"Self-sufficiency does not mean 'going back' to the acceptance of a lower standard of living. On the contrary, it is the striving for a higher standard of living, for food that is organically grown and good, for the good life in pleasant surroundings... and for the satisfaction that comes from doing difficult and intricate jobs well and successfully." John Seymour ~ Self Sufficiency 2003

Saturday 29 January 2011

Safer and more secure?

Last weekend, RMan, RSon and CGuy, a friend from Cape Town, who own's the neighbouring plot, all trooped up to the farm to add to the security which has been beefed up.

Two new horizontal bars, and a new vertical bar -
the mess has nothing to do with me!

Firstly, they installed down posts at the windows - these will be spot welded to the newly replaced and exisiting burglar bars as soon as we get a chance.

And RMan replaced the broken window.

Then, our very, very generous friend, CGuy, offered us the loan of three of his five solar panels.  These will be used to power two 30 watt sirens - one internal, and one external.  They will be loud enough to cause anyone who tries to break in again a severe headache, if not deafen them slightly - not condusive to taking their time searching for whatever else they may want to remove.  In addition, it will also, hopefully, alert any nearby neighbours, who are home, to the fact that a break-in is occuring , and they hopefully will call the police.

RSon installing the panels on the tracks



Panels all ready to be taken outside
and hoisted to the roof

I'm very grateful that I wasn't there - I couldn't believe the mess that three adult males can make over the course of only 18 hours.  18 hours!!!!  I don't do mess.

This was the tidier /more organised picture

But, before they could put the solar panels up, the internal work had to be done.


That involved CGuy climbing up into the roof to secure the alarm in place - he's not a small guy - 2.1 mtrs (6'4") but he can crawl around in the smallest of places.

He also installed two LED lights - on the two (single) external doors - to alert anyone close enough to the house, that it is now alarmed.  Apparently the LED lights can be seen from 200 mtrs away.

At the kitchen door

At the currently external door, which will become
our bedroom door when we continue with the building
All in all they had a very productive weekend.  And hopefully what they accomplished will deter anyone from attempting to break-in.  Time will tell.

So now our little farmhouse has some jewellery - three beautiful solar panels and two sparkling LED lights :-)  Almost like a necklace and earings LOL

Note the wind in the tree - howling yet again
- damn, a wind turbine is going to work so well....

Sad to have to take these steps, but necessary.

9 comments:

  1. I am really hoping that this does it. And how nice for the loan of the solar panels. That is a good friend.

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  2. I hope the improvements do help deter further intrusions! Can you give some more detail on the sirens - where you got them, and how they work?

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  3. Jane - a VERY nice, good and generous friend indeed.

    Abby - it is a siren which we had but were not using.

    It runs on 12 volts, and is connected to the (deep cycle) battery which is charged by the solar panels, but can also be charged via normal grid power and a small inverter. The siren is linked to the alarm system, which is activated by PIR's (passive infrared sensors). Any security company should be able to install one for you. As to the cost - I have no idea - this system is about 12 years old.

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  4. I do pray these improvements will take care of potential future break-ins .. and yes .. that is quite a stiff breeze that will bring great power to a wind turbine!

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  5. Mrs Mac - I can just picture the turbine spinning around madly - and they say, if you picture it clearly enough, it will happen... :-)

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  6. Dani, Sure hope this puts an end to the burglaries an you'll don't have any more problems like that. I also hope the alarm doesn't turn out to be a bad thing to like going off because of rapid temperate change and so on. The one I had did and it really ticked off the neighbors when it did.

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  7. David - thanks. Don;t think the heat will set it of . CGuy has installed man alarms in his time, and have never heard of that being a problem. I'll check with him though :-)

    Yeah - really hope this helps too....

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  8. It is sad that one has to go to such great lengths to protect property but your newly barred window and alarm system sound like an excellent form of security and will hopefully keep the thieves at bay.

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  9. Mr H - hopefully. Yes - I'm not mad about the bars either, but what else can we do at the moment?

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