Preparing for War or Apocalypse

Everyone thinks about nuclear attack when talking about this, in which case I agree that anyone who has 'prepped' would just be keeping the inevitable at bay slightly longer than everyone else and I am not sure it's worth it.

But I think the basic advice to have some tinned food, water, first aid supplies and battery operated torches / lights is perfectly sensible. I am no expert on this but this the more likely things we could be dealing with are weather events and cyber attacks that could impact the national infrastructure, locally or across the country. In that case, having short term supplies to see you through e.g. a sustained power outage could make a big difference, especially for vulnerable people who can't easily get out.

I prep and have gone some way to being self sufficient. I use all sorts of techniques to preserve home grown veg and fruit and bought meat. We are not reliant on electricity, oil or gas. I have supplies of water. I have learnt the war-time home survival skills of my great grandparents. It has taken years of learning and practice. It is a hobby as much as anything. I grew up wanting to be one of ‘ The Waltons’ children.
One of the reasons - we live reasonably comfortably in the uk now, but things could easily go backwards in terms of food and energy security. They could get worse in times of high inflation, civil unrest, pandemic or cyber attack. I’m not thinking Armageddon.
Another reason - we live organically, additive and preservative free, using no supermarket bought products, meat from hobby farms, veg from the garden, eggs from our chickens. Our food is local. We only buy essentials new. Everything else second hand.
But I’m not kidding myself, without my daily supply of heart drugs I’d be dead.
I had hoped to pass these skills on to my children. Their lives are too fast paced although both aspire to this lifestyle.
It’s hard work. Dh is an engineer working over 50 hours per week, I work in admin 25 hours.

It’s handy to have a few tins and bottles of water in case of an emergency. But any longer than a couple of days and society will start to break down. Do you really think you’d be able to keep your food if another family with a couple of big burly blokes was also hungry? No, they’d take it off you! So what’s the point?

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It’s handy to have a few tins and bottles of water in case of an emergency. But any longer than a couple of days and society will start to break down. Do you really think you’d be able to keep your food if another family with a couple of big burly blokes was also hungry? No, they’d take it off you! So what’s the point?

It's just a cold they said ]. Storm in a teacup they said. Three weeks later aaaagh disinfect the mail hah.

I know most replies have been scornful but tbh it does all feel a bit ominous and it doesn't hurt to have a bit of stuff put by. People took the piss greatly when people were worried about this new virus in China...

@RedToothBrush I recently saw a brilliant plan for zombies and that was to put treadmills all around your house lol

At my office we had to come up with various emergency plans and our “incident away’ plan -the one where we have to evacuate and meet somewhere off-site plan includes a meetup at the closest bar. Weirdly that one saw the most drills 🤣

The important question here is can you do it blind fold?

I don’t have enough room for hoarding but this tread has inspired me to memorise the most direct route to the nearest pub.

My wife asked me what my zombie apocalypse plan was on our first date.

She married me, so..... I think we can all agree it must've been a good plan.

Been reading a history book about the 1970s and people went on like this then.

I was in my 20s/30s in the 70s and live for a while in Surrey and then moved to London and although there were power cuts from time to time and various problems and the three day week in 74 - which didn't actually affect my working week - I knew no one who was going on about apocalyptic scenarios and stockpiling food.

Okay, I was a single woman living in the capital, so maybe I was more fortunate than some, but for me and my friends life continued pretty much as usual.

I do remember though, not being able to use the lifts at work in case of power cuts and having to walk up and down the stairs to the fifth floor.

I think it’s sensible to be prepared for :

• tech glitch so cards not working
• short power cut
• being unwell and not being able to go to a shop a few days

Yeah. That's why I went into HR

If you're that anxious, you'd be better off learning survival skills than stashing tins of beans. E.g. how to identify edible plants/fungi, how to make fire, how to collect rain water and make it safe to drink, etc.

If things got really bad, - as in war time - you can't rely on neighbours, and phone numbers / phones might not work.

In short, your prepping sounds like what you'd do if you were worried about being snowed in for a week, not a serious disaster.

I am not a prepper or in any way organised. But, I always have candles in case of a black-out because my parents did. And I am considering for the first time stocking up on water because we have had our water cut off three times in the past few years including once at Christmas. And I am alarmed at things like petrol and bugs making it into other water supplies. But that’s it. Though this thread is making me want to stock up on homemade jam and get chickens.

That was really interesting. Thank you for sharing

I used to live in a rural area and got snowed in a few times. Also flooded once. So I'm always fully stocked up with power banks charged and candles handy.

I have considered adding a small portable generator this year, because of the dark mutterings.

However, I think the biggest danger is power outages or cyber attacks, (or both) rather than a full blown apocalypse. So I wouldn't overly panic.

Do audit what you've grown dependent on internet/electricity for, though.

Tin openers, plural? More than one? A main tin opener and a back-up?

Ha, how many Russian troops have been lost today? 1250 I think I read. The most ever in one day. We always know how badly they're doing when these end of days threads arrive 😂

I'm preparing for the apocalypse by getting lots of stamps in so I can send goodbye cards to my friends and family 🤗

I’d be screwed with water. Three horses and three dogs plus a couple of cats.

Maybe I just stick the cats and dogs on the two horses, ride one and lead the others to the pub.

Can horses become Zombies?

Yep, this.

I watched a video on Youtube about what would happen if an asteroid hit the earth.
Basically, people hiding out in bunkers etc were just kicking the can down the road. Who wants to live out their final weeks in a dark and dusty wasteland?

God no, I’ve far too much else going on plus off to see Abba Voyage for my 60th in August.

What you’re doing cannot possibly be healthy for you.

No. Honestly, get help and stop reading sensationalist news articles.

My parents are mormons and they have really ramped up the end of world planning. So, I know where to go if/when we have a national disaster.