Category: Retreat Locales

Letter Re: Feeding The Redoubt: The Painted Mountain Corn Project

Dear SurvivalBloggers: For all who are called to the American Redoubt: Secure your food and preserve your freedom of action! If you don’t have a place to grow your own healthy food, support those who do. Go in for shares. Help them every way you can. Growing all your own food now may not be economically viable, but secure sources of food are your lifeline in the future. Our goal should be not only to survive, but to thrive! My brother and I were born and raised in the American Redoubt and grew up living the life of “preppers” and …


Three Bug Out Considerations You Probably Haven’t Considered, by Jonathan G.

For most preppers, the action plan for a TEOTWAWKI scenario can be neatly categorized into basically one of two categories:  Bug in or Bug out.  Many people live in rural areas with sufficient security and provisions to be able to go to ground in the event of a disaster and ride out the storm.  “Sufficient” security might include bunkers, shooters, stockpiles of ammunition and weapons, spare parts, etc.  “Sufficient” provisions might be enough food to get the defense force and extended family of the principal through to the harvest, and enough seeds to ensure that the harvest will feed the …


Letter Re: Maps, Legends, and Ground Truth

Hello James,  Our contribution to being prepared was a Sunday drive. Here is what we did:   An essential piece of equipment for anyone contemplating any kind of emergency relocation are good maps. If your relocation is a “bug out” due to deterioration of local conditions you need to have a plan. In consideration that my current well placed rural residence might be a point of contention for those who want to ‘borrow my belongings and harbor unnatural urges about the occupants I have taken to making exploratory trips about my county. Even though we are sheltering in place an …


Letter Re: List of Countries by Real Population Density

James Wesley: As they say in the radio world, “long time listener, first time caller”… First off, thank you for sharing your words of wisdom for those of us who aren’t prepared.  Admittedly, I am one of those fence-sitters, liking the idea of prepping but not having near enough money to start in that direction, let alone uproot the new wife farther from her family than we already are.  Nonetheless, your articles (and those by your contributors on SurvivalBlog.com) are eye-opening and help me remind myself that we are just a few small steps from something really bad. As to …


Letter Re: Disasters and the Dreaded Multigenerational Scenario

Dear Jim, We have already seen how the largely bankrupt USA has dealt with the Hurricane Katrina disaster. New Orleans remains partially empty and its population is much lower. Those who had any money left when the hurricane was announced to hit. If they returned, it was to recover a few belongings and collect their insurance checks before ceding the property/ruin back to the FedGov/State. Surrounding areas where the Hurricane spent its fury have been abandoned. The wrecked 9th Ward of New Orleans was not rebuilt. Someday it will flood again, and this time with few people to complain, it will probably turn …


Letter Re: Weighing the Merits of Retreat Areas

JWR, I was hoping you could chime in for some feedback, as I think many of your readers are in a similar boat that my family is: Trying to balance professions and existing commitments against hunkering down for the coming storm.  Given the population density of some of the Midwest states… If you had to take relocating to a larger 60,000 population town in the American Redoubt (Idaho Falls, and the like) or living in the rural cornfields of the Midwest, and I correct you would advise locating to a medium sized American Redoubt city?  – Greg H. JWR Replies: …


Basic Preparations for Urban Outskirts in Third World Countries, by Jorge Gato

The following observations are geared toward expats or even locals living in the Third World, although most would apply as well to residents of the First World. Here in México, there have been countless horror stories, albeit, most of them not life threatening and essentially not classifiable as DEFCON 1 situations. Both expats and locals have been the victims of countless assaults. An acquaintance on the street was recently told simply to hand over his money and music player. Another fellow, a philosopher, became inspired at midnight on a city street and only had his laptop to record his divine …


Letter Re: Retreat Locale Selection Mapping Tools

Jim, With some research, I’ve found a few mapping tools that are useful in selecting possible retreat locales: Free GIS tool (overlay and merge different map layers onto one map) Census mapping National Atlas. Crime, precipitation, etc. Very nice but you can’t merge data. An interesting Google Earth plug-in I’d also like to mention an ongoing forum discussion. Regards, – C.D.V.


Letter Re: An Expat’s View of Overseas Relocation and Expatriation

CPT Rawles, I want to provide a counterpoint to AmEx’s letter about the futility of permanent expatriation.  I too have taken a job overseas, after much effort, and am establishing myself permanently in a particular country in Asia.  I agree with AmEx that renouncing one’s US citizenship is probably a bit much, I think he severely underestimates the danger that the US government will (I believe) present to it’s citizens.  While I am still a US citizen, my wife, who earns all our non-salary income privately, and our children are not.  This is something we worked out years ago to limit the reach of my government into our lives. …


Letter Re: An Expat’s View of Overseas Relocation and Expatriation

Jim: Periodically I see posts or news articles about USA citizens renouncing their citizenship and moving abroad to greener pastures for tax and other reasons. I have lived and traveled outside the USA for some time now due to my current job.  Every year I have to fill out all the forms stating the bank accounts (and now assets) that I have outside the USA and they are indeed a real pain to fill out and it is a rather onerous process to gather all the information that I need to provide.  Not only do I have to fill out …


Bugging Out, But to Where?, by Paddy O.

I read a lot of material in SurvivalBlog and several other similar sites about methods and means of bugging out if you live in a city or other area where it would be undesirable to live during some kind of calamity.  After seeing so much about this idea of waiting until the SHTF, or some other event that would necessitate leaving the area in which you live, I feel the need to weigh in and give the position of the person who’s already living in the area to which many of the city dwellers are being encouraged to bug out …


Letter Re: Change Your Mind, Save Your Life

Jim, There seems to be a lot of debate on ‘should I head for the hills, post-SHTF‘. In my opinion, what most people miss is: Yes, it is a bad idea to head for the hills with no firmly established destination. Either move now or establish a place you are welcome to before the SHTF. I doubt a small town will be welcoming strangers in that situation. As for the fantasy of ‘living off the land’, you and 85 million other people? Ever try to bag a deer during hunting season with the limits in place today? – Ross JWR …


Change Your Mind, Save Your Life, by Marc P.

Apocalypse: en route or ongoing? I won’t argue whether something terrible will happen. It’s a flawed premise. Something terrible is already happening, just not where your computer is plugged in. It is not necessary for the entire planet to be threatened for a single region to be thrown into chaos. It wasn’t necessary for the whole state of Louisiana to be in peril before New Orleans turned medieval after Katrina. The mistake in logic occurs with the base assumption that a survival scenario is the end game. If that’s your assumption, there’s no need for extensive preparations. All you can …


Letter Re: Advice for a Partially Disabled Prepper

Mr. JWR: I am 57, been collecting prepping supplies for the last 5+ years, but was involved in an accident in 2008 where I was disabled. I’m ambulatory, but limited in lifting and such (three inoperable herniated discs in lower back) – I am planning moving to the Redoubt, but fear that my limited abilities will make me less than attractive or welcome to any community or preppers I may encounter. I do have manual skills in building both small items up to buildings, but cannot actually do the work. Is it worth it for me to move there? I …


Letter Re: Risk of Corruption Rankings–Redoubt States are Unfairly Slammed

James Wesley: Did you see this article: Study ranks Wyoming’s corruption risk as high, and this map? How is it that states like Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming could be so corrupt? That doesn’t seem possible, and it contradicts all my prior research about The American Redoubt. What is you take on this? Thanks, – Kevin L. JWR Replies: The study that they cited was on a perceived potential for corruption (a hypothetically calculated “risk of corruption”). The ratings were skewed, because they were in part based upon the willingness of state governments to report to the Federal government.  Some states …