What are you doing to hide or protect the supplies you have accumulated? I'm sure most of us work outside our home....as time gets closer the DGI's are going to become GI's & may not have the money to buy what they need or it may not be available.Then they are going to start looking & we will be the targets for break-ins.I expect that to be a major problem this summer & late fall.You can't just quit work & stay home...if your preps are like mine it takes up a tremendous amount of space.Luckily I live on a farm & have lots of room...but we are also isolated & that presents a problem now,but will be an advantage later.

-- Raven (Raven@deepwoods.com), March 20, 1999

Answers

My husband works away from home but I am here all the time. Our food preps are all stored in a dark cool bedroom. The TP and that sort of thing is stored in a large storeroom in our house. It was built to be my weaving room but the looms are now folded up against the wall and I have lots of shelves. But it has 3 windows and a skylight so is a warm room whereas the bedroom has one window and 3 inside walls. I keep the blinds down on the window. As for protecting it, we have guns and we know how to use them. There is a 410 on my husbands side of the bed and another out in the kitchen area. Both are loaded. We have no children to worry about and our friend's children are all grown and gone. I wouldn't think twice about shooting someone if they were breaking in. But if they knock on the door, I will most likely give them some beans and corn meal and oat meal. If they are truly hungry, they will be grateful for that. We have a large gun safe and its full of guns, some cash, gold, etc. However we have a small safe that has some cash and copies of important papers in it. So if someone holds a gun at our heads and says where is the cash/safe, they will get that one. The other one is behind a false wall and they would not see it. But this is an area where we are sure open to suggestions. Dogs are great, but they can be poisoned or shot too easily. We keep our border collie in the house at night. She will let us know if anyone is trying to get in. What a hell of a way to live and we aren't even there yet!

got string and tin cans to tie across the doors?

-- Taz (tassie@aol.com), March 20, 1999.

There's always someone here, we have security alarms throughout the house. I'm more concerned about when and if the trouble begins because for sure you'll have to do something to protect your property. I don't want to shoot anyone, but if it's between me or them, it's going to be them. We live in a neighborhood watch area with a few retired people, that helps too.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), March 20, 1999.

Well, I won't be posting or lurking for at least a week. The family decide that I am suffering from "forum fever".

All I did was suggest that we paint all our white buildings camoflage so they blend in with the woods and then get white tarps or sheets and paint bare trees on them to put up in the snow season.

Sounded reasonable to me! Oh well, maybe I do need a rest....

-- y2klady (y2klady2@aol.com), March 20, 1999.

We have security alarms also, that will work well as long as there is power. I like the idea of string and tin cans :)

-- linda (smitmom@hotmail.com), March 20, 1999.

If you live in the country....the best watch dogs are geese. They are very territorial and honk like crazy when their space is invaded. They also attack, so be careful with small children. They keep down bugs, help mown the grass and are all in all not bad to eat if if gets down to that.(g)

-- Cary Mc from Tx (Caretha@compuserve.com), March 20, 1999.

If you put a few pebbles in those cans, they'll rattle nicely. Store canned goods in large boxes, impossible to carry off. Keep boxes of supplies taped shut, mark "photo albums," "business card collection," or whatever. Keep toilet paper in boxes in garden shed, mark "plastic pots." Of course, you'd better have a good memory or keep a master list, otherwise you'll never be able to find anything.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 20, 1999.

Weelllll,

We have "an extreme backup" weapon we keep in a plastic baggie inside a bucket of *used* cat litter.

Jolly

-- jollyprez (jolly@prez.com), March 20, 1999.

Cary MC--

If you live in the country....the best watch dogs are geese. They are very territorial and honk like crazy when their space is invaded. They also attack, so be careful with small children. They keep down bugs, help mown the grass and are all in all not bad to eat if if gets down to that.(g)

Are geese fond of any garden produce? Do they have to be kept out (fenced out) of gardened areas? I'm also wondering how vulnerable they are to wild predators (fox, wolf, the occasional bobcat...)

Mr. K
***Thinking geese would be a good farm addition...if they don't eat my munchies****

-- Mr. Kennedy (y2kPCfixes@MotivatedSeller.com), March 20, 1999.

This is an interesting question. If the SHTF and I need to set up a paremeter around the house I am considering using a 12V Battery powered electric fencing unit. I can think of several places to put this system, and the noise generated by a "hit" would give me some early warning to decide how to handle the threat. Has any one else given this a thought?

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), March 20, 1999.

D-Con looks a lot like oatmeal. Heard what people are looking for now and have seen in the police action section of the paper as being stolen are generators! Saw two listed last week as being stolen.

-- readyeddy (readyeddy@eddy.com), March 20, 1999.

I love the cat litter idea. I had to offer two grandparent stories: my husband's grandfather emigrated from Germany in 1939 with all of his wealth intact. How? He hid the family silver in the baby diapers. My grandmother, during the Depression, saved cash that my grandfather made working overtime and hid it in different places throughout the house. Then my grandfather's union went on strike for 3 months and the cash was all gone. C'est la vie!

Jeannie

-- jhollander (hollander@ij.net), March 20, 1999.

Motion detectors on the outside of your house can have a transformer wired to them that turns on a bell or buzzer inside of your house. Also GE makes an inside motion detector that runs on batteries that makes a very loud siren noise. People don't know if they are wired to the police dept or not.

-- SCOTTY (BLehman202@aol.com), March 20, 1999.

We are going to put a few "gun-traps" around.Old gamekeepers trick for scaring the hell out of poachers.Not sure exactly how you would build one but it involves a trip wire setting off a falling weight which explodes a gun cartridge.Details can be supplied by "He who must be Obeyed"....on occasion.

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), March 20, 1999.

How about some of that yellow police tape with professional signs attatched saying,"QUARANTINED//CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL//U.S.GOVERNMENT"

Gov should be good for something.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), March 20, 1999.

Mr. K,

>Are geese fond of any garden produce? Do they have to be kept out (fenced out) of gardened areas?<

Its a good idea to fence in all garden areas from all sorts of critters. Geese love nibbling young sprouts as do all sorts of domesticated animals.

>I'm also wondering how vulnerable they are to wild predators (fox, wolf, the occasional bobcat...) <

Fowl are one of the stupidist beasts there are...Chickens being first, and turkeys running a close second. Chickens are notoriously asleep in the hen house when predators come calling. Once turkeys and geese are of an adult size though, very little messes with them.

>***Thinking geese would be a good farm addition...if they don't eat my munchies**** <

Another good farm addition, and easy to raise are goats. They're better than a bush hog, cheap, and also good to eat.

-- Cary Mc from Tx (Caretha@compuserve.com), March 20, 1999.

I'm revisiting some past ideas for the newcomers. There is a lot of good information in those archives.

Disconnect the wires at your door bell transformer in the basement and hook them to a 9 volt battery. This makes the door bell work. If not, replace the door bell with one of the 9 volt high frequency tone alarms available at Radio Shack.

These same alarms can be operated using a microswitch instead of a door bell button. Depending on the application, you pick one of many designs, again all available from Radio Shack. These microswitches may be held open by weights, tension, etc. A tug on a cat gut trip line can pull a rock off the switch, operating the alarm. One such trip line, going through rings, pulleys or what have you, could possibly completely encircle your property. You might have two trip lines operating two switches, one going to the straight tone and the other going to the warble tone, to indicate where the trip came from.

Me.

-- Floyd Baker (fbaker@wzrd.com), March 21, 1999.

i live in town. i am concerned about the possibility of hazardous materials incidents requiring evacuation, so i will have supplies outside of town.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), March 22, 1999.