Prepping

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Marco1981

Need to contact Admin...
Nov 18, 2011
108
0
Orkney
Marco1981,
I have really enjoyed reading all about your smallholding and self sufficiency, thank you, it is really great to read about someone who is actually trying to live in a way that is not reliant on others, no matter how successful you ultimately are, the effort is certainly there and I commend you for that. I have been thinking about your set up and I would like to ask you a couple of questions if I may.

I understand that being isolated may be desirable for a life of self sufficiency/survival so to speak, but I just wonder how your community works together, if they do. You hinted at a doctor/neighbour, but how about your other neighbours? I think it is very important to have a community who are cooperative rather than individuals possibly working against each other if the worst should happen. From the couple of times I have been to Scotland, I observe that the community spirit is still pretty much intact, whereas it may have declined in more built up areas of the UK. I just wondered if you are taking advantage of it by bartering, offering services etc. in return for things you may need. I read a blog by a woman who lived for a whole year in a small community in France without buying any groceries or clothes etc. for her family, she foraged in the hedgerows and bartered produce from her smallholding for things that she needed. She really has a fascinating story to tell, you may be interested in reading it. Every time she grew or foraged something she gave some to her neighbours and in that way she was able to accept produce and services but also more importantly, knowledge from her community in return, a community who knew the land and had lived and relied on it for generations. In a survival situation, local knowledge is a GOOD THING. I just wonder how many people there are around you who may be able to give you this knowledge in addition to material things you may need. Have you ever considered adding foraging to your skills base? I know you say you are a vegetarian, but perhaps moving beyond your own plot and looking into fishing and foraging along the shoreline (if you are near to a river or the coast) may stand you in good stead if you ever had to rely on the land around you 100% of the time in the future. Brewing some hedgerow wine or beer or even keeping bees and collecting the honey would be a great thing to trade to your neighbours.

These days in french life blog : http://www.flickr.com/photos/81951381@N00/

Thank you Tawnyhare. My prepping or whatever people would like to call it is still very much in its infancy. There is still much more to be done. But I believe that it can be done which is the maon thing for me anyway. As I progress the more confident I have gotten. When I first started thinking this way I was overwhelmed witbh worry and didn't know where to begin. It can be quite daunting. Initially I was still working and trying to do a full time job and convert my lifestyle to be less dependant on what are really only luxuries. But it was counter productive. I was burning the candle at both ends and achieving nothing. My business failed due to nobody having enough money to hire me anymore so I gave it all up and just concentrated on this instead. I have only really been giving it my all for the last year but have been actively striving for it for four years and was dreaming of it for nearly ten years.
My local community is pretty well intact. I am not the most sociable creature around by any means, but I know that I have things to offer them, and I know that they have things to offer me in return. To be honest, currently I am the odd ball on the island and don't really mix with anybody. But I don't need people to like me. I am not looking for lifelong friends, but just a stable "working relationship" which is mutually beneficial. I do intend to support people with surplus food and assistance when required. I know a fair few folk who are trying to prepare for a bad situation, but they are keeping it pretty secret at the minute. They don't want to be labelled a whack job prepper as it has quite some stigma to it.
The isolated location comes with many benefits and many pit falls. The weather this far north can leave a nasty taste in your mouth during winter months and the best thing we can do is just knuckle down and make do till the spring. Spring and summer are hard graft to prepare for the winter as going and cutting wood or peat in horizontal rain and 50mph winds isn't that fun - and that's on a good day. I am unlikely to face raiders for example as the effort in getting to my location will be great, and I live in a pretty well armed society (in comparison to cities where FAC holders aren't everywhere you look anyway) where I will have allies who can depend on me, and I them. The pitfalls include sourcing things that are perishable. There are only so many spares that one can keep, or afford to buy at any one time. To cover this, repairing things as and when required to keep in top condition is paramount. I am learning to knit (I am surrounded by sheep, so wool isn't an issue and know a few folk who spin it themselves), know how to sew, can do plumbing, electrical and building repairs myself. Nothing is fool proof and I expect that I will run into hardships. But I am confident that I will find work a rounds for most of the necessities by either bartering for supplies or botching things together.

As for meat, I am not all that fussed on it at all. I can't stomach it and has nothing to do with moral misconceptions about killing animals. My family are still omnivores, so I am not opposed to hunting the odd rabbit, culling some hens, or fishing. And, like I mentioned, I am surrounded by sheepand know how to slaughter them.

Prepping for me isn't just a way to try and secure a future for my family, it is a hobby. I enjoy the thought process. I enjoy the labour involved. I get a lot of satisfaction at the end of the day. I enjoy learning new things, and the old ways. I also like hearing of other people who are doing similar things.

Thanks for the link, I will have a look through in the morn.
 
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Lou

Settler
Feb 16, 2011
631
70
the French Alps
twitter.com
I admire you for the way you have been thinking things through and I guess the thing to do now is to 'practise' :) A couple of years down the line and you will be in a much better position to read the landscape and your community and know what things are scarce and the things/skills/knowledge you need to source and/or hoard. I think the fact you live in a harsh environment is an excellent way to prepare for hardships in the future, your body will be more acclimatised to the cold, wet and wind.

I too, live in a harsh climate, we have snow on the ground for five months of the year and winter temperatures of -20c in bad years and also have real heat in the summer (this week we have had a run of days at 40c) and I have made sure that my body can cope with these extremes. We own a house with a tiny parcel of land and have a very short growing season, so can grow no crops, nor have any livestock (only bees) so for me personally, it is not about growing things or stockpiling as some preppers do, it is all about the opposite in fact; the ability to live as lightly on the land as possible and acquire the local knowledge needed to survive the harsh conditions with nothing. Observing what other people around you do to cope with the extremes is a very good habit to get into. I think living in a harsh environment forces you to think in different ways about your relationship to the land and in a survival situation that is a GOOD THING.
 

boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
2,444
4
77
Cornwall
Prepping by planning to live by hunting has the disadvantage that too many people could be doing it. Oddly though making fishing part of an ultimate survival plan doesn't have this problem. Of course many more people would be fishing but in scenarios like an oil crisis the factory fishers could be gone from the seas. Thus fish stocks are likely to recover very quickly making more fish available for the small-scale mostly inshore fisher. With little distribution capability the catch would only be for the local area anyway.

Years on one could foresee windjammers carrying barrels of pilchards from Cornwall again to trade with the Mediterranean for citrus fruits.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
Prepping by planning to live by hunting has the disadvantage that too many people could be doing it. Oddly though making fishing part of an ultimate survival plan doesn't have this problem. Of course many more people would be fishing but in scenarios like an oil crisis the factory fishers could be gone from the seas. Thus fish stocks are likely to recover very quickly making more fish available for the small-scale mostly inshore fisher. With little distribution capability the catch would only be for the local area anyway.

Years on one could foresee windjammers carrying barrels of pilchards from Cornwall again to trade with the Mediterranean for citrus fruits.

Sounds logical except that the large ships off shore are fishing for different species than the inshore fish. Not entirely, but mainly.
 

boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
2,444
4
77
Cornwall
They also catch the sand eels and similar that are food for bigger fish in the North Sea as well as for birds like puffins. I have read that puffins are delicious.
 

franglais

Tenderfoot
Jun 4, 2013
65
0
France
A good supply of tinned food that you enjoy eating is essential, as the food gets close to it's sell by date eat it and replace it, some seeds can keep for decades, there is a huge seed bank in Iceland, the only reason bottled water has a sell by date is that it is a legal requirement, most importantly don't tell anyone you have a store. It's not just end of the world scenarios that we should be prepared for, floods and other bad weather can cut people off for days or even weeks, as we have seen recently.
 

Hagrid

Tenderfoot
May 23, 2013
51
0
North Devon
+1 That's just how we used to live.

I've only recently come accross the term prepping and I don't like the term much.

prepping is a term that has been used for ages, better than the American "survivalist" with its echoes of guns, bullets and band aids. its the term that best explains what we do as in "preparing", so just cos you don't like it, I hate people who join something and try to change it, bit like a few women I've known-they didn't succeed either!
 

franglais

Tenderfoot
Jun 4, 2013
65
0
France
Why would you eat the food as it gets near its sell by date? You do realise tinned food will keep a lot lot longer than the dates put on them.
By replacing food near the use by date, you ensure that your survival stock has the longest shelf life possible when it is needed most, this routine also means after the initial outlay you are not having to replace your stock in one go.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
Yeah. regardless of how long canned goods will actually last, stock rotation's just a good idea. Besides, your stock should be something you like to eat regularly anyway.

That said, I usually have more canned foodstuffs stocked for hurricane season than I should eat for health reasons (I'm diabetic) so I usually donate about half of it to the charity food banks at the end of the hurricane season.
 
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rik_uk3

Banned
Jun 10, 2006
13,320
24
69
south wales
Why would you eat the food as it gets near its sell by date? You do realise tinned food will keep a lot lot longer than the dates put on them.
By replacing food near the use by date, you ensure that your survival stock has the longest shelf life possible when it is needed most, this routine also means after the initial outlay you are not having to replace your stock in one go.

There's a massive difference between stock rotation and overly worrying about the made up dates put on cans (and a lot of medication too).
 

Swallow

Native
May 27, 2011
1,545
4
London
prepping is a term that has been used for ages, better than the American "survivalist" with its echoes of guns, bullets and band aids. its the term that best explains what we do as in "preparing", so just cos you don't like it, I hate people who join something and try to change it, bit like a few women I've known-they didn't succeed either!

Odd post. You don't think the term "prepping" has a worse image than "survivalist"?

Have you tried looking it up on wikipedia?

[h=1]Survivalism[/h]From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Prepper)

As my posts that followed said, it doesn't describe what is being done very well at all, at all.

So who joined something and is trying to change it?

I first heard the terms "Survival" and "Survivalist" in the mid eighties, I first heard the term prepper this year,

so from my point of veiw it's a odd thing to say you hate things being changed by newbies and in the same post being very pro using the new term.
 

Swallow

Native
May 27, 2011
1,545
4
London
All life in all situations requires

Air in & out
Heat in & out
Water in & out
Food in & out

These are supported by some perfectly normal activities like shopping, gardening, farming, foraging, hunting, fishing, food storage, beekeeping, house building, clothes making etc. etc.

Of course if you don't like these activities being normal you can always de-normalise them and add some glamour by calling it "prepping".
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
All life in all situations requires

Air in & out
Heat in & out
Water in & out
Food in & out

These are supported by some perfectly normal activities like shopping, gardening, farming, foraging, hunting, fishing, food storage, beekeeping, house building, clothes making etc. etc.

Of course if you don't like these activities being normal you can always de-normalise them and add some glamour by calling it "prepping".

Or you can just obsess over words and their perceived definitions.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
I didn't know the work prepper at all until a post a few years ago.....and I doubt anyone questions the breadth of my vocabulary.

It's the connotations that are associated with some words that affect the perception people have of them, and of those who participate in such activities.

Prepping kind of equates with fretting, iimmc.
Survivalism equates with a level or paranoia that seems in the realms of the tinfoil hats and Waco like armed to the teeth but sadly lacking in any of the spirit of everyone getting enough to eat, drink, be warm, dry and given appropriate medical aid as required.

Neither of them come across as sensible prior planning in the (admittedly rare) events of bad weather, ill health or natural disaster. Keep a sensible pantry, adjust as seasonally appropriate and stay on good terms with your neighbours.

Different world view, methinks. I know that folks like British Red are very practical, but they don't quite conform to the common image of 'prepper'; but then it seems as though the media portrayal of preppers is singularly lacking in the common sense variety.

Please be aware that the forum has guidelines about the discussion of 'survivalism', but funnily enough hasn't any about prepping.
Please see Number 5
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45

cheers,
M
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
I didn't know the work prepper at all until a post a few years ago.....and I doubt anyone questions the breadth of my vocabulary.

It's the connotations that are associated with some words that affect the perception people have of them, and of those who participate in such activities.

Prepping kind of equates with fretting, iimmc.
Survivalism equates with a level or paranoia that seems in the realms of the tinfoil hats and Waco like armed to the teeth but sadly lacking in any of the spirit of everyone getting enough to eat, drink, be warm, dry and given appropriate medical aid as required.

Neither of them come across as sensible prior planning in the (admittedly rare) events of bad weather, ill health or natural disaster. Keep a sensible pantry, adjust as seasonally appropriate and stay on good terms with your neighbours.

Different world view, methinks. I know that folks like British Red are very practical, but they don't quite conform to the common image of 'prepper'; but then it seems as though the media portrayal of preppers is singularly lacking in the common sense variety......

Sadly even here (where one would think most of us have a sensible head) most threads that start out sensibly often get sidetracked to the extremist views.
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
I didn't know the work prepper at all until a post a few years ago.....and I doubt anyone questions the breadth of my vocabulary.

It's the connotations that are associated with some words that affect the perception people have of them, and of those who participate in such activities.

Prepping kind of equates with fretting, iimmc.
Survivalism equates with a level or paranoia that seems in the realms of the tinfoil hats and Waco like armed to the teeth but sadly lacking in any of the spirit of everyone getting enough to eat, drink, be warm, dry and given appropriate medical aid as required.

Neither of them come across as sensible prior planning in the (admittedly rare) events of bad weather, ill health or natural disaster. Keep a sensible pantry, adjust as seasonally appropriate and stay on good terms with your neighbours.

Different world view, methinks. I know that folks like British Red are very practical, but they don't quite conform to the common image of 'prepper'; but then it seems as though the media portrayal of preppers is singularly lacking in the common sense variety.

Please be aware that the forum has guidelines about the discussion of 'survivalism', but funnily enough hasn't any about prepping.
Please see Number 5
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45

cheers,
M

+1 to Mary's post. Most eloquently put.

I too remember the bad old days when what I did was lumped in with the "Survivalist" credo and worried as I didn't like the negative connotations. I was most happy when folks like Ray Mears turned up and if he's done nothing else he's validated the view that we're not all gun toting paranoid folks hiding in a woodland bunker. How did he and others like him do it? They changed the name to "Bushcraft" and came across as decent upstanding folk who cared for others and were prepared to learn and listen.

The term "Prepper" is relatively new to me too, and it immediately came with a bundle of negative connotations which may be purely down to the media but the folk involved just came across as a "Survivalist" backlash.

Words, labels and names have power - goodness the monotheistic religions have been killing each over them for millennia. Are we going to have a schism in our community because of it? I hope not, though I find certain aspects of what others do unpalatable (I'm sure the reverse is said about me), but I was taught to debate rather than argue and rant. Though on message boards it's become something of a lost art. Which is why I spend time here learning and sharing with others rather than get into a flaming war as so often happens on other boards.

Tony, the Mods and the members here make it a special place through hard work, diligence, keeping to rules and caring for others and I hope it stays that way.

Thanks,
GB.
 

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