Anyone with a reasonable amount of awareness of the Y2K issue has heard of most of the bad consequences that are talked about as being likely to occur at the end of 1999. These include the following:

1) Failure or unreliability of public utilities, including electricity, municipal water, natural gas, telephone service, and cable television.

2) Shutdowns in or slower/rationed availability of material transport such as letter and package delivery, trucking, railroads, water transport, etc. 3) Failure of many devices, from home appliances to motorized vehicles and machines that are essential to continued operation of production plants.

4) Shortages of food, medicine, fuel of all kinds, and other items normally available in stores.

5) Government actions that will be disliked by many, from martial law and food seizures to forced relocation of urban/suburban families to shelters.

6) Shutdowns of banks/credit unions, failure of pension/government/welfare checks to arrive.

7) Many employers laying off staff, reducing hours or pay rates, or shutting down altogether.

8) Tremendous increase in social unrest, with robbery, arson, and violence against persons all becoming very widespread especially in urban areas, but much more common in suburban areas as well.

9) Possible meltdowns (like Chernobyl) of some of the 103 nuclear power plants in the U.S., or of some of the over 300 more elsewhere in the world, mostly located relatively close to populated areas.

10) Cascading or "chain-reaction" effects from one type of problem making other problems harder and slower to repair, possibly making a return to normal living conditions take years.

If you do not believe there is a significant possibility of at least some of the above events coming to pass, please consider investigating these books and websites and (quickly!) making up your own mind:

The Millennium Bug by Michael Hyatt (1998) TimeBomb2000 by Edward Yourdon - second edition (1999) www.garynorth.com www.yourdon.com www.michaelhyatt.com

For people reading this who are already convinced that Y2K has a nontrivial probability of bringing on some or many of the above conditions, you probably are concerned about doing what you can to reduce their effects. Many people with the same opinion about Y2K as you are storing up food, buying alternate sources of heat/light, and so on. However, if looting, violence, or fires reach the dwelling where your family is living next year, or you are forced to leave it for any reason, all such preparation may have been in vain. This is widely considered to be a great risk in the cities, somewhat less so in the suburbs or medium-sized towns, and hardly at all in the most rural areas. Clearly, moving to the country is a basic part of taking prudent, "just-in-case" precautions to safeguard your family. Even if you think that Y2K has, say, only a 15% chance of making things as bad in the more populated areas as the list above would mean (if it came true), do you want to take that kind of risk with the lives of your family? 15% is about the same chance that Russian Roulette has of going wrong. Don't play Russian Roulette with your family. Instead of the year 2000 possibly finding your family and your home to be in the middle of all the problems spelled out in the list above, imagine a different scenario... It's early 2000. You sit for a moment and ponder how this Y2K computer thing is really turning out. Several months before the end of 1999, you finally got a little curious about this topic that always seemed to keep coming up in the papers and on TV, despite all the government and corporate leaders saying over and over that it was fixed, or would be soon. You read enough about it on the Internet to realize that if this Y2K business is at all on the level, that it could be really serious business, like the way living in the middle of a war zone must be like for the people you always see on the TV news. You then figured that if there was any chance that Y2K was actually going to be like the people on the Internet said, that you were going to have your family moved out to the country before it hit, just in case. After all, if nothing much had actually happened, all you did was trade living in an expensive house in a noisy city that was getting on your nerves more and more, for an inexpensive vacation house out in the peaceful beautiful countryside, where you'd always really wanted to live anyway. Trading traffic jams for seeing a doe and her fawn 10' from your front porch just after sunrise one morning didn't seem like a particularly bad deal.

However, this Y2K business did turn out to be something serious after all. Your radio doesn't pick up but a couple of stations now, and either they go on and on about how nothing works anymore, and the terrible things happening in the cities, or they just play old music, but never say what is going on. Although you think that is too bad, you reflect on how your family sits. You have firewood stacked for the whole winter, with your own water well to give you cold clear drinking water just outside the front door of your house. There are rows and rows of canned goods sitting on the shelves in the room next to the kitchen, and instant food mixes of lots of things you like fill the boxes next to them. Two of your children are working together on a jigsaw puzzle in front of the fireplace, while your wife cradles your youngest and reads a book to her by the light of a kerosene lamp, just the way your grandmother did for your father when he was little. The smell of fresh-baked bread is starting to fill the kitchen from the loaves your wife put in the oven just a little while ago. You go outside for a few minutes once again to enjoy the sight of the thousands of stars in the sky that only people in the country get to see, with not a single sound but the soft whisper of the wind in the trees to distract you. You think, this is not a bad place to stay and get to know my family again, while waiting for the world to stop being insane. Best of all, you know you didn't take any chances with the safety of your family when a possible serious danger threatened, and you feel better about yourself than you have in a long, long time.

Finding a good place to move to that is truly in the country is not necessarily easy or inexpensive. There is also the issue of time (1999 is almost over), knowing what to do, and finding sources of the products and services you will need to quickly make a rural location livable. Fortunately, there is a place that has all of those concerns solved, if you move quickly enough. There is a family in NE Minnesota that has perfectly suitable plots of land for sale, in an area that is an excellent location to live even if conditions in society deteriorate completely. They have been living in that area for a long time, perhaps 20 years, and understand very well what the issues are about living there. They will happily help you with the major issues of making a place suitable to live, from knowing someone who can quickly drill a water well to clearing a driveway for you. I have been up there and have seen for myself what they have accomplished, what kind of people they are, what their property is like, and how very suitable the area would be for safeguarding your family during the coming uncertainities. They have a website for people who wish to learn more about what they have to offer:

http://www.shilhavy.com/godswilderness

They are entirely too modest about what a wonderful area their land for sale is in. There are plots available there that range in size from 20 acres to 1000 acres. As mentioned earlier, I have visited their property, and this is what they have:

1) Mostly forested land, with birch hardwoods for excellent firewood, and spruce evergreens providing privacy and windbreaking even during winter. 2) Multiple streams criscross the area (including on some of the plots currently for sale), several that have trout in them, and which are probably suitable for placing hydroelectric generating units.

3) Located in the gently hilly Arrowhead region of northeast Minnesota. Most of the plots abut a state or national forest for maximum privacy.

4) Numerous lakes and ponds within a reasonable (usually walking) distance. These hardly-fished lakes have confirmed walleye, Northern pike, and panfish. One has large amounts of perch as well.

5) Property is reached by multiple turns on well-graded (but hardly-marked) logging roads. The owners provide plowing services, using both a large truck and a horse-drawn snowplow. This means that getting to and from towns is not a problem, but privacy/safety prospects are exteremely good.

6) Area has abundant deer, and moose, bear, and beaver are seen here as well.

7) Is very comfortably cool during summer, due to the elevation, being in a forest, and cooling breezes coming from Lake Superior less than 40 miles distant.

8) Has excellent-quality groundwater, easily reached by inexpensive wells that are shallow enough for hand pumps to work.

9) The soil appears to be a dark mixed glacial till, quite suitable for gardens and pasturing animals such as horses, cows, goats, etc. Multiple drained beaver ponds offer some especially fertile land for gardening.

10) Cold winters and moderate snowfall level make trespassing by people from cities very improbable (if things do indeed get bad).

11) In normal times, area is nearly as convenient as Duluth to the Lutsen ski resort and to the innumerable cross-country-skiing and snowmobiling trails in that area. Area is not far at all (significantly closer than Duluth) from the famed Boundary Waters canoe wilderness area.

If there is any chance you may want a safe place for your family for next year, or even if you are just looking for a very desirable vacation property in the country that is a good value, consider talking to the Heckers about the land they have for sale. It may be the best decision you have made in a long time.

-- Alreadymoved, or I'd jump on this (dwhnjh@lakenet.com), November 01, 1999

Answers

Uffda! Who wants to move to a -40deg neighborhood when there is no fuel. And folks, don't forget that skeeters are the state bird, hey?

-- (thinkin@itover.NOT), November 01, 1999.

This place sounds like heaven on earth. I'd be there in a heartbeat if I only could. It is certainly something I will pray about for the future. Right now God has us stuck in the city. So, we're praying for His protection because the safest place is in His will. Thank you for sharing this info. You are so kind. Please pray for us and all the people who are unable to move to a rural lifestyle. We are preparing the best we can. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- IreneHZ (KE1981@AOL.com), November 02, 1999.

I would think that it would be impossible to sell and buy at this time not to mention a house maybe handy to live in. Oh and a wood stove for the house. Possibly a chainsaw and a snowmobile, diesel Genset, few 45s of fuel.

Mind you the fishing would be choice. Pickerel *YUM* (walleye)

-- Brian (imager@home.com), November 02, 1999.

thinking, how can you say there is no fuel there?!? The place is in the middle of a (mostly hardwood) forest! I guess since Phoenix or Las Vegas are so much better-off in this regard, they're the type of place to be when rollover hits. (Like L.A., they have great prospects for water supply in 2000 - NOT!) As far as the mosquitos go, for at least half the year there are effectively NO insects in Minnesota. Just the way it is in Florida, yes? Also, the cold climate is not what you think it is. The average high in January is something like 20 degrees in Minneapolis; the below-zero stuff is not really common. Besides, the cold temps (compared to the South) when Y2K hits are actually an advantage if you live in a rural area; robbers don't want to walk miles outside in cold temps. Then there's the summer vs. winter comfort situation; in a lower-tech world, you can heat all you want with a wood stove, but AC is going to be a problem; think of the Deep South with no AC from March to Thanksgiving next year, if that's the way it pans out. Yuck!

Brian, the whole point to this post is that there IS time (barely) to get situated up there before Y2K hits; the owners will do lots of stuff to grease the skids for helping anyone who buys land from them in getting set up. Besides, the word is increasingly that not everything will go to pieces immediately when the 1st day of 2000 hits. You may have weeks or even a month or so into 2000 before TSHTF. Whether or not you and your family make wise use of the time (to do your preps, which ideally include getting out of the city) is up to you. Hope that your choices do work out well for you and yours.

-- Already moved, or I'd jump on this (dwhnjh@lakenet.com), November 02, 1999.

Alreadymoved, how much do you REALLY want for this land?

Al K

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), November 03, 1999.

Al K., I don't get a thing except satisfaction if some people buy some of this land and use it as a safe place to be during the worst part of Y2K. I am a friend (not a close friend) of the owners, and 1) applaud what they are doing (it will save lives), 2) think that their prices are a good deal for even a Y2K=BITR scenario, and priceless in a TEOTWAKI, and 3) want to help them out a bit while helping fellow GIs who (unlike me) are still in the cities.

Finding an acceptable bugout location is not easy; from personal experience, I can tell you that "rural" housing is usually in a town or suburb, with lots of (potential looter) neighbors within sight. This area really could do very nicely for someone wanting to "get out from under" before Y2K descends on us full-force. It's free info; if you might need it, check it out.

I wish I had found out about this before I settled on the place I did get to bunker during next year; it will do fine, but the Heckers live in the Midwest's version of paradise if you ask me. (I've seen it, remember.)

-- Alreadymoved, or I'd jump on this (dwhnjh@lakenet.com), November 04, 1999.