Buggin In

[moocher]

for me its a case of large family 7 kids ,3 stepsons 2 of which are autistic and my 4 kids who are under 7 years old.the youngest being my daughter whos 1 in january,
i have a vehicle that can carry us all but enough supplies as well is doubtful.

we would be a soft target on the road so would prefer to stay put .

[centralscot]

I really don't fancy bugging out, my primary plan is to bug in. We have a reasonable supply of food. We grow a lot of veg, unfortunately a lot of our own grown food is stored frozen so we will rely on electricity, however I have a diesel generator and quite a lot of keroscene so I could run the freezers with our own intermittent supply for a while, medium term we grow our food, and storage needs to be improved. Long term we need to produce our own seed.
We have a wood burning stove and scavenge for wood if needed.

[the7ps]

Forting Up ?

Always planned to. No way can we afford to maintain a separate BOL, the house and prep. The past few years of prepping have been aimed at Forting Up and the house and garden reflect that choice if you know what too look for.

3ft thick stone walls. Slate Roof. No foot access to the ground floor from the street. Only door at front of property is on the first floor. (weird but love it).

Rear access is through a rather strong gate system. Including drop bar.

Neighbour next door built a wall between us with a 16ft drop onto my property. (wow did he do me a favour)

Water source close by, area not prone to flooding etc.

1200 sq ft of garden. Garden drops down from the hose. Fruit bearing trees. Raised Beds, large green house. Also long enough for small archery range.

Meh.

Ogre, can I have your full postal address please. I always thought the local castle was a good bet but seeing this, I'm sold...

[cyclops]

I have no choice but bug-in. As a single parent with 3 under 15's (10,12,and 14) I would rather keep the situation contained and defend if it came to civil disturbance. Having said that I know most people on my street and it could be classed as semi-rural as basically the only thing I can see at the back of my house is a 399mtr hill which is 300 yds away and the next major stop over that is Sheffield about 25 miles away over the Pennine peaks and lots of peat bog. Have a look at Wildbank Hill on Google images to get the idea. I no longer drive as I had to hand in my licence (medically unfit because of eyesight), so the only option I would have is stealing transport but that makes us fair game on the open road,etc. So I would rather bug-in and keep with what I know than take risks into the unknown.

[Ogre]

Ogre, can I have your full postal address please. I always thought the local castle was a good bet but seeing this, I'm sold...

Er after careful consideration i'm afraid we we at Ogre central are unable to grant your request at this time. However, if your anywhere near Swansea in a '28 Days later' or 'Zombie Land' scenario. Please make your way to the 12 floor office block opposite the main station. I know its in a city, but damn it's defendable and the surrounding streets are also easy to block off.

My argument against Bugging Out here.

http://survivaluk.myfreeforum.org/about551.html

My argument for Forting Up here.

http://survivaluk.myfreeforum.org/about552.html

[the7ps]

Blimey, AA route finder says thats 586 miles from my house. I thought the local military camp was far, but thats a different story!

[Ogre]

Damn, just realised my links don't work. Shenna's locked the site down because of libel probs some of the american sites were getting. At the moment we're members only. Sorry about that.

[notrab99]

We plan to stay put for most outcomes. We do have a caravan in storage in the country but my worry is that we would come back to find someone else had setup home in our place and we'd have lost everything. Forting up gradually seems to be a good idea. Replaced the fence panels last year with 6 footers in place of 5's (supposed to have permission for this) and blended them in with a dark stain. That in itself gives loads more privacy. Next job is to link adjoining panels with wire so you can't slide them up. Over the years have planted conifers around the back garden edges which again blocks people looking in. We have a gravel front and side to the house which you can hear people walking on which gives good notice of visitors approaching. I'd be happy to sacrifice the oldest car to block off the entrance to our close. Biggest worry though is fire. I saw a video of a prepping 'expert' and they asked him what he would do if the tables were turned and he needed to get preppers out so he could take their kit. He said he would use a weapon that would allow him to keep a safe distance (even hidden) and introduce some fire or alot of smoke to cause panic.

[the-gnole]

Which panels did you go for? We changed our 4 ft fence made from old pallets for a 6ft one a few years back, used concrete posts and concrete to hold them up, but we avoided the cheap and cheerful larch lap panels they are far too easy to almost walk through, we also need to think of a system to bolt the panels together to stop them being lifted out, and maybe some carpet gripper strip on our side to stop people putting hands over to lift themselves up.

[notrab99]

I didn't actually get to choose the panels but my friend who is a builder said they where good so I just handed over the cash, they are larch but have about 5 2"x2" strips across each panel. The previous ones I 'wired' together after footballs kept coming over and the kids sliding panels up. Just make sure the wire isn't along the top where it can be easily snipped. I also intend to keep some extra timber around to stregthen/repair the fence and gate if needed. I have a mortice lock on the gate and will fit a spy hole thingy - same for the front door and I've just ordered a security chain. This is not particularly hardcore prepper stuff just common sense that I didn't bother with in the past. One last thing I need to attend to is strengtheningthe front door, there's lots of glass in it due to the design.
Edit - just looked and they are more like 2"x1" strips