As the clock keeps ticking on, I find myself getting closer and closer to retirement age. While the issue of whether or not I ever will fully retire is something yet to be determined. But I’m pretty sure that I will at least slow down and not be working 40 plus hours per week.
Of course, me being me, I’ll never retire from being a survivalist. That’s too much a part of my being now, after 45 years, to give up on. So whatever form my retirement or semi-retirement takes, it’s going to look more like a permanent bug out, than anything else. A very high priority for me will be to go somewhere that I can establish as much of a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle as possible.
Related: How Much Land Do You Need to Be Self-Sufficient?
With that in mind, I’ve started looking around to see what’s available. I’m not talking about specific pieces of property or homes, but rather what parts of the country I would choose as a good place to live out the rest of my days in. I want a combination of comfort and security, hopefully with a reasonable cost of living.
With that in mind, I’ve come up with a few criteria:
- It must not be an area subject to a lot of natural disasters. This cuts out some of the top retirement spots, like Florida, as well as much of the Eastern Seaboard.
- I want an area with a fairly low population. If there is ever a TEOTWAWKI event, those who live in high population areas, especially big cities, will probably be the first to die.
- Sufficient rainfall or access to ground water to be able to grow my own food.
- Low overall cost of living, so that I don’t have to pay too much for property.
- A conservative government. With the country becoming more and more divided politically and the progressive states becoming more and more extreme, I’d prefer to avoid having to deal with it.
- While I don’t want to live in a high population area, I want to be close enough to one, that I can go into town to buy things I need. I don’t mind an hour drive into town on a Saturday, if that day is going to be dedicated to shopping.
Of course, all of those things are relative. Low population in the eastern part of the country is totally different than low population in the Midwest and West. Nevertheless, the idea is to find an area which meets those basic needs as much as possible. Here’s what I’ve come up with:
Idaho
Idaho is actually one of the few states I’ve never visited; but I felt that I had to use it to start this list. In many ways, Idaho is one of the most perfect states for the criteria I have laid out.
The population of the state is fairly low, giving a low cost of living. Yet there is plenty of rainfall, making it an easy state to grow food in. However, I’d avoid the most southern part of the state, because it is drier there.
The one thing that Idaho has going against it is that it is so far north. The growing season in Idaho, as well as some of the other states I have on my list, is pretty short. That means growing in underground greenhouses, probably with geothermal heating to boot. Putting up with the cold will be a challenge; but fortunately I like the cold.
Northwest Wyoming
I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Wyoming, although I’ve never lived there. More than anything, it’s a ranching state, raising cattle for beef.
As with many other ranching states, like Texas, there really isn’t enough rainfall for growing crops in much of Wyoming.
However, the Northwest part of the state has good rainfall, so it would be good for raising food in. The population is still low there and the cost of living is reasonable.
There is a drawback to this part of the state. That is, this is where Yellowstone National Park is. In other words, the Yellowstone Supervolcano. So if you’re worried about that volcano erupting, you may want to consider somewhere else.
North & South Dakota
The Dakotas, as they are known, are sparsely populated states, which are mostly agricultural, with some ranching thrown in.
There’s more rainfall in the eastern part of the states, but there are more rivers in the western part. So it seems that whatever part of the Dakotas I would retire in would have good water sources to meet my needs.
These states are pretty conservative, with a fairly low cost of living. But just like Idaho, they are far to the north, so we’re talking short growing seasons and cold winters. While those can be dealt with, it will be hard to live there without proper preparation.
Related: 10 Survival Crops You Can Grow Without Irrigation
Southeast Texas
I currently live in Southeast Texas, so I know this area the best of any of them. While I’m looking at other places to retire, I may just end up staying where I am; or at least staying in this area.
Once you get out of the bigger cities, the population is reasonable. Cost of living outside the cities is good too. In fact, the Rio Grande River, where I used to live, is one of the cheapest places to live in the country.
Being so far south, Texas has little problem with winter. There has only been one Christmas snowfall in history, in the Rio Grande Valley. The trick here is growing things. You can grow year-round, but have to be careful about the hot summers. I’ve lost more than one plant to nothing more than heat.
Water can be a real issue in much of Texas. I won’t even consider the western part of the state for that reason. There’s lots of cheap land out there, but almost no water to speak of. On the other hand, the gulf coast of Texas has a number of small rivers leading into it. The trick then, is finding a piece of property which allows access to those rivers, either on the surface or through a well. Rainfall alone isn’t enough to count on.
Arkansas
For some reason, people make a lot of fun of Arkansas, but the state has a lot going for it. Most of the state is hilly, with plenty of rivers and good rainfall.
It’s also one of the cheaper places in the country to live. For anyone on a retirement income, that’s an important consideration.
Another nice thing about Arkansas is the climate. It’s not so far south that heat is going to be a major issue, but yet is far enough south to avoid the harsh winters of the north. Although the overall population density of the state is higher than anything we’ve looked at so far, there are still plenty of places with tiny towns and sparse populations.
Related: Winter Sowing Technique That Guarantees The Best Crops
Tennessee
Tennessee probably has the highest population density overall of any state that I’ve mentioned here in this list. However, that population is mostly limited to the major cities.
It is a mountainous state, with the mountains being sparsely populated. There are many places you can go, where you can still find wide-open land. Cost of living varies throughout the state, so you’ll have to be selective.
As a growing state, Tennessee is a mixed blessing. One of the things that stands out is that the state is extremely green. That’s because of the high rainfall. But remember, that rain is falling on mountainous terrain, which is difficult to farm. But then, we’re not talking about actual farming, but rather growing our own food. So with that in mind, Tennessee is a winner.
Colorado Rockies
I grew up in Colorado and spent much time in the Rockies. That probably has a lot to do with why I’ve included it in this list. If I could pick one place where I’d like to retire, it would be up in those mountains.
There’s just one problem with that; Colorado is the most expensive place I’ve picked on this list. Mountain property is expensive, even if though is sparsely populated.
Colorado may not be a good place for growing food… at least not in the mountains. The eastern part of the state is all farmlands. But it’s a great place for hunting; as are pretty much all the other states I’ve mentioned here. So, even if it isn’t perfect, the state has a lot going for it.
So, Where Would I Pick?
I’ll have to admit, the jury is still out on my own decision. As of this time, my top picks are either to stay here in Texas or move to Arkansas. I’d like to move up north to the Dakotas, or even to Idaho, but the cold weather has me concerned. While I can handle the cold well, my wife can’t.
The other problem with that cold weather is growing enough food. I wrote recently about a retired man who is growing citrus in Nebraska, using underground greenhouses and geothermal heating. That’s what it would take to grow enough food to live. While I’m sure I could do it, I’m not sure I’ve got enough money to invest in building those greenhouse and getting them running.
Part of my decision is also one of proximity. If I buy some property now and start preparing for my retirement, that property can also be my bug out retreat. I’ve got my eye on a couple of small towns here in Texas, which I think would be very nice to retire in. They meet all my criteria, are close enough to be good for bugging out to, while still being far enough away that I won’t have to worry about them being affected by anything that hits my home city.
So, which one would you pick?
You may also like:
The U.S. Army’s Forgotten Food Miracle (Video)
What Foods Can You Bury Underground For Winter?
What Cowboys Built And Did Around The House To Be Self-Sufficient
Great article. These are just the things I’ve been thinking about. One question, if political climate was not a concern, what would that retirement state list look like?
Thanks
Good morning, very interesting article,you did mention a couple of states that I have looked at as well. We just moved from central Florida to eastern Tennessee and you are correct there is a lot of opportunity here. I did consider Arkansas. I also took into consideration the wind movement across the country in relation to the Yellowstone super volcano. According to scientific research the last time that it erupted the ashes reached as far as Ohio. I lived in W. Texas years ago and would be concerned with being that close to the border. This was an interesting article. Thanks for the information.
Hey there. I too lived in central Florida, Dr. Phillips area and moved here to east Tennessee, near Hartford, off exit 447 of I-40. Glad to be out of the rat race and traffic jams.
There are parts of Missouri south of Interstate 44 which are similar to Arkansas. A bit Hilly; but, close enough to cities to work. I have a lot of family in Missouri and the midwest; so, that is attractive. We have been in California saving our money; so, one never knows 🙂
If the super volcano goes off glass will be sent all the way to the East Coast, people will die a bad death by breathing it in. So being closer in Wyoming might result in a quicker less painful death.
TRAD,
It will not be instantaneous meaning that those located east of the Mississippi will have time to prepare, so breathing it in can be mitigated or outright avoided.
In that case perhaps one should just go live in Yellowstone and get it over with. The whole point of being prepared is to survive such an event and thrive in the aftermath; but, with this kind of attitude you seem to have already given up.
Having enough trees to cut for firewood becomes more important farther north. We’re in TN and don’t entirely heat with wood, but we go through 5 cords a year. Easy to get on our 5 acres which is half wooded but I hope we never have to cut & split it by hand. Good article. Just hope we’re not travelling if things go bad.
Must have a huge house or an old house. We heat 2200sqft with 4-5 cords/yr. BTW, you may run out of wood cutting 5 cords/yr on 2 1/2ac….takes an acre to support cutting a cord/yr with our rainfall level.
TnAndy,
I agree. We have both (huge & old) with the 3000+ square foot place, being built around 1920 and added onto in the mid 1960’s before we were here. We use to heat only with wood; but, now use that for supplemental / emergency heating, and the best investment we made in this old place were new windows and whole house foam insulation. Prior to this investment, we used as much as 2600 gallons of propane and several cords of wood; but, since that investment, we only use 1400 gallons of propane and no wood in the past few years. The place is also now more comfortable, both winter and summer.
I agree. The rule of thumb we’ve used for years is a cord per acre per year to maintain a healthy productive woodlot
I was thinking Nevada and Arizona. Stable climate, low natural disaster risk, maybe just fire or earthquake but that could happen anywhere, politically conservative friendly for the most part, low taxes, low population density accept for major cities, land is cheap. What do you think?
Gregorio,
Actually neither fires nor earthquakes are problems here in Ohio, with the exception of the occasional house fire that really can happen anywhere.
We do get a fair amount of rain and some specific low lying areas are known flood plains; but, arid hot places like AZ where I’ve spent some time lack water for agriculture and can get very cold at night with little natural vegetation to burn for heat.
I think you just described Ohio, the population of which is very rural and highly agricultural including several large areas of Amish and Mennonite, the original preppers.
I’m fairly certain that the effects of the New Madrid earthquake reached as far north as Ohio. Chicago felt the effects of that earthquake and it caused all kinds of problems with all the tributary rivers that flow into the Mississippi. The Mississippi was a wild raging torrent, going in all directions.
When we talk about earthquakes, what we have out here in the PDRK are just a large truck going down the street compared to the effects of the New Madrid earthquake in the very early part of the 19th century. If something like that happens today it will make an EMP over Kansas seem like just a minor inconvenience.
Folks scoff and say, Well, yeah, but that was over 200 years ago.”
Two hundred years in geological time is quicker than the blink of an eyelid.
left coast chuck,
We’re about 350 miles east and 350 miles north of the New Madrid
We are about 500 miles northeast of New Madrid and another seies of eruptions like those in the 1811-1812 timeframe would certainly be felt here, since those quakes were reported to have rung church bells in Philadelphia.
The New Madrid seismic zone continues to have little quakes that may lessen the chance of the big one, with the most recent being Magnitude 2.6, 7 miles from New Madrid on Nov 28, 1:30 PM, that we did not feel here.
When I say we don’t have earthquakes, we actually do have small once, all of which I missed, because I was either driving or outside working, with the only people that noticed them sitting somewhere quite when the hanging lamp started swinging. We can only plan for the possible and not the statistically improbable, since another New Madrid quake, a super volcano eruption in the Yellowstone Subduction zone, or a large asteroid strike would all be a problem with little mitigation possible. If one looks @ https://www.flightradar24.com you can see what aircraft are over your head in real-time, any of which could crash down on your house, also something over which you have little control.
We can only do what we can do.
Chicago is 400 miles from New Madrid and I’m more than 500 and that may not make much difference; but, there are only sold wooden structure here and no brick skyscrapers like the early 1800’s, plus we are pretty self contained with no buried water or gas pipelines, except one to the barn from the house that can be shut off.
As for the effect on the Mississippi River. There were reports that portions ran backwards.
That New Madrid Quake was felt all the way to Washington, Pennsylvania, East New Jersey, etc. It made the ‘Liberty Bell’ ring. Never, ever underestimate the power and the effect of any earthquake. Earthquake have been increasing since 2012 worldwide and will continue to increase in activity and severity due to presently ongoing electromagnetic changes caused by our sun. We are still in a ‘Solar Minimum’ and moving toward a ‘Solar Maximum’. Between now and 2046 we will experience worldwide massive geological changes. Those living near or around the ‘Brim of Fire’, may want to consider moving to higher ground, away from the coastlines.
Ohio: Pickletown,OH, was on a hill, and now is at the bottom of a lake. No one still is certain how, but Ohio and the entire Plateau are undercut with limestone caves that reach south into TN and Missouri. The fault line related to New Mad reaches up to Ontario. http://geosurvey.ohiodnr.gov/earthquakes-ohioseis/seismic-risk-in-ohio When New Mad struck the last time, Ohio shook. niio
Red,
That would most likely be ”Pickrelltown” also called “Frogtown”, “Pickereltown”, “Pickeretown”, and “Pickreltown”, located about 12 miles to my west and still on its hillside. There may have been sinkholes from the underlying limestone; but, the town, such as it is, is still there.
Actually the whole country shook; but, one must keep in mind that construction techniques of the day were substandard when compared to most modern techniques, with tall chimneys simply constructed of stacks of bricks with little reinforcement.
Since however, there is little I can do should another event like that be unleashed, I’ll not lose sleep or have undue worry; but, just continue my life and lifestyle as I have always done.
I BTW looked at the map in your linked document, and no recorded quakes there where in my county or any but a single adjacent county, so I’ll do, or continue to do what the article suggested:
” Simple precautions such as bolting bookcases to the wall, strapping water heaters to the wall, putting latches or bolts on cabinet doors, and maintaining an emergency supply of canned food, drinking water, and other essentials can prevent both loss and hardship.”
Done & Done.
What was not mentioned were local county emergency agencies, like the one I’ve been working with for 20 years, and where I have taught some of these same preparedness techniques as well as demonstrated inexpensive tools and equipment as well as discussed alternate forms of communications for disasters?
Speaking of which, Amazon had the
”Kaito Voyager KA500 5-way Powered Solar Power, Dynamo Crank, Wind Up Emergency AM/FM/SW/NOAA Weather Alert Radio with Flashlight, Reading Lamp and Cell phone Charger” discounted by $10.00 (20%) yesterday on Cyber Monday.
https://smile.amazon.com/Kaito-Powered-Emergency-Flashlight-Cellphone/dp/B003A21DQA?ref_=pe_28834720_456535610_grep_pep_p_img
I purchased one of these versatile radios years ago and recommend it.
Respect to you, but, you lived in Ohio how long? My stepfather’s family helped found the state. He and the others said Pickletown, not Frog Town or anything else. He showed me where it was, and we read the Geo reports, talked to geologists, and so on. The town was relocated and renamed after the disaster.
I’m a little under the weather, so please bear with me if I sound bearish. I do my research. New Mad is at the conjunction of the Ohio-Miss Rivers. Last quake it caused rattled 5 states and parts of Canada. Ohio gets a lot more quakes than Arizona, and we have volcanoes and small calderas. You live in a subduction zone, the New Mad. Here, we sit between the Rio Grand fault and Kali-fornia’s infamous San Andreas, with a somewhat minor one, the Colorado. You were given the nasty about Ohio, a place I love to visit, love family there, and visit the graves of great men and women. This came from geologists. Shelby and Logan counties have the most fault lines under them, and the most limestone. My county two of which run through this valley. http://geosurvey.ohiodnr.gov/portals/geosurvey/PDFs/OpenFileReports/OFR_2017-1.pdf
This is the full Monty on Ohio by scientists talking to scientists.
One major reason conservative are leaving Ohio is, it’s a RINO state, not like Arizona, which is pretty staunchly conservative and always has been. Gov. Moyer (D) was the only governor to tell Pres. Wilson to grab ankle, and made it stick over Prohibition. In the Depression, we threatened to take Kali-fornia to war because they were forcing indigents out of the state and into Arizona. FDR was told where to head in at, as well, over a few things. Arizona was among the first to tell the DNC we are a sovereign state, and not to be ruled by fiat from DC. Ohio did, as well, but also bowed to the oligarchy, the Supreme Court.
Family in Mexico use solar to power their computers and phones. Most live in areas of the Sierras so remote and rugged, mules have problems, let alone the power company. Down there, solar devises cost upwards of one yearling steer or a small flock of goats. My son will haul a car battery up to a place hidden on the cliffs to recharge it, and take the charged one down so my ex can listen to her soaps and cat on the cell with her sisters. All the kids learn the computer at an early age (they have Toshiba laptops) and dialogue with ‘foreigners’ like Tepehuan, Yoeme, and Tohono. To them, it’s a tool, not a toy. We, all of us, should be prepared as well as they are for what’s to come. But, I would like one, so thank you for giving me that. Again, it’s something all of us should have, yet few do! I had a solar blanket, but wore it out 🙂 niio
What is the advantage of Toshiba computers?
With a name like Bee, I better stay respectful 🙂
1) 2 people trained in computer programming in the family prefer them over all others.
2) They were affordable.
3) It was all the store carried.
Other than that, it would have meant a 300 kilometer round trip to the next closest computer shop. Like the kid said, “My mule, he doesn’t do highways.” He wasn’t kidding. They have a dirt bike for emergencies, but you can’t grow feed for a bike. niio
Bee,
Toshiba make a fine laptop; but, today you can find good laptops from a lot of vendors from numerous companies such as Dell & Lenovo, HP, Acer, as well as Panasonic & Microsoft all make decent machines. Unless however, you are computer savvy, it pays to purchase something from a local store that can provide you with technical support.
My first laptop was a Dell with a whopping fast Pentium 90; but, if you know a bit about computers, a Raspberry Pi, an HDMI monitor or TV, USB mouse & keyboard and you are up and running for less than $50.00, for the computer itself, about the size of a pack of cigarettes and very powerful. The only downside for most folks is that it runs Linux; but, there are free office suites like Libre Office & Open Office that can do about anything you need.
Red,
I don’t actually ignore anything; but, there’s little I can do about it, so I simply do what I can and don’t overly worry. Here we still have some rather good top soil at least on part of the farm. My acreage sits in the middle of the original 114 acres with a small township cemetery to my north, and the rest of the farm to my south, east, and west. On the south the neighbor owner keeps dairy feeders, and occasionally plant for or bean; but, that soil is deep in cow manure. To my east, he spreads more manure. A small creek runs through my western boundary and the western field floods as much as 20 or more feet every spring, so that is rather rich loamy soil from the upstream silt. There is probably a small amount of roundup used on the eastern field and I know they sometimes inject anhydrous ammonia there. There’s a lot of dent corn, grown both for the corn and to make silage. While I suspect it would not qualify as “real organic”, farmers here who have lived on the land for generations respect the land and treat it well, often spending money on tiles and swales and waterways to manage erosion.
I’ve also been asking around; but, many of the local folks are younger than me, and those older who might know, like yours are also gone.
That limestone covers many square miles and is in part why I have such a good producing well, since those holes, like Swiss cheese makes an aquifer that holds a lot and from which water is easy to extract. We have a good quality water softener that handles the lime quite well.
I think I heard about that; but, it doesn’t surprise me, since they are against anything where the physics would work and the engineers haven’t figured out how to produce sufficient power using only the unicorn farts & fairy dust that they find acceptable.
The interesting thing is that they tout the ”socialism” of the Scandinavian countries; but, ignore places like Iceland, a pioneer in the use of geothermal energy for space heating. Geothermal power facilities currently generate 25% of the country’s total electricity production.
Perhaps socialism works better with a small population (about 360,000) and nearly free energy.
We have the same problem with windmills off the eastern shoreline, with people like the Kennedy’s not wanting to see them on their horizon.
All in all however, the modern power plants do have a rather good record; however, the 1950’s ”Power too cheap to meter” has never been true.
While we’re on this subject, I saw an interesting article on another unique method of power storage: https://hackaday.com/2019/12/04/can-you-store-renewable-energy-in-a-big-pile-of-gravel/
That’s real out of the box thinking.
The towers may be vulnerable; but, the security is up to the task. I know some people who worked in plant security SWAT teams, and air traffic is watched closely.
As for the Amish and the plants, I have no knowledge or opinion; but, the electricity generated there would not affect them in any case.
I understand all of that; but, the faulty procedures have since been changed and compared to Chernobyl we still have a good safety record. How many people are killed in mines or on oil rigs? That is unfortunately sometimes the cost of running a modern society with a large population.
Also, what people with Geiger counters? I also have one and our county EMA does regular background measurements all over our county; but, with trained operators.
I’ve been to Chicago twice in my life and everyone I know with firearms simply avoids the whole state.
Let me know what he has and I can give you an opinion.
Actually the mountains can be a benefit for some frequency bands, and how far and who you can communicate with often depends more on the antenna than anything else. I have used simple wire dipoles or long wires for most of my equipment, since they are cheap and easy to build.
For towers it depends on what you can afford. Rohn makes the best, bith free standing & guyed depending on the height, the installation type, and the size of you wallet. Depending on you altitude, a simple 10 foot mast section on the roof of the house might be all you need.
My tower is made by the American Tower Company and has been up for 35 years and a few years before that on another house.
It’s only 50 feet, consisting of 4 10 foot straight sections and a 10 foot top section that comes to a point to mount the masts or rotors. I put it up with the help of a friend and a gin pole that attached to each section as I lifted them into place.
unicorn farts & fairy dust> That is rich! 🙂
Amish got very antsy about nuclear after the 3 Mile Island fiasco. As the saying goes, what man plans, man destroys.
the HAM owner has several girlfriends each in a different town. When I do get to see him, he’s home for a few hours to check on his mother. He’s supposed to do some work for me but again, he’s always gone. A lot of times, he camps out at an old gold mine he’s been working on since a teenager. It’s on his father’s ranch, so no one will say where it is 🙂 niio
Red,
I’ve been here for 50 years and the wife almost 70, born & raised on a farm 2 miles from here.
I have a digital map of the state and it currently lists no Pickle Town so if you know its new name or its ICBM ciirdinates (Lat Long) that would help.
Logan is to my west and also contains the highest point between the Appalachians and the Mississippi (Campbell Hill @ 1549 feet) with Shelby south of that. There are caves in those regions currently open as commercial venues; but, the real limestone is in southern Ohio near the Ohio river and in northern Kentucky south of the Ohio. I’ve done a lot of spelunking in Carter County KY and also in Greenbrier County West VA.
I’ll look at it; but, I’ve been here for all of the quakes in the past 50 years and none have done real damage.
Most people I know who are leaving do it for the weather and as for politics, I have a great house member in Jim Jordan and one great Senator in Rob Portman; but, unfortunately, the people in Cleveland keep electing Sherrod Brown who is the one big stain on Ohio.
Taxes are not bad and gun laws are also pretty good and there are enough conservatives (mostly rural & suburban people) to keep crazy stuff in line.
I’m not sure which case you mean here; but, what is the alternative? Ohio has been to war once with Michigan over the port city of Toledo; but, bowing to SCOTUS is part of the law, as is litigating issues back there again on appeal.
Other than the occasional game of Solitaire, FreeCell, or chess it’s always been a tool for me. I’ve been programming them for 52 years and made a good living doing that, along with some hardware design. Still keep my hand in it now as a challenge or to automate things for fun.
I’m as prepared as I can be and have all of the bases I can think of pretty well covered; but, one never really knows until the SHTF @ which point my background, MAG, and resources will try to figure things out.
I’m not sure I follow this or what the thanks is for; but, you are quite welcome.
I will ask my stepsisters about Pickletown (one word). https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/ohio/sinkholes-in-oh/
States east of the Rockys haven’t seen a bad quake since New Mad killed so many in 1802. It’s badly overdue. Tio Popo in Mexico burped. He’s well overdue, also. Most are, as if waiting for something. He’s recorded blowing every 2,000 years. Last time he had heartburn, Fugi lost his snow cap, McKinley rumbled and a lot of the ring of fire did, as well. But, the subject is New Mad. Signs are, they had some seismic shift in New England) Connecticut, I think), and a few other delights.
At this time, sociologists are concerned because so many people in rural Ohio are leaving.
Ohio had declared herself a sovereign state, but was overruled by the Supreme Court. In Arizona, the SC was overruled by our courts, and the SC refused to hear the case again. They are not supposed to make up law, but only interpret it.
Thanks for the info on the crank radio. The blanket was a solar collector.
Red,
A county or another close town or village would help here.
As for sinkholes, we see them on the news quite often. Some of the listed counties have known limestone caves, some have mines, and some are reclaimed strip mines, none of which are that stable. Some of them in the large older cities are just decaying infrastructure, with large diameter century old water mains breaking and eroding the soil under the streets.
Actually that was in
It was not 1802.
The New Madrid earthquakes were a series that began with an initial earthquake on December 16, 1811, followed by an aftershock on the same day, with another aftershock on January 23, 1812 and a final aftershock on February 7, 1812.
It’s hard to say, since there have been numerous smaller quakes that could be lessening the stress build up and buying time like the recent Nov 28, 1:30 PM Magnitude 2.6; plus, earthquake prediction has never really worked all that well.
That’s why it’s called the ring of fire, since most of those magma chambers are interconnected and each affects the others.
Maybe so; but, since I cannot do anything about it, we just keep our lifestyle and try to be prepared to weather any storm thrown our way.
Perhaps; but, not in my area, where new people are moving to the country all of the time. There’s a Facebook group called OHG (Ohio Homesteaders and Gardeners) that’s rather active, with lots of new folks trying their hand at rural living..
There’s also another social network called NextDoor that works like a mini Facebook for our county and a few surrounding townships, also very active with people new to country living.
So in the total state aggregate there may be people moving; but, not in my area.
I don’t recall this happening; but, in the end, all states are sovereign in most things they do with some exceptions of course. For instance a state cannot legalize slavery; but, they do declare themselves sanctuary against federal immigration laws, or legalize some drugs, that so far the Feds are mostly ignoring.
You are quite welcome & I forgot I posted that here, since I also posted and emailed it elsewhere. I have several ”emergency” radios going back about 45 years; but, that is by far the best of the lot.
Here is an example of my 1st AM & FM (no SW):
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/rpMAAOSw-ZBdJMb2/s-l640.jpg
I also have a Baygen Freeplay purchased about 20 years ago: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/atEAAOSwrhhaBjyB/s-l640.jpg
All of these radios still work after replacing batteries in the first; but, the Kaito is still the best of them.
OP: it was a typo. I don’t harass you over typos. No, I respect you and what you know, not attack over minute things. You ignore the point, limestone is water soluble. It dissolves. Farm chemicals are usually acidic and that makes it dissolve faster. Every area where there are layers of lime have caverns. That’s a given. Appalachia is being pushed slowly west, and that affects the Plateau. New Mad is a subduction zone, the land being forced underground.
All those smaller quake indicate a much bigger push. Yellowstone is gearing up. Tio Popo has produced hundreds of small quakes before he belched, and that’s only a minor pop compared to what we know he did 2,000 years ago.
Yes, the ring of fire is aptly named. So are the calderas, the Arctic and Antarctic. Jemez and Arizona’s, as well.
Agreed, hunker down and stay put. It’s not likely anything major will do more than rattle windows, even here, where two minor faults run under the valley. We can expect at least some mines to collapse, but not a lot more. Tucson is going to be much worse off if Tio blows. They have a caldera in the mountains. Rivers, Tucson’s Santa Clara, for one, tend to follow fault lines. The idiots who built the nuke plants in PA built them over fault lines. A while back, the Berwick plant was damaged by a pretty mild earthquake.
No, only about a dozen states declared themselves sovereign against the bloat of federal mandates. Yes, by law, all are, but the feds want control, and take it. By declaring sovereignty, the states declared a political rebellion.
Both radios look good. I’ll look for them ASAP. Christmas already wiped out any gifts I can give myself 🙂
No, there are minor losses in Shelby- and Logan counties. It’s only that people love the state so much they stay. You have pretty good government, keeping taxes low, but there’s always another Celeste on the horizon, eager to wipe out productivity and life. Peace to you! niio
Red,
Ignore? I’ve agreed with you the past few posts about the limestone. Ohio Caverns are a large commercial limestone cavern system about 25 miles to my southwest that is open year round for visitors. About 3 ½ miles from me Is a large working limestone quarry, where I purchased 70 tons of gravel this past summer. I have a great well; but, the major dissolved solid in it, is, you guessed it, lime. Some people just can’t take yes for an answer.
True; but, most of what has affected the Appalachians is the erosion, because of their age, and the Subduction zone in the mew Madrid area simply exists, with little we or I can do about it.
Volcanologists really have no idea what or when Yellowstone will do something big and those changes may just be a shift in the magma chamber, and Tio Popo has been belching and shaking for decades; but, like Mount St. Helens, will have little direct effect on my location or points east of here.
That’s our plan here for about any event we can think of, and although some may not be survivable, such as a close in nuclear strike, an asteroid strike, or an airliner crashing into the house, worrying about such things over which we have no control is foolhardy. Statistically, we are much more likely to die in a motor vehicle crash than in a any of these; but, we still travel the roads withouthaving panic attacks or loss of sleep, while exercising proper care.
I don’t know that they were idiots, and I’m sure they took into account the known risks and used the state of the art for the day. In fact, The reactor with the highest risk rating is 24 miles north of New York City, in the village of Buchanan, N.Y., at the Indian Point Energy Center. There, on the east bank of the Hudson, Indian Point nuclear reactor No. 3 has the highest risk of earthquake damage in the country, according to new NRC risk estimates.
Information from this article: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42103936/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/t/what-are-odds-us-nuke-plants-ranked-quake-risk/#.XeggWGdtFeJ
As far as being sovereign, until it directly affects me, I will continue to have my own sovereignty to a point in this state as you do in yours. People in the PDRK, Illinois, and many on the east coast have already handed over theirs, and for now, that is not my problem.
I have a friend from another forum that lives in Massachusetts and will be shortly moving to TN, for that very reason.
I assume you mean the Kaito & the Baygen with the main difference being that the Kaito is in current production and I think the Beygen is only available on the ”previously owned” market since O purchased mine nearly 20 years ago.
Here’s an interesting piece on the history of that radio, its late inventor, Trevor Baylis, and a possible source:
Trevor Baylis: Inventor whose wind-up radio helped remote parts of Africa tune in to education
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/trevor-baylis-inventor-windup-radio-africa-education-big-breakfast-stuntman-a8252471.html
And a possible source for new radios; blthough, I still think the Kaito is a better all around device.
https://www.freeplayenergy.com/
OP: Yes, ignore. You treated subterranean erosion as no big deal. At the time of settlers moving in, the Plateau had 3 feet of topsoil. Now they farm subsoil, clay and lime gravel–and have to use lime to sweeten the soil. That’s a great loss, but probably kept things from getting much worse fast.
BTW, I’ve been making calls to Ohio. Everyone remembers hearing about the town falling into a cavern, but no one can remember the name or where. Most of the previous generation is gone, but people are going to look.
Of course lime in the well. You live over a ledge of limestone. I have heavy calcium as well, but from hardened volcanic ash/caliche lime.
The last time Tio blew, he sent sulfur as far north as Michigan. Weather patterns changed for years. He’s a major on the ring of fire, and many claim the key. Yellowstone is doing a little more than shifting the magma chamber. When it shifts, it needs to relieve pressure. We had a great opportunity to use it as a geothermal plant, but eco-freaks stopped it. We’ve been talking to people in DC hoping Trump will sign a presidential order allowing it. The power plants would be two miles from the main park and underground.
Idiots who built the power plants: Yes, idiots. Proof one can be a genius, yet dumb as a box o’ rocks, as I tell one of the stepdaughters (IQ 144) 🙂 Arizona puts hers mostly underground. All those towers are very vulnerable to terrorists. BTW, the Amish were the major protesters against nuclear plants in their areas.
NRC is a dem crew. How far can they be trusted? Remember Three Mile Island? “All is fine. Nothing to worry about!” People with Geiger counters said differently. When Thornburg came, he remained in a well-insulated van. When the little quake hit Berwick, the plant hired day labor. Concrete had to be patched and had to be put in by hand, no tools. No one young enough to have children was hired.
Illinois, man, what a disaster. A bro inherited the family farm in the south of the state. He was all excited about going home, his wife very unhappy–she’s Choctaw and loved their farm in the Ozarks. They moved from the AR Ozarks, and were slammed with culture shock, it changed that much the 30 years that he’d been gone. He kept one gun in a locked safe, and hid the rest. People here, retirees from Illinois are happy we have gun dealers all over and that the police encourage ownership.
Kaito, then? Come New Year. A neighbor has an old HAM he wants to sell. It works, but he doesn’t use it. Reception can be bad. The mountain ranges here are only a few miles apart and more than 3,000 feet higher in elevation. What tower do you recommend? niio
I’m from NC and have explored some of the larger caves or underground rivers in Tennessee, Georgia and in Kentucky, very beautiful. Did you know the soldiers during the Civil War used some of those caves to move safely through some of the mountains.. They put steel bars over a few of them to keep prisoners in, also using for safe storage of foods .. I should say most of them are dangerous and unsafe for the experienced spelunker…
Kat: In Arizona, caves are still used as homes. Some are palaces that aren’t expensive to create. One, might be near Karchner Cavern system, has a hot spring that leads to a dam they use for a swimming pool. But, here, most are volcanic tubes or close to, and gas monitors are all over. While I like them, I heard too many Native American fairy tales about cave monsters, maybe 🙂 And, our list of critters that love caves is long, and usually deadly. Down in the Hot Lands, in Mexico, they have vampire bat roosts along with the usual fun stuff 🙂 niio
Arid hot places like AZ … you are talking about the desert .. most people think Arizona, and immediately see flat desert filled with cacti. There are vast forests in Arizona. Right now, our main Snow resort has more snow than any other in the continental US. Arizona has a lot of unspoken for land, cheap, and not in the desert wasteland … and conservative and 2A values, with open carry, and concealed carry without permits, as well …. I think you are shorting yourself, seeing Arizona as only arid desert.
Orion: We’re not a desert. A desert gets 6 inches or less. 🙂
But, the mountains catch a lot of moisture and the wells stay filled. More trees, the more moisture there is, and less evaporation. I live in the upper San Pedro valley north of Tucson, and with two mountain ranges, it acts like a wind tunnel. But, only two light frosts, and the beans want to bloom, the sweet potatoes and eggplants have new leaves, as do the peanuts and amaranth (what the javelina didn’t eat 🙂 Pines and Engleman oaks cover most mountains, and the acorns have to tannin, so can be eaten raw. Pinyon pine nuts are better than from Asia or Europe. Plenty of palms, American and date, and the fruit is good. Lots of mesquite in the valleys, and they taste like candy. Up north they normally get 101 inches of snow. Right now, they have 98 and winter barely started. I’m planting Indian ricegrass (a desert variety of wild rice), sago lilies (for the bulbs), and in January (spring), safflower, beets, and more. When the monsoon rains come, blue flax, a native, and so on. for anyone who loves Arizona as I do, there’s more around than we can shake a stick at. thanks to Uncle Joe Arpaio’s influence, crime is a lot lower than it was back when the Babbits owned the state. If anyone wants to compare AZ and NV, remind them, NV started out as mining camps, ultra liberal. AZ was founded by highly conservative Native Americans, Mexicans who hated Spain and Mexico, ranchers, farmers, and always fought for the conservative side. We live in a beautiful state. We work to keep it that way. Keli-fornians either join with us or leave for easier pickings. niio
I live in southeastern KY and find it ideal. We have been off grid for 20 years. Taxes in the rural counties at the edge of eastern Ky are low, people are friendly, cost of living low, good growing season. we do get some coldish weather in Jan and Feb, but rest of year is great.
Wayne: You folks up close to the north pole always claim to have great weather 🙂 But, man, those mountains are fine to see and travel in. Be blessed. niio
Unfortunately, Nevada is in the process of becoming Californicated. With the large immigrant population working in the casino “industry.” many of whom are here under questionable circumstances, and the large number of Californicators who, having ruined California, have fled to adjacent states, unfortunately for those states, they did not leave their socialistic view at the border and Nevada has been seriously infected with the California Disease.
Arizona is about half and half. Some areas are very conservative, but others are as socialistic as California. Flagstaff in Northern Arizona, nominally a conservative area, and reputed to have more gun stores per 100 citizens than any other city in the country appeared to be an ideal retirement locale. It gets lots of snow in the winter which makes it an abundantly watered area, it has a long growing season and gets rain during the summer with the summer monsoons and thunderstorms.
So I subscribed to the local paper for six month. That’s a good way to get a feel for an area before actually making the jump. As fa as I was concerned, it was like reading he local paper here in the PDRK. With the college students and teachers outnumbering real residents, the town is as liberal as if it were Santa Barbara, CA.
I have had folks who resided in Tucson who have reported that it is almost San Francisco south as far as liberalism.
Around the Phoenix area you have many transplants from other locales, especially bad weather locations. The ones that only come for the winter aren’t as much of a problem as the permanent transplants who bring their eastern ideas of socialistic government with them.
I have just about written both of those states off as I can see they are rapidly going the way of Oregon and Washington which used to be the two points of sanity on the left coast but are now busily trying to out-California the PDRK.
left coast chuck,
After reading your analysis of the western states like NV & AZ, I think I glimpse a reason why Ohio and some of the Midwestern states have so far been spared.
We are one of those middle of the road states, that get cold and wet enough that some from here flee to AZ and the like, so perhaps people fleeing here from the warm and hot places bordering the PDRK is still an unthinkable notion. Ohio just isn’t sexy enough, and for that we are quite proud and happy. Who wants to live with rural hicks & Amish anyway, right?
LLC: You need to visit the cities in AZ to find liberals. Even there they tend to vote conservatively. NV is a dem state and I’m pretty sure it always was. Flagstaff gets 100+ inches of snow per year, and already got something like 97 inches. You can gun gun shops and repair businesses all over AZ. Any place Joe Arpaio shows, people call him Uncle Joe. NV would spit at him. NV is Harry Reid country and has been. niio
I like Arizona over NV, but here is home 🙂 Stay away from the cities, and Az is great. NV is basin country, and tends to drought too easily. Worse, ranchers have an on-going war with the EPA and other socialists. Arizona doesn’t, but only because we support wildlife because doing that means we can sell more hunting permits. Nevada is harry Reid country. His family are powerbrokers, my stepson said. AZ native Americans are fighting mojados, again, which means fewer getting over the border, and Chicanos are reporting mojados. NV? Any state, stay away from cities and if a border state, stay away from the border. niio
I recently relocated from Commiefornia to Idaho for many of the same reasons and, God willing, I will retire in the next 5-10 years here. My wife and I decided “why wait to retire here?” so we skiddadled 7 months ago and haven’t looked back.
Chuckster59,
Good for you.
I see too many people who wait until retirement, normally in their late 60’s and then try to setup retirement income, find a new home, sell the old home, make the move, try to get unpacked and set up, all while attempting to find LMI’s and interests in the new locations, and trying to meet and be accepted by the locals.
Giving yourself a longer timeline while still a bit younger will I think make your transition much easier.
For me, simply being retired after a 40+ year work career doing something I loved was hard enough, without the added stress of moving.
Good luck.
I’ll stick with Arizona even tho the Summers are hot. The other spots are too darn cold or subject to tornadoes.
So. Texas maybe but but hot and humid and close to the border like AZ.
one thing against dkotas is the pipeline. hear there was a leak recently. how would affect water?
Great Job.
Sadly you made no mention of property taxes, being connected to people of like faith, health care options, or distance to family for support. Obviously thinking the western Dakotas have more rivers than eastern Dakotas proves you know very little about what makes a river (water), the climate or what is grown here. I suggest you spend more time researching this great country in real time and less time at your computer babbling. I have driving over 3 million miles of this country over 30 years and enjoyed the ever changing view from my office window in all lower 48 states.
There’s no need to this kind of harsh reply to the author! If you’ve spent so much time traveling, how about you share and spend less time at your computer criticizing other’s efforts.
And just exactly HOW do you think the author of this article would know which state your family is in for support? And property taxes??? Seriously?? Here in FL there is a huge difference in a county by county basis. That is something you need to actually do your OWN research on, instead of sitting at your computer complaining about people who are imparting a lot of good info! And as for the last sentence of your post; what does that even MEAN???
as we age, we have more ailments and illnesses. and then there are accidents. personally, i don’t want to set a broken leg myself. so, i would add “close to decent medical care” to your list. use it while we got it.
I have lived in Oregon, Washington, California, Iowa, Nevada, New York and Illinois. Being parapatetic led me to start the Greener Pastures Institiute where I helped thousands make these kinds of decisions over 15 years. I have owned propertry in Canada and Mexico (for latter see Prepper article). But most of my moving was not as a pre-retiree. We all hope that we can avoid assisted living as we age–wrote about that at seniorslifestylemag.com (6 alternatives). Personally, I hate the cold so northern states are out, had enough of the PNW. Idaho is super cold in winter, with a short summer. Others will find they dislike humidity, such as exists in the South. I live in a small town on the Central California Coast which, near a famous state park, provides a part-time Airbnb income. It’s an hour from a cosmopolitan city. Lack of rain is increasingly a problem, although we just had a deluge and I collect it intelligently. Most of my neighbors are on NextDoor now, so there is a built in support system, along with the usual organizations that encourage small town cooperation. Growing food is possible but would you be able to do it as a geezer?? Ok,California taxes are high but the dystopic urban areas of SF and LA are each 200 miles away. Consider having TWO properties, mine in Baja Mexico cost $25,000 to build ($600 annual dues/taxes) in a resort (eldoradoranch.com) where gringos live up to six months a year in ambient weather among friends. NO WHERE NEAR where the recent killings were. At 72 (wife 70) we probably aren’t going anywhere, but I’m satisfied my wanderings led to what I have now.
where I live the neighbors are half a mile away the land is cheap 1500 an forested acre the water from my well is so clean without a filter we have a hard time getting it to boil and my well and creek have never run dry I pay 225 dollars a year in property taxes on 25 acres game is plentyfull and if a democrat were brave enouf to stick his head up it would get cut off a lady from California lasted 4 days before moving out so where is it none of your business if I tell you every jackass and his son reading this will move here and ruin it some things you just have to work out for yourself
This >>> . <<< is very useful. Try it.
runna muck,
You need to check the ”.” & ”,” keys on your keyboard, since they don’t appear to be functional.
I know exactly where you are talking about. In a van down by the river runna muck
I have lived in Southeast Texas fairly close to the coastline all my life. After having endured all the hurricanes since the 1950s I am getting REALLY tired of having to worry about hurricanes and flooding. I am seriously considering either farther north in East Texas in the piney woods or Arkansas.
The Adirondack Park in NY state.
Rick,
I could have an incorrect impression; but, between taxes and gun laws, there have to be better places than that.
As a fellow ‘Ohio Prepper,’ I agree. My husband is from a large family in southern California. We met there 35 years ago. I would not live there (many reasons including illegals, taxes, government, etc.). He came to Ohio for a visit to ‘woo’ me back to California…..and he never left! We have acreage for a fraction of the cost we would have paid in SoCal. He LOVES the different seasons and we embrace everything Mother Nature sends. I have learned a lot from the Amish lifestyle.
TDro,
I came here from western Pennsylvania after High School for college and after earning my degrees, I looked back home; but, there were mostly steel mills and coal mines and not many jobs or much future for an EE, so I took a job here. 3 year into my first job I was renting an old house when the aging landlord made an offhand suggestion that a young engineer with a future should think about owning a house instead of renting. I thought about it for a while, when he mentioned being amiable to seller financing and after doing my own title search we set up a land contract, and at age 25, I was buying my first house.
The only real change was the payment going from $150.00 per month rent to a $188.00 per month payment as well as doing the maintenance, most of which I could do myself.
Since some of that payment was interest, I was able to deduct the interest I paid on my taxes. Six years later I married and moved in to a rural rental property with my new wife and her two boys. Two years after that, the landlord asked us to find another place, since his boy had graduated high school and was going to move into that little house. Since my wife had grown up in the area, her family started calling friends and found that the house we now live in was about to be up for rent, since the current renter and his family were moving in with his mother, after his father’s recent passing. It was serendipity, and the house like my first one was a fixer upper with only wood a fuel oil heat. The serendipity hit again, when the owner of the house who was in a nursing home passed away (in his 80’s) and his nephew who had been the rental agent, told us the place was for sale. It was part of a 114 acre farm that we could not afford; but, the realtor found a local farmer who wanted the land, and we ended up with the house, the outbuildings, and 7.745 acres, for $40,000.00. I had already paid off my other house, and within 10 years we finished remodeling it and sold it, paying off the house we’re in now. I cannot imagine this happening in any other place but the U.S. and possibly few other places than rural Ohio. Our rental here started 35 years ago (1984) and the purchase, 33 years ago (1986) and we’ve never looked back. My work did require a bit of driving over the years, anywhere between 25 and 40 miles one way; but, having total freedom at one end of the trip made it all worthwhile.
I also love the seasons; but, now in our late 60’s I don’t like the winter quite as much as I once did; but, the cost of living and the freedom still makes it worthwhile.
The Amish and just our rural mostly farmer neighbors
I have quite a few people around here who are preppers, some even calling themselves such, and know a few others in Ohio that frequent the forums.
If you’re up for it, you can click on my name The Ohio Prepper above and the very sparse web page it links to will allow you to contact me via email. Just be sure to mention this site and the name you use here, and I can put you in touch with other Ohioans, some of whom may live near you.
The wife and I have had meetup’s with quite a few people over the years, and I do keep OPSEC
For all we know you may just live down the road; but, in any case, there are lots of folks all around Ohio that share our passions for self-reliance.
I moved from Central Florida to South East Oklahoma a few years ago using all of the standard prepper search criteria. It has turned out perfect, if anyone has questions about the area just ask.
I would like to find out much more about southeast Oklahoma. South of 40.
there is not a lot info out there or are the locals just keeping it quiet? The Ouachita national forest looks good especially the south side.
We could move from CA to an island in Maine (population <2,000 in off season which is most of the year) which can only be reached with a fairy. My husband's family has a house and land there but it's only at 40ft elevation (12m). This is what worries me. The rest would be OK, chickens. A better greenhouse. Although the fairy only access is good to help the island be overrun, it also would keep you trapped in case of weather being stalled above, or surge coming to drown much of the island. I'd prefer moving everybody into the mountainous area of Austria, but that's hard. And a big decision. But I'll definitely need to get out of formerly good to live San Diego, which is turning into a prime example of surveillance city, 'smart city' with terrible when the SHTF outlooks, incl.the loss of resources and predictable jungle situation that will follow soon after.
Your comment on ocean-going transportation gave me quite a friendly chuckle. Is the fairy cute? With wings? Do you need quite a few fairies to carry you? A ferry, on the other hand, often carries folks and cars to islands.
i like the area of SD where mt rushmore is…that last little chunk of mountain right there…going to check the west side in WY in the next year or so…from that area it’s about an hour trip to rapid city which is just large enough to have pretty much anything you would need…doesn’t get to awful cold, decent summers i believe…
Why a thumbs down? Do you just want to discourage folks moving to South Dakota or Wyoming or do you disagree with the statement that Rapid City has pretty much everything one would need? I would have to say that the short time I spent there in the summer it was pretty warmish and the Badlands didn’t get that way with plentiful rainfall, but then nobody wants to live in the Badlands anyway, perhaps not even the park rangers stationed there.
Or did you hit the thumbs down by mistake and like me, don’t know how to erase it?
If your not “blonde haired blue eyed” stay away from northern Idaho
What about eastern Oklahoma?
I’m JC, does Bee have a question about Oklahoma?
E Oklahoma is under appreciated so prices are still reasonable, but it’s mostly hills with thin soil and the only way to grow crops is buy some more expensive bottom land. But those bottoms are really nice, it’s a beautiful area, especially along the Indian Nations Turnpike and the Western edge of the Ouchita Mts. Farther West the Stillwater area has excellent potential, more tillable soil, still heavily wooded, but colder. Least known area I can think of for a Prepper style retirement calls itself The ArkLaTex, the area where the three states come together. Well north of the coast, Southeastern woodland and some prairie, unlimited ground water, year round streams, hot summers and mild winters, Shreveport and Texarkana the close cities, each around 200,000.
We do at least one winter camp in each area, as DFW explodes out toward our little place in the country I’m looking around both places.
Just a heads up for anyone with daughters: Arkansas and Tennessee rival the worst third world countries for rapes and sexual assaults. I know the vast majority of readers here are men, so you never contemplate what happens to girls. I’ve met too, too many women from those two states whose biggest reason for escaping was the rape stuff.
Sorry. It’s a great choice though if you’re male. The rampant gay life is kept underground and online. So no real risk of being raped for you.
I have to disagree with the statement about rapes..Sure there are a few but it is no worse here in TN than anywhere else. Been here 60+years.
Been here 40….and I’d agree….rape is not something you hear much about. Mempwabi or Trashville, maybe….but not this end of the State.
But ya’ll feel free to use that as an excuse not to come to Tennessee if you want….getting too many transplants from liberal *ell holes already 🙂
The only comment I would make on this otherwise very useful article is that Colorado is in danger of contracting the California disease. I don’t know how many of you follow Colorado politics, but they jumped on the magazine limitation bandwagon almost as fast as California. The Denver area I understand has become so polluted with Californicators that you can’t turn around without bumping into one.
They are one of the reasons why property has become so expensive in Colorado. They sold their 1800 sq ft house on a handkerchief lot for an exorbitant amount and didn’t blink at overpaying for a bigger house on a real lot in Colorado.
LCC, That’s not the only reason for the high cost of living. We were one of the 1st states to recover from the Great Recession. A lot of people moved here because of the jobs available. They came from everywhere. Housing, in general, became more and more expensive. Low-income housing started to disappear. Rentals became more expensive due to the owner’s lack of space. We had a vote where I live to limit multi-person buildings. My first thought when I heard about it was “San Francisco”. Unfortunately, it passed. With all the jobs coming to the Denver Metro more people will be coming to the area. That means even higher rates for housing. I live in a small 850 sqft Townhome. It is now worth $180,000. I can tell you that it is really not worth that much, even with the improvements I’ve made. For the Larger single-family homes you are correct. Coloradoans don’t like it either. Affordable Housing is our biggest problem. We are slowly increasing the minimum wage so people can live here and requiring new apartment buildings to have a percentage of Affordable units to help alleviate the problem. Previously, the developers were only building high-end apartments and condos. There are still small towns around the state where housing is more affordable.
Sue: Your 850 sq ft townhouse here in this part of SoCal would be just about double that figure that you quoted. If you think $180K is high, $350K is ridiculous but people still pay it. I don’t know how.
I might add that is not in some exclusive HOA gated community, it is in the ratty part of town where gunfire is an almost nightly part of life.
Sue: Raising the minimum wage so that people can afford to live is a dog chasing its tail. Some economists disagree about that statement, but like most “experts” you can buy an economist to give you whatever opinion and the statistics to back up that opinion to prove whatever point your are trying to make.
If you just think about it logically for a moment you can see that it is a dog/tail situation. Minimum wage gets raised. Now the worker who was getting more than minimum wage feels slighted unless he gets at least an equal kick in his wages. So does corporate or the company owner take a cut in their earnings to make up the difference? Ha Ha Ha! If you believe that you probably believe Elizabeth Warren’s “free” medical care for all is going to be paid for by the Bloombergs and Tom whatshisface, the other billionaire running on some kind of ticket for president. No, not that millionaire, Bernie isn’t in the same league as Bloomberg and Tom comosellama.
So where does the money come from to pay all those pay raises? If you guessed from rising prices, you would have guessed correctly. For those businesses who can’t move away from the doo-gooder (not a typo) states and who can’t for one reason or another raise their prices enough to pay the increased costs (wage increases are just the tip of the iceberg. FICA is based on wages; unemployment is based on wages; workers’ comp which is the big part of the iceberg is based on wages and the cost of other benefits goes up when wages go up.) so they close their doors and go to work for someone else or become “consultants.” — or, they do what a lot of small employers have done here in the PDRK, they become their sole employee, especially in the trades. When we got rid of our last employee we started actually taking more money out of the company even though our sales were slightly smaller because we had to turn away some work that we might have taken if we had employees. We were able to drop some work that actually was always struggling along on the break-even line but that we took to keep our employees busy.
The result was instead of having nine people off the unemployment roles and working, we made more money and didn’t have the constant personal problems that nine employees generate. Don’t tell me if I had just hired the right people I wouldn’t have had the personal personnel problems. I went to all those management seminars: the motivational seminars; the wage incentive seminars. I put the “best management practices” in place. The best advice I got from all of them was: You can’t motivate someone. You can kill motivation but if it ain’t there, you can’t generate it. The only thing you can do is get rid of them before they kill the motivation in everybody else, because they will.
Got off topic a little there, but please don’t vote for any minimum wage increases. You are just going round and round and not getting anywhere. The government wins though because folks who were qualifying for all kinds of assistance because of their low earnings will fall off the chart and be worse off than they were before. Don’t even think you will get a tax rebate because welfare costs are down. You would really have to be drinking the kool-aid to think that. Once a pol or bureaucrat gets their meathooks into tax money short of killing them, it is impossible to get it away from them.
I’m not going to argue with you about economics because we both know that the rich have all the advantages. When I was 16 (40 years ago) the minimum wage was about $2.25 – $2.35. It bought what I needed so no complaints. Now CEO’s of large corps make about 1000% more than their lowest-paid employee. Back then it was between 200% – 300%. I know life isn’t fair, but that is ridiculous. A big part of the problem comes from having too many people on this planet. it went from ~2.5 billion – ~ 7 billion in 56 years. Due to vaccines and improved medical knowledge and new technologies the earth’s population will increase even more. I’ve already had 2 heart attacks 20 1/2 years apart. The 1st in ’95 took me weeks to recover due to medical practices of the time. The 2nd in 2015 took me a week due to changes in procedures. I’m not complaining about the changes because I like being alive. I’m just saying if things continue as they have been going for most of my life, life will be unsustainable for humans in the future.
Sue,
Really? I grew up middle class with a working dad, a stay at home mom, and 3 siblings. We were not rich by any definition; but, we’ve all done rather well for ourselves, by partaking of the opportunities offered by this country.
I carried newspapers in junior High School and high school and worked as a busboy the summer after high school, saving nearly all of that money towards college. In college I worked at least part time the whole time, so with my savings, my earnings, and student loans I completed my degrees and found a job.
3 years after I graduated I purchased my first house and spent quite a few years upgrading and remodeling it, mostly with sweat labor, working doing carpentry, plumbing, and electrical at nights and on weekends, instead of vacations an parties, with my only entertainment some roller skating, and free things like rock climbing, spelunking, and backpacking.
My company provided low cost medical and dental benefits that I partook, as well as a 401K with a match that I also contributed to, even though it meant a bit less take home pay. Over a 40+ year career I ended up with nearly $500000.00 at retirement, that I am still leveraging along with SS and the wife small pension.
In college I made a whopping $1.65 and my starting salary as a degreed engineer in 1973 was $800.00 per month, $9600.00 per year or $4.60 per hour with a 40 hour week; however, those rarely occurred, with 50-60 being common; but, continued education and raises eventually got me into 6 figures & bonuses.
As for the obscene CEO pay, I hear that being touted; but, I would like to see an example, since the one I looked up isn’t quite that large.
The founder, Chief executive officer, and president of Amazon.com, Jeffrey Preston Bezos has a compensation package of $ 1,681,840.00 per year with his average employee earning $ 28,446.00 per year or a wage differential of 59 times; however, when you look at the fact that his company employs 647,500 people with a total payroll of $ 18,418,785,000.00 per year, there are a lot of people benefitting and being envious seems a bit greedy.
I had a silent heart attack many years ago; but, didn’t know I had it until a cardiologist asked me when I had my heart attack and I told him I didn’t have one, at which point he informed me that I did. I have since had 3 pacemakers and the ”Watchman” device for my aFib
I disagree and from your post I can calculate that you are about 56 & was born in 1963, so you were perhaps a bit young for the dire predictions of the time, none of which have happened.
In 1968 when you were in Kindergarten, Stanford University Professor Paul Ehrlich and his wife Anne, wrote, ”The Population Bomb” that predicted worldwide famine in the 1970s and 1980s due to overpopulation, as well as other major societal upheavals, and advocated action to limit population growth. He failed to take into account technologies that would allow better crops to be grown.
Next came ”Peak Oil” when the late American geologist and geophysicist Marion King Hubbert predicted that US peak oil would occur in about 1970 while you were still in elementary school. While that prediction appeared accurate for a while, as US average annual production peaked in 1970 at 9.6 million barrels per day, and then mostly declined for more than three decades, However, the use of hydraulic fracturing caused US production to rebound during the 2000s, challenging the inevitability of post-peak decline for US oil production.
I am an engineer and have been solving often intractable problems most of my life, and while I’m now retired, I know that there are millions more like me, still doing the same, and know that engineers, scientists, and technicians will use and develop new technologies to mitigate all problems, given enough time, money, and encouragement.
Perhaps my engineering background is the reason I am so optimistic about the future, since like your heart problems and their fixes, we are learning more each day and putting that knowledge to good use to help us all.
Sue: Best two ways to cause inflation, raise taxes and raise the minimum wage. Prices depend on local median wages. If the wage goes up, then stores and restaurants raise their prices to match, because taxes are also going up. In the end, only the politicians win because with devaluation of the money, thanks to inflation, it’s easier for them to pay off the gargantuan debts they run states and the nation into. As a former CEO in (a very small) company, I earned what I got because I worked a lot harder, suffered the ulcers and 24-hour shifts, cleaned up messes left by those editing for me, and so on. If you want to be a millionaire, and I wasn’t looking for that, you better toe the line and forget anything but work. You have no life, only the job. Read what the Wintry Knight has to say about it (he has a conservative Christian web page/blog).
Right now people of all classes are moving to Arizona from Kali-fornia because taxes have become such a burden, they can’t live there. This is right out of Lenin, raise taxes so high, the people beg for relief. Give to them from the government and they’ll accept socialism. As for socialized medicine, we had it. It went thru welfare and all the dems had to do was lighten restrictions. niio, and His peace to you.
left coast chuck,
To add to your comment to Sue.
The only economists that disagree are followers of the discredited philosophies of John Maynard Keynes. Paying $15.00 per hour for someone to take your order for fries is OK, if you are willing to spend $5.00 for a small package of fries; but, it’s already been demonstrated that when the starting wage for unskilled labor gets too high, automation gets installed, since it doesn’t complain, doesn’t take sick days, and doesn’t get paid overtime, or for that matter get paid at all.
I’ve run businesses and that $15.00 is just the starting point, since the employee has to pay FICA @ 6.2% and Medicare @ 1.45%, meaning the employee only gets $13.85 before taxes, while the employer match means they actually pays $16.15 for that hour. That makes the math easy when looking at automation.
Also, if the crowd is slow and the sales are down, the employee still expects to be paid, so often lines of credit are involved with more expenses for interest.
I simplified this and won’t go into unemployment insurance in case you have to let people go or workman’s compensation in case someone gets hurt; but, you can hopefully see the picture that most don’t even have a clue about.
I retired just over 2 years ago; but, we settled into our retirement homestead 35 years ago. What this meant was that our little 8 acre plot has been paid off for years, we’ve had decades to slowly improve it without incurring debt, and we are fully involved in local activities that suit our interests. There’s also something good about being a known local quantity, instead of that new outsider, who may take a while to completely fit into a new community.
Living here those 35 years did however take some sacrifice for employment, driving 30 miles one way for 8 years, 40 miles one way for 16 years, 33 miles for 4 years and finally another 24 miles one way for my last 4 years before starting a final telecommuting job from home.
Waiting until you retire to make the move is a strategy that too many people attempt; but, I see relatively few who accomplish it well, with many keeping their home and having their summer or winter place remote, and seasonally living in both places. My BIL tried that with a winter place in Florida, and recently gave up the Florida place, just staying here through the winter, except perhaps to vacation a few weeks, since travel and lodging each winter for a few weeks is less hassle and expense than keeping two places.
I’ve lived a self reliant lifestyle for more than 50 years and seen the label change from survivalist, to prepper, to homesteader, and a few others I won’t mention, names we’re sometimes called because we scare the ”normal people”; because, we remind them that their nice, tidy, comfortable lives can get rudely interrupted without much warning, although there are generally always warnings around should you pay attention.
I agree; but, even those places are OK if you can tolerate the politics or the weather, and plan ahead for the potential threats.
Your criteria:
•
• Sufficient rainfall or access to ground water to be able to grow my own food.
• Low overall cost of living, so that I don’t have to pay too much for property.
• A conservative government. With the country becoming more and more divided politically and the progressive states becoming more and more extreme, I’d prefer to avoid having to deal with it.
• While I don’t want to live in a high population area, I want to be close enough to one, that I can go into town to buy things I need. I don’t mind an hour drive into town on a Saturday, if that day is going to be dedicated to shopping.
The list pretty much describes where I live in rural Ohio; but, would I suspect also describe places in KY or TN.
Your list missed a good one, right here in the many rural areas of Ohio.
I live about 6 miles from my post office, in a little Census Designated Place with a good grocery and gas”, population 257; but, have mail delivery to the house. I live about 7 miles from another small village, population 2000 that has a good hardware store, gas stations, a feed mill and a few small restaurants.
I live about 15 miles from a town of about 20,000; but, many of these folks still have gardens and live there because they like the very suburban living. It has a Home Depot, Lowes, Aldi’s, Meijer’s, and Kroger as well as a local hardware, some restaurants and a decent Hospital that’s affiliated with the Ohio State University Medical Center in the capital city of Columbus about 45 miles away. We also have Life Flight helicopter ambulance for extreme emergencies.
Knowing your area, familiarity with the customs, laws, and weather conditions can be a big plus.
I spent some time there on jobs, actually replacing some Telco offices after flooding in Hardy and found the people to be hard working and nice, and the lay of the land pretty good. Along with weather and other resources, the culture of the people is another thing that can make a place more attractive, and my short time in Hardy showed me hard working good people; but, I suspect you’ll find them most places.
The population density in Tennessee is 158.8 people per square mile (26th out of 56), compared to Ohio’s population density of 282.3 people per square mile, 10th in the nation; but, neither compares with your population density of Texas at 108.4 per square mile; however, as you mentioned, most of that population are in the metropolitan centers, and there are lots of low density areas in between the metro areas in all of these very large states.
Ohio also has a rather large Amish population spread in about ¼ of its 88 counties, so there are some real self reliant people here.
I disagree, unless you really need citrus.
Ohio, along with Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska and other Midwest states are the breadbasket of the country and perhaps the world.
We grow all kinds of fruits & berries, nuts, and vegetables, along with livestock and have lots of forest and prairie with game animals, so you don’t need that geothermal greenhouse to have a variety of crops. Michigan, several hours to our north and much colder regularly grows: apples, blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, cherries, cranberries, gooseberries, grapes, honeydew melons, huckleberries, mulberries, peaches, pears, plums, raspberries, strawberries, watermelon.
Other than the cranberries, we grow those same varieties here.
Assuming you plan to make the final move after retirement, this is probably a good idea. In our case we have no long term bug out plans, since we’re well prepared to shelter in place for a long event. The only exceptions would be a house fire, or a tornado strike to the house, in which case it would be a local event and we would move to a hotel or MAG member’s location until repairs were completed.
Write a longer post next time.
Wannabe,
The post is as long as it has to be and you are not obligated to read it.
I thought of something while reading the comments. Large cities and even medium to small cities have a lot of mobile people. If SHTF you’re going to have a lot of these people leaving these cities. They’ll leave by motorhome, bus, truck, car, motorcycle, bicycle and on foot. They will not only be on the highways but on the smaller roads leaving the city and into the country. Will they all succeed? I don’t think so, but enough of them will be able to make small-town life and farming communities miserable for many, especially the locals. Don’t forget to keep this in mind when making your decision. Don’t forget that there are 325 million people in the country. All of them will try to survive. No matter what they have to do to do it.
Sue,
What makes you think they will make it to these smaller communities or that we will stand by and let them? There is a ton of ”invisible infrastructure” around the country that is pretty much ignored by everyone; but, to those of us in the hinterlands, are things of which we are quite aware.
The next time you are traveling, especially on the back roads outside of the cities, pay attention to not only the road on which you travel; but, also, the little culverts and bridges you pass over, generally without much thought.
Now imagine a large truck or wagon full of bricks or logs, stuck on one of those ”pinch points” and immoveable. Perhaps it’s only a 2-lane county road with deep ditches on each side, and somehow a large tree has fallen across both lanes. Those people may only have one option at that point, to go ahead on foot with only what they can carry.
I volunteer with my county EMA and live along a 2-lane state highway, and there have been times just recently, where a vehicle accident involving a large truck, shuts down traffic in both directions, until we and other first responders get out there with proper rescue equipment to clear the vehicles from the road. The last one, not far from my location had EMA performing traffic management for more than 3 hours, while fire rescue and large wreckers (tow trucks) could get in place and remove the mangled metal mess. Now imagine this with no support to help you.
Thos living small-town lives and in farming communities, at least where I live, also quite often own & carry firearms and know how to use them.
You need to keep in mind that those 325 million people are spread across a large land mass, and I don’t have to worry about any more than those within a few 10’s of miles of my location, and not really even those.
Thanks for very interesting & enlightening info about different regions/States in USA for possible retirement !
Would love to know what parts of Texas you like & dislike. Trying to get out of liberal Oregon. Hard to know which parts of Texas are good to be in when you aren’t there.
The State where you retire doesn’t matter near as much as your state of shape if you’re planning to build out a self sufficient homestead. Likely, the time for that was 30 years ago when you had the youth and energy to do so.
In our late 60’s, we’ve been on our fairly self sufficient place for nearly 40 years now, and I can tell you no way would we have the ability to re-create it now. At this point, age simply catches up with you and you’re doing good simply to maintain what you’ve built.
When we butchered our steer this fall, wife asked “Last time ?”. I said “No, think I have a few more to go yet…..you willing to go back to store bought meat ?” (We raise/process our own beef, pork, chicken, fish)
I sold our neighbor (mid 50’s, retired military) a 30ac place adjoining ours, and we’ve watched them (him & wife) now for 2 years slowly working on just building a house….my estimate is they are still a good year from done. Wife and I knocked most of ours out in less than a year, while working full time, but we were in our early 30’s then and could work 12-14hrs/day, 7 days/wk. They still have a TON of stuff to do to get anywhere near producing food/fuel/etc on their place. My current guess is it won’t happen.
Tnandy,
I already stated something similar; but, you hit the mark on that one. Too many plan on retiring to Florida, moving to a condo or mobile home park, and for them, waiting until retirement may be OK; but, if you’re just starting the homesteading journey that late in life, it’s a bit thing to take on/
We’re in a similar situation, having moved here at age 33, and now living here for 35 years. I recently retired (2 ½ years ago); and drove anywhere from 25-40 miles for work with this place as home base, working my last 8 years telecommuting. As an engineer I was lucky that work was plentiful and paid well, so we paid off this place 2 decades ago, and that makes all the difference in your cash flow. My DW grew up only 2 miles from here, so we know the community and have great neighbors who all work together, so forming a loose MAG was rather easy.
We didn’t build from scratch, since we got such a deal on this place. A 3000+ square foot home with two century old post & beam barns, machinery shed, chicken coop and brooder house. The brooder house was in really bad shape and was just recently replaced. We’re still working on projects, all of which will never be completed; but, that’s the life of a homesteader, or even a simple homeowner, when you have plans for better things.
Arkansas is a rural state with a lot to offer. 3 acre plots are available statewide. Pick your county wisely as property taxes vary widely. Building codes(or lack of) also vary widely.
We are in the process of leaving Colorado, having already bought our bug out ranch in the Texas High Plains, both actions being done because of the change in the politics in Colorado, both back in 2013 and more recently, in 2018. The liberal hordes in Denver and Boulder outnumber the rest of the state’s year-round, conservative population and they have declared war on conservative ideals and principles, fiscal responsibility and guns, not necessarily in that order. Our property taxes increased by nearly 50% and new and proposed laws have outlawed (or will, if they get passed, which is probable with both chambers of the legislature plus the governor’s office in Democrat control) much of our armory, so we have decided to get out completely. Unfortunately, it is a process that will take another year or two. Baby steps…
These days, I won’t recommend moving to Colorado for anyone. If you are conservative, you won’t be happy for long; if you’re liberal, the state doesn’t need anymore of your policies or voters. Personally, I think the Republicans have lost the state for the foreseeable future, much as it pains me to say that.
Texas, on the other hand, can still be saved if we can convince enough conservatives to move here and to stay here. Austin and Houston might be lost but I still hold out hope for the rest of the state, especially if we can protect the southern border.
As for trying to build up a homestead or a bug out location once you hit your 50’s and 60’s – yes, it’s a battle against time and aches & pains. The biggest problems we run into are weather and trying to find reliable contractors to build things since we can’t do it all ourselves but we can afford to hire others to do the heavy lifting. Unfortunately, we keep finding more projects that need to be done, often taking priority over whatever we are in the midst of at the time. Right now, we are working on getting a pasture near the barn cleaned up so we can get two horses into it for the winter. But, more importantly, the well near the house needs a shed built around it before the really cold weather sets in. We started building it but then the winds and rain came along for the past few days, so that got put on hold. Once it warms up again for a day or two, we can finish that job and get back to working on the pasture. But we are waiting for one guy to show up and tow an old car out of the pasture (been waiting for him for 3 weeks) and for the roofer to call us back with a price for fixing the barn roof and wall (he was supposed to call us 3 days ago). Apparently, nobody around here needs money. How fortunate for them…?
We just can’t bring ourselves to work outside when the temperatures are in the 40’s and the wind is blowing at a steady 38 mph. Go figure…as a friend of ours once said, he doesn’t spend time in it if the temperature is lower than his age or higher than his IQ.
Arizona, of course. Why? It’s home and I was gone for decades. If I had to leave, I have family down in the western Sierra Madre who still live the Prepper life, and have for generations. But, AZ is where God put me, at least for now. The garden is great. We’re getting enough rain to keep the winter crops growing, and this close to two mountain ranges, the ground water level is usually high. Two major problems, We border on Kali-fornia, but like Kali did in FDR’s depression, any bridges over the Colorado River can be closed. As with Texas, Mexico is another problem, but most of the border is Indian Country, both sides well-armed and very into being survivalists, and and we’re getting very picky about allowing people to run roughshod over our country. Most mojados (Mexican term meaning wetback) now have to go to Kali, or come in one of the wildlife refuges the feds put in–apparently with mojados in mind because there’s very little wildlife left there. niio
Anybody against Alaska? Plenty of open land there.
You and Dad, shish 🙂 He loved Alaska and should have stayed. I love Arizona, tho, and should never have left. But, no work thanks to the Carter Depression and the Babbit klan running the state the way the dnc told them to. niio
NV is going a la kali, but not AZ. Nevada is Reid country, and he’s as lib as you can get. We tend towards conservatives and so do all those conservatives fleeing the East and Midwest for here. But, of course, college kids from there tend to vote liberal as PC can get. Tucson is a college town and an exception in Arizona, not a way of life. Here, Obama and Clinton were told to stick it, not cozened to to like back east, kali, and the Midwest. this is Indian Country and Indians do not like dems or RINOs. Even conservative dems have trouble getting elected. niio
I don’t know about Ohio— I believe it has a mandatory smart meter program. Those things are dangerous, on many levels. Please do your research, and don’t listen to the electric companies who say they are harmless—the are raking in billions of dollars and depend on keeping people in the dark about the security/fire/health risks. Just saying…
se tx gets hit by flooding and hurricanes
Just a thought: I’m working in the oil and gas industry out here in the Pecos, TX area.
And although it looks as dry as a worn-out oil well, there’s a HUGE natural aquifer under this land that is tappable by a reasonably priced well. The land is cheap, and the climate, although hot, is very low humidity.
You can read up on it by looking at the Hanging “H” Ranch that is for sale- 67,500 acres for $470 million. And that’s all because of the water available.
I’ve been out and about in high Summer when the temps would go over 100 and still stayed very comfortable.
Can’t say the same for Central/East Texas. I’m an 8 year Houstonite, and it’s miserable there, weather-wise, in the summer.
Southeast Texas gets pretty swampy as you move away from the border. There’s also hurricanes and flooding to deal with.
Consider a place a bit farther inland.
Well this article is 5 years ago and some of these states I wouldn’t wanna live NOW. lol