The Fortress 3

Part 3 of an ongoing series.

Part three is going to cover some more random ideas, and possible mob action.

The important takeaway is to always think outside the box, apply what you may think works for you. Everyone is different. An apartment dweller isn’t planting bougainvillea, and laws vary between countries. Know them.

Let’s start with window boxes. Window boxes are versatile in a number of ways. If installed properly, a renter or apartment dweller could possibly utilize them. A homeowner has more options, and could make it more permanent. The idea being, that a window box gives a stand-off distance and creates another annoying obstacle for the intruder. It’s harder to pop open a window and climb through it, with a foot of wood, dirt and plant in the way. The type of plant will depend on where you live, but a thorny plant makes it even more unappealing to an intruder. Climbing through a window box with holly, cacti, or thorny roses doesn’t seem like a fun day.

Supplementing fences, or areas around windows with trellises are also a great deterrent. We like trellises that are sturdy enough to support vines, but not strong enough for a person to climb. Durable string or wire trellises, or bent hoops will grow a nice thorny obstacle, but would end in a bad day for anyone who tried to put their weight on it. Some ideas below, but could be used to increase the height on an existing fence. Thorny plants can be trained to grow along these, but if anyone tried to grab onto it to scale the fence, would end up on their ass back at the bottom of the fence.

Speaking of fences, these make a great addition to the tops of walls and fences. They’re bird spikes designed to keep birds from sitting on areas. Another option is to have a few on hand, so if you didn’t want the window boxes, in a pinch these could be deployed to windowsills. These have a plausible deniability factor to them, “The spikes on my fence?… Those are to keep the birds out of my garden.”

On the more questionable side of the law, the old nails in a board trick, or nails through a garden hose can be deployed in an emergency.

I’ve seen sharpened sticks hammered into the ground around trees, to deny cover for an adversary. The idea being, anyone seeking to use a tree to hide, or as cover, has to contend with a few dozen spikes sticking out of the ground around the base of it. This obviously brings up legal questions, so if possible, a better solution could be to plant a thorny bush around the base of the tree to deny an attacker it’s use, like so.

…but with thorns

Barbed wire. “Okay, we’re getting a little ridiculous here.” You might be saying, but hear me out. Barbed wire is a great option to have. It’s intimidating, it’s somewhat effective and it’s cheap. I plan on building an animal enclosure in the future, I designed the area I want to use, so I figured I would just go ahead and buy the barbed wire now, since it was on sale when I was looking, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have some on hand.

I never had any riots in my neighborhood, but I can tell you that it was comforting, watching the 2020 riots on TV, knowing that I had about 3,000 feet of barbed wire in the garage and could turn my front yard into the Western Front if needed.

Another thing that we have plenty of on hand are steel fence stakes, chicken wire and cattle panel fencing. We have them for other projects, but these can easily be converted into fencing, barricades, things to slow people down.

Our approach is to have the supplies on hand, with the ability and knowledge to make things quickly if needed.

Vehicle denial.

Fences and chicken wire and barbed wire are great if you’re trying to deter an angry mob, slow them down, or create some distance so they can’t casually walk up and toss a Molotov cocktail through your bedroom window, (Remember the window film from the previous article) but it’s not going to do much if some unhinged lunatic decides to plow a car through your gate.

This story makes me LOL.

But there’s ideas there, concrete planters being one of them. Concrete planters are used around the world to deny vehicle attacks, create distance between vehicles and buildings, and are disguised to look attractive.

A cement fire pit

Plant thorny bushes around the planter to deter someone from using it to hide behind.

Raised planter beds.

These are ideal directly in front of the house, or even along your fence line. They offer increased protection to the occupants inside the house. A sufficiently thick planter box can stop gunfire, and act as a buffer. If you look up “Molotov cocktail bomb” in the news, you see it’s actually much more common occurrence than one would think. If rioters decided to swarm your neighborhood, it would be nice to have something like this between you and them than a cheap piece of wall, especially since cocktail bombs that land short, splash fire forward. Better to have the planter take that than the house.

Better to take a cocktail bomb here than the house

Night vision. We’re going to drop this here since the topic came up in the comment section. We’re going to make this one simple for you. If you want to get into detailed, in depth discussions about night vision, there’s plenty of resources. We have real, Gen 3 PVS-14 night vision, but we also have cheap options.

A nice set of dual tube night vision can run you $11,000 and up, and isn’t available outside the USA in a lot of cases. But a cheapo, digital gen 1 can go for $100 or less, and may be available to you outside the US.

I have this Carson hand held unit.

It’s cheap, it’s small, you’re not using it to kill Bin Laden. But these cheapo little units do work surprisingly well as long as you have an IR (infrared) illuminator. So for under $100 and another $100 or less for the flashlight, you can see in the dark. Now, you need the illuminator for these to work (although they work surprisingly well under full moon…especially full moon in the snow), but with my handheld IR flashlight, I can see out to 150-200 yards quite easily, areas that appear pitch black to the naked eye. Another key feature that goes unnoticed with these units is that it allows you to see other people who may be using IR illuminators, including those night vision security cameras everyone seems to be getting. That’s right, my cheapo sub $100 digital night vision device works in my yard because my security cameras illuminate the entire area with light not visible to the naked eye. I can also see who’s got security cameras in my neighborhood this way as well. I recommend getting one, and an IR flashlight, and playing around with it to learn the limitations. If anything, it’s really fun to use for wildlife spotting. Nocturnal animals eyes still glow under the IR illuminator, but you don’t spook them. I’ve watched a few skunks, owls, and deer through it.

Here’s a video so you know what you’re getting. It’s not the best at all, but it is better than nothing. And remember, it allows you to see people who are using night vision illuminators.

So I’ll admit, to a normie this may seem like overkill, but the main takeaway is this. You can give yourself something resembling embassy level protection, that blends into the landscape, even adds curb appeal, for not much money at all.

2020 found a whole lot of people waking up to the reality that in this new world, the mob can and will be turned loose on you and your family, at a moments notice, and the police won’t be there to protect you. Call me paranoid, that’s fine. But I’d rather have what I have and take the steps I’ve taken, than sit with my family, cowering at the thought of an unhinged mob that can just walk up to my house unimpeded.

I don’t think so. It’s going to be a very bad day for whoever decides to pull this nonsense on my neighborhood. I don’t think things are going to get much easier in the future. We should seriously consider our security, and the security of our families, and take it seriously.

This was in Kentucky