Note from JWR:

Many thanks to those of you that recently sent web hosting/bandwidth contributions! In the past 24 hours we’ve received enough contributions to pay for almost an entire year of web hosting. Once again, many thanks, folks!

A number of easterners have written in the past few days, asking me to rank the eastern states by their survival retreat potential. As a fourth generation westerner, I don’t feel qualified to make a well-informed analysis of the eastern states, much less rank them. I would greatly appreciate comments from our readers in eastern states that have recommendations on retreat locales. I will be happy to post them so that some sort of informal consensus on the best retreat locales in the east can be reached.

Today, I’m covering a region in Washington in my detailed retreat locale analysis series.

Recommended Region: The Walla Walla Region (Walla Walla and Columbia Counties, Southeast Washington)

This is one of the best dry land farming regions in eastern Washington. The drive east of Walla Walla is like a trip back in time to typical 1950s American farming country. Aside from the satellite dishes and the now ubiquitous crop sprayer tank trailers, not much has changed since then! When searching for a potential retreat, concentrate on the small towns east of Walla Walla proper–like Waitsburg and Dayton, but none smaller than Dixie.
Statistics (for Walla Walla):
Average high temperature in August:
Average low temperature in January:
Growing season: 190 days.
Average snowfall in January: 19.8” (64.7” annually.)
Walla Walla County Median residential home price: $114,300.

Advantages: Proximity to good hunting and firewood sources in “The Blues.” Precipitation is sufficiently plentiful year-round to provide reliable dry land farming. Crops in the region include: Wheat, peas (including seed peas), barley, rye, sugar beets, alfalfa (for hay and seed), and of course the famous Walla Walla sweet onions. Sadly, even though the climate is favorable, truck farming has declined in the past few decades.(There used to be a wider variety of vegetables grown–but now most of the truck farmers have switched to the Walla Walla sweet onions since they are a more sure cash crop with few spoilage problems.)

Disadvantages: A Washington State maxiumum security prision is located near Walla Walla. This could prove problematic isn grid down situation! (it houses 16% of the state’s worst criminals, including approximately 116 sex offenders. The current inmate population is 2277. Walla Walla is sometimes downwind from the Umatilla chemical weapons storage depot, depending on the winds. The large college-age population could produce a sizable displaced population in the event of a sudden-onset TEOTWAWKI. (There are three colleges and Universities in Walla Walla.) Heavy winter snowfall.

Grid Up Retreat Potential: 3 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best)

Grid Down Retreat Potential: 7 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best)

Nuclear Scenario Retreat Potential: 5 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best)

Lister Low RPM Engines Still Made in India!

I have been a fan of one and two cylinder engines for many years. I grew up seeing these old timers putt-putting away at the county fair. Stationary engines still have a surprisingly large hobbyist following in the U.S. and Australia. Steam engines dominated from the 1860s to 1890s. Then came several different styles of one and two cylinder gas or diesel engines. They were eventually supplanted by higher compression (Briggs and Stratton style) high RPM gasoline engines. Because of their simplicity, low compression/low RPM engines still have considerable utility for grid-down survival use. They were common on most American farms until rural electrification programs got into full swing and as high compression engines came into vogue. Here in the U.S., they stopped making low compression stationary engines in the 1930s. But I was surprised to read that they are still making low RPM Lister-type engines in India. See: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/10/03/listers_and_other_ol.html. (One thing about the Third World mentality–they never discard a useful set of tooling! Perhaps we should learn something from that…)

If you are worried about a long term TEOTWAWKI, I consider these “appropriate technology” for retreats. They are low RPM, most have “bomb-proof” cast iron cylinders, and they are easy to maintain and re-build. With a good size flywheel they can be used to run generators for battery bank charging. A small steam engine would work, but they are a bit more tricky to operate, and generally require more maintenance.

Letter Re: The Wallowa Region

Mr. Rawles concerning the Wallowa Lake area a few points. Whether or not these are good or bad I leave to you. Around the lake itself the area is expanding as new homes are being built along the southern side of the lake. The region has become a popular tourist area due to events like the Chief Joseph Days which is held in August in Joseph. It includes a decent size rodeo and parade. In Joseph there are several large bronze foundries which serves to draw a number of folks to the area to see the works. Since a modest portion of the town’s population is employed in the hospitality industry serving the guests it means that much of the income must be earned during the summer months. Winter in that part of the country can get intense which can severely limit access. According to my wife’s grandparents who live in Lostine, real estate prices are climbing as more and more people “discover” the area. I hope these things help. Please keep up the great work with the site and thanks for the hard work. It is much appreciated. I have directed several of my like minded friends there. – M.S.

Letter Re: Retreat Potential of The Carolinas

Hi Jim,
I understand that you are looking for more detailed information on Carolina retreat locales. My wife and I both grew up here and have traveled quite a bit of the state. We live in the western end of the state (The Blue Ridge Mountains.) As far as the East is concerned, I’m with Joel Skousen as he gives it an “A”. As long as you stay out of Buncombe, Henderson, and Macon counties. They’ve been invaded by rich Floridians, yuppies, hippies and drug-heads. But they do offer many employment opportunities, especially in the elder-care, nursing home, health related fields.

We live at about 2,300 ft, have abundant rainfall, and average about 6 inches of snowfall per year. We live in a county of 29,000 folks, very conservative, good many retired as well. There are many retreat locales available here for sale. But the influx of “carpet baggers” has bid the price up in many places. NC definitely has a reputation as the most heavily taxed state in the Southeast. High gas taxes and emissions inspections are creeping westward as well. Luckily, there are only 2 interstates that cut through this end of the state, I-26 and I-40, but they don’t come close to the areas we would want to be in.

Eric Rudolph gave the far western end of the state (Andrews/Murphy) a pretty bad reputation while he was on the lam. But that area has excellent retreat potential/low population as well. In many of these counties, methamphetamine/crack has become a big problem, with the petty robberies,etc that goes with it.

Should anyone have more detailed questions, they can e-mail me at: mountainstranger2003@yahoo.com Keep up the fine work!! – S.P.

Letter Re: L1A1 Rifle Bolt Hold Open Modification

Sir:
The pin on my L1A1 bolt hold open was cut off. Do you have the part that holds the pin with a pin that has not been cut off? Thanks for the help. – The Texas Aggie

JWR Replies:
Most countries that issued the L1A1 foolishly specified them without a working automatic bolt hold-open (for after the last cartridge in the magazine is fired), even though it is part of the original design. This specification change was ostensibly done because they didn’t want dirt or sand entering the action when the bolt was held open. I suspect, however, that it had more to do with making close order drill command for “inspection arms” (or the British equivalent) less cumbersome.

I don’t sell bolt-hold-open (BHO) levers. However, BHOs with the hole pre-drilled–so that they are easily convertible to “open after the last shot in the magazine”–are available from a number of parts vendors including www.GunThings.com. (See the BHO comparison photos at the Gun Things web site before ordering.) If yours already has the cross-pin hole drilled then all that you need to “do it yourself” is clamp the BHO in a vise and use some sturdy pliers to twist and remove the short cross-pin. Then replace it with a longer one. (One that is long enough to engage the magazine follower.) This is much easier than trying to locate and drill a hole in a standard L1A1 BHO lever! For the cross pin, solid drill rod works best if you can find rod stock to match the correct diameter, but a roll pin (a.k.a. a tubular “spring” pin) usually works just fine. Adding a roll pin to the existing hole is quick and easy: Cut a roll pin to the same length as that on a metric FAL–long enough to be engaged by the magazine follower, but not so long that it will get hung-up at the wrong time. This can take some judicious filing. Just go slow or you might file off too much and then have to start over with a new roll pin.

Letter From Fred The Valmet-meister Re: Asian Avian Flu

Jim:
I heard Dr. Bill Wattenburg on KGO last night talking about the Asian bird flu. I also read the link you gave to the article on WorldNetDaily. Dr. Bill really scared me this time! I am a bit depressed hearing what he said last night. He said that if the virus does make the jump to humans, it will kill half the population of the Earth. I’m not kidding he said that. He said it would be worse than a nuclear bomb going off in the major big cites because everyone would try to flee. Oh my God. I think we’ll be living in caves at this rate of Doom and Gloom.
I think if that does happen, the grid will be up with hardly anyone using it. – Fred

JWR Replies: A species-line crossing mutation of the Asian Avian Flu is not likely. (I’d hazard a a guess at less than a 2% chance anytime in the next decade–perhaps some of the doctors who read SurvivalBlog would care to comment) But if Dr. Bill is right–if it does happen, then it would be devastating, possibly plunging the world into a second Dark Age. See my blog archives (including my post on August 8th and the the letter from Nurse “Alma Frances Livengood” that was posted on August 23rd). The latter described which drugs to keep on hand, just in case.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Suburbs have become the heirs to their cities’ problems. They have pollution, high taxes, crime. People thought they would escape all those things in the suburbs. But like the people in Boccaccio’s Decameron, they ran away from the plague and took it with them.”
– Charles Haar

Note from JWR:

I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that readership is up! The bad news is that because of the steadily increasing SurvivalBlog site traffic, I’ve had to upgrade our web hosting account with to one of our ISP’s “Gold” accounts–which is nearly twice as expensive as our old account. (Was $143, now $311.) Even though I’ve tried to minimize the number and size of graphics, users are downloading more than 12 gigabytes per month. (They are small files, but there are lots of blog readers!) The recent increase in advertising revenue helps, but the support of individual readers is greatly appreciated! Thusfar, only five readers out of 58,000+ unique visitors have made a bandwidth fund contribution. 🙁 If you are not patronizing our advertisers, then a bandwidth contribution or perhaps a SurvivalBlog T-shirt order would be appreciated.

Today, I’m covering yet another region in Oregon in my detailed retreat locale analysis series.

Recommended Region: The Wallowa Region (Wallowa County, Northeast Oregon)

The Wallowa Valley is in far north-eastern Oregon, in Wallowa County. The towns dotted along the valley (see map) include Wallowa, Lostine, Enterprise, and Joseph.

The following population statistics are courtesy of the Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce:

Wallowa County: 7,150
Enterprise: 2,020
Joseph: 1,085
Lostine: 230
Wallowa: 760
Imnaha: 100

The median income in Wallowa is $28,603, versus the national average of $41,994.
(Source: 2000 U.S. Census )

The mountains ringing the Wallowa Valley get the lion’s share of the precipitation, while the valley floor itself is fairly dry. The average precipitation for the entire county: 18.85 inches, Enterprise: 13.26 inches, City of Wallowa: 22.44 inches.

Growing season ranges from only 80 days in Enterprise to 120 days in the Imnaha River Valley.

Advantages: Some of the towns in the Wallowa Valley have 100% gravity fed municipal water systems. Proximity to good hunting and firewood sources in the nearby mountains. The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest makes a “big back yard” that stretches all the way into Idaho. More plentiful water than in many other parts of eastern Oregon. Livestock production includes cattle and sheep. Several lumber mills. Unlike the nearby Grande Ronde Valley, which has a major interstate freeway (I-84) passing through it, the Wallowa Valley is transited by a much smaller highway, so it is will not be as likely a refugee line of drift. Real estate is still reasonably priced.

Disadvantages: Short growing season compared to western Oregon. (But that is the price you pay for isolation and low population density.) Downwind from Seattle if the winds are atypical. Marginal agricultural diversity. (Not as diverse as the nearby Grande Ronde Valley.) The main crops are barley, wheat, grass hay, and alfalfa.

Grid Up Retreat Potential: 4 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best)

Grid Down Retreat Potential: 5 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best)

Nuclear Scenario Retreat Potential: 4 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best)

Letter Re: A Sense of Scale

Mr. Rawles:
Great site, I look at it every day that I am near a computer and learn something every time. One minor thing that I noticed the other day was your mention of some ranches in Eastern Oregon being several sections. You did say that a section is 640 acres but some readers might not understand the scale of things. Tell them that a section is one mile by one mile [square]. They may not have a feel for an acre but a box with a four mile perimeter is something all your readers will understand.

Note from JWR:

Today I’m covering yet another region in Oregon in my detailed retreat locale analysis series. I’ll be moving on to my recommendations in Washington later this week.

Recommended Region: The Illinois River Valley/Cave Junction Area (Josephine and Jackson Counties Southwest Oregon)(SAs: Retreat Selection, Relocation, Demographics, Oregon)

Note: Cave Junction is the home to both The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine and WorldNetDaily , so it must have something going for it!
Statistics (for Grants Pass):
Average high temperature in August: 88.7.
Average low temperature in January: 31.1.
Growing season: 140 days.
Average snowfall in January: 3.2”.
Median residential home price (Grants Pass): $180,000.
Advantages: Because southwest Oregon is normally upwind of every nuclear target in the United States, it would receive more residual fallout from nuclear strikes in Russia and China than from any strikes in the U.S.! If you are mainly thinking in terms of nuclear risk then this is the place to be!
See: http://www.cavejunction.com/cavejunction/areainfo.shtml, and http://www.oism.org.
Disadvantages: Proximity to California’ s Golden Horde. All of Oregon suffers from the creeping Nanny State mentality that emanates from Salem.
This region might be a good one to consider for someone who has strong business or family ties to Northern California.

“Doug Carlton” on Survival Retreats in the East and Surviving on a Budget

Jim:
I wanted to address a couple of things some of your readers have brought up recently. There’s been a lot of well thought out letters on retreat sites that aren’t in the west. That’s great, I live on the east coast myself. I want to hear more about other locales, as I’m sure Jim does as well. If your state isn’t on his list of retreat locations, don’t take offense. As long as you’re applying some of the same logic, ideas, and planning to your retreat location then you’re doing far better than most survivalists, let alone sheeple. Jim also makes the distinction that
there’s plenty of bad places to be in the West as well. Think about it, is living in Los Angeles better than living in the hills of West Virginia just because it’s out west? Heck no, and you won’t hear Jim saying that either. It’s all about personal responsibility. It’s your life, your plan, and you have to make choices. You are the only one that can decide your requirements. Likewise, you are the only one that can decide which path to take when requirements, reality, and resources conflict. I live in Virginia. I’ll be the first to admit that where I live isn’t exactly the 100% best location as a survivalist. I have a fairly nice urban set-up here, but I make no bones about the fact that it’s untenable in some scenarios. It’s where I choose to live for a variety of reasons. Those are my requirements and my choices.

Speaking of requirements competing for resources, David brings up a great point about money. During the timeframe that Jim actually started writing “Patriots” all of us that were in “The Group” were pretty darn poor. Most of us were college students, or recently graduated, so we weren’t exactly “rolling in the dough” at the time. I can remember searching the seats of my 1965 Barracuda for quarters to buy a burrito. My character in the book is a pretty close approximation of what most of us had in terms of guns, gear, food, etc at the time. Now I have a job and have a bigger budget for survival stuff. Anyway, even though I find it easier to buy this or that, it’s also easier to screw up and buy the wrong this or that. When I was dirt poor, I probably was a little more careful exactly how that money was spent. No, I wouldn’t want to trade back into those days financially, but the point is there is always a way to maximize the situation that you are in.

Money is an important resource, but it’s only one of several. Just work your preparations into your budget. It doesn’t have to be big dollars. Five or Ten dollars a week will buy a lot of medical supplies at the local drug store in a couple months. A few dollars extra buying a couple of cans/packages of food at the grocery store over what you need will add up
fast. “Overbuying” logistics can be done in very small amounts so you don’t really feel the increase. Just a couple bucks a week will do the job well. It also makes rotation easier, as it’s stuff you use daily anyway. Since you use it daily, you are also more accustomed to that food as part of your diet, so when a problem comes, you aren’t all of a sudden having a change
of diet adding to your stress. Thrift shops can be outstanding places to get gear, as can be various Internet boards. Networking with others will help things out. Even if it’s just over the net, we as survivalists can help each other out in trading to level out various things we need. Maximize your training. It doesn’t cost much to actually get into and stay in shape. That has huge benefits beyond anything you can buy. Taking a hike with your map and compass doesn’t have to be a big affair. Even the most urban areas have some sort of park system worthy of exploring and getting some good out of it. Go camping for a couple of days, and practice the things you’ve read about in books or on the net. You’ll get a big surprise how well (or not) all those things you’ve read about and think you know really work. There are an endless list of things you can do for training that are free, or low cost. You are better off with training than with gear anyway.

I have to agree with Jim, if there’s one priority where money should go, it’s food. The easiest way to tell someone that’s truly prepared from a poseur is to ask, “How much food do you have stored?” rather than any question about guns.- “Doug Carlton”