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"If your plan is to become a farmer, it takes trial and error, a lot of effort, land, and in my case a degree in Horticulture."
DW is a Master Gardener, but a lot of the trial and error comes from doing and asking around to find out what works best for the locals. We planted green beans again this year, using a variety that was popular at a local shop. We had more than enough crop for ourselves and two of our neighbors. Lots of work, but good food with minimal pests.
To give folks an idea of how much labor can be involved in a seemingly simple crop, another neighbor let us have the pears from his keiffer pear tree. No labor involved in tilling or working the soil, just get the pears. We took home about 3 cubic feet (2.5 standard file boxes) and ended up with just under fifty pints of various preserved pear products. Sounds good, right? Just peeling and coring the pears took eight hours - one solid workday. And that was with the help of a mechanical apple peeler. Not all fruit is big or evenly shaped, and removing the good flesh is a matter of easing around the cores and avoiding any galls or intrusions. Once I had a big cooler full of pears floating in water laced with lemon juice, it took another eight hours to process and can. That is just one minor example of how labor intensive some of the "back-to-the-land" work can be. The good news is that I now have a stash of pear mincemeat for mincemeat pies, a spiced pear mixture that is great for colds, lots of pear "applesauce", and some hot and spicy pears to knock the socks off from hot pepper loving friends. Those will make good gifts.
As for user_id's idea of squatting on "empty" land? LOL! Good luck at that and have your name and D.OB. tattooed on your back so that we know what to put on the headstone. In a situation like that, where there is no law, squatters die. More realistically, government military presence will prevent movement. Look to Germany immediately post WWII for examples.
Guess I'm not losing too much sleep over the meltdown. But I just had a perfect baked sweet potato with a bit of melted butter, so if there is a coming meltdown, I'd want to make sure I had an adequate supply on hand...
Guess I'm not losing too much sleep over the meltdown. But I just had a perfect baked sweet potato with a bit of melted butter, so if there is a coming meltdown, I'd want to make sure I had an adequate supply on hand...
I'm having steak and baked potato tonight. Just got back from getting the tank filled
Just noticed a few pages back that someone asked why I'd have a neighbor shoot my dogs before I committed rational sucide. It would be so they wouldn't suffer and starve and scavenge. I adopt old dogs who only want a quiet retirement and a merciful end. I wouldn't want to leave them to starve or be suffering. (My neighbor should do it because he has a gun and could, I hope, more easily shoot them than I could). I'd dope them up first on benzos.
I have no desire to survive a true meltdown. I've lived my life. Maybe if I banded togethre with people on our road and could offer something that helped, maybe, but not for some desire to have my own little life continue.
Noticed that this discussion came into the frugal living section. I have seen some discussions elsewhere that use the SHTF, and "bug out" terms. Does this go beyond the former survivalist folks, I mean, are more people thinking this way specifically because of the economic situation, and not some religious prophecy?
Just noticed a few pages back that someone asked why I'd have a neighbor shoot my dogs before I committed rational sucide. It would be so they wouldn't suffer and starve and scavenge. I adopt old dogs who only want a quiet retirement and a merciful end. I wouldn't want to leave them to starve or be suffering. (My neighbor should do it because he has a gun and could, I hope, more easily shoot them than I could). I'd dope them up first on benzos.
I have no desire to survive a true meltdown. I've lived my life. Maybe if I banded togethre with people on our road and could offer something that helped, maybe, but not for some desire to have my own little life continue.
Noticed that this discussion came into the frugal living section. I have seen some discussions elsewhere that use the SHTF, and "bug out" terms. Does this go beyond the former survivalist folks, I mean, are more people thinking this way specifically because of the economic situation, and not some religious prophecy?
I didn't start this thread with any prophecy in mind. It's just the way things are going I don't see things improving and I do see a meltdown. The second waves of mortgage problems are in our future, the dollar's demise looks likely, we have a pandemic and who knows if it will mutate and we'll all have to self-quarantine or worse. So much is up for grabs. I don't see how this thing can turn out well.
As for user_id's idea of squatting on "empty" land? LOL! Good luck at that and have your name and D.OB. tattooed on your back so that we know what to put on the headstone. In a situation like that, where there is no law, squatters die. More realistically, government military presence will prevent movement. Look to Germany immediately post WWII for examples.
Good luck? Not so hard when the vast majority of land in this country has nothing on it. If there is "no law", there is no notion of squatter. Ownership is a legal decree and nothing more, remove the laws and you own nothing.
If the government does not collapse, than that is hardly a "TSHF" situation. A collapse in the financial system alone will not result in the sorts of things people are speaking about here, only a complete collapse of the government and society in general. In which case, all prior claims to land ownership go out the window.
I didn't start this thread with any prophecy in mind. It's just the way things are going I don't see things improving and I do see a meltdown. The second waves of mortgage problems are in our future, the dollar's demise looks likely, we have a pandemic and who knows if it will mutate and we'll all have to self-quarantine or worse. So much is up for grabs. I don't see how this thing can turn out well.
This linear thinking you describe seems to be particularly acute among Americans and has been a driving force for decades. In fact, it's thinking like this that is the cause of boom, bust cycles. Things are bad so they must be going to get worse or things are great so they will always be great. In the end it really just shows how many people are influenced by the media to their own determent. If not for the media I doubt you would even know the things you're worried about even exist.
For example, I highly doubt you have any experience with currencies yet your under the impression the demise of the dollar is likely just because it's fallen lately. Are you aware that even the most bearish currency experts (I'm talking about the real experts not the ones on tv) don't believe that?
Your worried about swine flu which happens to be relatively harmless for all but a small fraction of those who are infected, but instead you worry about a mutation which hasn't even occured. More linear thinking.
As for foreclosures, do you really think "the next wave" will be worse than the last wave? Kind of silly when you stop and think about it.
Really all you're describing is fear (False Evidence Appearing Real) and fear is human nature and just the opposite side of greed. Neither, btw, are indicitive of well balanced, rational and logical thought.
...If not for the media I doubt you would even know the things you're worried about even exist...
My mother-in-law doesn't watch TV but she spends all day listening to Limbaugh and that group on talk radio. She is convinced that there is no hope for the nation. "The Communists" are in control and the government is out to get her. It will just be a matter of time before "The Immigrants" overrun everything and throw her into the street and steal everything she owns, which is really nothing. Unless of course they pass the Health Care stuff then the Obama's Death Squad will come after her.
I watch the weather on TV, and read the local newspaper.
We are supposed to have rain all next week.
A guy drove his car into the river and drowned.
A husband and wife were drunk and fighting in the IGA parking lot.
Somebody saw a beaver in front of the Ace Hardware.
A Chocolate Fudge Sundae still costs a dollar at McDonalds, but you don't get whipped cream on it anymore.
I think I'll get a Chocolate Sundae and see if I can find that beaver.
I think they'll give me whipped cream if I ask for it.
I'll bet it wasn't even a beaver.
Probably just a big fat cat.
I have no idea if the nation is going to 'meltdown', or if ‘mutant biker zombie werewolves’ are going to invade.
I see enough things going on, that I am not comfortable living with:
eating whatever 'food' monsanto can sell,
buying vehicles from overseas [when our nation is capable to making cars],
buying fuel from overseas [when our nation has an even larger oil field sitting underneath us then all of the Middle East has],
that Klinton sold our nation out to the Chinese,
the control that drug companies hold over the AMA and CDC,
and the list goes on.
I do not want to be the tin-foil hat guy.
I do not want to believe in conspiracies everywhere.
I am more in favor of saying that:
each corporation is working at it's highest level of incompetency as possible,
each corporation is working at it's highest level of incompetency as possible,
each government official is working at his optimum incompetency.
There is no way that thousands of people could all be in such a massive conspiracy and keep it a secret.
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