Crisis What Crisis? Is my friend over doing the stockpiling and am I too? Continuation thread (2)

[RedToothBrush]

Continuation of the AIBU to think my friend is overdoing emergency stockpiling thread for discussion about the government advice to stockpile for an imminent emergency and what the heck that emergency might actually be.

I'm moving it over to chat from AIBU as it makes a bit more sense to be there at this point.

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5576816-aibu-to-think-my-friend-is-overdoing-emergency-stockpiling?page=1

Spoiler: it's more of a perfect storm of lots of factors coming together to potentially form one great clusterfuck from economic woes, global energy shortages (mainly diesel), potential food shortages, war and madmen to crazy weather patterns rather than a clear identifiable singular thread.

This is a practical thread and a bit of a handhold thread to make sense of events and how they may affect you. This is not an end of the world thread.

We are however going through a period where various governments throughout Europe think there is an elevated risk of some kind of problem due to global instability and we should start to get our heads around the possibility of needing to be ready for anything.

Remember an emergency can range from a temporary unexpected event to a much longer crisis but the underlying principles generally stay the same.

So this is for everything from tips and considerations about what might be a good idea to do /save minimise potential risks to just straight old political bollocks talk about how things are developing.

This is the official government information and advice, if you want further details on what the actual recommendations are:
https://prepare.campaign.gov.uk/get-prepared-for-emergencies/

This does actually explicitly say to write a personalised plan for your household which everyone knows and understands and to talk about the issues you may face to help you be able mobilise for any situation which might arise. Which is exactly what this thread is ultimately for.

There are so many variables. 72hrs gives you the time to make the next plan using skills and tools rather than needing huge stockpiles. A 72hr kit shouldn't be scary; it's just another shopping list. Obviously, if you have the space to add more and store longer supplies of water, food and energy then that's great but the majority of us simply don't.

I’ve added more flour and sugar to my top up shop for tomorrow.

Just slowly building up supplies. Must add yeast tho 🤦🏻‍♀️

I’m making sure to write simple low energy recipes down on pen and paper. Nothing hugely out there the children have no idea just that the cupboards are bursting with boring foods and dads gone crazy with charcoal for bbq season.

Empty supermarkets in Southern Italy.

Four days of disruption due to strikes protesting outside oil refineries and there is nothing left on the shelves.

Four Days it took.

Oil prices have suddenly jumped today...

Yep, a reported strike on the East-West Saudi pipeline.

I need yeast as well, thanks for the reminder. DP asked me yesterday 'you still know how to make bread?' I said yes (I used to make it a lot when younger, I don't now), but I have no yeast right now, nor do I have strong flour, just the regular kind for maybe making pancakes. I said 'if there's no electricity I won't be making bread'. He said 'well what if we do still have power?'. Yep, fair point! He is getting into the prepping idea for sure, he's seen how much fuel prices have shot up.

Today's tasks for me: clear out bathroom cupboard and get it sorted, old stuff out, new stuff packed more space-efficiently. Decide what to store in 2 large plastic under bed containers that I freed up last week (had a bunch of old clothes in which have now gone to fabric recycling!). Get more mylar bags (and yeast!). Get a pile of old cardboard boxes ready for recycling.

Big protests are planned today in France. Macron is still alive apparently after radio silence!

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20261016-macron-calls-for-calm-amid-fears-of-violence-at-france-protests

I've already stated to yeast it's something that sold out pretty fast in COVID. I.vant make bread but we have a free breadmaker..

Only one bag of flour. On pay day I'm.getting a little more yeast and flour.

@GentleSheep so this next protest is a cost of living one. What are the nylar bags for

Mylar bags are for storing some foods that don't have sufficient packaging right now. For example, I bought some gluten free corn cous cous but it comes in cardboard boxes and the inner thin packaging has a load of air space in there, I prefer to store my foods as airtight as possible, so am decanting the cous cous into mylar bags. Takes up less space and it's tightly sealed against moisture. Also have some seeds for microgreens that came in brown paper bags so am going to seal those in small mylar bags too, plus tea bags that come in a cardboard box. Basically it's to prolong the shelf life and quality of the product.

Yes that flew off the shelves when Covid hit. I am more inclined to make flatbreads/scones/pancakes as I think power supply could be a big issue and making smaller things would be better, on a camping stove, or quicker to cook if we get a window of power then it goes out again. I need gluten free so it's only for DP that I'm planning, but for me, GF pancakes would be my way forward, and I have a ton of home made jam to use up!

So Congress passed a bill for sanctions against Russia. Trump just executive ordered exactly against it. He is not going to accept the results of the mid terms is he? He's going to do everything he can to stop himself being arrested. It's going to get ugly.

Hormuz Letter reporting:
The US asked Iran for permission to strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site without retaliation, and Iran rejected the request, per IRIB state media correspondent Morteza Ghoroghi.

He said "Trump's statements today point to war within the next 24 hours," and that Iran's military forces are "in a state of complete readiness."

That's so totally nuts it's probably true.

Last night's Trump rally in Georgia was a disaster on many levels. I've been watching these for a couple of weeks now with his nutty ranting, but last night's was particularly special. The incoherent shite is getting worse even by Trump's standards. He was heckled more than once. These rallies are no longer worshipful crowds. Then afterwards he walked past the car he was supposed to get in and had to be rounded up by the secret service. Again this has been a bit of a theme where he seems to wander off stage and miss awaiting transport. It is off. You can watch him doing it. No spin. No manipulation.

I honestly don't know where we are headed at this point but honestly, I think he's genuinely lost his mind at this point.

Anything that you buy you need to be prepared to use whether the situation arises or not.
Please don’t be like my neighbour who admitted to buying a shit tonne of flour during covid which eventually ended up in the bin because she doesn’t usually do any baking (I could have made use of it if I’d known!) That is obviously incredibly wasteful and helps no-one.

Yep I learned my lesson from Brexit prepping. I bought stuff I didn't really like to eat normally. Needless to say, it ended at the food bank instead. Now I only have things I enjoy eating, I have to stop myself raiding my supplies sometimes! 😂

You're right though, it's good advice, also having a system to keep track of BBE dates and making sure you rotate your supplies and don't let them go out of date and have to bin them. For me the tins least likely to be used are the tinned veg/tinned beans, but I am keeping an eye on the dates and making sure they get used.

I've got pancake mixes I could do on the camping stove but flat beads is a very good idea
I need to learn how to make them !

If you have a pizza oven then homemade naan are good in one of them.

I sadly don't have a pizza oven, but a friend does.

Now's the time to experiment! I spent an afternoon making various GF flour pancakes to see what worked, what tasted halfway decent, and what didn't! They're not hard to make if you use regular wheat flour. Make sure you have supplies of salt, it's something that can be overlooked.

Today.

Massive french protest.
It's liable to get ugly at some point.

Absolutely will do. Albania's protests also getting uglier by the day.

I feel like I 'm watching a horror film and I've got my hands over my eyes and I'm just peeking out.
Trump is going to do something really catastrophic, really soon, isn't he?

trump siding with russia is pretty catastrophic

If you are on HRT patches there are shortages. I only saw a brief headline then got distracted by something else. So worth getting those prescriptions in if needed.

Going out for a lovely day out with my family.

Have a great day!

Yep.

We make loads of pizza dough, breads and loads of baking so no worries of that here.

During Covid the only place we could get flour was a catering bag from Morrisons 25kgs 😅 we gave some to friends and family who couldn’t buy normal sized bags and ate lots of pizza 😂😂