recession skills?

SkunkWerX said:
I just went through a lay-off at work. They got rid of 58 people out of a total of 140 in our department. I was lucky enough to survive the brutality....this time.
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I'm glad you made it through the cut.

Which brings me to a point, if you are fortunate enough to still be employed, do everything you can to hold on to your job. Finding another will be tougher during times like this. If they ask for someone to do a project or some other crappy work, consider volunteering.
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Just remember, you can do this and it will save you for a while. But the asskisser is never going to get the axe, he stays right along with the backstabbers and other vermin. So, you can do exactly as you said but you can never take it to the level of the workplace asskisser because they'll just use you and toss you out because they already have their toadies.

This makes me a malcontent.

Be pleasant, and I know sometimes it's hard, but I noticed those with bad attitudes made up a cross section of those told to leave. Thye may have been good quality workers, but when the chips are down, no one wants to keep a malcontent around.
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"Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all of the unhappy people..." : http://www.despair.com/demotivation.html

Make yourself as indespensible as possible, and perhaps you may avoid the grim reaper when they start handing out pink slips. or, maybe you will keep your job another 3 months or 6 months longer this way versus being the first out the door.
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What people need to do in order to make this a reality is this, learn everyone else's job as best you can given the situation. If there is someone who doesn't like to run the computer or whatever, you go learn it - job security.

The ones who can figure out what you are up to are going to hate you for this. :-D

I know this doesn't fall under a wilderness expedition or a SHTF scenario or a biblical flood situation, but, keeping your job and a paycheck is a survival issue during these rough times.
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It is a SHTF scenario, and it's probably going to get a lot worse.
 
my recession skills include, basic auto mech, you can save a lot even by knowing how to do basic maintenance, and when things can be left and when they are critical. You'd be amazed by how many people have no home repair / reno skills, I hope the day doesn't come but if it does, a man that can use his hands will be better off than a desk jockey that is helpless with a hammer.
One thought for some might be "freegan-ism" yeah dumpster diving for food isn't pretty, but if you know what you are doing, there are a great many foods that can be recovered long after the store cannot sell them.
also a good understanding of nutrition helps keep the food bills down,
unfortunately my main jobs are economy dependent, As an AV tech, no money= no show= no work, and Even in our northern socialist paradise, when push comes to shove, EMS may become a luxury for the rich. I've never been happier to have grown up on a farm, to have been taught skills as a child that people ten years my senior find amazing, and while I may have to swallow my pride, I have enough skills to look after me and mine.

and as my dad always says, "Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines."
 
As far as all the gun talk is concerned, I am on-board, but I also think there is a lot that can happen between here and there. I learned an interesting lesson in a plane, crash. It takes a lot of killing to kill someone. In movies they are alive, and next thing you know, fade to black. If you go through the process you take a hell of a beating in between.

The survival thing got a lot of impetus from the nuke threat, one could in a flash go from having everything to people trailing around with their skin hanging off and possibly anarchy, if anyone had the energy. A depresion is more likely to drag on in a miserable form as an accumulation of 5% cuts on this and that take their toll. It's nice to imagine it all ending up in a situation were we get to play Rambo and save the day with honed shooting skills. The likely scenario is probably a lot more drawn out and miserable. Actually I think there will be a rebound.

Speaking of food, I like a juicy steak as much as the next guy. My heart does not. I'm no vegetarian, but I'm headed partly that way out of necesity. Get a good juicer, one that juices wheat grass, because that will press milk from a stone. Or make one. All kinds of weed will provide the most amazing foods you can imagine. It doesn't sound like something John Wayne would have done, but between the here and there there is a lot of stuff you can harvest without living on a farm.

I have also laid in every tool known to man. I can make anything I need from sails to silencers. This isn't likely to help much in the total collapse scenario, with no electrical power etc... But for now, it provides a lot of things I can do to improve my standard of living and that of my family, just completing projects from stuff I have lying around.
 
The 5% cuts constantly are a large part of the point to my OP.

I can see ranged weapons- whether guns, airguns, or bows- coming into play here for two main reasons. The first, to get it out of the way, is an increase in desperation crimes. It's one thing if a guy is breaking into your house to steal stuff for cash, another if he's doing it because he hasn't eaten in a couple days (yeah, yeah, or gotten a drug fix, or a job in a year). You may need to be more aware of the potential for housebreaking, and more prepared to face down someone. All that being said, I'm not going to trade my .32 and .22 pistols for a .454 or anything.

The bigger thing is, hunting. Rather, poaching. I've eaten sqruirrel, possum (ugh), rabbit and dove. I have zero compunction about running down to the causeway and taking a hare for the stewpot, or popping a squirrel in the backyard for same if my kiddos haven't had anything to put in the rice and yard garden greens for a week. We haven't gotten NEAR that yet, but it's looking more possible than it was 5 years ago.

I don't really wanna go play rambo. And really, if thing sbreak down enough for us to bug out for more than a couple weeks due to flooding or something- well, a lot of our survival plans scale right on up to homesteading.

gadgetgeek- I've taken a fairly well known author out dumpster diving for research on a novel :) - I won't say I do it a lot right now, though I can't ever pass up a free pile without a look see, but I have done, and know what to do. I did recently share in on some 50 pounds of cheese that was being loaded out of a grocery store that closed locally. It was dumpster bound and the staff had no issues with people saving them the extra lifting. And one of the local bakeries takes the day old stuff and leaves the pickup out for people to grab before they put it in the dumpster. I'm picky, sure, but it's really hard to pass up free artisan asiago kalamata loaves. And hell, I buy their bread exclusively when i shop.
 
I live in one of the least populated states, North Dakota. I also live in the country, on 30 acres of land, 10 miles from the closest town which is 18,000 people. If you think you can move to the country and live off of the land you are wrong!

Modern farming practices have destoryed so much wildlife habit that it would take 100's of acres of land to feed yourself let alone a family. I have not seen a rabbit, or deer on my 30 acres in months, and only a few pheasants.


The countryside in most of America is not like it was in the 1930's during the depression. Farms are massive in size compared to then, and use chemicals for weeds and insects that wildlife cannot live in. This confines the wildlife to the road ditches and small patches of land that cannot be farmed which limites their numbers.

I will give you an example. The corn harvest was very late this year in North Dakota. The deer season started November 1st. There were few deer to be found. Everyone said, including the Fish and Game Dept, that they were in the corn fields. Now that the harvest is coming to an end, still no deer! They are not here. Why, no ones seems to know for sure. Maby over hunting in years past?

If I were in a situation where I needed to grow and harvest my own food, I would do this:

1. Start a graden and can the surplus you do not consume during the summer and fall. This can be done living in town. Look at the lawns and fertilized used to grow them. Grow food, people don't eat grass, ask any indian.

2. If you want to raise animals chickens are the most feed efficent. That means they produce the most pounds of meat % wise to the pounds of feed they have eaten. The only problem is they need grain to eat. Hogs are the second most feed efficent animal to raise and can eat grabage (food waste "Slop" not eaten by people.)

3. Stay away from cattle, sheep, goats. Unless you have your own hay to feed them or can barter for it. There is no money to be made buying hay for animals to eat, period! It is less expensive to buy meat in a store.

4. Do hunt if you can and have the rifle/shotgun to do it with. A 150 pound deer will yield 60 to 70 pounds of meet. Add a few cottontail rabbits, pheasnats, goruse, quail, ducts, geese and it can make a difference. But , they are hard to come by and expensive considering the cost of the firearm, ammo, license, and traveling to hunt them. Fish if you can do it locally.

I love my knives and guns as much as anyone. But, I get concerned when people start thinking they can move to the country and live off of the land.

I was born and raised on a farm. We had a garden, milk cows, chickens, and fat steers to butcher in the fall. Back then, 40 years ago, it took 640 acres of land, 3 tractors, a combine, many implements, 2 full time farmers, and 3 part time helpers to get it all done.

A job in town, a garden in town, a few chickens in a coop in the back alley, fish caught locally, cottontails snared in the backyard, will be a better survival plan.

BigBelly
 
Interesting- out here we have farmers who will PAY you to take jackrabbits out. The hunting limit is 4/day (IIRC, might be 5), no closed season, most bunnies are 9 months out of the year. I've got an open invite to varmint out freaking turkeys in one guys orchards.

We have a MUCH more diverse farming culture in CA. Call it a socialist nuthead state if you want, but there's more real farming in this state than most any other 4 states combined. Organics, multicrops, real old style "everything" farms, orchards, smaller scale livestock. Sure, we have our share of horizon to horizon corn, rice, wheat, soy, and tomato farms, but there's a lot more variety out here than I saw when I went off and visited kansas and missouri.

a couple tens of acres out west in a lot of places would give you quite some meat forage for a small family. Have to be pretty careful with the ecology, but it's teeming.
 
I live in a rural city with a medium sized pouplation. The area of town that I live in has a creek with numerous trees. There are deer along the creek, and other small game.

The dilema was crossing others property to obtain critters if it ever came to that. The solution, came from my 2nd graders library book. All creatures need salt, so I bought a $6 salt block from a farm store, and now the animals come to me. The deer have worn a noticialbe path to my side yard, and the varmit pouplation has increased around the house. I also picked up some seven strand 600lb and 60lb leader wire from a bait shop, and have been able to set snares with some luck. I did purchase a furbearer permit along with my hunting license, so I am legal for all small game.

I did pick up some broad heads for my bow, just for the silent aspect of hunting in urban centers. The BB gun is a good idea.
 
I have brackish water in my backyard (of of a river, less than a mile to the gulf). Lots of fish and birds (if things get really bad). Lots of farmers to barter with (my wife and I are both docs). I'm not so worried for myself financially because people will always need medical care, but I worry about many of those around us. We will help whoever we can and step up to any challenges.

I spent quite a bit of time in New Orleans after Katrina and Rita helping out. My wife and I have a fairly good understanding of disaster, wilderness, and emergency medicine.

What I worry about the most is the increased crime in my area. It will only get worse if the economy continues to tank. Being someone who the community knows and seems to be doing better than most can make targets out of us. We have arleady had our car broken into and an attempted break-in of our house in the past year (so much for nice neighborhoods).

Already have good security stuff and close ties with most of our neighbors.

The best thing we have is our skills.
 
Good thread Christof.

I grow what fruits and vegetables I can, and do my best to stretch them into the cold season; about all I have left now is some winter squash and frozen berries.

Compost from my yard and kitchen is the main way I fertilize my crops.

An edible plant walk with Marty Simon did teach me a bunch about what I can harvest from the local woods.

I buy meat in primal cuts (read big pieces) when on sale, and do my own butchering.

With other groceries I buy in volume when on sale, and avoid any fancy stuff.

I do cook on the BBQ pit or in the smoker a lot, and collect and age appropriate woods to use as fuel.

I also try to be very frugal with the energy I have to pay for, be it electricity or gasoline.

Times are tough for us all and every little bit helps.



"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
 
Great thread, and great tips everyone!

SkunkWerX said:
I just went through a lay-off at work. They got rid of 58 people out of a total of 140 in our department. I was lucky enough to survive the brutality....this time.
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We're just going through a lay-off at the moment... There is a high probability that Im gonna get fired next Tuesday. Its really nice to see an old respected company being sold abroad and demolished by poor decisions, leading to outsourcing and Asian production. Quarter economics... shareholders want more value for the stock NOW, no matter what happens later.

I've been working since I was like 15 years old, doing all kinds of crappy jobs, while educating myself at the side. I dont have a mortgage or any other debts, and I live relatively cheap. I'm in a labour union, which means Im gonna get a pretty decent unemployment benefits for the next 500 days. So all in all, if I get fired, it isnt really the end of the world for me. I can easily afford the rent, I dont have any kids, I dont need the car for other that going to work, I have plenty of woods and nature near by... Im embracing this situation as a well earned vacation. We went through a shitty depression in early nineties in Finland, and it seems that most people here (and in most parts of the western world) have already forgotten, that you cant spend more than you can afford to.

I've already saved some money, since this particular recession was pretty easy to see beforehand. I also have a shitload of stuff I can sell. I have a vast library, plenty of books I havent read yet, and a lot of plans to do low-cost trips and hikes I've never had the time to do. Luckily, bicycling and walking are still free in this country. I'll just keep in mind the rule of three; if I have air to breath, shelter and warmth, water to drink and food to eat, the rest is just a bonus :D

I do realize that for many people, in Finland or in other countries, this situation is not that easy. Mortgages, companies... one can end up loosing a lot really fast. I still cant help feeling, that with the current monetary system, recessions will happen, and people should think these things beforehand. In the USA, the economy has been on life support for quite some time now, and the situation isnt that much better in the EU either.

But hey, maybe we'll learn something this time?
 
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SkunkWerX said:
I just went through a lay-off at work. They got rid of 58 people out of a total of 140 in our department. I was lucky enough to survive the brutality....this time.

Which brings me to a point, if you are fortunate enough to still be employed, do everything you can to hold on to your job. Finding another will be tougher during times like this. If they ask for someone to do a project or some other crappy work, consider volunteering. Be pleasant, and I know sometimes it's hard, but I noticed those with bad attitudes made up a cross section of those told to leave. Thye may have been good quality workers, but when the chips are down, no one wants to keep a malcontent around.

Make yourself as indespensible as possible, and perhaps you may avoid the grim reaper when they start handing out pink slips. or, maybe you will keep your job another 3 months or 6 months longer this way versus being the first out the door.
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This is good advice, but as you allude to at the end, it's short term tactical advice. It may allow you to keep your job a few extra months, but that's it. When companies lay off over 1/3 of their staff in one shot, with more layoffs planned, it's a bad sign for the company. Start looking for another job now. Plaster the market with resumes. Don't worry about your present employer "finding out", they're already going down the tubes and you have no reason to stay on a sinking ship.
 
Great thread, I've been watching this one in the background.

Bigbelly raises some good points though. A lot of people assume that wildlife can be had as an alternative, but this really only works when you are one of the few people doing this. In my neck of semi-urban sprawl, we have so many deer/cotton tails prancing around it can sometimes get annoying for the drive. At the same time, this population can be easily wiped out if more people started using the resource. The fact of the matter is that the habitat is restricted and confined and the existing population makes due by raiding the farm fields, local gardens etc. Heck, many of the people with yards bordering the brush actually feed them. You might actually look at these isolated populations as being one that is subsistence on oil just like our own society is.

So as a recession survival strategy, it is certainly a good one. When most folks are making due by changing their grocery shopping strategies, some individuals can perform some foraging. However, if too many people clue into this then the resource will disappear very quickly. Fishing might be a bit more viable alternative mainly due to the habitat volume being much less affected by human activities. Then again start removing all the big fish from a lake and it is pretty easy to collapse the fishery as well.
 
I don't know how many of y'all actually hunt, but small game hunting isn't a very efficient means of food gathering, really. I've spent days hunting and gotten totally skunked. If my kids were starving, yeah, I'd have shot the tweety birds and the woodpeckers to get some protein on the table, and take the jacks that I usually ignore, but still.

I was out last night looking for doves in an area that usually has a ton. I only saw any in the dusk, on the drive back home. If you aren't where they are, you aren't getting any food.

Garden plots and chickens are more reliable.
 
sixgunner455 said:
I don't know how many of y'all actually hunt, but small game hunting isn't a very efficient means of food gathering, really. I've spent days hunting and gotten totally skunked. If my kids were starving, yeah, I'd have shot the tweety birds and the woodpeckers to get some protein on the table, and take the jacks that I usually ignore, but still.

I was out last night looking for doves in an area that usually has a ton. I only saw any in the dusk, on the drive back home. If you aren't where they are, you aren't getting any food.

Garden plots and chickens are more reliable.
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And if it comes down to it, trapping and fishing with set lines are much more efficient than actively hunting and fishing.
 
Rich_S said:
This is good advice, but as you allude to at the end, it's short term tactical advice. It may allow you to keep your job a few extra months, but that's it. When companies lay off over 1/3 of their staff in one shot, with more layoffs planned, it's a bad sign for the company. Start looking for another job now. Plaster the market with resumes. Don't worry about your present employer "finding out", they're already going down the tubes and you have no reason to stay on a sinking ship.
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Rich, exactly, that was my point, it's a tactical move, thanks for finding a good way to describe it. :thumbup:
Buy yourself a few more months, a year, whatever you can.

I think gardens are a good idea for anyone who has room for one.
Anyone who hunts already knows the value of keeping meat in the freezer.
 
A good read on some aspects of this subject is Ragnar Benson's "Urban Survival". Not a lot of new information there for most readers of this forum, but a good overview of things you can do in a town/city in case of TSHTF, bad recession, or just helping to make ends meet.
 
We are talking about recession skills not survival.
Hunting does not work in an urban life style!!

If you have the storage space:
Buy dried food in 50 lbs sacks like beans, rice, and grains.
Oil in larger drums.
You will save a huge amount of money.

Bake your own bread.
Make your own jams and pickles.

If you have a garden, start a large vegetable patch for seasonal vegetables.

Meat, buy lesser tougher cuts and make stews.
Whole chickens, and make soups from the bones.

Work on the principle, that if it comes packaged, it is expensive.
 
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