Two Letters Re: Opinion on The Retreat Potential of New Hampshire?

Hi, Jim:
I appreciated your comments regarding New Hampshire as a potential retreat site in today’s SurvivalBlog item. While I live in Idaho and am mostly pleased with the state, I did have occasion to visit Vermont six months ago. I was highly impressed with several gun stores I visited, and from information I learned from the stores’ staff members. In actuality, I was very surprised that their gun laws were less restrictive than Idaho’s. Thanks for the blog and your writings. Cheers! – TLP

JWR Replies: The gun laws in Vermont are indeed favorable (most notably the legality of concealed carry without a permit), but the taxes? No thanks! New Hampshire has much lower taxes. Here is a snippet from my recently-released book, Rawles on Retreat and Relocation:

Total Tax Burden
It can be useful to look at the Total Tax Burden of a state. This includes: property taxes, income taxes, and sales taxes combined: Taxes as a percentage of income (as of 2002):
The Best:
Alaska 6.3%
New Hampshire 7.6%
Tennessee 8.3%
Colorado 8.4%
South Dakota 8.9%

The Worst:
Maine 13.6%
New York 12.9%
Wisconsin 11.9%
Vermont 11.7%
Hawaii 11.6%
Note: Includes state and local taxes including property and sales tax, excise tax and some business taxes. You may pay even more if your income is considerably higher than average, or if you live in an area of the state with high property taxes.

 

James:
As a lifelong Wyoming resident, I never could quite figure out what the “Free Staters” were all about. From what I gathered, they wanted to move en masse to some particular state and “set things right”. I understand that Wyoming is/was one of the target states.

Wyoming is no paradise. We have a harsh climate, short growing season, high energy prices, sales tax, over-priced real estate and a huge governmental bureaucracy. On top of all that, about the only people here who welcome newcomers are the bankers and real estate agents.

I live a few miles out in the sticks from the nearest town. That town has a population of around 200. We have no mail delivery, so we all make a daily pilgrimage to the post office. It’s the social event of the day. The other morning, I was at the post office, waiting my turn at the window. The fellow ahead of me is telling the postmaster why he moved here from some place in Colorado. “Yeah… the gangs took over the town. Got to be where my wife couldn’t go shopping by herself.”

Jim (the postmaster) simply asked: “Well, what did you do about it?”

The guy said nothing. But in reality, what had the guy done? He’d let himself be run out of town by some hoodlum, hoping that he’d be able to find security at someone else’s table.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have much trust in a fella who moves in next door, crowing about rights and liberty after he’s just proved that he values neither enough to stand his ground. – Dutch in Wyoming

Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog reader “Rmplstlskn” mentioned a tale of woe, posted over at AR15.com: The “Fongman” (not to be confused with the character in my novel “Patriots” with same moniker) had most of his survival gear stolen from his unoccupied retreat. As I’ve mentioned in SurvivalBlog several times before: The best approach is to live at your intended retreat year-round, or have someone that you really trust live there year-round. If you are forced by circumstances to leave your gear unattended, the two best options are: 1.) Underground caches in well-drained soil, or 2.) Renting a commercial storage space that is within 20 miles of your retreat. Both have their drawbacks, but at least they are are superior to gambling with simply leaving valuables in an un-observed trailer or CONEX in a rural locale. Even specially shrouded padlocks on CONEXes are no match for a thief with time on his hands and a cutting torch or power tools. If a container is not within line of sight of an occupied habitation,a thief will eventually gain entry. I’ve heard the same sad story, over and over. Some might suggest keeping all your gear at home, and transporting all of it to your retreat after the balloon goes up. But that is problematic. If things get Schumeresque, odds are that you will only have one trip Outta Dodge. That would leave you in the unenviable position of having to “pick and choose” and inevitably leaving most of your precious logistics behind. Psychologically, that would be just as devastating, if not worse, than being burglarized.

   o o o

Gulf summit opens with a warning from Saudi King Abdullah: “Our Arab region is besieged by a number of dangers, as if it was a powder keg waiting for a spark to explode,”

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From the London Telegraph: UN downgrades man’s impact on the climate.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"In truth, a state that deprives its law-abiding citizens of the means to effectively defend themselves is not civilized but barbarous…revealing its totalitarian nature by its tacit admission that the disorganized, random havoc created by criminals is far less a threat than are men and women who believe themselves free and independent, and act accordingly." – Jeffrey Snyder, A Nation of Cowards

Letter Re: The James Kim Exposure Death Tragedy: Lessons to Be Learned

Mr. Rawles:
I followed the search and rescue story [the tragic death of James Kim–stranded on a remote Oregon logging road] in the news recently and was struck with very emotional feelings about their ordeal. Apparently he and his family did the right things, but in the end bad luck and a lack of proper survival gear was disastrous. Putting myself into his shoes I feel that I too would have definitely tried to hike for help after a week of hunkering down and waiting for rescue.
See the series of Google Earth images showing his path while trying to hike out. The heartbreaking fact is that he started in the wrong direction if trying to reach the nearest shelter/help. These also show the long distance and elevation changes he surmounted in attempting to hike to help.

Lessons to be learned from this tragedy:
1. Never travel without some sort of emergency gear in your vehicle. A good Bug-Out Bag with extra items for warmth and additional food might have made the difference for these guys, in terms of prolonging their ability to stay put and wait out for rescue. (Particularly as since they were on a road that would get searched eventually).
2. Friends from back east taught me the old saying, “Dress to survive, not to arrive”. Meaning that when venturing out in an area with inclement weather make sure you are equipped with clothing that would enable you to walk home if you had to. Better, warmer and or waterproofing layers could have made the difference for James Kim in his hike out.
3. A good map is worth its weight in gold. His wife has now said that after reviewing the tourist map they had he left to attempt to hike to Galice, a town they thought was four miles away. In fact it was much further than that, and ironically had they continued forward on the road they had gotten stuck within another mile they would have found a cabin to take shelter in.
A good map and GPS receiver is even better, especially in an unfamiliar wilderness area.
4. When in doubt, turn back. The Kim’s became stranded after trying to find a cut off road, and made a wrong turn at a fork that led them onto a secluded and seldom used logging road just as a snow storm hit. If it’s getting dark or weather is turning don’t be afraid admitting a mistake and re-tracing your steps back to where you know you are on the right path. Better very late than never.

JWR Replies: Echoing S.H.’s comments, an article titled “Lessons Learned from the Kim Family” was posted over at Doug Ritter’s Equipped to Survive Blog

Letter Re: Some Good Things Prompted By SurvivalBlog

Jim,
The following are some things SurvivalBlog.com has prompted me to do since I began reading it:
I’ve had no debt for 20 years, but my meager holdings are now about 1/3 precious metals. Is lead considered a precious metal? 🙂
My freezer is full of elk, whitetail deer, and caribou. I added to my long-term foods during your Safecastle special, but I’m now reviewing the viability of my existing stocks. Like the realtor’s mantra of “location, location, location”, a survivalist’s creed should be “Rotate, rotate, rotate. “
A 10 KW Generac generator is ready to be wired to my primary residence.
My primary heat source is now a shelled corn burner
My wife and I just finished a first aid course refresher and bought a couple of family-sized first aid kits from the American Red Cross.
I upgraded my firearms battery to include a third .308 Winchester rifle–a DPMS Panther LR-308 [AR-10.] An accurate load for the Sierra 168-grain HPBT has been found and loading on the Dillon press commences soon.
During this year’s whitetail deer hunt, our group adhered to the hunting laws but still kept in contact with our MURS Radios.
And thanks to your blog, I’m practicing preparedness more. I’ve never learned how to take a deer apart other than simple de-boning. So with instructions at the ready, the wife and I will skin this year’s buck and carve the meat into steaks, roasts, stew meat and burger. But with a full freezer, I’ll be practicing charity by giving it to my friend Mike, a less fortunate carnivore.
Now it’s time to renew the 10 Cent Challenge subscription. There is much more to do and learn. Merry Christmas to you and yours, – Redmist

Odds ‘n Sods:

Nearly every day after their home schooling, the Rawles kids have asked to go snow sledding. We are fortunate to have a great sledding hill in the national forest land that adjoins the Rawles Ranch. It is just a five minute walk from the house, The kids demonstrated their inventiveness by constructing a packed snow jumping ramp at the base of one of their longer sled runs. Our #3 Son regularly achieves “air”, clearing the surface for about 10 feet before landing in deep powder. Quite exhilarating. Speaking of inventiveness, at the dinner table last night I jokingly suggested the new sport of “sled-athalon”–shooting targets with a stainless M1911 .45 ACP whilst traveling downhill on the back of toboggan. (Sort of reminiscent of “Skeet Surfin'” in the opening scenes of the movie Top Secret.) But, alas, The Memsahib nixed that idea, post haste. That was probably for the best, but whatever happened to her sense of adventure?

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OSOM sent us this link about crime in South Africa: Home Sweet Fortress.

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Senator James Inhofe announces release of A Skeptic’s Guide to Debunking Global Warming Alarmism.

 

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Whenever Destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men’s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to it’s owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of a arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day it bounces, marked: ‘Account overdrawn’." – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957

Note From JWR:

When you write your obligatory Christmas card insert letter this year, please mention that you’ve been reading SurvivalBlog. And if you send an electronic version, it would be greatly appreciated if you’d include a SurvivalBlog link logo or link text. Please spread the word about SurvivalBlog. Thanks!

Letter Re: Mobile Solar Power Systems

JWR,
Here’s an item some of your readers may be interested in, Mobile Solar Power, it’s a mobile solar power setup and looks like it would fit in with a number of different scenarios. I spoke with the owner a few days ago and he said he will size the equipment to fit your needs/specifications. It appears to be made with high quality equipment and the owner said the batteries have a 10 year warranty, but with care, may last up to 15 years, otherwise the remainder of the equipment should have a life much longer than that. This solar generator, used in combination with a Generlink would make a nice setup for whatever your plans are. I am not connected with either product, just thought they might be of interest. Regards, – Keith

JWR Replies: That sort of system is ideal for either A.) someone that maintains retreats in two states–i.e. for “snowbird” seasonal moves towed behind an RV, or B.) someone that wants backup power but because they live in a community with strict CC&Rs, they can’t have solar panels visible on a day-to-day basis. (After TSHTF, your problem will not be your development’s Homeowner’s Association–it will be chaining the system down to keep someone from stealing it!) OBTW, packaged photovoltaic systems”made to order” are available from Ready Made Resources . They also have an expert there, available for free consulting (with no purchase obligation) on photovoltaic power system sizing and design. Bob has the specialized tools needed to calculate current loads, requisite battery bank sizing, charge controller capacity, available solar hours, solar panel array solar exposure and orientation, and so forth. I can attest that Bob really knows his stuff, and unlike some solar system specialists, he has considerable experience building systems that are custom tailored for survival retreats. I recommend that any SurvivalBlog readers that are considering installing an independent home power system take advantage of the free consulting offer from Ready Made Resources.

Letter Re: Pros and Cons of Property On or Near a Utility Easement

Jim,
The use of utility easements as bug-out routes has been mentioned here and elsewhere (e.g., the [online shareware] novel “Lights Out” by Halffast.) It seems to me, living next to one would have both pluses and minuses. Plusses: Handy access in case you need to bug-out and clear lines of sight (in at least two directions). Minuses: (If you choose to stay put) the necessity of monitoring bug-out traffic at least and the potential of defending your retreat from such traffic at worst. Are there other advantages or disadvantages? In the final analysis, would you recommend purchasing property adjacent to or near utility easements? Thanks, – d’Heat

JWR Replies: One other disadvantage might arise before TEOTWAWKI: an easement may be used from time to time by a utility company for repairs, maintenance, or system upgrades. I have a friend in California that had planted a vegetable garden on the power company easement running through the back of his property. One summer, just two weeks from the harvest of most of his crops, the power company, with no prior notice, exercised their right to take down the fences and “pass through” with their trucks to perform some sort of maintenance. Nearly all of the plants were trampled beyond viability. At least they did a good job of putting the fences back up.

In my estimation, it is advantage to have a easement near your home if your intention is to relocate to a stocked retreat elsewhere after things appear to be getting Schumeresque. (Since major highways and freeways might be jammed with traffic.) But it is a disadvantage to have an easement near your intended retreat since it would constitute another avenue of approach for intruders.

Odds ‘n Sods:

 SurvivalBlog reader “Paje” put together a detailed analysis on the relative value of gold, dollars, and ammunition that he posted over at the AR-15.com forums. Nicely done!

  o o o

Rich at KT Ordnance mentioned this article at News With Views by constitutionalist lawyer Edwin Vieira: Will the North American Union Be American Patriots’ Last Stand?

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There is an interesting thread of discussion in progress over at The Claire Files on using water well hand pumps during sub-freezing weather.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Inasmuch as liberals are demanding that Americans ritualistically proclaim, ‘Islam is a religion of peace,’ Muslims might do their part by not killing people all the time.” – Ann Coulter

Note From JWR:

The high bid is now at $260 in the current SurvivalBlog benefit auction, This one is for a big batch of 16 survival/preparedness reference books, courtesy of the fine folks at Ready Made Resources. (They are one of our first and most loyal advertisers. Be sure to visit their site and check out their huge inventory of preparedness-related products. BTW, they have additional copies of each of the titles listed below, as well as more than a hundred other titles.)

Letter Re: Opinion on The Retreat Potential of New Hampshire?

Sir:
What is your opinion (since it isn’t on your list of 19 [preferred states for retreat relocation]) of the Free Stater’s choice, New Hampshire? I personally would not be that comfortable living near the east coast with their weather Thanks, – GRD

JWR Replies: If for some reason I was forced by circumstances to live in the northeast (it would probably take a set of Peerless handcuffs and a whole roll of duct tape), I would probably choose New Hampshire. It certainly has the highest “freedom quotient” of any of the states in the northeast. Its guns laws resemble those found in the Deep South and in the West. The tax situation is also more agreeable than in some of its neighboring states. New Hampshire is very friendly to small business and entrepreneurs. I could live with weather in the northeast. However, the overall high population density of the northeastern U.S. is a hazard in the event of TEOTWAWKI. The three following quotes from my recently-released book, Rawles on Retreat and Relocation: sum up my thoughts on this subject:

The northeastern states depend on nuclear power plants for 47% of their electricity. (South Carolina is similarly dependent.) This is an unacceptable level of high technology systems dependence, particularly in light of the emerging terrorist threat. (Refer to Chapter 8 for further discussion and a map of reactor locations.) You must also consider that virtually all of the eastern states are downwind of major nuclear targets–most notably the USAF missile fields in the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Colorado. (Refer to Chapter 9 for further discussion and a map of likely fallout distribution.) If for one reason or another you are stuck in the northeast, consider New Hampshire or Vermont. They are both gun friendly and have more self-sufficient lifestyle. But unless you have some compelling reason to stay in the East, I most strongly encourage you to Go West!

and,

If you are an eastern urbanite and come to the conclusion that you need to buy “a cabin in upstate New York” or “a brick house in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens,” then you are wrong, quite possibly dead wrong. (BTW, I’ve heard both of those quoted suggestions in e-mails from readers of my novel [Patriots]!) A rural area that is within an overall heavily populated region is not truly rural. It lacks real isolation from the basic problem–population. Wave after wave of refugees and then looters will overwhelm these seemingly “rural” areas. In essence, you will need to be at least one tank of gas away from the big cities–preferably at least 300 miles, if possible.

and, to explain the significance of population density:

Once the Golden Horde has been thinned (and honed to ferocity) and they’ve cleaned out an area, the thugs at the pinnacle of ruthlessness will comprise the most formidable rover packs imaginable. They will move on to an adjoining region, and then another. But the inverse square law will work in your favor: Imagine that you take a jar full of marbles turn it upside down on a wooden floor and then lift the jar suddenly upward. The marbles will spread out semi-randomly. You will see that the farther from the mouth of the jar, the marbles are farther apart. The same thing will happen with rover packs from the big cities. They will attenuate themselves into a huge rural expanse that is peopled with well-armed country folks. By the time the looters work their way out 150 miles from the big cities, they will be thinned out considerably. The rover pack is your primary threat in a total collapse, no matter how remote your retreat. Here are your potential adversaries: A squad to company size force (12 to 60 individuals), highly mobile, moderately well armed, with a motley assortment of weapons and vehicles, and imbued with absolute ruthlessness. Be prepared to fight them, with no outside assistance.

In my opinion, the Free State Project made more of a political choice than a practical choice when they selected New Hampshire rather than Wyoming. Let’s face it: The majority of the nation’s population lives in the East. So in terms of attracting the greatest number of Free Staters that would actually relocate, they did what they thought the best. The political impact of those relocatees would have been much greater in Wyoming, which is very lightly populated. Instead, they diluted their potential effectiveness by moving to a state that has a relatively high population. I wish them the best, but they should have listened to Boston T. Party!

Letter Re: Feeding Problem With an AR-15 Chambered in 7.62×39

JWR,
Agreed [with your comments] on the kludge of AR-15/7.62 variants. However, since he already has the upper. I might suggest the purchase of another lower [the “AR-47”], that is intended to directly take AK mags, eliminating the [straight magzine well] problem.
I’ll be honest, these things kinda suck, the fit and finish on them is truly horrible. I’ve assembled a few of them into California-legal configurations, they do work, but getting them to fit with the upper, and everything else is a pain in the a**.
Personally, I would be inclined to just replace the 7.62×39 upper receiver group with either a .223 or 9mm upper, and go that route. If anyone is looking for a cheaper place to pick up those AR-47 lowers, I think the guy with Metroshot still has some (last time I checked, he wanted about $125 for one of them.) Send him an e-mail if you are interested in one. He’s an FFL, and will ship
to your in-state FFL. Regards, – AVL