Posted on 11/12/2008 10:57:08 AM PST by Blogger
SHHHHHHHH!
My first experience with leftist intolerance was over my public support for bootstrap capitalism. I’m getting to be too old to think about re-education camps.
We do wonder if one of the neighborhood nannies will object to the use of coal/coke in a forge or the use of non-alternative electricity for container gardening. I’m hoping they are all too busy coping with the zerO economy to snoop on the rest of us. I suppose we can always figure out a way to buy them off, though.
We are putting together a list of hand tools and hand kitchen appliances (grinders/hand operated clothes wringers, etc) that we might need in future. It gets more than a little daunting when you consider the amount of physical labor that would be involved in living back in the early 20th century, especially for those of use who are older.
Antique stores are a good place for hand planes and old saws, as well as rotary beaters and foot-powered sewing machines.
Back in the day when we were craftspeople at the art fairs, my son made spending money with a foot powered buffer using an old sewing machine treadle. He just went to all the jewelers and offered to buff their silver for a fee. Then, he would also offer to help people load and unload, especially in areas where extra security was helpful.
As for livestock, one of the benefits of a network is you can specialize. I would rather trade for eggs and meat that we can't hunt/fish ourselves. Chickens and cows produce more than many farmers can consume themselves. I will have more veggies at harvest than we can eat while they are still good. I have raised chickens and I hated it!
But everyone can think about what they can offer in that sort of economy. Check with the people you trust and see what they are thinking of doing.
Everyone needs a network. In ours, we have a veterinarian who was also an Army Ranger medic and a family practice physician who is also a beef and horse rancher. My husband is a metal worker and also a licensed medical massage therapist. I sew, garden, gather, preserve and am a felter. My best friend is a world class baker. We have another gardener, a chiropractor, a mason, a couple of IT people, one with a greenhouse, a knitter, some beer and wine makers, people with access to various supplies, mostly from a lifetime of collecting/hoarding/scrounging. Each of us knows others with farms,commodities,heavy equipment, trades and professions. We have mostly known each other for 35 years. Most of the men and some of the women are hunters. Some are fishermen. None are liberals, although several have liberal children with only urban/office/professional advanced degree skill sets. Most are Christians.
Over the past couple of years, we have been in preparation for worsening times. Our association isn’t anything formalized, we just all know that we can easily barter with each other and we all have respect for each others skills and abilities to find or produce most of what might be needed.
You are correct on the timeline. I know that a lot of my own skills were just picked up back in the 40s and 50s from being around my grandmother, who came to America from the Ukraine in 1916 and who could do almost anything from gardening to butchering to tailoring to knitting and crochet.
Look around. Everyone knows skilled people and everyone has skills others value. we won’t be isolated and we don’t all have to be able to do everything, IMO.
>>If we have a recession or depression that becomes bad enough can you imagine people quietly standing in soup lines as they did in the Great Depression?<<
I’ve read articles that suggest that this time people would suffer more privately. That is, no soup line but food stamps. And the non-agricultural and more subburban culture would cause it to play out diferently.
>>Sorry, I believe cities will burn and thus there may be a use for them.<<
I agree. Fact is, the US does not have nearly the quality of moral character it did in the 30’s. It will not be pretty if things really go down as is being discussed. Cities first, then suburbs. The farther out they get, the more “guns” they come up against. Also, as the rioters are themselves chewed up in urban and suburban battling there will simply be fewer of them. They have not been trained to use weapons.
I rent in Seattle suburb and just bought ~15 cleared acres in central Kentucky. This downturn was not the main reason I bought there, but it was on the list of reasons.
Wish I had the cash to do the same. Congratulations!
All ANYONE has to remember is the total collapse of law and order and the panic in New Orleans after Katrina. There is your model of what to expect from todays civilization and morals. Just know it will be country wide not just one small area, many got out of New Orleans...this time there will be no where to run.
Bump
BTTT
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