Category: Retreat Locales

News From The American Redoubt:

American Redoubt: Preparing for a societal storm (news television segment) One of the businesses mentioned in that news segment is Redoubt Surplus and Tactical, in Dalton Gardens, Idaho. o o o Here is another news segment, with the same theme: Preparing for the end of times in the Northwest—American Redoubt movement inspiring survivalists to buy property in remote areas. o o o And here is a follow-up interview with a back-to-the-land couple: New age homesteaders find freedom off the grid. Here is their web site: ThePreparedHomestead.org. (It includes a blog.)


Letter Re: Advice Request for Next Steps with Recent Land Purchase

Hi! Recently I bought acreage in both Colorado and Nevada. It’s empty land in a big place, and I like that. I’ve never worked with land before, having grown up and lived in cities most of my life. So I’m rather clueless about how to find good resources for next steps. A couple of next steps that I’m concerned about is knowing the exact boundaries of the parcels and bringing power to one of the parcels from a nearby power line. Have you got suggestions on how I might find a surveyor and how to talk with the electric company …


Letter Re: Moving to Michigan

I enjoyed MM’s article about moving to Michigan to become a corrections officer. I appreciate his sunny outlook on his job. Most of the COs I knew in over two decades in law enforcement described their jobs as “doing life eight hours at a time” and the danger, poor air quality, and lack of respect they felt in the prison. Happily, MM seems to have better working conditions than my friends and relatives in the field. Anyway, I just wanted to add that in regards to MM’s comments on concealed carry, he, like corrections officers in most locations, probably qualifies …


Letter Re: The Adjoining Canadian Redoubt

The editors/publishers of SurvivalBlog recommend an area in the western United States as the best place to find a resort for the time when the world comes to an end. They call it the American Redoubt, and it includes portions of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, which border on the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. This region has low population, low taxes, and lots of good land. It strongly tends to vote Republican. The irony, from a Canadian perspective, is that the adjacent provinces have a rather different political culture. Saskatchewan has a tradition of alternating government between the socialist …


News From The American Redoubt:

I noticed that Montana Rarities (in Missoula, Montana) has continued to expand their inventory. They offer very competitive pricing, flat rate shipping, and even monthly purchase plans for those who recognize the wisdom of Dollar Cost Averaging in their precious metals buying. – JWR o o o Power restored to thousands in Nampa, Caldwell. You never know when. It’s winter; are you ready? o o o Grizzly bear mauls, seriously injures Montana elk hunter o o o Cheyenne spruce trees falling victim to ips beetle


Making The Move To The Michigan Wilderness As A Corrections Officer, by M.M.

My wife and I are originally from the northeastern U.S. Our particular area, which had consisted primarily of farmland and small towns while we were growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, increased in population by about 20% between the years 2000 and 2010. The region had become noticeably over-developed, with many corn fields and woods being sacrificed for housing developments and strip malls, and it had become busy to the point that driving during daytime hours involved more waiting in line than actual driving. We like to experience the serenity of the outdoors, and I have always been a …


Five Acres and Independence- Part 2, by D.C.

Get By With Little and Barter We slept on the floor on blankets for two years, used a Coleman camp stove to cook on, bought a $25 used fridge and a $50 yard sale clothes washer, dried our clothes on a line, traded a .22 pistol for a freezer, and hand dug and turned in a new garden with pitchforks. We have put many deer in the freezer that were taken off our land every year with no cost of a hunting license. We can everything possible from the garden. We stopped getting sick, because our food is simple and …


Five Acres and Independence- Part 1, by D.C.

How You Can Do It- Getting Started Many of us find the prospects of individualism and self determination, on a level of becoming a self-sustaining individual or family or even maybe tribe or community, simply daunting. It is germane to contend in this day and age, some aspects of this are difficult to fully appreciate, where they are so foreign from daily life to be almost inscrutable outliers. Just where to begin can be an overwhelming situation. Don’t feel alone. There are a myriad of ways to begin, indeed, and the simplest answer is it all begins with each of …


News From The American Redoubt:

Kristie Wolfe builds underground home & sets rural Washington hamlet. (Off-grid, of course!) o o o Eight takeaways from ‘Draining Oregon’: The big water giveaway o o o Joe Robertson Thrown In Solitary Confinement o o o Here is some news about a small company in Laramie, Wyoming: Vertical gardening is growing into the wave of the future o o o New program allows veterans to help each other heal in Montana wilderness


News From The American Redoubt:

This small company in Potomac, Montana makes “competition grade” ammunition, with many extra inspection steps to assure quality control and uniformity. Their loads use canister smokeless powder and top quality Nosler bullets, again for uniformity. They offer a 10% military service member discount. Their regular production loads include: .223, .243, .270, 7mm Mag, .308, .30-06, and .300 Win Mag. o o o I noticed that Falkor Defense (in Whitefish, Montana) has expanded their line of AR-15 and AR-10 variants. These are definitely made to the highest specifications. o o o Seattle won’t release its gun tax revenue; here’s why Meanwhile, …


News From The American Redoubt:

Malheur Jury Rejects the Thought Police o o o Spokane County flooded with permit requests after Supreme Court ruling o o o The good folks at Lone Wolf (in Priest River, Idaho), are now offering No-FFL required 80% complete Glock pistol frames for hobby gunsmiths. They also now make nifty AR-15 lowers that are compatible with Glock magazines. o o o If you are looking for a rifle suppressor, check out this company in Cheyenne, Wyoming: Thunderbeast Arms. o o o Soft energy markets mean more financial trouble for Wyoming. o o o Steel belting is not just for tires. …


Letter: Advice for Disabled Suburban Retiree Preppers

HJL and JWR, I’m seeking links or tips on how a 77-year-old disabled person can defend his property in case there’s TEOTWAWKI. My wife is 72. We live in a middle class subdivision 45 miles from Cleveland, Ohio. Because of physical disabilities (neuropathy, bad knees and legs) I am not very mobile. I use walker/cane most of the time. We are moderately prepared (food, guns, ammo, junk silver, etc. A retired Marine lives at the other end of the block but says he will bug out if SHTF. Nobody else on the block seems even to be aware of the …


Everyday Survival Living Overseas Among Muslims, by A.E.

I read articles and letters on this site, and other blogs and web sites, where people are prepping for survival. Oftentimes these articles and letters concentrate on hypothetical or theoretical post-TEOTWAWKI situations. My family’s and my survival experience is not theoretical. We live in an everyday survival context. I hope this article can help to enlighten some of you on prepping for everyday living and to expose some of the challenges faced across America and the world by people wishing to prep in less than ideal circumstances. I am an American, an Army veteran of foreign wars, believer in the …


News From The American Redoubt:

An enormous 500MW wind farm could soon grace the fields of Eastern Oregon. The skyline in the region is already dominated by wind turbines, but this will mean seeing even more of them. The entire Northwest (both Pacific and Inland) is already a power exporter. Thus, it will be the most likely to see rapid islanding and then restoration of regional grid power, in the event of a collapse of the western grid. o o o This Spokane-based company is making news:  Stay Alfred: The biggest short-term rental startup you’ve never heard of is on track for $25M in revenue …


News From The American Redoubt:

Elbow Room Matters! Consider the  following:  Idaho County, Idaho measures 8,503 square miles (22,020 km2), but it has a population of just 16,267.  Thus, it is slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey (which measures 8,722 square miles and has 9 million residents), but it is larger than Connecticut and Delaware, combined. (They measure 5,543 and 2,488 squares miles, respectively.)  And ponder the geography and demographics of Sweetwater County, Wyoming:  It measures 10,426 square miles (larger than the state of Maryland, which is 9,707 square miles) and has a population of just 45,267.  Maryland has a population of just over …