:smack: D’oh, **QueenTonya ** is already the Madame, complete with Mae West hat. Can’t beat that!
Um, we Californians are ascared-of cold weather (and hot weather too, for that matter). We’d have to learn all new skills like shoveling, scraping, heating with oil, knowing what to do when your nose goes numb, salting the streets, wearing sweaters…and be cold and stuff. :eek:
Besides, we have pilots! And no one is in D.C. except the Doper residents anyway. Why leave paradise?
I don’t think Tenn get much snow. We’ll need a local to comment. Now NJ, I remove 7" of snow from my driveway today.
Omniscient sounds like a volunteer for brewing and raising Barley.
Jim
California is a big, big place, most of which is unencumbered by earthquake troubles. I’ve lived in San Diego for 8 years and only ever felt two earthquakes, neither of which did anything more exciting than shaking a lamp a little bit without really moving it.
Something tells me that’s not going to be a huge deal when nobody’s living anywhere else. Within a couple of counties’ worth of acreage (or less) of San Diego we could raise animals, grow fruits and vegetables, rig up an electrical grid, and probably do everything else we need to do, with weather better than any other possible US destination except Hawaii (which can get hot and humid, relatively speaking).
You cite large resources and good weather for the TVA. Southern California has better weather and more resources from what I can see, although IANA expert in any way. We’ve got nuclear power in San Onofre, too. And for the Dopers who get nostalgic about snowy Christmas and the like, there are snowy mountain ranges with great camping spots within the county.
I work in IT, which would initially be useless, but I’m pretty good at identifying plants, edible, medicinal and poisonous, and I’m a very good cook.
I maintain a garden with good sucess every year.
I can fish and clean them myself and hunt fairly well, although I’ve never shot anything except with a camera. I know how, although I’ve never had to, field dress a deer, although I doubt I could haul it up into a tree.
I’m very good at improvising solutions to problems with whatever is at hand.
I work fairly well with others, I’m very organized, and have generally a sunny disposition. Rarely is anything as bad as it seems. I don’t know exactly what I’d contribute, but I’m sure I’d be useful.
I lived in SD for 3+ years. I can’t agree to it viability for agriculture. I was on Coronado and in San Ysidro. Not a lot of farmland. Up closer to San Francisco I remember the farming being much better and diverse. Really more Sacramento area if I recall correctly.
By being close to the rest of the Old USA, I was looking for easier access to big old fashion manufacturing locations and warehousing. The Rust belt is easy striking distance by trucks from TVA and would provide a large supply of ready resources. Again I was convinced of the TVA.
It is not my area; I have never lived there and only passed through on the way to New Orleans so I know little about it. But as long as were out of the flood plains, it offers a lot.
I’ve been to Hawaii twice, it is paradise but Paradise with a big Volcano and very limited resources. Not the ideal for a small group to rebuild from.
I don’t think we have the expertise to run a nuclear plant; we would be making it up as we went along. High Risk and probably a lot more labor intensive than a Hydro Plant, I would probably attempt Coal before Nuclear if near a good supply. I though Nuke at first too, someone else talked me out of that.
I am still open to information to change my mine but the fertility of San Diego is questionable and Sacramento is a much higher Earthquake risk.
I give you this however. Cars last a lot longer in the desert and a large supply of cars and trucks rusting slowly would be valuable. Where are the refineries in California, I don’t recall.
Jim
Suggestions have been made that long-term climate change may turn California into a desert.
We don’t want SDMB Civilization to go the way of the Cliff Dwelleers, do we?
If we need farmers, I’m pretty good at gardening. And I’ve done scientific research, and taught virtually all of the sciences for a number of years.
Resource management might come in handy…as an Air Force officer, I constantly had to allocate materials and personnel to meet goals…we were chronically understaffed so we had to be creative to get the best use of resources.
Food preservation is also on my list, and home repair and the construction of greenhouse…my family says that my greenhouses are built better than any house we’ve lived in (and I’ve repaired…)
Even better, I can make a really good beer.
This civilization is doomed. We have how many brewers now? 
Um…jrfranchi? You’re starting to worry me now. You do realize this isn’t going to happen, right?
Between you and myrnajean we have 2 more for food procurement and I was hoping someone would be able to tell us how to build good long lasting Green Houses. Resource management & warehousing could be the most important labor as we try to preserve tech.
Jim
Yes, but this is what makes me a geek. I have been reading Sci-Fi all my life and Role Playing since I was 10. I am treating this as a fun exercise and intellectual challenge. (or being a total Geek). I am 39 and still enjoy these puzzles.
Jim
I’m starting to look forward to this plague. Kicking back with some local wine after a good butchering, yappin’ in Esperanto about the wind farm, inquisitive 8 year-olds nagging QtM to tell them more stories of Middle Earth…
Excellent, maybe we could get enough votes to name the new Town/Village the Shire.
Jim
The Shire gets my vote ! When do we go ?
I think we have enough nuclear physicists/chemists to supply the brainpower and enough science students for the gruntwork–I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to run a nuke. At the least, there are enough books around that with some dedication the scientists among us could teach themselves. Don’t know much about refineries, and to be honest not much about farmland either, but the places you lived in–Coronado, San Ysidro–are to the far south/west. I was thinking of the north (of SD)–Riverside, Orange.
I can’t believe I didn’t think about the value of being in a place where cars last for a while–especially since we probably won’t be making new ones, at least to any high degree of sophistication/reliability/efficiency, for a while. Of course, if you’re looking for a dry climate, San Diego is great but AZ/NM/NV is better. But then you have to deal with the fact that many plants don’t like the dry climate as much as cars do.
Oh yeah–lots of top-notch universities here too–which means lots of top-notch university libraries–which means we can teach ourselves what we don’t already know. Unless the apocalypse is by fire or water, in which case we’d probably be out of luck. Of course, California isn’t the only place with great universities, but it does have a pretty high concentration of 'em.
IANAM, but FWIW it’s been getting colder and more humid here the last couple years, if anything. During the NFL playoffs this last January, Seattle and San Diego both hosted home games in the same day, and the broadcaster for the Seattle game noted that “it’s a great day for a game of football in Seattle, and it’s raining cats and dogs in San Diego. You don’t get to say that often.”
As far as languages go–I still argue that we need to teach all of the languages we know, so that old literary works can be appreciated as they were meant to be.
I [heart] geeks. Just a momentary reality-check is all. Proceed, as you are quite capably doing.
Although I’m intrigued by the OP, and keep returning to this thread to cheer you all on and offer hospitality services (as Madame Mae put it), I leave the heavy planning to all of you, while I go back to my sf&f reading. You never know what post-singularity foreknowledge I may gain, to benefit our little DoperTown. You know, in case you want to upload your intelligences now, before the Plague. Later you might want to make numerous copies of yourselves and live a variety of simultaneous life threads outside of meat-space.
Cool.
fetus AZ & Nevada are easy drive from California at least. We should have lots of well preserved cars to haul back. We will probably run out gas before cars.
I am guessing we build ethanol cars.
Jim
When we lived southeast of San Francisco we could grow darned near anything. We did well with tomatoes, peppers, artichokes, citrus, apples, pears, pumpkins, cherries, blackberries, cucumbers, and hops (I’m a brewer, remember?). My wife’s grandparents, in the San Jose area, also grew grapes, corn, and strawberries. Great for the livestock, too. The sheep, goats, and cattle could graze pretty much all year round. We supplemented the horses with hay, but I think enough of us understand haying that it wouldn’t be a big problem.
Any of you brewers out there ever malt your own barley? I’ve read about the process, but never actually done it. I’ve always bought sacks of malted grains.
It is in earthquake country, but ag communities usually aren’t hit as hard–no big buildings falling on people.
I thought I had posted here my contributions to the Post Apocalyptic DoperDomeShire.
Damn hamsters.
Anywhooo,
I’ll work with Farmwoman in animal husbandry raising sheep ( fleece and meat), goats ( wool and milk), cows ( milk and meat and fire starters in their dried patties.) and horsies ( cause I like horsies) Bunnies, too, for meat, fur and poop.
I will learn to spin wool and then teach others how to knit. ( I will be allowed to bring along my knitting books, right? Cause I’m a newbie knitter and need pictures, dammit.)
I really like the entire schooling method for the kids and wish to subscribe to the newsletter
I am also a better than average farmer/gardener and own a tractor, rototiller and a hand plow ( purely decorative, but it does work. Tetnus shot required to use it.)
We need someone who can teach us how to can and put up veggies for long winters.
Canning we can learn from books with several experimental tries. I helped once long ago. I t would be a huge help if someone is good at it but we won’t starve if we need to teach ourselves.
The OP seemed to leave us books and libraries. I think we’re OK. Hopefully we’ll find a cache of training/DIY DVD’s.
Jim
Jim