Preparedness for when

BessieBooBoo

jk0 wrote: »

The American story, 'The Day the Dollar Died' mentions that the local ham radio guy's house looked the same from outside, but inside he had plywood behind the curtains to keep out stray bullets.

I have been thinking about making some similar boards in case of riots, that would slip in behind battens fixed to the window ledge & top reveal.

Could anyone tell me if I am better off visibly protecting the house, (boards outside), or invisibly (boards inside)?

Hi jK0

Just from what I've read, I would put boards inside the windows, i.e. keeping a low profile and not advertising it too much. Maybe I'm just paranoid! No proper research on this, just personal preference. E.g. if you are boarding up because of riots/weather warning, it might seem to others that you have evacuated already, so, might be a temptation to looters? Oh dear. My paranoia is definitely showing....

BBB

GreyQueen

Hmmmm.

I'd try to get a crime prevention officer out for a visit, if your police force offers that service. No need to divulge your concerns are what might happen in a SHTF situation rather than everyday burglary. Bearing in mind their advice, you might want to go about things a few different ways.

If your house is done up like Fort Knox and this is visible from the street, you might be targetted. The Bosnian blogger Selco wrote about his experiences of being under seige conditons for the best part of a year in a town surrounded by enemies.

There were a lot of lootings from homes inside the town as people turned on each other in desperation. Places done up with high walls and security shutters were targetted first and broken into.

I think it's wise for all of us to maintain a degree of discretion about what we do, IRL as well as online. I have some preps which are most definately not up here on the thread, not because I dislike or distrust any of you but who knows who else is reading along? And where that might end, in a disaster?

Americans refer to making your home more secure in a crisis (or before a crisis, ideally) as "hardening" it. Perhaps some internetting would turn out valuable information.

Broadly speaking, look very hard at all your exterior doors, groundfloor windows and any windows upstairs which can be accessed by climbing onto something such as a tree, a lower roof, the wheelie bin. Imagine you were aiming to burgle your own home. Can you get around the back out of sight of passers-by and take a crowbar to a French door or kick another door in? Are windows made of a size which would be easy to climb thru?

Do you have re-inforced door frames? Most doors and frames will yield to a good kicking, you don't have to be Bruce Lee to put a door through. There are steel-reinforcements around, have been around for years. Sometimes called "London bars". A Police officer told me that they're favoured by drug dealers and the polis hate them as they even stand up to battering rams.

You could look at having "welcome mats" cut to fit each outside door and have them wide enough so that anyone approaching couldn't reach the door without standing on them. You might want to investigate some very thorny rose varieties, or shrubs, to plant under windows.

I hear what you say about concrete block paving, but for those thinking about adding hardstanding, gravel is a good option. You can't walk quietly on gravel and burglars don't like it for that reason.

I'd also want to look at things I have outside the home which could be picked up and hurled through a door or window. Do you have concrete garden ornaments or substantial patio furniture which could be hurled? Is there a ladder in an outbuilding and could it be used to gain access to the house itself?

Heh heh, think like a villian. If I had a whole house, I think I'd get a dog. Even small dogs can alert you to badness attempting to get into your home.

[Deleted User]

GQ sound advice, I feel that keeping a low profile in the first place and keeping any preps to myself would be a sensible move, I think you're right that anything very obviously 'defended' or boarded up and locked tight would be the first place to attract attention. We live a fairly simple life so I think the things others are seen to have would make them a more likely target for looters rather than scruffy old us. I may be wrong, and in a prolonged emergency situation no one and nothing would be immune from the problems besetting all of us no matter what preparations are made and precautions are taken. I hope I never find out though, Cheers Lyn xxx.

elaine241

Hello everyone, phew! been reading for ages to catch up! as usual a really interesting mix of prepping , foil hat comments and of course Bedsit Bob being naughty!

Really nice to meet S_Wales_Saver in the flesh! Wizzed into the library, picked up a strange zombie book that took my eye and there was Dor serving on the counter. Hopefully a fellow forager for joint foraging in the future.

Actually Dor, I found a loaded apple tree (not ready yet) by the Pontnewyd roundabout and loads of good blackberries by Coed Eva school.

Well I have been preserving, jamming, bottling, salting and freezing all my lovely garden produce and any YS bargains I have found. The fruit this year has been great and I have loads stashed away. ALso home made wine, creme de cassis, sloe vodka and straightforward cassis. In a SHTF situation I wont die of scurvy but I may develop a drink problem!:rotfl:

The french and runner beans are also excellent this year so I am freezing and experimenting with salting in jars. If I see another courgette I think I will scream! there is only so much you can use them in, courgette icecream anyone?

One thing I have noticed is it is a very early year for all the field mushrooms, usually they appear in September but I have been picking them for the last week. I have also spotted them on road verges and grassy open parks but feel a bit odd walking around picking them ( I got over it although I did keep my head down!) I have also spotted jelly ear fungus and chicken of the woods growing on dead wood. I avoid chicken of the woods as it can be hallucinagenic and I am mad enough!! although in a SHTF situation I'd be cooking it and washing it down with homemade booze! Drunk as a skunk and high as a kite what SHTF zombie apocalypse? just the pink elephants flying by!!:rotfl:

I have taken delivery of my new [STRIKE]toy[/STRIKE],[STRIKE] kitchen gadget[/STRIKE] vital prepping equipment, my new dehydrator. I will have a go at drying YS fruit and any surplus from the garden/foraging. I am experimenting with other forms of preservation apart from the freezers (3) as I do not want to rely on electricity or the generator for all my supplies. As my OH commented a lot of my meat is walking /flying around keeping itself fresh at the moment!!

One other prepping first for me has been breaking my horse to harness! although I wasnt too sure of what to do or even how to fit the harness properly. We have got to the stage where he pulls the cart round the fields really well although I havent plucked up courage to venture onto the road. He is excellent in traffic when ridden its is just gathering the courage to go with the cart.

As it has been wet I have been reorganising my cupboards and listing my supplies. I seem to have been building up quietly with plenty of pulses, pasta, rice and tins to back up my frozen and preserved items. I am not really prepping for a full out SHTF more of a snowed in/lost power/ sudden loss of job scenario. I have got enough food to last a good few months and a spring to provide water. My candles supply has been building very well with CS, Bootsales adding to my stock. I have wind up torches and parrafin lamps through out the house (well they look pretty as well as functional). My wood pile is huge as we always prepare for winter with several tons of wood stacked in the cowshed. I feel more secure when I know we will be warm whatever comes our way.

I would like to thank all of you for giving me the ideas and impetus to start prepping & being more organised it has improved my life and sense of security. I feel with my preps and BOB, emergency supplies in my car and my get home bag that I am prepared for most situations that may come my way (OK maybe not the zombie apocalypse! LOL)
Thankyou all for just being on this forum and making me realise that I have to take responsibility for my own future and possible survival, that TPTB probably wont be there as we hope and that I am not really in need of a tinfoil hat just the right sort of nutters to discuss things with!! :T
Take care everyone ELaine

the_cake

Hi Elaine
Wow, you do sound keen and organised!
Just a couple of words about breaking your horse to harness ... I've done quite a bit of driving (mainly show horses - hot as hell!!) but also normal(ish) stuff. The two most important things you can teach your horse are Whoa and Stand. Important when riding, but could be absolutely crucial (as in life-saving for you and/or your horse) when driving, especially on the road. Many car drivers have no idea about horses these days, and can be stupidly dangerous. However quiet your roads, you will at some point meet an idiot; your horse needs to trust you and obey absolutely. Also, put a LARGE hi-viz sign on the back of your cart. Sorry if you already know all this, but I liaise with the police on horse-related incidents where I live and am a bit evangelical about safety .... Also, you should avoid driving on your own; whenever possible, take a friend with you. HTH; don't mean to sound bossy!!!

GreyQueen

Wow, Elaine, you've been breath-takingly busy. And so nice that you've met a MSE-er in the flesh.

Re driving your cob on the road, would you have blinkers on him? I notice that the travelling types in this city who tool around in small carts always have blinkers on their horses' bridles.

Have you got anything fitted to the cart to make it more visible on the road? I was thinking along the lines of reflectors or hi-vis, perhaps a hi-vis waistcoat work by you as the driver? And/ or modifying reflectors designed for pushbikes or car warning triangles. I used to have a bicycle trailer and had those on it.

If/ when it becomes difficult to source petrol or diesel, a horse trained to pull a cart will be a godsend. You could even do light haulage for money as a second-string income in an economic downturn.

My Dad used to work with carthorses as a farmboy in the 1950s. They were obsolete for ploughing or harrowing but the older farmers saw out their horses' working lives with light haulage around the farms. He's told us how if one of the horses wasn't going to be needed for work and was being left in the yard when the others went out, it'd kick up a helluva fuss as didn't they like to be left.

One of the chores still done by horse and cart was to take the pig feed up the top fields. There was only one horse which could put up with having squealing porkers milling around its legs, a miserable old nag called (imaginatively) The Pigman's Horse. I've seen photies. TPH had a foul temper and would manage to bite your hand unless you held it by the noseband.

One thing I do recall Dad saying is that the farmboys were told never to let the carthorses go into their stable with their harness still partially on, in case they got stuck in the door. It was also a fear that if the animal had been shown that it could go in when still harnessed, it might try to get in the stable before the cart was properly detached.

You'd lead them outside to harness, offer up the collar upside down, holding it by the hanes, and the horses would lower and extend their necks to have the collar put over their heads.

Once on, the collar would be turned the right way up, settled on, and then the traces etc attached. These were proper carthorses, big old things with names like Bessie.

jk0

GreyQueen wrote: »

I'd also want to look at things I have outside the home which could be picked up and hurled through a door or window. Do you have concrete garden ornaments or substantial patio furniture which could be hurled? Is there a ladder in an outbuilding and could it be used to gain access to the house itself?

Thanks GQ. That has given me pause for thought. Although I hide everything else, I have two earthenwear pots with small conifers in outside the front door.

These used to be in plastic pots, but they kept blowing over. How could I secure them in place (short of screwing them to the ground)?

Also, it just occurred to me, even my brick pavers could be missiles if someone managed to get one loose. OMG!

GreyQueen

jk0 wrote: »

Thanks GQ. That has given me pause for thought. Although I hide everything else, I have two earthenwear pots with small conifers in outside the front door.

These used to be in plastic pots, but they kept blowing over. How could I secure them in place (short of screwing them to the ground)?

Also, it just occurred to me, even my brick pavers could be missiles if someone managed to get one loose. OMG!

Don't panic, Captain Mainwaring! Don't panic.

Terracotta is brittle. If you threw a pot at a door, the pot would break and the door wouldn't. If you threw one at a window, it'd likely sail through, breaking itself in the process. The only good thing to note is that each pot would be a one-throw deal.

I'm sure I've seen pots secured to walls with a shaped metal band which went around the pot like a collar and then attached to the wall. This would only really work on a pot which had a "waisted" shape so that they couldn't simply be lifted out the top. Not sure if this is something which was run up in somebody's workshop or if they are made commercially.

Yes, your pavers could be levered up and hurled. Cobblestones are traditionally used this way in riots. However, to prise them up you'd need a tool like a spade or a pry bar, and if you had one of those at hand, wouldn't you just go for the door with that?

Conservation of energy applies to human beings as well as animals. People will look for the easiest option at all times. You need your home not to be the easiest option of those available.

So, a little discreet hardening and a lot of extreme discretion is what I'd recommend. Even a bit of deceit. There's no law to say that you can't have a Beware of the Dog sign on your gate or door. Even if you don't have a dog. Some of them even have cartoons of particular breeds with the words I LIVE HERE. Needless to say, you can choose one of the big & scary breeds not a Peke.

Heck, you could even choose to have a recording (on something battery powered so will still work in a powercut) of a big dog in a barking frenzy. Would you want to break into a house where it sounded like Dogzilla was on the other side of the door waiting to make you into a chew-toy?

One older woman I know who lives alone operates the Royal We. She always refers to Us when talking to strangers. She has a man's jacket and cap hanging on the hall coathooks, and a large dog's bed below. Both visible when the door is opened. You'd see the clues and think there was a man of the house and a pooch of the house and that it was a big pooch, given the size of the bed. She also walks alone in the countryside swinging a short but very strong leather and chain dog lead. You must assume, if you don't know better, that her dog is a big one and not far away.

If bluff fails, she's planning to use the heavy dog lead as a personal defence weapon.............:rotfl:

jk0

GreyQueen wrote: »

Don't panic, Captain Mainwaring! Don't panic.

Terracotta is brittle. If you threw a pot at a door, the pot would break and the door wouldn't. If you threw one at a window, it'd likely sail through, breaking itself in the process. The only good thing to note is that each pot would be a one-throw deal.

I'm sure I've seen pots secured to walls with a shaped metal band which went around the pot like a collar and then attached to the wall. This would only really work on a pot which had a "waisted" shape so that they couldn't simply be lifted out the top. Not sure if this is something which was run up in somebody's workshop or if they are made commercially.

Yes, your pavers could be levered up and hurled. Cobblestones are traditionally used this way in riots. However, to prise them up you'd need a tool like a spade or a pry bar, and if you had one of those at hand, wouldn't you just go for the door with that?

Conservation of energy applies to human beings as well as animals. People will look for the easiest option at all times. You need your home not to be the easiest option of those available.

So, a little discreet hardening and a lot of extreme discretion is what I'd recommend. Even a bit of deceit. There's no law to say that you can't have a Beware of the Dog sign on your gate or door. Even if you don't have a dog. Some of them even have cartoons of particular breeds with the words I LIVE HERE. Needless to say, you can choose one of the big & scary breeds not a Peke.

Heck, you could even choose to have a recording (on something battery powered so will still work in a powercut) of a big dog in a barking frenzy. Would you want to break into a house where it sounded like Dogzilla was on the other side of the door waiting to make you into a chew-toy?

One older woman I know who lives alone operates the Royal We. She always refers to Us when talking to strangers. She has a man's jacket and cap hanging on the hall coathooks, and a large dog's bed below. Both visible when the door is opened. You'd see the clues and think there was a man of the house and a pooch of the house and that it was a big pooch, given the size of the bed. She also walks alone in the countryside swinging a short but very strong leather and chain dog lead. You must assume, if you don't know better, that her dog is a big one and not far away.

If bluff fails, she's planning to use the heavy dog lead as a personal defence weapon.............:rotfl:

Thanks GQ. Fantastic ideas. Actually I already have two of these electronic dog alarms, but they aren't very realistic:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guard-Dog-Intruder-Security-Alarm/dp/B002ZNAANC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376505464&sr=8-2&keywords=barking+dog+alarm

[Deleted User]

fuddle wrote: »

My question is how many fuel cans would you suggest to have for power outages? I know, how long is a piece of string!

It obviously depends on the setting of the gas tap, but I understand you can get around 2 hours from a 250 gram C250 cartridge.

However, for home emergency use, I'd suggest one of these instead.

They're much more stable, when using large pans, and the gas is far cheaper, at about £1 for a 227 gram cartridge (that's £2-20 per 500 grams), compared to at least a fiver, for a 500 gram C500 cartridge, to fit the Pocket Rocket.