Walk the Walk

[hobo]

Starting this thread as a response to 'What if this is it?' viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3550

Your suggestions for walking the walk please!

I'll start with some ideas nicked from this LSG thread http://www.ludlowsurvivors.org.uk/forum ... slow#p1042

• Reduce energy use.
• Change/diversify paid work into something(s) that will be needed in a future (hard times) economy. It would have to be something that would require small/modest energy inputs.
• Learn to look after our own health - healthy eating with home-or-locally-grown food, exercise, home-made remedies, first aid.
• Build local communities/networks.
• Get out of debt whilst you can. Get all high priced debt (credit cards and bank loans etc,.) paid off. Then get mortgage free asap
• Get out of financial obligation. Renting is just that. A smaller placed that you own, is not that endless drain on money. In a financial decline, no income means no rent, and it may well be that the state wont be in a position to pick up the slack. If you can get to owning, even a modest place, outright, then you will always have a home.
• Stay liquid and get money behind you. A six month layoff might be the least of your worries. But if you can't get through a few months of no income, without being chucked in the street, then you are likely to be the first to go.
• Build infrastructure now - stored food, woodburners, gardens, fruit trees, fruit cages, stored coal, better insulation. DO that instead of a holiday, meeting or expensive trip. It will pay dividends later.

Some are easy, others not so!

Hobo

[the-gnole]

• Reduce energy use.

Changed all lamps to CFLs, and this lowered consumption greatly.
Central heating only on 2hrs a day
Gas fire in lounge on but dividing curtains between lounge and rest of house.

• Change/diversify paid work into something(s) that will be needed in a future (hard times) economy. It would have to be something that would require small/modest energy inputs.

Can't do much with this at the moment as paid work is 40hrs a week, but excess produce from garden gets sold on, but doesn't raise very much as a year round income.

• Learn to look after our own health - healthy eating with home-or-locally-grown food, exercise, home-made remedies, first aid.

Could do more, but do eat some of the home-grown/home harvested stuff where possible, walking rather than using the car saves fuel (see No1 above) and counts as exercise. Have done the FAAW course so know a bit, tried the home made soap and toothpaste a few years back, soap was good, toothpaste was awful

• Build local communities/networks.

Selling the excess produce from the garden has built up a few contacts, living in an off the route place means that the neighbours help each other out.

• Get out of debt whilst you can. Get all high priced debt (credit cards and bank loans etc,.) paid off. Then get mortgage free asap

Don't have a credit card or bank loan, and waved goodbye to the mortgage last month, so no debts costing me money.

• Get out of financial obligation. Renting is just that. A smaller placed that you own, is not that endless drain on money. In a financial decline, no income means no rent, and it may well be that the state wont be in a position to pick up the slack. If you can get to owning, even a modest place, outright, then you will always have a home.

Have always tried to keep financial obligations to a minimum, Mind you a mortgage free house still has some expenses attatched for some of the projects that need doing every now and then.

• Stay liquid and get money behind you. A six month layoff might be the least of your worries. But if you can't get through a few months of no income, without being chucked in the street, then you are likely to be the first to go.

We have managed to get about 6months of essential funding behind us, possibly a bit more if really careful. Also have enough to do on the garden etc to keep me mentally occupied for a while as well, being stuck at home with little or no money and having nothing to get up for would drive me daft (er).

• Build infrastructure now - stored food, woodburners, gardens, fruit trees, fruit cages, stored coal, better insulation. DO that instead of a holiday, meeting or expensive trip. It will pay dividends later.

Did the stored food, got the garden, the fruit trees, gas bottles for cooking and heating, insulation is not easy in an old property though, Although the trip to New Zealand for a meet-up was a bit of an expensive trip, but you do only live once

Does that count towards walking the walk?

[hobo]

Excellent gnoley! Way beyond where I am....

[the-gnole]

Other things to add to the list to improve food harvesting would be to work on getting some form of skills and equipment for either animal or vegetable growing/harvesting.

Go around the carboot sales and charity shops for books and tools in the garden, and learn what you can from the books to know what to grow, these books can be very cheap from charity shops. Get to know the people who are volunteers in these places as well, maybe even offer a few hours a month of your time, if nothing else you get to see what they have and might be able to get it before it goes on the shelves.

I have been building up a stock of brass snares for small game like rabbits and squirrels, also have a couple of rifles for shooting the same plus pigeon, and a fishing kit for the rivers, stuff like TeeDee has added to the forum, Speed hooks, Yo-Yo reels, hooks, lines and sinkers, are all packed away for the day I need them, again some charity shops who do house clearance might get some of the ordinary tackle in.

Keep an eye on Ebay, Gumtree and freecycle for stuff that can be added to the stockpile.

But also get out and learn your local area, buy a 1:25,000 map of your area and when you find interesting stuff mark it down for future reference, stuff like wild fruit trees, pheasant enclosures in woodlands etc, but don't make it look like a "Going equipped" list for raiding.

[the-gnole]

Well it looks like it "Died the death"

[hobo]

[diamond lil]

Hi hobo. One thing from the original post strikes me as contradictory - why say first "get rid of debt" and then say "buy don't rent" - because a mortgage is debt. Anyhow that's neither here nor there but that seems daft to me.
I think a lot of people in this forum have very good setups but are too modest to go on about it.
And a lot more will be put off by reading what they still need to do but haven't yet. Do what you can, bit by bit, something every week no matter how small it mounts up!
Personally I've covered most of this over the past few years, although as always I want more! Just need the garden sorted better so we can grow more veg - and I need a dehydrator. Apart from that we're sitting comfortable up here.

[maxilaura]

I still need to get soooo many things, from water butts to laterns. I feel very depressed about how little I've actually managed to get together compared to how much I still need, but finances being what they are etc, can't help it. I have enough food to last my family a week at the most, but no alternative means to cook it yet either

[diamond lil]

Laura get a wee camp stove, we had one and it was great. The "bistro" type, cost us about £15 and came with canisters of gas, dead easy to use. You can buy the canisters at a later date. And that's one more item ticked off your wee list
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Campingaz-20537 ... 180&sr=8-1

[buttystella]

Got a rescued lurcher about six weeks ago to add to my list. He settled in well and got our first rabbit this morning. Archery starts next month so looking forward to that. Got an allotment at last but six miles from where i live so not so good. The three things i mentioned above bring me into contact with like minded people and this is what i like about prepping.