Elements of a Security System – Part 5, by J.M.

Observation

As I mentioned earlier, direct observation of an intruder approaching is another form of detection, but I’m focusing on situations where you may not be able to have eyes everywhere 24×7. However, if an alarm does go off you’ll need some way to get ‘eyes on’ to determine what caused the alarm without unnecessarily exposing yourself to potential danger. There are a number of possible options to enhance your ability to observe a potential intruder.

The simplest and most obvious option would be magnified optics, such as binoculars or a monocular, assuming you have a line-of-sight to the area where the alarm was triggered. I’m not going to provide a detailed overview of optics, but you should at least understand how they’re rated. Most optics have two numbers – a magnification and a lens diameter, so a 10 x 36 device would magnify what you see 10 times, and the objective (front) lens is 36mm in diameter. Magnification means how close the image appears to be, so 10x means that something 100 feet away would appear to be 10 feet away. For the objective lens diameter, the larger the lens the more light it gathers, so larger lenses tend to provide clearer views and work better in low-light situations.

There are a ton of factors that impact the quality and usefulness of optics, but the two rules I try to follow are a) get the lowest level of magnification that’s appropriate for the distance you need to view, since higher magnifications tend to reduce your field of view, and b) get the largest diameter objective lens you can afford, consistent with other quality factors. There are a number of good articles on SurvivalBlog.com about various optics – take some time and do some research. You may also want to consider setting up an elevated position like a hunter’s treestand or a widow’s walk platform to increase your viewing distance. This ties back to the earlier discussion about mapping and planning your security system to understand your potential fields of view in relation to where you set up your sensors.

For observing really distant alarm points or for locations where you don’t have any line-of-sight, you may want to consider getting a camera drone. These are available in a wide variety of capabilities and costs, so do some research before investing in one. Note that most reasonably-priced commercial drones have a limited flight time, typically less than 30 minutes, so they really aren’t that useful for general patrolling, but they’re perfect for a quick check-out of the location where a sensor was tripped. Practice guiding the drone to your sensor locations to get a feel for what landmarks look like from the air and typical wind conditions. Drones tend to produce a unique and noticeable sound, so try to avoid hovering over one area where an intruder can take a shot at it before you can see them.Continue reading“Elements of a Security System – Part 5, by J.M.”

Editors’ Prepping Progress

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

I was quite busy this week, preparing for the long drive to the Kalispell, Montana gun show. I will have three tables there, September 6-7-8, 2019. If you’d like to drop by to chat, look for three tables in a U-shape, with black table drapes, mainly populated with AR-15s and AR-10s. For OPSEC, no photos, please.

This week I also finished hauling limbs and a few rotted deadfall logs to four slash piles, and tarping them. This was in preparation for my planned burns, in late October.

I also assisted Avalanche Lily with the first phase of the potato harvest from our main garden. So far, we’ve hauled in about 275 pounds of red and yellow potatoes.  But I’m estimating that this is only somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of them.  It will be quite a crop, this year! I feel so blessed to have such a great gardener, as my wife.

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.

All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.

Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.

The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.

When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.

A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.

A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.

A just weight and balance are the Lord‘s: all the weights of the bag are his work.

It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness.

Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right.

The wrath of a king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it.

In the light of the king’s countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain.

How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!

The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.

The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning.

Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.

The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.

Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.

An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire.

A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.

 A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good.

He shutteth his eyes to devise froward things: moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass.

The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.:” – Proverbs 16 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday — September 6, 2019

1

September 6th, 1757 is the birthday of Marquis de Lafayette (often known simply as Lafayette), a French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War. He was a close friend of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. George Washington met him through his connections in the Free Masons and was impressed with him. After he offered to serve without pay, Congress commissioned him as a Major General and he was an integral part of the battles at Brandywine and Valley Forge.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 84  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  6. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 84 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Elements of a Security System – Part 4, by J.M.

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(Continued from Part 3.)

The second type of alerting – remote signal back to a centralized alarm console with a wired or wireless connection when the tripwire is tripped – can be a bit more complicated. In either case you can use something as simple as the clothespin switch to connect two wires to close the circuit, or to ‘press’ the button on a remote transmitter to trigger a relay that set off a light/buzzer.

Regardless of the use of local versus remote alerting, if there are any electronics or other components that could degrade when exposed to the elements (like primers, flares, etc.) used in your alerting device you should protect it. This can be a simple as placing it inside a plastic bag, covering it with a condom, or enclosing the alarm in a waterproof container. Run the tripwire connector out of the container at a slight downward angle to ensure water doesn’t run down the line and into the container, and paint the container to match whatever surface it’s attached to. Ensure that you have some method of easily attaching the alarm container to a tree or post – I bolt on vertical strips of thick plastic with holes drilled in them to the back of my alarm boxes so I can easily attach them using nails, screws, wire or zip ties.

If you’re using a local alarm like the personal noise alarm or a flashing light you may also want to consider installing it up high and out of the reach of anyone that trips it – that way they can’t quickly smash it, giving you more time to localize where the alarm is coming from. Use screw eyes to route the tripwire where you need it.

You can also trigger multiple signal types and combinations of local/remote alarms with a single tripwire. For example, you could tie the alarm end of the tripwire in a ‘Y’ and connect one tail to a clothespin that activates a remote transmitter and the other to an aerial flare that fires when it trips. This can be useful for creating alarms that will alert you in a wide variety of lighting and weather conditions – a flashing light might not be noticed during the day and a siren may be difficult to localize at night, but when combined the two provide a much better solution.

Tripwires also don’t have to be physical wires – you can also use lasers or infrared light to set up a tripwire. This typically requires a device or reflector at each end of the virtual ‘wire’, and some of them can cover a very long distance. I use an active infrared sensor part of my system to cover a row of windows in the front of my house (from the inside). Even though some of these devices are rated for outdoor use I’d recommend caution when doing so – heavy rain or snow, falling leaves, etc. can generate false alarms.

Continue reading“Elements of a Security System – Part 4, by J.M.”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at investing in Colt Competition Rifles. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Michael Gayed, over at Seeking Alpha: From Poor Man’s Gold To Rich Man’s Gold. Here is a key quote:

“Over the past three months, the silver ETF (SLV) has outperformed the gold ETF (GLD) as demand for the precious metal rises.

Gold/silver ratio has reached new peaks of 89.6, which suggests that a strong rally in silver prices is impending.”

o  o  o

“Pet Rock” Indeed: Bank of America Says Buy Gold As Central Banks Lose Control

Economy & Finance:

At Wolf Street: Near-Record Low Mortgage Rates No Relief for Dropping New House Prices

o  o  o

How the Ecommerce Boom Crushes “Mall Retailers” One by One

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Elements of a Security System – Part 3, by J.M.

16

(Continued from Part 2.)

There’s another potential option for alerting that could be categorized as ‘mobile centralized’ – it’s possible to set up a radio transmitter connected to a centralized console that would transmit a pre-recorded voice alert (e.g. ‘Alert in zone 3 North’) to a radio that you carry around with you. Some of the sensors I’ll be discussing later have this capability built-in, but you could implement a similar function using a Raspberry PI computer to monitor the sensors, connected to a RTL-SDR software-defined radio to transmit pre-recorded audio alerts. Implementing this would be moderately complicated and is beyond the scope of this article, but I’ve started experimenting with it and I may submit another article with more details in the future. (Remember that ‘never-ending project’ my wife complains about?)

Wired vs. Wireless Remote Sensors

When planning and selecting electronic remote sensors that trigger an alert back at a central console, you’ll need to consider how to get the signal from the sensor location to the console. There are two approaches you can take – wired or wireless. Wired tends to be more reliable, especially when dealing with long distances, but it does require that you purchase, run and connect the wiring, which typically means digging trenches and burying it for outside sensors or running it through walls for interior sensors. Longer wires can also impact the behavior of the system, since the electrical resistance will increase as the wire length increases and can vary with temperature, and longer wires can also act like antennas and potentially pick up interference from other electrical sources. Wired sensors tend to be simpler to design and implement, since the sensor can act like a simple switch that’s either ‘on’ or ‘off’ – you don’t need to worry about powering a remote sensor.Continue reading“Elements of a Security System – Part 3, by J.M.”

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — September 5, 2019

On September 5, 1774, fed up with the meddling of the crown and being mostly independant-minded, our nation’s founding fathers met together in the First Continental Congress, in Philadelphia, laying the foundation of what would become the world’s greatest nation.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 84  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  6. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 84 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

40

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at the planned intrastate private party transfer ban.

Senate is Fast-Tracking a Private Party Transfer Ban

The U.S. Senate returns from their summer recess in just four days. (Monday, September 9, 2019.) Reliable press accounts from inside the D.C. Beltway indicate that the Republican Senate leadership has rolled over and played dead, on firearms issues. They plan to fast-track a Red Flag Law and a Private Party Transfer Criminalization law. They might possibly also attempt a ban on 11+ round magazines, but that is unlikely to pass in the Senate. PLEASE repeatedly contact both of your U.S. Senators and your Congresscritter, and tell them NO Compromise on gun laws!

And as a realist on politics, I also recommend hedging your bets, as follows:

A.) Start checking gun show calendars. Get thee to a gun show!

B.) Lay in a supply of AR-15s and AR-10s for your children and grandchildren. If you can’t afford complete rifles at this time, then at least buy some stripped lower receivers. (As low as $29 each.)

C.) Start shopping for a few pre-1899 (Federally-exempt antique) Mauser, Winchester, or Krag rifles. If a Federal “Universal Background Check” (private party transfer ban) bill becomes law, then the prices of antique guns that shoot modern smokeless cartridges will surely escalate, rapidly. As I’ve previously mentioned, pre-1899s will probably soon become the last bastion of firearms ownership privacy.  Print out a copy of my Pre-1899 FAQ, for details on serial number thresholds, to make sure you are truly getting guns that were produced on or before December 31, 1898.

D.) As a lower priority, round out your lifetime supply of full capacity magazines. There might be a new magazine ban, and it will probably be permanent. (No 10-year Sunset Clause, this time.)

I’ll have more details about this in a feature-length article, next Tuesday. (September 10, 2019.)  It will be titled: 210 Days of Freedom: The Coming Private Firearms Sales Frenzy.

Chinese-Style Social Credit Scoring in USA

Several readers mentioned a Fast Company article linked over at Whatfinger.com, titled: Silicon Valley Is Building a Communist-style ‘Social Credit’ System. A snippet:

“Many Westerners are disturbed by what they read about China’s social credit system. But such systems, it turns out, are not unique to China. A parallel system is developing in the United States, in part as the result of Silicon Valley and technology-industry user policies, and in part by surveillance of social media activity by private companies.”

Social Credit Score to Determine Who Can Buy a Gun?

Speaking of Orwellian Social Credit Scoring, yesterday there was this disturbing news, reported by Paul Joseph Watson: Trump Administration Considering Social Credit Score System to Determine Who Can Buy a Gun. JWR’s Comment: I haven’t yet seen this confirmed by another news outlet, but if it is true this would crumble the bedrock foundation of the 1st Amendment, freedom of association, the 4th Amendment, and the Due Process clause of the 14th Amendment!

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — September 4, 2019

15

September 4, 1862 is the fateful day that General Lee invaded the North with 50,000 troops. General Lee was probably gambling on a quick offensive because the South did not have the resources for a prolonged war. Whatever the case was, President Abraham Lincoln trampled the Constitution and created the foundation for the “Big Brother” government we have today.

—

To help cover some family medical bills, I’ve put a few guns from my personal collection up for sale on consignment through a trusted friend who has an FFL. They are being auctioned at GunBroker.com.  If any of these interest you, then please consider bidding. These are good investments, and you’ll be able to say: “This once belonged to Jim Rawles.” They include:

 

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 84  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  6. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 84 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Elements of a Security System – Part 2, by J.M.

10

(Continued from Part 1.)

The final aspects you need to consider when planning a security system are the types of threats you need to be able to detect. If you live in a wooded area where there are a lot of experienced woodsmen and hunters, you’ll have to consider how to detect people that know how to move silently and effectively and are more likely to notice things like tripwires or trail cameras. On the other hand, if you’re in an area that may primarily experience urban sheeple migrating in search of resources after a disaster, your security situation will be simplified, since most of those folks will take the path of least resistance with minimal regard for stealth. An absolute worst-case scenario would be trying to set up a security system to detect people that have military training and equipment, since they will tend to be more observant about wires, alarms, infrared light, etc. As with any system, the more complex and extensive you make it, the harder it will be to maintain and the more likely you are to get a lot of false alarms.

Once you understand the primary drivers for your security system, you should begin to develop an overall approach to how you want to implement it. The best approach is to leverage what the military refers to as ‘defense in depth’ – layers of detection capabilities at different distances from your house or property. The goal is to have multiple opportunities to detect an intruder in case they get by one of the perimeters. Remember that to stay safe in a fixed location you need to be able to detect every intruder approaching from any possible direction at any time, but an intruder only has to be lucky or good enough to get through your detection perimeter once to do some harm.Continue reading“Elements of a Security System – Part 2, by J.M.”

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. This week the focus is on Fall and Winter Gardening. (See the Books section.)

Books:

Reader E.M. wrote to recommend the book American Nations, by Colin Woodard. Here is how E.M. describes the book:

“It was a New Republic ‘Best Book of 2011.’ Yes, I understand that the New Republic has a very liberal bent, so my recommendation comes with caution, but the author explains how the US developed so differently based on the culture that was established by the earliest arrivals in each area, and how those areas actually represent 11 “nations” today. The book explains, for example, why “Yankeedom,” as he calls it, and the “Left Coast” have so much in common, and why “Greater Appalachia” and “The Far West” do, too.

I consider myself to be a serious student of history, but I learned many interesting aspects about the development of this country’s various regions from this book. The author’s liberal bent is very obvious, but it only proves the point that many, if not most, historians are not truly neutral and their views should not be accepted without serious scrutiny, particularly when author begins to describe present day issues and attitudes.”

o  o  o

DIY Hydroponics: 12 Easy and Affordable Ways to Build Your Own Hydroponic System (Urban Homesteading)

o  o  o

Fall and Winter Gardening: 25 Organic Vegetables to Plant and Grow for Late Season Food

o  o  o

Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”