What to use for future trade?

I wasn't attacking you, or your post (or Watcherchris). I apologize if it sounded like that. I actually laughed at the "train them from young" line since I feel the type of woman who makes a good prepper and partner is inherently that kind of person. Not something trainable.

My point was more that there are woman out there that are not Watcherchris's high maintenance problem description. But I will be the first to agree that many can be air headed idiots no matter how much the feminist in me would like to deny that.

 

Rebecca,

LOL LOL LOL...good question you have posed here...an excellent question.

I knew there were women on here when I posted.

A Cosmo Woman....


I will occasionally go out and buy Cosmopolitan Magazine and take the quizzes...little changes out there in Cosmo magazine...

Next best thing to a television and or movie education.



Agree with you here Texdanm....agree..

Took me years to figure this out...I was so ignorant about much out here.

Women taught me this ...not men..


Watcherchris
Not an Ishmaelite.

 

Picked up brake pads for my truck and car.....also brake shoes for the rear of the car.

Awaiting the rear shoes for the truck

Also have picked up spare belts for the same two vehicles....serpentine and the AC belt for my truck.....two each.


Also spare variator belts for my two most used scooters...one of which is come due for changing. Bummer when one is across town on the scooter and the belt breaks...

Will be looking into tires for the two most used scooters soon...two complete sets...


There is no woman and children here....so those complexities do not apply to me...


Something is telling me to get some spares for these particular vehicles now....

Also plan to get one each alternator for these two vehicles....



Sure wish I had a good liberated feminist woman of equality who could and would "Flashdance " me through these obstacles...run touchdowns with her earnings and as a career...without work and without risk....on my part...while I am sitting in my lazy boy with a cold one in my hands and working very very hard with the remote controller or my cell phone!!!!!

"Oh what a feeling!!!!"


Watcherchris
Not an Ishmaelte.

 

Precious metals should be a part of anyone's portfolio as one can afford it.
The most important priorities should always be considered first.
Water, food, shelter, clothing, ammunition, and a weapon for protection/ hunting, and a safe location should always be primary prepper goals. However, some form of money is important as well.
This is where precious metals come in. A small amount of gold, even if it is in the form of jewelry could be a lifesaver. Silver is also a form of currency that has been used for thousands of years.
In an economic collapse scenario any barter items one has accrued will become very important.
Wealthier traders will most likely always accept gold or silver in their bartering trades. One's 14K gold class ring could possibly buy them three hens and a rooster, and the cage they are in, with the right trader.

 

Rebecca, I didn't feel attacked. I just wanted to make sure that you and any other ladies understood that I don't automatically assume that a woman is less than me just because she is a woman. There ARE differences but I think that most of those differences are culturally based and are changing now. It is a hard time to be a woman. My mother was raised at a time where women could always change their minds, a "lady" didn't fight, the "place" of a woman was in the home and taking care of the kids and her husband. I taught my daughter how to fight, I did my best to teach her honor because if a woman is going to work in a man's world they need to understand the rules. In business, you can't change your mind all the time and if your word isn't good people will stop doing business with you. I did my very best to prepare my daughter for a different world than my mother had lived in. I guess it worked she is very successful in a place that had no women just a few decades ago. My wife is also a very successful woman and I will take credit for a lot of that. My Grand Daughter will be a woman that My Mama wouldn't ever understand and the equal of any man.

 

Preppers are prepping as to how primitive they envision the future and the longevity of the collapse of society . Thus why some think trading will be done and some even depend on that surmises as to their and their families survival . Lone Wolf and I will " NOT " be depending on someone else to be willing to trade with us for our survival or the survival of anyone that depends on us . I wonder who else on here will not be depending on what someone else has for their survival . That could be looked at as " LoneWolf and I have over prepped " . That very well could be but I had rather be over prepped than under prepped .

 

Good morning Poltiregist,

Place me on list that I will not be relying on any trade.

My major "concern" and weakness is having the needed RX pharmaceuticals.

If not in our inventory, it is too late.

It is safer to display a pinky diamond and Breitling emergency model transponder wristwatch than precious metals.

 

Precious Metals/PM s are just another form of barter..

I also have silver rods put away for my colloidal silver generator. I can also use silver bars if needed for this.

One need not have PM's put away ...one can also barter skills...


When money becomes worthless...people will naturally create a money.....

Whatever is most swappable ....in demand....by virtue of being the most swappable will become money.


Sooner or later...people will re establish trade and by this ...a form of money...whatever is most swappable.


Hence at one time and in some places .....Salt...is recorded as being used as money.
Some of you might want to think about this while Salt is still inexpensive and very available..


But overall..and through history .....gold, silver , and copper for the smaller purchases has become money....the most swappable.


Watcherchris
Not an Ishmaelite

 

Another twist to this topic . Under starvation conditions young mothers will not be producing as much milk as in normal times . Motherly instinct will be there for most of these mothers . They very well would trade every piece of jewelry , gold , silver and their own selves and perhaps the fathers left nut for some milk for that starving infant . I would be interested in hearing from our female members on whether my surmises is correct . I plan to have plenty of goat milk but especially at my age would be more prone to give them the milk for free over insisting on sexual favors but might consider the jewelry , gold and silver even though that might be worthless . I really don't have much use for a left nut either . That is " Not " a trade plan of mine but thought it might be an interesting point to bring up .

 

Seems with humans, that having some sort of currency is genetic. God knows that evolution selects for those who are good merchants -- smart enough, wily enough, willingness to be leagued with a survivable human pack (just like wolves).

https://www.wired.com/2008/01/the-evolution-o/
.
.

 

Unless there is coming a plague that kills 9,999 out of 10,000 people, there will remain pockets of people who will form communities.

I believe that what is coming will leave very many communities functioning -- especially agricultural communities who also have among them people who work on equipment. America has pumped so much oil back into the ground that it's almost peculiar.

My dad spoke of coal-fired steam buses he rode in England during WWII
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-b...l-fired-steam-bus-martha-on-its-12287255.html

In Southern Appalachia, a whole lot of water-wheel mills exist to this day. There are innumerable places and communities named after the mills that blanketed the place.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=water+wheel+mills+of+southern+Appalachia&atb=v140-1&iax=images&ia=images

Every hollar has its creek. The "poor folk" of my region can make all manner of things out of scrap and by-God they do. Jerry-rigging is the order of the day where I'm from. Welders abound. People jerry-rig every-damned-thing.

During hard times, cattle will not be eaten, they will be used as draft animals. A good ox can plow a whole lotta land. Where I'm from, there's plenty of wild feed for ungulates. The ground is full of manure, which is to say fertilizer. It really stinks when the farmers fertilize their fields using cow sh##.

A whole lot of homes in the South are still heated with oil (kerosene). Times go bad, they'll switch to their wood stoves and use the kerosene for more-needed purposes.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=home+oil+tanks&atb=v140-1&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

Turpentine, pine-oil, use as bio-fuel
https://reeis.usda.gov/web/crisproj...-of-turpentine-as-a-biofuel-for-aviation.html
.

 

In the cities and 'burbs, there may be nothing for which to trade. If there is no food, then there is no food.

From my little garden, we're getting too much zucchini already. Dang stack in the fridge. We grow a white-striped variety that is very sweet -- their skin is striped like a watermelon, indeed some folk call them watermelon zucchini. We're giving it away to coworkers. Banana peppers and tomatoes starting to come in. Bell peppers starting. Hot peppers will take a while more.

Still have preserves from last year.

City-folk call us "hicks". Post SHTF, I'll call them "dead".

 

Best barter will be ammo. Many farmers have ammo, but not enough. That can be rectified.

Worked with a guy who was into rodeo and as a boy worked for ranchers/farmers. Meat shortage came around in the latter 1970s. Ranchers would pay him to guard their herds. At night he'd sit in barn lofts with his lever .35 Remington. By-God, this fellow would open up on bag guys.
.

 

I have extras of a few things put aside for the possibility of trade: can openers, knives I don't like, basic first aid items etc. But in truth I don't see trade happening for a long time. It will be even longer before I am willing to take the kind of risk trade would involve. By the time trade happens safely I imagine it may initially revolve around food. My canned peaches for your dried fish kind of trade.

Personally I can't help you there, maybe Blitz or another can comment. I don't have children and currently have not intentiom of changing that any time soon. What I can say is that it won't just be starvation affecting mothers ability to produce milk. Extreme stress (like TEOTWAWKI will cause), depression, high fitness low body fat (like your working all the time to survive) can all impact milk production as can many other things. So brand new mothers are going to have a problem. I certainly agree they would go to any length to feed their babies but as Lonewolf said, life expectancy would be terrible.

 

I have everything that I need that I know of. That's the big question though, "That I know of?" . No one can prep for every possible scenario and Life Happens.

Dale

 

Silver headed up. May not be good time to buy; but then again, if the dollar is coming apart, then silver may not ever come down again. Trust in the U.S. dollar is beginning to disappear. If the euro falls first, then the dollar will get a lucid moment ... then die.

 

by poltiregist,

This is called by some..."Male expendability and disposability...." in times of equality taking place...

I call it ..the tendency of the male to slay dragons....lay their head on the railroad track and hope you can get up before the train runs you over.


Most have never heard of putting back powdered milk before SHTF ...versus watching 'The View " and talking on their cell phones.

When the SHTF send someone else out there to take the risk out of life for you while you sit back and direct.

This is equality.....it is not risk distribution....but wealth redistribution...

Hence my nightmare of being stuck on that famous desert Island with four hundred such people who mostly know how to text...while expecting you to set up the buffet line for them and then clean up after them when they eat..


I have people in my family who like to live the good life ..party .go to Nags Head at the beach...but put back nothing for hard times. It is going to be a nightmare when the SHTF and they are looking for their welfare check....on someone else's dime...Risk.

High Maintenance...New Orleans and Katrina again..

It is going to be chaos...


Speaking of chaos...have any of you heard any predictions that the shelves in the stores are going to get more empty ..particularly as we near the election....?? Even that we might be having electricity shortages???

Wondering about gasoline....too?? Petroleum products..oil and winter nears..natural gas..??


Watcherchris
Not an Ishmaelite.

 

I m not just talking someone else's children and olde lady..but within ones family as well.

I had this happen after hurricane Isabelle some years back where only a few of the family were carrying the rest who mostly pit stopped....and we were the pit crew.

Very Few asked what they could do to help....but come dinner time there they were...


Remember the Pareto Principle.....the law of the vital few.......80% of the people do 20% of the work/Risk taking.

20% of the people do 80% of the work/Risk taking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

This is going to apply good times or bad...


Then throw a politician in the mix......Wow!!!!


What was happening in the 1600s at Jamestown about 30 miles north west of me is textbook of this kind of thing.
Texdanm is correct....in his MO.



Watcherchris
Not an Ishmaelite.

 

Trade is inevitable and necessary. Speaking as someone who has seriously tried, one person can't cover all the necessary skills. Also, no matter how much stuff you put back there will always be things that you don't have and will need. I am the original boy scout and try to always be prepared but I have never gone for a long camping trip and not wished for something that I didn't have. If someone you love is sick and you don't have the medicine that they need what will you give for that medicine. When something that you depend on breaks or is stolen will you trade for another or are you going to try and steal one or just do without and suffer? A lot of people are going to die that first winter when they run out of matches and their Bic lighter stops working. I have hundreds of ferrocerium rods. What will you give me for one or if I give you one will you consider me a friend?

I am not going to be a trader to get rich, rather I hoped to use that as a means to bring good people together and form a community of people that can work together both for defense and to help each other build and harvest larger fields than a single person or family can handle. I'm sorry but there will always be people that prey on other people. A person alone will stand no chance against a gang of these people. They will roll in, kill you rape your women and eat and steal everything that you worked for and built then burn your place to the ground and move on to the next poor loner.

Look at history. Forts and places for the people to be safe from this sort of thing are universal. Tribes, Clans, and all sorts of other groups were the root of all civilizations. The only way that people can live in peace is to live someplace where other people can never find them and spend their lives in hiding. Plan B is to join a group that is mostly decent people and depend on them to make it so only a bigger group will be a threat to all. Even then though there will be a threat from both people that may be a part of your family or group or individuals getting caught out alone and attacked. The only defense against that is to then hunt down and kill anyone and anyone associated with those that attacked a member. do that a few times and word will get around so that people won't do that to your group or a member of your group again.

I will trade in food, tools, information, medicines, fishing tackle, snares, books, games, trinkets, toys, and also fixing broken things. I am a pretty good gunsmith, work in leather, metal, wood, and am a mechanic. I have built houses, am a machinist, licensed Gunsmith until the Clinton tragedy, plumber, electrician, I have leveled houses and repaired and stabilized slabs, I'm a roofer, Have been a bouncer in a club, I hunt fish and trap.

I have a lot of guns and a ton of ammo and reloading equipment Three presses for metallic reloading, a press for shotgun shells, and 15 lee loaders for all of my odd calibers powder and bullets for 22 and 30 caliber rounds. I know how and have made black powder. The one thing that I probably won't trade is guns and ammo. I will only give that stuff out to people that are going to be a part of my defensive group.

I am not a General, I don't need to lead but I will make somebody an outstanding Master Sergeant and am able to teach a lot of skills that will be important if you can't run to the store for food and things or a doctor. There is more to growing food to eat than sticking a seed in the ground and watching it grow. I have that covered too. I come from a farming family and we grew and canned a lot of what we ate. I also have a full set of butcher tools and have butchered chickens, hogs and cattle. I want to help people that have the desire to survive and learn. Trading will offer me an introduction and my already existing group will see that it is safe and well defended.

 

Good morning TexDanm,

What if the access to the required medicine is restricted by a cartel ?

I tried to establish a lawful clinic staffed by experience (retired) M.D.

I admit to failure.

 

I'm not talking about anything fancy. Antibiotics are easy to get as are most of the less narcotic pain medications. Imodium is over the counter as are the aspirin, Tylenol, and ibuprofen pills. Antihistamines and such both prescription and over the counter, decongestants and such are also easy to get. I am not able to provide a complete pharmacy even for myself self but many people my kids included don't even keep a decent medicine cabinet now. I also will have a pretty good selection first aid supplies up and through a medics field surgical kit and lots of sutchers.

 

I've put back six bottles of Bacardi 151 proof rum for medicinal purposes going back to the first one almost ten years ago...none of them opened. I figure the proof is sufficient for a very very long shelf life.

They do not even sell Bacardi 151 rum anymore...I have switched to stocking up on Goslings dark or black Bermuda rum...and have three bottles of it..at 151 proof...working on getting another three...none of them opened.

I figure this alcohol will become gold at some time if the SHTF and or TEOTWAWKI....and it has a very long shelf life...at that proof..


Need to stock up on my Ibuprofen and or tylenol and or aspirin....and seal them up in my vacuum sealer...then in dark containers.

I too cannot cover every contingency....but will do what I can in times of plenty.

My Dad was a bigger packrat than am I ....but.....

I respectfully cede the pack rat title to Texdanm.....and his very excellent explanation on trade and the history of trade....


Watcherchris
Nott an Ishmaelite

 

Olde Geezer,
Last night at work and during a slack period I found someone's news paper and got a stunner....as I'd not paid much attention to the price when purchasing silver....I just know over the long run to prefer it over the value of the paper fiat monies in circulation today.

It was not that long ago that silver was running in the 19 dollar range...but last nights reviewing of the newspaper put silver at some 23 dollars plus....in about a weeks time. That is a big jump!! Silver usually does not move more than 50 cents..or so...but not that much and that rapidly.

What a wake up call.

Oh...I will still buy it ...but it was just a stunner...looking at the price in the newspaper.


Watcherchris
Not an Ishmaelite.

 

Rebecca.....

The commodity for which I come to a woman in this marketplace..is....Peace.....not Piece...

Pardon the crudity..


I find Peace to be the commodity for which very few women out here are well versed...versus in whatever they are selling in media like Cosmo....

Don't take responsibility ..take quizzes...


For a man who knows.....a woman who understands how to bring him Peace.....can put a man on a drug for which he never wants to get off it.

This provides that a man even knows....and very few men out here seem to know this ...versus the chaos one often finds in many in the fast food lane of life and all the baggage/chaos that brings.

I am not complaining about Piece...but if that is all they have they are high maintenance...

Todays Feminism is anything but Peace for a man.....but it does make for very good consumers...even consuming each other.

Not a good solution.....Not Peace......it is bondage...Ishmael..


Thanks,
Watcherchris
Not an Ishmaelite.

 

One of the keys to a good money ..or whatever one is using for money is it's ability to function as a storehouse of value.....


This is something very lacking in fiat money as the historical tendency is to keep printing it until it is totally debased...lost in value..purchasing power...
Think of what happened to the Italian Lire...or the Hungarian Pengo.

Same with the cupro nickle phoney coins....worth much less than the face value until inflation raises the cost of producing them more than what is cast on them. It is today costing more than a penny to make a phony zinc slug penny as is issued today.

That is how ridiculous it has become in a phony fake fiat world...with intelligent Illuminated people..college educated people running things.

Nonetheless...back to what I previously stated...people will start trade ....eventually ..they must so do....or perish...

Whatever is most swappable will become money provided it intrinsically maintains a store house of value....the ability to keep and maintain value...against goods and or services.


Purchased three Canadian Maple Leaves today and one US silver dollar and put them away...Just in case...



Watcherchris

Not an Ishmaelite.

 

Trade is inevitable. Whether it's furs and hides or silver and gold. After surviving whatever collapses society, people will need "things". Societies began because of trade. When societies fall back to barter, they can begin again.

To be honest, if society collapses back to the point of bartering being how things are obtained. I intend to profit from others lack. Not lack of food, but lack of knowledge and skills. Anyone that comes to me and mine that "need" food. If they are willing to work, they will eat. If they prove to us they want to be a part of our community and work to get there. Then harvesting and splitting firewood, can lead to making charcoal and then learning blacksmithing and foundry work, or being a tanner, carpenter or mason.

How many non-peppers have any skills that a new community would need. What will they give for those skills after SHTF. I do have some mercenary tendencies.

Dale

 

Watcherchris,
While I believe I understand your point here, one must also consider that society generally expects woman to be a "commodity " of beauty and femininity. To do certain jobs, dress or act a certain way etc. ect. It is hard to go against the expected trend for many woman, peer pressure so to speak, much easier to be one of your "Cosmo" girls.
My favorite lines I hear repeatedly:
What ammo does your husband want?
That truck is much too big for a little lady like you
Why don't you wear more makeup?
Why don't you paint your nails?
Do you own anything that isn't camo?

But back to the topic of trade, I guess after SHTF those Cosmo woman can resort to applying that commodity to the oldest profession. Sorry, my turn to apologize,that was crude. But I also think that for the many many who have absolutely no useful skills or anything of value to trade this is how they will end up. Before violence or starvation catch up.

 

Rebecca...

Must be something wrong with me...I find a woman with her own pick up truck to be sexy.....even appealing to me.
It tells me that she can work if needed..not the Cosmo type per se.

The expectations you are describing is often called or termed "Objectification." This happens to males as well....just different.

I have found that one of the worst things to let some women know is that you can use tools....and problem solve with them.
As a male you quickly get objectified..

Don't get me wrong here...I appreciate female beauty and femininity ..but at the right time and place. I just don't have much use for a high maintenance woman with the expectation or default that I make up the difference as a career. Particularly if this means me constantly having to put my head on the rail road tracks and hope I can get up before the train arrives. This includes high maintenance kids as well.

As a machinist in a shipyard ....and a qualified nuclear worker....I frequently take first place risks for my monies ...

I have no intention now days to come in last place when I take first place risks for my monies.



I have dated older women for most of my life..preferred them to the younger women....

But they taught me some important things about women....mostly not intentional..but they taught me nonetheless and I am grateful to them for teaching me....

For one thing ..most older women can do more than microwave....and as a male I am ever grateful for this ..for I can microwave...it is not difficult.

The other interesting facet about women ...is how competitive they can be ....not against the male per se..but against other women..

In SHTF or TEOTWAWKI this is going to become critical in competition for the most skilled and talented males....
For high maintenance males are going to show up very very quickly in SHTF and or TEOTWAWKI.

Got a peek at a newspaper again today. Silver came down a bit in price .but some 22 dollars per troy ounce...down from some 23 dollars.


Thanks,

Watcherchris
Not an Ishmaelite.

 

By Lonewolf..

Negative....Lonewolf.....trade will happen when people get desperate sufficient to get other goods and services necessary for their survival...under any conditions. Granted...people may have to become more security oriented to the point of becoming stealthy about it but voluntary trade is and will become a necessary part of life for survival ....versus forever fighting amongst each other for goods and services.





By Dalewick

If one looks at a good set of maps.....and the arrangement, even today, of many cities and towns on the map..they tend to be located at points of trade or commerce. Many of them remained and survived the conflicts and wars which existed even back into history.

You will notice many of these cities tended to be along certain points on a river....where people and goods/services would collect. Only later were railroads and aviation even better roads added to the mix...but a lot of trade/commerce early on was by water traffic.

My Mothers people...in Frankfurt, Germany along the river Main River is just such an place.
Many cities and towns in America are along major river routes ...not just the big cities but smaller ones...towns too. Not accidental.

I believe London, England was also just such an city....on a river..

The best way to move large amounts of commerce/goods and people was by water....still is today..


Watcherchris
Not an Ishmaelite.

 

One of the things that is happening in Texas now days is a wonderful shift in what a woman's place in society and with men. The young ladies that I know are all over hunting and shooting and women are getting concealed carry permits at a higher rate than the men. One of the dental offices that my wife worked in had 5 young ladies working there as dental assistants and dental hygienists. Two took a week off in October for the bow hunting season. Then they did the gun season when it came in. the five of them also regularly went to the range for some handgun shooting about once a month. They all liked camo and let me tell you, anyone of those young ladies would look great walking on a runway. They are all beautiful young ladies.

Now you can't judge a woman buy her appearance as to whether they are prissy useless women looking for a man to support them or a male chauvinist's worst nightmare. Those are becoming more and more the standard these days down here. I raised my Daughter that way. Pocket knife at 8, shotgun at 12, rifle at 16, and a handgun at 18. we hunted together and she worked with me from 9 to 18. in each generation before her women were indoctrinated with all sorts of stupid rules that you HAD to follow. They had to be "Ladylike". Hell, I remember when a woman had to have her husband's permission to take a job. Most men back then felt like letting their wives work reflected badly on them because other men would assume that they couldn't support the family. It was almost a scandal when one of my Mama's friends went to work.

It got a little better in my generation but in the current generations, women have finally received their freedom. Like a lot of things that freedom has a cost but in the end it is worth it. One of my girls works in purchasing and sales for the prison system. She was an accountant but now is a department head and handles millions of dollars. Texas prisoners' work here and the prisons here are almost self-supporting. My other girl owns a small construction company and does home repairs and painting, builds porches, and things like outbuilding and fences.

There are no jobs that are closed to women. Slowly now they are earning their way into higher and higher levels. Sadly at first the federal government required companies to advance then fast and so many ended up in jobs that they were not qualified for and that leads to a lot of resentment and problems. That is fading out now.

Men are slooooowly learning. It has been harder for men than women in a lot of ways. Men don't deal with change as well as women. Too many men were raised seeing women as someone that they supported and sort of owned instead of a full partner. That attitude doesn't work anymore and so the divorce rate is huge. Partners are great and in the event of TEOTWAWKI they will be even more important and better.

 

Even with a very high death rate the sheer number of humans currently means there will still be enough around for trade.

Just as an example I sight Britain as more information is known about the history of Britain and Europe. In the middle ages around 1050 there abouts, the population of Britain was estimated at 1.5 million. We know there was a lot of trade during that part of history both domestic such a town markets and bigger regional fairs as well as international to an extent.
https://www.ancient.eu/article/1301/trade-in-medieval-europe/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_English_towns_and_trade_in_the_Middle_Ages

The population of the UK in 2019 was 66 million. Therefore if we have a 95% death rate that still leaves 3.3 million people or so to restart some sort of trade and bartering economy. Which is more than double the number that supported the economy in the middle ages.

Just looking at the basic numbers leads me to think that there will be some form of trade. Maybe I'm really good at food production but really bad at making clothes or don't have time for reloading. But the guy who reloads can't grow a potato. And so free market economy is born. Will it be so easy...if course not, but I do believe it will happen.

 

People that want to do more than just survive for a few more years are going to gather into tribes. those that don't will eventually fall prey to a roving band of thugs. In the past, if you will study the history of ancient people, you will find that people will tend to gather around the places where there are security and things that will make their life more livable.

Trading posts and forts were the center and starting places of many of our now great cities. In a world, without laws, a single-family has too much to do. You can't just lay down and sleep at night because if you do, you may not wake up...or if you do your crops may have been stolen by people or animals.

A group of people can build bigger places and share the security needs, the work involved in harvest and more people means more talents and abilities. Depending on the level of civilization that survives the number of people that will be needed to provide security and a big enough workforce to cover all of the necessary bases will vary.

We will have a small workforce to start and the security will be well covered. What we will want to add younger people, skills, and talents. We will need a medic, more people that farm, and know about food preservation. Right now I am the only one with a lot of experience in the canning, smoking, and food preservation area. a few more ex-military will be nice. Once we have a secure group of about twenty we will start opening up a little bit and doing a little trading.

We have a lot of ranchers around here that aren't going to die from lack of electricity. I am surrounded by people that have chickens and goats. I would rather trade for meat and establish relationships with the people near me than just depend on hunting and fishing. I know that we can do that but there are going to be a lot of survivors doing that and allies will be worth a lot. I have a lot of skills that will be valuable. I will be teaching those things to the younger people in our group. one of my girls sews. I have a Singer foot pedaled sewing machine. We will become traders in both things and skills. Hopefully, we will be able to bring the tiny village that I live just outside of back to life.

 

YES!! Very well said. My group looks at life after a major SHTF or TEOTWAWKI not so much as we are in a bug in location, as we are in our homesteads which will be the heart of a future community. We own (cooperatively) the top of a mountain in the heart of very rural West Virginia. With the families involved, there are all age groups and many skill groups involved. The group includes old farts like me, middle age, young adults (25 - 40), college age as well as children and babies. Many in my group have skills in hunting, fishing, butchering, canning, farming, etc and others have shown interest in learning skills they don't have from those of us that have the skills, but not the youth, ie. trapping, blacksmithing, carpentry.

I figure if we are already looking at life after SHTF as a community and will trade amongst ourselves for what some have and know and others want or need, then it's not a far stretch after life hits a routine, that trade with outsiders and bringing new people into our community, will be necessary. If a community isn't growing and thriving, then it's dying.

Dale

 

Good morning all,

Am I missing something because of too fast of skim reading ?

Are not pharmaceuticals around the top part of the list ?

We have a cooperative org for supplies; the basics like groceries, repair kits with the hand tools, ...

Most of our attention - discussions, attending meetings, studying supply sources - involves pharmaceuticals. The basics we have such as dental X-ray film. We cannot get much of what we believe to be needed.

No other groups have addressed:
getting annual flu shots ?
those not pre rabies immunized ?
dental abscess ?
changed optic pressure ?
miscarriage ?
EEE ?
mosquito bite ailments ?

The current race to develop a COVID-19 cure of some sort relates to what's going on with annual flu shot formulas.

Maybe I just worry too much.

 

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The dollar is getting softer.
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