Planning for the Masses (your good deed for the day)

CeeCee · Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 6:06 pm Post subject:

I'm so glad you like the idea!!!! But please I need to stress that it's not at all intended to be "guerilla" in any way, and I think it would undermine the power and usefulness of it if it was operated or packaged as a "guerilla" activity... to me it's a very straightforward community-based activity which really works, it really does get people together, it really does start getting that precious knowledge circulating again. And it's Fun!!!

Once the concept is understood by the community or neighbourhood and has worked for a year or so (e.g. one summer school and one winter school) then it can be slowly expanded... e.g. instead of having just one-week schools you can have two-week schools, and you can also have spring and autumn schools. (i.e. I think it will be possible to quite quickly get up to eight weeks of "Back to Basics Living" skillls per year).

I will make sure I get people's reactions from the winter school this August, and I'll collect a set of 'testimonials' and put them on line so that other people can see that it does actually work and it's not just me going on about it!!!!

Cee Cee

RonMN · Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:09 am Post subject:

Maybe "guerilla" is the wrong word...it's just how i tend to think of it. Like my neice & nephew were over lastnight & they saw the hoe in my backyard...well they were all enthused about it so before you knew it...i was teaching them how to hoe the weeds & identify the plants that you didn't want to harm (with no mention of PO)...

I also leave the tape "end of suburbia" in my VCR and forwarded to the spot where it gets very "enlightening"...every so often when somebody comes over (that i want to tell of PO) i tell them i'm in the middle of a documentary & they usually sit & watch it with me.

I call these things "guerilla" tactics but perhaps that's too strong of a word.

CeeCee · Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:28 pm Post subject:

On the other hand I know you meant it with Smile

Cee Cee

Claudia · Heavy Crude Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 112

mikeh433 · Heavy Crude Joined: Jan 25, 2006 Posts: 201

Solar greenhouse domes built over city baseball fields, playgrounds. I'm looking into greenhouse domes which seem more interesting than typical greenhouses.

Would need to stock up on the translucent covering materials pre-PO I think.

I think the mid-west would have quite some supply of grains in storage bins. Exporting might really slow close to a halt.

NiKfUrY69 · Last edited by NiKfUrY69 on Mon Mar 27, 2006 1:55 pm; edited 1 time in total

PrairieMule

I like these posts. Very encouraging. I am starting a herd of cattle this year and hope to have 20 head of brangus by 2010. As a christian I plan to tithe by giving 10% of the beef to sent to market to feed others.
_________________
Hair in my eyes like a highland steer, spring in my step like a white tailed deer. Hitch in my hip like an old sheep dog, puff up my chest like a big bull frog.-Corb Lund

mikeh433 · Heavy Crude Joined: Jan 25, 2006 Posts: 201

As I see it, your first priority is to see that you are food self-sufficient and over sufficient in saving and accumulating seeds.

Next priority is to invest spare funds into silver which can give you an extra-ordinary gain, topping out a few weeks before we hit the real skids - post PO, post collapse, whatever. Then you have 15 to 25 fold the amount that you invest in silver right now, today. No other investment will even come within 10% of that. Certainly not gold. If you have gold, trade it all in today for all silver - any form - doesn't matter.

Third priority is to get educated, or if wealthy, purchase large greenhouse dome kits. These are extra-ordinary and can include fish ponds.

These are the best things you can do for your community. Don't need guns if you are absolutely indispensible to your community. They will see you are well protected. Besides most of the bad guys in high offices and behind the scenes will swiftly wind up in life in prison. If you got guns, maybe you'll be helping round them up.

mommy22 · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 22, 2005 Posts: 270

Great thread, Ron...thanks for starting it. What about approaching your local library and see if you could lead a workshop on these sustainability ideas. Or if your area has a speaker's bureau, an organization could contact you and you would have a group of people interested in your ideas. Also, never underestimate the power of kids. Scout troops are always looking for people to talk to kids about preparedness, etc..4-H and the like. My 6th grader's middle school is studying this whole year about energy...they'll have a big energy fair at the school in March. I suggested to the teacher that all 300 6th graders could write a letter to the mayor that there should be bike racks downtown (thee are none currently) and see what happens.
Love the sunflower seed idea! I was driving around last fall and I was surprised to see loads of OLD apple trees on the edges of fields, still putting out food...if trees could be planted, and PO hits hard fast, I imagine kids won't be throwing them around if they are hungry enough!

romanko · Coal Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 17

As laudable as the suggestion of helping your neighbors is, it needs to be examined in one's particular situation. None or very few of my neighbors will be even remotely self-sufficient come PO, heck, I'm going to have a hell of a time myself and I've been planning for this nearly a year. I still don't know how I'll support my elderly parents and my younger sister. My friends, well, I've given them as much PO advice as they could stand, they'll have to be on their own.

The trouble is, my neighbors to one side have 1/4 the land I do, and I hardly have 1/2 an acre, plus they have 3 or 5 kids, I lose count, and are total white-trash manga-cakes, not being mean, but when a mom uses F*** expletives when screaming at her grade-school children, you're white trash.

Can I help them, sure I can try, but it won't make a difference, because I can't help them all, and those I can't will be envious of my garden, my solar panels, my wind generator, my wood oven, my hand-dug well, etc.

And this describes my neighbors. Not to mention the hungry hordes from the city. I'm not even assuming a hard crash, all it takes is a family like this to lose their walmart jobs and bang and even if the stores still stock pizza pockets and gatorade they won't have the $ to buy those things. With hungry kids, they WILL justify whatever means to get by, even if it entails theft and violence.

Sorry for being such a realist, but I just can't see them standing there with wailing hungry kids, taking a handful of seeds from me, when over the fence they see rows of fruit laden plants ripe for the taking.

GreyLady · Coal Joined: Apr 04, 2006 Posts: 6

I just signed on this last week after reading the site for a while. It was this topic that pushed me from just being a lurker. Here is the relevant portion of the post on my plan of action:

Kfish · Tar Sands Joined: Mar 31, 2006 Posts: 92

What a fantastic thread!

If any hard times are in front of us, we need to build stable, local communities. The odds are a lot better for a group to prosper than an individual. Helping others in strategic ways will help to build those communities.

My approach is to gather skills and tools, rather than stockpiling. People may, if they get desperate, loot your stockpiles, but they'll have to at least listen to you if they want to learn skills to survive. Hopefully, as the 'wisdom' of a local community you can secure your own position as well as being in a position to help others. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

Being a source of knowledge rather than stuff also will avoid being a target of others' envy. To this end, a little subtlety as to how well you are prepared could be a good thing.

To be perfectly honest, there are people who are totally unsuited to living in a self-supporting community. You may have the misfortune to live near them. In this case, it becomes even more important to get to know people who are prepared to learn and change as necessary. It also becomes more important to acquire skills, which are portable, rather than possessions which are not.

Kfish.