Wanted: people in Cumbria.

[ulyssesgrant]

Wanted: people in Cumbria.

This may not be the correct place for this, but I'll put it here anyway (well until someone deletes it and puts it in the right part of the forum!).

The world is a turbulent and dangerous place even now, and will more so during a national emergency (which ever situation currently takes your pleasure... grid down etc...). It would be better to be in a group of some form. Therefore, and this is in its VERY early stages (I'm a big believer in opsec), I am looking other people in Cumbria who are in the area to suggest and share ideas. It could be expanded to more, if appropriate...

[slugbert]

I would like to do this near my area of Manchester

[Quercus-robur]

I am from West Cumbria and, although I am new to this site, I have been prepping for a few years now. At the moment, prepping for me is about increasing my knowledge and skills in various areas from bushcraft and survival to farming and sustainable living. Ultimately, though, I would like to be self sufficient (at least in terms of food and water). I want to take it beyond just prepping for disasters and actually have a better way of living. That is still a few years away though.

What ever financial crisis or disaster comes our way we have a better chance of getting through it together. I too would like to network and share ideas and maybe come up with some contingency plans etc.

Qr

[ulyssesgrant]

Thank you both for the replies. Apologies for my lateness in replying myself. I've been away on a tour. I agree with the points you made Quercus. Alot of what you say about yourself I am doing here. It would be good to at least try and form some form of group in the area, even if it is just to share ideas. Alas Slugbert Manchester is a bit far for me!

[Quercus-robur]

With it getting harder and harder to get by and with the possibility of facing some SHTF event in the future, the thought of going through it alone is a depressing one. I would like to be part of building a community of people who will come together in times of hardship. Whether it be sharing knowledge and skills or whether it be trading and bartering vegetables or homemade crafts etc. It is almost impossible for an individual to be self sufficient but a community can more easily achieve this by sharing the load and each individual having a specific skill or trade to contribute.

Do you know of any other preppers in Cumbria? What would you like to see in terms of building a network?

[ulyssesgrant]

Well, I'm a little new to this forum. AT present the only ones I know are me and my wife! It would be good, if not essential, to effectively network with other people. What would I like to see? Hmmm... well an ideal for me would be a 'prep' group' for want of a better term, where if there was a scenario that was long term and ultimately life changing you were able to work as a group. Right now that seems a far way off! Initially idea sharing would be good though. I'm not sure where you are, and for good opsec I wont ask, but where I am has a number of features which make it good (not perfect by any way) as a retreat...

[Quercus-robur]

Yes, we'll maintain OPSEC and not divulge any personal information at this stage. I think it provident to start sharing knowledge, what we are prepping for and what we see for the future. Once mutual trust has been earnt we can start building this 'prep' group to stand us in better stead for facing the future. I very much like the idea of a prep group.

My vision of a prep group would be a group that meets regularly to discuss OPSEC, share knowledge and improve skills, trade food/handicrafts/tools etc, provide a support network to help each other through times of hardship, and make plans and protocols to follow with the occurrence of a SHTF national 'event'.

Over the coming weeks would you and your wife like to meet somewhere neutral to discuss prepping and the logistics of a prep group?

Qr

[ulyssesgrant]

Apologies I've been away! You make some interesting points Qr. The more you study any alternative news source the more even a small group seems a good plan. Odd question but do you favour any paticular scenario over others that may occur?

[Quercus-robur]

Yes, I make a point to use alternative media as well as mainstream media to try and get the most credible sources for the news and what is happening in the world.

Of all the things I prep for the thing that most concerns me is the collapse of our modern society. I am not a Doomsday Conspiracy Theorist and don't believe a lot of what they come out with. Instead I take an educated and objective look at the world and use logic and empirical evidence to form my conclusions.

Until recently I had only considered oil in regards to fuel and power supplies. I didn't realize how dependent upon it we are and how we use it for most things from fuel, fertilizers, plastics, heating, paints, mechanical lubricants, cooling electrical transformers, medicines and tyres of our vehicles to name but a few. Oil and other fossil fuels are finite resources and I believe we are approaching Peak Oil. Not only is oil running out most oil comes from the Middle East. It is worrying indeed, the knowledge that we are dependent upon a finite resource that originates from a politically unstable part of the world. We also have rising populations putting more pressure on the system and, as the last few weeks have shown, the global economy is fragile. The collapse of a debt based economy, such as the US dollar that is the world reserve currency, is a mathematical certainty as it is dependent on infinite growth to sustain itself.

Although there are alternatives to using oil for many things we don't have the infrastructure to support them. For example, the land needed to produce enough things like rape seed oil and ethanol to replace the fuel in all our cars would be in direct conflict with the agricultural land needed to sustain our population.

I will state that I don't believe we are facing the 'End of Days'. We will survive a collapse of our modern industrial society but simply be forced to adopt a more sustainable way of living. I don't want to sound paranoid but it is true that our way of life is currently unsustainable. Sooner or later something has got to give. I am sure a lot of people will disagree with me and to them I welcome debate and would look forward to hearing there point of views however I do believe everything I have just stated. Do you agree with me on any part of it? Do you see another scenario more likely? Does your wife share your views?

Qr

[ulyssesgrant]

Hi QR

I think broadly overall I agree. If you move away form the mainstream media, and more towards the alternative forms of communication of news and events, you truly learn how wrong people are to presume the world is 'ok'. We didnt at any point 'recover' from the crash of 2008, we merely set ourselves up in some ways for a greater one further along the road.

Whichever scenario you see as most appropriate, the basic facts are that there is a significant chance of societal disruption in the near to medium future. As regards my wife, she agrees, but I am getting her into prepping in slow way, shall we say...