Monday, July 7, 2014

Sustainable Living for Generations


I had a bit of time to mull over a few things while driving the tractor this afternoon and this evening. One thing that comes popping into my mind fairly frequently has been just what the dividing line is between preppers, survivalist and my new title I am making up on the spot Sustainers.

Now Sustainers in my mind would be homesteading/small farmer types who are closely linked to preppers and survivalist I think but not quite the same thing. I used Sustainers because we need our own one word catch all name.

Roughly speaking I look at it like this.

A survivalist is going to pack away supplies for himself or herself plus maybe a few others focused primarily on having enough stored supplies to out last whatever emergency they may be confronted with. Presumably they would also seek the skills necessary to live off the land in case supplies were not available for whatever reason. Perhaps even plan on bartering down the road.

A prepper is kinda in the same vein as a survivalist but usually more urban centered. While the Survivalist more than likely lives at their retreat full time a Prepper would more than likely focus on surviving in place in an urban setting or perhaps plan on being more mobile and bartering skills or stored items to set up after a collapse. They need to live in one world right now but plan for another.

Lastly there is my personal favorite (and you bet your Ass I am biased) the Sustainers. These folks encompass most everything about Survivalist and Preppers but perhaps are not as focused on living off the land or mobility. They certainly have stores of food and supplies but also plan to make their own land as self sufficient as possible. By necessity they are living on their own homesteads and already living the life to some extend with plans already laid to expand their production as this long slow collapse forces them too. 

A sustainer certainly has food stored away and plenty of ammo because he or she knows things could always get ugly before they get better but they also plan perma-culture projects and know what is needed to produce the food and other items they would need for years on their own. In many instances a Sustainer is not only thinking about themselves and immediate family but their grandchildren and great grandchildren yet unborn.

With the kind of collapse I see coming our children today maybe living with computer screens, headphones and text messages but I bet our grandchildren (or great grandchildren) will know more about grafting fruit trees than they do iphones.

Everyone is different, no argument there, but my approach to surviving the coming collapse is generational. I wish to carve out my own mini food producing empire that will sustain my current family and those who come along long after I am dust.

To me that is the main difference that sets a Sustainer apart from all the rest.

But keep Prepping Everyone as usual :)

16 comments:

  1. WOW. i think you have finally coined a term that i can agree with. survivalist never sat well with me because i don't own 10 million weapons and don't care to. a couple of shotguns has always served me well. i used to associate to prepper but there have been quite a few suburban moms with blogs about "prepping" and how to make popsicles out of stored tang. but sustainer - i really like that word. we are like you in that we have stored food, you'd be crazy not to. but we are also living on our own "small hold" and although we do not yet keep animals, if shtf we know where to get some! we have a friend who owns a ginormic animal farm who is always begging us to take his goats, his chickens, his ducks - you name it. he is a softie for stray animals and the local animal shelters always call him. he has never said no. plus he's got a barn bigger than a small town and about 100 acres with a variety of streams, springs and creeks.

    anyway, all of that to say that ya - i think that we are sustainers. thanks for finally finding a word that i can agree with. i love and really agree with you that this young generation is stuck to their iphone, but i think the coming generation after them will be living in a different world and will need, and want to know, self-sufficient practices.

    good job on this post. but yer still a wiener!

    much love to you and yours buddy! your friend,
    kymber

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    1. Kymber... errrrr I mean Trenchie :)

      Ya I know the urban prepper Mom blogs are literally everywhere these days. Some few of them are still really useful but so many of them have turned into... well anyway there must be a large following for them because they have hundreds of female followers :)

      Like you I have been searching for something that makes us stand out. It isn't just the storing of food or keeping guns and livestock either. It's exploring how it was done before but adding in a twist of our own from time to time as well. Trimming what must be trimmed, retaining the most useful and discovering or re-discovering what works.

      It kinda sets Sustainers apart from simple Preppers.

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  2. Another very good stop and think posting. Its kind of like back to the future, we look to the past to learn what to do in the future. Soooo many are clueless to what is ahead.

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    1. Rob - I would recommend Kunstler's "World Made by Hand" novels as an example. Why I disagree with much of his political fantasies and he portrayed many survivors as babes in the woods in many ways I believe his breakdown of labor after a collapse is pretty much correct. I think we can count on 75% or more of society that is left directly working the land once again.

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  3. Now I know what I am! It just seems that prepper an survivalist is a short term thing that we need to be involved in, it only makes sense. But over the last couple of years I keep thinking what next? I have been trying to figure out how people lived in the past and even work where we run a farm based on the year 1800. The biggest problem now with doing anything like the past is that the government has made most of it illegal. Mostly in terms of raising and selling farm products and the high cost of doing about anything because we have to not only pay for an item but the bureaucracy that regulates every stage of production and also use of many items. We are being micro managed by high paid people who are leaches. Anyway you have given a name to people who are focused on the coming problem but more importantly on the positive thing of looking at the new life after the crisis.

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    1. Sf - I certainly had you in mind when thinking it over. In so many ways I think places like ours and kymbers, and SD's etc. resemble that museum you work at. Perhaps not down to details but so many of us have re-invented or taken up the old ways of doing things. Another good name I thought was Preserves but we do more than that and add in some progress as well.

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  4. I think you hit the nail on the head there! That is a great term as I didn't like prepper or survivalist. Like everyone said those are more short term goals it seems vs long term.

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    1. Quinten - Exactly. While the survivalist and prepper may in fact have long term plans they generally are not working on them. Sustainers prep of course but we also keep an eye on generational endeavors.

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  5. I like it. Describes me perfectly.

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    1. XL - Good to see ya, haven't seen you comment in a while. Yes it does doesn't it. You should post more on your blog.... :)

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    2. If things ever slow down here enough, I'll get back to it. But El Jefe has been away for a month and has another week to go before he'll be home... I THOUGHT that would give me more time... hahaha. Not.

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  6. As I was working last week I drove by a really nice 2 acre homestead. There was an elderly man working in a beautiful garden and he had berry vines and fruit trees and chickens running in the yard. The entire 2 acres was fenced in and everything was neat and well kept. I thought to myself then, if I stopped and asked the man was he a prepper he would have no idea what I was talking about. He would just say he was living like his parents and grandparents did and that is just the way he had always lived. I would bet his only problem in a grid down situation would be a possible medical condition, but then again, he is probably in better health than me!

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    1. SD - Yes. Although I would think unless he had a bit more than 2 acres he wouldn't be able to keep up with all his needs. Unless of course he had a stream or something nearby. Might get damned close though and could maybe trade from stuff as well. Again though he has the right idea even if not by design. He has groomed and grown his property into something many after him can rely on as well.

      My numbers show me I can maybe be sustainable on 25 acres but not until the horse population is reduced of course. Now that will be different in different areas no doubt and includes hay and fodder land for live stock. I fall short on firewood however but I have access to land less than 2 miles away if it came to that.

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    2. Yeah if things ever did go truly grid down, most of us wouldn't last a year. Nobody can be truly self sufficient even with horses and mules, after all, you would need to grow lots of corn, wheat, oats, and hay just to feed those animals through the winter. That is just lots more work to do!

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  7. Interesting concept Preppy. I'd like to be at Sustainer but am a Prepper at the moment because I have to live where I do right now. That said, I think you might have gradations - urban preppers who are doing permaculture or small scale animal raising, for example.

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  8. Okay, I think I am a Sustainer :)

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