Let's say I don't want to be a self-sufficient farmer after the apocolypse

[conuly]

What else can I do to sustain myself? Give me some ideas, they don't have to be necessarily good or easy ones. I'm not talking *right* after, either. I'm talking when the dystopias pick up, several years down the line after things have settled down. (Ever notice how these books always assume that if you survive the initial upheaval of life as you knowing suddenly grinding to a halt, you'll be all right?)

(And yes, this entire post assumes the end of the world as we know it is coming. If you don't think that's likely to happen, speculate anyway.)

Comments

[marveen.livejournal.com]

My vote is to learn how to make something people will trade for--cobbling is good, but a real moneymaker is alcohol. Make wine and brew beer and your fortune is made. (The fact that this latter is one of my hobbies is only a slight bias.) Even brigands can usually grasp the concept of killing the goose/golden eggs...as in, if you mess with the brewer TOO much, there will be no more sudz.

Also consider that if civilization is THAT far gone, granny's herbal remedies and even a smattering of medical knowledge will be in HIGH demand. Just knowing how to splint, poultice, salve and bandage is more than many people know these days. Knowing how to MAKE your own medicines....

[conuly]

That's not a bad idea at all, you're pretty brilliant, have I told you that lately? I was already thinking last night that no matter how bad things get, sooner or later (especially if things get bad!) everybody will need a tooth pulled or a bone set.

Why, thank you. Thank you verra much.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

/drops elvis accent/ I also do a lot of my own medicine involving herbs and so forth, and I'll note here that there's enough of a lack of confidence in our conventional medical establishment that I'm quite busy doing favors for friends in that area. I have little doubt that I could make a living that way if everything goes pear-shaped. (Although I wouldn't care to do dentistry without lidocaine.)

There's a Heinlein meme that went around a while back: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

I can and have done most of the above (sixteen of them anyway--dying gallantly is out for, um, obvious reasons).

Re: Why, thank you. Thank you verra much.

[conuly]

Heinlein isn't my favorite author for pretty much just that reason. What if I don't want to be a renaissance man, anymore than I want to be a self-sufficient farmer?

Re: Why, thank you. Thank you verra much.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

I don't like his writing style, but I agree with his point. Perhaps it comes from being raised in a fairly isolated rural environment, but I feel that you should be able to do almost anything for yourself--maybe in a halfhanded, rough-made, amateurish way, but enough to get you through.

Essentially...what happens if you either can't FIND anyone to do it for you, or you can't afford to pay someone to do it for you? If you have the requisite skills yourself, everything's fine. If you don't, you're up the proverbial crick.

I've made a backstrap loom. I've made cheese and yogurt and churned butter. I've helped to butcher poultry for the table and dug potatoes. I dye wool, spin and knit. I brew my own beer and wine. I'm a damned fine cook and baker. I've bound books and made paper. I've even made my own ink (once was enough, what a mess). I know how to work leather and the rudiments of tanning. I can do rough carpentry and change a tire if I have to. Sewing and mending is easy.