Something practical you can do while watching the economy collapse...

[Speck Tater]

Buy some cheap plastic tarps and pitch yourself a lean-to tent in the back yard so you can practice what it's like to be homeless. Hone those important survival skills now while you still have a home so that your trial and error period won't be as risky as it would be once you're doing it for real. It's far better to figure out the intricacies of the tin can hobo stove now than to fumble around later when your next hot meal depends on it.

[babylonsister]

1. You should seek professional help. nt

[NightWatcher]

2. I practice survival skills all the time

I just wish I had paid better attention to my grandparents stories of how they dealt with hard times.

[Speck Tater]

3. I'm with you there.

Last year I finally learned how to make jam from the strawberries, blackberries and grapes growing on my property. And after 5 seasons of trial and error, (mostly error) I can finally say my gardening skills are pretty good.

[NightWatcher]

7. I'm a Survivorman junkie and try to replicate what he does

my SO laughs at my exercising dift kinds of firemaking in the backyard.

I hope to attend a Survival training class later in the year.

[grasswire]

4. I've been to summer camp.

I know how to make a stove out of a number ten can, a tuna can, and some corrugated cardboard. I know how to make a fire, roast biscuits on a stick, braid and weave belts, administer first aid, shoot an arrow, make a simple trap, identify berries, dip candles, mark a trail and follow one, and many many more simple skills.

Wow. All that fun at camp really paid off. I never thought of it that way.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. The economy is not collapsed yet because Obama did triage....

I'm not sure if you realize we have a damned good president. If not, sit and ponder what those shitheads, Palin and McCain would've done for ya.

[sendero]

11. True...

... but now when it DOES collapse it's going to be that much worse.

Obama has done nothing to fix anything, he's kicked the can down the road a year or so.

[RandomThoughts]

6. Campfire double boiler.

One big tin can, put a couple sticks on the bottom, then put a smaller soup can in the bigger can. Fill outer can with water, and heat your soup like a double boiler.

With the inner can sitting on sticks on the bottom the heat does not all go to one part of the soup and it is cooked pretty well. It works with canned chili and thicker items without burning parts of it.

Its best to use sticks like chop sticks or solid wood, then you can use the hot water for tea with the soup. And by using the boiler you make sure the water you get is boiled so it is safe.

Use the outer can to store things you carry when not cooking.

:shrug:

[ipaint]

8. Tent city revival

http://blogs.wsj.com/photojournal/2009/08/12/tent-city-revival/

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2009/08/13/eastern_champaign_church_takes_in_tent_city_residents

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/us/05tent.html

http://trueslant.com/caitlinkelly/2009/08/11/heres-some-housing-growth-tent-cities-for-the-desperate/

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-tent-cities-take-over-as-great-recession-takes-hold-2009-8

http://crosscut.com/2009/08/10/social-services/19159/

[ixion]

9. Not just survival skills...

gardening, sewing, making butter, roasting coffee beans, milking goats...

There are all sorts of skills that we'll have to revive here at some point.

[fasttense]

10. We have gone into farming.

My mother, who was a child of the depression, said that the family members who were doing the best near the end of the depression, were the ones who owned land and farmed. Not big time giant farms, they owned very small farms on the Eastern Shore in Maryland (most of that land there has been bought and sold so often there are no 300 acre tracks to buy up). But they had enough food to feed their families and sold some food on the side.

We bought some land and are raising some animals and a lot of fresh produce. We are working on a Greenhouse and hope to extend our season.

A small farm is good idea for a small family. When hard times hit the entire family can work the land so they can eat.