[Tyler_JC]

First a quote from the movie, "The Day After Tomorrow". This was the awful global warming movie.

"Everything I've ever cared about, everything I've ever worked for...has all been preperation for a future that no longer exists"
-Laura Chapman (a highschool kid with a bright future, minus the disaster around her)

That quote pretty much explains everything I've ever felt about Peak Oil.

This quote is from the civil war movie Cold Mountain with Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger. The two of them are putting up a fence in Nicole Kidman's farm. Renee Zellweger character is a brassy woman who understand how to live on a farm. Nicole Kidman's character is a lady, not a laborer.

So Renee Zellweger is attempting to teach Nicole a thing or two and continually asks her question about the local area.

Nicole finally exclaims:
“I can't, I can't, I'm sorry.
I can talk about farming in Latin.
I can read French.
I can lace up a corset, God knows!
I can name the principal rivers in Europe,
Just don’t ask me to name one stream in this county!
I can embroider but I can’t darn!
I can arrange cut flowers but I can't grow them!
If it has a function, if I might do something with it then it wasn’t considered suitable!”

Renee Zellweger character’s asks, “why?”

“You can ask why about pretty much everything to do with me. This fence is about the first thing that I’ve ever done that might produce an actual result." Replies Nicole Kidman's character.

This quote is a pretty good summary of the plight of the average American. We know how to buy stuff. We know how to use things. We just don't have a clue as to how to produce them.

The only non-subsidized industry in the United States that has a net profit balance of trade with the rest of the world is the chemicals industry. And even that's a bit suspect because it was in my chemistry textbook!

I can sew, cook, maintain a small garden, and shoot a gun...and sadly this probably puts me in the top 50% of useful people in the US.

Please discuss.

[RonMN]

Your last sentence is very brutal yet very true...

no wonder why most wont even tollerate the idea of PO

[whiteknight]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'T')his quote is a pretty good summary of the plight of the average American. We know how to buy stuff. We know how to use things. We just don't have a clue as to how to produce them.

The only non-subsidized industry in the United States that has a net profit balance of trade with the rest of the world is the chemicals industry. And even that's a bit suspect because it was in my chemistry textbook!

I can sew, cook, maintain a small garden, and shoot a gun...and sadly this probably puts me in the top 50% of useful people in the US.

Please discuss.

[Tyler_JC]

Are you kidding WhiteKnight??

Put you and yours in the top 5%!

I'm impressed.

And by the way, top 90% means that you only beat the bottom 10%.

Rather than say top 90%, you probably meant the 90th percentile (top 10%)

[JoeW]

I can fish and we have plenty of streams nearby.
My family has a strong heritage of making clothes, blankets, etc.
I have an excellent set of hand tools and know how to use them.
I can also fix pesky check engine light problems in domestic cars (and I bet only 1 in 1000 people can do that!)

I have been eyeballing the rabbits that like to live in our yard lately. In a fix, I'm pretty sure I could trap one or kill one with a rock.

[FairMaiden]

I can read a book and learn whatever it teaches. Unless they burn all the books, I feel confident I'll be fine too. Besides, whenever I watch Survivorman...I am always thinking the same way he is

[CarlinsDarlin]

whiteknight,
Your wife sounds like me . What kind of soap does she make? I have dairy goats and plan to begin making goats milk soap as soon as I can get supplies assembled - hopefully the first batch will be made this week.

For now the goats supply all our dairy needs - except butter, because I have no cream separator. I do make cheese, though.

And I am right with you - it's not the future that I fear, but our government's (and I'll add - other people's) reaction to it.
Kathy

[JudoCow09]

I wish I had half the talents you guys have. I can make candles, but not from scratch or without wax and a wick. It's not a matter of what I can do, but what I will have to work with post-PO.

[Macsporan]

This is really impressive.

All hail Whiteknight and his good lady, multi-skilled survivalists and our favourite feudal couple!

(deep bow)

[wildsparrow]

I'm quite unusual amongst my middle-class, suburban, often artistic or business-minded friends. (which describes me too BTW).

I can cook (mostly) by instinct. I have made bread before.

I can sew tolerably well and to more than what I could call survival level.

I am learning to garden. I have a pathetic herb patch and the components of a veggie patch not yet started. I have learnt what plants I cannot kill, at least hahaha.

One of my hobbies is medieval and viking history, so I have all sorts of miscellaneous scraps of knowledge about how things were done back then, which I have no doubt will come in very handy in PO.

I'm really, really good at scavenging and at seeing the potential in something that can be used for some other task it wasn't necessarily made for. I don't know how this happened but it's a pretty funny skill.

I do yoga once a week, which is not a patch on the days before I had children when I used to teach dance and fitness. But I know a lot about fitness, dance, creativity, and am a good teacher.

Now, my husband is another thing. He's an IT and marketing guru. Probably his best PO talents are a gift for strategic thinking and planning, and he is good with animals. He's also somewhat musical and can kind of play guitar and keyboards.

So that's us

[JudoCow09]

My friend is an Eagle Scout. Maybe I'll just live with him through PO. Hey, at least I know what Wild Onion looks like and that it's edible. I can also fish with just a stick, although the ones I've sharpened with rocks haven't been near as succesful as the ones done with knives. And it has to be in a fairly clear and shallow stream.

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JudoCow09', 'M')y friend is an Eagle Scout. Maybe I'll just live with him through PO. Hey, at least I know what Wild Onion looks like and that it's edible. I can also fish with just a stick, although the ones I've sharpened with rocks haven't been near as succesful as the ones done with knives. And it has to be in a fairly clear and shallow stream.