“Reflect on what happens when a terrible winter blizzard strikes. You hear the weather warning but probably fail to act on it. The sky darkens. Then the storm hits with full fury, and the air is a howling whiteness. One by one, your links to the machine age break down. Electricity flickers out, cutting off the TV. Batteries fade, cutting off the radio. Phones go dead. Roads become impossible, and cars get stuck. Food supplies dwindle.
Day to day vestiges of modern civilization – bank machines, mutual funds, mass retailers, computers, satellites, airplanes, governments – all recede into irrelevance. Picture yourself and your loved ones in the midst of a howling blizzard that lasts several years. Think about what you would need, who could help you, and why your fate might matter to anybody other than yourself. That is how to plan for a saecular winter.
Don’t think you can escape the Fourth Turning. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning
This quote is one of the reasons I don’t get too hard core into prepping. I have enough basics to survive a disrupted food/water supply, as well as defend myself for a handful of months…but after that my wife and I will have to figure something else out.
The ultimate plan is stock away ~1 years worth of supplies. We are just working our way up to it.
build a greenhouse.
A greenhouse is a very good start. The challenge is maintaining an plant-friendly environment in a cold weather/northern latitude climate. It can be (and is) done, but it requires a LOT of thought and work. More than most understand.
You can actually develop your own power plant, on a small scale, but large enough to meet your needs. You will need a generator, of course, but the power source (generally heat) can be flexible. After all, the basic NG power plant consists of:
(1) Natural gas
(2) A steam boiler
(3) A turbine connected to a generator.
Wood can replace natural gas, or coal. A steam boiler can be fired with whatever fuel it is designed to burn. A turbo genset is not trivial, but look at:
https://www.capstoneturbine.com/
for one possible solution. It could (if you depend on natural gas, for example, to heat your house) solve heat, hot water and power requirements in one unit.
“Saecular” Winter. Sounds like ancient obsolete “Old Latin” term to me. Who has ever heard or read this adjective in his or her lifetime, outside of this article? I am fairly well educated, and have never heard it. BUT….
Don’t get me wrong; I liked the article, but I had to STOP midstream when I read that adjective. After some Internet research, I concluded that it not easy to find a concrete definition of it.
Signed,
In Fine Regemus
(translate that, since you like to use Old Latin.) This is a friendly challenge, not to be construed as aggression.