I may have missed it, but I haven’t seen much talk about sanitation/waste disposal. Nobody wants to drive the garbage truck and/or work the landfill? Since there doesn’t seem to be much call for mediocre programmers, I suppose I could do that.
That’s very cool, nice offer. That is a missing component that wouldn’t be thought about until the garbage started piling up.
I wonder; would we take over a wealthy suburb with large separate houses or a small walking town to conserve resources and share the workload better.
I would vote for the walking town but I see advantages to both.
Thinking about garbage, we will need other services.
- A good volunteer fire department that might need full time drivers at least.
- We might need a Sheriff with some part time deputies. Preferably one of our pacifists.
- We’ve mentioned the hospital, but might as well list it again
- Grocery/Department store
- Gas Station (someone mentioned this already)
- Major repair center, preferably an old armory for storing loads of spare parts for everything.
- Post office or do we really on a part time Intranet and Email?
- Power plant operations (already discussed)
- Manufacturing when possible
- A small school system
- Librarian and archivist to work on preserving the past
- Lots of farming surrounding the town center
- We better keep horses in case we loose the tech to maintain an automobile fleet after 40 years
I heartily lend my services as a biomed technician. I can fix all mannar of hospital equipemtn ,save large scary things like x-ray machines and CT scanners, but I might be able to figure those out too. In addition, I’m just generally good at fixing things electrical and mechanical.
I’m on a volunteer fire department, so I have some knowledge and skills there (not a lot, I only joined a few motnhs ago. But if this event happens in a few years then I’ll be better.)
I have basic carpentry, wiring, etc… skills tyo help build and fix homes and other whatnot.
I am a good shot with a rifle and a bow and arrow, so can help hunt if this livestock thing needs some supplementing.
I have a good basic knowledge of engineering, mainly biomedical, but that’s probably not too usefull (how many people are going to need a total hip replacement?), but my basic knowledge of mechanical, civil, and electrical would be useful.
I have great survival skills, so if we needed a group of us to venture to the decimated town fifty miles away to scavenger resources, but don’t want to waste precious gasoline, I could easily make the journey. I’ll need smoeone to teach me how to ride a horse, though, if we use those.
I can also recite almost entire episodes of Futurama from memory. 
y’know, I think the power plant is a problem. Don’t think we have anyone who can operate or maintain the kind of powerplant we might want. Even a hydro plant requires a pretty large contingent of highly skilled workers. If we go with generators we probably have a better chance of having a skill base to maintain them. Spare parts will be a problem, even with a machine shop. Seals, gaskets and such will be in finite supply.
Well, I sure hope there’s gonna be airplanes!
There’s actually a fairly good number of pilots on the SDMB
My degree is in textiles - I do not just weaving, knitting, crocheting, etc. but I can also spin yarn and thread, dye fibers and cloth, work leather, and so on.
So that’s two birds with one stone, isn’t it?
I also make paper.
And I know how to make soap
My main problem in this current society is not having enough time for my hobbies because I have to earn a living. Hmmm…
broomstick =Renaissance Woman! Right this way, m’dear, there plenty for you to do.
So let it be written, so let it be done.
If we pick someplace like the Central Valley of California, we can run solar for a lot of our power needs. Of course, that means we would basically be Fresno, and that just sucks!
If we settle on the eastern slopes of the Coast Range, however, we can zip over the passes and fish in the Pacific easily enough. That will boost our protein intake, and stretch our pillaged supplies that much further.
As for jrfranchi’s list…
- A good volunteer fire department that might need full time drivers at least.
Nope. Drivers are on-call just like everyone else - We might need a Sheriff with some part time deputies. Preferably one of our pacifists.
Good idea. - We’ve mentioned the hospital, but might as well list it again
I do hope our docs have some training in OB/Gyn. - Grocery/Department store
Not enough people for that. It’s back to The General Store for us. - Gas Station (someone mentioned this already)
Lump that in with general energy policy - Major repair center, preferably an old armory for storing loads of spare parts for everything.
This will need a lot of power, especially for the machine tools we will need to fabricate new parts - Post office or do we really on a part time Intranet and Email?
All together, so no post office. Some networking will be needed, if for no other reason than communications - Power plant operations (already discussed)
Go solar for most of it. - Manufacturing when possible
see machine shop above - A small school system
all teachers, no administrators! - Librarian and archivist to work on preserving the past
Very important! - Lots of farming surrounding the town center
Truck gardens for most of it. Let people grow their own, and trade the surplus. - We better keep horses in case we loose the tech to maintain an automobile fleet after 40 years
Horses breed, too.
I think this will be do-able, but we have too small a genetic base here. Mars needs women!!!
Ah IANAM and IANAL/DN(I am not a midwife nor a labour/delivery nurse) but I am a nurse, actually am friends with (non doper) midwifes and doulas, and have been labour coach for two friends, and in general know my way around obstetrics. So definitely I could assist the doctors with the obstetrics stuff and if he/she was willing to sort of apprentice me for a few months I could take over all that part of the practice. I am also an avid herbalist and into theraputic massage and reflexology.
I also make hemp jewellry, Fimo beads, tie-dye stuff, and uh, other things one would find in a head shop. I assisted with conversion of a VW bus.
So, um, if this turns all hippy and Deadheady, you all can come by Normal Saline’s nursing station/holistic healing centre/head shop…
On the power plants: I love Solar power but the supplies are usually dispersed. I have 6700W of solar panels on my roof. The equipment to convert the DC to AC would have to be jury rigged on a large scale as none of this equipment is at the home depot or easily made. We should definitely try an build a solar & wind infrastructure if possible and that will place a premium on perfecting the manufacture of new Storage batteries.
I think we could run part of a hydro plant with a small crew.
We only need power for 5000-10000 so we shouldn’t need to run it full out.
I know that with 40 people I could run an Oil burning plant for 5000+ so Hydro should be easier.
Existing plants won’t need to be run at capacity which will make maintenance much easier. Great thing about big generators is that they are fairly easy to maintain and repair. I used to do this work. I am sure I could pick it back up. Hydro has the huge advantage of not needing fuel. I don’t know if it is easier or harder to run than an oil burning plant. As we won’t need to run boilers to run steam turbine generators I think it would be a simpler operation.
On Fireman, we will at least need the pool of drivers to work near the firehouses. You do want response time to get the pumpers going to be minimal.
Speaking of which, we want to avoid buildings over 3 stories, they are too hard for volunteers to put out unless their fire system is well maintained and we keep ladder truck crews ready. I would say find a half dozen or so and park them near the Hospital if that is the one building that is over 3 stories.
Jim
I can’t believe that I’m the first therapist to volunteer. PTSD as a result of the rest of the world disappearing, anyone?
Plus I have experience with breeding/training/maintaining horses and dogs, all aspects of carpentry, and gardening.
Speaking of therapists, we’ll need an RMT as well. Massage after all that time working in the fields/building solar-heated houses/running the power plant/etc will be a good idea.
Speaking of “therapists”, do we have any surgeons?
Well, the first official one, at least. Post 79 
I don’t think any actual surgeons have chimed in on the thread just yet, but IIRC there was an internal medicine guy upthread. In theory, armed with books, **KarlGauss ** could probably do a spot of pinch hitting, although I don’t think I’ve seen his confirmation of said pinch hitting.
And I’ve been told that I have really strong hands and forearms, so I could apprentice to you for a while and help out.
(must be all the signing and the typing )
Oooh, an apprentice! You’ll have ratings Trump never dreamed of, and me, I’ll get to find big hats and be a Mae West-impersonating Madame.
I nominate you plant manager for the power plant then. I agree on the inverters, those things would have to be built after the fact as the biggest ones usually available are the cigarette lighter plug in devices for cars. And batteries usually have about a 10 yr active life generally speaking (we’ll need you chemists working on this one). So while solar is attractive, I don’t think it’s a large scale viable option.
I think it’s agreed that a hydro plant would be the best solution, so let’s go with that. If jfranchi can get us organized, we’ll be in pretty good shape there. I think backup generators would be nice, especially for the essential services, like the hospital and perhaps the communications systems.
I have nothing to do with keeping Wikipedia up and running. I’m just an arbitrator.
Well we have enough computer people on the board, maybe you can just give them direction part time to keep wiki going and growing.
Jim
Oooh I loves me some post-apocolytic scenarios.
It’s nice to see some other fiber artists here so I’d have some help teaching everyone to prepare, spin, weave and felt animal and plant fibers.
I can also make soap, lotion and other toiletries from stuff found in nature so our farm hands would be clean and well-moisturized.
As a hobby farmer, I guess I’d be useful in the agricultural realm of this society, but animal husbandry isn’t really rocket surgery. What we’ll really need, and what I suspect would be in short supply, are some folks who’re willing to slaughter the animals for us. Once that’s done, I’ll cure and tan hides. Ugg boots for everyone!!!
One other thought…as a former teacher, I would suggest we ditch the ‘school for the kids’ idea. We have the opportunity to build a new society and I don’t see any reason why we should recreate one of the biggest catastrophes of the industrial age. Let the kids live with us in our society instead of warehousing them in separate institutions during the most exciting years of life. Schools for minors are a terrible waste of time, space and labor in my opinion.
Organize a college in the center of the community where people of all ages can pop in at will to learn about everything from engineering to glassblowing to midwifery to Plato in courses taught by our members.