[clueless]

rwwff - my book says:

"To die is gain."

How do naked, narrow minded apes in despair respond to that ?

Pro 1:26-29 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27. When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

[rwwff]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('clueless', 'r')wwff - my book says:
"To die is gain."
How do naked, narrow minded apes in despair respond to that ?

[clueless]

And you my friend.

[doomed]

Where to start?

The best thing you can do is come to terms with your own death. The odds are stacked against you on surviving this situation so you might as well be prepared to die.

[TheTurtle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('doomed', 'W')here to start?

The best thing you can do is come to terms with your own death. The odds are stacked against you on surviving this situation so you might as well be prepared to die.

[Aimrehtopyh]

Without peace of mind you will not be able to think straight. Go acquire whatever will give you a small measure of confidence. A bugout bag and a few days worth of water should do this for you without spending more than $100. Everybody is different though. Some will feel the need to acquire a weapon, some feel naked without commnications, others won't feel comfortable without at least a tent to call their own. If your first Peak Oil purchase was a bible or a voodoo luck charm I wouldn't judge you one bit. Get whatever floats your boat and can be acquired quickly and cheaply.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kjmclark', '.')..With two one year-old boys, I recommend you plan to take a walk every day. There is no better way to calm down than a good walk. Besides, the people who get through real problems are often those who can just keep walking through it all. As they say, the longest journey starts with a single step...

[traz]

Thanks everyone, so much, for your responses!

Don't know if anyone who responded plans on revisiting but I thought I would give some feedback.

GreenTree, I have started growing vegetables and started a compost heap too. I am living in a rental property so all of my "crop" is in containers. I have learnt that to ensure a continuous crop, you should plant some seedlings every couple of weeks. I have also learnt NOT to raise seeds by sowing a whole bunch of them in one tiny pot! That was a nightmare to plant my carrots and cabbages out from a tangled mess of seedlings... I have heard a lot about canning vegetables being a potential problem due to botulism, and that's put me off. How have your efforts gone so far? I know how to sew basic things but only with a sewing machine (something I think I might have to do away with eventually).

Laurasia, Elocs and Wednesday, your strategy of breaking all the preparations down into manageable pieces and working outwards sounds very helpful. Thank you!

Silenttodd, thanks for your advice on buying a bicycle. A few weeks ago I did just this. It's only a basic, inexpensive bike, called a "cruiser", but it suits me at this stage because I am a little rusty re bike riding and this bike only has 5 gears. I have been looking for Thoreau's books in second hand stores without success. I'm currently reading a book called "At Home In The Woods", which was directly inspired by Thoreau.

Grillzilla, I got a yearning to go camping earlier this year (haven't gone yet) and have been snapping up things cheaply or second-hand like mess kits, sleeping bags, gas stoves etc. Great to know my camping yearning has a dual purpose. Good tactic about the more expensive purchases being for energy efficient purposes (ie for the immediate benefit of the family).

Kevincarter, what a terrific idea about teaching my boys to be self-sufficient. There's no way my boys are going to be slaves to advertising. Materialism makes me sick (though I still have a little bit of it in my blood; it's so hard to get rid of once it gets in there... which is why our society is so fXXked up). And SKILLS... I truly believe that the things you know inside your head will be the key to making some sort of life out of all this.

Doly, I'm glad you said that because I don't have a mortgage and with the way things are going, there will be no chance we will ever own a home (or be paying one off, at least). But by the same token it does concern me greatly that when TSHTF we'll have no shelter to retreat to that we can call our own. I am very interested in the idea of windmills, but I'm wary of solar panels as I don't think they'll be easily fixable in the event of a breakdown. Have you been to the website journey to forever? They have pictures of cardboard houses... that's probably all I can afford!

Elocs, I can't ever see myself harming animals in any way, so I will probably become a vegetarian in a self-sufficiency scenario. One day I might get some chooks for the eggs, and a cow or two for the dairy products. I just don't know about hunting animals... plus all those starving people walking around the countryside will eat a lot of them anyway (and then each other maybe... )

RacerJace, I'm the same as you - a mixture of both survivalist skills and sustainable skills would be the way to go, I think. I see you're in Australia - I'm in Sydney.

kjmclark - Yes I do need to go clear my head, don't I... Fitness in a post-peak world would be essential. I am probably the most unfit person on the planet. The writing out a list idea is fantastic, thank you.

Clueless, my plan is to get rid of at least 50% of everything I own. I have accumulated so much "stuff" over the years, not much of it particularly useful... it weighs you down psychologically as well as in real life. I am an atheist but I will read the Revelations you speak of.

rwwff, thanks for your advice on building up some finances. We have done that a little bit, and I am trying to build on it a little bit whenever I can. We do have some small debts that I'm desperately trying to get paid off. I like the idea of Intentional Communities or whatever they are. Don't know what my husband thinks about that though... We'd probably have to bring the mother-in-law along...

Doomed... that is helpful... I am very scared of dying but I have kind of come to terms with the fact that I might be gone in a few years. I can try and increase my chances of making it through T2 and T3, but apart from that there's nothing I can really do.

The Turtle... be flexible and learn to adapt... that is a hard one for me. But useful - critical - advice, given the possible events ahead.

Aimrehtopyh, great to know someone else here has twins! Going to goodwill stores is one of my favourite ever pastimes, and there is one I go to every week. The goodies I have found at this place has netted me plenty of money on Ebay and I have found many books and other bits and pieces that might help me in future.

Thanks again everyone!

[KathyMcMahon]

I think you have something there, KJ. No one makes good decisions in panic mode. There are just so many commonsense things people can do, that most of us aren't doing at the point when we first learn about peak oil. Things our parents or grandparents did without thinking it was "preparing" for anything. It was just the way they lived. Like gardening and 'putting up' food for the winter, keeping debts and overhead low, spending below one's income, being 'neighborly' and helping around the community and yes, taking a walk.

Start small. What can you unplug and use manually (like the can opener)? I found it particularly exhillarating to unplug the network tv and "choose" what I put into my consciousness, instead of having it passively fed to me. Read books that described life before fossil fuels. I really enjoyed reading Susan Strasser's history of American Housework called "Never Done," and stories about Colonial America. It is hard to imagine how people lived, unless you read about the nitty gritty of it. Learn to cook from scratch. Start buying only locally grown food, or at least be aware of what isn't.

I think the one thing that can never be taken away from anyone is knowledge. I grew my library, and never regreted the money I spent. I also asked myself "what do I value?" "what can I live without?"

I also believe that if you live in a developed country, dumps (waste disposal areas) will always be an exceptionally good source for a great many things for a long, long time.

I now have an 'attitude of gratitude' for a great many things I used to take for granted. Every time I flick a switch and get light to read by, "Wow!" I now know what that would have meant to people who read by tallow. And, I'm well aware that the happiest, most content people on earth, according to a study by Happy Planet, aren't the ones sucking up most of the world's resources.

Start where you are and try to imagine a future you want to be a part of, then work gradually to create it locally. That's my advice.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KathyMcMahon', 'W')hat can you unplug and use manually (like the can opener)?

[Grifter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ut the reality is that I am still working in a dead end job and wasting time just thinking about what I would/should be doing. It takes some real guts to abandon the status quo life style and go in a new direction and I'm not quite there yet. At least I'm debt free. That's the first step in my opinion.

[Pops]

It sounds like you are a levelheaded lady.

Remember that for most in the first world this will be an economic problem long before it is a survival problem. Water, sanitation, power, law enforcement, etc will be the last things to go – the first will be employment.

I agree that an emergency supply of food and water is prudent no matter where you are or what the situation, but like anything else moderation is good. Spending all your extra cash on guns and grain and having none stuck back to pay the rent when the pink slip arrives is not.

So my suggestion of the day is to stick a little money in the cookie jar – or do like my mom did and put $10s and $20s between the pages of books on the bookshelf.

[Wednesday]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'S')o my suggestion of the day is to stick a little money in the cookie jar – or do like my mom did and put $10s and $20s between the pages of books on the bookshelf.

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I')t sounds like you are a levelheaded lady.

Remember that for most in the first world this will be an economic problem long before it is a survival problem. Water, sanitation, power, law enforcement, etc will be the last things to go – the first will be employment.

I agree that an emergency supply of food and water is prudent no matter where you are or what the situation, but like anything else moderation is good. Spending all your extra cash on guns and grain and having none stuck back to pay the rent when the pink slip arrives is not.

So my suggestion of the day is to stick a little money in the cookie jar – or do like my mom did and put $10s and $20s between the pages of books on the bookshelf.

[kjmclark]

Traz,

After thinking about things a bit more, you need to meet your husband in the middle. You also need to fully discuss the problem with him and really listen to his side. If you're like most couples, you will listen better than he will, but it will help him understand your point of view if you can repeat his point of view verbatim after hearing him.

There is probably lots of middle ground; areas that you could work on that he would agree with or at least not get upset about. Work on these first. If you're right about how bad things will get, he will eventually come around anyway, and any preparation work you can do will save time and effort later. Gardening is always a good area to start with, since it has obvious value and has few drawbacks. If nothing else, you can always go to the library and get books on important topics and learn. Just be careful to steer clear of waving provocative titles in his face, like "The End of Oil" (good book BTW, but a little long.)

Finally, while saving money is a great idea, I'm not fond of cash right now. If you aren't interested in precious metals, I bonds or any mutual fund that deals with inflation are much better than cash. For that matter, even foreign stock (but generally not domestic stock) funds are doing really well, since they get a boost every time the dollar falls. Until we get enough of a recession to destroy lots of oil demand, we're going to be bumping along with inflation that will make those dollars worth less every year.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Wednesday', 'W')hat about fire, Pops? That would work with the grocery money, but not for the pink slip money.

I want to bury some gold coins and make a treasure map with an X on it because I'm corny like that.

[elocs]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '
')
How about hunting? Let's see, the present US deer population is approximately 20 million combining white tail and mule deer. Dress out a deer and you may have an average of 65 Lbs. of meat and enough hide to make a nice pair of gloves, moccasins and a breechcloth. Now imagine every yahoo in the country heading for the woods to put a little venison on the table since the local Wal-mart has stopped supplying hamburger and you get the idea about how long the North American herd would last. Goes for most everything else that flies or crawls.