What do you Collect? What do you Hoard?

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1401

Heineken,

Our answer to the food thing is living in a farm community where people take care of themselves, and becoming a working part of that community. Works good. Doing it now. Nope, not that hard to do, it just looks like it from afar.

I understand the fat-man-in-a-famine thing, but the key is to live where the FOOD is. Yeah, we have a freezer full of meat, solar to power it, shelves of canned goods and staples, and gardens to grow more. The neighbors grow grains and livestock, and we fix their equipment, and can grind their grain. They take a dim view of lawlessness. The county Sheriff just left a few minutes ago, leaving work for our shop. He's a regular customer. I don't see a problem here for us.

Hide in plain sight.....

Heineken

Well, I hope you're right, dear and gentle Patience.

My guess, though, is that people without food will go to where the food is, or die trying to get there. You could have, e.g., food terrorists, blowing up silos and shooting farmers and county deputies. Conflict is inevitable. Desperate people will take chances and commit acts that secure people would never consider. That is the former group's huge advantage.

No one knows just how it will all shake out. Some argue that the starving masses from the cities will never even make it to the country before self-destructing. Others envision chilling "Dawn of Dead" scenarios.

During the Great Depression, the US moved perilously close to Communist revolution.

I tend to agree with those who say that the Have-Nots will organize themselves into powerful groups that will take on the Haves directly.

Anything hoarded that is useful is vulnerable and potentially exposes the owner to risk. That's the downside.
_________________
"Actually, humans died out long ago."
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog

"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---Me and my brother

mos6507 · Fusion Joined: Aug 03, 2007 Posts: 3113

Roy

food. Bicycles. Bicycle parts, tools, hand tools, spare parts for anything mechanical, heirloom seeds, fertilizer, compost, firewood, sewing stuff, good boots (for each member of the family), work clothes, winter gear, camping gear, motorcycle parts.

That's about it...

Laughing

MarkJames · Tar Sands Joined: Dec 25, 2007 Posts: 63

I don't consider myself a hoarder, but due to my development, construction and heating fuels businesses I have a good cache of farm land, wooded land, acreage, building lots, building materials, salvage materials, tools, equipment, hardware, spare parts, propane, heating oil, kerosene, diesel, gasoline etc. I also have plenty of firewood and coal. If I don't have spare parts, oddball parts or obsolete parts I can often make them or repair them.

I've always had a large large cache of ammo, hunting, bow-hunting, fishing, ice-fishing, shooting, camping, boating and four seasons sporting equipment. We always have plenty of food, water, medical supplies and extra venison and fish in the freezers.

Many of our newer rural customers don't realize how much they rely on electricity until their well pumps, pressure tanks, furnaces, boilers and water heaters aren't working.

Ferretlover

Alll Riiiigghhttt!
Party at Mark's place tonight! BYOB
_________________
"RRrrruuuunnnn!!!" ~Apocalypto

Pops

madison · Heavy Crude Joined: Mar 12, 2005 Posts: 255

I buy open-pollinated heirloom seeds, seed saving equipment and hand gardening tools.

I also buy lots of books.

I don't think "hoard" is the correct word for me, though - because I will be sharing my seeds and gardening resources with friends, family and my church's community garden. I will also use the information I glean from the books I buy to educate myself and others.

In both instances, what I have is a kind of community resource in a way.

What I save for myself and my son specifically are various comfort things - soap, toothpaste, wool socks.

Information is of the hightest value, though. Information and personal contacts - finding local sources for various foods and animals, local sources of clothing and fiber, local sources of wood etc. Knowing what is ahead gets ME ahead of the curve. That way I can try to help facilitate acceptance amongst the other folks falling through the having to make their own way.

MarkJames · Tar Sands Joined: Dec 25, 2007 Posts: 63

PhebaAndThePilgrim

Good day from Pheba, from the farm:
Wow, I am so far behind on collecting. I do not have open pollinated seed. I usually purchase hybrid because they do better in this area.
A problem as I see it.
I have plenty of hand tools. Hubby is a carpenter. We have plenty of land. Fuel is a problem. The large IH tractor takes a lot of gasoline. It is not a diesel engine. The small tractor is also gasoline, but my new IH garden tractor is diesel and very efficient.
I never gave the chainsaw a thought. Guess that is because hubby does the felling of trees.
We have a book on food storage and are planning on building a root cellar in the basement.
Hubby is beginning to take this very serious.
Even if things do not fall apart, we save a fortune by purchasing in bulk, rotating stock, and using as we go.
Living in a rural area, we also save by buying in bulk because we are not wasting fuel driving to town all of the time.
Our problem is milk. We are always running out of milk.
I collect VHS movies, and tv series on DVD. I figure the TV set does not take that much electricity.
We have already reduced KWH to 450 per month, so I am trying to reduce usage all of the time.
I collect books, but I have always collected books. I went on a binge for a while where I collected blankets from GOodwill and Salvation Army. I have a lot of nice quilts I purchased that way.
I went on a clothing binge for a while, buying it all at thrift shops. I have a ton of clothing and socks for hubby and I.
Shoes are a problem. Hubby has 3 or 4 pair. He wears them out fast. Mine last a long time. I used to wear out a pair in a season. I have learned to take very good care of dress shoes, and use "farm and garden" shoes for yard work.
I have never been able to figure out the binge notebook collecting. I don't think it has anything to do with the coming crisis. I think it is just me being weird.
If TSHTF none of us are going to be truly prepared. If it doesn't I have a lifetime supply of notebooks.
Pheba.

Heineken

Ludi

My husband has bad hips and feet and wears shoes out badly (pronated ankles), which hurts his hip joints. So he has to buy expensive shoes frequently. We don't have a good stock of shoes put by, because they are expensive ($200 -300 a year for shoes for him).
_________________
"...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow..." - jboogy

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1401

The shoe discussion reminded me, I also collect leather stuff, a holdover from when we had draft horses. It's handy for shoe repairs to keep some Barge Cement, harness needles and an awl around, plus some spools of waxed thread for leather, and upholstery thread for lighter work. I need to put a few stitches in my wife's favorite SAS shoes that she has loved almost into oblivion.

Got some elk, deerskin, chrome tanned cowhide, and oil tan (latigo) in a box with a couple bottles of neatsfoot oil (not neatsfoot "compound", which is an inferior mixture) and hand tools. Watch for a pair of PARALLEL jaw pliers with a needle groove down the jaw, lengthwise. They are for pulling needles through heavy leather. Keep all the tools in an old small tackle box, except the strap cutter, which won't fit. A couple tubes of the flexible super glue are nice for synthetic materials, too, but it won't keep long once it's opened, so get extras.

Pops