Ditch Life bro!
Pick a spot, dig a trench (interrupts pathing), break LOS with the wooden walls = problem solved. There's the occasional staredown but thats about it.

There's a few things I do when I make an outpost. Building TP, a shack and a ditch. Hell, I dig ditches around everything I make. Plus side is you get a wee bit of stone along the way.

That way most mobs in game can't reach you, and if your trench is deep enough it's a lowkey mobgrinder. Making trenches took all my worries away. I can go AFK, and nothing can happen that destroys my base or surprise me. Get out your pickaxe and start 'picking'.