Any preppers here?

[vrdiver]

I've got camping stoves, battery lights, paraffin lamps, axes

Ah, yes, about axes. I recently bought a 6Lb log splitter which is a joy to wield - spent a very pleasant evening splitting logs.

I now have "tennis elbow" in both arms due most likely to incorrect axe usage.

Which brings me to the point: in the event of actually needing end-of-civilisation supplies, having them won't be enough. The survivors will be the people who have them (or, ahem, "acquire" them) but who can also use them. The likes of me will show willing, but probably show up dead before too long, due to schoolboy errors.

That rather refocuses my attention: realistically I can't learn how to be a mountain man, so I might as well go out in style. My end-of-the-world supplies consist of* a map of my favourite breweries, distilleries, luxury food producers and their distribution networks. It also includes an off-road vehicle and fuel.

VRD

*OK, so maybe not, but in reality, if civilisation fails, we'll be back to pre-civilisation population levels pretty quickly and the transition won't be elegant. If it's just a toilet paper shortage, I know where to find some leaves...

[panamagold]

Check out the post apocalyptic novel 'The Stand' by Stephen King. A good read.

[Imbiber]

Not a prepper but prepared for a reasonable period cut off from civilisation. We are rural but not really isolated or remote. A good store cupboard, gallons of home brewed beer and a good stock of wine from frequent trips to France. Shotguns and rifles and a plentiful supply of rabbits and pigeons. Power cuts, while not as frequent as in the past still occur, with overhead lines and lots of trees it is inevitable. The Lister 9 kVA generator run for a couple of hours twice a day keeps the freezer frozen and provides light and power. No mains gas, so cooking is either on a propane cooker or the oil fired Rayburn.

[SalvorHardin]

Like others on this thread I'm rural but not too far away from the nearest town. My prepping isn't for the collapse of civilisation and descending into Mad Max territory, though I sometimes think about getting a hand crossbow or compound longbow and I've read a lot of post-apocalypse fiction! (I recommend "A Canticle for Leibowitz" and "Earth Abides"). Rather it's to cope with several weeks of disruption to food, petrol, electricity, etc.

If things got really bad the main problems would be concentrated in the big cities, not out here in the sticks where we are generally more self-reliant (if I had to I could probably grow 90% of what I needed to survive in my back garden).

Plenty of tinned food, rice, chocolate and biscuits. My stock of non-perishables would easily last a month. Water; if needs be there's a stream nearby and I've got water purification devices and tablets. Cooking fuel would be wood from the garden. Bicycles are great for transport when the petrol runs out.

We've had plenty of power cuts over the years so, in addition to keeping a chemical lightstick in every room, I have several hand powered torches and lanterns, plus solar battery chargers which take AA and AAA batteries (I recommend Panasonic's "Eneloop" rechargeables). And lots of basic medical supplies (plasters, bandages, disinfectants, painkillers, Immodium tablets, etc.)

Other things which I find useful on a regular basis, not just for prepping, are Swisscards (credit card size mini-toolkit, fits in the wallet), multitools, external USB batteries (very useful for recharging mobile phones and powering tablet computers when out and about) and lots of cash for emergencies. Cash is brilliant when you're in a supermarket queue just after the payment terminals have crashed (as has happened twice to me so far this year). Plus a second mobile phone, a cheap pay-as-you-go phone using a different network.

[neversay]

Thanks for all your replies. (Note to self: avoid starting a thread then going away for a weekend)

It's interesting to hear different takes on the likelihood/impact and response to any problems. There seem to be to threads here - prepping for (1) short-term disruption [e.g. power, water, heat, meds] and (2) long-term major disruption [survival skills, off-grid, weaponry, malt whisky].

Your responses are encouraging given the exposure to multiple risks (weather, cyber attacks, systems failures, etc) and that we are increasingly dependent on critical infrastructure (internet access, bank networks, distribution networks, etc). Given, for example, that we were close to banking system failure in 2008, and more recently have seen the NHS virus, it's remarkable how quickly we forget the risks. It seems we are building a society that is more fragile than ever to any 'black swans' (let alone while ones).

Personally, it is great to hear your own responses to the risks as I feel under-prepared. I need to figure out a backup heating source for one (tips welcome) and need to buy more items on your lists, including basic supplies. Given we live in the inner suburbs of a smaller city, the preparation for the major disruption/zombie apocalypse gets far more difficult for reasons others have mentioned. In which case, I'm resolving to start with everything on the short-term preparation list (and malt-whisky* from the second) and go from there.

N.

(*- for medicinal reasons of course, like sawing one of my limbs off whatever reason)

[UncleEbenezer]

(I recommend "A Canticle for Leibowitz" and "Earth Abides").

My recollection of Leibowitz is that it has nothing to do with living through or in the wake of an apocalyptic event. Rather it's long after, and the apocalypse is effectively as distant as ... hmm ... if not the extinction of the dinosaurs then at least the mythical quality of the Old Testament.

Never read your other recommendation.

If things got really bad the main problems would be concentrated in the big cities, not out here in the sticks where we are generally more self-reliant (if I had to I could probably grow 90% of what I needed to survive in my back garden).

Lucky you. But you'd have to be prepared: food doesn't just grow overnight! And it's seasonal: do you have something for every month? And unless it's a very big garden, you may be overestimating it.

Plenty of tinned food, rice, chocolate and biscuits. My stock of non-perishables would easily last a month. Water; if needs be there's a stream nearby and I've got water purification devices and tablets. Cooking fuel would be wood from the garden. Bicycles are great for transport when the petrol runs out.

Again, that's a big garden. Expect it to be raided once people are sufficiently desperate. And the raiders who survive will be the fittest: the best able to kill you if you try to stop them.

We've had plenty of power cuts over the years so, in addition to keeping a chemical lightstick in every room,

Is that a fancy name for a candle?

In a country run by seriously incompetent cretins, you'd better have something in season in that garden next spring when our food supplies suffer a shock potentially much greater than this year's cockup on our railways.

[SalvorHardin]

In a country run by seriously incompetent cretins, you'd better have something in season in that garden next spring when our food supplies suffer a shock potentially much greater than this year's cockup on our railways.

ROTFLMAO. If you really believe that things are going to be that bad you should emigrate.

BTW the other points you raised. If you think that I'm going to respond given your aggressive, threatening and sarcastic manner (in particular asking for details about security precautions, etc.), then I've got a bridge that you might like to buy.

Have you never heard of a lightstick? (They're a bit like candles except you don't need to light them)

Don't expect any further response from me to any of your posts.

[neversay]

@UncleEbenezer and @SalvorHardin stay cool. You're the good guys and I will need your help when the SHTF!

[dionaeamuscipula]

I often wonder whether, given the kind of person who is likely to survive a significantly life threatening event, I would actually want to be a long term survivor.

Please make it quick though. And the food supplies are in the garage.

DM

[UncleIan]

I think there was a documentary about preppers in the USA on telly the other night, one of those Stacey Dooley things. This one family living on some fly blown ramshackle dump of a place that already looked like something post apocalyptic. They were of course armed to the teeth to defend their heap of crap, that I suppose you'd only think "oh there's something in there worth nicking" if the balloon went up and you saw the place and thought "oh, yeah, that looks like a preppers place, there'll be loads of food in there" and you'd already emptied suburbia of rice and flour. They had *so* many jar of beans. Even if they didn't survive a long time, it would seem like it. And I don't mean to be rude, but to what end, I mean, if they're the only survivors, and you need to rebuild civilisation, and they're all in the same family....

[sound of dueling banjos starts]

[stevensfo]

Storms of 87 was the worse I've experienced, power out in our village for 10 days, had gas, and luckily a gas oven, and only blocked in by trees for a couple of days,

I've always been a bit embarrassed by the fact that I actually slept through the whole thing. I was an underpaid lab technician sharing a house with four others in East London. I had to walk to work and remember scratching my head and wondering why so many trees in the road.

Re. prepping, the only thing I can add is to have a diesel car and diesel generator. It's far safer than petrol to store. Also, butts for collecting rainwater, old teeshirts for filtering and plenty of matches!

Steve

[UncleEbenezer]

@UncleEbenezer and @SalvorHardin stay cool. You're the good guys and I will need your help when the SHTF!

He seems to have read something entirely different to what I wrote. The only one of his accusations for which I can see any possible justification is sarcasm, and that's I guess just my style when expressing scepticism over someone's expectations.

I often wonder whether, given the kind of person who is likely to survive a significantly life threatening event, I would actually want to be a long term survivor.

Please make it quick though. And the food supplies are in the garage.

Exactly. Once you're past a certain age, you might adapt to romantic survivalism in the wilderness, but not to a warlord society. Our population density is a lot higher than Somalia's, so it'll be much worse here if the machine stops.

p.s. It's started here. Power cut been happening for an hour and a half already.

[UncleIan]

Storms of 87 was the worse I've experienced, power out in our village for 10 days, had gas, and luckily a gas oven, and only blocked in by trees for a couple of days,

I've always been a bit embarrassed by the fact that I actually slept through the whole thing. I was an underpaid lab technician sharing a house with four others in East London. I had to walk to work and remember scratching my head and wondering why so many trees in the road.

I slept through it too. A teenager, what can I say? We lived at the bottom of a valley, and so I think we were relatively unscathed. I cycled to college and it turned into a bit of a mission, I made it after several detours only to find it was shut. An adventure though. The local forestry commission plantation didn't fare so well, swathes of it over like matchsticks. We went for a walk up there not long after and you could play "the ground is lava" for 100s of metres, great fun.

[Watis]

Storms of 87 was the worse I've experienced, power out in our village for 10 days, had gas, and luckily a gas oven, and only blocked in by trees for a couple of days,

I've always been a bit embarrassed by the fact that I actually slept through the whole thing. I was an underpaid lab technician sharing a house with four others in East London. I had to walk to work and remember scratching my head and wondering why so many trees in the road.

Re. prepping, the only thing I can add is to have a diesel car and diesel generator. It's far safer than petrol to store. Also, butts for collecting rainwater, old teeshirts for filtering and plenty of matches!

Steve

I, too, slept through the Great Storm of '87.

I woke around the time the radio alarm should have gone off, to the sound of white noise. Oh, I thought, I must have knocked it out of tune when I set it the previous evening but, as I found out later, my chosen radio station was unable to broadcast at that time.

Got up and set off for work. noted that it was a bit breezy and there's lots of shrubbery in the road but - hey, where's all the traffic?

The car radio - broadcasting having been restored - was telling everyone to stay at home unless their journey was essential. Still no traffic - and I get to work, 20 miles away, earlier than usual!

The few people who made it in say: "Wow, we didn't expect to see you today!". Missed a trick there.

Watis

[melonfool]

Large store cupboards as well, given the propensity of supermarkets to run out of basics like sugar and salt.

Whoa there Alaric. If your propensity for basics is the above then I don't think you need concern yourself too much with regard to the end of the world being the cause of your demise. Unless, of course, it happens this afternoon. In which case I'll see you all on the otherside.

I can very happily live without salt, and not sure when I last used sugar, so no, not basics for me at all.

I'll be stockpiling tinned foods, dried pasta and rice (though I won't be popping round to Urbandreamer's to partake of the rice he's had since the petrol crisis in 2001!).

Mel

[AleisterCrowley]

...a second mobile phone, a cheap pay-as-you-go phone using a different network.

Handy hint -if you've got Vodafone or O2 get an EE or Three mobile, and vice versa.
Although the networks are separate further up the chain Voda/O2, and EE/3 mast share, so if you lose the mast you'll lose both sharers (generally)

[neversay]

I'm not sure if there are any 'Walking Dead' fans on this thread but, for me, the interesting thing was the writers' consideration of how individuals and groups might react to societal breakdown. Individuals might 'go to pieces', others have the skills/nouse to survive, and choose between good or evil (facing moral gray areas). Survival very quickly requires being in groups that take different leadership structures - some by violent gangs, others democratic or acquiescing to a leader, forming kingdoms or cults. On an intellectual level it's a good exploration of post-apocalyptic survival behaviour. On a non-intellectual level there are some great zombie bashing! (who can forget the junk yard grinder scene?)

[scotia]

He seems to have read something entirely different to what I wrote.

Yes - I also was puzzled - I looked back over your responses, but couldn't track down the apparently offending text
Any way - to lighten the mood - who has seen Barrie's play The Admirable Crichton? Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man.

[tjh290633]

I saw it many years ago. Can't remember where or who was in it. Could have been a film, even. Michael Wilding?

TJH

[chas49]

I saw it many years ago. Can't remember where or who was in it. Could have been a film, even. Michael Wilding?

TJH

Kenneth More starred (The Admirable Crichton)