Barter Items for SHTF.

[Sewingcreations15]

If a normal SHTF scenario everyone you don't know encroaching on your territory is your enemy and should be treated with suspicion in my books @lonewolf. That covers you for all possible scenarios.

Probably is SELCO I read about but there are lots of other stories about trading in SHTF scenarios both war and others.

 

[lonewolf]

If a normal SHTF scenario everyone you don't know encroaching on your territory is your enemy and should be treated with suspicion in my books @lonewolf. That covers you for all possible scenarios.

yes, that's how I see it.
SHTF is not the time to start trusting strangers. strangers=danger.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Wife of an ex military man here @lonewolf. We often talk through and plan for such scenarios if they should occur.

 

[lonewolf]

wife is a country girl born and bred, has been in farming, my mother was a farmers daughter. I was a self employed gardener before I retired.
grandfather served in WW1 and father in WW2.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

DH was country born and bred on large cattle stations, I had a cattle property before meeting DH. Both of us love gardening and pretty much supply ourselves with vegetables all year round. DH's family on the men's side all served in the World Wars. My father was brought up in England and immigrated out here as a 10 pound pom.

You @lonewolf and your DW then would be well apt in growing food for yourselves then which is a valuable skill to have.

 

[lonewolf]

DH was country born and bred on large cattle stations, I had a cattle property before meeting DH. Both of us love gardening and pretty much supply ourselves with vegetables all year round. DH's family on the men's side all served in the World Wars.

You and your DW then would be well apt in growing food for yourselves then which is a valuable skill to have.

yes, its a skill which is in short supply in the UK these days, most people buy all their food in the supermarkets. modern gardens are nothing more than a child's play area with the obiquitious trampoline or a dogs poo area.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Most of our acquaintances don't garden either @lonewolf but most want to learn and ask us to help them which is a good sign. We are in a small country village here so most people do grow their own vegetable gardens and fruit trees here as our nearest supermarket here is 45 km away one way. We do have one little corner store that has not so good food so you would take risks buying from there from what the locals tell us. We are surrounded by mostly cattle and sheep properties here so the ground is not so good but can be built up with compost and organic matter and we are on completely flat land here backing onto a creek which we own half of.

 

[lonewolf]

Most of our acquaintances don't garden either @lonewolf but most want to learn and ask us to help them which is a good sign. We are in a small country village here so most people do grow their own vegetable gardens and fruit trees here as our nearest supermarket here is 45 km away one way. We do have one little corner store that has not so good food so you would take risks buying from there from what the locals tell us. We are surrounded by mostly cattle and sheep properties here so the ground is not so good but can be built up with compost and organic matter and we are on completely flat land here backing onto a creek which we own half of.

sounds very similar, we live on the very edge of a small rural market town with a low population so low for the UK that most people call it a village. nearest small supermarket is 20 and 25 miles away depending on the direction, small convenience store and a very small filling station in the town, we lost our butchers shop and the bakers some years ago, about 2 years ago we lost the post office although you can send parcels at the newsagents, all down to economics, its seems small towns aren't economical in the 21st century.
we are surrounded by sheep and cattle farms, mostly sheep at the moment as that is where the money is.

 

[Weedygarden]

don't bank on it in the 21st century, we live in a throwaway society, when something wears out they throw it away and buy new. Sewing is a dying art.

This is absolutely the truth. We had a crafting group for about 4 years. We advertised in local facebook groups so people could join us. Some people took it as the place they could have things repaired. Not a chance. If you have a skill or interest in things such as sewing, knitting, etc., there are people who think YOU can do it for them, not them learning to do it.

There are women who do not even sew buttons on. I know some. One woman told me that a requirement she had for a course she took, which required some sewing was the hardest thing she had ever done.

When this group first started, I started a thread about darning socks. I am sure that some people here would never even think of that, let alone have a darning kit or basket like we did when I was growing up. Socks with holes probably mostly go in the trash, as do worn out underwear. I understand that. It is easy to go and buy new socks and underwear, at least now. Old t-shirts could be re-purposed and made into underwear. I have known people who made their own, but I never have. These are the people who have sergers, which I never have. I am sure a regular machine with a variety of sewing stitches could sew stretchable stitches, important for underweaar.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

We repair all of our clothing such as changing elastic when it wears out, sew holes in work jeans, replace and sew on buttons and any other repairs that will keep them going. Clothing only gets thrown out when it is well and truly had it and then most times if it isn't synthetic I cut it up for rags in the shed or use them for glass cleaning, damp dusting and any messy spills in the home. I rarely use paper towel for anything because of this and I find the paper towels nowadays leave a funny milky residue on glass, not all but most. We just wash the cotton rags and reuse them until they have had it too.

DH can also sew clothing and I make homewares and could possibly make simple clothing as well as I used to do it in school. We have a substantial stock of fabrics here to make things with.

 

[lonewolf]

I lived on my own for many years, I did all my own darning, patching and sewing on buttons, putting in new zips, etc.etc.

 

[Meerkat]

I think you are referring to SELCO, I have read some of his stuff, but that was a war situation and we are talking about a mostly civilian SHTF, you know who your enemies are in a war, you don't in SHTF.

For sure. Plus your friends may become your new enemies. Small rural towns may do well in comparison.

 

[Meerkat]

Most of our acquaintances don't garden either @lonewolf but most want to learn and ask us to help them which is a good sign. We are in a small country village here so most people do grow their own vegetable gardens and fruit trees here as our nearest supermarket here is 45 km away one way. We do have one little corner store that has not so good food so you would take risks buying from there from what the locals tell us. We are surrounded by mostly cattle and sheep properties here so the ground is not so good but can be built up with compost and organic matter and we are on completely flat land here backing onto a creek which we own half of.

I'd think that in a all out shtf situation farm animals would be a liability. For several reasons. Potatoes and beans and what veggies you could grow close at hand and you don't have to care for or feed them as much. Of wild animals may be ok.

 

[Terri9630]

I can't sew but I can build and plumb a house. I don't play with electricity though.

 

[Weedygarden]

I can't sew but I can build and plumb a house. I don't play with electricity though.

Can't, or don't? Wouldn't can't mean that you have tried and have failed? It may be that you were not around someone who sewed or had little exposure to it. I do know people who have no patience for such things, so no matter, they can't.

Both of my grandmothers sewed and my mother was an avid sewer, sewing most of our clothing.

I know that my interest in sewing comes from seeing my mother sewing clothing after all of her housework was done for the day. As a RN, she kept something to embroidery with her while she worked the night shift. I wanted to sew and to embroidery when I was around 5. Mom did one of the iron on patterns, threaded a needle for me, and helped me start. I remember often going around the hoop, instead of going down close to or where I had just come up after making a French knot or something else. I remember my mom letting me make a few mistakes, fixing it for me, until it was time for us to have a break. Like learning many things, it is trial and error before you get better at it.

 

[Terri9630]

I get impatient and then things come out funky. I guess if I absolutely HAD to I could, it just wouldn't be pretty.

 

[Caribou]

I can sew a button. Patches are mostly duct tape till I can get to town and buy new. I can sew a patch on but the last time I did they tried to hire me to do makeup for a Frankenstein movie.

 

[backlash]

On one of my cruise every guy in the shop started to embroidery. Drove the shop chief nuts which was part of the fun. My wife still has a navy dungaree blue shirt with a giant peacock embroidered on the back.

 

[Weedygarden]

On one of my cruise every guy in the shop started to embroidery. Drove the shop chief nuts which was part of the fun. My wife still has a navy dungaree blue shirt with a giant peacock embroidered on the back.

Knitting has been popular with certain groups of men as well. I find anything that I do with my hands like that to be calming.

 

[lonewolf]

I'd think that in a all out shtf situation farm animals would be a liability. For several reasons. Potatoes and beans and what veggies you could grow close at hand and you don't have to care for or feed them as much. Of wild animals may be ok.

smaller animals will be the way to go post SHTF, they are easier to manage and take up less room.
during WW2 a lot of British people kept rabbits and chickens in their back yards to supplement their rations.

 

[backlash]

smaller animals will be the way to go post SHTF, they are easier to manage and take up less room.
during WW2 a lot of British people kept rabbits and chickens in their back yards to supplement their rations.

Also if you butcher a large animal you have to be able to preserve the meat. With no freezer the great majority of people have no idea how to do that.
My Grandparents always had a pig and chickens. They processed everything themselves at home. Grandpa said they used every part of the pig except the squeal.
What they didn't cure and smoke they canned. They ate fried pork almost every meal. There was always a bowl of bacon grease on the table for them to dip their biscuits in. Their cholesterol should have been very high but it wasn't. I guess because they worked so hard.

 

[Meerkat]

smaller animals will be the way to go post SHTF, they are easier to manage and take up less room.
during WW2 a lot of British people kept rabbits and chickens in their back yards to supplement their rations.

I agree. Large animals eat alot of food that requires a lot of work.

 

[lonewolf]

it also depends on how much land one has, smaller animals take up less room.
a lot of stuff post SHTF will be "calories in, calories out".