really old style living?

RAS

seasalt wrote: »

Small communities have their own problems though, as well as tremendous strengths, especially in a crisis.

Personally it was the experience of living in small communities that encouraged me to live in a city (that and the jobs). Knowing that everyone knows whether you had bacon for breakfast and has a view on it does not necessarily make for comfortable living.

seasalt wrote: »

Interestingly OH was saying yesterday that when he was a child the whole family was needed to work the croft (part of a dispute over whether or not DS was going out to help him before tea!). Now most jobs are one man and a tractor - so there would have to be a lot of relearning old (and inventing new) ways even amongst farmworkers. So many of the old skills are being lost with OH's generation and the one before it.

I was not really old enough to really help much with the farm but I helped sow the veggie plot from about age 5, picked brambles and apples from much the same age (our job was picking up those that had dropped), sorted stored apples, helped lug small hay bales when rain was due, occasionally fed ducklings and hens and collected eggs.

I learned even more; when to sow crops, top grass, make hay and silage, when wheat, barley and fruit are ripe, leather jackets, fodder crops, which woods burn well and their properties, ..... it gets a bit un-nerving sometimes when I say something about something I do not even remember I knew about.

And there is so so much that I do not have a clue about.

seasalt wrote: »

It IS scary to think how we would cope - although the resilience of so many people all over the world (and I've met some of them), whose lives have been turned upside down by war, famine, disasters, hostile and brutal regimes etc and yet who still have hope, dignity and strength and have not gone down the "mad and the bad" road is humbling and encouraging.

You have reminded me of Onkel Willi. In that last winter in Friesland when northern Holland was left behind German lines by the Allied advance into Germany, food and fuel were not moved into the country. Willi was in forced labour working in a rural area and smuggled milk and copper pipe back into town.

He had a wife and child to support but still supported the wider community; he was asked not to avoid the labour detail as this opened up smuggling opportunities, which allowed leaders to get goods past blockades.

The milk was transported in pouch made from a old car tyre wrapped round his waist; the copper pipe inserted into the structure of his bike which he left in the agreed place. The milk was distributed to children who were seriously malnourished; the copper pipe was made into immersion cookers by someone he did not meet until after the war. Being found with either meant tranportation to a camp at best and a bullet at worst.

RAS

ceridwen wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl: Well if I dont - then its probably en route to me from Amazon right now:D

I DO have literally hundreds of useful reference books on a variety of topics...and sometimes wonder whether I should just leave them wholesale in my Will to the local library when I re-do it at some point:cool: - though I do treat many of them as "workbooks" - so I've got all sorts of comments written into them about various things I've tried and amendments I've made etc.

I try to ration myself but I have several book cases, books by the bed, on the back of the sofa, spilling over. I must sort through and give some I do not use away (Write that out 100 times).

parsonswife8

We've got our own library here at home, as well. :rotfl:

Autobiographies, cookery books by the score, the full Harry Potter set, travel, books on cars, trains, encylopedias, every language known to man, translating into English phrase books, books on collectibles, on how to be a writer, on magic, on rationing in the war, craft books, health books, diet books, English classics, etc, etc, etc.

There is something fantastic about a book. I am so thankful to have been fortunate enough to learn to read and enjoy books. There are millions who are not so lucky.:(

Charis

ceridwen wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl: Well if I dont - then its probably en route to me from Amazon right now:D

I DO have literally hundreds of useful reference books on a variety of topics...and sometimes wonder whether I should just leave them wholesale in my Will to the local library when I re-do it at some point:cool: - though I do treat many of them as "workbooks" - so I've got all sorts of comments written into them about various things I've tried and amendments I've made etc.

Do check that the library will use them. Our library turned down the offer of a brand new book from me (I'd bought one and been given one), saying thanks but no thanks, we don't accept donations. I have previously given books to a library in a different town (course books for the local college when my daughter quit after less than a term). They were politely received. However every library seems to cull a lot of the older books now. It might be better to leave them to the transition towns movement.

Charis

mardatha wrote: »

A lot of survivalists think that up where you are SS is the best place to be if things go to custard !

Dunno how far north SS is, but I'll take my chances here, I think:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-11101243

It's a longish article but worth reading to the end.

Charis

parsonswife8 wrote: »

There is something fantastic about a book. I am so thankful to have been fortunate enough to learn to read and enjoy books. There are millions who are not so lucky.:(

Yes, a Kindle or a Sony reader doesn't have quite the same feel somehow, does it? :rotfl:

ceridwen

RAS wrote: »

I try to ration myself but I have several book cases, books by the bed, on the back of the sofa, spilling over. I must sort through and give some I do not use away (Write that out 100 times).

<cough> I have 25 shelves full of books (well a couple of them arent jampacked....):):o. I do winnow out at intervals and if books arent proving useful to me then I pass them on to somewhere where I think they might prove useful.

There are many of them that I consult regularly and I do like knowing that I probably have all the resources I need to get the information I require without going any further afield:D.

I DO like to have the info. I require readily to hand and to be able to delve into subjects that interest me in some detail. I know I spent some years with one particular friend saying to me "I dont understand why you dont get on the Net - someone like you will be here/there/everywhere searching out info. on all the topics that interest you.".....Ummm...they were correct....I did and I do...

My mother knows what an "information jackdaw" I am and, if she wants to know something, rings and asks me to look it up for her. Its rare that I cant find what I want to know...:D

Its just so helpful to have all the information to hand - and I dont wish to rely on the Internet - and like to have books to hand I can pick up and refer to anyway. One of my favourite smells is the scent of "new books".

I think if one is a bibliophile - then thats it - you just ARE...:rotfl:

ceridwen

Charis wrote: »

Do check that the library will use them. Our library turned down the offer of a brand new book from me (I'd bought one and been given one), saying thanks but no thanks, we don't accept donations. I have previously given books to a library in a different town (course books for the local college when my daughter quit after less than a term). They were politely received. However every library seems to cull a lot of the older books now. It might be better to leave them to the transition towns movement.

I guess libraries vary then - as I know any time I've bought a book and thought "No - not really one for me" and passed it on to the library that I've been thanked and often subsequently seen the book concerned on the shelves there for loan to others. Maybe it depends a bit on whether the librarians in your area have similar interests to yourself - and a lot of mine do....

Its a shame if yours doesnt accept donations Charis - I really dont understand why a library wouldnt take a brand new book. I get the impression that my library would take any decent condition book they could get - and they've never turned down one from me yet...

I vary a bit as to where I pass on my books - but it tends to be the library for ones I've not marked and LETS for ones that arent in such good condition. The only time I took a brand new book to a LETS event (as I had a duplicate - thanks to a gift from a friend) someone promptly went "Ooh.....I'd been asking the Universe for a copy of this book and here it is...how many LETS credits do you want for it?"). I didnt bat an eyelid - as I believe things like that can happen and quoted her a LETS "price" we were both happy with. Deal done....

RAS

Charis wrote: »

Dunno how far north SS is, but I'll take my chances here, I think:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-11101243

It's a longish article but worth reading to the end.

When I was there, the population was much much higher.

The standard military crew was 9 KGB (Kilda Generating Board) and the BSM who did 9-18 months plus 24 other staff most of whom who rotated every 6 weeks.

The NTS warden had his mates over (about 6-8 of them) and there was a 12 person NTS work party in the houses.

In addition, there were about 20 contractors working the summer, the Seabird Count boat crew in the harbour and on Boreray and a training tall ship that made it way out because the weather was exceptional, loaded with teenagers, who were only allowed off the ship in yellers rolled up at the waist after one or two leers.

Our little camping party added another 12 folk. The standard summer population was the military plus the NTS staff and work party and a dozen campers - nearly 60 most weeks.

However, if you got away from the village, it was unusual to see anyone other than campers and seabird count folk.

And of course absolutely everything except fish had to be imported.

RAS

mardatha wrote: »

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..

I agree, hamlet, townships, villages and small towns will be the basis of survival whether the situation is hostile or merely very challenging. There need to be enough people to produce food and enough to eat it.

In the slightly larger communities, specialists can be supported, the carpenter, windmill maker, blacksmith, builder, baker and tailor. It was difficult enough in the old days when people were multiskilled, we will not have the time to learn enough skills each to avoid specialism. It may be that one community has a potter, another a carpenter and the third hosts a mechanic.

mardatha wrote: »

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.

When I read this last night I wanted to respond. Miles and miles of land from which the people, the fertility and the wealth potential has been ripped out.

I am not much up on things prior to that but when land was sequestered after '45, the new landowners asset-stripped the estates and started the downward spiral. I am all too mindful of the famines that checked the population at intervals prior to the introduction of the potato and the devastation that blight caused a century later. I am not sure that either the old landowners or the new ones could be accused of fostering a sustainable community.

What I mean is that the land owning arrangments and rental arrangments were so severe that it was almost unthinkable for people to do anything that advanced themselves and their community independently. The exact size and style of your housing was dictated, as was the source of much of the mateiral you used. Much of the time, people had to barter produce for goods from the factor.

And then they threw everyone off the land and replaced them with sheep and then deer.

I had the rather odd experience of staying briefly on a large shooting estate. The big house, ghillies cottages and larders were the only buildings on the whole side of the loch.

In my only real break I went walking with a friend. We passed the remains of three small settlements within two miles and when we walked into the lochside woods, it was apparent that all new growth had been stripped bare for the last ten years, since the fence was downed by a fallen tree. The deer were eating the heart of the land and the woodland.

In another country like Norway or Sweden, this vast hillside would have been verdant pasture backed by forest, topped by summer pastures and fells. The place is several degree south of places I have visited in Scandinavia which support farming communities. When I told my friends that I would love to see this loch side re-populated, they thought I was mad. To them this is wilderness? Maybe that is what it has been made into but it is not what it has been and could be.