What Preps are you doing this week? Part 11

[PreppingPingu]

Just read GeeGees post and smiled as that had caught my attention too. (I put post in the intel section before I had noticed it had already been posted here - oops!) I too wondered how many folk may read the other headlines available atm - you know pending ww3 general election and put 2 & 2 together and get 500 - 500 tins o beans that is! But joking aside, that has prompted me to go through my medical supplies and prompted me to jump back on this forum again

I have just refreshed my Paediatric and outdoor First aid course for work and my Forest school insurance purposes so that in itself is a prep that I had needed to get done. I do feel refreshed with the basics now. Also, I'm getting the wood burner flu swept in the next month, now I'm not lighting fire in it so that will be ready for the Autumn when it's needed. Trying to beat the rush of September when everyone experiences the first chilly evening and realises they haven't swept it yet!

[Frnc]

Got an electrician round to move my doorbell, so I could put a vital screw in the London Bar just below the Yale. He said it was safe to drill without moving the bell, did it for me, put the screw in, and didn't charge me! He only lives a couple of streets away and walked round. He used my new cordless drill and bits. The drill is obviously more use than a corded drill in a grid down scenario, and it has hammer, so it must be fairly powerful. Torque is adjustable up to 48 Nm.

Went through every item in my food cupboard. Got some tinned tomatoes a couple of months past BB date, should be ok. I put it all back in a rough date order, longest date back of bottom shelf. I've done it before, but it's good to go through the whole lot again every few months.

[PreppingPingu]

Yes , I go through my stuff every few months too. Just been using some tinned peaches that were best before a few months ago so they need replacing. While I don't regularly eat tinned fruit or veg, in a food shortage situation they are a god send.

[pseudonym]

Nothing special this week, just more t-shirts for a Hospital bag and some individual coffee bags

[jansman]

Ironically after talking about villagers who struggle about food storage,I am actually tidy our pantry later. Having been 5 decades in the meat industry my dating is kept bang on. Any tins /packets are given to the local church if they are close to date . I don’t like waste, nor do we like *iffy* dates either. Especially now I am poorly!

[Arzosah]

I have seeds coming up, finally! And they all seem healthy, not drowned. So now I need to carry on weeding so that I have places to plant them all - though quite a few will decorate the very narrow margin at the front of the house.

[jansman]

I cannot do a lot these days now, but I have now ‘eased’ the organisation of storage and back up of the house.Mainly for my wife and her likes and dislikes .I am rather particular about keeping storage and equipment bang up to speed. Given the fact our current political * leaders* are telling us ,indeed they prepare the thought of the entire population according to the news to store 3 days of food to help in emergency The situation makes us look at the *leaders* either sensible or as those cynical so and so …indeed.
We did consider yesterday, whether the shops we had entered over the last few weeks have been well stocked up above the sales displays on purpose for quietly keeping folks stocked for that political sh*t or the Russians are going to finally destroy us it seems that all of the supermarkets are almost *Christmas stocked *up on top. Take a look when you are out

I’m far from a critic of storage, as it’s a good idea domestically. Especially if you are in the fragile situation ( like myself) who if you don’t work you don’t earn ,and that is many folks nowadays.

So the food situation here is up to date up on the shelves. The freezer has meals ready to go - eat first of course if the power goes off. We use a lot of tinned food,so the merest use before emergencies will create replacement. It’s going to get no easier priced so we will put up and shut up.

Fresh food obviously is weekly but in an emergency we will eat or give away accordingly. The freezers are used but not over the top. It’s good to turn it over ,and especially as we move over to electric consumption which the country is being encouraged towards . If stuff like vegetables in the freezer get ruined after an electric cut then that will go into the compost bins. Ironically that aids feed to perennial veg in the garden .

So food is ok. Now we are all electric, which is great until it becomes cut, then the alternative has been properly sorted this last few months. As it is not gas heating we have ( although those with mains gas heating need leccy too! ) electric heating. The whys and wherefore suits us nicely with electricity ( and it’s not as dear as folks think either) . However in a power cut it obviously stops! So we have a calor gas heater that rolls around the house where needed . Great gear that! I’ve made sure it’s kept in good nick ,covered and waiting from my workshop on a truck barrow to wheel in. I have made sure now that there are three 3x 15 kg barrels for that. All new,all ready to go.A cold Winter will be covered in general power cuts. Our local solid fuel supplier is retiring now at ,as he puts it, “ when the law bans wood and coal”. Therefore we have changed. In the future power shortages will cause chimney churning smoke to rise where it is not allowed ,nor liked by neighbours who are somewhat jealous! Not a situation I would like .

After that is cooking. Camping gas ,the nice single burners used in the domestic area . Two of those,LOADS of bottled gas in storage too. After that my meths Tri Angia. Good and plentiful backing of fuel there too. Job sorted!

After that is lighting. Now this is interesting. My friend and me have been discussing this. He lives alone and like me he used to have a generator order to power freezers mainly in an emergency.We both agreed at our age particular,firing a generator could be rather an attraction to ‘naughty’ people as it were. Therefore we have both parted with those and gone over to the chance of losing the contents of freezers for the relatively small amount it is. Bringing us to lighting…

Lighting too in any area is an issue if too much/ too little in a crisis. Therefore friend and me have set up with modern and cheap LED . It can be switched on in order to be automated,or manual. It is not too intense and but the keeps area lit adequately. If after charge fails there is battery version of light ,LED of course. Between us we have boxes of emergency lights and batteries etc.

Water is the other one. Plenty is stored.On top is rain catchment/ filter / treatment,along with the brook if really needed. Mind you ,if rain water onward takes over,then society is in a mess!

That’s pretty much the *emergency* scenario. All prepped for,so that’s good.

In between my builder mates have been here fixing,fettling and sorting the house over little things I would normally have done myself. I’m rather happy that we are pretty tidy and bang up to date,as right now I am spending a lot of time in bed or hospital with my illness now,and I won’t get over it. My time left is now very limited.

So I’ll say thanks and cheerio for reading. I may put in a comment, may not. Take care xx

[Arzosah]

That’s pretty much the *emergency* scenario. All prepped for,so that’s good.

In between my builder mates have been here fixing,fettling and sorting the house over little things I would normally have done myself. I’m rather happy that we are pretty tidy and bang up to date,as right now I am spending a lot of time in bed or hospital with my illness now,and I won’t get over it. My time left is now very limited.

So I’ll say thanks and cheerio for reading. I may put in a comment, may not. Take care xx

You're amazing, jansman! I'm still very disorganised about my prepping: I know I have lots of food - months - quite a bit of water - couple of weeks - and a fair bit of equipment - some of which I haven't practised with. Trying to organise gets me even more disorganised, of course, but I still have a really good chance of muddling through and helping those I want to help.

I'm sorry to hear where you are in relation to your illness. All I can say is that I hope your pain meds are up to scratch, and that you're getting the sleep, the nutrition and the company you need (which it sounds like you are). You're a force for good on this planet, and we're very lucky that you post the way you do, it's a real eye opener, so useful, and so comprehensive.

Cheers to you, and your lovely wife.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Take it easy jansman...

Think I've finally sorted a decent silent power generation system out at last

I got a factory reconditioned ecoflow solar "generator" a delta max 1600wh unit which was a bargain at £400 having had an account they knocked £100 off the original price then a found another discount code

£400 still not cheap but it is a beast you'd struggle with buying a battery and all the bits at that price to make something comparable...



So that and a pair of HUGE 410w panels at £60 each I've now got sustainable mains electricity in my workshop which in a ideal world the main box would be in the house but it's better in terms of effecency to keep the solar leads short .. and use a extension lead to fetch the 240v to where needed...

Had a good play this morning will run the Henry hoover for 2h 20 minutes even though it was over cast it was charging at 200w which I was happy with

[PPrep]

Water is the other one. Plenty is stored.On top is rain catchment/ filter / treatment,along with the brook if really needed. Mind you ,if rain water onward takes over,then society is in a mess!

That’s pretty much the *emergency* scenario. All prepped for,so that’s good.

Jansman, you've really got it sorted!

Drinking water is where I have a problem, as storing 3 or 4 months worth of water is a challenge. I suppose it boils down to what one can do and store. The 5 and 10l blue collapsible water bottles available on eBay and Amazon can be useful, as they can be filled in an emergency and take up little space when empty. It pays to fill this type of container to only about 80% capacity for ease of use and prolong the life of the container. These aren't the clear type fitted with a tap; which generally get very poor reviews. I can lift a 25l container of water now, but won't be able to in the future and use 5 or 10l containers. these can be stashed in odd corners.

I bought the buckets, ceramic filters and other bits for fine water filtering to make a basic Berkey type water filter. The problem with this is I can't bring myself to cut holes in the buckets to fit the filters and tap, because I'll then have buckets with holes in them. I've experimented with filtering with sand and gravel to get rid of particulate matter in the water. Also with charcoal as used in aquariums. It takes loads of water to clean the powder out of the charcoal and also a lot to clean the sand. Coffee filters are slow and don't filter out the smallest particles. I've found that placing water for drinking or cooking in 2l coke type bottles (or any tall transparent container) and leaving it or 12 or so hours enables nearly all particulate matter to settle. A minimum of valuable water, with chlorine, is then needed for periodically cleaning the bottles. Then the water can be decanted prior to chlorination, followed by using the ceramic filter. Boiling the water as well is an option, but takes a lot of fuel.

I looked deeply into rainwater harvesting some years ago, to the point of estimating rainfall and how much can be collected off a given roof area, dealing with "first flush" and so forth.

It's surprising what one can collect on a clean tarp. Ideally this needs to be off the ground and used during daytime only to discourage rats and other animals contaminating the water. I've also found that in our miserable climate, rain is threatened a lot in our frequently overcast skies but often doesn't happen. I think water availability by rainfall is very much a matter of luck.