Dear Editor:
My husband and I are older, he is 84 and I am 70. We are very concerned about the way this country is traveling and are even more concerned if Hillary Clinton is elected. I realize that we need to start gathering supplies and storing them. My question is: we live in a small, rural, agricultural community. However, we live on a main road and are within 50 miles of two major cities and about 70 miles of another one. Our economy took an unusually hard hit in 2008 and is recovering at a slower rate than many other communities. Would you recommend selling this house and attempting to move closer to our town (3 miles away) or try to stay in the country, just off the main road. I have your book “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times”. I have lists to use in preparation. One of the things we do not have here is any water supply other than county water. Our children all live in the south in very large cities.
Thank you. – Mrs. W.
JWR Replies: I believe that you should stay in the country, but get some help.
I’ll assume that you have a house with a lot of gardening space. Unless you have a relative who might be interested, I would recommend looking for a hard-working 20-something back-to-the-lander, and offer him free rent or reduced rent for a room in your house in exchange for gardening space and county irrigation water, and the opportunity to be mentored in self-sufficiency skills.
Your best bet is to find such an individual is to make inquiries at your local Farmer’s Market. An incomplete but still useful National Directory of Farmer’s Markets [1] is available at the USDA web site.