Relocating? How to find that "appropriate" community~

[Wellspring]

I was searching for a large backpack for my quarterly camping trips to the mountains and came upon this very interesting article posted way back in 1989 but still pertinent. This article shatters the survival notions of taking off on the road (whether backpack or bugout vehicle) along with the thousands of others hitting the road during a crisis to get to the wilderness or some retreat/cabin you have set up for such purposes.

I'm posting it in "Sanctuaries" because of this paragraph found toward the bottom of the article:

A number of writers, from Kurt Saxon to Howard Ruff to Mel Tappan, have already suggested it but I think that it bears a retelling.

What they've said is this: get yourself situated in a small community that could get by without outside help if things came unglued nationally or internationally. Find a spot that allows you to live in the life-style you've grown accustomed to (and a community that allows you to carry on your livelihood) but which has the ability to grow its own food and protect its people from the unprepared (or looters) that might drift in from surrounding cities during a crisis. This spot has the ability to carry on trade within its borders and has a number of people who can supply specialized products or professional skills.

An area with two thousand to five thousand people in it along with a surrounding farm community would be ideal but sizes can vary a lot according to the climate and city. Ideally such a town would have its own power plant with a few small industries along with the usual smattering of doctors, dentists, and other professionals.

This type of community isn't rare in the US. It's quite common in almost every state. You could probably even take a little risk and commute into a city if you must keep your current job. (In such a case a reverse backpack survival strategy just might work--you'd be bugging out to your home.)


I'm curious to hear from some of you old timers about the parameters to use in finding such a community.

Since the article is too long to post, you can find it here: http://www.alpharubicon.com/prepinfo/backpackfever.htm

[Mike]

The author, Duncan Long, makes the assumption that cities risk collapse.  I'm not sure that assumption is right.  It could be that urban concentration is the best plan for growing and distributing food.

In fact, the suburban model needs a rethink.   Maybe the traditional 50X100' lots + unused road right-of-way could produce a lot of food (and of better quality).  I am thinking of the video on the front of www.mutuallyassuredsurvival.com  I also thought offdalip had posted a photo of his hanging garden, which I can't find now.

Take Detroit.  There is little effort to rethink the residential neighborhoods into gardens and to recreate the economy.  Instead there is just an expectation of a dole.

Umatilla County, OR is dominated by dryland wheat farming.  Fields are left fallow every other year to collect moisture.  Amazing, but true.  There is a rainfall problem.  The water table is generally down 800' and falling.

The Midwest has enough rainfall for an annual crop.

Central America has enough rainfall, and climate, for two crops per year.

********

You could probably even take a little risk and commute into a city if you must keep your current job.

The thought here seems to be to have a bugout spot a few hours away from ones work.  It might be worth considering a bugout spot in a completely foreign country.  My sister-in-law and numerous Mexicans return to Mexico every chance they get.

Then there is the Austrian in Paraguay:
http://www.nthposition.com/uptherioparaguay.php

"I'm from Austria," he laughs "but I don't speak English here." His eyes shine with alcohol. He does not like the intrusion and it takes some jokes from Frank before he relaxes.

"You like Conception?" the Austrian asks.

"Yes, yes."

"How long have you been here?"

"We got in this afternoon."

"What do you know about Conception!"

Stepping up to the pool table with a cartoon stride, he squints at the balls, stretches his arms and challenges one of the locals to a game. He shouts after the white ball and calls his opponent a coward when he attempts a snooker. Austrians, he explains, never play the coward shot. But Paraguayans often play this way; Irish people too.

"I have lost many games because I refuse to play the coward shot!"

Everyone is laughing. A round bicycle reflector hangs from his shirt pocket. Frank leans over to see how it is held there but he steps back shouting: "No! No! Only one other person in the village knows how it stays up."

He loses the game and zig-zags back to his stool. For six months of the year he works in Austria fitting windows. Then he comes to Conception for three months, and for the other three months he goes to Brazil. He's been coming here for 15 years.

These are examples of cultivating bugout locations.

[Beeherder]

 

Plenty of expatriot Americans out there all over the world and no doubt expatriot Austrians, Russians, Chinese, etc. If elsewhere or multiple elsewheres is how you want or need to live that's a fine choice. Won't work for me at this stage of life, too old for those choices.

Now that bugout to home concept has always appealed to me  did it for 15 years, now I just mostly stay home and make trips to towns for regular resupply. My little closeby town of 2000 used to have its own power plant but the city council of the 90s and early 21st century sold that off, same with the town owned water plant. I bet they regret that but then again they now buy from the nearby town of 75,000 and it may work better for everyone. Though my exurb is 10 miles from this town it is where I draw my sense of community. I look for things like, local businesses to support because I need those things anyway and something like 60% of any dollar spent stays within a few miles of where it was spent IF it doesn't go to a non-local corporation. There are schools, churches, dentists, doctors, brewery, restaraunts, bicycle shops, vehicle repair, stone quarries, fuel, groceries, all within 10 miles of my home. That's where community lives, wherever you live and share with those around you.

Everything risks collapse. The cities can work, see what the Cubans did in 89 - 93, it takes massive changes, but it can be done. Suburbs can work, if the same level but different kinds of massive changes occur (not as likely in my opinion), and living near or as part of food production is always a good strategy for staying fed. If you are planning to bug out, do it now before the SHTF and become part of your own future. Why wait? do it now while things are still relatively easy. Wherever you plan to bugout to you will not be alone, somebody else is already there so forget the Jerimiah Johnson man in the wilderness stuff, its not gonna happen in my not at all humble opinion. Go where you want to be and be part of the community.