Raise a little corn (you can plant a couple of seeds, can't you) harvest it by hand, and replace the propane with corn cobs/stover.

Ya gotta think (the apocalypso is a'comin, man.)

Also, if you got any left over you can put it in the car. :)

I agree ... anyone growing corn on the cob for there own food supply are in fantacy land.

But some HAVE grown there own food. Maybe you can talk to them to see if "it sucks"

I/we did it for over 12 years and enjoyed it . One of the problems was that there was no one else doing it , and no one else has done it in the US, so it was frowned upon as being peasant work

Americans see growing food as a lowly mexican peasant lifstyle.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/lowly

buy a generator. Run it, and the tiller on the corn likker.

Give Hubby a shot of whiskey every morning (good for the heart,) and feed some of the mash to the cow (you're gonna have a cow, right,) and use the rest for fertilizer.

Did I miss anything?

Maybe your friends could invest in something like this and have the local students run it?

I think what really sucks is people who won't let go of the past. BTW when I lived in colder climes I personally new an old geezer who scoffed at some local kids who offered to shovel the snow from his driveway for a few bucks then went out and attempted to do the job himself. Yep, he ended up in the hospital with a heart attack, now that was stupid and arrogant of him wouldn't you say.

Which just goes to show how utterly clueless and helpless so many people are.

First, PLAN before you dig and plant. Figure out what you are going to need, and especially how you are going to manage and preserve the harvest. One thing you especially want to do is stretch out your harvest over as many months as possible rather than have it all coming on at once. Thus, I plant three varieties of sweet corn - early, midseason, and late - rather than just planting all of one variety, all at once. Lettuce is planted in succession throughout the year. For cabbage family plants, I have both a spring and a fall crop. Several crops - parsnips, salsify, carrots, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, swiss chard, collards - can be left in the garden under heavy mulch most of the winter. A cold frame will also extend the growing season into winter for many greens. Many things - winter squash, potatoes, apples, etc. - do well in cold storage; a root cellar is ideal, but there are other alternatives.

There are better alternatives than freezing. I do a lot of canning. I am not sure it is an energy saver compared to freezing, but I don't have to worry about keeping power to the freezer. I personally prefer canned corn to frozen corn on the cob, if corn is out of season; you can do more with it, too, in casseroles, etc. Dehydration is a good option for beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and some other crops. Fermentation works for cabbage, cucumbers, etc.

As for digging the garden, I hate rotary cultivators (even the top quality Troy Bilts). I do all my digging with a Brazilian Azada, which is a type of grub hoe. It makes quick, non-back-breaking work of any digging or cultivating job. I don't need to worry about gas to fuel the thing, either.

As for weeding, do it in the early morning, not in the heat of the day. And you need to mulch very heavily, not just to cut way down on the weeds but also to conserve moisture in the soil.

These people probably needed to spend a little time at their county extension office and in the public library and online first. But that raises an important point: if you wait until the crisis is upon you and you are in panic mode, what chance is there of you learning all that you need to learn to make sure that you do the right things and not the wrong things? This, IMHO, is one of the strongest arguments for getting ahead of the curve, and making those adaptations to a lower energy (and probably lower income/wealth) future NOW, before you absolutely have to. Doing it now gives you the time to make some mistakes and to learn from them, without it being too much of a disaster. A great many people, unfortunately, are depriving themselves of that luxury by endulging in other luxuries now.