Hello Everyone

[tommylongstocking]

Good afternoon, My name is Tommy. I have been lurking on the board for a couple of months now and have finally got around to registering.
I am fairly fortunate in a lot of ways in that I am pretty advanced with my preps.
I live on a 10 acre smallholding in rural Lincolnshire. I use 2 acre for a very productive vegetable garden (with Chickens, bees and a couple of pigs), my wife uses 3 acres for her horses (Alternative BOV's as I prefer it) and the final 5 acres are rented to my neighbouring farmer for a peppercorn rent (the occasional half pig, lamb, etc.). When I moved in in 1988 the major appeal to me (apart from the house itself having links to the civil war and the gunpowder plot) was an underground bunker (for want of a better word). It is believed to be the original cellars of a long gone manor house and some of the stonework would seem to support this, very ornate. It was commandeered in WW2 for the MOD to store various bits of kit in. The MOD improved the site and it has a 2.5 foot thick reinforced concrete roof and some soviet style architecture. It is 9 feet underground. Whilst it is damp in places, forced air movement seems to keep this in check. It certainly does not smell musty any longer.
It consists of 4 chambers all about 15' by 25' with an 8' ceiling connected by tunnels. Entrance is down some brick steps to a steel (Submarine style) door. I have since built an agricultural building over the site so the entrance is easily concealed using straw bales, etc. Interestingly, during the planning process (that included a site visit), did not acknowledge or mention the existence of the bunker so I assume that it is forgotten.
It has taken me 12 years to get to this point. I have done all the work myself (with the wife's help) so as to maintain privacy and security.
It now has filtered air, a diesel generator (I brought the generator from a farm sales years ago and mated it to a 2.5 merc. turbo diesel on a home-made bed. This runs on biodiesel and charges my battery bank as well as providing mains voltage electricity. I have a large inverter, government surplus, that came off a small war ship. I am connected to the mains via the building above but just in case. I also have mains water plumbed in. The cooling water of the jenny is plumbed through the hot water system to capture the waste heat and the exhaust vented at ground level (under a large rhododendron bush. The air intake is also outside.
I have 8 1000 litre IBC's on concrete stillages courtesy of the MOD. 6 have fresh water (I have a UV treatment system and filter) and 2 are for biodiesel. I make 25 litres per week, I can make more but am limited to the waste oil that I can get (One pub in the village and the local chippy). This is all stored. I have about 1300 litres at the second.
I have 3 chest freezers, all with an additional 12” of insulation. These will maintain temperature if not opened and only get 45 minutes of electricity a week.
I have a couple of computers that I have converted to run on 12v DC that have 6 1TB hard drives for information storage, music, video, etc. Hard drives are so cheap these days I will probably add more. Both computers (and vital radio communication kit) are kept in a fully earthed Faraday shield. I have internet access and a phone line as well.
There is also a composting type toilet (the Humanure handbook is a goldmine of information) that keeps liquids and solids separate. The liquids go on the compost heap and the solids are composted prior to going on the compost heap. I have not yet done a long term test yet but small scale seems to be encouraging. There is also a shower and hand basin.
The living area is heated by an eberspacher diesel heater that came out of a narrow boat. Its not the most reliable piece of kit but it runs 4 radiators and heats the hot water. This runs on biodiesel (it uses about a litre every 2 hours). I also have a wood burning stove for space heating but this obviously can not be used in daylight as the smoke is a give-away if you are lying low.
Cooking is quite primitive and is done either on the wood burner (quite successful) or on a small spirit stove that came off a sailing boat.
The above set up seems to work well and I believe that we could survive for about 3 months underground if necessary. Although the longest we have actually spent underground is a weekend.
I hope that this gives a bit of a flavour of what I am up to. I think that over this project I have picked up skills and knowledge that may be useful. I would be happy to share this.
In addition, We are both keen martial artists (Tae Kwon Do) and are both licensed shot gun holders and have the skills and equipment to make our own cartridges. We are both keen archers and I make English longbows. My favourite is a 65” 95lb@ 28”, pin point accurate over 150 yards.
I have a 1995 Cherokee with a 300TD Mercedes engine in it as a BOV. This conversion turns a good car into a sublime car with good off road capability and towing capacity and 35-40mpg much better than the original mill. Biodiesel, of course. We, the wife and I, also have a Honda XL125 each (with CG125 engines for the unburstable reliability) for local use.
My plans for the immediate future are a poly-tunnel for extending the vegetable growing season and, I will borrow my neighbours mini digger and dig out a carp pond this winter. I have also begun to research aquaponics but this is probably more medium term.
I hope that this is useful and not too rambling.
All the best
Tommy

[the-gnole]

That's a very impressive intro post, thanks for sharing it with us.

I hope you will share some of the places with us using some photo's, especially that bunker, there were some very interesting places left behind, was it used by the Scallywags at all?

[StephenLee]

Bl**dy Hell mate, you're miles in front of me. Can I come and live with you? LOL

Stephen

[smileyt]

Hello Tommy. I would say your preps are very advanced, not just pretty advanced

[preppingsu]

WOW!!
There will be some very envious preppers on here...
I know thats taken a lot of hard work to get to that point, well done.

Welcome to the site. You are very welcome.

[Red Doe]

Hello Tommy, nice to see another archer here, like the sound of the longbow

[itsybitsy]

Hello and welcome from East Yorkshire

[tommylongstocking]

Thank you everyone for your kind notes of welcome.

The-gnole. I am not aware of any Auxiliary Unit connection. The old boy who gave me the information is long gone. He suggested that it was the RAF that used the place and that they stored octane booster for use in Spitfires and Hurricanes to compensate for lower grade avgas later in the war. There is very little information that I can find about the cellars in general except a small mention in a 1910 guide book and absolutely nothing on the internet or local library. I am obviously loath to ask the locals as I am hoping that they have all forgotten that it is there, especially with a large barn on top.

StephenLee - Thanks. Of course you can come and live with me, if you can find me that is.

Smileyt/preppingsu - Thank you. It has been hard work but I have learned so much. I am more than happy to share this experience because, the way I figure it is, if there is a breakdown in society the more people who are prepared the better and safer we will be. The problems and unpleasantness will come from those who were unprepared and desparate, have no plan or stores of any kind and are after what you have got in an attempt to survive.

RedDoe - Thank you so much. I have loved archery since I was a kid. I try to shoot 50 arrows a couple of times a week after work to keep my eye in and to relieve stress. In the winter, I try to do this at weekends. Great fun.

All the best
Tommy

[tommylongstocking]

Sorry Itsybitsy, I missed you out. Thank you.

Tommy

[itsybitsy]

Sorry Itsybitsy, I missed you out. Thank you.

Tommy

I know this may be throwing you in at the deep end a bit - but we've got a little local meet up on Saturday 12 November, at Sheffield, if you're interested. Further information in the Groups thread.