There was once a time when Uncle Sam (the U.S. Government) wanted people to raise chickens. This was especially true in times of war when our troops needed food.

Unfortunately those days are far behind us. If a city dweller tried to raise chickens today, they would probably be sued by the city and forced to get rid of the flock.

What does that say about us as a nation when we turn away from time honored traditions of raising our food, only to become dependent on a grocery store?

I often wonder how the typical city dweller would act if the grocery store shelves were empty? How would society react if the government started rationing food like what happened in World War II?

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Saturday afternoon my dad and I made a trip to the camp to work on the tractor. As luck would have it, we needed a small hammer that was in a shed on the other side of the property. Dad gets in his truck to drive over and get the hammer. while dad was getting the hammer, I looked at the tractor and did some deep thinking about how dependent humans are on machines. Between the truck and the tractor, we have the foundations of modern society.

Without machines, we would not be able to plant tens of thousands of acres of land, would not be able to harvest corn or wheat, would not be able to transport livestock, would not be able to transport fertilizer to the farms, would not be able to transport crops to market, nor would we be able to drive to the market to buy the food.

Every part of our modern lifestyle is affected by machinery in one way or another.

Because machines are so vital to our modern lifestyle, I think we need to use the acronym World Without Machines (WWM) as often as we use SHTF, TEOTWAWKI, WROL (without rule or law),,, and so on.

Lets two examples and talk about them – tractors and trucks.

Working field with tractor and tiller

Tractors – While the plow may have fed Rome, the tractor feeds our modern society.  Without the modern tractor (and fertilizer), it would be impossible to plant and grow enough crops to feed everyone.

Backyard gardeners use tillers to work small garden plots.  Without fuel ,tillers are of little use.

In a World Without Machines people would either have to work the fields themselves, or harness a beast of burden, such as horse. But ether way, either by hand or with a plow horse, there is no way either can touch a tractor.

For maybe around the past 35 years my dad had kept some kind of tractor at the camp.

Let me explain, “the camp” is actually a small farm that my dad was raised on. After my grandfather and grandmother passed away, my dad inherited the land. To find work, mom and dad moved away from rural southeast Texas in the late 1970s.

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