really old style living?

RAS

mardatha wrote: »

RAS, I hate to say this... (insert evil smiley)..but I always thought you were a man !
I mean, I suppose you could be a man and could still have sewn yer own lace undies... butttt ....:eek:

Used to it, mardatha, buttt to go with it as well. I am no particularly touchy/feely, so folk sometimes think I am not "feminine", although I have all the curves.

I was size 12-14 when I made my own gear and had someone who was interested in the contents:D.

Used to buy up remnants of expensive silks for silly prices (50p) and there was this local shop that had loads of ex-bankrupt stock cotton lace. Still have some but I got out of the habit of making clothes. Need to get back into it some day soon.

zarazara

[QUOTE=

Zarazara can we have sheep pictures please. I love sheep:D[/QUOTE]


I cant post pics on here, I dont understand how to do it, but if you Google Badger face torwen you'll get some photos of the type.

parsonswife8

Stoney_G wrote: »

Hey :j

I've been 'lurking' on this thread for a while, as in trying to read through everything before I post - but I'm too excited so thought I'd post now and ask if I can join??

I live in Cardiff and have recently been diagnosed with endometriosis (I know some of you also have conditions that cause pain and exhaustion, so I'm right there with you!). I've recently changed my diet which has helped immensly with the pain (I had months where I'd be in tears daily with pain), so I don't eat wheat, dairy, sugar, soy products, caffeine - everything fun basically!!! It's really made me think about self sufficiency and how I can improve. I'm already on the MSE path but this thread is so inspiring! I currently don't have anything growing (bad) but I have plans for next year - I've mainly been foraging the last few months - sloe gin for everyone's Xmas pressies!!

I'm really into the rock and metal scene and go to gigs as much as I can!!

Anyway, enough about me - I'm going to carry on reading and posting...page 27 here I come!!!!

xx

You don't have to ASK to join, you are very welcome!:)

Rock metal and gigs..... you sound like my daughter.;)

Stoney_G

ginnyknit wrote: »

Hiya stoneyg, We have something in common - I love my gigs but alas can't afford them for now - Motorhead was my last (and one of the best). Well done on sorting your diet to suit your condition! Great to see you posting :beer:

Well, I'm pretty skint (paying off leftover debts from a long dead relationship) but if I can go I will - never underestimate the power of the guestlist :rotfl:

annie123 wrote: »

Welcome Stoney G, sounds like you have taken control of your health, good for you.

Hey - thank you :j

parsonswife8 wrote: »

You don't have to ASK to join, you are very welcome!:)

Rock metal and gigs..... you sound like my daughter.;)

Ha!! I love this thread - makes me so happy reading it, even happier to be a part of it

zarazara

talking of fleece..........the other sort,not wooly but the fleece blankets. I've just got out the 2 i have and attached them with safety pins to the curtain webbing. So now I have thick lined curtains. they are lined anyway and now have a fleece folded in half attached to the back, I am hoping this will save me some money over the coming months. I intend getting some more for the other curtains too.

ceridwen

meanmarie wrote: »

Looks lovely Mardatha....there is some kind of a health thing going at the moment about haws....can't remember details, maybe someone else can??



marie

I guess you mean the way hawthorn berries are traditionally regarded as good for heart complaints? There has been some publicity about this recently in the media or summat that I noticed, as that fact seems to have been recently re-discovered.

To quote from one of my herbal books:

"Hawthorn is the prime cardiac tonic used for most heart conditions to strengthen and restore the blood vessels and heart muscle ...rich in flavonoids that help reduce arterial stiffening and fatty deposits...berries are often considered to be more useful in lowering blood pressure."

RAS

ceridwen wrote: »

Yep...no ostriches here on this thread.

It would also be useful to know any tips anyone has for dealing with the fear about this. Life is scarey anyways at the best of times - but knowing all this doesnt exactly help ones peace of mind:cool:. I've tried a few sessions of the "Heart and Soul" Transition Group meetings - ie the sub-group that caters for how are WE personally (the person/emotions sitting there inside our head and hearts) going to cope with the transition to a Post Peak Oil Society. Errr....I find them a bit "far-out" for me. I'm basically a very pragmatic/practical sorta person and thats what I want to concentrate on - so that sub-group isnt my scene personally.

So - I get into cooking/food preservation and I'm fine while I'm doing something "concrete". I go for long walks anywhere country-ish I can find - and again ..fine..;provided theres not hoards of people or their rubbish arround...but I cant keep walking and cooking constantly.

So - any comments from anyone else about how they deal with the fears about the sort of society we are transitioning towards welcome please..:)

I am not sure how to do this; occasionally I look at somewhere like Zimbabwe and how that fell apart or Haiti and it just terrifies me, what could happen. Or reading "on a round a pound a week", which probably describes the sort of life some of my grandparents grew up in.

Another part of me looks at what happened in WW2, when people who did not think appeasement would work stuck it out and made plans, so when things hit the fan, they had already got ideas how to do things.

Reading the link mardatha posted, yes buttt.......

We waste nearly one third of the food that enters our homes and one third or more of what is grown in the UK never gets near a shop because it is not to standard. So there is a lot of food out there that could be used to make up for the deficit.

We grow a phenomenal amount of grain to feed to livestock (something like 68 percent), which would have to stop, so we could feed humans.

Even so, we can produce about 50 percent of the meat we currently eat from grass-fed livestock with minimal supplements based on husks of oil rich plants. Animal fats will be more important to us for food and industry.

We will have to reduce dairy produce, pork and chicken and egg production, as all these require grain inputs. Hill farmers who have given up dairy will start again, to use grass and people may well take up small scale chicken, rabbit and pig keeping using waste produce and home grown supplements. But there will be nothing like the current amount available.

We will have to put people back into the countryside, as that is where the food is and where the need is for manual labour, in large quantities. That may mean more housing, or at least housing workers in holiday cottages and second homes.

What starts to get scary for me is some of the stuff that Colin Campbell alludes to; that our industrial society took off with the exploitation of coal, the first fossil fuel, and that is is likely that reduced access to fossil fuels, or just massive increases in price, will reduce our industrial outputs a lot.

We are going to have to share employment, relocate a lot of people and pretty much refuse to accept anyone who does not do some work as we cannot afford to feed adults who contribute nothing.

The thing that gets me about the survivalist forums is that they think they can survive as individuals or families. We will need to fight hard; to preserve and redirect social structures so that the mad and the bad do not take over.

With respect to some of the heart to soul stuff, some of it is not for me, but I go with it when it feels right.

Just to give you a couple of examples from a training session I attended with a future thinking hypnotic trance ...

A couple of things that were part of my imagings:

I took public transport to a nearby area (which currently 2010 has a reputation for riots and anti-social behaviour). I recalled the angst and difficulties when we relocated a lot of people from the area of high unemployment to the countryside to work, leaving behind unoccupied densely built terraces and very very little spare ground. The decision was made to demolish every second row, to provide more sun to the south facing windows and provide each with an area of ground for growing food. The houses were dismantled carefully to provide building materials; one lady who was distraught and fiercely opposed the plan has her old house taken apart and all the things she treasured relocated in her refurbished house. After that opposition fell away and right now gardens of the last of the terraces with gardens are just beginning to look productive. We have moved people form even more densely built areas into some of the houses and mentored them whilst they learned to grow things.

In the evening, I walked up to the monthly community allocation meeting. The weather is OK, so we are outside. Much banter and joshing as people bid for each community task, which reduces their financial contribution to the communal budget. When grass cutting the park come up, one guy bids and everyone else defers, when verge cutting come up, the same guy bids and everyone defers, when the third grass cutting bid come up a newcomers bids and suggests that if no one else is prepared to share this burden he will. mass confusion. The person leading the "auction" then explained. The bidder has a small flock of sheep that he grazes on grassland in the community. He makes hay where he is allowed to let the grass grow to any length to overwinter his core stock. No-one bids against him as this is a major source of income for him, providing meat and wool, as wel as the occasional live sale.

I know these may sound silly but sometime I allow these crazy ideas into my head, or maybe out of them.

Somehow, they give me hope.

RAS

zarazara wrote: »

I cant post pics on here, I dont understand how to do it, but if you Google Badger face torwen you'll get some photos of the type.

Oh lovely! They are cute.

Saw some sheep near Bodo (northern Norway) with very similar markings to the Torddu.

linky: http://www.southyeofarmwest.co.uk/badgerfacesheep.html

mardatha

Never underestimate mankind though, I think we - even now - would surprise ourselves. I'm a survivalist but I'm not scared, just think its sensible to be prepared I dont think a family unit would have a hope in hell of surviving long in a hostile situation...illness or accident could so easily mean life or death. You would need to work as a village or hamlet I think.
I totally agree about moving back to the countryside but haven't a clue how it could ever be done. Look at the highlands - miles & miles & MILES of nothing. Once that land was home to thousands and I think maybe one day it might be again. But it wouldn't be fun to begin with, it would be very hard.

ceridwen

I follow you on this RAS - I've been in backcasting sessions "You are in 2030 - now what is it like out there? and how did we get from there to here?". The one very positive point I took from it was lots of people saying "Its a much quieter society":D. I hear the point that we are all going to have to work - there'll be no freeriding of any description. I do hope that those of us who have retired (as I personally will have long before 2030) arent included under the "got to work heading". I DO want/very much need my retirement....though my own personal plans for retirement include doing some community-centred work on a voluntary basis (I'm already planning how I might help with communal meals here and herbal medicine there, etc - but would feel panicky at any thought of HAVING to do so, rather than CHOOSING to do so IYSWIM - as I will be VERY VERY aware that I am "now" retired and dont have to do any work ever again unless I choose to:D. So - I am hoping I can just do my self-chosen Wise Woman of the Woods Act part-time just because I want to....and am "maintaining a watching brief" to check out whether any work I do in retirement will be purely voluntary and of my choice (thats one of my personal worries - that I might still be chained-up/gagged/blindfolded/door of Prison locked behind me and the key thrown away type feeling that I currently get from my paid job:cool:).

So - when in positive mode I think "It'll be much quieter, few if any planes, very very few cars, food will HAVE to be organic, people will have to work together and co-operate more". In negative mode - its "Many people might still try and live very selfishly/ I might still be forced to do a job of work I dont want to (even though I will be retired)". Depends on whether you've caught me on a good day or a bad day....