We need to think seriously about where our individual personal world is going, I believe there will be great change that will occur within the next ten years---let me be brief---this is what i believe. There is no way to avoid these situations, one can only prepare logically.

I believe an economic meltdown much like that which occurred in the Soviet Union will occur in the United States. Only slowly as compared to the soviet overnight circumstances......

I believe that we will be forced to return to a local economy situation matching that of pre-war US in the year 1900.

I believe we will become personally responsible as systems shut down, for our own fresh food, our own health through alternative healing, and the social welfare of our own local communities. Everything will be local, nothing will be global ever again.

I believe we will see a reduction in the quantity and a rise in price of gasoline available to private citizens.

I believe that much of our infra-structure will begin to collapse slowly to the point that one does not recognize problem after problem. Let me give you two examples, neither the city of New Orleans nor the World Trade Center site have been rebuilt--have you realized that----it already appears as if we as a society can no longer accomplish major infrastructure construction projects.

I believe that the solution is for each of us to take charge of our existence..live within our means, garden, create as much of our own energy as possible, obtain energy efficient vehicles to stretch possible gasoline rationing...I usually intermix my urban homesteading philosophy with other items here since constant sermons are good for no one but....please, please think of homesteading self sufficiency when ever possible...wherever you live.

My wife and I have pretty much decided to add a pair of Hen chickens to

our little urban homestead. Born in New Jersey--wtf do I know about chickens other than the absolute fact that i couldn't EVER kill and eat them after i got them. So i have a great deal of research to do.......During the past 8 years one of the major crimes of the Bush administration was the destruction of the public health examination of food production. Bush purposefully returned our society to the pre-Sinclair Lewis days of shabby corporations poisoning hundreds of Americans and walking away scott-free for nothing but profit. In case you forgot, I'll remind you of intentional corporate peanut butter poisoning for profit which killed us..our dogs weren't even safe against Chinese poisoned dog food remember that one? Couple this Republican food supply Katrina like background information with my personal drive and desire to become an Urban self-sufficient, community cooperator...

Urban Chickens make some real sense.

First of course is eggs--maybe two a day--which for my wife and I would be plenty to consume with possibly a few leftover for

trading/bartering. The second and equally important reason would be the contribution of chicken poop to the compost pile---the most excellent compost available. The chickens cooped in the composting area would also be natural turners for the compost pile as well...so this could be a win-win-win in almost any direction you turn. Several blogs advise that the bantam chickens (smaller sized) are the way to go for the city...people also seem to run the reporting gauntlet of this is a great deal of work and this is no work at all----hard to get a true report on that issue. Some bloggers advise that their chickens make great backyard pets. I'll have to wait and advise on that on since chickens may be the literal descendants of dinosaurs. I'll report on how this concept (at the moment) turns out--but I am pretty much set on giving the Urban Chicken a try....

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/dining/bal-md.gr.chickens28jun28,0,1452470.story

If you believe my desire for independent eggs, solar panels and poop compost is mislaid something interesting is going on in India today.

As we begin our descent into the post industrial age, problems and solutions displayed by India, both socially and infrastructure based, are a model for what we in the US will begin to experience as our fragile, oil and energy dependent infrastructure collapses. The Monsoon is late this year in India (insert global warming pro and con argument here) and it is HOT. The overloaded electrical power grid has crashed, there's basically no power at all in Delhi---and folks are unhappy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8123012.stm

Everyone in the world now demands electricity and every nation, every human is in a competition for the last glimmer of energy although many of my fellow US citizens bury their heads in the sand refusing to think on the future. Our problem is our refusal to face the future on a realistic basis.

Invest in solar panels NOW....

My mother always said that if you feed the birds you'll never go to purgatory. But then again she told me if I picked my nose I'd pull my eyeball out.

warren