[Crusty]

If your Peak Oil aware and have made your preparations do you think you can have an ok Lifestyle?

If, as a Doomer, you've been taking note of what's going on and got the hell out of Dodge before TSHTF, do you
think you'll just survive or life will be kind of OK?

I live in Australia and moved from a Capital City to a small town in a rural area surrounded by Hobby farmers about 10yrs ago. Bought 5 acres, built a passive solar Shouse (shed/house), got my Vege garden, chooks and fruit trees (Permaculture) going well. Plenty of rainfall, water tanks and dams and the climate is easy to live in without artificial heating or cooling. 10km out farms get bigger and have cattle etc grazing on them. People barter already. The Community Garden is going well with good seed bank to share with new-comers. Heaps of illegal stills, homemade beer and weed being grown in the local area. Plenty of good local bands and get togethers on Friday and Saturday Nights. I get everywhere on my Electric Bicycle and could do the same walking or riding a normal bike. Most people friendly and cruisey. Very few people here have guns and I am 500km from a Capital City and 130km from the nearest town which has much better soil and grows much more produce.

The Movers and Shakers (Tourism etc) got hit hard by the Global Financial Crisis but for us Blockies with really low overheads/Debt, life kind of just got better (less surfers in the water, more time to chat and hangout etc)

I know the future looks Bleak and many things are out of my control. I only have one vote and use that wisely/compassionately (I think) for the big issues Globally and for my Country, but as you know the vast majority of the population don't want to know let alone make preparations.

Having done my Sums and made my Preparations, even at $300 a barrel life is pretty good. Not in a Consumerist way, but in a Lifestyle way.

So just wondering in anyone else feels kind of Positive (in a guilty kind of way) about the coming Doom?

[DomusAlbion]

My wife and I (and our youngest kid) made the move in July 2005. I continued to telecommute to my the Seattle software company I'd been with for some 6 years. She set up a rural medical practice.

I retired in 2008 and have dedicated myself to building our small farm up. We've come a long way but there is still much to be done to get to the 80% self-sustainable position. We'll always need and want to have some dependence on our local economy/neighbors but we're determined to be as independent as possible and to enjoy this beautiful piece of the world that we've found and made.

[Ibon]

Many folks who have powered way down and departed from the consumption culture are off the radar. This has always been the case. There are already many out there doing what Crusty describes here. Once you deeply integrate into your local community you find very little reason to share this in the cyber world.

It is when you are still in the grips of the consumption world and have not yet really extracted yourself from it that you find yourself needing to preach all the doom and gloom. Or when you are socially isolated.

The growing population of folks living a powered down lifestyle is an under reported phenomenon because their voices stay mostly within their local communities and are not really heard either from the mainstream media or even the alternative media outlets.....they have so to speak unplugged culturally from the greater collective.

So I think the question posed on this thread is rhetorical since as Crusty points out there is a whole community in his immediate area practicing a do-able lifestyle.

[mos6507]

Well said. You don't get a good picture of what's going on based on who is doing the talking here. I barely hear a peep from some of the people I met in my Transition training seminar. I suspect they are doing stuff locally, but there's very little visibility. Not everybody feels the need to broadcast their every move.

[Ayoob]

It makes you a resource-rich, poorly defended target.

[DomusAlbion]

I think, unfortunately, that you guys are right.

The world of my wife and I has shrunk considerably in terms of interest and more importantly, travel. We work to build up the farm and we do it for our grandchildren. I’m retired from 35 years in the software industry and she is down to seeing patients one day a week. We live within a radius of maybe 40 miles, we travel to the nearest town (18 miles) about once a week, and we don't fly or take long trips except for family emergencies (rarely). This is our world, our rural community, our small circle of neighbors and friends. Our concerns are here and with Idaho State. Our only concerns with national and international events are how their outcome may impinge on us locally.

In the past PO.com has been a window into what others, in other parts of the US and world, are thinking and attempting to do to mitigate the coming energy draught. Sadly over the last few years the site has devolved into a kind of free-for-all "Yahoo" type board with people going off on their favorite subjects, grinding their favorite axes with little discussion or sharing of ideas related to “Peak Oil”. There seems to be a core of some 20 posters who do most of the talking and to them it seems to be all about politics. National politics will not solve the coming problems nor save us as a people, nation or species.

There are two university towns within our locale. Maybe there are some groups up there who are doing real work toward mitigation. I'll have to look there.

[Revi]

I don't really know. I think it's going to be really tough, but the kids being born now won't know any other way of living. People have lived with much less and done a lot less traveling in the past. We'll be back to that very soon. Time to figure it out. I probably have less than 30 years left on this planet anyway. If it's cut short, that's okay.

[furrybill]

Crusty I can't say things are so good here in my little slice of Maine but I'm very happy for you. I hope you keep letting us know how things are going to serve as an inspiration.

[careinke]

I'm pretty sure we will be fine. I've been working on making this place sustainable for around eight years. The property is 30 acres, on a peninsula, on Puget Sound. I would need at least six more family members, (people), to make it work. My wife and I would be hard pressed to do everything ourselves. But with six more people it would be pretty easy. I could accommodate up to 30 without a problem.

There are a lot of folks on the Peninsula here that are interested in making the area agriculturally self sufficient. The nice thing is, I live close to the end of the Peninsula, so chances of roving zombies even heading this way, much less getting through all my gun toting neighbors, is pretty remote.

[Crusty]

I actually think this site is Very Important. A lot of the articles are pretty heavy reading and when I go to the Forum site I find the arguments help me work out what's happening. Without the Peak Oil Deniers this would just be a lovefest without hearing from both sides. (Plus after reading all that Doom it motivates me to get out into the garden and work on Preps)

I spent the first 5 yrs here by myself getting my block sorted and knew a few like minded people. When I started going to the community garden meeting I found there were heaps of people who were Peak Oil aware in our small town of about 3000. One guy owned a large exotic fruit farm and now lives in an apartment but helps in the Food Forest, another guy has a huge shed with welding equipment, steel lathes etc and knows how to use them, two girls who have done Permaculture design courses, one lady works her illegal still and makes a beautiful Sambucca, one guy brews his own beer (growing his own hops and toasting the grain etc) and will only let you taste the one in four that he thinks is Outstanding; then gets everyone to drink it!! Some breed heritage sheep/cattle and swap/give away meat (we have butcher who built a processing shop in a trailer, one guy who started a Seed Saving Network in Byron Bay and has a huge bank of heirloom seeds and heaps of other people who have seeds passed down from their fathers which have been grown continuously since immigrating from another country. All of these people want to freely pass on their knowledge and skills to their community.

The Community Garden has become a Hang-out for like minded people. We have it next to a Community Sport and recreation area so we can even have a few beers (and a local band on Sat Night) after working in the Garden. The town itself is surrounded by about 1000 5 acre blocks so while the Townies have their allotments which is surrounded by a Food Forest it's more about a hang-out and informal seed/food swapping and having a chat for the Blockies. One of the Girls wants a wood-fired Pizza oven, another bloke has already made one so last week we went around and checked it out (with lots of Pizza, Beer and and laughs while sitting around his fire pit). As others want one now a bunch of us are getting together to build hers and then someonelses etc.

No-one is getting paid, no-one owes anyone anything it's just a good feeling and good fun, everyone is swapping seeds and bragging about their crop, everyone is giving and the town is getting good vibes because of it. One of the Permaculture Ethic is to freely share the abundance and this appears to be what's happening.

I guess what I'm saying is we're all social creatures, we happily give presents and pay to go to the Pictures to feel good. If we ignore the Consumerist Propaganda and enjoy a different way of living Post Peak Oil maybe it'll be better not worse.

Start a Community Garden and you'll get more out of it than you put in!!

[SpringCreekFarm]

I've always said that I live this way because I like it. If it helps save me post-peak. That is just a bonus.

[jdmartin]

We're absolutely not ready at this point. If things went down tomorrow I'd have to hunt up some subsistence work, that's for sure. Our place is nowhere near ready for prime time. Long term I believe we'll survive OK because I can do everything from rebuild an engine to build a house. I'm reasonably healthy and fairly strong (though not as strong as 20 years ago ). Last year we grew maybe 10% of what we ate, maybe slightly less. I'm hoping to get to about 50% within the next three years.

One advantage I do have is living in an area that's a)rural, b)full of natural resources, c)low population, and d)used to living poorly and therefore doing a lot themselves. There's a lot of farmers around here that I could barter either what I produce, my skills or labor in order to get by. There's also not that many people, and the woods, rivers and lakes are full of game.

I've learned a lot from this site. Most of what I take from it are warning signs giving me a heads up of different things, and a lot of ways of doing things on the doomstead.

[Rod_Cloutier]

This morning at work I had a conversation with a co-worker who just came back from a 1 week $5,000.00 vacation to Cancun in Mexico, her second vacation to Mexico in 2011.

She was talking about how she and her husband were saving for several years to buy a house. They've recently been looking and she gave me a link to the house they were interested in buying:

http://www.century21.ca/Property/MB/R3Y ... _Drive/133

A $500,000 house, where it took them several years just to save for the down payment. (This with 2 upper middle class incomes coming in). The house is the classic McMansion with no land, no future, 2 cars required, high consumption madness.

She said to me "Isn't this a house you'd like to own"! My reply stunned her. I said I would much prefer to live very modestly, having a minor carbon footprint and savings in the bank; than spending the rest of my life in debt servitude to pay off a mortgage I can't really afford. Which is true, because I work at the same company she does and I have a similar job, prospects, and income to hers.

For the balance of the day she looked at me like I'm some sort of eco-nut who doesn't fit in with 'her' version of what society should look like. Unfortunately, she represents both the traditional and majority view of how the world operates.

I'm a severe Asthmatic, and my wife is an insulin dependent diabetic. When pharmaceuticals are no longer available, were both gone with them. I've thought of becoming sustainable, buying land, growing my own food- but we're in our forties, when modern civilization is gone we're toast.

My focus is on the kids. I'm trying to convince my teenage daughter to go into something practical, with real-world value, such as engineering. My youngest, although handicapped, we will encourage to adopt a sustainable community based lifestyle, for once were gone.

In the meanwhile, we're the odd couple out, Preferring a modest lifestyle over debt servitude and overconsumption.

[Narz]

If your Peak Oil aware and have made your preparations do you think you can have an ok Lifestyle?

If, as a Doomer, you've been taking note of what's going on and got the hell out of Dodge before TSHTF, do you
think you'll just survive or life will be kind of OK?

I live in Australia and moved from a Capital City to a small town in a rural area surrounded by Hobby farmers about 10yrs ago. Bought 5 acres, built a passive solar Shouse (shed/house), got my Vege garden, chooks and fruit trees (Permaculture) going well. Plenty of rainfall, water tanks and dams and the climate is easy to live in without artificial heating or cooling. 10km out farms get bigger and have cattle etc grazing on them. People barter already. The Community Garden is going well with good seed bank to share with new-comers. Heaps of illegal stills, homemade beer and weed being grown in the local area. Plenty of good local bands and get togethers on Friday and Saturday Nights. I get everywhere on my Electric Bicycle and could do the same walking or riding a normal bike. Most people friendly and cruisey. Very few people here have guns and I am 500km from a Capital City and 130km from the nearest town which has much better soil and grows much more produce.

The Movers and Shakers (Tourism etc) got hit hard by the Global Financial Crisis but for us Blockies with really low overheads/Debt, life kind of just got better (less surfers in the water, more time to chat and hangout etc)

I know the future looks Bleak and many things are out of my control. I only have one vote and use that wisely/compassionately (I think) for the big issues Globally and for my Country, but as you know the vast majority of the population don't want to know let alone make preparations.

Having done my Sums and made my Preparations, even at $300 a barrel life is pretty good. Not in a Consumerist way, but in a Lifestyle way.

So just wondering in anyone else feels kind of Positive (in a guilty kind of way) about the coming Doom?

I'm jealous. Sounds like a good life. Even if it doesn't last to achieve it is still impressive. I'd love to believe something like that is/could be possible for me but I'm not sure how to go for it from my present situation.

Many folks who have powered way down and departed from the consumption culture are off the radar. This has always been the case. There are already many out there doing what Crusty describes here. Once you deeply integrate into your local community you find very little reason to share this in the cyber world.

This is probably so true. I know for me, the more fulfilling my real life is the less craving I have to get online.

Of course if I really felt I built an amazing life I'd probably try to make a movie about it or something to sell or share online. Still wouldn't be a top priority though, especially if I felt it was taking away from my physical, tangible life.

[Shaved Monkey]

It makes you a resource-rich, poorly defended target.

There are 2 options you either sit on your back porch with a gun on your knee worrying about your neighbours coming to steal your food or you go around to your neighbours and help them grow their food and share the excess and sleep well at night.
If everyone is growing food there is nothing to steal,the thief will be the guy without the veggie garden.
You can shoot/punish him which benefits no one, or teach him to grow food or to use his skills to do something the community needs.

[careinke]

It makes you a resource-rich, poorly defended target.

There are 2 options you either sit on your back porch with a gun on your knee worrying about your neighbours coming to steal your food or you go around to your neighbours and help them grow their food and share the excess and sleep well at night.
If everyone is growing food there is nothing to steal,the thief will be the guy without the veggie garden.
You can shoot/punish him which benefits no one, or teach him to grow food or to use his skills to do something the community needs.

+1

[Crusty]

A couple of stories:

A few years ago an Indonesian war ship was on its way to Sydney for some Military exercise when it broke down about 5 km from Rainbow Beach (a small coastal town in Queensland). They marched into the town, guns drawn and looking quite scary. The locals showed them the telephone gave them the number for the Indonesian consulate and when they finished talking they sat them down and gave them all a lovely hot breakfast. When they were leaving they packed them a lunch and drove them back to where ship was moored. I think they went back the next day to make sure they were ok whilst waiting for a tug to tow them to Sydney. I spoke to a mate there and their attitude (despite the language barrier) went from adversary to bewilderment to a mate in that simple exchange. We weren't at war, and there was no threat, so i'm not trying to say it was a military engagement but I wonder about the stories that took place with family and friends when they got back to Indo.

The 2nd is about a community garden which has a sign that says, "Feel free to steal from this garden but please only take only what you need for today, you can always come back tomorrow and get some more, if you would like and allotment to grow your own food we would be happy to show you how."

[bratticus]

Given that the peak of world oil production occurred in the past, everything we are doing now is a post-peak lifestyle.

We define post-peak lifestyle by our actions in the post-peak world.

We clear the path we travel as we move along.

The assumptions that we make aren't right or wrong until proven. Will there still be cities? There were cities in the 18th century long before petrochemicals and fuels. But I don't see exactly a second 18th century. I see "islands of wealth". Do you think it's crazy? Go look at Moscow in post-USSR. Wealth and power concentrated into cities.

[Ibon]

Trying to place the emergence of this new lifestyle in the context of recent history is important. The past 80 years has seen the mass migration of agrarian and rural subsistence farmers abandon their farms and become urban and suburban consumers. Today in the US for example only 2% of the population are farmers. And these are by and large huge industrial farmers. The last generation that can remember subsistence farming are now passing away and their work ethic, farming techniques, social community skills are passing away with them. There is some cruel karmic irony that just as this generation is checking out we see the first sprouts of a post consumer generation turning full circle back to the land.......but as babes in the woods so to speak in starting from a vision of transition with minimal legacy of experience to pull from. When your neighbors all share the same vision of transition that in itself is a form of community glue. Together with the excitement of being a pioneer in a movement that has as its core a sustainable relationship with the earth.

I am curious how this community evolves especially when the next migration wave of "back to the land" unfolds. These will be made up less of visionaries wanting to transition to something new and be instead made up of economically disenfranchised poor who fell out of the middle class. They will not be bringing any utopian visions with them so much as all the baggage of a dying status quo.

At this point in the game the status quo is still resilient enough that we are all leaning on the health of this consumer paradigm as we take our first baby steps dabbling with a renaissance of agrarianism and community. We are more artists and visionaries than true subsistence farmers.

I like to believe that the disadvantage of not having the legacy and skills of the generation dying will be somewhat offset by the advantage of starting with a clean slate which does provide an opportunity of a true cultural renaissance.

Get ready to reintroduce yourselves though to a work ethic that most have never known. Contrary to what permaculturalists may tell you about this new agriculture requiring less work than traditional farming it will still require a degree of toil that most of us frankly are totally unprepared for.

It will be the generation born in poverty that will come who will have no memory of the "good times" that will be the true builders and workers of this new paradigm. They will develop the work ethic of the generation now checking out.

We are all consumer pansy flowers in comparison

[mos6507]

In the meanwhile, we're the odd couple out, Preferring a modest lifestyle over debt servitude and overconsumption.

I relate to that so well. The people here slinging their anecdotes about finding local people that "get" powerdown and all, it's not my experience at all. I'd say, at best, in Easter, MA, you're talking maybe one doomer for every 50,000 people, and that's being generous.