Table of Contents

* Each chapter has sections for homes-streets-neighborhoods-towns, illustrative stories via reoccurring characters, and references/resources listed at the end (self-contained for readers of individual chapters online).

Chapter 1: An Emerging Movement
Big Picture of connecting emergency preparedness to sustainability street by street in our neighborhoods. We are adding to the conversation already happening separately at the individual home(stead) level and the national/international level. Incorporate current community level organizing around sustainability projects like community gardens to better survive the coming Long Emergency (as James Kunstler has aptly named it) with the preparedness experts doing positive work to make it through the next earthquake, flood, forest fire, or hurricane to hit their region.

Reference US examples from this emerging movement from northwest (Bellingham, Portland) to northeast (Vermont, Massachusetts) to demonstrate nationwide movement, then introduce Bainbridge Island setting for the “resilient neighborhood” connection of home-street-neighborhood-town and the background on which the characters will act. Talk not just about successful SB style towns, but also successful MYN towns. Reference rebuilding projects from New Orleans, starting at the street and neighborhood levels. Examples: victory gardens; triple bottom line companies; cottage farms; alternative power for cabins housing elderly parents.

Chapter 2: Water
From emergency stores to ongoing capture and purification systems, an unpolluted source of this basic life element is becoming increasingly scarce in many areas of North America. Bridge gap from individual home systems to township-size water tanks by showcasing street and neighborhood level water reclamation, purification, storage, and distribution. Demonstrate techniques from bioswales and “living machines” to rain barrels and irrigation techniques. Examples: irrigation expert barter; rain cistern failures; too much rain and not enough sun.

Chapter 3: Food
The beauty of Permaculture and micro-farming; decentralized food production versus centralized in terms of carbon, jobs creation, and quality of life. Lean economic times exposes the flawed thinking of the “messy” cherry tree and wasting resources to plant, water, and maintain a fake cherry tree; plant the real thing instead to produce a crop. Bring in a pro farmer or permaculture consultant to set up a shared vegetable garden for your street. Turn the vacant lot into an urban vegetable garden.

Combine efforts of several streets for a larger scale neighborhood wide project. Plant an orchard, dividing the cost among a 200 person condominium complex rather than just a single street of 20 homes. Even if you aren’t doing the gardening yourself, explore the many benefits of buying your produce within walking distance. Examples: rotating small flocks of animals on borrowed, empty lots and fields; micro-farm partners who walk through woods to swap produce between their exurban homes; advising others in county re: massive bee colony collapses.

Chapter 4: Energy
Need energy to provide warmth in winter, year round electricity to recharge communication devices like phones, computers, and Internet connectivity, and the ability to cook food in a long emergency (ration bars will only get you so far beyond a short term emergency). Bioregional differences for small-scale energy capture and storage: solar v wind v tidal. Heating with wood v homemade biochar (woodlot management by street and neighborhood). Travel electric from solar v homemade biodiesel. Shelter-in-place versus travel to regional warming stations (think through travel in low power scenarios: walking and bicycling).

Economies of scale achieved by gathering in neighborhood groups for warm, communications, and cooking also benefits from additional skills sharing, emotional support, and increased security. Examples: measuring wind (failure) so add wood burning stove instead; micro turbines on roof gutters for pacific northwest rains; solar PV panels on chicken coop.

Chapter 5: Transportation
Touch on big picture (national and international travel) with planes (doomed for massive carbon hit?), trains (hopeful but via private not government investment?), and automobiles (electric: too little too late?), but focus quickly on daily short-haul transportation of people and goods assuming regional transportation lines have been interrupted.

History is the future: sailing cargo ships for west coast and small craft in protected Puget Sound. Building/maintaining bicycles in times of expensive oil (tires). Horses as viable options if infrastructure in place (police horses downtown in major cities). And of course, remaking neighborhoods and towns around pedestrians. Back to the future with motorcycles, both regular (Kenya) and electric (Danny). Examples: horse for daily commute to town; electric versions of car, motorcycle, and bicycle; trading via sailing.

Chapter 6: Personal training
Opposite of the advice many of us received growing up to specialize in order to maximize our salaries; better to have a wide range of shallow skills than deep knowledge of a single skill. And the ability to work as a team as access to the all powerful oil becomes scarce will be crucial. While some believe emergency preparedness is best done as a solo effort, far away from “civilization” and prying eyes in a remote location, for most North Americans, the opposite will be true. Similair to the conclusion that Neil Strauss reached in his Emergency book, my family and neighbors plan to stay and help when the national emergency hits, not run away from it.

Connect the various parts of our small town via ham radio to maintain contact even during emergencies when our phone and cell systems have shown they can be easily overwhelmed. Specifically have these ham radios sit at locations where we are connecting food, water, and reliable heavy transportation (horses). These radios are not just sitting at city government offices, but in private homes of clued-in people. Map walking, biking, horse riding paths for non-vehicle transportation around our town.

Communications (twitter). Solar ham radio. CPR and EMT training. Foraging. Camping skills. Woodworking and blacksmithing. Hand tools versions of electric tools. Solar cell and battery maintenance. Bicycle maintenance. Connections to other chapters (canning and root cellaring via Food chapter). DIY farm hacks. Bartering for services. Examples: doctoring and farming; hunter and FFA dealer; woodworking + metalworking shops.

Chapter 7: Security
Beyond a Neighborhood Watch program, truly being secure means turning inside ourselves first to build the mental and emotional strength for both times of short term crisis and the daily struggle to simply get out of bed during a long emergency. Perkins content. Staying safe and secure during emergencies that can become physically violent, such as riots and looting. Joel Skousen: “Possessing a few personal friends you can intrinsically trust at all times is one of the most important contingency preparations you can make.”

McCann content, including firearms. Firearms agnostic, but required reading/preparations for North American readers as access to them is ubiquitous; it does no good to grow your own food and raise your own animals only to have them taken away by the first thug visiting from the next city over who has a gun. Skousen content on best location to weather an emergency, and how to fortify your current location. Examples: police interviews about citizen involvement in thwarting recent burglary series on north end of island; country living away from city she commutes to for CFO job; mid-island MYN story.

Chapter 8: Wealth Creation and Retention
Why do we work? Redefine wealth to a network of relationships, but also cover local investment clubs and cashless bartering as methods to create and expand that network. Start with SRI, trains example for Gates/Buffet, and neo-feudalism aspect of investing in agricultural land, but end up at Korten. Discuss the role of current employment related to short-long term options related to Peak Oil; job relying on local economy versus absentee economy. Examples: Bainbridgebarter.com; beginning to invest at retirement age – yikes.

Chapter 9: Opting Out En Masse
Revisit big picture thinking from Chapter 1 and expand. Radically new mindset required. Perkins and Korten content. System thinking.

Chapter 10: Next Steps
Towns from chapter one as locations other than BI to watch for “boots on the ground” change to make their neighborhoods more resilient. Specific next steps depending on where their home/town currently is on the sustainability path. Set of actions, plans, templates, tools (mostly online), and project recommendations. Invitation to community leaders for networking, sharing of best practices, and more.