how long after an event for things to die down

[mikebratcher69]

Hmmmmm... Good defensive position, somewhere to wait it out, maybe like the old medievil castles with an enclosed barricaded garden, or a hill fort type of scenario, at the moment my bols subteranian, well away from people, but them I have to venture outside to forage, thats why I opened the island bol thread probably more defensable... can zombie sheep swim?

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The more people the better for most scenarios maybe, for sentry duty, defense and such.

[Skean Dhude]

Mike,

No. They however can just walk along underneath the water if it is a moat. If it's a stream or river they get swept away.

[grumpy old man]

been watching the t.v. lately and saw the army using steel porta cabins in bases.
that gave me an idea about making a secure compound two cabins high around in a square a bit like a castle and make it in the woods
if as preppares we stock pile food and other things then have to bug out and leave it we become scavagers or raider's at some point if we bug out on foot the we can't carry everthing then we may become stuck?
we can't fortifie are home to the extend we will need and what about next door or above you or below?
if we plan now for the perfect bol then stock it and secure it before tshtf we can just take arselfs away and let the world fall down
also i have noticed that we are all small groups when do we sleep? who keeps watch what happens when they fall a sleep?
you should have two people at a time keeping watch for two hour stints but change one person on the hour
e.g.
00:00 A,B WATCH
01:00 A,C WATCH
02:00 C,D WATCH
03:00 D,B WATCH
04:00 B,A WATCH
05:00 A,C WATCH AND SO ON....
so for 1 watch post you need 4 people times that by 4 directions that's 16 people just to watch over the camp.
so maybe we need to team up and plan things in more detail if we want more than just get by?
i think the prepares that have been in the services need to think back to training and then re-apply what they know and share it with non service prepares
i also think that defence and attack abilities will play a bigger part in are survival than we think the farmer can grow the food we need but he can't keep it safe aswell?
can a doctor or nurse protect them self and family and grow food too? i think not.
any survival group will run out of some thing or an item will need replacing the we need to go out and get it how ever well that item is guarded if we have nothing to trade do we go away and do with out or will we take it by force for the greater good of all are families?
may be we need to disclose are locations roughly so we can may be team up and plan things more

[bigpaul]

the trouble with porta cabins as i know by personal experience(working in them on building sites) is that they are horrendously cold/freezing! so you need a good log stove and in the winter that would have to be on 24/7, then of course you have the problem of wood smoke/smell giving away your location! also getting them to your location would be a nightmare, you would need a low loader and a crane to offload it. we had 3, set up in a line, they each had two doors so we could set up an internal walkway so we didnt have to go outside to get to the next one. you could also set them up in a square (if you had 4) so that you had an inner compound which is protected from the outside. i think that the logistics of getting them to your BOL would probably rule them out in anything but a TEOTWAWKI event.

[Skean Dhude]

Unless you fill them with earth or armour them up bullets will go right through. I did look at a disused quarry a few miles away. Thought of filling it with storage containers on top of each other, connecting them together and then covering them with earth. Would need ventilation though. So would need to be powered.

[mikebratcher69]

There just happens to be a steel portacabin suplier, with delivery trucks near me...

[grumpy old man]

i know that they aren't bulletproof but would make a good base and you could live a reasonable normal life style if the is an nuff of you's to defend it and keep watch smoke wouldn't be a problem
as if any one did come by you would have the advantage.
if you were attacked everone who can't fight could have an inner core for protection and you could set traps and a charges and even a moat around and sand bag the roof for defensablie postions

[Kenneth Eames]

Army Engineers make gabions (gay-be-ons). These are Wire mesh boxes filled with stones. They can be made like a wall and the outsides plastered with soil and planted. If you make a square of them you could live in the centre. Obviously, you would need an entrance and of course, Windows for observation. Roof it with tree trunks and soil upon a plastic membrane. Gabions should be about Four feet thick. It will withstand light shelling. If you want something like this, plan it out on paper. You would need a decent sized group to build this. Kenneth Eames.

[mikebratcher69]

Theyve built new housing estates near me with those sire encased stone walls, they havnt done anything with them though just left them bare...
always thought they looked unfinished.

[NorthernRaider]

Two years is my best bet taking into account stocks and supplies of everything from bleach, soap, detegents will take a while to use up, then medicines apart from insulin will store for at least six months. Then when we pass through one dark winter without power, gas or running water and refrigerated food I expect to see a major die off start properly as malnourished people succumb to a combination of stress and illness.
The young, the elderly, those reliant on constant medical intervention, city dwellers, the emotionally weak,those incapable of sudden adjustment to their lives, druggies, alcs and many disabled will go in the first year, but the big die off will be in year two , thats what I'm planning on anyway.