Moving from Prepare to Implement.

[GeraldTheBonzai]

It looks to me as if I need to up my prepping game.
I need to: (in no particular order) keep more cash at home

This is on my list too, but I'm also going to include small change. We had a recent power cut on our local high street, no problem most of the shops just pulled out a notebook and calculator and went cash only. However by mid-morning our local was exact change only. It seems a lot of people kept a note in the back of their purse/wallet but no change and they quickly started to run out of change.

ooh geek alert. What you have there is a classic combinatorial maths problem.

Assume you want to do a shop. the limit is no more than £100 in this example. let's exclude £50 notes. What mix of notes and coins do you need to always have the right price.

<rummages on book shelf for maths books - i can't remember this off the top of my head, getting old.....>

and for some reason the formula image is displaying upside down, so forget that..

Anyway:

Banknotes (Total Value: £95.00)
Four £20 notes (£80.00)
One £10 note (£10.00)
One £5 note (£5.00)

Pound Coins (Total Value: £5.00)
Two £2 coins (£4.00)
One £1 coin (£1.00)

Pence Coins (Total Value: £1.10)
One 50p coin (50p)
Two 20p coins (40p)
One 10p coin (10p)
One 5p coin (5p)
Two 2p coins (4p)
One 1p coin (1p)

[Arzosah]

Gerald, I had to "quote" your post, and delete everything extraneous (extraneous to me ) I could understand what you posted, but not in a way that was useful to me. Hope you don't mind that I've done this. I've just listed the risk and bolded the action recommended to us:

Terrorist attacks in public locations: Nationally, this causes mass fatalities and disrupts essential services
A prepper mitigates this by maintaining deep pantries (7+ days of food and water), allowing them to stay away from high-density areas or "adaptive purchasing" (panic buying) sites during periods of heightened tension

Critical financial infrastructure failure: This involves a failure of payment systems like Visa or Bacs
Preppers typically maintain physical cash reserves and engage in local barter or mutual aid networks, turning a systemic digital crisis into a minor inconvenience

Disaster response in UK Overseas Territories
While this strains national humanitarian and military resources, it has almost no physical impact on a domestic individual. A prepper's focus on supply chain independence ensures that global logistical ripples do not affect their personal security

Assassination of a high-profile figure: National impact is primarily psychological and social.
For a prepper, heightened situational awareness and the use of off-grid communications (Mesh or HAM radio) allow them to monitor and navigate any "short-lived" community tensions with minimal disruption

Major outbreak of plant pest (Xylella): Nationally, this threatens the plant nursery sector and biodiversity.
A prepper utilizing permaculture design or diverse home food production maintains high species diversity, protecting personal food security from the failure of commercial monocultures

Pandemic
Despite deep pantries, the prepper demographic (often older or medical-dependent) remains highly susceptible to healthcare system overload and the disruption of prescription supply chains

Medium-scale CBRN attacks
While a prepper can shelter-in-place, the persistent toxicity of the environment and the potential need for mass evacuation can render a "hardened homestead" untenable

There's a huge emphasis on deep pantries, which is good to read, especially since 7 days qualifies as deep, and I, um, have a bit more than that

High Temperatures and Heatwaves
Extreme heat disproportionately impacts older adults and strains water/energy backups; even decentralized systems can lose efficiency in record temperatures

So thats our top priorities, according to AI. And look what comes in at the end of the list

Given how I have (i.e. haven't) coped with the last month or so, yeah, I'm seeing that this is much more important than we used to think.

MY CONCLUSIONS
1. "Deep pantry" is the absolute basic - I'll call my stocks of food and water a month's worth - I have a lot more food than that, but not more water. Have to think about that.

2. "Supply chain independence" - there are a few main items I need to buy, which come from abroad, but I'm more independent than might be thought, yes.

3. "Off grid comms": mmmm, I have a 2 way radio I haven't got to grips with, and I've absolutely no idea about mesh etc. Nothing, nada. Must do better.

4. "Prescriptions": I'm not on any, fortunately for me, though I might soon be on at least one, I think. A watching brief.

5. "Homestead untenable" - I have my car, and the tiny little boot is full of preps. Obviously, more would be stashed, and the bugout bag would always be on the top of any pile.

6. "Heat" - I've been working on shading the windows and opening and closing times. I think I need more, that will come.

[Frnc]

Regarding heat, I basically do very little during the summer. I did go to a gig in London a couple of years ago, and Brixton was like an oven when I went outside. I don't plan any trips or anything normally. I do cut the lawn etc, but not during a heatwave. Spent much of yesterday keeping an eye on the thermometers, wondering if I might want the portable AC back up. My room peaked at 25, which isn't too bad, so I didn't bother. Got windows open at 6am today to cool the house ready for later. I left windows open yesterday, just shut the prep room door as it was 27. But I probably should have shut the bathroom window in the afternoon, as it was slightly hotter outside than in, and the sun hits that wall in the late afternoon. But it only warmed 1.5°.

Re water, well, I swapped out 4 x 5l the other day, so it's a start. I like to do it after a heatwave, due to legionella etc risk, but haven't done it after each heatwave this year. I will do all the others soon.

[GeraldTheBonzai]

Been giving the heat issue some thought. As per others, we keep curtains / blinds closed, open/close windows as appropriate.

During the winter, we let the house cool down, as its not economical to heat the whole place. As such, we heat just enough to prevent damp / mould etc. However, we try to keep one room as the "warm" room - normally the one with the wood burner. Am thinking of doing the opposite in summer - having one room as a "cool" room. Can't justify air-cond to cool the whole house down, but once the summer is over, might keep an eye out for a smaller, lower power aircond. With a bit of creativity, I reckon I can adapt something so that we can vent heat through the wood burner up the chimney. At least that way we can have somewhere to go and cool off.

Also been thinking about comms. One of the risks identified is national comms failure - either due to grid down or just network down. As such, going to do may foundation licence (been saying I would do that for a while). Am also thinking about more local comms. Currently looking at some PMR radios but range is not great. However did notice that for £75 you can get a 5 year "Light" license for PMR radios, and these have a lot better range, as they can be 5W. CB is another alternative. Finally, LoraWan, which I currently have, but thats quite flaky. We have family about 10 miles away so would like some sort of solution where I could keep in contact should mobiles go down.

[Frnc]

Been giving the heat issue some thought. As per others, we keep curtains / blinds closed, open/close windows as appropriate.

During the winter, we let the house cool down, as its not economical to heat the whole place. As such, we heat just enough to prevent damp / mould etc. However, we try to keep one room as the "warm" room - normally the one with the wood burner. Am thinking of doing the opposite in summer - having one room as a "cool" room. Can't justify air-cond to cool the whole house down, but once the summer is over, might keep an eye out for a smaller, lower power aircond. With a bit of creativity, I reckon I can adapt something so that we can vent heat through the wood burner up the chimney. At least that way we can have somewhere to go and cool off.

Also been thinking about comms. One of the risks identified is national comms failure - either due to grid down or just network down. As such, going to do may foundation licence (been saying I would do that for a while). Am also thinking about more local comms. Currently looking at some PMR radios but range is not great. However did notice that for £75 you can get a 5 year "Light" license for PMR radios, and these have a lot better range, as they can be 5W. CB is another alternative. Finally, LoraWan, which I currently have, but thats quite flaky. We have family about 10 miles away so would like some sort of solution where I could keep in contact should mobiles go down.

Re mould, I used to be a bit paranoid about it, but I'm a lot more relaxed about it now. If your Relative Humidity is normally below 70% you have no worries. Reaching dew point could be an issue but only if you let the room get down to about 10°.

A portable AC in the living room or one bedroom is a good idea. I was using a lot less electricity when I raised the temp a degree or two. I kept my room 23.5 in the day, and the AC backs off a bit at night as it detects cooler air, so it was about 24 in the morning. This cost me about £2.50 on the hottest days. Other days it varied down to about half that. It's not bad for a few days a year. And mine is rated 1100W/10,000BTU. You might get away with a lower BTU/wattage one. The night is more important, so you are best using it in a room you can use day and night. In my opinion. But the experts do say we are best sleeping in a cool room.

[Frnc]

Just got my July bill. Electricity is £79, but that include two heatwaves (bill runs from 20 June to 20 July) and I used a colder setting in the June one, which used a lot more electricity. Normally it would be about £40. I used 270kWh, and 150 was the A/C. I won't be using the colder setting in future.

[jennyjj01]

Am also thinking about more local comms. Currently looking at some PMR radios but range is not great.

Note that Baofeng walkie talkies are able to use PMR frequencies, but not legally because they are a bit too powerful
They are cheap as chips.
Most actual PMRs are rubbish.

[GeraldTheBonzai]

Am also thinking about more local comms. Currently looking at some PMR radios but range is not great.

Note that Baofeng walkie talkies are able to use PMR frequencies, but not legally because they are a bit too powerful
They are cheap as chips.
Most actual PMRs are rubbish.

I'm going to do my foundation license. Just read through the book - it's pretty straightforward and common sense. Then I can transmit legally. We have pretty good meshcore coverage down here so for under £50 I can give the family a meshcore node and that's totally legit.

[Peter]

It looks to me as if I need to up my prepping game.
I need to: (in no particular order) keep more cash at home

This is on my list too, but I'm also going to include small change. We had a recent power cut on our local high street, no problem most of the shops just pulled out a notebook and calculator and went cash only. However by mid-morning our local was exact change only. It seems a lot of people kept a note in the back of their purse/wallet but no change and they quickly started to run out of change.

In a major power outage cash machines would stop working or TPTB could lock your accounts (it happens),
I think keeping the equivalent of 4 weekly shops at home a minimum, and perhaps a few half sovereigns.

[Peter]

Am also thinking about more local comms. Currently looking at some PMR radios but range is not great.

Note that Baofeng walkie talkies are able to use PMR frequencies, but not legally because they are a bit too powerful
They are cheap as chips.
Most actual PMRs are rubbish.

We have a pair of Retevis RB67 PMRs, pretty good with a long standby time, but not tested them to extreme.