How much land?

[Sailor]

The biggest problem will be in the cities where most people, who rely on others to provide their basic needs (food, water, etc.) will no longer have those services available to them. The time tables for these types of issues to go full circle is around 90 days.

What do you mean by full circle? Just in time shipping means that Walmarts will be empty in 2 days. No food, power, and water and you are looking at chaos very soon.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I think it's a better idea to figure out how you can be happy and safe on 50% of your current standard of living while maintaining a low profile. This is the more likely scenarion for the future.

That is wonderful advice for those that aren't already there. You can only cut standards in half so many times before you're left with nothing and nothing is where we are NOW. I understand what you are saying, and I doubt things will ever come down to it. I do think it would be wonderful to go back to the old ways of extended family working together on the "family farm" so to speak also.

I can tell you right now that your golf course does not have soil that is well set up for agriculture and you're going to spend many years getting the soil ready to grow decent crops. The O and A horizons of the soil will be very thin and won't have the necessary substructure for conduction and storage of water and nutrients.

100 acres of former golf course in Indiana to support 25 people? Not right now, probably not in the first 5 years. Eventually? Maybe, but it's going to require a lot of work to get it to that point. The woods of which you speak is going to be the only thing that would get you there and save your butt if you had to move into your 100 acres right now if TEOTWAWKI happens.

Good points indeed. I guess I never even considered that the soil would be off. The whole region is surrounded by either forest or farm so naturally my assumption was that it would grow well. True about the woods also, that region seems nearly untouched and provides quite a bountiful harvest of it's own from paw paws to fern to several different nuts, onion, mushrooms galore (the late and Honorable Judge Samuel Rosen spent lots of time hunting mushrooms there) and so on....

 

[ThrottleJockey]

What do you mean by full circle? Just in time shipping means that Walmarts will be empty in 2 days. No food, power, and water and you are looking at chaos very soon.

I think he meant they will be dead or moved to the country, at least that was what I took from it.

 

[Patrolman1981]

I figure I could live and keep my family going for along time on my 126 acres. 30 cows, creek, 40 acres of solid woods to cut for firewood. Would not be easy, but could be done.

 

[Libertarian01]

To All,

Presuming for a moment the tools, skills and resources required to farm enough to sustain 25 human beings the concept of food storage must NOT be overlooked.

We take too much for granted today. One of the biggest luxuries we have is refrigeration. The ability to store food over the long haul by keeping cold or freezing it is a tremendous advantage that may not exist in a crisis. If you are able to generate power in some way keeping the freezer on could be the top priority.

An easy way to test our ability would be a simple exercise: next time you go to the store buy everything normally but do NOT put it in the refrigerator or freezer. See how long it takes to go south... I think we would all be a bit shocked at just how important "cold" can be.

Longbow also hit on a huge problem: waste material. Sure some could be put to a useful purpose but the rest would be an issue of lethal consequences without addressing it! 25 people pooping and peeing in one place could become a health hazard of staggering proportions. And before you think "We'll just go in the river", remember that you are UPSTREAM from some folks and DOWNSTREAM from others.

It is a useful topic to think about though. Good luck in your research.

Regards,

Doug

 

[ATOMonkey]

Fairoaks farms has a very ingenous anerobic digester that quickly composts animal (and probably human) waste through the use of certain bacteria and enzymes. It produces energy and fertilizer for the farm.

Setting up something like that would be worth its weight in gold.