How Far Away from the World Do I Need to Be?

An Excerpt from the new book, Surviving Survivalism – How to Avoid Survivalism Culture Shock www.survivingsurvivalism.com

When TSHTF and chaos ensues, you don’t want to make it easy for someone who hasn’t prepared to take what you have prepared.

The Army’s stated plan for when that time comes (yes – they have a plan) is to isolate the urban and suburban areas by choking off critical roads – Interstates, State roads, etc. This means that most people will be stuck in urban and suburban areas, like it or not.

Some people, though, will get out and be looking for a place to land – or a place to take over. We’re talking about the possibility of some real “desperadoes” here. You don’t want to be in a place where some gang can happen upon your survival spot by accident. For most, the general rule should be at least 100 miles away from large cities and the potential of marauding hoards.

Our place is over 20 miles from even a paved road and a good part of the dirt road is “primitive” – very rocky and pretty scary for city-folks. There is nothing but some cattle drinker wells between us and the paved road. So a gang or even a sole individual would have to know for a fact that it was worth taking the trip to see if we were “pushovers” and if we had anything here worth his while. Just to get to the dirt road requires a trip of about 30 miles from even the smallest town. We’re almost 200 miles from a major city, which would be where a gang might come from. They couldn’t even get enough gas to make the whole trip here if they were driving, let alone being able to walk here. And if they did bother to make the trip, they’d have to be sure that they were not going to face someone who knew how to defend themselves. In itself, our location is a big deterrent.

Some people think that if they are in a “rural” area (something less populated than suburbia) they are in a good place for survival. What is mostly available in these areas is a place in a “subdivision” (sometimes called a “development”) where you can get a 5 acre lot for somewhere around $20,000. It’s very attractive to someone from a city. It gives the illusion of being “away from the world” to those who are not quite comfortable about being very remote. But we tend to call these subdivisions “suburbia with bigger lots”.

On our journey to find the right spot for ourselves, we wasted lots of time and effort and LOTS of money in subdivisions. What we found – without exception – was that these subdivisions are overwhelmingly populated with those living in one form or another off government checks (Social Security, Welfare, VA Disabilities, etc.) and waiting for next month’s check to stock up on beer and alcohol, cigarettes, Mountain Dew and – only if they had enough left over – some prepared or “junk” foods. In addition they were dependent on the medical system for their Prozac, Viagra and Oxycodone prescriptions.

In some of the subdivisions in which we lived, within the span of a year the population tripled. Here’s what often happens: Your daughter’s husband is out of work and they, along with their bratty kids need to move in with you. Then you remember that you have an RV on one of these 5 acre lots in a subdivision where you planned to retire someday but rarely visit. Hey! Your daughter and her family can go live there rather than your house!

We know personally of several situations like this in which these down-on -their-luck families find it a good opportunity to steal whatever they can from the rest of the population in the subdivision. The week after we sold and moved out of one subdivision, someone came along and stole the solar panels we had left for the new owner from the roof of the house! They didn’t know the new owner had already installed a video camera to watch the property. Even the nicest people’s grown kids were involved. It was only because we were pretty much always home that our own property was not bothered.

In any event, imagine what all those neighbors will be like when the government checks stop coming – when they can’t get that rack of beer or that Prozac and their 2 days worth of food is emptied from the cabinets. It will be worse than if you had stayed in suburbia, where the Army will at least give you hope that “the situation is well in hand.”

Subdivisions and developments often have pages and pages of “covenants” – rules about what kind of building can be erected on your land, how long you can live in an RV on your land, what kind of livestock you can have on your land and on and on. And they usually have a “homeowners’ association” to make sure the rules are followed and new ones added.

Another word about subdivisions. It is the ideal setting and a magnet for “meth chefs”, people who manufacture methamphedimines in their homes. No one nearby savvy enough to know what that smell really is, no one close enough to see what’s going on, and not a lot of police in the area. If you are (fortunately) not too familiar with the meth culture, its big attraction is that with a small investment, hundreds of times of profits can be made.

Essentially, you want to be as far away from people as you can. That will be different for everyone. Some people need to have others around to feel secure. But when chaos shows its head, people’s reaction to that – panic – will be the problem.

An Excerpt from the new book, Surviving Survivalism – How to Avoid Survivalism Culture Shock www.survivingsurvivalism.com