Hi Jim,
To follow up on the recent letter on Commercial Storage Space Thievery, I had a very similar experience with my storage locker.  I have a locker from Public Storage in Saratoga, California and had the very same thing happen.  I checked out my unit one night and another lock was on the unit.  I had the Sheriff come by and they did the usual.  The problem I am having presently is the insurance company hasn't really done much and its been three months [since I discovered the theft.]  I had all the receipts from Amazon.com and Costco.com so that isn't the problem.  They keep dragging their feet while I still pay for insurance on the unit.  To add injury to insult, Public Storage just raised my rent. Best Regards, - Martin in California

Mr. Rawles and Steve S.:
I am a Resident Manager of a storage facility.  Many of my tenants are preppers.  We have not had any trouble in the seven years that I have been manager.
 
The secret to having a secured facility is to ask questions.  Here are some tips on selecting a safe place for your preps
 
1.        Does the manager live on property and is the resident close to the gate.
2.       Security – what form does it take
3.       Are the camera recording 24/7 or are they for show
4.       Entry into the facility – coded box and log
5.       Own lock – case hardened – round locks are the best as it takes a long time to cut and usually requires some type of cutting tool
6.       Limited Gate hours – 24 hour facility is just asking for trouble.  Thieves come in the night
7.       Fencing – easy or hard to climb
8.       More than one gate – how is the second one monitored
9.       Does the facility have alarms on the doors – newer places  have this. 
10.   Not a lot of corridors as the turning can keep someone from seeing
11.   Neighborhood/location –ask local police if there is a history of trouble. 
12.   How long has the manager been in charge – long term managers are usually the ones that have a secure facility. 
 
When putting preps/guns or such make sure it does not look like you are placing important items inside the unit.  If you are going to be out of the area find a family member or friend that you trust and have them check the unit at least once a month.  Units that are visited by the people who rent them are less like to have trouble.
 
If you, personally, don’t feel comfortable then do not rent there. 
 
Yes, both myself and my security/maintenance guy are preppers and we have learned many good lessons from this web site
 
Thank you for all you have taught us. - Texgalatheart

James,
I was dismayed to read Steve S.’s letter about thieves chopping locks off of multiple storage units. Like Steve, I chose a gated facility with cameras. However, there is an additional layer of security available at some storage facilities that your readers may wish to know about. The facility I chose has individually coded entry alarms. When I visit the facility, I must swipe an uniquely coded electronic key in order to open the gate. That key is coded to my individual storage units. If I do not unlock and open either of my specific storage units within ten minutes or so after entering the gate, an alarm goes off. Similarly, if either of my units are unlocked and opened without me first entering the gate, an alarm goes off.
 
Obviously one pays a price for the additional security (my facility also has on-site resident managers). However, my facility always has a waiting list so the price must be right (it was for me!). Just thought folks might want to know this technology is available and commercially feasible for storage facilities to implement! - David in Pleasanton

JWR,
Not to share my misery, but this is a warning to anyone that has items in a climate-controlled rental storage unit.  My unit was hit and no one knows when it and all the others were hit until one guy noticed some items missing and filed a police report.  The facility owners chopped off all the locks to all of their climate-controlled units and put their own locks on it.  Then they started calling the owners and verified what was in each unit.
 
Here is what happened: The robbers chopped the locks off, burglarized many items, and then placed their own locks on the doors, so that nobody knew that they had been burglarized. 

Since I was living overseas, I had thought that a gated community unit along with the cameras would be a safe way to store my materials.  I was told that their has been a rash of burglaries of these units, with several located in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Obviously I was wrong and am at ground zero again.  Of course the law enforcement probably won't catch them.  I have all the serial numbers of all my weapons, which I will provide them.  I did have some insurance, but I will never again have the quality of guns that I had with that stash.
 
I really don't know what to do. An idiot would start over and do the same thing again. This is a quandary, since I plan to continue to be overseas for many more years. - Steve S.

James Wesley:
For use as an unobtrusive and inexpensive alternative to purpose-built weapons safes, I recommend finding an old, non-functional soda vending machine. Remove the guts (we call it the 'stack') and refrigeration system, but leave the lights in the door. (Be careful, the light ballast wiring will bite: 5,000 volts).
 
Tap into the 110 Volt AC wiring on the vending machine to power your Goldenrod Dehumidifier.
 
Store your valuables inside where the guts used to be.  Lock the door and keep the key.  [If it will be at your private business but in a location that might ever be in view of the public,] you can leave the machine plugged in, with the lights on, and an 'Out Of Order' sign taped on the front. Consider this instant stealth storage. - Tom K.

Sir:
My husband came up with a great idea to store more items out of sight. He is slowly placing our buckets of storage food in the ceiling of our basement in between the floor joists. He cuts a couple 1x6 planks the proper length, and bolts them down securely [with lag bolts] them a few inches apart on the lower "lip" of the joist which is about 1/2", and places the bucket on top of the planks. Once he completes the drop ceiling, all food storage will be safely tucked away out of sight. Should we need the food, we simply need to remove the drop ceiling. Just make sure you create a cheat sheet of where everything is located! - T. from Pennsylvania

JWR Replies: That is a good idea, but I must mention one proviso: What goes up can come down, unexpectedly. To provide earthquake protection it is important to add a threaded eye bolt on each side of every bucket. Then select heavy rubber bungee straps of just the right length to provide a snug fit around the middle of each bucket.

You’re a prepper and you’ve got tons of “stuff”. Food storage, fuel, first aid kits, bug out bags, the list seems to go on and on. And regardless of a prepper’s dream of unlimited storage space, there never seems to be enough room. At least not for me.

Most living accommodations make storage the final priority; putting style above all else. Regardless of your living situation, I’m here to tell you there is more space! We’ve just got to get a little sneaky and creative.

Just as a disclaimer: Some of this stuff might sound crazy. But aren’t you used to that by now… doing stuff people think is crazy. J Another note to add, when storing food it is best to keep it in the coolest place possible. If any of these rooms are in a place that gets a considerable amount of heat, use these sneaky storage places for your non-foods items.

The Bedroom

Under the Bed – This one’s the obvious one here but still commonly forgotten. Raise up that bed and get a pretty bed skirt to hide your bounty of emergency preparedness goods. With WaterBrick’s you can store upwards of an additional 50 gallons of water under your bed.

Top of the Closet – Almost every closet has that top level that never gets used. Reach up there and get stacking.

In Your Pillows – Let the craziness begin. While I don’t expect you to store food in the pillow you actually sleep on, how many of us have a hand full of useless throw pillows accompanying our bed spreads? Stuff them with freeze dried food, boxes of matches, garbage bags, medicine, etc.

In Your Box-Springs – Most box-springs use a lightweight cloth as a cover so you’ll have to store lighter emergency supplies in your box-spring. Box-springs are usually so open that you’ll only need a few cuts in the cloth to access the entire area for storage.

The Living Room

Coffee Table – If you are short on storage space, please don’t waste your money on a coffee table that offers no storage. As beautiful as some of those glass topped, claw-footed tables are, they are equally useless. Instead, buy an ottoman coffee table with deep storage containers. These are available in many attractive styles while still giving you the storage space you need.

In Your Couch – It’s not such a weird idea when you think about hide-a-bed couches. If they can conceal a mattress, you can make a couch conceal some emergency supplies. While this one might take a little craftiness, there’s some great tutorials out there for making your own storage couch.

The Entertainment Center – Your DVD Player will look fine on top next to the television. Save the unseen space for supplies. I’ve seen some entertainment centers big enough to store a month’s worth of food. Make the space count.

The Kitchen/Dining Room

Above the Cabinets – In most newer homes, the cabinets are kept several inches from the ceiling. Simply store your supplies in boxes that are aesthetically pleasing and put them on top of your cabinets. You’d be surprised at the amount of space available in these little nooks and crannies.

Seating – If you have the option, replace your dining room chairs with benches for seating. These benches can be built similarly to the storage couches I referred to above and have plenty of room for additional supplies.

The Rest of the House

In The Walls – As long as there’s no wires or vents going through any given space in your wall, you can use that area to store stuff. You can add cupboard doors for easy access, or leave the walls open with shelving. Either way, your walls can be the jackpot of overlooked storage space.

The Backyard – Don’t be afraid to dig a few holes if it means making space for your necessities. In your backyard you can make a root cellar. Or how about burying water tanks or other containers that store food?

I’m sure there are plenty of other sneaky places many of you have utilized for your storage purposes. - Jessica Hooley is the author of Salt n’ Prepper and contributor to the Army Navy Store Blog, PX Supply.

James,
First of all thank you for running SurvivalBlog as it is has been a valuable source of information. Years ago, you mentioned Zanotti Armor as a high quality gun safe company, I'm glad you did, as I am now a very happy customer! I ordered the ZA-3 6-foot--the largest safe available from the company--and it fits my needs perfectly. It only took two of us to move all the [modular] pieces to the basement and assemble the walls. It required two extra pair of hands to assemble the top and door. I ordered the safe in June and received it in March. The customer service was excellent throughout the whole process and even after the safe arrived. At the beginning when I asked for a quote they steered me in the right direction and even when asked for certain features, such as lighting, they let me know that I could get what I wanted locally and for less money.

After installing the safe I contacted the company to ask what paint I should use on a couple of scratches in the front due to our hurried assembly they sent me a small bottle of touch up paint at no charge. Great safe and a great company. I only have one issue with the safe - it makes my gun collection look small! I guess I'll just have to start filling it up soon! Thanks, - John in Wisconsin

Jim:
In How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It, you missed mentioning one of the great uses of "bypassed areas" -- that of an en route cache.  There is no question but that it would be plain stupid for any family to wait to leave the big cities and urban areas until the very last moment when TSHTF, urban riots have broken out, and the freeways have become one big parking lot full of shooting and looting.  But many families will want to hang on in the cities as long as possible because of employment, family commitments for the care of elderly relatives, and other reasons.  When they do leave, it would be much safer for them to quickly exit along the back roads with only the clothes on their backs and half a tank of gas than to take the time to stuff their vehicle full of survival goods and become a visible target of great interest to looters along the road. 
 
Their first destination would be their own unimproved wooded one acre lot in one of the "bypassed areas" within an hour's drive of their urban home, with only a small, used, stripped down camping trailer on it and maybe an outhouse.  It is not going to draw much interest from potential looters.  By stripped down camping trailer, I mean an old one with the wheels removed and sitting on concrete block.  Its propane tanks and battery would also be removed.  To an outsider looking in the window, it would look very Spartan with no supplies or anything useful.  There would be no source of water there.  So what good is such a property?
 
Somewhere on the property would be a 20 foot long metal CONEX shipping container completely buried under about a foot of soil (deep enough so you can cover it with plants and its location will not be obvious) and a specially constructed entrance to the back doors of the shipping container that is also buried under the same foot of soil and plants.  It might take an hour of shovel work to dig out the entrance to your buried shipping container.  This is your supply cache with the important supplies and gasoline that you will need to safely travel the rest of the way to your permanent retreat.  It also contains the wheels to your trailer along with the propane tanks, battery, generator, and plenty of gasoline for your vehicles and what ever else.  It contains food and water, and pre-positioned supplies that you would need for safe travel or to remain at that site for a few days or a little longer.
 
The advantage of such an arrangement is that there is little that is visible from the road to tempt thieves.  And if they loot an old, empty travel trailer - so what?  Your real cache is buried underground and is well out of sight.  It is also out of danger from forest fires that would likely burn your trailer to the ground.  In such a forest fire, you will not have lost anything that is not easily and inexpensively replaceable.   The best part of all -- such an acre of worthless ground that is covered with brush, stumps, and scrub trees should not cost very much.  The general impression that people will have of it will be, "This guy is really hurting if that is his retreat."
 
The disadvantage is that [in northern states] it is only likely to be accessible about nine months out of the year with snow closing the roads during the other three months.
 
Hope this helps and adds something to your work - Paul O.

JWR Replies: As has been discussed several times in the blog, CONEXes cannot be buried without concrete reinforcement. This is because they are designed to take loads only on their corners. With the weight of rain-soaked soil, their walls and roofs collapse. So, when all is said and done, it is actually more expensive to buy, reinforce, and bury a CONEX than it is to build a dedicated reinforced concrete shelter. From a practical standpoint, I'd instead recommend burying a much less expensive poly water tank with a man hatch cover just below the ground surface.

As for the camping trailer: Why have anything above ground at an unattended property? That just attracts junkies and assorted lowlifes. Storing a wall tent inside an underground cache makes more sense, to me. If you need to store a trailer, then make it a simple box trailer, with the wheels and lug nuts buried nearby. The advantage is that an open box trailer won't prove to be an attractive place for drug addicts to use as a recreational cabin.

Sir,
How would you recommend that I store the many salt blocks I have been stocking up on  (cattle type - various kinds of salt and mineral blocks)?
 
I was out in the shop today and did a brief walk through and noticed a bunch of moisture (water/liquid) developing around the blocks. Some of them are noticeably deteriorating. A few are on card board, others are stacked on back of a parked trailer. Am I setting myself up for disaster? Will these salt blocks eventually corrode the metals nearby? Where is the best place to store them? 
 
I have a two bedroom farm house from the early 1920's. There is literally no more room for supplies that do not have to be in the home.
 
While I am on the topic, my order of 500 plus pounds of culinary salt is waiting for me to put up. They are in bags now. I have three large plastic drums coming soon (40-50 gal size). I plan to put the salt in them. Do I need to find room in the house to keep them? There are a lot of moisture troubles/humidity where I live in northwestern Kansas. 
 
BTW, in case you are wondering why salt, --- well, it's a God thing I guess. I felt a very strong feeling to purchase large quantities. I now have pink salt (Himalayan), iodine salt, and sea salt. 
 
I don't want this to happen! (Advance the player to 2:40 if you are in a hurry).
 
Thank you for your time, - Tess of Kansas

JWR Replies: Yes, storing salt can be a challenge, but nothing insurmountable. Salty air (salt molecules suspended in water vapor) can be controlled by keeping humidity low in your storage area and by keeping your salt supplies dry and airtight. Use sealed plastic containers as much as possible. But if you lack the requisite containers, then at least use multiple wraps of plastic around all salt blocks, bags, and boxes. And regardless, always store your salt in a separate building from your tools, hardware, and canned goods. (Id est, store your salt storage buckets in a wooden cabinet in your hay barn, not in your garage or shop.)

We are survivalists who live on a hobby farm within The American Redoubt. In the 23 years we have lived in this region I have yet to feel the ground shake beneath my feet. That’s welcome news speaking as a former Californian who has been through two “big ones”. Yet, for whatever reason (the Holy Spirit, possibly) I began thinking about earthquakes two months ago. Because of this mind set, when three earthquakes, southeast of us, occurred in Utah around the 13th of February and the next day a magnitude 6.0 quake hit off the coast of Oregon. That got my attention.
 
The Oregon coastal quake had Seattle news outlets airing special segments about the possibility of a “big one” along the “ring of fire” that could cause substantial damage to cities like Seattle, Portland Oregon, Vancouver B.C., etc. They asked one seismologist about this prospect and his answer was, “the good news is that large scale earthquakes on this fault over the last 10,000 years have occurred on average about every 300 years”. “The bad news?” The reporter asked. “The last 'big one' on this fault was 329 years ago." Oh, that’s reassuring.
 
But we don’t live in earthquake country, we are hundreds (thousands?) of miles and a couple of large mountain ranges between us and “the ring of fire” so no worries right? No, I don’t think that is correct. We have never experienced TEOTWAWKI but we are preparing for that. I lived through an epic ice storm in an area not know for such things also. In fact, portions of the region were without power for 13 weeks from that ice storm. We also had a “fire storm” where none had ever occurred previously.
 
In the remainder of this essay I will:
 
1) Describe what an earthquake audit is
 
2) Review some of the findings of our earthquake audit
 
3) Review some of the mitigation steps we took to resolve our “audit deficiencies”
 
4) Share an analogy that I think is fitting
 
 
1) What is an Earthquake Audit?
 
I believe I coined the phrase “earthquake audit”. My version of an earthquake audit was to take a clip board, note pad and marking pen and go room by room; house, shop, outbuildings, everyplace. Using my experience being in quakes plus video’s I have seen of them and trying to visualize what would happen; what would go flying and what would be okay in a modest earthquake. My main focuses were looking “up” to identify things that could fall down with force and looking with an eye to the protection of mission critical items versus lesser important assets. For example having your AN/PVS-14 and Night Vision compatible EO-Tech sight go flying would be much worse than if that large pile of firewood gets scattered. This is mostly common sense it’s just a matter of actually doing it. I made a list of things that I observed to be problematic and then prioritized that list into actionable items.
 
2) What were the results of our own Earthquake Audit?
 
Frankly, we failed miserably. Here are three examples among dozens.
 
Our preparations are extremely organized and inventoried. We have eight of the Gorilla Rack shelving units to store items. I could not believe my eyes (although I should have because I am the one who put them there) when I looked up on the top shelf of one of the shelving units and saw all three of our pressure canners sitting side by side, not in boxes, resting nearly seven feet off the ground on an unsecured shelving unit.
 
The next “finding” was when I went into a food storage location (with a cement floor) and again could not believe my eyes. We purchase raw local honey from a vendor who sells them in half gallon glass mason jars. We love it as the honey is excellent and you get a half gallon jar to use when you’re done. Also the jars are temperature stabilized in case you need to heat the honey to liquefy it. There on the shelf at eye level was 18 half gallon glass jars of honey on an unsecured shelving unit with the jars right up the very edge of the shelf.
 
With even a minor rumble in addition to having no honey could you imagine the mess of nine gallons of honey and 18 broken half gallon glass mason jars in one big pile on the cement floor?
 
The last example was when I walked into the fuel shed. This was an accident waiting to happen. The fuel shed building is built over the top of an underground gas tank. The riser off the tank, 12 volt pump, filters and filler hose are inside the shed. Also inside the shed are shelves and items stacked on the gravel floor. There are metal gas cans, metal 5 gallon kerosene cans, plastic diesel containers a couple of metal 55 gallon drums and a dozen or so propane cylinders. The riser coming up off the underground tank was not protected at all and things were staked up all around it. It wouldn’t have taken much for things to have fallen on the riser likely breaking it. Wouldn’t it have been lovely to have gas cans and propane cylinders flopping about inside a metal walled shed with a severed riser attached to a large gas tank!
 
3) Mitigation Steps
 
All of these “deficiencies” had to be fixed. The pressure canners got put in boxes and moved into cupboards with locking doors. For the honey, I secured the shelving unit to the wall and purchased nice plastic totes with locking lids that would hold six half gallon jars each. A couple of layers of bubble wrap on the bottom of the tote then each jar individually wrapped in bubble wrap that was taped in place. The jars were placed in the tote and then shipping “popcorn” was put between the jars. Two layers of bubble wrap on the top then the lid of the tote was securely attached. The totes then were “strapped in” to the secured shelving unit.
 
The fuel shed got gutted and redone. The fuel tank riser and pump are now completely protected and everything in the shed is strapped down. This was done with 3/8ths x 4” eye bolts and six foot locking tie down straps.
 
This clearly isn’t rocket science its just taking the time to get it done. Generally speaking; Shelving units need to be secured to something. If not an adjacent wall, look up, is there something above to secure to? On one occasion I had two shelving units at a 90 degree angle to one another. One of the units could be secured to the wall but not the other. So, what I did was attach the units to one another where they met. At the opposite ends I ran a tie down strap to create a triangle from the end of one unit to the end of the other unit, this gave some good strength.
 
Watch for items that could fall on your head while you are in bed. And some items, there is not much you can do but pray. For example we have a river rock chimney that runs up 25 feet from the main floor through the ceiling of the second floor. I have not idea how strong it is but there is not much that can be done other than building some kind of cradle for it. So if it comes down in a quake it comes down. I guess that’s why you have wood stoves in the shop, master bedroom and back patio as backups. Guns and especially ones with optics need to be protected. My main battle rifle and main defensive shotgun are in metal hard shell cases strapped to something solid. Cushioning inside gun safes are a good idea. Are there items that could fall down behind a closed inward-opening door and block it closed?
 
4) One way to think about this.
 
The analogy to this line of thinking is nautical: Sooner or later we are all going to take a journey. Hopefully your journey will be on the good ship “Faithful Survivalist”. We don’t know when we will be leaving on that journey, where it will take us and what the conditions are going to be like along the way. Our sense is though that we are probably going to be leaving sooner rather than later and with the storm clouds we see developing off on the horizon we are not expecting “smooth sailing”. As with any wise captain heading off on a journey of unknown conditions, lets be sure that everything is lashed down; “Everything has a place and every place has a thing”. Because, if the going gets rough we don’t want important items sliding around on deck or falling overboard. Batten down the hatches, mates!
 
I don’t have a crystal ball and don’t pretend to know the future. I do know that the Holy Spirit put it on my heart to look at our survival stores with a new set of eyes and it was eye opening. I hope you do also and I hope this was helpful.

I think I'm the the position of many out in the real world. I'm strapped for cash. Feeling the time crunch that I must do something soon or be caught up with the unprepared masses and get overrun. I'm also feeling the responsibility for my immediate and extended family whether they are preparing or not. It's a huge burden to bear when you have been raised to be the "man" of any situation that might affect you and your family.

That being said, I'm also a logical, common sense person. I approach things like this:

1. Look at the situation
2. Determine the problem
3. Find the solution
4. Implement the solution

I think this fits most of my generation who were raised by parents born before, during, or shortly after the Great Depression. A "can do" type of attitude that never finds a way to quit or give up.

I also have a fairly typical family makeup of people ranging from one year old to mid seventies with the majority being thirty to sixty and most being in good to excellent physical condition.

So let's look at the problem most of us are stuck in, the "imperfect retreat."

I think we can all agree that the generally accepted ideas of being hidden from view, off the main road, 100+ miles from heavily populated cities, etc, all are the best case scenarios but not something that many, if not most, of us can or will be able to attain.

First let's look at the situation: We own or are renting a home. Can we change our situation or not? If so, how drastically can we change it with what we have available to us right now. Most of us will find ourselves in one of two or three different situations. We can stay where we are, we can move a short distance to another place, or maybe combine with other family members at one of their homes, hopefully in a better situation than our own. Let's take each of those individually.

I won't go into all of the preparation requirements since those have been and are covered in greater detail that I could cover here. I mainly want to concentrate on the decision making processes and how to hopefully arrive at a suitable solution. So here we go.

First, staying where we are. In most cases, this is probably the worst and most difficult situation to make work. I personally could easily be caught in this situation and I don't look forward to trying to make it work but let's assume that is our only option. I know this is the case for many so let's make it work.

I'll take my situation as an example. I live on a main street in a small town of 2,500-3,500 population. What are my challenges? To me, first and foremost is security. The reason I put that first is that if I can't protect what I do, build, stash, grow, or otherwise prepare, then I've wasted my resources and time. So the first step is to honestly assess your situation based on what you expect to happen in a worst case scenario. Where are the threats most likely going to come from? What direction and in what form? Can you slow them down and/or stop them? What can you do to aid yourself in being able to accomplish these things? Fences? Gates? Window and door bars? Think through the situation based on your individual situation and resources.

You have to form some sort of defensive plan and come to some understanding of how successful you feel you can be, based on the number of people you will have helping defend the site. I would include some thoughts about quickly deploying traps, tanglefoot wire, or anything else to make you place not worth the effort in hopes that they will just move on to easier targets. By doing that you cause them to expend precious and sometimes irreplaceable energy, on someone other than you. By the time they finally return to you you might be even better prepared and they will be most likely less prepared and easier to deal with.

So in this situation, I feel defense will be extremely crucial. This will of course include multiple weapons and a large amount of ammunition to last through a siege type situation. You can take these thought and translate them on out to the logical end with the other supplies you will need to survive, such as food and water since you will most likely be very confined and unable to scrounge and forage safely for some period of time.

This situation will be extremely hard to survive with only a couple of people so you must work towards having as many as possible to help rotate the duties of keeping watch, preparing meals, sanitation, etc. My speculation would be that you would need to look at a 30-60 day siege until you will be able to begin to move somewhat freely and to get outside for other activities such as gardening or tending animals unless you can have those things attached to your main house through some protected passageway.

Obviously, this is a huge hill to climb to make this work in any populated area even in the suburbs. Can it work? Yes, I believe it can but you will have to be brutally honest with yourself and also prepared mentally and physically to do what will be necessary when the time comes. Remember, I'm a logical, common sense, realist.

Now let's look at the other two situations together since they are basically the same. I'm assuming that if you move to another family member's home then it would be at least farther from a populated area than the situation I've just described. Otherwise. it's then just a matter of which city home is the most defendable and then building on that together.

So assuming that the location you can move to on your own or to another family member's home is outside of a populated area to some degree, let's say 10-15 miles out into the country. So let's talk about the differences of the situations.

With the city situation I said security needs to be job one. With the semi-rural situation security is still job one but in very different ways. In the city, the house becomes your "fortress" and you build on that. In the semi-rural to rural situation the area around you becomes much more important to your security than in the city. This is because you have much more area to control the access to your home and therefore your supplies. Concentrate more on your avenues of approach. Where will the threats most likely come from? Are there main roads nearby? Are there any natural barriers that you can use like ridges, lake,s rivers, etc?

Again, I'll use my situation as an example. My choice has been to use my parents home as the gathering place for our family. It is approximately 15 miles from a population area of 30,000 people. It sits back off the road a short ways with good view from the house to the road and some wooded area and a pond 75 yards behind the house.

Again, in a defensive sense, this is not an extremely easy to defend area. However, there are many more things that you can do in this situation than in the city because you have room to maneuver. The downside of that is that you also have more area to watch and control.

In that situation you have to make the terrain and surrounding situation work for you by constructing traps, digging ant-vehicular ditches, digging concealed fighting positions in various places to allow as much movement between them as concealed as possible, etc. There are many good available information sources on the Internet for accomplishing these things. Be inventive and read, read, read.

Have a good stock of sandbags and the sand needed to fill them on hand. Many of these final preparations will be done once everyone has assembled. Everyone will be anxious and will need something to keep them busy so put that energy to work. But have the plan laid out in advance and ready to implement. This is absolutely critical. If you don't have it laid out you will be flailing around and losing the confidence of all the others that are depending on you to lead them.

Again, approach things in a realistic and honest manner. The people that you will most likely be having to deal with will not be trained in the arts of stealth and [militarily precise] attack, so just put yourself in the average person's shoes that will be trying to rob you. Doing that makes it pretty easy to understand where you will most need to protect and focus your attention.

Being removed by a few miles from a populated area will most likely buy you some time unless you are on a major thoroughfare between two populated areas where people might be traveling from one city to another. If you are in a direction not directly toward another city that will buy you a little additional time before you have to confront the hordes leaving the city. Maybe a couple of extra days which could be extremely significant in your final preparations. Take advantage of that delay, as it very well could save countless lives.

Now that I've got you thinking through some possibilities, then let's look at some of the other issues that I an many others will have to deal with.

We see the term OPSEC used all over the place these days. Basically what that means is keeping quiet and staying as hidden as possible. In the city that's almost impossible. Hordes will be going from house to house looking for the easy targets. (So, as we discussed we're going to make it hard for them.)

Let's take a generator for example. How do we run a generator when everyone else has no power without saying very loudly "COME TO MY HOUSE!" This is something that will have to be thought out and planned for in advance. My plans are to bury my generator in a root cellar of sorts with a well-muffled [but fully externally-vented] exhaust pipe. This could be done in or out of the city to hide what you have. The area could also serve many other uses to include as a root cellar and storage for all types of things. [JWR Adds: A Carbon Monoxide (CO) detector is a must!] If done in the right way it could possibly even be hidden enough to avoid being found by all but the most observant looter. You can apply this concept to many other things too.

I try to use items that can be easily hidden and/or moved if needed to another location. A good example of that is portable solar panels for charging batteries. It will cost you a bit more up front but they are also easier to hide and, if necessary, to move. Further, if you have to bug out you can grab one or two to take with you. Nothing is permanent.

This does require some planning but again the cost is mostly in labor as far as the preparation goes. That is my mindset, spend as little money as possible but get as prepared as possible.

All of the aforementioned thought processes can be and should be applied to the entire gamut of preparing. It does not matter what area it is, the process is still the same, observe the problem, identify the problem, weight the alternatives, find a solution to the problem, and apply the solution.

One final note that I think is probably the most important of any of this. This is all about one thing in the end, SURVIVAL--continuing to exist on the planet. Hopefully with some semblance of our existing comforts--at least with the basics.

That being said, once you have whatever preparations you have in place at you perfect or imperfect retreat, what's left?

What's left is the assurance of your continued survival. You absolutely must have a plan B, C, D, and so on, to keep you and your family surviving. I'm in the process of doing all that I have mentioned above. Are my preparations complete? Absolutely not. But one thing that is very high on my priority list is the ability implement those contingency plans.

My additional planning goes something like this. I figure [that in a worst case] at some point I will be forced from my retreat. What then? Well, if you haven't planned for that eventuality then you become one of the dispossessed horde. So what should you do to avoid this?

First, you should never, ever store all of your supplies at your central retreat location. Depending on the situation, store enough to get through the initial siege. More in the city and less in the rural area. Establish caches, preferably buried or at some reasonably secure, hidden location. Notice that "caches" is plural. Don't place one cache with any certainty that it won't be found. Also, when you do place them be sure not to follow any recognizable pattern. Also be sure that numerous trustworthy people in your family are aware of the locations in case something happens to you. You could also, as time and situation permit, dig some larger "foxholes" for temporary shelter and cover to move to and avoid being caught by the hordes. It gives you a place for a hasty retreat and also a place to fight from if that is necessary or just a place to hide until things blow over and you can return to your retreat.

Next, think about what you will need to store in the caches. When you are initially forced to leave your retreat you will mainly need water, guns, ammunition, fire starting equipment and possibly shelter related items. Some non-cook foods would be helpful too. This cache needs to be reasonably close by and easy to get to to resupply you with what you had to leave behind at the retreat.

The remaining caches can be more fully stocked in the hopes that you will find another shelter to move into until such time as you can eventually return and retake your retreat.

Even in the city you can find somewhere to bury a small cache of items like this to keep you equipped and on the move to the next cache, then the next cache, etc. It takes a little planning but not a huge outlay of resources. But again there some outlay in the form of labor. If nothing ever happens you dig them up and use the items for daily use. Nothing lost but lots gained if they are ever needed in extremis.

As I said at the start, this was not meant to be all-inclusive. My intent was to get you thinking, and to possibly help those in situations like mine--where I realize that I cannot put my family in the "perfect retreat" situation. What I can do though is give them the chance, with some luck and God's help, to survive.