Sources in YOUR Area.

[Red Doe]

Imagine the net has gone down for an extended time so you can`t order anything online. The post office is down. In fact, the only resources you have will be local to you.
Have you looked around locally to see what you could source if TSHTF? Food, clothing, household goods, etc, all the things we take for granted we have access to if we have the cash for them. Mostly, we can buy them from online, yes? Or, if you live in a built up area, you have a large array of shops to choose from. But if TSHTF, won`t these same shops be running out too?
Have looked around me where I live in the Highlands. I have no transport so would be limited to walking distance. In that area, there isn`t much. Wild resources include fresh water, wild game and birds, some wild herbage and, if I`m desperate and being ruthless, some veg crops I would steal without a qualm to feed me and mine.
Other than that, there isn`t much by way of resources. That surprised me. You`d think a farming and crofting area would be rich in resources but in reality it isn`t and seems to be as much reliant on distance buying as anyone else!
Am still in the process of doing that local looking-around to source what I could need in the event.

[diamond lil]

I'm not as remote as you, nearest shops 11 miles from me and we're near a main road with a bus. But the people who live nearer those shops than I do would maybe have emptied them before I got there...
I suppose I'd either make do or do without . Living a simpler more old-fashioned life helps with this I think. Could do with more cooking pots though ..

[Carrot Cruncher]

I'm quite fortunate that there is a large trading estate fairly close to me with everything from landrovers and calor gas depots to a makro and tool hire shops. Whether there would be anything left to womble would be a different matter

[Big fat bill]

I'm not as remote as you, nearest shops 11 miles from me and we're near a main road with a bus. But the people who live nearer those shops than I do would maybe have emptied them before I got there...
I suppose I'd either make do or do without . Living a simpler more old-fashioned life helps with this I think. Could do with more cooking pots though ..

Making do or do without soon wears thin and here's a reason why. At Christmas I paid £8 for a swanky non stick roasting tin.....It was a treat for me as the cook of the house but the non stick is pealing now and I paid £8 bloody quid for it !! no reciept so no refund but that got me thinking. Post fall I'd probably be cooking on wood so with these flimsy tins being heat intollerent over about 200 c I've decided to go over to cast iron roasting dishes and casserole pots etc keeping my stainless steel pans for the house.

[janso]

Dutch oven type pots and pans are perfect for this... except the price! Although, by shopping around you can get cheaper prices - this may equal an inferior grade of cast?

There a have been a few topics in the past about resources in individual areas. I for one have, make note of local businesses and amenities for just such an event happening. Try a dedicate a few hours to go out and look at your bug out routes to or from home and note down what you find in the area... I normally take a different route home sometimes just to see whats going on and have found a few surprises. I 'found' an undisturbed natural hollow away from the road and view, perfect for a cache or an emergency campsite, a few old industrial units, one used to be tool workshop, and all sorts of 'hidden' businesses that in sitX, may prove useful for wombling. I've also noted a few houses that have accessible oil tanks, a small allotment and a shortcut through local fields that could be useful (it would mean pulling out some old gates before entering though!)

By making note of where these, and more, resources are means an easier time in the future for foraging, wombling and using a vehicle whilst calculating distances and fuel reserves. Os maps have an online facility for buying a map with your house bang in the centre on both 1:25 000 and 1:50 000 which is great for marking off these resources and giving information on other features that may be worth further investigation. Doing this, I located a spring upstream from me, not perfect for everyday water usage but...

[diamond lil]

I like making do & finding alternative ways to do things. You can use a lot of things for cooking - I've made oatcakes and girdle scones on a shovel before, and a biscuit tin lid will work to fry in. Those mess tins in shiny metal that my dad used for his piece-box down the pit - you can cook in them.
Think buckets, shovels, wheelbarrows & candles would be a pain if we couldn't get them though.

[Bladerunner]

I am less than a mile from the local 24 hour ASDA. Whilst the shelves will be emptied in a flash, I would like to think that I might recognise a SHTF situation prior to it happening.

Obviously not a pre-emptive nuclear attack or an earthquake but social breakdown, civil uprising, etc.

In that instance I would be down there in a flash. Most idiots would be buying up all the fruit and veg whilst I am in the Tinned beans, tinned meat and tinned rice pud aisles. If I have time left the chocolate aisle would get a serious looking at.

I have hundreds of tealights but a few more wouldn't go amiss. ASDA have 2 penknives for 4 quid so a few of them would go in the trolley as well. Might look to getting some bread mixes and batter mixes. Batter mixes are currently 7p each in ASDA and they are gorgeous as pancakes or yorkshire puds.

Once the car is full I would pop back in and get another trolley's worth of anything with a long shelf life. (and some more choccy) Happy days.

Be lucky

[allan]

I have a lever arch file that i keep info on local resources in. it has a page per location with a map section print out and a description of the stuff that i can womble from there.

[janso]

I have a lever arch file that i keep info on local resources in. it has a page per location with a map section print out and a description of the stuff that i can womble from there.

Not a bad idea there mate............

[itsybitsy]

There is an entire retail park within a few miles of me that's full of car showrooms/DIY stores and supermarkets. In a SHTF situation people probably wouldn't be thinking about twoking a car as they'd be too busy panicking about other stuff perhaps (?), but while they are running around like headless chickens buying up food, I would be down there 'liberating' all the fuel I could and seeing if there was a 4WD that I could snaffle too!

I've also recently become involved with a community garden which is 2 minutes from where I work, in a very secluded spot. There are only about 40 people that know about it and 90% of those are students who would do a bunk home at the first sign of any drama, so I would certainly be able make use of that.

I have a pharmacy at the end of my street that would come in VERY handy, if I could get access to it.