If things are bad after the first of next year, any ideas on small home money/barter making ideas?

-- any ideas (Want@to.know), April 11, 1999

Answers

Might consider manual lawnmowers and a lawn crew of workers to service folks running out of rationed fuel for their mowers. Also could rent out manual lawnmowers per day or hour.

-- Leslie (***@***.net), April 11, 1999.

Moo? Sheeple grazing on their lawns, only thought for grass.

-- h (h@h.h), April 11, 1999.

Oddly enough, one of our first purchases was a manual lawnmower. If you live in the land of ciggers you don't take tall grass lightly. It's a necessity!

-- Shelia (shelia@a.com), April 12, 1999.

We are making portable (if heavy) garden plots. If needed we may be able to sell the plots with edible plants growing in them as early as March. Until then we can do greenhousing on them and grow some crops, short of the worst winter in years here at least some root crops ought to do fine.

We are getting chickens and rabbits. If needed we can either sell the eggs, furs and feathers, or breed them to sell their offspring. We will try to get extra supplies so we could sell coops/hutches for them as well.

I am getting materials and sewing supplies to make washable, re-usable women's menstrual pads. I found a neat idea and pattern on a web site for this (and let me tell you, if there are no supplies in the stores or money for them this is going to be a good seller). Plan to have extra stuff for ideas or needs that may come up.

And of course we will be gardening out our ears so we have some produce, even in winter, to barter.

Shelia: ciggers? Are those the things, they look like large fleas but are much easier to kill, that have been chewing on me and Ry endlessly? I thought they were some variation on fleas. Damn. I guess I need to mow my 2.5' lawn. Must be a regional thing. Never heard of those in California.

PJ in TX

-- PJ Gaenir (fire@firedocs.com), April 12, 1999.

"What will you do for a living?"

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000Kuj

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), April 12, 1999.

Buy cases of cigarettes now and sell them to those poor suckers who can't live without them after Y2K hits. Oh, and maybe it would be a good idea to stock up on matches.

-- Bozo (inhale@puff.com), April 12, 1999.

I think she meant "chiggers." Some people get chiggers and some don't. Chiggers never bother me, but they make my husband's life hell.

-- gilda jessie (jess@listbot.com), April 12, 1999.

Look in "older messages" at bottom of page. Many threads, previously.

-- a (A@AisA.com), April 12, 1999.

Do not sit in uncut grass in chigger country. No, no, no!

-- chiggermagnet (scratch@itchy.bug), April 12, 1999.

People will want to know what is going on in the rest of the world, and also will want to communicate with family and friends elsewhere. If the phone system is down, the only way to do that will be via amateur radio. My amateur radio pages (http://www.koyote.com/users/stheller/ham.htm) include a lot of information on how to get started with this interesting hobby that may turn into a major occupation next year.

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), April 12, 1999.

Steve -- good idea. If one has a ham rig, even if they can't afford a generator, someone is likely to want to trade a few watts to find out what's going on further than standard broadcast band distance away.

I haven't looked at your whole site yet, anything on dynamo power, or even BayGen power? Might be worth a mention here.

-- A (A@AisA.com), April 13, 1999.