Show me your brexit stockpiles cont...

[SparklySneakers]

A thread for sharing details of our stashes: what we have, what we need, good hiding places and all sorts of hints and tips to help prepare for shortages in the event of a no deal brexit.

Well, I'm not looking forward to that! 😱

Ants are a total pain in the arse too, bloody things. My in laws suffer with those every year.

We have those little black and yellow beetles being a pain in the arse, and the occasional adventurous woodlouse ventures up to the third floor bathroom.

The usual flies and wasps but not any ants yet.

I hate those bloody bugs!

We don't get many woodlice either. My in laws have way too many of those too; they eat all of their seedlings.

We had our pre planned Brexit Easter sunday lunch today. I was determined that whatever happened we would eat well, so it was all from the cupboards and freezer apart from the veg. I'd even frozen lemon juice and zest so we could have lemon meringue pie. It was nice not to have to shop for today.

I’m assuming this thread is tongue in cheek

Last time I saw this kinda talk was Y2K. Remember that? For some reason Richard Madely springs to mind! Did he and Judy stockpile?

Yawn@GinZing .
But thanks for reviving the game of Brexit Bingo! References to Y2K win me a prize!
And make you sound foolish not realising all the work and preparation that the grownups did for ages behind the scenes so that Y2K wasn't a problem.

It's been so long since we had an instigator for Brexit Bingo that I could hardly remember where I put my dabbers

Brexit Bingo

Y2K
WWII
Armageddon
Zombies
Obesity crisis
Scaremongering
Hysterical
Toughen up
Locally-grown
Eat something else
Not going to starve
Panic
Posh elite
Apricots/avocados/asparagus/foie gras/Tomatoes/lettuce
FIIIIIIIIINNNEEE
Crystal Ball
Echo chamber

@TheElementsSong

Yes we've had mutant sized wasps here too. I wonder if they're stocking up on pollen

I've avoided the shops all half term except for fresh items so when dc go back to school I'll hopefully find all my stockpiles and rotate and restock.
On the plus side when finding out all the dc Easter eggs last night I found an 8 pack of kitchen roll that I don't remember buying at all oh well it will come in handy.

I had a dream last night that I could see and access most of the stuff in my food cupboard and how lovely it was not to play cupboard Tetris every time I wanted a tin.

I must remember that I am really lucky to have so much food.

That's not the most exciting dream Blackeyed

It ermmm seems that cataloging things seems to run in the family. dd messaged me to say she'd completed an inventory of her food and put it on a spreadsheet.

She appears to be one of the few brexit winners so far, given that she is actually fully capable of buying her own food and food does exist in her town. Only of course it was bought in case we crashed out while she was on her break. I've warned her this won't be happening every term. (unless the prospect of No Deak Brexit keeps looming on the event horizon)

ffs. they need to come and inspect the gas pipes.

gas pipes are under the stiars which is full of food and other stuff and in the boiler cupboard which is packed to the top with stuff. there is not enough troom to put everything that is in either place let alone in both places.

That's a drag @BlackeyedGruesome . If they have to be moved to give access, I would stick 'em temporarily in a room you use a lot. Then, after they have gone, put the stuff back.

My shopping bills have been halved the last few weeks and I'm buying lots of fruit and salad things at the moment so I'm enjoying a healthier diet. I've not even had to raid the stock yet apart from for Nutella and cranberry sauce. The crisps need using so the children have been enjoying those along with some sweets.

Is it not warm in your boiler cupboard? I couldn't keep anything in mine as it's too warm. Hope you manage to get some things moved. My excuse for using under the stairs is that I don't have much cupboard space.

You need to be careful with boilers too as they need a certain amount of clearance to work properly / safely.

Cheaper shopping bills here too. Enjoy the veg.

Boiler is not working so perfectly safe to be buried. It is turned off completely. Which is another issue.

In the mean time, I am supposed to be going to my mum s house and needed to get the bag out from under the cereal stockpile so have started clearing the understairs cupboard by filling the kitchen cupboard. My dream of not having to play cupboard Tetris will have to be delayed.

I have lost one bag completely and have no idea where it is. Pain in the backside.

Will just get everything sorted in time for potentially no deal brexit in October.

There was a report on the radio and there was no evidence of stockpiling in the first quarter of this year. All that panic buying causing empty shelves? Yeah right.

I have noticed pictures and videos of UK grocery stores and the wide variety of goods available and how they seem to be jam-packed with food and other items.

It's not too hard to see how your average Joe or Jane would look at all of that and think " How could we ever experience food shortages when the stores are just overflowing with this stuff? ".

The problem is that the more sophisticated a system is, the more vulnerable and subject to any kind of disruption it is because it relies upon precision.

Back in the horse and buggy days, most cities were ringed by farms so that transport of produce took the least amount of time to get to the markets. Due to modern transport, that is no longer necessary. Fuel rather than horses or mules is required for food transport and so presents more of a problem if fuel shortages occur.

I highly recommend the book " King Rat " for how mostly British but also Australian and American POW's grew food without traditional fertilizer. Basically they had a system where urine from the POW's was collected and then to which water was added to reduce the acidity and then spread among the cabbage and eggplants they were growing.

Commercial farms would no doubt be given priority when it came to fertilizer shipments, but home and community gardens perhaps not so much.

I know that's quite disgusting but it was required to supplement the meager rations they were given by the Japanese.

On a more humorous note, I watched an episode of " Columbo ", the one where the singer Johnny Cash acted in. They were having a cookout and Columbo remarks to Cash's character about some chili they had cooked about how good it smelled. Cash's character told him here have some. Columbo eats a bit or too and then asks what is in it.

Cash's character replies " Squirrel meat, it's good ain't it " to which Columbo acts shocked and then politely says " Yea, that seems to make all the difference ".

You could just tell Columbo didn't really care to eat squirrel meat.

I watched the movie " Blackout " about a widespread power outage that lasted for about a week in the UK.

When the unprepared for anything neighbors came over to this guy's house because he was having a cookout that they could smell he could have told them that the reason it smells so good is because he puts a special ingredient in it. He could then reply " Roadkill, that is what gives it that extra something special ".

I doubt they would want to eat anything this guy cooked because no telling what he would put in it.

@xebobfromUS , I think the best way to get people into the idea of general prepping is to have them work out for themselves what applies to their situation and what is reasonably practicable. If people want to take it further there are lots of uk specific resources and they can branch out further afield. If they want and can be bothered.
May I respectfully suggest that freaking people out with urine and prisoner of war camps is not the best way.

bellinisurge

Indeed, I seriously hope that things don't get so bad in the UK that these rather drastic measures are necessary.

This is the problem with Brexit and the way it has been handled, certain groups need to realize that most people live in cities and not in rural areas like they use to and so they are a good bit less hardy psychologically in handling the real nitty gritty that life can present if things change too much in a too short period of time.

When I worked in Forestry and manned a fire tower, there was no bathroom available so what you did if you had to pee was take an empty milk jug or other container up with you and pee into that when you had to go.

Absolutely disgusting but there was no other way. It took me some time to get use to that so I use to hide the milk jug behind an old piece of an air conditioner so I didn't have to see it all day. Of course you had to dump it at the end of the day.

It took some time for even a country boy like me to get used to that.

Well....it is well known that Bob Flowerdew, of Gardener's Question Time, uses 'recycled beer' on his compost heap. He does have the advantage of being able to apply it straight from the spigot, unlike some of us here which would require a compost heap in a very secluded corner of the garden or a receptacle to transport said recycled ...erm... gin to the heap.

I think it is something to do with the nitrogen in it. Good for the plants apparently.

Intrigued by the squeamishness about your own per but call city dwellers namby pamby. Perhaps you forget that many of us are parents used to dealing with multiple bodily fluids of other human beings every day.

Those of us with disabled children get even more used to dealing with bodily fluids.

Blackeyed

I didn't mean to imply city dwellers were namby pambies who couldn't handle discomfort of any kind.

There are different kinds and levels of discomfort depending on what you have had to do in the past and what you have to do in your current life.

I think anybody can get used to doing most anything but you do have to set aside your own personnel disgust and just do it whether it is changing diapers or using recycled beer to provide nitrogen to your plants.

I'm feeling somewhat insulted by you feeling the need to explain things to us Bob. We are a pretty intelligent and resourceful bunch.
It's Brexit not Armageddon.

Got to say @xebobfromUS , this is more a conversation in the Preppers topic rather than on this thread. These are general prepping things you are discussing.

Oooh a mansplainer has arrived to impart his wisdom to the little ladies