More energy

I've been trying to find and assess could ways to harvest energy. Basically, there is only so much energy you can gather, you have to find the best ways to get it.

Energy gives you the capability to do work - the more energy you have, the more work you can use, particularly to gather more energy. There are limits - solar, plants, and so on, are limited by the available space to gather sunlight - a total maximum of one kilowatt (about 1.3 horsepower) per square metre (about 10 square feet). Wind power is very useful, but can be limited... Hydro is great - if you're near a water source that can supply it all year long. I've been wondering about geothermal power - could be useful, but needs you to be in the right spot geologically, needs you to drill a hole, and needs more machinery... Never mind the very high cost of installing such a system.

More machinery means more things that can go wrong.

And more things going wrong means more people needed to keep things going.

On the other hand - do things in a reasonable manner, and there's much more power than the same number of people could produce by themselves...

The flip side is that we forget all the materials we use, and the effort that goes into getting them. Wood is fine for many uses, assuming you don't have lots of termites, but there are limits to what it can go. I have to find a reference I saw many years ago about how some African tribes smelted iron ore to produce usable quantities. Whether there is any iron ore nearby is another question. I have clay in the area, so there's one material; where there's clay, there's also the opportunity for Aluminium, using some novel techniques. I'm several miles from the coast, for better or worse, so no silicon really close to hand...

But copper? Tantalum? Any of the many metals in heavy use...

Energy is one thing, having something to use it on is another.

Learning vs. Learning...

I've begun to really appreciate the power of economies of scale.

If you have one plant:
   Lose one to dry weather, insects, fire, etc., and you've none left.
   You don't have much to trade with.
   If one tree doesn't produce in that year, you've got nothing.
   You don't have much in one to eat...

If you have a few dozen:
   If you lose a few, it's not a precarious situation.
   You have plenty of produce to eat...
   You have plenty to trade...

If you're producing something other than a foodstuff, it's easier to do things... Extracting essential oils - you generally need lots of leaves. A single tree won't be able to provide you much, but a dozen will give you lots. If you need to get the equipment to efficiently do a tree or two, it can easily be used for two dozen.

Of course, there's a lot to be said for variety, but if you have the possibility of trading with people, if you have plenty of a trade good, you won't be too badly off...

I've been looking for some good stainless steel stills for essential oils (and the like) - I can find copper ones easily, glass aplenty - but stainless steel seems to be harder to come by. I'd rather use that than copper, as I would expect the steel not to react as much... Of course, if it's a matter of what I can get... When you want some twenty litre or similar sized stills, you might have to put up with what you can get. Pre-SHTF, though, you have plenty of time to experiment, and make mistakes. Better to make mistakes before than after, I suppose.

Abandoned paths, rediscovered.

It's always astounding that we find that the old ways of doing things are far superior to the new... Somewhere along the line, we lost the knowledge, and it's only by luck that we rediscover how it was done.

Case in point - Roman cement. Two thousand years, and it's still strong - literally. Compare it to today's versions which last a few decades at best.

Not that older is necessarily better, but it does indicate how knowledge can easily be lost.

And why it's important that you work to preserve it.

I tend to say half-jokingly that I'm accumulating a library so that, PSHTF, I can hand a couple of books to someone, say "Learn this". At least then I'm not relying on luck to have those with the right skills just turn up - as in quite a bit of bad post-apocalypse fiction. Of course, it does mean finding worthwhile books - a wide range, and reasonable depth. Not a difficult task for a bibliophile, except to the wallet.

There's also the problem of working out what is necessary to have books on - and trying to find books on the subject. Have you any idea on how hard it is to find any references on building cotton gins? Here I am, growing plenty of cotton, and no time to manually pick every seed out of the fibre. Spinning wheels are easy enough, and even looms can be gotten as kits, but a good gin in hard to find.