The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

prepareathome

cbsexec said:

No electric or water here this morning.  Very pleased to have camping stove and bottled water for cup of tea 😀

Poor you - we were lucky just lights flickering a lot but never fully going off.  Hope all is back to normal now utilities wise.

cbsexec

All fine now 🤞🏻  Lights did go off again about an hour ago but everything was off for 5 mins max this time.  Hoping that’s it 

MingVase

We had the ultimate in disasters here. The roof blew off the village pub and it's closed for emergency repairs!

pelirocco

RAS said:

MrsCD said:

Goodness! The can opener in wondercollie's link works out at £6 but Asda sell a very similar one for 50p in the UK!!! I think Wal-Mart are Asda here. Correct me if I've got mixed up.

More likely 55p (Wilko). I buy a few for the food bank when I see them, as some folk otherwise rely on ring pull tins which cost more.

I also have a couple of mini military can openers, one in the bug out bag and one in the bum pack I use when travelling. Not tried to get it past security on the Chunnel but it been on ferries.

MRE reminds me...........

Anyone remember Beanfeast? I saw some on sale recently. Remember taking a couple away when camping. One was edible, just if rather dry. The other ended in the bin. 

I have this rule for stuff for the food bank, I only add it if I've tried it. Cheepo meatballs in tomato sauce? Rubber in thin tasteless red soup. Might be OK used to cook noodles with added chilli sauce but not really heat and eat.

I volunteered a few weeks ago in a food bank ,they sort ' meat ' products into 2 categories those under 30 % meat content they call fillers ,surprising amount are under 30 % 
Our food bank is over welmed with Pasta I assume others will be the same .Their need was for tinned meat ,potato products  and the smaller  bottles of squash ( and few others I can't remember )
An awful lot of out of date food is donated and their policy is not to donate it

pelirocco

wondercollie said:

ClootiesMum said:

I need to catch up - really catch up but can I ask a quick question?
I used to love GreyQueen's posts but don't see any recent ones - has she changed her name?
Thanks

GQ still reads but doesn't post.

I'm kind of getting that way, especially after some of the drama on here, earlier in the year.

Now, things are getting interesting here.  The floods and resulting washout of part of our national highway system in BC is starting to be felt in my province.   Nearly all of our produce is/was shipped through Vancouver.  Many of the large industrial bakers are out there as well.   Luckily, we don't really go through much bread and I still have yeast and a bread machine.  It's the fresh stuff that is more worrying.

Before anyone starts the Climate Change argument, one of the worst hit areas is built on a flood plain and it's the third time in my memory that it has flooded badly.   You can't just drain a lake and swamp, convert it to farm land and build a city there.   The pumping station failed.  Our government is busy taxing us with carbon taxes but hasn't invested any of the money in infrastructure in those areas.   You can't build highway bridges over culverts with a history of flooding about every 40 years and not expect problems.

Here in the UK they have also built on areas that are subject to flooding, with predictable out come  

Si_Clist

pelirocco said:

... An awful lot of out of date food is donated and their policy is not to donate it

Is that because of some legal/insurance requirement, or simply because they think people wouldn't be grateful for it?  If I were once again unable to afford to buy something (anything) to eat, as I was at one time 50 years ago, I'd sure as hell eat whatever I could get my hands on irrespective of its BBE.   Admittedly whether or not I scoffed food past its "use by" date would depend on by how much it was past and what I considered that risk to be, but I wouldn't care a hoot about BBE.

Toonie

I know my local food bank has said previously that their insurance doesn't cover them if they give away food after it's BBE date. What they do though is have a separate table outside where people can pick up "extras" with the knowledge they are all past their date.

RAS

Toonie said:

I know my local food bank has said previously that their insurance doesn't cover them if they give away food after it's BBE date. What they do though is have a separate table outside where people can pick up "extras" with the knowledge they are all past their date.

That was the policy of the foodbank to which I used to donate when I worked. Often included bread as well. Not sure what the local one does. 

The Junk Food Project lead was done by Environmental Health for having out of date food in their fridges, even though it was pay as you feel. Think they later separated it out. They operate differently, intercepting stuff from warehouses that would just be binned and "selling" a crate full for a tenner, really to cover costs. 

I do know that the local foodbank ask for tinned meat, fish, vegetables, shelf stable rice and juice and increasingly personal care products. People are in more difficult circumstances for longer and stuff like washing powder/liquid, razors, deodorants, toothbrushes can cost a lot. I also try to add some "treats", even if it's only peanuts, nachos, chocolate and biscuits as well.

DigForVictory

MingVase said:

We had the ultimate in disasters here. The roof blew off the village pub and it's closed for emergency repairs!

Not good at all. Still, demonstrably high air circulation rates?

MingVase

Snow and minus 4 DfV and a local roofer did an emergency repair and the pub is open advertising log fires and hot soup!

The next village along still has some places without power and they've opened the village hall for rolls, soup, tea and free wi-fi!