Prepping. Not the nut job type...

[Ascender]

I'm not getting a warm fuzzy feeling about the world at the moment so had been thinking about what negative events (cyber attack, failing infrastructure etc) could happen which could affect simple things like the power grid, broadband, food supplies... Not in a "dig a bunker in the back garden and lock myself away" kind of a way, but just in a, maybe we should have some tinned food in the cupboards, a way to purify water and a battery powered radio.

Just me? Or should I just get the whisky out tonight and all this will pass?

[Gavster]

Given that you're in what I assume is a relatively remote location, I'd say that having enough long life/tinned food for a week or so isn't even remotely paranoid but simply pragmatic. The UK's food supply isn't particularly resilient and we still have a just-in-time food system which will run low fairly quickly in the event of major disruptions. Having said that, we're far more self-sufficient than we were before WW1 (only about 40% back then, now about 60%) so unlikely to see the extreme shortages even if all our supply lines were cut off overnight.

I actually contributed to a report for the National Preparedness Commission earlier this year about civil food resilience, the main crux if it all was that the food system isn't particularly resilient and the government needs to take steps to address that in light of current global instability.

[V8Granite]

It’s why we are pushing so hard to get to Wales and retire early

Personally, the big thing is grid stability. No large power stations, just thousands of shit solar and turbine technology. We call it the flywheel effect, you want a big mass of lively electricity keeping everything stable. Battery back-up but done properly, not like
Most installers use to look pretty. Busbar connected and able to add as much as you want when batteries go bad.

So I will have solar, a small turbine and not be connected. Should the weather go bad it will be a 5kva generator ready to go.

Battery back-up but done properly, not like
Most installers use to look pretty. Busbar connected and able to add as much as you want when batteries go bad.

Prep wise, a freezer with a few weeks of meat in and a few months of animal food in advance.

The council can’t even decide what we can and can’t have in our bins, I think they will be hopeless when we actually have proper situations to deal with.

Oh and a Unimog, a Unimog is essential.

Dave!

[Ascender]

That's really interesting @Gavster. I need to do some more reading on the subject.

We'll get solar panels and maybe a turbine once the barn is done, but definitely need to get a generator and a large freezer. Plan is to grow some veg once we have that sorted too.

A Unimog would be simply tremendous, but I guess we have the gator and a couple of decent 4x4s.

[IanF]

I think your tinned food will be out of date before anything happens that seriously restricts your access to a supermarket or steady power supply.

[integrale_evo]

The idea generally is that you gradually build up stock and rotate it. No point having a shed full of 5 year out of date food when you need to use it.

What’s the lifespan on those army mre packets?

Then again, are you really going to want to use them before they go out of date to replenish stock without waste? Not sure I’d want to live off my rations unless I needed to when there’s normal food still available. Or do you just write off the expense as a necessary ’just in case’ cost?

We have very little. I have a lot of 18v tool batteries which I usually try and keep the majority of charged, which should keep phones etc charged for ages. Plus a camping stove and stash of gas canisters. Probably be screwed after much more than a few days though. Maybe a week at best living off what we have in the house.

Winter would be tougher, might have to take everything to my mums as there’s a log burner

[Mito Man]

So food supply isn't particularly resilient and the government are paying farmers more money to not grow edible crops now

Stock up on MREs - there's that guy on Youtube who would eat WW2 era rations and many of the parts were still edible. I think he's still alive.

Purification tablets for water.

I got emailed this by the Swedish embassy a few months ago https://rib.msb.se/filer/pdf/30874.pdf
It gets updated fairly regularly. May be useful.

[DeskJockey]

We've got a small stock of food items that we rotate through (need to go through it soon). Most are things that can be eaten without cooking/heating.

It would buy us about a week. Also need to consider the water situation. We've got bottled water, but need to add something more space efficient.

[dinny_g]

The fundamental question you need to ask yourself is this. Do you want to survive? In a world where the basic fabric of society and government has disintegrated, do you still want to keep fighting through the world that remains??

I live less than 10 miles from a key strategic target for the Russians so when the shit kicks off, I’ll have about 2 mins to say my goodbyes and then it’s all gone.

Which is absolutely fine by me. I don’t want to survive the apocalypse to try to fight on through the nightmare world that remains, battling hunger and violence until the cancer eventually gets me. 20 years ago, maybe, but now, despite having the knowledge and skillset which means I’d give myself a fair to middling chance of survival, I wouldn’t want to.

And on that cheery note, I’ll say good night

[Matty]

As mentioned, I don't think having a weeks worth of food on hand is a bad thing regardless.

Catastrophising is something that's been running through my mind a bit recently, what with all the doom and gloom in the news, but I don't think we're any closer to anything that would cause life changing events.

The AI thing though...that's more of a concern for me.

Stock up on MREs - there's that guy on Youtube who would eat WW2 era rations and many of the parts were still edible. I think he's still alive.

Steve "nice hiss" MRE is brilliant....he's not killed himself yet, but he's made himself *very* sick a few times

[Ascender]

The fundamental question you need to ask yourself is this. Do you want to survive? In a world where the basic fabric of society and government has disintegrated, do you still want to keep fighting through the world that remains??

I live less than 10 miles from a key strategic target for the Russians so when the shit kicks off, I’ll have about 2 mins to say my goodbyes and then it’s all gone.

Which is absolutely fine by me. I don’t want to survive the apocalypse to try to fight on through the nightmare world that remains, battling hunger and violence until the cancer eventually gets me. 20 years ago, maybe, but now, despite having the knowledge and skillset which means I’d give myself a fair to middling chance of survival, I wouldn’t want to.

And on that cheery note, I’ll say good night

Sorry for starting this!

Lots of good, practical advice along the lines of what I was thinking. And that Swedish thing is the same, simple, practical advice @Mito Man

And yeah, I have had the thought about whether living to see the other side of something apocalyptic (I know that word is misused now) would be a good thing or not.

[dinny_g]

[Gavster]

To counter the apocalyptic side of things I’ve just been reading this guy’s latest book, ‘How to Fall in Love with the Future’ which is a fantastic exercise in positive thought amongst our current geopolitical situation.

https://amzn.to/4kqkbDo

[integrale_evo]

Yeah, I’m quite happy not to worry about surviving a full on nuclear war, but I don’t think there’s any harm in having a week or twos supplies in the house.

The start of covid showed us how quickly even a minor blip can cause chaos so is ‘something’ did go wrong I’d rather not have to go out and immediately start getting involved in the chaos to provide for my family.

[Gavster]

A lot of the food supply chain issues such as during covid were not due to a lack of food, in fact most historic food shortages are rarely due to there not being enough food. It’s because the system isn’t set up to deal with shocks, and when there’s a sudden change of any magnitude, the system isn’t dynamic enough to pivot. Hence why ‘growing more’ is rarely the solution.

[integrale_evo]

I completely realise that, but also shows how quickly the system can fall over if there’s a blip of any sort. I don’t think gradually building a sensible stock which allows you to avoid it long enough that hopefully things steady themselves is all that crazy.

I won’t be digging an underground bunker and stocking up on firearms

[Mito Man]

Just thinking back to the "12 day war" (TM Trump) between Iran and Israel. Supermarkets in both countries ran out of food after a few days. You'd think Israel would be prepared for that seeing as they were doing almost all the attacking and are constantly in conflict but it all went to shit very quickly. And that's a country where almost everyone has access to a bunker with reserves of food.

[240PP]

GF bought a wind up radio last week for this kind of eventuality. I took the piss so she’s told me I’m not allowed to listen to it should the situation arise.

[Carlos]

I keep the account going with my milkman as a backup. They were great during COVID, delivering farm produce such as eggs, meat, butter etc as well as the milk. We also keep more tinned and dried foods now and rotate via use as others mentioned.

COVID was inconceivable so as long as I'm prepared for that type of scenario again I sleep easy

[Gavster]

I completely realise that, but also shows how quickly the system can fall over if there’s a blip of any sort. I don’t think gradually building a sensible stock which allows you to avoid it long enough that hopefully things steady themselves is all that crazy.

I won’t be digging an underground bunker and stocking up on firearms

Yeah sorry I was trying to add to what you said, I wasn't arguing. I know it's hard to tell in this place sometimes