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Apocalypse Skills
I just finished reading Larry Niven and David Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer. Now I'm reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. So I've been thinking about what skills I could trade on in case of apocalypse.
I grew up on a farm and my father is a farrier. So if I survive the apocalypse, I know how to grow corn, wheat, beans, and tobacco, I can maintain livestock, and I know enough about smithing to shoe horses and maybe do some minor ironwork. I could do some near-carpentry if I had to.
My wife Carole has better skills than me. She has been very involved with horses for many years, she has two degrees in animal science, she has experience restoring houses, and she has actual work experience as a vet tech.
So we should be in good shape, especially if the apocalypse allowed for a rebirth of agriculture. Of course, seeing as we live in D.C., we probably wouldn't survive in the first place.
What skills will you rely on and/or trade on?
I grew up on a farm and my father is a farrier. So if I survive the apocalypse, I know how to grow corn, wheat, beans, and tobacco, I can maintain livestock, and I know enough about smithing to shoe horses and maybe do some minor ironwork. I could do some near-carpentry if I had to.
My wife Carole has better skills than me. She has been very involved with horses for many years, she has two degrees in animal science, she has experience restoring houses, and she has actual work experience as a vet tech.
So we should be in good shape, especially if the apocalypse allowed for a rebirth of agriculture. Of course, seeing as we live in D.C., we probably wouldn't survive in the first place.
What skills will you rely on and/or trade on?
Comments
I'm sure all the computer/tech majors on the forum (Rym, Scott, me off the top of my head) could probably hook up some basic communications network be it computer based or some sort of radio network. I personally know some basic wilderness survival techniques such as building shelter or making a fire. I am also pretty proficient at using firearms so self defense would not be an issue. I think the only viable solution would be to find someway to organize people on the forum into a community to survive, or at least everyone who lives on the East Coast. With the combined intelligence we could probably survive in decent conditions.
A LAN or an intranet maybe, but I think the internets as we know it would be toast.
I wouldn't be able to cook anything, because I wouldn't have some ingredients we take for granted today. I mean, a fucking PBJ sandwich would be impossible! No computers. Nobody would mistake me for a warrior. I know nothing about agriculture. Everything I know about economics and politics would go right out the window. I have no fix-it skills, even with power tools, let alone a hammer and awl. You can't really read for a living. I don't know how to make gunpowder, or smelt metal. I might be able to pass myself off as a crappy sorcerer and become an advisor to somebody important.
Scary to think how much civilization has changed, eh? Modern Western Man would be pretty much helpless in either of these scenarios.
My dad was a cop and he ran a custom gun shop in our basement. I've been firing guns since I could hold one steady and I've been packing bullets since before that time.
Supplies would still be the hard part as eventually I would run out of primers to put in the bullets. Lead I can just recycle from spent rounds, same with the brass. Good thing I also have some muskets and crossbows
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Of course, everything hinges on the nature of the 'lypse. If it's a plague and we survive, we could probably get out of dodge, and hopefully our farms are isolated enough that they would be relatively unscathed. If it was an asteroid or comet strike, we'd probably have enough warning so that we could get out before the real panic set in.
If the 'lypse was nucular, we wouldn't have to worry because we'd be the first in line to shuffle off the mortal coil.
The time travel near-paradox at the end was ok though.
Man, am I ever craving a good read of My Side of the Mountain. Anybody else have to read that in second grade? I wanted to be that kid when I was little. Live in a tree, catch fish, make clothing from animal hides...
I guess my question would then be: If a settlement could work up to having electricity, even if they were the only ones with electricity, could the people there listen to GeekNights?
Being a teacher as well, I guess I would be able to develop a curriculum in order to teach the uneducated the skills contained in the brains of those doing other important jobs.