Just curious at this point.

[Spock]

Probably like most of the "survival authors" out there now a days, written by someone living in suburbia who's idea of producing heat is adjusting a knob on the wall.... LOL

Hot summers- you sit around a little bit in the afternoon, stay in the shade, drink fluids. Only a moron DIES of the heat.

Freezing cold winters- try sitting around a little bit to warm up ;) A lot of folks with grid dependent heat are going to die off up north if something happens. Doing jumping jacks in the living room to warm up only goes so far.

Other pros and cons-

The amount of time necessary yearly to cut, split and stack the wood needed-

Down South- we get by on just about a cord and a half a year, with a lot of that burned for comfort. We have in the past cut and split that much in a day. Usually I just cut and split a little at a time as extra time permits though.

Up in the Tundra regions- friends not far from the Canadian border that also live this way tell me it's 15 cords or more per year to heat their retreat. That's almost 15 times the work.

With a bunch of young, able bodied people to help, sure. For one or two lone families, much tougher.

Further, it should be obvious that the more wood burnt equals the more smell and smoke. The more wood needed to be cut equals the more sound of chainsaws, the more need for fuel, etc.

Growing season-

It's nothing to hear from friends up north that they are just able to work the ground for cold weather crops while we are just starting to put up our warm weather crops (end of May/first of June'ish).

The Dakotas house a good quantity of missile silos and therefore, nuke targets. Course most people now a days have their heads up their butts regarding nuclear so few current "authors and experts" even mention it. LOL

Pros-

In most cases lower population density- I mean away from the cities.

If you could keep 20-30 (couple years worth, whatever that means for you) cords of wood available and you were in a remote location, winter would be your best ally, in the same manner it became the Russians best ally in 1941 and 1942.

The flip side of that is that the harsh winters could make better MORE desperate and the woodsmoke and cozy survival retreat might be worth losing 4-5 men taking it. I.e, the chances of Joe Joe's looter crew getting "scared off" cause you whacked 3 of them in an attack is pretty slim. The winter would be the rock, your defense would be the hard place, they would be in between and could easily be forced into a situation where they had to fight you to the death to survive.

Just some observations.

also another good thing about being that far north is during those kind of winters, zombies have no body heat, so they freeze like corpse-sicles.

[goatlady]

Also PRIME consideration is the Availability of trees for that wood! AFAIK there is a HUGE scarcity of trees in ND and also in Eastern SD. Western SD has pine ONLY in the Black Hills with limited Forest Service cutting allowed. Most of Wyoming is treeless also except for the far northwestern parts. In those areas you must "import" wood to burn or rely 100% on LP for your furnace. Guess one could use a corn burner stove, but again, dependent on an outside source for fuel AND electricity to run the auger in those stoves.

[goatlady]

Go here and get a taste of the reality of trying to live in that area! Good $$ to be made, absolutely NOwhere to live except our car!!! NOT fesable in the winter there though.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/21/pf/america_boomtown_housing/index.htm?iid=HP_MPM

[Spock]

thats pretty tempting. Buy a full size van, park in the walmart parking lot, join the local gym to shower. i could get some serious use out of my MSS in the winter.

[jmc7104]

On the other hand, I think EVERYONE should check out South Dakota at least once... The Badlands, The Blackhills, Needles highway, Mt. Rushmore.... Simply Amazing!

Agree with that been there done that 3 years ago. I made the mistake of going during S.D. phesant hunting season and my one night stay cost me over 100.00 Made the scene in Badlands (wow) and Mt. Rushmore then got to heck out of S.D. and back into Nebraska.

[maleah]

There is a great opportunity in North Dakota because of the so-called oil boom in that place. However, it does not guarantee that you are going to have a house there. Most of the employees are living inside their car. Great job opportunities but you have no house. CNN notes that while six-figure salaries are possible, the path to the cash isn't really for every person. The North Dakota oil boom, centered on the Bakken oil development, has kept the state's joblessness rate the lowest in the United States at 3.5 percent. Large oil signifies a large number of jobs - if candidates can hack grueling hours, lack of housing and harsh winter months. Article resource: North Dakota oil boom brings jobs aplenty

[Boyd]

My sister lives in north central ND, plan on really harsh winters. She reports winter temp.'s below zero for a fair chunk of the winter. Way too cold for me!

I would love it if it only got that cold here in Mi. On a bad day it's -20 to -30 where I live. I have friends I've met via another board from S. Cal who want to move to Michigan because of the low real estate prices, cheap land, and right to farm laws... Trying to explain a 100 degree difference from their cold winter to ours... Well, they are coming to visit in 2-3 months for a couple of weeks before they decide to take the plunge.

[Elpasotom]

Housing pricey at is true. My brother finally moved on Minot Afb, but before his apartment was +$1000/ mo. For someone who really hates cold i doubt you would like ND

[TyrannyUnleashed]

Thanks for the many great responses. We have already decided that ND won't be a good fit for us. Just too darn cold for me. Now we are considering looking in the same area, but farther out where no one will be able to find us. There are many options in the area we live at. This will allow for me to raise a little livestock (chickens or whatever else) and have water on the property.