Sharing labor, skills, and equipment

dottile46
dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭
edited October 2020 in COVID-19/Coronavirus

I commented on @judsoncarroll4's thread Ruminations on the supply chain in light of the virus.... big stuff, actually and it got me thinking.

Here's my comment "We will have to band together, neighbor and neighbor, to share labor, skills, and equipment just like we did years ago."

We are, well we were before the virus, most likely the most mobile generation in history. Few of us live on property that also houses our parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, children, or in-laws. Some of us are getting a little long in the tooth to do what it will take to survive in a situation worse than this virus. We don't have other family close that can help us.

If/when it comes down to it, how will we get the necessary work done to survive? Do you have the skills, equipment, and physical ability necessary to do home butchering of poultry, rabbits, or a full sized hog or beef? Or are you going to have to buddy up with someone who can help in exchange for a share?

We all like to think it is our immediate family, those in our household, that will come first. But what about the little, old lady next door that can't garden any longer? Or the little, old man across the pasture that has rented his pastures or farm ground out because he no longer can tend it himself? Maybe even the stuffy middle aged couple who always complains that your flower bed is over run with weeds driving their property value down? Or the scruffy, dirty guy that is always working on his vehicle in his grease splattered driveway?

These days we don't always have an amicable relationship with our neighbors and may not even know their names. When you need an extra hand, or a skilled hand, what do you plan to do?

Comments

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    Well, I guess I have another opportunity to find out... a hurricane is coming in. It is just a Cat 1, but we had one a couple of years ago that stalled out and flooded everything.

  • RustBeltCowgirl
    RustBeltCowgirl Posts: 1,403 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Quite fortunately, my family and I have always had good relations with most of the neighbors at our old house and get along well with our new neighbors. I was raised to be cordial and friendly with them, even if I couldn't stand them.

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2020

    I think about what all it takes to make a community. How we need to cultivate relationship to others who have skills (or equipment) that we lack. Start with the basics of what we each need to survive. Do you have the knowledge and skills to provide the following? Are you close to someone who does?

    1. Shelter
    2. Water - safe for drinking and in enough quantity for hygiene and growing food
    3. Fire (for cooking and warmth)
    4. Food - gardening, animal husbandry, and hunting/fishing

    Then add in basis skills like:

    1. First Aid
    2. Actual medical and/or dentistry for long term
    3. Midwifery
    4. Education of others (all ages)
    5. Repair of equipment/machines
    6. Sewing, knitting, etc. - clothing will need repair, and new clothing will be needed
    7. Shoe repair
    8. Canning, dehydration, safe storage of food for long term
    9. Cooking. So many don't anymore
    10. Storytelling, writing, record keeping
    11. Spiritual care
    12. Making spirits (Judson will have that covered!)
    13. ????

    What would you add to this list?

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭

    @judsoncarroll4 I wondered about you and the hurricane. Hope all is well?

    @RustBeltCowgirl very good point there to be cordial even if you don't like them. If they have a skill you are in need of ....

    @Mary Linda Bittle your depth of thought and means of expressing it leave me in awe. Your list points out a couple of things I hadn't even thought of. Guess I would have to raid the farm store for extra boots!

  • Grounded
    Grounded Posts: 153 ✭✭✭

    This could be a very deep discussion on community, family, friends and survival, but my mind shuts down when I think of the complexity of life and our relationship with the Earth and each other.

    In urban areas, neighborhood/community is not the same as it was when I was a child, but then again, the way most of us make a living has changed since then too.

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

    More additions to my list:

    1. Security, sad to say, but it will be a need from both human and non-human threats
    2. Gunsmithing, reloading, knife making and sharpening
    3. Soap-making,
    4. Herbalists, should have been in my top 6
    5. Cordage makers
    6. Clay artists to make pots and dishes
    7. Navigators for those times when it's urgent to move
    8. Dowsers because safe water will be critical