How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It - James Wesley Rawles [18]
• You can’t test-fire and zero your guns at your own property.
• You can’t set up elaborate antenna arrays, because your house will look out of place.
• You probably can’t hunt on your own land, except perhaps some small game and pests, and then only with an air rifle.
• You can’t keep livestock other than perhaps a few rabbits. (Consult the local ordinances before you buy a home.)
• You can’t make substantial ballistic and anti-vehicular barrier retreat upgrades.
• Greater risk of communicable diseases
• Greater risk of burglary
• Greater risk of having your supplies confiscated
Advantages of Isolated Retreats:
• More room for gardening, pasturing, and growing row crops
• Lower house and land prices
• Better for a total-wipeout grid-down scenario in which virtually everyone will be out of work
• You can stock up in quantity with less fear of the watchful eyes of nosy neighbors.
• You can test-fire and zero your guns at your own property.
• You can build with nontraditional architecture (earth sheltered, for example).
• You can set up more elaborate antenna arrays—and other things that would look odd in town.
• Better sanitation in the event of a grid-down situation
• You can hunt on your own land.
• You can cut your own firewood.
• You can keep livestock.
• You can make ballistic and anti-vehicular upgrades.
• A “dog run” chain-link fence around your house won’t look too out of place.
• Virtually unlimited fuel storage. (Consult your county and state laws before ordering large gas, diesel, heating-oil, and propane-fuel tanks.)
• Much lower risk of communicable diseases
Disadvantages of Isolated Retreats:
• Difficult for just one family to maintain and defend
• Cannot depend on much help from neighbors or law enforcement if your home is attacked by looters or in the event of fire or medical emergency. You will likely be entirely on your own to resolve those situations.
• Isolation from day-to-day barter/commerce
• A longer commute to your day job, shopping, and church
A careful analysis of the preceding lists should lead you to conclude which approach is right for you, given your family situation, your stage in life, and your own view of the potential severity of events to come. Pray about it, mull it over, before making a decision of this gravity.
The Best Retreats
A retreat situated in a hilly or mountainous region is preferable to one on the plains in the event of a worst case. Why? Towns on plains simply have too many vehicular access points, and more access points means more potential intruders. Hill or canyon towns, by comparison, are limited by terrain to having just a few accesses.
When shopping for a home that would make a good retreat, look for a masonry house with a fireproof roof on an oversize lot—or a wood-frame construction if you live in earthquake country. Buy a house with at least one more bedroom than you currently need, preferably with a full basement. (Proviso: A basement only if the local water-table level will allow this without aid of an electric sump pump. The basement must be “dry and tight.”)
The following chapters in this book will go into greater detail about essentials for surviving TEOTWAWKI, but here is a brief overview of what you will need to do at your retreat:
• Stock up on extra tools, sturdy clothes, food, guns, web gear, and necessities for family and friends, who will surely show up on your doorstep on TEOTWAWKI+1.
• Put in an oversize vegetable garden, preferably out of line of sight from the street. Ring the garden with flower beds and some tall flowering shrubs to make the garden look more decorative than practical to the casual observer.
• Get a big, quiet, mean-looking (but obedient) guard dog. I tend toward Airedales (the largest of the terriers) and Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Both are fairly large breeds with loyal and highly territorial temperaments.