[Opinion] 5 Rules for PO Prep.

[SeaGypsy]

Water, air, food, shelter and fire; it don't get much more fundamental.

[sparky]

Sea gypsy .......you forget safety

Pops rules are OK as far as surviving in some comfort , farming is the best survival strategy
foraging the waste is simply a short term means and hunting for food is not reliable .

For myself , I'll go for pillaging other people , some predator/prey relationship
The jackpot is a nice remote valley hard of access with good bottom land and a couple of villages. once the bad feelings are over it's a satisfactory arrangement for everyone

[SeaGypsy]

Good idea! A few free lunches followed by a sniper's bullet to the head! Noice!

[Cog]

1) Pay down debt and stay clear of it as much as possible. Your money will go a lot further not paying interest to someone else.

2) Live well below your means so that if you lose your job or become injured and can't work, you won't end up homeless. Save some money or pay bills ahead

3) Learn to garden and try to expand your garden every year. Local food is going to become very important down the road. Store 6 months to a year of food.

4) Learn to hunt and fish. With that learning, learn to use firearms no matter what the weather conditions or stress level you are subjected to and hit your target every time.

5) Take care of your teeth and make sure you have multiple pair of eyeglasses if you wear them.

[pstarr]

1) Purchase a long wool overcoat and worsted wool slacks. Wool is more durable than other natural or man-made fibers, and learn to darn.

2) Purchase a good pair of leather shoes with simple leather soles/heels that can be cheaply repaired.

3) Purchase a good thermos/lunch pail. You will want to consume your government gruel in the privacy of your own shack.

4) buy a harmonica for entertainment.

5) Stock up on chapstick and vasoline, the former to curry favors with, the latter to accept payment.

[Loki]

Here are my five rules. They pretty much encapsulate my approach to peak oil / climate change / general disgust with our wasteful ways. Even without peak oil I'd still be an advocate of voluntary simplicity and self-sufficiency, but I think this approach to life will be useful when it comes to dealing with the ramifications of PO, climate change, and our global economic house of cards. These aren't in any particular order.

1. Grow your own food
--Everyone should take the responsibility to grow/gather/hunt some of their own food---few of us will reach 100% self-sufficiency when it comes to food, but to quote an old WWII propaganda poster for victory gardens: “A garden will make your rations go further”

2. Simplify and seek self-sufficiency
--Redefine the American Dream, reduce your material demands and expectations, rediscover the old ways of doing things, make/fix/grow it yourself (DIY), get as fit as you can so you can keep up with the physical demands of this kind of lifestyle (simplicity doesn't mean easy)

3. Prepare yourself psychologically
--Prepare your mind for dislocation, uncertainty, and a reduction in your material standards---e.g., forced career change (possibly involving downward mobility and/or hard physical labor), sudden decline in income, long-distance move to go where work/family is, widespread economic and cultural malaise, etc.
--Brainstorm about possible personal scenarios, make contingent plans, take time to enjoy life regardless of its challenges, take solace in philosophy or religion (I like the Buddha, Epicurus, Epictetus, Lao-tzu, Chuang-tzu, Confucius, Thoreau)---Sabbe sankhara anicca

4. Learn useful skills and acquire tools
--By “useful” I don't mean computer programming or literary criticism or stock trading, I mean horticulture/farming, mechanics, carpentry, food preservation, self-defense, welding, electrical work, plumbing, first aid, herbalism, etc.---learn how to make stuff, grow stuff, fix stuff
--Cultivate as many employable job skills and contacts as possible---diversify your job portfolio
--Most of these skills will require good tools, best to acquire them now while they're relatively cheap (sturdy hand tools, off-grid power systems, books, canning supplies, fuel-efficient and/or biofuel/electric vehicles, rototillers and chainsaws, firearms and ammo, etc.)

5. Build and maintain personal relationships
--Family has been at the center of social organization since primates evolved and it will continue to be so until the last H. sapiens dies—strengthen ties to your family, move closer to them if you can
--Make friends/trade partners with your neighbors, coworkers, and with other local people, especially if they have useful skills

#1 could probably be lumped in with #2 or #4 but I think it's important enough to separate out---without food we die.

I've made a concerted effort to implement these concepts over the last 5+ years. I've cut my expenses (and income) in half, gardened a ton and got a degree in horticulture, worked on acquiring self-sufficiency skills and tools (food preservation and preparation, firearms, off-grid power, various DIY projects, equipment use and maintenance), and last spring I uprooted my city life and moved 100 miles or so to work full-time on an organic farm out in the country.

I feel pretty good about my implementation of rules #1-4 at least. And I love living in the country again and am generally happy with rural poverty, er, “voluntary simplicity.” I admit some serious failings on #5, though. I'm pretty introverted by nature (i.e., relatively asocial), so I struggle with #5 though I think it's a key concept often overlooked by those of us interested in “preparedness.” I think family in particular is key to our long-term survival in this uncertain world.

[Lumpy]

This is one of my favorite PO threads. I come to these boards mainly for two reasons:
1. To learn and/or get sources to which I can go to learn more about basics (e.g. how to raise chickens)
2. To stay focused & energized regarding preparations
******************************
My five rules - right now (they change a bit once in a while, depending on what I am focused on:

1. Have little/no debt. Work as much as you have to, to make this happen.

2. Find a place where you can raise food -- even SOME food -- learn how to do it, and then do it.
(If your swimming pool takes up most of your back yard, fill it with good dirt and grow there. If you live in an apartment, use your balcony PLUS join a PeaPatch garden. If you have 1/4 acre of ground, go to this link
suggested book purchase and buy "The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!" -- or some similar book.)

3. "Blow Up The TV" (to quote an old John Denver song). You don't need most of what they are selling, you'd be better off reading books anyway. Most of us are going to need a lot more knowledge than we presently do about how to fix things, preserve food, etc. Spend your time & $$ becoming more prepared (in terms of items and knowledge you will need ... not just accumulating more "stuff".)

4. Learn all you can about taking care of whatever needs you can possibly anticipate. Make sure you have the instruction manuals and supplies to do so. (e.g. Do you know how to 'un-dislocate' an arm, and how to take care of it afterwards?)

5. Stock up -- food, water (either a steady, reliable source of clean water, or ways to make "bad" water "good"), essential clothing, medications, tools, means of defense.

Lumpy

[ahamon]

Am I invited to try 5 rules?
1) Persuade your houshold to start planning. (my big obstacle right now)
2) Get your medical and food at least two weeks food highly familiar and portable.
3) Be willing to make new friends quickly but wisely.
4) Be willing to change your bug out location if needed
5) Have some tools or craft supplies in a compact space to barter your skill for your needs before you run out.
We turned afghans into dinner and the best trade: sold 50 scarf sets to buy a smaller car once.Of course that small car was cheaper to run and was not the one my ex was lookinng for, and not one dime owed!

[Pops]

We turned afghans into dinner ...

Whoa, had me worried there for a second!

[Chaparral]

To add to the gardening, continue composting and building topsoil, even if work or circumstance doesn't allow you to spend much time on the garden in a given year. I'm always tossing greenwaste into piles for future use. At least the organic matter stays where I can use it when a particular gig winds down or I have more time at home. If there is a large standing supply of good aged compost then ramping up production in an emergency is that much easier.

[Cog]

To add to the gardening, continue composting and building topsoil, even if work or circumstance doesn't allow you to spend much time on the garden in a given year. I'm always tossing greenwaste into piles for future use. At least the organic matter stays where I can use it when a particular gig winds down or I have more time at home. If there is a large standing supply of good aged compost then ramping up production in an emergency is that much easier.

This can not be stressed enough. Great post. Even if you don't plant all of your available space, amend the crap out of it continually. Even if it is just a matter of piling organic matter on top the ground. Worms will take that organic matter down into the soil. Then should you get into a pinch down the road and need to plant a lot of that space, you have some soil that will actually grow food.

[RedStateGreen]

The world could go the way that Octavia Butler predicted in her Parable series. In Parable of the Talents there are people who are enslaved and life is really bad for them. I don't want to ruin the book for you, but it is worth reading. Octavia Butler was an African American and she won the Nebula award for some of her other fiction, but the Parable series was her best work in my opinion. It is the best description of a post peak world I have read yet, and it was written before the turn of the millenium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of ... 28novel%29

I think reading these is one of the best preparations I know for what's coming.

I seriously think she was a prophet.

[PrestonSturges]

5) Stock up on chapstick and vasoline, the former to curry favors with, the latter to accept payment.

OK, I'm stealing that!

This is a better smiley face

[pstarr]

5) Stock up on chapstick and vasoline, the former to curry favors with, the latter to accept payment.

OK, I'm stealing that!

This is a better smiley face

Is that your accepting payment face?