Not quite prepping...

[tombear]

Since we live in a rural area now and there's some chance of disruption of deliveries if we get a bad winter and assuming that the authorities would have got the roads sorted within a month what would you recommend a family of five should lay in extra, just in case and that can be used over the rest of the year if not needed.

Due to the excessive kindness of food parcels from my mother we have enough tinned stuff to survive a siege but I was thinking along the lines of if they can't get bread and milk distributed for a few weeks.

We have a open fire place big enough to cook on if the power goes and more camping stoves, dutch ovens and lanterns than is decent.

ATB

Tom

 

[British Red]

Well it looks like you are well on the way. Taking your "one month" timescale as a sensible number that we should all be able to survive without "outside" input lets see.

How would you fare for water if a hard freeze and snow blocked roads and broke a water main?

Do you have fuel for the open fire to "keep it in" overnight? coal or smokeless as opposed to logs? Have you enough of any fuel if all you have is the fire?

Do you have fuel or your lanterns for eight hours a day or more? Personal torches for the lads to read etc.? Batteries?

How about communications? Mobile phone for sure - but can you charge it without the mains? Do you have battery radios?

I could go on

 

[Goatboy]

My misses was born in Germany where they had the "Notfall" scheme in place after the war. It was recomended that all families had a store of canned, preserved and dry goods to last something like 8 weeks if I remember well.

Also living rurally where we get cut off I do the same. As well as canned stuff I lay down a store of dried goods like beans and other pulses, various types of stock (Soup will keep you going!) Veg, especially stuff like tatties, neeps, carrots which will store well, used to always have a kail plant on the go as it survives frost and is great in soup. Also have flour and yeast so that I can make my own bread. Infact the last time we were cut off I was making bread for some of the older folks and friends in the village so they wouldn't have to do without. If you drink tea or coffee make sure you've supplies laid in as well as sugar and if you need it powdered milk which is also handy for some breads. Also plenty of rice, couscous and pasta as these bulk fillers will feed you cheaply.

Having a good store cupboard needn't be expensive, I rotate it as I use it as part of my everyday living. It's also handy when you are a bit broke, can live out of the larder for a while 'till money comes back in.

Also a good supply of herbs and spices peps up some of the blander store cupboard supplies. A couple of blackout treats (something like a pudding of moral boosting for when the powers out is a good idea too).

I also keep candles, lamp oil, fuel for the mutli stoves on hand too. In fact some folks comment that my house is better lit when there's no power to the village than it is normally. A couple of years ago some folk who'd passed the night before asked where I kept the generator! (Which is also a good idea if you can stretch to one, They aren't that pricey these days. I used to keep one up at my But 'n' ben in the hills.

Also things like board games and cards. We actually quite enjoyed the 3 day week stuff in 1974 as we made up family games and did more together than usual.But with you having sprogs then keeping them interested will be important.

 

[tombear]

Cheers, thats just the sort of input I need as a lot of that hadn't occured to me. Thanks! Due to my other interests I have a lot of the hardware but the ability to charge the moby without mains is something that would not have entered my head. Luckily we picked up a couple of quality jerricans so we do have safe storage for paraffin and unleaded, which will cover the two types of liquid fuel we will need.

Anyway, lots of stuff there to mull over, cheers!

Tom

 

[Dave Budd]

from my experience of living in the sticks, I can safely say that assuming that you have food covered, then fuel for heating/cooking is 1st priority. After that, it's loo roll!

 

[British Red]

Tom.

We have "standardised" our batteries on AA eneloops as they are the best rechargeables on the market. We have bought dome little USB boxes that run on AA batteries. That way, we can charge the phone indefinitely. I also ensured that the AA battery charger we have has a 12V lead. So I can re-charge the AAs from the car or 12V Leisure batteries we use for electric fences etc. We can of course re-charge the leisure batteries from mains or solar panels......

The little USB boxes are a couple of quid on Ebay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PLE-AA-Ba...ories_MobilePhoneChargers&hash=item3370b93c7c

 

[tombear]

Thanks again! Ive just been going through the book cases and I have a suprisingly large amount of stuff on self selfiency and other useful stuff got from charity shops on spec. Lots of interesting stuff like on disposing of waste.

One thing is that some family members are on medical regimes that require daily pills they only dish out a month ahead and are prescription only.

Red, your inbox is full by the way.

ATB

Tom

 

[British Red]

Inbox is sorted Tom

 

[Goatboy]

Thanks again! Ive just been going through the book cases and I have a suprisingly large amount of stuff on self selfiency and other useful stuff got from charity shops on spec. Lots of interesting stuff like on disposing of waste.

One thing is that some family members are on medical regimes that require daily pills they only dish out a month ahead and are prescription only.

Red, your inbox is full by the way.

ATB

Tom

It may depend on your Doctor and it's been discussed elsewhere but my Doc is happy for me to have a backup of tablets as long as I rotate them. Especially if they're essential meds then the Doc should be happy that you have them rather than getting ill due to not having a backup.

 

[British Red]

They will also give you an extra batch for "long holidays"

 

[slowworm]

If you're likely to be trying to keep open fires in and using camping stoves in doors then getting or making sure your carbon monoxide detector is working and has a spare set of bats would also be a wise move.

 

[Toddy]

Flour and such like....if you're storing and not just kind of filling the box you're using, then put the packs into sealed polybags and freeze them for a couple of days. That way anything that's microscopic insect egg, is dead. Remove from the freezer and let the packs come up to normal temperature somewhere airy to discourage condensation settling on them. Then write on the outside of the pack end the dates. It's an excellent safeguard for very little effort. Cornmeal, etc., are inclined to need it.
Plain flour is best, because SR can, and does, go flat. Baking powder is great if you can keep it dry, but bicarb works with any acidy thing....like milk soured with a couple of tspfls of vinegar, it's actually very good in baking
Nida dried milk is very good, and it's not so skimmed that it's useless, it's also available in Tesco.

Don't decry deliveries from folks like approvedfood, just apply some common sense re what you're buying and it's date.
http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/
Spices and such like ready made packs can be buttons from them at times, and a lot of it is delicatesan quality just too near it's sell by date for shops. If you're using it up over Winter, it's excellent.

Toilet rolls, yeah, big packs, and kitchen towels too.

LED lights are so cheap now, and they use so little power, and give off so much more light than previously, that they're well worth the sussing out. I agree with BR re the batteries. Find a size that suits everything and use that.
£store sell loads of cheap touch light things, and they're at least as bright as candles or oil lamps. Not an expense to acquire one for every room, and not a pain if they are superceded by some development next year.

Tom, I feel like we're teaching you to suck eggs you're an incredibly practical family; you'll be fine

M

 

[Mesquite]

Pets... if you've got any don't forget to lay away food for them for the same duration you're looking at.

Hugh mentioned water, there's several large storage bags on the market that you can fill and store in the bath but look at a large capacity water filter as well. Also, do you know where your nearest alternative water source is?

 

[mousey]

on the battery front thing, I've found converters which convert 'AA' batteries to 'C' and 'D' sizes, they're basically a plastic cylinder which makes the 'AA' battery bigger:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/3009...1=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108&ff19=0

This is the first I found - there are many more makes out there probably for more or less.

 

[John Fenna]

Pets... if you've got any don't forget to lay away food for them for the same duration you're looking at.

Hugh mentioned water, there's several large storage bags on the market that you can fill and store in the bath but look at a large capacity water filter as well. Also, do you know where your nearest alternative water source is?

Pets ARE the reserve food store...
If the problem is being snowed in then the nearest alternative water source is ... blocking the road!

 

[Bishop]

I've picked up one of these dynamo flashlights that has a USB power output socket. Good for charging small stuff like cell-phones & cameras.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Uni-Com-Wind-Up-Power-Beam-59516/dp/B005X7QGUI
Not as heavy as it looks and puts out a pretty decent amount of light.

Pets ARE the reserve food store...

Therein lies the meat for a thread all by itself.

Due to the excessive kindness of food parcels from my mother

Yes... I have tins of weird stuff from my mother as well gathering dust in the cupboard.

 

[British Red]

That is clearly a tin of one of the twins from "The Shining"

 

[rickyamos]

Pets ARE the reserve food store...
If the problem is being snowed in then the nearest alternative water source is ... blocking the road!

Don't think I could bring myself to eat my dogs......but next doors cat, oh yeah

Sent from my KFSOWI using Tapatalk

 

[tombear]

Thanks all! loads to mull over there and prioritise. Herself would like to know where you can get the bath water storage bags in the UK as we just get hits from the US when we search, thanks.

I think we will be getting a load of smokeless to go in one of the coalhouses, its not as if it goes off!

Can anyone recomend a cheap source of the blue barrel storage whats its? The cupboards are already full and Id like some extra storage. Thankfully we have masses of storage space indoors, not using the living room downstairs with the top floor weaving shed being the family room.

ATB

Tom

 

[TeeDee]

Thanks all! loads to mull over there and prioritise. Herself would like to know where you can get the bath water storage bags in the UK as we just get hits from the US when we search, thanks.

I've tried getting these from the UK before and they seem to be non-existent or stupidly pricey.

These may be a useful cheap alternative.
http://www.viovet.co.uk/Planit_Prod..._find=131872&gclid=CNSC_Kbpn8ICFfLJtAodviIAww