Neighborhoods and the Web of Life

Sustainable Civilization: From the Grass Roots Up

Chapter III - Neighborhoods and the Web of Life

We have fragmented families in neighborhoods where no one is related or even knows anyone within walking distance. Much of this can be attributed to quick & cheap transportation, making work commutes and a friend across town as "easy" to reach as a neighbor. Responsibility must also be attributed to expanding government programs, making a plea to a bureaucracy that does not judge your shortcomings, more likely than a plea to family for friends, who will.

Multiple living locations, communication and commute costs, and no readily available family support has been great for the businesses and government agencies who fill the gap, all loved by the tax man. Absent an energy miracle this is ending. We need to re-think what really matters to us, where and how we live to provide a solid foundation for our civilization.

INTRODUCTION

An individual or family, with an earth sheltered home, a large enough water collection area, and a "biointensive" garden, (best case 1,000 ft. sq. per person) could potentially live quietly in isolation for the lifetime of the youngest member of the family. But the technology could easily outlast the residents.

A single-family isolation approach is a "dead end" for the family, and if replicated, potentially for civilization. If effect, you’re hoping that your children will be able to leave the isolation, and amidst the ruins find others who have also been waiting in isolation. You’re hoping that someone else preserves civilizations while you hide. What type of survivors and civilization do you think you’re likely to find?

If located in relative isolation, such as a survival gathering, there is some minimum starting and stability population size for a community with ongoing successive generations, without the need for "immigration", or exchange of husbands/wives from outside.

PHYSICAL PRIORITY I POPULATION STABILITY

Whether a multi-family isolated neighborhood, or the global population, the total number of humans MUST NOT grow beyond the reliable renewable resources. In general, when averaged, it means no one should parent a child beyond their own replacement and the replacement of their mate. (Thinking of immigration, provided of course that both mates were already accounted for in the relevant population.)

Given nutritional food and reasonable sanitation, improved living conditions and health care, prolific child production is not necessary to ensure that a sufficient next generation survives. In simple fact, any number in the next generation which exceeds the present generation is the SOURCE of our problems. We must use our intelligence to overcome our biological tendencies.

Birth rate. No couple should have more than their personal replacement children. (Every birth or other new-arrival that exceeds replacement levels, assuming that steady-state policies are thereafter followed, means an eventual permanent standing increase of the population of from 4 to 6 people.

Childbirth Age. The average age at which a family has children, divided into the average lifespan provides the average number of standing generations. An increase in the age at which conception occurs reduces the overall standing population and demand on resources, while a decrease in the age of conception increases the standing population and resource demand.

Lifespan. The average lifespan divided by the average age at which children are conceived provides the average number of standing generations. To maintain a stable number of standing generations, a long term increase in lifespan must also in the long-term be balanced by an increase in the average age at which conception occurs, or an appropriate one-time adjustment in the birth rate to reduce the number of new mating couples.

To maintain a large enough gene pool, genetically the “better” choice is children born to older parents. As we passed the end of the 1800’s, improved nutrition and sanitation can be credited with an increase in the average lifespan, yet we not only did neither adjustment, we made increases in the other factors also.

In reference to the above population stability factors, I'll use "standard" families, with extended households (i.e. one set of grandparents resides in the family home), two children per couple, childbearing at age 20, lifespan of 80. The average extended family home could have 4 to 6 generations living there. (8 to 12 people)

Immigrants. An isolated "Neighborhood", being sustained at the minimum reliable level of renewable resources, should make the concept of immigration restriction clear.

Assuming average lifespan of 80, children born to parents in their 20's, there are more or less five generations alive at any given time. Assume each new person (immigrant or child beyond parental replacement) after arrival then follows a parental replacement only child bearing guideline, the population can be expected to settle out at a permanent increase of 5 people for each new potential breeder.

If you don't have extra water and food, how can you afford to increase your population? Can the scope of your facilities be expanded without violating your principles? Has there been an untimely death in your group?

Is someone willing to "forgo" a child (their biological replacement) and "adopt" the outsider as someone to be sustained on their family resources? Note, if a resident of a population restricted community brings in and marries someone from the “outside”, provided the couple only has one child, the negative effect on community resources will abate when the first of the husband/wife dies.

We can readily calculate the upper limit for a population, based on available resources, and per person resource use. But if you intend to plan for optimum living conditions, and the GREATEST available resources per person, you need to find the LOWER population limit for each level of community.

POPULATION LOWER LIMIT

I have been unable to locate a definitive study, however, provided the genetic makeup of the starting population has no inherent problems, consider in an isolated population starting with "unrelated" couples, who each have one boy and one girl. Current law in many U. S. states is that first cousins may not marry. Just working it out "on paper":

A deliberately selected group, all of essentially the same age, all unrelated. For this exercise, assume each couple has one boy & one girl.

WARNING: A narrow genetic base implies a risk of inbreeding. In a population of few childbearing individuals the risk of inbreeding is high. The genetic history of parents is particularly important in a small population, isolated community.

One couple, all children are siblings, dead end.

Two couples, the generation 2 four children can marry, but the third generation are first cousins, dead end.

Three couples, the generation 2 six children can marry, but most in the third generation are first cousins, dead end.

Four couples, the generation 2 eight children can marry, and the following generations being 1/2 first cousins CAN avoid first cousin marriages, but each has only one person available as a spouse. In addition, there is a cycle where both brother and sister of one family must marry the sister and brother of another family. While this does not technically violate the first cousin rule, it is a repeated pattern of genetic concentration.

Five couples, the following generations can marry and avoid first cousin marriages, and avoid the four couple forced cycle of brother & sister family "A" marrying sister & brother of family "B". But in avoiding the brother / sister cycle, it appears each person alternates between only one mate potential and a choice of two.

Six couples, the following generations generally each have a choice of three mates that avoids first cousin marriages. This is probably the smallest practical genetic gathering to wait out a long-term dangerous situation.

At this point, I ask your indulgence as I comment on support for monogamous human mating. The six couples just commented on are of course twelve people (six males & six females), who have twelve children as their replacements. I use an extreme example to demonstrate the "defect" of multiple mating partners. Envision eleven females, and one male, who parent the same twelve children. All of the children are half brothers or sisters, and given present genetic knowledge, should not mate and produce children.

Six extended families does not however provide a wide safety margin (i.e. for sicknesses or accidents) or the ability to maintain and pass on specialized knowledge and skills, or maintain and develop much technology.

If we assume the initial Homestead association group begins with members of random age, the likelihood of practical mate matches in a gathering of just six families is reduced. Tossing around some random numbers. Children born to couples at some point between are 18 and 36. We could easily find an 18-year or more age gap between potential mates. Increasing the number of families by a factor of 3 (to 18 families) in theory reduces the likely mate average age gap to 6 years. (See discussion later of 20 homestead "units" for Homestead associations.)

WARNING TO OVERLY SENSITIVE PEOPLE - GENETICS

Children constitute unique genetic compositions, resulting from mixing parental genetic material. The result is genetic variation of the offspring, which in turn may enhance, or diminish capabilities.

The genetic quality of offspring will affect a group, and humanity for years ahead, or forever. Since the cost of rearing a healthy child is essentially the same regardless of genetic history, overall for humanity the investment will pay better when applied to good quality genetic stock. The cost of caring for a chronically ill or physically defective child may easily exceed the capabilities of a typical family, in particular in a post-oil low energy era, when it is not possible to force “public assistance”.

In the past when most of mankind lived generation after generation in villages, you had access to the detailed family history of potential mates. In our highly mobile society this family memory has been removed as a source of information, and many protest its reasonable replacement with readily available scientific genetic information. In the coming decades absent an energy and resource miracle, we are quite likely to see a very large drop in the total number of living humans. Humanity needs those who survive to be the “fittest” for the applicable circumstances.

The collection of homesteads is the lowest level, probably the BEST level, to consider what in human terms, “survival of the fittest” means for long-term civilization. It is perhaps NOT what you would first think. Early tools, stones and knives required physical strength, and hand to hand combat ability was essential to survival. The bow, a more refined tool, allowed for lesser strength but a distinct skill to provide distant neutralization of a much larger adversary or animal. Our continued progression has made mind and precision more important than strength, in a feedback loop. The drive to overpopulate was early on another survival trait, as many died as children, or before they had their own children. Like other early "cave" aspects, given the now global coverage of humanity, the drive to expand population is obsolete.

The "gene" for prolific procreation is now a threat to the entire race. The “gene” to initiate force, to impose your will on others, is obsolete. The “gene” to waste, pollute, overproduce, overrun nature, etc., is obsolete. In the “wild”, these arguably obsolete genes would quickly and easily out-produce (in the form of children) and out-number those who have gone beyond the mindlessness and greed of our primitive animalistic origins. The “mutation” toward long-term thinking keeps occurring, but in the past was readily overrun.

The “up” side is that at least for the present, resources such as the internet provide a means for the isolated occurrences of those who are awake to reach out to each other, organize, and come together.

A significant question is how those who are awake to sustainable population requirements react and interact with those who think they have the god-given right to drop as many children as they want, force others to not only pay the costs of childbirth and raising THEIR children, but that others need to get out of the way so THEIR children can further procreate.

PHYSICAL PRIORITY II OPTIMIZE LIVING CONDITIONS

On a modest 1/4 acre lot if the family home and structures are underground or earth covered (see PAHS), the entire surface of the homestead could be available for food production, say around 10,000 ft. sq. At the best biointensive yield, the lot itself could feed the family.

How about a 10,000 sq. foot multi-floor building, a business on the first floor, living quarters above with a greenhouse/garden on the roof?

As touched on in Chapter I, the ability of a ¼ acre multigenerational homestead to provide for the family has two significant factors, sufficient sunshine for crops, and sufficient water for crops.

A simple greenhouse can provide a lot of leeway regarding solar exposure time. If there is not enough natural rainfall, water can however become a significant limiting factor.

With 12” of rainfall (presented for reference purposes, adjust all estimates for your local information.) a multigeneration homestead of 8 to 10 people would need to collect water from an area of 52,000 to 65,000 sq.ft. The homestead is 10,000 sq. ft, leaving 42,000 to 55,000 sq. ft. If your water collection area is to be integrated to your homestead, if you’re in isolation and have no other water source, you need 1 ¼ acres+.

Looking only at the food production area for a moment, consider now a 100% safety food production factor. But instead of making it integral to the family homestead, make it part of a mutual investment area with the homesteads all surrounding a large field.

The first point where the number of homesteads surrounds an adequate core plot is 20. In a deliberately planned neighborhood association units of 20 families (160 people) seems reasonable. This number meets or exceeds the minimum genetic in both deliberate and random, as described above.

Arranged in a square it is around 600 ft. per side, consisting of 100 ft. per side homesteads, surrounding a core 400 ft. per side "safe" area. (3.66 acre). This area fits in a typical city layout of 8 blocks per mile.

Do not look forward to a rational shift from maximum density housing of humans, to rational balance of housing, food production, etc. “Compromises between the demands of urban / industrial growth and agriculture will always result in the conversion of agricultural land to urban and industrial uses. The reverse conversion never happens.”

If the overall 20 homestead area is in isolation from other resources and needed to be surrounded by water collection, at the upper (safer) estimated area the neighborhood needs a water collection band around it 304 feet think, or the neighborhood needs to measure 1,208 feet on a side. CENTRAL FIELD POTENTIAL

Tree food crops. Even using a single dwarf variety, trees tend to produce yield greater than that which can be used by one family, and many trees require a pollinator mate. A potential use of this central protected field would be as an orchard.

Merely as an example, on a grid of 15 foot spacing, there is potential for 625 trees. If evenly planted in the crop spread of Apple, Apricot, Almond, Cherry, Fig, Pear, Peach, Persimmon, Plum, Pomegranate, Quince, and Walnut, there could be 52 of each type, for a potential annual yield of:

Crop		Ttl.Yield	Per Person

Apple		 208 Bushel	  1.30 Bushel Apricot		 104 Bushel	    .65 Bushel Almond		2080 Pound	13.00 Pound Cherry		3900 Quart	24.37 Quart Fig		1300 Pound	 8.00 Pound Pear		  26 Bushel	    .16 Bushel Peach		 208 Bushel	 1.30 Bushel Persimmon	 104 Bushel	   .65 Bushel Plum		 104 Bushel	   .65 Bushel Pomegranite	 104 Bushel	   .65 Bushel Quince		  52 Bushel	    .32 Bushel Walnut		2600 Pound	16.25 Pound

The above and below scenes are of a roughly circular grass courtyard in one area of an outlet shopping center.

The area shown is somewhat smaller than the area encompassed by the 20 homes would be, but it provides a flavor for what the area could be.

Tree energy crops. At the best yield of 2 cord per acre per year it's around 150,000,000 BTU per the field per year. (930 some cubic feet of wood – with better uses we hope than burning)

Tilapia fish farming provides liquid fertilizer, high in ammonia. While caution is required as to the plants which first receive tank outflow, the project provides high quality protein. Columbia reports four tilapia per week per person provides a key protein diet aspect. If each 8’ diameter tank grows 600 fish over a growing period of six months then to provide one week of protein for the upper estimate of 200 people per neighborhood requires tanks 9’3” in diameter. A steady supply requires 26 tanks in operation, a add walking space around each (for a tank footprint diameter of 12’) and you need a space about 60 foot on a side, easily fitting into a corner of the central field and providing valuable fertilizer to other central crops. The fish reportedly have minimal swimming requirements for individuals health, with recommendations that the tank diameter not be below 8’, with a minimum depth of 4’. Floating plants serve as a “nursery” for eggs and baby fish. Common floating plants include: duckweed (Lemma minor), water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes), and water lettuce (Pistia Stratiotes). Duckweed is a popular plant for use in living machines. It has been shown to remove (by bioaccumulation) as much as 99% of nutrients and dissolved solids in wastewater. Duckweed grows at an extremely rapid pace and can double its mass in less than 2 days. In field conditions, duckweed has produced as much as 13 to 83 tons/ha/year.83 Since it grows at such a rapid pace, duckweed requires frequent pruning and harvesting.

Power Generation. Set up in photovoltaic panels of a square yard, with a two foot walkway around each, it readily holds 6,400 collector units. At 10% efficiency panels, it generates 640 KW per hour of full sun, or 32 KW per homestead per hour, averaging something like 5760 KWH per homestead per month. How does that compare to your electric bill now? The p/v power option has two significant challenges, initial purchase cost, and maintenance. (Unlike trees, that can be self-replicating.) If the field were limited to non-water use aspects such as power, it could also serve as rainfall collection, and could provide 15% of the neighborhood water needs. This would reduce the water collection band to a thickness of 269 feet, and an overall area for an isolated neighborhood of 1,139 feet on a side.

Beef. To grow animals for meat and other uses, look into “Mini cows”. New breeds of pint-size heifers and bulls are making it easier for small areas such as the neighborhood central field to be used to raise cattle for milk & meat. Breeders claim that while each animal may be smaller, more meat can be produced overall from each acre. The miniature cattle (42 inches at the hip) are between 500 and 700 pounds, said to provide enough meat to last a family of four to six months. Their footprint concentration is about two per acre, so the central field could support eight of these animals.

Obviously, the entire field does not have to be dedicated to a single purpose. The mix could include some of the above, animal grazing space, and facilities common to cooperative housing facilities, a commons building, perhaps a pool.

A goal should be developing a facility where the residents enjoy spending such time off as they have, reinforcing neighborhood bonds.

HOMESTEAD SOLAR EXPOSURE

If your family homestead is in isolation, the height of your trees, towers, buildings, etc., is not a real concern. Once you elect to build and live in close to other solar dependent families, you must take into account everyone's effective solar window.

Envision a flat field, with just ground cover type crops, and all human structures underground. Everyone would essentially have 100% of the prospective solar window within their property borders.

Something similar is achieved if everyone agrees to not build or grow anything higher than a selected limit, say for example 20 feet. For a mental exercise, envision a 20' high wall around each property border. Some areas inside your domain may not receive direct sun at various times of the year, but this can be compensated by making the inside of the fence reflective, or in a more extreme choice placing a reflective grid over selected areas, or the entire property.

ASSET BASED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (ABCD) – KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOR

If you have not been life-long friends and neighbors, there is probably much you DON’T know about each other. There will be those reluctant to say anything about themselves. Why? Your academic record, job record, court matters, etc., are all public records.

Somewhere there are probably people who remember your first steps, your first words, and when you became potty-trained. Somewhere short of this, there is vital information that your neighbors should know about you. What you chose to put in your “bio” can say more about you then the words themselves.

“HIRING” YOUR NEW NEIGHBOR SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

The smaller that a community is, the greater the importance that each member be trained and experienced in a variety of complimentary emergency and functional areas, and that everyone be readily capable of interacting with each other as necessary.

Universal Qualifications.

(1)	Common language (2)	CPR  First Aid. (3)	Self Defense / Weapons Skill (4)	A grasp of basic sustainability concepts.

Specialists to consider. In selection of specific individuals (if you can select) you not only want someone compatible with your group and our philosophy, but someone who can teach their "specialty" to others well enough that others can assist the specialist, or take over as the specialist if need be.

It’s obvious you are not going to have a dedicated specialist for everything. But people may be quite knowledgeable in something vital that is their hobby. Are your "specialists" open to learning other skills so they can continue to be fully integrated functioning members of the village absent an immediate need for their personal unique training? (i.e. If no one has a tooth problem, what does your dentist do?)

MODERN TECHNOLOGIES (i.e.: existing skills, educated skills

Doctor Midwife Dentist Chiropractor Nurse Naturopath Arborist Horticulturist Farming Veterinarian Mechanic Electrician Electronics Plumbing HVAC engineering Carpentry

OLDER TECHNOLOGIES (i.e.: possibly existing as "hobby skills")

Gardening Wood Carving Clay working Hunting Fishing Tree cutting Vegetable canning Baking Machine repair Sewing Quilting Pottery Glass blowing Weather predicting skill

Lost or Little Used Technologies (i.e.: probably rarely practiced skills)

Blacksmithing Horse shoeing Sheep Sheering Gunsmithing Hand yarn and fabric making Cotton ginning Slaughtering / hog dressing Hide tanning Meat preserving Home building: Log, Rammed Earth, Straw Bale, Heavy Timber Framing, etc Barn raising Hand tool carpentry Furniture making Hand plowing Hand wheat preparation (drying, winnowing, grinding, etc) Windmill design / building Water mill design / building Wagon / horse buggy building Boat Building Stone Mason Shoe Making Medicinal plant identification and use Butter churning Milking Cheese making

FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES

Genetic engineering Chemical engineering Nanotechnology Physics Electronics Gravity Magnetics Warp fields?

ABCD VIRTUAL INFRASTRUCTURE

An example might be a virtual library, where whether a paper or computer file, all of the members would simply need to provide a list of the books in their possession, that they are willing to loan out to other group members.

Think along the same lines for tools or other durable materials.

INFRASTRUCTURE ACCESS

A single family or small group can't anticipate everything, and can't gather everything. I guess the "plus" side is that (at least in the USA) it's difficult to find ANYPLACE that is very far from some town.

If you are building a remote retreat community "from scratch", (NOT recommended by the author) costs and difficulties are reduced while the resources of a functioning community are within reach.

All 20 families can live in a single room, or individual family homesteads, built per the resources of each individual family, or in a multi family condo complex, or in a motel arrangement with everyone having a private room, and common service facilities. It does not matter.

What matters is adequate sustainable life-support and minimum biological levels such that reasonable genetic safety can be maintained. Life support needs to be “local”, and essential life elements recycled locally, if for no other reason than to provide incentive to ensure that that materials put back into the food system are acceptable in the food system to the intended recipients of the food.

Regardless of how the population is housed, the relationship of population size, solar window, water supply, essential nutrients, human scale, unavoidable limits, etc, does not change.

The internal infrastructure of an isolated community will probably of necessity initially be limited. You are, after all, basically working with the assets of at most a dozen or so families (i.e. 20 family minimum unit). Over time, with the labor of multiple generations consistently upgrading the site has potential for significant refinement.

A clear advantage of building new on virgin territory would be cheaper land purchase price. Remote cheap land would for example certainly make it more likely that a community of 20 families could afford an area 1208 on a side (about 34 acres) with a four acre center court, vs attempts by 20 families in an existing community to buy-out 16 other homes to establish the center court in an existing town setting.

But, if the community is a remote retreat, physical refinement may by be outweighed by loss of education and technological abilities. A particular challenge will be education.

EDUCATION IN ISOLATION

If a gathering of 20 homestead units has "perfectly" randomly distributed population ages, multi-generation families, etc., it might have 2 kids per class / age, and some approach to "Home Schooling" will probably be required.

"Home schooled" children have demonstrated that traditional classrooms may not be essential, or even rational, but those programs rely on educational materials developed "elsewhere", published and shipped, and on non "expert" parental teaching. Home schooled does not mean second rate. Education should be emphasized in all aspects of the Homestead association.

If there is not an overall crash, the web offers expanding opportunities for education, without "leaving home". Following a crash, the homestead association should as soon as possible document all of the resident knowledge. Note though, homeschooling or any teaching approach with too small of a class is an in-efficient use of the teaching resource.

SAFETY PRIORITY I PHYSICAL SECURITY AND SAFETY

A single family can be surprised while asleep or distracted. A single family can easily be physically outnumbered. Clustered homes raise the stakes for potential invaders, making it more difficult to determine the exact number and nature of residents and their habits, as well as putting the help of family and friends within the carry of your voice.

Neighborhood watch. Regardless of other factors, an awake and observant person is likely to be an essential factor of a security program.

With a large enough population, a gathering of homesteads can maintain a 24/7 "on duty" watch. There are 168 hours in a week. If security is stood once per week, for a four-hour period, there are 42 watch periods. An isolated family would be quickly worn down providing continuous surveillance. Six families would mean each family would have to provide someone "on duty" once every day. 20 families would mean each family would have to provide someone "on duty" only once in nearly every three days.

The person “on duty” does not need to be a muscular guard. In a low-tech environment, the guard must move about the overall complex in some “random” manner to sense what is happening. In a high-tech environment, it could be an elderly grandma sitting and watching favorite movies, while also having camera and audio feed from throughout the complex wired to the same room. To protect the property and lives of the neighborhood residents, what is called at the first step is just a version of “Neighborhood Watch” - someone to watch and listen, and sound the alarm if warranted. (What other “laws” do you care about?) As the homesteads gather, the per-day watch standing for each homestead dwindles, but the requirement for security does not.

With just this level of community, we see the potential for specialization, as one or more individuals or families would rather volunteer to pay someone to stand watch for them, than stay up on their own.

Each home already has its own food production, power generating, etc. area. Whether isolated or gathered, each home needs to be fenced from unwelcome invaders. As an example, putting a secure fence around six independent 1/4 acre homesites requires around 2,400 ft. of fence. If concentrated around the perimeter of clustered homes, it would enclose the entire 20 homestead site. Not to mention a circled gathering of such homes provides significant controlled gardening area with essentially no additional outlay in protective fence.

Every home should have its own safe-room. These can all be interconnected with communications wiring, pipe, etc. as technology and resources permit. Communications among homes can be carried over a wire for thousands of feet by sound powered phones, using only the minute current generated by the impact of voice sound waves on a microphone. The technology is robust, and simple.

ANTICIPATED "INVADERS"

Hostile. In isolation or otherwise in the absence of organized law enforcement, self defense is required.

Neutral. I'd suspect that no matter how well hidden, both pre and post crash activity make a neighborhood of such homesteads attract attention and visitors. The gathering of homesteads is better off in security though than an isolated family. Residents still face the ethical / moral question of how to deal with outsiders, especially those who do not show obvious hostility. Who decides?

If the group does not somehow have extra common assets, the food or shelter for such guests will be from individual family assets. Yet the guests pose a threat to all. Discuss it in the group.

LOCATION

A modest gathering of homesteads has wide choice in location, as it only requires cooperation among some low number of families. Location is still however a significant consideration.

Ecological concerns. Do your plans include paving/over and / or building on that wonderful piece of wilderness you found? How are you going to keep your life support infrastructure separate from the surrounding nature?

Pollution. What would be the point of creating a retreat to sustain our families into the future, only to discover it's been located on top of a toxic waste dump. In the USA, I understand the federal EPA, and state equivalents, track all known significant threats. While still available, obtain all relevant information on your location.

Low natural risks. Winds, floods, earthquakes, volcano's... These types of disaster are all reduced in impact by advance warnings, and prompt outside assistance. Typical emergency planning for today, is to expect no more than 72 hours before significant help from outside the damaged community is on scene. I suspect that for quite some time, the advance warnings, and help, will be absent. Inherent risks should be minimized by careful site selection.

Security. There probably already are prepared sites out there, which are remaining silent for security. This is certainly a consideration, and if I can manage to prompt a group to come together, once we've reached our initial "critical mass", it is possible that we would also cease public discussion that could lead to excessive temptations in a time of crisis. The location itself can be the first level of security. If your location is uninviting, most people won't even think of looking.

Transport corridors. If you are in isolation, major highways, railways, etc., may be pathways for refugees of a "crash". There with still though be a need for ready access to appropriate paths for appropriate commerce.

Even if transport is reduced to dependence on human power, i.e. bicycles, would you rather undertake a cross town, or cross country trip on foot, carrying your supplies on your back, and walking across raw land, or have your goods strapped on a bike, and pedaling, even on broken roads? The existing roadway grids could probably remain as viable pathways for quite some time, even in the absence of repairs, due to the also missing heavy traffic.

Use of a bicycle as a primary means of transport imposes limits (weight, speed, endurance, and angle of incline) but also offers advantages (aerobic exercise, no artificial gas generation, greatly reduced "road" needs. Typical automobile roads have extreme changes in altitude, “bad” for a bicycle rider. Enter old railway beds.   Many old, abandoned railway beds, often stripped of the track and ties, continue to exist as stone paths.   Per an average of several web bicycle safety sites, project the sustained speed of an average adult on an upright bicycle is around 10 to 12 mph.

If you are considering a remote retreat, or ease of human powered transport between cities, remember that for railroad tracks significant effort went into providing smooth, gentle grades and turns for the trains, therefore these may be nearly ideal locations for bicycle paths. In addition to their city terminals, early railroads required stopovers for taking on more coal, wood, water, etc. These resupply stops, now abandoned, may prove to be appropriate locations for a retreat gathering of homesteads.

Virtual. I'd suggest a significant aspect of a banding together homesteads that are self-reliant and self sufficient in the basics, is the synergy possible in association with other similarly prepared and functioning families. So long as other neighbors around you are not a "threat", and you are within reasonable walking distance of those you are officially cooperating with, I don't see that it is a "show stopper" to make your family preparations, even though you're actually inside a greater, non cooperating (YET) community. When neighbors wake up, you and your associates can serve as guides for the late-risers. Absent physical co-location for security and the advantages of a single large gathering, to some extent a community could be “virtual”.

SAFETY PRIORITY II REVENUES AND RESOURCES

Everyone in your neighborhood owns their home free of any mortgage. All are fireproof and grow enough food to feed the family. Someone from each homestead works enough to pay the property taxes, but otherwise each family more or less specializes in some craft, and the crops grown. Since everyone gets along on the barter system, and no money changes hands, you ignore the rest of the taxing authorities.

Wrong.

Your local “sales tax” authorities may consider all of your barter exchanges a commercial transaction, and demand their tax.

The IRS is also quite likely to consider your exchanges as commercial transactions, subject to income tax, self employment (Social Security & Medicaid) tax, etc.

And it can get worse. Say the neighbor kid double-digs your garden, and you barter some of your canned goods in exchange. If the tax authorities deem the kid your employee, vs an independent contractor you potentially owe minimum wage, tax withholding, and such other labor law requirements as are imposed in your jurisdiction. (Our laws are “nuts”, and even the tax authorities DO NOT know what they say.)

Although no money actually changed hands in any of the above events, if they are deemed taxable you will have to obtain official currency somewhere to pay the tax officials. Most likely, someone from each family will be forced to work at a “real” job to earn cash.

Government agencies, in particular the tax authorities, have a vested interest in fragmentation of families, friendships, and communities based on such. If you are growing your own food, looking after your neighbors, helping each other, taking turns letting the kids gather at homes, and not hiring someone for these "services", the tax authority has no easy basis to establish and siphon off part of the effort. Government agencies have a vested interest in discouraging people from taking care of themselves, or each other, and in CREATING problems, and expanding problems, to expand the scope of the solutions the agencies offer.

ECONOMICS

Even for a small gathering, if intentionally established in a remote undeveloped area, the potential cost is significant. The land purchase, although cheaper than a similar area within or close to a community, nevertheless alone poses difficulties. Unless there is extensive group cooperation, pooling of funds and agreement is reached, the purchase may need to be initiated by one or a few wealthy individuals. Within such a gathering there is the likelihood that the standard currency will be used, as will a “gift / favor” approach to activities.

Internal trade in a small community of family / friends can be barter / loan, with informal accounting. If a goal is the same 2% in farming as the U.S. today, in each association there are 3 people doing the gardening/farming.

Posit a gathering of 20 families having agreed to use "MONOPOLY" money as a medium of exchange. Someone finds another game box, and divides up the money. Is anyone richer? Prices rise, but everyone can still afford the same purchases. What happens though if the second game finder slowly filters the excess money into the economy by purchases that benefit that family? In the long-term overall the community is no more wealthier, however, the sneak has personally profited to the percentage the additional “cash” relates to the initial cash. The extra monopoly money adds no new value to the community, but does inflate everything.

The U.S. dollar is no better. The federal government, via the NON-GOVERNMENTAL agency of the Federal Reserve, puts printed, and debt generated cash into the economy, benefitting the government and the federal reserve, but lowering the value of every other dollar in the hands of, or on deposit on behalf of, EVERYONE ELSE.

There is an entertaining, yet for all practical purposes accurate, audio file floating around of and old lecture, titled "Wheat Receipts". I found a version on it online at:

http://www.markswatson.com/Audio.html

It explains the federal reserve and other banks, which would include a barter / bank system, in terms of the operators of grain storage facilities. We encounter… problems… whenever anyone has the opportunity to create new symbols of wealth, without bothering to provide the labor or goods that make the wealth real. As presented in the lecture, farmers store their grain in commercial towers, blended with wheat from others. The farmer is issued a receipt. A grain tower owner realizes that the towers are never completely empty, and he could if he wanted sell the wheat he believes will never be asked for. He elects to issue a receipt to himself for the amount, which representing a claim on wheat in the tower, he can sell for cash.

So long as there are banks that can “loan” the money you have in on-demand deposit, the same situation could develop regardless of what you call the currency.

Nevertheless, your group, your community, whatever the level, NEEDS a currency that is disconnected from the highly manipulated and completely artificial federal currency. You need to realize that all voluntary exchanges between two parties are barter. Money or currency is simply some agreed intermediate barter item, where everyone is readily willing to exchange their goods or services for the barter item, or the currency representing the barter item.

If the basis of your agreed barter currency denomination is something that can be created, it needs to be something that if created adds value to your local economy of at least the same usefulness as the unit created. Finding gold adds potential units to the economy of a gold standard economy, but new gold found in a mine does not add real useful value to the economy, and essentially dilutes the currency, just as a government printing press does. In comparison growing a commodity such as wheat, or generating a useful amount of electricity does add clear value.

What do you, your neighbors, your community do to generate material wealth, or more on point while the present tax authorities exist, to generate “dollars”? Earning external income presents another question for such a gathering that is in a remote site. While communications and transport remain, almost any specialty could be engaged in, though I suspect that post-peak oil that productive "industrial" activity would be limited to handicrafts, or repair / reworking of existing products. Once internal stability is achieved, it could be that external income needs would be minimal, and perhaps met by retirement or investment payments, or a few working outside the group, and purchasing the outside goods needed within the community.

POLITICS

Until the rest of society, and politicians, catch-up with the requirements of long term sustainability, your group may need to stay “below the radar”. There are of course things that need to be presented to your local officials.

Existing zoning and/or business license/taxation requirements may pose sufficient barriers as to prevent some from implementing a "sideline" business that they might otherwise have an interest in operating. The very people who would benefit in the future from such hobby businesses waiting in the wings, will probably balk at changes today that would allow them to start to develop. But it must be done.

What else do you see that needs to be changed, to get the various levels of government OUT OF THE WAY of achieving long-term sustainable civilization?

TECHNOLOGY

So long as the external infrastructure continues to function, the gathering should be capable of keeping up to date with the rest of the world (given appropriate funding).

A question: Assume your family, and nineteen other families, have completely equipped homesteads with everything in presentations to this point, and are planning on isolation. Do you have the technology and technique to repair or replace a broken plate or cup? How about a p/v panel? Or even a light bulb?

Once in isolation it appears limited to “Handicraft” technology for new items, or reworking and replacement of more complicated technology. Within a short period of time in isolation, expect technology to be limited to scavenger activity, then decline. (How do you make a bolt, or an eyeglass lens?) I would expect to see significant reliance on natural biological processes. (Growing plants and animals, fermentation, etc.) I would also expect to see significant reliance on herbal medicine or “home remedies”

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The closest example is the cohousing movement, which in simple terms is privately owned dwellings with their own traditional living facilities, but also with perhaps extensive jointly owned facilities (food preparation & dining, meeting rooms, recreation facilities, library, workshops, children's space, etc.) which are essentially reserved for the use of the owners.

The physical design is usually such as to encourage personal contact and use of the common areas. There is no required sharing of income or other personal assets. There may also be other jointly owned assets, vehicles, tools, machines, etc.

Cohousing facilities, and quite a number of neighborhoods, have restrictive covenants, rules for the neighborhood that one must agree to follow as part of obtaining title to the property. As with an easement on the property, the covenants survive even seizure of the property and a resale. I solicit input for covenants for a long-term sustainable neighborhood.

With private ownership of the means of providing for life support and comfort needs, as well as potential sources of income for the organization, it is by definition a capitalistic autarky.

While such fictional entities are still available under law, the common areas and the overall neighborhood may want to create and operate under a corporation, or a limited liability company. Please note my "two cents" is that such entities that do not hold owners and operators of a business responsible for what the business does are contrary to a long-term sustainable community as ecology, where "negative" feedback and consequences are required.

Typically each homestead (regardless of the number of people living at that location) has one "vote" in areas of management where the association has discretion. I solicit feedback on further organizational thoughts, association rules, etc.

The person voting for each homestead may, or may not, be the same person who in general is "in charge" at home. In general family homes are essentially meritocratic, lead by the person most qualified. All members may provide input, perhaps the “owner” of the home (the elders) and the primary wage earner(s) have significant input, or perhaps “veto” power, but in general someone (in our home, the wife) has the “final” say.

Depending on local law, it may be in the best interest of the association for all "common" areas to be owned by a corporation, limited liability company, etc., with the goal of minimizing the liability of any individual family / homestead to a third party who may be injured on such common property, and seek to sue the association.

As with the thought of virtual organization for the community, where the homesteads are not necessarily physically next to each other, neither does the common field, or other common assets need to be directly connected to any of the homesteads.

Consider there is a vacant lot, or perhaps a run-down and abandoned home in your neighborhood. Don’t whine about it to the city, organize a group and buy it, and put in the “sweat equity” to turn it into a common facility for your group.

INSPIRATION

The four acre El Monte Sagrado Resort in Taos, New Mexico, with 40 guest suites is not exactly a permanent living environment, but it strives to provide a comprehensive design solution for a high desert environment. It incorporates rainwater collection, minimum energy to provide heating and cooling, re-use of organic wastes in production of food, earth-based building materials, etc. Water is the critical limiting resource in our high desert environment, with the ancient irrigation network near Taos area having once made it the breadbasket of area.

The facility was previously a motel of small adobe casitas, which were restored and incorporated into the new resort infrastructure systems. Compressed earth blocks made with a hydraulic press were used for 8 of the units. The facility uses a "living machines" approach for wastewater from toilets, showers, etc. with initial collection in tanks to moderate flow. They use ultraviolet disinfection and only the amount of energy around that of a common light bulb. They avoid using chlorine as it is reported to create carcinogenic and estrogenic compounds biologically harmful in minute quantities.

CALL TO ACTION

Where do you want to be when the oil based infrastructure is no longer operationally viable? In your independent home, in a community of similar homes, or competing for scraps from a failing society?

At the present, numerous oil wells are estimated to "dry up" before 2010. Rationally, as more wells empty and production levels will fall, oil will no longer be cheap, or abundant, and all of humanities oil dependent technology will wheeze to a halt.

Admit, as oil ceases to be cheap and abundant, the present infrastructure will fail. I have no crystal ball, and cannot tell you what the reactions of nations, and people in general will be. But my guess, based on what we see with minor interruptions and shortfalls, such as the Bolivia seizure of oil fields, and front page news in the Financial Times of Iranian youth signing up to volunteer for suicide bomer missions, is that it will not be pleasant. The first priority must be surviving the crash.

What response to you intend to tell your grandchildren when they ask, "where were you"... when you used the last drop you could afford... what were you doing when others were preparing for the tragedies of the "transition" period... or when others were preparing for the inevitable, post-oil paradigm? Are your children and grandchildren well fed, in safe surroundings, or in the wilderness?

There will be those tough, resourceful, wealthy, or lucky individuals, and their families, who make it through the transition "without a scratch", and do fine. I'm hoping that I fit some such category, and that my family survives... But I've come to believe that everyone who joins in the creation of an appropriate sustainable community will vastly increase their chances of success, and quality of life. If we "close the loop" locally on water, food, utilities, etc., we reduce our "footprint", and reduce the need to conduct economic activity to earn funds to make payments on such.

Consider where we are, our resources, our beliefs and opinions of the future, and act now. Right now, we can not only communicate by phone, over the web, etc., but we can research nearly anything we can imagine, and by a mere "click" cause books, tools, materials, devices, etc., to be shipped directly to us. How long do you think this capability will continue when things start to get "tight"?

If we are going to not only CORRECT the mistakes of the past 100 years, and move on to developing to our greatest capabilities, there must be some groups that avoid the worst of the oil collapse. While "online" discussion can connect like-minded people in their thoughts and planning, it does nothing for any of us regarding physical world preparations.

SUMMARY

A modest neighborhood of self-reliant homesteads can in theory provide life support, and new generations, for an indefinite period.

But in isolation (physical or mental) such a neighborhood is going to find maintaining modern technology, and indeed knowledge, difficult. Realizing there are limits to physical resources, even on a global scale, redevelopment must take place within at least basic guidelines to avoid re-acquiring long term dependency on a short term resource.

Look at history, and the reasons stated (and unstated) as to why earlier civilizations failed. Research periods of crisis (i.e. the “Great Depression” )for causes, and analyze the acts of significant “players”, and their underlying motives.