Perimeter Security

Can They Get In Without You Knowing?

I've got a 6 ft. tall chain link fence around the back yard (came with the house, but was a selling point).  Each gate has a sturdy lock on it.  It's not going to keep out someone who is determined to get in.  But it might send them to an easier yard instead.

Before Y2K I lived in a rented farmhouse on 250 acres with about a 200 yard driveway with a corn field beside it..  The "backyard" was about a half acre backed up by thick woods.  The side yard was a fallow field of about 75 acres that backed up to more woods.  Behind the woods was an operational area for an Army training base.  If the SHTF for Y2K, I had distance points marked on the driveway with wooden posts, about a foot high, plain wood facing the road, bright red paint facing the house.  That was for knowing the distances for taking on attackers coming down the drive.  We also had an old POS Lincoln Continental that we planned to use to block part of the driveway.

I had several spools of heavy monofilament line that I planned to to use to string tanglefoot obstacles and fishing hooks at various heights, all along the woodline behind the house, about 5 to 10 feet back from the edge.  I also had mousetraps with shotgun blanks ready to set up along obvious paths (maybe I need to do a video about building and setting those up).

In retrospect, that was probably a lot of overkill, but had TEOTWAWKI happened, we would have been ready to set up perimeter security relatively quick.

But what about now?  My fence and locks make my yard far more secure than the vast majority of folks whether in the suburbs, or even out here in the country.  If the economy continues it's downhill slide, though, I need to be prepared for setting up a better line of defense.  There is really only one way easy way into my property these days, and it is up the driveway 100 feet or so to the front door.  My dog is pretty good about alerting us to someone pulling in the drive, but he is a hard sleeper.

The MURS radio systems offers perimeter alert transmitters, handheld two-way radios and base stations.  For less than $400, I can pick up a vehicle detector, wireless transmitter and base station.  I can add handhelds units as I see fit.  That would ensure I knew that someone was pulling in the drive.  That's probably something I need to save up the cash for.  It would be good to have even during "good" times so we don't get surprised.  If I was back in the woods with a handheld unit, it would let me know that a visitor, welcome or not, arrived at the front.  Long-term, I'd like to put a fence around the front yard (not quite as ugly as the 6 ft. chain link) with a lockable cattle guard gate across the drive.

If an emergency arises before I get all that done, I need a plan B to secure my driveway.  Something easy to set up and take down, and room to give friends and family to pull in and honk the horn to alert me before they set off the "alarm."  I think the mousetraps/shotgun blanks with paracord might be the trick.  Keep in mind, this is ONLY during a SHTF situation, not for this weekend.  I'd set them up in a series to make sure that they would go off, and have multiple sounds to ensure that we'd wake up if it were late at night.  Even though they are blanks, I need to be sure to have them set up so they would be dangerous to someone if they went off accidentally.

This ended up going in a different direction than what I had in my head when I started typing, but I think this is the way to go.  I'll try and get a few test ones built this weekend and shoot a video on it.