prospects of survival for todays society

[Timelord]

Isn't it comforting to know that we has MAD as our saviour from Nuclear annihalation... Although there were at least (minimum) 5 instances of the targetting/auto systems initiating the Nuclear counterstrike sequence and disaster was only averted because back then the systems still could be curtailed by the top man on the red telephone. There were a few beads of sweat over that, trying to guess/workout if the alarms were false. They were thankfully. I heard somewhere that the modern systems are pretty much fully automated. Did you see that RT report today about further confirmation of the Ruskies Missile attack mobile batteries being sited along the new European Poland, Czech borders in the next month - as a countermeasure to Washingtons missile defence shield against Rogue states. (like we need it to stop the Iranians or S.Koreans sending a missile to Europe or something!!)

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Up to & including Medieval times, working the land was done with "beasts of burden", which in the case of ploughing they used Oxen & not horses. Horses were far too valuable at the time. I wonder if the oxen has other reasons for its low tech suitability?? Might be worth checking out, although I don't think there are many around now :-) Also, if not needing to plough quite a few acres of fields to feed a few people, then might mules or donkeys make a suitable workhorse/carrier?
I reckon there would be plenty of horses left in fields & stables at the very beginning of a big disaster scenario, but these would quickly disappear. You could grab one then but without prior experience, then it might not be feasible to maintain the horse. Is it possible that oxen did not need shoeing etc? That could be a critical factor if there were no reasonable farrier skills present.
Does anyone know how to build a simple plough? it could be useful.. Lots of ideas for the farming section I do believe. TL.