Acquire precious stones and gold for bartering and/or get a Google Earth map of the smarter-than-me Dopers (we’re all in on this together, right?) and become proficient at hypnosis.
Okay- glasses were invented in the 9th century (or before 1439). Do the pair I have now still function or do I have to find a really really old optometrist?
Overall, my plan is to stay where I am and rely on being a part of this community to survive. As far as raising crops and livestock, metalworking, hunting, trapping, and so many other skills that other posters have mentioned, my neighbors have all of that covered well. I would get lots of books covering everything I think might be useful. I think my biggest contribution would be to convert as many of my assets as I can to things we will all need after the Disaster. I’ll get money by cheating on a roll over of my 401k. I’ll take the tax hit they do when you have them issue a check instead of rolling to another account, and never get around to putting a cent in another account. And I’ll clean out my saving and checking accounts. I’ll tell my neighbors that I had a vision of the coming end, and get their advice on what I should be buying. They’d think I was nuts, but they’d still give me advice.
But I’d start right off with the selfish side. I’d get a contractor and have my house torn down and a new one built on the same spot: a pole barn style building, with strawbale insulation, a metal roof with rainwater collection with a cistern, and solar water heating. (The house will be BIG, about 40x80’, so my sisters and their families can all cram in, too, if I can get them out here for Disaster Eve.) I’ll have the contractor insulate my garage and add rainwater collection to it, too, at the same time. And build me a nice root cellar in the area between the house and garage. I’d get a windmill-driven pump and a hand pump on my well and I’d get a storage tank installed as a small water tower, rigged up with a gravity feed to the house. I’d make extra darn sure the water pumping technology was within the rules, and buy extra windmills and equipment for my immediate neighbors.
I’d buy a bunch of wood-burning stoves and canning supplies (enough of each for about 30 households), and stash all but one of each set out in the garage for later disbursal (the cars are now relegated to being yard art and a source of sheet metal). About 60 simple bows and 6000 arrows. Lanterns, candles and wicking. Axes, mauls, wedges, knives, grubbing hoes, shovels, scoops, pitchforks, sickles, scythes, garden carts, a sturdy farm wagon with a hitch, saws, files, chisels, planes, whetstones, flints, block and tackle, rope, kettles, washboards, tubs, …well, you get the idea. A bunch of guitars, banjos, fiddles and a few accordions. Thirty sets of beer-making equipment and ingredients for the first batch. Monster first aid kits and whatever extras I can get my hands on. Soap, baking soda, thousands of toothbrushes, lots of floss. A few tons of salt and a building to store it in. Enough vegetable seeds for 30 households for a few years. A lot of hams and sausages. A thousand gallons of vinegar. Pallet loads of canned food; mostly vegetables, but I’ll stash a supply of my favorites, including a few thousand cans of sardines, just for me, somewhere.
More just for me stuff: about a thousand sets of my brand of boxers, t-shirts, and socks; a hundred pairs of jeans and shirts, new rain gear, gloves, hats, a new Carhart chore coat and a few pairs of work boots and rubber boots. Several sets of reading glasses, real glass, starting at 1.25x and going up, with duplicates in each strength. Not sure if the glasses will survive the big event, but it’s worth trying. A couple thousand cans of coffee and 30,000 Melitta #4 cone filters. I’d stock up on spices.
I’d buy material to build 30 chicken coops and build just one. Early in '09, I’ll buy some chicks to raise so that I’ve got good egg production by July. But I’ll make another purchase in May, when I’d get a few thousand chicks. I’d build a bunch of pens out back and late in May or early in June, I’d buy as many pairs of rabbits, goats, sheep, and hogs as I can manage for a few weeks. I’ll buy two hundred cords of firewood, but not from my neighbor who cuts and sells firewood…he’ll understand when the world ends. There’s also gonna be a nice little patch-o-pot planted out back somewhere, late enough that it isn’t spotted before the end, but early enough to bring it in before winter, just a couple hundred plants or so. And any remaining cash at the end gets turned into as much of the finest herb available as is possible.
Well, that’s how I think I’d start, anyway. I’m sure I’d think of lots more, as the date looms nearer. Upon review…whoa, looks like I’ve had too much coffee this morning! Or maybe, not enough.
OP sayeth: Fabulous Creature didn’t think of either eyeglasses or contact lenses when setting all this mischief up, so you’re fine. Good luck getting a new pair, though.
So I get three pairs of glasses and hope my vision doesn’t change. My bicycle is useless. I learn to ride a horse, buy heaps of books and lots of young farm animals.
One other question- sheep such as merino’s were around in the 15th century- does the breed die- do I have to rely on feral sheep- which are pretty ferocious?
I think the merinos are safe, though surely they’d prefer to be pluralized properly. 
My typing sucks :(- as does my grammar.
In days of old
When knights were bold
And Charmin was not invented
They’d wipe their ass
With a handful of grass
And go on their way contented.
Since I live in a very crowded island, the initial problem is how to survive the initial chaos. Food is going to be of great importance to a great many people very quickly. Ditto disease.
Buy a sea-going boat and learn how to fish and how to navigate. Arm it with cannon, swords, etc, and stock it with tinned food and useful books. Fresh water too. Take family for a ‘sailing holiday’ a few days before. Stay offshore for a couple of months - enough time for the killing to have ceased. During that time, make plans for the future. My brother’s vastly more intelligent than I am and I’ll listen very carefully to his thoughts.
I would rent a house near my family in TX and travel down there once a month for the first 6 months to stock it with toilet paper, toothpaste, floss, canned goods, condoms, aspirin, bottled water, etc. For the rest of the time during the first 6 months I would be here in NYC going to plays, movies, fabulous restaurants, and such. I would enjoy the hell out of myself while I can take advantage of the way things are now before the change. Might as well run up plenty of debt since none of that will matter afterwards!
Then at about the 6 month mark I would officially move myself and the cats down to TX and finish stocking up. I would start taking medical classes to give me a base of knowledge to work from in medical emergencies. I would be renting a 3 bedroom house and I would have one of the extra bedrooms set up as a warehouse of sorts to hold years worth of cat litter and cat food in addition to all the dry and paper goods I am collecting for myself and my family. I will have the 2nd bedroom turned into an office/library where books on gardening, defense, life in the 15th century, and such shall line the walls. I would be sure to include the book Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank in my collection. I would turn one of the closets into storage for items specifically designated for trade, such as coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, etc. I would bar up the windows and put extra locks on all the doors.
The week before shit hit the fan I would go to the doctor and the dentist and get all set up there. Any fillings or anything that needed to be taken care of can be addressed during this time. I would take the cats to the vet and have them checked out. I would go shopping and buy durable clothes in my size and the next three sizes down to cover the dramatic weight loss I will experience as manual labor becomes required to live and fast food restaurants cease to exist.
The day before shit hit the fan I would wake up at dawn and go to the store for a final round of stocking up, go to the bookstore and buy as many books as I can carry, and refill any and all prescriptions and instruct my family to do the same. Then I would go catch a movie and have a huge steak and all the trimmings for lunch. Late in the afternoon I would have everyone over for a bar-b-que and explain what I know, having them all stop at the store on the way home and buy as much as they can carry home with instructions not to leave their homes for at least a week to avoid the chaos that will inevitably ensue.
Wait… you’re saying you’d continue to go to work?
I am immediately borrowing as much money as I can lay my hands on, buying a good patch of land in close proximity to 3acresandatruck (;)) with a clean source of water or a site for an artisan well, lay in a flock of sheep, a handful of goats, a boar and a couple sows, a few dairy cattle and a bullcalf, a hutch of rabbits–all of heritage, non-commercial breeds. I’d get a pair of draft horses and a pair of good saddle and driving horses and a sturdy buckboard. I’d put up a series of greenhouses, lay in starts, and get the ground ready for planting. I’d find a good herding dog, a pair of hounds, and a couple good cur-type dogs.
I’d stock up on food staples enough for at least the first year. I’d hive some bees, get a spinning wheel, cards and a loom as well as a stockpile of linen and wool cloth, fifteen or twenty good harness and latigo hides, good garment leather, and a supply of tack hardware. I’d lay in a supply of sewing notions, first aid supplies, and books. I’m also stockpiling good pipe tobacco, toilet paper, and tea.
Meanwhile, I set NajaHusband to copy down 3acres’ shopping list, and getting in on the field cropping of the fine herb he’s got growing out back. 
Oh, I want a mammoth jack and a pair of trained oxen, too, so I can be ready to supply mules and heavy labor in the absence of machinery.
If just one in a million has the same idea, you’ll find your island crowded with 6000 people.
As for myself, I’d buy gold. With gold I can buy anything. Even curvy slaves.
You can’t eat gold. In very short order, there’s going to be mass starvation followed by riots as people try to find food followed by disease and cannibalism. People forget how dependent towns and cities are on the transportation of food. The typical town-dweller is in for a world of hurt, as are those within several days travel of towns - people will roam far and wide in the search for food. Better to absent yourself while things sort themselves out. But best is to then be able to take advantage of the situation.
I suppose it reflects poorly on my mad survival skillz that my first thought was ‘begin printing out hard copies of my porn!’?
Might be time to start hanging out with a bunch of Shaolin monks. I’m not sure how much progress one could make on getting in good with them and learning their ways in a year. A combination of meditation, simple living and bad ass martial arts seems as good skill set as any for the big step back in technological time.
Ever try to karate chop an arrow?
The martial arts training will do you better as a “getting your sorry ass into shape” more than it will “maim all foes with your pinky.”
I’d definitely lay in large stores of heritage vegetable seeds and non-hybrid grains.
I don’t believe the post change situation would necessarily be a case of ‘everyone with a bow and arrow systematically slaughtering everyone else and thus asserting their supremacy’. I selected my course of action not to enable me to kill everyone in sight but more for the holistic combination of enlightenment, simplicity of living and community security. YMMV of course.
I’m not sure about the Shaolin monk approach to bows and arrows (I wouldn’t put it past them to have knowledge of same) but I’m pretty sure they are into edged weapons. I don’t see them attacking anyone without provocation but they’d probably defend themselves quite nicely.
Ok, so I have 0 qualms about incurring massive debt, I’d expect half the planets population to be dead in a year, plus I’m going to be trying to save what knowedge can be saved (note to self: reread Canticle for Liebowitz), so as a long term investment I’m still a sound choice.
Do stable pharmaceuticals and modern books survive?
If not obtain:
15th century material and hire 700 flunkies to begin trascription.
Learn as much as I can about the plant origins of modern drugs and lay in supply of seeds and shoots for the ones that will be useful after the deluge.
Systematically review my nursing and medical knowledge into 2 categories: archive the stuff that’s only usefull in the modern world, brush up on all the gaps in my 15th century repetoire
Books, definitely. Fabulous Creature is remarkably like me – why, some people claim that our similarities are positively eerie – and so I can see him sayin, “Yeah, I SHOULD destroy all the world’s libraries, but I’m not gonna, cause I ain’t that kinda evil.”
As for the pharms, he probably overlooks him in his planning, unless of course someone is foolish enough to bring it up.
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