What Should I Do?

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What Should I Do?

Irene: Pop Quiz in Preparedness

by Adam Taggart
Friday, August 26, 2011, 4:43 PM

Ready or not, if you live along the US east coast, Mother Nature has just announced a pop quiz. Subject: personal and community resiliency.

By all accounts, Hurricane Irene is a big storm. The latest projections have it making landfall at North Carolina tomorrow around mid-day. From there it's expected to march northward up the east coast, impacting a long stretch of the country inhabited by 65 million - 1 in 5 of the people in the country. Mandatory evacuations in several states have already been announced, including the lower-lying boroughs of Manhattan.

Our thoughts are with our with our readers, staff, and family living in Irene's path. We hope you're all able to take appropriate steps to ensure your safety as the storm passes over (and if you haven't, we certainly recommend doing so before Irene arrives).

And we're setting up this thread for folks to use - for sharing preparation guidance, reporting developments, asking advice, and providing emotional support -  in advance of and during the storm. » Read more

What Should I Do?

Dan Jablow, founder of Jablow's Meats

Preserving Meat By Curing and Smoking

by Dan Jablow
Thursday, July 21, 2011, 9:09 PM

In a future defined by increasingly expensive and/or scarce energy, food preservation skills will take on heightened importance. What if prolonged, unpredictable blackouts cause your refrigerated food to spoil frequently? Or rising inflation threatens to make tomorrow’s staples substantially higher than today's?

This article provides an introduction to the two most widespread techniques for preserving meat – curing and smoking – which have been practiced since ancient times. They’re often used in conjunction with each other. In this post, I’ll explain the basic science underlying each and how they enable you to vastly extend the storage life of your meats while eating healthier at the same time. We’ll end with a practical recipe that anyone can follow, regardless of prior experience in the kitchen.

For this exercise, we’re going to focus on everybody’s favorite meat: bacon.  » Read more

What Should I Do?

Raising Children in Changing Times

by DianneM
Friday, July 1, 2011, 5:44 PM

If you have children in your life – as a parent, grandparent, educator, or in any other way, the question of “What Should I Do?” takes on a particular urgency. You have likely asked yourself how you can enable them to navigate the complex and uncertain times ahead – to greet the future with creativity, flexibility, resilience, and joy.

“How can we nurture and raise our children so they can grow into adults who are able to survive, thrive, and contribute to shaping a new and different future?” is how I pose this question to myself as I look into the hopeful eyes of the children whose lives I have the opportunity to touch through my work.

If you have found your way to this website, you already know that the “rules” are about to change; in fact, they are already changing. You already know that most people in our society are not yet aware of the depth of these changes. 

The old paradigm of our culture, based on limitless growth, endless acquisition, and the belief that more is always better, is rapidly changing as we run up against the limits of a finite planet. Some people, myself among them, question whether these were ever genuine markers of what a good life means.

Already some people are beginning to create a new story about what a good life can mean, exploring ways we can live in mutual relationship with our planet, rather than viewing it as something to be exploited. » Read more

What Should I Do?

Argentina: A Case Study in How An Economy Collapses

by Adam Taggart
Friday, June 10, 2011, 1:10 AM

"When you ask any Argentinean person what concerns them the most, the first thing they’re going to be telling you is the crime problem. And the second one is the financial problem. Those are by far the top concerns the average Argentinean person has, and I think that eventually it will happen in the U.S.A., as well. I think that five years from now or so, you’re going to be talking to people, and the thing that’s going to be concerning them is that Joe down the street suffered a home invasion and got beaten up, maybe even got killed. All kinds of crime that didn't used to happen in the good parts of town. It’s going to be one of the greatest concerns people will have, eventually.

And, of course, the financial situation as well. If you look into what people are worried about right now they’re worried about losing their jobs not being able to put food on the table the next month. They see that if they lose their jobs it’s not as easy as it used to be to find another one as well. That’s terrible, because it’s very cold when you look at it in numbers, but it’s—I’m telling you—it’s so much different when it happens on a social level and you see that on the street . When you see the people picking up garbage on the streets to eat."

Hyperinflation survivor Fernando "FerFAL" Aguirre shares his observations of life during and after Argentina's currency collapse in 2001. He notes that the decline initally began slowly, with most of the populace slow to wake to the danger. But when the eventual collapse occured, it happened practiclly overnight - catching the country by surprise. In the wake of the collapse, dealing with poverty and violent crime became the dominant themes.

Worth our attention is his observation that he now sees the sames signs in the US and other major developed nations that he saw leading up to Argentina's collapse. In fact, he foresees a similar endgame as all but inevitable.

Click the play button below to listen to Part 1 of Chris' interview with FerFAL (runtime 31m:43s):

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Or start reading the transcript below: » Read more

What Should I Do?

Car running on wood gasification - (Kris De Decker)

Wood Gasification

An Intriguing Emergency Fuel Source
by Dutch John
Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 5:31 PM

A personal note

As a daily visitor of PeakProsperity.com, I first want to thank Dr. Chris, his staff and all members for the excellent job achieved in this community. I value the high quality articles backed by data and the informative member comments that are pleasant to read. All of you keep me on track. Up until I found Chris, his Crash Course and articles three years ago, I often was very unsure about my feelings, thoughts and fears about the future. Of course I still expect a different future, but knowing I’m not alone in making preparations and gathering knowledge and skills increases my personal resilience.

Like many members of the "Martenson Brigade" I am becoming less dependent on fossil fuel, high living standards and money. I gave up a very nice income ten years ago to move towards greater self-sufficiency. Investing in home gardening, livestock, solar, wind and biomass energy has made my life more simple, slow and sweet. Yes, I am a big fan of John Seymour. No rat race for me and my wife anymore. Unfortunately, community building is still tough since the local farmers here in the Netherlands have no idea what the world is turning into and I do not live in a city where contrarian thinkers are easier to find. Likewise thinkers are scattered all over the country.

After these three years of absorbing knowledge, I feel payback time has come. As it happens I know a little more about wood gasification compared to the average person. » Read more

What Should I Do?

Whole Food Eating

by Teresa Piro
Saturday, May 21, 2011, 7:40 PM

Have we forgotten where our food comes from? The importance of a whole foods diet has become more and more vital to our overall health and well-being, because, well, we’ve strayed so far from food. Farmers’ markets bring honest food to us. However, I certainly get lost and frustrated while shopping for food at a grocery store because a) there are too many products on the shelves and b) the multitude of choices requires label-ready due-diligence.

I read a recent statistic that the average supermarket carries 48,750 items. Where have the days of the simple grocery list of eggs, apples, carrots, broccoli, fish, milk, and butter gone? Food today has been exploited and nutrient-rich foods exchanged for empty calories.

Now, more than ever, it’s time we get back to the basics; be resourceful, ask questions about where your food is coming from, shop farmers markets, know your grocery, plant a garden, buy bulk dry goods, prepare your food at home, and cook with fresh ingredients as much as possible. It will save you loads of stress, and if done right, money, too. 

As I share and encourage you to reconnect with your food, I hope you’ll explore new health-promoting hobbies, passions, and activities that can be enjoyed with family and friends.

Here are a few ideas and recipes to inspire you:

» Read more

What Should I Do?

Biofuel sign

The Case for Small Scale Biofuels

(or, Can you produce your own liquid energy slaves?)
by Ready
Tuesday, May 17, 2011, 10:03 AM

You might say that I am a bit of an unconventional thinker. I generally take a different approach to things than what most people do, given the same stimulus. I believe I am in good company in that regard here at PeakProsperity.com. I clearly understand the controversy over employing biofuels as one method to prepare for the coming storm. Let me say right up front that I do not believe biofuels will allow our existing civilization to sustain its current high net energy lifestyle by substituting biofuels for oil. My argument for the application of biofuels is at a much more personal/community level. I have been asked repeatedly about what and why I am doing this, so I am posting this as a service to the PeakProsperity.com members who have questions that may not have been answered yet.

It was in 2006 that I first learned of Peak Oil. That topic is what eventually lead me to Dr. Martenson, who put things in a broader perspective for me. However, as the Three E’s go, it is clear that Energy has been my primary play, since it is what started me down my current path. » Read more

What Should I Do?

Are You Middle Class?

by Poet
Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 1:48 PM

This post appeared earlier today in our Forums. We've elevated it here because we think it a useful exercise for the CM.com community to engage in. How realistic is the dream of financial self-sufficiency for today's society?

Are you middle class? Surprisingly, most people who think they are middle class, are not middle class.

Being middle class is being able to afford what most would expect a middle class family of 4 or 5 can afford: » Read more

What Should I Do?

Buying a House in Today's Market

by Patrick Killelea
Monday, May 9, 2011, 11:31 AM

Since many of our members are considering relocating, downsizing and/or finding housing better suited to their future priorities (e.g. greater energy efficiency), we invited Patrick Killelea, founder of the housing news and forum site Patrick.net, to offer his advice to house buyers in today's market. Patrick was one of the most vocal bloggers warning about the collapse of the U.S. national housing bubble years before it inevitably popped in 2007.

(A note to those of our readers who work in residential real estate: the views expressed here are Patrick's own, which he has consistently maintained for years. While some of them are not popular with the realty industry, the resulting dialogue they have created about the structure of our national real estate model has been a healthy one.)

If you're in the market for a house, there are a number of important factors to consider which your agent just isn't going to tell you.

» Read more

What Should I Do?

How to Increase the Energy Efficiency of Your Existing Home

by Phil Williams
Sunday, April 24, 2011, 8:39 PM

I am an energy auditor and weatherization contractor working primarily in the residential market in Central Pennsylvania. Through a variety of tests, I can tell a homeowner not only what home improvements should be done to improve the efficiency of the home, but also what the return on investment will be. Apart from the energy savings, I also pay particular attention to the health and safety of the home.

Energy auditing and building analysis is a fairly new industry. I received my training in Maine, through Maine Housing, and at the Weatherization Training Center at Penn College. I also went through the Building Performance Institute's Building Analyst certification.

I would like to share some of the tricks of my trade with the PeakProsperity.com community. I will also share an average of the return on investments that I have seen on my jobs. As I go through a home, these are the items I typically look at: » Read more