Taking It To The Next Level

The thing is, when you start to go deep in to prepping for an emergency situation, you're always thinking about the next possible situation where you might need to draw on your preparedness skills,
It can get to a point where you start to look at everything you see in the news as a possible SHTF situation, your view of people can change as well, you can start to see them, not as people but as potential threats and instead of enjoying the outdoors you're too busy looking for exit routes and places to duck and cover.

Don't get me wrong, everyone should have an emergency plan and a backup plan, as well as a decent size stockpile of food, water, medications you and your family take and a good size first aid kit, not forgetting a means to cook said food and water.

Preparing for a possible emergency is a no brainer everyone should do it as a matter of course, but being constantly on the look out for that emergency situation can become unhealthy.

On a slightly different subject, but not different if you know what I mean Every prepper knows or should know at least the basics of Bushcraft or wilderness survival, but not every bushcrafter or woodsman needs to be a prepper.

I am still making sure that my family and I have enough food, water and meds just on case something happens, but lately I have found my self avoiding Prepping videos and discussions on the internet about emergency preparedness and the like, instead I have found that I am doing more and more  Bushcraft, wild camping and out doors related stuff, I am fascinated by it.



Even now, while I am writing this, I have what I hope is two tins of char cloth cooling down in the kitchen, so I can start making up and adding to my fire starting kit, I say hope because the last time I tried to make charcloth I ended up with a tin full of ash.

Moving on, recently I took my interest in Bushcraft and the wilderness to what I consider to be the next level and I joined the army cadets as an adult instructor.

See, I was born into the army, when I was a kid I was a member of the cadets and I have spent a few years as an Infantry reserve, so the training I have to do isn't going to be that much of  a steep learning curve, its more of a refresher I think, I hope..

I have about 10 month to learn and to be able to teach what it takes a cadet 3 and a half years to learn. No pressure there…

The good news is, it will broaden my skill set and give me the chance to pass on my knowledge of the military, as well as being able to share some tips and tricks I have learned in my study of Bushcraft onto the cadets as they learn about field craft and surviving out in the wilds.



At the moment all I can do is observe as I am not yet allowed to teach without supervision until I have my uniform and my paperwork and police checks come back and the paperwork wont be getting sent off until I have been observed, passed my first assessment and been interviewed by the company commander, which should be next week with any luck.

The way I am looking on it is, as well as going by the cadet ideals of giving kids  life skills that they can use in the future, helping make memories that they will never forget, build their confidence and help to make them good people, If just one kid finds a use for the tips and tricks I pass on or is inspired to take up Bushcraft and get out into the out doors more often, instead of sitting over a computer playing games or living on one or more social media platform.. I will be happy

What Happens To Our Water in a Grid Down Situation.

This post is a guest post by someone who describes himself as someone who has experience in water treatment with a huge electrical bias. He has asked not to be named or credited with this post but has given permission for it to be copied for obvious reasons.

The Government released guidance note today concerning the Electricity "inter connectors", as previously identified on 3 Blokes in a Pub. The likelihood of power interruption will increase post March 2019 on current trajectory. (no deal Brexit). To explain this we must look at how we generate and use electricity. Most people have heard of the National Grid, the pylons and wires we have all seen crossing the country. All grid connections, houses, business, factories etc draw down power from the grid. We currently have very little "storage" in the system which means, that we are generating electricity in Power Stations at the same rate that we are using it. If we all switched our Kettles on together, we would be using a lot more power than when they have boiled. Fortunately, we don't often do this but you can probably see that a certain times of the day, typically 4-8 pm the energy "load" (amount of power required) is higher than other times of day. So we need to either fire up some more Power stations to "balance our load". Now starting up and setting down turbine based Power Stations is not that easy to do on the reactive basis required, so we currently export surplus electricity to Europe and then import it as demand requires. As we all know, electricity costs money, so we sell the electricity exported and then buy it at import. It is this method of "trading" that Brexit denies us.

The result is, that we will be unable to balance our load as effectively as before. we can't just dump electricity, so National Grid will need to direct the generated availability to the areas needing it. If a surge in demand comes about the "grid" will opt for the areas of high population density, mainly because it affects less people, but also because they can be financially penalised for loss of service (check your supply contract).

So for those in Cities, what's the problem I hear you cry, well the Water and Sewage systems are often way out of town, every time you flush the toilet, shower or bath, that waste water may leave your house under gravity, but sooner or later it may/will need to be pumped to get it to the treatment plant.

Equally, this applies with Clean Water, the amounts of electrical energy associated with Clean (Drinking) Water production are huge. The control system, actuated valves, flowmeters, pressure sensors, chemical dosing systems, water quality instruments, final pumps are all electrically powered. Guess what! There is not much storage in that system either.Typically in my experience we are talking hours rather than days....

So an infrequent power supply, leads to Water Supply issues and also Waste issues.....I know little about Gas supply but the need to maintain a pressure, will no doubt be electrically controlled!

My YouTube Channel is Two Years Old

I started uploading videos to YouTube in March of 2012, about a month or so before YouTube opened the doors to its partner program, so that anyone could join. Since then I have had three channels, my current one iJimUK being my third channel, and my last.. I hope..

Since my first upload way back in 2012 I have only ever had two strikes for copyright on any of my videos, the second one was a few weeks back on my Video Noscere`s Call to Action, because I used a clip from the move The Matrix.

So when another email from YouTube hit my inbox this week, my first thought was "oh bugger, someone else is claiming copyright infringement but I was wrong, instead it was an email wishing my channel a happy 2nd Birthday.

With everything I have going on at home at the moment and yet another change to my channels format I didn't even realize it had been up for so long. Hard to believe that two years ago I had this idea of making a channel dedicated to the way I see the world, a kind of guerilla journalism channel, which in time changed to a commentary channel where I hid my face, then I decided not to hide my face, to what it is now, a channel about Prepping, Bushcraft and horror movies, where I hide my face.

I am choosing not to celebrate iJimUK`s 2nd birthday because I am not 100% happy with it yet, I still hadn't gotten into the swing of everything yet, maybe by the time it is three years old, we will have to wait and see…

What To Do With Your Preps

So, you have been stockpiling food with a long shelf life and water for a few months now. You have also been working on getting gear for your bug out bag as well as your EDC and you think you have everything.

You are reading every book, PDF and website you can lay your hands on, on the subject of Wilderness and urban survival, bushcraft and foraging, your passed your first aid course top of the class and have started a self defence class.

Not My Stockpile

This is all awesome news, you have been working hard, well done you!

Now that your Bug out bag is ready in case an emergency happens and you need to evacuate, what are you going to do with it? Leave it in the cupboard under the stairs, ready for a SHTF situation?

Lots of preppers have their bug out bag ready just in case, just sat there, doing nothing, this confuses me no end.

Why would you go to all the effort and expense to put a bag together and never use it.

Get your bag out, empty it, check your gear is in optimum condition, replace and look to upgrade some of the items in it (if your finances allow).

Go out camping, even if it is just for one night. This way you will get used to the idea of grabbing your bag and taking to the hills, so to speak, get used to using your knife and axe. Practice building shelters and making fire.

As I said in an earlier post, "Knowledge is Key", it is no good having all that gear if you dont know how to use it, so get your gear out and actually use it, get used to how it feels, you never know, the axe you got last month might not feel right when you use it, it could give you blisters. With a slight modification it could be perfect... or it could need replacing.

Get your gear out and play with it, actually use it. Feather sticks, feather more sticks, practice and practice some more. Make a fire in the rain, if its windy, get out and make a fire in the wind.

Years ago I was a reservist in the British army. My regiments unofficial motto was "Train Hard, Play Easy". in short, train and practice in the worst possible environments, the pouring rain, howling winds and heavy snow. If you are unlucky enough to be caught out in a SHTF situation in these conditions, you have practised and trained yourself in them so you know what to do. Anything less than God awful weather, half way up a hill is easy.

To end, get used to rotating your stockpiles and preps, if those cans of soup are getting close to their use by date, use them and replace them. It would be a nightmare to find that half your food stash has already passed its use by date when you need it.

Practice making fire, finding and purifying water, building shelters and the rest of it, get used to your tools and how your bag feels on your back. Remember: It is better to fail now when you have time to get it right and modify your gear then fail when peoples lives depend on you getting it right. 

Is the Uk Government Sabotaging Brexit

Sometimes we cant see the wood for the trees, we are told what people want us to know and sometimes it is worded in such a way that what is said can change our views of a given subject.

For some time now I have been thinking that the UK government and those involved in thrashing out some kind of deal with the EU as we leave the EU havnt been doing as much as they could, then earlier this week or the end of last week I came across a post in a Facebook group that I am part of. This post came from Twitter and was talking about some of the things that the UK government has been doing to make leaving the EU without any deals in place more and more likely.

It felt as though all the bits of thoughts and ideas I had in my head about the Brexit negotiations had all moved into place. Below is a link to the original post and tweet, as well as the original tweet in audio format and video so you can hear what was said as well as some of my views on the situation

Original Tweet