A taste of what the SHTF really means

[spider]

I learned a bit about SHTF from my parents when they're were in their early 20s as captive slaves for the Pol Pot regime in cambodia, that stuff sucks man.

 

[EZLivin]

I learned a bit about SHTF from my parents when they're were in their early 20s as captive slaves for the Pol Pot regime in cambodia, that stuff sucks man.

If you would like to share any thoughts/info/observations please do. That one was about as "S"htf as you can get. Doubt we would get to that here, but the info would be really valuable.

 

[One-Eyed Ross]

Spider, your family history is what reminds us all to never take things for granted...

 

[supergenius]

Im going to go spend all my money on hookers and blow

 

[EZLivin]

Sort of on the SHTF topic. Well, more like "S For Brains" actually:

YouTube - ‪Riots ensue in downtown Vancouver following Stanley Cup Final‬‏

 

[Thebastidge]

YouTube - ‪Islamic cultural terrorism‬‏

 

[MSneuropil]

While my families history of food shortages do not compare to Spiders families experience with Pol Pot...I was raised by parents that lived on the high plains of Texas and Oklahoma in the middle of the worse of the dust bowl. A good book to read is "The Worse Hard Time" Amazon.com: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (9780618346974): Timothy Egan: Books. It will show you just how having the markets collapse will affect transportation from areas that grow food to areas that need the food. IF wall street can't make money selling and shipping the product...then that product will not be on the market and it may sit and rot for lack of transportation cost. Think about that.

My family raised me to always put up a year or more of food and store it in cellars. WE generally tried to can 2 or 3 years of food because you never knew if the following year would be a bad year for crops or not. That saved my bacon many times over the years when a tornado or hail storm destroyed my garden and fruit trees. They never let me forget that they HAD to rely on family gardens, basic food like beans, cornbread, and wild foraged foods, which were even scarcer due to the drought. This was all put into perspective when 7 years ago I traveled to my family farm in Texas and we went to the old homestead (no longer owned by our family due to the depression). My grandmother told me of the time they had to shoot 40 pigs and bury them. That is the most memorable example of just how tough things were for them. I was shocked! They had sold what they could, but bottom line was there was no money and no market. And there was no money to feed the pigs so the government paid farmers to kill their pigs and bury them. And there were people all over the country standing in bread lines! It has happened in the past and could happen in the future.

While that was happening...there was huge piles of harvested wheat rotting...because there was no money for transportation to the markets. Peoples cows and horses died of starvation for lack of feed that was piled up and rotting 20 miles away. They collected and salted tumbleweeds as a last resort to feed their bony stock.

This is not exactly on subject...but is an example of how a person can get fatigued with the limited diet during such a dramatic event as the dust bowl and the depression. My grandmother put MUSTARD on her biscuits and gravy which just grossed out us kids. She said numerous times that for years all they had to eat for breakfast and many other meals was biscuits and gravy to the point she could hardly eat it. So she started putting "prepared mustard" on her biscuits and gravy.

As a result of that learning...I always keep things like curry paste, lots of spices (I buy bulk at World Spice Market in Seattle) because I personally know what it is like to have mostly plainly seasoned beans and rice to eat as a child. I will at least have TASTY rice and my lentils will be curried if the SHTF. LOL! Just sayin!

 

[EZLivin]

While my families history of food shortages...

All good points. Hardly anyone takes note of history, particularly since we are so much "smarter" than them (so it "can't happen to us"). I cringe when I walk/drive through modern housing developments and don't see one plant or tree that is useful. Anyone with a yard could at least plant some useful fruits and herbs.