A Busy Week
I've been a bit quiet in blog land over the past week or so, for which I apologise. We travelled to my parent's place in country New South Wales for an extended Easter break, which was wonderful. Whilst I was there I got an opportunity to do some reading, and devoured the book Choosing Eden by Adrienne Langman. Aussies may have seen Adrienne and her husband on the first series of The Real Seachange on TV (I hadn't seen it, I don't watch much TV); they are friends with American Peak Oil expert Rick Embleton, and upon learning of the seriousness of the issue, decided to sell-up in inner-city Sydney and move to a property in northern New South Wales in order to set themselves up to be as self-sufficient as possible.
The book was a great read, but as interesting as it was, it left me in a quandry as to how we are going to fare when the Oil really hits the fan, so to speak. I won't bore you with the millions of thoughts, worries and possible moves that have been coursing through my head since then, suffice it to say that I haven't had much time to do anything else, LOL.
Since we've been back I've spent the week trying to look at our house, yard and location as objectively as possible, and have spent my days doing lots of cleaning and dealing with the multitude of Granny Smith apples I was fortunate enough to liberate from my Mum before we left, all the while musing constantly about what we might require in a Post-Peak Oil future, and how we might go about achieving that - weighed up against the overwelming desire to get out of debt as quickly as possible.
So. A thousand mental permutations later, and a half-hearted look at an old do-er upper in the next suburb closer to DH's work (on a 1200 sq.m block) here we are, still in our little house in suburbia. It's not ideal but our house is not too small, and not too big, we own more than half of it, it's close-ish to the largest hospital outside of Sydney (health care in country New South Wales - where we considered moving - is already appalling, what will it be like Post Peak?), we can walk to schools and a small shopping village (although that's about a 20 minute walk) and we are a short bus-ride from other local community facilities.
I'll just have to pretend it's a homestead, won't I? Best go get my apron on and finish dealing with the rest of those apples.
11 comments:
I know how you feel. Watching everything going on I feel so under prepared. But I have been gathering information and making small changes and knowledge is power after all.
I have my basics and the rest is coming. So breathe take steps but don't forget to enjoy now.
I really think those in the suburbs are in a very good position to deal with peak oil as long as they have access to public transport and I wonder why so many are thinking of moving out to very rural areas. It has been shown that you can grow a huge amount of food on a suburban block and when I was a kid suburbs were great places to live.
Schools, churches, shops etc. were close by and we rarely left our suburb except to visit relatives. Now that's the part that worries me because most of my family live far enough away that it would be a very long train trip to visit them.
Your point about hospitals is a good one and don't foget about GPs. I live in a small town close to Melbourne and yet it seems that it gets harder all the time to see my doctor without booking a couple of weeks in advance.
Have you all read James Kunstler or listened to his podcasts? I assume you have if you're concerned about peak oil. He scares the heck out of me but I feel like he offers a potentially realistic view of post peak oil life.
Unfortunately, he seems to think suburbs are one of the worst possible places to end up when the stuff hits the proverbial fan. I tend to think it just depends on your particular suburb. Some are probably far better than others.
In any case, I can relate to your musing over what you'll need in a post peak oil future. I do the same thing.
One thing I've been doing is keeping a mental list of things to barter with like reading glasses, sunglasses, work gloves, seeds etc.
Sometimes I feel like a nut thinking about this stuff when nobody around me is the least bit concerned but then I remember that it's better to be prepared and look like a nut than not be prepared and starve to death.
I'm happy to see another woman and mom that is thinking about this stuff :)
Hey thanks for the great blog, I love this stuff. I don’t usually do much for Earth Day but with everyone going green these days, I thought I’d try to do my part.
I am trying to find easy, simple things I can do to help stop global warming (I don’t plan on buying a hybrid). Has anyone seen that www.EarthLab.com is promoting their Earth Day (month) challenge, with the goal to get 1 million people to take their carbon footprint test in April? I took the test, it was easy and only took me about 2 minutes and I am planning on lowering my score with some of their tips.
I am looking for more easy fun stuff to do. If you know of any other sites worth my time let me know.
Hi Crazy Mumma,
It really is a hard question where do you want to be when it hits.
For me it comes down to currently our job ties us to the suburbs. I think closely knit communities either suburban or rural are going to do better than those where you have no idea who your neighbours are. Rather that trying to move to a new community I truly believe we should be doing our best to build community where we are.
Kind Regards
Belinda
Gosh J it's scary how close our thoughts are at times!
I was pondering on this last night and feeling so very unprepared and yet I know that I a gathering information and skills everyday.
I think that the suburbs will be a very fraught area in which to live. Unless you are surrounded by boganvillia and no one can get access to your produce, how will you stop the neighbours helping themselves?
Should we even attempt to stockpile? Ever seen a crowd surging for something they want? Your house could be like one giant mosh pit!
On the other hand I really want to believe that people can be proud, graceful and honourable sentient beings.
It will be my birthday in a few weeks. I am going to take this year as a year to learn a skill which would be handy post peak oil; leather tooling comes to mind as I am very hard on shoes!
I read the book last year and reread it last week. I too, think about it quite a bit. It really hit me this week when I noticed a number of increasing prices. Flour had jumped 20 cents and diesel went to $1.62. I ask myself how I will raise my children in this world. It's not just about securing food, its also things like driving to the soccer matches which might be 50kms away! It's clothing, it's holidays, it's lifestyle. The flow on effects are enormous.
I think as modern women the thing we lack is skills. We are having to relearn many skills that were lost. Can we sew, cook from scratch, make soap ? We are all trying, and you are doing a wonderful job at food production.
In my summary notes from this book I wrote that we need to a) have a functional homestead b) secure food and water c) develop skills and relinquish reliance on modern conveniences d)get out of debt and have good cash reserves
e) have a good stockpile of groceries.
What did you get from the book and what are the practical things we can strive for ?
I've been thinking about this for awhile now, trying to plan if/when all services, etc are cut off.
With everything becoming more centralised towards larger cities it will probably be the better option to be in the suburbs. you can only farm as much land as rainfall and tank capacity will allow you so smaller suburban gardens are plenty to supply a family with food.
I am right there with you. I lie awake pondering. We have a place to go to in the country, we could move tomorrow. I just don't know if it would be the right choice. Like you said, medical care is already patchy. And moving to the country would require more driving, at least in the short term. But if it all turns to cXXp then will I be left thinking, if only I had made that move!
I think it all depends on the suburb. If you have good infrastructure and could get by without a car if necessary you should be fine.
Kate
I'm reading this book now. It is really eye opening. My family doesn't have the option to move to the country right now, I can really see that we can do more around our property which is nearly a quarter acre to make it more sustainable for us. So this holidays, I'll start on that weed patch getting rid of all the viney weeds out there. Only 3 days of the holidays have planned outings so far.
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