The unthinkable - maybe a little "prepping" isn't a bad idea.

[MamaBee]

Hi MamaBee,
The image of fifty 7 y.o. kids and a nun in a coat closet made me laugh! As a retired elementary school teacher, I can only say that it would take a nun and some divine intervention to pull that off!
I also choose to believe that Putin will get what he deserves. ….and the President of Ukraine will win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Haha..The closet ran the whole width of the room..We actually thought it was fun! Youth!

The President of Ukraine really stepped up to the plate. He really should win the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

[TooPatient]

Radiaion meters aren't expensive. You can use to get an idea if too much radiation is in your area so you can (hopefully) get to an area with less radiation.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

The kids hide under decks here but its for earthquake prep

 

[jeaniefish]

The kids hide under decks here but its for earthquake prep

We did that too! Growing up in California in the 50’s and 60’s, we had drills for multiple disaster scenarios!

 

[jeaniefish]

Another ancient PS'er here.....I've been practicing hiding under the desk....if it was good enough for us in the '60's......

Hi Rockdiamond! So, you remember the 60s too! Ya know what they say about us Baby Boomers that can remember the 60s, don’t you? If you can actually recall what you did back in the 60s, then you didnt do ‘em right!

 

[AprilBaby]

I was 4 when Kennedy was assainated.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

We did that too! Growing up in California in the 50’s and 60’s, we had drills for multiple disaster scenarios!

They call it 'the turtle' now days
I gotta admit the last time we had a really scary one i was yelling at Gary to get out of bed and under the door frame while i hung onto the sterio
(It has great sound but is too old to get replacement value for insurance)

 

[jeaniefish]

I was 4 when Kennedy was assainated.

I was in my middle school library,April Baby. One of the saddest days ever, and the kind of event that everyone, if old enough, remembers where they were and what they were doing. Each generation has at least one of those, don’t they? Usually tied to something sad or extremely emotional in some way or another.

 

[AprilBaby]

I was in my middle school library,April Baby. One of the saddest days ever, and the kind of event that everyone, if old enough, remembers where they were and what they were doing. Each generation has at least one of those, don’t they? Usually tied to something sad or extremely emotional in some way or another.

All I remember is seeing the funeral procession on TV while my mother was ironing.
my husband was in 2 nd grade at catholic school and said he remembers all the nuns crying.

 

[Arkteia]

Till February 24th, I did not believe the invasion into Ukraine would even materialize; it seemed so obviously suicidal, and yet it happened. Now I am more trusting the news.

I don’t believe anything live would survive the nuclear Armageddon, neither in a basement, nor in a bunker. I saw something after Chernobyl that makes me not want to live in a nuke-contaminated world. Plus, I strongly subscribe to McNamara’s logic.

Perhaps one had to stash up just in case of panic accompanying bad news, though. Thank you for the list.

 

[LilAlex]

Have you thought about this too? Just curious!

Spouse has had all those things for at least a decade. She remembers to "rotate" the water. We almost never think about it. We get a lot of disasters here. Would we get hit with the first wave in a limited nuclear exchange? I don't know. We are not in an "iconic" US city, internationally speaking, but we would not be out of the line of fire.

I have worried more about an earth-facing solar flare blowing all the transformers and killing the grid for years. (This happened 100 or 200 years ago but before we had an integrated network.) But lately that has been moved down to the #2 position. This is why I am so much fun to hang out with

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Last night Gady opened the big packet of nutrigrain i had on top of the pile
it was too big to fit in any of the boxes so i had left it lying on top

I have the stash just in the spare/cats' bedroom so Gary sometimes goes in there looking for a kitty to pat when he's home alone

as well as practical easy to heat/ eat food i tried to include nice things

But i shell be replacing this with weetbix !

 

[jeaniefish]

Last night Gady opened the big packet of nutrigrain i had on top of the pile
it was too big to fit in any of the boxes so i had left it lying on top

I have the stash just in the spare/cats' bedroom so Gary sometimes goes in there looking for a kitty to pat when he's home alone

as well as practical easy to heat/ eat food i tried to include nice things

But i shell be replacing this with weetbix !

Daisys and Diamonds,
You are just so darned funny.Thank you for the laughs and for injecting a sense of humor into an otherwise really seriously depressing discussion.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Daisys and Diamonds,
You are just so darned funny.Thank you for the laughs and for injecting a sense of humor into an otherwise really seriously depressing discussion.

Thank you
In all seriousness i couldn't think of anything worse than waking up to know something real bad had happened to all of you

And then wondering how soon before the end for us

So I'm rethinking the weetbix
I mean its one of the very few cereals with almost no sugar
Its the breakfast of champions because according to the adds on tv because the All Black's (national rugby team) eat them

But do we really want our last breakfast to be weetbix ? - i mean i like it, its good for one's inners but it needs a lot of milk (and tinned fruit to top up the sugar and moisture content) like it needs lot of milk !

Imagining my last days eatting dry weetbix is not pleasant
yet as a kid my bestie happily munched on dry weetbix topped with vegemite and cheese (maybe her parents hadn't discovered crackers)


There is this awful thing called the dry weetbix challenge

 

[Karl_K]

Im inside the blast radius of a place on the Russian target list...but having a small stockpile has come in handy many times.
The onset of the covid great tp shortage was just one of them.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Even though our slashes are for different reasons i have some questions ?

How do you keep track of expiray/best before dates ?
Do you rotate it back into your pantry in the kitchen ?
Seriously how do you not dip into it when its obvesouly not an emergency ?
Gary looks at it and says why can't we eat it now???

I based what i have been buying on this article (there are errors in the article and i have loads of stuff in the freezer anyway )

Stuff

i.stuff.co.nz

The hardest thing has been getting Panadol (i forget what Americans call that but its regular over the counter pain killer)
you can only buy one box at a time at our supermaerket (after a university student OD-ed and died) and with all our aches and pains we use that before i can save it but i have now managed to have about 6 spair boxes

durring our first lockdown when we couldn't get to the big suoernarket due to Gary's eyes not being good enough to drive and we couldn't get deliveries i had to shop at the smaller more expensive neighbourhood suoermarket - to their credit they limited nothing (except flour) l and just let us buy what ever we needed including loo paper which they never ran out of
They also improved their fruit & veg and meat dept
But money-wise it wasn't easy
i thought we did well
we ate a lot of apple slaw with our meals and a $20 pack of bacon did a lot of banana pancakes, i also added a ton of frozen veg and tuna to noodles for lunch
But after lockdown Gary had really bad kidney readings from the doc

So im weary this kind of diet (the noodles & the bacin -not the apple slaw) is not that great
But ive tried to focus on things he will be able to quickly cook if i am sick

18 months ago when i had the vertigo and could hardly get out of bed he and the cats were bl**dy hopeless without me
Its been hard stocking up on cat food, its so hard to get it right now but we are getting there slowly (i added a bag of Temptation cat lollies today)

ive also included lots of nice drinks - some sugar free
Apart from tea and coffer and milk and his bottled water we hardly ever buy drinks so i have sugar free fizzy drinks and strawberry milk as well as cordials for sore throats like lemon, ginger & honey because if the end of the world is coming im not dying thirsty !
I tried to buy Gary some v8 juice but a weird purple one came as a substitute so we tried it & he didn't like it (i thought it was much nicer so i drank it)


Sometimes i just ramble on because i have no one to talk too

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

I have lots of single serve apple pies in the freezer from work i get for half price or free if i take the ones that break
Thay is Gary's latest go-to if he doesn't like what i dish up so i have to have long life cream in the energency stash

 

[autumngems]

We would be within 2 hours of a military installation that is on the installation to be hit list

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Last night i could not sleep thinking about that madman and his nuks
I wish i had never seen or read on the beach

Yesterday morning Gary just wanted toast for breakfast but i had forgotten to get more jam
i thought ill just borrow some from the covid stash
seems i had also forgotten to put jam in there too

but now looking at the stash with a mushroom cloud in my minds eye im not at all happy with the general lack of yumminess in the offerings

On the plus side I did manage to add another box of cat food to it total this week

 

[House Cat]

My husband is stocked up full prepper style. Not at the house but in our travel trailer. This keeps everything portable.

I’ve already told him I’m not built for the apocalypse. I’m going to be like the wife/mom in “The Road” and walk out into the radiation and die. Sorry, but cannibals scare me.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

My husband is stocked up full prepper style. Not at the house but in our travel trailer. This keeps everything portable.

I’ve already told him I’m not built for the apocalypse. I’m going to be like the wife/mom in “The Road” and walk out into the radiation and die. Sorry, but cannibals scare me.

I keep thinking about the lady news anchor and her dad from that movie with the astroid Deep impact
They just went down to the beach and waited for the wave

On reflection that seems preferable to nucular war

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

All I remember is seeing the funeral procession on TV while my mother was ironing.
my husband was in 2 nd grade at catholic school and said he remembers all the nuns crying.

I wasn't even born and i cry every time its on tv

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Got desperate (the first grocery delivery i could last night is for Monday night)
Had to break into the stash for the Temptations cat lollies
it was an emergency

 

[danusia]

Neighbor put in a huge bomb shelter last year. Don't know the square footage but large enough for 14 people-He and his wife, his 2 daughters and their families who all live several homes down from one another. Well, the shelter flooded as well as his basement and he has entry through the outside and his basement to the shelter. They have crews out there trying to solve the problem. Don't know how much this is costing him, but I guess if it gives him peace of mind, so be it.

 

[AnastasiaBeaverhausen]

Neighbor put in a huge bomb shelter last year. Don't know the square footage but large enough for 14 people-He and his wife, his 2 daughters and their families who all live several homes down from one another. Well, the shelter flooded as well as his basement and he has entry through the outside and his basement to the shelter. They have crews out there trying to solve the problem. Don't know how much this is costing him, but I guess if it gives him peace of mind, so be it.

Wait. Bomb shelters can flood?? Welp. Adding that to my list of "Reasons Why I Probably Won't Survive an Apocalypse."

 

[Betty Baguettes]

Just FYI - This seems like something both prepper and non-prepper New Englanders might want to be aware of:

New England Could Face Blackouts This Winter | OilPrice.com

New England could face rolling blackouts this winter due to extreme volatility in natural gas markets

oilprice.com

 

[Austina]

In the event of a nuclear attack, I’m running out to get vaporised as quickly as possible. What’s the point in trying to live in a post nuclear world?

 

[GliderPoss]

I recall watching "On the beach" by Nevil Shute any years ago and thinking how lucky I am to live in Oz, we are so far away from everything!!! Also used to read those books "Tomorrow when the war began" by John Marsden and my sisters and I used to pretend to hide in the bush (we lived on a farm) and discuss what we'd do if it ever happened. To be honest that's still exactly what I'd do - pack up supplies & head out bush to camp & survive. I've grown up with some basic survival skills and can hunt if need be.

A post-apocalyptic world isn't what anyone wants but I think you'd be surprised at the sheer will to live by humans...

 

[missy]

When did you last read it Missy ?

Hi Nicky, just seeing this. About thirty years ago maybe? It’s a great book.

Positivity and negativity do not change what may happen.
I don't see being in denial about a real possibility as being healthy.
Accepting and coming to terms with what may happen reduces my anxiety over what I cannot control.

Fear, denial, and pretending is not how I roll.
Truth and honesty brings me some peace.

Agree 100%

 

[tyty333]

In the event of a nuclear attack, I’m running out to get vaporised as quickly as possible. What’s the point in trying to live in a post nuclear world?

My DH said the exact same thing!