A late night and an uncomfortable situation...

Last night or actually early this morning around 1:30 AM, I was up for a bit. I turned on the TV in the living room and sat there a short time. Then I decided to go back to bed - I need to get back to better sleeping habits. I had just walked back down the hall when I heard something outside. I thought it was distant coyotes, so I went to the guest room and listened at the window screen. What I heard chilled my heart and set me to action. I heard a voice - a human voice - at a time and in a place where there should be no humans other than us. I headed to our room to wake up Tramp 1 (he doesn't wake up quickly or with the intent of action). Of course, he asked me if it was just someone up the hill calling their dog - sound carries, he said. And I told him that I knew what I heard and it was a human voice out front. While he yanked on clothes and grabbed my gun, I decided to hit all the lights on the outside of the house. The shop has it's own lighting and the flood light was already on there. I had things lit up brightly in a couple of clicks. We are the last acreage on a dead end road, way out in the country and there is no reason for anyone else to be here in the dark of night... Tramp 1 grabbed a flashlight, revolver in hand and headed out to look around. While I waited for him to return and report, I thought about how very vulnerable we can feel living so far from town. I felt trapped in the house and wished I were outside, too, melding off into the trees to listen and wait. From past experience listening on my scanner when a neighbor down the road had to call the Sheriff, I knew that calling for help is close to a last resort here as we live in a very large county and help could be many miles away. The last time we talked to the Sheriff after a similar incident at night, he did say that there is no good reason for anyone to be out our way at night. That is when I decided that I needed my own gun... After much too long for me, Tramp 1 came back to the house. He said that there was a vehicle up at the top of our road and at least two guys were there. He only heard one talking and it sounded like he was trying to get his friend to come back to the rig. And it also sounded like the friend was upchucking... Why here?? Oh, well. Tramp 1 never approached them as he thought it best not to since he had no idea if they were armed. (I don't think I would have been so kind as that!) Our drive up to the road is gravel and he felt they would hear him coming. He waited and finally heard them driving off. (I would have run out, whipped out the flashlight and gotten a license plate number...) So we headed back to bed to lay there and just think and talk. We went over the scenario multiple times and tried to come up with better solutions for next time. One being to get the shotgun out and have it ready at all times. Nothing like the noise of setting the shells into the chamber with the pump action - that really gets a person's attention in the dark of night. Another is to get some sort of lighting up by the road - it would have to be solar. We talked about adding a flood/spot light higher up at the pitch of the roof above the garage with a dedicated switch for emergencies. And I thought about wanting another dog - no matter if they aren't ferocious - it just feels better having a canine buddy with a nice healthy woof! Maybe now we will get those night vision binoculars we have been wanting - they would sure come in handy for this type of issue. Most of all, I just hope it doesn't happen again. We could have really used the sleep!!