Things to do after the war.

Our surroundings look very "apocalyptic" in the worst way, then again what do you expect after nuclear armageddon?

An old prewar map may show roads that are no longer functional. Most of the people are trying to survive and few working prewar cars remain. The dirt roads in the countryside look very "fourth world" and unmaintained. It is good to have a horse. There are many prewar houses that are empty - take your pick, but many are falling apart. This is the decay you can expect when the global population has fallen way below the bare minimum needed to maintain the basics. For example, in town all the stores have been vandalized, but you might find pieces of wood that you can use for fuel. Forget about finding canned food, those prized cans are hoarded, like a miser hoards gold coins.

In fact, you can trade a can of tuna for a prewar bicycle. Try to grow your own food. That bag of grass fertilizer is now ground up gold. Gathering grain is good because it stores well without a refrigerator. Also good is honey and bags of sugar. Try to eat fruit fast as it will spoil. Roots like carrots and turnips will keep in the cellar, but not for long.

I use raw onions to spice up a salad, no dressing in the future. Try to grow your own herbs and spices to add flavor to the food. Also make sure that you eat enough. Back in prewar days 3000 calories was more than enough, but now that you work so hard, you might try eating more like for example 4000 calories. I loose a lot of weight as I adapt to my new spartan life.

You will find that people do not play sports or listen to music, they use what little energy they have in a futile effort to rebuild. Some have attempted to clear rubble from main highways and to get basics such as electrical power and water going, but alas, most do not have the skills needed.

There is a shortage of workers, in fact, I remember the salary for labor was three gold ounces per day, about $2000/day in 2006 dollars. Food and critical supplies were very expensive, but houses were dirt cheap.

Gone is the highly evolved industrial society, replaced by a kind of "wild west" type of world. It seems that in this "wild west" there is no sheriff or town major. No fragment of order remains; it is literally every man for himself until a few start communities built around the idea that there are no more countries, we are all one people, belonging to one planet.