Future plans

[MaryN]

My personal preference is to build a relationship within a small group; which actually I am slowly managing to do. The covid lockdown has been a bit of an eyeopener for some people in this area. At the beginning of the trouble last year I managed to engage a neighbour in a fairly serious conversation as to how she and her family were going to cope. It is fairly rural here (one bus a week into the local town and back on the same day!) and no local shops, and we started to have problems fairly early on with shortages in certain foods and items. She got a fairly stern lecture about prepping and stocking up to ensure her family were o.k. Months later, she hugged me and said it had saved the day - her food stocks had carried them through without problems, and she was carrying on in that mode. Since then we have collaborated on just about everything. She and her partner have come over to lend labour to us, and vice versa. It works well, and I do feel that relationships are the way to go (if you get them right). SS is right; it does take a certain type of leadership to keep a small community on the right track, but I do feel that we are heading in that direction. It is impossible to foresee anything further than the day ahead, but I'm working on cementing a practical relationship. Who knows!