Should We Prepare for this Winter's El Nino and Possible Cyber Attacks?

 After last nights Apocalypse programme on Channel 4 (which was just an hour of 20 and 30 year olds arguing) set in an abandoned town in the US which is now used by the military for training,  I'm jumping on the bandwagon!.........

Seems there is a Weather Event about to happen and Russia are planning a cyber attack in Suffolk!

"An El Nino event could disrupt UK weather, laying bare the vulnerabilities flagged by the Climate Change Committee's new report"

There is a factory in Suffolk producing drones for Ukraine which could be attacked by Russia. With a  small airfield in Suffolk being used to train the drone operators. We also have two USAF air bases and a Nuclear Power station. Any could have a cyber attack or an attack on the electric supply. (Although if there was a problem at Sizewell B then we probably wouldn't need anything stored at all!)

 I'm not panicking but can see no harm in being prepared for problems - it's better to have things in the cupboard and not need them than the other way round.

In Son and DiL's village they are actually having a special meeting on the 5th of October

People’s Emergency Briefing, St Mary’s Church

I've not heard about my village being briefed yet.

Anyway, I doubt it's possible to plan for long term problems or a zombie apocalypse! but it feels good to have a few just-in-case items.

I decided to order some more gas cartridges for my small picnic stove. I've used this three or four times since living here when electric has been off for a few hours. It doesn't happen often since a local transformer was upgraded but having a way to heat water for a coffee or a hot water bottle is comforting.

 There are batteries for torch and a radio in the cupboard and I also have a very old wind-up/solar power radio (it doesn't run long either way now but still works a bit). For light I have candles and a lantern that is rechargeable from the mains. I found a camping light that can be recharged by winding and also has a built in solar panel and can also charge a phone and have ordered that also.

In the garage I have a good stock of wood for the wood-burner - logs and kindling, firelighters and matches and BiL will save me some newspapers for fire lighting too.

In the medicine cupboard I always have a supply of paracetamol and ibuprofen, antiseptic and antihistamine creams and plasters and  reorder prescription meds from the pharmacy at the village health centre in good time.

I try and keep the car at least half full of diesel - which is a couple of hundred miles, enough to get out and about to family or shops for several weeks.

There's one thing that went from the shelves early in covid that I've never understood - loo rolls. I'm still getting a box full once a year from the Who Gives a Crap company so no shortage here. 

Then there's food and water as per instructions to have a supply - just in case. There is new government advice due later this month.................

The initiative is intended as a practical, "common sense" approach to enhance household self-sufficiency, which in turn frees up emergency resources for the country’s most vulnerable populations. [1]

What to stock: Households will be encouraged to keep a three-day supply of bottled water and non-perishable tinned foods (such as tinned meat, fruits, and vegetables) that do not require cooking, alongside emergency tools like manual tin openers and torches. [1]
When it launches: While initial reports leaked around August 25–28, the formal guidance and an official "Prepare" website are expected to be heavily publicised later in autumn, with some frameworks pointing to mid-September 2026. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The reasons: The policy update comes in response to heightened risks from hostile state cyber-attacks on infrastructure, severe summer heatwaves causing agricultural droughts, and potential disruptions to power or water grids. [1, 2]
The "War Book": Alongside the public advice, the government is updating its classified crisis blueprint—traditionally known as the "war book"—to prepare civilian and military infrastructure for external threats. [1]

Officials and supermarket bodies have heavily emphasized that this is a long-term preparedness measure and not a call for immediate panic buying

 Years of living miles from a shop means I never let cupboards get low on food and I have a 5 litre bottle of water in the freezer which works like a giant ice pack if the electric goes off (two or three 4 pint  bottles of milk too and they do the same) and a couple of small bottles of water in the cupboard and keep my filter jug in the fridge full. Plus the water butts outside have refilled with recent rain. I don't think there's anyway to have an indefinite water supply unless you happen to have a well or your own supply of spring water. But some of the things suggested to stock for food shortage just wouldn't appeal at all - like baked beans. If I was stressed/depressed without much heat and light they would be way down my list.

One of the frugal you-tube ladies talked about spending £100 on her pre-autumn prepper pantry. She has a supply of  oats and dried milk to last a year, peanut butter that she doesn't like much, jars of fish paste (yuck) and enough canned lentils to last until 2029!

 I don't have the enthusiasm for  stocking up that much so decided to get in just a few items that can be heated in one saucepan on the picnic stove to make a filling meal.

In the end I only got 3 cans to keep in the cupboard. That'll do for now. These are the sort of tins that we used to take camping when feeding 5 and cooking on two gas rings - they were cheap back  then, definitely aren't now. 

I was going to buy some canned vegetables until I discovered the 3 cans of carrots in the cupboard were best before 2022 so maybe I'd better eat those first before buying more!

According to the Labels list there's a post like this back in 2023, in Covid Strange Times too (2020) and back in 2018 when we had storms and power cuts- seems I've been preparing for years and nothing too drastic has happened...................... yet!

    

P is for Preparedness and Peace of Mind

 Be Prepared is the Scout Motto and I was a Cub-Scout leader for 20 years so learned that lesson well. 

I've been "Being Prepared" forever and especially since moving here with electricity needed for everything, for the first time in many years.

Having the wood burner installed was an expensive business but gave me Peace of Mind. Having the en-suite moved was another thing that cost me money but has made such a difference in many ways. No worries about the macerator pump reversing itself for a start! 

I keep a supply of logs, large and small in the garage and I'm still using kindling I bought from car boot sales in 2022. I buy a box of natural non smelly firelighters online and they last ages. They are needed for this fire as it doesn't draw well to start it easily. I've also got plenty of matches - no fire without them - and no, Scouts don't rub two sticks together!

I have an electric convector heater which has been needed a few times this autumn when the oil central heating has refused to work properly - which it did recently for the 3rd time this autumn - I have hot water but no heat which in theory shouldn't happen. Heating engineer has been rung - the last two times the heating has started working again the next day but not this time. He's hoping it's something simple like the flow switch.

I recently replaced my picnic gas stove - less than £20. The old one had originally been used in the beach hut and was very rusty. Last time it was used when the electric was off,  it didn't work well at all as it would only work on very low flame. I have a pack of 3 new gas canisters too and that means I'm prepared for hot food, hot drinks and making a hot water bottle for any future power cuts.

I have lots of candles and this re-chargeable light below so  I'm Prepared for lighting if the electric goes off as long as it's not off too long. I've got a large torch and a small one - with batteries to fit.

Plenty of batteries always in the cupboard for the radio. I have a wind-up radio too but it's very old and temperamental now.

I try to never let the car go below half full of diesel, that's enough for over 200 miles if needed and  keep my mobile phone charged since BT changed landlines to wifi hence needing electric.

By ordering my prescriptions from the health centre in good time - I don't run out if they have a delay.

My kitchen cupboards always have a good supply of food - I don't like running out of anything, even though I now live within walking distance of a village shop. I have a few tins of vegetables and fruit just in case I can't get out for fresh and I've got bags of flour for making bread. Plenty of food in the freezer  and I keep a large 5 litre bottle of water in there too. If the electric goes off it works like a giant ice pack and of course if ever there's a burst water main and we lose supply then that will make several cups of coffee.

Being Prepared = Peace of Mind

Back Monday - Have a good weekend folks. Christmas Fayres are starting. Coffee and cakes beckon!

Sue

Talking About Shops, Supplies and Preparedness

It was chance that meant I didn't panic when the shops ran out of loo roll in March. Luckily I'd just had my first delivery of 48 from the "Who Gives a Crap" company.

I'd also bought flour during February and can remember the checkout lady say "goodness you're going to do a lot of baking" and I said I was just restocking after Christmas and New Year. There actually wasn't a shortage of flour at the beginning of lock-down - only a lack of mills packing in small 1.5kg bags. The majority of flour sold in this country is either packed in 20kg sacks for bakeries or carried in bulk tankers for food manufacturing companies.

During the first week that the shelves emptied I opened a new pack of 6 yeast sachets and straight away wrote them on my shopping list - because that's what I do............ the supermarket yeast shelf was empty for weeks but luckily I found yeast before getting to the end of the pack.
So lack of stock on the shelves wasn't a cause for panic - and anyway there's always well stocked cupboards and freezer up the end of the lane..............miles from a shop.........you never know when it might be needed............... snow/car problems/dodgy knees or back.

In the fresh fruit gap after rhubarb and before the strawberries and raspberries  got going  I had a sort out of the tinned fruit on the top shelf and found I had one can of fruit cocktail dating back to BBE 5/2018 and 3 various others were BBE 2019. I remember buying extra cans of fruit when we were supposed to leave the EU first time round, as I imagined imports of fruit getting held up, but obviously didn't rotate my stock properly!
I ate my way through them - all were OK of course.
Now we've almost left the EU with discussions going on about trade tariffs and deal/no deal and once again it all happens at the time when there is a lack of English fruit available. So I'm going to re-stock with a few cans again.

The book I wrote about a while back talks about how the country prepared for rationing during wartime. People were urged not to hoard and of course many could not afford to buy anything extra to put away.

The Religious Community of Mormons are required to keep a supply of food stored away for themselves so they have enough to help other people where needed and that must have been useful for food shortages recently.

If you've ever watched any of the "Inside the Factory" programmes, (and there were also some made to show how food factories were affected during the early Covid problems) you will have seen how factories operate a 'Just in Time' ordering system, no storage at all.......straight from the truck into the production line.  Supermarkets only have small stockrooms now because with computerization they always know whats left on the shelves and items are ordered automatically. When shelves are empty it's rarely any good asking if there's some of what's missing 'out the back' anymore.

But going back to what I'd like  to store for any future lock-down or Brexit shortages and it would be the types of food that are my  favourite things to eat..........so not tins of baked beans, chick peas or lentils for sure!
I reckon flour is one of the best basic store-cupboard necessities for versatility . It stores well as long as it's dry and double wrapped. The local flour from Essex I bought a couple of weeks ago is dated March 2021 and that's only a Best Before date so in theory it would be possible to keep a years supply tucked away.Yeast can be kept in the freezer and once you have those you have bread - and I'd never get tired of toast.
 I've read that Ghee is a way of preserving butter and I know it's widely used in Indian cooking and keeps for a long time but I've never used it, so have no idea what it tastes like, is it only used in cooking? Can I spread it on my toast? 
Most dried and canned products will  keep for ages. I have a lot of space at the back corner of a corner cupboard that I could fill with all sorts but how much does one person need to store?
and what about if all over 50's are told to shield through the winter, which was one rumour mentioned - don't like that idea at all!

So many questions - such a rambling blog post!

If you've read this far you are probably as confused as I am.

Not a lot to blog about in this heat so I'll take a few days off.
Back Saturday

Sue

A No Electric Evening

Tuesday afternoon I scheduled and clicked publish on Wednesday's post after writing that Storm Brendon hadn't given us much windy weather here - I spoke too soon! The rain lashed down and the  wind got going and just before 6pm the electric went off. I was eating my dinner at the time and finished it with the light from the wood-burner and the mantel-shelf fairy lights which I'd luckily decided to leave up for the rest of the winter. Then I found the torch from the drawer and the  re-chargable lantern from the cupboard, lit some candles, put a saucepan of water on the gas hob for my evening drink and popped some batteries in my radio.............. the electric has been off umpteen times since we moved here so I'm well prepared!

(A no electric evening but my re-chargable lantern has been a really good buy - enough light to read easily)

 A knock on the front door was my next door neighbour checking I was OK and then a text message from next-door-but-one also checking I was OK in the dark. I was able to reassure both that yes thank you, everything was good up the end of the lane. (Lovely of them to check but it made me feel very old! especially as I know I'm better prepared than either of them.........sorry that sounds a bit smug but it's true.......... I'm the only one with cylinder gas cooker for a start! Hope these words don't come back to bite me on the bum!).
Just a little while later came a text message from UK Power Networks telling everyone that over 300 homes were off due to a tree pulling down power cables and a couple more messages kept me updated with what was happening which is always handy.

The electric came on sometime after midnight I think - it makes the doorbell ring which woke me up.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

The Mystery Box + Yesterdays Happenings

It's almost a year since I last ordered from Approved Food, I look but rarely see anything that's a good bargain and they do sell an awful lot of food that belongs in the JUNK section of the accounts. Then last week they had cheap flour, plain and self-raising plus brown sugar and kitchen roll which we use for tissues. I happened to pop in a Mars selection box for 50p too - took me right back to childhood Christmases - there was always a selection box of chocolate from someone.
Also splashed out £2 of one of their Mystery Boxes. Last time I got one - many years ago - it was full of weird things that I wouldn't use and I ended up giving most of them to youngest daughter.This time £2 bought these.

10 things so 20p each and all use-able, some slightly junk, not things I would usually buy - except the tomato sauce and the pasta (although I buy Basics brand rather than posh Napolina) but edible and ringing the changes occasionally is good.
I did make one mistake costing 59p - got this, didn't realise pinhead oatmeal was so different to porridge oats. I rarely eat porridge, for some reason it never seems very filling to me and hadn't had any in the cupboard for a while, but thought it was time to try it again.

Anyway I have this now so will give it a go, it just needs soaking over night in water. I'm not planning to follow one recipe I found for pinhead oatmeal porridge which involved adding double cream!

Counting everything in the whole order individually there were 78 different things. Delivery is £5.99, that means *brain whirring* 7 and a bit pence to add to each thing. Did I save money - yes a little. Never as much as it looks at first glance, and not as much as the £46.55p quoted on the receipt, but at least I don't have to buy any flour, brown sugar or kitchen roll for the rest of the year.

Just remembered a post I did all about Approved Foods Waaaaaay back in 2013 when my first blog was a baby which is HERE if you are curious.


Thank you for all the comments on Wassailing and Hello and welcome to a new follower.

I went over to visit small grand-daughter yesterday, in 12 days she has gone from one or two steps to walking really well. Got over to Leiston by a roundabout route after finding a big yellow sign......."Framlingham Town Centre Roads Closed". When a B road is closed the signed Alternative Route has to be by roads not smaller than a B road so I should have gone miles out of the way to get round, luckily I nipped through some small back roads so didn't have to go so far. There are many road repairs going on in Suffolk at the moment  that it's getting really common to suddenly find a road closed. Very glad to have lived here long enough to know my way round without a map (or a sat nav) Must be awful for newcomers.

Wassailing was done...........As dusk fell I went outside and draped bread soaked in apple juice on the apple trees and poured a bit on the roots, chanted the rhyme and patted the trees to give them some encouragement. Didn't bother with the air rifle or banging pots and pans! Might have frightened the neighbours.

What a chilly day it was yesterday and forecasting even stronger winds but thankfully no snow this far south and east. The squirrel proof feeder did NOT arrive .....  Col's fault!  for ordering cheap stuff off ebay .....left it to him to sort out on the lap top in hospital.

TODAY ...Editing in to say.....................Oh my goodness, how windy is this weather! I got up at 6am when the electric kept going on and off. Can  I can hear tiles sliding around? I hope not. Power still on at the moment  think  I'll wait a while to hear if any roads are blocked by trees or overturned trucks before going anywhere. This is when Local Radio really comes into it's own as people ring in with information.

Hope you are all safe

Back Soon
Sue

Be Prepared

I read on Mr Home Maker's blog that he had taken a lot of flak on social media for suggesting that we should all be getting ourselves prepared for inevitable future world events.
I agree, but for more ordinary reasons rather than a 3rd World War.

The storm here last week wasn't a tornado or even a hurricane, just very windy but it put the electric off for 9 hours and in some places roads were blocked by fallen trees. In the Big Storm of 1987 our electric was off for a week and we also had a week without power at the smallholding with live wires down across the gateway so we couldn't get in or out for a while. Weather extremes are more common, hottest ever weather in Australia, more snow than normal in parts of the USA,  even in Switzerland - where they know about snow and more storms here..........

For 20+ years I was a Cub Scout Leader and the Scout Motto of Be Prepared came in very handy when coping with a Scout hut full of thirty 8 - 10 year olds. In fact I still dream (nightmares!) occasionally that I've forgotten all the games that the boys enjoyed so much. My experiences have left me with a liking for being prepared and self reliant.

So how we plan for the small events which might help in big events too.........

* Heating - A wood burner is one of the ✔ that was ✔ when we looked at this house. We had one for all the years at the smallholding, so it was a definite requirement. Our oil boiler wouldn't be my preferred choice but as age creeps up, a wood or solid fuel Rayburn to heat radiators would be more work than we could manage and as finances creep down there is no way we can justify the solar/wind with battery storage route. It takes about 10-15 years to get payback on outlay.
*Cooking - Although it's second choice (after wood fired Rayburn - see above) an LPG cooker with a spare cylinders always on hand is easy. We have 19kg rather than 47kg which we had previously but these are easier to move. There are two cylinders with a switch-over thingy plus one always kept as a spare. Unfortunately nowadays you can't use the oven without electric .........once upon a time gas ovens could be lit with a match - no longer sadly. But the hob sees us through a power cut. A small kettle or saucepan could also be heated on the woodburner............slowly!
*Lighting - I would like the answer to this one as candles are useless for many things. Torches need batteries. I have a huge stock of candles and a couple of candlesticks. Once we had a Freeplay wind-up torch which worked well for a year or two but then wouldn't hold any charge. We also once owned a solar-power small battery charger - it charged batteries only if left in full sunlight for 12 hours - Ha! I've looked at wind-up camping lanterns - they don't get good reviews. Freeplay don't seem to make wind-up lights now. A lantern run by a camping-gaz cylinder will give good light for a few hours. The cylinders aren't cheap. In our early camping days we owned a lantern that ran off a car battery - that was excellent, maybe they are still made?
A stock of matches for candles and fires is also kept in a draw - never did get the hang of rubbing two sticks together!

Old packs of candles have been in the cupboard for years, the Freeplay wind-up radio has been around a while too  but the small torch is nearly new. I got it to use for seeing to unlock the car in village hall car parks when I go to WI, it's small enough to fit in my bag. It's also come in handy at home when I realise that I've forgotten to lock up the garage after dark. Only uses 3 small batteries and has LEDs so good and bright.

 * Water - since we found out that the pipework from the road all the way up the lane isn't owned by the water company and knowing how low the pressure is, I've had a 15lt container filled with water out in the garage just in case. The water in  butts that collect off garage and house would do for some things like flushing the loo.
* Keeping in touch. Our cord-less phone won't work in a power cut and mobiles need charging, I try to keep them charged. Somewhere on route between the smallholding and here our old ordinary plug in phone got left behind/vanished. I may splash out £5.99 for an Argos cheapy simple plug in - might be handy if electric is off but phone-lines still OK.
What we do have and have had for years is a wind-up radio - it also has a built in solar panel and I find it will charge up quite well when left on a sunny windowsill. I would give it just 5 out of 10 for sound quality but if you need to know what's happening it works well.

None of the above would be much use for  long term or major disruption and don't come close to the serious preppers on online prepping sites but they are more than most people have.

Thank you all for comments yesterday, I will keep everyone up to date with the hospital stuff. Visited him yesterday, still no coming home date,  the awful headaches have abated somewhat but he's still incredibly tired all the time.
Apologies for getting peoples hopes up with the surprise pension pay out - not state pension I'm afraid, neither of us are old enough. It's Suffolk County Council and something to do with the lump sum payment and I think we should have had it months ago anyway.
The owners of Colmans mustard say they will carry on making the iconic brand, but not in Norwich. There are many farmers growing for them in East Anglia. As for Aspalls  the cider and vinegar producers near Debenham. The new owners have also assured everyone they will carry on in the same place, but as its a small factory in the middle of the countryside, who knows.

Back Tomorrow
Sue