If things get bad, surround your house with a barbed wire fence

Just a suggestion for the good folks out there. It wont be that pretty for your house but it will be a major deterrent to people trying to break in during hard times and especially if order is lost. Don't leave out a supply of barbed wire and fencing in your preparation for the coming hard times. Combine this with always having somebody up and on watch, your stuff should be safe from any burglars unless they drive in on a bulldozer or something, lol.

Let's hope they don't have a Bangalore Blade otherwise you're screwed.

Barbed wire...pff!

Home-made Land mines!

Trip wires, turrets, and video surveillance!

Sniper rifles, light-weight tactical fire arms!

spot-lights, grenades, attack dogs!

Now that's protection!

Would it not be simpler, more visually appeasing and low key to surround your house with plants like Berberis, Firethorn etc, it has exactly to same effect as barbed wire but maintains your low profile.

a perimeter with a fence and barbed wire is nothing without a couple of loud dogs for a roving alarm..My m9 bayonet has a nifty function of a wire cutter built in that has cut holes in fence to get to the other side

I would prefer drive way alarms in the 4 corners of my property that send a signal to a chime in the house when the beem is broken..the hight is adjustable to keep from false alarms from doga and cats,and is easily concealable in schrubbery..

or you could always make up a landmine so to speak that sets off a 12 gauge flair..fairly esy to make if you think a bit..

[edit on 8-3-2009 by Redpillblues]

if in trouble, pack your car up with your goodies and camp in the hospital parking lot. long as there's a hospital, there's security, a sink and a toilet (and vending machines where your quarters and dollars are still good for a little while, anyway). before they kick you out, go to next hospital parking lot. they won't let the hospitals go under.. ..they might need them. oh and convert your car to renewable energy lol soon.

live by water in a fairly decent climate? fish! make a fishing pole if you have to. get a long stick, some string, bend a piece of strong wire into the shape of a hook, attach it to string with some bait on the wire and have at it.

if it gets real bad, the ocean is going to have a lot of beach camps.

[edit on 8-3-2009 by undo]

Originally posted by undo
if in trouble, pack your car up with your goodies and camp in the hospital parking lot. long as there's a hospital, there's security, a sink and a toilet (and vending machines where your quarters and dollars are still good for a little while, anyway). before they kick you out, go to next hospital parking lot. they won't let the hospitals go under.. ..they might need them. oh and convert your car to renewable energy lol soon.

Aye and after Sit X hospitals will also be full of folks with lots of different contagious diseases.

reply to post by Northern Raider


5 dollars at a drug store will buy an entire box full of surgical face masks. good investment for any time, not just in a crisis.

oh and buy a campground sticker now, so if you need to, you can evacuate to the campground. you can get into protected land before the problems escalate. won't be roaming gangs of thieves that far out for a long time. might be one of the safer places for a couple weeks, anyway.

reply to post by Shakezoola


hell yeah.

no scrawny barbed fence, we're talking riots and un-patrolled streets...
fortify the house, trap the yard, make a block (or more) wide fortification and watch points at every corner. Stock up on rifles especially fully auto, when the shtf fyi you can get an ak-47 for 60-80 dollars. ammo is harder to get a hold of though, i'm thinking you can make your own with the right supplies, tools and craft.
it'll go guerilla warfare style in the cities and suburbs.

and one more possibility... get a boat with, at the very least, a canopy to shade you from sun/rain (if motorized, might want to consider having the ability to row it with oars/or sail it, if needed -- which may determine the size and model of it since some motorized boats and sail boats would be too big to row -- fuel will be a problem unless they have solar powered boats?). buy one of those devices that creates clean drinkable water from thin air (they come as small as a counter top version and as big as huge tanks for entire villages),
www.treehugger.com... and a portable solar panel to run your electronic gadgetry (like the water thing, a lap top, a cellphone and a fan?)
www.earthtechproducts.com...
. you can fish off the side and sail out of troubled areas. most people dont have boats, and will not want to swim out after you, especially if you are on the ocean. there will eventually be problems there as well but you can bet that won't be right away either and by then you could be off the coast of some unpopulated shoreline. big lakes work as well, although not as safe from other boats, a remote lake would be good, especially if you know it has a good stock of edible fish and low pollution.

one of the problems with eating only fish is scurvy. one way to resolve this is vitamin c. another is to eat citrus fruit, which might be a bit difficult while on a boat, so bring some TANG drink mix if you can stand the taste -- good storage item and laced with vitamin C

--- p.s. oh and buy duplicates of the water thing and solar panel thing, dig a hole somewhere on a remote shoreline and bury them in a water proof container, like captain' jack's rum. if one of your devices kicks the bucket, you'll have a replacement. if you lose your boat, you'll still have those items waiting for you in your "rum" stash.

[edit on 8-3-2009 by undo]

Originally posted by Northern Raider
Would it not be simpler, more visually appeasing and low key to surround your house with plants like Berberis, Firethorn etc, it has exactly to same effect as barbed wire but maintains your low profile.

Definately a better alternative...any of the Pyracantha family of shrubs produce vicious thorns and planted under windows, around either side of the doors, etc will do the same job

To really up the defenses, say, if the threat of burgalry increases drastically, noxious substances such as manure or other can be sprayed onto the bushes so any thorns that scratch an intruder carry an additional septic-wound hazard

Rolls of barbed/razor wire will just scream "goodies inside" and make your home a focus of unwanted attention

Nettles, lots and lots of nettles!
Rose bushes...
Poison Ivy/Oak...

and of course theres always the "Let the plant grow around the barbed wire trick!"

Hey lets rob that house!
No way man you hear what happened to Larry?
No, what?
He tried to get in and those suckers have like razors in their bushes man! Larry bled out like that Saw movie dude! Then they just let the dogs eat him!!!
Oh man! Let's get out of here.

Lol, you guys .. oh, and gals too, ha.

When the SHTF, you best get the heck out of town and find some nice safe comfy hiding place WAY out in the middle of some forest or cave up in the mountains. Keep a bug-out-trailer or RV loaded with all that you'll need to survive for at least a year and just get away when things start getting ugly. I don't care how much barb you run around your castle, a few molotov cocktails tossed over your primitive defenses will reduce all your plans to ash in a matter of an hour or less. Find a remote place close to some source of water and bug out there and lay low with your provisions and loved ones and just wait it out until half of humanity kills itself off. You do not want to be a sitting duck. HIDE!

When we fenced off part of our property to keep the cattle away from the house I transplanted cholla and prickly pear cactus all around the perimeter of our fence mostly to keep stray dogs and coyotes out. The cactus grows fast and is easy to transplant. The prickly pear is short but it has tough 2-3 inch needles while the cholla stand taller.

I have been thinking about electric fence it is solar powered and a ranch woman told me she was out one morning walking through the pasture the grass was covered in dew when she got within a couple feet of the fence she received a pretty good jolt that knocked her to the ground. I believe these fences have settings depending on what type of livestock you want to keep in or what predators you want to keep out.

Set in boards firmly in the ground that have many very long wood screws driven into them points up. Do a few rows and cover with straw, dead grasses or cactus. You could post signs warning of booby traps but that's up to you.

reply to post by Novise


May I suggest defense in depth? How you ask? Get to know the people that live around you. See if they are like minded and what their capabilities are and what their mind set is. Where we live all the lots are 2.5 to 1 acre in size, all of them are fenced in barb wire due to the open range cattle. Around us are cops, former cops, three families that I worked with or worked with their fathers, hard rock miners, teachers and some retired people. There is one group at the end of the road that is no good and could pose a problem. Almost all are armed, many have horses, some raise goats or sheep for food. Most every one raises a garden. All the houses to the west and south of us have their own water wells like we do. Lots of big dogs also. Most if not all hunt. We ran off the street gang that was tagging on our street, a bunch of old men with guns on their hips spray painting over their tags and they got the idea.

A lot of people in our town are stocking up. Food, camping gear, gas cans, guns and ammo. Three weeks ago a guy I work with called me and asked for advice on a hand gun. I took him out and let him shoot some of mine, worked with him a little and made sure he was safe. The next day he bought two handguns. I took out a friend with one of my rifles and showed him it was easy to hit a 12 inch steel plate at 400 yards, he has asked me to set up his 30-06 for him. One of the women at work, about 45 years old bought herself a 20 gau. auto shot gun and put 700 dollars of food away. Another woman just put away $500 in food.

We don't talk a lot about what may happen but this town is getting ready, they just don't know what for. A number of people have asked me about my "urban logging" and putting up fire wood. It has gotten to the point that I bought a gas powered log splitter. My doctor bought a semi auto M4 and is getting ready. The welder down the street said "if the power goes out I will use my welder as a light plant".

Mind set of the people here is very good. An example is this past labor day. At one of the local bars a gang member walked in and shot two other gang members, a guy in the bar pulled out his CCL pistol and killed the shooter. The cops told him good job, no charges, and no we will not be releasing your name.

Originally posted by Divinorumus
Lol, you guys .. oh, and gals too, ha.

When the SHTF, you best get the heck out of town and find some nice safe comfy hiding place WAY out in the middle of some forest or cave up in the mountains. Keep a bug-out-trailer or RV loaded with all that you'll need to survive for at least a year and just get away when things start getting ugly. I don't care how much barb you run around your castle, a few molotov cocktails tossed over your primitive defenses will reduce all your plans to ash in a matter of an hour or less. Find a remote place close to some source of water and bug out there and lay low with your provisions and loved ones and just wait it out until half of humanity kills itself off. You do not want to be a sitting duck. HIDE!

If your planning on taking enough gear in a trailer or van to last a year, then every Kg of cargo capacity is going to count. Rolls of barbed wire will just take up valuable load space at the expense of other vital gear.

A large carrier bagfull of the pyracantha or other thorned bush seeds can be taken instead...when you get to your long term wilderness hideout, get planting and growing your own sculpted natural defenses...would keep deer or other animals away from any cultivated crops too

Something as simple as digging pits to the size of an average dustbin and and lined with black bin liners to fill with run-off rain water for long-term storage, can be arranged to give a defensive pit-fall / moat capability as part of a passive and hidden defensive measure

Fires and molatovs in particular would be the biggest hazard in either environment though

Originally posted by citizen smith
If your planning on taking enough gear in a trailer or van to last a year, then ...

I've been planning for this for the last 43 years, and I've been getting ready for all this since around 2004, and I think I've got it all covered, including back-up alternative plans. Now, one can't really plan for every contingency, such as medical emergencies, but I do believe that I am well enough prepared to live without any external requirements for at least a year, and probably up to two years now.

Fences won't be required where I will be bugging out to. Nobody will even know where to look for me, let alone want to go through the effort of getting there (you'll need air transport at minimum, there ain't a road within 50 miles).

Barbed wire has the unintended consequence of trapping you, and announcing to someone that you have 'something special' to protect.

Assuming things get that bad the last thing one would want to do is attract attention, So if barb wire is a option for you, instead of lining your whole perimeter with it and attracting that unwanted attention, just bolt it up inside windows and such...


They'll be in for a surprise when they try and crawl through your basement window at 2am and its dark...