[Closed] Preppers

My mate used to be into that. Had boxes of food stashed in the loft, 'go-bag' next to the door.

Then he met a girl and moved abroad.

🙂

I've prepped some scotch broth.
I take soup very seriously, almost as serious as omelettes.
It's for my lunch this coming week.

I also pay into a pension, and I occasionally entertain the notion of buying a crossbow before they are made illegal.

I've waxed my chain ready for next weekend's ride, and I have 2 sets of tyres to take
I'm taking it very seriously - it's my biggest race humiliation of the season

I bought 5 2B pencils so I can be sure my Strat nut will run freely. Just in case.

I'm prepping for work meetings on Monday and Tuesday.

laid out my work clothes for tomorrow

My son did some practice papers and had a tutor for his 11+

Ha.

I prefer crorgettes

Does laying a couple of sheets of toilet paper before opening the bomb bay doors count?

I've checked the week ahead diary for work.

One of the few good bits about covid was when all the US preppers finally had their moment to shine, and then came out of their bunkers crying after a week because they wanted a haircut.

I got a GX cassette and chain in case things get worse 😂😂

I’ve got an air pistol, axe, garden tractor and booze……I’m ready.

Nice pics! You look ready in the second pic to go on a hunt for hedge porn. And then spreading it out on that portable table in a picturesque location of your choice no doubt 😀

Please don't kill me. I'm sure you're a perfectly well balanced gentleman of high esteem in society.

PreP means pre exposure prophylaxis in my world. If you’ve been vaccinated, your prepping for your sars-cov-2 infection.

I’ve prepped (well dusted) the kickr.

I prefer crorgettes

I read this and thought 'winner', but then I read this:

Does laying a couple of sheets of toilet paper before opening the bomb bay doors count?

😂

Is anyone a “prepper” how seriously are you prepping and what for?

Semi-serious ... I stock up soy sauce from Taiwan, Japan, Korean, SE Asia, one or two brands from HK/China, rice wine and MSG. Without them food will be so blunt I might as well just go kamikaze Orang Utan Borneo style. Plenty of rice too. Back home we don't buy rice by 10kg ... we buy them by 50kg and store in sealed container due to insects. Plenty of dry food as well.

Apart from that I have two Weber portable BBQ stoves, plenty of cast iron and Zebra stainless steel stuff. As for my defence my multipurpose meat cleaver will do but I prefer Borneo head hunter parang or Kukri.

Why am I "prepping"? Well, UK is an Island and when everything starts kicking off in the far east with Chinese commies, the supply chain will be affected and the first shortage will be soy sauce from Taiwan (my favuorite) and rice wine (I can make the normal rice wine but not those with high proof distilled type <- that's the Western expert LOL!).

The rest I have enough to last me a while ...

My only bit of prepping was buying a 25kg sack of pale malt just as places were shutting because of covid.

Then I realised that buying in bulk is both cheaper and better if you fancy brewing on a regular basis, so I bought another 25kg sack. That way I don’t have to worry hat I am out of grain to brew with until next year at some point.

Bike is cleaned, lubed and checked for next weekend  will still have to check tyres the night before.

I have learned my lesson, if only I had bought a couple of spares GX cassettes / XO derailleurs & chains  before EU Exit.

In all seriousness if I was in the USA I’d do a bit of “prepping”. The bad weather that hit Texas where they were cut off from water and power for days on end was really bad. There’s some areas in the USA where critical infrastructure is either quite poor or very far away so prepping is probably a small part of a lot of peoples normal way of life - decent food stocks, generators, wood for fires, water supply etc. Theres also a lot of people who live so remotely they already live a post apocalyptic lifestyle!!!

Only thing I am doing is stocking up on non perishables when they are on offer so I save money later - wish I’d bought more of the lovely Lavazzo instant coffee when it was £2.50 a tin!!

Imagine thinking it's a good idea to try and learn skills to be more independent/self sufficient/reliant. It's not like there's a climate emergency that's already happening or anything. Idiots.

I’ve set my alarm for 05.45 tomorrow, does that count?

I met a guy who was the partner of a friend of my sister in law. He was big into it and did the stock piling ready for the forthcoming Armageddon. I met him one time and he was extolling the virtues of tampons for padding ballistic injuries , although he was a uniform pc I did point out this was a little ot in rural Devon and he didn’t take that too well. He was eventually dumped as he went a bit more loopy apparently, zombies were being mentioned and not in a jokey way.

On the plus side when the nuclear apocalypse comes and it will, I'll be a breeder!

Imagine thinking it’s a good idea to try and learn skills to be more independent/self sufficient/reliant. It’s not like there’s a climate emergency that’s already happening or anything. Idiots.

Honestly, It's looking more and more like a sensible thing really. Partner and I have talked about making sure we have a freezer reasonably stoked with food, some extra packs of dried foods, nothing mad, just enough so we're not reliant on supermarket shelves, and making sure that we have stuff like candles, flashlight, battery powered radio, and so on

Is that prepping?

it feels just a bit bonkers I'll admit, but I also never thought that I'd see shelves emptied twice over in the space of 18 months and petrol shortages and fist fights at garages in my lifetime either.

Was brought up in the 70s when power cuts were common, we had a big store cupboard of staples.

It has made me very wary of everything switching to electricity and relying on potentially unreliable wind and solar.

And the increasing "divide and conquer" nature of debate at home and abroad.

Maybe I'm a wannabe prepper?

I live in a street full of bungalows si I am probably the youngest, fittest and best armed on the street. If the world goes tits up I plan to just harvest the other residents and then live off their food.

You don't have to be fastest, just faster than the slowest*.

*Axe attacks can help slow down the fast ones if you find yourself in difficulties with this.

Axe attacks can help slow down the fast ones if you find yourself in difficulties with this.

Given your record I'm not sure they'd come off worse.

I may not run very well but I can limp faster than most...

Ive put some money in crypto - that should do it.

Supply chain issues mean mayonaisse is almost gone from the supermarket shelves here in the Far East. I'm buying them here and there online to stock up for the long haul.

Can still get shimano drive train parts (no SLX brake levers anymore) but can't eat them!

There’s some areas in the USA where critical infrastructure is either quite poor or very far away so prepping is probably a small part of a lot of peoples normal way of life

Made me think of this train line in America on youtube. I love how the first part of the video is actually sped up.

Partner and I have talked about making sure we have a freezer reasonably stoked with food

Great until the power goes after "the event".

If the world goes tits up I plan to just harvest the other residents and then live off their food bodies.

FTFY

I'm pretty certain people in Alaska spend the summer months hunting bears/elk etc and felling trees for firewood. Likewise Scandinavia; that book about stacking wood the Norwegian way stated that if you didn't get the wood in early (!) you'd be overlooked as a potential husband (it apparently being the man's job to do so) as it meant you couldn't provide for your family. Is that Prepping, and if so hasn't it been going on for aeons?
People stocking up on weapons such as assault rifles, trebuchets, SUVs, etc are just plain nuts though.

Aren't they?...

You don’t have to be fastest, just faster than the slowest*.

Reminds me.... An old colleague was photographer and guide in the arctic. He got a piece of work and a few colleagues headed off to training in preparation for Greenland. This included guns for polar bear threat. It was pointed out that to shoot at a polar bears head likely would just p*ss the bear off, rather than harm it too much as the skull is so thick.

Colleague asked what then was she supposed to do.

Answer (delivered with a straight face) was apparently to shoot the geologist you were guiding in the foot...

Bear goes for downed colleague and eats any evidence.

🤣🤣🤣

Was brought up in the 70s when power cuts were common, we had a big store cupboard of staples.

I think you'll find that's the stationery cupboard.

That'll be the one the bear gets, then.

I don’t plan, it just happens. Am a natural camper, yet don’t feel happy being ‘prepped’ it sounds so final (also so N. American-sounding

However I do tend to plan ahead and also like to think on my feet/be ready to move.

Our gardener has been mysteriously absent this year or so, and just last week I was forced to cut some invasive sycamore and holly at the top of our bank as the growth was crowding the already faded sunlight. SAD is not worth the risk. I have no garden tools yet (fortunately for all involved) I never fail to keep my Swiss Champ to hand.

With the SAK saw I cut a 12ft pole from the new growth that was actually accessible from my stepladder. I then used this pole as a saw-extension with which to cut the rest.

All of the cut poles have now been trimmed and stored to season. They will serve as small firewood/kindling for the firebowl in time of electricity shortage. I also keep packs of gas cartridges for the small camp cooker, and a larger one for the camp kitchen.

This new branch-saw skill (thanks again to Felix Immler) will certainly come in handy if the lentils and rice give out.

It’s no hardship to simply hide out in the laurel and wait for fat pigeons to happen along. And they are plentiful hereabouts. I drew up the simple format last year. Ergo hard times = easy meat:

Have various 500g packs of dried lentils, also rices and flours aplenty these are stored in large tubs along with tinned goods such as plum tomatoes, chickpeas, coconut milk, etc. We have natural water sources on hand so it’s just food, warmth and medications. If med-supplies are out entirely (and should hopelessness beckon too clearly) then I’ll simply walk to the heath and seek counsel with the mushroom-spirits to see me through another year.

And, yeah, it's a very US thing isn't it. Which to an extent I can kind of understand. If you live in Shitsville, Montana then it's probably prudent to have a few supplies on hand for when the power goes out and the bears arrive. If you live in Royal Tonbridge Wells then perhaps not so much unless you're deeply concerned about Waitrose running out of strawberries.

Too many of them though think they're Walter out of The Big Lebowski. I didn't know whether to laugh or despair when we had lockdown happened, all the preppers went "finally, our hour has come," retrieved all their buried ammo caches and then realised they hadn't packed any actual food.

I've usually got about 60 pints kicking about for my beer machines. Should see me through any short term trouble. 😆

I drew up the simple format last year

I can't breathe. That's amazing!

In seriousness though, how the actual frank did you get the corkscrew AND the blade through the branch? That defies all physics.

Oh, wait, is this a perspective issue and it's behind the branch? (which raises more questions)

making sure we have a freezer reasonably stoked with food

"Ohhh Nickc, this food you've been storing in me is like, totally awesome dude.
This isn't just any old muck, this is the absolute shitz.
WHOOP"

I think you’ll find that’s the stationery cupboard.

I see what you did there

Thank you, one person.

Oh, wait, is this a perspective issue and it’s behind the branch?

Correct. The corkscrew so deployed was (I assumed) an Immler ‘failsafe’ feature in case of unforeseen excessive lateral forces. Good fortune (at least in my reckoning) dictates the likelihood of said corkscrew assuming a more primary function, ie that of a ‘fascinator’ by which to temporarily bewitch the pigeon as the saw does it’s work.

it feels just a bit bonkers I’ll admit, but I also never thought that I’d see shelves emptied twice over in the space of 18 months and petrol shortages and fist fights at garages in my lifetime either.

were you not around in the early 2000's during the last fuel shortages?

I think most of the original US preppers who were convinced Armageddon was just around the corner have since grown old and popped their clogs.

Mind you, I keep a couple of packets of powdered Ensure(Strawberry) in the cupboard just in case. Although should nuclear armageddon befall us there won't be any water supplies to make the mix up with.

Thank you, one person.

Two, I thought it an excellent quip.

I love the train video - so kind of the driver to give notice so anyone intending to go over the crossing has half an hour to do it, to avoid the half hour wait for it to pass! 😉
We complain about our railways, but even a single line section like the one that turns off towards Westbury and Salisbury is much, much faster than that!

I have a mental list of the shops I'd loot first in the event of a zombie apocalypse. That's about it.

Well practised here as the only food shop in town is regularly out of stock on even common foodstuffs due to the combined incompetence of the Co-Op with a soupçon of Brexit buggeration. I was feeling particularly smug today having been able to buy 4 tins of Heinz baked beans. Meanwhile the booze isle is full stocked with stuff like Rattler’s battery acid/floor cleaner/ Cornish cider where I’d prefer to drink my own wee.

Much simpler bird trap that works well with pigeons and can be made with a few sticks and an old inner tube so all materials that come to hand, unless you are fully committed to tubeless.

I made on like this as a kid to see if it would work and then got pecked and covered in bird shit trying to release the pigeon I caught after about 2 minutes so it definitely works but kill the bird while in the net rather than freeing it to fly another day.

I had a pretty intensive prep before my colonoscopy.