Stark Realities Of Outages.

Stark Realities

If the grids go down there will be stark realities which cannot be avoided and as much as we would like to avoid them you cannot as many things will happen, some expected and some unexpected.

Petrol and diesel will be hit as will other fuels such as bottled gas and it won’t just be retailers as it will be anyone with them so ensuring they are secured and you have plenty of stocks is essential if you want your car to run or you have a petrol or diesel generator and your local fuel station will be inundated with people looking for fuel, so plenty of diesel is essential as well as a diesel car. Fuel stations may have power but often not for long and cash is essential as many retailers rely upon the internet for transactions and if power is out they cannot deal in anything other than cash and if they have fuel for a generator to run their fuel station it won’t be long before the generator runs out of fuel, or the fuel station runs out of fuel.

Shops operate on something called JIT or just in time systems which means they have automated stock control systems and when their stock levels of a specific item hit a certain level then the system automatically re-orders it and it is delivered the next day as in reality most food retailers only have 3-4 days of stock. This is because of shelf life and if food goes off they face prosecution and anything unsold is a loss to them so they lose money from not selling or potentially from fines under various food safely legislation. Food will last around a week then? Not really because some people, particularly those on low incomes can only shop when they have the money and if they don’t have the money they cannot shop and they will begin looting food shops just to survive and after about a week many people will be looting what food supplies are left and this will be total anarchy.
Many people try to blame preppers for these food shortages so is this fair? Not really as preppers already have their food supplies and are not out trying to get what food they can and are not part of the anarchy and two things will happen, both the po-lice and the army will be called on to stop looting, so will they? Actually no because many of them will have families and while the army may feed soldiers it will not feed their families; and there aren’t enough of them.
Curfews will be introduced and they will be rigorously enforced and the fear will be ramped up by people being told things such as they will be imprisoned for 20 years or the Army will shoot them as looters and this will create a situation where an element of people will attack lone or small numbers of soldiers for their weapons and they will shoot back at soldiers and po-lice.

If power is out so will the cell towers for mobile communications and your walkie talkies, CB, or amateur radio devices may be the only way to speak to your neighbours and it is essential you form yourselves into small groups to patrol your area 24/7 as desperate people do desperate things and hunting food from homes will be one of them so having many eyes around your area is a good way of spotting issues before they arise, and having several people to deal with any scum is better than one elderly person tackling them.
If your mobile phone is out should I ditch it? No, just try to keep it charged as emergency measures means all mobile phones get alerts so rotate the mobile phones around in your area so at least a couple are switched on and you can share any alerts information around your group. Sharing resources is often the best defence of an area or specific properties and while some people may have power they can charge walkie talkies and stay in contact with a patrolling group

If power is out so are the water pumps which supply water to your taps and one thing to do is to fill your bath with clean water while you still have pressure and collect as much as possible and you can move it from your bath to containers more at your leisure as you have it. Power out also means the electric pumps at your sewage station are also out and while both systems have generator back up they also have a finite amount of fuel and the military will take control of fuel meaning these systems will be overflowing and raw sewage will be running into aquifers, rivers, streams, and canals and your water supplies may become contaminated and unusable. You can get the basic test strips for water and it may be worth adding a couple of packs to your prepping items and you need to boil ALL water even filtered water to kill the various microbes and nasties in the water.

What can you do as an individual, you can be prepared and you take this further by getting to know your systems, limits, and surroundings and using them when it doesn’t matter as making a mistake now is not critical but will be critical to you and your family if the grid is down and you don’t want or need mistakes then.
If you put your new bow saw into the car and take the dog for a walk in the woods you can identify dried, fallen timber and select some and cut it up and put it into your car boot and this will give an indication of how long it takes to collect wood and how much you can reasonable get and how long it will last. If you have a log burner then light it and run it for 24 hours and you will see what heat it gives off and more importantly, how long an amount of wood will last which will tell you how much you need to collect and how often as you can never have too much wood but you can have too little and too little may mean no heat for your home, no cooking on your barbecue or fire pit so no warm food. Remember your gas central heating requires electricity to run and while gas may remain on the boiler is worthless without electricity and will not run.

You can cook some of the food you have and this may include rice or pasta and remember these need water and if you have no water then you have no rice or pasta which limits you to tinned or fresh food for moist foods as you can’t use your ready meals or dried soups either as they also need water. You can cook things such as bread and knowing how to cook bread and other staples is crucial as you need the sugar and yeast for many types of bread and you don’t for many other flat breads so learn how to make flat bread and make some as any mistakes made now can be rectified. You will have learned some essential skills and just by doing it means that if you do it for real you will know what to do, how to do it, and what ingredients you need to do it. Most flat breads don’t need long periods of cooking and this means they are quick and easy to make and potentially a go to staple instead of traditional white loaves.

You really need to know your surroundings intimately and identify sources of items you need and one example would be a natural spring as the water from these comes straight out of the ground and won’t be contaminated by raw sewage over-spilling into the water courses. Quiet areas such as wood lands with no walkers or those with walkers and quiet areas will provide some respite if you are attacked for your food supplies or water as you can bunk down there for a few days to recover and you can learn the necessary skills to make a shelter to keep you dry and warm and to make smoke free fires so you don’t attract attention to yourself and your family can cook food. Walking your designated areas also means you can identify potential food sources and with the weather improving it is an ideal time to do it and you can find wild berries and blackberries are obvious many other foods exist so identify them in your area and remember blackberries will be known to many people and they will also come and pick them, cherries are another near to us as our beloved councils (public servants) seemed to have lots of cherry trees and planted them, so an abundance of cherries in summer. If you walk your chosen areas regularly and stop and observe it will be surprising what you see and lots of it useful such as potential food or fuel sources, animals, and just as secluded you really are or not.

Planting foods is also essential and the fastest growing foods should be planted about every week or fortnight to guarantee continuity and as many are salad crops you should have some sort of salad bar and plant it up using the guidance on the packets and common sense. Many quick growing foods are easily grown and I would begin with:

Mixed Green Shoots – these are the small seedlings of other plants such as mustard, cress and other such plants and can be grown inside all year round and make a tasty addition to food, then grown outside in summer; growing time -1-2 weeks.

Mixed Leaf – these are the leaves of various quick growing plants such as lettuce and similar plants which are grown in your salad bar and plant a row every 2 weeks to ensure continuity of supply: growing time 2-3 weeks. Mixed leaf growing life can be extended by only picking the outer leaves and leaving the rest of the plant means the removed leaves will regenerate and grow back so one plant can yield small quantities all season.

Lettuce – These are one of the quickest and easiest salad crops to grow and you plant a couple of rows every 2-3 weeks to ensure continuity of supply, growing time 2-3 weeks. Once again if you only pick the outer leaves they will also regenerate and a few plants will potentially last all season.

Radish – These are also very easily grown and come in many types and flavours and should be grown in your salad bar, spread the seeds sparingly into a small trench and allow to germinate; thin out when necessary leaving around 1” (25mm) between plants to allow them to grow. Growing time 2-4 weeks, depending upon variety. If food is in short supply you can put your thinning’s into prepared holes 1” apart and let the thinning’s fully grow.

Spinach – this is another easily grown crop which is easily grown and can provide excellent nutrition as well as being used on the side of other foods and it has a growing time of 4 weeks and will last longer if you only pick the outer leaves.

Beetroot – This is another excellent choice and these take around 4 weeks to grow as you pick them as baby beets and use these as thinning’s and a source of food, you can leave others in the ground to grow larger as these can last in the ground for months.

Tatsoi – This is something many people won’t have heard of and its Asian spinach and is of specific interest because it takes around 6 weeks to grow and is an ideal crop for the shade and people existing in woodlands can grow it as they are shaded.

Spring Onions – These are an excellent crop which can be eaten cooked or raw and added to other foods such as stews and while many take around 8-9 weeks to grow you plant them and thin them out and eat the thinning’s which will be ready after 3-4 weeks.


With your food growing you can undertake other preparedness projects such as mounting a couple of solar panels and the regulator and ensuring when you take them down you can easily re-install them if the power goes out, and that your battery can be charged and put in a safe location inside your home and items such as the cigarette lighter can be clipped to it. Installing these quickly in the event of a power outage means you are charging your battery/batteries while others are still getting their generators out and finding out they won’t start because they have old petrol in it and local petrol supplies are running out fast, assuming they have power to pump it. Practising this type of installation so you can do it in the dark is ideal as most outages take place at the most inopportune times and securing some sort of energy supply may mean you are less likely to be targeted.

Cooking food is vital and to do this you may need your barbeque or fire pit and without any liquid lighter fuel you need some form of fire lighter and while this may be the traditional fire lighter you will run out of these and you will need to resort to newspaper if you have it or alternatives such as homemade fire lighters or fire sticks. Keeping a stock of dried sticks to make fire sticks or fire feathers means you can light these items and other such as your log burner as your log burner maybe the only totally off grid fire or heat source you have for your home.

So the rule is simple, practise with your equipment and keep practising with it so you know how to use it when you need to use it and iron out all the wrinkles before you have to do it for real and while the alleged experts try not to promote fear by lying, a solar storm will wipe out the systems on earth for around d a year and they won’t tell you that either.