How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It - James Wesley Rawles [78]
If you can afford to buy a large parcel of land, I recommend a layered defense that is adaptable to changing circumstances—all the way up to the dreaded “worst-case” societal collapse. Install your seismic intrusion-detection sensor in the outermost layer. This gives you early warning of approaching malefactors. If it would not look too out of the ordinary in your neighborhood then you might consider planting a “decorative” thorny hedge around as much of your perimeter as possible, and installing a gate across the bottom of your driveway. The gate should have a spiked top to discourage gate jumpers. Make the hedge and the gate the maximum height that you can without being branded as the poster child for paranoia. Any access roads should also have a MURS-frequency Dakota Alert (or similar) wireless IR-beam motion detector. Then, depending on your situation, you might want a screen of trees for concealment. Next, some open ground, then a tall chain-link fence. Then more open ground close to your house and outbuildings. This area should be crisscrossed with tangle-foot wire. Lastly, thorny bushes beneath each window, and beefy steel shutters.
Even well-manned retreats should supplement their guard staff with both dogs and intrusion-detection systems. Reliable night-vision gear is also a must. But please note that technology by itself is insufficient. Intrusion-detection, communications, and night-vision technologies are force multipliers, but you still need underlying force. It takes 24/7 manpower to defend a retreat. I describe how to set up and man LP/OPs and a CQ desk in my novel, Patriots.
Now, getting back to concealment: There are advantages in most situations to adding some “privacy-screen” trees to block the view of your house from any regularly traveled roads. Depending on the lay of the land, leaving thirty yards of open ground (for defense) and then another ten yards of thickness for the privacy tree screen will probably necessitate a property that is at least ten acres.
Some fast-growing screening-tree varieties include Portuguese laurel (Prunus lusitanica) and Leyland cypress. In cold climates, Lombardy poplars do well. A continuous hedge of all the same tree variety will be perceived as an obvious man-made planting at just a glance, so it is best to plant a mix of trees with semi-random spacing, to make your screening grove look more natural.
Regardless of what you decide to do in terms of concealment, be sure to leave at least twenty yards (sixty feet) of open ground for last-ditch ballistic defense. To impede intruders, think in terms of gates, cables, and “decorative” berms to stop vehicles. A chain-link fence will keep your dog(s) in and at least slow down the bad guys.
Keep some concertina wire or razor wire handy, but do not install it in pre-Schumer times. This wire should be installed only after it is clear that law and order have completely broken down. At that point appearances and pre-Crunch sensibilities won’t be nearly as important as a ready defense. In fact, odds are that when your neighbors see you stringing concertina wire, they will ask if you have any extra that you can spare! You can install concertina wire or razor wire on the top of your fence, and if you have plenty of it available, add some staked-down horizontal rolls just beyond your fence.
Both inside and outside of your “last-ditch” fence, you can crisscross some tangle-foot wire. This type of wire is designed to slow down attackers—preventing them from charging your house. It should be strung at random heights between nine and forty inches off the ground. This is just one of the last layers of a layered defense. Every second that your various obstacles slow down attackers represents one more second available to stop them ballistically.
Chain-Link Fences for Incremental Retreat Security
Shortly after TSHTF, a chain-link fence can be quickly upgraded with a course of coiled razor wire fastened to the top, but only if you’ve bought the wire and mounting hardware in advance. It is also important to buy a couple of pairs