Posted on 07/13/2015 8:20:26 AM PDT by PROCON
Best deer fencing is several strands of fishing line strung between posts. Deer get spooked and back up when they come in contact with it. They can’t figure out what it is. And they won’t jump over it because they can’t see it.
I’ve planted a huge hedge of Jerusalem artichokes to block visibility of my garden from the street. Thieves aren’t likely to know these 6 ft tall yellow flowers have potato-like edible roots that are quite tasty!
Intermingling flowers that repel deer and rabbits, while attracting bees and butterflies, is also a good way to disguise food gardens.
Also you can train vines—cucumbers, beans— to grow on trees to make them blend in, less obvious.
I grow tomatoes, peppers, and spinach in pots right by my kitchen door, less accessible to thieves. Bigger crops for keeping and canning are in the garden, with various disguises and security measures.
I’ve aimed deer cams at my fruit trees. I’ve also placed a couple of Discrete little sign IN the orchard: Smile for the Camera-You Are Being Recorded.
Got a video of neighbor kids hauling ass, which I showed their mama.
Kids got a whuppin’.
That said, don’t make your security measures obvious.
My ex-neighbor had 2 attack trained dogs, and a handgun he displayed visibly in a shoulder holster. He made a point of “putting the word on the street” that he had a gun in every room. He placed a large hand painted sign in his front yard: HALT! INTRUDERS NOT WELCOME! IMMEDIATE ARMED RESPONSE! On his back gate, a picture of a handgun, pointed directly at the viewer with message: NEVER MIND THE DOGS, BEWARE OF OWNER. He also had a self-recordable motion activated alarm system. Whenever a squirrel moved, my neighbor’s recorded voice could be heard bellowing: YOU ARE TRESPASSING! LEAVE THE PREMISES IMMEDIATELY. This guy was the neighbor from hell.
The neighborhood stoop sitters watched this guy carefully. They noted that he visited his girlfriend on weekends, taking his dogs and sidearm. So first they stole the front yard sign. I heard it was in somebody’s living room, a YT souvenir.
Then they silenced his motion detector with a slingshot or BB gun. (I admit I was secretly glad when he told me.)
One weekend they noted he was going to the beach. He placed his dogs and a beach towel in his car. He was wearing shorts and tank top. No shoulder holster. They noted, too, that certain neighbors who might phone 911 were also away.
They kicked down his front door, got his handgun and 6 long guns.
And my neighbor could not understand how this could have happened.
“Anyone living in Florida after Andrew hit knows how dangerous it is.”
Andrew hurricane:
I knew a man who was recently retired Green Beret, living in Florida and volunteered to go on a relief truck (food stuffs in back of truck with sealed doors) with another man to the Andrew destruction area. When they arrived and stopped where the people would get the goods, the two of them were surrounded with frantic/becoming angry, people trying to get in the truck with them, pull them out, storming the back doors on the truck to get them open.
Both men determined their lives would be in danger if they got out of the truck, so they left. He said he would never again volunteer to do that.
People with no water/no food, go to their basic need to live for themselves and their family and they will get water/food any way they can even if you have to die so they can get it.
Selco, who lived through the Bosnian wars, said cigarette lighters were in high demand and he lists them high on his list of items to have for barter. Also on his list was alcohol of all kinds, and coffee, small batteries, band aids, and soap for cleaning wounds and washing themselves and for barter.
People there were not expecting a war so they had very little in their house, but when they got up one day, war was in their streets.
Shopping there would be like it is in England. My son has lived in London for over 25 years. As I visited there over the years, I saw how people lived from day to day.
They had little food or drink in their houses because there isn't a lot of storage room in these houses. Let me say here that the house was like upper middle people live in - not those with little money. Space is limited as these houses go back to Victorian times, small, and stuck together on each side.
Most people have string shopping bags. Take those bags to the grocery which is likely several streets away and walk there. These grocery places are very small and expensive. Petrol (gasoline) is very expensive and great numbers of people have no car. They walk to the grocery several times a week. That is necessary as not many people have a freezer and have small and I do mean small, fridges. They may have two days of food and then go to the grocery again.
If you have a car, you can go to a “big” grocery store. Big over there is not like your Kroger and never like Walmart. They are larger than the little ones on a street, but none are like ours.
I always went to the big grocery to buy them food and one string bag full of food would be $100.
If anything shuts down England, there will be millions dead in a few days as food storage, for all people there, is mainly unknown. No storage area, no freezer, small fridges, walking to grocery to buy food for a couple of days, and doing it again in two days.
I was there one time when we were getting ready to go some place and I turned on the faucet - no water. There were two small bottles of water in that house - that was it. I cringed at the thought of them having no stored water - not even 4 or 6 or 8 or 12 bottles - just two small bottles. It was a couple of hours before the water came on again - why - no one knew.
“Item that jumped out at me was batteries being used for barter. I hope he’s purchasing rechargeables. Otherwise batteries have a shelf life and I’d guess within a year or so they won’t be worth their weight anymore. Am I wrong in that belief?”
Buy rechargeables for your needs and a solar charger to recharge them. Buy cheap non-rechargeable ones for barter (and even those are not cheap now but are much less than rechargeable). The non-rechargeable ones have a longer shelf life now, they will still be viable after a year.
Selco also says matches are good for barter.
The brand name ones have dates indicating probable shelf life. Stored in a cool & dry environment good batteries will last 5 years easily. I have some "D"s from 2010 that are still about 90% of full power.
I have some flashlights with LED bulbs and built in rechargeables that have a solar panel on the handle under clear plastic. I've had them at least 4 years and they work very well. Plenty of light and stay charged with little effort. And the LEDs are easy on the power consumption.
I have a small (really small) back garden with a fence. I have motion detector out there and an alarm sounds inside the house if there is motion out there. I have one front window (this is a townhouse) and it has a vibration sensor on it - if someone touches that window enough to vibrate it, the vibration sets off an alarm in the house.
The metal front door has no windows, has two deadbolts but doors can be kicked in, breaking the wood where the deadbolts are. I have a heavy duty iron bar that fits under the door handle and that strengths the door in that area so it would be very difficult to kick open. There is also a motion detector under the door and an alarm would sound if the door moved. I would actually hear the kicking on the door and be there in a flash with a 38 Ruger with laser to light my target.
The guy in the article has a couple of 30 lb seed packets. So when SHTF he can scurry to his plan B bugout location and “jump start” his survival garden. And have dinner on the table later that evening.
I wish him luck.
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