S.N. Arly’s Reviews > The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Civilization in the Aftermath of a Cataclysm > Status Update

Missed several days of reading and it's a lot to absorb, so it's good to have something else to alternate with.

I just learned about making soap - thinking this would be a great activity for the kids this summer. Science (chemistry) plus potentially useful survival skill = win.

I've made it through rebooting our food and textile capabilities. Next up will be substances.

I continue to find this relaxing and hopeful in this time of stress and fear.

On to food preservation. As canning is a hobby of mine, this topic is of especial interest to me.

On to agriculture. As an avid gardener I'm familiar with the basics on this front, so there aren't many surprises here so far. The back-breaking manual labor of full scale farming, and the finicky nature of so many of our food crops would be stumbling blocks. While heirloom plants are an obvious choice, in many cases (tomatoes in particular) hybrids exist because of disease and fragility in earlier cultivars.

While it occasionally dips into horrifying details regarding the decomposition of civilization, we've reached the positive point of the tips that could lead to overall social success.

While this could easily be an extremely depressing topic (especially right now during the pandemic), it's written in a way that highlights the intriguing side of the topic. I wouldn't call it upbeat, by any stretch, but it's reassuring to see a path out of the shadow of a cataclysm.