I don't think I ever really posted my "plan" other than in snippets in my variety of posts on other topics, so I suppose since this thread has been bumped up here and I am still awake, I might as well give the basics of my plan.

As some of you know, I live well away from any major population center in Alaska. Food preps would be over a year's worth of staples like rice and dried beans, mostly vacuum sealed. Another couple of months worth of canned goods, about 3 months worth of Mountain House freeze dried stuff beyond that.

Hunting & fishing would be the primary ways I would hope to eke out an existence here if we completely go down the crapper, but really I prepare myself more mentally for a Military state, which is what I think this turns into up here. Many of my friends are military, Pilots and logsitics people mostly. The whole economy up here functions around two things, the Military bases and the Oil coming down off the North Slope. These folks all have families here, and what I do is teach children. I am hoping I will be able to continue to do that regardless of how it spins down.

I tend to be a "big picture" thinker rather than one who focuses on individual preps, though besides the food I have numerous other ones. Enough camping gear to outfit a small tribe actually. LOL. Beautiful Cast Iron Dutch Ovens, cookstoves that work on a variety of fuels, you name it. Only the best Chinese merchandise My main thoughts revolve around how to help organize the community in the event of a meltdown that fractures the military and regionalizes the environment here. One thought game I play sometimes is to imagine what the community as a whole would do, including the military bases if say the entire rest of the world was incinerated in nuclear exchange, but somehow the fallout misses us. LOL. Plenty of hardware around, plenty of folks with knowledge of how to build things, plenty of food in storage for a couple of years I would guess if you took into account the warehouses and the military bases.

The first thing pretty clear is we would be in no danger of running out of oil any time too soon. If you stopped shipping out the oil just coming off the Slope, it would be producing more than a barrel a day for every person living in Alaska. It could not be used up for at least a couple of generations. With energy not a problem, food is the other biggie of course. Not great soil here, but the farms in the valley do produce decent stuff. Mainly I would expect fishing to be the primary source of food production though, or fish farming in the cook inlet if the natural supply of fish dwindles too much. Might have to adjust the pH of the water over time here in isolated farming pens.

Anyhow, I don't really prep for myself so much as try to figure out how the entire community could be made sustainable in a complete meltdown. I think it could be, and I have great faith in my friends and the people who live around here. Ireally would not rather be anywhere else than here at this time, although of course there are so many ways it could go wrong rather than right.

Regardless, I am a whole lot less panicked about Peak Oil and Economic Meltdown now than I was just a few months ago when I joined PeakOil.com. I learned a lot here on the board, and its also made me greatful for what I have now so I appreciate it more. It might not be the perfect place to ride out the storm, but I think its better than most, and I feel like I have prepped as well as I can given my circumstances and finances. Now I just wait and watch. And of course write my thoughts each day on the board. In more volume than I should probably, but that is just the way I am

Reverse Engineer

My assessment of imminent financial collapse has ratchetted up several notches in the past month. Many thanks are due to Cid Yama and seahorse, along with many others, and a few other forums. The Economics and Finance topic contains the info, so I won't repeat it here.

What I see coming is roughly GDII, with lots of variations of course, but for us poor people, the situation is much the same--very hard times, for a long time. As for the time frame, Cid Yama said he thought the present run on Hedge Funds was the "trigger event", so based on that and the extraordinary speed of events recently, I think the GEAB/LEAP 2020 prediction of US debt default by summer 2009 is probably right. That means we don't have much time left, maybe less than that, before we are personally hit with job loss, or bank failures and such.

My synthesis of the predictions I've seen is that we are seeing unprecedented credit destruction (deflationary) that the Fed and CB's are desperately trying to keep from going to great panic. The outcome will be a deep depression, but first will come price volatility from currency dilutions that are battling the deflation. From the accompanying business woes, will come business failures as retail contracts much further, spiralling down with increasing unemployment, and leading to shortages of many things. At some point, the US will be unable to sell it's debt (close now), and the dollar gets printed to oblivion. By the end of 2009, we could see 1930's and worse. Lack of investment money will hasten the approach of PO fuel shortages and make the long term worse, as existing fields decline. So much for assessment. 2010 is gonna suck, big time.

Updated Plans; Money:
Our last retirement savings is in my wife's TSP govt plan, allocated to all US Treasuries, and will be liquidated to cash, starting today. We will use the proceeds to pay off the kid's mortgage, holding the note for that to eliminate their danger of foreclosure, then put more into some improvements in their off-grid 32 acre place. When I decide I can't wait for lower prices any longer without facing shortages, I will buy more solar PV equipment and some forklift batteries to soup up our system. I plan to keep cash for living expenses until that position becomes a clear loser, and spend it for extended preps, including steel and shop supplies.

Home:
We can produce a lot of food with irrigated gardens, orchard, and a few chickens fed partly on small plots of grain we can raise. We only have 1 acre, so we have to trade for grain, meat, firewood, and some other things. For that, we can offer machine shop, welding, and repair services to our farm neighbors. We hope to get our cistern sealed up and operating this spring.

Our location is on a state highway in very rural farm country. Short of societal breakdown, we are in a good spot for the business we operate. Worst case, in 15 minutes we can be at our kid's place, very remote. In a few days, we can have most of our preps there.

This year for Christmas, the kids get a set of horse harness and farm equipment to work their place on a co-op basis with the neighbor's horses. We have all farmed with horses before. (Neighbors are also off grid.) Other relatives have rural land and know how to raise food, but are not as well prepared, which I can't remedy. Our community is made up of a lot of city transplants in the midst of a sound farming area, so some will make it, and others will probably run back to the city, which has started. Overall, the area can do far better than a major population center, the nearest of which is 40 miles away. We hope that is far enough, but can change if we need to.

Somehow, I don't think we can do enough for what I see coming.

I'm finding myself really on the fence as to whether to buy into a large (10,000 square foot+) suburban lot within commuting distance to Boston or to err on the side of bugout and head north into rural Vermont, NH, Maine, or west to the Berkshires. It all has to do with what happens to the economy. Tech jobs still seem plentiful. I've had a couple recruiters contact me with local jobs since I moved back East. I just don't think it would be wise to leave a technology hub until the jobs dry up. But I could certainly afford more land in the boonies. (Living in the northeast, having a large woodlot for winter heating may be a necessity. There is only so much you can do with insulation and passive solar.) Once I spend my savings on the downpayment, I've pretty much made my bed. I can't count on being able to sell the house and move again. I don't think I can put off this decision much longer otherwise I will not have time to make the soil productive before TSHTF.

I think it´s very important to make the move as soon as you have decided where is right for you. Prevaricating only wastes time. Remember that nowhere is perfect. Is it possible for you to buy a cheap rural place and rent a studio in town?

I'd like the surplus of my salary above my monthly expenses to subsidize my preps. That's not going to be possible if I'm maintaining a mortgage and paying rent. Right now I'm working from home and if I can keep this job long enough, then I can live anywhere with a fat internet pipe. I just can't count on this arrangement lasting forever. That's why I was really hoping to bring some of my other family members on board because it would make it so much easier. I could keep working and they could get started on the preps. But I can only juggle so much as a single parent. It really makes one want to consider communes.

Another biggie is I have no post-peak career mapped out. If I can no longer code for a living, I don't know what else I would do. I'd love a green sector job like installing off-grid equipment, replacement windows, things like that, but again, as a single parent, I just can't see myself being able to do a lot of travelling from site to site. So if I find myself in the boonies unemployed I don't know what the hell I would do to generate any income. So I really am going to be handicapped if I don't have any help at home.