How do you plan to live...

arocoun · Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:40 pm Post subject: How do you plan to live...

(Please don't turn this into another thread about whether or not our current society will survive in its current form. If you believe that our current society and mode of living will remain intact and don't even want to consider another mode of living, then please don't post here to start a debate.)

Anyways, I've been reading these forums for a little while now, but I haven't gotten a general idea of the numbers regarding how members of these forums plan to live in the event of societal breakdown. So I've got some questions on the matter.

How do you plan to get food (hunting, herding, eating wild plants, small garden, farming, etc.)?

How big of a community do you plan to live in (alone, small group, large group, small town, etc.), what do you plan to do for your community, and what level of interconnectiveness with other communities do you plan for (isolation, alliance with neighboring communities, small state/country, etc.)?

What kind of social relationships do you plan on having in your community (independence<->complete dependence, egalitarian<->feudalist monarchy, anarchy<->military law, economy)?

Where will your energy come from, and what kind of technology do you plan to have?

Where do you plan to live, geographically?

What will be your defenses against mobs and militias if they form (location, weapons, techniques)?

Of course, I'll go first!

I plan to get food through a mixture of wild plant gathering, gardening, and hunting. I plan on living in a small group, and hope to be independant of but friendly with surrounding communities. I plan to live in a group where everyone does their share of work, and where we won't have the rediculously high level of interdependence our current society has. My community would be egalitarian.

My group would require only the amount of energy which comes from the sun to produce food, and technology would be simple and handpowered. I plan to live a little south of Illinois (maybe Kentucky or Tennessee). There would be little or no reason to attack my group, but if anybody should decide to attack, we would simply flee (as groups of that kind are historically good at doing); the weapons we would use would be simple, and not made for all-out battle.

Sololeum · Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2004 4:09 pm Post subject:

Would it not be simpler to live in a small community - and use your knowledge to influence them into some form of sustainability.

It is all about a RE-LOCALIZATION of society that will by necessity LIVE SIMPLY - Mass society will diminish - hopefully the www will survive and thrive, but mass transit systems - especially air travel will disappear.
The small community will have a wealth of skills already and small scale electricity systems based on biomass will keep the lights and internet on.
Methane digesters can provide enough power for cooking and biodiesel enough fuel for agricultural production and limited trucking.

If you sell your house in the city you can buy a house / land and a business in the country! You will be with people who can dance, sign and play music - making your life richer and more worthwhile.

In Vi Et Silva

stepka · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 1:41 am Post subject:

Arocoun, how far are you into your move? Because if I lived in Illinois, I'd be moving over near one of those Amish communities, and learning everything I could from them before the trouble starts. But of course there are Amish communities all over the midwest.

As for me, we're already in the country, have space for a garden, and I'm working on that. Surrounded by farmland, though I don't know how well it would produce without fertilizer and pesticide. Intimate church family, getting to know the neighbors. Learning about wild foods and medicinal plants. Hanging out with 88 yo Grandma, and learning from her. We have a hand pump installed in our yard, though I've never figured out how to get water from it. Also we have a spring, and I need to get the water tested. I wouldn't say I'm ready, but further than most. I'm not a good gardener, so it's taking me longer to learn this stuff than it would someone with a greener thumb.

arocoun · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 2:27 am Post subject:

Both of you seem to have good plans!

I, myself, am going to focus more on wilderness survival and less on farming, but still on both. Although I think they're amazing in their abilities, I don't really like the Amish. They seem dull, and into the kind of strict, fundamentalist-Christian style of life I just can't stand (I'm an agnostic and something of a Taoist, by the way).

Large-scale property ownership isn't my kind of thing. I think I'm going to do some medium-scale gardening suplemented by wild foods. As for how far I am in moving to that kind of life: I'm not living like that right now, but I am learning and practicing all the skills necessary to make a move into that life, and plan on going south to engage in that kind of living in about a year (still have some obligations here, though).

Anyways, thank for your replies so far!

NiKfUrY69 · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 8:16 am Post subject:

PhilBiker · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jun 30, 2004 Posts: 1326

I plan on dying with the rest of the masses.

At least I'm being realistic.

Tyler_JC · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:41 pm Post subject:

This is an option:
Stockpile a year's worth of food.
Stockplie a year's worth of shotgun shells.
When the masses come, kill'em.
When the masses die off, take anything useful they have.
Join one of those Amish farms and tell them nothing of how you survived.
Write a book about the whole thing and sell it to a major publishing company (assuming: they survived the crash, are still in the publishing business, have money, the money is worth something, there are people left to buy the book, etc....)

Kingcoal · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:43 pm Post subject:

The economy ain't going to colapse overnight. Besides, we humans have lived without oil before. Europe and China have already started reducing population growth. When people are under pressure, they'll have less children. It will be hard times, but we'll survive.

Whitecrab · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 9:08 pm Post subject:

I do not expect society to suddenly break down overnight. I expect I a very rough 10-20 years, and then we'll either be starting to pull out of it or things will be starting to get ugly.

As such, my plan in the shorterm is to do kick-ass in school, and try to get a job in an energy or bioprocessing company, and hopefully keep my employment while things start getting rough. Rent a place if I'm in the city, maybe buy if in the country, but keep my expenses low. Buy up a year's worth of food & camping goods, pressure local politicians, lecture on PO, and take some martial arts classes on the side.

I should have at least a few years after we peak to learn some skills and hopefully get myself a little "vacation" place in a well-set country community, as a backup for the worst case scenarios. If people are moving in the right direction, I'll stay where the work is to help (city, whatever). If things get really bad, take a permaculuture course and then be ready to move myself out to the country fully. Pull a Pops. Split the country house with a few other people if funds are that short. I think joining a small town is a better bet than trying to eke out an existance alone.
_________________
"Our forces are now closer to the center of Baghdad than most American commuters are to their downtown office."
--Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, April 2003

Whitecrab · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 9:10 pm Post subject:

(Note: I am expecting real financial and perhaps political troubles right after the peak. By "starting to get ugly" I mean we'll be able to see whether society has come up with a sane plan or not).
_________________
"Our forces are now closer to the center of Baghdad than most American commuters are to their downtown office."
--Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, April 2003

PhilBiker · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jun 30, 2004 Posts: 1326

cartz · Coal Joined: Sep 26, 2004 Posts: 18 Location: Australia

Hey arocoun, it sounds like we've got similar perspectives on the best way to live. An HG lifestyle is what I'm progressively working towards. At the moment we're a family of four on a bush property but we're looking to maybe join up with one other family of like minded friends. We're gardening Fukuoka style (ie. just tossing seeds around and seeing what grows) at the moment and that is supplementing the wild foods we are gathering. We'll be fleeing into the forest should the need arise.

The one compromise that we may be making is the possible herding of goats. Goats being the perfect animal to flee with should that be necessary as they'll eat anything. We'll be sorting out whether the whole goat idea is a goer in the next couple of years. Ideally we'd not have them but I'm having to allow for the fact that, unfortunately, we are civilised and that it may just make our full adaption to an hg lifestyle that much easier.

Cheers,

cartz.

emacs · Coal Joined: Oct 20, 2004 Posts: 7 Location: Germany

Hello together,

I am quite new in this forum, I just figured out the dramatically situation about PeakOil a few days ago and at the first moment I've been very scared. So if someone is wondering because my english is so bad, realize, I learned it in school 20 years ago and did not use quite much Wink

I am a 36 years old civil-engineer from Germany (I also live in Germany right now) and I guess I am already prepared for the bad days.

My girlfriend and me live in our own house in a small village close to the dutch boarder in the middle of germany. We do already have stored food, candels, gasoline, tents, sleepingbags and all that stuff in the cellar (not for expecting PeakOil but for other reasons, beeing prepared is allways good).

Around the village there are wide areas with agriculture like potatoes and other vegetables. The only thing what is missing are somekind of weapons because here in Germany there is almost no legal way to get firearms, even knifes with blades which are longer than 10 cm (4 inch) are also count as weapons.

Our car is driven by normal gas at the moment, but I expect that the next one will be a Diesel and so I can drive it with biodiesel after little work.

I grew up on a small village at the northsea, my parents did a bit farming there so I have some experiance with farming and ranching (they got chicken, rabbits, goats and pigs there), I also learned how to slaughter those animals and make food from them.

When I became older I became a carpenter journeyman and with the age of nineteen I joined the German Navy for 8 years (I've never seen a ship, I've been an infantery-soldier) After that I studied civil-engineering.

So, if the bad days come, I guess I will be prepared, at least better prepared than all the other people who do not know (and they evan do not want to know) anything about PeakOil.

emacs

NiKfUrY69 · Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 9:21 am Post subject:

newellm · Coal Joined: Oct 19, 2004 Posts: 15

Hello Everyone.

I'm 21 and I live in Oregon.

I learned about PO a couple years ago, but I've been getting much more serious about it in the last 4-6 months. I moved back from California(currently work over the net), and am living with my parents. We live outside of a small town, with nothing but miles of forest behind us. We live near the coast, so there is plenty of rain, and not to many really cold nights, so you can grow almost anything. We own 24 acres on a river, but the river is tidal and salty, so drinking water must come from elsewhere.

There is small stream close by that we can collect water from. We also have an old well that works, but I plan on getting a mechanical pump/ and or solar powered pump for it. I also want to start collecting rainwater. The combination of these things should cover all of our water needs, and we can always distill river water if the need arises.

We have always had a fairly large garden, although we plan to seriously expand in the future. We are going to start utilizing our small greenhouse, and I'm thinking about building another. We have 4-5 large mature fruit trees, and we are planting more.

I plan to clear more land(brush, blackberries) that can be used for farming and grazing. We've raised many types of birds in the past, and I plan on getting some ducks, geese(great intrusion alarm), chickens, and maybe some chuckers and quail. We have 4 cows now, and I want to get a mule I think, great for transportation and farm work.

We love to hunt both waterfowl and large game, and have quite a few guns for protection. There is quite a good population of deer and elk, but they can be difficult to get because of the forest density. There are lots of rabbits around. There are plenty of pigeons, ducks, and a few geese. There is good fishing in the river, and also a lot of good trout lakes up in the forest. There are tons of blackberries around, and lots of edible mushrooms this time of year.

The area we live has nearly no neighbors, and is only accessable by a large bridge that is 3 miles down the road, or by boat. This should be a great place to put up a stand against a coming invasion(if we know about it in advance).

We have canned in the past, and have done much more this year. We can tuna, tomatoes, pasta sauce, green beens, apple juice, and blackberry jam. We plan to start canning more meat, and other vegies. I'm currently making my first batch of hard apple cider, and I plan to expand into beer, and eventually I might set up a still, if we get to a point where the law is not a problem.

I plan to get more live traps for trapping small animals. I also need to seriously stock up on ammunition. I also want to get a reloader and start reloading my own ammo.

I love cannabis, and eventually want to make clothes, food, diesel, methanol, plastic, pellets for burning, rope...etc from this wonderful plant. If you haven't read the emperor wears no clothes, then do so now. www.jackherer.com. Of course if the law breaks down i will also grow for maryj, and probably some psilocybes(magic mushrooms), for fun and trade.

I also plan to stock up on all sorts of valuable tools, like knives and shovels, and rakes... Both for personal use, and for trade. I believe that anything that will be useful in the future, will also be worth a lot for trading.

I plan to purchase a few thousand dollars worth of silver and gold soon. With more to come in the future, as long as i have an income.

I've thought about making more contacts in the surrounding community, but I'm weary. I don't want too many people to know how serious I am about getting prepared, because I will be the first person they will think of when they begin to starve. I think that after TSHTF, I can start to develop more connections with the local people who prove to be self-sustainable.

I probably forgot a bunch, but that's a start.

Good luck to all.

Matt