I wanted to drop a few thoughts down about the ethos of Prepper Weekly and to share some ideas. This is my personal view and I guess it might be coloured slightly by my background and also my upbringing. I don’t really like the word prepper anymore, but it serves it purpose. Thanks to the media, it has gone a bit mainstream.
Single event prepping
There are a lot of sites out there talking about prepping and lots of talk in articles about single event prepping. What happens if there is a terrorist attack, what if there is an EMP, what if there is a flood?
Now these are all valid concerns, but it worries me that some people are focused on the single event prep. And this could be dangerous. By focusing on one single event, you could actually miss the actual event that causes your need to survive.
Plus you could be prepping for something that might not happen in your area. We will cover this a bit more later.
Not about weapons
When I first discovered prepping, I was on holiday in Florida and walked into a Booksamillion. There in the magazine section I found American survival guide, OFFGRID, Recoil and a whole bunch of stuff I had never seen before. I’m a confirmed magazine junkie, so I bought a bunch of them.
One thing from that time I noticed was the reliance on weaponry. In car bags, bug out bags, EDC. Now in some places in the US, I can see that. But for most people, if you are more concerned about what calibre to stock up on rather than where to find water sources, or food supplies, you might be in for a shock.
Don’t rule out weapons, but make sure they are legal for where you are and make sure you can use them. Train, train, train. Don’t go to exotic. I saw an online course for tomahawk fighting, which to be honest looks pretty cool. But walking round the UK, I am hardly going to be conspicuous with a tomahawk. It’s simply not practical for me.
Skills over kit
The other thing I like to stress is don’t think prepping is about buying kits and bags. Yes, you will need some kit, but you will also need to know how to use it, and check that it is up to the task. It would really suck to find out your fire-starting kit doesn’t work as it got soaking wet and you didn’t store it in a waterproof box.
Make sure you spend more money on skills over kit. We do recommend kit in our articles, but we tend to focus on skills training too. We are hoping to run some UK-based in-person events later in the year.
Mindset is important
This one is a bit “woo”. Mindset is very important for prepping. We are training and upskilling and storing stuff for an event or events we hope never happen. We are also going to find ourselves seen as outsiders or weird. But prep for your reasons, do join communities and share your knowledge.
The tricky thing here is to understand everyone will have different reasons to prep. Try not to get drawn into conversations about this as you will find it only frustrates you. It can also be draining.
Train for where you are
This one is a bit of pet peeve. I do understand the appeal of going away for a week and training and learning in a boot camp style experience with professionals. It’s cool and a good thing to do. I do it and suggest other people do to. But you also need to prep for where you are right now. What risks face you in your hometown or area? What skills do you need to survive that?
Find local specialists. My favourite are foraging groups – group leaders will show you where all the good, free, natural foodstuffs are. Find out where stuff is. Add it to a map. Include Police stations, fire stations, medical centres, local vets, and community centres. Look at traffic choke points if you need to get out by car. Buy an OS Explorer map version of your area. In fact, buy a few copies to be safe. Don’t just rely on your GPS. Learn how to read a map.
Well that ended up being longer than I thought it would. I hope it has given you some insight into what we are trying to achieve with the site. As always, I welcome feedback.
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