What Preps are you doing this week? Part 4

[whenfires]

Well, my plan was to install my shed guttering and water butts over the Easter break which was a great plan completely ruined by the water butts not being delivered until this morning! I also had, and still have, a tiring and annoying cold/virus.

Prepping plan was therefore adjusted to reading both of Cody Lundin's survival books "98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive" and "When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes". Great books both of them!

[Brambles]

Well, my plan was to install my shed guttering and water butts over the Easter break which was a great plan completely ruined by the water butts not being delivered until this morning! I also had, and still have, a tiring and annoying cold/virus.

Prepping plan was therefore adjusted to reading both of Cody Lundin's survival books "98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive" and "When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes". Great books both of them!

I've had that too. I couldn't believe how a pretty simple cold wiped me out so I feel for you.

[izzy_mack]

Feeling quite chuffed with myself, planted fruit bushes, blackcurrant,gooseberry and redcurrant and made 2, very small, raised beds from scrap wood, lined with newspaper, thanks for the tip! planted one with strawberries and will plant the other with courgettes shortly. This is the first "heavy gardening" I've attempted in a long time. I'm pretty sore and need to take it easy at least today but it was worth it and I don't feel so useless, R.A. is a pest. I would normally have managed that in a long morning or so, it took me 4 days!! Guess I'm lucky that I can do even that. Have looked out some wood to do another as soon as i feel fit enough.

[mightymayesy]

My Preps this week is a big step...
I'm a newbie so feel free to laugh your head off but got to start somewhere.
I buy little and often in the weekly shop.
My Prep was deciding what rice option to go for.
I decided 5Kg bags.... and have started my plain rice shelf! Yay for me!
A little research suggested any bigger and you have more risk of spoiling more food e.g. if a whole 20kg bag of rice was spoiled rather than if just 1 5kg bag if that makes sense.
A little more expensive in the longer term but I feel like living dangerously when it comes to rice.
MM

[Britcit]

My Preps this week is a big step...
I'm a newbie so feel free to laugh your head off but got to start somewhere.
I buy little and often in the weekly shop.
My Prep was deciding what rice option to go for.
I decided 5Kg bags.... and have started my plain rice shelf! Yay for me!
A little research suggested any bigger and you have more risk of spoiling more food e.g. if a whole 20kg bag of rice was spoiled rather than if just 1 5kg bag if that makes sense.
A little more expensive in the longer term but I feel like living dangerously when it comes to rice.
MM

You won't hear me laugh (or anyone here I'd say), I don't have much more rice than that. I am 'pasta heavy' though.
Just wanted to say, you may need to open those baked beans to see if you won £250,000

[Deeps]

No laughing here either, that logic makes sense and basically whatever works for you. While there are 'fashions' in prepping, same as in anything, there are some fundamentals, shelter, water, food. Your situation might be different to mine but as long as you cover them to your own satisfaction then its all good. Its always nice to see what others are doing though, a bit of inspiration an' all that, that's the beauty of the forum. One thing I try and adhere to is the 'store what you eat, eat what you store' mantra, I've had to cheat a bit and even change my diet to eat more tinned stuff to justify it (which is daft in a lot of ways but I don't need much encouragement to eat more stodgy 'crap'). As I say though, no right or wrong way, just what works for you mate.

[mightymayesy]

I hadn't noticed lol.... the suspense is killing me already.
Think of all the preps I could do with £250,000. I could move to Texas or something lol!

Just wanted to say, you may need to open those baked beans to see if you won £250,000

[Le Mouse]

Well my prep plans of finishing up on sorting stuff out and getting storage sorted came to a shuddering halt on Monday when I dislocated my kneecap! I've never felt such pain and when the paramedics reset my leg, even the morphine and gas and air didn't stop me bellowing like a stuck pig. They commented that the neighbours would think they were killing me!

What's this got to do with prepping apart from putting a halt in my original plans? Well being up on blocks has forced me to think a bit about how I do things. I live with family, but in a granny annex, and for the most part keep myself to myself. But, if it hadn't been for family being seconds away, I would have been utterly bu**ered, because in my panic and pain-addled state I actually forgot my phone was in my pocket and just yelled at the top of my voice until someone came! I'm an anti-social bu**er by nature, but this episode has made me realise that whatever my future plans are (probably moving closer to my mum who is in sheltered accommodation), I will need to be more social with my neighbours because I won't have family close by who could help if I hurt myself. In the meantime, I will appreciate the family I live with even when they drive me round the bend (I'm sure I do the same to them in return!) and it's made me wonder why some preppers go all 'lone wolf' when really that's likely to be a one way ticket to trouble.

Plus I've been thinking heavily about the future of the NHS. I was treated in record time on Monday night and with care and courtesy and apart from expecting a bill for prescribed painkillers (I'm sure that's new!), I was treated for free. I rely on the NHS fairly regularly because I'm asthmatic and I go in for reviews and suchlike. We may complain about prescription charges, but without the NHS, we'd be paying a whole lot more for the medicines that in some cases keep us alive. It's a worst case scenario, but I've found myself trying to plan for a time when we no longer have an NHS to rely on.

Blimey, being immobile makes a person ruddy miserable!

[gamekeeper752]

My Preps this week is a big step...
I'm a newbie so feel free to laugh your head off but got to start somewhere.
I buy little and often in the weekly shop.
My Prep was deciding what rice option to go for.
I decided 5Kg bags.... and have started my plain rice shelf! Yay for me!
A little research suggested any bigger and you have more risk of spoiling more food e.g. if a whole 20kg bag of rice was spoiled rather than if just 1 5kg bag if that makes sense.
A little more expensive in the longer term but I feel like living dangerously when it comes to rice.
MM

Its a good feeling to start doing something that may help you and your family and as we all know the first steps are the hardest
Could i suggest breaking the rice into 1 kg bags or smaller if it is just you re-seal into airtight bags and put them into glass storage jars to stop mice or insects getting at it

[Arzosah]

Mayesy: I'm not laughing either, at 5kg of rice! Admiring your sturdy shelves, more like.

Mouse: you poor thing! Those are two issues I think about a lot, to be honest. The disappearance or at least culling, of the NHS (18 weeks wait for a cancer operation, almost two years ago https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... -treatment) and my own situation, as a single person who likes their own company. My plans:
- I have commitments for preps, gardening and cat sitting until June, but then I'm going to look at not only catching up with friends, but also making new ones, locally.
- spurred on by what Medic Mark has been posting on here recently, I'm organising my medical and first aid information and supplies, trying to see what holes there are. And definitely looking at what I can use herbally, anything that I grow myself.

It's something to think about, a sudden accident like that, leaving you comparatively immobile.