Practical Fortifications for the modern survivalist

Fixed links to pictures

So I found this place a few days ago and have been lurking and looking at other sites. This one has the more rational posters of any other web forum I've seen to date. While fun, Zombie Apocalypse is admittedly less likely than some other form of social breakdown.

NEVER THE LESS, fortifying for Z-Day has many benefits of fortifying for almost anything except full military invasion, in my own opinion. With all that being said and this being my first post ever on your great bastion of zombie survival I present to you some background. I live in Kansas. I've lived in small towns, and small farms all my life. I dabble in a little of everything from electronics to livestock management, home construction, small engine repair, and mild survival situations. I've been in the medical profession for nearly five years and am getting close to finishing a higher degree. (Think lower than doctor but higher than gurney pusher) This affords (well, less than before current government policy's) me the option of being able to plan more extensively than I would otherwise on my upcoming dream house build. However current family additions forcing me to push back said build date, I’m nearing the stage where I’m ready to have professional plans drawn up.

I will spare you most of the minutia of the build as that does not apply to the current fortification topic. My general location is within 50 miles of a town called Salina Kansas. This is roughly 175 miles west of Kansas City, and 100 miles north of Wichita, Kansas, being what most would consider a metropolitan area. So obviously I have the advantage of a pretty rural area. I have two current builds in mind depending on where I can talk my wife into. The first is the in town, or suburban build that I am not going to bother going into as it would lack most if not all of the defensive ideas and I would consider it disposable in a Z-day or social collapse event. Though, I would likely still lock the doors and hope for the future. The one I am interested in happens to be the build that takes place on a parcel of land. That parcels of land in the area that I am considering range from ten, to forty to one hundred and sixty acre parcels. Forty would be sufficient, though more would be nice. Though, aside, the price of land here has gotten STUPID expensive lately.... The land around here is mostly rolling hills and occasional river valley, the soil is rocky and full of clay and is usually only used as grazing land, though the floodplains are frequently farmed.

Ok, BORING STUFF OVER! My plans for fortification are modest and would not affect day to day life much, if at all. Most of my defensive measures would be subtle. The first line of defense is distance. Being away from nearly any population centers over 1000,000 people should cut down on the number of zombie herds, right? Having that distance means making supply raids difficult if not impossible once the perishable goods run out. Thus the reasoning on having my (base? does that work?) be located on a small farm. Tax deductible and self sustainable are big advantages. Now I’m not talking anything GRAND. I'm not planning on being a farmer. I'm in the medical field here. You have your livestock, cows and pigs for meat, and horses for transportation.

I've already done my research on horse breeds and the ones that make the most sense for use in a post modern world are the Morgan’s. Small, so they don't require much feeding, but powerful for pulling objects like wagons and plows, and are more than capable of speed when needed. You also would like to keep stock of some poultry for practical reasons around the farm and also to use as food. I could go into lengthy detail here but I’ll refrain. With any luck the land I would choose would have decent room for the growing of feed for the livestock and crops for the family. I.e. more than the victory garden out back would do.

The area around Salina has decent hunting ground and, with the lack of cars and out of town hunters, and the lack of care being shown to any planted crops, the game populations should see a massive boom in population before the subsequent die off in following years, and would be a good source of supplemental protein from meat. Naturally, the house would be supplied water through a well. I've looked at having indoor wells, but that is not quite so practical. Instead the well-house would be located near the house and not too far away from the barn. BAD during protracted sieges if someone gets into the well house, but a metal skin with a padlock should keep the Zombies out at least. Rational function humans wanting to do you harm? Not so much. However I do have plans to implement a rainwater cistern that collects runoff from the roof for grey water uses.

As this would be nearer to the house, I have plans to make plumbing available inside the house for times when the well is not usable. ... Regardless of the reasons. The house is supplied backup power with a generator run off of propane and located near the house with the breaker/switch box located within the house structure. When the power goes out most power generating devices turn OFF as not to put power back on the main line and electrocute anyone coming in contact with it.

The second line of defense would be a hedge row. I know, simple but don't dismiss it. Hedge rows in France were a hindrance to both the allies and the Germans during the invasion of Normandy and still have practical use today. My planned yard would be large. I would like at least 100 yards on all sides of the house. As the plan for the house is to be south facing the north side of the house would be a nearly solid line. The east or west depending on property layout would need to be a broken line of defense with stock pens and outbuildings for the maintenance of the farm I’m not sure if cattle pens would do too much slowing down, but it should be enough with gates, fences and other such objects. Surely if there were warnings of an outbreak I could make a better walled defense if I had the time.

The barn is planned to be wood and steel/painted tin structure with sliding doors for the animals and main doors, with hook and eye latches. Not the BEST protection for the animals, but my main concern is the family. The edge of the property abutting the road would not have a living fence as I’ve learned you won’t be able to see who is on the road. (Not zombies here, think FIB, or NWO swat group) Here, instead I would want a brick foundation set into the ground a few feet and metal bars with points at the top. (a'la

) T

he front gate would be a standard farm arch with a rolling gate. think this:

The Hedge it's self i haven’t exactly come down on a firm idea for, but my plans were to use five wire barbed wire and plant fast growing trees along the wire line, so as the grow they grow up around the fence and add to the structure of the fence. Coming from someone who has worked on cattle fences, you’re more likely to go around something like that than be foolish to try and go through.

I've never heard of zombies trying to climb trees, so even non-thorny trees should do the trick, given ten years. If not that long you at least have your five wire to slow them down. IF zombies manage to find my base, and then manage to assault the gate and or fences/obstructions they still have to cross the yard. The yard would be kept neat by machine during peace time and animals during other times. The animals would serve a twofold purpose as lawn mowers, and as watch guards. Dogs, yes, would help, but the poultry is your ace in the hole. No one expects the poultry.

So the third line of defense is the house it's self. You have extra eyes on the ground watching your house in the form of your animals. This would be especially helpful with zombies. You might lose some of them, but most animals HATE dead things. The eyes acting as alert systems will help the rapid defense of the home. The house is rather grand (as my wife and I have decided on a large family) and consists of two and a half floors and a basement. The two defensive (and practical) features that would really stand out is a cupola on the top of the house for thermal dynamic venting, a crow’s nest, and other assorted functions; and what I've taken to calling the "bomb room".

The Bomb room is a fully encased cement room. Or bunker. I've had an interest in the old atlas missile program and have kind of copied the Launch control room on small scale. The only ways in and out are access from the basement and an escape hatch disguised in the front yard. Opening that hatch from the outside would do you no good, as the space between the bunker and the ground would be filled with sand; dampening any shock wave and preventing unwanted entry. Stored in this room is the holy of holies. Your absolutely needed essentials. This is the LAST line of defense. This room also addresses the necessity of a tornado shelter, being located in tornado alley. If the zombies get in here, you’re dead by zombie or going out like the Goebbels.

The outer doors of the house are all heavy duty steel doors with dead bolts and a solid locking mechanism. You have reinforced jams so using bruit force on it won't work. You would have to knock down the wall, or be smart and blowtorch/blast the deadbolt and doorknob. There is one exception to this the wife requires a French door in the back of the house. As they open INTO the house, I think I can manage to defend them by barricading them from outside and placing large planks bolted to the inner wall to brace the inside.

All the windows with little work would be fitted with wooden 2x4 and plywood sheaths, bolted on by round head knobs. These sheaths would have two slots cut into them at appropriate places to allow for viewing and others to act as murder holes. (I know they have a technical term, but I for the life of me cannot think of it.) Depending on the attack you can choose to retreat upstairs or down into the basement. Things start to fall apart on me here, but the stairs up and down could easily have the steps removed as you retreated, and the upper floor provides the option retreating further into the crow’s nest/cupola. One other option is if you wanted to hide from raids, I've been toying with putting a motorcycle lift system into the garage floor. With the lift lowered and a safety switch inside the pit, you could effectively entomb yourself in the garage floor for some time.

Weapons are a non-issue. As a hunter and self defense minded person I've got that covered. I WOULD like to get my hands on a few carbon fiber crossbows though.

The whole goal here is to survive. What with a rotating stock of non and mildly perishable goods and freeze dried, a year or two of vacuum packed rations, a seed bank, and available game you should be able to live long enough to outlast most people during Z-day and much of a societal collapse. From there it's learning how to do without modern conveniences again. Then again, if done right you might be able to keep your modern conveniences going for quite some time. It would require a shift from propane to methane derived from the animal and human waste. I've been looking into that too.
Anyway. I know this is a massively long list, but I’m looking for practical ideas to make it better. It's not set in stone yet, and a lot of things can change, but hey, what's life without a dream, right?

Edit: DUH! I totally forgot about Beta site! My father and I are working on what he calls an "Obama bunker". It's where he's going to go when Obama gets re-elected and to country falls into anarchy. It's literally an underground bunker that is in the middle of nowhere. It's got a spring for water, more than enough game, and won't be COMFORTABLE, but should serve as a hidden base from WHATEVER comes up on us, be it ZA day or the Obamocalypse. I would go into more detail, but probably shouldn't. THEY are watching (shifty eyes) LOL.