I bought the Joel Skousen book and DVD, "Strategic Relocation" several years ago when it first came out. There's a lot of valuable information in it. Using the nuclear fallout maps and other info in the book, and info I researched, I selected my location. In the areas of networking, meeting people, and identifying like-minded folks up here, I haven't been as successful as I've hoped. I did go to a community meeting about the fires in our area, and was able to network and gain some valuable information, and not just about the fires, but local comms as well.

You can buy all the books you want, and spend thousands of hours watching videos on how to accomplish many of the things you will need to get done to make your strategic relocation successful, but if you think you can do it all alone, then you are setting your self up for failure, or rather frustratingly delayed success. I've made great progress on energy production and I have a really kick ass solar setup, and am currently adding wind as well, because I learned the hard way last winter that solar alone will not cut it in my area. Things are looking up now though that my ability to produce power will be a year round capability, and probably without the need to fire up a generator. There's a lot to consider, like what kind of batteries you are going to use if your climate is really cold in the winter, insulating your battery box, if your cabin is on post and beam and the underside is open air then you'll need to enclose that off and insulate it, etc. Are your water lines exposed or in the insulated floor? Wrapped in foam insulation? Are they PVC? If so, are you replacing them with Pex? If you are building your place from scratch, great! You can avoid a lot of these kinds of pit falls. If you bought a piece of property with a cabin and are inheriting flaws built into it because the previous owners were only planning on using it in the summer, then you have your work cut out for you. For me, I think the most difficult obstacle is keeping the water from freezing in the winter. My water is spring fed, into a cistern, and my place is on a solid rock on a mountain up some steep brutal terrain. Burying the water lines and cistern is not feasible. At best I might be able to hire a heavy equipment operator to come in and use a hydraulic hammer, or hire a company to come in and use dynamite, but it's going to be very costly either way. It needs to be done, but I can't afford it, yet.

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Which leads me to the issue of income while we still have rule of law and a functioning society. There's property taxes, vehicle tabs, vehicle insurance, home owners insurance, and if you live in a climate where growing food year round is not feasible, then you are still going to have some food costs, even if you have chickens, goats, rabbits, hunt, etc., plus the cost of chicken feed, hay, and don't forget your phone bill, internet bill, medical insurance, medications, propane, gas, etc. Do you get a lot of snow? Then you'll need a way to plow it. Do you have a private road? Then you will have to pay to fix it when the road washes out in the spring, (last 2 springs have had costly and devastating affects on my roads. This prevented me from getting materials delivered for many months because the roads have to dry out before the construction company can fix them or their equipment and trucks will sink, go over a cliff, or break.)

My point is under rule of law in a functioning society, you are still going to have bills, and therefore need an income. If you have already made your money, and are retired and getting dividends off of your 401k or IRA, or have a bunch of money and metals saved up, great! If you are on a fixed income, social security, it's going to be rough, but doable to maintain this lifestyle. It's the initial costs of getting setup that will be hard. There's a few old people up where I am who live here year round successfully, and I've been fortunate enough to gain some pearls of wisdom from them on occasion. As for me, I'm still of working age, I made it as far as I could on my own in developing my retreat location, but now my money is gone and I'm going back to work. Since there is no work here, that means I'm going back into the metropolitan rat race human jungle so I can make really good money in the aviation industry where I came from, and use that money to complete the things I could not get done. My experience has not been a failure, but the fact is it's going to take more money and resources in order to make this a successfully functioning year round retreat location. I did not have the support of friends and family in this endeavor. It had a major negative impact. If you try this, and I hope that you do, I pray you have the support of your friends and family and are not going it alone. It's very rewarding when you accomplish something as cool as building a sweet solar array, but it also sucks when you need help with something that takes 2 or more people, and since you don't have help, are now at a standstill. Good luck!