Hello there, I'm preparing for Peak Oil at my own speed but as I live in a suburban middle-class neighbourhood here in the South-East I have had little chance to improve my agricultural knowledge but I have managed to become reasonbly physically fit (yesterday I missed the bus so I jogged nearly eight miles home without any real problems in the middle of the night.)
So I have been wondering if being nomadic or a travelling merchant would be a good idea in a Post-Oil world? As I'm adventurous and I want to do as much good as I can in the future (I'm 20 so chances are the New Era will be my entire life) and I'm unsure if I would be properly suited to farming and shooting any hungry trespassers.
Another idea I've been considering would be PO community leaders or maybe even travelling government members if the government turn their backs on the people (they did in New Orleans, and maybe half way there already here!) I could see an older me travelling between towns and settlements helping to manage resources.
Btw, I'm assuming it results in a medium or worse collapse.
What do you think? Or would becoming a farmer just be the best course of action? Thanks.
Being nomadic or being a settler/farmer?
Moderator: Peak Moderation
Being nomadic or being a settler/farmer?
Imi place sa ma distrez jucand jocuri de logica si rezolvand orice fel de provocari logice, in special timpul il petrec pe acest site de jocuri gratis.
20 is young!
Society is unlikely to unravel in say the next 10 years - there is too much inertia in the system.
I believer that you gain most of your key experience in the years 20 to say 35, before the wife & kids turn up!
Your pay & whole future career can be based on several years hard work in your 20s.
So if you want to become a farmer, learn NOW.
If you want to become a soldier or riot policeman, learn NOW.
If you want to go into politics, do it NOW.
Every minute wasted down the pub in your 20s will damage your long term prospects more than you can imagine.
If you like the travelling merchant idea, start a mobile greengrocers or hardware shop NOW.
When the troubles arrive you will know all about how to buy in goods, price them, sell them, deal with shoplifters, deal with the authorities etc etc.
You'll never learn this stuff if you switch from being, say, web designer to travelling merchant 2 days into the final collapse.
Or if you want to do something energy wasteful such as car racing do it NOW whilst fuel is around.
Summary: get stuck into SOMETHING, ANYTHING which looks good on your CV and shows that you work harder and smarter than most other people.
Even during bad times, the best workers will always eat.
Society is unlikely to unravel in say the next 10 years - there is too much inertia in the system.
I believer that you gain most of your key experience in the years 20 to say 35, before the wife & kids turn up!
Your pay & whole future career can be based on several years hard work in your 20s.
So if you want to become a farmer, learn NOW.
If you want to become a soldier or riot policeman, learn NOW.
If you want to go into politics, do it NOW.
Every minute wasted down the pub in your 20s will damage your long term prospects more than you can imagine.
If you like the travelling merchant idea, start a mobile greengrocers or hardware shop NOW.
When the troubles arrive you will know all about how to buy in goods, price them, sell them, deal with shoplifters, deal with the authorities etc etc.
You'll never learn this stuff if you switch from being, say, web designer to travelling merchant 2 days into the final collapse.
Or if you want to do something energy wasteful such as car racing do it NOW whilst fuel is around.
Summary: get stuck into SOMETHING, ANYTHING which looks good on your CV and shows that you work harder and smarter than most other people.
Even during bad times, the best workers will always eat.
Vortex is right. Your twenties tend to determine how you will lead you life.
Although, Toadstool, something tells me you are one of the ones that will get out there and make things work for you!
Your story of running home reminded me of a story in my childhood. (In the '70s)
While, on holiday (with me aged about 10) my family were driving to Galway for the day, and as we left the local town (about 1 1/2 hrs drive from Galway) there were a number of young men trying to hitch a lift. My father ignored them.
Several miles out we saw another young man stomping purposefully up the road; he turned and walked backwards to look us in the eye to thumb a lift. My father stopped at once and we all had to squeeze up in the back to let him in. I was sitting next to him with my little sister now on my knee - and it was the first time that I truly smelt drink on some-one!
Anyway he was polite and very grateful and my father drove him all the way to his barracks. His friends would not be so lucky.
Or was it luck?
My dad explained that the only reason he lifted this lad was because he was making an effort and wasn't going to let the apparent impossibility of walking the whole way to Galway stop him from making a go of it.
My dad's lesson - that you make your own luck - has stuck with me.
Toadstool - I think you'll do okay!
Although, Toadstool, something tells me you are one of the ones that will get out there and make things work for you!
Your story of running home reminded me of a story in my childhood. (In the '70s)
While, on holiday (with me aged about 10) my family were driving to Galway for the day, and as we left the local town (about 1 1/2 hrs drive from Galway) there were a number of young men trying to hitch a lift. My father ignored them.
Several miles out we saw another young man stomping purposefully up the road; he turned and walked backwards to look us in the eye to thumb a lift. My father stopped at once and we all had to squeeze up in the back to let him in. I was sitting next to him with my little sister now on my knee - and it was the first time that I truly smelt drink on some-one!
Anyway he was polite and very grateful and my father drove him all the way to his barracks. His friends would not be so lucky.
Or was it luck?
My dad explained that the only reason he lifted this lad was because he was making an effort and wasn't going to let the apparent impossibility of walking the whole way to Galway stop him from making a go of it.
My dad's lesson - that you make your own luck - has stuck with me.
Toadstool - I think you'll do okay!
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kenneal - lagger
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Opportunities will come to those who do something, Toadstool, it's up to you whether or not you take them. If you're doing something productive, it's never wasted, there is always an opportunity to learn something useful for later; it might be years later but you'll remember.
I recently told another Powerswitcher, when asked, to set himself on his path in life and go for it. We started on our present path in the 1975 when I learned about general resource depletion and have taken our opportunities as they came up. Some of those opportunities, such as "multi level marketing", we gave up, but we learned a lot from it that has been useful ever since. Others, such a buying our land in 1982, have been a better idea.
We've had highs and lows along the way but have generally enjoyed, what most people think of as eccentric, our way of life. And its finally coming to fruition now. We may not reap the full benefits of it but our children, who've had a deprived upbringing by some people's standards, will because they know that the "essentials" of life aren't really that essential.
My daughter went for an interview for a sponsored place for a VSO placing and was asked, along with about 400 other 19 and 20 year olds, what they thought the essentials of life were. She was the only one to answer "clean water and shelter". Central heating, a hot shower or a washing machine, which other people answered, don't come into it and won't in the future. She got one of three places worth ?4k.
So you've decided the direction you want to go, now go for it. You might not end up where you head initially, or you might get diverted a bit on the way, but you'll get where you need to be in the end.
I recently told another Powerswitcher, when asked, to set himself on his path in life and go for it. We started on our present path in the 1975 when I learned about general resource depletion and have taken our opportunities as they came up. Some of those opportunities, such as "multi level marketing", we gave up, but we learned a lot from it that has been useful ever since. Others, such a buying our land in 1982, have been a better idea.
We've had highs and lows along the way but have generally enjoyed, what most people think of as eccentric, our way of life. And its finally coming to fruition now. We may not reap the full benefits of it but our children, who've had a deprived upbringing by some people's standards, will because they know that the "essentials" of life aren't really that essential.
My daughter went for an interview for a sponsored place for a VSO placing and was asked, along with about 400 other 19 and 20 year olds, what they thought the essentials of life were. She was the only one to answer "clean water and shelter". Central heating, a hot shower or a washing machine, which other people answered, don't come into it and won't in the future. She got one of three places worth ?4k.
So you've decided the direction you want to go, now go for it. You might not end up where you head initially, or you might get diverted a bit on the way, but you'll get where you need to be in the end.
Action is the antidote to despair - Joan Baez
Hey everyone, thanks for words of advice and encouragement! Would you say that being a farmer would be your preferred course of action if TSHTF? If not, then what would you do? If things get really bad, then I should be capable to eat dead rats (if thats all there is) but I prefer not to if time would be better spent growing potatoes or lettuce.
Imi place sa ma distrez jucand jocuri de logica si rezolvand orice fel de provocari logice, in special timpul il petrec pe acest site de jocuri gratis.
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emordnilap
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Hey, my thread got one of Vortex's images in it! I am honoured
Imi place sa ma distrez jucand jocuri de logica si rezolvand orice fel de provocari logice, in special timpul il petrec pe acest site de jocuri gratis.
In Dmitry Orlov's "Reinventing Collapse" he raises the idea of being semi-nomadic. In his view, nomadic people tend to be distrusted by the settled, and being settled in one place makes you totally dependent on it (and not being able to adapt if it goes tits up).
So he seems to have the idea of having, say, 3 places to go-between and stay at different times. I'm not sure how practical that is as an idea.
So he seems to have the idea of having, say, 3 places to go-between and stay at different times. I'm not sure how practical that is as an idea.
Olduvai Theory (Updated) (Reviewed)
Easter Island - a warning from history : http://dieoff.org/page145.htm
Easter Island - a warning from history : http://dieoff.org/page145.htm
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Eternal Sunshine
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I think the best plan is to put down roots, have a bit of land to grow food & keep a few livestock, and get to know & work together with the local community. This would put you in the strongest position if TSHTF. And if it doesn't, you'll still have a stable rewarding life with people around you that you care about.
Now the sun's shining I'm enjoying my nomadic life. The only bit I don't enjoy is paying for diesel. I wish I could think of a way to carry on after TSHTF, but I feel a need to put down roots. If I could develop a specialist skill and could travel around providing it where needed it could be great, but the travelling bit may be difficult if fuel and food is in short supply or very expensive, and there may be safety risks.
I thought of JohnB and others on the forum who are currently itinerant when I read that part of the Orlov book.Bandidoz wrote:In Dmitry Orlov's "Reinventing Collapse" he raises the idea of being semi-nomadic. In his view, nomadic people tend to be distrusted by the settled, and being settled in one place makes you totally dependent on it (and not being able to adapt if it goes tits up).
So he seems to have the idea of having, say, 3 places to go-between and stay at different times. I'm not sure how practical that is as an idea.
As you say Bandidoz, he doesn't recommend a completely itinerant future. And he emphasizes that you shouldn't present yourself as itinerant when interacting with the settled population, in case you are perceived as an "other".