I’m in my 80’s.
I grew up in the north woods on my grandparent’s farm. We not only did not have electricity, the whole town - actually still called a Plantation - hadn’t yet had poles run.
We lived, to a great extent, as most people had for centuries: INDEPENDENT.
During the Great Depression, our tables were laden with food...and there was always a years supply on hand, with “renewability.” We had, depending on the season, food in the gardens, in canning jars in the pantry, barrels and bushel baskets in the cellar, eggs, chicken in the hen house, milk, beef and pork in the barn, fruit in the orchards and berry bushes, wild meat in the woods, fish, birds in the waters/skies.
Our heat was free, from the forest. Our lights were kerosene lamps (you can store a couple years worth of kerosene easily.)
Most clothes were homemade, sewn or knit. etc.
People knew how to repair, or replace the thing with their hands. (Grampa repaired the roofs with shingles he, himself, split from cedar logs.)
You get the picture.
Most prepping stresses ‘STORAGE.” It should stress, first, getting in gardens, fruit trees, berry bushes, hen houses, maybe rabbit hutches, etc, established. RENEWABLE foods that keep generating supplies - not just a few months to 2 years or so off the storage shelves.
Learn the free forage foods from your surroundings.
Learn how to hunt, how to fish, how to butcher.
Have a minimum of an acre of land - alto’ you can feed one family, even two, from 1/2 acre. If you think you can’t move to the county, do you have a front/ backyard? PLANT it. Learn how to garden until it becomes second hand.
Start a ‘neighborhood/community’ “INDEPENDENCE ALLIANCE” for everyone growing etc. Insurance against neighbors coming to steal from neighbor...from you.
The more people who learn to be more self-sufficient with renewable food, the fewer people searching to steal yours.
and do it all queitly...
You my FRiend have got it right. Take care of your own.
I agree with you. Independence is the way to survive. We actually tried this in pre Y2K. It’s workable. Much of what you said my parents did in the depression. They always had food and capable of fixing or making anything needed for survival.
My mom told stories of people walking the countryside willing to work just for a meal. I’d like to see that happen in today’s dependent society where the guv is expected to provide for all.
What I have learned is those living in huge metro areas similar to NYC & Los Angeles will perish when food supplies, transportation and utilities are cut off. Such leftist infestations have created their own demise.
Interesting post, and useful.
If there will be a CW II in America, it will start with an world wide economic collapse, a run on the banks, so-to-speak. With a little fact checking, you can find out that the crash of '29 was also followed by another crash 2 years later, because the Fed Gov did not know what they were doing. What I am indicating here is that for CW II to happen there will be a series of cascading events that lead to the condition for violent uprising.
The USA is a majority of "normals" both Dem and Repub who just want to go about their lives. When the average Joe sees the normal living becoming untenable, that is when the first skirmishes will start.
I find this kind of life fascinating. How many acres did that life require? How many people did the farm support?
Very good advise.
Though I’m a bit younger than you our lives were quite similar.
We had electric lighting but didn’t get indoor water until I was 6.
I was 11 when we moved the Johnny house inside.
Other than that we grew everything we ate.
Fruit from the apple, peach, pear, mulberry and cherry trees.
Nuts from the abundant black walnut and pecan trees.
Beef, pork and poultry raised on the farm.
We cured our own hams and pork bellies.
Beef was brined or canned.
Vegetables of every kind from our garden either dried or canned and stacked away in the pantry.
The cellar overflowed with potatoes and other root vegetables.
We made cornbread from the corn raised on the farm.
Our everyday work clothes were patched until there was more patches than original material.
One pair of shoes each year for us growing kids and woe be unto any child who wore their Sunday shoes to play. During the summer we went barefoot to save our shoes.
You know you’re country when you can remember the feel of cow manure squishing between your toes.
Mama and Granny cooked on a wood stove.
Each room had it’s own wood stove for winter. The wood was plentiful and free requiring only the work to cut down the tree, transport the wood to the house, section it, split it and stack it.
A hard life but well worth it.
Everyone was happier or at least too tired to be angry.
People who don’t garden would be amazed at the amount of food that can be raised on a small patch of ground.
Thank you!