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ex-forces MIGHT be good at living off the land.....for short tours.....but what about after? .... after its all settled down!..........are they any better than the rest of us at homesteading? growing food and breeding animals? not unless their farmers or growers in real life i would suggest.

(6 May 2012, 14:11)bigpaul Wrote: [ -> ]ex-forces MIGHT be good at living off the land.....for short tours.....but what about after? .... after its all settled down!..........are they any better than the rest of us at homesteading? growing food and breeding animals? not unless their farmers or growers in real life i would suggest.

I agree Paul it takes all sorts to get the right mix.

As for your posts Ned I really like reading them your one of the members I look up to, and I feel would be of great use to group.

One does ones best

I am glad that my posts are at least sparking some debate.

Many no doubt feel that as they have mastered < insert survival challenge here > once or twice then they are ready for life without the amenities.
Newsflash - Must do better.

@ BigPaul , I agree with you mate , soldiers ARE NOT farmers , but they're good at holding the weapons to 'encourage' others to do it for them.
Do you understand what I am saying here ?

Like it or lump it , I'm not challenging anyone regarding their own personal prep skills , or their belief that they are/will be ready, just because of the mental prep being shown on forward thinking sites - such as this one.

I'm no great prepper , yes I have some kit stowed away for me and mine when the time comes...NO...I have no plans other than surviving the whole meltdown over the few weeks it will take to settle into some anarchic stand-off.

After that ? I don't know.

I understand some of the kit I might need , I also understand what I need it for and how to use it properly.

I honestly want to hand out gold stars to you guys for having the guts to prepare , but some of the ideas / methods that have been mentioned would find leading SF people scratching their heads in confusion.
I mean no personal attacks here , and my wish isn't to offend anyone , but merely to highlight where I am coming from.

On trolling the forums I read , Scythes post ( I think ) , when he and his ex had camped out in a forest for a day or two with nothing but a backpack and tent etc.

I did this before I reached my teens...
Ok , matches were used ,bread , tins of beans , cup-a-soups , bottles of water etc but the scenario was the same - dropped off in woods a few miles from home , near a good river , pitched up a tent , gathered wood and lit a fire to deter the midgies...and fished till we lost the light.
That was us for a whole weekend , we knew roughly where we were , but didnt know where the nearest phone box , shop etc was.
It's simply not an adventure...living off the land...I think I could do it if I had to.
Rabbits ? easy...sheep/cows ? Yes , I think I could do that too.

Vegetation wise ? - I'm no lofty wiseman so I cant really comment apart from I know what NOT to eat near me...brambles ?- rabbits burrows are ALWAYS near them , snaring ? just use some nets and a polecat or ferret , done that before too.
Polecat or ferret lying in ? ( eating rabbit in situ , refusing to come out ) - smoke it out !

Done all this as I grew up....country people will know all about this and will be nodding.

Where most of us will fail will be in the more technical side of things , like water purification , or health related issues.
The knowledge of how to live off the land isn't all that rare - believe me , the knowledge of how to setup water buttes , and running purification filters is what is rare.

Common sense tells you to eat the fat rabbit first , and not the skinny , ragged looking one.

Feel free to congratulate yourselves ,on your preparedness, and what you are capable of , as some of you so obviously deserve...but at the same time - don't just shrug your shoulders and assume that others with perhaps less skills won't be hunting you to take it all away.

I just want to tell you how much I admire your dedication to survive the upcoming SHTF.

i can see where your coming from Ned, on the subject of weapons...not having served in the army although both my father and grandfather served in WW2 & WW1...will guns be all that available after or during an event?? my belief is that they are all under lock and key and guarded..? you say that they will stand over with a gun and force people to work for them....well, they've got to find us first!especially down here where there is more, shall we say, "back country" to hide out in-after TSHTF i have no intention of being found and believe me i know my area very well, this may well happen in the more industrial areas say in the midlands, but my area is very rural farming country.

I understand what you're saying Paul , but I would rather assume that somebody - somewhere - will have access to weapons.

Just witness the arms find in Bearsden , near Glasgow last month.

Weapons ARE here , and ARE available for the right cash....what is rare is the ammo to use with them.....as people start to congretgate - those with weapons will become either the defenders or the oppressors of the sheeple that are useful to them.

I also can agree with you - they DO have to find you first !
And - getting back to the original topic - if your colony is placed in the right area to begin with , it makes it a whole lot harder to find.

The planning and prep involved in knowing your area , is time well spent.

If people do manage to recce you , without being noticed by your sentries / lookout points - then the first you'll know about it is when they are advancing into the heart of the colony. Local area knowledge is essential here , knowing which bug-out route to take and where the RV point will be , and how best to get there - all examples where good local knowledge is vital. Bug-out caches may be an idea worth looking into also , I think thats what SD mentioned earlier.

Colonies !!!! FFS These people cannot even get off their collective arses to meet up with other preppers living within 100 miles of them, Now, right now this weekend in normal times without any crisis facing us SD and S13 organised a meet in Bristol in total 3 people turned up SD, S13 and John. If people cannot make a hint of effort now they effing well wont be of any use to anyone for a colony after TSHTF.

Yep!

The only useful people will be those in your immediate vicinity. All the rest is for knowledge prior to any event. Knowing a few in different locations might be handy if you are caught travelling nearby when an event happens. It seems from the slant of posts on this site that most would just shoot you first on sight rather than risk you taking whats theirs by force. Maybe other preppers would be your most unpredictable & dangerous foe ????

---

"Precious... precious...tis mine. Mine its is.. Leave us alone. my precious!!"

LOL !!



Yes , I had gathered that there was some trepidation as to why so many were no-shows at your meets.

As for the other comments - I agree totally regarding the geographical situation of most people.
The chances are you will be trying to stay out of harms way for the first week or two and won't be advertising your presence.
For anyone in the cities - that is your make or break time , make the time to gather anything else you need and break out while you can...to safer areas.
For anyone in the sticks , it would be time to look out your weapon of choice and start patrolling your area of interest.

I have already stated my disagreement regards the viability of a colony , and stated the reasons why.
I - for one - was entering into the spirit of the topic and trying to be the devils advocate.

Why would I - to the north of Glasgow - travel down to Bristol to meet preppers ?? , once TSHTF it would probably be the most dangerous / reckless thing I could do ?

At this time I have to carry on with family life - regardless of where I think the country is headed , I cannot , and will not put my familys overall stability in jeopardy to travel to a prep-meet - if I dont have time off work to do it.
Right now - work pays the bills , doing all the prep I can wont keep a roof over my head or the family fed if the event doesnt happen as expected.

i have already set up 3 meets if anyone is interested and i think SD put them on the events/diary page: 1. the wood fair near wellington 2. the green scythe fair near Langport. 3 The Wilderness gathering. i set up a RV at the WG last year and only one person turned up, so like they say" you can take a horse to water but you cant make it drink!"

Do we consider this thread closed then ?

I think that although we have shown that the knowledge and potential to create a working model of a breakaway community , or a safe haven as it were , is in place - logistically for many of this group - it is a non-starter.

Smaller 'communities' of scattered farms/buildings in nearby areas is perhaps a compromise , not perfect but workable , to this question.

What is also very prominent is peoples varying attitudes towards 'others' , 'refugees' , 'outsiders'.
We won't be building a 'red cross refugee camp' but unless we vet people for usable skills and turn away the unskilled we will run into problems.
Food and supplies will be very limited and strictly rationed , which makes helping others less fortunate than ourselves - very dangerous to our own survival as a group.
I think that we have to be mentally robust here and not succumb to unhelpful emotions from the bleeding hearts.

What I will take onboard from this thread is that most of us as preppers are open to the idea of re-building a society......but are sceptical of doing it.