Yesterday, I did a post on defending your home. One of our friends sent in a comment in regards to the article. I thought I’d share this with you today.

Gerry, is a good friend of ours, and he lives in Western Canada. He’s a great guy, and Deb and I love him to death.

Anyway, after reading Gerry’s comment, I felt I may have not clearly identified the true intent of this particular post. With that the case, I felt like I might want to do a follow-up this morning and try to clear up a little my true intention for the post yesterday.

Here’s Gerry’s comment…

Hi D @ D. read your column, I can’t Imagine living like you were saying but I suppose things are somewhat different in your country ,I can’t help but tell you this , I got up one morning and to let my doggy out and I’ll be darned the beck outside door had been open all night and the front door was unlocked all night and this is not the only time something like this has happened ,it happens mostly when I have company everybody is thinking that the other person will look after the doors.
God bless you both.

Gerry ole buddy, it’s not so much that we live like that, but it’s more of simply having a home protection plan in place. It’s much better to CONSIDER something such as this as a POSSIBILITY, and not so much as, “Man, this is gonna happen no doubt.”

In today’s world, there are a ton of people out there who have little to no regard for themselves, much less anyone else. Sad, but still true. Whether we accept this as fact is entirely up to the individual. Deb and I choose to accept it as fact, while the chances for our home being invaded may be a small one, BUT, the possibility still exists, and we treat it as just that…a possibility.

To us, it’s kinda like driving around all over the place, but not having a spare tire. The chances of you blowing out a tire may indeed be miniscule, BUT, it could happen. Once it does, how bright was it to not carry a spare?

The post yesterday was merely attempting to get people to stop and consider the possibility of their home being invaded, and to consider putting some type of plan in place…JUST in case. We shared our thoughts of if it happened to us, we at least had some type of plan in place, that’s all. Also, we feel it important to have done so.

Would we like to shoot an armed intruder? No, of course not, and we feel anyone in their right mind feels exactly as we do on the subject. BUT, would we shoot an armed intruder? You bet your bottom dollar we would! Deb included.

So once again, let me state that this is not how we’d like to live, but society itself is dictating to us, pretty clearly too, if you’ll just listen, how we live anymore. That is a fact.
Let me site you guy’s one example of what I’m talking about.

You all know we have a pretty good bunch of turkeys here on the place. We live in Central Florida, and this area was developed extensively during the housing boom…commercial buildings and housing went up everywhere.

We’re fortunate enough to have a place that is pretty much surrounded by State owned land, so we’re pretty secluded here first of all, and secondly, this insures wildlife drifting back and forth.
Today where we live this is pretty rare to see, wildlife outside your door. If they happen to get shot on State property, that’s fine, I have no problem with that at all. BUT…

Two weekends ago, on a Sunday at 12:00 noon, I was in the greenhouse watering some plants we’d re-potted into 6” pots. Deb was doing one of her soaks in regards to her cancer, which Deb’s doing great, by the way.

Anyway, I hear a 22 rifle go off and it sounded pretty close. I thought that someone may have just shot a turkey off our place, but then thought…naw.

Well, just a couple minutes later I heard it again…another shot, and I knew I’d better go check it out. So, I ran to the house, just hollered to Deb that I was going to check it out, and ran for the truck. The shots came from a spot on our property that there was no State property around us at all.

Actually it is a ten acre section that sits between two paved roads, and we own from road to road. It’s probably a quarter mile from State land.

I got to the truck, and Cheyenne loves to ride, so she was bitin at the bit to go. Well, sometimes she wants to go, but isn’t in any big hurry to get in. This was one of those times. I should have left her, but waited around another minute or so for her to get in.

That hesitation cost me. After her getting in, I took off for this particular pasture. We blew through the gap over a little dry creek bed into the pasture and just as we flew through the gap…I saw him!

The guy had shot a gobbler off a busy highway, got out, climbed our fence, walked out into the middle of the pasture, got the turkey, and was walking back off our place, nonchalantly. No Trespassing signs posted everywhere, yet he acted as if HE owned the place and it was I who was trespassing!

Well, by waiting on Cheyenne to get in the truck, he was already climbing our fence, headed back to his truck. He saw us barreling towards him, and took off to their truck, jumped into the back of the bed and laid down. The driver was waiting on him, but he had rolled up his window and I couldn’t see the driver because the windows were tinted. I was livid, screaming at the top of my lungs and they took off across traffic, ran a white car off the road, which in turn spun around and took off after them too. I’m guessing because they’d run the white car off the road.

So, by loading Cheyenne up, I missed the opportunity of catching the guy out in the middle of our pasture. If I could have come through even 15-20 seconds earlier, I’d have caught him, dead to rights, and held him until deputies arrived. This time though, they got away.

Here in Florida, armed trespassing is a very serious charge, and accountably so. Why? Because they’re on your property…ARMED!

When I went to check on it, was I armed? You betcha! Would I have shot? Only if he, or the driver intended on taking a shot at me.

Consider this. They were on our place, at 12:00 in the afternoon, had shot and killed a turkey in our pasture, with another road running parallel to the road they shot from, not 600-700 feet from where they shot from.

So, they actually shot across another highway with traffic on it. They then climbed our fence, walked out into our pasture, picked up the turkey, and until I came flying through the gap, he was acting as if once again, I was the trespasser. They then almost caused a wreck, almost a head-on mind you, getting back onto the road when they took off.

So, do you think they gave a hoot in he.. about poppin a cap in me? Probably not.

Once I got back to the house and told Deb, she stated, “No more are we ridin around our place WITHOUT a gun on us. Never again! If they had no more concern for what they’d just done, on a Sunday afternoon when most folks are home, then I feel there’s no way would they have hesitated in shooting one of us!” Again, sad but true.

But you know Gerry, one other important fact about yesterday’s post is this. The liberals in our Country today would like to see the citizens of our great Country unarmed. Sad, but true. Our Constitution clearly states that we have the RIGHT to keep and bear arms! Again, this IS our right.

We HAVE the right to protect our homes, our property, and our family. Once you give up your guns, you’ve given up your freedoms. It’s amazing to me today though just how fragile that right has become.

So, our article yesterday was once more to get people to stop and consider a plan for the protection of their own home. Deb and I by no means eat, sleep, and breathe this, or consider it very much at all. But, we still understand the possibility of it maybe, happening, and have plans in case of it becoming reality.

So, we prepare. Our home defense plan is no different than our planning for an emergency and having access to food and water. When the hurricanes of 2004 hit down here, we were without power for a total of about 30 days. No water.

So, we installed two pitcher pump wells. Now if we were to be without power…we still have water. Our economy is terrible, although our President states daily it’s improving. We put up some food, and are very glad we did. Food prices are soaring!

Through our food storage, we have food put away that was bought at a steal, when compared to today’s pricing. Deb paid $3.85 cents for a gallon of milk just yesterday.

Our juice supplies for Deb and I, which by the way have worked out fantastically in regards to her cancer, now cost us about 200 bucks a week. This figure has DOUBLED since we started this last year! So what’d we do, we’ve built a greenhouse to help offset this price! A plan!

We had a plan! Our guns are the very same…a plan. We love to shoot, target practice and enjoy doing so. But, in case of a situation of our home being broken into…they are part of a plan. That’s all.

Our Country today is faced by a shortage of jobs, inflation is looming, gas prices are soaring, food pricing is getting to the point that Deb and I don’t know how people with families are making do, and our government is spending money at record levels…in the worst economic times that I can remember.

This cannot continue to last. There HAS to be a breaking point. We have, at the last time I checked, over 42 million Americans on some type of government program. What happens if this money is cut off, which, by the way most of it should be, but that’s another topic entirely.

But once more, if these peoples aid are cut off, this indoctrination that what’s ours IS THEIRS, will lead to anarchy. It has too. They have become ENTITLED! So, when the aid quits coming, they’ll be finding other ways to get food, but in most cases it won’t be by looking for employment. Again, they believe that what’s yours… IS THEIRS!

So, because of all these variables, Deb and I do prepare for the worst, but hope for the best. We do set plans, and feel totally at ease about doing so. We hope there are many more doing exactly the same!

Well, that’s it for today guys, and to Gerry, we love you buddy! Take care, and God bless! As always, Deb wants me to close out by saying, “Keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!”

Dub and Deb

Well, let’s change gears today somewhat. Let’s talk about protecting your home. I know, I know, this subject sparks many debates Nationwide, but I have to tell you, the liberal mindset of gun control and the arguments they present, just don’t seem to make much sense to Deb and I.

First off, if there ARE armed intruders in your home, then dialing 911 just doesn’t seem to comfort us in the least. Yes, 911 does have its place, BUT, it DOES NOT protect YOU, or YOUR family IF your home has been chosen as a mark by the criminal element.

Let’s get real here for just a second. If an armed intruder, or intruders enter your home, at night (daytime as well), one thing is completely obvious…they’re not stopping by to say hello, how are ya! If they have the balls (sorry, but nothing else seemed appropriate), to come forcibly into your home to rob you or worse, you can bet your bottom dollar they REALLY don’t want to leave any witnesses, right? You betcha I’m right!

So, with this in mind, AND intruders are already in your home, then simply dialing 911 doesn’t seem like the appropriate action to take. Again, it has its good side, and many of them as a matter of fact, but it doesn’t provide protection for you and your family at THAT moment. Your response, and your actions, both are in your hands…RIGHT THEN.

Yes, while you’ve prepared, or armed yourself to defend your home, and your own lives, you or your spouse CAN call 911 and have the police responding to your threat as well, but, I’m guessing the VERY best scenario, is them being able to get to your home in say, 4-5 minutes. It depends on their situation at the time as well.

Are they on another call, are their enough officers on duty, what if, God forbid, they’re involved in an accident in route? All these figure into a police response to armed intruders in your home. Think about that for a minute or two. Do you REALLY want to put you, and your family’s lives into everything just falling into a “perfect scenario” for the police to respond to your call? We’ve decided the answer to that question in our own regard is simply…NO, we surely don’t!

Too many times today gun control is declared, “THE ANSWER,” by our liberal counterparts. Not so says I. There is an old saying that is very appropriate at this point…if guns are outlawed, THEN, only outlaws WILL HAVE GUNS! Comprende?

Do any of you REALLY think that if our guns were taken from us, that the criminal element wouldn’t still have, or have access to guns? Gimme a break guys, if you believe no to be the correct answer here. If you do believe this, then you’ve already fallen into the trap. The trap being the proposed “Socialist Utopia” of this perfect, everybody loves everybody world. Please….

Let me say this quickly. Deb and I both were raised around guns. Our children were raised around guns, and our grandchildren are now being raised around guns. This IS our right as American citizens, no matter what ANYONE tries to tell you differently!

We all ARE law-abiding, hard-working, responsible, freedom loving, people. We like to hunt, fish, and enjoy shooting on the range. Shooting to us, is like any other sport you enjoy. Our kids and grandkids do as well.

To us, there’s not too many things we enjoy more than getting out on the range and plinking a few cans. You’re outdoors, in the sun and fresh air, and spending good quality time with just Deb and I, or our family and friends. To us, this is a way of life…

Now Deb and I are not, nor claim to be experts in gun training, nor have we taken any type of self-defense training classes, though for the most part we believe in them. Our experience and knowledge come from years of being around guns, handling guns, using guns, and taking care of our guns.

With this being the case, we’ll share today our thoughts on “protecting our home.”

If Possible, Defend on Ground of Your Own Choosing

In Deb and my minds, we believe full-heartedly that if broken into by armed intruders, our best bet is to defend our home…right in the confines of our bedroom. This has many advantages.

First off, you know the layout of your room. There are times this may not be the case, one example is simply sitting in your living room watching TV. Today, unlike in the past when people most times broke into your homes while you weren’t there, or, at least tried to break-in discreetly, by jimmying a window or door.

Not so today in many documented cases. Today they come to your home and literally kick your door in! Home invasion I believe is the correct terminology. Regardless of the terminology, it becomes instantly a life and death proposition.

Quickly, we both keep guns in hands reach after dark. We didn’t create this situation…society did. In our humble opinion, we feel it’s better to have a gun in close proximity and NOT need it, than to NOT have a gun handy, and REALLY need it. Kinda like changing the oil in your car…it’s a preventative maintenance in our opinion.

Secondly, you see on TV people going through their homes shining lights in an attempt to find the intruders…not us. We’ll wait on them…AND CALL 911! BUT, we’re for sure armed while waiting on a police response.

In our household, there’s only Deb and I at home, so if you have children you may want to have a game-plan in place IF you’re broken in to. Everybody’s situation may be a little different than others, but we strongly suggest you have a plan that’s AT LEAST been discussed in place…to suit your own needs.

We have what I guess could be described as layers of home defense. The first being our yard is fenced, and protected at night by Susie, our little yellow cur dog. Both are deterrents.

We also took out every screw that was in our doors frame. All were little 1/2 to ¾ inch wood screws. We replaced them, even the doors inside our home with 3 inch wood screws. Why? Strength! The screws imbedded deeper into the frame, or even catching studs, will give you far superior strength in case of someone attempting to forcibly enter your home.

Next, if you’re coming into our home uninvited, you will have to defeat our alarm system. Motion detection, along with entry detection, whether it be attempted door, or window entry. Yeah, occasionally you will have “false alarms” with your motion detector, but these are few and far between.

This has happened to us three times over the past 4 years. Each time, being a bug, believe it or not. A spider spinning a web in front of the detector, or possibly just a fly that happened to fly in front of it, have set off our motion detector in the past.

On each occasion, I did leave the sanctuary of our bedroom to check it out, but only after our alarm system company had called to check on Deb and I, which I have to say on each occasion, was actually very promptly!

When they’d call, Deb would stay on the line with them in our bedroom armed, while I, armed as well, would go check things out with Cheyenne, our red-nosed pit. All in all, I consider our alarm system a very important role in our home defense.

Once I had “cleared the house,” Deb would let them know we were fine, and they’d then get off the line. I have to give a shout out to ADT, our alarm company, because they have been outstanding in their service to us! Thanks ADT, you guys are great!

This brings us to Cheyenne. She is also a major player, just as Susie in defending our home. She stays in the bedroom with us, and is that other set of eyes and ears! Plus, her eyes and ears are so superior to ours as well.

This gives us two layers of protection from our dogs, inside and out. There are times that Susie barks while we’re in bed. We hear her, I mean she’s out there barking. There are so many critters runnin around out here at night, that Susie can hear or see, and her response…is to bark. Granted, and we understand that.

The point here is this though. Cheyenne hears her as well, and once more, much better than Deb or I. She also distinguishes much more so than we do, the type of bark Susie is emitting. So, if Cheyenne hears Susie barking a different sort of bark, she is aware of this, and alerts us.

Alerting us is our main reason for our dogs. We’re getting a little older, and maybe our hearing isn’t what it used to be, so, through our dogs, we can, and will be alerted. Plus, although both dogs are very good natured in regards to people, I just believe that both, if feeling that Deb and I are threatened, would probably go on the offensive against the threat as well.

Now, this brings us to the scenario that armed intruders have gotten past our fence, Susie, and gained access to our home. Whether or not they defeated our alarm system really has no bearing, because we still have Cheyenne’s eyes and ears to alert us, if all else failed. We believe she would not fail us in such a situation.

First off, we live on the second floor of our home, and by this, feel an entry from an upstairs window, or door out to our balcony, miniscule, but have taken precautions for such, regardless. Prepare…this is a key word in any type of home defense!

When we go to bed, we first lock our bedroom door, then slide TWO of the old style door stops underneath the door. You know the type, you slide them under the door, then kick em a couple times to insure strength.

We then put a metal door stop (kinda like a club on your steering wheel), for further protection. It goes under the door knob, then runs down to the floor. It is a metal bar that when installed nightly, gives your door more strength against being kicked in.

All of these can be removed in under 5 seconds if we had to leave the house for whatever reason…fire, etc.

Now for my main reason of protecting our home from our bedroom. IF, you had armed intruders in your home, no matter how many, if you’re defending from your bedroom, then numbers make absolutely NO difference!

Why you ask? First consider the statement, analyze it for a moment, then see if it becomes clear to you. Why, defend our home from our bedroom?

The doorway. It’s the only access the intruders will have to get to you…through the door. Whether there are 5-6 intruders, or only two…they HAVE to come through the door, right? So IF they have to come through the door, what does this mean? Simply, they can only come through…ONE AT A TIME!

Suddenly, the number of intruders has no bearing at all in the defense of your home. You see that now? They will have to gain entrance into your bedroom/stronghold singly! That’s just what your bedroom would be at that moment…your stronghold, and by this being the case, the odds of Deb and I, being injured or worse, has been reduced dramatically!

WE CAN, AND WOULD defend our home, but…on OUR TERMS! To get to us, you’d HAVE to come through that doorway…one at a time! So, we’d fight, but it would have been forced upon us. The moral here is simple, yet ironclad.

If at all possible, if forced to fight…then fight on your own ground of choice, and on your own terms! By this, you’ve turned the tables of POSSIBLY being successful in a fight, to PROBABLY being successful in such a fight!

By this, the odds of your survival have been increased many times over. In a life and death situation, you want to stack the odds just as highly in your favor as you can. It is…life or death.

A good point I’d like to add to this is a movie Deb and I just watched a few nights back. It re-enforces my belief in our bedroom being our stronghold, and your having to gain access to Deb and I through…the doorway.

It is called “300.” It is a story about a very inferior, in numbers, group of men from Sparta, facing a vastly superior number of Persians. Although in the movie, the men from Sparta were ultimately defeated, through betrayal, they held off the mass numbers of Persians against all odds.

How? By forcing the Persians to…come to them. Not only coming to them, but the ground they chose to fight on was of their own choosing as well!

The ground they defended was but a small gap. By this, they funneled the Persians into their trap, or into fighting once again, on their own ground, chosen for its defensive importance. This being a narrow gap, thereby the Persians were not able to unleash their hordes of vastly superior numbers, but were forced to try and enter the gap, or in our case doorway, to get to the defenders.

Numbers no longer mattered, because only so many could enter the gap, or killing zone, at a time.

I told Deb while watching this, “Now, do you see why I put so much importance into forcing armed intruders into our home having to COME through that doorway in order to get to us? Numbers all of a sudden, have hardly any, if at all, importance. We fight on ground of our own choosing.”

We hope today that you guys have taken something from this. This topic, though by no means one any of us enjoy talking about, has become a very pertinent topic today…home defense.

Again, Deb and I aren’t the cause of discussing this today, or even can we say we enjoy talking about it. BUT, in today’s world, this is a direction we’ve taken to defend our home and our family. This kind of discussion takes place simply…because of our society.

It is sad to feel we need to share this with you, but in today’s world people, you better at least consider this happening to you. You can’t pick up a paper, turn on the TV, or tune in on a radio without hearing of another example of someone being killed through violence.

As I stated earlier, it’s better to have a gun and NOT need it, versus NOT having a gun and suddenly finding that you are in desperate need of it. To Deb and I, this is a no-brainer.

We look forward to hearing back from you guys, pro or con, in regards to today’s post. This is how Deb and I intend on handling a bad situation, if forced upon us, and is not considered appropriate for all. We all have different circumstances.

We do hope though, that it will possibly awaken those who don’t have a plan, to at least consider one, from your own situation. All knowledge you guys have on this subject would be greatly appreciated, not just by Deb and I, but I’m sure everyone.

We wish you all the very best, and God Bless you and yours! Also, ole Deb say to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

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Yesterday, Deb, Red and I, went down to shoot a few rounds. It has literally been months since we’d taken the time to do so. This on top of the news Deb had back in April in regards to her health. BUT, ole Deb is doing very, very well again, and she stated yesterday she’d like to target practice some if we’d like. So, we gathered up a few pistols, and a rifle and headed down to “chunk a few down range!”
Deb loves to shoot skeet, or just shoot targets. It was so good to see her out doing this again, but she can only shoot pistols for the time being. Her port is on her right side and we don’t want her trying to shoot any of the long guns until we get that scoundrel out. It sits almost right where you shoulder your gunstock, so it’ll be a while yet before we let her mess with the rifles and such. Won’t be as long as it has been though!
I gotta tell you, we had a ball. We were all a little rusty, but it hindered nothing. It was good quality time, and we all laughed and cut-up, well…like old times! It was a blast, no pun intended.
Back growing up, there was nothing I enjoyed more than getting out with Dad, or my Granddaddy and plinkin some cans with a 22, or getting up before daylight to go sit in a blind to shoot a turkey. The nights before doing so, there was little to no sleep because I wanted “tomorrow” to get here so bad! It was almost like Christmas!
There weren’t many times you’d eat at Granddaddy’s that there wasn’t some sort of meat on the table that we hadn’t shot, or caught. Dove or quail, rabbit, hog, turkey or venison were all staples, and man, that guy could make it fit to eat!
Then you add all the good fresh vegetables out of his garden, and maybe Grannie would have a big ole peach cobbler for dessert. This was provided from the little peaches they grew on their trees. They weren’t anywhere near as good, or as big as the ole Georgia peaches most are familiar with, but these little peaches sure made a fine cobbler!
After we wound up yesterday, Deb expressed she wants to start doing this again, maybe once a week or so. With that being the case, I figured the days she’d like to shoot a little, we’d just incorporate our morning walk to end up right there at the range. Throw a pistol in our pockets and a few extra magazines, and stop and “practice up” some.
All of our kids love to shoot and all of our grandchildren too. We all believe this to be good, clean family fun, and a very good lesson in life too…for the younger ones especially.
Accountability, responsibility, learning to pay attention and listen up some, teaching them to give moral support to the other shooters (that’s a tough one when ya got two brothers out there together), plus getting all those guys out of the house, and into the outdoors!
If you’ve never experienced the joy of just getting out a while and target shooting some, then I strongly suggest you possibly giving it a whirl. You may take right to it, and find that you do enjoy doing this, and end up being very proficient with one.
Also, who knows, the time may come in your life you were glad you did purchase a gun and had started shooting it some. This is kinda a sad statement to make, but people, in today’s world there is no given. The main problem I see is that if you ever need a gun, you may need it BADLY. Deb and I both try to advocate…better safe, than sorry!
We’ve put up a couple videos for you guys, and there’s nothing really to them. It’s simply the three of us at the range, doing something we all enjoy, and having a dern ball doing it. It wasn’t just about the fun we had doing it, but also the visit we three had while doing so. Once more, good family fun.
To me though, I’ve learned to look at things a little different since Deb’s prognosis. To me, anytime Deb gets out and does such as this with us…it’s a victory for her, in my eyes. We’ve been so blessed the last 2-3 months in her getting back to form, and I’ve got to tell all of you…I’ve seen quite a few “victories” in regards to her.
In closing I’d just like to express my undying devotion in helping her “knock this stuff out,” and get back to being the wife, Mother, and Grandmother she’s so suited to being! She’s tough, and we are going to beat this!

Thank you all so much for stopping back by to see us, and God bless!
Keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart, says Deb!
Dub and Deb