The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

tboo

Si_Clist said:

OK, I have to ask.  What is it with MSE forums that people often resort to alternative ways of naming firms on them?  Is there something in the user agreement that I've missed that says "Thou shalt not use the word "Tesco" nor "Amazon" nor any other of the like upon this site for if thou doest, thou art Naughty and will be kicked off"?

It's something that's always puzzled me ...  

I believe that hiding the names is a way to stop the firms searching, i.e if there is a glitch

Not that it works as they will know all the variants of their names

LadOnTheHill

DH and I have been hard at work today. We got a good deal on some meat from the local butcher, so we've been canning today, and we've had the pressure cooker on to make stock from the bones. One unit was on the hob, the other on the portable hob and we were both watching closely to ensure that the correct pressure was maintained on both devices. Lots of intent staring and quiet. It was at this point that The Cat From Up The Road decided to yowl loudly from the open doorway. 😲 We both leapt a foot into the air. 🤣 He comes round occasionally, when his owner is at work, but neither one of us had seen him.

We now have fifteen pints of canned meat and another five of stock that are shelf stable and will last for ages. I've also finally got round to filling the water containers that have been sat in the way for a few weeks.

I've ordered myself a headlamp torch that supposedly outputs 18000 lumens from the big river website today, too. The solar lights in the garden haven't lit up like they usually do - they've got pir's, so I didn't realise until I was traipsing around in he drk with the stuff for the compost bin. A useful reminder that even preps don't always work when you want them to.

cbsexec

Si_Clist said:

OK, I have to ask.  What is it with MSE forums that people often resort to alternative ways of naming firms on them?  Is there something in the user agreement that I've missed that says "Thou shalt not use the word "Tesco" nor "Amazon" nor any other of the like upon this site for if thou doest, thou art Naughty and will be kicked off"?

It's something that's always puzzled me ...  

I always wondered too. 

Si_Clist

tboo said:

I believe that hiding the names is a way to stop the firms searching ...

I wonder what harm is done if they really did do that and discovered that I wrote "I shop at Tesco.  I really can't be doing with Waitrose" or "I buy my socks from Marks and Sparks" ...

maryb

No harm but I understand the reluctance to give them free market research.  On the other hand if they do listen to MSEers rather than focus groups that wouldn't be a bad thing

thriftwizard

A day for being glad of my preps...

Yesterday afternoon OH asked me, vaguely puzzled, "What's all that water down by the loo?" Oooer... on inspection, there was a small but persistent drip coming from the incoming mains valve. And it was getting faster... luckily our insurance covers us for an emergency plumber to attend, which duly happened at about 8pm, but basically the pipe into the rest of the house, including the boiler, has corroded & was just about to "go" bigtime; it's an old house & the copper pipe was resting on concrete, which apparently eats away copper when it's damp. The concrete rests on the ground under the house, which is just about floating on the water table, and the nearby river is only just creeping back into its bed after flooding onto the watermeadows last week; i.e. the water table's very high just now. So he fixed us up an emergency tap in there & we now have just one cold-water tap so we can fill buckets & jugs to flush the loos, clean teeth and fill the kettle. For an unspecified length of time, though he may be able to sort something out for us later. Or not...

Luckily we still have the little Burc0-type urn that was purchased the second time we had to go through Christmas with 8 inhabitants and no boiler, which means we can do a small amount of washing up & handwash anything urgent without filling the kettle umpteen times. I'm letting it heat up, then switching it off & swathing it in towels to keep the heat in. We also have lots of buckets and jugs. Obviously the boiler's off, so there's no central heating, but it's still quite mild down here and we have plenty of woolly jumpers and the stove if needed. We had a take-away last night to keep washing-up to a minimum - there goes the grocery budget again! - and we're lucky to be able to do so, and pay for the necessary repairs, without tipping into debt. In other words, we're coping just fine, despite the 20-something moaning, and will continue to do so for as long as it takes. Could be a lot worse. But it does go to show that you never know what's just around the corner...

Toonie

Oh dear Thriftwizard, hope it gets sorted for you soon (and the weather doesn't cool too drastically...I'm wandering around the house in joggers and t-shirt today as it's so mild).

Preps here have involved stocking up on bulgur wheat and pearl barley as I hadn't realised I was low until I was hunting through the cupboard for something else.. I've also been baking bits and pieces if I've got the oven on for cooking in the evening. Yesterday I made a tea loaf, the recipe for which was written in my great Aunt's handwriting. It read "Soak 7oz dried fruit (any) in half a pint of hot strong black tea for at least 2 hours. Add to 9oz flour and baking powder. Splash of milk/water if mix too dry. Grease a loaf tin and bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes." A note at the bottom read "Good with Jean's marmalade." Jean was my Grandma.

thriftwizard

Thanks, @Toonie, luckily he has come back & sorted us out. (For now!) So normality, such as it is round here, has been restored & we've got off quite lightly, though I'm refusing to think about the bill. I was just imagining how it would have been, if it had happened when the kids were still small, or school age - muddy sports kit, sugary/chocolatey stickiness (though they got sweets just once a week) someone with a tummy bug, nit invasions... doesn't bear thinking about! Everyone, make sure you have plenty of buckets and some means of heating (lots of) water that isn't mains-dependent, thinking of my friends with boiling-water taps who have ditched their kettles & don't have space for stock-pots...

LadOnTheHill

@thriftwizard that sounds like a worrisome time. Glad it's sorted for you now,  though.

Our household income is fluctuating a bit more than usual at the moment. We're both glad we've gotten ready for it and are hopefully mostly covered if anything should go wrong.

Has anyone else ever done any kind of audit on their prepping situation? DH and I have been talking about it, with the intention of both of us knowing exactly what we have,  what it's for, where it is, etc. But we don't know where to start. We've had talks about it, but there's no list or directions or anything like that. Any ideas as to how to go about this?

Serendipitious

LadOnTheHill said:

@thriftwizard that sounds like a worrisome time. Glad it's sorted for you now,  though.

Our household income is fluctuating a bit more than usual at the moment. We're both glad we've gotten ready for it and are hopefully mostly covered if anything should go wrong.

Has anyone else ever done any kind of audit on their prepping situation? DH and I have been talking about it, with the intention of both of us knowing exactly what we have,  what it's for, where it is, etc. But we don't know where to start. We've had talks about it, but there's no list or directions or anything like that. Any ideas as to how to go about this?

It would be brilliant if we could collate ideas into a cohesive package. I'd suggest a looseleaf file with two main sections of preps to begin with : 1. Staying Put  2. Having to leave - eg flood/fire/emergencies and then subdividing each into various categories.

Sometimes an event will require using both sections - eg a hospital bag would go in section 2 but preps for convalescence at home will go in section 1.

I had a friend in her 90s, living alone, who always had a hospital bag packed just in case. Very sensible I thought, as even immediate family might struggle finding the right kit to send in. Nothing worse than having to spend a few days wearing items you actually dislike but packed in all good faith by a helper.