Monday, July 8, 2019

farm costs 4


FARM COSTS 4
A reminder before I start. The following mostly pertains to lowland farming. Mountain dwellers face a different dynamic in that there is not the population to feed because they need less military forces to protect themselves. They can scale way down, which makes their job much easier Big Picture ( not to imply the lifestyle itself will be a piece of cake ). Flatlanders have much better land to work with, but other flatland armies want your land so you have to Go Big Or Go Home. Yet, both STILL need a lot of infrastructure to succeed.
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And of course this also applies to hermitages. The difference with a loner or a mountain tribe is that they are Generalists and usually in a flatland ( referred to a Farmers, as opposed to Mountaineers or Hermitages ) you need Specialists ( placing even more pressure for population growth hence expansion ). Up in the mountain you have enough folks to pool labor that the extra folks don't constitute much more resource pressure than a hermitage, but you also avoid the population pressure and hence can survive better off the residue of the collapsed civilization.
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Farming needs much more unique infrastructure that can only be Ready Made if you can keep the carbon fuels flowing. But this requires much more up front investment, both in the infrastructure and in food storage ( because you'll need explosive population growth to convert from Modern back down to Solar ). Whether you skip Modern and substitute food Storage for food Production, or do a two step, relying on Modern then building a Solar infrastructure but at the same time using Modern until it fails so as to put up surplus, the logistics here are going to be insane. I won't cover modern-you know that drill.
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Solar”, by the way, is plant and muscle power, only. Traditional farming, before coal or oil. You need to return to this as soon as possible, because relying on one tractor and one diminishing fuel supply ( or, increased use of that one tractor to plant even more fields for an ethanol supply ), is a recipe for Murphy's Law to reign supreme. Murphy is nobodies friend and a stern taskmaster. He and Darwin are best buddies, but if they invite you for a beer they are just setting you up to be the patsy.
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First, you need to clear more fields to feed your offensive livestock. Your horses need lots of pasture. Before industrialized equipment, it was pretty standard to have about a third of your land devoted to feeding your livestock. That is a lot of land to tend to have horse labor substitute for human muscle ( and you need horses for war, obviously ). Crowded societies such as in the Orient ( for instance, Japan, with limited lowlands ) would restrict horses for this reason of needed surplus land. Horses are not resource cheap.
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Next you need extra calories, and extra timber, which need extra fodder and calories, for defensive fortifications. And odds are this is NOT a One Off event. You'll need to provide maintenance and more structures for defense of expanded land. Everything you need, will require more land, which will require more infrastructure. It is a reinforced feedback loop. And you'll need to get your structures, after defending them, maximized in energy conservation. That probably means in most locations a dug-out, three sides buried and a roof cover. You are doing this or you'll never stay up to speed in timber.
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Fuel and timber are going to be constant needs ( remember, Go Big or Go Home. You need to expand, offensively and to fuel population increases needed to expand ). You need parties for wood gathering, with most likely a military force protecting them ( as you will if scavenging is practical. Not food or ammo gathering, as all those resources go immediately, but mostly building material scavenging. Window pane and aluminum, and probably copper with some PVC pipe if archery needs show quickly. Automobile stripping, perhaps ). Your man power needs will surprise you, necessitating more land use.
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Which will probably lead to quick farm yield decline. Even with lands set aside for organic material harvesting for soil conditioning, most likely the land you are farming wasn't reconditioned from artificial fertilizer application and overuse, and you can't slow down on current use because of expansion pressures. Yields will fall, necessitating MORE clearance and military expansion. Plus, if you need nitrates for weapons, that is less fertilizer into the soil. Needing new soil because of overuse is THE common denominator in imperial collapse. Well, also expansion in the first place. Even before The War Of Yankee Aggression And Colonization And Industrial Pillage, the US faced massive pressure because of yield decline.
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Which brings up slavery. Don't automatically discount it because your Puritan Elite appointed school teacher insisted that slavery only started ( and had to be ended ) with the Southern Confederacy. Slavery is as normal as the kings that benefited from their use. Remember, to raise a farmer from conception to Farm Implement, you need a good half million calories a year for at least a dozen years. Six million calories, minimum. A bushel of wheat is 60 pounds, 90,000 calories. An acre yields, what? About thirty bushel to a Solar Farmer?
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Each slave is about a free two and a half acres of wheat, if they are at least twelve years old. Are you REALLY going to NOT have slaves when your enemies do, and it translates into a military advantage? Besides, what else are you going to do with POW's? They will be put to work, in chains. Call them POW's, but they are just re-named slaves. And even if you saved two plus acres of grain getting rather than raising a slave, they still need to be fed now. More land. Which all needs more infrastructure.
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You might REALLY want to rethink farming unless you are up in the hills. And you can forget having a tribe up in the hills unless you provide the food and ammo for them. Unless you are are already forming a tribe up in the hills that are already installing infrastructure as homesteaders, in which case SOME of the needed food storage can be substituted with current self-sufficiency production. Most likely, they will still need at least one years food storage ( a huge savings ) and some bulk ammo. Then it goes from twenty grand for your hillbilly buddies multi-family unit to more like under five thousand.
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Of course, that is NOT assuming semi-auto militia porn stars, but more guerrillas with limited ammo fighting. You don't even want to start in on a discussion on the arsenal bill for a lowlands farming tribe. Let's just say even Rawles couldn't afford it. Tribe is preferable. Tribe is also an expense, no matter what you do. Just be realistic in your plans, whatever they may be.
( .Y. )
( today's related Amazon link click HERE )
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note: the movie Airplane II pretty much blows.  Mostly recycled jokes from the original far better film. The funniest part was when nobody was panicked over crashing but as soon as they announced the coffee was running out, everyone freaked :)  However, I thought the beginning was very interesting for the following sight gags.  Airport security is looking at the X-Ray monitors and checking out boobs.  While terrorists board with weapons, grandma is harassed and searched by security.  And the Catholic priest is an obvious pedophile.  The movie was released in 1983.  
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29 comments:

  1. In reality, PVC pipe bows blow and are not very good in the long term. They are grossly underpowered and very suseptible to the sun. After a very short time they will become brittle and break. Maybe for a short term they'd be viable for small game.
    On the other hand a self bow made of one piece wood is reliable and can be extremely powerful. Wood is going to be available over the long term too. Along with wood for shafts.
    Being a Bowure or bow maker will be a good trade to know. Along with the art of string making from natural fibers.

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    1. I was envisioning more of an immediate need to arm a lot of troops. Of course, you are absolutely correct on everything. This would be more of a stopgap. Once the fighting is over and you have breathing room, build real weapons ( think of it as the last ditch troops of peasants armed with hoes and racks, the masses armed with crappy bows ).

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    2. I seem to recall that the backyard bowyer was producing 50lb PVC bows? Though he might have had to insert one piece into another in order to get to that poundage that he claimed. Agree that long term, wooden bows are better. He also shows you how to make a red oak bow from a board. This is the easiest wooden bow to make, so pre-collapse, select as many quality red oak boards as you can.

      The next bow to make, the traditional bow made from a tree stave, is no meant feat, and is a skill in and of itself. The grain has to be perfectly selected. You must also choose the right wood for the right bow. As an example, Osage Orange is a wonderful bow making wood, however it is very dense, hence, slow firing in a long bow configuration. That’s why the plains indians used short plains bows made from this particular wood. The English used yew for long bows, which apparently is a difficult wood to find for bow making now. You will need to tiller it (shape the limbs) properly (same as the bow board above) in which case a draw knife is a handy item to have. This is actually harder than it sounds.

      As far as making string from sinew or fiber, I know it’s possible, but I’d be a liar if I said that I thought that I could do it (Hint: Unless you are more capable than I, you’d better have a big ass spool of dacron set aside)

      https://www.amazon.com/Traditional-Bowyers-Bible-Jim-Hamm/dp/1721670076

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    3. On the bright side, what else are you going to do all winter but work on string and arrows? :)

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    4. Engaging in relations with numerous nubile young maidens, whose beta male mates, dropped dead 5 minutes into the collapse? I’m hoping to be like Roman from Big Love :D

      Nah, I don’t know who it is that I think I’m trying to BS. I need a little blue pill just to get Mr Johnson to stand at attention these days. It would be more like that episode of the twilight zone where the world ends, and the penguin (Burgess Meredith) has the library all to himself, and plenty of time to read, and then breaks his only pair of spectacles :D

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    5. The best of the TZ nuclear themed shows. Perhaps the best of all of them.

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    6. BTW , I do have a large stock of Dacron. Hundreds of shafts, points and broadheads too. Spare bearings ,cams, peeps , serving and more lol.
      I suck with a traditional bow, my wife is the expert with those...however a compound is my game. Tho I do have a few recurves...

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  2. For the terrain of Nevada a parallel course would be like the afghani hill tribes of small goat sheep type herders, and occasional garden plot farmer. Staying above 6,000 ft and avoiding population hives would be an ideal course of action deeper into the collapse period. No matter which redoubter unicorn cavalry route one goes, the stepping off point is years+ of food and kit to begin with. Then the running around with camo war face painted wielding flir rifles games can begin.

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    1. You know, I never thought about it. I wonder if finally settling down in one place ( Nevada ) was also influenced by my youthful infatuation with Afghan guerrilla fighters. I already knew I was influenced with my food ( wheat flatbread ) and weapon ( Lee-Enfield ). I wonder if subconsciously I was drawn to similar terrain? Interesting.

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    2. I am going to pick up the dark blood red dye, so as to start dyeing my beard a dogma pronouncing color and begin some tribal customs.

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  3. Bison,
    I admire your adherence to a land-based stationary home... and far inland at that. I think you paint a clear picture of the incredible plant-based resources needed to build and maintain that with limited human resources. Although the inevitable dumbing of the inbred tribe and nutrient loss from depleted soils could be an issue.

    Around here in the south Willamette Valley near the outskirts of hanging-on-by-its-fingernails Eugene in hanging-on-by-its-fingernails Oregon in hanging-on-by-its-fingernails fUSA, we are continually fine-tuning our coastal/island mobile floating abilities. We are developing a nice little group of like-minded folk with an increasing living 'library' of skills and traditions.

    Our worst concern is infiltration by politicians. Managers. Administrators. Preachers. Internet bloggers and pasty chubby shut-ins living in their grandparent's poolhouse. And other do-nothing resource guzzlers.

    Fortunately, a few loving slaps upside their heads clears the room for New! Fresh! Tasty! thoughts to take root.

    And we realize not everybody is adaptable to mobility. Or fresh seafood every day. Or whacking a bear or elk as it meanders along the shore.

    Not everybody requires an endless supply of glacier-fed fresh clean drinking water.

    Or the heart-warming vistas around the next in an endless series of uninhabited islands, the waves gently caressing us to a peaceful slumber each evening as our full tummies happily digest our supper of fresh healthy sea vegetables and stews from ingredients harvested from our guerrilla gardens.

    Not everybody is cut-out for the good life. Somebody needs to drudge along, paranoid, suspicious, hoarding meager supplies, dancing the rain dance to nourish their stationary cropland. I think those are noble goals... for somebody else.

    I jest. We're all going to die. I read it in Ecclesiastes, so it must be true. According to those old-timers, The Goal seems to be the amount of nookie in the short sweet time between dust and dust. Show of hands, are you doing your share?

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    1. The Nevada high desert was a miserable place to live for Digger Indians. Now we have sheep and horses, which makes this a nice moated island from which to stage raids. Added bonus-once the mines collapse no one wants to come here, as they are all brainwashed to grow broccoli and covet shade trees.

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    2. Some anthropologists believe based on fossil evidence that during the ice age that the few humans who survived did so by living next to the sea and using it as a food source.

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    3. And they can do so again. With tasty Fukishima seasoning.

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    4. OK. I give up.

      I bow to superior pessimism.

      Who needs fish oil in their diet? Not me!
      Who needs warm lovely sandy beaches? Not me!
      Who needs bronzed gods and goddesses fetching me a Pina Coloda to quench my thirst? Not me.
      Who needs to be surrounded by tiny swim-suits... or no swim-suits? N

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    5. Wait, I didn't mention atomized plastics. Or the fact most of the population converges to within thirty miles of the sea. You'll have iodine going for you of course.

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  4. Hey Jim, sorry I haven't commented in a while, but I have been letting my phone bill slide while I worked on some things.

    Farming gets even harder if you buy junk land,there is a reason it is so cheap. In my case the land I bought contains spoils from a failed subdivision in the late 40s and even now barely grows anything but blackberries and kudzu. I have a small garden in but since I don't irrigate it is a bit pitiful.

    It does give me hope, but next year I plan to change crops to more ancient ones, Amaranth grows here and I want to try Jerusalem Artichokes. Maybe Tepary beans. I want things that will grow by me sticking a sharp stick in the ground rather than digging up by shovel.

    By the way,kudzu is becoming my friend, it is a tasty green and there are miles of it around me. Boil it in water once and eat it, unlike most other greens. The roots are supposed to be edible but all the ones I found didn't look too good to me.I plan to look into that more.

    If nothing else,I have these basics to support goats and rabbits,but hate to get tied down, water being the main issue.

    I am looking at bees. At least they go get their own grub and water and I can trade the honey, plus they make an imposing deterrent to those trying to sneak in.

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    1. Kudzu wine Organic kudzu juice for the health club Yuppies? :)

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    2. Yeah, I just always assumed that with my junk land, everything that I produce with regards to husbandry would be very small scale. I was thinking more in terms of having a few raised boxes, with brought in soil. One idea that I had, was to recycle urine for garden use. The urine would go into a solar still, and as the water molecules separate from the waste, they would trickle through a drip system on to the plants. I figured that I would do the same with the melt off from the ice in my ice box. Though if it were filtered, it might make more sense to drink the water first, then send it to the solar still for garden use second.

      @Wrenchr2. I have looked into keeping bees before, and to my surprise, it’s apparently very difficult to make any money doing it. Though that might have changed more recently, due to the shortage of bees in recent years. But if you’re only doing for your own consumption, then it makes sense either way.

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    3. Bees need a source of water that they can drink from multiple times per day, just like you do. The water needs to be relatively stationary so they can drink without danger of being washed away. It needs to be as close to their hive as possible. If you have nightly dew, that will help for the morning, but during the day when the dew evaporates, they'll need another source. The reason the water should be as close as possible to the hive in order to shorten the amount of time necessary to go get it. For example, bees CAN fly up to five miles from the hive in order to look for food, but it also shortens the lifespan of a worker bee to about three weeks due to how stressful it is on them. This reduces the likelihood that the hive will survive the winter.
      Peace out

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    4. Something I never thought about. Interesting, thanks.

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    5. 3:58-I think the system is set up that very few folks can make money doing much of anything cottage industry. Do what the Mountain Guerrilla Dude does, just turn surplus into mead. Then you won't care if you lose money :)

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    6. I actually do think that bees are probably worth the trouble regardless Jim. But when I went to some bee keeping forums, more than a few members mentioned that in order to make any money at it, you had to do it all. In other words, you needed to sell the honey, the wax, the bees, as well as place the hives (i.e. bee keepers often place their hives near farmers orchards, for pollination purposes).

      Now this was a few years ago, and bees seem to be in trouble as a species, so maybe that’s all changed now.

      Personally, I wouldn’t bother keeping bees or raising animals, but that’s just me. I only plan on having whatever limited garden the Elko desert allows for me to have. As someone that has an animal nut as a mother, and after stepping on, and smearing all over the god damn carpet, the 1 millionth animal shit, I drew the line on having animals :D That, and the billions of flies that they draw.

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  5. Just working on a new strategy for my current location. Totally by accident I managed to put myself within 2 min drive, 20 min walk, of a stocked fresh water dam and tidal salt water estuary.

    The walk to the estuary passes about 5 native trees that produce bush tucker. I know that they do, I just don't know how to realise it just yet. Again, something I can work on. My plan is to plant a few fruit trees on the routes I will be taking if I'm on foot (I have been doing this in area's I go 4WD ... lol I make it out like I'm doing something exciting. Basically all I do is fire trails).

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    1. Keep telling yourself how exciting it is, to prolong the onset of insanity :)

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  6. Animals are force multipliers. Historically, a family with a couple of horses or oxen could farm forty acres. Maybe ten or fifteen was in "woods". The remaining 25 or 30 acres would have a rotation where one third was some kind of forage that could be grazed AND a first cutting of hay taken off of. If the forage crop was a legume like red clover then it added Nitrogen back into the soil for the lead-off part of the rotation, usually corn.

    Lets keep the math simple. Forty acres, ten in trees and a three year rotation with two of the years (twenty acres) in crops that can directly feed humans.

    A family without a horse might be able to farm two acres. If land was available for the taking, who is going to do better? The family who can only farm two acres or the family who can extract food from twenty or thirty acres?

    Even the ten acres of woods can used to run hogs or hunted or nuts, apples, persimmons etc can be harvested. Harvesting from wild can be time and labor intensive. Better to let animals harvest and then eat the hams or trap the wildlife. Traps work 24/7.

    It is easy to get sucked into the fantasy that the homesteader will have huge amounts of time to engage in crafty activities of low productivity. If the situation becomes real there will never be enough time and the ability to "manage" will always be in short supply. Livestock that is well adapted to the resource base can be close to a launch-and-forget crop, almost like a fish wheel or a gill net.

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    1. Oh, no doubt about it with the animals. The costs come in protecting those animals. In terms of extra activities, militia training is about as "low productivity craft" as you can get. It needs to be done but as far as your land is concerned adds nothing.

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  7. "Which brings up slavery. Don't automatically discount it...."

    Why I just CAN'T stay away.
    What will Jim write tomorrow?
    ROFLMAO!

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  8. Tomorrows goodness is geriatric fighters. Not sure I have any great one liners. Still, as every day, pearls before swine. :)

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