So, as you likely know, we live in the North East USA (MA) where oil is usually used to heat in the winter. We have always heated with our wood stove but used the oil heat-on-demand heater to make hot water (showers, dishwasher, etc). Because we are careful with our oil use we go through a 250 gal oil tank in a year.

That oil ran out this morning.

Traditionally, oil companies deliver oil on a subscription service here. They automatically deliver oil and then bill you.

We called our oil guy today and learned the following:

• He is about to declare bankruptcy
• He owes over $600,000 USD due to inventory and customers bailing out on their back debt
• Other oil companies in our area are in the same condition
• They too are on the verge of bankruptcy
• No company in our region will take any credit
• All deliveries must be paid in full upfront before delivery or COD
• Our tank will cost $1050 to fill

Yep, our tank will cost $1050 USD to fill.

Lets see.

Can we afford even this one tank of diesel?

• I am driving our gas guzzling mini-van because my car is dead
• my commute is over 400 miles a week
• We do not have the money to buy even a cheap junker car
• With the cost of gas and the cost of basic food stuffs we honestly do not make it from one paycheck to another
• The garden can not feed us yet, we are not even out of frost season yet so its all potential and not even sprouting yet

To dig out of this hole will require money we do not have. We are not likely to be alone in this one.

News Flash – Oil is pegging over $122/barrel today.

Right now? I can’t see the end of this path.

I will be going home from work tonight to cobble together a solar shower - my hide can not take ice cold well water showers!

Is the price of oil still academic to you?

How are you feeling the pain these days?

Yeah, we can NOT do anything new. I met my husband on the internet, we are liberal homeschoolers, we do some telecommuting, and now it seems we are Peakniks.

A simplistic way of defining what a peaknik is - otherwise non-alarmist professionals who have undergone a conversion to a dedication to surviving Peak Oil.

One doesn’t WANT to be a peaknik, it happens a lot like taking the red pill in the matrix … once the cat is out of the bag there is no going back. By definition, if you are the sort who feels very comfortable with cognitive dissonance (magical thinking) then the cat may peek out of the bag but it stays in there.. you can sleep at night and believe that things are not indeed much later than you think.

I cant do magical thinking, just not my nature. This is why I am a scientist and not a pastor or some such.

I am also used to doing things on my own, having moved 15 times before I graduated from high school I just learned to resource from within. For this reason, I find it hard to do one of the things that many people recommend in planning for the post-carbon age - form a tight knit sustainable community.

I loathe drama and the thought of living in a communal setting without private space sounds dreadful.

But, there is power in numbers so I am wondering if I can go there, make peace with a lack of peace.

For those of you just starting out with the whole local food thing the following might help.

I subscribe to The Energy Bulletin (Peak Oil News Bulletin) and today found one of their book reviews in my feedreader.

They excerpt a list from Chapter 6 (Local, Organic, Sustainable Food) from “Go Green: How to Build an Earth-Friendly Community” by Nancy H Taylor (Gibbs Smith Publishers):

• 1. Start small, raising a few successful plants at home. Herbs, a few lettuces and radishes are foolproof!
• 2. Think about where your food comes from. Are your apples from New Zealand, from Chile or Oregon? Do you buy strawberries all winter long?
• 3. Take your own bag to the market, neither paper nor plastic are good options for bringing our food home. Your own canvas bag will save trees and help stop the plastic proliferation we see hanging from our trees and plastered against fences.
• 4. Find a neighbor to share trips to the store, put a basket or rack on your bike or take the bus. Plan ahead so you don’t have to make several trips to the store.
• 5. Start a food co-op to order foods in bulk and share them with your community.
• 6. Start a Farmers Market; it can be small and fun, and supports local food.
• 7. Start a CSA, support a local farmer and keep the food dollars in your community.
• 8. Pay attention to your fast food diet. How do you feel when you rush by the takeout window and eat in your car? See the film ‘Fast Food Nation’.
• 9. Talk to your kids about their diet, where foods come from, how they nourish the body. Get exercise and fresh air, you will want to eat better food after that.
• 10. Don’t get discouraged. Changing our eating habits takes time. Start slowly and add what you can afford over the period of a year or two. Once you switch to healthy food, you will notice the difference and not want to turn back!

For the peaknik I recommend subscribing to The Energy Bulletin’s RSS feed and learn everything you can. I also recommend working hard to not get depressed. Think of this as a challenge.

Do not assume a Mad Max future but plan for one. There is so much more to say about that but I won’t do that here, would prefer to be upbeat.