Park Poachers
Here's an article out of Brooklyn, NY, about a group of vagrants getting busted in a city park for trapping and eating ducks, squirrels and pigeons. There is also information about them using makeshift poles to catch fish, and having the audacity to keep them, in spite of a city ordinance that mandates catch & release.
Now, I'm not going to comment on the right or wrong of this, there are several different viewpoints for that, and the article does not give a complete story. But it does make me think of a few things. If/when the economy has a complete crash, how many urban dwellers will have the know how or skills to get their own food? For those that do, how long will city squirrels and pigeons last before they are gone?
Another interesting thing was the reader comments. One actually said, "Anyone who feels they have to eat wildlife has an agenda. They should be in prison or in a mental hospital." That is really a scary sentiment.
Garbage City
There's a recent article going around that some links lead one to believe that Cairo was overflowing with garbage in the aftermath of this summer's riots. However, reading the article, one sees that it shows a segment of Cairo occupied by a Christian minority that has, for generations, been the trash pickers and recyclers of Cairo. Again, this got me thinking... What would you do for garbage is your local trash service stopped? I take my trash to the county landfill... what would I do if it closed?
We'd have to increase out contributions to the compost pile; set up a burn barrel for things that will burn; and collect all types of metal for the scrap yard. It would take increased storage, and there would be best and odor control concerns.
I also thought back to stories from a friend's cousin, who grew up in a row house in Richmond during the Depression. He does not remember having a trash can in the house... everything got used or reused, and there was little packaging to deal with. Meat and bread came wrapped in paper which fed the wood stove oven. The few cans and jars continued to serve the family after their contents were consumed. Food scraps fed the chickens out back. And then there was the Sears' catalog... we know what that went for.
Whether economic collapse, a strike, or just a long-term weather emergency, it's probably a good idea to have a plan B for your trash.
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I also have been thinking about the trash issue. We have a large family and we compost or feed all food scraps to some animal (from gristle to egg shells, there is a critter grateful to have it).
ReplyDeleteNewspaper and cardboard get used in the potbelly stove, shredded for litter in the henhouse, or used as mulch in the garden.
Plastic packaging is another thing. We shop at discount warehouse kinds of places for economy and minimal packaging, but we still have gobs of trash that we have to haul to the "convenience center" for transport to the landfill in our rural area.
A couple of thoughts- if the store shelves go empty and supply trucks stop coming, no more packaging trash.
Which means, suddenly all that stuff we throw away (plastic jugs, styrofoam cartons, etc) will be viewed in a different light. There was a line from The Book of Eli (movie) where Denzel Washington tells a girl who was too young to know what things had been like "before" that the stuff they used to throw away people would kill for now. I think that's just about right.
In the Last Light series, the main characters go to a neighboring area that is overrun with its heaps of garbage and help the residents learn how to sort it into piles- burnable, usable, "to bury." That's probably the kind of thing everyone will have to do.
Which brings me to the next thought- SOAP!!! Every month I pick up another multipack of bar, dish, and/or laundry soap. We take for granted its presence in every public place we go. Things will only be usable without causing/spreading disease if they can be cleaned.
Good topics.
Laura from preppingtosurvive.com
Thanks, Laura! Great insight and additional information. I share your concern for soap, and we do the same thing about stocking up the multi packs. On the rare times we stay in a hotel, I get a few extra bars of soap and shampoo to add to the Barter Larder.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if you saw it, but I did a post on our site about some items for the Barter Larder a couple weeks ago. Love that name!
ReplyDeleteSomething else I was thinking about after I left my comment last night was the articles I keep seeing that say that "anti-bacterials" are something we should be avoiding- especially things with Triclosan. They are breeding resistant bacteria, something we would not need after TEOTWAWKI! Good, thorough hand/dish washing in hot water with regular soaps would be the better choice.
For that reason, I try to stockpile the "old style" soaps that have no anti-bacterial chemicals and some that include the moisturizers too. Winter air dries the skin, as does hard work, and soap with milder detergents may be appreciated, especially by older folks.
Better yet, learn to make soap! A project on my very long list.
Laura from preppingtosurvive