The American Redoubt: America’s Empty Quarter

A major part of my consulting work revolves around relocation and retreat property selection, for my clients. When I have conversations with clients from the eastern United States, they often have difficulty grasping just how empty The American Redoubt is. Their view of “The West” is often skewed by the teeming masses of California that they see on television.

I’d like to quantify, describe, and anecdotally illustrate the American Redoubt in this brief article.  As our friend Joerg Sprave would say: “Let me tell you about its features.”

Vast and Lightly-Populated

First, let’s discuss basic geography. The American Redoubt consists of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and the eastern halves of both Oregon and Washington. This is a vast and lightly-populated region. The region is dominated by the northern Rocky Mountains. The terrain varies from wide open prairies to steep mountainous canyons.

The driving distances in the Redoubt can be daunting. For example, it takes nearly 14 hours to drive across the width of Montana. Some Redoubters have work commute distances of more than 60 miles, twice a day, five days a week. A lot of places are truly remote. If you lived in Winnett, Montana, the nearest Walmart would be 85 miles away, in Billings. Thankfully, the speed limits on the Interstate freeways are as high as 80 miles per hour.  For folks in Dubois, Wyoming, it is 193 miles (2 hours and 50 minutes, in good weather) to the nearest good-sized city, for shopping. That is Casper  — the second largest city in the state, and Casper has a population of just under 60,000. Continue reading“The American Redoubt: America’s Empty Quarter”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The sexual liberation revolution of the 1960s set in motion a cascade effect: the reversal of the long-standing moral consensus around promiscuity (which separated sex from marriage) worked in tandem with the advent of birth control and the legalization of abortion (which separated sex from pro-creation), which moved to the legalization of no-fault divorce (which turned a covenant into a contract and separated sex from intimacy and fidelity), then to tinder and hookup culture (which separated sex from romance and turned it into a way to “get your needs met”), From there it’s moved on to the LGBTQI+ revolution (which separated sex from the male-female binary), the current transgender wave (which is an attempt to separate gender from biological sex), and the nascent polyamory movement (an attempt to move beyond two-person relationships). Amid the revolution, the questions nobody seems to even be asking are, is this making us better people? More loving people? Or even happier people? Are we thriving in a way we weren’t prior to ‘liberation’?” – John Mark Comer, Live No Lies (2023)

 

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — July 6, 2023

July 6th is the anniversary of the 1994 Storm King Mountain wildfire that took the lives of 14 firefighters. Weather changes, resulting in 45 mph wind gusts, caused a modest wildfire to erupt into a blazing inferno, which threatened homes in and around the town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Firefighters from around the country were called to assist in fighting this wildfire. We will never forget the young men and women who lost their lives battling this fire:

Prineville, Oregon Hotshots: Kathi Beck, Tamera Bickett, Scott Blecha, Levi Brinkley, Douglas Dunbar, Terri Hagen, Bonnie Holtby, Rob Johnson, Jon Kelso

Missoula, Montana Smokejumper: Don Mackey

McCall, Idaho Smokejumpers: Roger Roth, Jim Thrash

Helitack firefighters: Robert Browning, Jr., Richard Tyler.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 107 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  5. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  6. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795.
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. A $300 gift certificate from Good2Goco.com, good for any of their products: Home freeze dryers, pressure canners, Country Living grain mills, Emergency Essentials foods, and much more.
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Montana Survival Seed is providing a $225 gift code for any items on its website, including organic non-GMO seeds, fossils, 1812-1964 US silver, jewelry, botany books, and Montana beeswax.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $825,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. We recently polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 107 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Third World Living: Austerity Lessons, by T.S.

When I was a younger and more idealistic man, I had the opportunity to spend a year “nation building” in a Third World country. Although I now think those aid dollars would have been better spent at home, I did learn some lessons that could help in a dire situation. After all, there’s no better teacher to prepare you for SHTF than people who have been living in austere off-grid conditions for their entire lives. After some reflection, I organized the lessons I learned into four major categories: Power, Communications, Climate Control, and Food.

Power

None of the villages in my area were connected to the grid (which really only existed in a few major cities and was not reliable anyway). Most villages had a generator or two, but they were often the property of better-off families or tribal leaders who could afford them and the gas to power them. As you may expect, power-sucking appliances like air conditioning, refrigerators, washers, and dryers, etc were rare. But you could find some traces of 21st Century technology in nearly every house, which usually had a car or marine battery, and/or an inexpensive solar panel. These were adequate to power less-demanding electronics like LED lights or to charge a cell phone. Continue reading“Third World Living: Austerity Lessons, by T.S.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column, we look at the boom in sales of large western ranches.

Western Ranch Sales Boom

Over at UK’s Daily Mail: Billionaire cowboys: Western ranch sales are booming as wealthy Americans carve up swathes of prairie for hunting, fishing and skiing – including Yellowstone creator who bought 267,000-acre estate featured in hit show for $350 million.

SCOTUS Taking Up Gun Rights Case

Over at The Western Journal: SCOTUS Taking Up Pivotal Gun Rights Case. Here is an excerpt:

“The appeals court ruling came after “the Supreme Court issued a decision last June establishing a new test to decide whether gun control laws are constitutional, one focused on history,” according to the Times.

The case of the United States v. Rahimi “would give the court a chance to explore the scope of its new test, which requires the government to identify historical analogues to justify laws limiting Second Amendment rights.”

Now, nearly a year after the Supreme Court announced the new approach in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the justices will hear the Biden administration’s appeal.”

US Passport Application Delays Increase

The wait for US passports is creating travel purgatory and snarling summer plans.

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Exploit the counter-revolution – Some strategists believe that a counter-revolutionary or right wing reaction is unavoidable. It is therefore necessary, from the standpoint of sound strategy, to send infiltrators into the right wing. Having a finger in every pie and an agent network in every organization, the Communists are not afraid of encouraging counter-revolution, secession, or civil war in the wake of financial collapse. After all, the reactionaries and right wing elements must be drawn out so that they can be purged or, if necessary, turned into puppet allies. Already Putin is posturing as a Christian who opposes feminism and homosexuality. This has fooled many ‘conservatives’ in the West, and is an intentional ploy which further serves to disorient the West.” –  J.R. Nyquist

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — July 5, 2023

On July 5th, 1859, Captain N.C. Brooks discovered the Midway Islands in the central Pacific Ocean and claimed the territory for the United States.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 107 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  5. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  6. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795.
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. A $300 gift certificate from Good2Goco.com, good for any of their products: Home freeze dryers, pressure canners, Country Living grain mills, Emergency Essentials foods, and much more.
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Montana Survival Seed is providing a $225 gift code for any items on its website, including organic non-GMO seeds, fossils, 1812-1964 US silver, jewelry, botany books, and Montana beeswax.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $825,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. We recently polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 107 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

A Power Outage Experience – Part 2, by Big D.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes teh article.)

DURING THE POWER OUTAGE

Fortunately, my cell phone service remained on during the entire event. That allowed me to directly access the internet from my phone or connect the phone to my computer and smarty TV for outside access.

After the first day the electric company updated the “outages” page on their web site and showed the extensive outages that they were dealing with. The system had both “grid” issues of downed power poles and system components as well as individual properties and businesses who had service lines damaged or disconnected on their properties. The outlook wasn’t good but they were rising to the occasion. Apparently they had called on mutual support power companies from all over the state and beyond.

The first thing that I did was grab whatever battery operated lights that I could find (of course they weren’t all in one convenient place!). Next, just to be safe, I shut the off the main breakers in the house electrical panel. My emergency electrical systems are not connected to the house wiring but I just wanted to be sure in case anything in the house electrical system may have been damaged by the storm.

Now finally being able to see around inside the house I hooked up the solar battery cables to the inverter. The batteries were still strategically located next to the refrigerators in the kitchen. I hadn’t moved them into their permanent location after testing because I wasn’t yet sure where that was going to end up. I ran an extension cord through the garage door out to the freezer. Finally, I went back to bed knowing that the inverter and batteries were up and running and that the cold and frozen foods were now safe for the night.Continue reading“A Power Outage Experience – Part 2, by Big D.”

SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.

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First up today, SurvivalBlog reader C.B. sent this news: Michigan House passes bill making wrong pronouns a felony, fineable up to $10,000. JWR’s Comments:  Apparently, the only tests that this law demands are A.)  Repetition of the “offense”, and B.) Whether or not the feelings of the recipient of the pronoun were hurt, in their opinion.

If that becomes law, then Michiganders can kiss the First Amendment goodbye. Oops! Did I just commit a felony? Should I have written Michigeese? Pardon me. I may have somehow sinned against the Almighty State of Michigan. I must now grovel before the throne of Political Correctness. I should be wearing those nearly opaque pinko-tinted glasses that filter out any possible perception of Adam’s Apples or five-o-clock shadows on XY-trans women or broad hips on XX-trans men.

I have an alternate proposal: You may call yourself whatever you’d like. You may ignore all of the chromosomes in your body and “identify” as an intersex furry jellyfish, or as a crossdressing porcupine, or anything else if that suits you. But don’t try to force me to take part in, or fund your twisted fantasy. Oh, and keep your hands off of my kids, or there will be some immediate physical consequences!

I warned about the expansion of LGBTQ-to-Infinity identifications, in my 2015 novel Land Of Promise. But I had no idea that this insanity would escalate so soon.

o  o  o

Florida residents can conceal carry a weapon starting July 1, but there are rules.

o  o  o

Our Editor-At-Large Mike Williamson dispels some myths, in his latest video: Damascus Steel and Shotgun Barrels.

o  o  o

A visit to Jarbidge, Nevada (on the Idaho state line): I Visited the Most Remote Town in the USA (Outside of Alaska).  JWR’s Comments:  The narrator failed to mention that there is some great deer and elk hunting in the area. BTW, I actually considered buying a good-sized piece of land near Jarbidge as a full-time residence, back in 2005. But now seeing how Nevada’s politics have “progressed” since then, I’m glad that I didn’t.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Never was the victory of patience more complete than in the early church. The anvil broke the hammer by bearing all the blows that the hammer could place upon it. The patience of the saints was stronger than the cruelty of tyrants.” – Charles H. Spurgeon

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — July 4, 2023

Today, July 4th, Americans go through the motions of celebrating the remnants of our once preciously cherished liberty. Let us do our best to regain that liberty, for the sake of our posterity. And please, folks, let’s refer to this holiday properly as Independence Day. It isn’t just the “Fourth of July.”

July 4th is also the birthday of Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) and of General Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882)

Oh, and be careful those fireworks!

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 107 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  5. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  6. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795.
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. A $300 gift certificate from Good2Goco.com, good for any of their products: Home freeze dryers, pressure canners, Country Living grain mills, Emergency Essentials foods, and much more.
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Montana Survival Seed is providing a $225 gift code for any items on its website, including organic non-GMO seeds, fossils, 1812-1964 US silver, jewelry, botany books, and Montana beeswax.
  4. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

—

More than $825,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. We recently polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 107 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

A Recent Power Outage Experience – Part 1, by Big D.

INTRODUCTION

I am writing this within a few days after a power outage on June 18, 2023, so that I will remember the details. I am a 74-year-old and somewhat handicapped grandpa who lives alone in the country. I still get around okay but a lot of physical effort wears me out rather quickly. Sometimes I think that I still have the physical capabilities of the athlete that I was as a younger man. Mentally, yes. Physically, not so much!

I was awakened just after midnight on Sunday morning by the sounds of a storm with very high winds buffeting the house. Within minutes the electric power in the entire house went off. No digital clock displays, no bug lights, no electric power bar switch pilot lights, and no outdoor security lights shining through the edges of the drapes and curtains. Complete black darkness. Makes me think of what Moses’ Egyptian plague of darkness might have looked like.

I reached over and grabbed the flashlight off of my bedside table. I walked cautiously through the house. I looked out the front window and could see a very heavy wind blowing horizontally. I could see tops of narrow 20’ tall decorative trees yielding to the wind and bending over maybe 30 degrees from the vertical.

At that moment I looked and saw a 30’+ high cottonwood tree next to my driveway uproot and blow down into the yard taking out the main electric service wires running from the street pole to the first security light pole in my side yard close to the garage. The wires to the second security light and electric meter pole in the back yard remained intact. They feed the house from there.Continue reading“A Recent Power Outage Experience – Part 1, by Big D.”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, a follow-up report on the Great Falls, Montana gun shop raid. (See the Montana section.)

Idaho

Idaho set to add 248 bills into law on July 1st.

o  o  o

Community calls for justice following police killing of 22-year-old man.

o  o  o

Boise Police arrest unregistered sex offender for assault and registration violations.

o  o  o

Kayaking to Shoshone Falls is a bucket list Idaho summer adventure.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people. We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should. Happy Fourth of July.” – Ronald Reagan, 1981

Preparedness Notes for Monday — July 3, 2023

On July 3, 1890, the Idaho Territory became the 43rd state in the Union.

July 3rd is also the birthday of both musician Aaron Tippin and actor Tom Cruise.

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Today’s feature article is a review written by our Field Gear Editor Emeritus, Pat Cascio. He has been in ill health, so please keep him in your prayers.

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We are in great need of articles to round out Round 107 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. It ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.