TIME CONTINUED
Okay, let’s expand a little bit on this morning’s
rumblings. Most people are lucky. They only have to figure out how to live in
today’s world. Some are complete morons
and are living in the 1950’s version of some bizarre Church Of The Sub-Genius (http://www.subgenius.com/ ) worship of Bob
and Beaver, thinking suburbia can live forever.
Some have figured out how to live in the new reality of the post-2008
financial melt-down. Very few are accustomed
to living in tomorrowland. Tomorrow is going
to blow chunks. It is really as simple
as that. There will be shortages of food
and energy, there will be civil war.
There will be foreign invasions and barbarians invading civilized
areas. Slavery will be widespread. And that is if things don’t go back to the
Dark Ages. That is the BEST case. And yet, no prepper wants to hear it. They want to live in a happy place where a
group of semi-auto owners will defend against all and sundry. If their belief in God and The Constitution (
to be clear, I love the Constitution- well, mainly the Bill Of Rights, but the
whole document isn’t half bad. Yet, let’s
not allow our myths to cloud our reality.
The Constitution also allowed a dictatorship to form alongside the idea
of freedom ) is strong enough they will defend their borders successfully. I’m sorry, but I simply can’t buy into the
Virtuous Is Might concept. Plenty of
good decent peoples/tribes throughout the ages were wiped away by the forces of
evil.
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You HAVE to abandon the concept of yeoman farmers
founding a great country and thriving.
It didn’t work before as advertised ( without the eastern urban
manufacturing base [ or, the overseas one at first ], or ceaseless immigration
to resupply westward settlers the Whites would never have conquered the
continent ). And it certainly won’t work
now that we don’t have unlimited resources to attract new cannon fodder nor a
supply base to support anyone. Before,
the federal government had a vested interest in supporting independent
landowners. Today, the federal government
has ZERO. Tomorrow, there won’t be the
resources to do so regardless of intentions.
And without a strong central government ( first the English, then the
colonial ) to back them up, farmers won’t survive, let alone thrive. The whole survivalism “strategy” of freemen
holding their farms armed merely with battle rifles is ignorant. It ignores history. Farms feed armies. Armies WILL take the farms, or at least
control them. The only reason nomads are
free is because they control nothing the armies need. I’m not trying to piss in anyone’s Cheerio’s
here. I love the concept of
self-sufficiency. I would love to feed
myself on my own land. And I certainly
have no illusions of my odds surviving without one. What I also know is history. Only if you ignore the coming reality does
farming work. Just because there are few
good alternatives to that doesn’t make it less true. Not only don't I think I have enough time to move to a farm, I question if I'd want to anyway.
END
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I think if you are remote enough and have a little plot of land, say at least an acre with a water source, a garden and some small livestock is doable and low profile. A few miniature goats and chickens don't need much space and will provide nutrients for a garden. If you concentrate on high calorie and nutrient rich foods along with a ton of wheat it can work. Potatoes, beans, herbs, a few maters for vitamin c and greens can go a long way towards a healthy diet. Throw in a few eggs, an occasional roast chicken and goat dairy and meat. Yes, a bit of a fantasy perhaps but I have some land and sources for additional livestock. (I have chickens). May even do a miniature cow. Neighbor has 2 mini bulls that max out about 200 lbs. I guess about 100lbs butchered. A few solar panels will keep a small freezer running.
ReplyDeleteI get alot of rain here in South MS and in 5 years since I moved to the country i had one 2 month stretch with no rain. I have 2 springs on my land that I need to improve.
Jim is right. Store a ton of wheat and learn how to use it. Then a small garden and chickens for variety and you can do pretty well. Sprouting wheat and a few veggies and blueberry bushes and other fruit sources and you have a chance if the hordes don't notice. Large scale farming is risky but a small garden behind the house in the boonies is possible. Otherwise we just go out with a bang.
Lord bison? Have you lost weight or are you working out? LOL
My concern is mainly that even if you are a bit off the path, by being in a fertile area, and with todays densities and population, you would eventually be displaced.
DeleteI think that you overlook the possibility of hybrid farmer herder societies. The farmers would be the militia/guard with the reserve or conquering forces of the herders to back them up or allow the society to raid others (when the herds are in a safe place of course). Think about it - should drought get too bad the herds can provide food, should plague strike the herds, the farms provide the food. the farms provide a supply base and industries, the herders patrol to prevent surprise attacks on the farms and reach out to collect remote resources for the industrial base. The herders can take the excess population of young hot heads and let them vent on the neighboring communities in an organized profitable manner. The farms can care for the elderly and preserve wisdom and knowledge and raise the youngest. Think about it, most nomads KNEW of wheels but had a hard time making them efficiently without an industrial base. I can picture it now - First snow fall and the (home made) bike and horse riding herders from the four directions come into town for the new season celebration driving before them the herds that would be butchered and stored for the coming winter. The herds are led to great corrals around the town which would act as additional barriers to any invaders, the herdsmen join the farmers for the first feast with dancing and flirting, husbands re-unite with their wives and children, the elders smile at the carts worth of loot that the south herdsmen squad pull in with the women keeping the handful of prisoners in line. After the feast they all gather to harvest the shared fields of grain or beans, the occasional weed possibly getting harvested as well, but few enough to not have made it worth the issue of weeding, after all the meat brought back with the herds will allow them to eat all winter. The prisoners are 'tried' for crimes against the community and sentenced to indentured servitude to the leaders of the herdsmen that took them from their communities.
ReplyDeleteAnd then the herds are thinned through the winter, with the remaining animals grazing in the fallow fields. Come the next spring as the herds grow again off set the 'cowboys' leading their herds out to summer pasturage.
You question if you'd really want a farm. I know for sure I don't. Farming sucks. A small garden is one thing, but an actual working farm is another form of slavery.
ReplyDeleteFor me water is the big one. The Southwest is too darn dry for my tastes. To each their own. Give me rough terrain, cold winters, and poor soils, but if the water's good I can deal. My well overflows year round and that's not a rare thing in my area. My county in northern NH is bigger than Rhode Island but has about 30,000 people. Still nothing like out west, but darn sparse for New England.
Give me good water and I'll live on bugs and tree bark if I have to. (and Yes, I've done it)
I guess if it's good enough for beavers...
DeleteYou're thinking of a homestead in a different light than I do.
ReplyDeleteWho knows what will happen tomorrow -- I may be forced to leave my land because of Agenda 21, I might be evicted by the local warlord, or maybe a forest fire will come through.
Or, maybe we will continue with the slow crash -- even though you and I have been expecting it for 20 years. Remember the Walter Mitty Papers?
I view homesteading like a long-term, hands-on college class. I am gaining SKILLS that I can take anywhere that will make me invaluable in the future.
I can raise, butcher, and cook animals. I can plant, harvest and preserve food from the garden. I know how to build houses, barns and sheds. I can sew, blacksmith, AND play the ukulele ; )
We were members of a medieval reenactment group (SCA), We hang out with Mtn Men and my husband volunteers with the Boy Scouts. I am the go to expert for pioneering skills among my friends and neighbors. If I lived back east, I would probably work at Colonial Williamsburg.
It's about skills, not the place. It's also about enjoying life and not just surviving. Don't let fear of a collapse keep you from exploring new things and moving if that's what you want to do.
If you like your area -- great -- stay. But don't forget to enjoy life once in a while.
Idaho Homesteader
Is having a Less Suck-ass Life the same as enjoying it? Also, if you remember my military fiction attempt ( I love the you remember the WMP's ) when the leader wanted a bagpipe ( your ukulele comment reminded me ), I found out Elko has a pipe club. I won't learn it, but the skillset is available. How cool is that? I almost got involved in the Soc. Creative Anac. but at the time I was in the military and the thought of playing at feality to a lord was too much like the ass sucking I was doing for a job.
DeleteI gleaned this from Rawles blog. Food for thought.
ReplyDeletehttp://survivalblog.com/quiet_rimfire_shooting_without_a_suppressor_by_mb/