Learning wilderness survival skills?

[MrG]

I imagine that a lot of peakers live in similar family situations or work with people who don't share the same obsession and unless we want to cut the ties with people who hold us back from our preparations, then we need to take their perceived needs into consideration and find a way to work together.

I think that learning to do that is just as important as any other of the skills needed for survival.

+1 to that.

It's the most important thing

[MrG]

Onions are quite easy to grow from seed, MrG. We sow them singly in cells indoors in January and plant out when the ground is ready. That's when we remember that January is onion planting time. If, no when, we forget we rely on sets.

Do you save the seeds? My allomtent neighbour does it by letting one onion go to seed and tying a plastic bag round the seed head for the wind to bash it around and shake out the seeds. I tried it and the seed head went all manky. Paper bag in dry weather instead I guess. I'll get him to show me this year anyway.

Garlic is good started in modules like that where the ground is heavy and the weather is wet (like Wales) because you are planting them in winter and if its a wet winter they can rot in the ground.[/i]

[hardworkinghippy]

It's also worth having four or five heads of walking onions (Egyptian onions) which are perennial and they multiply by bending over and rooting where they touch the ground.

You can eat the tiny onions they produce but we tend to just cut one or two stalks when we need onions and a bit of colour in a dish. An omelette made with them and a couple of potatoes is a good meal. They taste great and they've survived flooding and really dry weather here, so they're pretty indestructible.

If I had no room for onions I'd plant these - they even do well in large pots.

[MrG]

I've wanted to try those for a while but whenever I tried to order sets they'd sold out

[vtsnowedin]

That's a fascinating subject vtsnowedin.

I too am obsessive to the extent that some people think I'm off my rocker. The obsession that I have is survival and self-sufficiency and it's been part of me for as long as I can remember.

A young person who lives with parents who divert their energy and possibly their money too into things he or she doesn't believe in is in the same situation as me who has friends who spend twenty grand on a new car yet they"can't afford" thermal solar. It drives you nuts.

I imagine that a lot of peakers live in similar family situations or work with people who don't share the same obsession and unless we want to cut the ties with people who hold us back from our preparations, then we need to take their perceived needs into consideration and find a way to work together.

I think that learning to do that is just as important as any other of the skills needed for survival.

I treat my obsessions as hobbies and most friends and family members understand that paradigm.
Except for an obsession for a curvaceous redhead the family is pretty cool with letting you indulge in your hobby/obsessions as long as you don't insist in their taking part in the : Hunting/bench-rest shooting/ hand loading/ organic gardening/sugaring/ etc. Once you have them used to you doing your own thing in your own space then they won't even ask what's in the twenty sealed five gallon buckets in the newly insulated corner room in the basement.