What we take for granted - above all, power. Power to heat, light, cook, preserve.
I've been thinking about this recently, and wondering whether the Government Nanny-State guidance to us to build up 3 days' store of foodstuffs, especially things which don't need to be heated/cooked, and water, have anything to do with threats from Putin to cut off power supplies.
I used to work for the Marine division of the Post Office, back in the day, and know only too well how many (now fibre-optic) telecommunications cables run beneath the sea. In the past they would sometimes be dredged up accidentally but now there is a much more targeted approach from our enemies. Think how easily supply lines for food could be attacked and how instantaneous the result. In the past, supermarkets used to keep stocks of supplies on site - they no longer do. When they have run out in store - that's it until the next delivery. With no communication system, that's it for a while. That's it on the most basic level - no food, no power. How to hit a country hard.
An attack on the under-sea gas pipeline from Norway to the UK would be catastrophic too. In rural areas in Wales, we don't have access to gas anyway, unless we buy it in cylinders to heat a cooker or stove. I am very vulnerable here as I am all electric - we did consider having a wood-burning stove put in, but there is no functioning fireplace - the old one in the kitchen does have a non-functioning cast iron gas heater, but it was condemned before we got here. It was connected to an outside supply (gas cylinder). Gas fumes and asthmatics don't go well together though. The original chimney above it was covered and I have a storecupboard, with a little window in it, so no longer any good as a chimney!! Keeping warm and fed would be reliant on blankets, quilts and a primus stove . . . .
It may never happen, but in the middle of the night, when I can't sleep, such thoughts go through my head and cause much pondering! I am perhaps fortunate that less than half a mile away is a shop called The Bug Out, which is about survival equipment and prepping . . . Perhaps I should check it out!!! My little recently-bought wind-up radio and phone charger seems a bit inadequate!!
On that happy note I shall leave you and go and see how much it is going to cost to sort out my malfunctioning handbrake (which did NOT want to co-operate when I had to pull off a single track lane last evening coming back from Tam's - 10 sacks of rubbish stopped me pulling into the top of the STEEP driveway and I had to drive down it. Think Porlock hill in miniature (about a 1 in 4 steepness). Handbrake didn't hold and I thought I was going to go through their gate before I could hold it on the footbrake to start reversing out . . . Oh, and my phone has Malware on it (came in on a QR scanner), so more expense. Tam tried to fix it yesterday, but it's a sort of self-replenishing one. Barsteward thing.
With our change of heart at installing a wood burner, we've decided that in an emergency if we used up our solar, and drained the battery backup by early evening in Winter, we would rely on our little gas canister cook top and our fire pit which has a grill that can go on top. So I'll have to make sure I have a little stash of suitable foods to cook on these. 😀
ReplyDeleteI remember when I worked at Sainsbury's in Reading, they were converting three quarters of the back warehouse space into more shop floor. We were all concerned at there being no back up stock then.