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I have thought about this (but done nothing, partially because I don't have the resources). This is my thinking too. Not just for you though, you need to be ab

I have thought about this (but done nothing, partially because I don't have the resources). This is my thinking too. Not just for you though, you need to be able to feed a self sustaining community (probably 100 or more people). Considered also taking some technological stores too. Water tech, refined metal stocks, manual and lower tech power tools. Maybe even some spare solar panels, inverters, battery electrolytes. Though I haven't thought deeply enough to actually work out any timescales for the size of stocks required. Picking the right climate is probably the most important part though. Even if there is great change, some places are still going to be more arable than others, and surely that is at least partially predictable.

javajosh 9y ago
Yeah surviving an apocalypse is like settling a new, mostly terraformed planet. Sounds almost fun if you put it that way!
Yetanfou 9y ago
Putting all this effort into something which most likely will not come to pass in your or your children's lifetime is not constructive and will eventually sap the energy and resource needed to stay 'prepared'. May I suggest taking up a lifestyle at this time and more or less in the place you are - assuming you're not in some jam-packed city where all hope is lost the moment society does break down for some time (New Orleans during Katarina is a good example of what will happen)? If you do live in such a place and will not consider to move out of it this won't work but if you have some space around you which you can call your own it makes sense to start using it in a productive way by growing something useful. Dig a well if you can, a dug well is more reliable than a deep-drilled one as you can get water when the power fails (which it does quite often where I live out in the Swedish countryside thanks to storms or careless snow plough drivers and such). If you don't live in a forested area you can start planting trees on less productive or hard to till soil, you'll need between 2 and 4 hectares to keep a house with around 200m2 of living area warmed to today's standards, less if you make the wise decision to lower them a bit. This does assume you have a wood-burning stove and cooking stove, of course - get those and use them regularly. Plant some fruit trees, berry bushes, a plot of potatoes (which you'll have to move around year after year as you should not grow potatoes in soil which carried them the year before or the one before that), root vegetables, easy stuff. For fun and profit you can add hops which will allow you to brew beer if you can get hold of barley - you could grow it yourself but it takes a lot of land and is a lot of work if you do everything by hand. Just make sure to think in practical terms, you're not trying to relive some Swiss Family Robinson fantasy but trying to live in a way which makes you and yours less dependent on the intricate workings of society, irrespective of whether any doomsday-scenario ever comes to pass or not. The less dependent you are of the trappings of 'modern' live, the less you'll suffer for the loss of such. I saved the best bit for the end: you'll most likely be happier in the here and now by becoming more self-reliant and less dependent on 'modern' society and its... lures. That does not mean you have to become a Luddite or back-to-the-land hippy, it just means you won't feel lost by not being part of the herd which follows the latest craze, sports the latest gizmos and relishes in the latest fad. It also means you won't need to think about 'prepping' anymore, just like people who cycle to work won't need to think about going to the gym to get some exercise as they made it part of their normal life.
- bamboozled 9y ago
  > The less dependent you are of the trappings of 'modern' live, the less you'll suffer for the loss of such. I hear what you're saying; However, it's mostly pointless. Climate change will eat up survivalists and off the grid types just like everyone else. What will you do when antibiotics are no longer available or your crops fail due to fire or drought (more likely now)? Not really hating on your approach or comment, I just think people would be better off writing their senate representatives about addressing climate change or attending a peaceful rally rather than hedging their bets on going bush to survive the apocalypse.
  - hvidgaard 9y ago
    Learning to cultivate the land and live from it without depending on income and buying food is in and of itself something you can practice, with the benefit of greater health and reduced cost of living. The "benefit" of being "prepared" for doomsday is at best secondary to that. I find i fascinating that I produce the best tasting peas in my garden, and it all originated from a small pea my son got from school. If I give a single pea to a modern person in the city, they most likely wouldn't have any idea of what to do with it.
  - Yetanfou 9y ago
    Well, I don't really expect climate change to eat up me or mine. I live too high to be flooded, to far to the north to be fried, in a country with a low population density, on a farm with 21 hectares of land (7 hectare of which is under tillage, the rest forest). The climate may change, driven by whatever process - be it anthropogenic, natural fluctuation, diminished solar output or (most likely) a combination of these and other factors - but I do not see this lead to the disaster scenario you just sketched. The potential loss of antibiotics (which is wholly unrelated to the disaster scenario this discussion started with) would be annoying but not directly life-threatening. The chance of crops failing here due to drought is very small as nearly all scenarios with regard to climate change show the amount of precipitation in my area (currently around 900 mm/year) to increase instead of decrease.
- Arbalest 9y ago

javajosh 9y ago

Yeah surviving an apocalypse is like settling a new, mostly terraformed planet. Sounds almost fun if you put it that way!

Yetanfou 9y ago

Putting all this effort into something which most likely will not come to pass in your or your children's lifetime is not constructive and will eventually sap the energy and resource needed to stay 'prepared'. May I suggest taking up a lifestyle at this time and more or less in the place you are - assuming you're not in some jam-packed city where all hope is lost the moment society does break down for some time (New Orleans during Katarina is a good example of what will happen)? If you do live in such a place and will not consider to move out of it this won't work but if you have some space around you which you can call your own it makes sense to start using it in a productive way by growing something useful. Dig a well if you can, a dug well is more reliable than a deep-drilled one as you can get water when the power fails (which it does quite often where I live out in the Swedish countryside thanks to storms or careless snow plough drivers and such). If you don't live in a forested area you can start planting trees on less productive or hard to till soil, you'll need between 2 and 4 hectares to keep a house with around 200m2 of living area warmed to today's standards, less if you make the wise decision to lower them a bit. This does assume you have a wood-burning stove and cooking stove, of course - get those and use them regularly. Plant some fruit trees, berry bushes, a plot of potatoes (which you'll have to move around year after year as you should not grow potatoes in soil which carried them the year before or the one before that), root vegetables, easy stuff. For fun and profit you can add hops which will allow you to brew beer if you can get hold of barley - you could grow it yourself but it takes a lot of land and is a lot of work if you do everything by hand. Just make sure to think in practical terms, you're not trying to relive some Swiss Family Robinson fantasy but trying to live in a way which makes you and yours less dependent on the intricate workings of society, irrespective of whether any doomsday-scenario ever comes to pass or not. The less dependent you are of the trappings of 'modern' live, the less you'll suffer for the loss of such. I saved the best bit for the end: you'll most likely be happier in the here and now by becoming more self-reliant and less dependent on 'modern' society and its... lures. That does not mean you have to become a Luddite or back-to-the-land hippy, it just means you won't feel lost by not being part of the herd which follows the latest craze, sports the latest gizmos and relishes in the latest fad. It also means you won't need to think about 'prepping' anymore, just like people who cycle to work won't need to think about going to the gym to get some exercise as they made it part of their normal life.

bamboozled 9y ago
> The less dependent you are of the trappings of 'modern' live, the less you'll suffer for the loss of such. I hear what you're saying; However, it's mostly pointless. Climate change will eat up survivalists and off the grid types just like everyone else. What will you do when antibiotics are no longer available or your crops fail due to fire or drought (more likely now)? Not really hating on your approach or comment, I just think people would be better off writing their senate representatives about addressing climate change or attending a peaceful rally rather than hedging their bets on going bush to survive the apocalypse.
- hvidgaard 9y ago
  Learning to cultivate the land and live from it without depending on income and buying food is in and of itself something you can practice, with the benefit of greater health and reduced cost of living. The "benefit" of being "prepared" for doomsday is at best secondary to that. I find i fascinating that I produce the best tasting peas in my garden, and it all originated from a small pea my son got from school. If I give a single pea to a modern person in the city, they most likely wouldn't have any idea of what to do with it.
- Yetanfou 9y ago
  Well, I don't really expect climate change to eat up me or mine. I live too high to be flooded, to far to the north to be fried, in a country with a low population density, on a farm with 21 hectares of land (7 hectare of which is under tillage, the rest forest). The climate may change, driven by whatever process - be it anthropogenic, natural fluctuation, diminished solar output or (most likely) a combination of these and other factors - but I do not see this lead to the disaster scenario you just sketched. The potential loss of antibiotics (which is wholly unrelated to the disaster scenario this discussion started with) would be annoying but not directly life-threatening. The chance of crops failing here due to drought is very small as nearly all scenarios with regard to climate change show the amount of precipitation in my area (currently around 900 mm/year) to increase instead of decrease.
Arbalest 9y ago