If no one from the future comes to stop you is it really that bad of a decision?
George Hayduke wrote:If you're talking about growing almost all the food you consume, you are essentially now in the business of converting sunlight into digestable calories. So, assuming you have adequate available water, the acreage required will in rough terms be a function of the number of people you have to feed and the amount of sunlight each acre receives. In some cases, you could probably produce enough food on one acre to feed four people in a sustainable way. (That's an average of 2,500 calories per day per person.) In a cold northern climate it might require several acres per person. Bottom line: local environmental conditions will dictate the amount of land you need to sustainably support human life.
I'm building a place capable of supporting several people on a very small amount of land. When I say "support" I mean provide virtually all of the water, food, electricity, and housing necessary to not only allow people to subsist but actually enjoy the abundance of the land. I'm in Year 3 of my experiment, and while I have much more to build out, based on my experience I think it's possible to achieve this goal.
Come join me at www.peacockorchard.com
Sam Barber wrote:That is an awesome excerpt. How much of the book do you have done? I think you brought up a lot of good points that a lot of the other survival fiction books have glossed over or romanticized. Such as how boring the food is as well as the repercussions that you might see from killing someone local while defending your property. Great stuff! Is there any way to read more of it?
Glenn Herbert wrote:Having seen J.M. Greer's blog and read the first few years' worth of it, I have to agree with one of his fundamental conclusions: When, not if, industrial civilization declines (not sure it will totally collapse), it is extremely unlikely to all fall overnight, short of global nuclear war. In fact, it will take centuries to collapse to the point where there is no civilization or infrastructure to lean on, far longer than any lifetime. Anybody basing all their planning on having to grow/make everything they need next year or five years from now is wasting a lot of resources which would be better spent on making a somewhat lower-tech than present culture work for their lifetime. Nobody can guess what exactly the specifics of the future will be, and putting all your eggs in one basket will leave you worse off if any one of the other possible futures is what actually comes. Just diversify to allow for contingencies, and teach your descendants to do the same with whatever their future present will be. A totally self-sufficient lifestyle leads usually to bare subsistence which only the most ideologically dedicated will keep choosing... do you want your children or theirs to choose your lifestyle as preferable to what they see around them? Then make it such that it is pleasant, even though that includes hard work.
May You Walk in Beauty,
Sharol Tilgner ND
Sharol's books available at website
http://www.youarethehealer.org
https://www.facebook.com/youarethehealer.org/
Just me and my kids, off griddin' it - follow along our shenanigans at our YouTube Uncle Dutch Farms.
Just me and my kids, off griddin' it - follow along our shenanigans at our YouTube Uncle Dutch Farms.
Nicole Alderman wrote:Meanwhile, here on the other side of the continent, we've had very little (relative to our normal) rain, and no winter. It's been in the 50's and 60's these last few weeks. No snow at all during the whole winter. There is no snow pack in many places in our mountains that should have 100+ inches of snow. It's insane. We don't often have to worry about drought here, but we might be getting it this summer if things continue (as the forecasts show they will), like this. This will likely go down as the warmest winter on record. We almost certainly got the better end of the bargain this winter, but it sure is very odd. It'll be interesting to see if next year will be the reverse of this winter. Either way, I want to be prepared for it all!
Come join me at www.peacockorchard.com
See our project at https://permies.com/t/59741/HR-homestead-future
Charley McDowell wrote:There is non when it really hits. Learn primitive skills and find people in your area that will form a tribe. Get the homestead retreat out of your head for a post apocalyptic world. Your not going to be churning butter when people in San fransisco has become cannibal central
Charley McDowell wrote:In this scenario you're 30 acre farm in the middle of a national Forest will eventually be overrun by hordes of people. And in less you have enough firepower to keep those hordes at bay for a very long period of time you're not going to survive being stationary. Remember it only takes one intruder to come into your camp or your ranch and take one of your kids or your wife hostage and it's an game. The land is going to be filled with roaming starving humans , very dangerous creatures.
Pecan Media: food forestry and forest garden ebooks
Now available: The Native Persimmon (centennial edition)
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