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There is no perfect place, I live in Montana and the arctic blasts where the mercury can drop to -70 degrees, short growing season, wildfires, earthquakes, 70 MPH+ winds that can blow for a week at a time, limited water, hot summers and long winters, all you can do is find what works for you and endure what you don't like.
I haven't spent enough time east of the Mississippi to matter really, but I'm very familiar with the west. That deep dark fertile soil, abundant water and longer growing seasons of the Midwest look awfully good to me at times.
No perfect place - ain't that the truth. No place comes close to perfection as far as I'm concerned. I just like to reduce as many of the known risks as I can, stack the odds in my favor. You grew up in Montana so I imagine that self-sufficiency in those conditions is second nature to you.
I'd be back to South Dakota. The climate is hard, but it's easy to eat and the population is low. The family has various farms which basically are self-sufficient as is, and one in particular has hunters begging to hunt the land every year and water pumps that can be powered by wind. Of course, having crops, vegetables, beef and dairy puts a pretty full spread on anyway. In all honesty, in that neck of the woods I rather doubt they'd notice the government gone at all aside from those living off land in pasture. Almost everyone is armed to some degree. Fuel becomes the problem, but you don't really need to plant 1000 acres to feed your family either. If they start refining in ND, there's the perfect trade.
You risk a tire blowout, but you can land a Cessna right on the roads (illegally). Haven't worked out range issue yet and need more practice time.
I'd also look at the Black Hills. You don't get the agriculture, but you do have lots of wildlife and fresh fresh water. You'd just need to be smart about prepping for each winter. MT's a great pick, but I don't know anyone there.
Without the SD roots, I'd say TN would be an excellent pick. More economic options than in SD for the here portion as well.
You'd be close to Nashville only if you were in the northern area. Traveling down more to the central and southern part of mid-TN, you enter a more rural and agricultural region. I have no recollection of any Dukes of Hazard. I don't watch TV.
You are right about the low COL and lack of income taxes! That was a big factor in our decision to buy property there!
You can go just about in any direction from Nashville and find lots of remote and sparsely populated areas. Sometimes I wonder if most people never get off the interstate. I mostly avoid them.
Head west of there, not on the interstate but roads north of it. Lots of options there. Personally, I prefer the area north of Nashville going into western KY. It's sparsely populated, rolling hills with excellent soil and other natural resources. It's very close to the area MtS mentioned, southern IL, but less populated than IL.
Man, didn't think this thread would fly but much thx to all so far!
I like BOL's nearer warmth to grow crops -- yet safety declines south in US. Thinking AL or MS -- or even lower GA -- but pop density nearer east coast & near northern FL or southern GA sux. So, anyone else think if MS or AL southern latitudes work? Lots of food for thought huh, & major props to ALL on here serious -- re upcoming events more than likely in most our lives to occur.
In SHTF or EMP we're all up creek w/out... but we need pull together, learn from one another & really FOCUS. I heard a pastor say, "yes hard times are coming, yada, yada" -- but hold on a minute -- what are we GONNA do other than keep repeating the same old "hard times are a coming" w/ no offer of REAL solutions.
Many here, I hope, might hookup via this forum & actually do SOMETHING -- other than blather & stlll end up no better than if we'd not talked at all. Ok, oops, rant over; but thx much for all you "societal fringies" aka lunatics -- as they call anyone like us dare thinking to prepare. Ha, wait til TEOTWAWKI hits.
As my fave old commerical says, "Sooner or later you'll own General"!!! LOL The old TIRE commericial of General Tire Corporation, yes ha, showing age. But you rookies, GOOGLE it on youtube -- & sit back 'n then laugh. Hehehee.
You aren't giving us much of a want list. What kind of crops? What else? We don't know exactly what you want so it's a waste of our time to make suggestions, no? MS or AL might work but for what exactly? Do you want to be self-sufficient, or are you just looking for a hole in the ground to hide in with your hoard?
^ My wife and I both liked that area a lot for self-sufficiency but in the end it was the harsh winters that made us cross it off the list. Both of us have arthritis and harsh cold makes mobility much more difficult and painful. It's a good place to consider if you don't have that problem.
The problem with NY is the state government. It is socialist at best. Just the gun laws are enough to kill the area for me, and I think Upstate NY is some of the most beautiful country God ever created. PA is better, but the taxes are prohibitive, and the state is nowhere near as free as many west of the Mississippi. Government has had more time to metastasize in those states than a lot of others...
The problem with NY is the state government. It is socialist at best. Just the gun laws are enough to kill the area for me, and I think Upstate NY is some of the most beautiful country God ever created. PA is better, but the taxes are prohibitive, and the state is nowhere near as free as many west of the Mississippi. Government has had more time to metastasize in those states than a lot of others...
The problem with NY is the state government. It is socialist at best. Just the gun laws are enough to kill the area for me, and I think Upstate NY is some of the most beautiful country God ever created. PA is better, but the taxes are prohibitive, and the state is nowhere near as free as many west of the Mississippi. Government has had more time to metastasize in those states than a lot of others...
Oh, I know and that was a huge deterrent. I was speaking more of the natural resources for self-sufficiency purposes. We ended up in a red state.
No perfect place - ain't that the truth. No place comes close to perfection as far as I'm concerned. I just like to reduce as many of the known risks as I can, stack the odds in my favor. You grew up in Montana so I imagine that self-sufficiency in those conditions is second nature to you.
Yeah, I really don't know any other way. I've always lived where the long summer days are a blur of trying to get ready for winter, winter is a long dark cold time where you hope your supplies hold out until the Chinook.
Doing with little water, tainted water, hauling water, trying to thaw water or chop waterholes in the ice, fighting the muck and mud in the spring trying to keep stock alive through winter blasts that always seem to come when you're calving or lambing, cutting enough wood to get through up to 8 months of cold, sometimes in winter it seems that your life revolves around that woodstove either feeding it or hauling in wood for it.
Haying, feeding, fixing fences, fighting predators, mucking out corrals and barns, irrigating, fighting heat and trying not to start fires with your equipment, trying to breathe through the smoke of the wildfires someone else started, it's just the way it is here.
Usually, the growing season between killing frosts is only about 90 days, so planting, caring for harvesting and storing your garden produce means long days and short nights.
If it wasn't for the livestock, the wild game and wild edibles you can harvest, it would be tough to produce enough to get through the cold months, so our diet is heavy on the meats because that's available all year round.
For folks coming from a more temperate climate with long growing seasons where you can grow a lot of food in the garden, it's a real change up.
In mid-winter when the seed catalogs start coming, it's easy to dream of places where you can plant earlier than the end of May because you're waiting for the frost to get out of the ground, and grow plants that need longer growing seasons like melons, but then the Chinook comes through, the temps come up from below zero, the snow melts, the hills turn gloriously green, and it feels good that you're tough enough to survive in this hard place, and make it your own and be self sufficient in Montana.
Last edited by MTSilvertip; 03-07-2017 at 02:20 PM..
....but then the Chinook comes through, the temps come up from below zero, the snow melts, the hills turn gloriously green, and it feels good that you're tough enough to survive in this hard place, and make it your own and be self sufficient in Montana.
Makes northern Maine feel like a tropical paradise!
Ya'll are making me feel guilty for having tomato plants that survive for 9 months and give three rounds of fruit!
Not to mention arugula that is inexplicably 3 years old and still giving us salad greens...
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That was a big factor in our decision to buy property there!
The old TIRE commericial of General Tire Corporation, yes ha, showing age. But you rookies, GOOGLE it on youtube -- & sit back 'n then laugh. Hehehee. 
