Hi there,

I'm Ed, I've been reading Ferfal's forum for some time now and decided to check out and subscribe to GTA forum.

As you see, I'm from this country which is for 1/3 under the sea level. I don't live under the sea level myself anymore (I live +10 meters, 200 kms inland), so don't ask me if I've already thought about getting an inflatable boat.

I teach in high school. I speak Dutch (native), French (near-native), English (fluent), German (near-fluent), Spanish (apprentice), I've also got some basics in Latin and Greek.

I've lived in various parts of Holland (also in this area under sea-level, and at the time thought about buying an inflatable boat ;-) ), and I spent some periods in France, of which the longest was 12 months. I've always liked languages and communicating with people around the world. Being able to use other languages allows me to quench my thirst of knowledge. Like survivalism/preparedness, there are some subjects about which you just can't get any information about in Dutch. The word 'preparedness' doesn't even exist in my language… Moreover, people who live in other countries / circumstances, have other points of view on certain matters than people in my surroundings have. I found that it was very useful to be able to try to understand these different points of view. But most of the time, the differences are in little things. What we all want is world dominat…. erh, we all want a peaceful place for our kids to grow up, freedom of work, freedom of movement, etc. Maslow's pyramid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M…..y_of_needs) is a good summary of what we all need…

About my prepping, Im not nearly as far as I would like to be. There's lots of things that I would like to adress in the coming months, but I can't do it all at the same time.

I've got a diverse array of canned and dried foodstuffs, but only for a span of 2 months. I'd like to buy more powdered milk, and tupperware boxes to put in more wheat, lentils, beans, chickpeas. I've got just over 100 litres of drinking water ready, but I want to have at least the double amount of it.I havent got much fuel- I hope to solve this issue when I buy a wood cooking stove this fall (and heaps of firewood). I've got some medical supplies, though not much. Just what I need, but as I experienced last week, one cut in the hand made me use all of my bandages in just some days. I've got my own vegetable garden, and I'm making my own compost. I think that I could use at least 50 square metres to produce some of my own food. I'm nowhere near self sufficiency, but it's a nice thing to do after work and it gives me lots of pleasure, next to some home grown pesticide-free vitamins.

I've got the basics, but need to get more of it all. The thing is that we just bought our own home and are very busy fixing some old stuff that the former owners left unattended for some years.  For example, we isolated the roof (flat roof) with 8 centimetres of isolation material. It should keep a lot of warmth inside and the heath of the sun outside. It's in there for one week and we already notice the difference. It's much cooler upstairs during the day.

Among the things I still don't have but do think I need, is a gas-powered generator. I don't know yet what my exact setup will be, so I'm not investing in anything at all for the moment. Maybe in some months if I've got some money free and a more precise idea about what I need. I'm thinking about 500-700 Watt output. I didn't yet try the search-function on this matter.

I enjoy reading what you all do and talk about, though in politics I'm more 'European'. Don't blame me for that, it's the circumstances in which I grew up and still live ;-)

So…  I hope to add something to the forum. What's for sure, is that the forum adds a lot to me.

Ed