Security on your homestead for when SHTF

[Dani]

Rural fencing is for keeping stock in (or out), not two legged predators. At my rural retreat I'm slowly stockpiling 44 gallon drums. Place strategically outside areas of the house you want to harden (windows, bedrooms, doors, other ground floor firing points), fill with dirt, even plant low growing herbs or vegetables in them if you like.

The drums are either free or very cheap, the dirt is free, and you have a ballistic barrier around sections of your house. Combine with sensor lights and/or dogs for early warning, practice you response to attack, have a secure fall back location and plan.

At my retreat I have drums of supplies ready to bury in the hills behind my cabin. They will get buried almost immediately if I bugout, so that I have a fallback option if it looks like my retreat is about to be overrun. I won't lose all my supplies, and will hopefully have enough to sustain my group until we retake my retreat or find somewhere else.

"Rural fencing is for keeping stock in" if you are lucky. We have a bull that will run thru even if electric on occasion when we have moved a new to be cow to the front pastures.

 

[Illini Warrior]

about 10 acres, convenants prevent barbed wire

not much land out there that's unincorporated anymore - it's all been grabbed by one municipality or another >>>> you have all kinds of zoning laws that come into play - even the county would have a zoning law against barb wire usage in a residential area - any "covenants" that a HOA has takes 2nd place

 

[DrHenley]

not much land out there that's unincorporated anymore

Maybe not in Illinois, but it's a different story in many other places. And not just out west either.

 

[Mountain trapper]

"Rural fencing is for keeping stock in" if you are lucky. We have a bull that will run thru even if electric on occasion when we have moved a new to be cow to the front pastures.

A bull will go where a bull wants to go. My bull has been missing for about a week now. I go out twice a day looking for him and have covered many miles. I've got a plane on standby for this weekend if I can't find him today.

 

[firewallsrus]

This doesn't have anything to do with fences, but one successful aspect of camouflage is hiding in a spot where seekers wouldn't think you could be hiding. Speaking of bulls, the Carson and Barnes circus spends their winter off season a few miles from me in rural Oklahoma. Several years ago one of their elephants wandered off and was not found for a couple of weeks Looking at that territory in winter, you wouldn't think something as big as an elephant could keep hidden, but it happens.

 

[Dani]

A bull will go where a bull wants to go. My bull has been missing for about a week now. I go out twice a day looking for him and have covered many miles. I've got a plane on standby for this weekend if I can't find him today.

Think I'd be checking any neighbors with heifers first. . . If you have a good bull, they probably won't mind having the "free service". Cows here are always bred this time of year with calving happening in the early fall to spring. It's too dangerous on the calf to have a summer birth if dark in color. They overheat easily in our weather. You might be different there.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Think I'd be checking any neighbors with heifers first. . . If you have a good bull, they probably won't mind having the "free service". Cows here are always bred this time of year with calving happening in the early fall to spring. It's too dangerous on the calf to have a summer birth if dark in color. They overheat easily in our weather. You might be different there.

I've got the word out to the area ranchers and I think I've got the search area narrowed down to a few thousand acres. When I went out this morning I found some range cows in a small valley a couple miles north of here. I'll go out again soon to look some more.
Most of the cattle around here have local owners but some are shipped in from out of state to graze in the mountains.
Our bull is a high quality registered Red Aberdeen, and pretty valuable.
Most calving here takes place in February, March and April. Calving that early has it's risks due to the weather but it gives the calf a head start on the summer flys.

 

[Illini Warrior]

This place has covenants?

Personally, I think HWY 20 would be a more likely escape route for refugees leaving Chicago than say I90. Not those two specifically, just that any small highway leaving Chicago would be a better route than the Interstate corridors. Small highways would still be easy to follow, offer a pretty straight line of travel, and would have lots of scavenging opportunities. If I were desperately leaving Chicago, I would not take the Interstate system. Maybe as a first step, go to where you think the majority of the people you think will be a problem are, then try to decide if you were them, where would you go? How would you scavenge and where would you start? Where are the first easy pickings?

Your defensive needs would also depend on where you are. Elgin is a lot different than Carpentersville, IMO, even though they aren't that far apart.

Anyway, if your beginning homestead is in a suburb with covenants and an association *shudder* then there isn't much you can do right now. If I had to stay there, I would plan on getting to know the neighbors, and having a couple bigger dogs, and try to pick some places with the best view of the property, places you could sit and watch out for problems. 10 acres is big, but doable. Sucks though, room for growing food and having chickens and rabbits, but hard to defend because of the location and current rules.

It would take a real horrific, long term emergency to send hordes out combing the countryside, I think. Me, I would focus on food stores and sustainability, and armed defense, before worrying about ****y traps, or fencing. There really isn't a fence good at keeping out people, not when they access to tools and time. I wouldn't be against a nice hedge to hide the property from view. No need to have the garden on display.

if your place is incorporated into a municipality - they aren't "covenants" - zoning laws are usually been accepted from the standard BOCA book of codes - the overalls are accepted and possibly some of the sub-codes where they make sense for the locale ....

if the property is incorporated - you're not rural - you have neighbors that have to be considered >>>> thus the codes - keeps things civilized and maintains everyone's property values ....

 

[Illini Warrior]

Maybe not in Illinois, but it's a different story in many other places. And not just out west either.

don't get your regional bigotry fired up >>>> didn't say Illinios - that poster was talking a specific urban area that rings the greater Chicagoland area - that's HUGE $$$$$ per home building lot - large continuous acreage that can be sub-divided into lots could run upwards of $250,000/acre - people are buying up 2-3 older homes and tearing them down for one large new building lot ...

 

[lonewolf]

my garden area is behind a large shed and behind 9ft high solid fencing, post SHTF I will be adding pointy anti burglar fence strips to the top of the fences, not legal now as burglars may hurt themselves and I would be legally responsible for any injuries.