Prepping: the new world...

Cosmos1234

Thank you @prepareathome that's really interesting, and makes me feel more confident about my purchase!

DigForVictory

I think Middleson has absconded with the house Kelly Kettle (he does go camping more than the rest of us) but we do also have (somewhere, oh gods) a New Zealand military surplus thing which is slightly less portable but will heat enough water to do hot Vimto for a troop of Scouts & several curious visitors. Exactly the same idea, just rather more rectangular as somehow the military presumes if its cylindrical, it's a weapon… No neat base to stand it on, so I expect there will be a stone slab nearby.
Possibly one with a nine mens morris board angle ground into one side - research historians regard power cuts as opportunities to 'test things' - we have little pottery oil lamps as copied from Roman archaeology, rush lights & nips, candles, oil lanterns with a chimney & inch wide woven wick, pressurised lanterns (Tilley, Vapalux etc) and a few things using LEDs as they are handy camping.
And candlesticks (quite a few of those, various materials, but a few you would recognise from Cluedo as the dear-gods-now-what wife's choice of weapon.) Himself even got a simple candelabra at a car boot & promptly sorted a rope & cleat for it, then went on to make Still More candles…

Cherryfudge

For those of us whose emergency food cupboard(s) centre round tuna pasta, beans on toast and corned beef hash, I found this article of other things to make with long-life foods. I think some of them are worth a try regardless of circumstances (though personally I may be leaving the chilli out):

Eight middle-class stockpile meals to make with your tinned food – by a food editor

Incidentally, what meals would you be making if you just had what's in your cupboards right now?

annieb64

I hate mackerel so that won't be in my storecupboard.There are a few tins of various M&S meats, lots of beans, tinned tomatoes and those bottles of cherry tomato sauce that Lidl have during Italian week.Tinned soup is always useful, crispbread- it keeps until 2028 plus various tinned veg and fruit.

Those Bonne Maman biscuits and cakes keep for ages too and we have chocolate and gin!

Cherryfudge

I think I'll be calling round at yours @annieb64! I've seen a couple of places advising on the need for little luxuries.

With that in mind, a few bottles of non-water drinks are probably a good idea, not just for fun but as added calories or to entice the appetites of people who are under the weather.

Here's another article (they are sprouting like mushrooms at the moment): my takeaway from this is to have things in single portion size (or what your household will eat at one sitting), so that opened foods don't go off. Power cut meal plan: How to make 3 days of no-cook meals using cupboard staples

DigForVictory

Was all pleased with my Aldi load & now realise No Custard. Or squirty cream. Or emergency oatcakes. Ah well, shopping list updated… Youngest may come over a bit wild-eyed at mashed tinned mackerel but I can leave him to figure out how to stretch a tin of spam over several meals (as my instincts are a sharp knife & clingfilm). The trifle will have Middleson driving over to join us - he adores squirty cream!

Sea_Shell

Hi everyone.

I haven't read all 76 pages, so forgive me, but...

What are the chances of losing all utilities, at once? Over a large geographic area (so can't just drive to relatives)

Our house still has a water header tank, and we have gas hob/fire, so can cope with loss of electricity, but we'd be stuck if we lost those too.

I lean towards prepping, but my DH isn't so much and thinks it's just scaremongering.

Cherryfudge

I'm not expert @Sea_Shell, and I don't know what the chances are of losing everything at the same time, but over the last few years we've had episodes of bad weather or illness when it's been an advantage to have things available in the house and not have to go out. We live in town, in easy walking distance of several supermarkets, and that's still applied.

There was the pandemic, of course: a much longer duration and a different balance of needs. People were panic buying without thinking through how much pasta or loo roll they were actually able to use. I'm afraid a lot of that will have gone to waste.

Further back, there was a petrol strike. I went from thinking 'We'll be okay, I can bake my own bread if there's none in the shops' to 'Everybody else thought the same and now it's hard to get hold of flour'.

Then there are power outages - we've had very localised ones, and they were inconvenient enough.

I checked the Internet and our house is low risk from floods but I am concerned about fires as the drought makes trees so much more flammable - those same trees that help cool the ground, stabilise the soil, give out oxygen, are a habitat for wildlife and are so lovely to look at, so I wouldn't be without them. We are in the same county as the huge Fylingdales wildfire of last year, so it came a bit close to home, but much worse for those elsewhere who lost their homes. I don't know if any of them had a grab bag to take with them.

We can't know for certain how likely any given emergency is to happen, but to me it makes sense to have at least some preparation. It's not all in terms of more bottled water and baked beans - some of it is about insulating your home, having enough of any medication to last a few days, having access to information if the Internet isn't working, etc.

Sea_Shell

If you want to imagine how quickly things could fall apart, this is a cracking read (1 of 4)... don't read if you're suffering "threat anxiety" 😉

Ok, so it's based in the USA, but it does make you think, What would my community do?

Any preppers here read it?

suzeesu2000

Like you @Sea_Shell, we have a gas cooker plus electric halogen cooker, electric air fryer. If All the power went out, I purchased a small charcoal burning BBQ, we also have a wonderful Kelly kettle for hot water. The BBQ is enough to cook a pan of hot food on top while you have foil wrapped jacket potatoes cooking in the charcoal. We could, at the very least, get a few hot drinks and hot meals.

when all the kitchen is finished and my house looks less like the municipal tip, one of my listed jobs is to clear a huge space out under my ottoman bed so I can store another couple of bags of charcoal under it.