OT: Whiskey, Etc.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

That makes me think of something -- all those suburban lawns may be full of weeds in T2K, some which may be useful.

Although this is starting to sound like it should be in the survival skills thread, there is a very definite plus in what you suggest. Many plants we consider weeds now have other uses that we in our modern age have simply forgotten. Another area that isn't exploited much these days in the Western World is rocks/minerals.

Sounds daft at first but consider the benefits of having a stockpile of rocks, they may be talc, sulphur, graphite, flint and so on. Anyone passing by just sees a pile of rocks lying around the place and would think they are useless. But all of those mentioned have uses that include being used as powders to slow/stop bleeding (minor wounds) to antiseptics (sulphur powder would be familiar to WW2 veterans from their first aid kits) making firestarters and so on.
There are many more but I don't know enough about it, these are just some of the things I half-remember from an article I read many years ago about life in the 1800s.

[Webstral]

Have you looked at farming rabbits and even hamsters and guinea pigs for both meat and fur. Relatively easy to house, don't require a lot of room, don't require a lot of feed in comparison, they breed fast and can effectively be managed by a small family (although guinea pigs can be sensitive to a few environmental factors like heat)

Rabbits are also quite sensitive to heat. Many outdoor hutch rabbits die during the California summer, which is one reason we keep ours indoors year round. We had a thread on rabbit husbandry a little while back.

Webstral

[General Pain]

start stocking up on booze now

As I stocked up for having my Irish-American and African-American family over for Thanksgiving, a horrible thought occurred to me. In 2000, where is the whiskey going to come from Who's going to have enough grain to distill it

For that matter, what will do without tea and coffee I suppose there is some hope that a few of the communities along the East and Gulf Coasts will be able to obtain some from Brazil through the remnants of maritime trade, but the near-complete disruption of the overland trade networks will mean that folks in the Western states (and probably almost all of the other ones, too) will go without tea and coffee for a long, long time.

Oh, the horror! The horror!

Webstral

I must admit I allready started stocking up on booze....

[Legbreaker]

I must admit I allready started stocking up on booze....

Of course your problem is the stock gets depleted as fast as it can be built up!

[Webstral]

Of course your problem is the stock gets depleted as fast as it can be built up!

To the degree one can call that a problem...

Webstral

[pmulcahy11b]

To the degree one can call that a problem...

Webstral

Though I'm a teetotaler, I would guess that the real problem would occur when you use up your stocks faster than they can be replaced...