reasons for moving to country??

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My husband and I are preparing for Y2K. We live in a nice home in a suburb of Phoenix that is paid for. We have a cabin in the northern area of Arizona. Why is MOVING advocated? is it becaue riots would make the suburbs dangerous? If I keep my food storage and water etc. and all my preparation here in the valley, wouldn't it be safer to stay put? Up North, the climate can be cold in January/February. Here in the valley, it is mild. Should I be moving my preparedness to the house up Noreth.. it is a small community, not many resources.. will it be safe to stay in our suburb? We are about 15 miles from the city itself.

If I leave my home here, might it not be looted/robbed? This is a tough decision.. I am afraid to abandon my home.. to go stay in a colder, remote village in the north, but maybe we should be looking at that? I need to make preparation right away if we are changing our plan. Any advice??? Prepare HERE or be ready to move THERE??

-- Madeleine Hill (madsmailbox@yahoo.com), January 25, 1999

Answers

I would use the place in the country as my fall-back position. Have it well stocked and ready to go come Oct-Dec. If things begin to crumble around that time, your very survival may depend on moving up there and, by that time, you won't be so torn between your physical safety and your physical possessions.

-- Dr. Roger Altman (rogaltman@aol.com), January 25, 1999.

Good luck getting up 17 after 1/1/2000. You think the traffic is bad on Fridays, think about thousands of cars trying to beat a path out of the Valley. Two or three good accidents and 17 is shut down, that is if the National Guard hasn't closed it already. Get your food, water and guns up here. Your cabin should have a wood stove, if it doesn't buy one. Buy an axe, chainsaw or three cords of firewood, now. Make sure your homeowners insurance is paid on your valley home, if they break in or burn it down your insured. 2 million hungery people or remote cabin in the "cold" north woods? Come on.

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), January 25, 1999.

Insurance policies usually exclude coverage for property damage or loss of life resulting from acts of war or public insurrection.

Riders for specific coverages can be added ----- for a price.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), January 25, 1999.


Any way you can purchase or rent a trailer off a semi trailer truck and put it on your property? You can move some of your most valuable pieces of furniture, etc., into your trailer until things improve in the valley. If you board your home up, it may invite looters and squatters. Maybe now is the time to take a big second mortgage out on your home. If everything is a total loss, you will have cash in your pocket to start all over again if your insurance doesn't cover civil disorders. Even if it did, insurance companies would probably go bankrupt and you would still be out. Get to the country late this year. If nothing happens, you can always go back to your home in the city. Good Luck.

-- Bardou (Bardou@baloney.com), January 25, 1999.

You're so fortunate to have that cabin. Wish I had so much. Anyway you at least have some control over your basic survival needs. Sure N.Ariz is cold but lots of solar potential. One PV panel,some batteries, cheapo woodstove{I like barrel stoves}a water source,food and fuel and you're way ahead of the masses. If your land has gardening potential, I'd get a piece of good grade-uv treated plastic and one inch white PVC pipe for making a tunnel geenhouse-could have fresh vegies all winter with such an arrangement. If in doubt keep telling yourself that all these improvements will make your place more valuable even if by some odd chance the worst doesn't happen . Good luck.

-- howie g. (dryfarmer@hotmail.com), January 25, 1999.


if it gets serious your home WILL be looted - the question then becomes whether or not you want to be there when it happens. Distance is a defensive weapon. The harder it is for people to get to you - the further, and more difficult the road to your cabin - the less likely you are to see unwanted and uninvited guests.

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), January 25, 1999.


Reasons for moving to the country...

If you can recall the Depression, remember that people from the country who had nothing, moved north and west to the cities. Problems from how that migration and it's social effect are still vibrating through this country. Currently in Mexico and China, the enembployed rural population is moving to the cities, searching for help that isn't available in the countryside. Many US "Y2K officials" are openly hinting that the population in the urban areas will get help before the rural areas. Translation: expect the rural unprepared to migrate to the cities for hand-outs. And do not overlook the possibility of large numbers of Latin American refugees desparately coming over the border to southwestern US cities in a vain attempt to find opportunities that won't be in their homelands, if Y2K is only a global Depression and not even near TEOTWAWKI or Infomagic's Mad Max World.

In the cases that have occurred (Depression, Mexico and China) there were crime problems with desparate new arrivals. When refugees arrive there are not enough services to help all of them. China has a crime wave and is working hard to control it (and is catching Hell for how they're handling things using Martial law). Mexico City is SO criminally overrun that it isn't safe for local business-owners to be out at night, or for Gringos to be out in the daylight.

For someone living in a major or medium sized city, think of what hungry, desperate people do now. Imagine if their numbers were increased by tenfold while cities going bankrupt cut police forces by half (think Washington, DC today, Detroit in the late Seventies).

Being in an urban area with a refugee-swelled population, with the possibility for reduced police protection and an increased potential for criminal activity (and today that normally means violent criminal activity) when you can be relocated to a rural retreat is not the better of your two alternatives.

And if worst-case scenarios do occur due to Y2K failures, then the numbers of desperate people won't just be refugees, "Everyday" locals who've been thrown out of work and their familiar lives for the first time in their lives will be out there in large numbers and never having faced such a situation, will be the most unpredictable force there.

How many will seek to lash-out because of their losses? You've seen these people at malls and airports, freaking-out because something minor doesn't go right? Give this kind of urban resident something major going wrong and you'll see more people than mailmen "going postal".

Y2K is going to see some unique migrations and standing of ground. In the past, the "smart ones" left the farms and went to the cities and the "clods" stayed on the farm. In the cities the "sharp ones" stayed and the "losers" went to the farms. In a serious Y2K situation it's all going to be reversed. "Losers" will stay in the cities and will be joined by "clods" from the country who will still think that the cities have the better means of survival. Y2K "smart ones" will stay on the farms and make a serious survival bid and will be joined by the "sharp ones" from the cities who want to win at survival by going to where the situation favor being able to support yourself by subsistance farming if the Y2K crisis degrades to that.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 25, 1999.


Madeleine, Congradulations on at least having a cabin in the country. You are indeed lucky to have a GET AWAY place. You have already answered your own questions. You are preparing and you have a cabin that you are thinking about to use. Consider this Y2K situation a 12 month long deserved vacation from the worldly matters that your family have encountered. I have posted my situation on other posts but: Let me say it again, Timing is almost too late for people to move to the country,why ,because 1. You decide to buy some property,filing the paperwork and closing talks 30-60 days. So now we are talking about late March/April 99. 2. Now you need to find a builder to build your escape cabin or home. After you check references you find you need to finalize the deal,another 2-3 weeks. 3.Now we are at beginning of May. You also have to be sure your builder can get all the supplies for building that cabin or 2500 sq ft home. 4. You need to drill a well at $7.00 a ft and the well they drilled was dry, Oooops . 5. Now it's just about late June and you found that the kitchen cabinets will take another 8 weeks for delivery because the maker ran out of wood for the building of the cabinets. 6. Now it's late July and you think your ready to start moving in except the power company hasn't come out to bury the power line to the house Oooops. You can see that what I'm saying is almost correct,and who else out there within this forum is having the same troubles in trying to move to the country??? But you and your Husband are thinking correctly in deciding to relocate to your cabin, good luck ,sorry for saying too much on your post. Furie

-- Furie (furieart@dnet.net), January 25, 1999.

Shamefull comercial post: I have a "listing" for a 1000 sq. ft. cabin/house 2 bed/1 bath on 2.8 acres within 15 miles of Prescott, AZ that a client of mine is selling. It has a good well and septic system and is on a paved road to within 500 yards of the driveway. The asking price is $68K. Nothing too fancy, and there are some other houses in the area. Let me know if you have an interest. Sure beats the city, when the SHTF.

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), January 25, 1999.

15 miles to me isn't far enough away from a big city like Prescott, that's only a 15 minute drive. Furie is correct in saying that it's too late to purchase and build (unless you would consider a manufactured home). My mother just sold her home on a lake, without an agent. She didn't even advertise because there were so many people looking for a Y2K escape. She got her asking price and there was a bidding war with another couple who desperately wanted it. She had it on the market 2 years ago and not one single person looked at it. She's plenty far from town, secluded, propane generator, 3 fireplaces. She's 75 and can't take care of it any longer.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), January 26, 1999.


"big city like Prescott"? Prescott is 35,000 people of which 15,000 are over 60 years old. Not exactly South Central, not exactly the sticks.

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), January 26, 1999.

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