Hmm. Must be something about your psych and past lives - if your into that sort of stuffhennypenny9 said:
Totally!Wifezilla said:No kidding. I don't have a lot of space, but little by little I make it more productive. In the mean time, I really enjoy gardening and my ducks. If I don't need those things for survival, they are still cheaper than therapy
For the most part, I agree with your thoughts; I was just trying to think of some situations where "fear" might be a good thing when it comes to survivalism. I used the hurricane example because we were living in Pensacola when hurricane Ivan hit so I can relate to that kind of a survival situation, and I do recall being somewhat fearful, especially when my ears were popping from the pressure; and I thought the roof was about to come off the building we were staying in. At that point, we were in the basic survival mode (fight-or-flight response), and it was that fear that prompted us to move to a safer part of the building.patandchickens said:Sure, but that's a very specific occasion that you CAN react intelligently toHiedi said:
Whereas "what if civilization collapsed somehow" (or any other vague scenario like "what if there was some awful disease") is not plan-for-able, because there are way too many versions each of which would, REALISTICALLY, play out a different way and render different responses differently useful. Do you have gas in your car? How many OTHER people have lots of gas in their cars? Can you get to the mountains or are the highways a giant traffic jam, or has your car ceased to work last week because there was no replacement alternator available due to supply shortages. How many *other* people got to the mountains, and how much a) food b) tools/supplies c) ammo did they bring, and what proportion of them want to band together for strength vs shoot each other and take their provisions? Or do you end up getting halfway to the mts and then stuck without transportation in the middle of vast plains of farmland? Are you healthy when civilization collapses, or not, and what about family members? Does it turn out that the people in towns band together for support/supplies/protection and the mountains are infested with gun-happy overreacting wingnuts who feel that su casa should be their casa <bang, thud, splat>? Etc etc etc.
Learning to cook is always a useful skill. Practicing building things, large and small, out of raw materials and out of bits scavenged from other things. Learning to fix things (engine repair, small metalworking, sewing, etc). Growing, processing, storing food. Etc.
Those things will be valuable ALL THE TIME, no matter what does or doesn't happen. Guaranteed.
As opposed to plans and provisions made for something that may or may not occur anyhow, and if it does will almost certainly occur with crucial twists and turns that your plans utterly failed to anticipate and are very likely to render your plans weebly or useless.
JMO,
Pat
But all this is on the homesteader side of me. 
Nightshade, this is why we involve our kids in our survival plan totally. Including taking them out in the boonies and staying there for a few days, moving as needed for forage. We take only what we have in our packs, fishing stuff, first aid kits, dried food & survival bars. The food stuffs are only for emergencies, we eat what we can find and usually eat well, at least in summer. They need more work obviously, but kids can learn this too if you make it fun. My kids know the hand signs for quiet (finger across lips) Get down (hand firmly thrust toward the floor, palm down) stay put, etc. I'm trying to make sure my kids know what they can eat around the yard, how to make a simple trap, things like that.nightshade said:
I love that book! As I recall, he lived in a hollow tree and learned much from his local library. He foraged and hunted and was tolerated as an oddity by the locals. This thread reminded me of that book, too.noobiechickenlady said:
