scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
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Post by scoutmum on May 25, 2016 12:03:15 GMT 10
I just finished reading this selection of first hand accounts of the evacuation of Fort Mac: www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/24/fort-mcmurray-wildfire-alberta-school-students?CMP=share_btn_fbIt's really interesting reading... Here's an excerpt: I lived in the developing area of Timberlea, in Heritage, north of Fort McMurray. After packing a suitcase and running around my room looking for things that were valuable to me, I decided that half a tank of gas in my car was probably not enough to get me a far distance. My father was working in Edmonton and my mother had a school bus full of kids she was responsible for getting to safety. It had taken me an hour and a half to get down the street when I realised I was not getting gas in town. By this time now all of Fort McMurray had a mandatory evacuation order. I turned my car around and decided a different route out was faster, I met up with my boyfriend and his family because I was alone. By this point, over the radio, the speakers were telling the city that if you were north of town, to go north, and if you were south, go south. This was because parts of the highway were closed due to the fire. By the time we moved 5km, they were opening the highway and telling the remainder of residents to go south, as it was the only way to get out south of Fort McMurray. People all around were disobeying traffic laws, and driving on the sidewalk, doing whatever, however they could to get out faster. A city of 88,000 people all trying to leave all at once created one hell of a traffic jam. By then, police officers had opened every lane going out of Fort McMurray. Driving through downtown probably had the most impact on citizens of Alberta. Forests were up in a blaze, and so close to the highway you could feel the heat. Areas were blocked off because trees were falling on fire. It was so close. Buildings were burning, gas stations were on fire, it was truly amazing, ‘amazing’ as in nothing I have ever seen before in my 18 years of living in Fort McMurray. It had such an impact on me to witness and live through it, I will remember that feeling forever. The highway leaving town was a start and stop, bumper to bumper, long way out. I had to go to the Anzac Recreation Centre because that was where my mother was. After that I spent another two hours just to get to the gas station right off the road. The decision to get gas there was probably the smartest decision I could have made. Although waiting in line was a good 45 minutes, it was well worth it. There, they were only allowing $30 worth of gas and not allowing jerry cans because too many people were waiting in line. I’m grateful for the staff that were monitoring as it went a lot smoother. It was just as chaotic there as it was in the town of Fort McMurray. The highway we were on was a single lane, but people were driving in the other lane to get ahead, as well as in the ditch. At one point there were four lanes going south on a two-lane highway. Police were doing their absolute best to get everyone to obey the laws and eventually got everyone back over in one lane. Robin Delauw
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on May 17, 2016 8:38:12 GMT 10
I tried growing Dragonfruit once, and I have to say that the bit under 'Pest and Disease' is untrue. I found that my poor dragonfruit never stood a chance against the cactoblastis moth (introduced to control the prickly pear problem). A pity!
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on May 10, 2016 14:09:39 GMT 10
I'm not sure that the 'foreigners allowed' aspect is accurate... I was on a British board last night, and a fellow was saying on it that he actually contacted the Russian Embassy to ask about the program and was told it was only open to Russian nationals. There doesn't appear to be any information on how to apply online...
As for the cold *pft*. Where I grew up in Canada it used to get that cold sometimes in the winter, and European settlers had been living there quite successfully for hundreds of years. It just takes good prepping through the summer months! Winter is hibernation (and partying) time!
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on May 9, 2016 19:18:14 GMT 10
One thing I learned from it: keep some extra fuel on hand! (We all know this, but it's easy to get lazy...) Hundreds of vehicles wound up stranded along the highways because by the time the evac order came in, the servos were all closed/ on fire! There was a girl on the news who rode out with her horses out -- she started out with them in a horse trailer, but ran out of fuel. My husband remarked that she might have been better off just riding them out in the first place. Might have been faster...
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on May 9, 2016 17:28:49 GMT 10
I'm currently 16 weeks pregnant with Baby Number 3! Baby Number 1 has just turned 4, and baby Number 2 is 2 1/2yo.
I'd be interested to hear if there are any special preps people think you should make while pregnant. We live three hours from the nearest maternity ward, so I'm not just thinking SHTF preps, but also just, 'oops, the baby's coming early!' preps.
(...I was reading in the RFDS newsletter earlier today about a woman who had her baby three months early, and NINE hours from the nearest maternity ward. Thankfully, that baby is celebrating it's first birthday.)
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on May 8, 2016 6:58:14 GMT 10
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Sept 20, 2015 10:58:27 GMT 10
Oil is starting to go rancid [oxidize] when it's first made. Of course we can't smell it at first, as there's hardly any in it. As more oxygen binds with it, it gets worse and a little more smell comes to it. When you heat or expose oils to sunlight it speeds up the oxidization rate. Rancid oil tastes bad, fairly simply mostly due to the build up of peroxides in it and it will smell a little bit like hydrogen peroxide consequently. Rancid oil won't harm you in the short term, though with the increased free radicals you might put yourself at higher risk of disease later on. For a prepper, what that means if you need the energy to keep you alive and survive, hold your nose and eat lots of green leafy veggies as you can to try to counteract what you did in the emergency Thanks, @shinester! That answered my next question as well.
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Sept 19, 2015 15:00:34 GMT 10
This might sound silly... But how do I tell if the oils have gone rancid? Smell? Colour?
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Aug 26, 2015 14:15:59 GMT 10
Doesn't sound much different from leasehold land here in Aus, then...
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Aug 14, 2015 19:00:29 GMT 10
Interestingly I was speaking with my father this afternoon, who reminisced about his childhood in Europe; his family would slaughter a couple of pigs each year and make charcuterie for the winter, and they'd also make various pickles, sauerkrauts, etc. How I wish I could get some of the old traditional recipes. Don't know what your family heritage is, but I picked up 'Preserving the Italian Way' by Pietro Demaio a few years ago, and found it to be excellent! Lots and lots of old world recipes... www.diggers.com.au/shop/gardening-books/cookbooks/preserving-the-italian-way/hpre/
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Aug 11, 2015 12:10:22 GMT 10
Was reading through the pressure canner book, and it looks like you should be able to use it to pressure cook dried beans, etc. in a fraction of the time it would normally take... (Re. old dried beans taking forever to cook @shinester)
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Aug 9, 2015 12:20:45 GMT 10
Impressive shinester, great work. Never had those scoutmum, do they taste like regular cucumber/pickles? 'Prickly', or 'Bush' cucumbers taste pretty much like normal cucumbers... The prickles are QUITE prickly, though, so you need to shave them off before using. They grow everywhere around here. Haven't taste our dill pickles yet; letting them marinate for a few weeks.
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Aug 5, 2015 20:52:15 GMT 10
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Jul 21, 2015 11:46:21 GMT 10
Ours arrived today!
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Jul 16, 2015 18:23:33 GMT 10
Our family bought one last night as well! Postage was a bit much, but still worth it with the discount!
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Jul 12, 2015 17:44:31 GMT 10
What part of Canada?? I've visited Montreal about 4 times - got real good friends in Chateaguay. (I think that's how to spell it). And, never been known to turn down a Labats Blue!!! I've been to MOntreal many times. Have lived in New Brunswick, Ontario, Alberta and BC, but the all the stories I was telling above are based on my time in NB.
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Jul 12, 2015 14:29:17 GMT 10
Also, speaking of winters in Canada. I remember one particular snow storm as an adult where I was working in a shop... Finally, the shop closed due to the storm, and I called a cab to go home. Stepped out of the cab at my house, and sank into snow up to my shoulders! Was there ever a risk of vehicles sinking into snow? Presumably there would have been the occasional ditch next to a road, so any vehicle that left the asphalt would have been in great danger. Cars get buried in the snow all the time, and yes, if you slide (from the ice and slush on the road) of the road you can get pretty stuck. It's not like sinking in water, though -- snow packs. One of the biggest dangers with cars in snowstorms is actually carbon monoxide poisoning. People get stuck in their cars for one reason or another, and they run the heater to keep warm... Not thinking about the possibility of snow blocking up their exhaust pipe. Used to hear about people dying from that every winter.
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Jul 12, 2015 7:42:37 GMT 10
I remember speaking with a friend in Kamloops, Canada many years ago - our temperature that summers' day was mid-40's, their winters' day was mid-thirties BELOW zero. Stuff that for a joke in every way imaginable. Apparently a person can die from the cold before they get more than a few metres from their front door. Now that's a place where grid-down would be nigh-on impossible. I can remember as a kid in Canada they would cancel school when it hit -40. Yay! Right? But it got pretty boring pretty fast because we weren't allowed outside to play, and couldn't even go over to a friend's house... Also, speaking of winters in Canada. I remember one particular snow storm as an adult where I was working in a shop... Finally, the shop closed due to the storm, and I called a cab to go home. Stepped out of the cab at my house, and sank into snow up to my shoulders! We also used to have 'ice storms' that would knock the power out for days if not weeks...
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Jul 11, 2015 17:35:54 GMT 10
So the husband and I were talking today while on a drive, and for whatever reason the topic turned to if there was a complete societal collapse, would you prefer it to happen in the summer or the winter?
I said winter, because here in NQ if you were unprepared the heat of summer could kill you off before you could accomplish anything.
My husband, on the other hand, reckoned that summer, at least if there was a good wet, could be advantageous because the rain might shield you a bit, and protect you from unwanted visitors.
What do you think? Which would you prefer?
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scoutmum
Senior Member
North Queensland
Posts: 189
Likes: 344
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Post by scoutmum on Jun 23, 2015 22:46:15 GMT 10
I made a sourdough starter some years ago, and I added a small piece of rhubarb to the mix (following advice that this helps). It got going very quickly; much quicker than subsequent attempts in which I only used flour and water. Plus it gave me a good excuse to buy some rhubarb for Mrs Pete to use in a crumble... Did you have to continue feeding it rhubarb? Or just when starting it? ...It took me three weeks or so to get my flour and water starter going properly, but like I said, it's now going on six months and is still happily bubbling. ...I've also heard of feeding starters beer, for any of those preppers who might like an excuse to crack one open.
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