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And I reply....."Its true, it can't"
Yeah, I have several indoor and outdoor cameras set up covering all doors and also covering a fair amount of the property. I prefer not dealing with systems that require internet because that can easily be knocked out. Just cams hooked to my network controlled by my PCs that I can set alerts for.

Same. I have wired cameras hooked up to a home server. Not being cloud or service based was very important to me when picking a system.
 
Great thread, Angie. Look at all the responses. There are very few things that would make me leave my house. If I did have to leave I do have a written check list as a reminder for what we would need to take. Most things are together, and most are packed in duffel bags or backpacks so they are easily carried.

There are two family members that are close enough to be a concern, both SIL's. If it were a bug out situation I would expect they would come to us. I have always expected and planned that we would have to provide for them, so it would not be a burden. I would leave it to my wife to decide. They may want to go a different direction. The rest of the family is to far away to engage in 12 hours.

With our current supplies we would not have to go to a store for anything. Topping off gas tanks is a good idea. We do have several methods of recharging batteries or phones, computers, laptops, if any of those are still working. Twelve hours seems like plenty of time, but if it was inevitable that you had to evacuate I would want to be on the road as soon as possible to get ahead of the crowd.
 
If I have advanced knowledge (12-24 hr) of upcoming unpleasantness, I'm going to assume everyone else does, too; that means I won't go into town for some last-minute supplies. I don't want to run into some wild-eyed panicky last-minute prepper wannabe in the market waving a handgun around.

Both vehicles and the genset have >2/3 tank of fuel at all times, and I have two 10-gallon cans of gas and six full (well, 5½ full) 20-lb propane tanks. My chest freezer is not full -- alas! -- so I'd fill up as many spare water-jugs as I can stuff into the freezer to increase thermal mass as long as possible in case the electrical grid goes down.

We'd call my kids (Andy in Phoenix, Eleni and DH and grandson in Seattle) let them know what we know, wish them safety and good fortune, tell them we love them, and let them go with a promise to call us in a day if they can. None of us have XMTR radios, so if the grid goes away, we'll be out of touch. I'm not in the least pleased at their choice of a place to live, especially in these times, but they're armed, adult, and reasonably competent people.

Next, I'd contact every family within a one-mile radius (that's five families) tell them what I know and what we're doing, find out what they know and what they're doing, and suggest we get back in contact the next day and work any relevant plans at that time. Most of them are LDS and have their year's supply, all are armed, we all know each other and have done things together, and I trust them and think they trust me.

Finally, I'd feed the critters, close and lock both gates in the pasture, close and lock the doors and windows, turn off the lights, arm myself accordingly, listen to the radio, maybe have a sip or two of whiskey, and try not to get my pantyhose in a knot.
 
However, the townspeople here are armed well and could put up a pretty nasty defensive fight, if organized and effectively led...

Might be good to start one. Doesn't have to be fancy, just the town folk that are interested in forming a plan.

We just started a local group about 3 months ago, we went by school district for the people invited and coverage area. We're more focused on community service, but we are incorporating shooting, communications, food preservation etc, anything that might need addressed in an emergency. One thing to keep in mind, you have the home field advantage, and if organized even more so.
 
Might be good to start one. Doesn't have to be fancy, just the town folk that are interested in forming a plan.

We just started a local group about 3 months ago, we went by school district for the people invited and coverage area. We're more focused on community service, but we are incorporating shooting, communications, food preservation etc, anything that might need addressed in an emergency. One thing to keep in mind, you have the home field advantage, and if organized even more so.
I've thought about this a little. You can't defend the whole town. You could only block the six roads leading into town to stop vehicles. Humans on foot could gain entry, and if they wanted to bad enough they will. But the downtown area has high roof, brick and block buildings and from there, you could make things interesting.

Something of note is, the junior high gymnasium is a cold war relic. The basketball court is above ground but there is an equal size area below. It was intended as an emergency bomb shelter and serves as the community severe weather shelter now. I hadn't even thought about it until this thread. Perhaps I need to bring it up to the sheriff's deputies that live here in town. They're both former marines - they won't think I'm crazy...
 
Something of note is, the junior high gymnasium is a cold war relic. The basketball court is above ground but there is an equal size area below. It was intended as an emergency bomb shelter and serves as the community severe weather shelter now.

This has entered my thinking as well. We don't have a gym, but there are several industrial buildings that are close that would fit the bill. If it had four solid walls, roof and floor it would be better than pitching a tent in the woods. If it was a marauding mob you were concerned with an industrial building would be less of a target.
 
We have supplies for more than a year on hand.
But if I felt it was safe to do so, I would shop to buy more, way more. If I felt it was not safe then fine I would just stay home and up my fortifications.
4" of dirt will stop most bullets (like 223). Taking sheets of plywood or OSB to make boxes filled with dirt or crushed rock would take little time (I have the supplies) and attach them to the house.
Where we live it is over 200 miles to a city big enough to have a regular airport. Its a 100 miles to a 4-lane highway. We will have advance warning of a mass of humans coming our way and they would certainly be thinned out by the time they got here. I am also way more prepared for a mass of people than most(yes I have cannons).

There are no natural disasters in our area. No earthquake, no hurricane, no tornado, slight chance of a blizzard but that is okay, wildfire could happen in our area but we have a very wide fire mitagation area around our place, we will not burn out (unless the fire starts in our house). Though I suppose an asteroid could hit here or a nuke could go off-track and land here. Even a passenger jet could fall from the sky and hit our house.
 
Knowing what you need to do is half the battle. Many will be standing around waiting for instructions, waiting to see what others will do. There will be a lag period during which a knowledgeable person can act, I think. Maybe not, but if not, a knowledgeable person will figure that out immediately, as well, and move on to the next thing on their list. 99% of the people will not have a list, and won't even start making it for a brief period.

Solid point. It probably pays to arm up soon, although there will be a lag period before people start getting violent. It is important to act in that intitial stunned peaceful period.

I don't have any one scenario perfectly prepared for, but I have many partially prepared for, and I know what I intend to do if those other events happen. I also know to look for SHTF events. I won't be standing around saying "what do we do?"
Great post! For me, I feel better having a written plan so that I don't get stunned into inaction. I don't know how I might react if something happened where I needed to get ready for whatever..... I feel a bit of peace knowing I have a plan, even if it isn't perfect. I think, as you said, many folks will freak out and buy things I wouldn't bother with. One thing I keep in mind though is to try and maintain 'grey man' and buy things I would want 'quietly'. During the panic this spring, if I bought several of an item, others would follow suit. So, if I wanted 4 propane tanks I would quietly say I'll pay for 4 tanks if you can send a clerk out to get them for me. Or if I wanted items from the shelf, I'd put them in my cart and bury them with other items. Of coarse, that is IF the stores were still open and staff were still working. Like you, I beat the crowds in the spring before things got hinky and folks flooded the stores, so I'm imagining a situation like that.
Maybe the trick is to have all those things mentioned already done. Like the shopping, water, and fuel.
I think the unknown in our situation is the family members.
Well, you're right there, Terri. No mountains here. But I have 3 silos and 10 outbuildings and alot of weird hiding places around here. Ha Ha. Hide and seek time. The kids play with the neighbor kid and sometimes they give up.
Agreed. With the current situation, I won't need to go to the bank, the ammo store, the gas station, or bother with water. The less time I have to spend in public, the better.

At this point, the only reason I'd bother to go into town is if I thought it was safe to do so. If my money isn't going to be worth anything, I'd want to cash it in and at least get something for it. I'd be buying stuff I don't really need, but would come in handy down the road. Where I live, I think it would be weeks (more likely months) before I had to worry about anyone coming around here trying to take things from me. The weather would make it pretty tough for anyone who isn't local to get here. We may have to worry about the locals, but I think many of them would likely go for soft targets first. We are not that. I don't think we'd be looking at a shoot-out. I really think those situations would be few and far between, but what do I know?

For most situations, I'd stay home where I have the advantage. If we needed to leave (for whatever reason) we have the camper ready to go and full of propane. However, that would be a last resort since I don't want to take off to some unknown place with a camper. I have BOB's that I'd throw in there along with money safes, food, genny, fuel, guns and ammo. I'd also throw in my berkey with extra filters and my file safe with all our important docs. Actually, I probably should get a detailed list of things to put in the camper if we needed to get out quickly. Ah-ha! THIS is why I love threads like this....to get ideas on how to be better prepared.

To add to my other list of things to do ahead of time...

*hard boil eggs that are in the frig
*after everyone is here, have hubs take logs and gravel to the end of the driveways and block them off.
 
Might be good to start one. Doesn't have to be fancy, just the town folk that are interested in forming a plan.

We just started a local group about 3 months ago, we went by school district for the people invited and coverage area. ...
How do you start something like that? What do you call the group? I'm sure there are like minded people in my church, for example...but there are many, many sheep when it comes to civil matters like this, and some of them might be alarmed or look down on such a group.

They're both former marines - they won't think I'm crazy...
That's because Marines are already crazy! ...says a retired soldier. ;)
 
How do you start something like that? What do you call the group? I'm sure there are like minded people in my church, for example...but there are many, many sheep when it comes to civil matters like this, and some of them might be alarmed or look down on such a group.

We tossed the idea out on the community FB page for discussion, and believe it or not it mostly favorable. Then we created a FB page for the group for recruiting purposes. But because FB pages like that get zucked, along with the Admins of those pages we created an actual page on MeWe as they don't stifle Patriot speech. MeWe is where we post roll calls, group events, chat etc.

We called ours (insert town name here) Civil Defense. Some were apprehensive at first because they didn't take a minute and see what the actual mission statement is.

We are community focused. We want a network of people to be aware and available for any needs. We will mow a veterans lawn, we will split and stack wood for an elderly resident, we will assist with storm damage cleanup, we will join the local community in events, much like we do in the statewide militia that I am a member of, as well as 2 other guys in the group and a third is in probationary status.

The only way to change the mindset is to form and show them what you are about. With that said, the statewide militia group I am in gets negative attention a lot because the media protrays us as some kind of radical group, which could not be further from the truth.

The media doesn't report on the fact that we spent weeks hauling water around Flint and handing it out during the water crisis there, they don't point out that we have sections of highway all over the state that we keep clean, they didn't point out when we went to Midland after the flood and helped devastated homeowners reclaim their property, spending a week at a time there sleeping in tents in someones back yard. They don't point out that we gave a scholarship, by raising money, to a deserving young lady, they don't point out when we gather up truckloads of food and distribute it to veterans in need, they don't point out the fact that we came from all over the state to assist the Battle Creek PD a couple months ago in the search for a young lady that was murdered.

What they do remember is camouflage and guns, lol. What they don't realize is if anyone comes to us, they are vetted thoroughly, we scrub social media and any online stuff we can find. We are actually getting ready to do 'background checks' on future prospects. In no way shape or form do we want radicals in our group. If they come across that way they are removed and blackballed immediately.

My point is, no matter what you do, don't count on the bias media to help your cause, but you can't let that stop you. Forming on the local level is much easier especially in small communities because most everyone knows one another.

We had one girl local that came to our meetings and it was quite apparent that she is of a liberal mindset, she had an issue with the word defense in the name, lol.

Sorry for the long post, but my suggestion is to find some like minded individuals like yourself and form the group, set up some goals and a community based purpose, and by laws are always a good idea.......we are still working on ours. Then get involved, find someone in need and go help them. Eventually people will see what it's about. Then start introducing the survival and defense aspect of it.
 
99.99999999999999999% of the general population believe (even if they say they don't) that "Someone" will save them and make them whole again.......most likely coming from some level of government.

The "Super" big shock to them and to all preppers......is how they will react when reality strikes.

Knowing or best guessing how the people around you will react is a critical part of prepping. I live in a "City" population: 9 (yes nine humans). I have carefully listed each, and then listed what I know about them.

When reviewing the list, I concluded they will all leave the area, soon in any bad event. That is good for my planning. The next step was realizing that more robust and much more determined people from Los'Anchorage will likely that possession of those properties. Now..........what do I need to do to prepare for unknown new neighbors.........good question......no answers, at least no good high quality warm & fuzzy answers.

This is what I call "Advanced Prepping for Survival".
 
Sorry for the long post, but my suggestion is to find some like minded individuals like yourself and form the group, set up some goals and a community based purpose, and by laws are always a good idea.......we are still working on ours.
Thanks. Great post. Not sure I could get that going. I give you full credit for doing that!
 
You know...I've been re-thinking this. Predictable natural disasters are unlikely where I live. Our natural disasters are floods, and tornadoes. I'm on high enough ground that floods would have to be well over 100 feet above the normal river level, and tornadoes are localized and unpredictable. So I can rule that out. Any widespread violent mobs are not likely either. (I strongly believe that if things got bad enough that mobs came to my area, we would long since be under martial law. There could be small groups of looters, but again their movement would be highly unpredictable).

I'm not sure what would cause this kind of scenario in my area. My best guess is that any large scale event that would cause me to flee would be a polluting scenario (dirty bomb, train derailment, biological threat, etc.) or possibly a government crackdown on dissenting citizens. (In my area, this would certainly be a liberal/socialist movement against conservatives/liberty minded citizens, of which we have many.) In the case of the government, I'm probably staying put. If I'm on their list, they'll get around to me eventually, and I'm certain if it came to that they'd be quite thorough in their search. So the environmental disaster is most likely, and my reaction to that is dictated by the situation. Go whichever direction leads away from the problem, as far as needed, gathering family on the way if possible. Or, making plans to assist with mitigation if possible. There's a lot of variables.
 
For me it would have to on the order of a meteor headed for my valley, or yellowstone blowing up. We don't get tornados, flood is an impossibility. Fire is very likely but I'm staying to fight that. A very long way away from the highway or train tracks so no worry about poison gas. Dirty bomb, thats what the bunker is for.
 
Grayman.

Generator I've converted to LP and I've been buying used 20 LP tanks at garage sales. Also figure LP tanks could be easily salvaged from neighborhood BBQ qrills.

Publicly organizing a town or large group? Good way for the organizer to lose their OPSEC. Encourage someone else to be the front man while you stay in the background.

Retreat to a building? Two aggressors covering opposite corners of the building could keep the Retreaters confined to the building. The rest of the Aggressors have the freedom to R&R, scout and gather resources, the Retreaters don't have these options. The it's a waiting game on who can or is willing to outlast the other.
 
I fill my own tanks off the wet leg or liquid retrieval line on my big tank.
I have a hand pump for propane but haven't used it in years.
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Grayman.

Generator I've converted to LP and I've been buying used 20 LP tanks at garage sales. Also figure LP tanks could be easily salvaged from neighborhood BBQ qrills.

Publicly organizing a town or large group? Good way for the organizer to lose their OPSEC. Encourage someone else to be the front man while you stay in the background.

Retreat to a building? Two aggressors covering opposite corners of the building could keep the Retreaters confined to the building. The rest of the Aggressors have the freedom to R&R, scout and gather resources, the Retreaters don't have these options. The it's a waiting game on who can or is willing to outlast the other.
I don't think of the building as a defensive position so much as a shelter point that could be used to protect the elderly, frail, and mothers with small children. Keeping them accounted for, dry, and supplied with water and sanitation. In case of natural disasters, the junior high gym basement, being designed from the ground up as a fallout shelter, is ideal.

If mob violence were the problem, I'm sure plans would be made to prevent said mob from ever reaching that building. The entire school is of brick and block construction, and while it could be burned from the inside, it is also somewhat defensible using other elevated positions in the town.
 
I don't think of the building as a defensive position so much as a shelter point that could be used to protect the elderly, frail, and mothers with small children. Keeping them accounted for, dry, and supplied with water and sanitation. In case of natural disasters, the junior high gym basement, being designed from the ground up as a fallout shelter, is ideal.

If mob violence were the problem, I'm sure plans would be made to prevent said mob from ever reaching that building. The entire school is of brick and block construction, and while it could be burned from the inside, it is also somewhat defensible using other elevated positions in the town.

Yep.

That is referred to as a layered defence.

Layered defence is easier to do with a bunch of trigger pulling helpers - but it can also be done relatively shorthanded - if you have the knowhow and some key resources/materials.

Some General thoughts on security.....

During the expected "dying time" of any very severe crisis (WROL), you can avoid being over-run with some combination of the following:
1) Effective concealment - don't get found
2) Effective deterrence - look like you are hard enough to not be worth trying to crack
3) Effective detection - of the approach of enemy - to ensure you have all defenders "standing to" before any attack
4) Effective delay - until they get hungry, worn down or otherwise have to give up or;
5) Effective response - the cavalry arrives to harass the bad guys or just make them fight on two fronts

Regarding Defensibility of a Dwelling or Homestead
Each person will define/assess that differently through the lens of:
1) Their expectation of security threats in some particular scenario
2) Their knowledge of potential defensive measures that may be applied to some fixed position and specifically to a BOL
3) The capabilities of the material resources and people that they will have available
4) Their knowledge of offensive tactics and capabilities that may be applied against them
5) Historic SHTF scenarios and what people did to defend themselves (eg Rhodesia farmers) - and how effective those measures were.

Threats
To me, where the ROL is gone, unprepared people are starving and some individual or group of people (a family unit or larger) are living in a well resourced BOL, it would be important to be able to defend that group - ideally without any reliance upon help coming from the outside (because, while networks are great, they may not be reliable - especially if yours it not the only place under direct attack). Attackers may have superior numbers, military style small arms, soft skinned vehicles and military experience (there are lots of vets out there and most are not preppers).

Defensive Measures
Defensive measures may include:
1) Topography of BOL site - high ground with good command of the surroundings in all directions (out to typical small arms effective range of say 800m), absence of any dead ground that cannot be seen/covered from the BO dwelling/structure
2) Vegetation - cleared area (devoid of concealment or cover for an attacker to the same 800m distance)
3) Limited (single?) and well covered potential paths for approach by vehicles - use of barriers/obstacles to slow down vehicles to make them vulnerable to small arms fire
4) Use of detection devices to alert of any approach (foot or vehicle)
5) Use of wire and other linear obstacles (that act as barriers but do not provide concealment or cover) to funnel any approach into enfilade fire lanes
6) Use of rapidly expanding devices to clobber funnelled concentrations
7) Inner perimeter fence or wall around dwelling buildings/yard - using wire, sandbags, earth bunds, shipping containers, hesco bastion bags etc
8) Hardened walls, windows and doors on BOL/dwelling buildings that may use sandbags, steel plate, concrete, stone or thick timber to enhance cover - note that even concealment makes it harder to hit defenders - because they don't when to shoot where to get hits
9) Watch towers to elevate sentries, provide covered fire positions and eliminate any dead/shadow zones adjacent to inner perimeter walls etc
10) Covered paths or trenches between buildings and watch towers to allow safe movement between structures and reinforcement of sectors under attack

Resources/Capabilities
1) What guns do we have, how far can they effectively shoot things, how much firepower can they put out (and for how long), will they stop vehicles and how much ammo do we have?
2) How well can our people shoot?
3) How will our people perform under fire - are they experienced?
4) What happens if we are besieged? How long can we remain behind cover?
5) If we have people who are capable of offensive patrolling, how large of an area can we effectively dominate?
6) If we are going to send out patrols, do we have enough other people to act as a Quick Reaction Force to rescue the patrol if they get pinned down or take casualties and cannot exfil/break contact on their own?
7) Do we have an E&E plan for if we are overwhelmed?
8) Can we see in the dark?
9) Do we have enough people to cover sentry duty 24/7?
10) Do we have the resources to care for casualties - How many casualties can we absorb without losing defensive capability?

How well will we know our enemy/attackers?
1) Do we have a good intel network for our area
2) Will we get early warning from neighbors?
3) Do we have remote sensing devices like drones/night vision/thermal/PIR/cameras?
4) Will our patrolling include stealthy observation posts and recon patrols?
5) Do we have adequate and secure radio comms
6) Can we listen to enemy comms

Military Defence - in the field
1) Recon patrols - small, stealthy and lightly equipped - just out there to get information and report that back
2) Observation Posts/Overwatch Positions - semipermanent concealed positions often on high ground watching likely paths of approach
3) Ambush patrols - to destroy enemy before they get close
4) Fighting patrols - to destroy the enemy in their temporary bases - the best form of defence is often attack - particularly where it gives you the element of surprise and selection of the ground
5) Wire, mines, traps - to demoralize and harass
6) Pits, trenches, bunkers, sandbags, hescos, towers, concrete

Historic Civilian Methods Used
I have known several Rhodesian expats/refugees and I always took the opportunity to question them about what they did to defend their farms and how well it worked. All were pretty open once you showed you could think up sensible questions. While many published accounts focus upon what they actually did at their farm houses, the system that defended them was much more widespread and complex. They relied upon good intel from nearby villages and response from those same villages and the police, army and neighboring farms. In some ways, the farm house defences were just expected to delay the bad guys long enough for help to arrive.

They all made the point that as that response capability degraded towards the end of the war, so did their ability to fight off farm attacks.

Defensibility can be traded off against remoteness and concealability. It may be that some BOL that is not either remote enough or well enough concealed may be almost impossible to make adequately defensible without military resources or a big community group (that then can only be relied upon for as long as you can keep them fed).

If that is where you live, then you will need a good mobility capability to put distance between you and threats (if and when they arrive).
 
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I do have lists - each one is based on a specific threat assessment, which I update on a regular basis. The lists are similar to each other in many aspects, but each list has components related to the specific threat. 12 hours is a fair amount of time - time to run down the road to Wally World to pick up any last minute items, time to fill all the water bobs, pull out extra ammo, all kinds of things can get done in 12 hours! Unfortunately, 12 hours doesn't give my son and daughter in law time to get here from Oregon, but it gives them time to get on the road if possible!
 
What do y'all think about roadblocks/barricades? I'm of two minds. 1.) Can be effective at keeping vehicles full of bads out. 2.) Tells vehicles full of bads that there's something worthwhile on the other side of the roadblock...

To me they only make sense if you're somewhere that you wouldn't care if anybody knew you were there - like cordoning off a small town or neighborhood...
 
What do y'all think about roadblocks/barricades? I'm of two minds. 1.) Can be effective at keeping vehicles full of bads out. 2.) Tells vehicles full of bads that there's something worthwhile on the other side of the roadblock...

To me they only make sense if you're somewhere that you wouldn't care if anybody knew you were there - like cordoning off a small town or neighborhood...

If they are going that way, they already THINK there is something worthwhile, wether there is or not. A barricade just says that whatever they think is there, they are going to have to fight for it.

I am very much of layered defense school of thought, my outermost layer is ten miles away at a mountain pass and goes inwards from there.

My layers are not meant to be successive walls that fall one after another, each one is meant to accomplish some level of deterrence, with the idea being that all of them combined lead to very few threats actually showing up at my own walls. None of them are meant to stop 100% of threats from getting through except the last one.
 
If they are going that way, they already THINK there is something worthwhile, wether there is or not. A barricade just says that whatever they think is there, they are going to have to fight for it.

I am very much of layered defense school of thought, my outermost layer is ten miles away at a mountain pass and goes inwards from there.

My layers are not meant to be successive walls that fall one after another, each one is meant to accomplish some level of deterrence, with the idea being that all of them combined lead to very few threats actually showing up at my own walls.
My thinking is, if you barricade your farm driveway, for instance, you may be indicating that your place is worth checking out. You are also likely barricading yourself in, to a point, although that may not necessarily be true. If you were to barricade all the road entrances to my little town, it makes more sense, because there's four hundred houses to check out and loot, whereas one farmstead might be a waste of time...
 
What do y'all think about roadblocks/barricades? I'm of two minds. 1.) Can be effective at keeping vehicles full of bads out. 2.) Tells vehicles full of bads that there's something worthwhile on the other side of the roadblock...

To me they only make sense if you're somewhere that you wouldn't care if anybody knew you were there - like cordoning off a small town or neighborhood...

Yep - they require some thinking.......

Firstly - they only fit for a quite severe crisis - WROL

Secondly, they need some sort of consensus among those on your side of the barricade. If that is access for lots of people, at least some are going to be unhappy about keeping friends/family out - so be prepared for dissent.

If it is just a private road for you (and maybe a few neighbors) then it will be much easier to achieve 100% support.

I would not be too worried about what a barricade might "tell" the badguys - with no barricade they will be able to drive in and see for themselves.

If the ROL breaks down, local barricades are likely to be common.

But as I posted above, layered defence is generally required for barricades to be effective.
 
My thinking is, if you barricade your farm driveway, for instance, you may be indicating that your place is worth checking out. You are also likely barricading yourself in, to a point, although that may not necessarily be true. If you were to barricade all the road entrances to my little town, it makes more sense, because there's four hundred houses to check out and loot, whereas one farmstead might be a waste of time...

I didn't want to pull this thread too off topic...but this is a rabbit hole I've gone a long way down and if invited....:)

The outermost layer, as I have mentioned, starts ten miles away with the idea of reducing the total amount of 'zombies' that could come up from the nearest city, from tens of thousands, to hundreds....and putting them on foot.

Just doing that reduces the chances of any of them deciding to choose the one random dirt track that leads to my place rather than any other, without giving any indication that should be even looking for one. Ten thousand people searching an area will probably find every nook and cranny. Five hundred in the same area could miss a lot of places.

This is something I could do all on my own, if I had to, but which I expect will be a community effort.

My driveway is the middle section of my defense in depth. From the outside in, the first defense is concealment. I will conceal the spot where my driveway meets the county road so that it does not appear as a driveway but rather just a gate in a horse pasture. A quarter mile in from that is a small bridge, which I will remove. This puts anyone coming up on foot after that point. Another quarter mile up the road, is the first obvious fortification, a heavy gate, which in SHTF will have a warning sign. Casual refugees, not looking for a fight, will turn back at this point. Anyone else pushing through will still not know what is ahead, but I will know they are coming at this point as they will have crossed my detection perimeter and everything between that gate and my place will be a fight for them.

Having an obvious, and hostile perimeter will also give me 'piece of mind' that anyone past that point isn't just a casual explorer, but in fact, a threat, with a will to trespass. I do NOT want this as an outer layer because as you say, it would attract attention. But at a certain point, there is no hiding and you need a hard NO at some point or you will end up having to kill a lot of people. My thinking is that there may be a huge number of such people with the idea to 'head to the hills', people who are not equipped or seeking a fight or conflict, but because of my concealment efforts, will not even know they are approaching private property. Giving them a chance to turn back or go around could save a lot of unnecessary 'badness' from happening.

The innermost are is an obviously fortified complex with walls, trenches, and guard towers, designed to project threat to anyone close enough to see it. At that point there is no more hiding, its a battlefield which I have designed to favor myself. Because of thick cover, this is truly close range area. Someone just passing through the woods could walk within 100 yards of my place and never know it was there, but once they do....it will pose a visual threat.

In the simplest terms, my layers of defense are Diversion/Delay, Concealment, Detection,Deterrence.
 
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My thinking is, if you barricade your farm driveway, for instance, you may be indicating that your place is worth checking out. You are also likely barricading yourself in, to a point, although that may not necessarily be true. If you were to barricade all the road entrances to my little town, it makes more sense, because there's four hundred houses to check out and loot, whereas one farmstead might be a waste of time...
If we felt the need to barricade the driveways, hubs could just take the excavator down and push some trees over the end of the driveway making it look like a natural blockage caused by a wind storm. We have considered putting a gate up, but gates are easy to breech simply by cutting a chain or a lock. Besides, we are in and out of here so much that it would likely be more of a PIA for us. We have the equipment to clear downed trees in no time flat and we also both have chainsaws and know how to use them. If it was an EMP we were preparing for, that might be a different story. But, we'd probably still do it b/c at that point bikes would be our primary mode of transportation and we could still get in and out with those. And, with an EMP, we're staying put. The barrier just makes it more difficult for folks to get in here and take stuff out. It doesn't mean that some day (if things got a little more desperate) that extra barrier would stop a theif, but it gives us some time and a warning b/c removing a barrier like that wouldn't be a quiet chore.
 
My thinking is, if you barricade your farm driveway, for instance, you may be indicating that your place is worth checking out....

I think the same as you.

Out in there middle of the country there is a house that sits at least a quarter of a mile from the road. House sits behind a rise and only part of the roof is visible from the road. Most passerbyers would not have notice the house IF it wasn't for the 8 foot wrought iron with bricked pillared posts even twenty feet and the electronic gate at the front of the property! Since this is the only property fenced like this it stands out like a sore thumb. Makes me wonder what they are protecting!

If an Aggressor finds only your road and/or only your drive block, wouldn't curiosity make the Aggressor want to find out why?

Remember. Any barricade not manned or lost to an Aggressor becomes cover for the Aggressor.
 
There are many spots on the road to our place where it would be easy to start a small rock slide. Would look natural enough and would slow people down.

As far as a driveway gate or barricade, instead you could leave it open to funnel the intruders into one spot and have things there ready for them. But I would make sure there was no way for vehicles to enter.
 
I feel the best intermediate defense is to offer cover to an attacker. A stone or earthen berm with home made mines embedded would be a good deterrent. They could be triggered electrically from a control post and present little danger to those inside the perimeter. Sensors put in place will tell you which mines to set off and having multiple mines in each fire zone will prevent "dead zones" in your defense.
Roads or trails can be defended with a combination cratering charge and aerosol detonations, again triggered electrically. Moderate power lasers can be used to blind, temporarily or permanently, making attackers impotent. These are all things that are easy to make and require little effort to place and use. Self triggered devices like rakes, leg hold or mines are not a good idea because they are indiscriminate devices. To some effect a hazmat sign with a few carcasses in the area beyond may make an impression on any would be threats.
The idea behind this sort of defense is not having to fight an aggressor, instead let their mind do the fighting for you.
 

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