I and many of the people I know (some of whom are very successful business people) are doing exactly that, and accumulating many other things as well. Other skills and measures are being adopted to hopefully mitigate your "biker gang", if things should progress to that point.
Do you think that people such as myself are looking forward to the loss of benefits of modern civilization? Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, as hard as I prepare - including vigorous exercise that will take me to the track, the gym and the pool tomorrow - I think I will be very fortunate to survive very long (no spring chicken here, and still plenty out of shape to deal with the Florida heat!)
It's just that every time we put two and two together we get a very unpleasant picture of the future.
In fact, the scenarios we anticipate are very similar to what is being openly discussed in the major media these days.
I strongly suggest you view the 9-part video "After Armageddon" that is available on YouTube. If it changes your outlook then I suggest you research:
And thanks for reminding me that I need more (heirloom AND hybrid) seed!
I and many of the people I know (some of whom are very successful business people) are doing exactly that, and accumulating many other things as well.
Precisely my own experience, as well. In fact, I was sort of leaning toward “they will manage to pull things out of the fire and life will go on as usual” until I began to hear this same demographic talking about canning and water purification. That made it more real.
As to the seeds, I have begun to save some from each crop, indoors and out. The thing about seeds is that even the best last 3 years and even then have reduced germination. I am waiting til the very last minute to lay in a supply that will plant that first Catastrophe Year garden. Then, if that first summer has bad weather, we will still have seeds for the following year, regardless.
I am thinking of vacuum packing and freezing seeds for my favorite hybrids, just because I love their produce. I am also growing some saved seeds from supermarket favorites because in 8 generations, it may be possible to get them to breed back true. There is an interesting ongoing project to breed larger fruit from dwarf varieties and to increase the number of dwarf tomato species:
http://dwarftomatoproject.net/History.php
Very relevant to indoor growers. My favorite true dwarf/miniature tomato for hydro gardens is Red Robin. If anyone runs across miniature sweet colored peppers in the stores, save the seeds. The ones I have growing at the moment are quite strong and vigorous and loaded with 2”-2 1/2” peppers that are about to start turning red. I am told they grow true to color of the parent fruit, so mine should be red.
With regard to quality of life: I intend to keep my hot tub and my pool. I have already experimented with using less electricity by shortening the times they are running and not trying to keep the pool up to heat if the weather isn’t co-operating. As long as we have 3-5 day weather forecasting, I can take advantage of the sun and air temperature to reduce the amount of heat needed. I use a bit more shock and have not had any really adverse results in two summers, both of them relatively cool. Hot tub filters can be cleaned with any product used to clean drains, just dilute it and rinse excessively well. Our pool uses sand and we do a siphon for the initial cleaning each year to bypass the sand, keeping it cleaner. When we do change the sand out, we let it sit in the sun and rain in a perforated container. It can be reused, again, with no adverse effects. Not that the sand is expensive, but I worry more about distribution problems in obtaining things we take for granted.
As long as the various maritime cops allow it, my husband will continue to sail. That is getting more difficult, of course, as they see sailors as a revenue source. The same is happening to shore fishermen. One local man got a $450 ticket for having one bluegill over the 25 fish limit. He was using a clicker counter and it was an honest mistake, but the DNR is relentless.
Length of survival at my age (pushing 70)is not as important as maintaining some quality of lifestyle. At least as much as possible, as long as possible. Good to know there are others out there!