The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

littlemoney

RAS said:

littlemoney said:

I make my porridge overnight, but no heat used. I mixed the liquid and oates the night before and leave to soak as it reduces cooking time and electricity usage.

That's how I make it too. Brilliant when camping as it uses so little fuel. And soaking the oats ensures nice creamy porridge.

Or you could try "Morning Oats", which seem to be rebranded Bircher muesli with bells and whistles on.

Not only do I soak overnight, as I microwave them I use a casserole dish to cook the porridge and then eat out of the same dish. Saves on the washing up. I will have a look at morning oats bit I do add raspberries, blackberry, apples and black currents to my porridge. All from my garden.

MingVase

Porridge oats are great prepper food because they can be used in so many other ways, I make crackng flapjacks!

Toonie

I completed a paediatric first aid course over the weekend (for work) and the instructor told us a few really good prep things and lot of the people in the room had never considered them (we were all childcare professionals, a few nannies, childminders, and a few who worked at nurseries).

• He said everyone should try to find out where their nearest defibrillator is as it could quite easily save someone's life during a cardiac incident.
  
• He also said that he wishes people would treat sunburn as an actual burn and not as something people just get on holidays and it can be ignored, it causes severe long term damage.
• He said that any families with children should always have a bottle of liquid antihistamine because allergies can strike at any age and the first thing you will be advised on the phone about suspected anaphylaxis or allergy incident is to take a dose of antihistamine. 
• And for anyone with small babies to please never leave them near nappy sacks as he was called to an incident involving a three month old who had grabbed a nappy sack and then inhaled it as they brought their arm nearer their face as they are such lightweight plastics.

Serendipitious

Thanks, mothernerd, much to think about there. When I moved last year, I ditched my old stepladder, it was over 30 yrs old, truly featherlight, I could carry it with one hand, and I really missed it for a while and cursed at the wasteful way I had let it go, but I had to keep reminding myself that it had been becoming more and more unsafe for me to use, it was very wobbly and I didn't feel comfortable going too high on it. Anyway I bought a new one, just 3 steps high with an extended hand rail at the top, and that's plenty high enough for me. I got my massive kitchen clock down to change the hour and was so pleased that I'd done it myself, but within 10 minutes of putting it back up, it had fallen off and broken (thankfully I had left the room!) I shall delegate that sort of job in the future.  Or  better still, I might stop putting things on the wall altogether. That might be a very sensible prep for my older years, I'm only late 60s now but time flies and various health conditions are emerging.

mothernerd

We had the firemen round a couple of months ago to change the smoke alarm. I had to do an online question and answer session beforehand. Most of it was familiar (don't use appliances like kettles under the top cupboards as it doesn't need an actual flame to start a fire). 

However one thing he said was new (he said that they'd had a lot of it recently). If you use an emollient cream such as E45, be aware that it doesn't necessarily all soak in, some might soak into your clothes eg near the cuffs if putting it on your hands. It is flammable and if you went near a gas hob or other source, it could set on fire.

Thriftygifty

Haven't had chance to read back yet - quick question. Prepping for fire etc, I have inherited the family photos and ancestor stuff. What is the best way to keep these protected, currently they are all on top of each other in a plastic box. I'm thinking they need scanning and saving on a hardrive somewhere however what about the physical copies? Also I have a few sentimental things from relative cardboard horseshoes from my nans wedding which I used and my veil etc. 

boultdj

@Thriftygifty, a metal box called a firesafe is best for the physical copies, I've got 1 that's about the size of a A4 paper high and wide and about 3/4's of that deep.
But they do come in different size's, just put it in a search engine to find links.

DigForVictory

Thriftygifty said:

 What is the best way to keep these protected?

There's nothing like having a professional declutterer in the family to get a quick answer but her solution included a safety checked & certified professional with a camera & a non disclosure agreement. I lugged one volume to a sensibly high table, laid it on a pillow & began going at it with a cameraphone. Took me two hours to take a decent snap of every snap & to do a bit of image enhancing (not as much as could have been done but I kept the original snap & the processed one) & we are now 16 volumes in & my family are not pulling their weight putting names and events onto the excel spreadsheet per volume. So I've stopped (they think - I have all 20 to date fully if crudely digitised) and have suggested their Christmas present to me is to take an album each & put definite names to faces. The images are on at least 4 computers & I refuse to select any - a sibling says they 'just' want photos of X, they can have the full archive & hunt, just like the rest of us!.

As for our family veil, it circulates around grandmothers & mothers depending on who has a wedding in the offing or hopes of same, and it has already had one service by the V&A restorers. Does the "something old", & the "something borrowed" just gloriously & so far every bride who's chosen to wear it has stayed married. (Not that at least one of us hasn't had thoughts about putting the heft of a wedding-gift-cast-iron something to an unexpected use, but so far, still married.) I'd hang onto the cardboard horseshoes but (with cotton) tie a label to it explaining who presented it to whom at which wedding (Full Date) & who carried it etc since so the younger generation grasp Why... Add a photo & then even if it goes to a charity shop, it goes with a pedigree other wedding accessories will be pushed to match.

Si_Clist

DigForVictory said:

 I'd hang onto the cardboard horseshoes but (with cotton) tie a label to it explaining who presented it to whom at which wedding (Full Date) & who carried it etc since so the younger generation grasp Why... Add a photo & then even if it goes to a charity shop, it goes with a pedigree other wedding accessories will be pushed to match.

The Lady Wife and I photographed 412 weddings professionally over a ten-year period, and that left us pondering several mysteries.  One was why whenever we came to do The Everybody Shot (i.e. the big one of the bridal party, extended families and the A List guests) and we looked through a viewfinder, there in the front row, towards the centre, would often be a large fat woman in a very loud frock, who, if she was in fact at the wedding prior to that moment, had been invisible until then.

Similarly, at those weddings where the bride ended up schlepping a horseshoe around until she could quietly offload it, we only once managed to get a photograph of it being presented.  On every other occasion, the thing was just suddenly there, having seemingly appeared of its own accord.

We never understood how that worked.

[Deleted User]

Quick question guys: does a fan on top of a wood burning stove really help to move the warm air around the room? Trying to decide whether to buy... x