The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Si_Clist

Toonie said:

... some fairly hardline "end of the world" preppers/survivalists who actually give the idea of prepping a bad reputation. A lot of them do tend to be from the US, and most seem to be preparing for extreme action. 

What worries me about them is the manic gleam in their eyes and the strange beards.  Particularly the men.

And just in case anybody's not up to speed on MREs, as any squaddie knows it stands for "Meal Rejected by the Enemy".

DigForVictory

Himself is into bushcraft etc so we have recently been relocating things like noodles, lightweight cookset, those individual serving plastic tubs of jam & honey, sachets of vinegar, sauces etc into a camping food container. This has been met with limited success as the lads can find it & convert it into healthy son at speed, whereas my canned goods are less easily absconded with. Plus the dear blokes refuse to do the arithmetic - one easily carried portion of jam ~24 pence. One jar of home made jam, (swine to carry & I want the glass back), 10 thickly generous portions, about a pound. I shall indulge him a little further but warn off the lads... 

Ah yes MREs, the so called Meals Ready to Eat or as I saw scrawled on a box "three lies for the price of one..." It was thanks to an article on ration packs around the world that I was introduced to what squaddies carry to make them edible, like Tabasco, curry powder, etc. Then, of course, trade with others & 'live off the land'. In the Falklands I read, a platoon cherished someone who couldn't swim as the whole lot would take a boat [& fishing lines] out, conduct a brief 'lesson', then return with fresh fish for the evening meal & exchange any extra catch for other comestibles.

I've seen clips on YouTube & some of those preppers I wouldn't trust with children. (OK mine can all strip & clean a deactivated SMG but that's a family quirk.) The kids who are cleaning an AK without any evidence of a real bed, access to a dentist, something to cuddle that you didn't skin first - I worry for them. Not least as you very rarely see their mothers. (She may be camera shy, or Grendel gnawing on a previous camera operator, but the gender imbalance has me puzzling a bit.)

newlywed

I keep about a couple of weeks worth of food in stock. Basically enough so that if I was unwell, we could survive without going out much, or if a shopping delivery didn’t happen (2 a month) then we won’t starve. 

I don’t need to doomsday prep and keep 3 years worth of food - living in a flat that isn’t realistic anyway! 

Toonie

Si_Clist said:

And just in case anybody's not up to speed on MREs, as any squaddie knows it stands for "Meal Rejected by the Enemy".

In his younger days DP went on lots of hiking trips as part of away weekends with St John Ambulance. They would often gather random MREs and ration packs to take to see what the younger kids made of them. Apparently the German ration packs were often quite good, the British ones were all sugar, and the only thing worthwhile from the US ones were the tiny bottles of tabasco sauce which came with everything.

We've probably got about a months worth of food if we couldn't get to the shops for some reason. Possibly longer for DP as he can eat a wider variety of things.

chirpycheap

Thanks for some really thoughtful comments and discussion. I think I need to let go of the idea that there is a correct way to do this but to do it to suit myself and my family. Probably caring less about what other people think would be helpful.

I think that this pandemic has made me particularly anxious and worried about the future. I just need to relax a little and enjoy today and try not to worry too much about what lies ahead!

LadOnTheHill

Yeah. There will always be folk in this life who sneer or tell you you're doing it wrong or give unasked for advice under the guise of helping. None of those people will have to live with the consequences of you doing what you do. You are the best person to decide for you what is best. If you want more,  fair enough. If you want less, fair enough. However much you have, it's going to be wrong for someone else,  but so what? They're in different circumstances, so it's bound to be different for them. We're all just looking from our own viewpoints and seeing what we can se and responding to that, but someone up a metaphorical tower has a better view of the land than someone down on the ground.

We have preps in our house that most folk would think of as silly. They came in handy before, though, and probably will again, because they're tied to our specific wants/needs. Other folk can go jiggle. We do what is best for us, as best as we can. If we didn't, we'd be stuck, and where would those who sneer be then? Not helping us, that's evident.

It does pay to take a long hard look at what you're doing, and ask yourself why you're doing it that way. Is that the best way? Does it work, in the end, to do that? Can you do it better a different way? Just remember that if you ask other people, they're on the ground, not in the tower. They might have a good idea, they might not. Don't ask a brain surgeon how to change a radiator. Ask a plumber.

daz378

I was grateful  of my preps  when I got covid beginning of September....asked a mate to get me milk and a loaf...but  enjoyed  my tins of curry ..the odd fray bentos..also full freezers...so a lot of choice...plus knowing  I would enjoy my tinned preps

daz378

Booked my booster for friday... hopefully no side effect

Karmacat

LadOnTheHill said:

It does pay to take a long hard look at what you're doing, and ask yourself why you're doing it that way. Is that the best way? Does it work, in the end, to do that? Can you do it better a different way? Just remember that if you ask other people, they're on the ground, not in the tower. They might have a good idea, they might not. Don't ask a brain surgeon how to change a radiator. Ask a plumber.

I love this!  Really, really.  Brain surgeon/radiator/plumber also good, but the ground/tower is just **ace**

DigForVictory

I too am smitten with the phrasing!

LadOnTheHill said:

Other folk can go jiggle.

A concept I will be passing onto my Scouts, as it conveys exactly whatever the imagination suggests whilst remaining 98% innocuous on paper.

Some households are wholly used to getting a lot of their meat from their hobbies, shooting fishing etc. Others depend on supermarket deliveries - and will therefore have slightly different lists of Must have things. This is just as well or the fittest would be snaffling every Must and the rest of us would be struggling.

There is no one right way to prep, although there are several bad ways, which it can be helpful to share in case anyone can learn from someone else's experience.. (Like do not buy canned Staggs Dynamite chilli if you don't like strongly flavoured tinned meat. We bought one tin for a son, who took one bite & promptly started to offer to share it. This was so shocking a few other nibbles were tried & I have never been asked to buy it again. I had thought the hungry young male would eat Anything. Shockingly not so.)