I think I’d approach 3acresandatruck and offer him the (not inconsiderable) proceeds of the sale of my flat and as many loans as I could take out to convince that we should try a “getting back to nature” project which he could run. I’ll sell it to him as something we do for a short while, maybe a year initially, and if he doesn’t like it no harm done. The project would start, oh, I don’t know, sometime like January 1st 2009 for one year.
Remote area … start tunnelling into a mountainside. Build big ass concrete/granite bunker. get a good 40,000-50,000 sq ft or so of space, invite a few trusted friends, start stockpiling. Several difficult to assault firing points would be built into the mountainside in case we need to repel mutant hordes, and poor planners.
Buying lots of metal stock and the hand tools to cut and work it, coal to fuel smelting/casting of parts as needed.
Plenty of hardwoods for making tools and such as needed later.
With 20,000 square feet of raw materials and a huge selection of hand tools we could easily build alot of the tooling we might need to make more complex devices again.
Hijack- I thought I was the only one on this planet to have read that- and that would have been 40 years ago.
To return to the original premise I think I would also learn as much about snares and trapping as possible, get a supply of flint and find out where the nearest source of coal would have been (even if subsequently exhausted).
I’d buy a SUV of some type and head out RIGHT NOW on a year-long roadtrip. The paychecks would cut off soon enough, but I could live off credit cards until the end. I don’t really care what happens after civilization takes a header. Prepared or not, life “afterwards” would be pretty miserable for quite awhile; don’t know if it would be worth surviving, anyway. I might as well have one last fling with the open road before it all blows up.
I’m late to the party, but does the OP contemplate that the centuries of technology that are being taken away CAN be built back up again, or will civilization be stuck at a pre-1439 level forever? If the latter, then investment in science books and the building blocks of technology would seem to be wasted.
It can be built up again, assuming anybody has the brains and stored knowledge to do so.
See, that’s what I’d spend my year doing. Look at what machining and tools I’d need to get back to say a 1920’s era of technology. Then start working back part by part. I need machine A to make this part. Machine A is made up of parts 1 2 3 and 4. In order to make part 1, I need machine B. Machine B is made up of parts blah blah blah. Until you get back to a 1439 level of technology. Then those parts or machines I’d have built and ready to go. I’m thinking if you know exactly what to build and what parts you need, you could do enough research to be able to get yourself back fairly quickly. Especially since I can keep any manuals I make and raw materials.
Finding a seculded spot to live and stockpiling stuff? That’s easy. Coming up with a systematic plan to get myself back to a sustainable level of 20th century technology? That will take most of the year.
I wouldn’t sell the hogs I’m raising. I’d breed the ones I had planned to sell. I’d also breed the chickens. I’d stockpile seeds, garden tools, and saws/axes. I’d get a second mortgage and build pole barns and root cellars. I’d pay someone to clear more of my land for firewood and bring in lots of lumber, charcoal, aluminum ore, and iron. (I’d have to research to see which metals had been discovered back then.) I’d get the “build your own metal working shop from scrap” series of books, because with a lathe you can build anything. I’d build a windmill to power the lathe.
I’d build a charcoal foundry first, then the lathe. With a lathe, you can make more lathes and milling machines, shapers, drill presses, etc.
Hey, master, you wanna come live with me and elelle? You sound handy.
Definitely lots of chickens = meat, eggs, feathers for pillows/mattresses
cows and bulls
horses
sewing needles, scissors, knives
breed large, protective dogs like the original Rottweilers, mastiffs
all the veggie seeds I can lay hands on
I’d definitely kill myself. And I think you people who think you can rebuild to 19th century infrastructure in 50 years are fooling yourself. I’m pretty sure that even 19th century technology requires a wide variety of raw materials (sulfur? rubber trees?) that aren’t found around here, where ever “around here” happens to be. So in order to get to 19th century technology, it needs to be something approaching planet-wide. And the massive massive shock of such an event, followed by starvation, disease, etc., is going to put most people in a state where they’re just going to be thinking about living hand to mouth, not cheerfully starting to rebuild their lathes, etc.
Furthermore, you need to do things like mine coal. Trouble is, a good percentage of the coal that is easy to mine has already been mined. And the mines that currently exist and are being worked almost certainly depend on modern technology (although I know basically nothing about mines). Etc.
Anyone who is actively interested in this (quite interesting) question should definitely read Dies the Fire, although it has a very different set of constraints. But it’s a quite fun read, in any case.
Max, you’d seriously, pre-emptively kill yourself before even TRYING to survive? I realize you live ina state that has Maria Shriver as first lady, but even so, is life not sweet?
Life in our modern world is sweet. Life in a violent brutal world with only enough food for 2 or 3 percent and none of the modern conveniences and backbreaking labor to get the crop in (at least until we learn farming) etc… not so sweet. And I’d be a pretty worthless person in such a society. If I were them, I wouldn’t let ME into their clan…
I mean, fully seriously, if it actually happened, I suspect my survival instinct would kick in. But I sure as hell wouldn’t be optimistic, nor would I be at all surprised if my survival ended up being a fate worse than death.
Sounds like a plan! And elelle, I’ll do my own dishes too!
Max, your situation over there in sunny California is not the same as the everyone’s. Learn farming? Are you serious? I’m working toward producing almost all of my own food now, just because money’s tight and food prices are going through the roof. I live in a pretty remote area, with neighbors that are very handy. I already burn wood for fuel, as do most of my neighbors.
As far as transportation of goods, Carribean shells and mid-west flint have been found in new england native settlements far older than this scenario’s constraints. A trade network existed long before there was any means of travel besides canoes and foot power.
Of course there would be a huge die off of the people in cities, but lots of folks haven’t forgetten how to live off the land.
That’s why I said the research. You figure out what you need to get yourself back to a reasonable standard of living. As long as you know this is coming ahead of time, and know the exact date, you just have to know where to get this stuff. Nearest location with a stockpile of coal? For me it’s right across the river on the shores of the James River. Huge piles of coal for the power plants. Same with other raw materials. Plus, with careful planning and some help, you just plan to steal it all during that final two week period before the collapse. Where’s the nearest Kingston plant where I can hijack a truckload of charcoal for cooking? Next shipment coming to Walmart? That’s going to be parked in my field. Like I said, you just have to plan it all out. No I don’t think I’d get everyone back to the 50’s, but I really don’t give a rats ass about everyone. Just me and mine.
Since all the good tech is going to stop working, I’d do the following:
I assume that simple tools than created after that time are still ok, so Dad and I can gather together whatever we can from his garage.
I’m with the other dopers on reading up on agriculture and other medieval techniques. But before then I will burn every bit of fantastical post-apocalypse fiction I own, just to get all that out of my head. I don’t want to start imaging homeostatic rat traps for the man eaters that are left lurking around.
For dopers in regions where there are ethnic tensions, it might be worth lying low in the countryside to avoid the inevitable clash after the fall of technology.
EDIT: Should have read ahead a bit more;
I applaud that line of thinking, if you’re after a deacon who can help along with the re-education, I’m there for you 
Glad to have you!
My 66 year old mom was raised on a Mennonite farm that was almost completely self-sufficient; her description of it is that it was a lot of hard work, but they also had a lot of time for play, too (and eight kids!). You’re absolutely right that there are still many people who know how to be self-sufficient; we’re not that far away from it.
Hey, I’ll bring my mom, too! She would be a major asset in this brave new world - she’d do everyone’s dishes. And everything else that needed to be done, because that’s just how she is.
Although (a) if you’re doing a bit TOO well in the weeks and months following the event, be prepared to have to turn back a LOT of people to their deaths, and kill a bunch who want to take what you have. Are you emotionally ready for that?
and
(b) you might stockpile enough charcoal for 20 years, but 20 years isn’t forever. Don’t count on EVER being able to get refills on anything that you can’t make yourself. Which I suspect includes a lot of things that even modern day survivalists and mennonites and so forth take for granted. Do antibiotics keep for long periods of time? Beats me. Do you know someone who knows the basics of modern surgery? Do you have the right sterilizable tools? Etc.
This is the main problem with any scenario like this one. On thinking about this more, I’d wall off my property and build a blunderbuss (sp?), or six, as I could easily do this with the materials available at that time. I’d also order a boatload of lead, KNO3, sulfur, and pure charcoal. I can make as much charcoal as I want for cooking, as I live in a national forest, but the purified stuff would make better gunpowder (I assume). Once I had the machine tools up and running, I could quickly turn out a functional and accurate rifle before I start working on the steam-powered tractor.
So much to do before TEOTWAWKI!