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James Wesley Rawles followers grow in NW USA

The Economist newspaper ran the foilowing report on the growth of survivalism in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana:

A movement of staunch conservatives and doomsday-watchers to the inland north-west is quietly gaining steam

ASKED by an out-of-stater where the nearest shooting range is, Patrick Leavitt, an affable gunsmith at Riverman Gun Works in Coeur d’Alene, says: “This is Idaho–you can shoot pretty much anywhere away from buildings.” That is one reason why the sparsely populated state is attracting a growing number of “political refugees” keen to slip free from bureaucrats in America’s liberal states, says James Wesley, Rawles (yes, with a comma), an author of bestselling survivalist novels. In a widely read manifesto posted in 2011 on his survivalblog.com, Mr Rawles, a former army intelligence officer, urged libertarian-leaning Christians and Jews to move to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and a strip of eastern Oregon and Washington states, a haven he called the “American Redoubt”.

Thousands of families have answered the call, moving to what Mr Rawles calls America’s last big frontier and most easily defendable terrain. Were hordes of thirsty, hungry, panicked Americans to stream out of cities after, say, the collapse of the national grid, few looters would reach the mostly mountainous, forested and, in winter, bitterly cold Redoubt. Big cities are too far away. But the movement is driven by more than doomsday “redoubters”, eager to homestead on land with lots of water, fish, and big game nearby. The idea is also to bring in enough strongly conservative voters to keep out the regulatory creep smothering liberty in places like California, a state many redoubters disdainfully refer to as “the C-word”.

Estimates of the numbers moving into the Redoubt are sketchy, partly because many seek a low profile. Mr Rawles himself will not reveal which state he chose, not wanting to be overrun when “everything hits the fan”. But Chris Walsh of Revolutionary Realty says growing demand has turned into such a “massive upwelling” that he now sells about 140 properties a year in the north-western part of the Redoubt, its heart. To manage, Mr Walsh, a pilot, keeps several vehicles at landing strips to which he flies clients from his base near Coeur d’Alene.

Many seek properties served not with municipal water but with a well or stream, ideally both, just in case. More than nine out of every ten Revolutionary Realty clients either buy a home off the grid or plan to sever the connection and instead use firewood, propane and solar panels, often storing the photovoltaic power in big forklift batteries bought second-hand. They also plan to educate their children at home. The remoter land preferred by lots of “off-the-gridders” is often cheap. Revolutionary Realty sells sizeable plots for as little as $30,000. After that, settlers can mostly build as they please.

Lance Etche, a Floridian, recently moved his family into the Redoubt after the writings of …

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Hispanic

Abuso fuera de la red

La historia impactante de Tara Westover, que cuenta en su libro de memorias recientemente publicado ‘Educated’ arroja una sombra inmerecida sobre las familias fuera de la red y sus formas de vida. El abuso fuera de la red no es la norma.

Tara llegó muy lejos de crecer en una montaña en Idaho con su familia radical de supervivientes mormones para estudiar en la Universidad de Cambridge y escribir un libro que seguramente va a hacer olas. Solo la historia de que la envíen a trabajar en un basurero es una lectura aterradora. Pero también hubo compensaciones.
“Hay un sentido de soberanía que proviene de la vida en una montaña. Se calma con su propia magnitud, lo que hace que lo meramente humano no tenga consecuencias “, dice Westover mientras describe su antiguo hogar en el libro.
DESDE LAS MONTAÑAS DE IDAHO A CAMBRIDGE UNI, REINO UNIDO.
Young Tara sufrió graves abusos emocionales y físicos por parte de miembros de su familia y no tuvo acceso a atención médica o educación superior durante la mayor parte de su vida. “Todo abuso es ante todo un asalto a la mente”, afirma Westover.

Si bien esta historia es desgarradora, es una pena que pueda dar al estilo de vida alternativo de estar fuera de la red una reputación negativa. Vivir en una comunidad remota y autosostenida puede ser una experiencia maravillosa, incluso para las familias.
Personalmente, creo que a los niños se les deben dar las mismas oportunidades cuando se trata de educación o de ir a la universidad y se les debe dar la opción de si quieren pasar sus vidas viviendo fuera de la red o no. El problema en el caso de Tara, al parecer, es que sus padres estaban muy ansiosos y paranoicos sobre el “mundo exterior” (Westover no tenía certificado de nacimiento durante 9 años, le dijeron que durmiera con un cuchillo y ella y sus hermanos no t atención médica cuando se lesiona).

No hay excusa para que los padres abusen de sus hijos de ninguna manera, y aunque no creo que vivir fuera de la red haya conducido a ese tipo de comportamiento, ciertamente lo hace más fácil de ocultar.
Creo que es crucial estar siempre abierto al criar a los hijos y mostrarles y enseñarles tanto como sea posible, para permitirles descubrir qué es lo correcto y bueno para ellos, y darles la opción de establecer metas y seguir su camino deseado. en la vida, incluso si es algo con lo que los padres no están de acuerdo.
Los padres de Tara supuestamente no dieron aquí esas opciones y trataron de alejarla de la sociedad tanto como fuera posible mientras la limitaban física y mentalmente durante muchos años.
La autora ha dado pasos impresionantes para llegar a donde está hoy y estoy muy emocionada de leer ‘Educado’ y obtener más información sobre su punto …

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The Star Wranglerstars sad to be on the grid
Community

YouTube’s off-grid stars….. go on the grid

Working almost non-stop as young professionals, they knew something was missing.

“We were both working a lot of hours – 80 hours per week — eating out three meals a day, coming home to a dark house,” says Cody, one of the stars of the Wranglerstar You Tube channel. “Everyone you meet says, ‘Oh, you guys have it made. You’re making so much money. You’re building these careers.’ But we didn’t really like it. We didn’t get to spend any time together.”

That’s when his wife, Jessica, learned through a Bible study about a couple who had moved to Montana, dropped off the electrical grid and created a new life.

“It was just happen-chance they were speaking in town,” Cody says. “We met them and they invited us to spend a weekend with them in Montana. On the drive home, we decided to do this. We put our house up for sale when we got home.”

What has followed is the creation of the You Tube channel where the couple and their son, Jack, share their story about modern homesteading. Despite putting a part of their lives out on the Internet, the couple prefers to maintain their privacy and asked that their last name not be used in this story.

Jessica also has written a book. They’ll hold a book signing from 4-6 p.m. Friday at Yankee Peddler West in downtown Fremont.

The You Tube channel started out as a hobby. But it’s grown into much more. It now has nearly 271,000 subscribers and the videos have been several million times.

And it has become a way to help support their lives.

“When we made that decision, no one was making money on You Tube. It was done as a hobby,” Cody says. “I remember when we got our first check from You Tube. It was $100 or something. I thought, ‘This isn’t real. This is never going to cash.’ … That really changed my way to thinking.

“I think she was really annoyed from my You Tube videos. I think probably she thought it was taking away from a real job. But I really started to realize we could do this, we could make a living at this.”

It is more than they anticipated, Jessica says.

“The subscribers want to watch daily,” she says. “It’s definitely more work than we anticipated.”

Still, they are able to keep some privacy.

“When we do apple pressing (the subject of recent video), that’s half an hour of our life,” says Jessica, who grew up in Fremont – a fact not mentioned in the videos. “The rest of our life is not shown on camera.”

All those videos – and the connection to their subscribers – led to the new book.

“There’s this publishers and his wife is a viewer of ours,” Jessica says. “She went to him and said, ‘I think you …

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Discovery TV's Naked And Afraid: Is it cynical to call this exploitation?
Community

Off-Grid making millions for some

The hottest shows on cable TV these days are about people who have no TV.

As the TV industry wakes up to this, expect plenty more shows about off-grid living.

Take Discovery Channel’s Alaskan Bush People, in which a character shows how to properly prepare grasshoppers by pulling their heads off and allowing the guts to leak out before laying them out in the sun to dry. Add a little salt and pepper, and dinner is served.

Not hungry? Viewers are lapping up the year-old show, as well as other offgrid reality series that have become very appetizing.

Shows like Alaskan Bush People, History Channel’s Mountain Men Home page, FYI’s Unplugged Nation and Animal Planet’s The Last Alaskans — as well as rugged competition reality shows, such as Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid and History Channel’s series Alone — are providing viewers with an aspirational look at an alternative lifestyle that eschews modern technology for life off the beaten path.

Some of the characters in these reality shows are hardcore naturalists who have no need for civilization; others are average people who are seeking the simple life. Some are new at it; others have been doing it for generations.

On these shows, hunting knives are more valuable than smartphones, and cable-network programmers say it’s the fantasy of unplugging from civilization that draws viewers in droves.

Offthegrid shows comprised nearly half of the 10 most-watched reality shows during the third quarter of 2015, according to Nielsen. Alaskan Bush People, which profiles a family born and raised in the Alaskan wilderness, was the most popular reality show of the period, averaging 3.6 million viewers.

TAKEAWAY

Reality-show aficionados are finding a refuge from modern living in the programs.

“There’s an aspirational element to the show that really communicates with people — we’ve always had that as a backbone to the program,” Russ McCarroll, senior vice president of development and programming for History Channel, said. “These ideas of managing to live and doing hard work in places that are beautiful are what appeal to viewers.”

WILDERNESS ESCAPISM

During times frought with threats of cyber-terrorism, economic difficulties and military conflicts, History’s Mountain Men — which follows the real-life challenges of six guys who use their survival skills to live in desolate mountain areas across the country — attracts both male and female viewers with escapist content that focuses on a simpler life where people control where and how they live, McCarroll said.

Mountain Men averaged more than 3 million viewers during its fourth and most recent season, which concluded last week.

“There’s a lot of doom and gloom stories out there, whether it’s the breakdown of the economy or the environment changing, so there’s a great appeal as to whether to sustain one’s self and to fi nd out, if everything really did go the wrong way,

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People

Book Review – The Utopia Experiment

dylanevansThe Utopia Experiment by Dylan Evans – Picador, $15.99, UK version €15.99

LIFE wasn’t so bad for author Dylan Evans in 2006. He was about to turn 40. He’d a good job at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence research, working in a robotics lab in Bristol. He lived in a cottage he’d bought in the Cotswolds and he’d found a girlfriend he fell in love with.

He tossed it all to one side, however, so he could live in a field in the Scottish Highlands.

Evans wanted to find out what it’d be like to live in a post-apocalyptic world — a real-life role- play where people had to make their own clothes, generate energy and forage for their food.

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Colorado beer sales up in smoke

download (1)Legal marijuana is a major new cash crop for the off-grid community in Washington State and Colorado.

And a “marijuana hangover is starting to hit the beer industry,” the Financial Times reports.

The end of pot’s prohibition has rattled the beer industry for years, raising fears that consumers will be able to – legally – get their buzzes from new places. So if you live off-grid – start growing – Cannabis Grow Bible, The: Definitive Guide to Growing Marijuana for Recreational and Medical Use

New data on US beer sales, confirms these fears by offering evidence that pot appears to have eaten into Colorado beer sales in January.

Beer sales fell 4.9 per cent across the US last month, but 9.2 per cent in Colorado. Moreover, beer’s share of total alcohol sales also fell more in Colorado than in the rest of the country.

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mom, son, missing, teenager, cheyenne, wyoming
People

Mother calls her son in missing

DanielandSusanneLandgrebeThe mother of a 20-year-old from Newton Iowa who went on a cross-country trek to gather fodder for an “off-the grid book” has reported her son is missing.

Noted beautician, Susanne Landgrebe says she last heard from her son, Daniel, on June 24.

“In Cheyenne, Wyoming, they ran into this Freight Train Riders of America gang. If you Google anything about them, they’re like a horrible, violent gang that are well-known. I’d never heard of them, but they’re horrible,” Landgrebe says. “…Daniel got a knife pulled on him for getting in a freight car where one of the guys was in.”

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People

Off-Grid Governor

MARYSVILLE, Mont. (AP) – Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is proud of his off-the-grid getaway. A day spent with Schweitzer riding four-wheelers and talking politics makes it easy to understand why he’s one of the most unusual – and most effective – governors in the country.

The former scientist and mint farmer built its spring-fed fishing ponds, rigged the plumbing system, designed the rudimentary battery-and-solar-powered panel for the log cabin 40 miles from Helena. It has no cellphone service.

At his ranch – and anywhere else – Schweitzer, a popular Democrat in a conservative state, never misses a chance to leave a lasting, even outlandish, impression. “I’m well-armed,” says Schweitzer, who hangs a gun on his office wall despite a gun ban in the Capitol.

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Community

Mountain Men – TV’s usual trashy take on off-grid living

The love affair between reality TV and the off-grid lifestyle continues with the new series Mountain Men (finale this thursday 8/9pm)on History Channel.

Eustace Conway, one of the stars of Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America
is a lead character. The sales pitch for the series links it unashamedly to off-grid living – “Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live your life off the grid?” runs the Web site. “Have you wished you could shed the complications of modern society and live in the wilderness, using only the things nature has provided? ”

And like all reality TV, the cracks are showing as viewers realise that the series is extremely unreal.

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Spirit

Conservative press goes potty over toilets

Lot of stuff about off-grid toilets in the right wing media at the moment.

At the top of the tree, Fox News has been contemplating the horrors of composting toilets. At the other end of the media power spectrum, the Sun newspaper in Corsicana Texas has been railing against men who defecate in the wild.

We had a conversation in our office the other day about men who want to leave their modern lives and go “off the grid,” says the papers prim writer.  Essentially, the women in our office were wondering why anyone would want to sacrifice indoor plumbing, while the guys were simply saying “who wouldn’t want to?”

Meanwhile at Fox they are sniggering about the crazy people who compost their poo:

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