Category: Retreat Locales

Property Scouting in the Redoubt, by Pickled Prepper

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Like many others SurivivalBlog readers, I hope to one day move to the American Redoubt. In the summer of 2018, my wife and I took the first step: an eight-day trip to Montana and Idaho to look at properties, get a feel for the places in which we were interested, and to meet people. Our goal was not to buy a house or property this trip, but to start what may be a multi-year process that ensures that when we pull the trigger we hit our target rather than making a decision we come to regret. We also want to …


From the Deep South to Northern Rockies: Pt. 2, by GritsInMontana

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(Continued from Part 1.) Critters Cows: With Spring firmly entrenched in the Rockies, my thoughts turned to critters. I wanted my own cattle and wondered to myself if there might be some sort of “mini-cow” I could easily manage by myself. This led to an internet search and ultimately to me purchasing my first pretty Dexter cow, who had a heifer calf by her side and had been “bred back” (meaning she was pregnant with another calf). She had spent her life in a remote pasture. She had little experience with humans; I had no experience with cows. In retrospect, …


From the Deep South to Northern Rockies: Pt. 1, by GritsInMontana

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Redoubt Relocation – From the Deep South to Northern Rockies: A Move to Self-Sufficiency Gentle Reader, the purpose of this article is to share with you my first-hand experience of moving my family from a balmy Southern locale to a small mountain town in the Redoubt. I believe many of my homesteading experiences, regarding everything from critters to cabbage, may provide practical and helpful insight to anyone envisioning a new life in the Northern Rockies. For those slow-talking, sweet-tea-sippin’ Southerners who may be contemplating such a move, I have also included some of the learning curve I encountered regarding cold …


Misadventures in Moving, by Tober

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Editor’s Introductory Note:  I generally avoid posting rants, but this one about a Budget rental truck was genuinely epic and tragi-comic.  If you don’t enjoy rants, then only read the first section. – JWR I think sharing this story will help me a bit, as this was quite an adventure that was mentally and physically exhausting. This article is long, so I decided to put the tips at the beginning. If you want to read the story of why I thought these tips were important, continue below. Here are my mental health tips for you if you’re planning on making …


New Zealand: Thoughts After Seven Years, Part 4, by Nivek

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Part 4   Taxes, everybody’s favorite topic New Zealand has a top tax rate of 33%. Okay, you think that’s not bad, the U.S. is right up there also. Well the trouble is you get to the 33% much faster as there are only three tax brackets. Making over $65,000 NZ Dollars per year will get you into the top bracket. That’s around $50,000 US Dollars. There are no deductions for a private person and you don’t get credit for kids or being married. The way around this seems to involve having a business and taking deductions through the business. …


New Zealand: Thoughts After Seven Years, Part 3, by Nivek

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Part 3   Weather Weather in New Zealand is widely varied with the north island getting much more rain than the south island. An exception on the south island is the far south-western tip called the Fiordlands. It’s a very rugged place with thousands of waterfalls. It is worth seeing. The north island has higher temperatures and higher humidity. I chose a location on the top of the south island that would have the most sunshine and dryer weather. I am a desert person and it takes a lot of getting used to the humid conditions. Take a look at …


New Zealand: Thoughts After Seven Years, Part 2, by Nivek

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Part 2 I’ll begin Part 2 with some random thoughts. I am just going to comment on various items from daily life. A Small Country One really important thing is the size of the market here in New Zealand. The population is something over 4.5 million spread out over an area about the size of California, and then split into two islands. The U.S. has well over 350 million people. This makes world products to be priced high here because the market share is low and the logistics are difficult to get things down here. Another factor is that almost …


New Zealand: Thoughts After Seven Years, Part 1, by Nivek

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Part 1 Many of you have probably wondered about “bugging out” to another country. I would like to share with you what I have learned after living in New Zealand for seven years. I will try to organize my thoughts in different categories to help you get some answers. The first part will cover why and how I made the leap. Part 2 of the article will discuss various experiences. Part 3 will cover weather, gun laws, cars, car insurance, and shopping. And in Part 4 I will finish by covering taxes, telecommunications costs, and post a “points system” locales …


The Coming Second Civil War

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A new paradigm has become evident in both the demographics and the political landscape of 21st Century America. Our nation’s major political camps are becoming increasingly polarized. The differences between the more populous and liberal coastal regions versus the lightly-populated and conservative inland regions are growing more sharp with every passing year. In the long term, a clash of wills between the Red and the Blue is almost inevitable. Whether this will result in conflict or in eventual partition and accommodation remains to be seen. Trouble might occur as early as the year 2020. Or it might be a full …


Preparing to Survive Riots, Terrorist Attacks, or a Civil War

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Of all of the “worst case” possibilities that we prepare for, near the top of my “most dreaded” list is a second civil war.  This falls in the category of a “highly unlikely, but profoundly inimical if it were to occur.”  In this essay, I will discuss a full spectrum of threats, including contingency preparations for surviving riots, terrorist attacks, or a civil war. I believe that the United States has entered a period of great instability, born of political divisiveness. The sharp differences between liberals and conservatives are now profoundly felt.  Virtually every topic and issue has become heavily …


The Thin Veneer

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Editor’s Introductory Note: This is a re-post from the early days of SurvivalBlog, back in August, 2005. Blog Years are like Dog Years. To explain: SurvivalBlog has been published since before most people had even heard the word “blog” for the first time. A piece this old has probably never been read by 90% of the current SurvivalBlog readership. So we feel fairly safe in re-posting it. BTW, we recommend that any new readers take a look through the archives of SurvivalBlog’s first year, to come up to speed on our jargon, core beliefs, and unique acronyms. – JWR o …


A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 6, by X. Liberal & China Doll

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This is the final part of this article series, As the title indicates, reviewing our family’s move to the American Redoubt and building our log cabin. We have the majority of the work behind us at this point and are now at the final steps and finishes. Plumbing (Plumbing required two weeks.) I’ve never done plumbing before, so I became acquainted with Mr. YouTube for over a score of hours. I sat inside a McDonald’s restaurant to utilize their free Wi-Fi, as I don’t have it so remotely out in the boonies, to gain an understanding of the ins and …


A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 5, by X. Liberal & China Doll

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As the title indicates, my wife and I are outlining our family’s move to the American Redoubt. At this point, we have the exterior of the home finished– the basement, the log walls, the gables and the roof, and also the porch. Now, it’s time for some of the added necessities to make it liveable. Septic Tank (Four days were required for putting in the septic tank. This included the time to dig and also grade after it was completed.) YouTube For All Construction Phases of This Project Many videos on YouTube will explain how to do things and also …


A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 4, by X. Liberal & China Doll

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As the title indicates, my wife and I are outlining our family’s move to the American Redoubt. At this point, we’d already dug and poured the foundation and put in the walls of our log cabin. However, it’s not a log cabin without logs. Unloading Logs (Four hours were dedicated just to unloading the logs.) This required another piece of rental equipment called a lull. (It is a large fork truck that can keep level when it’s on rough terrain by tipping its shocks to compensate.) The semi-truck pulled up and parked 200 yards from the site due to the …


A Memoir On One Family’s Move To The American Redoubt- Part 3, by X. Liberal & China Doll

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As the title indicates, my wife and I are outlining our family’s move to the American Redoubt. In part 2, we began with an overview of our finances/expenses of our move and property purchase and began detailing the build activities. Today, we are continuing with our log cabin construction process. Concrete Pour (We required one day for the concrete pour.) At this point, your first cement truck will arrive, with spinning bucket and all. Back them up to the corner that you want to start at, and have him extend the chute to boom over to line up between the …