Where to live around Portland for maximum survivability?

[PeakResources]

I'm a city dweller who thinks that I'm probably in the wrong place if I'm looking for maximum survivability. I would like advice on areas to live near Portland the have the following characteristics that I (or you) believe would be great to live from both a family perspective as well as a survivability perspective.

- Within reasonable driving distance of Hillsboro (no more than about 45 minutes)
- Can get high speed Internet
- Can get 3+ acres and a home under $500k
- Has land suitable for a big garden
- Area suitable for chickens or other low impact animals
- Has a sense of community
- Strong Christian faith / values in the community
- Would be great to know if there is a "guns in church" community there (see other thread)
- Local food supplies for what I cannot / do not grow myself
- People who depend on themselves, believe in self sufficiency and minimum government is great
- Preferably has decent public (or private) schools
- Would be great to have kids in the community, for both my kids, as well as I think kids ground you

Where do you guys live that you think is great? Where would you like to live? Can I find the quality of life I strive for, a more self-sufficient lifestyle (think: food / water / resources locally or on my own land), local citizens that love our liberties (including gun rights), and a faith based community? Does such a place exist in this state?

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[eldbillbo]

Clackamas county get out of multnomah and you should be fine and still close to PDX for work

edit
opps sorry missed the part needing to be close to Hillsburo .

 

[PeakResources]

Any specifics eldbillbo? Land, church, community?

 

[eldbillbo]

I sent a message about Church

GREAT Childern's ministries

lots of hunters fisherman very 2nd amendment friendly

Very Humble Church not a money grubber not a rock star church. This one is very Bible based


anyone else looking for a Church like this feel free to IM for info
i'd be happy to send you a link

as far as finding land you might do a MLS search

 

[Steel 13]

Just some thing to think about. Elevation. If the Grand Coulee or one of the others were to suddenly get flattened, would you be underwater?

 

[coctailer]

I'm a city dweller who thinks that I'm probably in the wrong place if I'm looking for maximum survivability. I would like advice on areas to live near Portland the have the following characteristics that I (or you) believe would be great to live from both a family perspective as well as a survivability perspective.

- Within reasonable driving distance of Hillsboro (no more than about 45 minutes)
- Can get high speed Internet
- Can get 3+ acres and a home under $500k
- Has land suitable for a big garden
- Area suitable for chickens or other low impact animals
- Has a sense of community
- Strong Christian faith / values in the community
- Would be great to know if there is a "guns in church" community there (see other thread)
- Local food supplies for what I cannot / do not grow myself
- People who depend on themselves, believe in self sufficiency and minimum government is great
- Preferably has decent public (or private) schools
- Would be great to have kids in the community, for both my kids, as well as I think kids ground you

Where do you guys live that you think is great? Where would you like to live? Can I find the quality of life I strive for, a more self-sufficient lifestyle (think: food / water / resources locally or on my own land), local citizens that love our liberties (including gun rights), and a faith based community? Does such a place exist in this state?

You described Battleground, WA.

It's under 45 minutes from Hillsboro even.

 

[eldbillbo]

Sorry i missed the part about being out towards Hillsburo

 

[PeakResources]

Yeah, sometimes I need to drive out there for work purposes. But I telecommute 98% of the time.

Cocktailer, you have any specifics on Battleground? That's interesting. Tax structure is different in WA, though politically I'm not sure if the state is better or worse.

 

[CharlesAFerg]

Between Hwy 217 and 26 in Beaverton, there are still some houses like that in the area.

 

[coctailer]

Yeah, sometimes I need to drive out there for work purposes. But I telecommute 98% of the time.

Cocktailer, you have any specifics on Battleground? That's interesting. Tax structure is different in WA, though politically I'm not sure if the state is better or worse.

It's a couple miles NE of Vancouver. It borders forest land.

The school district is waaaaaay better than any district in the Portland Metro area.

There is even an "Orenco Village" kind of area being built right now for that Euro-Urban feel. Walk to shopping, restaurants, coffee shops.

It has Fred Meyer, McDonalds, Albertson's, etc like a larger city, but still has the small rural feel.

You won't get caught in rush hour traffic if you need to bug-out quick.

ETA: I am also a city-slicker, so I know where you are commin' from.

 

[speelyei]

survive what?

 

[coctailer]

survive what?

Nobody can ever know what "What" is until it gets here.

You should prepare to survive as many "Whats" as possible.

 

[treemanx]

Clackamas county get out of multnomah and you should be fine and still close to PDX for work

edit
opps sorry missed the part needing to be close to Hillsburo .

+1 on Clackamas County from me. Its a little farther away from Hillsboro, but you'll find areas with most of whats on your list here. Otherwise, if you were interested in moving out towards Eastern Oregon, there are a lot of places such as you described out there.

 

[speelyei]

Nobody can ever know what "What" is until it gets here.

You should prepare to survive as many "Whats" as possible.

I will continue as though your response wasn't meant to piss me off, but I feel like it was...

anyway, "what" is a pertinent question.

Are you visualizing a full scale nuclear attack? rolling blackouts, $7/gal gas, and a Flu pandemic all happening coincidentally? are you worried about riots, social unrest, escalated drug and criminal activity? How about Volcanic Eruption, Dam failure, asteroid or comet collsions? Maybe a good old drought, or another Tillamook Burn? Terrorist attacks are a hot-button topic... Martial law? Earthquake? Columbus Day storm?

It's fun and easy to think of buying a new rifle, a new piece of property, a geiger counter, a handbook.

Watching movies like 28 Days Later and I Am Legend is fun, and it's fun to daydream about that stuff.

Now let's take a little trip to reality... and this is all hypothetical. These are questions I ask myself constantly.
Security is an imaginary state. The most well thought out self sufficient high-walled farm in Yamhill isn't going to protect you from a nuke. And even if you bought that parcel of land, you might still be hit by a car on your commute. If you're ready for the infrastructure and power grid to fail, and Mt Hood erupts, how effective will your greenhouse be?

My point is, how safe are you ever going to be?

and if you're a person with a family and you don't intend to ditch them, you need to tailor your plans to the skills and needs of the frailest, weakest, youngest person.

Let's start with basics.... personal physical fitness. Could you climb out of an overturned city bus? Climb back on to a boat you've fallen from? Jump up and climb up an exterior fire escape? A lot of people have and will die who are simply too weak, old, obese, or inflexible to get away from some physical threat. And just how in shape should you be? Able to run a mile? 5 mile? 26 miles? How many push ups, or pull ups? 25? 100? 500? I don't know... and how about your wife? your youngest kiddo?

How about mental fitness... do you have a broad skill set currently? Can you add? Subtract? How much does a cubic foot of water weigh? Can you sew? Weld? Can you work on gasoline engines? How about diesel? Do you garden? Can you track animals? Do you know what chemicals will produce heat and flame when combined? Do you know anything about Antibiotics? Sulfa drugs? Pain relievers? Can an infant have aspirin? What plants can be eaten in your yard? What plants are fatal in your yard? If you don't have certain skills now, when times are good, how are you going to get them when times are bad? And how does one find the time to learn to make a fire with nothing and self-medicate while working 40+ hours a week and raising a family? I don't know....

And maybe you can do it all... you can hit a dog at 1000yards and never miss, you can turn a washing machine into a motorcycle and get a diesel truck to run in spite of all the EMF after the nukes hit, you can grow snap peas in Terrebone with no water in the winter.... what about your kids? your wife? can they do all that stuff? How many people can you support with your skills, and how long?

Let's ignore unliveable catastrophies like nuclear war and geo-thermal hiccups for now, and focus on garden-variety social collapse kinda fantasies...

If you want to live outside of Portland, but still work in Portland, well then you're effectively in Portland. You can split hairs and argue that it's Sherwood, or Molalla, but so what? Whatever happens to PDX happens to you.

And so there you are, watering your garden from your rain barrel and taking a dump in your phoenix self-composting toilet, and here they come. The mass exodus of unprepared, unwashed, unlucky survivors of the thing you want to avoid. The living dead from the Pearl District. The battle weary no-man's land ruffians from Reed College, aka Fort Freedom. And they're gonna get to your place first, cause after all, you're only 45 minutes from town.
Maybe it'll be somebody easy to hate, some criminal looking trashball, or some doughy rich-boy with soap-soft hands and a Patgonia shirt. But maybe it'll be little kids, with no folks. Maybe it'll be a motorcycle gang, mybe it will be a bus full of women and children who's husbands are working to put things back together, to put the flames out.... what are you gonna do? lock your gate? help 'em? Shoot 'em? All of 'em?

It's no better for me. I live four and a half hours from PDX. I'm an hour and a half from Eugene. I see all the people who drive 3 hours through the woods, to get to "the middle of nowhere"..... 4 minutes from town. My town. If the bottom drops out, I have no doubt there will be a flood of clowns with bug out bags and 4wd rigs and tactical flashlights and AR15's and a bunch of survival toys who want to come set up camp in the woods outside town. Oh and it will be grand. Don't forget, we already have a good chunk of population out here you can't wait to meet. Petulant nowhere-bound teens, meth sketchers, closet pot growers, crusty old fishermen and poachers and loggers, it'll be a party! And everybody can fish and hunt and have campfires and shoot and in about 16 months the woods will be so trashed and depleted it will look just like ground zero...

Don't think for a second I am any different than you guys. I want to make good decisions and support my family the same as everyone else. But I am not real convinced it's possible in any long term way.

 

[coctailer]

snip

It wasn't meant to piss you off. You shouldn't let others control your emotions.

So, you are saying that a person that lives 45 minutes into the woods has the same life expectancy as a person surrounded by looters in the Pearl District?

The OP is asking where near PDX would give him the greatest means of success. (He didn't specify Bio, nuke, econ, but I'm assuming you can pick any that you like to make your case for a certain location)

Do you have a location to contribute?

 

[treemanx]

I truely dont think coctailer was trying to piss you off speelyei, but wow, that was a h*ll of a post! I enjoyed the heck out of reading it!

 

[speelyei]

oh, I'm plenty calm enough!

first, to answer your question from another post, most seeds will stay viable for a few months to a year, but with special care, packaging, and temperature control, they can last for years and years.

currently, I would feel more comfortable in the Pearl than I would in the woods on the Upper Clackamas near Estacada. If the SHTF, I see little that would change my feelings.
My point is, you can only prepare so much. Any house of cards will fall down. And it's easy to think of what-ifs and counter arguments that work both ways.

 

[coctailer]

oh, I'm plenty calm enough!

first, to answer your question from another post, most seeds will stay viable for a few months to a year, but with special care, packaging, and temperature control, they can last for years and years.

currently, I would feel more comfortable in the Pearl than I would in the woods on the Upper Clackamas near Estacada. If the SHTF, I see little that would change my feelings.
My point is, you can only prepare so much. Any house of cards will fall down. And it's easy to think of what-ifs and counter arguments that work both ways.

It is easy to come up with flaws to any plan. This is a place to exercise ideas and give people tips that they may not know about.

I would like a home out of downtown to make it easier to bug-out if bugging-in proves to be the wrong choice.

 

[speelyei]

ok, but where are you going to bug out to? I ask that because people already cover the map. Just because you or I drive through an area and think it looks like a good spot to make a stand, somebody else may already call that home. And even if the spot you or I picked is on BLM or USFS land, who knows how many others are going to show up? and what kinda folks might they be? and if all of us good guys show up armed to the teeth, how will we recognize each other from the bad guys?

 

[speelyei]

I truely dont think coctailer was trying to piss you off speelyei, but wow, that was a h*ll of a post! I enjoyed the heck out of reading it!

thanks!