Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

[Ophidia]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

I can hunt, fish & forage. I can shoot a gun or bow at least in the general direction of food or threats. I can live without electricity and hot water, but I'm not happy about it. Right now our heater has frozen up & I'm terribly annoyed. So for me the question isn't really can I survive, but would I given the choice?

I'd probably opt out. Convenience & comfort are what I live for, not pitting myself against the elements.

[Madness]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

I guess I fall into a different camp. I wouldn't be living in the wilderness. I'd be living on a farm with goats, chickens, ducks and a vegetable garden. We'd end up having to do things quite a bit different with no electricity and only feed grown on the land there. But the excess animals would quickly get turned into meat and we'd keep a manageable herd for the land. Water is the biggest issue. We've got a great well...with an electric pump. We are working on solar power but don't have it installed yet. We actually do have an oil well on the property with the level so high you can just dip a can in it. We've put it straight into a diesel engine and it runs fine. So maybe we should just invest in a diesel generator! That oil well would last us forever...wonder how long the generator would last!

[Moonravenstar]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

I would hope that I would survive, but right now just relying on my spirit help and listen to them

[DanieMarie]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

You don't need running water to have hot water! You just need a big tub, some pots and a fire.

I lived my hot water heater broken for a month once (and several weeks here and there) in my old place, and yes, it sucked. But in a pinch I could still take a shallow, hot bath by heating up water in large pots and pouring it in. It's too much of a pain for every day, but a nice treat here and there!

I think, without running water, people would have to use grey water a lot more. Like, if you bathe, you can't afford to just toss that water...you have to use it to rinse stuff out and water your tomatoes. Possibly even re-boil it and use it to clean.

[Ophidia]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

You don't need running water to have hot water! You just need a big tub, some pots and a fire.

You might just need a big tub, some pots & a fire, lol.

It's not that I cannot make hot water, I just don't want to have to manually heat water or figure out some way of carrying waste products away from my home when the city water system no longer works. I'm pretty obsessed w/being able to thoroughly wash my hands in hot water several times a day, along w/the daily shower, and flushing toilets and a refrigerator. Safe food & relatively hygienic surroundings are important to me. I don't do 'roughing it' and my idea of a camp-out is a hotel with no room service. I had to live without basic necessities so much as a kid & into my early 20s that now, 20 years later... if I have a choice I'm not doing it. Call me lazy, self-indulgent or spoiled, but I work hard for my ability to buy light bulbs & pay my gas bill.

Besides, for every person who opts out of surviving the apocalypse, that means one less person scrounging for resources. Unless it's a zombie apocalypse, in which case it's one more zombie scrounging for tender, sweet, fatty braaaiiiinnnnnssss.

[Dufonce]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

i myself watched discovery channels "The Colony" so i now know how to harvest wind energy, make alcohol, snare small game, build a forge, filter/sanitize water, build a tesla coil, and make biofuel to run in diesel engines... also how to build a generator/power system with car batteries, an engine, and an alternator... and before i watched that show i already was good at figuring things out, inventing things out of scraps from other things, and love camping/surivival stuff anyway... ill be chillin in someone else's beach home.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

You might just need a big tub, some pots & a fire, lol.

It's not that I cannot make hot water, I just don't want to have to manually heat water or figure out some way of carrying waste products away from my home when the city water system no longer works. I'm pretty obsessed w/being able to thoroughly wash my hands in hot water several times a day, along w/the daily shower, and flushing toilets and a refrigerator. Safe food & relatively hygienic surroundings are important to me. I don't do 'roughing it' and my idea of a camp-out is a hotel with no room service. I had to live without basic necessities so much as a kid & into my early 20s that now, 20 years later... if I have a choice I'm not doing it. Call me lazy, self-indulgent or spoiled, but I work hard for my ability to buy light bulbs & pay my gas bill.

Besides, for every person who opts out of surviving the apocalypse, that means one less person scrounging for resources. Unless it's a zombie apocalypse, in which case it's one more zombie scrounging for tender, sweet, fatty braaaiiiinnnnnssss.

Haha fair enough.

I'm sort of the least paranoid person for that sort of thing. I keep things clean, but treat expiry dates as more of a suggestion than a rule. I wash stuff, but I'm not super obsessed with it being sparkling clean either. I use grey water to water plants and don't really mind hauling it to the garden. I prefer to be able to have running hot water (man do I prefer it) but in a pinch I have done without. I even spent 4 months without a washing machine once and washed everything (even sheets) by hand. But I'm also the type who thinks sleeping outside is awesome and loves going out in the summer to pick berries in the bushes. I grew up playing in an empty lot (which, where I'm from, was like a mini forest) and in the forest so getting a bit dirty doesn't really bother me haha. When I go visit home one of the things I'm really looking forward to is going into the bush to go hiking, picking salmonberries (they're bitter so no one really picks them, but they make great cakes and things!) and huckleberries and possibly camping (if I can convince my mom to do it).

[Ophidia]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

I used to love to go berry picking until I found out about the fuchsbandwurm. Wild dogs be pooping everywhere.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

I used to love to go berry picking until I found out about the fuchsbandwurm. Wild dogs be pooping everywhere.

including fields of commercially farmed produce

[Ophidia]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

including fields of commercially farmed produce

True, but with all the pesticides, fungicides & other -cides used on them, the fuchsbandwurm doesn't stand much of a chance of propagating. I'd rather live a shorter life due to better living through modern chemistry than have a liver riddled with organically produced & grown worms.

/shudder

__________________________________________________ ________________

Actually, who am I trying to fool? Even if I wanted to survive an apocalypse, I couldn't. I just started thinking about it, and even with all my years of pouring over herbal medicine tomes, gathering, picking, planting and using myself as a guinea pig...

I can't think of a single herb that effectively acts as an ACE inhibitor, calcium-channel blocker or alpha-2 adrenergic agonist.

In the event of an apocalypse, once the pharmacies are out of my blood pressure meds (or whatever current warlord hoards them all away), it's hello stroke-ville for me. I already experienced that potential outcome once because I couldn't get a freaking prescription refilled in time. Imagine if there were no more pharmacies or pharmacists.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

I'd just have to make sure I didn't eat a pea, bean or peanut. I'd be in some luck though...soy isn't grown much in Europe (neither are peanuts for that matter) and I'm pretty sure the global trade of them would stop pretty fast. Avoiding peas and beans is a lot easier with homemade food.

[Ophidia]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

I'd just have to make sure I didn't eat a pea, bean or peanut. I'd be in some luck though...soy isn't grown much in Europe (neither are peanuts for that matter) and I'm pretty sure the global trade of them would stop pretty fast. Avoiding peas and beans is a lot easier with homemade food.

At least those are some easily recognized plants. My husband's always asking me how people knew what was safe to eat or what could be used for medicine... It's weird to think that modern people have pretty much lost their instinctive knowledge of what constitutes food.

[Taliesyn]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

I was raised hunting, gardening, canning food, backpacking, learning wild plants for food and medicine, so yeah- I think We'd be fine, as long as crazy humans left us alone.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

Fortunately, I can eat road kill without getting any sicker than I need to. I guess I have a survival advantage...

[DanieMarie]

Re: Aftermath..Question:Could you really survive.

At least those are some easily recognized plants. My husband's always asking me how people knew what was safe to eat or what could be used for medicine... It's weird to think that modern people have pretty much lost their instinctive knowledge of what constitutes food.

Yeah...it's not too hard to learn though. Where I grew up they used to teach us, because so many people go hiking and stuff and it's important to know if you get lost. We learned a bit in school, and also I learned in Girl Guides.