Great thread here. I have synthesized a few different "earth changes" maps I have found on the internet, and combined this with my gut feelings about what lies ahead. I have already decided where I will be relocating to, and my present house is on the market as we speak, or as we post
As a builder with over 25 years experience building in a very "green" and progressive state I have come up with what I think is a very good and inexpensive design for an earth sheltered house. This is the ONLY way to go for many reasons, not the least of which is that the ambient ground temp. makes it easy to heat and cool.
I agree with previous post about the governments' ability to surveil. But one variable is that with so much chaos and societal meltdown in the urban centers, how many years do you think it will take the PTB to get to the little isolated communities which are self sustaining, and pose no problem? It might never happen in fact. I see "getting back to the woods" as a way to weather the storm. Who knows, in a decade or so the PTB might loose its steam due to military desertions, bad moral, change in the political agenda, anything could change the course of events. I certainly DO NOT plan on rounding up my family and getting a free ride to a FEMA camp, and will wait quietly to see where the chips fall.
I think that talk of bows and arrows is crazy (no disrespect intended). When you and your loved ones are barely eking out a living and you are trying to provide food I think a firearm is the only way to go, that said, it is true that the bovine ensephalitis which has infected wild deer and elk herds, makes trapping, snaring, smaller mammals and birds a better choice. Wildcrafting herbs for food and medicine will be necessary as well. Regardless of a "nuclear winter" scenario, mother nature is pretty resilient, and will always provide for those willing to look.
Gun shows, last I knew were a great place to purchase arms without going through the permitting process.
Earth roofs are a great means of evading detection from satelites.
This minimal visual footprint approach eliminates the ability to have solar panels (as they would be very visible), so be prepared to really rough it if you use that approach.
Collecting rain water is good, but anyone serious about a small community had better be serious about locating it around WATER. A couple of hours with a backhoe and some concrete well tiles, and you've got an artesian well for about 1K. The beauty of this is you don't need to have a submersible pump. You can use a low voltage DC (solar) pump or even mount a old school cast iron handle on your community well.
Clusters of houses allow you to have shared utilities like solar arrays, outhouses, wells, septic, gardens, generator, greenhouse etc. This also allows somewhat for specialties. You might have an electrician, a builder, some people with green thumbs, a tracker, a wildcrafter, potter...you get the idea. The problem is times a wastin'. This financial collapse, though not a surprise was pretty precipitous, and will leave many folks without the means or the time to prepare for what is coming.
I could go on forever. This is a good topic and has made me rethink some of my plans. I will be looking into military camouflage fabric and whether it would alow enough light transfer to photovoltaic panels. I think the bottom line is COMMUNITY. I agree that foreign UN troops will be more willing to shoot at Americans, but a close knit independent group is bound to be left alone. Worst case scenario is that the first few might fall, but it will be this exact thing which causes the low moral/desertions. Look no further back than Vietnam or even Iraq to see that this kind of unjust genocidal conflict foments dissension in the ranks.
I hope some of us take this beyond the discussion stage, and start walking the walk, because the fate of homo sapiens lies in the balance.