Electricity

[John K Jordan]

I have two of the 250 gallon tanks that I will be setting up to capture rain water from my barn roof to water my garden. I expect they could be used for an alternate source of water if I had no other option.

That's a great idea. I have some 300 gallon tanks and when very dry I've pumped and hauled water from the river to water things. Filtered and treated your rain water could be used in the house.

When we moved to this farm I found a bottle-shaped underground cistern hidden in the overgrowth behind the barn, full of water. Based on other clues, it was probably put in at least 60 years ago. I pumped it out intending to clean it out - but it looked squeaky clean on the bottom! I measured the volume to be about 10,000 gallons. We found three of these, all fed from runoff from the barn and other buildings.

JKJ

[Frank Drew]

There is a term for living without electricity. It is called the Stone Age.

The Amish might disagree.

[Malcolm McLeod]

There is a term for living without electricity. It is called the Stone Age.

The Amish might disagree.

So might the inhabitants of the bronze age, the iron age, the middle ages, the enlightenment, the steam ...well, you know the rest. An EMP or flare might destroy some infrastructure. I doubt it will destroy all the knowledge needed to create that infrastructure. Or we could just let the Neanders care for us.

[Frank Drew]

That's it, Malcolm, the Neanders will launch an EMP and then we'll have to join them!

[Wayne Lomman]

Spare a thought for how much knowledge is stored electronically before being too confident about how long it will be retained post emp or whatever. Traditional, low technology cultures last for millennia - indigenous Australians for at least 60000 years for example. Civilisations last maybe a thousand years or so before they wipe themselves out. Go figure which part of the cycle Western civilisation is in. If the emp is followed by crisis leadership that belongs to the book burning brigade - check 20th century history - it's end of story.

Now that everyone is nice and cheerful, the original post is a joke published in a trade magazine. It's Australian humour, I guess. Apologies and I will try to do better in future. Caveat emptor however. Cheers