Category: Retreat Locales

Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

Advantages to Mid-Winter Real Estate Buying One strategy in buying a survival retreat that I often mention to my consulting clients is making a scouting and/or buying trip in mid-winter. This has several advantages:. 1.) You see the effects of microclimates, first hand. Visiting a property in the summer and imagining what it looks like with snow on the ground is not realistic. You need to see for yourself, in mid-winter. (January is best, in the northern hemisphere.) If you ask the seller or the listing agent how much snow to expect, the answer will almost universally be “not much” …


Letter Re: Survivalist Matchmaking Services

Mr. Editor: I cannot seem to find the people connection place on your site. Do you still have it? Thank you for the wealth of info you provide. – Carol P. JWR Replies: I recommend three web sites (two paid , and one free) for making connections–whether you are looking to join/form a retreat group, or looking for a spouse. They are: Conservative Match (paid matchmaking service–based on shared conservative political/social views) Liberty Mates (paid matchmaking service–based on shared libertarian views) The Survivalist Groups [“Meet-up”] web page–(a free service courtesy of the folks at SurvivalistBooks.com.If you use this service, then …


Letter Re: Preparedness for Less Than a Worst Case, From an Eastern Urbanite’s Perspective

Jim, I found the following in a letter posted on your blog: “Barring TEOTWAWKI, it seems to me that we are infinitely more likely to face moderately scary scenarios, like Hurricane Katrina and necessary urban evacuation, some urban 1970s-style civil disturbance but nothing like Mogadishu, high-intensity individual criminal acts, a low-order terrorist event nearby and the accompanying panic, or some other situation shy of the worst case scenario.” Do people realize that New Orleans wasn’t far from becoming Mogadishu-like after Hurricane Katrina? Certainly if the water hadn’t flooded the streets it very well could have been much worse. The flood …


Storm After-Action Report and More Thoughts on Western Washington as a Retreat Locale, by Countrytek

Introduction I’m a life-long Western Washington resident – except for five years in Kansas & two in Berlin while in the U.S. Army. I’m the great-grandchild of Washington pioneers. I love this state – the ocean, mountains and fertile valleys – but what it has become — not so much. This past weekend, (November 30 – December 1, 2007), the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state was hit by an arctic front from the Gulf of Alaska, dropping 3-6″ of snow in our area. The weather folks told us not to worry, that it wouldn’t last long, because we had a …


Letter Re: Thanks for SurvivalBlog!

Dear Mr. Rawles: I am a newly-minted reader and fan of SurvivalBlog. I stumbled upon [SurvivalBlog] by doing a web search on what turned out to be one of your “Quote of the Days” from [the late] Jeff Cooper. All that I can say is that I am mega-overwhelmed at what you and the readers have put on-line. I started out by going back through your current threads, and that seemed like a lot. But then I started clicking on the monthly archive links [in the right hand column] and then I started doing searched on particular topics. Wow! I …


Letter Re: Preparedness for Less Than a Worst Case, From an Eastern Urbanite’s Perspective

Hello Jim, I am very new reader of your blog and am just now starting to go through the archives. Based on what I’ve read so far, I commend you on putting together a useful, fact-intensive blog on “survivalism” (whatever that means), that isn’t geared towards loony, off-the-reservation, tinfoil hat-type readers, who believe that 9/11 was a plot masterminded by Halliburton. That said, one problem I suspect I will have with your blog is that you consistently seem to be preparing for an extreme, and more-or-less permanent, breakdown of society—or TEOTWAWKI, if you will. In one of your blog posts, …


Three Letters Re: Choosing a BOV

Hello Jim, et al, Reading Choosing a BOV by “Brian B in Iraq”, there are a few inaccuracies that I should mention. Some of the statements are definitely subjective, but I’ll leave those alone and just deal with the factual stuff: Regarding this statement: “These “first generation” Cummins trucks used a Bosch rotary injection pump (called a VE pump)….” This is incorrect. The First Generation trucks used, and use, the P7100 Injection Pump. The “Bosch pump” is the VP44, used in the Second Generation trucks. There’s a huge difference between the systems, and I’m not going to go into that, …


Western Washington — A Retreat Potential and Disaster Assessment, by B.H.

I am writing to you at length today about Western Washington and its retreat potential and Assessment of disaster scenarios. Last year I made a career move that required us to move to Western Washington from Eastern Washington. We moved into what is considered the South Sound area of Western Washington (WWA) this area includes the State capital of Olympia and its bedroom communities of Tumwater and Lacey. Lacey and South East Olympia border the “Argonne Forest” of Fort Lewis. On a side note the 3rd Stryker Brigade is starting to rotate back home—Great job to you all and were …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

We have seen the first significant snowfall in northern Idaho and northwestern Montana which from the scuttlebutt around town has sent sellers into a panic, in which they rightly should be. Although some folks around my locale understand the engineered crash of the Dollar, most are still of the opinion that pulling their property off the market and waiting until spring will yield them either a better price (good luck) or a faster sale at that time (maybe so, with a plethora of SurvivalBloggers arriving?). This makes for more detailed work for your agent as they now must search the …


Letter Re: Advice on Buying AR-10 Rifles

James, I live outside of Boise, [Idaho] on 40 acres with a deep well and have most everything ready for a jump to my brother’s new ranch in Montana, if (when) the SHTF. While my place will be occupied by my friends that don’t have anywhere to go and /or want to stay in the area. I will leave for a better Bug Out Location where I and my family can better survive long term. I only live here because it is a good job and I can’t find anything even close to pay in the part of Montana that …


The Upright Spike in Technology Dependence–Changing “Grid-Down” from an Inconvenience to TEOTWAWKI

If someone were to construct a chart showing human dependence on technology, it would portray an essentially a flat line from Biblical Times to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. From there, there the line would curve upward slightly until the 1890s, when the line would tilt up to perhaps a 10 degree slope. The curve would further steepen in the 1950s (with the advent of computers). The line would then turn into an almost upright spike, starting in the 1990s. In this new era, with each passing year, our dependence of electronic technologies grows greater and greater. Some technologies, …


Letter Re: Updated Nuclear Targets in the United States

Jim, In support of some research on retreat locations, I wanted to learn more about the locations in the CONUS of our strategic nuclear weapons. Guesswork at best, but the older FEMA maps are certainly obsolete, or wrong. A link from late 2006 describes the probable locations and density of the current nuclear arsenal. It is thought that the sites in California, South Dakota, and Virginia have been eliminated, and that the ballistic missile submarine base in Bangor, Washington has been expanded significantly. The next link describes the stockpile (and its reduction) and illustrates the probable nature of the projected …


Preparedness While on Business Travel–What to Pack, by LP

If you’re like me, there are times when you have to leave almost all your preparedness stuff behind as you journey by air to strange, far-off places on behalf of your employer. No access to your well-stocked SUV. You are alone, and home is hundreds if not thousands of miles away. But disaster will not be consulting your personal travel itinerary before it strikes. How best should you prepare? Let’s first discuss the objective, as it determines the approach. For most of us, we leave family, friends, and a (more-or-less) well-stocked homestead behind. This means Your primary objective is to …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

Isolation, Neighbors, Security and the Golden Rule This week we’ll look into some characteristics of retreat shopping that normally won’t become an issue until you have actually spent time “in theater” and have narrowed your search to several possible retreat properties to purchase. After taking the time to look at the properties available through SurvivalRealty.com and/or working with an experienced local agent in your selected retreat region, you should eventually work your list up to perhaps a half dozen prospective retreat properties that are on the market. . Then it is time to whittle that list down, by selecting the …


Letter Re: Preparedness for Urbanites on a Tight Budget

Jim: I just finished reading “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”, and it was great. It was very enjoyable and also worthwhile which is a rare combination in fictional literature these days. While considering my own situation I had some thoughts which might benefit other people or at least be food for thought. I am a college student and with that comes little expendable income and living in a relatively small space in a relatively large town. in short just about the worst situation possible from a preparedness standpoint. Like many readers I am not in a place where buying 40 …