How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ?

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   / How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ? #91  
Let's think about this from the government standpoint....

Do they want the population mostly made up of free-thinking, self reliant, DIY types, or rather easily led, dependent types who are good at following orders and not asking questions ?

Rhetorical question, yes. So the govt is mostly happy with having lots of sheeple in the population.

Let's think about this from the taxpayers standpoint....

Of the quoted 8.5 million people in NYC (let's assume that as a working #, I have no idea if that is high or low), can somebody estimate what they pay in taxes ? Not a small amount of cabbage !

Is it not natural for these people to expect a high level of reliable services, for the money spent ?

Notice that I said natural, not to be confused with realistic or prudent on an individual level.

I like to think that I can always learn something from just about anybody. The chronically homeless people already living on the streets of NYC before Sandy hit are probably the most capable of coping with present conditions - there are at least a few lessons to be learned here, including for society as a whole.

Self reliance can be learned, but like many things, is best taught by example. What examples do many city folk have, day to day ? Few, if any IMO.

Employment in the last 100 years (give or take) has been summed up as "Farmer, Factory worker, Clerk" as time progressed. Now that farming is highly automated and Canadian and USA factories are for the most part gone, the majority of people don't have much choice but to "Clerk", while being crammed into large cities like NYC. A lot of the Clerks may be happy living there, but many don't have other options.

Good reminder for those of us who have obtained some "room to roam" land, how precious it is.

But, history moves in cycles..... now that a lot of the Clerk jobs are being off-shored for pennies on the dollar, perhaps more people will have less reason to live in a concrete box in a large city.

The extensive homesteading that some people have posted about here does take a lot of work. It does yield big benefits though, and not just during the SHT Fan times.

Rgds, D.
 
   / How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ? #92  
Dave, I am definitely seeing a increase in small scale farming here the last couple of years, and we are usually well behind the times as I think it has been happening down south even longer. So maybe this next crunches exodus will be out of the big cities into the country where everyone can be share croppers for monsanto, baaaaaaaaaaa:laughing:
 
   / How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ? #93  
Preparedness takes time and know how that you can't get in a day or a year.

Very true! When we moved in and took a year or two to get settled we made 5 and ten year plans for our property.
We took a look at our grocery bill and wanted to cut it as much as we could, so we bought a few trees at a time.
One book i have is called gardening when it counts, and its a very good read.
growing small scale grain is also a good book.
We also started trying to prep in plan sight. Building rock walls, for materials if need is much easier when you can go in and take a hot shower and take an pain pill if you pull something.
I guess its a mindset, like cutting tin cans for the side and smashing them down. They dont take up much space and if needed could be a tin roof.
Another good site, which i kind of consider grown up boyscouts is bushcraftusa.com
 
   / How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ? #94  
While I am not a well prepared person (in my opinion), I am a hoarder by nature so I might make it to the end of the week...
I came across a similar post a while back on a machinist forum, and there was a couple of books mentioned for good reading. I picked one, and made my wife and daughter (had to bribe them) read it also.
ALAS BABYLON was good reading, based on what happened when somebody dropped several 'nukes on US soil. Most of the story is about things they ran into and ways they got around it.
David from jax
 
   / How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ? #95  
ALAS BABYLON was good reading, based on what happened when somebody dropped several 'nukes on US soil. Most of the story is about things they ran into and ways they got around it.
An excellent book. Those who worked together and put the needs of their group first did well. Those who didn't, well, didn't.

Aaron Z
 
   / How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ? #96  
i like apocalyptic books.. will have to look that one up.
 
   / How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ? #98  
I can last a long time in an emergency. I went down and bought a couple thousand Twinkies. :licking::licking: I am so set. Now I just have to find water to wash them down with.
 
   / How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ? #99  
Dave, I am definitely seeing a increase in small scale farming here the last couple of years, and we are usually well behind the times as I think it has been happening down south even longer. So maybe this next crunches exodus will be out of the big cities into the country where everyone can be share croppers for monsanto, baaaaaaaaaaa:laughing:

Rick - I'm hoping that more people continue taking the Buy Local, quality produce route as time goes on. Not everyone has the time/skills/resources available to grow all their own food. Monsanto deserves (yet another) thread on its own - suffice to say that the power of this class of corporation, in both real and political terms, is staggering.

I've heard that there are no non-GMO soy crops in Canada anymore. At least on a commercial scale.

Then we have guys here like Galen Weston (scion of a food empire), slagging all the farmer's markets and country fair dinners any chance he can - all the while the food safety record of his stores is, well, less than stellar. And..... he has recently run a series of commercials, doing a talk and walk through some farm fields. Academy Award material, though I detest his tactics.

Definitely Evil Empire stuff. I'm not sure who will end up saving the world food supply, that vault of heritage seeds(can't remember the name) buried in the middle of nowhere, or "illegal" seed scroungers. My money is on the scroungers.

XL Foods here (contaminated beef) is a good example of how the corporate world has basically rendered (pun intended) any perceived government oversight as irrelevant.

Above is some of what I was thinking of re. "other than disaster" reasons for homesteading. Although, I'll concede that many of these scenarios are "disasters in the making", if not yet actuated.

My respects to the families affected by the XL debacle, as I believe there were fatalities.

Rgds, D.
 
   / How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ? #100  
I am not a dedicated survivor. We are set up for a week. I watched an add on TV today about a program about a survivor that always had a back up plan for everything. He even married the sister of a twin just in case. His wife and her twin sister were posing in the picture with him. I'm going to have to give this a bit of thought before I go whole hog survivor.
 
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