I'm a prepper. Ask me anything.

[bellinisurge]

Prompted by me sticking my beak in on a few threads to do with making personal preps for Brexit, I've dug out my tin foil hat to invite you to Ask Me Anything. I'm sure other preppers are more kick ass than I am but I can answer based on what I do.

Which brand of wind-up radio would you recommend? I bought a cheap one and it barely functions, though the torch on it is good. Also, have you tried canned cheese? American sites often talk about it, and I'm thinking that it's a cunning idea but also that it probably tastes gross. I'm asking because I see it's now available in the UK on Amazon - I guess prepping must be becoming quite mainstream now.

How would you prep to keep warm if you only have gas central heating?

As far as radios are concerned- I have a couple including a battery powered one that has been all over the world with me and served me well.
You can easily get away with a rubbish one as long as it gets local stations.

The radio is rubbish in that it takes about five minutes of winding to get a minute of radio. I don't bother with it much, I prefer to listen on an mp3 player that can be charged from a solar panel when we're off grid.

@VanillaSugar - to keep warm, there's a few things you can do. I used to work in a very cold country so I've followed what worked there. Hat and scarf. Wool is best. Mittens rather than gloves. Hot water bottles. Wool blanket if possible but other types will do. Gilet or similar for your core.
I have a camping heater but you must have good ventilation to use it.
Hot water bottles are ace.
Cheapo hand warmers too.

Forgot to say, thanks very much for your reply and for all your interesting and sensible posts on various threads. I don't know anyone IRL who's into this stuff, so it's really helped me.

@Agustarella - there is an app that gives you every radio station. If you can make that work for you - good idea.

Thank you @Agustarella . Very kind of you.

Yes thank you very much , you have really inspired me. It's really comforting to know you're prepared . Even as winter comes just being prepared for that it feels like human instinct

Thank you @buttybuttybutthole

Too hot to do at the moment but I find crocheting really easy and relaxing. I just make up huge squares with whatever bits of yarn I can find - odds and sods from old clothes or batches bought off eBay. I'm rubbish at knowing what different stitches are but it's three together then a gap. Next row you do the three together in the gap below. Think it's a granny square. I taught myself ages ago and did blankets for dd as a baby.
Dead warm - dh and I often huddle under them to watch TV.

Very interesting thread.

I was wondering if you also stocked up on things to trade? For example cigarettes or formula would be in short supply or have a massive price hike would make trading a better deal.

I haven't yet but it's on my mind - miniatures of booze and packs of fags are an easy option. My dh drinks whisky but, apart from that, we don't like spirits so it's no loss to us. Neither us smokes.

I was only thinking cigarettes as people are addicted so you would get a good deal?

I'm wondering if stockpiling should be something we do, even if just cat food as I worry they might get hungry. Children eat anything and are breastfed so they'd be fine.

Prepping for your kids is always a good idea. I think people do it unconsciously anyway. Prepping to keep you chilled out and well fed would, I think, help with bf.
Obviously, if you have pets, it's a good idea to include for them.

My extremely handy neighbour secretly smokes (despite being a fitness freak) - we see him with sneaky fags - I think I'd get some in for him.
My late mum was a smoker so I know what a fag can do to the spirits (as well as the body)

This is fascinating. Are you very organised?

I am gradually growing what I keep at the house (unperishables, toiletries, things to do with our health issues, water etc), but I'm hopeless in getting organised! Currently everything is sitting under the stairs, but it'd be really easy to forget to rotate things and end up with the proverbial 25 year old tin of beans!

Just because we're sharing!

I live close to you, but in a tiny house with a tiny garden. My tiny garden has a fruit tree in it (actually producing fruit and all), and herbs are flourishing with no input from me. Next year I'm going to try my hand at growing more things, but because I'm a bit clueless and there's not a lot of soil in the garden, I'm just going to get grow bags and try cherry tomatoes, salad, French beans and strawberries. Anything nice and fresh will be a plus, surely.

I've also persuaded DH that we need a little BBQ. I'm not keen on outdoors cooking in general, but I will get grumpy if there's no power for any length of time, and no hot food or drinks!

I find prepper websites quite scary, really. I'm sure there's good information in there, but I get put off by the camo and knives.

I grew up in a place where foraging and preserving was very common, but haven't really updated the knowledge I learnt from my parents and grandparents to fit the environment we're in now. So that's something I should probably do. I do still know how to fish with a simple hook and a line (with stick and worm attached), and gut and cook said fish. Recently had a refresher from DM on my fire making skills. These were all seen as crucial life skills when I little, but haven't felt particularly important when living in a British city!

@GoneWishing I'd be a big old liar if I said I was organised.
I don't really have a big garden now - but when I had an even tinier garden, I used to grow in containers the stuff I like. Cherry tomatoes and spinach for my butties every day was a real thrill for me.
Ignore US camo and guns but many of them have useful ideas. Prepper Pot Pourri on YouTube is fantastic- all the smelly camo guys are really intimidated by her.
AlfieAesthetics on YouTube is a bit juvenile but he has useful stuff on UK foraging . I'm probably old enough to be his granny!
The one thing I have learned is to play to my strengths. I'm more a bugging in kind of person. I focus on that rather than trying to be "Survival Lilly" (another YouTuber that men seem in awe of - Austrian woman who posts bushcraft vlogs)

I have envy over my parents' pantry and cellars (one outdoors earth one, one behind a hidden trapdoor under the kitchen floor!) though! They no longer grow and preserve as much, but just think of all that storage space!

Ooo - I don't have any storage options like that.
If they are close by to you and amenable, is using their space an option.
My parents are sadly both dead but my in laws are nearby - a walk away. We aren't really sure how my MIL will take the idea of putting extra by. She's simultaneously really tough and cool but also very emotional and gets upset easily. She apparently did this a bit in the 70s (I was a kid and grew up in a different town) during the height of the Cold War but doing it again might make her anxious.
DH has spoken to FIL a bit to pave the way, as it were. DH is not a prepper.

Sadly my parents are far away (different country). I'll set up camp there, if this brexit malarkey gets to a point of evicting us non-Brits, though! (Well, until we can sort out something else... DH is getting his Irish passport, and we've lived in Ireland in the past.) My MIL is a bit of a natural hoarder by nature, because she's lived through some very tough times financially. She's quite old and frail now, though, sadly, so we worry about her, even when nothing's going wrong.

In some of the threads here there have been references to the WWII rationing, and how everyone coped just fine with that, too. I find that a bit hollow, at least thinking back to what I've heard from my own family. DM's family lived on a farm and were self-sufficient with food, and I think that was much more common back then (especially in the country I'm from). They apparently traded butter in the black market for small luxuries. DF's family didn't have any self-sufficiency at all (flat in town), and really really struggled.

My DP doesn't really entertain prepper worries, either, but he's very accomodating to my whims, and agrees that having extra in is only reasonable. We had a burst pipe last winter, right when everyone else in town apparently had one, too, and were completely unprepared. We didn't even have a bucket in the house! That's really the reason why I now want to have at least a few days' worth. And to have all our insurance details in an easily accessible, set place!

Another handy YouTube channel is Prepsteaders. She's a very committed Christian and ends her vlogs with quotes from Scripture. (Have to admit I actually feel a bit camo and guns after that because it's also not for me. ) However she has some really handy ideas and is very engaging. Nice people are nice.

@GoneWishing - I think it's a bit of a myth that everyone coped fine with WWII rationing. And it's also a bit of a myth to say any big trouble ahead will be exactly like WWII experience in the UK.
That was my parents' generation and it wasn't a rosy memory for them.
However, if I focus on what keeps us warm, fed and watered. And keeps our spirits up , that's the best I can do.

@PestymcPestFace - I have those. In a country I used to work in, gentian violet was regularly used.
Obviously we need antibiotics. Hygiene and cleanliness is part of the battle against infection in tricky situations. And yes, I have some fish antibiotics (a prepper thing).

How do you source and use iodide and the above?

Good old Amazon. I follow instructions on the bottle (unless I don't ).