What preps are you doing this week? part 2.

[Arzosah]

I had no idea about that wait that's horrendous.

[Squared]

This is lazy of me, but do you have the linkie to that website?

http://www.ukcrimestats.com

Bang your postcode or the postcode of any specific location your interested in into the box on the right and you get a nice google maps based tool that breaks down to street by street detail along with loads of other interesting stats and data.

I may do the trellis thing myself, get some spare trellis and nail it to the top of the side fence and door - its supposed to collapse, I think, to put them off balance and to alert you by the noise they then make

Thats exactly the idea, my wall and gate are easily scaleable at around 6ft high but with a trellis it will delay and hinder or best case scenario act as a deterrent whilst not making the garden look like a prison exercise yard.

As for my own prepping - decluttering led to lots of storage space for winter supplies, and now, before the bad weather really strikes, I'm pruning shrubs, and pulling up weeds that have got really well established while I've been ill - I'm a bit embarrassed about how long its taking

My garden, which despite its pitifull size is a mess, I want to start a few home growing projects/experiments so before spring I need to get that done.

[Arzosah]

Thanks for that Squared! 10,000 people or so in my local community - most offences are ASBOs and violent crime, which makes me wonder if the ASBO peeps are attacking one another rather than other citizens. A few spikes in shoplifting that look like they coincide with the school holidays

The before spring thing for the garden is my idea exactly - tho I have to focus on the back garden right now, as I still haven't planted my garlic.

[Squared]

Did an 8 hour drive in the works van with no preps in strong winds, rain & storms with names and for the first time felt vulnerable. I need to sort out winter kits first for the Mrs and her run a round and then for me.

Went to my first Karate lesson, very enjoyable and looking forward to going again. Its very formal and disciplined and suprisngly hard work.

Managed to forage a copy of Richard Mabey, Food for Free off ebay for just over £2 including P&P, looking forward to putting that into practical use and learning those new skills.

Im also getting a bit addicted to bushcraft videos on youtube. Im getting this idea into my head now (Que wife rolling eyes) of having a go at making my own mini bergen/daysack and then using it on a few long distance trecks and maybe a few wild camps, but thats further down the line, i could buy a decent one for under £30 of ebay but handy crafts are much nicer and rewarding although a diversion from prepping. Its on the growing list of things I want to craft and create that I supose are all in a way about adding new skill sets which might be good insurance for the future.

[Briggs 2.0]

Rocket stove - I went to a local steel supplier and got them to cut me some lengths of 100x100 box section with 45 degree angles. This is what I knocked up with my agricultural welding skills. I've plagiarised several rocket stove designs from the Intertube and made my own. If you're thinking of making a stove, have a go with this design, it works very well. Wood pellets, twigs and sticks go in the middle angled tube, with the flap.

It was a lot easier getting the steel shop to do the tricky 45 degree cuts.

A lot of designs on the web have ash doors cut into the steel and flaps to regulate air flow but I've got around that with a simpler design of steel sleeve with a sliding flap to allow ash to drop through. The sleeve has drilled holes to allow air from the horizontal section up through the vertical section.

It burns very hot and the vertical section is calling out for a water jacket with a tap for hot water while cooking on the hot plate.

Cost of the steel - £22 cut to size. Maybe 100 x 100 was a bit of an overkill, I reckon 75 x 75 would work just as well.

Maybe I'll knock up a video at the weekend to show how the hopper in the 45 degree tube works. Failing that, if you fancy making one yourself I'll gladly tell you more about it and you can tweak my plans to suit yours. It might be handy if this severe winter comes along.



Not the best of photos - here's the prototype.

[terrytaylor84]

I went out a Brought myself an axe from aldi yesterday, so I can prep firewood if need be, if anything happens I do intend to just bug in, with being in a 1st floor flat, I fortunately have a balcony, which my landlord has put up a 6ft high wooden wall, so if need be I can use the balcony to cook on using a firebox stove without too much attention, I've also got loads of hexa stove tabs and similar products too to use, incase of a power cut, cos I have no gas, only electric, I've also taken to skipping the odd dose of my bipolar meds and anti depressants, not sure how wise this is, but I'd rather risk missing the odd dose, rather than running out in the future, cos without them I can't function, I did an experiment and didn't take any for over 6 weeks, well, let's just say that was a dumb idea and I ended up in hospital and almost being sectioned as a danger to myself.

[sniper 55]

My micro stove finally arrived from China (via ebay) it fits with the gas bottle inside the small mess tin, and to be fair it works a treat, turn all the way up and theres shed loads of power for boiling, and it'll turn right down low for a simmer, built in lighter and all for under £8 including the gas,
Edit.
I'm going to make up some ziplock bags of drinking chcolate later and pop them in the space thats left over, that way I have a nice hot drink ready.

[Decaff]

I went out a Brought myself an axe from aldi yesterday, so I can prep firewood if need be, if anything happens I do intend to just bug in, with being in a 1st floor flat, I fortunately have a balcony, which my landlord has put up a 6ft high wooden wall, so if need be I can use the balcony to cook on using a firebox stove without too much attention, I've also got loads of hexa stove tabs and similar products too to use, incase of a power cut, cos I have no gas, only electric, I've also taken to skipping the odd dose of my bipolar meds and anti depressants, not sure how wise this is, but I'd rather risk missing the odd dose, rather than running out in the future, cos without them I can't function, I did an experiment and didn't take any for over 6 weeks, well, let's just say that was a dumb idea and I ended up in hospital and almost being sectioned as a danger to myself.

Oh my word! You seriously shouldn't mess around with your medication like that! You could mess yourself up big time, please take care of yourself TT84!! You should never ever stop taking anti depressants cold turkey and I'm sure the same applies to your other meds too.

[terrytaylor84]

The problem i have is what happens if the meds are no longer available? ive already proved that its a catastrophy if i dont have them.

[Arzosah]

Terry, I can understand your worries, but depriving yourself of your meds for that length of time is counter productive - it resulted in the hospital admittance, and it sounds like you avoided sectioning by the skin of your teeth Talk to your doctor, do your own research on WebMD or the pharmaceutical companies websites, NHS, whatever you can, but making yourself unsafe by stopping meds abruptly like that is counter to prepping ideas as well, remember - prepping's about *surviving and thriving*.

Have you talked to your doctor/psychiatrist about your worries, or to a medically qualified herbalist about what input they could give you? Decaff points out that stopping cold is unfortunately what created the catastrophe - a total collapse of supply is very unlikely - a bit of rationing might be one thing, but disappearance of the meds is another.

Please take care.