You don't have to have armor plating and barbwire topped fences to secure your home. You also don't need to have massive amounts of money to put into your homes defenses. All you really need is a few well thought out designs to make things difficult for intruders or in a shtf scenario marauders.
I have made a few such improvements to my home, some of which I will be sharing, but I won't be sharing all of my defenses.
The first tip, and it may be the most important, is concealment. You do not want other people to see your home as a more alluring source of resources than others. Don't stand out. So this means preventing others from seeing into your yard. My wife and I keep our front yard simple, avoiding anything that would attract attention, and you cannot see into our back yard from the front. or any of the sides. We also do not have the back yard accessible from the front, everything opens from within.
My internally locked gate as the only external access from the backyard to the front., unable to be opened from the front. It also has a surprise waiting for any one foolish enough to try to scale over it.
The only other fence into my back yard. I have a thorned bush planted that will make it even harder to scale.
The next tip that I strongly encourage is to make efficient use of obstacles to your more vulnerable points. Like bushes under your windows, or in front of your external cable and power access points. You can also plant vines to help as both an obstacle and a method of concealment. And I have said it before in other posts and I will say it again, multi use preps are the best, so if you are planting vines or bushes, it may be nice to have them as grape vines or berry bushes, get food from the defenses as well.
So I have gone over both concealment and barriers, now I want to stress the importance of locks. If you have a door leading to the outside then you should at least have a deadbolt on the door. If you are paranoid like me then you will have deadbolt, regular door knob locks, and even a lock bar. And it is not enough to have the locks, but you must actually use them. So many people have doors with multiple locks and just lock one, and to them I ask what is the point? I use all of y locks and I am always looking for better ways to secure my doors and windows. Also if you have a garage then you should invest in a garage door lock, this will provide an extra level of security so that the garage door cannot be forced open. If you have a sliding glass door then you will want to make sure that you also have a bar or piece of wood that fits securely in the track to prevent it from being pried open.
Here is an example of a small sliding door lock.
Lock Bar
Cheap and simple way to lock your garage door.
The next security upgrade you can do is something that would prove valuable in a shtf scenario, let alone defending against a simple burglar, and that is to invest in shatter proof window film. It is kind of like a window tint where you are able to roll a film coating over a window that prevents it from shattering. They come in varying strengths, even strong enough to stop small arms fire. I will include a link to a website that sells the film at the end of this blog if your interested in looking into it a little more.
Window Film
Another big defense, that would more or less be prior to a shtf scenario would be lighting. Thieves and home invaders do not like attention and love the shadows. Motion sensing flood lights, or simple porch lights make your home less inviting to home invaders. These are relatively cheap, and I have even invested in solar powered ones I purchased from Amazon. I have included a link to one such light at the bottom.
Now the last form of home defense that I am going to talk about is probably my wives favorite, and that is, dogs. Now when you think of getting a dog for home defense it doesn't have to be a large Rottweiler or German Shepard, in fact, as much as it pains me to say it, even the little yappy dogs like terriers or chiwawas will do. The presence of a dog is a deterrent in and of itself. When a stranger is around then dogs attract attention, they have better senses than humans so they act as an early warning device, and the larger ones can even act as a family protector. Not to mention they can be the best and most loyal prepping companions a prepper can have.
My brothers husky wolf hybrid, and the other two are my doberman american bulldog mixes.
Stay prepared, stay alive!
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Window_Film/Solutions/Markets-Products/Residential/Safety-Security_Window_Films/
http://www.amazon.com/Sunforce-82156-Solar-Motion-Light/dp/B0052SF0LO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1403203981&sr=8-3&keywords=solar+power+lights
Oh man, the last form of home defense is just so much maintenance though! ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat will happen if I try to scale over your gate?