Wednesday, August 5, 2015

buttholes to elbows 1 of 3


BUTTHOLES TO ELBOWS

I think that although most survivalists acknowledge overpopulation they don’t actually understand or comprehend it.  As a comparison, let’s briefly visit Yuppie Scum Survivalists and their off-grid concrete bunkers atop mountains in Idaho.  They might have Edison batteries which will outlast the lifespan of their solar panels ( at something like $1200 per meager 400 amp battery, NOT a cheap solution ), so we won’t penalize them there, but inevitably they stockpile carbon fuels like they do their ammunition, in bulk and price be damned.  This might be just fine and dandy in principle but inevitably as with any project meant to showcase their current wealth and please a trophy wife not with security but with hen brownie points ( another example to her female frenemies how superior her gold plated crotch is to theirs ), the object isn’t about longevity so much as it is comfort and luxury.  You can bet with such an attitude that their stockpile will certainly not last as long as they think, nor will they be able to successfully transition away from their use.  If you must plan on the use of carbon fuels, you probably are betting on a return to normalcy rather than a step down in technology or performance.  In other words, these people can’t actually comprehend a world without modern amenities.  They read about that very fact, they think they know how such a future will look, yet in practice they are incapable of living such a life. 

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That is one of the reasons I’m so opposed to chainsaws ( other reasons being the cost-after all spares and accessories, and fear of field impromptu amputation ).  It isn’t that they aren’t a darn useful tool, it is that if you can’t even grasp the necessity of living without them far into the collapse, if you can’t transition from their use NOW, you probably can’t do so for dozens of other tools or practices.  You are limiting yourself by your lack of discipline.  The idea of “enjoying modern conveniences now while you can” is so insidious and damaging, yet so subtle, it is dangerous.  If you can’t live by downgrading in one thing, you can’t do any of the others.  The danger of relying on retreat carbon fuels is that you are in danger of being unable to reeducate yourself in the realities of the coming new world.  Carbon fuel-less futures remain a remote concept because you refuse to try to live like that in a reality of the here and now.  And remote concepts are too outside reality to be treated seriously enough that you will do anything about them.  And because overpopulation is nothing but a remote concept, just like the complete removal of petroleum fuels and their offshoots is too removed from perception to be a reality, folks hear about it, think about it but in the end makes plans without acknowledging it.  We HEAR the problem but we fail to LISTEN.

More next article.

END
 
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29 comments:

  1. Well here is a thought experiment. Elco, NV , that little outpost in the desert has a population of ~20,000.

    If you take the major urban centers in Medieval Europe that aren't attached to a larger empire. You have London at a population of 20,000 peaking to ~75,000 in the high middle ages before the black death drops it back down by about half again.

    Sure there were larger cities, but Bruges , the major commercial center of Flanders textiles industry is only around 40,000.

    So if you brought the U.S. back to medieval tech levels, without too much chaos, Elco is what you would expect the size of a fairly major east coast town to have in population. The Greensboro/Winston-Salem Metro area in North Carolina has almost 300,000 folks. Elco's current population is the rough equivalent to their medieval size.

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    1. Of course, the successful, profitable areas had that size city, and Elko is nothing but a carbon fuel outpost, but yes, as a thought experiment you are right. Completely amazing that the population was once upon a time that small, and was an example of a huge trading center. And, further, a solar powered economy doesn't have all that many "Elko's".

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  2. If the fossil fuel economy stopped today, there are still plenty of my neighbors with big piles of firewood to last a season or two. (thanks in large part to chainsaws)

    I know from experience that I can heat my house using hand tools and firewood gathered within walking distance. In a real grid down situation the whole house would be shut down during the winter except for the area around the kitchen woodstove. The house is built with that in mind.

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    1. Such a simple design, yet foreign to almost everyone. "Gee, let's go live in a city in the burbs that will kill me unless a nonrenewable fuel is shipped from Saudi Arabia that gets all that fuel from one refinery that can easily be mortared/RPG'ed"

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  3. "chain saw" is not a thing to object to so much as the dirty loud small engine attached to it. If you put some handles on a chain saw, you can use it as a one or 2 man wood cutting tool. Files and jigs for motorized chainsaws work fine on a manual saw.

    Oh yeah: how's that stock of 2-stroke oil? Enough to make it through wearing out all of your 2-stroke engines, even if you don't have that much fuel on hand?
    Another reason to use 4-stroke engines.

    The Great Maned One is correct in that "having" a manual tool is not the same as using one to do what needs doing. Skills and muscles don't make themselves, nor do pits for saws, sharpening supplies, lube.

    It's a great idea to use petrol and modern machines to build infrastructure NOW, especially when this infrastructure is especially designed to make low-tech inputs useful. Putting back a shed with 3 years worth of (current) firewood to season, using chainsaws/power-splitters as well as gas-fueled construction equipment, is a good idea. If you have "junk land", why not design a set of foundations that can be "ready-to-build" when excavated (uncovered)? Foundations that are invisible underground are unlikely to add to a tax assessment. A dual-use foundation might start as a vegetable cool storage with a foundation for an outdoor kitchen building. Concrete and steel are high-energy materials that will not be available without current low-cost petro/ng inputs and highway/rail systems. Cistern systems for preserving water for the dry season will add lots of value.

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    1. Dig a pit with a backhoe, will with lumber and other building materials ( depending on how wet your soil is ), cover and its money in the bank.

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  4. While I understand having a chainsaw is holding on to a modern convenience but in the tool category it has the highest bang for the buck. I favor an electric one now. Anything modern should be viewed as transitional to back to pioneering lifestyle.

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    1. This year, the weeds here were insane. As in, growing back before I could wack them down. I still refused to weed-wack them, using the manual sickle. With our unusual humidity, it was brutal. I'm still glad I didn't give in to motorized tools.

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    2. I like engines and motors. They are my slave-friends. When there are no more metal-oil-electric inputs for my friends, I will get meat-slaves. So will people not wanting to mow or move their own things.

      Living on borrowed time already (over 35).
      To make myself feel better, I try to count the morbidly obese vs. not (even 'murkan chunky counts as "not-obese") who are outside of their cars (bus stop, short walk to car, dog walking). Any guess on ratios?

      Electric weed wacker with a cord may have some legs if you have a big inverter, big batteries, and lots of panels to complement the diesel/gas genset. The sickle with good smooth shoulder motion makes for very strong peasants.

      pdxr13

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    3. Anything modern should be viewed as transitional to back to pioneering lifestyle. Gary in BamaAugust 5, 2015 at 2:56 PM

      Pioneers were well-supported from Eastern and foreign factories. As soon as the railroads punched through, it was a money economy. We are getting much worse than pioneers got.

      We may lose more than "knocking a zero off of populations", because of overshoot both ways (massive energy input since 1880 to make food & people). We can support 10% of current N. American populations in an 1850 technology situation, but we might get down below that with "the disorders". Most of N. America is not a great place for the Eloi to live if dropped off without credit cards and ready-to-shop infrastructure.

      "Dies the Fire" somewhat explored the immediate post-collapse problem of too many hungry mouths, then in the 3rd year, a serious labor shortage. That first-of-a-series is a worthy read.

      pdxr13

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    4. I've reread "Dies" twice and am looking to do it again. I'd say book 2 and perhaps 3 add a little something although are not critical but beyond that it is just fantasy level reading.

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    5. The problem with the morbidly obese is that all their potential meat is probably poised by cancers and other health issues.

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    6. Don't eat the humans - they are so toxic they will kill you with the most painful disorders. Instead use their bodies in some other any other productive way.
      Feed them to the bears, then kill the bears and let the bears bodies fertilize the fields.
      Then burn the fields.
      Then nuke the burning fields from orbit.
      Its the only way to be sure.
      Seriously though, keep other humans out of your food chains as much as possible. Apex creatures are natural depositories of toxins from the food chain, and humans pile a bunch more crap on top of that.

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    7. Good gravy, man! I haven't laughed that hard at a comment in weeks! Thanks.

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    8. You may not care about bio-fuels, but bio-fuels inc. cares about you.

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    9. How about I donate to bio-fuels inc. early via liposuction? They can suck out the decades worth of corn-syrup created fat, and I will pay the post-op care. win-win. Of course since I have mostly stopped eating those foods I wont be a repeat customer, but I am sure they will have enough of those.

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    10. Remember "fight club" and the liposuction fat used for the bomb? I think I'm remembering that correctly.

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  5. Not sure that I agree with your premise, even though your thick mane of waving hair does tend to distract me from even being able to connect two words together in a rebuttal.

    By the logic of your post, you should get rid of your bike, ditch the shoes and quite buying wheat. Because, hey, they are reliant on modern infrastructure.

    Someday after the collapse, you are going to need a bike part and you won't be able to buy/steal/scrounge one. Plus, you need to start walking everywhere because that's what you'll need to do eventually.

    And you better get rid of your shoes and walk barefoot because eventually all your shoes and boots will wear out and you'll be forced to go without. So you better start now so you'll get big calluses on the soles of your feet.

    And wheat, don't even get me started........Wheat is so dependent on cheap petroleum for fertilizer, weed control, seeding and harvesting. I haven't even mentioned the trucking needed to get it to stores and the buckets you store it in. You need to "reeducate yourself in the realities of the coming new world".

    The above is what I would of said if I just wasn't so darn distracted by your flowing locks ;)

    Idaho Homesteader

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    1. I'm aware of the contradiction in prepping, striving to go low tech in most things while being way too life and death dependent on other high tech things ( the worst being ammo ). The only solution is to go Stone Age, and I know there are a few who have done that. But how many square miles per person does a hunter/gatherer need, right? Not too feasible, so you compromise and trade up in tech. So, we are just arguing over what level and how much, essentially. And, yes, my hair is almost as a Jedi Mind Trick.

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    2. In all fairness to Jim, the impression that I got from his writings was that the wheat stores were to take advantage of the current availability in order to get through the transformation period following the collapse (crop failures, learning alternative food procurement methods, etc) not as an end all to food strategy. Though with the cheaper foods that he advocates storing, one could practically store a lifetime of such food with not too much effort. I myself just purchased a desert plot in Jim's neck of the woods, and one the first orders will be to learn what edibles grow in the desert; both naturally and planted. Game wise, we have grouse, deer, antelope, elk in the mountains, any plenty of fishing in the area.


      As far as bikes go, I think that transitioning from riding a bike to walking (as opposed to car driving and walking) will be much more advantageous. For shoes, I predict that the landfills will be so full of used auto tires, that there will easily be a several decade supply, providing for some time to come up with an alternative. Think tire sandals, and for winter use, in combination with thick socks. I do think that clothing will be a big issue though, so hit the thrift stores and stock up now.

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    3. One word on tire sandals. Were the originals rubber or petroleum? Will our petroleum tires function the same as natural rubber, if that is the case. Just food for thought.

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    4. Re: tire sandals.
      Any rubber tires with steel belts make crumby sandals. You need the steel-free very-cheap Eastern European Rayon-reenforced tires that barely last 8000 miles on a car. They may not even exist anymore, since Eastern Europe has been so "upgraded".

      pdxr13

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    5. Bikes and tires are so available/inexpensive now, that we should have utility sheds full of them on the junk land. Bikes are a serious force-multiplier. For the $3K of an AN/PVS-7, you can get a truck load of tuned-up used bikes. Now, your team moves 3x as much weight 5x as fast over any "developed trail" or better path, with daily range of 100 miles (and ready to do it again tomorrow!) not a near-death-march of 25 miles. Get a railroad bike adapter and you can move 10X as much weight 2x as fast, while your soldiers take turns jogging along side with a single canteen and Enfield carbine. Combining cargo bikes with infantry scouts can greatly extend them, and allow very-fast movement in permissive environments. Did I mention "for very cheap" when compared to current motor pool support structures?

      pdxr13

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    6. Basically, prepping is just a numbers game. We are no different than a Bookie.

      We're playing the odds.

      A chainsaw and other modern devices are just 'time' slaves.

      Here's an example of how we are handling the wood issue:

      1) We built a small house and insulated it well. It is set up so it can be compartmentalized to make a smaller area to heat.

      2) We always have an extra two to three years of wood on hand at all times. IMO this is better than money in the bank.

      3) We store extra fuel, parts, oil, and have an extra saw.

      4) Trees are close by. Wood can be hauled in with a wheelbarrow.

      5) We have crosscut and bowsaws, axes and hatchets.

      6) Historically, what we plan to do to keep ourselves warm has been done for thousands of years so we know it's possible.

      Idaho Homesteader

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  6. Winter and firewood were the two things which made me decide to go south.
    Sure, fuel for a chainsaw is an easy proposition with wood alcohol. Two stroke oil, well any form of vegetable oil will also work and can grown.
    The real problem with wood heat is going to be transport after cutting it down.
    In times past horses, mules or oxen might be used. Given the golden boarded tho ,those type animals will likely all be eaten.
    I believe in your case Jim, none of those things are an issue because there ain't no trees in the Helko area lol. Yet living underground with a small sagebrush fired stove is possible.
    WATER ! This is your issue...you know the answer for that.
    Surviving those twenty thousand others in Helko will be the bottom line....

    I should talk...I've got around 250 thousand within twenty miles of my bug out location. With five miles of swamp between them and me tho....you have nothing separating them from you tho. I figure a five mile wide moat will deter the majority

    Expect a package via US mail at the Fish drop. The postman said Saturday delivery but I'd imagine Monday or so. Just a little something which I'd said quite awhile ago wanted to get you. Took me awhile to make the personalized carrior tho....

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    1. I've said it before, I'm dependent on a transition period where most of the people here still have the means to leave. It is a huge gamble, but not with long odds. As soon as the mines get into trouble, and they are huge infrastructure/operating costs ventures, the mass exodus begins. So, that is part of the ongoing financial collapse, not part of the die-off. Elko, 20k. Spring Creek ten miles down the road, then stretching another fifteen miles of densly packed two to five acre "ranches", another 10k. Those 10k too dependent on cheap fuel for commuting, and the 20k Elkoans too high on the cost of living to survive w/o the mines. And thanks for thinking of me, I'll look forward to the surprise ( what, you think my memory is any good? ).

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    2. Actually that scenario might play well, so long as it is a slow collapse.
      Sudden one however and you have ten thousand formerly over paid greedy miners who know nothing about survival except how to spend money.

      Lil hint...it's a bit brighter than the one I've had for twenty years and the quality seems a little less. Wanted one like mine but ya get what's currently offered . it'll do the job I'm sure....enjoy

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    3. Spud: Look at how Saddam Hussein fought the Iranians in the swamps while the fUSA was supporting him. He was way overmatched and fought them to a standstill while building elevated roads with the enemy bodies.

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    4. Hadn't thought of using the hoards bodies as fill...good idea !

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