This region is on the east side of the Blue Mountains
Statistics (for La Grande):
Average high temperature in August: 85.
Average low temperature in January: 23.1.
Average snowfall in January: 6.7”.
Growing season: 160 days.
Advantages: Proximity to good hunting and firewood sources in “The
Blues.” More plentiful water than in many other parts of eastern
Oregon. Fairly diverse agriculture. Grande Ronde Valley crops are primarily
wheat, hay, and barley, with some oats, apples, cherries, sugar beets,
and beans.
From the Oregon Blue Book: “The Grande Ronde Valley in Union
County is nearly table flat and is covered with the rich silt of an
old lake bed. Highly
diversified, with an annual rainfall of twenty inches, the valley
boasts of never having had a general crop failure. The county's 1,092 farms average
473 acres a unit.”
Disadvantages: A major interstate freeway (I-84) passes
through the region, so look for places that are away from the freeway. Downwind
from Seattle if the winds are atypical.
Grid Up Retreat Potential: 2 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1
being the best)
Grid Down Retreat Potential: 6 (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)
Jim:
I am an non-denominational Christian, (not a Mormon), but
I do appreciate the fairness you exhibit on your blog. The Mormon
man's
recent comments
were good reading and I hope his view is representative of all Mormons.
Thank you for your fairness and honesty.
ABOUT KNIVES: I have found that the Cold Steel "Recon Bowie" with its 5/16' thick blade is an excellent field knife which can be used like a hatchet and it is quite tough. It's big brother - the Trailmaster Series is also another great large knife.
ABOUT OLIVE OIL: I purchased a three liter can of Bertolli Brand "Classico, Full Bodied & Mild" olive oil in July of 1998. It was stored in a dark cool place in the basement (average temperature about 60F). I opened this can in late 2004 and the oil was fresh, and is still fresh now at the bottom of the can after using it for the last 11 months. God Bless you, and your sweet family. - Christian Souljer
JWR Replies: I definitely prefer using and storing olive oil rather than vegetable oil. The vegetable oil sold in stores goes rancid very quickly--in fact it verges on being rancid even when it is sold freshly bottled. Olive oil is more healthy to use in cooking and baking and as you pointed out, it has a long shelf life.
Hello from a long-time fan. With some of the discussions going
into how to build a home that will be designed with survival in mind,
I’d thought that the following
may be useful (If you haven’t seen this stuff already).
I’ve been researching extensively differing home structures and
came across what the owners of this home call “The Ultimate Secure
Home” See: http://www.ultimatesecurehome.com/
Now I’m not advocating anyone buy this place, but it is chock-full
“Secure Home”. What scenarios to consider like plague, economic collapse,
fire, and items dealing with water support, off-grid power, communications…etc.
Also the unique dome-structure itself that has inherent security features
which led me to a company called Formworks Building Inc. See: http://www.formworksbuilding.com/ They
are experts in designing thin concrete-shelled Earth homes using a
unique steel reinforcement structure that (according to them) will
cost no more than a standard framed home. Best Regards, - R.G.
Mr. Rawles,
I realize you are busy, and appreciate any response you can supply.
I am residing about 20 miles out of St. Louis, Missouri. I realize
my close proximity to
such a large urban area is far from ideal, but I do not have the financial
security to quit the job and move out to a less populated area. Now, my question
is not in regard to my specific area. Rather, my question is regarding the
rest of Missouri. I have friends owning land in central Missouri in a small
community that have extended an offer to allow me to bunk with them if worst
comes to worst. I do not see Missouri on your Top 19 list, and I wonder how
it ranks up in your personal opinion? I can certainly research my state's ranking
as compared to other states, but any opinion you could share on Missouri would
be appreciated. Thanks! - B.J.
JWR Replies: As mentioned in previous posts, I don't consider
anything in that portion of the country to be survivable if and when things
get truly Schumeresque.
(Too much population density and is downwind of too many nuke
targets.) Read my posts from early August, 2005 in the Archives for
details.
I am not familiar enough with Missouri to make any specific locale
recommendations. All that I can say with relatiive certainty is that
its population density makes it marginal for a grid down situation.
Some
rural parts
of the state might pull through in a grid up situation. But once the
grid goes down, all bets are off. With that much population you would
have devote all your manpower to security. Then who is going to handle
the gardening?
Perhaps someone who reads the blog who also lives in a rural portion
of Missouri will send me an e-mail and
enlighten us.
Hello Jim,
I really enjoyed Buckshot’s post on eating wild game. Like him
we eat “off
the land,” on a regular basis. There is bear, beaver, turtle, pheasant,
muskrat, rabbit, squirrel and venison in our freezer right now. We recently
tried canning up some blue gill with great success.Free food is out there for
the taking and it is good. Get started now and find out for yourself, which
is the best way to fix game to your tastes. By the way we like to brown the
cut up muskrat, place it in a roaster, make gravy in the frying pan and pour
over the meat. Put some dressing balls on top the meat and cook it for a couple
of hours at 350 degrees. (This will tenderize the meat if you are cooking an
older animal) Make some mashed potatoes and you have a feast. Remember folks,
anyone that will eat chicken will eat anything! Just follow a chicken around
for a day and you’ll know what I mean. I should add
that I have not eaten everything in our AO though.
I killed a opossum one day, with the intention of cleaning it, but it was so
ugly I decided that I was
not that hungry (at least at that time). We keep a number of traps around our
house. A double spring conibear (a step up from the 110 size) has a 7” opening
and will work it’s magic
on most of the “small deer” that Buckshot was referring to.
As an FYI, here is a link for vitamins that are advertised to store for 10
years.
http://www.nitro-pak.com/product_info.php/products_id/1022 I
use these vitamins myself and would recommend Nitro-Pak. Their customer service
is excellent. Keep up the great work, and God Bless. - John & Abigail Adams
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous
sea of liberty.”
- Thomas Jefferson
Note from Jim: When you patronize any SurvivalBlog advertiser, please tell them where you saw their ad.
The agricultural Umpqua River Valley is one of my most highly recommended
regions in Oregon. Unlike the Willamette Valley--Oregon's largest
agricultural region, which may get swarmed by the masses from Portland
and Salem,
the Umpqua River
Valley
has relative
geographic isolation. However, the proximity of the major population
centers of northern California are troubling. The Umpqua valley wraps
around
west
from
Roseburg, Oregon.
Concentrate on small towns like Melrose, Cleveland, and Umpqua.
According to Oregon State University (OSU)’s School of Agriculture,
Umpqua River Valley crops include: snap beans, beets, head cabbage,
cantaloupe,
carrots,
cauliflower, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, medicinal and culinary herbs,
onions, green peas, peppers, pumpkins, squash, sweet corn, tomatoes,
melons, and various vegetable seed crops.
Statistics (for Roseburg):
Growing season: 217 days.
Average snowfall in January: 3.5” (6.1” annually).
Median residential home price in Roseburg: $129,940.
Advantages: Very long growing season and very diverse agriculture.
Upwind from all anticipated nuclear targets except for Roseburg, which
might be a tertiary target in a full scale exchange. From
Oregontravels.com: “Extremes
of heat and cold are rare. The summer humidity is low and snowfall
is rare on the valley floor. The normal growing season is 217 days.
Roseburg enjoys one of the lowest average wind velocities in the United
States.” Good small mouth bass and steelhead fishing in the South
Umpqua River.
Disadvantages: Proximity to California. Large seasonal population of
migrant farm workers.
Grid Up Retreat Potential: 2 (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: 1 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best)
"I could never eat that!" I can't tell you the numbers of times I have heard that one! With normal grocery-store-plastic-and-foam-to-grill crowd I can understand that statement. But from hunters? I have seen people look down their nose at suggesting eating wild game but mention other animals and they freak out. Mention eating muskrats and people look at you like you are from Mars and have two heads. They have that "Stay away from my children" look. I find it amusing. Muskrat (a.k.a. Marsh Rabbit) is said to have a rat tail. But true rat tail is round whereas a marsh rabbit's tail is flat on the sides.)
This reminds of old western
movie I saw with Paul Newman. A lady says "I could never
eat a dog." Paul Newman replies " Lady if you
were really hungry I mean really hunger not just missing a meal but
not
having a meal in three days. You would gladly eat it and fight over
the bones to suck the marrow out." In a lot of ways I feel like
Paul Newman if you were really hungry you would gladly eat it.
For many years in Louisiana have been called "marsh rabbits" think
about it you are hunting rabbits miles from anywhere around a small
farm pond you shoot a rabbit. I bet that rabbit would be good eating,
right? Now take it one more step in the pond is muskrats they live
and feed on
almost the same kind of food, plant life. How come the rabbit is a
prize and the muskrat is scorned? Program response because people have
been
lead to believe
that anything with the word "Rat" in it is unfit for human
consumption. I remember the time when I was single and sharing an apartment
with two
other guys. I spent a day making jerky. They came home and the kitchen
table was covered with finished jerky that was cooling before packing.
They
ask if they could try some. I said sure why not. They were eating and
raving about how great it was. After both had eaten 3 or more pieces
they ask what kind of
meat it
was. I smiled and said guess? Tasted like farm raise beef kind of lean.
Maybe an old bull that was why it was chewy. Nope, snapping turtle,
I reply. One guy immediately ran to bathroom to puke. The other guy
grabbed another piece and said that it was great. You see it was all
psychological
for the guy who puked. Just seconds before raving about how good it
was until he found out what it was.
Muskrat is the same way. Sometimes when a person becomes brave enough
to try it they will gut a muskrat inside the house. This I will warn
is a big mistake. Muskrat live a long time underwater and for some
reason they really smell when you open their guts up. Make sure
you clean them outside. Or if you just want to try it skin it leave
the guts in and cut off the back legs. I did this last year on the
back legs
of m'rats and we BBQ on the grill. I can say with all honestly it was
the best marsh rabbit I have ever cooked. How does this fit into a
survival plan will you can easily trap them with 110 conibears, or
if you are heading to a retreat you can make a multiply catch trap.
Yes, this trap can catch up to 10 in one night but most customers report
back they get between 3 and 5
a night.
But what other animals can you get? Learn to snare "small deer". What
the heck are small deer? Raccoons, ground hogs, beaver, etc.. Even
in most suburban areas there is plenty of animals running around like
raccoons, ground hogs (woodchucks) squirrels, rabbits, marsh rabbits,
etc. Raccoons
are easy to snare once you learn how. Now raccoon are a very important
survival food because 2 lbs of roasted coon meat equals 2500 calories.
As US
ROG stated 1 raccoon can provide a soldier 4 days worth of food. How
you cook raccoons is very important they are very greasy but if you
grill or roast them
over a fire so the fat can drip off they are truly excellent. Another
way is to par boil allowed to cool and strip the meat off and then
make
a stew.
Beaver another excellent food source. In fact they are one of my favorite
wild game I like it better then venison. They taste real close to
beef. My Survival Snaring and Water Trapping videos both cover catching
these animals in detail. As one customer told me. "I took the
back legs off and decide to roast it at work one day. Place two back
legs in
roasting pan pour over the meat 1 cup of Lipton onion soup and baked
for 1 hour.
Guys
at work were at first real hesitant to try it. But finally they did
and before I knew it almost all of it was gone. Afterwards everyone
was asking when
I was bringing more in."
I always hear that "all the animals will be
wiped out". I smile when I hear this one. Please keep believing this
more food for the rest of us.
I have read hundreds of account of trappers who made it through the
Great Depression. You can't hunt all the animals out like beaver and
marsh
rabbits--you
need traps for that. You still should have store food but what if you
can add 25-100 animals each year. Sure would stretch your food supply,
won't
it? By the way, I trapped in Michigan back in the late 1970s and early
1980s. That was when some counties had unemployment at 25% (same as
the Great Depression) I caught plenty
of animals.
One last thing Pre-Y2K I was working a show selling conibears traps
and snares. Two Air Force enlisted guys in uniform walk by and I ask
if they want any traps they said "no I could never do that to
an animal." I
just smiled. The conibear trap was rated as one of the most humane
traps for quick kills on the market. Just a different kind of mouse
trap. But when these folks come back day, after day, after day, after
day with
no game from hunting they will wish to God they would have bought some
trapping supplies. In a True TEOTWAWKI happens with no resupply possible
and
you are hungry for three days straight sure would be nice to whip out
some traps and snare) and go catch dinner. But only if you can get
over your programming
of "I
could never eat that!" - Buckshot
Hey Jim,
A gent recently wrote you regarding the reliability of the AK. This
is something I can attest to first hand. Kind of a long story so
I'll
try to keep
it short. My nephew had used one of my Polytech AK's one weekend he
was visiting, cleaned it and gave it back. Let me preface this by saying
that I've had this particular weapon almost 20 years now and have had
no less than 30,000 rounds through it. And yes, the barrel is pretty
shot out at this point, accuracy is about 1/3 of what it originally
was. Anyway, the next time I used the rifle was for let's say a defensive
rifle shooting competition. This involved engaging targets at varying
ranges up to 200 yards under more than a little stress, movement, etc.
Right from the start the action of the rifle felt "slow." I
hesitated for a second cause I knew something was wrong with the rifle.
I completed that course and was 90% through the next course of fire
(about 400 rounds total) when the bolt locked back on the weapon. I
went through the normal malfunction drill and the bolt would not move.
It was stuck about halfway. I covered the last few targets with pistol
fire to complete the course. I disassembled the AK to get the tension
to release on the bolt and to figure out what had happened. It seems
my nephew got the receiver cover to fit in UNDER the notch on the rear
sight assembly (I didn't know that was even possible!) I mean the notch
that the receiver cover is supposed to fit OVER. I found a broken piece
of metal jammed next to the bolt carrier in the receiver. Upon further
inspection I found HALF OF THE TRIGGER gone (it had broken off). The
best I can figure is that the receiver cover forced the bolt carrier
down into the receiver and somehow it sheared off part of the trigger.
I put the weapon back together (now with HALF a trigger), checked the
barrel and proceeded to shoot another couple hundred rounds that day.
The trigger held up fine, it's one of those two leg type triggers.
The hammer springs on those weapons are also double wound and designed
to function at 90% even with one of the springs broke!
FWIW, I was really stupid at 17 years old. A friend and I used
to bury our AKs in mud, sand, two feet of water and pull them up and
fire them. This was back when they were $265 for an original Chinese
AKS. It truly is a reliable weapon, I've seen it first hand. -
Mr. Sierra
Just a little more information on Google Earth (also available for free from Google if you type "Google Earth" in Google.com) and Google Maps satellite view (also free) maps.google.com - you can use street addresses any time - usually easiest done in 100 Main Street, 42276 or some similar fashion. It's also very easy with lat/long coordinates in the search field. There is a ton of information for free there. Also consider http://virtualearth.msn.com for older but more complete satellite maps. - L.C.
James,
I came across a website advertising a food storage calculator for $18.
Here's a free one from the LDS Church.
http://www.providentliving.org/emergencyprep/calculator/0,11242,2008-1,00.html
It invites you to identify the gender/ages of family members to produce
the custom report. By reading carefully, you will note you can
manually change the suggested quantities to reflect your family's
preferences. It's pretty complete and lets you calculate quantities by
quarters
(3 months, 6 months, all the way out to 3 years). One thing for
sure: it will make you realize that money and proper
storage area are important issues to deal with. Maybe most folks
would be starting with a 3-month's supply and then adding as money
and storage
shelves etc. become available. OBTW, I think the water amount in
a "family
report" from the LDS Food Storage Calculator is only for preparing
these foods. The amount of water at a gallon/day/person would quickly
become impossible to store. So, a running water source is crucial,
as you have regularly counseled. Better get started now. Remember
the mantra: beans, then bullets. - B.B.
Hi Jim,
Our first mountain snow of the season here in Wyoming has re-vitalized
our preparation efforts. We took a good, hard look at the homestead and
made
some substantial improvements this past week or two.
Transportation - I took my EMP-proof 1984 diesel 4X4 in for the new
steering gear that has been on the back burner for some time. The
new engine is now broken in, so I installed a dual filter system
and switched
to synthetic diesel-grade motor oil, which will only require semi-annual
changes.
Backup Heating - We already had a wood burning stove in the lower
level of the main house. Added a wood stove to the outbuilding
that houses
the pantry. To insure a long term supply of fuel, I called a
local logger and ordered a logging-truck load of logs... specifying nothing
larger than 10 inch diameter. A load costs about $1,000 and provides
approximately 20 cords of wood. I replaced my old chainsaw and
stocked
up on extra chains, oil and supplies.
I ordered a 500 gallon tank of propane that will be used to fuel
a backup generator that is on the planning board for next summer.
In
the interim, We can use it to heat the pantry with that high efficiency
furnace (that my heating-contractor brother is trading me for an
Elk hunt.)
(We keep between 2 and 3 years supply of food in the pantry and want
to be sure it is protected from freezing should the balloon go
up in mid-winter. Redundancy, Redundancy)
Bartering - Bought a few rolls of silver dimes to augment the one
ounce silver rounds on hand. Added to reloading supplies. Inventoried
the
plexiglas, plywood, screws, nails, rolls of plastic, baling wire,
barbed wire, twine, hand tools. Noted a dearth of alcoholic beverages.
We're non-smokers, but a case or so of cigarettes might be useful
Wampum.
Medical - Checked expiration dates and bought extra vitamins, aspirin,
topical antiseptic and prescribed prescription medications.
Clothing - Found that my Carhart insulated coveralls had somehow
shrunk. Replaced them and wonder how many pairs of Sorel insulated
boots We
live on high plains of Wyoming) I should have. Sometimes it's
hard to visualize a world without Wal-Mart and Cabela's.
Books - Printed and audio... Can you imagine a snowy afternoon without
books?
Keep the Faith, - The Regulator
My personal taste runs towards magazines like Backwoods Home and Countryside & Small Stock Journal. However, the once great Mother Earth News (now sadly yuppified) occasionally runs a great article. David in Israel recommended this one: http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/2001_April_May/Top_20_Homesteading_Tools
"If wisdom's ways you wisely seek,
Five things observe with care:
To whom you speak,
Of whom you speak,
And how, and when, and where."
- Caroline L. Ingalls (Mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Concentrate on small towns that are off of Interstate 5, such
as Gold Hill and Jacksonville.
Josephine County crops: Hay, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, apples, cherries,
grapes, peaches, pears, berries, garlic, and herbs.
Statistics (for Central Point):
Average high temperature in August: 90.
Average low temperature in January: 30.8.
Growing season: 165 days (1st of May to mid-October).
Average snowfall in January: 3.2”.
Median residential home price: (Rogue River): $145,000.
Median residential home price: (Gold Hill): $135,000.
Advantages: Mild climate with a long growing season. Upwind from all
potential nuclear targets in CONUS.
Disadvantages: Proximity to California' s Golden Horde. All of Oregon
suffers from the creeping Nanny State mentality that emanates from
Salem.
Note: The valley of the Rogue was the late Mel Tappan’s preferred
home/retreat locale.This
region might be a good one to consider for someone who has strong business
or family
ties
to
Northern California.
Grid Up Retreat Potential: 3 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best)
Grid Down Retreat Potential: 6 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best)
Nuclear Scenario Retreat Potential: 1 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best)
Front Sight, America's premier firearms training
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Just following the blog for the past few weeks it seems the biggest
discussion is EMP. I have to say that the idea of an EMP far enough
away from Air Force One to not blow the wings off will at worst disrupt
HF radio for a few days/weeks as the ionosphere recovers from
being charged up beautiful aurora would be expected. commercial aircraft
would likely also be not adversely affected. The EMP myth started with
the day after and grew massive, how much EMP is a car expected to
survive before we consider
it safe for survival purposes. When we consider risk we must consider
aperture and sensitivity. A radio with a 100 meter wire antenna has
both a large aperture to generate voltage as well as a very sensitive
detector mechanism that can pick up micro changes in the resonant voltage
on a given frequency. Your cars under hood electronics has neither
long runs of wire (they are also partly shielded in a nice metal
shell)
nor are they sensitive, in fact they are designed somewhat hardened
since they are subject to proximity to several thousand volt spark
discharge nearby. As always ground everything that has an antenna,
surge protect everything that connects to grid power and look for long
wire runs like cable TV and telephone lines.
During the megaton Starfish Prime space blast that opened our eyes
to EMP only grid power was affected because of the large aperture of
running lines. Even the Intel 386 processor was EMP rated and military
EMP rating is for close-in battlefield bursts. It is important to point
out that most of the EMP radiation reaching the ground would be longer
waves
typically below 30 MHz this means long antennas to get a good resonance.
The rules for shortwave radio apply to EMP, you need a real antenna
to fry electronics.
.I
need to get further information from my old E.E. professor (who was head engineer
for aftermarket
ignition parts design firm, after working designing systems for the
F-111/FB-111) for further info and will get back to you with more mil-spec
to civilian brand EMP resistance comparison info. For everyone reading
they must know losing their car/truck to carjack, nuclear strike, mutated
wombat hordes, or no fuel is not the end of the world. After your no
power/gas/water tests do a no car test week. Take a bike/donkey/bus/walk
to work, not every scenario starts with EMP, I place EMP in the same
category as dirty bomb, it has never happened but there is so much
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) surrounding the mythical EMP demon
that any discussion automatically reverts to the scary movies and books
you have seen.
JWR Replies: I agree that the EMP threat is widely misunderstood and misstated in the MSM. I have studied EMP off and and on for many years. (My first article on the subject was published in 1989 in Defense Electronics magazine.) The EMP threat is real, not mythical. It is true that the greatest risk is from EMP coupling to unintentional antennas such as phone lines or power lines. Keep in mind that the "antenna effect" is cumulative. The microcircuits that operate so many of our modern conveniences are installed in devices that are connected to grid power--and that constitutes an EMP antenna that stretches for hundreds of miles. It is also true that the 386 processors if the 1980s were specifically designed to be EMP-hardened. However, most microcircuits that have been made since then are very vulnerable--with gates (gaps between transistors) that are almost 1/10th that size. (To illustrate the significance of scaling on logic transistor density: The 386 generation chips had 1.0 micron width gates, 486s had 0.8 micron gates, Pentium Pros had 0.25 micron gates. The latest Pentium 4s have only 0.13 micron gates. And now 0.08 micron and even smaller gate-size chips are going into production.) With each generation of microcircuits, the vulnerability to EMP has steadily increased. The rise time for EMP is even faster than lightning. I do agree that the risk to vehicular ignition and fuel ignition systems might be overstated. However, a full scale EMP-optimized attack on the U.S. might do considerable damage to vehicular electronics. The extent of this damage will not be fully known until after we see that bright flash high in the sky. Prudence dictates that we prepare for the worst case. IMHO, each family should have at least one EMP-proof vehicle.
Sir, here is a short bit of advice about EMP: The older diesel farm tractors would probably be usable after an event because they have no chips or transistors to burn out, either in engines or transmissions. They'd be slow but still usable for as long as you have fuel with either gravity flow or manual pumps for fueling. Hook one to a trailer or former motor home and welcome to the post 21st century nomads. They could also power most PTO driven generators if the generator circuitry has escaped the EMP. In our area a lot of people collect old tractors for parades and farm shows, including townsfolk. Just a thought. Thanks, - Jim.
Jim,
Another very neat -very free resource that is out there is the Google
Earth program. It is available through www.downloads.com.
Many of the aerial photos that are used are substandard or old. However
much of Eastern Washington
and a lot of Northern Idaho contain the most up to date and detailed color
aerial photos. This program also allows you to drop down to above the Earth's
surface and move around like you are flying. It also uses some topo functions
to view the surface in relief. This tool may be very handy and useful for
many scouting out the terrain. The only negative is that you must navigate
from town centers. No legal [townshup and range descriptions]
or street addresses can be used. It will teach you the skills of photo interpretation
fairly quickly as you try and figure out where you are. Thought I would let
you know. - EHB in North Idaho
Hi,
As you say, the northeast is not so good for a variety of reasons. However,
if one has to stay in that area for family, work or any number of other reasons
there are areas where one can be more secure than you might expect. For example,
I live in Central New York State. Our place is more then 40 miles in any direction
to an interstate highway. The entire county has a population of just over 51k
and a population density of about 57 per square mile. Most of this is concentrated
in a few larger towns at least 18 miles away with 7k-8k of people. The town
I live in has about 1000 inhabitants and a population density of about 12.7
per square mile. The area is very hilly and densely forested. The local economy
is based on agriculture - mostly dairy, but some beef and a fair number of
small holders with sheep, goats, chickens, etc. However, there are high tech
operations as well such as aerospace, pharmaceutical, etc. within easy commuting
distance. Of course there are 2 smaller cities (Syracuse and Binghamton) within
50-60 miles. NYC is about 230 miles away while Rochester is about 90 and Buffalo
about 200.
In a slow slide scenario people will stay where they are and get whatever handouts
they can get from government. In TEOTWAWKI scenario, in a few minutes of quality
time with my chainsaw I can close off the road and make it difficult for anyone
to approach my house. If my saw isn't working I can still do it with a handsaw/axe
- although it will take more time ;-) I'd imagine that this would happen everywhere
so vehicular travel anywhere but on the interstates (they are a bit wide to
drop a tree across!) would become difficult quite rapidly. Not even ATVs can
get over a decent log snag.
Another thing that one has to remember is that in a TEOTWAWKI situation, for
about four months out of the year in this area - unless you are equipped -
you aren't going anywhere. Also, if you aren't equipped, you ARE going to die
from
the cold. I am amazed by the number of people in this area who have lived here
all there lives who do not have appropriate winter clothing, have no backup
heating system, etc.! If TSHTF in the winter most people will die off before
they get out of the city because they do not have the proper gear. Even if
they do, walking through anything more than a few inches of snow is more than
even a fit person can handle for much distance. So, in TEOTWAWKI scenario,
for about 1/3 of the year we would be isolated by mother nature. Anyhow, these
are my thoughts on the matter. Hopefully not too delusional. One must make
the best of one's own situation. BTW I do enjoy SurvivalBlog
and read it virtually every day. Sincerely, - T.P.
Dear Mr Rawles:
Greetings from the UK. Thanks for the very interesting website. I have
your book which I've read a few times now. I must admit to a certain
envy with the
potential you have over there to prepare for the possible difficult times ahead.
Just as an exercise and to make some of the people living in even the most
restrictive states feel not quite so bad I thought I'd do a run down in your
style for England the 'state' in which I live. As you will know the United
Kingdom is made of (leaving aside the anomalies like the Channel Islands and
the Isle of Man) the countries of England, Scotland, Wales and the province
Northern Ireland.
England
Population: 60.8 million.
Population Density: 1211 per square mile
Area: 50,193 square miles
Average car insurance cost: £757/yr. (NB Today £1 = $1.78)
Average home insurance cost: £203/year
Crime Safety Ranking: probably worse than you think.
Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 0.0001%. (approx!)
Average per capita income: £34,197
ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: ?.
Plusses: The countryside is still beautiful. Tradition and history still takes
some beating. Still contains vestiges of our once greatness if you look really
hard.
Minuses: Very dense population, (2nd only to the Netherlands in Europe) Very
little in the way of personal freedoms, you know about the complete ban on
private ownership of handguns. All other firearms are subject to government
licensing. You can still own an air gun (just!) as long as it is less than
12 ft/lbs (rifle) or 6 ft/lbs (pistol). Illegal to carry any knife with fixed
or lock blade or longer that 3” blade folding knife. England cannot be
recommended for anyone with a hope to survive a TEOTWAWKI situation. Very little
space to escape the teeming hoards that will flee the
cities, and realistically nothing much in the way of defensive firearms to
protect what you have. Of course the bad guys will always be able to get guns
so the law abiding won’t stand a chance, humanly speaking. We have to
remember that God is sovereign and still in control despite what we see around
us and my hope is that he will guide us to prepare as best we can within the
limitations.
Bob’s Combined Retreat Potential Ranking: 51 of 19.
Mr. Rawles,
Here is a link to a site which provides extensive nuclear war survival info.
They will provide a free CD I believe your blog readers will be interested
in:
http://www.webpal.org/freecd.htm
Please keep up the excellent work. -Echo Mike
"The right of self-defense is the first law of
nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine
this right within the narrowest possible limits. ... and [when] the
right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext
whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on
the brink of destruction."
- St. George Tucker, Virginia Supreme Court Judge, 1803
I've completed the "State by State" level analysis series that I posted earlier in the month. For ease of reference, this data is now archived at the Retreat Areas static page. (See the new button in the SurvivalBlog navigation bar.) I'm now moving on to providing detailed retreat locale recommendations. While I'm posting these, please give this some serious thought. Particularly for those of you living east of the Mississippi and for our overseas readers, I would appreciate you sharing your expertise. If you know of a particular region with retreat potential, please e-mail me the details, and I will post them.
To begin, a great site for surveying the extent and type of agriculture in various regions can be found at: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/cropmap
My post for the next few weeks will include listings of my most highly recommended regions in the western United States to consider for survival retreats. Note: I will likely add to or delete from these posts, based on substantive input from readers. (SurvivalBlog readers never hesitate to tell me when I’m mistaken—and I’m always willing to defer to those with more knowledge!)
Notes on My Sources (These were also used for my State-By-State
analysis):
Most of the tax and real estate price data is from 2003 or later references.
The Crime Safety Rankings quoted are based on 2003 data compiled by the Morgan
Quinto Awards. This ranking compares six crime categories: murder, rape, robbery,
aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle thefts. This data is plugged
into a formula that measures how a state compares to the national average for
a given crime category. See http://www.MorganQuinto.com for details.
The population density data was calculated by my #2 Son
The health insurance rate data was courtesy of Web M.D. See: http://my.webmd.com/content/article/74/89117.htm
For current information on home schooling laws in various states, see: http://www.hslda.org/laws
For current information on home birth laws in various states, see: http://www.cfmidwifery.org/states/
Concentrate on small towns north of the reservation line, such as Bigfork,
Creston, Proctor, Rollins, and Somers.
On Staying Outside the Reservation: Much of the lower elevations in this region
are inside the boundaries of the Flathead Indian Reservation. The united Salish
and Kootenai (“S&K”)
tribal government has been forcefully asserting its sovereignty in recent years,
affecting both tribal members and everyone else living inside the reservation
boundaries. (Even deeded property owners!) If you want to buy land in this
region, buy land that is beyond the reservation boundaries but that is still
at low elevation. This you will have to look for properties north of Dayton.
(Dayton itself
is just
inside the reservation.)
Statistics (for Kalispell):
Average high temperature in August: 80.2.
Average low temperature in January: 13.9.
Growing season: 140 Days (Typically May 9 to Sep. 27).
Average snowfall in January: 17.1”.
County Median residential home price:
Advantages: Well removed from any urban region. Fairly diverse economy. Excellent
fishing and big game hunting. Plentiful firewood.
Disadvantages: Much of this region lies inside the Flathead Indian Reservation
boundaries. Cold climate. Relatively high land prices.
Grid Up Retreat Potential: 3 (On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best)
Grid Down Retreat Potential: 4 (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)
It has been said that nothing is inevitable except death and taxes. But personally, I add inflation to that list. Inflation is an insidious hidden form of taxation
We've been robbed! According to The Inflation Calculator, what cost $100 in 1905 would cost $2052.36 in 2005. The U.S. dollar has lost 95% of its value in that time. (If you were to buy exactly the same products in 2005 and 1905, they would cost you $100 and $4.87 respectively.) The inflation rate jumped considerably in the 1960s and 1970s. It is no coincidence that the U.S. Treasury stopped minting real silver coins in 1964.
Even it this current era of supposedly"low" inflation, the depredations of inflation are inexorable-- but just slower. It is like watching a 50 pound ice block sitting in the sun. The real rate of inflation is presently about 6.5%. Thus, you need to make at least 6.5% a year on your money just to keep pace with inflation. In the long term the concept of "saving" for retirement is almost fallacious, especially when you consider the bouts of inflation that are likely to occur in the next 20 years. The twin deficits--budget and trade--will inevitably lead to much higher rates of inflation in the years to come. Perhaps we'll even experience a full-blown hyperinflationary currency crisis that will wipe out the value of all of our dollar-denominated investments in just a few months. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: If you want to protect yourself from inflation, then buy tangibles. My late father used to be fond of saying: "There are three kinds of people in the world: People who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and [the majority of people,] the people who wonder, 'What the heck happened?'" Inflation is a process that is so subtle that the majority of people do not recognize it for what it is.
It is safe to assume that inflation will continue, and will only get worse, especially with commodities. Oil will likely double in the next 18 months. So that means corresponding increases in gas, diesel, and home heating oil. Wheat, rice, and other commodities will also jump up in price. They too, may double soon. Protect yourself from inflation. Stock up on tangibles. Not only is it wise to be prepared physically, but you can also consider these tangibles a prudent investment.
Hello from Pleasanton, California! I too look at the hills and
envision the populations of Hayward, Oakland, et al. swarming over
into our
little valley in the event of disaster. So we have a "ten-year
plan" to purchase and stock a "vacation home" in NE
Oregon. I have been looking long-distance at the Wallowa Valley. Do
you have any particular objection to planning on freshwater lakes as
a fallback source of water? (I am thinking of Wallowa Lake.) Just wondering
what may have pushed you to choose the Grande Ronde valley over the
Wallowa.
You may wish to link to the below: a fantastic collection of 3-D aerial
topographic maps. They can really help to visualize a region, and complement "flat" topo
maps. This is a very nice tool for folks like myself who do not own
topo map software. See: http://130.166.124.2/panoramas1.htm
Best, - D.M.
JWR Replies: I'll have details on both the Grande Ronde Valley
and the Wallowa Valley sometime in the next two weeks.
Mr.
Rawles:
Glad I found your site...it is a daily read for me. I watched a show
that was on Discovery (I think) channel this past weekend, about a
special police force in South Africa. Relevant here is that part of
the show where they went to destroy certain arms caches left from a war
decades ago. The arms were buried under massive rocks,
far from civilization. At one point it show a truly nasty AK-47, rusted
and just looked like garbage. One of the officers poured a can of oil
over it, and in it, worked the bolt a few times, jammed a magazine
in it, and fired 10-12 straight shots into a target set up 20 or so
yards
away. It was an eye-opener. Keep up the great work. - Bruce
"Make preparations in advance... You never have trouble if you
are prepared for it."
- Theodore Roosevelt
Note From JWR: Please continue to pray for the folks who suffered damage from Hurricane Rita. OBTW, your support of efficient (low-overhead) Christian charities providing relief to the area would also be greatly appreciated.
Warning: Today's blog posts will exceed your recommended daily allowance of Gloom 'n Doom.
Before selecting retreat locale, It is crucial that you decide on your
own worst case scenario. A location that is well-suited to surviving
a "slow-slide" grid
up scenario
(a la the deflationary depression of the 1930s) might not necessarily
be well suited to a grid
down situations.
As stated in my post on August 15, 2005, a grid down situation will
likely cause a sudden onset variation of TEOTWAWKI with
a concomitant mass exodus from the big cities resulting
in chaos on a scale heretofore
never seen in modern memory. (See below.)
My own personal "best case" scenario is an economic depression,
with the grid still up, and still some semblance of law and order.
Things would be bad, but the vast majority of the population would
live through it. Living in a rural agricultural area won't ensure that
you'll always have a job, but probably will ensure that you won't starve.
My personal "worst case" scenario takes a lot more description:
A rogue nation state launches three or four MIRVed ICBMs
with high yield warheads simultaneously detonating at 100,000 feet
over America's
population center, preferably in October or November, to maximize the
extent of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effects. With only six warheads arriving "time
on target" (synchronized for simultaneous detonation) over, for
example, Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Seattle, and
Los Angeles,
more
than 90% of
the U.S.
population would fall within the footprint of EMP. With such an attack
there would be hardly any initial casualties aside for a few thousand
people unlucky enough to be traveling on that day. (Since EMP would
disable electric flight controls, causing any modern aircraft to go
out of control and crash, and the sudden loss of engine power in automobiles
at the same time as a blinding flash would likely cause thousands of
high speed car crashes.) A high altitude air burst would impart no
blast or radiation effects on the ground. Nothing other than just EMP.
But
what an effect! Think of the full implications.
As previously stated, the higher an nuclear air burst is detonated,
the wider the line of sight (LOS), and hence the larger the footprint
of
EMP
effects. With an EMP-optimized attack, as I just posited, EMP
would be coupled to nearly all of the installed microcircuit chips
in the
U.S., southern Canada, and northern Mexico. In a enormous
cascade this
would take
down all of the north American power grids, and cripple virtually
every vital industry and utility: Natural gas production and
piping, municipal water systems, telephone systems (hardwire and cellular),
refining,
trucking, banking, Internet services, agricultural machinery, electrically-pumped
irrigation systems, you name it! 95% of cars and trucks would be inoperative.
With the dependence of the power utilities on computers, I have my
doubts that they would be able to restore the power grid for weeks,
or months, or perhaps years. And with the chaos of society disintegrating
around them, they might not have the time or opportunity to restore
the grid, even if they would otherwise have the means to do so. This
would mean TEOTWAWKI on a grand scale. The words "dog eat dog" do
not even begin to describe how things would become in the cities and
suburbs. Soon after, as the cities became unlivable (without power,
heat, water,
sanitation, or transportation of foodstuffs) this would cause a massive,
involuntary exodus from the cities and suburbs, almost entirely on
foot, comprised of countless millions of starving people. With
winter coming on, this would result in a
massive die-off, perhaps as much as 70% of the American population. It
would not be until after that die-off that some semblance of order
could be restored.
This crush of humanity will of course head for any agricultural regions
that are within 50 to 75 miles of the major cities. Hence, I would
not want to be a farmer living in Pennsylvania's farmlands, California's
central or Imperial valleys or Oregon's Willamette valley. They will
simply get swarmed and overwhelmed.
Surviving a Long Term a Grid Down WTSHTF Situation
Even in the absence of EMP, any set of circumstances that would bring
down the power grids (for example a major war, a fuel embargo, a cyber
attack on power utility Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)
software, etc.) would be devastating, and have a similar result. The
biggest difference
would be that the Golden Horde would
have functional cars available--at least as long as their gas lasted.
This would and Lets say that you've already moved to a lightly populated
agricultural region that is more than 150 miles from any major city.
Assuming that you can avoid the ravages of the Golden Horde by virtue
of geographic isolation, you will then have to contend with producing
food. If the region that you selected is dependent on electrically-pumped
irrigation water, then you'll be out of luck. That is why I emphasize
the importance "dry land farming" regions. (Regions where
consistent seasonal rains are sufficient to produce crops.) A small
scale "truck" farmer in such as region, producing a wide
variety of vegetables will be sitting pretty. Even with horse drawn
or hand cultivation, he will have large quantities of excess crops
available for barter and charity. By teaming up with neighbors and
hired hands (paid in barter) for "strength in numbers" he will
be able to defend what he owns. With copious produce available, he
will be able to barter for harvesting manpower, horses, tools, and
so forth. IMO, a man in this position and locale is the most
likely survivor of TEOTWAWKI.
With the aforementioned in mind, you can see than importance of finding
the right retreat locale. Ideally, it will be far removed from
metropolitan regions, have a fairly long growing season, plentiful
rainfall, rich topsoil, a reliable domestic water supply that us not dependent
on grid power (preferably spring-fed), nearby sources of firewood or
coal, and a light ambient population density. If you combine all of
these factors--visualize them as map overlays--you will end up with
only a few regions in north America that are wholly suitable for "worst
case" retreats. Start with a photocopy of a climate book with
maps of America's farming regions. Mask out any farming regions that
are depending on grid-power pumped irrigation water. Then take a compass
and start drawing radiuses around all of the cities with
a
population
greater
than 200,000 and shade them in.
Depending
on your level of pessimism about the scenario and/or your estimation
of the depravity of human nature, you may be drawing some pretty large
circles!
Hurricane Katrina was a wake up call. I cannot imagine how anyone could
watch the television coverage of the aftermath of Katrina and not come
to the conclusion that we live in a highly interdependent technological
society with enormously long lines of supply and just
a thin veneer of civilization, as documented in countless newspaper
stories.
It doesn't take much to disrupt those interdependencies, nor to expose
what lies
just
beneath
that
thin veneer. Like an onion,
what
lies beneath is not very pretty smelling.
Get to Know the NRCS Man!
You will note that I specifically mentioned topsoil in the preceding
discussion. The importance of soil quality in the event of a true "worst
case" must be emphasized. As S.M.
Stirling so aptly described
it in his science fiction novel "Dies The Fire",
soil quality is not crucial in modern mechanized agriculture. If an
acre of ground
produces
5 bushels
of wheat versus 12 bushels of wheat it is not of great consequence
when you are cultivating hundreds or even thousands of acres from inside
the cab of an air conditioned $40,000 tractor, or a $70,000 combine.
However, if someday you are reduced to traditional pre-industrial manpower
or horsepower, where cultivating just a few acres will require monumental
exertion, then
the soil
quality will make a tremendous difference between feeding a community,
and starvation. Therefore, have the soil analyzed before you
buy a retreat property! Determining
the
soil
types
within
a region should be your first step--in fact even before you talk to
the first real estate agent. Buying lunch for the soils specialist
at the
local
Agricultural Extension office might be a valuable investment. On
your first scouting trip to
your proposed retreat region, call the USDA Agricultural Extension
Office,
and ask to talk to a soils specialist at the NRCS (National Resources
Conservation Service) desk. (The NRCS was formerly called the Soil
Conservation
Service.)
James Wesley--
I admire and deeply appreciate the detailed counsel you have been giving
about self-sufficiency and defense. After I borrowed "Patriots" from
the library, I went ahead and paid $50 for a used copy. We became "First
Family" members at Front Sight on your say-so, even though we
are in Hawaii and can't even attend Front Sight until 8/2006. So
I think I merit being heard with respect to your musing that being
a non-Mormon in a Mormon community might make you "expendable".
To the contrary, the unbelievably magnificent efforts in time, people
and materiel of the LDS Church in the Katrina disaster and the pre-positioning
by the LDS Church of additional goods and resources for the impending
Rita disaster give the lie to your insinuation that the Mormons look
after themselves first.
In fact, I think you have the situation backwards--American history
shows that when "push comes to shove" it's the Mormons who
have been expendable. In fact, the first Americans to suffer for defending
the rights of "free
men of color" were the Mormons. For their defense of civil rights
in Missouri, the Mormons were burned out, many beaten, some raped,
and a number murdered. Finally, the shameful Missouri Governor's Extermination
Order threatening that if the Mormons didn't leave the state at once
the state militia would kill them makes it abundantly clear who considers
whom to be "expendable". [JWR Comments: Out
of fairness, one should distinguish between the mid-19th Century and
the early 21st
Century.
As a "gentile"
I cannot be blamed for those atrocities any more than I can be blamed
for the institution of slavery in America. We are several generations
removed from
those events and all of those involved in them.]
It might be enlightening for you to know that the first people to defend
themselves against an illegal and immoral invasion by the United States
Army were the Mormons. Self-serving politicians sought to gain votes
by sending the Army to put down a so-called "rebellion" by
the Mormons in Deseret. Thank God, the military leadership refused
to be used in such a way and entered an abandoned Salt Lake City peacefully,
their commander riding through the streets at the head of his troops
with his head uncovered honoring the people he knew to be maligned.
I truly believe that, unless you are like the heroes in "Patriots" and
are taking care of yourself, the absolutely best place to be in a crunch
will be in a rural community with a heavy Mormon majority. And that
is true, not insignificantly, because the Mormons believe the Constitution
of the United States of America to be a divinely inspired document--and
have shed blood defending its principles.
Now on perhaps a lighter note about "who is my neighbor":
When we moved to a little island in Washington state some years ago,
a neighbor,
getting acquainted, said, "Oh, Mormons! Good. I'll
know where to come when I need food." I answered (and I meant
it): "Yes Ma'am, I don't have food for one family for 24 months;
I have food for four families for six months."
Now you've got me on a roll. This same family: husband an attorney,
wife an elementary school teacher, her dad an MD were stuck, like us,
in an ice storm on Thanksgiving day some years ago. Everybody's turkeys
were cooling in the ovens. The phones weren't affected so the neighbor
called over to borrow my Coleman stove to heat up some water for coffee.
Why not, we had our free-standing iron stove doing its job for us.
I sent a daughter over with the, admittedly, ancient white-gas stove.
After a quarter hour, the neighbor called back to say the stove didn't
seem to work and could I help. I was embarrassed: here I am the local "how-to-hack
it" guru and my dumb stove is DOA. So I went over to apologize,
and beat a retreat with my Coleman antique. There they were in their
family room huddled around the stove in blankets with burnt out matches
on the floor--and with the gas canister still undeployed inside the
stove! I realized that had these folks got their fingers on the red
knob and opened it, they might well have burnt their home down--and
maybe mine too!
It never occurred to me that they were expendable.
I hope you will take the opportunity in your blog to "lighten
up" on your castigation of Mormons. I have never checked out my
neighborhood to see if any non-Mormons were around that I could get
rid of in a crisis. I have held important positions in LDS Church administration
in Salt Lake City, California, New Zealand, Washington, and Hawaii,
and have never heard any such notions from any of my brothers and sisters
in the Church. - B.B. in Hawaii
Jim--
Just a few nits to pick (grin), RE: "A draconian business gross
receipts tax of 2-to-3%. Marginal gun laws.
Very high sales tax. (8.8%)"
Can't disagree with draconian. Can disagree with the B&O rates, slightly.
They depend completely on the type of business. My business is taxed at 1.5%.
Sales taxes vary per county over a very wide range.
Gas tax is $0.28 per gallon.
Just for fun, check out this link for "major" taxes in the Evergreen
state. Yikes.
http://dor.wa.gov/content/taxes/MajorTaxes.aspx
There are also more than a few badges (not obvious, but there nonetheless if
you know what to look for) at our local gun shows at the County fairgrounds.
Keeping an eye on who, what, and how much. Not particularly comfortable about
that one. Best Regards, and keep up the good work. - T.S.
Greetings Jim,
I'm writing to give you more information on Iowa. While it's true we're too close to Chicago there are only a few handfuls of bridges to cross the Mississippi. These can be blocked by backing semi-trailers onto the spans and abandoning the trailers in rows. Crossing a bridge blockaded in such a fashion, guarded by a few dedicated snipers, makes removal of the barricades a more than interesting proposition! No mob is hard-core enough to attempt removal, or crossing on foot for more than a few minutes, before moving on to a new path of lesser resistance. Field implements with folding hydraulic "wings" can also be used in such instances. Once in place, without the proper equipment, their tonnages are impossible to move, easily or quickly. As for food production, their are many farmers markets during the growing season, that sell everything from fruits & vegetables, to pastry's & pies, to homemade crafts, (quilts to cupboards). These can be roadside stands to county courthouse parking lots. Usually every Saturday till they sell out of goods. We have good wells with fresh water, most have been tested for contaminants and have passed. We have a good work ethic and have lately been adding solar & wind farms to the economy, plus the expansion of the ethanol industry is helping to get Iowa energy independent. Corn turned into ethanol can still be fed as mash to cattle, the cobs burned to heat the distillers, soybeans turned into bio-diesel for the fleets of semi's to move grain & goods also improve grain prices, i.e., local economies. Plus we're far enough away to avoid the problems of the Yellowstone caldera [JWR Comments: I beg to differ! According to geologists, the last time that a super-caldera blew up in the same area, locations as far down wind as what is now Virginia ended up under 15 feet of ashfall!] , and the recently developing 4 Sisters,(soon to be 5?), bulge. Whatever that may entail. The hunting season this year for the first time will also add rifles to the already legal shotgun, handgun, & bow hunting deer hunts. A bonanza of deer & trophy deer being available. Also we are now finding that we have feral pigs in numbers & weights up to 400 lbs. in some timbered areas of the state. I've probably missed some other highlights, and hopefully others can fill you in on the price and performance of corn burning stoves, etc., that I have glaringly left out from ignorance. Thanks Jim! Best wishes on this exciting new blog. A fervent devotee, - K.H.
"Harry: Look sweetheart, for the next few weeks survival is
going
to have to be on an individual level.
Ann: What do you want to do, write off the rest of the world?
Harry: When civilization gets civilized again, I'll rejoin."
- Ray Milland, Panic in the Year Zero
Note From JWR: Today's SurvivalBlog post has been
put up 24 hours early, due to the communications disruptions that are
expected to
be caused
by
Hurricane Rita.
I'm glad that most of the SurvivalBlog readers stocked up on liquid fuels long ago. Here are some details on the wholesale oil supply reductions. This comes from an oil industry insider newsletter report (dated 22 September):
HURRICANE RITA UPDATE
Recent forecasts place Hurricane Rita directly over Galveston [now
OBE], threatening
the Houston area, home to almost 25 percent of U.S. refining capacity.
OPIS estimates that by noon on Friday (9/23), refinery closures could impact
as much as 3.8 million bbl/d of refining capacity. Current confirmed closures
will affect approximately 2.7 million bbl/d of refining capacity.
Information is still being gathered on other potential affects of the storm,
such as disruption of tanker shipments of crude oil and refined product barges.
The following is the latest information from OPIS on refinery closures:
CONFIRMED CLOSURES
Flint Hills, Corpus Christi, 305,000 bbl/d
ExxonMobil, Baytown, 580,000 bbl/d
BP, Texas City, 460,000 bbl/d
ConocoPhillips, Sweeny, 228,000 bbl/d
Marathon, Texas City, 76,000 bbl/d (anticipated)
DECISIONS PENDING
Valero, Texas City, 215,000 bbl/d
Valero, Houston, 85,000 bbl/d
Astra, Pasadena, 103,000 bbl/d
Lyondell-Citgo, 283,000 bbl/d
Shell Deer Park, 340,000 bbl/d
PIPELINE SHUTDOWN
Teppco is shutting down its Seaway crude pipeline, Baytown terminal
operations and four pipelines from Texas City, Houston, Red Bluff and
Baytown.
Dixie – Mont Belvieu facility shut down.
Port of Houston – closed as of 5 p.m. today.
STILL DOWN FOLLOWING HURRICANE KATRINA
ExxonMobil, Chalmette, LA,190,000 bbl/d
ConocoPhillips, Belle Chasse, LA, 260,000 bbl/d
Murphy, Meraux, LA, 125,000 bbl/d
Chevron, Pascagoula, Miss., 350,000 bbl/d
There is no way to estimate how long refineries will be offline due to Hurricane
Rita. Fortunately some of the refineries are on higher ground than those affected
by Hurricane Katrina, although storm surges of 20 feet resulting from Rita are
currently predicted. Also, electricity outages could hinder the refineries’ ability
to get back online, as well as personnel issues. Some 800,000 bbl/d have been
lost due to Hurricane Katrina.
PRODUCTION
Offshore companies are continuing to evacuate facilities in Gulf
of Mexico. MMS reports 469 platforms and 69 rigs have been evacuated.
This represents 1,097,357
bbl/d of crude oil, which is 73.16 percent of daily Gulf Coast oil production.
POTENTIAL AREAS AFFECTED BY PRODUCT SHORTAGES
Areas served by these three major pipelines:
Colonial/Plantation (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South
Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia, New
Jersey, New
York, Pennsylvania)
Teppco (Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan
and Ohio)
Explorer (Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois)
Excellent blog, sir. I read it every day. I've also read Patriots several
times, I'm on my second copy.
I live in Illinois. (I know,
I know, I'm working on it.) I wouldn't even ask how low Illinois was
rated, if it were me doing the rating it would be near the bottom for
many reasons; gun laws,
high taxes, corrupt politicians, terrible roads, and overcrowding anywhere
near Chicago. High insurance rates of all kinds, high crime rate, and
the weather stinks. There is a pretty long growing season, more than
some of the western states you discuss, and there used to be plenty
of work here. That's not the case anymore, due to many reasons you're
no doubt aware of from your research. On to the main reason
for my post: In regards to the dual fuel letter from The Army
Aviator, these kits are still available from several
dealers. I just bought and installed a tri-fuel kit for my 5 KW genny.
I can now run it on gasoline, natural gas, and propane--either the
large tanks or 20 pound tanks. Total cost was
about $220 shipped. The conversion took about 1 hour, but could probably
be done a little quicker. I took my time and made sure I didn't miss
anything.
The conversion
can be done with gasoline in the tank, no problem. I tried it on propane
from a 20 pound tank, and it works great! The genny runs smoother on
propane than it did on gasoline. And of course propane stores much
safer and longer
[than gasoline]. I bought my kit from U.
S. Carburetion, but there
are several other suppliers.
Google or other search engines will find them.
James:
The flu of 1918 killed more people than World War I. The Black Death
(bubonic plague) was a leading cause of death during the middle ages.
The ban on DDT and the resultant rebound of malaria has caused more
death
than Stalin and Mao and the Austrian corporal (may their memory and
name be erased).
History is filled with the tragedy caused by intentional and unintentional
microorganism-caused deaths. Plans need to be made for dealing with
disease vectors that can carry these microbes. Rodents can carry
plague and many other pathogens, cats are good but may carry the
pathogen from their prey into your home. Traps and poisons may get
domestic animals or children. Mosquitoes may carry malaria and West
Nile. Acquire mosquito netting, repellents, and bug lights (low power
versions are available even battery powered.) People infected with
any type
of malaria other
than P falciparum most likely can be treated with chloroquine (Aralen)
or mefloquine (Lariam). Most people can tolerate these oral drugs.
Or you may initially be treated with quinidine (Quinalan, Quinidex,
Cardioquin, Duraquin), a related heart medication that also kills malarial
parasites. P falciparum drug resistance to chloroquine is widespread,
especially in Southeast Asia, South America, and East Africa (the latter
spreading westward). Those infected with P falciparum malaria, or if
the doctor does not know the specific type of malaria, are likely to
be treated with IV quinine (Formula Q). Quinine bitters were initially
popularized as a treatment for malaria last century, now quinine has
become a prescription only medication
in the last few years. The quinine levels in modern tonic water is
below therapeutic values. Malaria was a scourge in both the southern
and western USA. Wetlands laws have allowed mosquito breeding areas
to remain but mass planting of eucalyptus can dry up some swamps.
Fleas, ticks, and lice carry Lyme disease, Bubonic plague and other
diseases as well as opening the skin to infection. Pet dips, soaps,
and repellents may be considered but watch for reactions or allergies.
Massive consumption of garlic has been known to repel these parasites
as well as mosquitoes in many humans and animals. Reductions in infrastructure
and public health work from natural or man made disasters could cause
a return of pestilence to first world
nations. Be prepared!
JWR Adds: "David" is the pseudonym of SurvivalBlog's volunteer correspondent in Israel. He is a former EMT, now a rabbinical student. Living in that troubled land gives him a a particularly insightful perspective. I greatly appreciate his posts!
Jim, I am enjoying your blog site a lot. I am a big fan of your work, and I especially enjoyed your novel, Patriots. I appreciate the advantages of the western states when the balloon goes up; but some of your readers are going to be tied to the populated east coast and mid-western states. Please take some time after your western state series to give some advice to those of us who will (or must) stay for family, as well as other reasons in the less advantageous areas of the country. Sincerely, - C.G. in Ohio
JWR Replies: I'm glad that you enjoyed my novel. Most folks find it both exciting to read and a useful reference to keep around. I will do my best to cover retreat regions in eastern states, but as a westerner I will be depending on the expertise of SurvivalBlog readers. Please e-mail me your suggestions!
Hi Jim,
Your novel Patriots was
revisited in New Orleans! I thought I would fill you and your blog
in on the Blessings
For Obedience ministries mission
to Mississippi, and Louisiana this past week, It all started
with a question to Kelly Coleman our president like... "Are we going
to do anything for the stricken area?" Kelly and Tina were fishing in
central Texas at the time, and having a nice time I shouldn't have disturbed
them with such a question. Sorry Tina. After about twelve hours of
communications with the FCC, the head of
the FCC decided it would be a good thing
to issue an emergency FM Broadcast license
for New Orleans. I think the FCC deserves a big kudos for what they did,
and
the heroic work to approve the license in such a short period of time, this
is definitely un heard of in normal times, Our call sign is (KS5XAE) It took
one week from the day of the approval to get funding, plane tickets, tools
and equipment. Canada paid for and shipped 800 Gal-Com go-ye radios for 107.9
FM and a 250 watt transmitter. We filled the bill with a mixer, mikes, CD,
and tape player, antennas coax[ial cable], et cetera.
Next was to get a location to install the station, FEMA tried
to help us get a location on top of some big hotel in New Orleans but it
didn't work
out, after much prayer after we dropped off food and supplies at the Salvation
Army distribution point in Biloxi MS and getting a real education of the
death and
destruction. Destruction I might add would not be equaled by a hundred tactical
nukes or more, I watched the Salvation Army do most of the serious work,
and the "Red Curse" get a lot of their credit. I have no love for
the Red Curse, in case you hadn't noticed.
We traveled west on I-10 toward New Orleans, only to have The Lord open every
door. When we got to the major check
point our little convoy went right through without even being asked what
we were doing. We drove over a huge bridge down
into the
big lake area and Slidell, such devastation I have never seen, even in Viet
Nam. Those poor people, rich and poor alike lost everything.
there was the smell of decaying bodies all along the way. Going over the
causeway bridge, the power lines were normally about
80 feet above the lake water. About three places I saw where boats had caught
the power wire and pulled it into the water, just holding on by something
on
the boat. There must have been either flying boats, or really high water.
At the end of the bridge thing we came into a village probably fishing and
arts
crafts
place
buildings, (totalllllly destrooooyed), stench of body decay all the way through.
Then further from the lake, was less and less destruction. We needed directions
so we stopped at a girls' school where the Army had taken up residence, they
told us how to get over a huge bridge on I-10 into New Orleans so off we
went over the river and through the (woods) flooded, but not as much destruction
we were on the elevated I-10 all the way through New Orleans no people cars,
etc just some police, army and a few semi trucks bring supplies. You could
drive any lane you wanted without using a blinker light. It was really weird.
I listened to AM radio in the way into the area, and the N.O. station being
what
it is was cursing the military, FEMA, and everyone who was there to help,
I got sick of their tripe, and tuned to a station in Gretna, where we wound
up going to a pier and huge warehouse. That radio station was praising
their Mayor, police chief Lawson, the Army, etc, and all the helpers who
came in. What a change, we got to the pier, and who was the first person
I met (the Mayor). He seemed like a person who really cared for his community
and its people. He ask what
we were going to do, and I told him we were going to give him an emergency
FM broadcast station. Which we did, we linked up with FRIEND SHIPS ministries,
and the ship HOPE where we installed the first FCC licensed emergency FM
broadcast station ever licensed in the United States. God sent a young man
named Lynnie
to volunteer to run the station, and God couldn't have made a better match,
He had not only the right loving, caring spirit, but some fine skills, He
had never been on radio before. God don't make no junk. The station plays
Christian
music, to sooth and comfort, news, location announcements, "help me
find" messages,
and praise for the people, the military, police, etc. The police and military
are being fed at the same location, along with a huge distribution center
being located there. God owns Gretna, and the signal is covering 22 miles
across
the river to N.O., and 14 miles into the Gretna.
We saw a lot of sad things, but most of all we walked with our LORD JESUS
CHRIST through the valley of the shadow of death, and feared NO evil. HE
was with
us. and with His eye guided us every step of the way, Oh ! The ship HOPE
is just across the river from the IWO JIMA where the rescue HQ is. I might
add
that a MARS message email I got
passed on to me from the Captain, reflects his close walk and dependence
on our LORD JESUS too. God is taking back something
that satan took.
My report to the LORD is: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, LORD! I am convinced
that He only sends people who will accomplish the mission and when he provides
all
the funds and opens every door in one week, it is very obvious that His hand
is on you an will be with you, We did carry one weapon. It was never even
opened up. But then the Lord said the night he was betrayed that the disciples
only
need two for twelve men, who never had to use them either. Just the devil
needs a little convincing now and then, He the Lord sent in the ARMY and
police to
do that.
Some other observations: I noticed while on my mission trip to install the
Radio Station in N.O. were that generators dried up almost immediately,
even from
stores in the Dallas/Fort Worth area were we combined our team before
deployment. We did find a 5.5 KW at
Sears for half the price of Home Depot, and lots of gas cans at smaller
hardware
stores,
around
the area. On the way down the middle of
Mississippi
on the inter state, about a third of the piney trees had blown over or were
broken in half, making them harder to cut down, the road for about 150 miles
had been cleared in 4 days to allow convoys to get south, there was a good
reason it took a while to get help into the area, the road was being cleared
by every logger, chain saw handler in the country, what a massive undertaking.
You sure don't hear much praise of them and the power crews restoring power,
so people can get electricity back , and re-start commerce.
The American people are resilient and strong. Rich and poor, they want commerce,
and as soon as possible they got back up and running.
Ham radio was the only communication in or out of the area for days, GET
YOUR HAM LICENSES, AND LEARN TO USE THE RADIOS YOU BUY, I can't say this
loud or
long enough. Learn who your friends are. Most people are very civil, and
thankful that your there to help. Americans don't tolerate criminal disobedience,
looting.
etc. There were signs everywhere: "LOOTERS WILL BE SHOT", and people
carrying guns to do it with.
I am proud to say we live in a strong country, but we are woefully ill-prepared.
We must get our neighbors up and running before the Big One here where I
live in California. It will devastate major metro areas, and small towns
alike. We
must get
ready
and prepare like never before. Encourage people to get prepared! Blessings
to all who read this. Our ministry is located at www.bfoministry.org -
David Martin e-mail: martronics@tcsn.net
JWR Adds: The Blessings
For Obedience ministry deserves your support, folks! Like most small
Christian charities, it operates with minimal overhead, so virtually all
of your contributions
will go directly to radio gear and direct travel expenses for the volunteer
radion station installers.
I noticed that one of your readers requested information on retreat
architecture. I'm off the grid and in the process of building
a house. Before designing
it, I investigated several different types of architecture, including
straw bale, insulated concreted form (ICF), adobe, corn cob, concrete
and earth-bermed.
All of these have wonderful advantages, but one major drawback:
nearly all literature
and materials available to novices are dedicated to mainstream stick-built
homes.
I've found few books or other resources that give step-by-step instructions
on building in alternative materials, although I've found many for stick-built.
Home Depot carries lumber, insulation, windows, etc designed to be used
in stick-built homes. Even sub-contractors for concrete, electrical,
and plumbing
look askance when asked about alternative building.
End result: I'm building a standard frame house, despite its many drawbacks.
Those who wish to pursue alternative building designs should be aware
that they'll need to be either very experienced, or very stubborn in
the face
of obstacles. :) - JD
Jim:
Regarding your statement: "A lot of people are starting to wake
up and recognize the fragility of our society." I really wish
I had your optimism. I'm afraid I don't give the sheeple any credit
any more. By sheeple I mean the general public. I just
don't have any respect for the sheeple left at all. They could cry
that they "didn't know" before 9/11 but they have no excuse
in my book now a days. I think Paul describes today's people pretty
well in his epistles. To be honest, I fear for our Country.
One of the biggest problems IMO is TV. People were starting to prepare,
store a little food, buy gas masks, etc. after 9/11. Then a month
later the TV was bashing them for it. Once it was "out of the
norm" again, the sheeple gave
up. I can't imagine living my life based on TV influences. We stopped
watching TV when we moved
in 99 and it has been great. We selectively watch movies, that's
it.
Freeing oneself of the mental chains put on by TV/media is one of
the biggest problems I see with survivalists now a days. Whether
they realize it or not, a lot of "there" opinions come directly
from the talking heads, "opinion polls" and the news. You
see it all the time on the message boards. People who say they are
conservatives but espouse liberal thinking and attitudes.
Survivalists need to re-learn how to think for themselves. I've met
so many who were good people, motivated, etc. but just could not
think outside the box to solve any problem. Survival situations are
going to require outside the box type thinking. One of my favorite
movie lines is: "Improvise, overcome, adapt!", from Heartbreak
Ridge.
I think every survivalist should go one year without watching regular
TV and note the change in his attitude, mental and physical abilities
(hard to sit on your butt drinking beer and watching TV if their's
nothing to watch!). It tends to bring the Family closer also.
Long rant, sorry. Once again, thanks for your efforts! - R.H.
Jim,
Excellent Survival Blog T-Shirt! It arrived in the mail the other
day and I wore it to work and my fellow employees wanted to read the
quote on the back. My boss said he always wanted to see if he could
survive
on a remote State of Maine island with just some parachute
cord, a fish hook, a tin can, matches, fire starter and space blanket
for a
few
days.
I said why not try something a lot easier, and just shut the electricity
off on some Friday night at your house, and turn it on again on Monday
morning and see how
you can manage two small children, wife, food preparation, entertainment,
etc... He sighed and said, "Now that would be
tough!" - Mr.
Sierra
"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry,
Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The
next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash
of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand
we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have?
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price
of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course
others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
- Patrick Henry March 23,1775
Note From JWR: Our prayers are with everyone on the Gulf Coast. One last warning: The chances of nationwide fuel shortages in the wake of Rita are 90%+.
Today, I'm covering Wyoming, the last of 19 western states, in my rankings of states by their retreat potential. This series will be followed by some detailed recommendations within these 19 states. OBTW, I'd appreciate hearing from easterners with their specific recommendations for good retreat locales outside of my "top 19 states" list.
Wyoming:
Population: 493,780.
Population Density: 5 per square mile (Rank 19 of JWR’s top 19
states).
Area: 97,800 square miles (rank 9 of 50).
Average car insurance cost: $646/yr. (rank 44 of 50).
Average home insurance cost: $484/yr. (rank 20 of 50).
Crime Safety Ranking: 7 of 50.
Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 93%.
Per capita income: $27,372 (rank 28 of 50).
ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 16 of 50.
Plusses: Low population density, very low crime rate, no income tax.
Low car insurance rates.
Minuses: Brutally cold winters, especially at higher elevations. Minimal
growing season. (Snow
has been reported in every month of the year in every county
in Wyoming!) There
are missile
fields (see map) in the southeast corner of the state.
(Part of the large array of missile sites that overlaps into northern
Colorado
and
parts of Nebraska.) These ICBM missile
silos would be primary targets in the event of a full scale nuclear
exchange.
Wyoming is not recommended for a survivalist with a small
to moderate budget. However, if you are someone who is wealthy and
who can stand
the cold, Wyoming should be bumped up to your top choice. Taxes will
be a big
issue for you—and Wyoming has no income tax. As someone “of
means” you will be able to afford lots of food storage, voluminous
fuel storage, and a large greenhouse to make up for the severe climate.
Look for natural gas producing areas so that you can run your vehicles
on “drip oil.” Anyone
considering relocating to Wyoming should read Boston T. Party’s
novel Molon
Labe, which depicts a Libertarian political coup in the state,
as part of the nascent “Free States” migration movement.
Two related groups are currently encouraging libertarians to move to
New Hampshire
and Wyoming to create a political sea change. See: www.freestatewyoming.org
and www.freestateproject.org.
Note: I probably should have given Wyoming a higher ranking, due to
its favorable gun and tax laws. However, its severe climate and minimal
growing season pushed it down the list. If you can stand hard
winters, by all means consider Wyoming a top choice.
JWR’s Combined Retreat Potential Ranking: 5 of 19.
You may have noticed that I only write sparingly about economics and investing. I do follow economic trends closely, but I don't consider myself an expert. If you want to categorize me, then you could say that I fall into the "Guns and Groceries" school of survivalism rather than the "Krugerrands and Plane Tickets to Offshore Havens" school. My current advice is fairly terse: Concentrate on buying tangibles. (Namely: productive farm land, storage food, practical tools, guns, and common caliber ammunition.) Then after you have your retreat fully squared away with logistics, it is time to consider buying some gold and silver. For the record: I consider gold at anything under $500 an ounce and silver at anything under $8 an ounce as genuine bargains. In the long term the dollar and all other paper currencies will be relegated to their proper use, as kindling. The other reason that I don't write voluminously about the markets and investing because these topics are already well covered at a variety of great "hard money"-oriented web sites. For commentary and analysis, my favorite of these sites is Gold-Eagle.com. So for me to add my (pre-'64) $0.10 worth would just be redundant.
Part of my daily routine is reading economics
newsletters. Parenthetically, you
can subscribe
to
many
of these e-mail newsletters free of charge. Some
have daily issues while others are e-mailed weekly. These include: The
Daily Reckoning and its sister publication
The Rude Awakening, Whiskey
and Gunpowder, The
Sovereign Society Offshore A-Letter, What
We Know Now (from Casey Research),
and Dr.
Gary's North's Reality Check. If you have the time to do
some reading, then I highly recommend all of these newsletters!
But if your time is limited and you need to pick just one, then make
it The
Daily Reckoning.
"A billion here, and a billion there, and pretty soon you're
talking about real money."
- Senator Everett Dirksen
Note From JWR: You will notice that there are several new advertisements in our scrolling "ad bar." And even more ads will be posted there in the next few days. Vendors have gradually come to the realization that SurvivalBlog is the place to be to attract customers! Some advertising space is still available at our low rates, but be advised that there will be a rate increase on October 1st. This is the "last call" to lock in an ad contract (for up to six months) at the current rates.
Today, I'm covering Washington, the 18th of 19 western states in my rankings of states by their retreat potential. This series will be followed by some detailed recommendations within these 19 western states. I'd also appreciate hearing from easterners with their specific recommendations.
Washington:
Population: 5.9 million.
Population Density: 86.6 per square mile (Far less in the eastern half
of the state!) Very high population density (by western U.S. standards.)
(Rank 3 of JWR’s top 19 states).
Area: 68,100 square miles (rank 20 of 50).
Average car insurance cost: $803/yr. (rank 19 of 50).
Average home insurance cost: $428/yr. (rank 31 of 50).
Crime Safety Ranking: 30 of 50.
Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 57%.
Per capita income: $31,230 (rank 11 of 50).
ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 10 of 50 (tied with Oregon).
Plusses: Low property taxes in some of the eastern counties. (But rising!)
Whitman county Washington taxes rose 80% from 1988 to 1995. In 2002,
the annual tax bill was $3,047 on a $200,000 home. (Second highest
in the state.)
The median home value in 2000 for Washington was $168,300, up 38 percent
since 1990, adjusted for inflation. The average statewide property
tax rate in Washington is $13.53 per $1,000 of assessed value.
Minuses: Creeping Californication. Highly regulated home schooling.
Fairly high crime rates in the Western counties and in the larger cities
in the eastern half of the state—such as Spokane, Yakima, and
the Tri-Cities (Richland/Pasco/Kennewick) region. A draconian business
gross receipts tax of 1.5%-to-3%. Marginal gun laws. Very high sales
tax. (8.8%)
Parts of the state are recommended. (See my detailed retreat locale
recommendations posted starting September 24, 2005.)
Note: I probably should have given Washington a lower ranking, due
to its mediocre tax and gun laws. However, like Oregon, its favorable
climate and growing season pushed it up the list.
JWR’s Combined Retreat Potential Ranking: 4 of 19.
A Reader in Washington Adds:
Just a few nits to pick (grin), RE: "A draconian business gross receipts
tax of 2-to-3%. Marginal gun laws.
Very high sales tax. (8.8%)"
Can't disagree with draconian. Can disagree with the B&O rates, slightly.
They depend completely on the type of business. My business is taxed at 1.5%.
Sales taxes vary per county over a very wide range.
Gas tax is $0.28 per gallon.
Just for fun, check out this link for "major" taxes in the Evergreen
state. Yikes.
http://dor.wa.gov/content/taxes/MajorTaxes.aspx
There are also more than a few badges (not obvious, but there nonetheless if
you know what to look for) at our local gun shows at the County fairgrounds.
Keeping an eye on who, what, and how much. Not particularly comfortable about
that one. Best Regards, and keep up the good work. - T.S.
In the 1970s there was a well-publicized "Back to the Land" movement. Hundreds of thousands of America's young generation wanted the freedom of self-sufficiency. But most of them eventually returned to urban life. We can analyze their failures to avoid making the same mistakes. Happily, someone else has already done this for us! Eleanor Agnew's book Back From the Land is a fairly detailed analysis of why the "Back to the Landers" went back to the big cities. Here is a summary of some of the conditions that led to their failures:
1. The realities of rural life were much harsher than those portrayed on television or in popular books or magazines.
2. Farming and raising livestock was not profitable, so they either lived in extreme poverty or had long commutes to jobs in town.
3. Local "town" jobs were low paying.
4. Poverty was not as genteel and romantic as portrayed in books and movies.
5. The harsh realities of rural life put undue stress on marriages, especially when the spouses were not in agreement about living self-sufficiently.
We moved to Idaho in 1992. I observed all of these conditions among
our neighbors who moved to rural Idaho in preparation for Y2K in
1998 and 1999.
(Yep, we
experienced
a couple of these ourselves, as
much as I hate to admit it!)
In our part of rural Idaho, we observed that the vast majority of families
that departed post Y2K left for economic reasons. Most of the local jobs
available
were
minimum
wage. The local economy was depressed. Start-up businesses that required
the patronage of the local population failed.
Suggestion: Make sure that your income does not rely on the local economy
and that you will have enough income to sustain a standard of living not
too
far below
your urban standard. If the drop in your living standards are too drastic,
your spouse and children are likely to rebel. Even though you may be preparing
for a time in the future when the grid is down, and you'll have to be totally
self-sufficient, don't insist that your
spouse
do without the modern conveniences in the meantime. (Okay, maybe the washer
and dryer are going to be giant paper weights if the balloon goes up. But
I don't
want to start washing clothes by hand one day sooner than I have too!) If
you make life drudgery for your family, the contrast of how the rest of
America lives will be so great that they may question your sanity!
Eleanor Agnew's Back From the Land tells it like it really
is. If you are contemplating a move back to the land, you should read
this book!
Back From the Land by Eleanor Agnew, Published by Ivan
R. Dee, Chicago, 200. Hardback, 274 pages. Cover price: $27.50 ISBN 1-56663-580-2
Just a recommendation for Robert Henry of JRH
Enterprises and his
wife. Good man, dependable and fair. His merchandise is always a
good product.
Whenever I've dealt with him, I can only say it was "always a
pleasure".
Oh, for your PVS-14, they finally came out with something
handy and servicable.For $44 U.S. Tactical sells PVS-14 hard case for
your belt.
Fits with the mounting arm attached and has capacity for two spare
AA size batteries. I'll let you know how well it lives. Regards, -
The Army Aviator
Greetings Jim,
Thanks for an outstanding blog--it is on my "must read" list
everyday. Doug Carlton's article on concealed carry is right on target.
One of his best points is to practice the way you carry. I try to do
this often to hone my skills. Being a practicing pharmacist I am exposed
to all kinds of people. The ones that concern me are the thugs/pill
heads/stop-'n-rob types whose desperation has risen to new heights.
But, I do have the luxury of wearing a white lab jacket while working,
which nicely conceals my carry piece from prying eyes. I routinely
practice drawing from concealment with my lab coat on to simulate a
work-place encounter of the worse kind. I've never had to unholster
my weapon, but you just never know. My philosophy is "They need
only be right ONCE, I have to be right EVERY TIME". One other
point I might add is to keep the fact that you carry concealed
(especially in the workplace) to yourself. No one else needs to know. Keep up the
fine work! - S.P.
Jim:
I just found a waaaay cool web site. A lot of Civil Defense stuff. See: http://southernradiation.com/ -
Fred "The Valmet-meister"
"Our institutions were not devised to bring about uniformity
of opinion; if they had we might well abandon hope. It is important
to remember,
as has well been said, 'the essential characteristic of true liberty
is that under its shelter many different types of life and character
and opinion and belief can develop unmolested and unobstructed."
- Justice Charles Evans Hughes
Note From JWR: Please pray for all those living on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Hurricane Rita looks fearsome! Most of you have surely already done so, but don't neglect to stock up on fuel. (Fill your gas and diesel storage tanks, fill all you car/truck tanks, and order a "top off" of your propane and/or home heating oil tanks.) I predict that there will be widespread fuel shortages after Rita does her damage. OBTW, the PRI-G and PRI-D stabilizers are available from Ready Made Resources (RMR) and several other vendors.
Today, I'm covering Utah, the 17th of 19 western states in my rankings of states by their retreat potential.
Utah:
Population: 2.23 million.
Population Density: 26.2 per square mile (Rank 11 of JWR’s top
19 states).
Area: 84,900 square miles (rank 11 of 50).
Average car insurance cost: $718/yr. (rank 32 of 50).
Average home insurance cost: $378/yr. (rank 43 of 50.)
Crime Safety Ranking: 14 of 50.
Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 76%.
Per capita income: $23,436 (rank 44 of 50).
ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 7 of 50.
Plusses: A great state to live in if you are a LDS
(Mormon)
Church member. On
average Utah has the best prepared families in America.
(By church doctrine, one year of food storage is considered mandatory.)
That is
commendable. The norm for home construction in the state is to include
an extra large pantry to accommodate storage food. (Commonly called
a “fruit room” in LDS parlance.) Nearly every LDS
ward has its own food storage cannery. Fairly low crime rate. (Utah
has two of the safest metropolitan areas in the country: Orem, ranked
#7, and Provo, ranked #9.) The only significant street crime is on
the west side of Salt Lake City. Low car insurance rates.
Minuses: Ground water is scarce in parts of the state, so check on well water
before buying. Utah might be a
poor
retreat/relocation
choice
if
you
are
not
a
LDS Church
member. Non-LDS members of any religious persuasion are derisively called “gentiles.”
If you are not LDS, you might be ignored or perhaps even seen as conveniently
expendable
when
push
comes
to shove. In practice, many LDS families
do not have a true full year of storage food. Highly regulated home schooling.
JWR’s Combined Retreat Potential Ranking: 6 of 19.
Dear Mr. Rawles,
Having read your retreat advice I'm planning a road trip through Montana
and Idaho for November to scout around for a new home and maybe a
new job (I'm a high school history teacher). Still, I can't help
but wonder: with the increasing profile of the blog and its ever-greater
circulation, won't greater numbers of survival-minded people moving
to the ID/MT area degrade its qualities and reduce it to the same
mess
we're all trying to escape/avoid? I got to thinking that when an Idaho
resident & survivalist online told me, "Don't come here, we
don't want you people. Idaho is full." Anyway, love the blog and
now two other teachers in my department read it, too. Take care and
may our God bless you & your family. Sincerely yours, - S.P.
JWR Replies: I seriously doubt that more than a few hundred or perhaps a thousand people will ever make a move based on what they read at SurvivalBlog. (Most folks are 99% talk and 1% action.) But even if a substantial number do make the move, they will be the kind of folks that you will want as neighbors. With deep larders, copious heirloom variety gardening seed, extensive first aid supplies, advanced commo gear, livestock, and plenty of useful tools, they will be valuable assets to the community.
Dear Mr. Rawles,
Congratulations on your successful Web Log. I suspect that you will
soon be counting your unique hits by the million instead of the thousand.
I was very pleasantly surprised to see the mention of my novel, "Lights
Out", on your Blog today. It was fitting that you reviewed Texas,
my home state, as well on this day. I must tell you that my writing
was largely inspired by "Patriots".
I have two copies and the first has been read so many times that
it is now held together
by rubber bands. "Patriots" is the ultimate 'How-to' novel
and an absolute must have for the serious survivalist. I look forward
to the next edition with the additional chapters. I started writing "Lights
Out" in August of 2002. It has been a labor of love.
I am working on the last two or three chapters right now and hope to
have them posted in the next few weeks. The link you provided only
contains the first twenty chapters of the novel. All of the current
73 chapters are available in Frugal's Forums in the Patriot Fiction
section. However, each chapter is a separate post and it is difficult
to track them all down. For a new reader, I would suggest this site: http://www.giltweasel.com/stuff/LightsOut-Current.pdf This
reader is graciously hosting the story in both PDF and text formats.
I appreciate
comments, good and bad, from readers. At this point, feedback is the
only payment I receive for the work. Please send them to dcrawford@email.com
and put "Lights Out" in the subject. Once I finish the first
draft, I plan to go back and clean up the story line and then look
for a publisher. I realize that publishing is a
long shot. Any advice you can give me would be greatly valued. Thank
you. - D.C.
Having extra food and water and other goods to barter with is a good idea, but do you think bartering with your guns and ammo is. During a TEOTWAWKI scenario, I think the last thing you need to do is to put more guns and ammo out in the streets, no matter if you know the people you bartering with or not. The same ammo and guns you barter with may be the same guns and ammo that could be turned against you and your family. There are only a handful of my friends and family that has even fired a firearm let alone train with them and really know how to handle a gun. Where do you draw the line on who you barter guns and ammo with and who you don't. I am not a heartless person but I am going to be damn limited on who I arm with my ammo and guns. - S.D.
JWR Replies: If your planned retreat is in an area
where you cannot trust your neighbors with firearms, then you might
want
to re-think
that
retreat location! Look more along the lines of Montana or Wyoming,
where virtually everyone knows how to shoot. Guns in the hands of
your
neighbors shouldn't
be a potential looting problem--they should
be the solution! I would not sleep well in a YOYO situation.
Instead, give me a few trustworthy neighbors that are within line of
sight--for mutually-supporting fields of fire. If they don't already
own capable
battle rifles, then
I'll gladly provide them!
Having just left South Dakota after 16 years there, I might add concerning the cold and short growing season: 20 below for weeks on end, pretty hefty wind on top of that, and a 90 day growing season if you are lucky. One year I had to replant beans 3 times, the last after they were snow killed in June. Another drawback for the state is lack of potable water. My well put out 5 GPM and was considered a good well and at it was 300 feet deep, to boot. The majority of the water there is very alkaline, or from natural hot water underground sources and extremely heavy on the minerals. That really plays havoc with water faucets and water heater elements. Lastly, there is no wood in the state to speak of for heating purposes either except pine, in the very western part of the state. Best, - "Mrs. Golf"
Jim:
Check out the "NWS Tactical Thigh Holster" from LBT. It is the one I use for carry in the woods. It can be used in a couple different configurations, but it's main plus is that used as shown, your handgun WILL be there when you need it. (And not laying in the rocks at the bottom of some canyon...don't ask.) IMHO LBT makes some of the finest products around, and they are made to last and last. See: http://www.londonbridgetrading.com/main.html - "Gung Ho"
JWR Replies: I agree that London Bridge is a great
gear maker. OBTW, I prefer hip holsters to thigh holsters. I find the
latter fatiguing on
long
hikes.
"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." - President John F. Kennedy
Note From JWR: Today, I'm covering Texas, the 16th of 19 western states in my rankings of states by their retreat potential.
Texas:
Population: 20.8 million.
Population Density: 77.9 per square mile (Rank 4 of JWR’s top
19 states).
Area: 266,800 square miles (rank 2 of 50).
Average car insurance cost: $759/yr. (rank 25 of 50).
Average home insurance cost: $880/yr. (rank 1 of 50).
Crime Safety Ranking: 41 of 50.
Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 82%.
Per capita income: $27,752 (rank 24 of 50).
ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 47 of 50.
Plusses: Has a high rating in “education freedom” (ranked
#6 of 50), since Texas has relaxed home schooling laws, but the public
schools are far below average. Texas is just plain huge. The
population density figure cited above is skewed by the Dallas/Fort
Worth and Houston metro areas. A lot of Texas out in the hinterboonies
is very lightly populated.
Minuses: High population density (by western U.S. standards.) Major
population centers. Very high crime rate. Hurricane prone (ranked #1
of the coastal states.) Coastal
Texas and +/- 50 miles inland is in the hurricane zone. Extremely
high home insurance rates. (Average of $880 per year--ranked #1 in
the country for 2005--but probably soon
to be surpassed by Louisiana.) High ratio of illegal aliens. Some rural
parts of the state are recommended, with reservations.
JWR’s Combined Retreat Potential Ranking: 13 of 19.
I've mentioned the Asian Avian Flu (H5N1) several times since I launched this blog in August. The risk of mutation of the virus into a form that could be transmitted from person to person (P2P) is relatively small. However, if that were to happen, it would be catastrophic. The folks at WorldNetDaily (one of my daily "must reads") just posted a story that quotes a WHO official that said that a species-jumping P2P mutation of H5N1 could cause a global pandemic that would likely result in "the deaths of "tens of millions". Take the time to read this article, and plan accordingly.
Recently North Korea and Iran have both made overtures about dismantling their nuclear programs. Frankly, I'm dubious. The following may be evidence of the"free floating anxiety" that I was accused of having by one of my televised debate adversaries, but I feel convicted to mention it. I believe that the risk of a nuke going off in CONUS is now greater in the post-Soviet era than it was back during the height of the Cold War. There are at least a dozen "backpack" nukes from the former Soviet Union that are still not accounted for. And of course there are several international terrorist groups that would love to get their hands on a nuke and touch it off in downtown New York City. Whether they buy one on the black market or they build one of their own, I am convinced that the odds are 60%+ that a nuke--or at least a sub-critical dirty bomb--will go "bang" somewhere in CONUS within the next 10 years.
Assuming that the foregoing is a reasonable possibility, you should protect yourself. Unless you live in a major metropolitan city and have very bad luck, the odds of being in the blast/flash/thermal effects radius of a terrorist nuke are very small. There are greater odds of being down wind of fallout. But there is an event higher likelihood that you could end up in an EMP "footprint." If the terrorists are really clever, the most effective way that they could use a nuke would be to detonate it at high altitude (either suspended from a balloon or in a jet aircraft flown to its absolute ceiling--something over 35,000 feet.). They could do this over New York or Los Angeles. Here are the physics in a nutshell: The higher the altitude means the broader the line of sight (LOS), and hence the larger the EMP footprint. An nuclear air burst creates an EMP surge that will couple with all metallic objects that are within LOS (phone lines, power lines, railroad tracks, and so forth) and instantly fry any unprotected computer chips--billions of chips, all at once. The economic effects would be devastating. The corresponding societal impact is almost too much to imagine. (For one man's view of the latter, see the web novel "Lights Out", available for free download at the Frugal Squirrel's web page--just scroll down to bottom of the main page. BTW, there are several other pieces of survival fiction there as well. They aren't all epic fiction, but they are thought provoking)
Specific Nuclear Threat Countermeasures Recommendations:
First, study up on fallout
protection. If you don't
already
have a
copy, get a copy of Nuclear
War Survival Skills--available for free download from the folks
at the Oregon Institute
of Science and Medicine. If you might be downwind, build yourself
a fallout shelter. Buy yourself a radiation dosimeter, rate meter,
and charger.
Second, unless you have vehicles that are pre-electronic (see my previous posts on this subject for details), buy one or two spare set of ignition and fuel injection electronic components for each vehicle. Keep those stored in Faraday Cage enclosures such as milsurp ammo cans.
Third, put any radios, computers, night vision equipment or other electronics that you don't use regularly in similar Faraday protected storage.
Fourth, buy at least one older fully "EMP Proof" radio that uses all vacuum tubes. (No, chips, transistors, or even SCRs.) That will be your designated radio to leave out for everyday use during times of international tensions. OBTW, I currently have an auction on eBay running for one of my spare radios. It is a Hallicrafters 38C (an AM/HF receiver) that was built in the early 1950s. It has all vacuum tube circuitry, so it is virtually invulnerable to EMP. Similar radios often come up for sale on eBay, or can be found at garage sales if you look around. Garage sales in predominantly retirement communities are best for that. (Old people = old radios.)
Fifth, stock up on Potassium Iodate (KI) to protect against thyroid damage in the event of a nuclear incident. Do a search through my archives for details. KI tablets are sold by Ready Made Resources (RMR) and several other vendors. Tangentially, I heard today that RMR just got in a fresh supply of Polar Pure (iodine crystal) water purifying bottles. With another hurricane currently plowing toward the Gulf Coast, I don't think that they will keep those in stock very long.
Sixth, pray. I'm serious: Get right with God, and
pray for His guidance, providence, and protection.
Jim asked me a while back to write a piece on carrying a concealed
weapon (CCW) in hot weather and damp climates. I failed. What you have
here simply has to do with CCW
overall.
I tried
to limit it, but after a few false starts I realized there was no way
to keep it confined to hot weather without covering the basics anyway.
I’m no expert. I’ve carried concealed both in the USA and
overseas, and have done so daily (almost without exception) for the
last 20 years. In every class I take I usually learn something new,
and
always
learn
something
old.
I’m no expert in guns or writing. So here you go.
The first and most important thing about a concealed weapon is to understand
what it does and does not do for you. Having a gun and be willing to use a gun
are
two different things. It has been rightly said that “A sheep with
a gun
is
still
a
sheep.” Also,
if you carry a concealed weapon, you may still be attacked. After all, the attacker
doesn’t know you have one. So just having a gun
on you does not stop crime. Think of the concealed weapon as a spare tire. It
won’t prevent flats, but it can certainly help out if you have one. The
first step is to develop the mental attitude required to carry a gun. Once that’s
done, proceed to step two. That second step would be dependent upon your state’s
laws. Obviously some places are easier to legally carry, but they all have some
odd-ball codes and
laws, and you need to know them. Often times a class may be required, but often
times it’s not. The laws still apply, so it’s up to you to know them.
Hey, it’s part of your responsibility anyway. So now you have your CWP,
CHL or whatever you want to call
it, or you live where
you don’t need one, and it’s time to start packing. Obviously the
first thing you need is a gun. Now gun choices are a personal thing. I could
pontificate about one gun or another, but in the end it’s your hide, and
your choice.
Choose something that you like. The reason for this is you’ll practice
with something you like more than something you hate. You’re also relying
on this for your life, so you might as well like it. King Arthur probably didn’t
hate Excalibur, and you shouldn’t hate your carry gun either. Carry a gun
you like, it makes life easier. What’s good for one person may not be suitable
for another. So don’t get too wrapped around the axle about when anyone
tells you that, “you need to carry X…blah, blah, blah.” Advice
is great, but it’s your life that we are talking about here. Choose
based
on
what you need,
not on
what someone else needs.
Carry a gun that you’re comfortable with. You want it to be as easy as
grabbing your cell-phone or car keys. It needs to be easy to live with. It also
needs
to be good enough to put a quick end to your problems too. I’m not as dogmatic
as some in choosing a particular caliber. A good hit in any decent caliber will
do the job. Making a hole that’s one tenth of an inch bigger will not make
up for a poor hit. I guess I’m from the Shot Placement party. I wouldn’t
go smaller than a .38+P, and I wouldn’t go larger than a .45ACP for most
applications. I’m not going to get into any pissing-matches on the subject
either. Choose what you feel is right for you. In the sticks or in the city,
you may have to also deal with animals of pretty good size. Dogs, big cats, lions,
tigers and bears, whatever, just remember you might have to deal with something
other than a two-legged assailant.
I’m not a big fan of specific guns for limited applications. I don’t
have a “car gun”, a “nightstand gun”, a “house
gun”, a “cold weather gun, nor a “hot weather gun”. I
have one gun that I carry. It goes with me out the door, into
the car, around the town, back in the house, and there it is. If you have guns
stashed all over
the place, that’s your business. That works for many just fine. I just
feel
that if the gun I’m carrying is good enough to trust my life to, then it’s
good enough to trust it in the house, in the car, et cetera.
So now you have your gun. How will you pack it around? There are several ways
to do it. One is “off-body”. This is the fanny pack, gun purse, briefcase,
portfolio, etc. option. While they do indeed easily conceal a good size gun,
anything that’s not strapped to your body securely increases the risk that
you won’t have it right when you need it. A purse snatcher may render someone
weaponless. It’s fairly common in tourist areas to “snake” a
fanny pack off of someone and run off as well. Unless you maintain positive possession
of that portfolio at all times, then your gun isn’t secure. There are some
good reasons to use off-body, but a lot of bad ones too. I’d do some serious
thinking before using one of these methods.
Another common way is to carry it in your pocket. Yeah, it works but the gun
is rarely secure, so drawing it is slower since it’s not in the same place
all the time. When it’s flopping around in your pocket it can become uncomfortable
as well banging around in your pocket. It also wears on pockets something fierce.
There are pocket holsters, and they work, but pocket pistols are usually small,
light, underpowered affairs. There is always the shoulder holster. It’s
not all that popular generally
because it’s a hassle to put on and take off, and you have all sorts of
adjustments. Women can find the shoulder holster more useful, because hip holsters
are often made for men, and a lady’s hips just aren’t the same. If
you have to use the toilet a lot, a shoulder rig makes the process easier though.
If you sit a lot at a desk, or drive a lot, they can work as well. Then there
is the ankle holster. You need to dress right for it. Obviously shorts
won’t work. Neither will close fitting, boot cut jeans. The biggest drawback
with them is it takes two hands to draw, and it takes time and space. The most
stable way to do it is to go to one knee, pull up with one hand and draw with
the other. There are variations, but it’s going to be hard to do if you’re
in contact with a mugger, or have one arm fending off a knife or herding a child.
As a back-up, I’d say it’s a great place. As a primary, it’d
have to be a situation where I couldn’t carry on my belt. Which brings
us
to the waist carry. Inside the belt, outside the belt, tucked
in the waist, “Mexican string”, clips, whatever. Most people carry
this way, and there are a large variety of holsters available. The most important
thing about carrying on the waist is the belt, not the holster. You can get away
with a cheap holster if you have to, as long as you have a good, stiff belt to
support it. If you have a $150 holster, it will still suck if it used with a
flimsy
belt.
Get a good belt! This is where your money should go.
Obviously for the gun to be concealed, you need to hide it some way from common
sight. Try to blend in. Wearing a police raid jacket in 110 degree weather isn’t
blending in. A lot of people have gone to vests. How successful that is will
depend on what people wear in your area. Darker colors will hide the profile
of a gun better than light ones. Also watch how you move. Bending over, reaching
up, etc may expose your sidearm. If you pick an inside the waistband system,
remember to have room in your waistband. The first couple times you carry, you
might feel like a gun with a person attached to it. Once you get used to it,
it’s no biggie.
Practice the way you will be using the gun. If it’s cold and you’re
wearing gloves, then you need to practice with them on. The same goes for drawing
from under a coat. Practice with what you’ll be wearing. If it’s
hot, practice when it’s hot. Sweaty hands can make things different. Inspect
your gun regularly. Yeah, it sounds odd, but people forget to re-load their gun
after cleaning it, or worse yet don’t clean it until they shoot it. Get
in a habit in the way you do things. Stick to those habits.
Practice in situations that are real-life threats to you. Americans spend a great
deal of time in and around cars. In fact, statistically, most gunfights in the
USA
occur
in
and
around cars. So practice from the driver’s seat with the seat belt on.
You should practice getting out, getting in, and moving around a car.
Training is the key. Get professional training. OK, I won’t harp on it,
but if you don’t have training, you’re counting on luck--and that’s
not what you should be counting on. - "Doug Carlton"
JWR Adds: I wholeheartedly concur with Doug's comments. My personal choice for concealed carry is a stainless steel compact .45 ACP such as a Colt Officer's Model or even a trusty old Detonics. But YMMV. It is important to get top notch training at a place like Front Sight. That is money well spent. If you've never attended professional firearms training, you'll find that you will learn more in one weekend than you picked up casually in your entire lifetime. Train as you’ll fight, because human nature dictates that you will fight as you train. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Rather, PERFECT practice makes perfect. Don't scrimp on training!
Dear Jim:
I read your insightful article on the pending economic meltdown and
in it you suggested storing up tangible assets like gold/silver, ammo,
and GUNS, etc. My
question is concerning the details of purchasing used firearms for
barter and trade.
1.) Do you think that used is better than new because private party sales are
done with no paper trail?
2.) If so, what types and caliber(s) do you foresee as being the most pragmatic
and desired TEOTWAWKI?
3.) Do you recommend equal quantities of rifles, shotguns and pistols or do you
have other ideas?
4.) Are their any calibers or manufacturers you suggest we stay away from in
a barter scenario?
5.) Are you storing firearms for barter/trade or are you keeping your arsenal
for personal use?
P.S. I just read in your Oregon profile where the State has stopped all private
[no transfer record] gun show gun sales. Fortunately out here in Arkansas there
seems
to
be
an
ample
supply
of firearms for sale. Whatever we do, we had better "make hay while the
sun
is
still shining!"
B'shem Yahshua Messiah, - Dr. Sidney Zweibel
JWR Replies:
In answer to your questions...
1.) Definitely buy used, but be sure to buy quality.
(Read Boston's
Gun Bible for detailed gun recommendations as
well as some useful gun show buying strategies.) By buying used
guns, you can buy privately (sans paper trail--very
important),
and almost as importantly you won't be paying full retail. Guns shows
are probably the best place to buy. However, some private party
sales bargains
might
come
up in
you local
newspaper classified section. Assuming that you paper hasn't gone PC and
banned gun ads, check the classifieds every week.
2.) IMO, in CONUS, the calibers to concentrate on
are
.22
Long Rifle, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, 12 gauge, and .308 Winchester. In Alaska,
add
.44 magnum, .30-06, and perhaps .375 H&H Magnum to the list. In Australia, Oz,
or New Zealand, add .303 British to the list. In any Third World country,
add 7.62x39mm Russian (AK-47) to the list.
3.) Based on expected demand, I'd recommend 40% Main Battle Rifles (.308 semi-auto),
30% semi-auto handguns, 20% pump action riot shotguns (preferably with a spare
long "bird" barrel for each), and the balance in semi-auto .22 rimfires.
(For
example the Marlin
Papoose and/or the ubiquitous Ruger 10/22.)
4.) Avoid most cheap off brands. There are
a few exceptions, such as N.E.F. (New England Firearms), which makes surprisingly
good guns at budget prices. Likewise, avoid oddball calibers! Think:
commonality.
Remember that any
of
your designated "barter" guns may just as well end up in the the hands
of
relatives
or other newcomers
that will be living at your retreat. So getting "extra copies" of the
guns that
are already in
your
personal
battery would be ideal. That
will
have
several
key advantages, namely: commonality of training, commonality of magazines,
and
commonality
of spare parts.
5.) I have set aside roughly 20% of my firearms battery for charity and barter.
One note in closing: When shopping for used guns for barter, forget about aesthetics. Some of the real bargains at gun shows are guns with nasty home brew camouflage paint jobs, guns with a lot of honest holster wear or hunting wear (but no pitting), and guns that have been "personalized". (Typically these have amateurish carvings on the stocks.) Remember that a gun fight is not a beauty contest. Rather, it is playing for keeps, with no second place winner.
Sir: Can you be more detail oriented and give us your opinion on some of the factors you have mentioned previously? Which areas in the West are not potential deserts and have natural un-irrigated water supplies? Which areas are sufficient wood available? Which have the least population density? I have thought Modoc County, CA would meet this requirements. How about you? - R.Y.
JWR Replies:
Modoc County has much more harsh winters and a shorter growing season
than California's northern coastal counties. You might be better
off on the western slopes of the Yolla Bollies. This region is just
as
remote
as Modoc County (if not more so), and has a milder climate. BTW,
if you are going that far north, why not go a little farther and escape the
California Nanny State legal morass? (It is only going to get worse
as time goes on! ) There are some nice areas in southwest Oregon,
which
I will
be covering in detail in my blog in a couple of weeks. Be patient... My detailed
retreat locale recommendations will be posted at this blog starting
next week.
Mr. Rawles,
In your 09/19/2005 blog, you asked for input on different architectural
techniques related to a retreat. Following is information on a type
of construction that has some interesting potential. Take a look
at the video at http://archnet.org/library/files/one-file.tcl?file_id=1385 .
It is a high-resolution Windows Media Player file showing construction
of sandbag shelters using very low tech methods and tools. The shelter
exceeds all standard earthquake specs for buildings. Very cool
idea and a very well done
video. The objective was to find shelter for refugees rather than sticking
them in tents. Adding Portland cement to the sand makes for a very
permanent structure. In a nutshell, the construction technique uses
a modified type of sandbag. The defensive advantages should be readily
apparent. For someone with little money to spend and little time left,
this could very well be a good solution. Architectural drawings are
available
if needed for building permits, etc.
This photo - http://archnet.org/mediadownloader/LibraryImagesBig/image/83929/0/IAA0263.jpg - shows a home under construction.
This photo - http://www.akdn.org/agency/slideshow/photos/sandbag7.jpg - shows that just how nice a home can look using this construction
technique. - "SMG"
JWR Replies: More about retreat architecture will be posted in the near future. But for now, here is a teaser -- just as FFTAGFFR.
"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Note From JWR: Yesterday morning, we passed the one million hit threshold! The more important metric is that we've had more than 43,000 unique visits. Yee haw! Not bad for a blog site that is just 45 days old. Please help to continue to spread the word. Just sending a one line e-mail to all of the folks on your e-mail list will make a big difference. Many thanks!
Today, I'm covering South Dakota, the 15th of 19 western states in
my rankings of states by their retreat potential. Following this series
of state-level articles I will begin making specific retreat locale
recommendations down to the county level. OBTW, if you have first-hand
experience,
I'd appreciate your input on specific retreat locales anywhere
on the planet. If you know of a region that will provide a nice
self-sufficient hidey hole for WTSHTF,
let us know, via e-mail.
South Dakota:
Population: 754,800.
Population Density: 9.78 per square mile (Rank 16 of JWR’s top 19 states).
Area: 77,100 square miles (rank 16 of 50).
Average car insurance cost: $618/yr. (rank 46 of 50).
Average home insurance cost: $380/yr. (rank 42 of 50. )
Crime Safety Ranking: 4 of 50.
Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 69%.
Per capita income: $25,958 (rank 34 of 50).
ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 12 of 50.
Plusses: Very low population density and crime rate! A low “total
tax burden” of 8.9%. Low car insurance rates.
Minuses: Cold winters and a short growing season. Like its northern sibling,
South Dakota has major nuclear targets, so I only recommend that you look west
(upwind)
of the
missile
fields.
JWR’s Combined Retreat Potential Ranking: 7 of 19.
All of the books in the "Little House on the Prairie" series
by Laura Ingalls Wilder are great reads for all ages. Many lessons
can be gleaned from
their
pages. (The books are much better than the
sappy television series.) Laura’s
"Pa" was an eternal optimist. When he saw the luxuriant prairie
grasses he assumed the soil was rich and good for farming. But he did
not realize that
those plants were designed to survive in the Dakota territories’ weather
and its pests and and that cultivated grains were not. He did not foresee the
devastating storms and pests that would wipe out his crops. Like other homesteaders
he took
out chattel mortgages on his oxen team in order to buy lumber to build the required
house on the homestead. He figured that the
wheat crop would more than cover the mortgage. Pa had his crops destroyed one
year by a hail storm. Another year his wheat was shriveled by searing winds.
Gophers ate half of his seeds as soon as he planted.
Another year enormous flocks of blackbirds ate all the ripening corn and all
the oats. Twice a plague of locusts ate every green thing on the farm.
As you make you preparation plans, you must plan on the worst. Do not think like
Pa
that a harvest is a SURE thing. Have a food storage program to get you through
crop
failures! Diversify your crops. A disaster may wipe out your corn, but you could
still have potatoes. Plant way more than than you think you’ll need. Insects
and birds will devour more than you think. Pay off your land so that you don’t
get foreclosed on when the economy turns bad. Farming doesn’t often “pay” so
be sure you have another plan for making enough cash to pay your taxes. The
sayings
of the old farmers are still applicable today: Don’t count
your chicks before they hatch. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. And
nothing is sure but death and taxes.
I appreciate the link on Captain
Dave’s site. I
have read your book [Patriots ]
'till the pages are falling out. I have been visiting your blog every
day since it was first mentioned on Captain Dave's. I just
wanted to give you a quick A1 "Attaboy" on
your advertisers. I have used JRH
Enterprises starting in the mid-late 90’s when he was still
located in Jacksonville Florida, and he has ALWAYS been a source of
good information,
honesty, and good deals. If he does not have it he can tell you who
does. Bruce
Hemming (Buckshot’s) has been a valuable source of
training and equipment for trapping to someone that lives in a non-trapping
state, and has never done it before. Believe me, if his videos can
teach me (they DID!) then anyone can learn. And one last advertiser: Ready
Made Resources. I discovered them the late 1990’s when
I was preparing for Y2K.
I bought thousands of dollars in long term food and supplies from RMR.
I have and continue to recommend them as the BEST source this
side of the Mississippi. They have always had the best prices
and most variety, and have done a great job of expanding into other
supplies.
Living
in Panama City, Florida, I have not dedicated money into the Wiggy's
sleeping bag fund yet but when I finish the retreat in Western
N.C., it will surely be higher on the list.
I know you do not recommend retreats on this side of the country but how do
you feel about western North Carolina (Macon County), I prefer the lower elevation
mountains and the growing season there, as well as the sparse population. Thanks
for the daily information - R.L. in Panama City, FL
JWR Replies: Thanks for you kind words about the SurvivalBlog advertisers. I am very selective about from whom I'll accept advertising.
Regarding North Carolina: I am quick to admit that I have western U.S.-centric viewpoint. This is in part because my family came out west by covered wagon in 1857. My great-great grandfather felt that Ohio was getting "too many people." (I can't help but be reminded of the lyrics of the bluegrass song "New Cut Road", a.k.a. "Coleman Bonner".)
I'm not familiar enough with North Carolina to make any specific locale
recommendations. Perhaps a SurvivalBlog reader who lives there
will send me an e-mail and enlighten
us.
I just read Army Aviator's post on the helmets, et al. He brings up some good points, and perhaps even ones that he didn't intend to. Just because the Army does things a certain way, doesn't make it the right way for a survivalist. The main difference is that the Army has a long logistics capability and an individual's will vary so much that even things that may work for one group, might not work for another. An example is the tarps used on the 5-ton trucks. For the Army, the plastic tarps are a better system to use. They're lighter, cheaper, and they can come in different colors cheaper and easier. Basically, they're more disposable than the canvas ones (that only come in green and painting them tan for use in arid climates only works marginally well) due to unit cost. Well, that approach is probably better for the Army, because they have a huge logistics system that can provide for that, and hence their relatively short service life is not a major issue. The problem is that individual survivalists don't have a logistics "tail" like that. So for a survivalist, the canvas might be a better option for the same use. Another example is battery powered gear. The Army devours batteries at an enormous rate. In Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), it became critical to a point that batteries rivaled fuel in maintaining the advance. There's no way that an individual survivalist is going to maintain that tempo of battery usage, yet I see several who continually purchase battery powered devices like there's no tomorrow. Some of these item s may have great value, and some may not, but they all take batteries and usually these folks have no "battery plan". The same goes for any piece of equipment, or even tactical doctrine. What works great for the "Big Army" might not work for me. Many people with no exposure to the logistics of warfighting don't understand just how much effort goes into the Army's logistic system. They just figure that "if it's good for the Army, then it must be good for me." Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Army's a good place to get ideas, but you must always look at your own needs to make decisions on what to buy, or how to do things. As a side note, the MICH came about to have a compatible helmet for Special Forces (SF) individual commo systems. They made it cover less area for a variety of reasons. For SF use, the higher sensory effectiveness was the trade-off for area covered. The ACH is basically the MICH without the commo integration. Per square inch, the ballistic protection provided by the ACH is actually higher than the K-pot. [The Kevlar PASGT helmet.] The material used is indeed lighter, but it will stop more than the 1980's Kevlar in the K-pot. The problem is that the old K-pot covers more head area so the ACH may indeed be less effective. The USMC has decided against the ACH (though Force Recon uses the MICH) and will be issuing a helmet made from the same lighter, stronger ballistic material of the ACH, but built in the same profile of the current K-pot. That will give them the same higher ballistic protection, without sacrificing the area covered. As for the sidearm, there is another example of not buying the way the Army now does things. They went with cheap aftermarket magazines, and got predictable results. (Factory mags worked 100% in the desert). What many don't know is that the mag problem was actually identified a few years earlier. It was pretty common knowledge here when the Navy guys started having the same problems with their P226s here a couple years before OIF. At first I figured some swabbie was swapping out mil-spec mags for their private mags, but sure enough the Navy had bought aftermarket mags for the SEAL's SIG P226's. They were all collected up, and factory mags issued, and P226 failures disappeared. (Shocking!) The bottom line: just because it's U.S.G.I., it may not be the best. - "Doug Carlton"
JWR's Note: Some of the readers of my novel Patriots will remember the Doug Carlton character. It is the pseudonym of a real life individual that I have known since college. (We went through ROTC at San Jose State University together in the early 1980s.) "Doug" is a former U.S. Army pilot who now works in the civilian transportation sector.
Dual Fuel Carbs for generators generally aren't available
any more. Also, Onan references below also include Kohler's. Onan
Generators 4.0kw to 7.5 kw are a good selection when combined with
a Trace SW4024 inverter package. I run my generator two hours a day
and have electricity 24/7. (Generators are best run with a full load
for maximal service life and fuel economy.)
I've noticed that many people think of having a generator
and when the grid goes poof, cranking up the genny and life goes on.
That dog doesn't hunt. They usually use a ton of non-essential electricity.and
that simply doesn't cut it when the grid goes away. You can't possibly
run a 100KW for the needed period AND storing (and wasting ) that much
fuel is foolish.
I've been able to get along wonderfully with a 4.0 KW Onan, I thought
about going larger but by staying with the 4.0 KW, I was able to acquire
two generators. I only need one but "Two is one and one
is none" I do rotate the two on a scheduled basis. Anyway, I started
out around 1999 with the one running on gasoline. (Note my property
doesn't have anything coming into it, no electricity, phone, water,
NADA!)
I went thru Y2K with that setup and it was great. So I went to buy
the Dual Fuel carb and BINGO, Due to EPA/OSHA/some alphabet agency
they don't make that any more so I installed the Propane-only carb
for both generators. I still have all the gas carb parts and can change
back at will (30 minutes) but what a pain. Note: Do the conversion
yourself and ask for help if you need it, BUT do it yourself.
Then you can do
it again when there is no help.
Next to last note: Get the not so terribly older Onans/Kohlers. They
have a mechanical voltage and frequency (60 Hz) adjustment/control
and the Trace still loves it. These older units have minimal electronics
to EMP fry (or simply fail). Worst thing you'll generally find is a
mud
dauber
plugs
up the
case vent hose and the thing stutters. (Use a coat hanger!)
Last note: Propane stores well! Underground tanks are a waste of time
unless you really have to be hidden. Above ground tanks won't "blow
up" They will pop the safety valve and vent with a great big ball
of flame but they won't explode or fragment AND by going with above
ground surplus tanks you can store a lot more propane. (I have 6000
gallons). (And mine survived the forest fires!) The only drawback to
propane is you can't go get 5 gallons of propane and pour it into your
tank. That's why you need propane and diesel for your fuel reserves.
If anybody asks why you're buying so much fuel? Tell them you're buying
ahead for your retirement so that when you DO retire your cost of living
will be minimal for the first 6 years. or Buying ahead lets you buy
when the price is best. Both are always accepted. Regards, - The Army
Aviator
Hi Jim,
Thanks for doing a great job on SurvivalBlog... very informative,
easy to follow and obviously attracting some pretty
bright folks.
Having spent nearly 40 years "working" for Uncle Sam
in a variety of military and civilian posts (I retired as a senior
IRS
field agent), I have a deep-seated mistrust of the feds.
We, The People, are one episode away from martial law and the end
of the United States Constitution. As retired General Tommy Franks
put it... "the worst thing that
could happen” is if terrorists acquire and then use a biological,
chemical or nuclear weapon that inflicts heavy casualties. If that
happens, Franks said, “... the Western world, the free
world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty
we’ve seen for a couple of hundred years
in this grand experiment that we call democracy.” Franks then
offered “in a practical sense” what
he thinks would happen in the aftermath of such an attack. “It
means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist,
massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world – it
may be in the United States of America – that causes our population
to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country
in order to avoid a repeat of another mass casualty-producing event.
Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution." Coming
from a former CENTCOM commander, that statement should have scared
all of us to death. In reality, it raised few eyebrows,
testimony to how little we Americans value our liberty. When martial
law is
enacted, the light of liberty will flicker and die.
Imagine
this: A major terrorist attack or a major earthquake on the New
Madrid Fault... President Hillary Clinton's FEMA director (Chuck Schumer)
orders
the confiscation
of all semi-automatic firearms in the interest of public safety.
Does our spine turn to jelly and we stare at our Nike sneakers as
we're disarmed, or do we put ourselves at odds with the government
and defy
the order?
Too many folks not surrendering their weapons? Any guess on what happens
next? Should we have added backbone to our stockpile of beans and bullets?
I guess that I'm a pessimist. I fear there are too few of us left who
value Liberty
above safety. We're vastly outnumbered by the folks who are
willing to surrender precious Liberty in exchange for the worthless
promises of professional politicians.
I hope that our Grandkids can forgive us for all we've given away
in our post 911 fear and hysteria. - "Dutch"
I recommend getting a copy of the book "Bacteriological Warfare:
A Major Threat To North America" by Larry Wayne Harris
(Registered Microbiologist and a Christian)
ISBN 0-9647860-5-2
Why do you need this book? Here is an example: Chapter 13 is on Preparation
of Veterinary & Agriculture
Antibiotics for Human Use. This chapter has dose charts for using six
of the most commonly available veterinary antibiotics.
Used copies are often available through Amazon.com from
private
sellers.
Jim,
I get a chuckle out of your terms "When the Schumer Hits the Fan" and "Schumeresque." I
am unfortunately, stuck with ol' Chuckie [Schumer] as a Senator. The
biggest laugh is, as you may know, we have a CCW permit
system here [in New York.] Schumer is very anti-gun. A state trooper told me
years ago, he
was accessing the permit log and found that Schumer himself has a permit, and
there were, at the time, two guns listed on it. He couldn't say what
[models] they were, but there were two. Probably more, by now!!
Hi Jim,
Just read your review of Oregon for retreat potential. Good write up.
But your reference to the face to face transfer for firearms is slightly
inaccurate. AFIK only those transactions between private parties
at a gun show must be papered. Those done in other ways (i.e. newspaper
ad, garage sales, private sales between friends, etc.) can still
be done without paperwork. I'm an NRA instructor and active range
safety
officer and try to keep up on the laws and haven't heard of that
getting through
yet.
Though some in the state house would like to make things more like
California than we already are. There's also a state preemption pertaining
to guns that prohibits cities, counties or other local government bodies
from making any laws pertaining to the possession or use of firearms.
Oregon is also a "shall issue" state in regards
to concealed carry permits.
Keep up the good work, your powder dry and eyes toward heaven.
Blessings to you and the Memsahib. - Jeff in Oregon
JWR Replies:
Thanks for the clarification. I will make the requisite correction
to my post. Sadly, since gun shows are the best place to find a decent
selection of used
guns,
and
since
many
metropolitan newspapers
now refuse to run gun ads in their classified sections, I consider this change
in the Oregon law a significant hit against firearms freedom. The state is
definitely suffering from creep Californication. Alas, simply moving to eastern
Oregon is not the solution, when everyone is subject to the same petty tyrannies
that
they issue forth from Salem.
"These people want our guns because they want to run our lives, and they don't want to worry about getting shot when they try to do so. When you hear that they've confiscated my gun, then you'll know I'm dead". - Newspaper columnist Dr. Walter Williams
Note From JWR: Please spread the word about Survival Blog. Your mention of this blog at Internet Forums and/or on radio talk shows is greatly appreciated!
Today, I'm covering Oregon, the 14th of 19 western states in my
rankings of states by their retreat potential.
Oregon:
Population: 3.4 million.
Population Density: 35 per square mile (Rank 9 of JWR’s top 19
states) (The highest density is in the
northwest part of the state. It is much lower elsewhere, particular
eastern 2/3rds of the state.)
Area: 97,000 square miles (rank 10 of 50).
Average car insurance cost: $704/yr. (rank 35 of 50).
Average home insurance cost: $343/yr. (rank 47 of 50).
Crime Safety Ranking: 18 of 50.
Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 65%.
Per capita income: $27,660 (rank 25 of 50).
ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 10 of 50 (tied with Washington).
Plusses: No sales tax. Very low home insurance rates. (Average of $343
per year. Ranks #47 in the country!) Has a high rating in “education
freedom” (ranked #5 of 50), since Oregon has relaxed home schooling
laws. Relatively low car insurance rates.
Note: In the late 1970s,
the much-respected survival writer Mel Tappan touted southwestern
Oregon--particularly the Rogue River Valley--as a survival
haven. But that was back when California had a population of only around
20 million people. Today, I'm not sure that southwestern Oregon will
have sufficient geographic isolation to be immune from California's
"Golden
Horde" in the event of an abrupt TEOTWAWKI.
Presently, I recommend the Grande Ronde Valley of eastern Oregon. I
will have more on specifically recommended Oregon locales
in subsequent posts.
Minuses: High property taxes. Creeping Californication.
Second lowest church attendance rate in the country. Restrictive zoning
and expensive
building permits in many western counties. Private party gun sales
at gun shows were recently banned. All transactions involving
modern (post-1898) gun at gun shows
must now be processed through a FFL-licensed
dealer, with the requisite paperwork. Sadly, since gun shows are the
best place to find a decent selection of used guns, and since
many metropolitan newspapers
now refuse to run gun ads in their classified sections, I consider this change
in the Oregon law a significant hit against firearms freedom.
Parts of the state are recommended,
(with reservations).
Note: I probably should have given Oregon a lower ranking, due to its
mediocre gun and tax laws. However, its favorable climate and long
growing season pushed it up the list slightly. JWR’s Combined
Retreat Potential Ranking: 3 of 19.
The following comes to us from a SurvivalBlog reader who was
deployed with a WMD/Hazmat Team to New Orleans, very soon after
the hurricane
struck. Cellular phone difficulties and 15+ hour work days
kept him from making reports to SurvivalBlog as he had originally
planned.
James:
I'm very sorry that I couldn't make contact [while there] and keep
you all up to date with the Katrina Deployment.
I rotated out of New Orleans yesterday and made it home it time for
my daughter's 16th birthday. Quite an emotional ride, to say the least.
Katrina...wow...First I want to say thanks to those who supported my
WMD team and continue to do so. Emotions ran very high. We have recovered
several human remains ("HRs") and identified ("IDed")
several of these. I was a Strike Team leader composed of 8-10 individuals
varying each
day
on our operations ("OPS").
I was privileged to have a Chaplain embedded with us on several recovery's.
For each set of HRs, a simple prayer was given:
"Lord, We give thanks for this man's life.
We give thanks that he was found.
We give thanks for those that found him.
We ask that he may be made whole in God's arms.
And that he knows peace, Amen"
We treated these individuals with the dignity and respect they so deserve.
An interesting aspect of this was the attempt to make some comparisons to movies
and the "Hollywood" aspects. Let's take Mad Max, Escape From
New York,
The Day After Tomorrow, and Soylent Green, rolling
these together into real life. Now
take
the
Hollywood
out of it--and you have New Orleans.
These people have lost everything....the infrastructure is gone...no
phones except for cellular, if and when the towers, (portable), work. Radio communications
are less than
good and operate under the most austere conditions. Electricity in some parts
is coming back. Its interesting to see a city of that magnitude highlighted by
only a few lights.
Now for the individuals who decided to be less than friendly...those individuals
were met by an equal or greater force, subsequently neutralized and the OPS continued.
Enough said!
People turned into animals. I found it interesting that an individual
who was "displaced" was
given an MRE to eat...His reply was, "I don't want this stuff, I want real food." Amazing
enough, most all of the participants of this recovery process were eating MREs,
or Heater Meals either some or most
of the time. This wasn't good enough for this individual, but it was for those
who were helping...An interesting factor.
I guess from watching the TV most all saw the looting and destruction to the
city and homes caused by a few lawless dregs...these are the types that we
will face if and when another catastrophic event might occur...Enough said.
The AO is an environmental nightmare.
Water is beyond
polluted, testing high
in most diseases we don't want to think about. Hand washing was/is a continuous
task.
Hopefully I can sit down and write some more after a few days of decompression.
Please remember my team-mates [still in New Orleans] in your prayers, as their
task is demanding. If you care to assist in their "creature comforts",
drop an e-mail to me...I'll supply the address. [JWR Adds: I'll
be happy to forward your e-mails--just
include "For R.K.'s Team" in the
message header.]
Be safe and pray that we never have to endure an incident
such as this, because it could
have been the beginning of the end. - R.K.
Shortly before Katrina hit I eliminated all of my unsecured debt.
At the moment we have just the mortgage and two car payments (aside
from utilities and insurance payments.) We put a 48 month plan into
action. Every month we 'bank' a percentage of our income, roughly $1,000
USD a month. At the moment it's going into the safe
and we are entering month 3 and are at $2,000 and right on track. Our car payments
will be done before the 48 months are up and 100% of that will then also be
going
towards our new home/retreat. We are moving out west. Where, we don't know
yet. Your reviews have been very informative thusfar, timely as well. God
has brought us this far, and I trust he'll place us in the right location.
My request is this: A review of different home styles for a home / retreat.
Patriotpages did an awesome job on standard ranch style houses, so I'm
covered if we wind up getting a 'standard house'. I've read quite a bit about
'earth
homes' that are covered on all sides except the front. I love the idea of not
needing A/C in the summer and a temp of no less than 50 degrees in the winter
without heating (especially if trees aren't as plentiful in your AO). The other
advantage of being basically tornado proof really makes it appealing. The limited
view from the home is a minus and a plus on a defensive side. I've been mentally
thinking about how that would play out...
If we have 48 months left (I'm beginning to wonder) I hope to move into a new
home (if Earth style, if not brick or cinder block) with 4-5 bedrooms with
a full basement and all the goodies... if we can make it another full 12 months
beyond that, I plan on it being completely off the grid from day one. Otherwise
all we'll have
is electric service on grid and the rest off grid. As things shape up over
the next two years, I might buy my property early and put a trailer or small
600
square foot cabin type
thing on it 'just in case'.
I don't know what you have planned after the State by State run-downs, but
I thought that might be an idea. [JWR Adds: Stay tuned. I'll be making
detailed suggestions on specific retreat locales soon after I finish my "19
Western States" review series.]
As an aside, I've ordered from botac.com a few times in the past... they always
make it right, even if it takes them a month or two. I tell anyone ordering
from them "If you need it on time, then buy elsewhere. If you can wait
a few months, buy from them."
FWIW, A guy on AssaultWeb.net ordered
the Level 3/4 [body armor] plates from them last week and got them in under
7 days. Good deal as well, $150 shipped per
plate. In Christ and Liberty, - Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, The Banzai Institute
JWR Replies: I plan to write a series of blog posts on
retreat architecture options, probably early this winter. In preparation
for writing that series,
I would appreciate
e-mails from SurvivalBlog readers, helping to round out my knowledge.
Sometimes dozens of bits of anecdotal information can build a fine and
comprehensive "big picture" view of a subject. BTW, I plan to cover everything
from
double-wide trailers to Monolithic
dome homes.
JWR,
I have been checking out solar battery chargers and came across
the link below. Perhaps some of the other SurvivalBloggers would
be interested! - G.C.P.
Click here: AA-SOLAR - Solar AA Battery Charger
http://store.l-f-l.com/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?rrc=N&pg=prod&ref=AA-SOLAR&CMP=KNC-LCB-GENERAL-G&refcd=GO1114980_Solar_Battery_Chargers
Dear Jim,
Excellent blog, it has really taken off, and I recommend it constantly.
I have it on my desktop to read first thing every morning. Currently
I'm living in coastal southern California, but plan to relocate in
2006. Much like New Orleans, Southern California is also "under
water," or
in our case, dependent on distant water supplies for over 90% of our
fresh water needs. In the event of a terrorist attack or major earthquake
which disrupts the water supply, SoCal will "go
New Orleans" in a matter of days. On the plus side, I have a 48
foot home-built steel sailboat which is a proven ocean crosser. I spent
65 nonstop days at sea sailing from Guam to California, and I could
easily stretch that to over 100 days in the "bug out" mode
if I'm stuck in SoCal when things fall apart.
Now, onto a question about vehicle conversion for post-collapse use.
Many of the states you recommend are now major natural gas producers.
If these assets come under "local control" in some future
scenarios, it may make a lot of sense to have a vehicle which can run
on natural gas. Is there any reference material on what is involved
with this conversion? Also, I understand propane can be used as a vehicle
fuel, and propane has a very long or indefinite usable shelf life.
Could propane or NG be used in the same vehicle, with minor adjustments?
Also, what about making a diesel-engine vehicle EMP-proof? Would this
be a difficult matter, in these days of universal availability of conversion
parts? I think a simple diesel truck (either an older model or one
converted for EMP resistance) would be relatively cheap to buy today,
and worth it's weight in silver during hard times. Of course, that
assumes the prudent survivor has laid away an ample supply of diesel
fuel.
Regards, - Matt Bracken (Author of the novel "Enemies
Foreign and Domestic")
JWR Replies: Liquid propane (LP) conversions for trucks are fairly commonplace, especially with utility company trucks. (Not surprisingly, many propane companies have their entire fleet of vehicles powered by propane.) Sometimes companies auction off their older vehicles. This is an inexpensive way to acquire a propane-powered pickup. (Buying a truck for $2,500 at auction, versus paying $2,000 for a conversion.) The rule of thumb is that the energy in a gallon of LP is equates to 9/10ths of a gallon of gas.
Up until recently, running a vehicle on propane cost about the same per mile as gasoline. But the recent spike in gasoline prices illustrated one nice thing about propane--it doesn't usually have the same seasonal price fluctuations and news-driven price swings that gasoline does. And, of course it has a much longer storage life than gasoline. LP/NG-powered electric generators are also widely available.
Do keep in mind that propane and natural gas have differing chemistry, so they require different jet geometry. Ignoring that could cause a big fireball! The ultimate survival set-up is something like Dr. Gary North's home/retreat where he has his own natural gas wells. Talk about sitting pretty! Several vendors offer propane and natural gas conversions. OBTW, some states offer tax incentives for propane use. See this incentives and laws page for details.
I have briefly discussed diesel engines in EMP environments in a few previous posts. In essence, all early (pre-1990) diesels are EMP-proof. However, many that have been built since the early 1990s have used electronic fuel controls and/or electronic glow plug controllers, which could be fried by EMP. Most diesels can be retrofitted to eliminate these vulnerabilities. Any local diesel mechanic with experience with diesel powered pickups can tell you exactly what you need to know.
Dear Mr. Rawles, Just wanted to ask why Iowa didn't make the list of 19? If you could write a small blurb, it would be much appreciated. Also wanted to thank you for making your "Pulling Through" screenplay available. Great read!!!!!!! I can't wait for the movie. Should be done for T.V. to put out much needed info to the greater portion of the uninformed public. It would make life much easier on the rest of us to not have to inform people piecemeal one-at-a-time of things they need to know. Should be an ongoing series after "Katrina" it should be a dead certain to get a large viewership. I would think it'll run for years if you can find an intelligent network exec. to back it. Done right it would prove an invaluable tool for "Homeland Security", FEMA, etc., to get the word out that you can't wait on them, but must do for yourselves or do without! Thanks for a great site, great reads, and for reawakening the "can do" attitude. Respectfully, - K.H.
JWR Replies: I generally don't consider Iowa to be suitable for retreating if and when things get truly Schumeresque. Its terrain is not defendable, much of the state is in close proximity to massive population centers in Illinois, and its crop diversity is marginal. Parts of the state might suffice, but in essence it is about 500 miles too far east. Read my posts from early August, 2005 in the Archives for details. (In general, the east has too much population density and is downwind of too many nuke targets.)
Further, I am not familiar enough with Iowa to make any specific locale recommendations. Perhaps someone who reads the blog who lives there will send me an e-mail and enlighten us.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on
your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge him, and He shall
direct your paths."
- Proverbs 3:5-6.
Note From JWR: Today, I'm covering Oklahoma, the 13th of 19 western states in my rankings of states by their retreat potential.
Oklahoma:
Population: 3.4 million.
Population Density: 48.5 per square mile (Rank 6 of JWR’s top
19 states).
Area: 70,000 square miles (rank 18 of 50).
Average car insurance cost: $736/yr. (rank 26 of 50).
Average home insurance cost: $612/yr. (rank 5 of 50).
Crime Safety Ranking: 33 of 50.
Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 80%.
Per capita income: $23,650 (rank 42 of 50).
ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 23 of 50.
Plusses: Minimally regulated home schooling.
Minuses: Fairly high population density (by western U.S. standards.)
Fairly high crime rate. Tornado prone (ranked #3 out of top 20 States)
High home insurance rates. (Average of $612 per year. Ranked #5 in
the country!) Low wages. High car insurance rates. High population
density (by western U.S. standards.) Low wages. Tribal governments
create an extra layer of bureaucracy within the Indian reservation
boundaries.
JWR’s Combined Retreat Potential Ranking: 17 of 19.
It seems to me that I was reading some of Reason Kearney's writings
and he said the EMP damage to cars, etc was waaaay overrated. Of
course,
that was back when cars had a lot of non-solid state stuff and tube
radios. I do remember he said all you had to do to protect the radio
was ground the antenna to the car body. (Tube radio, I expect) and
not to worry about the alternator and starter (unless you were smack
dab in the middle of the flash). When he wrote that, we already had
alternators in lieu of generators. Seems like the Army specifies
that you should disconnect all antennas and power connectors prior
to
a [nuclear] detonation.It appears like your
engine ought to still turn over and if your ignition system survives,
your car might run.[JWR comments: True for most diesels and
for any vehicle with a traditional points/rotor/condenser ignition--but
not true for
electronic ignitions or for electronic fuel ignition electronics.]
Just a thought, with the army switching from the Personal Armor System
for Ground Troops (PASGT) helmet to the Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH)--commonly
referred to as a MICH (Modular/Integrated
Communications Helmet) ,which it isn't really. The real MICH meets
the same specs as the ACH but is reserved for special function
groups. The ACH, however, is designed (as I recall) to maximally deflect
12 mm upon impact from a 9mm at (forget what speed, something pretty
average though.). More a police level resistance than a combat one.
Oh that's right, that's what the military will be for.
Sorry, I forgot! Why I brought this up is ....... Good opportunity!
The PASGT helmet is rated
a lot higher in projectile impact and they
are about to become dirt cheap. I've never minded the weight
or configuration of my PASGT and it's stable as heck for using the
PVS-14 [NVG]s.
Good thing to have, keeps the
sun out of your eyes and the rain off of your neck and projectiles
from knocking the golley-whomper out of you. Just be sure to get the
airborne
nape pad. Although, something you might want to look at is a real MICH
helmet. For general wear around the property after TSHTF, it'd be light
and
generally effective but then you could always grab the PASGT while
locking and loading. A MICH and a pair of good gloves might save you
some distress "When
there is no doctor".
Off on a Tangent: On the NOROTOS, Inc. mount... Waste of money in my
opinion so far. Single point release, too easy to bump and bingo, no
NVD. I'll give it some more time and let you know.
Comment: I have opined for awhile that "they" are reducing the ability and effectiveness of our troops equipment. Now we have a "lighter" helmet that "enhances vision and hearing on the battlefield". Sounds to me like the REMF's bitched about the weight and so they cheapened up the effectiveness. Just like they reduced the calorie count of MRE's because the REMF's were getting fat and now "Real" combat troops gotta eat two MREs to have an effective meal in combat. Look at the covers for M998's and 5 tons. Sucky plastic. How about the 9mm sidearm while the operators in Afghanistan ordered in .45s and pallets of ammo when they found out the 9mm didn't put their opponents down? And the 9mm [Beretta M9] magazine springs hung up, disabling the weapon. Modern military controls areas, grunts control the dirt..... AND the government fears the ex-military because the ex-military has seen that one man with a rifle can bring a government down. My grandfather told me that. Nuff bitching.
Like you I carry a .45. Since Mel Tappan's time back in the seventies, I've had my pair of Detonics Combat Masters, and I carry every day.
Oh, I should mention that the FreezeDryGuy's
food is good. You have to follow the instructions on rehydrating the
meat but then it's
great on the BBQ grill
or the frying pan. - The Army Aviator
Jim,
I got back into the National Guard (I got an 'old man' waiver). I am
with the [Deleted for OPSEC]th Military Police (M.P.)
Company. I am presently deployed with the hurricane relief. Even
though I have been a 'survivalist' (whatever that means) for years,
I have
learned quite a bit this last month, some of which may move
me more from 'armchair' to active survivalism. Our M.P. Company was
activated and we are helping with the hurricane relief not far from
New Orleans.
We have not seen much nastiness where we are,
but our daily 'police sheet' sounds like something out of your novel
'Patriots',
and frankly, it scared me in an eerie sort of way. Reports of both
Crips and Bloods a few miles one direction, Pagans and Hell's
Angels not far another, the state police arrested a group of 25 (that
was one group!) looters in the next county. We are working with the
local police here,
to keep order. the last two days we kept order at the food stamp distribution
center (at a church) there were a few thousand [recipients] over this
period (and this is in
small town dixie). We drove to the outlying areas to hand out water
and MREs. What scared me most was the fact that in such a rural area
things would be so much like your book (and this was not as widespread
a disaster
as in your novel 'Patriots'.
Below is a letter you may find interesting (FFTAGFFR).
It
has taken four long days for state and federal officials to figure
out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can't blame them,
because it has also taken me four long days to figure out what is going
on there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you
think that we are confronting a natural disaster. If this is just a
natural disaster, the response for public officials is obvious: you
bring in food, water, and doctors; you send transportation
to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send engineers to stop
the flooding and rebuild the city's infrastructure. For journalists,
natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the heroism of ordinary
people pulling together to survive; the hard work and dedication of
doctors, nurses, and rescue workers; the steps being taken to clean
up and rebuild. Public officials did not expect that the first thing
they would have to do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored
vehicle, as if they are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists--myself
included--did not expect that the story would not be about rain, wind,
and flooding,
but about rape, murder, and looting. But this is not a natural disaster.
It is a man-made disaster. The man-made disaster is not an inadequate
or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not
directly caused by Hurricane Katrina. This is where just about every
newspaper
and television channel has gotten the story wrong.
The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not
happen over the past four days. It happened over the past four decades.
Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view. The man-made disaster
is the welfare state. For the past few days, I have found the news
from New Orleans to be confusing. People were not behaving as you would
expect them to behave in an emergency--indeed; they were not behaving
as they have behaved in other emergencies. That is what has shocked
so many people: they have been saying that this is not what we expect
from America. In fact, it is not even what we expect from a Third World
country. When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the
occasion. They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously
organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true
in America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own
initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care
of us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples
(a small town whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary
citizens to get out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops,
directing cars through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous
response of New Yorkers to September 11).
So what explains the chaos in New Orleans? To give you an idea of the
magnitude of what is going on, here is a description from a Washington
Times story: "Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt
with flying fists, knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses
litter
the streets; and police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired
on. " The plea from Mayor C.
Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen poured in to restore order
and stop the looting, carjackings and gun fire..."
JWR's Comments: The liberals seem to want to have it both ways: First they were begging for Federal relief. "Why isn't the Army here?", they cried. Now, only a week later, we have Cindy Sheehan et al complaining about the Army's "occupation" of New Orleans. Sheeesh!
A huge fault I see in the survivalist planning of most people is to
purchase and stock their bugout bag with the best and most carefully
chosen equipment that mail order and eBay can provide years of loving
care go into their Bugout Bag (BOB); I consider myself in this group.
The potential "survival
failure" comes if this gear is lost or taken.
Some people have have no idea how to substitute or replace their gear.
You should hopefully have a good idea of the chemistry and physics
of your
gear
and at least have the possibility of repair or replace with on site
materials. For example: Sleeping Pads. The est replacement is either
a stack of cardboard boxes--which makes good conductive thermal protection
from cold concrete very popular with the homeless. From old non-PC Boy
Scout manual, pine boughs (with branches the size of a normal pencil,
nice and springy stack until you have a good thermal barrier for conductive
heat loss.
JWR Comments: This illustrates several things: The first is adaptability. You should be able to think on you feet. That only comes with practice. I know of one survival group that trains specifically for adaptability. They dubbed one of their winter three day training weekends "Bucket Weekend"--in which everyone had to pack everything that they needed for the entire weekend aside from their coats into in one 5 gallon plastic bucket--including their sleeping gear and tentage. That is is the sort of exercise that really gets people thinking and encourages creativity and flexibility. BTW, one of their later summer weekend outings was called "Tennis Ball Can Weekend." That one nearly caused an insurrection
Secondly, David's letter illustrates the folly of putting all your
eggs in one basket--namely your one and only precious
G.O.O.D. Kit or "BoB", or even your one an only retreat location.
Losing that one kit could cause someone to practically
go into grief and mourning. Always have
a Plan
B,with the
corresponding logistics
for
Plan B stored elsewhere. (Typically in a separate offsite
cache.) One group that I've been associated with for many years by SOP has
each of their members
cache a spare weapon, pack and clothing in an offsite underground cache
in adjoining National Forest, in the event that their retreat is ever
over-run.
(Each member has one P-3 Orion octagonal plastic sonobuoy storage canister
and two or three big 20mm-size ammo cans in the caches.)
"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds are against you and only a precious chance of survival. There may be even a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." - Winston Churchill
Note From JWR: Today, I'm covering North Dakota,
the 12th of 19 western states in my rankings of states by their
retreat potential.
North Dakota:
Population: 642,200.
Population Density: 9 per square mile (Rank 17 of JWR’s top 19
states).
Area: 70,700 square miles (rank 17 of 50).
Average car insurance cost: $601/yr. (rank 49 of 50).
Average home insurance cost: $426/yr. (rank 33 of 50).
Crime Safety Ranking: 2 of 50.
Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 61%.
Per capita income: $24,708 (rank 38 of 50).
ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 6 of 50.
Plusses: very low population density. Extremely low crime rate. Extremely
low car insurance rates. With the decline in family farming, the state
has actually
de-populated,
leaving
real
estate
prices
low.
In eastern North Dakota, in-town lots can be had literally
for free--to
encourage re-settlement. For various economic
and demographic
data, see:
http://www.DiscoverND.com
Minuses: Brutally cold winters. Short growing season.With the
de-population, crop diversity has decreased. (Practically a monoculture.)
Many small towns in North Dakota now lack key commerce such as grocery
stores,
hardware
stores,
and
so forth.
(People in many small towns are now forced to drive long distances
to do their weekly shopping.) Some small towns in the de-populated
regions
are
verging
on desperation, hence the aforementioned "free lots"offers.
(Some schools are being closed for want of pupils.) North Dakota has
major nuclear
targets,
so I only
recommend
that you
look
west (upwind)
of
the missile fields. It is estimated that in a full scale nuclear exchange
Russia might direct up to 1/3 of its ICBMs at the Dakotas! Unfortunately
the missile fields are all WEST (mostly upwind) of Grand Forks (which
is on the eastern border). Also, much of North Dakota is downwind from
the missile fields in Montana and Wyoming, at least with the prevailing
winds.
That makes it less than inviting in a nuclear war scenario. North Dakota
also has highly regulated home schooling.
JWR’s Combined Retreat Potential Ranking: 8 of 19.
I was gratified to see that the spot price of gold went to a 17 year high ($459 per ounce) yesterday, while silver closed at $7.21 per ounce. (See my metals price ticker.) I expect some brief profit taking for a few days (and perhaps into October--which has traditionally been a weak month for precious metals prices), but then the metals bull will probably resume his full-tilt charge in the winter. How high will the top be? Who knows... But consider that when adjusted for inflation, the $805 top that gold saw 25 years ago would equate to around $2,200 per ounce, today.
Only
one thing is for certain: Like all of the other "fiat" (by
decree) unbacked paper currencies of this new century, the
U.S. dollar is doomed. Any investment that you buy denominated
in dollars is a loser in the long run. Because of both the huge balance
of trade deficit and the Federal government budget deficit, someday--probably
within the next five years--there will be a full scale dollar crisis.
When that
happens,
expect
to lose 40 to 70% of the value of all of your dollar-denominated
paper assets overnight. Poof. Finis. Gone!
Your solution to all of this is to buy tangibles.
Buy productive farmland. Buy guns, buy ammunition, and buy storage
food. Once that is done, buy some silver, and then perhaps some gold.
Then you will
be sitting pretty. Take the time to read through my Profiles of
retreat owners. You will note that tangibles investing, including plenty
of
precious
metals
investing is a common thread. They do this for a reason: These folks
are not the Generally Dumb Public (GDP). You should invest
likewise.
My current prediction is that the U.S. Housing Market Bubble is likely to burst sometime in the next two or three years. There will likely be a concomitant stock market collapse and perhaps a dollar crisis. This will make the Crash of 1929 look like a summer picnic by comparison. And depending on which party that the Powers That Be (read: The Banksters) want to occupy the White House and to control congress, then these events will be orchestrated either before or after the next mid-term elections. (Pardon my cynicism.) In any event, buckle your seatbelts.
Parenthetically, I still think that silver has a better chance of doubling or tripling than gold in this bull market cycle. So if you have the room, buy more silver than gold. Besides, all of those 55 pound bags ($1,000 face value each) of pre-1965 silver coinage make great ballast in the bottom of a gun vault--making your vault that much harder for burglars to haul away. (Which is not to say that you shouldn't also bolt your vault to the floor, too.)
In closing...
Aside from my
steadfast faith in God, the reason that I sleep well at night is
the knowledge that my home has a very full larder, large stores of fuel,
and a full gun vault.
The last thing that I see when I drift off each night is the reassuring
glow of a Colt 1911's tritium sights beside my bed.
I should point out that the battery offer by Botach is a high risk issue. Botach is a scum sucking bottom feeding scammer! Check the comments at subguns.com and Sturmgewher.com - They have a horrible reputation. I can also attest personally that they and have ripped me off (on an expensive rifle scope deal) as well as two of my associates (various rifle parts). I strongly encourage folks to slit their wrists before buying from Botach! - A.M.
JWR Replies: Don't hold back, A.M., tell us how
you really feel! (Seriously, I appreciate your advice. I've removed
that post.)
Mr. Rawles – I appreciate your web site and read it daily. This is in response to “Mo” in West Virginia: I wondered if you have read Mr. Joel Skousen’s book Strategic Relocation. He tends to feel there are areas of the south east that could be viable areas during a crisis . My choice would be central Idaho, but for complex reasons, I will stay in small town western North Carolina and try to prepare an adequate blast shelter. Water is plentiful here and the weather is rarely extreme. (Mr. Skousen also wrote an excellent book on survival shelters.) Respectfully, - C.G.
I read a discussion today at Investec Research about on Mortgages and the Federal Reserve as well as price rises on property in Montana. The Fellow said that over 40% of new mortgages are adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) and then he said that over 40% of new mortgages are set up as interest only loans. Interest only means that it's a forever mortgage. Geez, it's just a new form of rent where the banks are becoming 100% property owners. I wonder what that connotes, huh? Another dot seems to be connected. - The Army Aviator
Jim,
I have been thinking about EMP damage to circuitry. Am I correct that it only
damages computer-chip circuits, or does it also fry transistor type? It
won't harm old type ignition (with points) systems, right? If this is the
case,
a generator would become just as useless as anything, unless it is stored in
a metal cabinet of some kind, right? How air-tight would it have to be
to be effective in EMP suppression? (would it need to be totally welded,
or just tacked good enough to keep it together? I am a welder, and am
thinking about making just such a cabinet for my generator, just for such
an eventuality,
using old 275 gallon furnace oil tanks for metal, I find they are a good
source for fairly heavy gauge metal, long as you 'burn them' first, so
they won't cause any problems when ya cut them. So, the old tractors, Harleys,
etc. will still run, but everyone else will be walking, right? Can we do
anything to protect our existing ignition systems
that we use day-to-day? I guess this is more than enough questions for right
now. I just found your site last night, and I think you are barking up the
right tree. With between 80 and 100 suitcase nukes running around, we are
very likely
to need this info sooner than later!! "My people perish for the lack of
knowledge" is more true now than ever!!
If this is the case, extra ignition systems for these generators would be worth
their weight in gold, if not more, if stored properly. Talk about a great barter
item!! - S.C.
JWR Replies: To clarify: There is essentially nothing practical that you can do to protect existing vehicle electronic ignition systems or fuel injection systems that are used day-to-day. Just store spares, but they must be shielded. (See below.) The alternative is retrofitting to traditional "points, rotor, and condenser". This is still possible on many rigs built up until the early 1990s.
Some transistorized circuits are at risk from EMP. Essentially,
it all depends on the size of the gaps (gates) between components. The smaller
the gaps, the greater the
risk. (With advances in miniaturization--now down to 1/10 micron
gates on many chips--the vulnerability of microcircuits to EMP has
steadily increased. The rule of thumb: the older the circuitry,
the better. OBTW, as I'm writing this, I'm looking across my desk at my Zenith
Trans-Oceanic multiband (AM/Shortwave) receiver that was built in 1957.
It has all vacuum tubes--no transistors. So it
is essentially invulnerable to EMP. This radio was just recently
acquired for me at a garage sale by my friend Fred the Valmet-Meister. It
was priced at just $20 because it had some paint splatters that ruined its
collector's value.
Look
around
and
you
might
find some
similar vacuum tube vintage radio bargains.
Your generator itself (the windings and the ignition system--assuming that
it has traditional "points, rotor, and condenser" ignition) is
not at risk, but its control and switching circuitry probably are at
risk. Buy at least one spare set of control parts
and store
them
in an ammo can or other similar "Farady cage." Putting your whole
generator in a metal housing will not work unless you disconnect all external
connections--including
the power output cables. (Any long metal conductor acts as an 'antenna" for
EMP.) So that is not practical on a day-to-day basis, but potentially viable
if you get some warning about international tensions.
Finally, your comment about storing extra ignition systems is spot on! You will need both electronic ignition sets and electronic fuel injection controller sets. Try to find them cheap--perhaps from auto parts shops that go out of business. Concentrate on the most common types for pickup trucks and those ubiquitous minivans. Do some research on commonality between models/model years for each type of ignition set that you acquire, and photocopy that data. (So that they'll be no guesswork, post facto.) Just be sure to store all of the parts in ammo cans or metal tool boxes. An absolutely tight-fitting lid is not crucial. But if you aren't certain, wrap items in aluminum foil first, for extra protection.
You should certainly stock up to protect against a disaster, but meanwhile,
here's a website which will teach you how to start "square-foot" gardening
now, so you can take care of yourself and yours now and post-disaster,
See: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
Note: this method will also provide work/food for everybody/anybody
you find under your wing. And the "work" part: a feeling
of being a contributor may be as important as the food. I heard the
man lecture and this Saturday I will attend a workshop on constructing
and completing a square-foot garden--but clearly it's not rocket
science. It is something everybody can start doing and
thus feel they are participating in your preparation plans, even if they
think that you are a bit of a fanatic.
BTW, I paid full price for the same book that he'll sell you for 1/2 the price on the web site (Grrrrr!) - B.B.
Dear Jim:
I am completely impressed with the level of data and analysis on
your blog site! However, there is one subject I have yet to
see discussed. When looking for a homestead/retreat have you evaluated
a manufactured home versus a conventional\ stick and frame house?
Around these parts lots of rural properties come with manufactured/mobile
homes as part of the deal. What is your opinion as to the type of
housing to be used for your homestead/retreat?
I also have a few questions concerning some answers to a previous
e-mail:
1.) You had mentioned a CETME weapon. What exactly is it and can
you tell me something about it?
2.) What kind of AR-10 do you recommend?
3.) You recommended purchasing hollow point .22 bullets. I have noticed
a lot of soft point .22 are available. Are
these similar? Any advantage of hollow vs. soft points in .22?
As always thanx for your input.
B'shem Moshiach Yahshua, - Dr. Sidney Zweibel, Columbia P&S
JWR: Replies:
On Manufactured Homes Versus "Stick Built" Homes: If you aren't worried about ballistic protection, then a manufactured home (also called a mobile home) is probably a good choice. Most built these days have 2x6 stud walls and are very well insulated. If you are moving to an area where they are commonplace, then buying a manufactured home will help you to blend in. You certainly won't be looked at as a pretentious newcomer! The only serious downside is resale value--but that is hardly an issue for most survival retreats.
Regarding your firearms questions:
1.) The CETME is the
Spanish-made predecessor of the HK-91--a semi-auto magazine-fed rifle chambered
in .308 Winchester. A lot of CETME parts kits landed on American
shores in
the past few years, and most have been built-up with semi auto-only
American
made
receivers.
The result: a fairly reliable +/-$350 semi-auto .308 rifle that can
utilize dirt cheap HK-91
alloy magazines. (See previous posts on this subject.) The CETME is
a good choice as a primary rifle for someone that is on a very tight budget.
(For example fixed-income
retirees or starving college students.)
2.) I recommend the American Spirit brand AR-10, because it uses standard
FN-FAL magazines, which are cheap and plentiful. Some of the
AR-10s from other makers require expensive OEM magazines. In general,
I prefer FALs/L1A1s or M1As over AR-10s, since AR-10s share one major
design flaw with the AR-15: a gas system that blows powder fouling
back into the action.
3.) The .22 LR hollow points are only marginally better for small game
hunting than standard copper-washed soft points. (They only expand
slightly better.)
But, I predict that they'll be preferred
for barter purposes, because most of your potential customer will be
doing their shooting
for the stew
pot, and hollow points will be perceived as better for this purpose.
"Stand your ground.
Don't fire unless fired upon,
But if they mean to have a war,
Let it begin here!"
- Captain John Parker, Lexington Minute Company, April 19, 1775
Notes From JWR: Today, I'm covering New Mexico, the 11th of 19 western states in my rankings of states by their retreat potential.
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New Mexico:
Population: 1.8 million.
Population Density: 14.8 per square mile (Rank 15 of JWR’s top
19 states).
Area: 121,593 square miles (rank 5 of 50).
Average car insurance cost: $828/yr. (rank 14 of 50).
Average home insurance cost: $450/yr. (rank 27 of 50).
Crime Safety Ranking: 44 of 50.
Per capita income: $21,931 (rank 48 of 50).
Boston T. Party’s State Firearms Laws Ranking: 87%.
ACT & SAT Scores Ranking: 30 of 50.
Plusses: Low population density. Minimal gun laws. People in New Mexico's
rural areas are already highly self-sufficient, out of economic necessity.
Minuses: Proximity to Mexican border. Water is scarce in much of the
state. (Many families haul all of their drinking water from town and
store it in large cisterns. That would have dubious utility in a TEOTWAWKI-style
collapse.) Economically, New Mexico is essentially like a Third World
country within the U.S.
The
least
well-educated
population
of any state. Expensive car insurance rates. Unfortunately the most
mild climate zone in New Mexico (the southwest corner) is also very
close to the Mexican border. Low wages. High crime rate.
Note: Look for natural gas producing areas so that you can run your
pickup on “drip” oil. (See my posts in the Archives on
alternate fuels.) Some portions of the state with low population density
are recommended.
JWR’s Combined Retreat Potential Ranking: 15 of 19.
After our recent Gush Katif removal of Jews because of their religion
I have seen firsthand people who had to do a grid
up bugout. I suggest
having all 110/220 VAC gadgets
in your pack at a minimum immersion boiler and battery charger these
will take up a few grams and make
your
life easier by not wasting cooking
fuel and lantern fuel, a lightweight extension cord may not be a bad
idea either if room/weight permits. Sneaking into Gaza to protest
(it felt
freaky sneaking through Arab villages) reminded me of several
important things which I hope to write about at length. But for starters:
Have a decent heavy duty wire cutter for both concertina and cyclone
fence. Only travel (if possible) with a trained group. Infrared cameras
are
mounted on drones for personnel detection, if you are in an unauthorized
place have plans to defeat FLIR both cameras and airborne (an umbrella
is pretty effective).
The cellular system is operated totally at the whim of the powers that
be not to mention acts of G-d destroying the infrastructure. The cellular
system also allows you to be found within a few meters of your location
every time your phone is powered up similar to GPS (AT&T in the
USA allows you to access this function). Never assume that roads will
be open even if it was open only hours ago! Be ready to have to get
out and walk, or use a dirt bike. If a cash reward is offered and times
are hard
a person would be surprised
that even hostile Arabs will call the army. Have a VERY detailed map
of possible areas readable in red light and NVGs use
map compass and GPS. A piece of aluminum foil with a pinhole behind
your flashlight lens is good for reading a map, don't forget your light
discipline including infrared lights.
Mr. Rawles,
I’m a huge fan of your work, and was pleasantly surprised to
come across Survivalblog during the course of my cyber-travels. It
has become my new source for survival info. I particularly enjoy your state-by-state
retreat potential evaluations. As a lifelong resident of the east coast, and
an eight year resident of Virginia, I’m kind of geographically anchored
to this section of the country. My family’s here, too. Consequently,
I’m rather limited in terms of my choice of retreat locations.
I will be graduating from law school (God willing) in May 2006, and
hope to do real estate settlement work, as it will give me some flexibility
in terms of work locations. Plus, it will ensure that I am able to
avoid engaging in the sort of lawyering that would conflict with my
beliefs (my wife and I are fundamentalist Baptists).
I’ve had my eye on West Virginia for awhile, as it seems to offer
the greatest potential within this limited region. I would really appreciate
your thoughts on the matter.
- "Mo"
JWR's Reply:
As mentioned in previous posts, I don't consider anything east of the Mississippi
River to be survivable if and when things get truly Schumeresque.
(The East has too much population density and is downwind of too many nuke
targets.) Read my posts from early August, 2005 in the Archives for
details.
With the mobility that your new profession will afford you, I strongly suggest
that you move out West. (Preferably the inland northwest.) With a lawyer's
income you can afford to fly home frequently to visit relatives. But if you
must stay in the east, move to a very lightly populated rural area
and construct a very
well stocked fallout shelter.
I am not familiar enough with West Virginia to make any specific locale recommendations. Perhaps someone who reads the blog who lives there will send me an e-mail and enlighten us.
"Think like a man of action and act like a man of thought." - Henri Louis Bergson
For previous SurvivalBlog posts, see the Archives
Copyright 2006. All Rights Reserved by James Wesley, Rawles - www.SurvivalBlog.com™
The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.