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“My wife and I just bought a big supply of dish soap and hand soap. You’re going to use it anyway and it doesn’t get old. Just keep a good supply on the shelf and you’ll never run out and be prepared for the worst.”

You are talking smart. I think some people (and I don't mean Johnny), have an idealized view of the “old times” like they would “enjoy” going back to the old ways. I am old and I remember what adults had to go through to have a decent life. After their jobs, their time was taken up in chores to have as comfortable a life as they could.

Most women stayed at home and worked all day to provide these things and the father used his time to keep the garden growing their food. My mother constantly worked so hard to keep the family going in clean clothes and cooked food. There were no boxes of food to dump in a skillet and the meal was done.

It is very emotional for me to remember how hard both parents worked and it never ended. I have no romantic feelings about those years - I do not want to go back to 1933 when I was born. The death rate of babies was much higher than it is now. I had an older sister I never knew - she died at 3 yrs. from the “bloody flux” as they called it, which was likely just diarrhea but it went on long enough to kill her. I am lucky I lived long enough for new medical methods to combat those things that killed babies and young children.

We don't want to go back to that time when people died needlessly and they had no time to read or study - they just worked to stay alive.

Having lived the life, no, it's not romantic to head out in the middle of the night with a roll of paper for the toilet when a blizzard is dumping 18" of snow on the ground.

I'm all for making sure I can get modern convienences going, should they stop.

I do actually enjoy having the old skillsets in place, should I need them, though. It gives me options.

/johnny

I enjoy watching the Discovery shows up in Alaska. I love the scenery and independence they show. It has also been sobering regarding the level of fitness we will need to have.

One show had a 55 yr old guy (about) who walked 10 miles through 2 feet of snow in -40 degree weather. The next day he walked back carrying a 70lb snowmobile engine to fix the one that left him stranded.

Another show had a guy collecting logs from the river. He cut the logs into sections about 4-5 feet long. Then he picked them up and stacked about 50 of them. They were decent sized logs and probably weighed at least 200 pounds each.