I was raised in rural Minnesota and was born in 1938. Our farm had no electric, no tractor, no running water, we were share cropping it as dad had lost everything in the last part of the depression, we were snow bound for weeks at a time as they did not plow the roads, and yet we survived and as I remember it had a good life. In comparison to a child growing up in a urban setting today with no father present, I think I had one of the best possible childhoods. There are several differences in that life style and to days prepping, but I think that lifestyle both prepared me to live in the modern world and to prep. Two things stand out in the old rural lifestyle, the perception of time and personal responsibility. Both were reinforced in the real world by direct actions. Everything in life required not only advanced planning, but taking actions in that plan and carrying it out. Dad milked cows, raised chickens, hogs, and beef cattle. I will use the milk cows as one example. They have to be milked every day, two times a day, without fail. If you don't do it they will be in great pain and will quit giving milk or get some infection in their system. To do it right, you will have to cool the milk in order to properly store it, have a place where the cows will be warm in the winter and where you can be comfortable while you milk them. It also has to be reasonably clean, no excessive amounts of s*** to cause odors, keep the flies down, and to keep the cows clean. In addition the s*** is a very valuable fertilizer and if you are not using chemical fertilizers, will be needed to keep producing crops on the land. The cows will need about 10 gallons of water per cow per day. In addition you will need to wash their udders before milking to prevent contamination in the milk, you will also have to wash the milking utensils, bucket, pail, pans to let cream rise or cream separator, storage containers, and any cheese making equipment, Thus you will need a barn and a water source of some kind. Many of the original farms had their buildings next to a good water source. In the summer the cows will require a source of food, used to be called a pasture, and water. That requires an open area with available water and either a means to contain them or a herder to keep them in the area and to protect the cows from animals or other dangers. If contained, it will require a fence, trees removed from some area, grass sown in the cleared areas, and the removal of weeds that will either crowd out the grass or perhaps ruin the milk, bad taste if eaten by cows, or kill the cow. In addition some means must be used to rotate the pasture. The cows can not go into the pasture until the ground has dried out enough that their feet will not turn it into a mud hole and that the grass is high enough that their eating it won't destroy the roots or over graze it. This requires feeding the cattle hay during some periods. That requires fields of hay. These must also be free of trees and brush, be fairly flat, and be both seeded into the right grass, that when cut and properly cured be stored as hay. But there is one small problem, the hay you feed today must be planted two years ago with the p[roper seed, on land prepared for it, harvested last year, stored in either a haystack, larger loss due to weather affects on open storage, or in a hay storage building. This requires longer term planning and allocation of resources. Where are you going to get the materials to build the barn to protect both the cattle and the hay? It has to be done before you get either the cows or the feed. Kind of like a shelter, worthless if not in place when you need it. Now that you have the shelter and the hay field, how much hay can you cut with a knife and rake up with a couple sticks as the amount of hay will determine how many cows you can milk? If we are to get to the 1880's level, perhaps 15 cows, then we have to have haying tools..At least a scythe and a wooden rake to cut and bunch it and a pitch fork to load it into a cart to take it to the storage area. In that time frame most people had a team of horses to do the heavy work. That required both a place to keep them and a source of feed. Now you could use a mowing machine, hay rake, and hay wagon, to make acquiring more feed possible. It also requires access to a modest level of technology. While this can be done by a prepper with good purchased prior to the SHTF, it will not be available after the event until a moderate level of technology is available. It was available when I was a kid and at modest prices. Adding horses, although it multiplies you available power, adds a whole new level of complexity. They can not work without a proper harness to transmit their muscle power into usable energy, that requires a harness. That requires both the ability to forge metal chains, buckles, and to tan leather. If you are working them hard they also require horse shoes, and even more important grain or corn as a source of energy. Their stomachs aren't efficient enough to work hard for long periods of time by digesting grass alone. This in turn requires more cleared land, preparation of the soil for planting, seed for planting, a year for the seed to mature into usable crops, harvesting and storage. This requires at the minimum planning over multiple years. The period from growing the seed, preparing and seeding, cultivation, and harvest is at least 1 year. That is if the fields are properly fertilized, relatively weed free, properly seeded, harvested, and stored. That also depends on not having deer, birds, grass hoppers, hungry neighbors, loose farm animals, etc eating the crop before you harvest it or wind, rain, freeze, disease, etc, destroy it before or during harvest. Now that you have your barns, fields, harvest equipment etc, the real long term planning must take place. The animals age out and if you wish to replace them, sell the additional stock, or increase the animals you have you will have to raise them. A horse or cow takes about 3 years to replace and you have to breed the cow as having the next calf is the only way to continue milk production. Since they require a dry period, if you want milk production to continue, you must have the calfing events scattered over a period of time. Reproduction requires bulls and stallions. Neither are very useful in the actual productive work of the farm and both can be dangerous. Thus the community tended to have them "owned" by some individual and their services sold or bartered for. I have shown just one small example of the complexity of planning our forbears took for granted and learned as children. They in turn were helped by their elders as they grew up with the institutional knowledge those elders had of their locality. Their grandfather could relate what his grandfather had told him as a child. I have talked to soldiers who fought in the civil war and remember their stories, I have also talked to people who were in the Lakota camp and saw Custer killed. We are losing that knowledge and we can not expect the teenager who live in an urban area and can't be bothered to even attend school on a regular basis to have long term plans. I selected cows. The same sort of process has to go for chickens, hogs, any domestic animal. Planning for the long run is very difficult. Planning and prepping is even harder. I think that in the long run the most important preparation you can make is the ability to see that their is a long run. A little put back, knowledge that isn't all theory, and living in the right place are to me the secret of survival. Raising a small garden in your back yard and canning a few quarts of tomatoes will show you some of the problems that you would face in the real SHTF and may have a better effect than all the books you read or the Mountain House stored in your basement. While they will get you thru the X period, they will not insure your long term survival.
