Category: Retreat Locales

Letter Re: Racial Tolerance in the American Redoubt

James Wesley We thank God for your blog and all who thoughtfully contribute to SurvivalBlog. I visit often and it has been a godsend for our preps over the past year. As much as we enjoy the natural beauty and diversity here in California, we all know how this place is continuing it’s political nosedive so we’re seeking to relocate, preferably to the Redoubt. But the biggest unknown we face in relocation is that we’re a multi-racial couple (Nordic male and Asian female). Even though we’re happily wed faith-filled Christians, proud American citizens, disgusted with entitlement mentalities and politically aligned …


Michael Z. Williamson: Roads and Infrastructure in Bangladesh

One of my regular correspondents is a civil engineer with the highway department in Bangladesh. He sent me the following article links from The Daily Star [in Dhaka, Bangladesh]: RHD chief engineer quits MPs blast communications minister Impossible rides stop They are facing problems of massive corruption, infrastructure failing, and several large rivers that are dammed on the Indian side of the border, which threaten to turn fertile deltas into deserts. He’s sufficiently placed he may be able to, and “considering” emigrating to Canada or to the US.  I suggested he “consider faster” and not wait until it’s too late. …


Letter Re: Prepping for Missionaries and Other Long Term Foreign Workers

Dear Mr. Rawles, I have been following the thread on “Prepping for Missionaries and Other Long Term Foreign Workers.”  My business partner and I have more than one hundred mission trips between us and have been first responders to several of the latest disasters including the Tsunami in Banda Aceh, Hurricane Dean in Jamaica, and the Earthquake in Haiti. Several of the writers and especially P.J.H. has been spot on in their information.  Problems in the mission field or for the foreign worker have a direct correlation to the lack of understanding for the culture of the country where they …


Three Letters Re: Finding Prepper-Friendly Churches in The American Redoubt–Expanding The List

Hi Jim, There’s a great local cowboy church called Gold Hill Church, near Deary, Idaho. It is not only prepper friendly, but even “dog friendly”. Another prepper-friendly church is the Community Church in Southwick, Idaho. Also, I noted that one of the churches you listed in Bonner’s Ferry appears to be a Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) church. As I grew up in that church and greatly admire much of the values of the SDA subculture, it always concerns me when an SDA[-affiliated] church does not let people know that they are really an SDA church. The books they list for sale …


Finding Prepper-Friendly Churches in The American Redoubt–Expanding The List

Based on some suggestions from SurvivalBlog readers, the following are several new entries to supplement the list of prepper-friendly churches in the American Redoubt that I already posted. (I’ve just updated the original list.) Parenthetically, I’m often asked why I place an emphasis on Reformed churches. First and foremost, I believe this is a doctrinally-correct stance. (Your mileage may vary, but the Five Point Calvinist view matches my interpretation of the Bible.) Secondarily, those who hold to a mid-tribulation or post-tribulation eschatological view (as many people in Reformed circles do) tend to be more prone to prepping than those who …


Practical Tips on a Cross-Country Move, by P.J.G.T.

We are moving from the East coast to the Northern Rocky Mountains, and here I sit in a Midwestern state at my cousin’s house waiting for a part for our car to be shipped in. So, I thought I’d take this opportunity to put down on paper the best answer I have come up with to a question I had before the move: How do we move our family across country with limited funds, lots of stored supplies and more than a handful of tools? My husband and I are walking a fine line to make this move the best …


Letter Re: The Thinning of The Horde by Matt B.

Dear Survivalbloggers: I just finished re-reading JWR’s novel “Patriots“. Anyone who has read it knows that in Chapter 21 a number was given on the percentage of the population that perished during the Crunch. This has allowed me to open my mind. There will undoubtedly be a Golden Horde, but as you will read, it will quickly and overtime diminish considerably.   This last semester I took a human geography course which I found especially relevant to the way that a ‘Horde’ would move. In the course I have learned that in a typical East Coast suburb, there are about …


Smoke and Mirrors: The Full Implications of the U.S. National Debt

We are told by U.S. Treasury officials and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that the Federal Government’s debt is now just over 100% of our nation’s annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and while this level of debt is “alarming”, it is “still sustainable.” Meanwhile, Greece’s sovereign debt is now 157% of its GDP, and the nation is on the verge of default and collapse. I presume that Joe Sixpack here in the U.S. sees the news headlines and says to Mrs. Sixpack: “Wow, those poor Greeks. I’m glad that we don’t live there. I wouldn’t feel safe, living in Greece.” …


Six Letters Re: A Prepper Goes to College

James:  The article “A Prepper Goes to College” by S. John aptly points out a problem in which is completely avoidable.  It is heartbreaking to know that so many people are setting themselves up for a life of lost opportunities by being saddled with educational debt.   This problem is the subject of the book Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching off My Parents by Zac Bissonnette.  “Debt-Free U” points out the huge disparity in the cost/value relationships of the many college education options.  It provides strategies (solutions) for getting a good …


Making Good Use of the Hissing Well, by R.J.

When shopping for our retreat property a few years ago our family was looking for something that could sustain several families besides our own and have as many features common to a retreat that most readers would recognize as desirable for TEOTWAWKI.  Water, security, location, population, soil, and local wildlife (four and two legged) were all things we were concerned with.  When we came across our current retreat property we were shown what was supposed to be a 400 foot deep, 10 Gallon Per Minute (GPM) well.  Luckily we were serious and bought a new pump and had a well …


Two Letters Re: Hunter-Gatherer Mobile Survival

Hello, I’d expected Blue Sun’s letter to get some responses. I feel that Blue Sun mixed fact and fiction with his/her email, and I’m sure others had that impression. There will always be someone faster or stronger or a better shot. The best anyone can do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best. In earlier days, when regional populations were much smaller, nomadic cultures subsisted fairly successfully. (Many Mongolians live the same way today, albeit now with satellite television.) Such a strategy for WTSHTF is fine, but honestly even the historical hunter-gatherers had larders from which to …


Letter Re: Hunter-Gatherer Mobile Survival

Hi, Jim, It has been two years since I first wrote you about discovering your books and web site.  I start every day by reading the posts on your SurvivalBlog, without fail.  You have provided an invaluable tool and gift for readers.  What a blessing you have given so freely to others.  Thank you and God bless you for all that you do.  May you always have dry ammo and socks.   In the last week there have been several posts and subsequent replies that have really caught my attention, “Hunter-Gatherer Mobile Survival by Blue Sun” and “Lessons From Life …


Letter Re: Google Earth — The Double-Edged Sword

Mr. Rawles, Thanks for the extraordinary services you provide and for being so generous with your time. The subject of this letter has to do with a recent article on survivalblog in which the author explained the benefits of searching for homesteads using free, online resources such as Google Earth. I recently bought and moved to a rural property. This was the culmination of over two years’ hunting for good homesteads at a fair price. So when I came across this place, I knew it was a bargain. In my searches, I found other rich sources of information: especially interactive …


Prioritizing My Prepping, by R.W.L.

First of all, a note of praise to JWR: thanks for all you do.  You’ve got an amazing reference blog site going here and are providing an immeasurable amount of help to your readers.  I stumbled across SurvivalBlog via a link in the comments section of another blog called The Deliberate Agrarian, last October. The link included the warning: “Just see if you can escape from the archives in less than four hours.”  Two weeks later, I emerged from the archives with blood shot eyes and was both enlightened and scared at the same time.  I had a lot of …


Three Letters Re: The Yellowstone Super-Volcano and the American Redoubt State

Mr. Rawles, I work for the US Geological Survey, and I have had discussions with the country’s foremost experts on this topic. For all intents and purposes, we have absolutely nothing to worry about. Your suggestion to locate upwind of the ash dispersal trend is good common sense, but not required. The missile sites in Montana are a far more relevant concern for anyone looking to relocate. Thank you, – H.D.   Mr. Rawles, Much of the hype regarding super volcanoes is based on the discredited “millions of years” historical time-line. The creation model of geologic history puts this sort of cataclysmic eruption …