What did you do to prepare today?

Doc Ruby

I just had a quick google, and it seems its used to bring out the water patterns in Damascene steel for knives, used for knife preparation generally, and finds some use in tanning hides. Seaweed eh, who knew? I suppose it could also be used to produce an ad-hoc battery (lead-acid, aka car batteries).

mawk

called into aldi today on my way home. got a plastic map protector and compass set. feels sturdy enough for 3e

Doc Ruby

Managed to set up an untraceable Tor package on my thumb drives. Way easier than Tor portable which I was messing around with earlier.

https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

That means I can access any computer, surf the web or go to a drop box to download files, and nobody will know where I'm going or where I'm coming from. Completely anonymous, untraceable web access from any computer.

eth0

Doc Ruby wrote: »

Managed to set up an untraceable Tor package on my thumb drives. Way easier than Tor portable which I was messing around with earlier.

https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

That means I can access any computer, surf the web or go to a drop box to download files, and nobody will know where I'm going or where I'm coming from. Completely anonymous, untraceable web access from any computer.

You could probably store stuff on some .onion service if you wanted, did ya have a look around the hidden wiki yet?

I used to run a tor exit node but found myself being pre-emptively banned from all sorts of sites, might re-start it as an unlisted node or just run a bridge to keep my good static IP clean

Khannie

I found Tor to be very slow. Paid a fiver for vpn access through vpntunnel.se there last month as a tester and found it to be excellent.

Doc Ruby

eth0 wrote: »

You could probably store stuff on some .onion service if you wanted, did ya have a look around the hidden wiki yet?

No, Im just starting to get into it now. Very interesting stuff.

Tzar Chasm

I got 3 Solar pannels with Dry cell batteries

also I fixed a gaping omission in my bugout Bag

Toilet paper

kildare.17hmr

Tzar Chasm wrote: »

I got 3 Solar pannels with Dry cell batteries

also I fixed a gaping omission in my bugout Bag

Toilet paper

Packet or 2 of baby wipes would be alot better for ya

Khannie

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

Packet or 2 of baby wipes would be alot better for ya

Definitely kinder on the bum. But yeah, I think you'd get more "cleaning per cubic litre" from baby wipes as compared to toilet roll, though they are heavier. Toilet roll could be used for kindling though.

kildare.17hmr

Babywipes are an absolute gift! I got laughed at one year up the glenn when i had a pack with me. I was the one laughin that evenin when one of the lads on sentry duty was tellin us he held it for hours in agony then eventually plucked up the currage and decided the grass would do haha. 9 hours in a box on the foot of a mountain is never good

eth0

Khannie wrote: »

I found Tor to be very slow. Paid a fiver for vpn access through vpntunnel.se there last month as a tester and found it to be excellent.

Sometimes you can get a good connection out of it, other times not. I find it good for low bandwidth stuff like ssh, xmpp and gopher (still a good source of information). Not really made for browsing Web 4.0 pages that take up a gig each. Its possible to run a xmpp server as just a .onion server, so nobody knows where the server is and the server doesn't know where any of the clients are either. A drop of encryption and the server doesn't even know what's being sent.

Not sure if its been done yet, the xmpp server wouldn't be able to communicate with external servers without some proxy setup though

Khannie

Got an allotment there about 2 months ago. I've been away with work for the last while so only getting around to getting it set up now. Loving it to be honest. Hard work but very relaxing and rewarding. The kids are loving it too and I think it'll be great for them to see how much hard work it takes to make food. Great sense of community to it too. Much more random chinwagging going on than you would otherwise have.

evilmonkee

After requiring some items in my BoB randomly during trips, I decided to add a few "luxuries" to the bag.

Simple things which I would not consider necessary for a disaster situation , but useful for that weekend away when you have forgotten something.

So now I have added:

Shampoo & conditioner sample pack (thanks to the freebies thread)
- this is to supplement the bar of soap which is there for a real emergency situation.

Nail file
- one of the cardboard type ones which I would usually use. My swiss army knife has a metal one but they are not very good for your nails.

Single use razor
- Doesn't look as crazy as cracking out the knife

Still need to pick up some surgical face masks.

johngalway

Started brewing cider night before last, if all turns out well I'll not be going without I don't think there'll be that much of a panic buy of apple juice if TSHTF

CYHSN

What I did today: read all 29 pages of thread
Very interesting reading indeed, anyone for 25 year shelf life food?

mawk

300 euro for a box of food? eeeh not for me

kildare.17hmr

mawk wrote: »

300 euro for a box of food? eeeh not for me

Only 42 meals in the pack too! Imagine how much you would get in lidl or aldi for 300 quid!!

eth0

Normal tinned food and stuff like jam and what have you is still usually quite edible after 5+ years. No need to buy purpose made 25+ year rations. Unless you're a government with plenty of money to throw at the problem and want to tick all the health and safety boxes

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

Imagine how much you would get in lidl or aldi for 300 quid!!

The place would be like TK.Maxx after you remove everything that came from China

hardCopy

Got me some seeds.

Got a set of containers and compost too.

Won't exactly be self sufficient due to space constraints but at least I'm learning to grow

kildare.17hmr

Have needed new boots for a while now and decided it was time for a really decent pair so picked up a pair of meindl army pro out in protac in the curragh, best price i could find and he threw in 2 big lenghts if proper paracord, about 50m in total! Its a long time since i was in protac and i had forgot how good the stuff they make is, anyone looking for decent rucksacks ect should give them a look and they are also well sticked with mill surplas and survival gear, FAK, knives, army tents and boots ect

ShadowFox

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

Have needed new boots for a while now and decided it was time for a really decent pair so picked up a pair of meindl army pro out in protac in the curragh, best price i could find and he threw in 2 big lenghts if proper paracord, about 50m in total! Its a long time since i was in protac and i had forgot how good the stuff they make is, anyone looking for decent rucksacks ect should give them a look and they are also well sticked with mill surplas and survival gear, FAK, knives, army tents and boots ect

I found Protac very pricey for stuff I went to them last year looking for surplus plce webbing they were charging double what i got them for on line from the uk

kildare.17hmr

grapeape wrote: »

I found Protac very pricey for stuff I went to them last year looking for surplus plce webbing they were charging double what i got them for on line from the uk

yeah i always found them pricey too, when i was in the fca i got alot of stuff there and it was expensive but it lasted alot longer than stuff others got eleswhere. Couldnt pass up up on the boots tho, couldnt even find them on line for better price when shipping was added in

bonniebede

Hmmm, I've been away..acquired some nice little bars of soap (just lying around in my hotel room , I think I'm developing a fetish! Also some salt from a burger joint to add to the emergency meals collection. At least this time I didn't forget to empty the rucksack and accidentally get stuck with a lidl multitool hatchet thingy in airport security.:o

The garden is blooming, unfortunately its all bindweed.

On the positive side himself has taken to the compost bin, which is filling nicely. I think compost is going to turn out to be my main crop this year.:pac:

waterfordham

Got most important documents scanned, next to deposit a copy offsite on a USB key to my folks place.

Tabnabs

Harvested my first "crop" from the garden this year, black currents.

As we tried a few, a famous line from Crocodile Dundee came to mind "Well, you can live on it, but it taste like s**t!"

Black current jam, however, is very nice indeed.

johngalway

On that note, am still enjoying my first early spuds, maincrop look to be doing well also. Peas and snap peas seem to be OK. Everything else though seemed to grow to a point then stop...

Cardinal Richelieu

johngalway wrote: »

On that note, am still enjoying my first early spuds, maincrop look to be doing well also. Peas and snap peas seem to be OK. Everything else though seemed to grow to a point then stop...

Wait until you shell the peas, you might have enough for two people dinners!:D Not the highest yielding veg unless you have a major amount planted, but they do help to fix nitrogen in your ground.

johngalway

Cardinal Richelieu wrote: »

Wait until you shell the peas, you might have enough for two people dinners!:D Not the highest yielding veg unless you have a major amount planted, but they do help to fix nitrogen in your ground.

Ah crap.........

Oh well, I did say if my spuds done OK I would consider my first year a success, so far so good

This time next year Rodders, we'll be proper gardeners.......

bonniebede

Resolution for today - clutter is the enemy of preparedness.

Today I am going to get my stuff more organised. no point having a bugout bag I can grab at a moments notice... around here somewhere... maybe under that thing...

So clutter has to go. Onward and upward!

mawk

bonniebede wrote: »

Resolution for today - clutter is the enemy of preparedness.

Today I am going to get my stuff more organised. no point having a bugout bag I can grab at a moments notice... around here somewhere... maybe under that thing...

So clutter has to go. Onward and upward!

atta girl. tough job to start