Just moved down here (Mesa, AZ) from Seattle (rather Northeast Tacoma – but Pacific Northwest, nonetheless).  Wanted to say your article was spot on.

When I arrived here in July, I had to keep oven mitts in my car just so I could turn the ignition without buring my fingers.

Many Thanks!

Garth Stewart

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Claire:

I just finished reading your piece on moving and adapting to the desert. Absolutely fascinating, I must say.

I’ve been a southeastern dweller for most of my life, and I’m used to plentiful water, living in a rainy place and at the edge of a large river/lake. Since I live very simply, power isn’t much of an issue, except loosing a pound or two of frozen foods. I pretty much get along with one light bulb, in whatever room I happen to be.

Your thoughts on life in the dry, severe climate of the desert are, as I said, fascinating. I’m seeing the link to more of your writings, and I’m thinking I’m going to have to clear my (very vacant) social calendar for a month or so to read and appreciate your work. Some of the titles are very enticing!!!

I have to say one thing about the life-and-death issue. It happens here, in Tennessee, also. My 30+ year career as and RN is over, but I still see and hear about it. Granted, we don’t have to confront raw, and sometimes hostile, nature as you might. Maybe we should??? I can hear what I think are coyotes barking in the hills, sometimes. Would love to have one visit my front yard under a full moon someday.

Since my kids were very young, I haven’t seen a sky like the one you described. I envy you the chance to do that daily. When I ask my youngsters if they remember what the Milky Way looks like, they just cock their heads and say—”Well…Yeah…I think so”. We used to take blankets to the yard and stargaze for hours. I’m 65 now and, although in pretty good health, I worry that I won’t really see the stars again—at least from this part of the country. One of the items on my “to do before you die” list is to head far west, to the high desert, and spend a month just looking at the night sky. Maybe take a bunch of pics to share with friends who have not a clue of what a sky like that can be. Maybe use my nursing skills as a volunteer on a reservation at or near the Four Corners region.

The piece I just read sounded like your relocation was, maybe, stressful. I’ve always felt that when a door slams shut, another opens. The story of my life, at least—haha. Hope your transition has proven educational and beneficial.

Looking forward to more of your writings. Thanks!!!

Bill Byford

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Dear Claire,

A professor of economics asked what happens under certain economic and social conditions.

I said  revolution!!

He said poor people never revolt. The middle class leads revolutions.

Thus we see why, having dumbed down the last two or three generations, the powers that be are entering into the next phase of destruction–impoverishment.

A hungry and uninformed people, whose medicines and other necessities are being held hostage, cannot revolt.

Note that the necessities are very little produced in North America anymore and so are unobtainable.

Enjoy your writing.

God’s protection on you.

Sincerely,

Deborah Harvey

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I loved your article in the latest BHM. I can sympathize with your recent move.

I myself moved several years ago from Orange County, California to Moab, Utah. Though I don’t regret it all, even though I went through a good deal of culture shock and awkward acclimatization as well.

I’d love to see you write more articles on self-reliant living in the high desert. Most of the BHM staff has (understandably) a northwestern climate slant on the tips and advice they proffer.

I hope you come to love 300 plus of full sun a year. I think it makes winter more bearable even if it never gets above freezing.

Keep the Faith!

Ardell Hollobaugh

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Ms. Wolfe,

You’ve touched on a topic that I’ve thought about time and again. Speaking with liberty minded friends I’ve said that the only places left are Space and some area in the Antarctic! And the statists are doing their damnedest to cut off the last option. Think about it. On our planet we have nations laying claim to territory they don’t even tread upon yet they say its “theirs”. What kind of Imperialistic, cockeyed, brain damaged reasoning is that?

I also had to laugh when you used the word “criminals” in how some folks, albeit brainwashed statists, describe the odd balls who don’t fit their tiny mold. Yes, some can certainly be considered criminals by any set of standards, and yet I’m left scratching my head knowing full well that the definition itself, as used by government and its boot licking minions, is corrupt. They see every problem as a nail to be beat down with its “authoritative” hammer. Which is to say that you’re to shut the hell up and do as you’re told while forking over dough with a gun pointed to your head. That kind of “freedom” and “order” I can live without.

With regards to the last great frontier we have NASA endlessly sucking tax dollars to beat down ones hope that anything will ever be accomplished in our lifetime. This isn’t by accident but by design. When you have people being paid to “produce” nothing what incentive is there? It reminds me of that movie “The Truman Show” where the lead character, when he’s young, has this burning desire to discover the world while his controlled life (just like governments everywhere) seeks to discourage any such notions so that it can financially benefit off of his existence and share in some sick pleasure in playing the part of God while manipulating him.

I’ve also said to my friends that the only reason people in America managed to find any “freedom” at all was because it was too far away and too expensive for the powers that be to reign them in. It also didn’t hurt that they had enough weapons to reinforce that fact. Sadly these founders pulled the same stunts on their newly minted citizens that they wailed and bemoaned about their British brethren. They made it illegal to do what they just finished doing. How very hypocritically convenient!

Escaping this planet is mankind’s last chance, short of global revolution, of fleeing from these rat bastards. So lets encourage a search for alternate energy and a way to flee so that all “criminals” such as ourselves can forever be paroled from this present Earth. Time to leave the nest.

David

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Dear Ms. Wolfe,

Thank you for writing your wonderful article Learning To Love The High Desert in this month’s issue of Backwoods Home Magazine (Issue #120). Good work – and welcome to the only culture on Earth that you can join simply by proving that you can join it! You are now a Desert Rat, and there really is no going back. Be warned: even if you leave physically, you will never be able to leave in spirit. You will pine in your soul for the vast, lonely spaces of the High Desert until, like an irresistible magnet, it draws you back into its depths.

There are a few things you should know, however. Perhaps you already know them. I rather think you do. If not, please allow me the presumptuousness of being the one to tell you about them, as certain concepts will be of great comfort to you in your new life as a Desert Rat.

In the desert you really can put lipstick on a pig. By which I mean a doublewide doesn’t have to stay a doublewide for very long. Mine started out as a battered castoff that I bought for $1500 in Reno, then had moved to my ranch for another $1000. I gutted it, painted it, re-floored it, and built a mudroom/ porch along the front of it. I added a wood-burning stove, a swamp cooler, spinning vents, and propane heating (well, propane everything, to be honest). Now my wife, child, and our various pets live quite comfortably inside. It’s truly ours in every way, and I love it infinitely more than the home we used to have in San Francisco.

Don’t sweat not having a “stick home.” You can always do the same.

Off-grid power is a journey, not a destination. You will go though “phases” with your off-grid power project as you experiment with various things. It’s a never-ending attempt to figure out what works for you which changes as new technology comes along or you scrape together more cash. I use a combination of solar panels, windmills, and generators myself. My inverter/battery bank setup is a pretty simple one… too simple, to be honest. So that will probably be the next stop of my journey: buying/begging/trading for a more sophisticated system. You folks will go through your own phases as well.

A practical suggestion: new tech makes old tech a lot cheaper. My three Air-X windmills are pretty lame when compared to the nifty new wind spires that are now on the market. They were also one tenth of the price, and work quite well.

The winter will tell you a lot. Actually, it will tell you whether or not you are truly a Desert Rat. A true Desert Rat takes perverse pleasure in the Siberia-like winters of the Inner Mountain West. It separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls. It makes the tourists go away. It cleanses the dusty land. It is starkly, harshly beautiful as well.

It also freezes pipes and 55-gallon drums solid. So consider moving the barrels from that picture on page 81 inside for the winter and make sure your pipes are buried as far down as possible. Or you could do what we do: use easily defrosted hoses instead of pipes. And, while we’re on the subject of water, consider a filtration system for your well instead of hauling water in. A simple but effective one can be made out a 55-gallon drum, clean sand, and crushed charcoal.

You are now truly free. The very lines that provided your old home with power were also designed to hold you down. Living in the desert can be a delightful exercise in severing the lines that tie you to The System (Any system, really. Take your pick.). Your fellow citizens can be easily controlled by their dependency on the power grid, sewer system, water lines, grocery stores, and even gun stores. Your decision to walk away from these things and to recreate the basic structures of society on your own is the only revolution that is now genuinely practical: if the collective cannot control the means of distribution to the individual, the collective cannot control the individual.

Of course, like off-grid power this is a journey, not a destination.

In conclusion, I hope you enjoy your new lifestyle. I know I enjoy mine, and do not miss my old life as a San Franciscan. If you give the desert a chance you will not miss Oregon (though you may miss friends and family, of course). And remember this always: the lower the population density, the greater the personal freedom.

Sincerely,

Jason S. Walters

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Thank you for your article.

I’m afraid that we are in for some hard times.  We have to be prepared to protect our families and homes.

Randolph
North Carolina

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Hola Claire,

Excellent article. Although I can’t imagine living on Mars or anyother similiar planet, I will cut to the chase.

I have been one of the social outcasts since kindergarden. Did the drug thing in the sixties, lived for three years in a Christian commune, was a prision guard for 18 years etc.

Because I don’t buy into the Christian political right and all that that entails I don’t fit in with my “brothers”. I now know that there is NO political or human solution for mankind. For me, as a Christian, there is only ONE thing, “Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul. And love your neighbor as yourself”.

I now live to share this simple message with any who will listen. I plan to go to Colombia with my wonderful Colombian wife and do whatever I can to help the most vulnerable and helpless of all Gods people, children.

We wil leave in a few months and I can’t wait to go. God will open the doors that need to be opened to minister to the poorest of the poor.

There is no hope or solution for mankind. Only falling at the feet of Jesus and living only for Him by serving the widows and orphans who have No One to help them.

Institutional Christianity leaves me empty. I leave it for the reality of caring for those who can’t care for themselves. May you rest in His arms and love Him by loving the unlovely.

Hasta luego,

Don

PS: I’m sixty one and ready to goooooo!!!

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[RE: The Importance of Escape -Ed]

Dear Claire,

I wonder what nomenclature you use for the current folks who are entering our country outside our established legal parameters. Probably not “Illegal aliens” which they are, but this modern politically incorrect term does not apply to any Texian colonists.

William B. Travis left South Carolina to avoid a murder indictment. He suspected his wife of infidelity and doubted the child she was carrying was his and killed a man because of it. They were divorced in 1834.

Jim Bowie lawfully entered Texas and became a Mexican citizen for it was worth. He married into a wealthy and established Tejano family in San Antonio.

Davy Crockett arrived during yearly months of the Texas War for Independence.

Texas in 1836 was largely an empty territory without established borders and was claimed, yet not controlled by Mexico, which did not exist as country before 1824. There were large contingents of Native Americans who moved in and out of Texas and held sway over large segments of Texas. The former Spaniards now called Mexicans could do little to stop it.

Do not fall to the disinformation of State historians who denigrate bold men with modern terms they deem inappropriate in today’s fight over illegal immigration.

Bryan Fox
Houston, Texas

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Hello Ms Wolfe

Thanks very much for this article.

I have been saying the same thing for years to anyone who would listen.

That includes several local (Houston, TX) science fiction discussion groups
and local political groups.

I got grudgingly semi-favorable comments, but that’s about all.

You’ve given me a little more ammunition.

I’d like to see some website(s) dedicated to this idea.

Thanks again,

John Westerlage

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