Reducing energy use

REDUCING ENERGY USE
Okay, hopefully this is the last article inspired by "The Long Descent" ( now helpfully available on my Amazon affiliates page, go to www.bisonpress.com ). I didn't really rip off the authors idea, just used it as an inspiration. So when you disagree, just blame me. Unless you are a helpless romantic and optimists ( "sure, no problem, I can afford an assault rifle even if magazines now cost $50 each!" ), you can agree with me that in the future energy availability will shrink. Those of you pretending to be hip and in the know will agree with me so as not to appear to be apart from the Bison herd and claim that it will happen but not in your lifetime. These are lawyer weasel words ( I did NOT have sexual relations with that woman! ) allowing you the best of both worlds. The correct response to the question of when energy will no longer be available is to immediately look horrified and gasp in shock and go running down the street yelling that we are all doomed and about to die. So, since we now all agree that energy is about gone, the smart thing to do would be to start using less of it to cushion against the shock of that.
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The first thing to do, as I have scolded you for years, is to get rid of your car. If you can afford insurance, fine, just keep it parked most of the time. Reverse the usual practice of driving all week and taking the bike out on the weekend. Of course, work up to that. No one expects you to tortuously heave your lard out of the Easy Boy and start biking ten miles to work. You might have a heart attack and your survivors will sue me and I'll end up penniless and my cats will be forced to wear a sign around their necks begging to perform kitty tricks for food. And cats do have their pride.
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As far as food goes, the same tired advice is to start a garden, even a small one. Three potato plants on an apartment ledge are not going to cut it. You are much better off doing what is realistic. Fine advice does no good if it doesn't pertain to you or the majority of the population. Generations of effort has gone into enslaving your average Joe into an urban wage slave existence. Instead of wishing upon a star and sprinkling pixie dust to magically transform those folks into farmers with a herd and a forest lot, do what is more realistic. Stockpile grain and legumes. Any surplus, convert your reliance on a freezer into canning instead. When brown and black outs happen you will preserve what you have.
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Lighting. Al Gore is a flippin idiot. Listen to nothing the moron says. Don't waste your money spending twenty bucks on fluorescent to save twenty five cents a month. Put that money into LED lights and candles. You can't preserve the middle class lifestyle on the down side of Peak Oil. **** on a crust people, get realistic. Downsize your expectations, in everything from defensive weaponry to your illumination.
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A generator. If you own one, sell it during the next power outage. You'll get a premium on it. Again, that is all about preserving a vanishing lifestyle. Live without the need for a freezer. Learn to live without an air conditioner. And shut up, it can be done. I've lived in Florida without one. It's called shade. Amazingly, people lived in the South for awhile before electricity. I wonder how they did it?
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Water. Most folks live in the east and have little worries about water, other than how to purify it. But you still need to practice living on two gallons a day, just in case ( they still have droughts occasionally). I've written about this before. Sawdust toilets ( you can cheat and use pine shavings sold at the Wal-Mart pet section ). Whore's baths. The Jim Washer ( the James Washer is overpriced and unnecessary. The Jim Washer is the plastic bucket, covered, set on a rocking chair you bought used ).
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Heat. I keep trying to tell you, wood is going to get scarce and expensive. This is not your great grandpappy's time when the population was one third it's present rate and most forests had yet to be cut down. To expect everyone to use wood when oil and gas run out and for it not to run out itself is stupid ( the same with the ability to go hunting ). Insulate if possible. Slowly acclimate to a colder house. Get rid of your down or synthetic clothes and start dressing in layers, with a lot of wool. It's not an expense, it's an investment. Wool blankets, sweaters, snow boots, mittens, etc. Even buying them new, you will pay that back immediately as your monthly heating bill is reduced. Insulating is a far more costly endeavor and takes years to pay back. A few sweaters is paid back in less than a month. I am notoriously tight with a buck, and I'll part with those to buy cold weather gear. And I have acclimated somewhat. Would you like to know my heating bill for November? About $15. We suffered a bit, we got a lot of solar warming. I wake up most mornings to 30 degrees. I bundle up. We only run the heater at night, and only when absolutely necessary. I'm still running the same five gallon tank of propane.
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We are facing a world of uncertainty. Economic, the state of our infrastructure. The future of oil imports. Start getting ready now, while you have the luxury.
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