Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

Not necessarily accept a medieval lifestyle but if things went awry enough and the means to generate power were removed for one reason or another (unspecified, No crystal ball here!) life as we are used to it might not be possible . We might find that our lack of practical skills and disconnect from reality would force us to adopt a similar lifestyle to that which medieval people had no choice but to live. We might haul ourselves up to a more acceptable standard because we have books to refer to that would for a while give us the written word knowledge to construct some useful conveniences to make life easier but if literacy were ever to be regarded as not necessary those written words would be lost too. I think the biggest difficulty would be that we have lost the most basic skills many generations ago, I know what iron ore looks like but making iron from it and then making something useful from that iron is not within my capability, I know how to deal with an animal carcass because I've had some practical experience and have a butchery book but how to prepare the hide and cure it, how to clean, dry and use the sinews, how to remove and cleanse the gut to use for casings or bowstrings, how to use the periphery bits to make glue, if I couldn't read up on how to or have someone who could read tell me how to, life would be difficult. Even simple pottery requires knowing where the clay is, being able to clean it, work it, pug it, make the bowl or mug from it, know how long to leave it to dry before firing and then how do you make a kiln? how do you pack it, what temperature do you need to get it to for the firing, how long do you keep it at that temperature and how long does it need to cool down for before you can open it? So many things to know, how to make charcoal, how to salt and preserve flesh foods, how to milk a cow, make butter, make cheese, how to make candles, how to breed sheep for wool, shear them for their fleeces, spin thread for cloth, how to set up a loom and weave cloth so very many things that our medieval ancestors and folk before and after them knew would be very difficult for us to learn again. They were brought up learning the skills they needed to survive the life they had, we, with our modern comforts and assisted by machinery lives would be very hard put to scratch livings if we were to be forced back that far wouldn't we?

pumpkinlife

I haven't dropped by in a while, but I always think of you lot when the markets take a slide :beer:

I am a vegan, but in a true wilderness situation would eat whatever I could. The survival instinct is strong in me.

I cannot honestly see any civil/energy situation where meat and dairy are going to feature anything but occasionally in anyone's diet. Both take huge resources in terms of land, water and imported feed and energy. I visited Romania a few years after the revolution and stayed in mostly rural areas. We ate a lot of cornmeal, legumes, fruit and veg and some bread. I think we had meat once, a chicken served between 10 of us. No milk or eggs (and this was on a smallholding) and a tiny shaving of cheese occasionally. The rations of WW2 were also heavily reliant on plant crops and homegrown veg. Ditto Nepal - lentils, rice, chappatis, dumplings, fruit and veg - and some yak milk and butter in your tea _pale_

On the plus size, there is no need to go back to the horticultural and culinary conservatism of WW2. They were regressive compared with the Victorians in terms of variety; and we now know so much more about horticultural science - and low-energy input techniques like organic growing. There are even commercial quinoa, chilli and tea crops in this country.

We've also largely abandoned the meat and two veg style of cuisine we were so keen on and we know how to use weird and wonderful ingredients. Just make sure to save seed from your favourite varieties; and we will be good to go.

If the gulf stream closes down I agree we vegans are screwed, alongside everyone else - either migrating south, or scrapping over the last few wild birds we haven't already decimated.

pumpkinlife

And now for what I actually came in here to say...

We went camping last week. I got to try out the Kelly kettle in the field. Distinct lack of dry twigs to be had, so when ours ran out I put the kettle onto the Camping stove. It boiled quickly as long as the flames remained contained with the footprint of the stove.

We cooked our food by bringing it to the boil for a minute or two and then wrapping the pot in bedding. I admit I might have felt a little self satisfied as I sat eating my stew, from the warmth of my tent, watching everyone else struggle in the rain with their stoves for half an hour.

Managed to get through just a single canister of gas (the aerosol can style ones) for two adults, two kids and a boddler over 5 days of atrocious weather.

And TMI perhaps - but I bought a cheapo 'shewee' from Amazon for the trip. Life-changing, ladies. Truly.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I def think it's worth teaching our children/ youngsters some stills on prepping/ survival skills, to be passed down the generations, as we have all said my grandparents used to do this, and nobody does it anymore...

My grown up kids laugh at me about prepping etc, but hopefully it will sink in how you need to be prepared for things, even if its having a good store cupboard for when you are skint etc

thriftwizard

Frugalsod wrote: »

That all presumes that we are all willing to accept a medieval lifestyle. That would entail giving up the right to vote; becoming the chattels of land owners; restoration of the death penalty for commoners alone for the most trivial offences as a means to control us. I suspect that it will never get there. There will be significant upheavals before that. There are already signs of that in mass migration. How long before things deteriorate here for people to migrate from the UK?

Not at all sure that adopting a medieval lifestyle & a Norman-imposed feudal, political & legal system necessarily follows from looking at how they ate! And I too hope we'd never go back to that kind of desperate inequality - but you only have to look at the rise of warlords in troubled parts of the world to realise that that can actually happen rather fast. People seem to want to believe potential leaders who promise them an easier life, and find someone else to blame & scapegoat... they probably make the trains run on time too.

Can't help agreeing with pumpkinlife that climate change, whether from the Gulf Stream shutting down, or methane release in the high latitudes, or just the jet stream wobbling about all over the place, is the biggest potential game-changer. This green & pleasant land might suddenly find itself snowed under for 10 months of the year, or as dry as the southern Spanish costas. To prep for that kind of eventuality, all we have is "best guesses"...

ETA: MrsLW, one thing that's been worrying me lately, in a real long-term SHTF situation, is the likely life-span of the books I've happily been collecting. Really old, properly-constructed books tend to pass the test of time relatively well, but more modern ones, printed on inferior paper & stuck together with artificial glues, are flaking apart. My paperback copies of John Seymour's books are just about holding together, stored carefully, but not for much longer, I suspect.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I think after this summer, its more likely to be a wet sodden bog

[Deleted User]

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

even if its having a good store cupboard for when you are skint etc

I agree.

Keeping in a few month's worth of suppliies is sensible, in preperation for everything from being snowed in, to an all out disaster.

ivyleaf

Frugalsod wrote: »

That all presumes that we are all willing to accept a medieval lifestyle. That would entail giving up the right to vote; becoming the chattels of land owners; restoration of the death penalty for commoners alone for the most trivial offences as a means to control us. I suspect that it will never get there. There will be significant upheavals before that. There are already signs of that in mass migration. How long before things deteriorate here for people to migrate from the UK?

Why do you think that, Frugalsod?

mardatha

One cheering thought here though CTC is that humans have and do survive and adapt in areas with the most hellish horrible weather conditions.
Ws reading an interesting blog/site thingy this morning, a woman who teaches Sami and Viking knitting! They apperntly found one Viking sock in York on a dig, and duplicated the pattern. Then somebody else found that ladies in the reindeer herding areas who had no sheep, were knitting types of rushes or grass, into linings for hide mitts and leggings.
Humans are amazing IF FORCED to be lol

BigMummaF

Necessity is indeed, the Mother of ALL Invention Mar

For a long while now, I've oft pondered on how the younger folk would cope without leck-trickery to bring life back to their many battery powered accoutrements. They use calculators in exams for goodness sake, & rumours abound of cessation of teaching cursive handwriting in schools:huh::huh: so how on earth they could manage with needle & thread or pounds & ounces recipes?