Living with our landscape rather than against it will be in our favor when we find the need to survive in the future on less than our current carbon-bloated lives allow.

This amazing family home in Wales was dug into a hillside. This is part of a permaculture movement that seems to have taken hold more in Britain than in the U.S. The hobbit yurt house site includes interior images and their simple plans.

Cae Mabon, a retreat center also in Wales, has more beautiful permaculture buildings to dream about.

There are several institutes and schools, but I think these buildings built by the occupants themselves–for ~$120/sq ft–are far more appealing, they fit specific needs, and it would be great to live inside walls that you built yourself.

See also Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-scale Permaculture.

I find it extremely interesting that military and law enforcement officers are being trained in disaster preparedness. This isn’t just a matter of combat readiness. The Navy Compass has been reporting on “family readiness” recently, including The Family Emergency Preparedness Fair at Serra Mesa. The event was created to “help military families prepare themselves to survive on their own for as long as possible in the event of a disaster.”

• Develop a plan
• Update emergency contact information
• Identify mustering points
• Develop emergency kit

The report lists the basic elements of a family readiness plan.

Who knew vegetarians have different survival needs than omnivores?

Vegetarians in Paradise, a Los Angeles magazine, asked readers to respond and make suggestions for vegetarian survival kit.  The only vegetarian-specific suggestions I find there are “powdered rice or soy powder” and “canned beans and bean-based soups, tetrapak soup (Imagine), individual packs of soymilk, vegan (Clif) energy bars and crackers. SELECT LOW-SODIUM ITEMS, AS YOUR DIET MAY CONSIST ENTIRELY OF THESE FOODS. Since you may not have access to fresh fruit or vegetables for a while, also keep some vitamins or (my choice) Emergen-C packets on hand.”

One reader suggested single-serving prepared foods from Dr. John McDougall.

What this tells me is that there is no one-size-fits-all list of survival supplies.  Whatever list you create, whatever you stock on your shelves, make sure your emergency supplies fit your lifestyle, your preferences, and your specific needs.

The Ad Council has two interesting campaigns that have been running this year.

• The campaign on Emergency Preparedness is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, and it leads to Ready.gov.  You can watch, listen, read, and interact with the various ads and get the absolute basic introduction to emergency preparedness.

• Another campaign on Global Warming is sponsored by Environmental Defense, and it leads to Fight Global Warming.

I would like to see these two campaigns combined.  Preparing for the long emergency of global warming should be on all our minds, but I suppose it will take a while before government agencies admit that to the point that we see public service ads suggesting what we can do to prepare.

A simple kit helps us focus on the most basic elements of preparation for an emergency or disaster, but there is a big gap between a kit and skills to survive whatever difficulties we face.

I’ve been watching and listening to coverage of the Superstorm of 2006, including days of power outages in sub-freezing temperatures. Power outages create a double emergency of several days or more. A flare in your car kit, a couple of candles and a can of beans won’t get you through a storm like this.

I am concerned that my own perparations don’t become just a compulsion to buy kits and make lists. The important point is to learn to do for myself and my family what a wildly misspent period of industrialization has tended to do for us. Feed us, keep us warm, supply our water. After the kit is used, we still need to cross that gap to reach genuine preparedness.

What would you do during a week with temperatures in the teens? What else might you need to get or do or learn? Walk yourself and your family through your typical week to find the gaps. Add the fact of extreme weather and walk through again. Add power failure and walk through again.

Make sure that your preparations don’t stop with the gathering of a kit. We need to know how to provide for ourselves whenever possible.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Lao Tzu

An MSNBC this week suggests the following emergency kit in addition to 9 other steps to take to winterize your car. Very important point: don’t leave your car unless you know where you are and how far you need to go to get help.

I thought it might be interesting to compare the MSNBC kit to those of the sources for the article.