Category: Retreat Locales

Survival Real Estate Market Update

Shopping for Retreat Property in Rural Western Maine – From Richard Frost in Maine I’m a survivalist Realtor in Western Maine. I will work with buyers on the many retreat-type properties in the foothills of the northern Appalachians generally within 100 miles or so of the 100 year old agency I’m associated with. However, there are many, many properties that I have access to which are further away from me – at least 3/4 of the state has retreat-type properties – so can travel further, or refer buyers to another broker. Maine is loaded with reasonably priced (and going lower …


The Precepts of My Survivalist Philosophy

In the past week I’ve had three newcomers to SurvivalBlog.com write and ask me to summarize my world view. One of them asked: “I could spend days looking through [the] archives of your [many months of] blog posts. But there are hundreds of them. Can you tell me where you stand, in just a page? What distinguishes the “Rawlesian” philosophy from other [schools of] survivalist thought?” I’ll likely add a few items to this list as time goes on, but here is a general summary of my precepts: Modern Society is Increasingly Complex, Interdependent, and Fragile. With each passing year, …


Letter Re: The Survivor Mindset

Dear Mr. Rawles; I love the SurvivalBlog. It is fun and interesting, yet it is even more, it is educational! I believe that a lot of people are over looking the biggest part of the equation when it comes to survival. It is mindset. When going thru [US Army] Ranger school I knew from the start there was no way I was going to quit. I had the mindset they could “DQ” [(disqualify)] me and send me packing but I was not quitting. In a true survival setting one has to know in his heart and mind he is going …


The ABCs of WTSHTF, by Mark B.

The ABCs of When the Schumer Hits the Fan (WTSHTF.) aren’t what you have prepared, acquired or stowed but even more basic in the preparation processes that we sometimes take for granted. The A is the ability to learn, to adapt and to try. No matter how many classes we take or how much we have stored away there is the potential that we might have missed something or prepared for one scenario and ended up with another. We may be in the middle of TEOTWAWKI and not be fully ready but guess what, we aren’t scheduling it. Ability is …


Letter Re: Cashing Out of a Retirement Fund and Buying a Retreat Without a Tax Bite?

Mr, Rawles, Greeting from Kentucky. I read your page very often, and have been doing so even more so lately. I read the articles, and your concerns of what is going on, and what you think will happen in the future of this great country. I try to look around and see my daily routine with family, church, work and normal everyday activities and say “no, no this can’t be happening.” Just look around! Everybody is so oblivious, everything continues as it always has, I don’t see the worry on anybody’s faces, much less in their actions. So I keep …


Economic Climate Change: The Long Winter May Begin This Summer

I’ve had several consulting clients contact me in recent weeks, all with notes of fear in their voices. They realize that something is horribly wrong with the economy, but they cannot properly isolate and articulate the problem. I haven’t been able to calm them, however, because to an extent I share their anxiety. In my estimation, the “something wrong” that we sense is nothing short of a monumental shift in the economic climate. America is clearly headed for a recession. Most economic recessions are simply a product of the business cycle. These recessions are relatively mild and they often last …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

We are presently heading into the spring selling market that should yield some of the best prices seen in years in rural America, especially in the Pacific Northwest region, in particular. At this point, especially in small towns in the region most folks have realized that their golden egg is about to hatch a goose and that they should have sold their property two years ago while there was still a chance to sell at reasonable prices. A lot of folks waited and kept their property prices too high and listened to others who spoke of the market “coming back …


Letter Re: Some Offshore Retreat Considerations

Mr. Rawles, A good set of links on finding a homestead that may be useful to your readers can be found at The Mother Earth News web site. I also agree with Jason in North Idaho’s comments. Relocating to the developing world for the purpose of long term survival is not something I would recommend. I am presently living in the developing world because I work here–at least for the time being. I probably have this in common with many of your readers who work as security contractors. My long term goal is to return to return to my home …


Letter Re: Sword Ban Begins on April 6th in the United Kingdom

James: In the past you have recommended that SurvivalBlog readers in the UK to get a samurai sword. Well, they are banning them now. As of the 6th April 2008 it will become illegal to manufacture, import or sell (but not own) all swords with a curved, single edged blade over 50 cm in the U.K. Although they can still supply such weapons for “permitted activities”. These activities include; Historical re-enactments and Sporting Activities. The legislation does not mention samurai swords. It only mentions single-edged curved swords with a blade length of 50cm or over. As per the document, it …


News from Wall Street and Capitol Hill–The Mother Of All Bailouts Begins to Grow

Last week, the mainstream media described the latest expansion of the Mother of All Bailouts (MOAB), but they politely refrained from calling this what it is: socialism, plain and simple. The grand plan, as it stands now, is to bail out not just consumer banks, but also investment banks, with taxpayer dollars. They are effectively making our life savings and our future earnings surety for a bunch of idiotic contrapreneurs‘ loans on everything from flat top duplexes to McMansions. These were houses that the contrapreneurs bought, that they could never really afford unless the market continued to rise at an …


Letter Re: Advice on Purchasing Priorities For a Tight Budget

Mr. Rawles, Hello again! Hope you and your family are doing well. I have had some questions on my mind lately, and was curious if you would mind helping me. (I know you must be tremendously busy with our “strong” economy!). My wife and I are both college students in Santa Cruz, California, and we have a very limited amount of storage space and limited income. Are there any tricks or pieces of advice you have for individuals like ourselves? I recently spent my tax refund on some firearms (which were from a federal firearms dealer :-[ ) and now …


Post-Doomsday: Dress Incognito, Play Down Your Preps, by Ranger Man

Rawles, at SurvivalBlog, had a good post earlier this month that included reader-submitted comments on survival lessons from the homeless. Check the link to read the advice, which mostly contains thoughts on street survival as the homeless see it, how to score a free shower, etc. Let’s flip this line of thinking around and brainstorm on how staying dirty could be a SHTF survival technique. If (when) the world is your enemy, deception is your ally. I think this is particularly pertinent to urban dwellers, but it could be valuable for everyone. WTSHTF – dress like a bum. Post-doomsday: George: …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

We have some great news for you folks that have been wondering where all the approved retreats disappeared to, on the Idaho page of SurvivalRealty.com. (This is SurvivalBlog’s sister site that JWR put together specifically to help SurvivalBlog readers to find their own survival retreats.) More than 15 Idaho listings have now been posted! You can view them here. In order to comply with guidelines set forth by the Idaho Real Estate Commission, although the listings are available on any public MLS approved site, the subsequent retreat evaluations, analysis and photos are only allowed to be disseminated to actual customers …


Letter Re: Choosing a State for Relocation

James, To follow up on Mike Williamson’s recent letter on choosing a state for relocation, the April 2008 issue of Outdoor Life magazine has a good article on the best 200 towns in the U.S. for hunters and fishermen. The towns were rated for: Abundant Fishable Species Abundant Huntable Species Public Land Proximity (This may or may not be a good thing, IMHO.) Trophy Potential Gun Laws From 1 to 10, the top 10 towns rated were: Mountain Home, Arkansas Lewsiton, Idaho Sheridan, Wyoming Cody, Wyoming Pocatello, Idaho Lewistown, Montana Marquette, Michigan Dillon, Montana Page, Arizona Bismark, North Dakota They …


Letter Re: Choosing a State for Relocation

Dear Jim, I found this article on the safest states to live in, based on major crime rates. Compare that to this article from “Parents” magazine, who[‘s author] seems to rate states by the number of socialist laws they have. This is the [same] magazine whose solution to children fearing fire, after seeing the attacks of Sep 11 [2001], was “therapy.” I used the expedient of starting a small brush pile out back, dousing it with an extinguisher, and leaving a new extinguisher in their room. $30 is a lot cheaper and less stigmatizing than “therapy,” and had the practical …