Hi
I'm currently a computer programmer living just south of Birmingham, and working in Coventry. I am lucky in that I live on the edge of the second largest city, in a town of 200,000 people, but am still within 10 minutes walk of complete rural countryside.
I started prepping after reading a booked called "Emergency" by Neil Strauss. Before that I wasn't even aware prepping existed as a "thing" but always had a bag packed in the spare room with survival gear, just in case. Most of the resources Ive found so far have been US based and focused around having a second property in a remote location, which isn't really practical in the UK.
What really struck me and sort of "kicked me in the ass" to start looking into prepping properly was something in the first couple of chapters of "Emergency"... Our generation and the generation before are not prepared for any type of emergency or natural disaster, there has been no great war, and no great depression, we have grown up without hardship and live in a time of high availability and have been brought up and conditioned to rely heavily on the system, which is a system we have no control over.
I had to think, as I'm sure many of you have, if the worst happened, what would I do? What skills could I bring to a group survival situation, would a group of people trying to survive see me as dead weight or someone who is useful that they want around?
I would by lying if I said the volume of information regarding prepping wasn't completely overwhelming, and at times (especially times like today when you see the deviation that can happen to a country in just 24 hours), I panic that there isn't enough time and money to prep for everything I need in time.
In the last 6 months I have devised a rough evacuation plan for a number of situations, prepared/improved my basic bob (still a long way to go), and I'm starting to build a second to keep in my car all the time, I have gotten a basic first aid and emergency first aid certificate, totally changed my diet and gotten much healthier as a result, got an allotment where I will start growing most of my food soon, as well as preparing a number of planters to grow things in my garden (the sheer volumes of information on growing your own food alone is overwhelming). This months prep was getting 2x20ltr jerry cans, 1 to keep at home and 1 at my moms 5 minutes down the road, and another 2x5 litre cans to keep in the car.
Future plans include things like:
Getting my garden and allotment producing food
Learning self defence
Alternative power sources (off grid solar/wind)
Continuously improving and building on my bob
alternative methods of communication post shtf such as cb or pmr
Hopefully learning more stuff from here!
Thanks for reading
Add
I've stopped bothering with the American forums now, just read them when I want a laugh. Think our two countries are so different that there's nothing in common really. Agree 100% with more food growing.
