Prepping: the new world...

CCW007

Caught up and subscribed

leftatthetrafficlights

I've been making lots of courgette and tomato based sauces ready for the winter months - they can be used for all sorts of things so are a really useful addition to my winter preps. Last week I sowed my winter lettuce seeds along with more rocket and I'll do that every couple of weeks to keep me going. I've also popped in a couple of rows of beetroot and carrots - dh has built me another frame that can be covered in polythene for the veg beds so that extends the growing season for us. Earlier in the year I bought growlights and alongside the heated propagator that gives us the ability to grow a few bits indoors too 😁 The storecupboard is still very healthy and the freezers are full so if all else fails, we'll still eat well!! I've got a good stash of household products and toiletries. We've also got a good stock of medicines just in case. 

I'll be filling the oil tank in the next few weeks- we've used a lot less since changing the boiler which is a massive bonus! I've got a good stock of wood and coal for the open fire in case we have issues with power cuts (and also to fuel the pizza oven/bbq if we needed to cook), along with plenty of candles, torches and batteries. 

I feel that we are pretty prepared for anything that may arise that means we have to stay indoors (I'm thinking being snowed in, a pandemic type situation, power cuts etc) - as long as the water stays on (or at least doesn't go off for days!) we should be fine! 

thriftwizard

@leftatthetrafficlights, you sound wonderfully prepared! I'm just about to order a load of logs and get our boiler serviced; I have leeks & kale a-plenty over at the allotment & a few in raised beds in the garden, plus various herbs & seeds for "windowsill" leaves & sprouts. I've put in a line of beetroot & some mooli but with more hope than confidence. The freezer's full, though I keep using bits to make room for fresher produce, and the dehydrator is working overtime. I've just started going out to the drove roads to gather blackberries, elderberries, crab apples & sloes etc. so there'll be jam, chutney & gin in the "larder"; some idiot knocked our home's actual larder down in 1985, so I have to use spare more-or-less-suitable corners here & there. 

Thinking I also need to sort out electronic copies of paperwork - insurance, passports, certificates, driving licenses, will etc.; my old ones will be very out-of-date now. I'm not anticipating any great disasters here where we'd need those - but I suspect there are a lot of people in the world right now (Lahaina, Rhodes, China) who also didn't, and wish they had...

Floss

I've got quite a lot of my "important documents" stored online & on a hard drive (which is regularly updated) as pdf copies / photos - house title deed, driving licence, passport, deed poll, decree absolut... but I do need to scan in my birth certificate & car registration document. Is there anything I've missed?

maryb

NHS number, NIC number, tax district and PAYE reference. Insurance policy number for house and car and number to phone.  Bank’s phone number for ordering new bank cards

basically everything you would need to recreate your place in the system if you had a house fire and lost everything and didn’t have your phone when you had to get out in a hurry.  If it’s stored in the cloud you can be up and running fairly quickly 

thriftwizard

maryb said:

.  If it’s stored in the cloud you can be up and running fairly quickly 

Provided the Cloud itself is up & running - I think I'd like to keep a USB stick copy too!

ArbitraryRandom

I keep a screenshot on my desktop of the number to call my ISP if there's a connection problem. Been useful more than once  

ArbitraryRandom

With the various warnings from on high making it feel more and more likely there's conflict coming to 'Near Europe' if not the UK, I was prompted to dig out this thread and ask how everyone's doing? I think I'm experiencing some crisis fatigue after the last few years - with brexit, covid, then Truss back to back, I'm finding it hard to objectively evaluate this next 'risk' and what/if I should sensibly do to make the next few years a little easier. 

But as far as preps are concerned, I could do with stocking up on pet food again (we're down to the tins and bags they don't really like that much), and I've got bits of things scattered in different places so I could do with a proper clear out to do a stock take/rationalisation. No idea at the moment if I've one bag of oats or six  

I'm having three raised beds built in the next month or two (hopefully in plenty of time for planting some veg), and I've just planted a load of fruit trees (which won't produce fruit for a couple of years). 

Auti

It is a bit scary - I worry for my children who could have to be part of the ‘home military’ one of the generals was advocating like Sweden/Finland. I think I am more twitchy about cyber attacks, pipe cutting of energy etc, blockades - things that could cause instant disruption - imagine if banking system was targeted for example. 

But I am hoping life will calm down and being just sensible, like growing some food/ less eating of processed food and more from scratch cooking/ preserving food other than relying on electricity. I think if people go mad and stockpile or obvious about what they have stored if things go pear shaped they open themselves up to burglary. Best i think if we all try to look out for each other

elsien

No one is really advocating a home militia or conscription. It was a random comment that’s grown legs and run away with itself. It is certainly neither on the government or the military agenda as things stand.