Some thoughts about defending your retreat

Those that use preserve and build surveillance will be of significant value.
My plan is to have several teams, internal security, perimeter security and extended range security .
Also buildings at the perimeter that are wired for sound and can provide important information on invaders likely to be exploring them.
Microphones can be installed in trees and use solar panels to power their transmitters to security .
If I can acquire it I'd love radar to assist in doing surveillance and keep track of troop movements.

 

Do a search for break wire circuits. Simple schematics for 3, 9, and 12 VDC are available.

Here is a simple one:
http://www.circuitstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/wire-loop-alarm-circuit.png

When the wire is broken, a horn, light or even a model rocket motor can be activated.

A cheap motion detector for outside lights can be salvaged for other uses. High winds can drive you nuts with these.

 

Harbor freight provides wire less motion sensor alarms for driveways that are actually good for 300' or better I use them at my place .
Though they are battery operated, one could wire in a small solar panel to supplement their power, though the 9 volt battery lasts for months.
To prevent animals from tripping them I se a toilet paper tube to isolate the beam in one direction and held it in place with black gorilla tape .
In the olden days they made black powder alarms for windows but they are out lawed now, theoretically speaking though , one could conceivably build something using a .22 blank ,the ones used for driving nails in concrete.
How you would deploy such a thing is up to your imagination, booby traps are illegal so this method is strictly for post SHTF.

 

@duane I think you are saying something really important here. Its not what we prepare that will kill us, its what we don't know that will bite us.

 

Do you know what sight lines are or interlocking fields of fire or what fatal funnels are etc.??

If you don't; your retreat planing is missing something.

 

The Lakota and most of the other tribes found out how hard retreat defense is in the long run. If the opposition, who ever it might be, is supplied, and can keep you from resupplying, be it by growing food, hunting, salvaging, robbery , whatever, you may be in total control of your retreat, but you have lost and at some point in the future they will come in and remove your dead bodies. As the old poet put it "No man is an island" and it looks more and more likely to me that survival will have to be a community or group thing and you must have the ability to keep the opposition far enough back to let you resupply. If you really are interested in retreat defense, you must study the early migrations and settlements of the LDS. Their very successful communities in New England and the Midwest were both destroyed and they founded their own country, Deseret, in what is now basically Utah and even that was occupied by the government and they had to basically cut a deal in order to survive as a religion and group after losing what could have been a war. The only tribe to ever fight the US Army to a standoff was the Seminoles and they only won by living off the land and surviving in a very hostile environment and in small numbers and it wasn't worth the effort needed to defeat them.

 

Some good thoughts here,
I see the importance of having several squads as it were .
The internal ,like the local law enforcement , some that patrol the perimeter and those that do exploration (not raiding parties).
The explorers would need enough training to deal with survivors that have useful skills and willing for the discipline of a community .
Also the resourcefulness to separate and drag needed equipment home, or establish relations with other survivalist groups and create trade .
At some point some one (foreign or domestic ) is going to attempt to assert their authority over whom ever is left .
Building and maintaining peace and unification among other survivalists will be an important issue to be able to stand up against invasion.
If survivalists do not learn to organize, a prepared aggressive government will take over.

 

It has been a long time, typically a leg infantry squad was ~10 men divided into two 5 man fire teams. This varied by unit so some were a little bigger or smaller.
How do you propose to feed all these people?
The dream would be a couple of reinforced rifle platoons until I realized the amount food they'd eat.

Perhaps the "prepared aggressive government" just as well could be prepared aggressive survivors who want what your group has?

 

If you know your territory it would be prudent to plant trees and bushes that can be harvested by ones own troops.
IMO ,every time going to the woods, planting food for the critters , is an investment in the future.

 

@arleigh
Correct, planting fruit trees and berries would be wise. As would planting corn, and eat some while drying the rest to grind into corn meal. In time, learning how to can over an open fire or homemade charcoal also.

I need some help with how to make the heat even for canning; any takers???

Back to my original question. Pretending the 2 fire teams were trained; that is ten men and their families that require food, water, shelter etc. When I was in the military, they said for every trooper, it took 7 others in support. It's is a logistics nightmare.

Personally, I believe we would return to the early days of America; when neighbors would do their own thing and run to the sound of gunfire to help.

 

That is what I thought as she is the canning expert and I am simply the kitchen labor during canning; I asked and got she wouldn't. We have an electric glass top and she uses the single burner propane to can.

@pearlselby
As you posted a picture of canned food what are your thoughts.

 

Your right about logistics ,often we as civilians don't realize just how much goes in to supporting a soldier .
Silly as it may seem ,the reason uniforms are important is to recognize friend from foe.
some one has to build those ,and provide maintenance .
Providing food and medicine and communications and........ the list is endless ,,
Seems to me that every member of the community should have a role with as much risk/responsibility as every one else.
True survivalism cannot support dead weight.
The moment some one becomes exempt , people are looking for exemptions in every other way.
My answer to this problem is One days work receives one portion.
A days work would be determined by the standing group as a whole, and would evolve as the group grows or diminishes.
So a very large group might only need 4 hours a day from each individual doing group security, rotating shifts leaving the rest of the day to pursue a profession the community needs in a business .
The larger the group the greater its over all wealth, the smaller the group ,the poorer .
A portion is determined by the group but in essence one person's meals for the day, in the form of exchange like a coin.
The coin can be spent on food or saved in the event one becomes ill and cannot work .
This holds the door open for free market, in that if some one is a shoe maker, they and those that need shoes, can determine what there work is worth .
If there happens to be a second shoe maker people can decide who's work they prefer by what they are willing to pay ,half a days portion, or 3 days portion.
It keeps competition healthy and the standards of quality higher than they would be otherwise.
This also opens the door for elevating ones education in different fields so one can better them self if they choose to.

Any one incapable of working, is as a dependent on some one else's generosity ,much like a parent would share their portion with their children.
Some one waiting to join would not be allowed to work until they are cleared and approved by the community. they too would be dependent on a sponsor willing to sacrifice a portion for their food only.
Absolutely no one is required to be generous
Also , no loans no debts .
If one chooses to create a loan/debt and it is found out, the loan becomes a gift. the loaner looses.
This becomes an atmosphere of building a good personal reputations, and reliability, and community support .
And those that prove them selves to be a problem are dealt with by the community.

Sorry for the rant but I have been thinking about this a long time.

 

Te problem with that is that you are buying in "one days food" not spare funds. I personally hate the idea in general, and that system would in no way be a free market.

 

Low cost per unit to produce plays a huge role...much more than the wishful thinking that they are an identifier. If that actually worked, there wouldn't be "friendly fire" incidents.

As far as "defending my retreat" goes, I'm not going to go into too much detail, but suffice it to say that video, seismics, and electronic monitoring have significant roles as force multipliers.

 

As long as you have power and they are shielded which I assume yours are. Otherwise they are trot line weights.

 

@techsar
To @T. Riley 's post, I'll add as long as you have the excess power.

Our driveway is a couple of hundred feet long. The dogs growl at deer feeding at the end of the driveway. It consistently amazes me how they detect the deer.

 

How would you behave ,if most of the known world was reduced to the more primitive weapons and you managed to stumble upon some one that had modern surveillance still in operation.
Would you dare challenge them ?

 

I would. I'd prefer to be friends, but if I'm after them, I'm after them.