More homestead security

We've adopted the 'small town in the middle of nowhere' philosophy, for those of you who know what I mean. We bought the place long before the current era of preparedness, but it meets some basic criteria. Over the years we've renovated the house and planted fruit trees, etc. to make it a more sustainable home for our retirement. The original layout of the property puts a gate off the main drag about 12 feet from our future former front door. I've hated that.

Sorry that there will be no photos,  as there's not a practical way to do that without showing more than I prefer. I'll describe what's happening today and tomorrow. Since I began planting the garden, I've envisioned moving the front gate to a spot that is much farther from a different door. I've left a nicely mulched path to get to the new front porch, leading from a blank piece of fence. The porch  faces 90 degrees from the road and isn't obvious in passing. The door closest to the main street will be blocked securely while still allowing emergency exit. Shrubs will be planted to obscure the old porch.

Right now, the fence is being moved to remove the current gate to open a spot for the new gate. It will be about 60 feet away from the current spot and at least that far from the old and 'new' front door. The new spot provides visibility from the main living space of the house. You may think that this isn't much of a move, but there's more to it than a few feet, though that's a huge plus.

The extra distance, and posible confusion as to how to enter the house, translates into time. For a more common local emergency, it also means that if some moron opens our gate during a flood event, the rush of  water will hurt the garden, not the house. Yes, we had that happen once ("just wanted you to know there's a flood" DUH! Lucky he didn't win a Darwin Award)  and instantly had 2 FEET of water rushing into the yard. When that happens, you can't shut the gate again due to the force of  rushing water.  We were lucky, as the water stopped rising soon after. It came within 2 INCHES of coming into the house.

It will be nice to have the two-fer finished. One more long-desired improvement can be checked off the list and our little cabin will be a smidge more secure.