What have done towards your prep?

[Pete Grey]

To all members past and present...... Merry Christmas.

Take care and keep safe, and of course keep prepping .

[Skean Dhude]

Merry Christmas everyone. Lots of babysitting ahead while my kids get pissed.

[bigpaul]

merry christmas to all our members, past and present.

[Pete Grey]

As I said.......I believe there is a vast difference between survival at the lowest level which involves a lot of luck, and actual prepping, taking steps to build resilience to the various events/disasters, large and small, which could/will occur.

Our needs are.......Shelter, water, food, heating, cooking, lighting, first aid, medication, communication, security.

[iaaems]

As things stand now I get the impression that we have a repeat session on the go - politically - and that is potentially going to cause a lot of upheavel over the coming months/years like it did last time - so the warning from PG is spot on as far as I am concerned - we all need to be getting prepared for what is going to happen later on this year. To add on to this I have to mention that something similar seems to be happening 'over the pond' which could make everything a lot worse than it needs to be, I hope I am wrong in that regard.

[bigpaul]

in the UK we will just be exchanging one useless govt for another useless govt, nothing will change except the level of incompetence.
as for over the pond anything is better than a senile old fool who dosent know where he is or why and cant even read a script properly without fouling up and is no friend of Britain-he has made that very obvious.

[Pete Grey]

Things will only get worse.....So.....

Shelter......make your home is secure and maintained to the best of your ability.

Mains water(and Gas & sewage) are pumped by electricity.....the national grid is
stretched to its limits.....power cuts.

Food......if money is tight or you loose your job a stock of food will be a Godsend.

Heating......even if you’ve got mains gas can you afford to burn it.

Cooking......mains gas or electricity, as above.....power cuts.

Lighting......mains electricity as above.....power cuts.

First aid......keep safe don’t take risks....months for hospital appointment then
years for an operation.

Medication......weeks for doctor appointment.....then pharmacy can’t get the meds.

Communication......do you trust the media.....SW radio....foreign news bulletins ?.

Security......do you trust the police.....can you defend your loved ones ?.

So what are you going to do ?.

[bigpaul]

power cuts are always a possibility, we import a lot of electricity from France and Norway via undersea cables, we cant generate enough as the coal powered stations are shut down, so is Hinkley Point B and Point C wont be ready for another couple of years.
medication is a problem especially out here in the sticks, we get ours from the pharmacy at the local health centre but that has to be delivered to the health centre by van and they cant always get some meds, overheard an old lady had to wait until March for a face to face doctors appointment.
we keep a stock as food as the local food shop-there is only one- has a limited stock and would soon be empty in a national emergency.

[Pete Grey]

I know I keep banging on about what you guys should do, so here’s where we were.....

Our home is as secure as we can make it. Doors and windows are fitted with the best locks we could get. We have cctv cameras, all garden fencing is constantly checked and repaired as necessary, and is supplemented by spikey holly’s and firethorn’s.
After all we know our area, it’s where all our resources are, we’ve worked for many years to get house and garden to get where we are, all set up to bug in.

Where possible the majority of our preps are kept in crates, as they stack taking up less space, and can be easily checked and moved about quickly. We try to keep each about 30lb weight so if needed they can be loaded into a vehicle quickly and easily should we need to bug out. In a bug in situation we can quickly move stuff to where it’s most convenient.

Our potable water is kept in jerrycans with backup being our waterbutts, it gives us 150 gallons, we have a Berkeley filter, with spare filters, thin bleach, sterilising tablets, these will keep it all safe. We also have plans for the collection of as much rainwater as possible should it be necessary. The jerrycans can easily be moved on our four wheeled garden cart.

Our present food stocks both canned and dry should feed us for 4 or 5 months, more with care. We have a lot of salt for when the freezers die. We have raised beds for vegetables, fruit trees and bushes, and a good stock of seeds. However we don’t know how long we will be fit enough to garden, so we have started to increase our canned and dry food stocks.

For heating we have enough coal to last a long winter (our multifuel stove can also boil water and heat saucepans).

For cooking we mainly be using propane (we have spare regulators of all types also for butane if we cane “find” any) and we do have some charcoal and some logs. It may sound silly but we have a couple of homemade rocket stoves, they burn any odd twigs or scraps of wood in an emergency, they cost us nothing and could be very useful.

For when the power goes down we have solar panels and leisure batteries (we are planning to increase them and get spare cable, connectors and charge controllers). We now have little honda generator which we will try to keep for the freezers, but household lighting (all led now) will probably have to be rationed to 2 or 3 hours of an evening. We have led strip lights in garage and workshop, these really need their own solar supply, however after dark we’re usually in the house so not really a problem. But after an event with no mains electricity I expect windup led lanterns and candle lanterns will be the norm. We also have two hundred tea lights (cheap as chips) and two hurricane lamps with some paraffin, we’ve not forgotten matches and lighters.

For communication we have sw radio (plus a spare) for national and international news, cb radio and walkie talkies are for local use, they should keep us informed of any unusual situation, rechargeable batteries, several sets for each and a separate solar charger for them. We have two 12V 7Ah batteries (kept charged) and with ready made up leads just for comms. All kept in a metal dustbin for EMP protection.

Our medical preps are the usual OTC general colds and flu remedies etc, good stocks, and the other usual pills and ointments.
Our prescription medication (high blood pressure), two months supply, could be extended by reducing dose, and can be supplemented with home grown garlic, and dried hawthorn berries (to make hawthorn tea), we will have to take our chances if we run out of meds.

For first aid we have good stocks of sterile dressings, steri-strips, micropore tape, bandages, wound irrigation syringes, wound wash also hydrogen peroxide, detol and methylated spirit. I only keep items I know we are capable of using safely (we both did a first aid course some time ago). We also have good PPE stock.

We have tools for home maintenance, car maintenance (if we have fuel), gardening tools, and protective clothing to prevent any accidents, bump cap, work gloves (you can never have too many), welding gauntlets, rubber gloves and h/d pvc apron while handling batteries or any chemicals, leather apron (while welding or when heavy cutting), goggles, ear defenders, dust masks.

EDC is now a day sac, always with me or in the car behind the driving seat. There is a GHB kept in the boot, and a crate (with extra water, food for 3 days, an esbit stove and billy can, a tarp, FAK, if we are stranded for a couple of days ). If we are out and about and an event occurs and we have to abandon the car, I will carry the GHB and and my wife will carry the EDC day sac with any other useful stuff from the car.

As for a BOB, due to our age and circumstances we will not be moving into the woods or into the hills for an indefinite period, this is a bag to move to friends or to a hotel for a few days.

If we DO need to bug out it’s the camper, see a more detailed thread “PGs camper van”.

Our family car is a GHV and a backup BOV, there is a separate thread “The Car” with our thoughts on this.

We also have stuff cached with friends at our chosen BOL.

These are currently our plans and preps, but could easily be changed if and when necessary, plans should always be flexible.

And now...... we have increased our water, now 180 gallons, and we have a little extra food stocked, as we have regrettably had to cut down on growing vegetables due to our circumstances.

We still keep a good stock of coal and have increased our propane stock.

We now have a small fixed solar setup, two 120w panels feeding two leisure batteries just for battery charging, works well.

Medication and first aid remains the same, but we do need to seriously increase our PPE.

We have reorganised the utility room, as posted, to keep as much of the emergency stuff together for convenience in an event.

Car and camper preps remain the same.

That’s about it.

[Skean Dhude]

Pete, We are pretty much they same here but I suspect you are much further ahead on growing food than we are.

My view on the food is any food outside will be spotted and stolen possibly targeting us for break ins. I've got stocks to last for a couple of years although it won't give us much variety. After the 1st winter we will grow some stuff to compliment the stores and after the 2nd winter we will start growing more seriously.

If I had the space to grow the way you have In the event that it goes pear shaped I'd harvest what I could and get rid of the rest to reduce the potential that someone would spot it and target us.