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| The windows on either side of this door are not a positive feature in the event of civil unrest. That front door cannot be reinforced well with the amount of framing around it. Look around your house and formulate a plan in order to solve these potential safety issues at your home. |
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| This window to one side has a grille. The higher lock could be replaced with a keyed lock, but the key would need to be fairly conspicuous so that people in the home could locate it and exit quickly in the event of fire. |
As you know if you are not comatose, Congress has refused to approve a budget which would fully fund our government because it would also fund Obamacare a.k.a. the "Affordable Care Act". The only way this could be done is by raising the credit limit of the United States. This would be like you and I placing all of our living expenses on the Discover card at 16.99% and quickly reaching our $5,000. limit. Then we decide to meet with our spouse to request a tripling of our debt limit to $15,000. If we can't make the payments with the card maxed out at $5,000, then we certainly won't be able to make the higher payments on a balance of $15,000.
President Obama pushed through a National Health Plan which is neither comprehensive, or affordable. It will markedly increase the costs of insurance for individuals and for families. It will markedly increase the amount that individuals pay for medications of supplies if they are on Medicaid (care based on a low income formula) or Medicare (provided after attaining a particular age.). In very short order care will need to be rationed. It is extremely likely that expensive care will likely not be provided to those with multiple diagnoses, or those beyond a certain age. (That age could be as low as fifty-five or even fifty) Since reimbursement for care of supplies is very likely to be erratic or difficult, this will translate to fewer companies selling diabetes supplies, ostomy supplies, or other medical supplies. Medical supply shortages are therefore very very likely in the future. The Veteran Administration plan will endure the least amount of changes, but many veterans recently believe that they have not received the best of care. (I am referring to a number of returning soldiers whose families found fault with the VA system, and then paid for private care for their sons and daughter's head injuries or other injuries acquired during war.)
Sadly, as inconvenient and as disruptive as it is to many of my native Virginians who actually work for the federal government, the only way Congress can see to bring Obamacare, an injurious agent, as they see it, to additional scrutiny, is to shut down government. They have offered to individually fund WIC (Women, Infants and Children, the food program which helps to provide healthy and specific foods to breast feeding women, babies and small children.) They have also offered to individually fund the activities of the National Institute of Health, in the event that those receiving experimental treatments deteriorate during the governmental closure. They are also crafting a bill which will fund FEMA. This was unacceptable to Mr. Obama, who has said on a number of occasions, that he will not negotiate. He wants the debt ceiling raised, Obamacare fully funded and the entire government funded. People working for the National Park Service have been told by the administration to be as difficult as possible for those wishing to enter our National Parks. Basically, we have a serious stalemate. Mr. Obama will not agree to an item by item funding of our government's essentials, and then an examination and perhaps a staging of Obamacare, which is surely not yet "shovel ready", unless, of course, you plan to bury it. Obama and his family, Congress, the Senate and their families are all exempted from this bad plan, while you and I and our families lives hang in the balance.
Meanwhile, the government has purchased many millions of rounds of ammunition of many different calibers, so many in fact, that there has been a significant shortage for the rest of us. The government has also purchased huge numbers of MREs. It's almost as if the current regime intends to collapse our current system in order to place a dictatorship in its place when financial collapse and civil unrest occur.
I have no crystal ball. I can't tell you what will happen. I know that a group that allies itself with Al Qaeda in Africa is attacking shopping malls and calls itself Al-Shabab. (I just remember the name by thinking about a group that would like to shish-kebab Americans) They likely have tentative plans to bomb malls in the United States also. I know that we have a leader who has done, and is continuing to do, many things which do not appear to be in the interest of the United States. I know that the economy is not improving. I know that more and more people are on food stamps, food assistance, welfare, etc. I know that thousands and thousands of college graduates have not found jobs which are lucrative enough that they are able to pay their student loan debts. I know that the government owes approaching 17 trillion dollars. I know that quantitative easing is simply a band-aid on incredible national financial problems. Many people have been without work and depending upon family members, and living in basements and RVs for years.
I know that a militarization of local police is occurring, and that there is talk of collecting even legally acquired firearms. In fact, 24 million dollars was just appropriated in California in order to confiscate weapons which were legal when they were acquired.
And no, if you oppose my assessment, I am not a Republican. I think they should have taken a harder line against Obamacare long ago. I am not a Democrat. I am not a Libertarian. I am, a Constitutionalist, and I still don't see how it could be anything approaching constitutional for every American to be required to purchase any product from anywhere, simply as a condition of being alive.
So, these are not only tight times, they are dangerous times. What can you and your family do ?
These are simply a few suggestions:
1. You and your spouse need to analyze your budget for this year, here and now. Before medical supply and food shortages occur, what can you trim from your budget ? Must you have cable television ? Can you use your cellphone less and get a less expensive plan ?
2. Analyze your food budget. Most Americans eat fast food much more than they should. Do you need to stop depending upon fast food as often ? When you buy food, do you buy prepared foods ? Could you buy a couple of chickens and cook them, making chicken and rice, a chicken noodle casserole, and hearty chicken noodle soup ? You could freeze these and have three healthy meals for the price of one pre-prepared entree. Should you buy a large container of oatmeal ? You could make cookies and place them in a tin for the week. (They are quite healthy with raisins.) You could make your own quick oatmeal without little packets ! My kids add a little raspberry jam to oatmeal we make ourselves. Sometimes, we put a dollop of ice cream on oatmeal. Remember, breakfast doesn't have to be breakfast food. Go to Goodwill and get some cookbooks. Make some healthy and economical new dishes. Remember that the calorie counts are included in the recipes and portions in a lot of contemporary cookbooks. Look up recipes for cabbage. This versatile long lasting vegetable deserves a second look. Americans have forgotten how to cook, and this has swelled our grocery budgets as well as our backsides.
3. Take a look at your security situation in your apartment, your suburban house, or country home. If civil unrest or rioting were to occur where you are, what would the hazards be ? Consider reinforcing doors, windows, and better garage locks. If you have defensive weapons, make an appointment or arrangements to practice more this weekend. A weapon you can't use safely because you are inexperienced, places you and your family in more danger than if you didn't have one.
4. It may not be possible or even wise to start construction on a safe room, however most homes have certain rooms which by location, are simply safer than others. Make sure your children know that in an emergency, we report to the _________room. For some this is the basement, for others a windowless playroom.
5. If you are still working or drawing a paycheck, make efforts now to put away food supplies, and frequently used medical items. If you use insulin, then get ahead on insulin now. If you test blood sugars, then buy extra test strips now. You might want to invest in a cheaper back up system, a Wal-Mart glucometer and some of the strips it needs. Don't forget specialized batteries needed for medical equipment, insulin pumps, glucometers, etc. Get some extra nebulizer bowls and tubings if you use these. If you use aspirin daily, buy some extra. You need to avoid getting to the point where you desperately need something within in the next 3-5 days.
Today, Merck Pharmaceuticals announced that they will be gradually terminating a large number of its workforce. This is likely to happen to a number of large companies. Please analyze what you would do if this happened to you. We all need to have contingency plans.
I doubt that whatever happens in DC will happen in Duluth. Whatever happens in Seattle will not be just like Miami or Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Each of us needs to look at the potential for short or longer term financial collapse and how it would likely impact our area. Very quickly, large angry masses express rage in destruction, looting and fire. Where would you go and what would you do, if this or a natural disaster befell your area ?
This is enough for now, but we all know something is coming. The mood everywhere is tense and many people are on edge, pretty much everywhere you go. You and your family are depending upon you to have a plan, and to keep yourself together. You can do this. I know you can.
33 comments:
Scary but necessary post.
My front door is EXACTLY like the one pictured and it is the bane of my existence. Putting glass next to a door lock is asinine!!!! I've considered a bar across the door, but it would be lifted.
Then there's my two patio doors.....my old house was Fort Knox. NO ONE was getting in.
We live as frugally as we can live. I take half our meals and put them in Food Saver bags. I have a meatloaf, bean soup, taco meat, vegetable soup, and a cooked roast in the freezer. I'm at my wits end now, worrying about the fact that WHEN I was planning on retiring, I put my retirement in something I considered 100% secure. GOVERNMENT BONDS. Well? When I did it, I considered my Country as the BEST country in the world with a strong moral backbone.
"It's almost as if the current regime intends to collapse our current system in order to place a dictatorship in its place when financial collapse and civil unrest occur." I realize that you have to say "seems" for liability reasons. I "seem" to agree with you 100%! I suspected his plan before he even got elected the second time, and figured dumping him was our nation's last chance to survive. I firmly believe that it's all downhill from here.
Very good advice..
It may be that Republicans, Democrats and our President find common ground within the next couple of weeks, averting the problem we fear. We are still however on a runaway train of 17 trillion in debt, which makes an American Depression and then a World Depression a distinct possibility within the next year. The nation will be in a world of hurt, however many families could make enduring this easier using simple advance planning. Our great grandparents did this. Our parents did this. We can economize too. Thanks for your post, Gorges.
For the patio doors, a stick can be placed in the bottom making sliding impossible. (I have done that at my mother's house.) For glass on both sides of the door, you may not be able to change that, but you can have the top lock replaced with one which is keyed on both sides of the door. If you do this, then make sure a key is hung inside your home in a place where you can always access it to get out of the home in the event of fire. If your town actually sees civil unrest, then a poster on the door which actually says, "Enter here and be shot" would likely cause most people to loot another home before yours. There are things that can be done, inexpensively and with some advance planning.
Government bonds may still be better than many of the things others have invested in.
I hope we are both wrong, but this is the way the facts with the dots connected appears to you, to me, and a lot of other people.
I was talking to a grammy winning songwriter the other day, and he encouraged me greatly. Although he has views very much like our own, he believes that America will once again be great. Whether it is five years from now, ten years, or seventy years, we don't know. I think times could be difficult for the remainder of my time on Earth.
Thank you for posting Mamahen. Very best wishes.
Have you considered replacing the glass next to your front door with toughened safety glass? It is not easy to break, and the added plus is that if it does, it will break into chunks, not shards.
A worthwhile expense I can highly recommend. In South Africa any glass that long HAS to be toughened.
P.S. That is a STUNNING door :)
(btw, you can also, at minimal cost, cover it on both sides with a safety film - not as intruder proof but it will delay someone long enough for you to be able to Send the little ones to a secure cellar and for you to get your shotgun...)
Two homes ago, we had a door and window like this. The last two homes we have built, we did not have windows at the sides of the front door or transom glass above it. Our thinking was that we were already out in the middle of nowhere and the last thing we needed was someone breaking through. In reality though, in newer homes, the glass used in areas around doors is normally double-pane tempered glass, which behaves a lot like car glass if broken.
Even though it's not as easy to breach as one might think, I am calling everyone's attention to this simply because in civil unrest and looting, we are avoiding the appearance of being an easy target as much as we are preventing an actual breach. Thanks for your posts, Dani !
Yes, I also think that curtains could be placed there. www.countrycurtains.com sells all over the world, and does have things that will cover the glass on both sides of door. The advantage to curtains is that an intruder can't look inside, doesn't know if you have a gun waiting for him, and can't watch the comings and goings of the inhabitants when it's light INSIDE the house, but dark outside.
I do believe America will be great. I just hope we aren't driven into the ground and are forced to sell our national parks to the muslims! However, I think if the republicans or democrats get their way, things will be bad. Both scare me. I was thinking the same thing--life will never be easy for the rest of my life. At 67 I am dispensable.
I need all windows covered for my peace of mind because I just know there is someone watching me. I never felt this way until I had a peeping tom who watched me for a year in private moments in various stages of undress. He made a remark to me that made me know this former neighbor was watching. I felt someone was at the time. Sooo, even the lace curtain over a picture window has a piece of fabric that I can put over it at night and often do. It is make-do, but solves the problem of someone seeing what I have (nothing) or where I am or what I am doing.
There is a kind of decorate security grill that can be put over glass windows. It prevents intruders, but it might not secure the glass. A double-keyed deadbolt does no good if you do not have hardened door facings. This involves lots of metal in the wall and door facings. A deadbolt can be kicked in just by causing damage to door facings. They are the weak point. Hang a key low and out of reach of the door and windows. You can even put the key in something that others are aware of. The intruder might be someone who actually has been in your house before and will know where to find the key using a pole if you just hang it near the door. Tape it behind a picture or mirror or stake it in a plant.
If that grill is wooden, it is useless.
It isn't. This particular one is metallic. However, if someone wishes to enter through a window, they probably can. A friend of mine owns a business and was robbed by someone who must have been extremely slim in order to have entered through a very small window. I would never have believed that someone would have entered from a window that small.
Linda, Thank you for all your posts on this subject. You raise excellent points with regard to security grills and locks which are keyed on both sides of the door and making sure to have access to a key. Our door frames here are reinforced, although it would still be possible for someone with a few minutes and a sledge hammer to breach them eventually, and then of course, once inside, they would be at point blank range, if of course, I was home.
Peeping Toms are more common than people realize. Best to have windows covered wherever you are.
Hey, cheer up, things are going to get worse. I live in a piece of shit place, what is cool about that? It's not inviting.
.."and was robbed by someone who was exremely small" - they use small children here - to gain access and find tbe key / open the door from the inside...
You have to think laterally - like a burglar - devious and sneaky!
I shudder to think that someone may have used a small child as an assistant in order to rob our friend's business at 2 am ! Police thought that a slight teen was probably the culprit in this case.
The only reason my home is decorated well is that I am still "in the business" of raising a family. I would live much more simply if the task were complete. There are benefits to living simply, as I am sure you know. There are still things of value in any home. Certainly, looking too inviting might not be a great idea, unless you are trying to sell !
Don't kid yourself, you have a fancy home because your ego wants a fancy home. :-)
BBC,
You are making a lot of assumptions. First of all, no pictures of my home have ever appeared on the internet for security reasons. I have been fortunate to have been given pictures of the homes of others which often underscore the points I am trying to make, either about siding, radon abatement, or anything else. I believe a couple of pictures of some of the outbuildings on our farm have been used on the internet and in my book. My home is hardly fancy, and you should know from the tone of most of my posts, that although I like things to be clean and neat, that I am normally focused upon the practical.
My ego doesn't have a lot to do with the home I would have. In marriage, two people select a home, and they generally do so to meet the needs of the family they are raising. I do appreciate beauty, but beauty in the decor of a home need not be expensive, and can be a legitimate expense because when it is time to sell, you will sell for more than you have invested. Good color, for example, in a home, costs no more than a poorly selected one, and can make a large difference in the speed at which a home sells.
In the world as it presently is, mobility is important. An attractive home whether it is small, moderate, large or outright grand is an investment in that mobility.
Well, carry on. ....
One thing to consider, even if you persuade thieves and mobs to not enter due to "more" secure doors and windows and such, some will eventually choose to simply burn your place down. It seems in every case of mob action, something is burned down.
Make sure you have a way out and some to deal with what may be waiting on you on the outside.
I don't think I would last long in a mob action, but I would go out shooting.
I like to believe that because our home is so secluded and hard to find that throngs of people during civil unrest would be unlikely to find their way here. This may, or may not be true when push comes to shove. The secluded home might have the advantage of not being known about or located, but it also cannot be seen by others who could not help or call for help. There are advantages and disadvantages wherever you live in a civil unrest situation.
Your point is well taken, Matt and why so many people have a concealed weapons permit.
Seclusion is a great thing, Jane. But you never know when you may be sitting up late one night in the living room when the door knob begins to turn and jiggle. Yes, it's unlikely to happen, probably wouldn't..... oh wait....
Matt, I still can't believe that someone would cross the woods with the coyotes, bears,bobcats, rabid bats, and rumored mountain lion, in the full moonlight to see if they could enter this house at 3 am. If he had gotten in, he may well have been shot to death.
Hey, if there is any shooting I wanna be there, I demand that my death be interesting, goddamn it.
You know I only shoot if it's a clear self defense situation, and I have no other choice. Besides, after a double-tap to the intruder, he wouldn't return fire and you would be fine !
Well, you sure take the fun out of a good murder. :-)
It's a family blog with a federal agent as a friend and frequent visitor. "We are law abidin' folks 'round heah"
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