A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald’s, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.
That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world’s oil supply. Now, she’s preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.
Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.
“I was panic-stricken,” the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. “Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible.”
Good for these people. There’s no harm in becoming more independent. In many respects I agree with them, for many it is too late. My Father used to say that “you have to cut your cloth according to your measure”. To parallel this with our Anglican situation we may have to become Anglican Survivalists if no good solutions come out of Lambeth, GAFCON and Common Cause.
While not so worried about starving masses, I do have a couple of AK 47s on hand. More importantly, I have a good rifle for each of my sons in law, myself, several grand sons and grand daughters who hunt. In my state, we have a 3 month deer season, 6 deer per hunter. I intend to have about 25 in the freezer this year, clean, no chemicals in that meat. We have 28 in our extended family to feed. I see 8 dollar hamburger so a lot of our protein this year will be venison. The family has been quite successful in its businesses, but knows how to hunker down and quit spending. Also, the horses will now share the pasture with 2 momma cows & 2 calves.
We have several large garden plots. Enough really to feed the family. We have always had several hunting camps where I have taught my kids and grand kids how to fend for themselves. Not survivalist BS, but just practical matters.
Like I said, I’m more worried about the oil related cost of food than maurauding hordes. Should the unthinkable happen, and they appear, they will be given assistance as is possible, and should violence occur, country people will be shown as able to defend themselves.
The Demos have been in control of Congres for just a couple of years and have already managed to bring this decades long Republican prosperity to the point where we are going bankrupt, with no fuel or food in the near future. They are running the country like KJS is running the church. Into the ground. Foolishness has a terrible price. Great job Pelosi, Reed.
Teddy Mak – please tell me about the “decades long Republican prosperity”. As I was born in the 30’s, I seem to have missed them….sigh…….
TM – 3 months! 6 deer! what state is that? here in CO we are limited to 1 week and 1 deer!!
Must be in a state…..New York or Pennsylvania……where the deer herd’s too large for its own health! Better to shoot ’em than let ’em starve to death…..not a pretty sight! I’ve seen this many times, and it’s far more humane to cull the herds.
My wife and grow a lot of our own vegetables……like so many folks in our area do.
Shades of Y2K! By the way, anyone want to buy a portable generator and 10 yrs. supply of survival food? Never been used, 8 1/2 yrs. old but still in the boxes. 😉
Cross Mountain: I am a 3rd generation Coloradoan who has lived in Louisiana for 40 years. I still hunt the Hunter/Frying Pan for elk. La. has large whitetail population that easily sustains the 6 deer limit, and no big cats like Colorado. Lions have killed off 2/3 of the Mule Deer in my home units. Just a cycle. The deer will be back in a decade or two. Bye the way, I prefer lion to mule deer on the table. Very much like veal. Things are hard to hunt without dogs though. I’m in La because of the hunting fishing and moral and ethical nature of the people. Great place to raise kids & grand children. Colorado is a cess pool of nut cases now. No place for nice people. Rob O’Neil et al.
Dee in Iowa: Sorry I brought it up. I am also of the 30’s, 70 years this year. I grew up on a ranch without electricity, 40 miles of gravel road to a town. 8 party hand crank phone. Wonderful place with God’s best people. Gone now.
Republican prosperity in the last 2 decades? GDP all time high, unemployment all time low, all time low interest rates, surplus of good housing, all time high stock averages, etc. etc. The fly in the jelly is the mad cap left destruction of the development of domestic oil exploration and production. If we had stopped their insane interference 20 years ago we would have 1.00 gas now. Like I said, sorry I brought it up. Not something we will probably ever agree on.
See y’all when the crick is down and the trout are hungry.
Teddy mak waxes nostalgic about the good old days without electricity. I can understand why he didn’t like FDR, rural places have electricity.
I don’t think we’d ever agree Teddy, because the evidence on your side is pretty thin. Besides, I suspect if there was anything bad a Republican did, you’d find a way to give credit to the Democrats. Oil is driving up the cost of food because of two things 1) speculators and 2) biofuels. I don’t understand what that has to do with political parties, for nobody wants to regulate the speculators and everyone has been at the biofuel trough.
If Teddymak is 70, he was seven years old at the end of WWII and FDR’s death, so I doubt that he has many personal recollections about him. But it’s a pleasure to agree with you even partially about something, #8. Speculators on the international commodity markets and biofuels are indeed big parts of the problem. I don’t know how to regulate international speculators. But I am sure that our domestic energy problems could be made a lot better by lifting the restrictions on the development of domestic oil production and domestic refining capacity. Oh, and by not growing food to burn it up. I’m quite willing, as are most people, to push for conservation and alternative fuels as well.
Under Democrats I had to pay taxes. Under Republicans I get rebates. I much prefer Republicans to Democrats. Even though FDR did a lot to pave the way for socialism in the US, he did a lot of good, too, such as the TVA and the Civilian Conservation Corps, and his handling of WWII efforts.
As to survivalists, I’m glad the article wasn’t on stockpiling guns. My wife is still insistent that if a gun comes in this house, I go out — with it!
BTW, we just planted a small square foot garden with cukes, tomatoes, cantelope, and my wife wants to plant some peas as well. So we are doing our part. Bring back the Victory Garden!
Neighborhood gardens are a good idea, as well. We have several common areas with playgrounds that are never used, that would make ideal garden plots.
Peace
Jim Elliott <><
During the war, when we moved down to Denver, we had a Victory Garden. The only thing we got to grow were egg plants. Understand, high country people had no experience with gardens. They don’t grow at 10 K above sea level. None of us had ever seen an egg plant. They tasted awful. The kids finally started using them as hand grenades in veggie fights.
Rural Electrification was a mixed blessing. Unreliable, even now. Butt ugly tranmission lines in God’s most beautiful real estate. We had a surplus GI generator that we ran 3 hours in the evening. Ran on gasoline. That’s all we needed. Oil lamps and new fangled Swedish lanters really worked fine. Refrigeration? Ice sawed from a pond stored in an old cabin full of sawdust. Every cabin had an ice box. Heat from coal stoves. Spring house held the milk and butter we made from it. I don’t wax too nostalgic for the old days. Damn near died from from a strep infection you handle today with a few anti biotics. Now is better. Not so much fun though.
Yes, teddy mak. I can remember my mother’s horror when the doctor told her my sister had strep throat. She didn’t know penicillin made this a minor illness. And I remember my parents’ terror of polio and their joy when the vaccines appeared. There is a reason the population is exploding. We don’t die the way we used to.
“The Demos have been in control of Congres for just a couple of years and have already managed to bring this decades long Republican prosperity to the point where we are going bankrupt, with no fuel or food in the near future” —Teddy Mak [#2]
What a pack of falsehoods! Under President Clinton, the federal government turned the massive and chronic budget deficits of his Republican predecessors into solid surpluses.
All 12 budgets enacted under Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr. had huge deficits even though the economy was booming.
Clinton took office in 1993 pledging to cut the federal deficit in half within four years. He persuaded the Democratic-controlled Congress to enact a package of spending cuts and tax increases designed to achieve that goal. This was not an obvious or politically popular step to take. But the results validated the Clinton-Rubin position: cutting the deficit—and thus allaying fears of future inflation—effected a large and lasting reduction in long-term interest rates and thereby promoted investment and sustainable economic growth.
Clinton stood for budget balance at a time when many said it didn’t matter or couldn’t be done. If you look at the budgets enacted since 1980, you’ll see 20 years of fiscal irresponsibility—the budgets enacted under Reagan, Bush Sr., and Bush Jr. You’ll also see 8 years of fiscal responsibility—the budgets enacted under Clinton. Remarkable coincidence, eh?
After the last Clinton budget, the federal government’s publicly held debt stood at $3.2 trillion. It will come close to $6 trillion by the end of Bush’s last budget.
Since Bush took office, the value of the dollar has fallen 73% against the value of oil, 69% against the value of gold, and 41% against the euro.
The story told in this article is an interesting mixture of good and bad. It’s good to simplify your life, spend more time outdoors, and lose weight. It’s bad to succumb to such exaggerated worries.
Take the case of oil. The survivalists evidently believe that prices will continue to skyrocket and that the pump will run dry within the next decade. But painfully high prices induce conservation that makes the existing supply last longer. They also promote additional oil exploration and development. The world may well end up with more proven reserves at $100 at barrel than it had at $40 a barrel. High prices will also stimulate development of other energy sources.
BTW, remember how the survivalists arming themselves to face the mobs unleashed by Y2K?
Rising global demand makes prices soar, which is painful.
Irenaeus:
My last words on the subject: I have neither the time nor the inclination to discuss remedial economics with you. Sorry. Got to tend the corn patch. Also have to set up Tuesday staff meetings for our 176 nurses who tend our 615 patients. Busy with reality.
Best Regards, seriously.
Done with this. Sorry I started it.
Teddy