HELP! How bad could it get?

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This is a situation question. My son lives in Southern California on a one and a half acre lot. Lots of trees half of which are citrus, oranges, lemons, grapefruit. In a Y2K discussion he felt that he would be in good shape due to the fact that he had so many citrus trees on his property, and in the neigborhood. My feeling was that if it got rough after the turnover, those citrus tree would just be striped. In the many times I've visited him, I've noticed that no one seems to pick any of the oranges, grapefruit, or lemons from these trees. I told him I would post this question to the forum to see what their opinion/response would be. Of course when I fly out there I'm always having fresh juice in the morning. LOL

-- thinkIcan (thinkIcan@make.it), July 25, 1999

Answers

Southern California (and other parts of the US SW) are being slowly re-taken by Mexico, owing to differing birth rates and immigration. Is your son a "Gringo" (bad) or Latino (good)?

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), July 25, 1999.

I've been told that citrus fruit can be saved up to 6 months unrefrigerated, if you place them in a cool, dry area and the fruit does not touch one another. Anyone any information on this?

-- thinkIcan (thinkIcan@make.it), July 25, 1999.

Anonymous99 --- Neither, he was born in Canada, so that makes him a happy Canuk, especially since he got out of the ice and snow.

-- thinkIcan (thinkIcan@make.it), July 25, 1999.

Main problem in So. calif is WATER... and too many people. Can he be self-sufficient water-wise? And can he protect himself against the people?

Weather is good though.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), July 25, 1999.


I've worked in parks in southern california.....you'll get people coming in picking (and almost stripping!) things like fruit of trees (pomegranets, lemons, apricots were a few) watercress from the creek beds, as much fish from the ponds as they could in one day (using juveniles --yeah right--that don't need fishing licenses); we've even caught people stealing ferns by the trunk load (in No. CA). Now I think everyone KNOWS you're not supposed to 'collect' in parks, right? That didn't stop them.

What do you think they will do when they are really hungry? Fence it and get a couple of big dogs, if you want to keep it.

-- kat (none@available.net), July 25, 1999.



Linda --- Water is not the problem, but you sure put your finger on his biggest problem "Can he protect himself from the people" But getting back to the main question, which is, will his supply of citrus simply disappear if the Y2K thing goes really bad. Do any of you have any imput?

-- thinkIcan (thinkIcan@make.it), July 25, 1999.

Unless somebody manages the irrigation canals all those trees will be dead by August, 2000. In New Mexico the acequias have mayor domos and the community works together each spring to clean them. All gates are manually operated. In California I bet the ditches are electronically monitored and even operated.

-- Sand Mueller (smueller@azalea.net), July 25, 1999.

How do you stripe a citrus tree? To put a stripe on the oranges would not be too hard, but to also put a stripe on each leaf would be impossible. I just would not worry about it during Y2K. If any idiot wants to stripe your trees, let them! You can still eat the orange, even if it has a stripe on it!

-- $$$ ($$$@$$$.com), July 25, 1999.

This all sounds a little suspicious to me. Who is stupid enough to base their survival on citrus fruit? How long can one live on a diet of oranges? I don't want to try it.

-- (rcarver@inacom.com), July 25, 1999.

Hi again, thinkican. I have to agree with the others here. His supply won't last long if things get bad, because the neighbors will just steal them. In addition to the fact that you can't live on citrus fruits alone means that he shouldn't count on his trees to get him through Y2K.

-- (pollys@gonna.die), July 25, 1999.


Perhaps, RCarver, the citrus was just thought of as part of a diet and also a barter item, in a barter situation. Just thinking, but along the same lines, do you have anything you might wanna trade? Seems to me that a fresh orange might have considerable value after surviving off of whatever you thought to stash in your personal cellar.

-- Roger (pecosrog@earthlink.net), July 25, 1999.

Kat--We have a community of immigrants who live off dogs, cats, squirrels, and anything that has 4 legs and moves. They go to the river at night and use nets to catch salmon, and the Fish and Game look the other way. People have complained to animal control about their dogs and cats disappearing and nothing is done. There have been acts of violence towards some of these people for their acts against animals. They get foods stamps from the government so there is no need for them to kill someone's dog or cat.

-- onthewatch (onthewatch@onthewatch.com), July 25, 1999.

Some irrigation is by gravity flow and some are on electrical pumps. I doubt if he has gravity flow irrigation. No water, no oranges.

-- farmerjohn (farmerjohn@farmerj.com), July 25, 1999.

onthewatch -- Where do you live? Just curious.

When cats/dogs disappear here, it's usually a local nut-case that the mental health system has compassionately released on the general public.

-- worried (about@little.fluffy), July 26, 1999.


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