Posted on 04/05/2008 5:57:03 PM PDT by shrinkermd
How do you not turn to grinning goo when she tells you something like that?
I'll never forget the night we were sitting at home when we heard what sounded like a gunshot outside. She immediately turned to me and said "get your gun, I'll kill the lights."
Lucky, indeed.
Mrs L frequently has that effect on me. But since this is a family site, I won't be able to say more on the subject.
L
A few decades back there was a big power outage in the northeast and not much happened.
But the country has changed so dramatically that things would be far different now.
Scarcely anyone can do anything without electricity. There’s no inventory in stores, no windows in them, no way to operate off-line. No heat, light, water or food.
Given the spread of nanny state helplessness and entitlement mentality, I’d give large cities two days before they were set ablaze and a week, tops, before they went streaming out into the countryside to pillage for food. Hopefully, they would already be out of gas and walking.
I have a friend in a teeny little town out in NW Kansas. His income was farming but his 9 - 5 job was the bank president.
On one pheasant hunt out there a few years ago we were discussing stuff in general when the topic turned to survival. He made the statement that you could put a wall around that part of the country and they would survive just fine. They grow their own food stuffs, they all have guns and plenty of game, they repair their own equipment, they have their own water and they're used to going without electricity.
if worse came to worse he said, they'd just harness up the horses for the plowing and start cutting more wood for the stoves and fireplaces.....
Maybe I should have worded that, people in small towns tend to be more organized and civilized in their reactions.
In cities and suburbs a lot of people don’t even know their neighbors. (Just more of our social breakdown, first the families, then the communities, then the country!)
It sure wouldn’t be like Jericho where I’m living.
Same here.......Remember a few years ago when almost the entire northeast was hit by that power failure? I think it occured on a Wednesday afternoon and power in my area wasn't restored till 2 days later.
That was a brief glimpse of what it could be like. Stoplights out and traffic backed up in every direction at every intersection. The supermarkets had a run on water and pop supplies, everybody was stocking up. By the second day the supermarkets were force to throw out all refrigerated products such as meat and stuff because it was going bad........Hardly anybody was driving at night because it was complete darkness.
My neighbors invited me over for a bar-b-q on one of the nights and I saw the most incredible thing. For the first time in my life here everybody was out walking around the neighborhoods just enjoying the weather. Thats all there was to do, there was no television, no computers, no nothing...........Thats not a bad thing.
Out in Logan, KS, where my friend lives, there is just one small gas station in town. Its probably just for convenience and people passing thru.
Just at the edge of town there is a gasoline pump that is locked up. All the farmers out there have a key and thats where everyone pumps their gas for their vehicles and farming equipment. No attendant to pay, everyone keeps track of their own gasoline usage and at the end of the month they pay the co-op........the honor system.
Just last year we were hit with some kind of tornado/microburst with hurricane force winds that just devasted our neighborhood. We were without power for 5 days. Everyone in the neighborhood came out initially and helped where they could, but as soon as everyone ran out and purchased their own generator, it was right back to “normal”, if that’s what it is nowadays.
Seeing alot of posts about gensets, food stockpiles, etc. Nobody’s mentioned meds. Anybody got prescription drug concerns? How about first aid? When the “lights go out”, infection is going to be your absolute number one concern. It’s going to be huge. An accidental cut from the camp knife, or scraped knuckles on tree bark can turn septic overnight. Little good then that stockpile of Perrier and Cheetos.
Listerine is pretty cheap. Rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide are even less expensive.
*bookmark*
Somewhere, Jethro Tull is smiling.
I got another 35 lbs of dried goods yesterday. Egg noodles, split peas, rice, etc.
About a week ago I decided to try how it would be to live off of the stuff, so I cooked egg noodles, made some gravy, pan fried the cooked noodles, and had them with gravy on top, peppercorns and some homegrown oregano.
Dam! It was GREAT!!! I’d go to a restaurant to have stuff like that!
>>> "Whatever happens next will be the biggest mess we'll ever get to see.....I'm guessing that the coming problems are going to be economic/financial, but nothing would surprise me anymore." <<<
VERY interesting, your presumption that an economic 'apocolypse' was imminent was quite prescient.
Interesting "about-me" page you have.
So, hiredhand, do you have any predictions for 2010?
Thanks.
HP
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