Category: Self-Sufficiency

Let me tell you a little story. It was January 1978, my sister was 8 and I was 11, and we were standing in front of the window in my parent’s front room. Outside the world was being covered in ice, or at least the slice we could see from there. The trees, the streetlight, the cars, even the recent snow had a pretty sheen that we thought was beautiful. Mom and Dad didn’t seem to share our enthusiasm, but heck, we knew that the old fogies didn’t know what cool was. Then of course, the lights went out. No …

I’m often asked about the ideal location for a retreat. Every locale has its pros and cons. But in general any area that is well removed from major population centers and that has fertile soil, a long growing season, and plentiful water should give you far better chances of pulling through that the average urbanite or suburbanite. A more overriding concern is what you do with your retreat, and how soon you get it truly “squared away.” Having one or two years of food storage is commendable, but in the event of a full scale TEOTWAWKI, what will you do …

Mr. Rawles: I very much enjoying reading your blog. Keep up the good work. Here are two articles that you might find interesting: How to Plan for [Post] Peak Oil on a Limited Budget http://www.survivingpeakoil.com/article.php?id=limited_budget Very simple plan on what you need at bare minimum…attitude and mind set. Our Village http://www.survivingpeakoil.com/article.php?id=our_village “A few years after the Soviet Union collapsed, I spent some time living in a small Russian village where my wife’s side of the family owns a house…” – S.H.

Perhaps it is the sharp memory of Hurricane Katrina working on the collective psyche, but the mass media is finally starting to warm to the concept of greater self-sufficiency. Take, for example, this story that recently ran in Yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051019/lf_nm/bizfeature_woodstoves_dc_1