In your opinion.........

[FarmerChick]

Yep, thats pretty much true FC.However,my garden is way to big to hoe by hand, plus i'm no spring chicken...lol( and i ain't ready to down size my growing stuff yet). So the horse drawn ways of the Amish are very appealing to me, as opposed to the typical fuel and chem. fertilizer dependant American farmers. Whats so cool, is the Amish go full circle, they grow the fuel the work horses need.My point is, we Americans and the goverment machine we elected put us where we are today, hence the topic of this thread...In Your Opinion..trouble is FC and Toule,to many Americans in general don't want to get their hands dirty, and prefer pushing a pencil and numbers instead.To many chiefs, not enough worker indians..lol Not even a modified version of and Amish type lifestyle with some modern things, minus the religion is appealing.America got lazy and complacent, to many freebies and hands out for non-American invaders.It's all come home to roost, and its almost time to pay the nasty price due..IMO

I understand the inbalance you are referring to definitely.

but isn't it what life is about...freedom to choose what you want to do? I mean, if we want balanced, we would assign jobs at birth to every single person. This newborn is a dairy farmer. This newborn is an accountant. Oh, we don't need more accountants, so lets assign this newborn to be a window washer. I understand the lazy and complacent about alot of life, many people are and I am to some degrees as are others, but truly it can't be perfect.....we are dealing with humans doing what humans want to do. Best anyone can do is find their own niche and ride it out, cause society will not go backwards. Technology will not go away. It will advance and help us hopefully.

Sure govt isn't helping, sure life is hard and greedy and nasty, sure people run from dirty work mostly etc.....but the 'world' is not going back to Amish ways....the world won't (unless major disaster of monster proportions) happens.

yea the world has paid nasty prices all the time thru history. These times are no different. Best anyone can do is pray for good change and vote to elect decent politicans that can help make those changes.

 

[FarmerChick]

yea we all got a few ideas and thoughts running thru this thread :bun

 

[Toulle]

my garden is way to big to hoe by hand, plus i'm no spring chicken

I feel you there. Hoeing by hand just plain sux.

 

[Toulle]

Yeah?

Yeah.

okay, I got nothing . . . .

what were we talking about before we went Amish?

 

[Britesea]

I'm not saying changes aren't happening in the world. They are. I am also not saying everyone has to embrace them. What I am saying is that we have little or no power to stop these changes other than in our own lives, and that by digging in and shutting them out will only guarantee one's own ultimate extinction. I am saying one must adapt and evolve.

It's all Darwin, you know.

I'm trying to figure out what you are trying to say... is 'prepping' for possible disaster adapting and evolving? or digging in and shutting the world out?

"My Grandparents told me about the Great Depression in the South. They told me they barely noticed. Grandaddy did say that shotgun shells got too expensive so he had to use a muzzleloader." Did they, perhaps, barely notice because since times had always been hard in the South they were already doing a lot of the activities we would call "prepping" today?

I prep because I don't know if or when society will melt down, but if it does I will have a buffer and if it doesn't I will just continue as I am today. It's a similar situation to looking out the window and deciding it looks like it might rain so I take an umbrella with me: if it rains I'm glad I have an umbrella and if it doesn't well, no harm done.

 

[Toulle]

I'm not saying changes aren't happening in the world. They are. I am also not saying everyone has to embrace them. What I am saying is that we have little or no power to stop these changes other than in our own lives, and that by digging in and shutting them out will only guarantee one's own ultimate extinction. I am saying one must adapt and evolve.

It's all Darwin, you know.

I'm trying to figure out what you are trying to say... is 'prepping' for possible disaster adapting and evolving? or digging in and shutting the world out?

"My Grandparents told me about the Great Depression in the South. They told me they barely noticed. Grandaddy did say that shotgun shells got too expensive so he had to use a muzzleloader." Did they, perhaps, barely notice because since times had always been hard in the South they were already doing a lot of the activities we would call "prepping" today?

I prep because I don't know if or when society will melt down, but if it does I will have a buffer and if it doesn't I will just continue as I am today. It's a similar situation to looking out the window and deciding it looks like it might rain so I take an umbrella with me: if it rains I'm glad I have an umbrella and if it doesn't well, no harm done.

Sorry, I do seem to be having trouble explaining myself today....

I am not saying that prepping is shutting out. Whether you do that or not is irrelevant to whether you are prep'd up or not.
I put forth a statement that the world is changing, and there are two ways to survive: adapt or find a safe niche that doesn't change. Finding a safe niche is gonna be pretty hard, as the Big Wide World has a way of finding its way into everything, especially if you got something it wants...

A good prepper, IMO, will certainly have the ability to adapt to changing conditions. This doesn't necessarily mean become one with the Zombies, just adapt to their world around you.

The answers to your questions about my grandparents is "yes" on both - times were already hard and only got a little harder, and they had always been what nowadays is called "self sufficient". Most people were in that time and place.

I prep, best I can, because it just makes sense. It's kinda fun, too.

 

[lighthawk]

Modern tools and technology assist me to maintain as much property as I do and enable me to get to work. I have not gotten my hobby farm to the point where it could sustain me yet. I am slowly working in that direction but at my age I have to take it nice and easy. That is why I have a two year supply of dry goods and a fully stocked freezer. Rototiller? Yes. 4 wheeler with a plow? Most definitely. Chainsaw? Absolutely. I also have the hand tools to replace these items if need be. I can use an axe to fell a tree but I certainly don't want to. To shovel a foot of snow out of my drive would take me two days. Were none of these tools available (no gasoline) I'd be seriously adapting. I'm sure we all would. That is why I have put away enough salt to preserve the meat in the freezer in the event of no electricity.
My thinking changed about age 55. Instead of thinking that tommorrow will always be there I started thinking "what can go wrong here" then planning for it Funny but it seems the more prepared I am the less that goes wrong. Good luck.
Rich

 

[FarmerJamie]

yea we all got a few ideas and thoughts running thru this thread

I kinda had the same

The Amish comments got me wondering about what "English" perceptions of these folks were.

Around here, they have cell phones, electric tools in their workshops and barns, modern steel tools, and get shuttled around in "Amish taxis" to work sites and Walmart. Very strict rules in their homes and around their properties, but the rules change when they venture out. An Amish person from 100 years ago placed in today's world would be wondering who let the devil loose in the community.

For me self-sufficiency includes a large chunk of adaptability and flexibility to take advantage of new opportunities to better my family's life.

YMMV

 

[animalfarm]

I am sorry, but I cannot read anymore of these Amish posts and stay silent even though I should. Somebody has been watching too much TV. Perhaps the Amish should be featured on Myth-busters. I have lots of Amish neighbours and have had Amish work for me doing chores when I go on holiday, and I have had Amish put a roof on my house.

Amish use battery operated power tools. They charge them up at the neighbours that have electricity or the houses where they are putting roofs on. They listen to stereo; I just have to turn it on and leave the volume up. Country and Western all the way. Any one under 30 knows all the lyrics by heart. The young lads love singing along. They don't drive cars but they sure don't have a problem with other people driving one for them. They want to go somewhere, they have plenty of non-amish folk such as myself to drive them there. Strange, but the woman take a buggy and the men get a car ride to town. I have personally hauled 3 men and 2 horses 4 hours to an auction and back. In thanks, they treated me to dinner at the Chinese buffet.

They are fed up with being a tourist attraction and being asked rude questions over and over, but they have to ignore it. They tend to be stone faced because of this. They have gas engines for their saw mills and my neighbour has a gas pump for his water well. They have telephones for business; just can't have them in their own homes/business. When I needed my roof done, I left a message on their answering machine that another non-Amish person has in his house. They hire heavy machinery to do big jobs just the same as everyone else. Its ok as long as they are not the ones actually using the equipment. They can take a train, but they absolutely cannot fly.

They have many loopholes, and they use them. Every Amish community can set its own rules separate from the basic rules that all follow so some communities are more rigid then others, but you would surprised at what has been approved. Stores and businesses are examples as well as what I have listed above. Most exceptions are made in order to make a living, since even the Amish cannot make a living at farming due to government regulations. Many Amish, including men and older unmarried girls have jobs outside the home; our local chicken processing plant for example. Usually the girls are working along side dad.

Point in fact: the Amish have had to change in order to survive.

Point in fact: most of the kids are baptized into the faith after their teen spree ( and most have their spree while still living at home) which strangely enough only seems to involve boys; not girls, because they truly don't have much other choice. If they don't join the Amish faith, they are shunned for life and since the Amish do not believe in higher education, they are not educated past grade 8, and English is their 2nd language, plus they have cultural problems, they kind of have a bit of a problem striking out on their own. All is not rosy in Amish-land.

The Amish are under pressure just the same as the rest of us. The only advantage they have, is that if gas runs out and SHTF they can still use a horse and a small army of kids to plough the garden whereby most us will be running a shovel while wondering where the kids are hiding out. The Amish might have a bit of a problem running off the zombies as well.

Now that I have helped hi-jack the thread, I will not comment on the Amish any further. These are just my personal experiences and what I have been told by some of the young ones that come by.

 

[Emerald]

I also have to comment on the Amish-I agree with animalfarm and FarmerJamie. The Amish I know are nothing like what was described earlier in this thread.
The Ordnung in our area are more strict than those in the Shipsawanna area of Ohio as in they do not use the gas powered harvesters that are pulled by horses. But ride all over in vans that they pay gas on. They shop in our big box stores and even in the greenhouse I used to work for as they liked our goot healthy plants. More than one young one has gone completely bonkers during Rumspringa and ended up in jail or worse.
I spent many a good afternoon as a child playing with the Amish children when my Grandfather needed to have the men fix something or was bartering for them to come and fix something at Grandpa's house, or my Grandmother wanted to take the afternoon to trade recipes or just speak her native tongue with others who spoke it too.
While I could do what they do, I don't want to till I have to .. those folks(at least around here) work HARD.. All of us could take a lesson on working from them.

I feel that something bad is brewing up and heading down the pike. I am learning all the skills that my great grandparents and grandparents had and we lost. I am trying to grow as much as possible and learn to put it all up.. canning/dehydrating/freeze(while we still can) I grow my heirloom seeds and keep them fresh-I laugh when I see the "survival seed vaults" that are going for good hard cash when all that is in them will probably not grow when they are needed.
Every new "old" skill I learn over and refine helps that tight feeling wrapping my insides up, to loosen just a touch.

But darn folks I love my computer and tv and car and all that fancy fun kitchen stuff(a few of which I am getting hand operated replacements for). I am gonna use it till I can't use it any longer and I am not gonna feel bad for enjoying it. Times will become tougher and without good memories to fall back on and urge us towards making more, times will be too dismal to want to live thru.