Saying hello

[MistiqWood]

Hey everyone - been prepping for 5 years, focused on practical skills and minimalist gear. Stoked to share field-tested tricks and learn from the community, especially about water purification and urban-ready setups!

Hi and welcome from the Cheshire suburbs.
Lots of info shared here. Please jump in and contribute. All questions and answers are welcome.

So. What are you prepping for?

At first for longer trips in Europe - but such you know... without a hotel. You sleep under the stars in a tent “on the trail”. But in recent years, I think I've also been collecting a bit of equipment and experience for when it's not like this anymore - you know what I mean.

[MistiqWood]

Greetings from Manchester. There's a very diverse group here, from people with a small farm or a place in Scottish highlands, to those with a bugout bag and a few weeks' food in the cupboard. Not sure what you mean by urban ready. I live in an urban area, so hopefully I am urban ready! Regarding water purification, personally I have a couple of lightweight filters, and puri tabs.

I was meaning to prepare for urban survival when it comes to emergencies. Whether I know what to do, if I have something to eat, if I know where to get water from, if I am able to defend myself in a tiny street, if I know how to leave the city quickly without google maps

[mcprepper]

Hi from Cumbria. I’m relatively new on here but have learned a tremendous amount already! I think of prepping just as a sensible approach to life in general (i.e. I don’t take anything for granted) and have had to be organised as we have frequent power cuts and water issues due to our rural location. I have a pretty decent set up though so I’m more ‘bug in’ than ‘bug out’ in my preps but willing to be flexible should the need ever arise …

[Frnc]

Greetings from Manchester. There's a very diverse group here, from people with a small farm or a place in Scottish highlands, to those with a bugout bag and a few weeks' food in the cupboard. Not sure what you mean by urban ready. I live in an urban area, so hopefully I am urban ready! Regarding water purification, personally I have a couple of lightweight filters, and puri tabs.

I was meaning to prepare for urban survival when it comes to emergencies. Whether I know what to do, if I have something to eat, if I know where to get water from, if I am able to defend myself in a tiny street, if I know how to leave the city quickly without google maps

Right. I am an urban prepper too. I have paper maps in case of evacuation. I live on the corner of one map. To get out of the city I need to go onto a second map, just for a couple of miles, then onto a third map. So what I've done is actually cut the first two maps right down, and stuck them to the third map. I still have the offcuts of course. Also, I had a custom map made, which covers the area I want, but at half the scale.

Water, of course you want to store. If you have space outside, you can catch plenty of rain water on a tarp with the edges propped up. Keep stored water away from light, and once a year, re-steralise and swap out. I use a Milton tablet, then put fresh water in. You can use a map to look for springs, where water should be pure, even in a city. Just make sure it's a real spring, and not just where it's gone under a road.

Defence relies on coordination with neighbours. Hard to say whether it would be successful. If all else fails, you might need to bug out. You can interrogate AI for ideas tailored to your circumstances. You don't want to look richer or better prepared than your neighbours.

Food, you need to store. But it's worth learning the basics of what wild plants are edible. Nettles are very common, and nutritious. But carbs are less common.

[MistiqWood]

Hi from Cumbria. I’m relatively new on here but have learned a tremendous amount already! I think of prepping just as a sensible approach to life in general (i.e. I don’t take anything for granted) and have had to be organised as we have frequent power cuts and water issues due to our rural location. I have a pretty decent set up though so I’m more ‘bug in’ than ‘bug out’ in my preps but willing to be flexible should the need ever arise …

Oh I envy you a bit of that “country life”.... My plan is to move to a quiet rural area , taking into account all of its underdogs

[Mark]

Greetings from the Essex/Cambs borders

I've been doing some casual experimentation in prepping methods for about thirty years now, my main motivation being the incredibly fragile state of food security in the UK, the lack of strategic stockpiles, the over tight supply lines and miniscule amounts people store at home now.

A major disruptive event that causes internet failure and extended blackouts will see people getting hungry within a week, and when people get hungry, they will do what it takes to find food.

I therefore don't broadcast the fact that I keep a four month supply in my attic.

Back in the early nineties the supermarkets had a price war over tinned beans, and I picked up a small pile of Tesco Value beans for the princely sum of 6p per can. These were not kept in perfect conditions, my attic fluctuates from freezing in the winter to around 50C on a hot summer day, and is a little bit damp. Despite that they survived pretty well, and rust was never a problem. I kept sampling them over time, a few got bloated and had to be chucked, and after ten years they started tasting a bit metallic. The last tin I actually consumed was at 24 years of age, and I dumped the final tins at the start of Covid.

Tinned food keeps for a very long time, but I'm a little concerned that the tins themselves no longer keep as well as they used to, with traces of rust sometimes appearing after as little as two years.

I have an idea to combat this, but I'm not sure if it will work, or if anyone's tried this before.

Metals have a galvanic pecking order, the most reactive will sacrificially corrode to protect those less reactive. Aluminium is near the top of the tree, far more reactive than tin or steel.

I'm therefore embarking on a little experiment, using for starters those tins that don't readily stack on each other, placing thin strips of aluminium between the rows of stacked tins.

- Will this inhibit corrosion, I wonder?

Hi, just my thoughts but if rust is appearing on he outside of the tins that may indicate the storage area is not suitable for long term storage. From what I have read and learn, attics are not a great storage area given the temperature highs and lows which dramatically decreases the longevity of the tins.
I know many don't have space for months of food storage but I would suggest under the stairs if applicable.
Or if your lucky enough to have a basement they are perfect.
One thing is important I think and that is keep using and replacing your stock, can't imagine much worse than shtf and you are stuck with plenty of food that no body really wants to eat.
Hope that helps.