Published on JustPlainMarie.ca on Oct 8, 2015 and republished on JustPlainCooking.ca on January 9, 2020
Let’s play a game: Try to picture a world without oil.
It’s not just about gas for your car or plastic bags at the grocery store. Oil is everywhere: in the fields that grow your food, the trucks that haul it, the clothes on your back, the asphalt under your feet, and about half the stuff sitting in your fridge or medicine cabinet. Heck, it probably helped build the fridge.
Now, I’m not here to predict some dramatic overnight collapse. But if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that supply chains are fragile, energy is expensive, and “business as usual” can vanish overnight – sometimes for reasons nobody saw coming. Whether prices spike, tech shifts, or policy changes, it’s not hard to imagine a future where oil isn’t cheap or easy. So the question isn’t if we need new skills and habits. It’s when.
Here’s what I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) about preparing for a less-oily world—not by hoarding gadgets, but by learning the everyday skills that our great-grandparents took for granted.
1. Living in Community
Forget the lone homesteader myth. Technology lets us pretend we’re self-sufficient, but pull back the curtain and you’ll see a web of invisible support. If we lose access to that – by accident or design – we’re going to need real, face-to-face communities more than ever. And not just for work, but for all the messiness of human life: conflict, care, and compromise.
Skill to practice: Get to know your neighbours. Share resources. Learn how to resolve conflict without ghosting each other. The old ways (like the Mennonite practice of reconciliation before Communion) might start making sense again.
2. Low-Tech Gardening
“Gardening” isn’t sticking a seed in a bag of Miracle-Gro and calling it done. Oil-free gardening means no imported fertilizer, no rototillers, and no store-bought compost from three provinces away. Just compost, manure, hand tools, and grit. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll learn what doesn’t work (which is most things, the first few years).
Skill to practice: Start a compost pile. Save seeds. Learn which hand tools actually work for your soil, and what local critters eat your beans. Gardening is humbling—and it’s best to be humbled before you need to rely on it.
3. Food Preservation and Storage
Are you ready to live without a fridge? No, seriously. Can you get through a power outage—or a long winter—without easy refrigeration? Think root cellars, canning, fermentation, dehydration, and even ice houses or smokehouses. Not all methods work everywhere, and not every family will like the same foods.
Skill to practice: Try storing food without a fridge for a week. Learn to can, ferment, and dry things. Figure out what your family will actually eat after the first enthusiastic bite.
4. Animal Husbandry
Chickens, goats, cows, or even a couple of rabbits—livestock provide food, manure, and sometimes muscle power. But they’re not “set it and forget it.” In a world with fewer meds and supplements, keeping animals alive gets trickier.
Skill to practice: Learn natural animal care now—before meds are scarce or expensive. Get comfortable mucking out stalls, dealing with illness, and handling the messier side of raising animals.
5. Hunting, Fishing, and Foraging
Not everyone wants to hunt, and that’s fine. But wild food—if managed sustainably—can supplement what you grow. The catch? Knowing how to safely hunt, fish, or forage, and then prepare what you catch.
Skill to practice: Learn to identify wild foods. Get your hunting or fishing license. (And please, don’t snare your own barn cat by mistake.)
6. Living Without Power Tools
Power tools are a gift—but if the grid goes down, or parts and batteries are scarce, you’ll want to know how to handle a saw, ax, or shovel. If you’ve ever split wood by hand or dug a hole with a shovel, you know: it’s a different ballgame.
Skill to practice: Try building or repairing something with only hand tools. Get familiar with the muscles you forgot you had.
7. Making and Storing Your Own Energy
Solar panels, windmills, biogas—everyone’s selling the dream of “energy independence.” But most systems need rare parts, expert installation, and ongoing maintenance. Batteries wear out, inverters die, and not every “green” option is as plug-and-play as the brochures suggest.
Skill to practice: Learn how basic solar or off-grid systems work. Understand where the bottlenecks are. Experiment on a small scale and keep your expectations realistic.
8. Basic Medicine and First Aid
Modern medicine is a miracle, but a world without easy transport or cheap pharmaceuticals will mean fewer hospitals and more DIY care. At the bare minimum, someone in every household (and ideally every community) should have advanced first aid skills.
Skill to practice: Take a first aid course. Learn herbal remedies and old-school methods—but know their limits. Know when a cut is just a cut, and when you need to run for help.
9. DIY Everything
Soap, candles, simple repairs, clothes, tools—DIY is about more than Pinterest crafts. It’s the nuts and bolts of a functional home when there’s no box store down the road.
Skill to practice: Pick one lost art and master it. Soap-making, sewing, woodwork, basketry, metal repair, bookbinding—whatever calls to you.
10. Getting Along With People You Can’t Escape
Let’s be honest: most of us have forgotten how to live with a small, unchanging group of people. When you can’t just swipe, scroll, or move across town, conflict resolution and empathy are survival skills.
Skill to practice: Practice patience. Own your mistakes. Learn to apologize—and forgive. You’ll need those muscles as much as your back and hands.
Final Thoughts
A “world without oil” doesn’t have to mean catastrophe—if we start adapting now. The skills you build today, even a little at a time, will serve you no matter what the future throws at us. The truth is, we don’t need to become survivalists or move off-grid to start living more intentionally, locally, and resourcefully.
Because in the end, it’s not about oil. It’s about being able to bend, not break.
What skill would you add to the list? What’s the one you’re most curious (or nervous) about learning? Share below, and let’s figure it out together.
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