Category: Retreat Security

Jim, For those folks out there who are incorporating a door/window alarm system for their home as part of layered protection, it pays to personally check each window, door every six months to see if the connections still work. After having our home windows/doors/motion sensor-monitored alarm system for about six years built in new into our country home, we found recently that some of the window sensors didn’t work when the windows were opened. The monitoring company visited and said that as our home settled, some wires got pinched, some separated and it was not uncommon to have that happen. …

My mentor in the law, when asked to prove the depravity of man, produces from his pocket a common set of keys. He then asks, if men are not morally depraved, why he must lock his home when he leaves it. His belief in the common depravity of man is such that he (quietly) celebrates the fact that many of the lawyers in the office carry concealed sidearms, believing that the fact that many of us are armed makes all of us safer. Everyone who locks his door has taken the first step toward securing his home, but there are …

In a time where large machinery is unavailable because of fuel shortages, blasting becomes even more important. It is a viable means of clearing stumps, excavating, and clearing rock slides. Tannerite is available in the mail from Skylight Explosives. Tannerite a binary blasting mix which if prepared on site immediately before blasting, and requires no permit. Speak to Danny Tanner, a G-d fearing man, and friend to the small Jewish community in Eugene, Oregon. A  few years ago I took some 19 and 20 year old guests to shoot with Danny. You should have seen the look in the eyes …

Jim, One point that should be made regarding obstacles around the retreat such as ditches barricades etc. Be sure to look at them from the “other” side as well. You don’t want to give your adversary firing positions and areas you can’t put fire into. Ditches may keep vehicles out, but it gives the opponent some place to run to and get out of the field of fire. Walls, barricades, road blocks and other obstacles can do the same. Perhaps you can go into more detail on that later on. Enjoying your blog and learning quite a bit.Good luck! – …

Jim, As with any obstacle, roadblocks will only be effective if covered by fire. Also obstacles must be tied into the terrain and the overall fighting plan. Digging an anti-tank ditch across a road [in level country] won’t stop anyone if they can just drive around it. The French Maginot Line was a great obstacle, but the Germans just went around it. So any roadblock has to tie into other natural or artificial barriers. A roadblock that denies the only bridge that crosses an otherwise impassible river is a good example of one that ties into the terrain. However, if …

Hello James, I have been thinking back upon your novel Patriots and the importance the “spider holes” played.  That sparked another memory, one of discussion some time ago in the blog about blocking roads, one gentleman even mentioned dropping a tree across his drive if necessary. What would be a good, better, best barricade of the next four,… and what else could you suggest? 1). Dropped Trees/ telephone pole, logs, et cetera 2). Large boulders, (3′ on up) 3). Posts buried but sticking up to random heights 4). Some sort of a berm or trench In line with my first …

Note from JWR: The following letter is a reply to the excellent series of informative letters on various dog breeds that ran in December of 2005. Refer to the SurvivalBlog Archives for those letters. James: I would like to mention the cur breeds as dogs that could be useful in a retreat situation. The Blackmouth cur, mountain cur, catahoula, and blue lacy would all make good choices. These were the original homestead dogs, used by the pioneers to work livestock, hunt and trail game, and to protect the family from Indians, bandits, and wild animals. These breeds are still common …

Dear Mr. Rawles, Hi, just wanted to say I loved “Patriots” and follow SurvivalBlog religiously.  Thank you so much for your efforts on behalf of the survival-minded community. A bit about retreat dogs:   A dog is two things – what its breeding have made it, and what its training has made it.  You can’t separate the two.  You can give someone a dog that is ideally suited to a purpose, but if that person doesn’t know the first thing about training and socializing a dog, they will end up with a train wreck that will make their life and …

My uncle, a doctor, was living at a remote location in Zambia in the 1980s. They combined several mutts and a single barrel shotgun with watch geese to secure their compound. Geese are mean and very territorial they get noisy, waking the dog. Another option is several nervous yap-hounds to wake the larger dogs. Unfortunately, most of his survival skill was to throw money or hire someone to solve his problems so I managed to extract few survival gems from him.He paid over $2,000 [USD equivalent] in bribes for license and shotgun, I am sure he could have had a …

James: Dogs are something I know a little about. I’m glad to finally be of some potential help to readers. I have owned dogs, and raised dogs, for as long as I can remember. The dogs we have been blessed with run the gamut of breed, from German Shepards, to Australian Shepards and Blue Heelers, to Rottweilers and various hunting dogs ranging from English Setters to Redbone coonhounds to Plotts, to the dog I am going to recommend: The Drahthaar. As many have probably not heard of this dog, I have included a link so that it can be studied: …