Category: Retreat Architecture

Two Letters Re: Securing Bedroom Doors Against Home Invaders

James, As a fireman, my point of view may help Dan M. JWR’s reply about home construction is spot on which makes it possible for us to get in and out of rooms to search for victims and escape if egress is blocked. Combining the mentality of preparedness and firefighting has been difficult for me as I would hate to trap anyone in or out of my house in a fire or collapse that would happen before TEOTWAWKI. I know that fires and collapse from an earthquake, flood, or landslide are all qualifying TSHTF events, which is what we are …


Letter Re: Securing Bedroom Doors Against Home Invaders

Dear Mr. Rawles, I will try to keep this short. Hopefully my question might come in handy for a number of your readers. First, thank you for your site and your publications. I am almost finished with “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It” and am about 50 pages into your “Rawles Gets You Ready” family preparedness course. So far I am loving them both. I am reading quickly through them first and next my wife and I will study them thoroughly together, adapting the information and creating our “list of lists.” Now, I have …


Letter Re: Retreat Construction, Afghan Style

Mr. Rawles, Regarding your discussion of adobe construction – Adobe can be used for structural and exterior construction in a range of climates based on how you make it. I used to work for a company in Fresno, California that made stabilized adobe – it included a bituminous emulsion (tar-like stuff that’s water proof) to make the bricks water proof. They have been sold across California in residential and commercial construction. Their products included several that were considered structurally sound enough to meet California’s earthquake codes and generally made walls from 12 inches solid to 18 inches (two row with …


Letter Re: Retreat Construction, Afghan Style

James- One of the most notable features of the architecture here in Afghanistan are the adobe-walled compounds called qalats. Looking at them, especially from the air, it seems to me they would be an excellent style of construction for those with the time (and money) to build their own home retreat. See this photo. As you can see in the picture (which shows attached qalats for three or more families), a qalat can be almost a miniature castle, complete with a tower or towers. The walls are thick adobe, requiring demolitions or tank cannons to breach. (If you’ve got enemies …


Letter Re: How to Make Your Own “Black Out” OPSEC Window Panels

Sir, In the film industry we use a very cheap and very opaque product to block out windows. We often need to shoot [indoor] night time scenes during the day and can’t have any stray light. Product is called Duvetyne, it’s a very, very heavy black cloth. We even use it for flags and cutters, which are light-blocking pieces that we put in front of lights as big as 20K (20,000 watts) to deflect and control stray light. This stuff works great. Here is a supplier of Duvetyne. Has it for $8.25 per yard (60″ wide), so it really is …


Letter Re: Getting Self-Sufficient in Wyoming

Dear Mr. Rawles, I was recently given your novel “Patriots” by a like-minded friend in Wyoming. I read it once for pleasure, then twice with a highlighter, notepad, and Google. It’s a wonderful resource, and I’m looking forward to the new book [“How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”]. Reading “Patriots” left me proud to be an American, and revitalized something I felt I had been losing in the recent years. This is a wonderful country, and I have faith that there are still a bunch of decent God-fearing people who will stand up for …


Letter Re: Lessons from a Brief, Opportunistic Burglary

Dear Jim, I want to forward a story from my local electronics surplus dealer concerning his son and wife who live in a new upper-middle class subdivision just outside of Portland, Oregon. Last Friday, William (not his real name) went off to work as normal. Kids went off to school. Wife was home. She left the house at 11:15 for a quick errand. She got back about noon. Only 45 minutes. On her return, she noticed the front door unlocked. She did the correct thing and did not enter the house. She called the local police from inside her car …


Letter Re: Advice on Camouflage Covers for LP/OPs

JWR, The arrival of my Cabela’s catalog today reminded me of how useful a layout blind might be for observation post (OP) duty. Your advice? Regards, ,- K. in Texas JWR Replies: Semi-permanent OPs should be custom-built, to as closely match the local vegetation, as possible. Any store-bought camouflage is a compromise, at best. Ideally, you should grow local vegetation over the top of an excavated position, for the ultimate in undetectable camouflage. Nothing mimics nature like nature itself. (Anything else that you use won’t look quite right, and of course it won’t gradually change colors to match, seasonally.) See …


Letter Re: Viability of a Well-Stocked Suburban Retreat?

Good Morning! Thank you for the info you provide for all of us in your web site. I live in the Kansas City Area in a beautiful suburb which is one of the nicest cities in the country. till doing okay in the depression too. My work is secure and I do well and I own my own twp-story with basement frame home and have been making it a retreat for the past five years. I have no debt and am 60 days ahead with my mortgage and insurance and utilities. Am I absolutely crazy to try to stay here …


Preparedness Beginnings, by “Two Dogs”

I am a retired Marine Corps officer and Naval Aviator (jets and helicopters), commercial airplane and helicopter pilot, and most recently, an aircraft operations manager for a Federal agency. I graduated from numerous military schools, including the U.S. Army Airborne (“jump”) School, U.S. Navy Divers School, Army helicopter, and Navy advanced jet schools. In addition, I have attended military “survival” courses whose primary focus was generally short-term survival off the land, escape from capture, and recovery from remote areas.  Like most Marine officers, I attended The Basic School, an 8-month school (only five during the Vietnam era – my case), …


Underground Survival Shelter Construction and Security–Learn from My Mistakes, by B.B.

In the summer of 1995 I decided to build an underground multipurpose survival shelter. I purchased the book Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson H. Kearney and went to work. If you want to know about shelters and what it will be like living in one, then purchase his book. My brother helped me for a while with the construction, but I did the majority of the work alone and it took me two years to complete the project. Let me say up front that I’m an amateur who used a brilliant book to build a shelter. Along the way …


Letter Re: Increasing Security for an 1870s House

Hello Jim, My family and I have been offered a great price on a house ($7K,000 for a 3,400-square-foot two-story house, built in 1876, with a full basement and large backyard–the house was originally on the market for $104,000, but the seller hasn’t had any offers in three years, since the housing market crashed) in a small city with open spaces less than an hour’s walk away if bugging out should become necessary. However, the bigger appeal of this house is the ample space it provides for us and a few other family members, a large backyard for gardening and …


Survey Results: Your Favorite Books on Preparedness, Self-Sufficiency, and Practical Skills

In descending order of frequency, the 78 readers that responded to my latest survey recommended the following non-fiction books on preparedness, self-sufficiency, and practical skills: The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery (Far and away the most often-mentioned book. This book is an absolute “must” for every well-prepared family!) The Foxfire Book series (in 11 volumes, but IMHO, the first five are the best) Holy Bible Where There Is No Dentist by Murray Dickson “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation” Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook by James Talmage Stevens The “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course Crisis …


Net Producer-Net Consumer Equations for Self-Sufficiency: Getting Out of the Pit

In a recent phone conversation with one of my consulting clients, I was asked why I placed such a large emphasis on living in the country, at a relatively self-sufficient retreat. I’ve already discussed at length the security advantages of isolation from major population centers in the blog, but I realized that I’ve never fully articulated the importance of self-sufficiency, at a fundamental level. In a societal collapse, where you are in “You’re on Your Own” (YOYO) mode, it will be very important to be a net producer of water, food, and energy. This will mean the difference between being …


Two Letters Re: Prefabricated Garden Sheds as Instant Shelters and Storage Spaces for Retreats

JWR: Just a comment on the bit about the sheds for bug-out retreats. I have designed plans for a number of such shed sizes, as well as living quarters for larger barns. A couple things to mention, one, is that if you do a sloped shed roof on your shed instead of a peaked roof…from the air, it looks like a loafing shed for your critters, this is in case it is in a more rural farm like area, instead of timber country. Another thing, the window problem: On our barn (which we are building living quarters in right now) …