Survivor communities outside the known world

[Jenny Islander]

That's a bit misleading. Native americans did have crops, but oaks were not among those — the oaks were not domesticated nor intentionally sowed. Rather, the natives engaged in forest gardening, allowing the oaks to thrive and multiply by killing competitor plants through controlled use of fire.

But that's different from the selective breeding and intentional cultivation that they did practice with tobacco, sunflowers, strawberries, squashes, little barley, marshelder, wild rice, mapple sugar, etc.

According to a piece on PBS, the mountain tribes deliberately sought out the best spots for planting oaks and kept track of who owned a future interest in which grove. 

[Jenny Islander]

I think an island with a human colony on it would need to be:

*Big enough to support everyone even if they can't leave for years (preferably big enough to support everybody there without inbreeding, since they may never be able to leave);
*Small enough, or at least smooth enough around the edges, to patrol;
*Completely surrounded by permanent water even in record drought years;
and
*Containing enough resources for the people to make some kind of weapon that can take out a troll/beast/etc. before it gets within infectious/bitey-bitey range, after factory-made firearms have worn out.

Cats would also be a plus.

Also, either the island has to be not infected at all before quarantine is imposed, or it has to be burned off and resown later.

As for islands with animal colonies, they would just need to be surrounded by permanent water, provided with some permanent drinkable water source, and hard to climb.  Old forts, steep-sided islets, etc.  The tiniest islands would be home to colonies of tiny animals, but bigger islands could have herds of feral livestock or deer.

[Róisín]

The trick with arid climates, and anywhere, really, is to plant crops suitable to the land and weather, to rotate them and rest the land as needed. Above all, to learn to listen to the land. It will tell you.

[prof_marvel]

The trick with arid climates, and anywhere, really, is to plant crops suitable to the land and weather, to rotate them and rest the land as needed. Above all, to learn to listen to the land. It will tell you.

An interesting variation amongst the Native Americans of the Southwest is to plant "the three sisters" together: corn ( aka maize) , beans, and squash. they supplement/complement each other with regards to "nitrogen fixing" & etc, so that the combination does not deplete the soil as much. Also, when prepared together correctly, they provide a "complete protein" .

Oh yeah, somewhere I have to remind Braidy, Mikkel and Sigrun that they can bag all the rabbits they want for food, but remember that without supplemental "fats" one can starve to death eating only rabbit meat. Aaaand  watch out for fleas, "tuleremia" ( rabbit fever ), and parasitic worms....

( Oh, Mikkel, but the birds and bunnies are soooooo cute - why am I itching and feverish? )

In "hard times" one needs to pay attention to these things and pass down the knowledge: Hey kids! always wear gloves when handling wild game, and cook your wild game thoroughly !


oh man I have to stop looking up diseases - "encephalitozoonosis" in rabbits sounds so suspiciously like a zombie infection
http://www.petmd.com/rabbit/conditions/parasitic/c_rb_encephalitozoonosis


yhs
prof ( ewww ) marvel

[Róisín]

True that. One of the things I do is teach wilderness craft and wild food. Nowadays it's more on the level of a couple of days in bush my limping aged body can handle, but I used to do things like month-long treks through the Snowies, with hunting and foraging. And one of the hard bits was convincing newbies (especially Americans for some reason) that eating your meat raw and bloody was a Very Bad Idea, however cool it looked.

And I have grown Three Sisters gardens, they're great, and protect the soil. We have one as part of the town community garden, which is coming up to harvest now.

[Jenny Islander]

Oh ho yes all kinds of nasty stuff can move in and slowly kill you if you eat meat raw.  Raw meat eating is still a tradition in rural Alaska, but official state healthy eating pamphlets specify that you have to freeze it first, like, a lot.  Or air-dry it, or dry it over smoke...

(My official worst raw-meat-eating effect ever: Pre-Contact tribes on the Peruvian coast used to eat sea lion meat raw.  This allowed a type of worm to invade their digestive systems.  The worm was just part of a sea lion's parasite load, but in humans it--well, did you know that it's possible to die of constipation?  Because it is.)

[urbicande]

Oh ho yes all kinds of nasty stuff can move in and slowly kill you if you eat meat raw.  Raw meat eating is still a tradition in rural Alaska, but official state healthy eating pamphlets specify that you have to freeze it first, like, a lot.  Or air-dry it, or dry it over smoke...

I'm not a big fan of raw meat in general.  And we KNOW they can make fire.

[princeofdoom]

i might like a rare steak now and then, but that's farm raised and hopefully SHOULDN'T have parasites (and even then....) But i also like the taste of the game animals i have tried well cooked a lot better than a well done steak.

But then i can imagine there are Americans that don't get the difference between farm raised cow steak and freshly hunted game animal steak....

[urbicande]

i might like a rare steak now and then, but that's farm raised and hopefully SHOULDN'T have parasites (and even then....) But i also like the taste of the game animals i have tried well cooked a lot better than a well done steak.

But then i can imagine there are Americans that don't get the difference between farm raised cow steak and freshly hunted game animal steak....

I've certainly never had freshly-hunted game.  (Not a hunter and I don't know anyone who hunts more than casually.  Certainly nobody I'm close to)

[Jenny Islander]

It varies by region.  A lot of people hunt for the pot here in Alaska because the meat may actually be cheaper than red meat from the store.  Venison backstrap braised gently with new potatoes, mushrooms, and a little wine....mmmmm.  And I know somebody who loved to get deer-heart sandwiches in his lunchbox.

[urbicande]

It varies by region.  A lot of people hunt for the pot here in Alaska because the meat may actually be cheaper than red meat from the store.  Venison backstrap braised gently with new potatoes, mushrooms, and a little wine....mmmmm.  And I know somebody who loved to get deer-heart sandwiches in his lunchbox.

Yeah, it's a lot less common in the NYC metro region.  (There are people who do it, but nobody in my circles)

[strangeangel24601]

Oh lord, I just had a horrifying thought. I was lying in bed, unable to sleep because I kept thinking about this thread and different advantages and hardships survivors in various regions would face. One thing that came to mind was that deserts would be unlikely to harbor large trolls or giants because few large mammals live there, but they might instead have to deal with swarms of infected rodents. And then I remembered that there are some particularly iconic large mammals living in the American Southwest - bands of mustangs and burros. And that most giants are basically a bunch of organisms fused together...
Guess I can just forget about sleep after all.

[urbicande]

Oh lord, I just had a horrifying thought. I was lying in bed, unable to sleep because I kept thinking about this thread and different advantages and hardships survivors in various regions would face. One thing that came to mind was that deserts would be unlikely to harbor large trolls or giants because few large mammals live there, but they might instead have to deal with swarms of infected rodents. And then I remembered that there are some particularly iconic large mammals living in the American Southwest - bands of mustangs and burros. And that most giants are basically a bunch of organisms fused together...
Guess I can just forget about sleep after all.

Well, yeah, although Giants are human based.  I don't think we've had Word of Minna as to whether Beasts can become Giants or not.

And since this is your first post, why not drop by and introduce yourself!

[Nuttie]

Few things I forgot about in my case for Poland  (BTW, thanks for positive reactions)
As to the magic, I... don't really see slavic religion reemerging in Poland. If you asked Poles about some of their ancient gods, they'd prooobably remember Perun (that's our God of Thunder, more user-friendly than Thor), but that's about it. Ever since 996 AD we've been catholics, so I think some sort of christianity-based magic would be more probable (priests turning into mages? Hmmm...). There's also the fact that after government falls, Church is the institution most Poles would turn to (as of the last survey, 98% of the population declared themselves catholic). Combine that with the fact that historically, churchmen had some very highly-ranking positions (first councillors, royal advisors), the recent (80s) Church's support of anti-communism, and almost-cult of St. Mary some Poles indulge in and it's possible that post-Rash Poland would be very religious state.

Well, I do not agree with you. Maybe majority of Poles truly don't know too much about our slavic tradition, but thank to our fantasy books and even games (especially the Witcher ) there's more and more people who know about Slavic gods, traditions and... monsters.

Yeah, slavic monsters. They were pretty much awesome and I would reaaaaaally love to see some of them. Polunocnica (Północnica), Likho (Lico), Leshy (Leszy), Koschei (Kościej), Shishiga... That would be amazing, wouldn't it?

Anyway, I know many people, who are now about 20, who could say a lot about Slavic mythology. Myself, I could tell names of slavic demons without hesitation (only with English names I've got a problem). In addition there are growing population of neopagans, who are returning to the old faith. So, who knows - there is a chance that in SSSS people in Poland would praise Marzanna  . Also, there are a few people who consider themselves as a witches (me among them   ) and try to practise "magic" using some traditions of slavic rituals. I think that it would be pretty great to see one witch in the comic. Who knows, maybe in future...

Oh, and I am new on this forum as well, so hi  . And sorry for my English; I don't use this language too much

[Róisín]

Hi and welcome Nuttie! Merry meet! I'll also be curious to see what has happened in Poland.