The new gardening and canning book by Jackie Clay is absolutely top-notch!

It’s practical, understandable even by newbies, and very comprehensive.

Thanks SO MUCH!!!

J Millhorn
Plano, Texas

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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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Claire,

I just wanted to THANK YOU for your wonderfully concise article about Preparing for Civil Unrest. I posted and sent the link onto my Facebook page and have already received KUDOS about how well your article was written.

I THANK YOU for the thousands of others that will read it and will be able to better prepare for what is coming.

God bless you and keep you safe!

Cindy Lou in Texas

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I normally don’t do this but, in this instance, am willing to make an exception! This repeating mouse trap is simply genius.

My thanks to the author for sharing it!

Regards,

Steve

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I’m sorta speechless Claire, these are things I have been seeing slowly taking shape over the last few years and I have to agree with you one hundred percent.

Suffice it to say, I intend to survive THAT problem if it arises…I have NO intention of going and looking for trouble, I abhor violence, however, if trouble comes here, to my doorstep, my family and I will survive.  I did NOT spend twenty plus years as a combat instructor in the Marine Corps for nothing.

I hope and pray that we never see it happen, and I mean that with all sincerity, but with the same sincerity, there will be hell to pay if unrest comes out our road.  We live fairly isolated, by mutual choice in East Tennessee, so that helps, and we grow our own food crops and our own meat, and that helps, so I’m HOPING we’re fairly well prepared if the excrement impacts the air flow moving device…

Have a GREAT Day!

John Campbell

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Dear Editor(s)

After listening to a local radio morning show discussion involving the indoctrination of public school children by our latest president I was left feeling drained and disillusioned with the state of our nation. For many years I’ve known something was wrong in America. I was raised as many of us were. Watching the glorious feats of the one off free nation that never was before and always would be.

I was positive of the greatness of a nation. As I have grown older, learned, read, thought and seen; There is something wrong with our system. I grew up extremely poor, impoverished even. Many nights we went without food, in these United States. Even so, I had faith in the natural rights granted to Americans. Slowly though, it waned as the youthful imaginings were jolted by the brutal realities of our situation.

Needless to say, it is an illusion. So many times in my life I have been presented the opportunity to “Do the right thing,” And, have. I have been honest johnny, I have been even Stephen. I have worked and paid and fought to be a good person. Literally from the depths of homelessness, I have rebuilt my life. I have worked any honest job a man can work and I have not tasted that forbidden fruit. Yet, I am at best lower-middle class. I manage paycheck to paycheck and work like that simpleton on a treadmill chasing the pot of gold that never comes.

Now, beyond those physical labor and minimum wage pains, I am still in the cogs of a giant machine turning with absolute [intent] to enslave. I am angry and irrational, often blaming politicians and the idiocy of my fellow citizens. Sure, I’ve learned to play within the rules. I’ve managed to color within the lines and “Yes’sa,” “No’sa” through a corporate society. For a kid who grew up in Los Angeles dirt poor and never finished High School, I am through pain and persistence struggling upward.

But, it still lingers, that knowing, that understanding of the absolute obscured nature of my goals. The distaste of the sweet fruit of life in the eyes of the greater picture. When I see a man on television proclaiming he will be different, crested by his brilliant star spangled button, I taste that concoction of poison drenched in sugar. And still, I blame politicians, shadow masters with unlimited power, time, influence and money. I am apathetic in the hopelessness. That is, until I searched Google for the only thing I could think to call this situation: “The American Dictatorship.”

On this search I came across your article: The coming American dictatorship – Article by John Silveira from Issue #66. [Editor's Note: See also The Coming American Dictatorship, Part XI and The Coming American Dictatorship Parts I - XI]

How apt, succinct, honest and sad I found it. The eloquence of the piece was quite frankly refreshing, disheartening and alarming. I know that is a rather odd compliment, but, I assure you it is true. This article struck a nerve of unwavering truth. And so, I have written you to thank you for stating it as such. Also, to let you know, despite my apathy in regards to our system and the extreme disbelief in any real, meaningful change in our country. I will try, honestly try to be “The people” again. I will not let the feeling of utter helplessness against the idiocy of my peers and the massive size of the machine prevent me from getting started. If you can write, I can write and call and sing and kick and scream and no longer be a bystander to the rape of the inherent rights of humans.

I would also like to point out that I have loathed the loud mouthed opinionated political persons and as such, it will be difficult for me to begin on this path, however, it must be done. I thank you.

Sincerely,

Isaac N. Acuna

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