PDM, i find myself thinking about it regularly, but in a fun "back to the land" way. I know the reality would not be so fun, but i feel better having some plans anyway.

I am amassing a large library of homesteading, gardening, survival, primitive skills, edible plants, animal husbandry books, and the like.

whats to plan for if its ending...your entire life should be geared around such a catastrophe and how you live it.

I have thought about the world going to hell in a hand basket and what would I do.

Nothing I guess, I do not think I would want to be one of the last people roaming the earth looking for someone else to connect with and try to survive. If the end is nuclear their is no sense in staying around and lingering on and going in a slow painful way. (Too many sci fi movies,,lol)

I was raised on a farm and just recently sold my farm of 30 years. I can do it all and I am mighty handy with a shot gun too but what is the point? If the world ends it will be very ugly ....I would much rather go to the beyond.

Tess, you sound like a very nice and interesting person. Did you enjoy farming? Do you recommend it as a lifestyle that is fulfilling?

What kind of homesteading skills do you think ended up being most useful?

You sound like an equally nice person Jilly. I LOVED farming and I would still be doing it if it wasn't so labor intensive and I wasn't near 60. It is the only lifestyle I really know but enjoyed nearly every minute of it.

You have to be tough and rugged. You work the fields and put up hay and straw bales in the summer. The bales weigh about 60 pounds and we needed 1000 bales a year. You lift each one twice. The only time you can cut hay and bale is when it is hot and dry. Hay needs to cure in the hot sun before being baled. You work the vegetable gardens in the morning heat also. You need to wear long pants and shirts to ward off bugs and so you do not get stinging hay scratches. As veggies come in to season you can and freezes anything you do not eat at the time, there is no waste. In the fall you slaughter your hogs and smoke hams, put enough chicken and beef up for the year in the freezer.

In the winter you repair stuff, tractors, tillers, balers, barns, fences and prepare for the next year. You have to get up early each day and feed animals and it does not matter if it is raining, 20 below wind chill or an ice storm, they have to eat.
The barns need cleaning each day and water troughs get filled too.

It can be a very good year or a very bad year for crops and you have to roll with the punches.

Country folk have the best common sense because if you do not have common sense you won't make it as a farmer or a rancher. You will never get rich, but you have more riches than anyone you know, other than your neighbors who farm too.

Here is a little story that tells you what country folk are made of...
In KY we had the worst ice storm in 100 years and everyone for miles lost power. The roads were a sheet of ice and could not be traveled. A boy on a snow machine came to our door and said that doug simpson, a dairy farmer, was in trouble. He could not milk his 100 head of cows because his power was out and 2 generators could not keep the power run milking machines going. I told him to go tell doug he would have help within the hour.

I saddled up my horse and my husbands, so did 4 other neighbors and we rode the icey fields up and down hills and hollars to Dougs and all of us hand milked his cattle. We did that twice a day for 5 days until we got power back. Plus, all of us had to keep our farms running too.

I would never have lived a different life, it was the best. My children grew up understanding where food comes from and that animals die so we can eat. They showed at the county fairs and took pride in their animals and learned to care for and love another thing besides themselves. But they also learned how to put an animal down if it was in pain and and wasn't able to be saved.

The most useful thing about farming that I carry with me even today is pure love of of a fresh egg, an apple off the tree, the smell of a horse while you are grooming, fresh bread in the oven and a huge family dinner with all the trimmings and the chairs around the table full......

Tess I appreciate your farming style. I have worked and helped at a horse farm on and off for a number of years but just part time, to help pay my board for my horse. I did work there full time for a year when I was 35 but I just can't do that work all day anymore. It is a hobby for me now and my real job is in the middle of Boston. If there were a nuclear alert or something we would be first to go. The evacuation routes are a joke with the traffic.
I think if I were at the farm maybe we could all take our horses and head out with some necessities, stay away from highways, and of course everyone would soon run out of gas. Then desperate people might try to shoot us or our horses, we would have to stick together. I saw that movie The Road with cannibalism and everything. Illusive is right, I just stay in today.

gee i never noticed your a neighbor Daniellero...i too live in Ma south of boston more near the rhode island and conn. borders.

i did the horse thing too for many many years...i also live in deep woods and hunt infact i plan to do some this winter mostly just to breath the fresh air...cant migrate thru woods on long treks up and down rough terrain like its flat land anymore lol...and your right no matter how much you could or would stock up on supplies someone will be ready to take it from you with any means...the woods belong to the biggest strongest bear so to speak

and i too live alone...very reclusive in my habits

I miss the farm but I am lucky to have so many friends still in the country. I can go out for a day and have the farm life and return to the city later.

I cannot figure out city people. They complain about the weather constantly (like it matters to them they are never outside much)and seem to think cutting their little yards and weed whipping is so physically exhausting and such a pain and so much work. OMG give me a break !! It takes a whole hour of their week and its done. They do not have any idea what a hard days work is.

The best thing about the city is that I can ride my bike or drive a couple of minutes to grocery shop or go to Home Depot....I just can't get over that. All of my life I had a 30 minute drive to town or shopping, I do like the stuff so close.

The thing I hate the most is the noise!! Cars, dogs, motorcycles makes it so noisy and I live on a quiet street. So quiet and clear in the country, I do miss that very much.

wellll you will just have to come visit me then tess ...ya can hear a pin drop on a nice quiet lake etc etc....

I would love to come and visit Illusive but if I want quiet all I have to do is drive 40 minutes north of here and it is so quiet and serene. I can go to my friend Holly's and sit on her wrap around porch and watch her horses graze and take a nap...aaaah!