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Farmers markets are popular here as well, but you will find the majority of vegetables and produce are sold by the Hutterian Brethren (Kind of like the Amish except they use modern tractors and vehicles), but you can find a lot of birdhouses, plastic flowers and cheap kitschy tourist crap for sale, except when the Flathead Cherries are harvested, then you find them being hawked on just about every street corner.
We have a few Amish communities here. A few Mennonites, a Hutterite and a shaker village.
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... Lots of folks off the grid here, in part because it can be a long way to the nearest power line, but many are what would be classified as Survivalists. Not green, they are virulent anti-government types, well armed and way back in the hills. Many are very anti-social, and don't want anybody coming around for any reason. Most are loners with the exception of their family, there are no "communes" that I know of, not to say they don't exist, but they sure aren't well advertised or known. Most of the yurts that I know of serve as exotic getaways for the rich and shameless at the Big Sky resort.
We have all of that here, except the big sky resort thing. Here we have over 3,000 miles of ocean coast line. With lots of extremely expensive homes, beaches and sailboats.
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... Lots of folks garden here, but the season is too short, the soil too poor and the temps too cold for most to reach commercial levels unless they have a heated greenhouse.
I am surprised that your growing season is so much shorter than ours.
Our soil is not bad either. It has spent centuries as forest, so it is a different type of soil ecology than what conventional Ag likes. It is great for organic Ag though.
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... This is ranching country, lots of grazing for cattle or sheep, so you can go buy your year's worth of beef on the hoof just about anywhere, but if you want fresh corn, you go to the Hutterites or raise your own. Farming here is mostly dryland grain, wheat, oats, barley, or potatoes or sugar beets. Not a lot of vegetables or fruits kind of crops.
Very few cattle here. Some sheep, some goats, some pigs. Maine is about forestry.
Lots of blueberries, maple and fiddleheads, these are all wild foraged crops.
A select few places around here are suited to grain crops, but not a lot of places.
Open crop land here is more likely for native grass hay or veggies.
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... You can design your home as well as you want, but when a Siberian Clipper comes down out of Canada with 50 MPH winds dropping the temperature to -60 or more, (coldest temps ever registered in lower 48 was Rogers Pass Montana -70 in 1954), just to stay alive you need heat and a lot of it. If you're off grid, that means coal or wood, and since we don't have hardwoods, you need a lot of pine or fir just to keep from freezing your A** off.
Most homes here are built with a lot more insulation than in other parts of the world simply due to the climate. High winds of 70 MPH+ for a week with a few feet of snow and -20 degree temps can really make you a believer in alternative heat once you pay your power bill once or twice.
-30F is about as cool as it gets here. Still no need for a power bill.
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... The modern hippies in Missoula are a drug culture, so that figures into the equation. The "artists" tend to like the harder drugs, but schedule 1 drugs are schedule 1 drugs.
The economy here is low. It has been for many decades. The housing boom that carried most of the nation skipped this area. So the crash of '08 had very little effect here.
Drugs here are mostly brought in from Boston or NYC by gangs. Bought by young adults wanting to escape their boredom. Or so the media says. I don't know.
I do not hang around drug people, so I have no contact with that culture.
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... A chicken track or turkey track is what the "peace" sign is called around here. Originally a Runic symbol for death, it was adopted as a satanic symbol representing Beelzebub's pitchfork or broken cross, somehow it became the symbol of the hippies in the 1960s, and is still big with their trustifarian descendants today. http://www.christwatch.com/DemonicSymbols/
Location: MA/ME (the way life should not be / the way it should be)
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I thought fort kent reached -40/-50 a few times a winter? I also notice alot of corn farms whenever im up in maine (no matter how far north, as long as its not forest, may just be another farm that grows corn). When i was up in Aroostook, i was just potatoes, and i noticed some cattle as well, but not many. More than likely the cattle could just be for personal use, only a few farms had a decent amount of cattle, most had about 3-5 (but far between). There was alot of Horses however, somethin i find funy based on what i have heard about the economy, as i would think a horse would run a few grand a year just in food.
I have little desire for a horse, i would think off travel would be hard, but dogsledding is a whole nother story, that seems fun albeit expesive, but if i had the money i would, if not a snowmobile would probally be cheaper (you can ignore a snow-mobile a lot longer than a pack of dogs). Even then something tells me off trail dogsledding would be hard work up in Maines thick forests.
Anyway, getting back to the topic of the thread...
You might be a Survivalist if:
You know the security color codes at your local department store... "Security, we have a code yellow in sporting goods"
You just can't get out of the Home Depot without a quick perusal of the tomahawks and survival axes.
You practice "situational awareness" in your everyday life and can tell how many people where in a 20 foot radius while on the supermarket checkout line... And if anyone was acting in a way that may cause concern...
Might be a survivalist if your house has an underground bunker and a tunnel to a secret exit.
I know people who have a tornado shelter/bunker in their home, with an secret exit that nobody knows about but a few people and they are not survivalists, preppers or anything of the kind.
You choose a seat with your back to a wall in public places (I.E. Restaurant, etc.) preferably near an exit and usually know where the exit(s) are.
You will only stay in a Hotel room with a floor low enough to the ground to survive a jump out the window.
You told the last person that annoyed you and didn't mind their own business to "Bug Out" when you meant to say Bug Off...
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