Averagedude
Member
Range cards are a really good idea expecially to do it now. Depending on situation your lazer range finder might not work any more
First put a 300' parameter around the house before putting it around the property but $50k for your property? how many acres?
For a 5 run barbed wire field fence it shouldn't cost no more than $750 per 1320' and that includes everything (except tools) that's a little over a 5 acre run $1500 for a 10 acre run, a square 10 acres would cost $6000
From defensive perspective, you want to fence off what you can defend (defensive parameter fence) Once you get your defensive fence built then work on the outer parameter fence starting at the most vulnerable points.
Someone who will be a threat to you will have no problem "switching off" the dogs too. So while they're great to have as members of the team, they're not 100% deterrent.I will be teaming up with a neighbor. He has several pieces of heavy equipment (excavator, dozer, etc) which we can use to build barriers. Our biggest protection will be the dogs. Early warning system that cannot be switched off. I think once the dogs come out, people will move on to an easier target.
"Rural fencing is for keeping stock in" if you are lucky. We have a bull that will run thru even if electric on occasion when we have moved a new to be cow to the front pastures.Rural fencing is for keeping stock in (or out), not two legged predators. At my rural retreat I'm slowly stockpiling 44 gallon drums. Place strategically outside areas of the house you want to harden (windows, bedrooms, doors, other ground floor firing points), fill with dirt, even plant low growing herbs or vegetables in them if you like.
The drums are either free or very cheap, the dirt is free, and you have a ballistic barrier around sections of your house. Combine with sensor lights and/or dogs for early warning, practice you response to attack, have a secure fall back location and plan.
At my retreat I have drums of supplies ready to bury in the hills behind my cabin. They will get buried almost immediately if I bugout, so that I have a fallback option if it looks like my retreat is about to be overrun. I won't lose all my supplies, and will hopefully have enough to sustain my group until we retake my retreat or find somewhere else.
about 10 acres, convenants prevent barbed wire
Maybe not in Illinois, but it's a different story in many other places. And not just out west either.not much land out there that's unincorporated anymore
A bull will go where a bull wants to go. My bull has been missing for about a week now. I go out twice a day looking for him and have covered many miles. I've got a plane on standby for this weekend if I can't find him today."Rural fencing is for keeping stock in" if you are lucky. We have a bull that will run thru even if electric on occasion when we have moved a new to be cow to the front pastures.
Think I'd be checking any neighbors with heifers first. . . If you have a good bull, they probably won't mind having the "free service". Cows here are always bred this time of year with calving happening in the early fall to spring. It's too dangerous on the calf to have a summer birth if dark in color. They overheat easily in our weather. You might be different there.A bull will go where a bull wants to go. My bull has been missing for about a week now. I go out twice a day looking for him and have covered many miles. I've got a plane on standby for this weekend if I can't find him today.
I've got the word out to the area ranchers and I think I've got the search area narrowed down to a few thousand acres. When I went out this morning I found some range cows in a small valley a couple miles north of here. I'll go out again soon to look some more.Think I'd be checking any neighbors with heifers first. . . If you have a good bull, they probably won't mind having the "free service". Cows here are always bred this time of year with calving happening in the early fall to spring. It's too dangerous on the calf to have a summer birth if dark in color. They overheat easily in our weather. You might be different there.
This place has covenants?
Personally, I think HWY 20 would be a more likely escape route for refugees leaving Chicago than say I90. Not those two specifically, just that any small highway leaving Chicago would be a better route than the Interstate corridors. Small highways would still be easy to follow, offer a pretty straight line of travel, and would have lots of scavenging opportunities. If I were desperately leaving Chicago, I would not take the Interstate system. Maybe as a first step, go to where you think the majority of the people you think will be a problem are, then try to decide if you were them, where would you go? How would you scavenge and where would you start? Where are the first easy pickings?
Your defensive needs would also depend on where you are. Elgin is a lot different than Carpentersville, IMO, even though they aren't that far apart.
Anyway, if your beginning homestead is in a suburb with covenants and an association *shudder* then there isn't much you can do right now. If I had to stay there, I would plan on getting to know the neighbors, and having a couple bigger dogs, and try to pick some places with the best view of the property, places you could sit and watch out for problems. 10 acres is big, but doable. Sucks though, room for growing food and having chickens and rabbits, but hard to defend because of the location and current rules.
It would take a real horrific, long term emergency to send hordes out combing the countryside, I think. Me, I would focus on food stores and sustainability, and armed defense, before worrying about booby traps, or fencing. There really isn't a fence good at keeping out people, not when they access to tools and time. I wouldn't be against a nice hedge to hide the property from view. No need to have the garden on display.
Maybe not in Illinois, but it's a different story in many other places. And not just out west either.
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