Retreat Locale Analysis of Maryland, by Al in Maryland

Here are a few personal observations about the state of Maryland and Montgomery County in particular, where I live. Since I didn’t know where the statistics used for the other states analyzed on SurvivalBlog came from, for the cost of housing, car insurance, etc; I didn’t want to dig up any off the wall numbers, so none are listed. The only exception is for firearms ranking by “Boston’s Gun Bible 2005 ed.”, which I have. I only discuss the main part of the state of Maryland and not the western part which is not as developed. The western part of …




Letter Re: Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as a Retreat Locale

James, I have been looking for 1-to-200 acres in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Ouch!!! I think that they think there is gold in them mountains. Right now I sit on 47 acres north of Dallas, Texas. Since land is so high I have moved my sights to other areas. Currently I have looked at land in Upper Peninsula (“U.P.”) of Michigan. It is very remote, very few people, gets up to 100″ of snow, has good forest, has water and just a good out of then way place. I have also been told they are firearms friendly. Land is cheap. …




Letter Re: Advice On Retreat Locales in Nevada

Jim, I wanted to comment on the retreat areas in Nevada. I’m a native rural Nevadan. I fully agree with your last reader on the [Big] Smoky Valley. I have lived and worked in that area in past years. He was dead on about Tonopah. I want to share a little about Ely and Elko. Ely has one of four maximum security prisons. Ely also has two medium security prisons–also called “Honor Camps”. Ely the town has been under the direction of the State. They are bankrupt. Also, there is a fair amount of mining going on in the area. …




Letter Re: Advice On Retreat Locales in Nevada

Sir: I am writing in regard to posting about Advice On Retreat Locales in Nevada, particularly about the Big Smoky Valley area. I am very familiar with the Big Smoky Valley and surrounding areas, I have camped, hiked, hunted, etc. there. There are numerous hot springs and ghost towns peppered throughout the valleys . The mountains are impressive and Mt. Jefferson is one of my favorite areas. Now here’s the “but”: as for a retreat area: the area is very remote, everything will have to be brought in. The summers are very hot with range fires every year and the …




Letter Re: Advice On Retreat Locales in Nevada

James: I’m a retired Christian, a widower, living on California’s central coast. I’m a ham radio enthusiast. I don’t feel safe anywhere in California. California is only going to get worse as time goes on. So I am looking for a retreat location that is away from large population areas. I now have a few resources available to do this. Please let me know if you know of anything in the $40-to-50K range. I’m thinking about Nevada. Somewhere quite remote that will not be on the “shopping list” of looters, or in the path or refugees in the event of …




Letter Re: Selecting a Retreat Location in Australia, by Mike McD.

Jim, To answer your key question: “Are there some particular towns that are well-removed from the major population centers on the east coast –perhaps up in The Wet– that would be well-suited as safe havens?” You would need to define what constituted a major population center. There are five cities/regions with a population over a million [people]: Sydney (due to their close proximity to Sydney I would include the cities of Newcastle [pop 510,000] and Wollongong [pop 275,000] as part of Sydney), Melbourne (including the city of Geelong [pop 165,000]), Brisbane (including the Gold Coast/Tweed region [pop 485,000], the Sunshine …




Letter Re: Selecting a Retreat Location in Australia, by Mike McD.

Jim: 1) I traveled around Australia for several weeks a few years ago. Australia’s main problem as a survival retreat is shown by a comparison of its population with that of its neighbors to the north: a) Australia: 20.5 million b) Neighbors: 1,869 Million ( China: 1,321 million, Indonesia: 223 million , Vietnam: 85 million, Malaysia: 27 million, Philippines: 85 million, Japan: 128 million ) Note that the invasion route to Australia from Asia is a chain of islands with short distances between them. Australia would probably have been occupied by the Japanese in WWII if not for the US …




Pop Goes The Bubble: The New Century Financial Corp. Debacle

The recent news that New Century Financial Corporation, the nation’s second-biggest subprime mortgage lender is about to declare bankruptcy didn’t come as a great surprise to me. I see it as a bellwether event. Lots of other sub-prime lenders are at risk. This is another piece of evidence that the grossly over-inflated real estate bubble, that up until now has been deflating gracefully, is about to absolutely implode. In coastal regions, residential real estate prices were bid up to unsustainable levels, fueled by low interest rates and legions of lenders that were willing to make loans to people that shouldn’t …




Letter Re: The Psychology of Survival in TEOTWAWKI

Sir: I have been trying to paint mental pictures of men, women, and children scouring the countryside for food and fuel, arriving/crashing through the gate to my property, intent on their own survival. They are hungry, desperate, and in a panic state of mind. I have tried to picture myself shooting warning shots over their heads, hearing them scream and curse at me, and hopefully going away. I have Dakota Alerts in place for early detection during the night. I had dogs, but they are shot or beaten to death early on in the nightmare scenario. But the alarms keep …




Selecting a Retreat Location in Australia, by Mike McD.

Saying that Australia is unique sounds clichéd but in so many ways it is true. It is the world’s largest island and the world’s smallest continent. It is one of the least densely populated countries in the world and yet one of the world’s most heavily urbanised. It is the flattest, driest, least fertile inhabited continent on earth but which through modern agricultural practices is one of the world’s largest food producers. The list of its unique features goes on. Selecting a retreat location in Australia requires this uniqueness be taken into account. Failure to do so will be fatal …




Letter Re: The “Third Way” Approach–A Forward Base En Route to a Remote Survival Retreat

James Wesley: With respect to “Marc in NJ”‘s comments posted on 3/6/07 – He recommends that if one is a bachelor, then getting an apartment/condo near work (in the city) to use as a forward base, then have a truck to haul things. If you’re going to do that, why not go with a motor home/RV and rent a spot at a mobile home park ? No need to pack, just be on your way. Might not work in really big cities where such places are hard to find, or you may have to do some interesting negotiations with a …




Letter Re: The “Third Way” Approach–A Forward Base En Route to a Remote Survival Retreat

JWR, I have been reading a longtime reader of your blog since it started, and wish to thank you for writing your novel “Patriots”, which I have read cover to cover many times and has helped me on my way to becoming a prepper. In response to Paul’s letter for a forward location between your retreat and current home I have some ideas as well as some other good info I feel your readers could benefit from. Now the plan of having a forward location by Paul is a somewhat good idea but like you pointed out a bit flawed.My …




Letter Re: The Coming Dark Age, by Roberto Vacca

Shalom, Jim Recently I read a quote on SurvivalBlog from the book The Coming Dark Age, written by an author named Roberto Vacca. I went to Amazon.com to research it and found out that it was written in 1986, and, surprisingly enough, there were no reviews on file from other readers. 1.) Do you recommend this book? 2.) If so, what do you like about it? Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Hodu l’Yahweh ke tov (Give thanks to Yahweh for He is good), – Dr. Sidney Zweibel JWR Replies: I first read Roberto Vacca’s short book The Coming …




Letter Re: From a USFS In-Holding in Colorado’s High Country–Snowed-In!

Mr. Rawles: I just wanted to send you a thank you note for your novel “Patriots”, your “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course and for SurvivalBlog.com. We’ve been having a winter weather adventure, which I’ve chronicled in this thread at The Claire Files. If I hadn’t found SurvivalBlog.com some time back in late 2005, it might have been a very different story than the mainly humorous tale I was able to relate. Catching up on some of your entries that I missed over time, I found one that was particularly pertinent to our situation. On February 14, you did a …




Two Letters Re: Kanban: America’s Ubiquitous “Just in Time” Inventory System–A Fragile House of Cards

Jim, I recently shared “Letter Re: Propane Shortage and Rationing in the Frigid U.S. Northeast” with several friends. Surprisingly, a new friend who does not know that I am into “Prepping”, sent back the following. – Douglas in C. in Connecticut Hi Douglas, I work in the grocery industry. I can tell you first-hand that this industry (as most others) has expended incredible amounts of time and energy over the last 20 years into streamlining the supply chain. More than anything else, this means reduction of inventory held within the system – starting with the raw materials on the manufacturing …