need to be spayed or they will come on heat and call tomcats in their first season. Then, when it suits the family to run away from their responsibilites, they also dump two immature queens nursing six kittens like a box of trash. Good people got them to the sanctuary and good people homed all the kittens, and the girls came to ours. The QofS sadly developed cancer in 2018 and had to be PTS. Her sister rules the entire family with a paw of velvet and has all the human serfs dancing attendance on her every whim.

I agree that there should be a special punishment for puppy and kitten mill breeders.

GreyQueen

Thrifty, I started gardening with my Dad and my Grandad, and still have fond memories of those days. Young children naturally like to help adults so could you garden with your son along side? When we're very small, a full size set of tools will be too big to handle, but trowels, handforks and an onion fork are all managable by a child of his age. You can also give him some kind of bucket or basket to keep them in and inculate good habits about cleaning and drying tools before putting them away.

A good method is to give over a section of garden, perhaps just one decent-sized bed, for their exclusive use. You can discuss, and counsel, but it is their space. And it needs to be a piece of good ground, well-lit, a youngster will get disheartened quickly if struggling with rubbish land in shade.

I always think sunflowers are such fun, and you could even grow runner beans up sunflowers. My Dad and Grandad also took me botanising, I was shown poisonous plants to avoid, such as deadly nightshade and also giant hogweed. The latter was out in the countryside, I hasten to add. I also loved by Observer Book of Wild Flowers, which I took with me on childhood walks and used to identify things; most of these things fall into the weed category in the veggie patch, but I know 'em of old. HTH.

euronorris

Nargleblast said:

I think it's good to have somewhere to express our thoughts, share experiences and unload concerns. I had a work meeting the other day and we were given the opportunity to say what was on our minds. Some broke down, they were so tired and fed up and anxious for the future. I said I was sad and frustrated about how the virus situation was dragging on with no apparent end in sight. I said I was angry at the media, the politicians and some stupid members of the public. Despite thIs I said I was fine in myself, I am strong and I am not going down without a fight. And that is my standpoint. It's the survival instinct, the prepper in me. 

I agree with this, though I have my wobbles. Some days are harder than others.

With regards to luck. Hard work and luck are involved in everything we do. Everything. I worked hard to get my qualifications and improve my earnings, but I was lucky to have an employer who paid for my exams and provided study leave, and on the job training and experience. This afforded us the option to have husband be a stay at home parent. This put us in a fortunate position when the pandemic and lockdowns hit. DH is able to do home schooling, whilst I work uninterrupted. That is a luxury right now. It isn't one we planned for, we couldn't have predicted the pandemic or it's effects. And whilst it's a challenging situation, I recognise that I am still in a far better situation than several of my colleagues, who have multiple children and both parents trying to work from home. It's not an easy situation, but I know its easier than it is for them right now.