Like pumpkins at over TWO THOUSAND POUNDS.
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My new & improved definition of "Prepping".
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Actually John lives a short drive from the breadbasket of Alaska. With 23 hours of growing light, and no real dark, you can grow 300# heads of cabbage, pumpkin you have to grow on a pallet so you can move them with a forklift. Volcanic soil that is very rich. Your gardening experience would would fit well in our area. You would fit well with the people.
Skills and the ability to use them really becomes important in short order when the "system" fails
pretty sure things will not go as planned
pretty sure things will not go as planned
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It always seems as though, the fewer people live in any particular place, the bigger/more numerous the misconceptions about that place.
I a was going to mention the extended daylight, It make a difference here for sure, that and altitude
Modern society has created a very false concept of what/ where is desirable to live.
distance from densely populated areas would be a huge bonus in my opinion
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I think also that people are used to a specific climate. My husband was talking to our daughter on the phone today, and said he really missed the New Mexico climate (but not the crime), and I don't miss it at all because I really didn't like it there. Got me remembering...he's living in Florida, California, and New Mexico, and the Kansas cold, to him, is not so favorable. I don't like the wind much, but it was windy there, too. I sure like growing here, though. The desert is hard.
We encourage that. Friends of mine moved to CA when I was in high school. They told everyone that they lived in a duplex igloo. This is a rain forest. In 60 years I've seen one igloo here that some kids made in their front yard on an exceptionally cold winter. It didn't last very long. The fewer people in an area the more the people come to keep away from people.
Prepping:
For me, a good pair of boots, my hiking backpack, and gear. I have some dry goods and shelf stable foods here, but that’s mostly because I’m frugal and buy in bulk.
For the most part, my philosophy is: if I can’t huff it on my back it’s just going to slow me down.
For me, a good pair of boots, my hiking backpack, and gear. I have some dry goods and shelf stable foods here, but that’s mostly because I’m frugal and buy in bulk.
For the most part, my philosophy is: if I can’t huff it on my back it’s just going to slow me down.
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Because about 84% of the people in the usa live in a suburban enviroment. Change is hard and normalcy bias is powerful, but mobs will kill you.
80% pf people in Britain live in the big cities , have urban attitudes and will fail completely outside of that environment.
wife was told by a professional person that we live "in the middle of nowhere" and he wouldnt want to live there as he couldnt live without all the modern resources and there are many like that.
wife was told by a professional person that we live "in the middle of nowhere" and he wouldnt want to live there as he couldnt live without all the modern resources and there are many like that.
So if anybody ask living the "homestead life" is a total nightmare and only a select few should even attempt it. It involves work, planning , discipline, and most of all a really bad attitude. oh and trucks tractors, tools and tators
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I think the 80% figure holds true a lot of places. If you live in England how can you be in the middle of nowhere? I live in the state of montana and a nearby town has a small restaurant that has a sign proudly displayed "118 KM to the nearest Mc Donalds".
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It is not the strong, the fast or the Intellectual Superior that will survive, but the flexible.
Homesteading is step one, who knows what step two will be or if we will have to take it.
Homesteading is step one, who knows what step two will be or if we will have to take it.
small rural population, several hundreds of miles from a big city, remote but not isolated.
not all of England is urban, get away from the coast and my county is very rural, this is hill farming country.
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I know I am going to be very much on the other side of this argument, but let me at least make a case for the urban side of this. Cities have been an integral part of life for thousands of years. They didn't hatch or spring from some alien pod. They grew for a reason. They were safer. People could share skills and resources and divide labor. They could assist one another. They grew and prospered for a reason.
In today's society much of that still exists. Where to people go to work? Where do people go for education? Where do people go for healthcare? In an SHTF scenario whose services are restored first? There are advantages to being in urban areas.
Let me throw another wrench into the self-sufficient rural lifestyle. Your personal health. What are you going to do when you aren't physically able to maintain a farm and or livestock? When your eyes and ears and joints are not what they used to be? When it takes you twice as long to complete a task? It is the inevitability of aging. For me personally, my health is comparatively very good, but I can't do near as much now as I could ten or twenty years ago. I have an asthmatic, arthritic, diabetic wife, and a mentally challenged son. Both take significant amounts of maintenance medication. How long do you think they would last if they were hours away from specialized healthcare? How are you going to farm, when walking to the mailbox and back is a major task?
Hoarding and security are a means of survival for me. I will stockpile enough food and water to last us until the end of days, and I am able to protect what we have. If this is my Alamo so be it.
In today's society much of that still exists. Where to people go to work? Where do people go for education? Where do people go for healthcare? In an SHTF scenario whose services are restored first? There are advantages to being in urban areas.
Let me throw another wrench into the self-sufficient rural lifestyle. Your personal health. What are you going to do when you aren't physically able to maintain a farm and or livestock? When your eyes and ears and joints are not what they used to be? When it takes you twice as long to complete a task? It is the inevitability of aging. For me personally, my health is comparatively very good, but I can't do near as much now as I could ten or twenty years ago. I have an asthmatic, arthritic, diabetic wife, and a mentally challenged son. Both take significant amounts of maintenance medication. How long do you think they would last if they were hours away from specialized healthcare? How are you going to farm, when walking to the mailbox and back is a major task?
Hoarding and security are a means of survival for me. I will stockpile enough food and water to last us until the end of days, and I am able to protect what we have. If this is my Alamo so be it.
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You raise some good points Morgan~ I will say (not to counter, but to consider) I think it's true to a point. People are herding animals and have lived in villages, tribes, clans - you pick. The thing with any of those is that there could be enough resources within say a 5 mile circumference of that village/tribe etc. I'll just pick on NYC as an example. If you drew a boarder line at a 5 mile distance from the NYC limits, would there be enough resources for the residents to sustain? I've not been there so maybe, but I don't think so. If you have a very small rural community, a few things become more prevalent: first and foremost is a sense of community, second is the scenario above becomes more viable increasing the odds of the needs to resources ratio, third is as you stated, you can have specialties like docs., cobblers, bakers, etc. so the need to become a jack of all trades greatly decreases.
Lastly, where is the line between village and city: I know not. Maybe at whatever point that 5 mile circumference doesn't sustain the inhabitants ???
This is something I sorta think about: I try to at least learn "about" different things. I can see it now: SHTF and XYZ situation arises and me doing the Homer Simpson "Doh!"
Not something I hope for but would guess it would happen even to the best of folks.
I agree completely. Using any of the major cities, if you went 50-100 miles away you probably still wouldn't have near enough resources to sustain the population. I also don't disagree that in a true TEOTWAWKI situation the cities would be death traps. Chaos would reign supreme. Criminal and Gang activity would be horrific.
But if you don't have the physical nature to live in the rural world you are signing your own death warrant. Sure, people lived a long time with one doctor in the town. I would bet they still do. But IMHO no doctor will be capable enough of being a jack-of-all trades. People will just die if they can't get the proper care.
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China & Australia are like that too.
A lot of woods & farms outside of the cities.
I would disagree that cities have existed for thousands of years, America as a country isnt that old for a start and apart from London most cities here were no more than little villages until the Industrial Revolution in the mid 18th century.
I would consider all of the ancient cultures "cities". Rome, Athens, Sparta, Alexandria, Babylonia. In this hemishere the Incas, the Mayans, the Aztecs, even the Cahokia people in the Midwest of the U.S. are believed to have lived in cities of 10,000 or more.
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With all due respect, Rome is still there, Greece is still there, Egypt is still there. The Middle East is still there. Many of the indigenous peoples on this side were wiped out by invaders from Europe. What will happen to our civilization remains to be seen, but IMHO mankind will remain in some way, shape, or form.
I disagree, these ancient civilisations were mere villages compared to todays cities, except maybe in small pockets in some far off corner of the world in some primitive culture, modern civilisation will be wiped out once the services and technology fail. only those that can live simply and frugally will survive.
if its a nuclear war none will survive.
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I strongly disagree, the Amazon was a great city for many year, until Small pots killed 90% of the people.
Japan was settled about 35,000 years ago by Paleolithic people from the Asian mainland. At the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, a culture called the Jomon developed.
They had two nuclear bombs fall on them.
all these places had great civilisations but I dont think we can call them cities.
The Ancient Romans settled most of the known world but most of the settlements were little more than villages or less, the exception was Rome which was their capital .
we all know about the atom bombs dropped on Japan.
The Ancient Romans settled most of the known world but most of the settlements were little more than villages or less, the exception was Rome which was their capital .
we all know about the atom bombs dropped on Japan.
I guess I am wondering what you consider a city. By 1200 BC Babylon and Thebes had populations of 80,000 people each, and Memphis Egypt had a population of 50,000. Constantinople had a population of 400,000. I would consider these cities.
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Cities come and go. lose a little bit of our modern medicine culture and food shipment and look out.
Between 717 and 718 another plague epidemic occurred; this was of such extraordinary severity that the city became “nearly uninhabited,” one source stated. In 747, the population of Constantinople reached the lowest point seen in the Middle Ages.20
Then an awful smell spread over the city. That first epidemic was followed by other outbreaks of plague or other illnesses in 555, 558, 561, 573, 574, 591, 599, and at the beginning of the seventh century.29
Between 717 and 718 another plague epidemic occurred; this was of such extraordinary severity that the city became “nearly uninhabited,” one source stated. In 747, the population of Constantinople reached the lowest point seen in the Middle Ages.20
Then an awful smell spread over the city. That first epidemic was followed by other outbreaks of plague or other illnesses in 555, 558, 561, 573, 574, 591, 599, and at the beginning of the seventh century.29
during the plague the British population went from 6 million down to 2 million, the population now is 67 million and most of those live in cities all living in a big ant's nest (cheek by jowl) all ready for the next plague.
a city over here is one that has a cathedral, populations of 80,000 or so are just large towns, 10, 000 is a small town.
a city over here is one that has a cathedral, populations of 80,000 or so are just large towns, 10, 000 is a small town.
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