How to Use This Guide

You can work through the guide chapter by chapter or you can jump directly to a chapter. The chapters are generally self-contained.

You can also go directly to the Quick Kits and see the products we recommend.

Although many of the products we include in the General Store will be familiar to you, we caution you not to fall into the trap of thinking that your current life will easily continue if only you plan well and buy the right things.

Living a Post Peak life requires that you let go of any attachment to how your life looks now. This is very important. Catch yourself if you think life will look a particular way. Here at Post Peak Living, we know that how the world looks now is the product of enormous amounts of fossil energy that will soon be leaving us.

As for the future, there are some things of which we're certain: airplane travel will mostly end; we will spend more time making sure the basics of life are all available for ourselves and our families; we'll carpool more at first, and then, as the economy declines, cars as they look today will no longer be available and the existing ones will rust where they are left.

We're also pretty sure that the worldwide economy, which is built on debt, will collapse just like Russia and Argentina did (to learn why we think that, read our primer).

We also think that Kunstler in his novel "World Made By Hand" has painted a reasonably accurate picture of our future. 

Given what's about to happen, we think the best way to be is courageous and resilient. As you read the Guide, take the steps you need to make your life work well during Energy Descent, but remain unattached and able to change course as circumstances change.

If you start going down a dark tunnel in your mind, start practicing interrupting that to ask yourself,

Am I bigger than whatever life throws at me?

When we ask ourselves that question, the answer is always "yes" and we're sure it will be for you, too. However, we each still go down that tunnel occasionally so it's important to keep that question in your back pocket and pull it out as often as necessary.

The Post Peak Living Team has been preparing its families and communities in California since late 2007 and is continuing to do so. We will share everything we've learned with you.

Ready to start? Click on the link to the next chapter.