5 November 2015, 13:54
So what prepper related schemes, plans or projects have you folks got planned for the next year? Anything of note worth sharing with the community?
5 November 2015, 13:54
5 November 2015, 16:33
TBH loads of prepper stuff going on around here, as you all know , i am going to build a new place ...everything prepper built in.....the only hold up now is ....filthy Luther...but i been busy clearing the front half acre for more veg ....and better vision for security , upgraded all windows in the cottage, what a difference ! ....and i do this stuff every day....for others.... Going to make one of those carts MB posted about a bit back, when i can get into my workshop ...in the throws of having a big sort out in there....new set up is on the way ALL power tools have been refurbished ready to set up in their new positions, poly tunnel is being moved ...and greenhouses for better light...trees to fell (ASH and OAK ) any time now ...leaves are almost gone....root cellar....old freezer ....idea i had from BP ages ago....but will get it done ....finally...power generation via an old alternator i had given me...via the stream on the boundary....loads of stuff ! ...getting ready for winter so the normal stuff is on the main agenda right now....but ....prepper stuff runs along side NORMAL stuff....at least around here it does...it never ever stops truth told....in fact its normal !
5 November 2015, 16:49
The House project
I got a small lump sum pension pay out early this year and we decided to spend it improving the layout and functionality of the house, after many sketches, doodles and measurements we finally came up with a plan.
The house WAS a three bedroom semi with integral garage, hideously small 3m by 3m kitchen that had few cupboards and no larder but was saddled with the washing machine.
The Living room / diner took up much of the space and was open end to end so it took lots of heating.
The integral garage housed a few prepping bits, plus three bulk bags full of firewood, plus my car tools, it was one huge wasted space some 20 feet long and 10 ft wide.
Much of the UPVC double glazing we had fitted only 7 years ago was crap, including both the front door and the 6 ft wide UPVC French doors at the back of the living / dining area. The doors from the day they were installed never fully sealed and were not thermally efficient, and pathetically insecure.
It turns out the bottom panel inserts on many modern double glazed UPVC doors are DESIGNED to be easy to kick in so fire fighters can gain access if there is a fire. Unfortunately most scallies know this little fact as well, so one swift kick gives them easy access to the house WITHOUT affecting the British standard Euro profile multi point locking system. WHAT A JOKE.
So we got the builders in and the end result is as follows
Garage to Utility
The integral garage is now a utility / hobby / prep room accommodating a washing machine, tumble drier and second freezer, plus 620 deep worktops, plus 1500mm of kitchen base units, 1000 wall unit. I have also fitted a full length but shallow profile workbench under the new window which crosses under the window which now replaces the up and over garage door. Timber flooring, six sockets, LED lighting and carpeted. I’ve eve got my office in there and my Bearcat Scanner. (I still need to extend the antenna cables to the new utility from the loft for the CB and PMR loft antenna. It also was intended to accomodate any other one or two preppers in my loose network who had to bug out from their locations, I originally planned to have a set of metal bunk beds, extra sink etc in the new utiliity room. But the extra bunks are no longer an important neccessity so the bunks are out and a Z bed is in.
Because the boiler is in that new room I played safe and fitted a 60 minute fire door in the new doorway into the hall, just added a smoke detector and a Carbon Monoxide detector for extra safety.
The space gained where the garage up and over door lived is now where my immediate use preps and GHBs are stored along with some of my archery kit.
Kitchen to kitchen Diner
The old kitchen was ripped out and the original internal door to the kitchen bricked up, a new entrance to the kitchen was created by removing the wall between the dining area and kitchen thus creating a much more spacious kitchen / diner space. In the kitchen area we now added new units including sink units and TRIPLE the amount of wall and floor units than were in before the build, Roughly 4 meters of 1 meter high wall units and 5 meters not including the sink unit of floor units. Worktop space is now over 7.5 meters compared to 2.5 originally. We also added a full height 600 by 600 larder unit just infringing the dining area, plus a 600 by 600 worktop extension for the wifes cookery books. We fitted a new Secured By Design Composite door in the kitchen with multi point locking and I ensured the installer used very long high tensile fittings that secured the frame at least 100 mm into the brickwork, four on each side and two top and bottom. The new door is much better insulated and its sound deadening properties are vastly superior to the old UPVC one.
An LED lighting array provide bright white work light.
We can now accommodate between the new kitchen and the utility plus larder unit four times as much food stuffs as we did before and it’s much easier to access and sort out.
The actual size of the house remained the same but much better use of the available space has been achieved.
In the old dining area a 6 ft wide 2 year old UPVC French door filled the back wall, it has now gone completely the wall built up and a modern better quality UPVC window is in its place giving me more useable floor space now occupied by a very large 13 drawer dresser which also takes up tools, grub, supplies and other stuff that lived in the old kitchen.
Living room / diner to living room
In the old living room / diner we built up the wall between the two areas leaving only a 4 ft gap and fitted twin doors so we can open up / close up the space as suited, so now the wood burner only needs to heat the living room space 16 ft by 11 ft.
The bloody useless from new UPVC front door has gone as well and is replaced by a beast of a Secure By Design composite door in a heavy duty frame with 6 high tensile fastenings each side going AT LEAST 100 mm into the brickwork, it’s so much more solid, quiet, and insulated than the UPVC doors that cost pretty much the same and has a 25 year structural guarantee. I went for the Secure By Design approved Compo door after reading about how some police officers in Tyne ad Wear spent 20 futile minutes with a door breaching slide hammer trying to enter a house in Gateshead. Gossip about the strength of these doors soon circulated ad cope and council staff I know tipped me off that many of them were now having these doors fitted.
One point still to address is the new front door is solid so I cannot see who is calling, I need to fit a peephole lens and a door check arm when I get chance.
NOTE REF EURO PROFILE lock cylinders. Apparently talented criminals know how to drive a screwdriver into a Euro Profile lock so its snaps at its weakest point and the cylinder can be easily removed thus easily bypassing the high quality locking mechanism. So now a NEW type of Euro profile cylinder is available that is designed to fail SECURE, if the scallies try to break it out a purposely designed weak spot shears leaving the door LOCKED and only a locksmith can get it out.
After the work the house is much more prepper friendly, storage is increase, its warmer, quieter and better laid out.
Footnote, much of my slow moving preps is now being stored in the basement of the small community centre own by a Church group, they think I’m storing a clubs spare model railway setup, they used to use it to store camping gear belonging to a cub-scout group that folded over ten years ago. So my extra kit is safe though not close to hand but I need to save up to get metal shed in the garden so I can bring the stuff home, win some lose some eh?
Did a few other security upgrades as well whilst we were messing on.
Its not as spectacular or involved (or back breaking apparently) as LIGHTSPEEDs or SS's fabulous efforts but its definitely improved our lot.
I got a small lump sum pension pay out early this year and we decided to spend it improving the layout and functionality of the house, after many sketches, doodles and measurements we finally came up with a plan.
The house WAS a three bedroom semi with integral garage, hideously small 3m by 3m kitchen that had few cupboards and no larder but was saddled with the washing machine.
The Living room / diner took up much of the space and was open end to end so it took lots of heating.
The integral garage housed a few prepping bits, plus three bulk bags full of firewood, plus my car tools, it was one huge wasted space some 20 feet long and 10 ft wide.
Much of the UPVC double glazing we had fitted only 7 years ago was crap, including both the front door and the 6 ft wide UPVC French doors at the back of the living / dining area. The doors from the day they were installed never fully sealed and were not thermally efficient, and pathetically insecure.
It turns out the bottom panel inserts on many modern double glazed UPVC doors are DESIGNED to be easy to kick in so fire fighters can gain access if there is a fire. Unfortunately most scallies know this little fact as well, so one swift kick gives them easy access to the house WITHOUT affecting the British standard Euro profile multi point locking system. WHAT A JOKE.
So we got the builders in and the end result is as follows
Garage to Utility
The integral garage is now a utility / hobby / prep room accommodating a washing machine, tumble drier and second freezer, plus 620 deep worktops, plus 1500mm of kitchen base units, 1000 wall unit. I have also fitted a full length but shallow profile workbench under the new window which crosses under the window which now replaces the up and over garage door. Timber flooring, six sockets, LED lighting and carpeted. I’ve eve got my office in there and my Bearcat Scanner. (I still need to extend the antenna cables to the new utility from the loft for the CB and PMR loft antenna. It also was intended to accomodate any other one or two preppers in my loose network who had to bug out from their locations, I originally planned to have a set of metal bunk beds, extra sink etc in the new utiliity room. But the extra bunks are no longer an important neccessity so the bunks are out and a Z bed is in.
Because the boiler is in that new room I played safe and fitted a 60 minute fire door in the new doorway into the hall, just added a smoke detector and a Carbon Monoxide detector for extra safety.
The space gained where the garage up and over door lived is now where my immediate use preps and GHBs are stored along with some of my archery kit.
Kitchen to kitchen Diner
The old kitchen was ripped out and the original internal door to the kitchen bricked up, a new entrance to the kitchen was created by removing the wall between the dining area and kitchen thus creating a much more spacious kitchen / diner space. In the kitchen area we now added new units including sink units and TRIPLE the amount of wall and floor units than were in before the build, Roughly 4 meters of 1 meter high wall units and 5 meters not including the sink unit of floor units. Worktop space is now over 7.5 meters compared to 2.5 originally. We also added a full height 600 by 600 larder unit just infringing the dining area, plus a 600 by 600 worktop extension for the wifes cookery books. We fitted a new Secured By Design Composite door in the kitchen with multi point locking and I ensured the installer used very long high tensile fittings that secured the frame at least 100 mm into the brickwork, four on each side and two top and bottom. The new door is much better insulated and its sound deadening properties are vastly superior to the old UPVC one.
An LED lighting array provide bright white work light.
We can now accommodate between the new kitchen and the utility plus larder unit four times as much food stuffs as we did before and it’s much easier to access and sort out.
The actual size of the house remained the same but much better use of the available space has been achieved.
In the old dining area a 6 ft wide 2 year old UPVC French door filled the back wall, it has now gone completely the wall built up and a modern better quality UPVC window is in its place giving me more useable floor space now occupied by a very large 13 drawer dresser which also takes up tools, grub, supplies and other stuff that lived in the old kitchen.
Living room / diner to living room
In the old living room / diner we built up the wall between the two areas leaving only a 4 ft gap and fitted twin doors so we can open up / close up the space as suited, so now the wood burner only needs to heat the living room space 16 ft by 11 ft.
The bloody useless from new UPVC front door has gone as well and is replaced by a beast of a Secure By Design composite door in a heavy duty frame with 6 high tensile fastenings each side going AT LEAST 100 mm into the brickwork, it’s so much more solid, quiet, and insulated than the UPVC doors that cost pretty much the same and has a 25 year structural guarantee. I went for the Secure By Design approved Compo door after reading about how some police officers in Tyne ad Wear spent 20 futile minutes with a door breaching slide hammer trying to enter a house in Gateshead. Gossip about the strength of these doors soon circulated ad cope and council staff I know tipped me off that many of them were now having these doors fitted.
One point still to address is the new front door is solid so I cannot see who is calling, I need to fit a peephole lens and a door check arm when I get chance.
NOTE REF EURO PROFILE lock cylinders. Apparently talented criminals know how to drive a screwdriver into a Euro Profile lock so its snaps at its weakest point and the cylinder can be easily removed thus easily bypassing the high quality locking mechanism. So now a NEW type of Euro profile cylinder is available that is designed to fail SECURE, if the scallies try to break it out a purposely designed weak spot shears leaving the door LOCKED and only a locksmith can get it out.
After the work the house is much more prepper friendly, storage is increase, its warmer, quieter and better laid out.
Footnote, much of my slow moving preps is now being stored in the basement of the small community centre own by a Church group, they think I’m storing a clubs spare model railway setup, they used to use it to store camping gear belonging to a cub-scout group that folded over ten years ago. So my extra kit is safe though not close to hand but I need to save up to get metal shed in the garden so I can bring the stuff home, win some lose some eh?
Did a few other security upgrades as well whilst we were messing on.
Its not as spectacular or involved (or back breaking apparently) as LIGHTSPEEDs or SS's fabulous efforts but its definitely improved our lot.
5 November 2015, 16:54
Like SS says, everything you do on a smallholding is "prepper related".
Our seasons are different; planting, tending, harvesting, getting ready for winter, winter.
Anything else we do is deducted from an already busy schedule with machine maintenance being what we do in our spare time.
I had the added work of taking down two trees that were a hazard and working out 3 cords of wood plus dealing with chipping the brush, and I am building a new shed down on the corner of the lot as soon as I finish with the winterizing.
Our seasons are different; planting, tending, harvesting, getting ready for winter, winter.
Anything else we do is deducted from an already busy schedule with machine maintenance being what we do in our spare time.
I had the added work of taking down two trees that were a hazard and working out 3 cords of wood plus dealing with chipping the brush, and I am building a new shed down on the corner of the lot as soon as I finish with the winterizing.
6 November 2015, 00:57
Nope....nothing to see here folks....please move on.....f..k i fell asleep three times already....think i,ll weave a basket while i,m sleeping....why waste it ?