ESCAPE THE COLLAPSING EMPIRE 3
Okay, so, like, DUH! We all know
the collapse is coming. Not only is the
writing on the wall, it is in one syllable words so as not to confuse any of
our recent High School graduates. So
what should we do about it? Expatriation
is WAY too expensive and as you can’t sell your home anymore as it is either
underwater or in an area with no jobs, you can’t cash in its equity. Your best option is to Internal
Immigrate. And no, Virginia, this is NOT
another article on moving out to junk land.
I can’t convince folks of the easy cheap option, so this time it is more
conventional advice. If you can’t
relocate to a retreat, the next best thing is to relocate to the least worst
area. You won’t own your property when
the collapse happens, but at least you will be in an area that has far less
chance of killing you off immediately.
And you don’t need much of an investment to get there. You are merely moving as you would have in
the past, packing up a U-Haul and moving to an area for regular reasons such as
escaping crime or the high cost of living.
Moving to a state that allows home schooling or has lower taxes. No one need think you are a crazy bastard
fleeing the collapse of the empire, not even the spouse or kids.
*
So, the question is Where To Relocate.
The primary consideration is a job, since you will be paying rent. No, this is NOT optimal and I’m not
recommending you to discount the need to live without a mortgage. But if moving to junk land just ain’t going
to happen, at least relocating to another less dangerous urban area increases
your odds. Jobs are not littering the
ground these days, and your job is probably what is keeping you anchored to
your current craphole. I’m not saying it
is easy, just that it is easier than moving to the boonies. But certainly you can downgrade your
expectations and salary requirements to live in a better place? If that is feasible, then you can focus your
attention on the best place to weather the coming storm. Unfortunately, all the places where you don’t
need winter heat are pretty crowded, and I would hesitate to recommend
them. I moved to Florida primarily
because of that very consideration, but at the time I was pretty stupid and
naively thought a years worth of food and a pistol were enough for a soft
collapse. I now understand it will be
far less than soft and require much more in resources. Now, on the other hand much of the North,
while doing its best to keep the unwashed masses away with severe weather, is
also set up to weather winter ONLY with carbon fuel imports. Our options do seem to be dwindling. It seems you must choose between a job or an
optimal location, and the twain shall never meet. More next article.
END
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IF a person relocates I would advise looking at the hydro electric map of states and the bio mass and Forrest maps. These areas should be able to mitigate some of energy collapse .
ReplyDeleteJust don't be down river from that hydro. :)
DeleteGoogleAds: Relocating to Seattle? Oh H-!! No! Been there, somehow survived.
DeleteMaps are a great way to disqualify an area, but not exactly as good as going there to "qualify" it.
Population density and/or light maps are good enough for me. Then the search for water, no building permits, with a cheap bit of dirt....
pdxr13
Weathering the winter in near arctic climates can be done without fossil fuels. Just ask the eskimos.
ReplyDeleteThe tricks are as follows:
Acclimate - don't expect to keep your surroundings at 70 degrees, It ain't happening. Instead as it gets colder let your body get used to the cold, don't stand naked in a sudden cold snap but do have a lot of time out in the air and let your home (and if you can office) temperature follow with the outside temperature.
Dress for it. Why heat a whole house when you are already heating your own body with food (eat higher calorie food during the winter- fats especially). Putting on a layer of cotton thermals, coat, wool socks, hats, and mittens, is all I need down to -20 for a couple hours at a time, by leaving the socks and thermals on inside the house I can keep the house around 50 to 60 and be not too uncomfortable.
Keep unused spaces unheated- ties right into the the dress for it philosophically: insulate and heat the smallest spaces you can and add as little heat as you can.
Running water does take a temperature above freezing, so do diesel engines, so keeping your body, pipes, and engines, above freezing is a good idea- but do they have to be at a room temperature of 70 degrees????
Solar Gain - even the coldest winter weather at noon on a cloudy day an enclosed space behind a pane of glass facing the sun will be significantly warmer than outside it.
Insulate and prevent air movement. During hot spells even a light breeze makes it seem cooler, same effect during cold spells, so keep the air as still as you can during the cold times, blocking all possible sources of draft. Insulation helps keep the heat in. Blocking all the windows doors and even walls with curtains blankets and tapestries keeps a room much warmer feeling. A rug on the floor, slippers, and super insulated ceiling and a room that felt like it was near freezing is suddenly a lot more comfortable.
Burning wood, grass, charcoal, animal dung, etc. will add the little bit of heat a well designed and built house will need. Burning it in a sealed fire proof container, preferably with a high mass to store the heat and control over the air inlet and outlet and you can get efficient hot burns.
Doing all these things can help you survive the coldest of winters.
But it does involve more thinking and work than just turning up the thermostat or lighting the furnace- which is why so many people are going to head south when petroleum inputs get to expensive, it is cheaper to be lazy and ignorant where it is warmer.....
Regarding last thought, better to be lazy and ignorant, I wonder about the motivation of 90+% of humanity seeking warm/hot. Does laziness also factor in why they stay in a warm climate with a despotic leader? He will make all the decisions for them. It does seem colder climates fosters more individualism. I know, a chicken and egg conundrum. Still, interesting to contemplate.
DeleteGo to any old cemetery in the Deep South and see when people used to die in the 19th and early 20th century: July, August, and September. Being industrious in a hot-weather climate with no air conditioning will get you killed in the summer. Being a bit mellow and not eager to engage in physical labor in an intensive way are hot-weather adaptations. Cold weather leads to lower population density. Hard to rule people as a despot when they are spread out all over Kingdom Come.
DeleteMakes sense. And it also stands to reason that the warm humid weather fostering all of that nasty bacteria and disease played a large part in it as well.
DeleteWednesday was "half-day of roofing" in 90+ F heat estimated shade temps. I started at 0730 and by 1130 I came down from the roof feeling the burn and joint damage. At 47 yo, this was "max effort" that could not happen again for a week and will not happen again ever If I can help it. Thursday, the building owner/contractor wanted another go starting at 0700. Uh, no. More ibuprophen and sitting well-away from +103 F mid-day (pdx!) heat (in a commercial building with A/C cranked up and lights low).
DeleteMy experience doing hard work in Texas and inland SoCal served me well. Wide brim hat, sunscreen, long pants/sleeves, gloves, opaque neck scarf (silk), snacks and about 6 quarts of water, along with a 5-minute shade break every half hour kept me okay. My co-worker (29 year old sturdy roofing boy from WI) showed up with no hat, gloves and no water. I kept pushing the bosses water on him while he stayed on the roof, but he was puking about noon anyway. Done. Sit in shade and drink water.
I can see how people with more motivation than endurance and experience just drop dead in the sun. Fear the sun. Love the rain.
pdxr13
Yes, it's hot here much longer than it's cold. And at least for me it's easier to keep halfway warm than it is to keep halfway cool and much cheaper. 95 + degree 80% humidity for weeks on end will wear a old man out even just doing the bare minimum of activity. My new bride and I have a small house with some shade and plenty of windows that have bug screens. Not only will the heat kill you the dammed bugs will make you sick and miserable while you burn up. We use the ac and keep it on about 80, it runs enough to dry out the house some so sweating still works. If the humidity is high enough you get no sweat evaporation and therfore no cooling. I was 22 before we got the first ac, I remember getting up way before the sun, working to about 10 and then laying on a screened in porch napping until nearly dark then finishing the days work. The few Yankees around thought we were lazy until they tried to do a days work in the sun all day and got sick. We called it sun poison back then. It was probably just heat stroke. It's a fact that a bunch of folks will die shortly after all the ac units stop.
DeleteNo matter the tricks, working in the heat is brutal. Working in the heat AND humidity also sucks. I lived in the South through the 90's when power was dirt cheap ( except for basic training, but we were so exhausted from sleep deprivation that the humidity seemed a distant factor-and I started the beginning of July ). Got lucky.
DeleteOur sole source of heat is a wood stove. No back-up. (No Plan B keeps up motivated)
ReplyDeleteAll of our wood comes off of our 50 acres.
Right now we use a chainsaw, but I do have cross cut saws, bow saws, axes and hatches on hand if needed. Wouldn't be fun but it would be possible.
We also keep one to two years stockpile of firewood on hand.
Idaho Homesteader
Sorry, I should have specified "URBAN areas rely on carbon fuels"
DeleteNo reason for it though, a clean burning wood stove wont put out much more pollution than a propane or nat gas furnace. Of course the lack of fuel that cost only labor does factor into it too I am sure, and electric heat is easiest by far in cities- until the power goes out.
DeleteI am pretty certain a lot of the newer northern city dwellings with only electric heat will be abandoned when electricity from the grid is too unreliable or expensive.
Masonry or high-mass stoves that burn a little fuel fast&hot are super-clean burners. Most of the exhaust output is water vapor, and to find it you should use a thermal imager. "Rocket Mass Heaters" by Evans is a great intro to DIY non-permitted heaters.
DeleteSplit-stacked firewood under a shed-roof is better than fiat-money in the bank! You can always sell it at a premium. Where are you gonna get multi-year-seasoned pre-split wood in January?
DeleteStove efficiency makes your stock of wood last that much longer, as does insulation and other efficiency upgrades. EPA "efficiency" numbers should be ignored. They hate your wood stove.
Idaho Homesteader: Do you have a log splitting machine? I've seen hand-operated hydraulic splitters as well as Diesel-powered (heavy flywheel) models. Compared to a maul/wedge splitting system, less pain/more output.
Split wood dries faster. ;-)
pdxr13
I do agree with Rawles that it is better to store rounds, to prevent theft.
DeletePdxr 13,
ReplyDeleteWe just got a 22 ton hydraulic log splitter this last fall after splitting wood by hand for 20 years.
My husband and I are both 47 and as the years pile on, a few conveniences are very nice. :)
Idaho Homesteader
Jim,
ReplyDeleteRounds are nicer to store because they take up less room in the woodshed. Plus, when you move it from the woods to the woodshed, you are only fussing with one piece not several.
However, if you don't get your wood a year in advance, you might want to split your wood so it will cure faster -- especially if it's green (from a live tree).
Also, birch had a tough bark and it's best to split it so the wood will dry and not rot.
Every fall, we move our winters wood from our shed to our covered porch. We split it then and then haul it to the porch in a wheelbarrow. Then we sit back and enjoy an easy breezy winter because all the hard work is done.
Idaho Homesteader
All my experiances were with crap pine already dead and dry, so I guess I'm not the best to ask about such things ( ie, seasoning rarely an issue ).
Delete