Day: October 7, 2005

Note from JWR:

I get more than 40 e-mails a day, more than half of which include specific questions. My humble apologies for not being able to respond to every e-mail. For those of you that do get replies, my further apologies for being so terse. You might feel cheated when you get just a two or three line reply to a 20 or 30 line e-mail. But if I were verbose as I’d like to be in my responses, I would only be able to respond to a small fraction of the e-mails instead of half of them. Since I have a …


Recommended Region: The Clark Fork Valley Region, (Sanders County, Northwest Montana)

The Clark Fork Valley Region, (Sanders County, Northwest Montana, near the Idaho State Line.) This isolated valley sits between the Bitterroot and Cabinet Mountain Ranges. Concentrate on small towns along the Clark Fork such as Plains, Thompson Falls, Belknap, Trout Creek, Noxon, and Heron. Avoid the upper elevations. (In this region, an additional 1,000 feet of elevation puts you in a much different climate!) Advantages: Away from the I-90 corridor. Disadvantages: Cold climate and short growing season. (Can be compensated by building a large greenhouse.) Economy is not as diverse as the Kalispell/Flathead Lake Region. Insufficient agriculture in the region …


Letter Re: L1A1 Rifle Bolt Hold Open Modification

Mr. Rawles: I am finding your SurvivalBlog to be of interest. Here’s some info for those wishing to convert their Inch rifles to have a true BHO after the last round is fired with a magazine in place. For several years I’ve used an 1/8 inch roll pin to replace the ground pin. This seems to work out better than a piece of drill rod because the roll pins are already hard, and of course by design are compressed slightly when inserted, so they tend to hold in place better than just a press fit rod. The pin hole will …


Letter Re: Retreat Potential for The Eastern States

Sir: You mentioned that you don’t feel qualified to comment on much less to rank the eastern states. I can start the ball rolling, re: the Urban Northeast (the UNE). The disadvantages of the UNE are: cold winters, overpopulation, generally bad gun laws, socialistic politicians, and high Sheeple Ratio (SR). However, tens of millions of people live there, so: 1. I live in Philadelphia, for which the natural bugout area is the Catskills, Lehigh Valley, etc. PA gun laws are surprisingly good; an oasis of sanity in the UNE: Shall Issue CCW (and you can carry virtually anywhere — no …


Follow-Up Re: The Walla Walla Region (Walla Walla and Columbia Counties, Southeast Washington)

Two different readers e-mailed to remind me that there is a maximum security Washington state prison near Walla Walla. It currently houses 16% of the state’s worst criminals, including approximately 116 sex offenders. The current inmate population is 2,277. Because of this I have revised the “grid down” potential for the region down from a 5 to a 7. (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best.) For the sake of all of our readers living near any jail or prison, let us pray that their electric cell door control systems default to “locked” rather than …


Two Letters Re: The Importance of Using Non-Hybrid Seeds

In a recent post, you said: “…we will be discussing how to collect (“save”) and store seed stock in detail in some upcoming blog posts. – The Memsahib” When it comes to storing seeds long term, I think you will find this article of interest. See: http://www.echotech.org/network/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=84 This describes a safe and easy-to-create liquid that greatly increases the long-term viability of seeds. I bought both chemicals from http://www.chemicalstore.com/ , but after checking this morning, they apparently no longer sell glycerol. It is a safe and widely-used chemical, so it should still be easy to obtain after doing a bit of …


Letter Re: Reinvesting a 401(k) Into Precious Metals

Mr. Rawles, Congratulations on the success of your website. I follow it everyday and have gleaned much info from it. My wife and I have been working at getting our “beans, bullets and band-aids” together and have made what we believe is good progress. With the state the economy is in and considering your advice about investing, I have a question that I hope you can/will help me with. I am thinking about taking out a loan against my 401K to: 1) Pay off our home @ approximately $18,000; 2) Round out our “beans, bullets and band-aids” and 3) Invest …


Letter Re: Retreat Architecture

James: Thoroughly enjoyed your book “Patriots”. Are there any recommended sources for designing a retreat on the Web that you recommend? You have provided a ton of info on the locating a retreat, but I have not been able to find anything on how to design a retreat or a comprehensive list of recommended features. Thank you for your Website, I read it daily. – J.M. JWR Replies: Glad that you like the site. I’ll be talking about retreat design in detail in blog posts in coming weeks. In the meantime, read Joel Skousen’s book “The Secure Home.” (The book …


Letter Re: Other Web Sites and Newsletters

Sir: I subscribe to the [name deleted] investment e-mail newsletter. If you go to the web page listed below, he has an article where he gives his opinion of the “doom-and-gloom” naysayers. I don’t think he was speaking about you specifically, but I thought you might be interested in reading what he has to say and maybe responding to him with a rebuttal. I also wonder how you feel about someone like [name deleted], who claims he runs a survival, not a survivalist web site. I had never considered that there was a difference until he pointed it out. Thanks …


Letter from “The Army Aviator” Re: Suspension of Posse Comitatus and The Asian Avian Flu

Jim: Trying a little “out of the box” perambulation. I disremember but seem to recall that this was your bailiwick back when. I noticed the President is publicly talking about getting congress to authorize the use of military troops should bird flu, et al occur. It seems to me that particular authority already exists. So I ponder. If he already has the authority, why ask for it again? Is it to make a public statement that he asked, as part of good planning, before it happened and we should be grateful and pleased? Does he know that “massive plague (or …