Likewise, I am glad to see there is a group of like minded people in Alberta. I suspect the logistics and practicalities of having folks move to a common area would be a challenge.

Be careful of where you set up a Community. If in a SHTF situ, a community within a few days walking distance will be a target. Most SHTF zombies will be looking for food within a week of a major food disruption. Highway route will be the most traveled, but other primary routes (paved) will also be traveled by seekers. Some of the smarter ones will be night stalkers, looking for lights, and listening for noises, such as generators and voices. Some will just be takers, some will be willing to work for their food. Just be warned, just like a bear that your feeding, once the food stops, they may turn on you for more.
In a SHTF scenario, be like the military in hostile territory, 3 sense discipline: no light, no sound and no scent. The scent of a good cooked meal will travel for miles. Good Luck

Yep I agree, one must look away from any major centre. To be with in an hour drive could be with in walking distance from a city. Each city has with in itself at the most 6 days of food. That's gracious because we all know when the city people who don't know how to fend for themselves will venture out and look for food anywhere they can.. Rioting will cut that 6 days down to one day maybe two at best. So far enough from the city to make it very difficult yo find. Secondly, off the main highway. People are in general afraid to go traipsing through the bush. But wont think of travelling the highways.
There are farming communities off the beaten track around the area we are looking and there are plenty of acreages for sale in the area as well.
My humble opinion would be that having one or two big communities may not be the best set-up but a number of smaller ones could be more diverse in trade that can be generated from the area they settle in. On one hand a large community has the manpower to preform large projects and defend themselves. But, smaller settlements are smaller on the radar, and quite possibly a refuge for people from other groups that may get hit so to speak. Personally I think it would be great to have cells where half a dozen or so families with diverse skills and a drive to do so, set up a community of like-minded people who work together to establish a secure, healthy and prosperous group. Who knows when the SHTF will happen.. I just know that nanny of us haven't had the oppritunity to prepare allot but as a group with buying power, and the desire to do so, Could make a good place to call home.
Does anyone live around the yellowhead district that would like to chat some more about it? Or people who don't mind travelling to the area to do the same?

Just came up in the area. someone selling 4 10 acre packages at 109K each. alot of money for each but if it was feasible to subdivide and have 8 parcels it wouldn't be to bad at 5 acres each.

Seedsprouter... don't give-up, we'll get this conversation going again. 😀

We just returned from holidays looked at land in Manitoba but found that the treed area we were considering there has a lot of issues with contaminated water due to all the chemicals farmers used so our family is back to looking for property in central Alberta and various places through BC in which one tank of gas can get us to from Calgary. This long weekend we're staying home to do more searching for property deals. I encourage everyone to keep expressing what is of interest to them as well as location so folks can PM those with like minds. With regards to land, my wife and I would rather spend a little more on "healthier/treed" land than having a fancy home on it.

I would also like to mention that my wife has done research on water catchment systems and is waiting for a price. These are put into the ground and tied into the home through the foundation. I believe the systems have their own filters as well.

I'm finding the conversation interesting. New to join the forum. About 5 years ago we bought our place, wanting to get out of Calgary. Buy the way, still work in Calgary. At the time we did not have a group of like minded folk around us that would be willing to part with $$$. We also considered all the things you all have been talking about: far enough out of the city but close enough to be able to get there in bad times, enough land to live off of, enough to feed horses/livestock, enough good soil for garden, water resources. Our property is wooded and supplies us with our heat in the winters-definitely make sure you have wood! One thing that has been a wonderful treat is the amount of crown land that wraps around our parcel. Definitely a plus for you, if you can find it! You may not need hundreds of acres!

I liked alamodem's idea of many smaller communities, smart. Smaller communities would be easier to care for. To have those smaller settlements within a days ride from each other...brilliant! Im curious to see how you will get everyone on the same page. So many different backgrounds, ways of thinking, some against guns. I've found that is still our issue, trying to find the right combination of people to come on board with us...very different views.

If location of cheaper land is helpful...Alderflats, buck lake area still has cheaper land with rivers, woods and good growing soil. Lived west of ALderflats in a cabin for a few years, nice area. North west of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. I'll keep reading to see how it's going. I hope to be at the next meeting. Look forward to meeting you all.

You have touched on something I was going to bring up at the meeting. What about a network of smaller communities set up within a days travel of eachother, and everyone involved knows the whereabouts of these locations? If positions were to be set up, and teams were organized, we could have a pre-set trading and support network ready in case shtf, and having smaller communities out there would assist in regrowth post-shtf. Here is an example:

- 5 "communities" of 10-15 people (assuming that there will be enough people for it... Just as an example)
- each town is within 2 days walk/ride (or couple hours drive)
- people will select which community they will be a part of prior to shtf (based on their proximity to the location)
- when the determined time to "bug out" occurs, everyone meets at the determined meeting point, then after everyone is organized, we split into our seperate groups and head to our locations
- each community will be self sustaining, but will produce a surplus of goods
- each community will be in contact through ham radio
- each community will know where the others are, as well as several routes how to get there

With this approach, the communities will be small enough to maintain easily, but will also be large enough to be efficient and not an easy target. Also, in the worst case scenario of being over run, they are close enough to the other communities to reach out for aid or to escape. Like having a bugout from your bugout. After things become a little more settled and the communities are fully functioning and secure, trade can be established between them, using ham radio to set up meetings, etc.

Something to consider. For myself, I will probobly just sit in at the next meeting as it will be my first, but if this is something people would be interested in I have several ideas on it.

Excellent. I was starting to think this string was kind of dead. All us last posters talked about is very encouraging, now we just have to find others to fill in the open spots in the areas we are looking at settling down in. My wife just found 18 acres with a creek running through it for 80K. east of Edson a short drive, off the main road. Amy go look at it this weekend. Do any of you or any of you interested in looking at land out this way? Allot of real great farm land and compared to where we live its still somewhat affordable. We would like to build our house under the earth a bit. Perhaps an earth bag house burmed up all around. This is very energy efficient and relatively cheap to build, BUT is quite physically demanding to complete unless you have allot of friends. If there was a community in an area they could build as many of these as needed with much less back breaking work. I've been reading up on raising chickens, sheep, cows, and my favourite Bees. 'i've worked with ostrich farmers quite a bit as well. My wife has a quilting shop in our present home and has mile and miles of fabric. We have a loom for obvious reasons. I have my own carpentry shop as well. At present i''m streamlining my armoury to a hunting rifle, legal assault type rifle, .22's. and some hand guns. I was never much for the glock but lately i''ve been reading and seeing great reviews on them. I also reload for everything I have. Over the years my library for self-sufficiency has grown but with only my wife and I. we could hardly handle all the topics our books carry. This is were it would be so good to have others close by to find out what niche each other has.
I can weld, was a cabinet maker, make wine from scratch, make soap with out the convenience of a grocery store. hehe. Can you imagine with others who have a zest for knowledge what we could all accomplish? DANG I cant wait to meet some of you.

Anyways have a most excellent weekend.

I just read this post and it's exactly what I have been trying to do and trying to accomplish. I have been trying to build a group and so far I have a doctor and an indian survivalist on board if I was to get the land.

I am a christian carpenter and am for having guns for hunting and protection. If anyone is interested in pooling resources and knowledge feel free to give me a PM, I am very interested in finding the right self sustainable group.

Just have to share our story in hunt of property with you all...

We found a piece of property in an area within driving distance of Calgary and inquired how much the owner is asking for it via email. Her reply was "$520,000 all taxes included." I replied maybe if it had a house on it but it doesn't even have a well or any utilities! She replied again... there are other lots $350,000-$375,000 for same amount of acreages in the area then asked for a reasonable offer. Thinking internally as I read her last reply "What turnip truck did this lady fall off of?" Goodluck in selling your property but I'm not buying it! 🙂 I responded graciously and thanked her for replying so quickly but unfortunately I wouldn't even put in an offer for possibility of offending her.

The tables are slowly turning to a buyers market again and if the government continues to raise property tax, we might see a flood of these properties on the market soon.

mountaineer, out of curiousity, how many acres was the property in question?

Are any of you recently active posters going to make the 4th meeting at Dogpound this coming weekend (aug 25th)?

It might be an interesting sub-topic or side-bar discussion.
Just a thought even though some of us were more interested in an rv park setting to start with...

I would only ever consider an rv park setting if they had a pool, shuffle board, free firewood and saturday morning face painting for the kiddies ......

...... and saturday morning face painting for the kiddies ......

Would it have to be Camo colored? 😀 😆

Some of us thought that the rv park would be a good way for those of us currently in towns or cities to be able to invest in a property that we can use immediately if we didn't have the cash to go out and buy land in the foothills or have the ability to completely relocate from work to a new self-sufficient community.

The idea that mountainman suggested somewhere (might be in this thread) was that the rv park would be a source of income for the permanent community to use while still leaving the door open for those of us not able to fully commit to a new way of life. The permanent community would develop as they determined but with neighbours.

The 'campers' would be able to set up caches and maybe mobile habitats that could be converted to true full-season homes if shtf was actually a teotwawki scenario. A place to store seeds, implements, fuel, food, etc... Prior to shtf, it would be a place for people to use for recreation and networking.

I do like the idea of face-painting for kids because such a community does need to know it's neighbours first and foremost. It would not be a place for lone-wolves such as yourself Crier. That is not an insult, just the opinion I've formed by reading your comments and the threads you've started. Each strategy has its strengths and weaknesses that have been discussed ad nauseum in other threads.

Bringing this up at the meeting was just a thought.