New noob :)

[peejay]

Hi all, just wanted to say a quick hello as just signed up!

Am at the beginning of my journey towards better prep for who knows what - picked up a couple of "Water to Go" bottles yesterday as his 'n' hers so will be giving them a bit of a test over the next few days!

My aims aren't really to survive Armageddon, not sure I'd want to TBH! Main desire is to be able to last without too much panic through short-medium term issues - power/water/utility outage etc. We had an issue last year where our water supply had a mains problem resulting in manky water for a few hours, then the obvious mistrust of what came out after that for the rest of the day. One thing I've learnt since first looking into basic prepping is how important water is in the overall scheme of things so will start stocking up on that first, will aim for a week supply first, then start looking at other areas (food/power/lighting etc.)

I have an interest in/hankering for Solar as well so will be looking into small scale usage there.

My "biggun" that I think is most likely to get us at short-notice is a CME or similar - it's all a numbers game really, one of these days we're likely to get a(nother) proper slap & it will be a SHTF situation.

Anyway, will add more thoughts here from home later, back to some work for another bit whilst I daydream next steps

[pseudonym]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.

[Deeps]

Welcome to the forum, sounds like you have a grasp of what you're about. One thing to note though

My aims aren't really to survive Armageddon, not sure I'd want to TBH!

While I feel the same (and consider it unlikely) what if you do ?

Back to more sensible issues, good start with water, its a basic that is often overlooked for more 'sexy' prepping toys. There are a few threads on small scale solar projects, I'm sure Yorkshire Andy will be able to answer any burning questions. Saying that, its worth having a look through some of the old threads for inspiration, when I joined I had my eyes opened to all sorts of ideas.

[nickdutch]

we are all new as there is always things to learn and skills to improve and attitudes to develop. Its something you just mature with. For me, I have mainly been using this to learn how to be a better integrated person and to avoid a few common catastrophes such as power cuts, short term unemployment and the like.
Browse around and have fun.

[peejay]

Welcome to the forum, sounds like you have a grasp of what you're about. One thing to note though

My aims aren't really to survive Armageddon, not sure I'd want to TBH!

While I feel the same (and consider it unlikely) what if you do ?
.

Realistically? If it's that bad I probably wouldn't have lasted anyway!

In all seriousness though, we've had a few minor hiccups over the years I was thinking about today such as power cuts (still regular enough to be a nuisance), boiler breaking down on 30th December - close call but got someone in in time for new year!

So it doesn't have to be a disaster to be a significant inconvenience, if I can cover those kinds of things off I'll be doing well.

I'm not the wild camping bugout kind of lad, well, if I was single I'd probably give it a go but unlikely these days. However, we do have a very nice caravan so if we have a situation where we need to evacuate from home then we're also covered there accommodation/heating-wise etc. In a real SHTF situation though I'd imagine there's be a long line of people suddenly realising they rather like the looks of my cosy caravan!

[Deeps]

Welcome to the forum, sounds like you have a grasp of what you're about. One thing to note though

My aims aren't really to survive Armageddon, not sure I'd want to TBH!

While I feel the same (and consider it unlikely) what if you do ?
.

Realistically? If it's that bad I probably wouldn't have lasted anyway!

In all seriousness though, we've had a few minor hiccups over the years I was thinking about today such as power cuts (still regular enough to be a nuisance), boiler breaking down on 30th December - close call but got someone in in time for new year!

So it doesn't have to be a disaster to be a significant inconvenience, if I can cover those kinds of things off I'll be doing well.

I'm not the wild camping bugout kind of lad, well, if I was single I'd probably give it a go but unlikely these days. However, we do have a very nice caravan so if we have a situation where we need to evacuate from home then we're also covered there accommodation/heating-wise etc. In a real SHTF situation though I'd imagine there's be a long line of people suddenly realising they rather like the looks of my cosy caravan!

Totally agree on the 'small' disaster front, that's my kind of prepping too, no zombies on my horizon. I'm a bit jealous of the caravan, long term we're after a mobile home but the next car will be big enough to pull a caravan. Enjoy the forum mate.

[Arzosah]

peejay, welcome! Focussing on water, and acknowledging the use of a caravan for the "smaller" emergencies sounds dead sensible, I'm another one envying you the caravan

[peejay]

Thanks for the welcomes folks!

Yes, the caravan has me thinking all sorts now as well. I know from experience that when we had an issue with the cooling element in the fridge we had to run it on gas whilst awaiting parts & we got around a week of fridge (& minor gas cooker use) from a 6kg bottle. We can keep 2 bottles in the caravan so then I started wondering how much gas I could store at home (a couple of bottles at best I suspect, still looking into it).

That then made me wonder if a serious prepper could consider having a gas-fired fridge at home to keep urgent stuff cool (as it'd never be large) - possibly folks that have temp-sensitive medicine dependencies etc.

For me personally I think if I could keep a couple of larger bottles at home (further down the line at this point, much more fundamental stuff to sort first) then we'd be sorted for a reasonable time both for heating & refrigeration.

The caravan has a 100w solar panel which, at least in summer, will run the basic electrics for quite some time if needs be.

Also starting to consider a small generator for numerous things, running our Sky box & OH's hair dryer/straightners in the caravan when off-grid is one use-case, and those are also available with gas conversions which means far less mess from fuel carrying/usage etc. hence gas bottle storage again...

[whenfires]

Welcome to the forum peejay. I'm also looking into some basic solar systems at the moment. If only to charge up batteries for torches, lanterns, radios etc to start with. I have a couple of the portable 'backpack' type folding panels but am thinking about a larger and permament shed roof installation.

Enjoy the forum, there's loads here in the archives.

[peejay]

Well, this week, I've mostly been reading/absorbing this forum (so far have read through "How are you prepping this week" parts 2, 3 & 4!) and actually made a start!

SO much useful information here, and it's been interesting reading peoples stories over a period of time as well, glad to say things seem to have worked out for most folks that had ups & downs

So, I'm starting out very simple initially, basically first port of call is to set ourselves up so we DON'T keep running out of essentials! OH does all the shopping in this family but she tends to shop for 3 days at a time rather than a week, partly because we both struggle with thinking/deciding what to eat more than a few days in advance! I suspect that'll change slightly as things move forward.

So, things we're frequently running out of (and which drives me mad) are basics like toilet paper, kitchen roll, soap, Ibuprofen tablets to name just a few.

OH isn't particularly interested in prepping and starts yawning whenever I talk about it but she'll soon come to my way of thinking once I save her ass a few times!

Family isn't totally dismissive though as I woke today to a small pile of Fathers Day pressies which comprised of:

Anglo Arms Bug Out Kit (knife, fire starter & mini tool keyring thingy) - I've already demonstrated lighting a fire to the OH and to be fair she was quite impressed! I used some lint from the tumble dryer (learnt here, and will be saving it ALL from now on!).

Also a book "Bugging in & Bugging out" by David E Crossley - OH apparently looked up in a prepping forum for book recommendations - initiative!

Finally another book "Preppers Guide to Knots" by Scott Finanzzo. I've always been intrigued by knots and have often wanted to learn them so first on my amazon wishlist is some Paracord (proper 550 stuff rather than cheap stuff which apparently can melt itself due to friction - also learnt here!)

I also learned about BigDug shelving here - OMG fantastic system and reasonable prices too! So, I'll be getting some for my first prepping cupboard/wardrobe, plus some for the loft, the garage and when I eventually get one, the shed too most likely! Will also be scouring eBay for 2nd hand shelving too

Lastly, I'm overjoyed to say that in the many 1000's of posts I've already read here, I haven't seen a single spat (well, one mildly strong "I'm not listening to what you're saying but what you to listen to what I'm saying) type of series of posts but, judging by the age of the post and the number of posts by the antagonist, they're unlikely to be around these days.

So, top-job to you all, I'm looking forward to spending many more hours trawling through what's already been said.

Oh, my new "Prepping" amazon wishlist has also already grown to the point where I"m going to have to divide it down to sub-wish-lists! Not that I'm going to be buying everything on it, it's there more as inspiration/ideas for my own situations.

Also loving the link to "The Uban Prepper" (the guy is SERIOUSLY prepped, way more than I ever will be but again, useful inspiration. Also the Artisan Baker (Steve) has a great channel too.

That'll do me for now, more reading/watching to do