What's on your PO shopping list?!

hatchelt · Post by **hatchelt** » 14 Sep 2005, 11:22

With regards to the water butts...are you putting any filters inside them or are you just filtering the water when you take it out?
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Post by **mikepepler** » 14 Sep 2005, 11:37

I'm mainly using them for watering my vegetables at the moment, so the water in them is not filtered at all. If I need to drink any of it I'll put it through my Katadyn filter. I may also use it as is for washing I suppose if I needed to.

Pete_M · Post by **Pete_M** » 14 Sep 2005, 13:07

mikepepler wrote:If I need to drink any of it I'll put it through my Katadyn filter. I may also use it as is for washing I suppose if I needed to.

Exactly my thoughts, I wanted enough store to be able to feed the entire garden and keep us watered as well. I intend to go with the katadyn filter also.

Pete M

PowerswitchClive · Post by **PowerswitchClive** » 14 Sep 2005, 18:46

So far this is what I have in the way of preparations.... At the moment I am trying to replicate this across 2 locations. I have access to some land at my mum's, but not at mine. I am sure there is stuff that I have forgotten to include...... next projects are to look to growing some food on my dad's old veg patch. Buy a diesel generator for my mum's to power the oil fired heating.... yeah sounds crazy I know, but not when you have 24months worth of heating oil in a tank

At Home
6 Months food for one person
60 litres of bottled still water
24 litres of apple juice in cartons

Duracell D Batteries 68
Rechargeable D Batteries 16
Industrial High Powered 9amp
Rechargeable D Batteries 10
Duracell C Batteries 20
Rechargeable C Batteries 6
Duracell AA Batteries 108
High powered rechargeable AA Batteries 36
40 watt Solar Panel 1
Ex army folding 40 watt solar panel 1
12V fast charger for AA batteries, for use with solar panal 2
12V fast charger for C+D cell Batteries, for use with solar panel 1
85amp hour AGM deep cycle battery 3
105amp hour Gel deep cycle battery 1
Gel / AGM battery chargers (mains supply) 2
Solar panel charge controller 2
Solaris solar charged Fluorescent lantern 1
BP solar charged lighting pack 1
12V Fluorescent tubes 2

Small Solar Powered Charger for C+D cells 2
Small Solar Powered AA Battery Charger 4
Solar Charged Torch 2
Solar Charged LED Torch 1
Wind up LED Torch 1
Freeplay windup Torch 1
High Powered 6Watt Solar Charger 1
Fluorescent Tube Lanterns ? Osram 2
Colemans Petrol Stove 1
Colemans fuel (petrol in colemans bottle) 3 L
Solar Powered / Wind up SW radio 1
Wind up SW radio 1
Battery powered Sony Shortwave radio 1
Small 5.5? 12V TV
Coleman?s Petrol Lantern 1
1000watt power invertor 12V to 240V 1
600watt power invertor 12V to 240V 1
Coleman Camping gas heater 1
Fuel for heater ? 18hour cans 3
Meths Camping Cooker and pans 1
Meths per litre 3
Camping Gaz cooker 1
Camping Gaz cooker and heater 1
Camping Gaz gas cans large 9
Water filtration units ? will turn any non saline
water source into safe drinking water 2units
Ex Army cooking tins > new
Cigarette lighters 16

Multivitamins 500tablets
Ventolin Inhaler 10
Potassium Iodate 12tablets (in case of Nuclear accident)
Amoxicillin 3courses
Tamiflu 1course
Flu masks 4 + 20 filters
Ibuprofen 200tablets
Aspirin 80tablets
Aspirin & Codine 64tablets
Paracetamol 80tablets
Pain Relievers
(Aspirin + Paracetamol) 48tablets
Co Codamol 40tablets
Beechams All in one 60tablets
Tea Tree Oil Gel 2tubes
Tea Tree Oil 9ml 6 bottles
Moisturising Cream from Body shop 6 tubs
Shower Gel 10
Dove Soap bars 8
Savlon 2tubes
Germolene 1tube
WitchHazel Gel 3tubes
Toothpaste 5tubes
Roll on Deodorant 6
Shaving Gel 5
Shaving razors Mach 3 3 + 24blades
Gavison tablets 60
Diarrhoea Relief 24tablets
Toothbrush 6
Athlete?s foot Cream 3
First Aid kit (fully stocked) 1
First Aid Manual 1

Tea Lights 200
45hour Candle 7
70hour Candle 8
25hour Candle 6
Mountain Bike + spare tyres, inner tubes, oil, brake pads, tools 1
Various extra warm clothing, Coats and good shoes, walking boots etc
Sleeping bag 1
?300-400 cash
No debts

Lock up garage

2/3 weeks food for one person
5L bottles of water 5
Petrol 40 litres

At Mum?s

3weeks food for 3people
120L water butts 2
Water filtration units ? will turn any non saline
water source into safe drinking water 2units
Wind up SW radio 1
Solar / Wind up SW radio 1
Freeplay Solar Wind up radio 1
Solar Charged torch 2
High powered Solar AA battery charger
Rechargeable AA batteries 12
Duracell AA batteries 68
Duracell D Batteries 12
Colemans Petrol Stove 2
Colemans fuel/petrol 1litre
Unleaded petrol 1gallon
Fluorescent Tube Lanterns
rechargeable 2
Tamiflu 2courses
Flu masks 3 + 15 filters
Amoxicillin 1course
Potassium Iodate 12tablets (in case of Nuclear accident)
Ventolin Inhaler 3
Ibuprofen 50tablets
Various cosmetics and soaps as above

MacG · Post by **MacG** » 14 Sep 2005, 19:34

hatchelt wrote:With regards to First Aid kits...are there any things which I should be looking out for? Any trusted brands or must-haves?

This might sound rather coarse, but it work very well: Duct tape and reinforced "wet-strong" lint-free cloth. All possible kinds of makeshift bandages can be made from that. Been using the combination for many years when building/gardening/car mechanics and all other activities causing injuries. Ripping thin slices of duct tape can make decent butterflies for semi-deep cuts.

I learned the general stuff of makeshift bandages during army specialist training some 25 years ago, and are just applying those skills to other materials.

A friend of mine is an orthopedic surgeon, and he claim that he can do decent fixations of bone fractures given enough duct tape.

Did I mention that I stock 50 rolls? Good for bartering also.

ewt · Post by **ewt** » 14 Sep 2005, 19:51

Contraceptives.

Latex condoms make good water carriers if you can get the spermicidal lubricant off of them. I suspect the polyurethane ones are not so good for carrying water because they do not stretch.

Just because the world falls apart doesn't mean people stop wanting sex.

I've 'lost' a month's worth of my current oral contraceptive and will keep that much aside from now on. I'm also going to get some Levonelle (£25 from the chemist, just have to show I'm over 18). If things got violent and I were unlucky enough to be raped (and lucky enough to survive), bringing a child into the world 9 months later is probably not a situation I'd want to be in. If contraceptives are just in very short supply, I do want to be able to treat myself to a bit of fun sometimes, assuming I have a partner who gets through this too.

(I'm also learning about herbal abortifacients such as tansy, but for various reasons I trust synthetic pharmaceuticals a bit more)

Pinhole glasses, and a spare set of real glasses (I'll get them cheaply from glassesdirect.co.uk). My glasses broke recently and I was extremely grateful to have the pinholes. My prescription is more than 6 diopters so things are still blurry with the pinhole glasses but they're a lot clearer than they would be with no glasses at all. The pinhole glasses also block a lot of light, this is only really a problem in the evenings and at night but that can be a lot of time. Without eyesight I'm not good for much of anything.

RevdTess · Post by **RevdTess** » 14 Sep 2005, 20:32

ewt wrote:Careful. We don't want to learn from this. --Calvin

Calvin was so wise

Ballard · Post by **Ballard** » 14 Sep 2005, 21:27

Candles,

We had a 4 hour powercut here last week, it was like a little prequel of this coming winter. I tried out my giant calor gas bottle (buy the butane, the calor gas chap said it could be used saftly indoors)/ camping gas stove / Pressure cooker / hay box. It cooked up a fantastic veg stew (home grown of course) using very little fuel. I might get another bottle (?40). House is on the market, as is car and I will purchase an Esse Range cooker as soon as I sell the car (I have a sustainable log source).

However I did find out that my led lighting was fairly rubbish, and that I only had a limited number of candles, today I recieved my box of 200 long burning bistro candles (15p each) and my box of 36 ultra long burning church candles...

http://www.candlesontheweb.co.uk/

(Bulk Discount Bistro Candles (Reference #351)

Ed

Ballard · Post by **Ballard** » 14 Sep 2005, 21:39

If you get a generator buy a 3 kw model, Some good deals on ebay. Any less that 3kws will not 'start up' the fridge etc because of the surge. Also you can keep fuel for up to one year, you should only keep 2 x 10 Liter steel containers, or you might invalidate your insurance (still, what will insurance be worth).

ewt · Post by **ewt** » 14 Sep 2005, 23:25

Regarding candles: is it possible to get tallow candles anywhere? They're good in survival kits because they can be eaten if necessary.

I found a website that sells soy wax candles, but they weren't very helpful about whether they can be eaten if you're desperate. They said in theory it was possible, but that obviously they wouldn't recommend it.

Does anyone know if soy wax candles can be eaten, or possibly how to make them myself?

Regarding stoves - I have a little tiny fold-up stove that takes solid fuel tablets (hexamine I think). I wouldn't want to do a lot of cooking on it, it's so tiny, but it is very portable. For staying at home I have a small BBQ, a bag of charcoal briquettes, and some waste wood (admittedly this is not organised at the moment). I'm wondering about small portable cookers that would safely contain woodfires; I wouldn't want to rely on using a lot of wood, but given a choice between that and hexamine in an emergency, I think I'd rather use the wood and save the hexamine for when I can't get wood.

I had a look at some sleeping bags today, Decathlon do a lightweight one for about 30 pounds. For another 30 I could get a silk sleeping bag liner, which would make the sleeping bag warmer or could be used on its own in hot weather. Since the silk liners are <b>so</b> small and lightweight, I wonder whether having a few of those and layering them (with a lightweight sleeping bag where necessary) might be a better option than having a summer weight sleeping bag that is no good for winter and a winter weight sleeping bag that is no good for summer.

I don't drive at all and I live in London, so in the event of an acute emergency I'd be looking to get out (possibly to Suffolk where boyfriend's dad has a cottage). One thing I don't have, and will definitely need, is some maps.

I do have a bicycle, though I don't ride it nearly enough (afraid of London traffic). I'm looking into getting a trailer for it so I could keep a large backpack full of emergency supplies and if I need to get out quickly I could just throw that into the trailer and ride as far as I can, if I get to terrain where the bicycle is really impossible I could abandon it (possibly hiding it and coming back for it later), and carry the backpack.

Ballard · Post by **Ballard** » 14 Sep 2005, 23:39

Portable stove,

Look at the kelley kettle, it comes with a handy cooking stove.

http://www.kellykettle.com/products.aspx

Ed

Post by **mikepepler** » 15 Sep 2005, 06:51

I have the Kelly Kettle and the stove. The Kettle is absolutely amazing - boils 2.5 pints of water in 5 mins using an amount of twigs and small branches you could hold in one hand! I've tried using to heat water, then swap the kettle for the "stove" pan, pouring in the water and cooking pasta in it. Works great, but the pan's fairly small.

It's more efficent with the kettle than the stove - the chimney effect makes a lot of heat.

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 15 Sep 2005, 08:52

Thanks for all the info!

Ballard - is it not better to go for candles that are more stable than the long, thin bistro candles? Or do you recommend a holder for this type, as we always think candle holders are very important.

What is the ref number for the church candles you went for?

ewt · Post by **ewt** » 15 Sep 2005, 09:02

Do you think I could use hexamine tablets in a kelly kettle? It seems almost ideal for it, although I probably wouldn't use them with the grill part (yuck smelly!).

I have some Chanukah candles that are somewhere between birthday candles and regular candles in size; I wouldn't want to use them for lighting as they only last around 40 minutes or so, but they're great for lighting fires if you don't have many matches and want to try to light from several locations.

I think for lighting I would go for long-burning memorial candles in glass tubes. They're heavy, though, I wouldn't want to carry them.

I used to have some Krill lamps - basically re-usable, battery-operated glowsticks - they were great. I'll have to get some more.

peaky · Post by **peaky** » 15 Sep 2005, 13:36

PowerswitchClive wrote:So far this is what I have in the way of preparations....

How big's your house Clive?

Things I'd add are lube (for the condoms

) and bicyle tyres.

Fantastic ideas here though people, thanks very much.

Regarding water, how long does a butt of water 'keep' for? Is it effectively limitless with one of the Katadyn filters?