Posted on 05/24/2008 11:30:31 AM PDT by decimon
BUSKIRK — A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.
That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.
Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.
"I was panic-stricken," the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. "Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible."
Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare.
The exact number of people taking such steps is impossible to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the movement has been gaining momentum in the last few years.
These energy survivalists are not leading some sort of green revolution meant to save the planet. Many of them believe it is too late for that, seeing signs in soaring fuel and food prices and a faltering U.S. economy, and are largely focused on saving themselves.
Some are doing it quietly, giving few details of their preparations — afraid that revealing such information as the location of their supplies will endanger themselves and their loved ones. They envision a future in which the nation's cities will be filled with hungry, desperate refugees forced to go looking for food, shelter and water.
"There's going to be things that happen when people can't get things that they need for themselves and their families," said Lynn-Marie, who believes cities could see a rise in violence as early as 2012.
Lynn-Marie asked to be identified by her first name to protect her homestead in rural western Idaho. Many of these survivalists declined to speak to The Associated Press for similar reasons.
These survivalists believe in "peak oil," the idea that world oil production is set to hit a high point and then decline. Scientists who support idea say the amount of oil produced in the world each year has already or will soon begin a downward slide, even amid increased demand. But many scientists say such a scenario will be avoided as other sources of energy come in to fill the void.
On the PeakOil.com Web site, where upward of 800 people gathered on recent evenings, believers engage in a debate about what kind of world awaits.
Some members argue there will be no financial crash, but a slow slide into harder times. Some believe the federal government will respond to the loss of energy security with a clampdown on personal freedoms. Others simply don't trust that the government can maintain basic services in the face of an energy crisis.
The powers that be, they've determined, will be largely powerless to stop what is to come.
Determined to guard themselves from potentially harsh times ahead, Lynn-Marie and her husband have already planted an orchard of about 40 trees and built a greenhouse on their 7 1/2 acres. They have built their own irrigation system. They've begun to raise chickens and pigs, and they've learned to slaughter them.
The couple have gotten rid of their TV and instead have been reading dusty old books published in their grandparents' era, books that explain the simpler lifestyle they are trying to revive. Lynn-Marie has been teaching herself how to make soap. Her husband, concerned about one day being unable to get medications, has been training to become an herbalist.
By 2012, they expect to power their property with solar panels, and produce their own meat, milk and vegetables. When things start to fall apart, they expect their children and grandchildren will come back home and help them work the land. She envisions a day when the family may have to decide whether to turn needy people away from their door.
"People will be unprepared," she said. "And we can imagine marauding hordes."
So can Peter Laskowski. Living in a woodsy area outside of Montpelier, Vt., the 57-year-old retiree has become the local constable and a deputy sheriff for his county, as well as an emergency medical technician.
"I decided there was nothing like getting the training myself to deal with insurrections, if that's a possibility," said the former executive recruiter.
Laskowski is taking steps similar to environmentalists: conserving fuel, consuming less, studying global warming, and relying on local produce and craftsmen. Laskowski is powering his home with solar panels and is raising fish, geese, ducks and sheep. He has planted apple and pear trees and is growing lettuce, spinach and corn.
Whenever possible, he uses his bicycle to get into town.
"I remember the oil crisis in '73; I remember waiting in line for gas," Laskowski said. "If there is a disruption in the oil supply it will be very quickly elevated into a disaster."
Breault said she hopes to someday band together with her neighbors to form a self-sufficient community. Women will always be having babies, she notes, and she imagines her skills as a midwife will always be in demand.
For now, she is readying for the more immediate work ahead: There's a root cellar to dig, fruit trees and vegetable plots to plant. She has put a bicycle on layaway, and soon she'll be able to bike to visit her grandkids even if there is no oil at the pump.
Whatever the shape of things yet to come, she said, she's done what she can to prepare.
___
On the Net:
Peak Oil: http://www.PeakOil.com
Ping to you Quix
and
note to self, read later.
I think what she's doing is great and I've been starting to do stuff like that gradually for years now, but geez, a tad unstable aren't we. There's no need to go into such a tailspin over it.
The human race has survived without all that stuff we think is critical for survival til now.
Come to think of it, all those animals survived, too.
Avoid the rush. Panic now!!!
Goat milk rocks.
I have found several sources for goat milk over the years. It started because of food allergies and we got to like the taste so much that we wouldn’t go back. It’s great to have RAW milk that you can actually get some nutrition out of.
"I was panic-stricken," the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. "Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible."
I’m going to guess it’s Italian Parsley and a very impressive specimen/s.
"That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear."
I'm not sure what she read, but it did have profound affect on her, didn't it? I also considered that she was a surburbanite and had probably never stopped to consider her future if everything she had known changed drastically.
Anyway, I appreciate your response and respectfully agree to disagree.
I’m with you. Right now the wife and I are doing the total money makeover (Dave Ramsay) and our goal is to pay everything off and retire to a couple acres in the country. I want to spend my retirement gardening, preserving, cooking, shooting, eating, & drinking.
The last couple years we’ve been growing more and more of our own food. At the very least we’re saving money and eating fresher items. If it also helps us retire sooner then great!
I agree. My husband has had two spinal surgeries for bad discs; in ‘The Olden Days’ I would’ve had to take him out behind the barn and shot him. *WINK*
But, ‘Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman’ could’ve saved him with a mustard plaster and a strong prescription of arsenic and absenthe. :)
Exactly my point. Just like you, I agree with what she is doing and have also been doing so for years, but comeon.......
... but the third little pig’s house was made of bricks, and his children were home schooled in the application of rule 7.62
Simply put, you don’t need a steenkin fire extinguisher or shotgun, because the fire department and cops are only a phone call away (if the phones still work) after any particular disaster; earthquake, flood, insurrection, terrorism, or meteor. Nothing can go wrong, and there’s plenty of fema food to go around. What a herd of worry warts. Trust your government. Pay your taxes. Sheesh.
It’s always best for the herd to prepare after the fact, because that leaves more, at a lower price, for those who think ahead. Simple econ.
just sayin.
Don’t take offense. I was just sayin’...the photos were rather incongruous coupled with the article. Grandma gave up her ‘bad driving habits’ and trips to McDonald’s, but now has all her retirement money tied up in wood, LOL!
We’ve lived like this for the past 15 years; prior to that, I was in the Army. I’ve always done a lot with a little and have lived quite lightly. That’s the part that bugs the HECK outta me. I HATE it when people tell me “how to live.” It makes me want to do just the opposite. To STOP recycling, to become a conspicuous consumer, to stop composting, to throw an old fridge in the creek, etc. ;)
And don’t get me started on goats! I was an Indentured Servant on my Aunt’s farm while growing up. If I NEVER smell a goat, drink goat’s milk or eat Feta cheese again in this lifetime, it’ll be too soon for me. I’d rather shovel out my chicken coop with a teaspoon on a 95 degree day with 100% humidity than smell that goat stank again, LOL!
Husband wants goats. He’s never tended goats. I’m holding out for that expensive, impractical milk cow. :)
I just had a thought...I’m going to start the ‘Midwest Milk Cartel,’ LOL!
$1.99 for me, two-fifty for YOU! :)
Reading books instead of watching the lobotomy box, having wood stove as heat, thinking that cities will not be pleasent places to be when folks start having problems getting fuel is not actually that far off the mainstream of folks on FR.
I’d be perfectly happy with $2.50.
Milk is now cheaper than gas per gallon -— I don’t remember THAT ever being the case before.
**I want a milk cow in the worst way**
Wouldn’t milk cows be great if you could just milk them when you needed milk? I love Gurnseys and I love to milk by hand—just not twice a day/364. It gets old—real quick.
OTOH, have you considered a milk goat? They eat way less and can give almost as much milk as a cow. It’s very rich, and tastes stronger than cow’s milk. Very good for you. Goats are browsers, so maybe they’d clear out your buckthorn prob? LOL
**Goats are a good alternative**
Didn’t mean to repeat what you said—just didn’t read all the way thru first!
Butter and gasoline tend to track price around here, but gasoline is currently winning. :(
Butter was $1.99/lb. last week, too. WHOLE milk is a tad more expensive; over $3 here, but I can’t afford those calories anymore.
My point was that there are forces in the works trying to get middle-class folks out of prime properties with scare tactics like the ocean covering the coastal areas. Or luring hard-working people to otherwise crummy locals so they can take over their homes.
Don't know where you live but gentrification is a real issue in East Coast cities.
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