Learning wilderness survival skills?

[lurker]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/30 ... sociology/

[featherstick]

Ludwig how about keeping it on topic instead of rehearsing your own neuroses and inadequacies here again?

You might like the view a bit better if you get your head out of your arse.

OP, there are also plenty of preps in plain sight you can do - encourage insulation as a money-saving tactic (rather than going the whole "the grid's going to collapse, we need to be self-sufficient" route), allotments/community gardens, even container growing tomatoes and cucumbers would help you learn some growing skills and might open the door a bit for your folks. You can store a lot of tins and candles under your bed, ready to prove your point at the next power cut. A water butt in the garden is an easy prep - ostensibly for the flowers, but actually 200 litres of water ready for an emergency, so long as you know how to make it safe.....

So don't get too hung up on what you can't do or what your parents don't agree with, look for other means to prep and raise your awareness and readiness.

[featherstick]

I also rather like VTsnowedin's suggestion.

[nexus]

+1 to VT too

Standuble-
Sounds like you're taking after your dad- what's stopping you from growing some veg in the garden? Why should your parents be doing it?
For a few pounds you could start with some salads they cost ££s in the shops, so I'm sure your folks won't complain about the savings

Bushcraft skills are useful but you're jumping the gun a bit, much more important is to learn to grow food, learn to forage, be able to mend things (from your own clothes to bicycles, learn basic carpentry skills and maybe some animal husbandry.

You complain that your parents don't listen to you but you'll probably find they will, once you've learned some valuable skills and they can see the benefits eg in money saved. If they don't come round you'll still be in a better place yourself, with the confidence that comes from knowing you have lots of useful skills.

[hardworkinghippy]

Yep vtsnowedin is right, definitely do stuff in the house.

Learn to fix things, build things and use whatever natural skills you have to do practical things which help your parents and neighbours.

Learn to cook - that's a skill which will make you welcome anywhere. Your self-confidence will soar and as long as you clean up after yourself your mum will be relieved of a day in day out chore.

There's loads of wild food in Essex and if there's nothing near home take a bike ride further afield. Incorporate wild food and loads of fresh veg into your meals then it will make sense that their garden (Which they probably designed with you in mind in the first place) can become a place for growing food. If you can get your dad outside to go and look for food with you then it might help awaken his spirit.

[MrG]

I have three woodlands within half a mile of my home but they aren't extremely big, there are no Fish and no foods except questionable berries or Squirrels.

And fungi. I teach people to forage for wild food if you're interested.

I'm interested UE. I'm in brighton at the end of the month as well

[UndercoverElephant]

I have three woodlands within half a mile of my home but they aren't extremely big, there are no Fish and no foods except questionable berries or Squirrels.

And fungi. I teach people to forage for wild food if you're interested.

I'm interested UE. I'm in brighton at the end of the month as well

See below.

http://www.wibberley.org/fungiforaging/index.htm

I'll give you a special discount for being a powerswitcher... Email me if you're still interested.

[raspberry-blower]

Standbule, you may be interested by the courses run by LILI.

There are a couple of DIY introduction courses that could be of interest to you:
http://www.lowimpact.org/hackney_course_outline_DIY.htm

http://www.lowimpact.org/courseoutlineDIY.htm

A full listing of events in the South East can be found here: http://www.lowimpact.org/venues_south_east.htm

[kenneal - lagger]

As others have said or implied, there will be so many people trying to live off the land when TSHTF that all resources around cities will disappear rapidly. As vtsnowedin said, help around the house and especially the garden. If you're helping in the garden you can start slipping a few vegetable seeds in on the quiet. If you were to then cook those plants yourself you could encourage your mother to allow you to plant a full veg bed.

Your mother will be interested to know what has come over you, so she'll ask why you are doing these things. That's your opportunity to tell her about CC, PO and the UK's ongoing economic disaster. The fact that you are taking them so seriously will impress her no end and she will probably join you in your endeavours. You DAD probably won't join in until it's a regular theme on Eastenders or Corrie, by which time it will be too late.

You will be safest at home. You have a roof over your head already so improve that rather than working on a very much inferior one in the woods. Do you have any siblings who would share in the house at the end of your parent's lives? If the house will go to you when your parents die it may be worth investing in it now. If you marry in the future you may end up living with your parents as the economic situation doesn't look good short term, or long term come to that.

You get a house and they get long term care as the nation won't be providing that for much longer. It's not ideal compared to the present situation of washing our hands of the elderly but it will be the way forward. You also get free child care while you are out gardening and foraging and hopefully still working.

Once you have convinced your Mum of your sincerity it will be easier to convince her to insulate the house properly, using the Warm Front Scheme. She will convince your Dad so leave him to her. Offer to pay for PV yourself, or, at least, pay towards it if they'll share the FIT with you.

[kenneal - lagger]

If you're going to Hackney City Farm you might also be interested in this course on July 16th. Quite coincidentally of course, I am running it!

[Ludwig]

Ludwig how about keeping it on topic instead of rehearsing your own neuroses and inadequacies here again?

You might like the view a bit better if you get your head out of your arse.

How about ****ing off and minding your own business?

[DominicJ]

Now now children, you puncture my persecution complex when you snipe at each other

[Bandidoz]

Behave..............

It would be a shame to lock this thread due to a tangential argument.

[Kentucky Fried Panda]

http://www.greenmanbushcraft.co.uk/

Prices are very competitive, they were also offering courses, but that seems to have stopped for the time being.

As far as preps go;

3 weeks worth or food and water are a minimum.

Solid fuel cooking stove, firewood and axe obv.

Warm 4 season sleeping bag and goretex bivvy bag.

Water filtration equipment.

Torch and headlamp. As far as a torch goes check out the jetbeam BA10. I've been testing them for selling the past 3 months and they're the best small LED out there. Using a single AA cell and putting out 160 lumens they last for almost 3 hours. They can be switched to 20 lumens and last 30 hours from a single AA. Incredible really for the price.

Now, back to the bickering!

[RogueMale]

As others have said or implied, there will be so many people trying to live off the land when TSHTF that all resources around cities will disappear rapidly.

I've never met anyone else foraging, except for brambles (blackberries). Once, while picking plums, I was asked what they were. When picking cherries, was asked if they were safe to eat. I think the number of people out there who can identify edible plants or fungi is very small. There is, I suppose, always the possibility that hungry people will eat anything, in which case they risk poisoning themselves.

That said, trying to live off the land solely by foraging all year round in the UK would be very difficult, even for someone like Ray Mears.