time for a check up

sdcoyote · Tar Sands Joined: May 24, 2005 Posts: 56

I do not post often, but continually lurk and learn. Some of you folks, I believe, may inadvertently be responsible for making my life and my children's lives tolerable in the not so distant future. I thank you.

Oil closed at over 100.1 today. This was the harbinger I set for myself to review my preps and take immediate action where I might be lacking. My bias is that the US is going to trod down a path of continual freefall for several decades...slow shtf so to speak. I can't speak for other nations - I don't live there. If my bias proves to be wrong and we hit hard...well, I just don't know. Anyway, I have been prepping since I learned of peak oil several years ago.

A few facts about me. I live in South Dakota. I am fifty years old, married, and have adopted two children (3-5) last August. The kids were classified as "special needs" because of their race, but they have no medical issues. I have three older boys who live in different states. One is a believer and will be as fine as one can be during these times. The other two are deniers and I suspect will be heading home as soon as it hits hard.

I am a professor at a university that will, imo, continue to exist during the beginnings of a slow drawdown. I am in a senior level position and hiring and firings here are based upon tenure and I am the oldest in my dept.

After learning about peak oil, we purchased a small farm (40 acres) 10 miles away from the school.

We plant a very large garden (2 acres), have an orchard, and have 50 hens and 3 roosters. I have at least 6 months worth of canned food and a beef in the freezer. Next April I was planning on getting a couple of pigs - we will see.

We ride 2 horses and the wife rides a bike. I don't, but could re-learn quickly enough, I suppose.

We heat with a wood stove, and I have a large woodlot on the property. We have a gas furnace but haven't used it all this winter.

I am in good health (so is she) but don't have many medical supplies on hand. My teeth are filled, capped, etc., but I suspect I will have problems in the future...my wife's teeth are perfect. I am in good shape for fifty.

I own a shotgun (12 gauge) with plenty of shells and a .22 single shot with plenty of shells. If I have to fight off an army, I figure I would lose anyway.

We have made our neighbors our best friends. We give away lots of eggs...they give us fruit from trees that we don't own. We babysit their kids, etc.

We are on rural water and this is an issue. We have a pond nearby, but I think some sort of wind powered well would be the way to go. I hope I have time to figure it out.

Anyway, this is my checkup time. Tonight, I am going to have a discussion with my wife (another PO'er) and attempt to figure out where we are and what we need to do. I respectfully submit that the community might do the same.

Pops · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 5:25 pm Post subject: Re: time for a check up

Very good to have a marker to review assessments, plans, goals and achievements; thanks for the topic.

We have a little too much unsecured debt and only a paltry pantry but aside from that there are few negatives.

We can eat meat and eggs and get milk if things get bad. We too have some firewood left and standing and the garden plot is starting to work. For the time we have some small income to pay taxes and such and maybe some little extra.

We have little margin to stock up here at the end of winter though a few invoices are still outstanding and if I can squirrel away a little, some bread flour and corn meal might be a good thing to buy.

Of course a windfall would generate a bigger list.
Smile

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kpeavey · Expert Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 1235

A general guideline I use on any project:
Make measurable progress in a reasonable amount of time or make significant changes.

Living your life day by day can blur the edges of what a reasonable amount of time is, so having landmarks or benchmarks offers reference points at which an assessment of the situation makes good sense.

I look at my own preps and what I want, I find that I am woefully lacking in many areas. Looking around at other people I know, I find that I am way ahead of the game.
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If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever."
-George Orwell, 1984

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Accept the Facts.

oldstyle · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:18 pm Post subject: Re: time for a check up

sdcoyote,

It sounds like you have taken practical and sensible approach to this and that is something I agree with and deeply respect. To adress your open ended question on water supply I would add some ideas and what I personally have done around this topic as well.

Waterthrush · Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 7:11 am Post subject: Re: time for a check up

I made a list of markers for various stages leading up to Peak Oil, which, for my purposes, I defined as "gasoline at $4/gallon or higher, brownouts once a week or more during summer, energy prices double or more," with my starting point as June 05, when I joined PeakOil.com.

Each set of markers was supposed to trigger a different level of preparation. I need to update this, but looking back, I am surprised at how much progress I've made. According to my markers we are in Year (or Stage) II.

I wrote in another thread about starting to draw my neighbors into the conversation. I see that was one of my goals for Stage II. I have also replaced my windows, done more with my garden, acquired a bicycle, and somewhat altered my driving habits. I am now living much more mindfully and purposefully in regard to the challenges ahead.

It's not so easy to change behaviors with one eye on the current world, which is still requiring and rewarding actions that assume the same situation will continue forever (i.e. I should worry much more about job minutiae and gossip and power plays) and the looming reality that none of that is what is really going to matter. It would be easier to change my behavior if Peak Oil were a daily emergency. But I tell myself that it is in reality better this way, at least financially, to make the necessary preparations.

killJOY · Fission Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 2471 Location: ^NNE^

sdcoyote · Tar Sands Joined: May 24, 2005 Posts: 56

Killjoy:

I have a biology/ecological studies background and teach classes in sustainability as well as basic 101.

I double majored as an undergrad with political science as my other major. I like having both the hard science/social science points of view.

We, too, are having problems. The current Gov. has been kind, but that is about to end. The state is actually losing pop. (which is one of the reasons I moved here) and it will hit the state U's soon.

I suspect we will have a hiring freeze next year and it will begin to spiral from there.

Insanity still runs rampant tho. The President decided we needed to go division 1 in BB and FB so millions are being redirected toward athletics.

Good times.

I will look into the hand pump. Probably cheaper than the windmill.

Oldstyle: That plan B idea was exactly what I was looking for. I am going to do that. Thank you.

killJOY · Fission Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 2471 Location: ^NNE^

sdcoyote · Tar Sands Joined: May 24, 2005 Posts: 56

Mike:

I cannot say that I garden 100% organically. I fear, however, in the not to distant future, we will not have a choice.

Look, the blog you cited and I read is written by one of the libertarian, magical, mystical invisible hand's gonna solve everything with amazing new tech folks.

He is wrong on several levels. First, the e-coli outbreaks he cites happened on conventional farms - not organic ones...There is of course, the possibility of e-coli outbreak if a person doesn't compost properly, but otherwise the chances are extremely small.

I actually agree with him concerning artificial fertilizer usage. If used properly, it does good things. The problem is that it doesn't improve your soil. If/when it is no longer available then you have bad soil and no artificial fertilizer. Bad combo.

Pesticides are a different story. I don't use them. First, look at the cancer cluster studies around pesticide factories. That begins to worry me. Second, even if I don't get enough in my body to do harm, what about the rest of the food chain. I like a few honey bees, birds etc. He doesn't even touch the extinction event that we are presently residing within. I suspect that much of that can be linked back to pesticide use (as well as climate change).

I literally could post hundreds of studies over the few years concerning the impact of pesticides on humans - especially children. It isn't what you buy in the store, so much, as what it does to the people living in Iowa, etc;, who use them. Study after study illustrates higher levels of toxic chemicals. Go to academic research primer in your library and type in "pesticide - health impacts." You will get more articles back than you can deal with.

Where the author really misses the boat, however, is oil. Once it becomes too expensive to apply...you know the story. He doesn't even consider it - and it really is the only thing that matters.

killJOY · Fission Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 2471 Location: ^NNE^

Thanks. I've always thought the real issue for organic farming was oil/energy, not "our carrots are better than your carrots."

The irony is that the organic farmers I know don't seem much concerned about peak oil. They farm organically because of the higher prices they can get. They tout the "superior" quality of organic produce instead of citing issues of soil and energy. It's a pity, really, to watch them fall for baloney.
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"By the time individuals discover that remaining resources will not be adequate for the next generation, the next generation has already been born. " David Price

sdcoyote · Tar Sands Joined: May 24, 2005 Posts: 56

The correct answer is in your earlier post...

soil
oil
localization (which is also about oil)

along with, imo, pesticides.

That's the reason to farm organically.

Hell, people buy organic produce from WalMart now...not realizing that the carbon footprint of that head of lettuce completely mitigates any other environmental issue associated with it.

anagami · Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:14 am Post subject: Re: time for a check up

I will keep it short:

1) mental preparation for worst case scenario: difficult but done.
2) being debt free: done.
3) relocalization: after analysis, not needed, done.
4) community awareness of the issue: partially done, some members of "monkesphere" acknowledge it in varying %, most don't
5) preparation of "shrine": skip, see 4...

that's about it... but strangely as it sounds, 1) is all that I need; because one of the ways I define as "mental preparation" is the acceptance of death... even in a TOTWAWKI/TSHTF scenario... because it all ends in death.
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