Let's pretend

[bbird]

Just pretend today its announced that gas is being rationed. Every family gets 5 gallons a week. Doesn't matter if you sell your first born child, that is all the gas you are going to get.

How is your life going to change?

[bbird]

I think dh will be able to go to work and back once! So, I imagine he will get his 5 gallons and go to work, and stay there. He will have to sleep in his truck. Shower and eat at work. After 2-3 weeks then he can use the gas to come see us once a week. He'd have to do the grocery shopping on this way to see us.

The kids and I would be bound to our place. The most important thing would be dh still working, and the hardships would be on him.

The kids and I would have to bike to the store if we couldn't wait. It would be downhill all the way to get there, uphill all the way back that would kill me! It would take me practically all day to bike to the store, but not impossible if it had to be done.

[Kathy]

In a normal week I use about 6-7 gallons so I'd have to do my shopping at the closer grocery store instead of the cheaper but farther away places. I can do most everything else by internet-banking, bill paying, shopping for non perishables.

When schools in, I'd only be able to work 2 days and I'd have to do the shopping on the way home. I couldn't stay over; no showers at the school and no one to care for the dogs here.
That would leave enough to do mow the grass every 2 weeks.

[Deleted]

5 gals a week? I'd have to take up residence at the hospital and never go home

It's 5o miles to work and back, my car gets 42 mpg and my DH and I go to near by locals so we ride share... so I could probebly get away with working 2-3 days a week which I couldn't afford to do...unless I find someone willing to use their vehicle the other days of the week and we all ride share together to get to town.

[Deleted]

5 gallons a week? Nothing would change for me. Well, the lawn may not get mowed as often, and the hoes would become more used than the tiller in the garden....

Kaza

[angiem2]

I just put 11 gallons in the car this morning and this is the first since Monday before last. 10 driving days and 2 days sitting. I think I could get by.

Angie

[bbird]

That is so great that some of you would be able to get by. I think I am going to make an attempt to get out and bicycle more often....build up those leg muscles, lol.

One thing I think about lately is communities helping each other out. The people in our area really don't have any contact with each other because there are miles between us but I would have no problem trying to get some kind of chain going so we could help each other get things at the store, ect. Even though I don't live by them, I would have to pass other people's houses and they might need help...goes vise versa too.

[Kathy]

There's a few homes on this road but other than Buddy and Steve, they're farther way.

Something that I thought was neat from the first month I was here was the fact that the 'community' has monthly potlucks and socialization.
There's probably 12-15 households in our 'community' which is actually a rectangle of about 7 miles wide by 5 miles in length.
Everyone gets together for a Friday night to eat, share recipes, discuss politics and the conditions of the world/state/local area and just get to know each other better.
It's one of the things that made this area seem very homey & welcoming right off the bat.
Everyone is very generous with their equiptment and help, today Buddy came and borrowed my gas lawnmower because he'd loaned his to another community member. I got some help from Steve when I went to put up the fence for my tomatoes and in return, he's borrowing one of my extra hoses until the end of the garden season instead of having to buy another one to water his farther out plants.
It's really pretty cool.

[bbird]

That is really neat to hear Kathy, I just don't hear of communities that do that here. It could be because "I" don't do it, when maybe others do. The only experience I have is when we lived in a very small town and we didn't have a lot of property so houses were closer. (Think rural neighborhoods) I got to hating it because the kids were young and although I enjoy having our house as the cool house to play at, the other parents saw me as a place to just let there kids come over everyday without asking. I have a feeling that because I was so young, and I really didn't know how to say no, and stand up to the older parents.

So, in some ways I cringe thinking about get togethers, yet there is so much about having neighbors to help and get help from that appeals to me. Especially when all of our friends, and family are at least an hour away.

I've even contacted the Grange Hall for our area. Seems the old fashion "meetings at the grange" where all the neighbors get together doesn't exist anymore. The Grange is now used as a Senior Citizen/Bingo/Garage Sale building, lol.

[Kathy]

I remember the days of being the mom who was home all day so obviously I didn't have anything better to do than watch the neighorhood children.

The Grange has been defunct in the areas I've lived for years now-but I remember those get togethers from when I was a kid and going with my parents.

Myabe you could start up a buying club where everyone orders their bulk foods monthly. Over the years,living in so many places, I found that many of the people I met & became friendly with started out as other buying club members. It's also a good way to discreetly figure out if they're the kind of people you want in your life and knowing a bit about your personal life.

[Deleted]

If they rationed gas, I would have to use the truck for emergencies only, or to go get feed, hay, etc. I would have to buy supplies about once a month!

The horses would be my only way to travel for the most part....I am too far out from any towns of any size at all....it is 12 miles one way to get groceries and some supplies, but it is another 55 miles to get feed and more than 70 miles one way to get hay now!

The pasture is about gone, as I had to graze it too early when I could not get hay earlier this spring....I have been tying the horses out in the yard now, to keep from buying more hay and to mow the yard....the used push mower I have it not a good one and it uses too much gas....I guess I could plant the yard full of flowers and mulch what I cannot mow or let the horses eat.

It took 3 gallons of gas to mow around the house, the barn and the storage sheds....another 3 gallons of gas to mow around the bee hives and along the road frontage.....I would be sunk!

But what really gets to me, is that I RACE CARS!!!! TO not be able to race.... That is extra income for me...well, when I win!

TH

[Deleted]

5 gallons?? I would be in deep deep trouble. I would have to buy a horse( then i would have to buy hay,etc)

I don't know??