What Preps are you doing this week? Part 11

[SentinelDK]

This week:

Joined this forum and posted my initial introduction with some of my experience and the reason for rejoining the prepper community and to engage with like minded people.

-Calculated pricing, caloric values and best practice purchases here in the UK for 1 week/month/3month supply ratios and have begin making purchases.

-Have also purchased goods to make a Faraday cage for an emergency radio and some electronics (will be doing that this weekend)

-Purchased maps and have scouted out bug out locations (although as per my new member post, I reckon the UK is more of a bug in kind of place) but it's good to have an idea on routes, places and strategy.

-Have listed and calculated meterage for plastic, tape, wood, nails/screws to board up the house in the event of a fallout incident. And to shore up the house for the first week's of a civil unrest situation.

--have started sourcing suppliers for various dried veg, pet food and other non retail available items at sub 8-10% moisture for long term storage.

Next on list:

-Join or start a community to begin regular meets, drills and info sharing for disaster scenarios
-Build up water collection options for long term grid down scenarios
-Plane a "waste" management routine for grid down scenarios
-Work on strategy to engage with neighbours on preparedness conversations around security, options etc (this is one of my bigger challenges because you never share info on our preps with people nearby and I am newer to the UK and need to think about how people would respond to diplomatic conversations of this sort. For example, my immediate neighbours consist of six houses with elderly people, one house with a single mother and three kids, and another with a young couple, young kids and a very noisy dog)

This last option will take some thought and I'll engage with you all here a bit more to see how you have done things like this so we can bounce ideas!

Community is key and I want to form a strong community around where my family and I stay, especially for long term stability in the event of disaster and civil strife.

[GeeGee]

Agreed on community
Where i live its a decent area but the people on the street especially my neighbours are just downright awful
Everyone hates each other all came about during covid where she reported him he reported her etc there was a mini riot people literally will not take in parcels wont engage in any conversation they hate each other and I cant stand any of them now ..this isn't the way I work ...
If we all won the postcode lottery you wouldn't get a photo of our street or if you did it would be one of a mass fight:)
The preps this week are to get house valued and hopefully if price is right or even if it isn't its going on market downsize and although I love my wood and coal burner I'm knackered chopping wood and lugging coal ..ill miss it but need life to be easier
Already been out today and reserved a car ..everything I've been putting off because its just hard work but hey ho ..need to grit teeth get on with it ... got one of those cars I dont have to pay a fine to go through towns in my poor trusted kia has got 181,000 miles on it and is literally knackered
Got a whole 500 quid for it only as the salesman was sick of me...
Big preps now ..deep breath and get on with it ....

[Yorkshire Andy]

Agreed on community
Where i live its a decent area but the people on the street especially my neighbours are just downright awful
Everyone hates each other all came about during covid where she reported him he reported her etc there was a mini riot people literally will not take in parcels wont engage in any conversation they hate each other and I cant stand any of them now ..this isn't the way I work ...
If we all won the postcode lottery you wouldn't get a photo of our street or if you did it would be one of a mass fight:)
The preps this week are to get house valued and hopefully if price is right or even if it isn't its going on market downsize and although I love my wood and coal burner I'm knackered chopping wood and lugging coal ..ill miss it but need life to be easier
Already been out today and reserved a car ..everything I've been putting off because its just hard work but hey ho ..need to grit teeth get on with it ... got one of those cars I dont have to pay a fine to go through towns in my poor trusted kia has got 181,000 miles on it and is literally knackered
Got a whole 500 quid for it only as the salesman was sick of me...
Big preps now ..deep breath and get on with it ....

Jansman is your man when it comes to modern leccy heating

This winter is going to be tough to source wood going on how quiet the timber trade is and the cost of the stuff

[jansman]

Agreed on community
Where i live its a decent area but the people on the street especially my neighbours are just downright awful
Everyone hates each other all came about during covid where she reported him he reported her etc there was a mini riot people literally will not take in parcels wont engage in any conversation they hate each other and I cant stand any of them now ..this isn't the way I work ...
If we all won the postcode lottery you wouldn't get a photo of our street or if you did it would be one of a mass fight:)
The preps this week are to get house valued and hopefully if price is right or even if it isn't its going on market downsize and although I love my wood and coal burner I'm knackered chopping wood and lugging coal ..ill miss it but need life to be easier
Already been out today and reserved a car ..everything I've been putting off because its just hard work but hey ho ..need to grit teeth get on with it ... got one of those cars I dont have to pay a fine to go through towns in my poor trusted kia has got 181,000 miles on it and is literally knackered
Got a whole 500 quid for it only as the salesman was sick of me...
Big preps now ..deep breath and get on with it ....

Jansman is your man when it comes to modern leccy heating

This winter is going to be tough to source wood going on how quiet the timber trade is and the cost of the stuff

It’s a tough call is shutting down solid fuel. It’s interesting as locally all us ‘old’ villagers are packing it in gradually.As much ans we don’t want to. Aside from coal, we have all always accumulated free wood. Now it’s too much effort, physically. To buy it in is an horrendous price now and the coal we now legally burn is becoming dearer by each delivery- and our local supplier is a fair bloke! Even he is shutting his chimneys down as he retires as it’s just too much work as his body is worn like so many of us life time physical workers.
Unlike the past also, the chimneys have to be cleaned and licensed each year by the appropriate operators or your house insurance is not covered. Another expensive issue
Gradually the form of heating and power is being replaced.

Way back when our gas boiler went wrong ( the third in 25 years) replacing it was a nightmare. We only used the gas to heat water anyway, as heating was solid - it was cheap!
Piping was an issue and the new specifications had changed. Long and short our house was going to cost ten to twelve thousand pounds to replace our gas/ heating. We had just been rewired and that had cost a mint , but it was bang up to speed. Our neighbour was in the same boat and we both came up to the same decision.

We went electric!

As we have small ( doored) rooms in the cottage, we heat the house as each room is required. Many neighbours have open and South European designed houses and complain of gas bill prices, which is expensive!

Gas per therm is cheaper than electricity, but in our personal home, the closed rooms are cheaper to run with electricity. There is an irony.

The electricity heating is simple to install, simple to run and easy to replace if necessary. That hasn’t had to be replaced yet . There are so many different types of radiators, heaters etc that it is to be considered carefully before purchase. The absolute positive of this is what it costs to run ( in our system of course), and we and our neighbours agree that the electric is cheaper than solid fuel.

[jansman]

This domestic heating business is personal though. After all ,many people do have gas heating and that’s fair enough. It’s certainly been popular.Well for fifty years to now. In the fullness of time the UK will see gas gradually end as even now much is being brought in by ship as this is no longer like it was in the 70’s and 80’s . We ain’t independent like we were.
We have new houses going up on my old shooting fields and woods at the South End of the village and they are now all being built with the new system of Air Source Heat Pumping. It’s blatantly obvious that wherever we look this is becoming the normal way forward. Electricity. I reckon 30 years from now our fuel will have head that way and beyond too…
Right now though it’s the cost of fuel that matters to most ,regardless of nature and climate change. Therefore many stick with the gas system that is currently the ‘norm’ for so many.

Personally my wife and I were brought up in houses where the heating was basically that of open coal fires. In between rooms you dressed! If you see films or programmes from the 70’s backwards you tend to see folks actually dressed ! Clothes on their backs. Not like my neighbour who lives year round in t shirt and shorts today,and as many others do too in their English Pretend Italian Houses

It’ll be an interesting change over the coming years.

[Arzosah]

Personally my wife and I were brought up in houses where the heating was basically that of open coal fires. In between rooms you dressed! If you see films or programmes from the 70’s backwards you tend to see folks actually dressed ! Clothes on their backs.

Yep, my parents didn't get central heating until I'd moved out some 7 years previously - we heated the living room (a closed fire, or just an electric fire) and that was it - except that I was allowed to have an electric fire in my bedroom when I was studying for A levels

Today, yes, I still have gas central heating, and it might see me out, but if I need to replace it, then I will, of course. Much research needed at that point!

[Frnc]

I got an email about air source heat pumps from my energy supplier. They had it on offer, with government grants, but it was still £6-7,000. I'm still paying for my new gas boiler. That cost me about £2,400 but it comes with a 10 year fixed all inclusive care plan for £13 a month. Also I've had mega expenses and blown all my savings. So I won't be going for a heat pump just yet. If I had no lodgers and was still in this house, I'd use the boiler to heat the house minimally, and use and electric radiator just in my room.

Lodgers are away. I used 12p worth of gas yesterday, including a shower! Less than the standing charge. It got me thinking. It's not right that someone using almost none pays the same standing charge as someone using loads. We should be rewarding low energy use. Apparently some companies don't have a standing charge though.

Fitted longer screws in the mortice lock strike plate. And fitted the London Bar. I used my new power drill as a screwdriver. It was OK for the London Bar, but kept slipping for the strike plate. Maybe I used the wrong bit. Anyone got any tips on that? Got them done in the end anyway. I had to miss out 2 screws on the London Bar. One was where the mortice bolt goes. The other was close to where the wire goes through to one of the door bells. The other doorbell generated it's own energy through mechanical action, and sends a radio signal to the chimes. I'm chuffed with this drill, it is an Einhell. Uses the battery from the strimmer.

Just done my summer rotation. Few bits of clothes rotated from and to bugout bag, clothes rail and drawer etcetera.

Got to go and paint lodger's window sill. Almost done the decorating I'm doing now, which is just a few small bits of touching up, nothing major.

[Nurseandy]

More veg being planted now its eventually warmed, harvesting & processing firewood and also on the agenda is spraying masonry sealant on one of the gable ends but bit windy for that today.

[Yorkshire Andy]

I . I used 12p worth of gas yesterday, including a shower! Less than the standing charge. It got me thinking. It's not right that someone using almost none pays the same standing charge as someone using loads.

I used my new power drill as a screwdriver. It was OK for the London Bar, but kept slipping for the strike plate. Maybe I used the wrong bit. Anyone got any tips on that?

If I could guarantee that the local LPG place would be open "forever" id be re jetting my boiler and running it on LPG via refillable bottles and telling the gas co to come rip the meter out.... No standing charge on my own LPG bottles not sure how LPG costs (£1 ish per litre ) Vs natural gas but without the standing charge


As for rte screwdriver bits look at the screw head closely you've got Philips which are a simple + ph 1 are smaller screws up to about 6 gauge then up to 11 gauge they are ph2 and 12 gauge ph3...

You've also got pozzi but they have a slight star pattern a cross with very subtle 4 additional points pz1 pz2 and pz3
Eg

They look the same at a glance but use one in the other it'll slip like mad

[Yorkshire Andy]

Added 2 more camping Gaz cv470 cartridges reduced to £5.50 each in mountain warehouse should have been £10 each ISH would be rude not to