Category: Retreat Locales

Letter Re: Joining Your Local Volunteer Fire Department

Mr. Rawles, Thank you for all you do. I cherish my daily visits to SurvivalBlog. The recent letter titled “Living in a Small Town – An Australian Perspective” by Margaret G. inspired me to write you. We moved from a large city to place just outside a small town a year ago. We are just now being accepted as part of the community. I agree very much with Margaret G.! Another thing I can add is joining the local Volunteer Fire Department. Through the dept and a lot of hard work we find ourselves a part of the community. Because …


33 Ways to Encourage Atlas to Shrug

Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel “Atlas Shrugged” is enjoying renewed popularity following the release of the new Atlas Shrugged movie. Rand’s story describes a group of American industrialists that lose patience with onerous regulation and taxation, and “shrug”–disappearing from their normal lives to relocate to a hidden valley called Galt’s Gulch. While this tale is fictional, it has some strong parallels to modern-day America. And despite the fact that Ayn Rand was an atheist and favored legalized abortion, she was a good judge of both character and the inevitable tendencies of elected governments. When I consider the regulatory and tax burdens …


Living in a Small Town – An Australian Perspective, by Margaret G.

For those of you who are contemplating leaving the city and moving to a small country town, there are quite a few differences that you and your lifestyle should take into account if your new life is to be a happy one. Small towns don’t change too much no matter what country you live in. I live in Australia. I’m retired after working with a variety of state and local government departments over the years. I’ve chosen to live in an old stone church on about an acre of land in a small town of about two hundred people in …


Caving Caveats, by S.B.

I’m an amateur caver, all the caves I know of I found through a local college caving course which I’ve taken a few times. We learned from our instructor, a former Marine, with lots of experience, that most cavers are very zealous when it comes to locations of caving sites. Largely because graffiti pop-culture day-hiking tourists are so devastating to pristine cave environments, serious spelunkers will not share that information beyond their associations. I would not expect to find that kind of information resource online. Serious cavers simply won’t breach their own operational security (OPSEC) to do that. IF anyone were …


Three Letters Re: Maps of Caves and Mining Districts

Mr Rawles:   Well, this is an area of knowledge where I do in fact have some expertise, being a caving professional.  I hadn’t ever really considered caves to be of much use from a prepping standpoint, but as an expedient shelter with a constant temperature they could have their uses.   A bit about my background –   I have logged about 3,000 hours in caves during the past 5-6 years during which time I have been a ‘wild cave guide’ – meaning that I run tours through rugged and undeveloped caves – not the wheelchair accessible type.  I am …


Self-Sufficiency or Communal Living?, by Lisa T.

Is it truly possible for someone to be self-sufficient? I like to garden, grow medicinal herbs and believe it’s good to learn whatever we can about the old-fashioned ways of doing things. Some of my friends like to make their own soap, keep bees, garden, can vegetables, make wine, make their own bread, hunt, butcher their own deer, and raise chickens, and I would love to raise goats, sheep and cows if we had enough land. It appears to be part of a nationwide trend toward natural living. The reasons for the trend, at least in the beginning, appear to …


Seven Common TEOTWAWKI Misconceptions, by Brian T.

Predictions are like, well, you know what, everybody has at least one.  Many or most predictions made are wrong and the content here is no exception.  I am not a modern day Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone but I have spent a few days in the woods, and hopefully after reading this you will not think I am still lost in them.  I did not fight in any war but had my share of the military experience and the same can be said for law enforcement.  I never bugged out but did backpack and still am a gym rat who …


Letter Re: Advice of Eastern Oregon

Mr Rawles,   I am very glad to hear your facts, comments and Godly encouragement and read the many articles on your site regularly. Thank you for standing in the gap and for your ministry in general.   Would you help us understand your reasoning for recommending eastern Oregon? My husband and I have looked and looked at eastern Oregon to move to or at least buy a piece of land to relocate to in a G.O.O.D. “bad to worse” scenario. We currently are on the liberal side of the Cascades in Oregon because of my husband’s work. The problem …


Strategic Relocation in Australia, by The Former South Aussteyralian

I’ve had great difficulty figuring out how to approach writing this submission. Initial versions came out a bit prideful and preachy. In the end it’s usually best just to stick to the facts. So here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ll let you interpret it yourself. Please note that this submission comes to you from Australia, so (as y’all say) “your own mileage may vary”. Furthermore, I understand that this is not a survival “silver bullet”. It is intended as a temporary solution for those of us doing the best we can with what we’ve got. Roughly 36 …


Move to the Mountain States–The American Redoubt

(Note: This essay launched The American Redoubt movement. It was first posted in 2011. It was last updated on May 17, 2017) To begin, I recognize the fact that “all politics are local”. I also recognize the international readership of SurvivalBlog.  Therefore I de-emphasize politics in my blog. However, an article got my blood boiling: Motorists illegally detained at Florida tolls – for using large bills! So, not only are Federal Reserve Notes not redeemable “on demand” for specie, but effectively they are now no longer “…legal tender for all debts public and private.” It is often hard to pinpoint …


Making the Move: Retreat Bound, by L.P in The Ozarks

I’m writing this in an effort to encourage others who might be in the process of, or thinking about moving to a full time retreat. Our situation is not unique.   In the spring of 2008 we saw the writing on the wall (economic, political, and social trends) and we wanted out of the suburbs and into a full time retreat in the country side.  We are a family of four that includes two boys in their early teens. My wife and I had great jobs, we lived in a planned community that was 30 miles away from the big city …


Letter Re: Coastal Southwestern Oregon as a Retreat Locale

Howdy Mr. Rawles; I live up on the south coast of Oregon, I live close to adjoining Del Norte County, California. These areas are very low in population density, lot’s of good fresh water, good fishing and hunting, lot’s of agricultural land good grazing land and a decent climate/ (There are few freezes, no snow, and very little ice.) Del Norte is a little better than southern Oregon because there is more farm and grazing land and it’s far far away from large  cities, railroads and major freeways and a slightly better climate. But on the down side, it’s still …


Letter Re: Off-Grid Living on an Alaskan Island

Hello, Many US military personal who serve on an isolated duty station, in effect live off grid.  For example I was in the U.S. Coast Guard and stationed at Cape Sarichef, Alaska for a year. [It is at the end of Unimak Island.]           We had three large Caterpillar generators.  We got our water from a reservoir that was filled from mountain runoff.  I would go the reservoir when needed and start a small hand pull pump (during the winter could take almost 30 minutes to get started.) This would pump the water along a buried pipe line, with …


Letter Re: Observations From a Canadian Farmer

Hi Jim:  I have been reading SurvivalBlog.com for several months now and have found it very interesting.  I purchased a 640 acre farm in 1970 in the Little Clay belt in Northern Ontario and started from scratch.  I was 25, not married and knew no one in the area when moved from a large urban city, six hours drive away.  It was daunting and I learned a lot of lessons the hard way.  Since I used up all my cash I also had to work out to make ends meet. Here are some of my thoughts in no special order: …


Letter Re: List of Countries by Real Population Density

James, I have been playing with the numbers based on the population figures and wanted to give you this update. I did a study of the total land under cultivation in 2002 (rather than just the potentially arable land, and not including grazing land).  42 of the 50 states exceed the figure of 245 people per square kilometer. [JWR Adds: States with less than 600 people per square kilometer of active-worked farm land might pull through a societal collapse, with plenty of sweat and by God’s grace. But anyone who is planning to survive whilst living in a state with …