Survival mode

[prairiegardens]

Someone asked how long I could manage if everything suddenly and completely shut down overnight. It seemed an interesting question and the first thing I noticed was my mind making up "givens". Given that the place wasn't looted by panicked people or the authorities  yowling about sharing, given I didn't get sick or hurt etc. It was a reminder to get the alternate energy thing going as lights would be a fairly major deal, allowing growing some stuff over the winter as well as dealing with the 20 hours of gloom if not actual darkness in Dec , Jan etc. Dried beans and rice with tomato sauces  could get to be very tiresome otherwise as well as insufficient for health. 

Anyone else considering such things and if so what concerns are you addressing at present?

[billw]

We had a windstorm back in 2007 that cut power to the whole area for ten days and also blocked roads so there was no way to get out. There was almost no change in my lifestyle. We have enough solar to charge device batteries even in winter, a generator for running larger loads as necessary, and a hand pump on the well. Since we grow so much, there is always food. We have a wood cook stove, so heating and cooking were taken care of. Living without the Internet was a little annoying, but since I was born in the 70s, not too great a shock to the system.

It would take a heck of a long disruption to make much difference in my life, probably longer than we'd face from anything less than a nuclear war or similarly catastrophic stupidity.

I don't worry much about other people. They usually find ways to cooperate and overcome problems in disasters as long as you aren't in some blighted urban core.

[steev]

Given that I could get to the farm (3-4 days walk, if necessary; 2 1/2 hours drive, otherwise), I could mostly get by; my well is solar; there are plentiful rabbits, hares, quail, and other birds; a kettle-cooker for cooking whatever the locusts haven't eaten. In the short run, I think I could score chickens and pigeons from neighbors, for breeding on; I don't worry much about this sort of thing, being summat asocial, in any event. As I bumble along, I am incrementally increasing the irrelevancy of the larger society; I'm much more concerned with my integration into the the farm's immediate community, those being the people I'll have to rely on and contribute to, if SHTF. The urban tendency to rely on large infrastructure while not knowing one's neighbors has never made sense to me; I think that's a strategy to feel less threatened by urban population density. In the farm's valley, the locals have known each other for generations; it's a very stable community. I don't compete with anyone (unwise to do so in a small community), so any contribution I can make is a good thing.

I think I'm far more "educated" than the norm there, but there is no question that they are more knowledgeable in the practical needs of living there; so much of what I know is interesting to me, but of little practical use; Greek and Roman art and architecture; really? Zoology other than of domestic animals; really? Oh, well, had I thought my "education" was really important, I'd not have gone out to the boonies, would I?

It's all a learning opportunity, which is what I'm counting on to keep my brain from melting down and running out my ears; gotta use it or lose it. That's my survival strategy.

[blueadzuki]

I tend not to consider this fact, between the fact I live only about 10 miles from Indian Point (which means step one if everything collapsed would be "flee as quickly as you can") and the amount of medicine everyone in my family needs (a lot of which is both highly perishable and needed for survival, like insulin) I've always assumed that the smart thing to do in a case like this would be simply to wait for the end to come, perhaps taking time to set out a sign that says "If you can deal with the smell, come in and take what is of use to you."

Even if I could get out, I'd be in trouble. I have few skills, nor in most cases the innate needed talent to use the few I know. I've taken archery, but I'm such a lousy shot that one of my results is now a trophy in the teachers office. It's an arrow I managed to shoot through another arrow sideways (that is, I managed to shoot an arrow through the side of another arrow I had shot before and had hit the wall.) I can't trap for my life. My garden is 99.9% failure. I can make mead and wine now, but it'd probably be more energy useful to keep the honey as is and dry the fruit.

[steev]

Although we are aware of the past downside of total reliance on spuds, one can actually live on a diet of mostly spuds and dairy; we modern folk tend to be far too precious about "desire" versus "need".

Regarding archery, broadly; once a client had a dart-board in his open garage; I tossed a dart; missed the board entirely; my helper snickered; I said "f*** you" and fired another; perfect bulls-eye! Of course, I left him with his mouth open and didn't fire another shot, knowing full well that it had just been dumb luck, my depth perception never having been more than inadequate, which is part of why I never became a fighter pilot; really. If I coulda, I prolly woulda. Have I mentioned that I was an idiot as a youth? I may have learned a thing or two, since; "may" is the operative word, there.