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[Rarick]

There is a website called the high road that has done a lot of alternative ballistic barrier research. I do not recal the exact URL but someone here might.

http://www.thehighroad.org/

[Rarick]

Okay, Earthbags are a useful item, they are what a lot of the Ecotopic inclined use for the rammed earth walls on their earthships.  Mix the clay type dirt, 3/4 inch aggregate, and cement pour it in and give your wall a good soaking...  You can also double wall as well with regular mix earthbag on the outside.  Stucco over it,do the trim right, and you have a regular looking house until a visitor notices that the exterior walls are 3 feet thick.  Look at Earthship references and Rammed earth references from google and youtube.

I have discovered that you can pump concrete grout into soaker hose and the soaker hose breathes enough to let the concrete cure.  How much earthbag and garden hose with rebar can you stockpile in a 20-40 foot shipping box?  Enough material to make walls for the edge of your property?  Use wattle and daub to sandwiched foot thick layer of compacted clay and 3/4 inch aggregate.  The inner and outer walls could eaisliy be tied together with rebar precut and bent.  make a nice 10-12 foot high wall.  Use the earthbags to create a retaining wall against the inside base of the wall to create a sentry walk that can look out from the immediate gulch habitation.  You could also do the whole thing ahead of time with the sentry walk being set up for growing ornamental climbing greenery.  A little gas and a match could clear that when SHTF happens.

That same wall could be used as a form for the walls of an earth bermed house as well or a hobbit hole style one if you domed it in.  a foot thick with rebar every foot and rebar rings resting on the crossties at the right intervals....  I got about 1000 feet free from a landscaper that went out of business.  I know that there may be cheaper ways to make things, but it is an idea.  If post SHTF in and ongoing grid annihilated situation, and you 'forage' some of this stuff with concrete?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/3-8-x-250-Element-Bulk-Soker-No-Couplings/46723657
http://www.mrdrip.com/352-820-OD-58-ID-x-250-Bulk-Soaker-Hose-_p_830.html

Edit:

Woodlath or lath split from trees could substitute for the hose.  Now you only have to find rebar to salvage and weave in.

[slidemansailor]

I am embracing a new enterprise...
With a couple of partners I am building a quonset hut for our personal winterizing. However, it serves a second purpose assuming TS doesn't contact The Fan in the next 12 months...

1. There are no recently constructed quonset huts anywhere around here.
2. The ARCH is perhaps the strongest architectial form ever.
3. Quonset huts are simply sturdy arches ... any width, any length that fits the situation.
4. They are incredibly cost effective ... half the per-sq-ft cost of conventional.
5. Wind loads, snow loads ... the arch shrugs them off.

I'm building a sample before winter, then intending to sell multiple examples next year.