Ferretlover wrote:Too late to just reduce consumption?
Yes, I think it is. While energy saving may put off the inevitable for a bit longer in some areas, there are just too many people for the resources that are left.
Someone, and by that I mean a Lot of someones, are going to have to go.
ORCA wrote:..I live on five acres of land in a county bordering a city. My land is zoned agricultural. It is part of a subdivision of sorts, with the smallest "lot" being five acres...like mine. There are about 32 other houses in this development ...
Having recently retired, I have the time and good health at 57 to work our property to grow food, provide wood for heat, and also provide security (if required). It would be a simple thing for the families to band together, if necessary or beneficial, to grow food and/or provide security. ...
max_in_wa wrote:How will the wood be cut? The chainsaw won't be running...
I've done some of this sort of stuff and it really makes me value the 25,000 man hours of labor contained in a barrel of oil.
Kingcoal wrote:The lowest per capita users of energy
mos6507 wrote:max_in_wa wrote:How will the wood be cut? The chainsaw won't be running...
I've done some of this sort of stuff and it really makes me value the 25,000 man hours of labor contained in a barrel of oil.
Luckily there is this thing called solar electricity and batteries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFYpNrbyKCA
max_in_wa wrote:ORCA wrote:..I live on five acres of land in a county bordering a city. My land is zoned agricultural. It is part of a subdivision of sorts, with the smallest "lot" being five acres...like mine. There are about 32 other houses in this development ...
Having recently retired, I have the time and good health at 57 to work our property to grow food, provide wood for heat, and also provide security (if required). It would be a simple thing for the families to band together, if necessary or beneficial, to grow food and/or provide security. ...
It sounds like a nice place. However, if the doomiest of the doomers are correct ... I'm more of a "rough timer" than a hard core doomer BTW ... but just for the fun of it, imagine you have no fuel, no electricity, and no source for new or replacement equipment (even hand tools).
How will the wood be cut? The chainsaw won't be running so who in your community already has hand powered crosscut saws in storage? How will the firewood be moved to the place it is used? Does anyone have a horse and cart ready to go? How soon would all the wood on the 160 acre space you guys have be used up (how much would be used per year and how fast does the wood grow -- be sure to include year round usage because cooking food happens all year)?
If the energy apocalypse came in September -- has anyone already stored seeds for the spring planting? Are the seeds hybrids which may result in nice fat veggies one year, but infertile seeds for the following years? What will you do for fertilizer? How will the fields be watered if the rain is unreliable? For that matter, where is your water coming from -- wells presumably, but how will that be drawn? Anyone have hand pumps in their garage?
How will the food be stored for the fall, winter, and spring? How will you replace storage containers when the ones you have wear out or break?
Anyway, 32 families -- 128 people or more -- is quite a crowd to support on about 1 acre each for food and fuel using nothing but manual labor. It's a fact -- merely having five acres isn't even a fraction of the answer if the worst of the worst happens. Our entire infrastructure is built around motors. Stop the motors and I doubt most people have the hand tools needed to even try to survive. Even with the hand tools -- this kind of work is hard to imagine.
I've done some of this sort of stuff and it really makes me value the 25,000 man hours of labor contained in a barrel of oil.
Mehitabel wrote: I feel there may be security value in building relationships in our community.
Mehitabel wrote:All in all I'm tempted to stay put and pay down my mortgage (I just paid off my Prius and will be able to pay off my only credit card debt with my tax refund), invest in a couple of good bikes, make my unit as energy efficient as possible and see if I can interest the community in emergency preparedness.
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