[Peakoil] Peak oil preparations

[Nature and Society Forum]

Welcome to all recent visitors to this site.

To give you an indication of what other people are doing about peak oil, I have pasted below a post to the US-centred peak oil forum Runningonempty2. It is not untypical.

[The words in square brackets I have added by way of explanation]
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Keith Thomas
www.evfit.com
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----- Original Message ----- 

From: "mattsavinar" 

Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2005 2:23 PM 

Subject: Re: Personal plans for peak oil

 

> I'm curious: what 

> preparations are you making?

 

Matt,

First of all, I owe you a heart felt thank you for your efforts in educating people about the Peak Oil issue. Your site [www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net] was my first venture into Peak Oil, and a scary venture it was!

 

I sold my quasi-McMansion in Baton Rouge Louisiana last April. I moved to a rental property 1 mile from my job at that time.

 

Since then, I've left my cube-rat job at LSU and moved to Western North Carolina. Fortunately, my wife is a self-employed attorney who can work just about anywhere for her employer in Louisiana.

 

We did make a small amount off of our house, which we completely remodeled. Our house netted us 35% in profits after 6 years and a lot of hard work. Nothing compared to my Brother-in-law's house in New Hampshire which has doubled in value in that same time period.

 

Our plan is to rent in this area until such time as we can locate a small house/trailer on at least 5 acres that will allow us to buy with a very small mortgage, if not outright. The sooner the better as far as I'm concerned. After all, it takes time to learn how to garden and be self sufficient. A long time.

 

Our preps have included:

 

learning useful post-peak skills 

 

grew a raised bed organic garden last spring which was very productive in cucumbers, lima beans and hot peppers 

 

building a library of useful info (thanks ROE2 list members), 

 

getting physical possession of precious metals from an old mutual fund that had negative ROR between '99 and '04, 

 

building up a storage food inventory of about 6 months worth of food 

 

purchasing a few useful firearms and ammo for them and practicing... a lot.

 

built a bug out kit for my family of four (emergency food, water filter, hand crank radio, etc) 

 

getting rid of stuff that won't be useful in the future (and I had a LOT of it) 

 

changing my hobbies from auto restoration/racing to gardening, fishing, and learning some construction trades 

 

getting off the consumer/debt treadmill -- reducing debt. 

 

trying to educate friends and family (which has mostly caused alienation) although, as time has passed and things have developed, I'm starting to have a little more credibility with the hard headed types. 

 

Sold the SUV and the hotrod and bought a VW TDI (which is paid off now) 

 

Moved to an area of the country that has better prospects post-peak than Baton Rouge (a whole other discussion) 

 

Taking "nature hikes" with the family and learning to identify various plants that could be useful in certain situations

 

For myself, I plan on volunteering my labour at a local CSA [Community Supported Agriculture] this spring (if they'll have me) with the goal of learning how to grow vegetables sustainably. Once we're on our own property, I plan on raising chickens and growing as much of our food as possible, again with the realization that it will take years to become proficient.

 

As I told my former colleagues at work, I'd be much happier making $10k per year selling vegetables and eggs than I would making 5 times that in a cube, toiling away at some job that seems meaningless for the chance at a 4% annual raise, and that makes the executives relatively exorbitant salaries from my efforts. Their reaction has mostly been one of befuddlement. Maybe I'm crazy? Of course, I don't think so!

 

Looking at the rate of return on my 403b (0.5%/year) [superannuation fund] over the last 8 years, I've come to the realization that I'll never have a retirement like my father has now. Economic disaster is coming for this country, due to PO, inflation, housing bubble; pick your cause du jour.



So my best bet it to invest in a means to support myself that will work regardless of economic conditions. IE getting out of debt, and voluntarily downsizing my way of life so that I won't be a paycheck away from financial ruin. We're about halfway there right now. Still have some student loan debt (damn that law school is expensive!) and one car left to payoff. But that's it.

 

It takes time to make these changes.

 

Personally, I would GTFO of any densely populated urban area. No matter what it cost. The price of staying there during a "disruption" could be your life. I guess you know that better than anyone. Hurricane Katrina was very educational for my wife and me (and really should have been for everyone). It was a "peak" into the future for us and caused us to hasten our escape plan from that toxic s***hole.

 

Thanks for your efforts in spreading the word about peak oil.

 

Roy (formerly of Southern Louisiana) 

Working for the future, Black Mountain, NC
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