Living off the grid:

[Anonymous]

There are too many people on this planet now to live off the land. We require our fertilizers and our pesticides and factory farming. So barring some horrible disaster that wipes out 2/3 of the population, I don’t think it can happen.

And if just the Mormons did it, we’d soon resemble the Warren Jeffs clan. That’s no good.

[Anonymous]

cwald wrote:

I just went 24 hours with my well pump out – no water. It sucks. Period. Living off the grid had not validity – imo. Once again, do it, and then have an opinion. Out.

Sure, I understand where you’re coming from, but if you were in a situation where water was more readily available…

[Anonymous]

Got the pump working finally. No more sponge baths and dumping water in the toilet to get it to flush.

Thank god for the grid.

And that was just not having running water. Take away electricity and it’s a whole knew ballgame.

[Anonymous]

It does raise a serious issue though. How prepared are we? What good is food storage if we can’t grow things, cook with fires or even hunt?

I had a similar issue, Cwald, last year. All our power went for forty minutes. Luckily it was late at night, but I was reading. The lights went off, and more worryingly the phone went dead. (My cellphone still worked – amazingly, I had just charged it) What’s more all the street lighting around here went off. If that went on for more than two days, we’d be in serious trouble. Every robber, rapist, murderer and nutcase would be having a field day. Not to mention the kids!

There’s some construction works about a mile and a half from me. Possibly a workman mangled power cables. I don’t know.

I did have candles, but it did make me think how vulnerable we are. My heating and cooking is all done by electricity. Even the gas rings are lighted by electric sparks.

[Anonymous]

SamBee wrote:

It does raise a serious issue though. How prepared are we? What good is food storage if we can’t grow things, cook with fires or even hunt?

3/4 of the country live in densely populated areas. The only farmland is your front yard or the local park, and the only “game” is stray cats. It would be utter anarchy and chaos if the food supply was severely disrupted. We’ve moved away from self sufficiency because it is so inefficient and wasteful to have everyone take care of themselves.

[Author]

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