Has anyone thought of a Y2K "rehearsal?" For 3 or more days, try using no electricity, (no TV, radio, computer, etc.), no phones, no water from faucets; eating only cold food, drinking only bottled water, washing oneself with a bottled antiseptic cleaner (like Purell), using non-drinking water to wash clothing, drying them by hanging them in the bathroom, or basement, disposing of garbage and body waste other than the usual ways, passing time reading, writing, playing board games with other family members, walking, bike riding. It's challenging, isn't it? Could make a difference when, and if, the real thing happens! Some time, in the next few months, I hope to work up the nerve to try this!

-- Holly Allen (Holly3325@juno.com), August 04, 1998

Answers

Hi Holly!

Actually, I've suggested this to my family, but the reaction I got can only be described as "my near-commitment experience"!! I think it makes a LOT of sense to have a "dress rehearsal", because I KNOW it would bring a lot of details into focus and save some misery later on. I'd be glad to see you post a journal of sorts here if you do try it!

Sheila

-- Sheila (sross@bconnex.net), August 04, 1998.

Holly, if you have to work up the courage to live without electricity for 3 days, then that tells me that you are already a goner. It's one thing to be telling someone what to do, but why don't you try it and come back and tell us what it was like. People across America live without electricity for weeks during storms and hurricanes. Many not only lost their homes and lives, but thousands were without, food, electricity, water, these people are real survivors. Furthermore the Amish are living without electricity, no big deal.

-- Steady Ready (nobigdeal@ready.com), August 04, 1998.

Hey friends:

Our family is planning on a Y2K week this January. We will shut the power off at the pole, light the kerosene lamps, stoke up the wood stove and break out the wheat grinder. We home school, so the kids are being prepped to do their lessons by lantern and to have an adventure back to the turn of the century. Well make it Little House on the Prairie week along with studying Swiss Family Robinson and some primitive crafts. Heck of a class project.

We look to this experiment week to find the holes in our planning, to see what we are missing, and to acclimate us all to some of the potential hardships we may face. I would suggest it to all, and please post your successes and failures. We will.

Timothy

-- Timothy Rebman (trebman@megavision.com), August 04, 1998.

Will you be handing out food at your door? Will you get your neighbors involved in this? What about personal safety and security. How do you plan to protect yourself, will you be going through those kinds of drills? What about practicing putting out fires in case someone decides to throw a bottle filled with gasoline through your window. How are you and your family prepared and equipped to protect each other in case an intruder(s) barges through your door? These are the things I think about, because I have to protect my family and what I have stored for survival. Soldiers practice defending their lives in boot camp, not many of us have this experience. We can all put away the basics, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, I wonder how many will be doomed.

-- Doing It Right (AtEase@easy.com), August 04, 1998.

I think Holly's idea of practicing, especially for those who have never gone through periods of no water and power is a clever idea....Is it really constructive to criticize in the manner in which you did, Steady Ready? What business is it of yours how anyone else prepares? It is that type of reaction (reaction like amoeba, not response like human being) that frosts my windows.

Constructive criticism is learnable. What you did was not it.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), August 05, 1998.

Doing It Right

As a matter of fact we do hand out food at the door, and yes we have thought much about our security and are making plans. But, while throwing molatov cocktails through our own windows, and teaching the kids to put them out would be a very challenging exercise, we will stick with learning to deal with doing without the drip coffee maker and the VCR for this rehearsal. Americans are soft. Just living without cable TV will be a mental challenge for some us.

I dont wonder at how many will be doomed. I am concerned for my own families, and others safety, I dont worry about it. At the risk of being flamed mercilessly, given the current tenor of this group, let me say that I know in whom I have believed, I know that my redeemer lives, I know that whether I live or die, I am the Lords. Will God be surprised if we are mowed down in a hail of gunfire for our buckets of dried beans? Will He say Hey, that wasnt supposed to happen! Contemplating such an event causes me anxiety, but not worry, for the day of my death is greater than the day of my birth.

I dont know the future. It is prudent and good to prepare your mind, prepare your lives, prepare your bodies for what could transpire. Its not particulary healthy to brood on and be consumed by dark scenarios that are not yet written in stone.

Timothy

-- Timothy Rebman (trebman@megavision.com), August 05, 1998.

CAUTION...SPIRITUAL FLAME FOR TIMOTHY!

Praise the Lord for the peace that passeth all understanding! "...For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (Ja. 4:14). Oh that the unbelieving world might know the joy that comes through a right relationship with Christ.

Thanks for that fine post, Timothy!

-- Roy Cave (roy@techcomm.net), August 05, 1998.

Been there/done that,

I was in Guayama, Puerto Rico for Huricane Horence(Sept 1996). No water/electricity for a week. It was very much like being at camp. My huricane kit was ready, however, I could have used some bug spray. Last year(Jan 1998), I returned home to Rouses Point, NY on the boarder with Canada. In January there was the ice storm. No electricity for a few days. The difference between the ice storm and the huricane is that it was much colder during the ice storm. What did I learn from these two events. Never-never-Never pannic. Always have food ready, and be prepared. You probably have all of the stuff that you need, somewhere in your house. It is just the way that you think about what you need that makes the difference.

-- Larry Tabor (taborl@war.wyeth.com), August 05, 1998.

In my youth I was forced to rehearse TEOTWAKI for many years. I had little "normal" food. No electricity. No running water. No heat, etc. And for one year I had no toilet, not even one bush to hide behind. This has given me a lot of insight and I developed an instinct for survival. I can anticipate the unexpected and act on this knowledge which I continuously feed through voracious reading. At 58, I'm now in better health than most people of all ages.

-- Scatoma (winners@magiclink.com), August 09, 1998.

Ms. Donna: If it's none of my business how people prepare or practice for Y2K, and how they want me to prepare and practice, then don't post anything telling people what to do and how to do it! If your going to practice, then do it for real! Because when reality happens you won't know what to do! I would advise anyone living in the city to find some place else to be during Y2K, it will save you a multitude of problems. P.S. For someone professing to be a Christian, you sure do have some violent lips.

-- Doing it Right (At Ease@easy.com), August 09, 1998.

Dear Holly, You're a Granny right? :) Get those grandkids over and have a pioneer weekend or Little house weekend.

We are a homeschooling family and we do just that every year. Sometimes in the fall, winter and summer. Never got around to having one in the spring. We have worked up to 5 days now over the past 5 years. It's not like camping out! LOL! It is much more intense, actually. We sleep outside when the weather permits so that the children can get a feel for that too. We use no electricity or city water. All cooking is done outside, even if it rains. We use stored foods or very plain menus. We limit the amount of water we can use each day, using stored water or water collected in rain barrels.

Sometimes the children get very tired of playing pioneer before the time is up, then we pull out a card game or art activity that they enjoy. They sometimes get on each other's nerves really bad if it's raining and they can't get outside. We as parents try to give them jobs and ideas for projects to occupy them. The older children are not as prone to this any more as they are busy working with us to get wood, make fires, repair tools, make meals, etc. But if the younger children understand that they are essential in the scheme of things, and that their help is needed, they are surprizingly cooperative.

Each year we try to add another facet to our event so as to cover as much of the "real thing" as possible. Between DH and I we have alot of experience in primitive living. We really have enjoyed passing this on to our children, but we have always learned a great deal ourselves every time we do this!

The children love it til they are about 13 years old. Then they act like they are dreading it! But when we really start in on it and get moving, they fall in and love it again. They begin to help the younger children to adjust to this lifestyle.

Here are some of the things we have done over the past 5 years:

soap making outside over the fire cooking outside firestarting outdoor shelter construction meal planning gardening and preserving foods by drying washing clothes wood working with hand tools hunting curing animal skins water conservation sewing by hand gun safety edible wild plant identification first aid

Just a few simple ideas to get you going!

sylvia

-- sylvia (msbrit@usit.net), August 11, 1998.