Joined: Jun 26, 2004 Posts: 1189 Location: Madison,Wisconsin
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 5:11 pm Post subject:
I thought about this for a long time, as i learn best from books, and i love to read.
Essential skills should be retained for survival. I think books related to the most basic skills of survival should be the first thing retained. Then the life sciences, biology chemistry and the like. I mean, heck, i go into a library and half of it seems to be tax law. Ever see the movie The day after tommorrow? While most of it is fiction to the extreme, I would definately agree on which books we can do with out...
Sorry, I had less time on break than i thought. I will give a more detailed list next time with IBN nbrs. _________________ Azreal60
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 11:17 pm Post subject: It would easily be hundreds of books.
I'd hope that people would donate their more useful books to the local public library where they can be shared out for all to use. I doubt the LA public library has a farming section, but my girlfriend just bought four books on sustainable small farms last week, and I think the public library might be a great place to put them when we've learned what we need to know.
Apparently, there are tons of edible wild plants all over Los Angeles, though. I went on a botany hike a couple weeks ago and learned to identify about twenty wild edible plants that are all around me. It's a little weird picking flowers in the park and eating them, but I know which ones to pick now if I ever wanted to.
It was an interesting day that day, wandering around and picking plants and preparing a salad with the rest of the group. If we all ever had to do that in LA the place would be barren by 8AM the first day.
I've thought about lobbying the local politicians to subsidize the planting of fruit trees on residential property. I wonder if they'd go for it. Imagine if every one of your neighbors had four or five fruit trees on their property? It would be chaos! The grocery stores would insist they'd be taxed to support their imported fruit. Could you imagine? Business would freak out! Imagine if making your own beer was government subsidized! Yikes!
I wonder if they'd go for it. Imagine if every one of your neighbors had four or five fruit trees on their property? It would be chaos! The grocery stores would insist they'd be taxed to support their imported fruit. Could you imagine? Business would freak out!
No, they wouldn't. I live in the heart of "apple country" now, and I grew up in Hawaii, where many fruits and nuts grow wild by the side of the road. People generally don't eat the "wild" fruit. It's unattractive if you're used to store-bought food. The fruit has worms in it, and it's bird-pecked. It's also often smaller and paler than the store kind, because of the lack of agrichemicals. Often, it doesn't taste as good, either.
I have an apple tree right outside my kitchen window, leftover from when this area was an orchard. I've never actually eaten any apples from it, though. It was a cultivated tree, so the apples are sweet. (They're Cortlands.) But why eat small, bird-pecked, wormy apples when large, beautiful, pest-free ones are so cheap at the store or the local farmstand?
When I was a kid, I would sometimes eat fruit picked in the wild. Guava, passion fruit, oranges, tangerines, strawberries, macadamia nuts, blackberries, etc. But I still ate just as much fruit at home.
However, planting lots of fruit trees might cause other problems. They're messy. A lot of people don't like fruit trees because of the mess. Rotting fruit all over the ground, bird droppings because fruit attracts birds, etc. It can also be dangerous. We used to plant fruit trees along side roads and highways, but nowadays, we don't. Because kids will pick apples and throw them at cars, creating a traffic hazard.
The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, The salmon of doubt and other works by Adams.
(No use in being depressed in a post peak world)
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
( To remember me of the days that burning oil used to be a philosophical exercise)
The short guide to mandarin Chinese
(So I can communicate with them while doing their laundry)
Bush autobiography
(if he has learned to write before that)
LOL Smiley... great post. _________________ "When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F Roberts.
Joined: May 17, 2004 Posts: 293 Location: San Jose, CA
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 1:44 pm Post subject:
I feel lucky.. we've got a big, seedless orange tree in the backyard that always puts out tons of fruit each year. :D
As for books, I've bought a couple of good out-of-print ones through Amazon. I think they were mentioned before in the forum, which is why I got them. They are:
Small-Scale Grain Raising
and
Practical Skills: A Revival of Forgotten Crafts, Techniques, and Traditions
Both are by Gene Logsdon.
I also got Storey's Basic Country Skills by John and Martha Storey and Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook by James Talmage Stevens. Both are still in print.
There are a lot of good sustainable living books out there.
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