by 3AD Scout, Survival Blog:
(Continued from Part 1.)
Service with a smile
Besides hard goods for barter, I have several “services” that I can provide. The key to being able to provide these services is to have the required tools and supplies on hand. Although I have several types of saws, I know that many people still have a rusty hand saw hanging up in their garage. Perhaps it was their grandfather’s but it has not been used since the cordless tool craze started. Those saws may need cleaning (rust taken off), sharpening, and perhaps even teeth resetting. Cleaning up the rust means sandpaper and stainless steel wool. Sharpening means files and setting saw teeth requires a saw tooth setter. I have not seen a saw tooth-setter offered for sale at a regular retail hardware store. Mostly they are at those venues that sell used goods. There are also multiple saw tooth-setters needed, based on the size of the teeth.
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I figure some acetone or other paint stripper will be needed as people who have old two-man saws that have been painted and put up on the walls for decor, come down to be put back in service. The two-man saws have a specialized sharpening jig so I have been looking for those and buying them to add to the “collection”. Another device that has disappeared over the years is a saw vise. These came in different sizes based on the size saw you need to sharpen. Again these are not sold at regular retail hardware stores anymore. Saw sharpening is not that hard but considering that it is one of those skills that most people no longer have, it will be valuable to have the ability to refurbish old saws after TEOTWAWKI.
If you ever watched the movie Book of Eli, there is a scene where Denzel Washington’s character walks into a post-apocalyptic trading post and makes a trade to get the battery on his iPod recharged. There may very well be a demand for recharging batteries, but perhaps not for iPods. Many new flashlights and other portable lights have rechargable lithium batteries in them and come with a USB charger. Many of the people who own them just plug them into their home AC power to recharge. If the AC power system is not available DC power from solar that can be used to recharge batteries. Having extra solar charging capacity and charging cords/cables/adapters with various types of connections will be needed for this post-apocalyptic business venture.
Two other services that we can offer post-SHTF is corn shelling and corn grinding. The massive mills that require electricity will be relics in our post-TEOTWAWKI world. Being able to shell dent corn quickly in large volume will be a valuable service. The corn could be stored on the cob but would take lots of storage space. Shelled corn will take a lot less space and therefore could be easily stored in a pantry. Being able to quickly grind corn for animal feed or corn flour will also be a valuable service. We have a few old hand-cranked corn shellers and a few larger grain grinders. With a little bit of ingenuity these hand-cranked devices could be powered by water or wind.
We have a smaller fruit press that we could use to press other people’s grapes or apples as well. Although we might not be able to press large quantities quickly we will still be able to press grapes or apples quicker and more efficiently than without any press.
Renewable goods
Being able to produce renewable items will provide a steady supply of barter goods. Being able to start tomato, pepper, various squashes, and other plants in many parts of the country will be a great business model. We normally start our seeds indoors that we use for our garden. This past Spring we started extra plants. This actually had two benefits for us. One benefit is, with so many plants we could choose the best to plant in our garden. The second was selling the surplus plants to cover the costs of seeds, pots et cetera. Another type of post-TEOTWAWKI renewable barter good is being able to make lumber. This may require a good source of fuel to run engines for sawmills. However, if you had the knowledge and tools you could set up a sawmill using old two-man saws.
Be a jack of all trades
After TEOTWAWKI, many of the in-demand skills of today will be pretty useless. What will be in demand, are the skills that were common in the 1700s and 1800s. Agrarian skills that don’t depend upon modern technology will be priceless. Do you know how to milk a cow or a goat? And when I say do you know how to milk a cow or doe that means not just the theoretical knowledge but the practical knowledge of having successfully milked a cow or doe. Any of the trade skills such a carpentry, masonry, plumbing, small engine repair will remain very good skills have. The more skills you have the better position you will be in to use a skill or skills in trade of something you need. Learning more skills now, like hand sewing, hide tanning, cooking from scratch, food preservation techniques, herbal medicine, also puts you in a position of not needing to barter with others for those services yourself.
Regardless of your skills, one failsafe service for barter is being able to provide manual labor. Providing manual labor should be your last option. Why? Because in a post-TEOTWAWKI world, manual labor will be dangerous. No one will be concerned with meeting OSHA safety standards and there may even be lack of common safety gear. Getting injured post-SHTF may jeopardize your ability to provide for your everyday survival needs of you and/or your family. Imagine bartering your labor to move rocks out of a field and you break your ankle and now cannot do the daily task required for your survival, so be careful when bartering your manual labor. Consider the risk versus reward for the task. Another issue with bartering manual labor is that manual labor will consume a lot of calories, those calories may be needed for labor in your garden, or hauling water or cutting wood for your family.
Finding alternative barter goods
I would not suggest going out and buying a bunch of new Lodge cast iron cookware and storing it for post-TEOTWAWKI barter. Nor would suggest that for most of the items I have mentioned earlier in this article. The great thing about buying old technology is that most people see it as obsolete, so prices can be very low when buying it today. On the downside, some people will deem older items as “vintage” or as “antiques” thus driving up prices. I’m a big proponent of auctions. Items sell for pennies on the dollar for goods and a few dollars can provide you with some excellent survival tools and/or barter goods. Other venues include estate sales, garage/yard sales, flea markets, and thrift stores.
