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I hope this is the right place to start this thread!
I am keen to know what members are doing to prepare for recession and climate change. I've learned a few crucial survival 'skills' over the last several years and figure many members here have their own take on how to prepare.
Please have at it. All I ask is to keep this free of 'geo-engineering the climate' by elites idea. Let's keep the focus on how we survive. Okay? Thanks!
Okay,
I'll start. Get to know your neighbours as a first step in building social capital. Be indispensable in some way to someone or to a group. Buy liquor. People will need it and it works as a currency for trade.
Excellent points, everyone shouod have something to contribute.
Does anyone here see the need for gold or is that a fear instilled by the elite?
Survival has always been about skills. As for 'Climate Change' I think we need to determine that our climate is a variable set of processes, the climate was not designed, or engineered for the human population.Quote:
Posted by AutumnW
This is a point which I think needs to be strongly emphasised: The climate is not an ideal, it is a dynamic process.
Science is about observation, hypothesis and testing those hypothesis, then making determinations from your results, and keeping the 'book open' for more observation/testing. It is not about 'Facts'.
The dogmatic approach to science is more akin to religious zealotry, true scientists are never dogmatic.
Our climate has always been changeable, subject to shifts and responses to macro/micro conditions. The whole process is driven by solar energy.
The current solar cycle, this is said to be entering a quiet phase, solar minimum. Winters in the northern hemisphere will become more severe.
Recession, those who are skilled with self reliant approaches will prevail, those who are dependent on social mechanisms will suffer.
One of the few honest science people discussing climate, is Tony Heller, this little video is typical and incisive, I can recommend his work to anyone who is sincerely interested with climate:
Great advice! We have a a really great community around us....that has many organic farmers, beef and dairy farmers. There is already a lot of barter happening.Quote:
Posted by AutumnW
In terms of alcohol an even better idea is to learn to make it! My partner is a fermentor and these days he usually just makes foods and remedies, but when he wants to he makes awesome alcoholic drinks.
We also have 9 chickens and an all year round garden.
I'd just like to give you a shout-out Mike.Quote:
Posted by Mike GormanSurvival has always been about skills. As for 'Climate Change' I think we need to determine that our climate is a variable set of processes, the climate was not designed, or engineered for the human population.Quote:
Posted by AutumnW
This is a point which I think needs to be strongly emphasised: The climate is not an ideal, it is a dynamic process.
Science is about observation, hypothesis and testing those hypothesis, then making determinations from your results, and keeping the 'book open' for more observation/testing. It is not about 'Facts'.
The dogmatic approach to science is more akin to religious zealotry, true scientists are never dogmatic.
Our climate has always been changeable, subject to shifts and responses to macro/micro conditions. The whole process is driven by solar energy.
The current solar cycle, this is said to be entering a quiet phase, solar minimum. Winters in the northern hemisphere will become more severe.
Recession, those who are skilled with self reliant approaches will prevail, those who are dependent on social mechanisms will suffer.
One of the few honest science people discussing climate, is Tony Heller, this little video is typical and incisive, I can recommend his work to anyone who is sincerely interested with climate:
You've posted great info, and always concise, to-the-point posts', for years on this forum. A lot of sense.
Thanks Man.
A good idea is to examine the acquired dependencies we have picked up along the way due to technology, and to imagine how you would manage without these things. And also, learn the skills, or hard copy the directions for these things.
Some examples:
Have real maps on hand, and know how to read a map in lieu of the GPS.
Know how to sew.
Know how to cook things with fire.
Know how to sterilize/filter water.
Know how to do first aid and life-saving techniques. (a comprehensive book on hand would be great.)
Know the safe edibles that can be foraged in your area.
Know safe food storage techniques.
Have no-tech things on hand - like a good manual can opener!
One thought is trying to learn old fashioned ways of doing things from parents and grandparents: sewing & mending, food preserving (drying, smoking, salting, canning in jars), ....
It might be useful to reduce dependence on consumer items. Examples: make your own food from raw ingredients, make your own clothes....
Also, take a first aid course.
I don't feel like I have a lot to contribute until I talk to other peers in my age group and realize the average knowledge level is often alarming. I can sew by hand and preserve food in multiple formats–I can can, pickle, dry foods, salt foods, and I even know a horrifying ancient recipe for preserving fish with no refrigeration (it involves a LOT of salt and port!). I know how to cook over fire, and build different fires for different purposes. I know how to make charcoal (a key item which can be used for water filtration). I'm reasonably confident with a few tries I could tan a hide (I have extensively studied how to do this, I just have not actually done it due to, y'know, liking small animals and not being desperate for furs to keep warm). While I don't have an enormous library, I have an entire guidebook of mushrooms, an atlas, a physical map of the province... these things alone put me in a category apart from many of my peers for preparedness. Not all of them, though. One of my friends is a historical recreator with an interest in survival camping. Probably most likely to survive a SHTF scenario. Another friend has a large library of non-fiction books. Potentially quite valuable. Many others have lives wholly centered around this decade's technology, though.
Alas, I'm in a city, albeit a small one. Even if I removed the trees that make the gardening difficult here, the neighbors have trees that would still create shade. So the space I have is quite limited, although I have as many plants as I could find buckets and planters to put them in. We're not allowed to have chickens in the city. :( I keep trying to reduce my dependence on the food chain, and in part we have, meat and eggs come from local farm sources we can trust or not at all. A significant portion of frozen fruit was just stored from a uPick adventure. That right there was an indication that the upcoming seasons may be expensive; the berries were late, small, sour, sparse compared to years past. I recommend taking all avenues to get fresh local food and cut out links in the food chain to plate. If you have the opportunity to preserve now, I'd do it. Remember that we're eating last year's apples, last year's potatoes if you shop from the grocery store... it's not all fresh, much of what we have comes from stock saved up from previous years. I'm definitely thinking of doing some canning and maybe a pail of sauerkraut. I've dried a few things.
A generator is one thing I would like to have. And indoor growing lights for some all year round vegetation. There are many things I would like to have. Suffice to say I have more prepping done than many people I know in the city in my age group, but it's not really that much. I have trouble justifying it to the person with whom I live, who firmly believes the world is not spiralling out of control even if we have a few expensive years due to some hardship, and is thus opposed to me doing too much hoarding of prepper things. For example, she thinks it would be over the top to buy 200 candles when we have 20 or so candles already that aren't being often used. She might be right. I do appreciate having her level-headedness to keep me from spiralling out into full blown panic hoarding, but we're still steering in an overall direction of less dependence on these large industrial supply chains.
She is of the mindset that if SHTF people bonding together in community to share their skills is the only thing that will keep us alive, not hoarding hundreds of days of supplies just in case. So I try to make a habit of having a few skills that aren't common, and knowledge of arenas that might be useful in case of an emergency situation, but also important information to pass on if say, the internet were to remove a vital part of our data sharing process. Like it might be a good idea to know how to deliver a baby in a non-medical setting. What options to do with a corpse when it's not handled by a hospital and a funeral home. Things like that, which might not be included in a contemporary first aid course, but are parts of life which a wounded society will find themselves limping into inevitably. Knowing how to address the needs of life and death. Knowledge may be the most valuable thing if we were to lose significant portions of how our world works, so amassing collections of books and papers with instructions for vital tasks is something I'd recommend. I don't suppose anyone needs to have everything, because I think the person whom I share my life with is right, we won't survive without community. Having a couple of solid niche books in your collection might be just the thing.
And seeds... seeds can't hurt. Useful, cheap. Keep 'em from the food you eat. Buy packets. Cheap and easy thing to have to boost your freedom and trade if you needed.
Anyway, I'm shocked at how few people seem to know how to mend. Sure, not everything can be stitched back together or easily patched, but gosh, people throw things out because they get one teeny little hole instead of just sticking a needle through it like, two times. I would recommend that people have available some needles and a few different colored threads at the very least black and white or another light and dark option (I think I have brown and a light yellow and several different colors, because my wardrobe isn't very white and black but y'know). I would expect thread to be something people would trade in such an apocalyptic supply dried up situation, and packets of needles, since mending would be a new necessity for some lifestyles. At the very least, possessing a mending kit means you have the ability to fix your own clothing and extend its life, reducing your dependence on stores and saving a little money.
Once you have mending down, perhaps learning another handcraft. I can crochet, the person whom I live with can knit, so between us we can use all the yarn, which is something I consider also worth stockpiling, though I'm not convinced it's out of apocalyptic necessity and instead just the usual mania which overtakes anyone who can turn yarn into cute wearable items. It's something I think useful, though, to know how to turn a ball of yarn into mittens, slippers, hat, scarf. If you live somewhere warm, maybe it would be good to know how to make hats out of straw or umbrellas to keep the sun off, techniques to control the heat that don't involve electricity. For example, it's apparently possible to make an electricity free air conditioning unit by forcing incoming air through a compression system as simple as cutting bottles to create funnels, and attaching them to a board in a window. Or building a home into the side of a hill and putting a pipe through at the bottom to bring air in through the cool earth before it reaches the inside. Since a loss of electricity in a hot climate as well as a cold climate can lead to death due to lack of climate control, knowing how to manage this without electricity is something I consider to be a vital survival task. So for me that's starting fires, knowing what to wear, and how to use reflective tin foil blankets and a tent or sleeping bag to create a survivable temperature during winter if I were to get caught out in it. I'm pretty comfortable in very cold weather because I know how to dress for it, and I know how to make by hand the items I would need to continue wearing to survive it–I know how to make mukluks, which is an appropriate footwear for the climate. So I suppose just knowing how to make boots without requiring a supply chain is another thing I bring to the table. I mean, I wouldn't be HAPPY about having to make leather and hides and furs and all, but ehh... I felt it was important knowledge to have just in case. So now I know how to make the pattern, construct the shoe (which I have done!) and theoretically, how to make the supplies needed. Maybe I should learn the pattern for snowshoes next. I haven't looked into those yet, but it seems a reasonable next choice. I assume in a warm climate it might be good to know how to make sandals, since foot protection is a valuable thing anywhere. And even if we still had plenty of shoes available in storehouses with a supply chain disruption, it's still the sort of thing we would inevitably need as what we have starts to wear down.
Or like... who even knows how to fix a watch these days? Shoe a horse? Make a canoe? A musical instrument? Not everyone, that's for sure. Follow your passion to some niche skill and have the information for how to perform that task in a non-digital format, start practicing, and you're immediately more valuable if something wild happens. You don't have to know everything, I feel, just know something that's uncommon, and worth bartering.
All the ideas I've seen here are good ones. The important thing I feel is that you take steps that make sense based on your lifestyle to make information available to yourself, broaden your knowledge, and reduce your dependence on the system and reliance on yourself. It feels good when you get to eat your own food that you grew from seeds, and that's a reason to pursue sovereignty from the food chain right there. It feels better, it tastes better, it's generally economical, and it increases the chances of you weathering out a disaster due to having valuable skills! Win win.
It is important to have a plan. Those without a plan are planning to fail.
How will I get clean water?
Do I have some long term storage food?
Note: If you have food you will need a composting toilet. Consider when there is no toilet paper.
Many helpful ideas to navigate short term emergencies, whatever is coming are here:
Ideas For Self Reliant Living During Financially Turbulent Times
I don't want to survive a severe catastrophe.
No interest at all in struggling to survive, fighting others for the little that remains.
I'd rather be out of the picture so those that want to subsist can do so more easily...
Ernie,
I hear you! I don't want to survive a catastrophe either. I hope whatever comes, in that regard, takes me with it. If a large asteroid hits the planet I want to be directly beneath it when it hits.
But there are varying degrees of awful. And I think I can survive an economic recession fairly comfortably.
Food is going to be expensive, recession or not, due to climate chaos. It's a good idea to stock pile some food for that reason alone. White rice and beans for protein, stored in rat proof containers, for starters. Bare in mind rats can chew through just about anything. It's a good idea to buy food you're going to eat anyway, regardless of what is coming down the pike.
If you are relatively young and able bodied, you've got it made in terms of survival. Demographically, boomers are starting to age out. Population is skewing towards the younger retired cohort all the way to the living fossil posse.
If you can change a lightbulb, do minor repairs, etc...you will be able to charge a maximum for these services. What is most important is that you are viewed as indispensable and trustworthy.
Thanks for all your responses so far. You are a talented competent bunch!
In the event of an actual breakdown of the system, old silver coins that contain a large silver component are the best idea as a means of exchange. I purchased a small amount from a friend and I think he bought his 'junk silver' from a bank. Not sure. But check into it. Even if the system continues to function silver is poised to go up in value, if you figure governments will inflate the value of paper currency away.Quote:
Posted by Seventeen
In the event the system doesn't go completely crazy and you can afford it, gold makes sense. Most governments are going to inflate, I figure, by lowering interest rates and the U.S. may give up quantitative tightening (which reduces the money supply) in favor of either easing or adopting a neutral stance.
My best guess is the U.S. is going to have to get behind major major infrastructure projects as the country's infrastructure is falling apart. This is going to cost trillions and can't be avoided. Climate chaos makes the problems much worse, so they HAVE to be addressed. That costs money and deficit spending, reduces the value of the currency and so gold...yes.
Go one step further and make your own booze I make 30 liters of rice and raison wine in just three weeks ,Works out at thirty pence a bottle all inQuote:
Posted by AutumnW