The Solitary Man’s Refuge (21 page)

“Now Donald, let me get this little project straight in
my mind here. You are I think envisioning in that survivalist
mindset of yours that we are building some kind of hybrid
Tornado shelter. That, it appears from that drawing you
got, you want to turn into some kind of fortified cook house
thing as a shelter. You said that you got the idea from that
Prepperarchaeology.com (reprint,) book called the “Army
field fortification manual.” LowBuck said to outline the
conversation while hefting the wooden handles of the
heavy wheelbarrow. He steered his burden full of dirt and
clay a short distance with a little bit of difficulty because of
some pretty bumpy ground to cross to their designated
dump pile.

“Yea Bubba, I am glad I got that book for a project
like this. What may be an odd choice of book to some, I
think it’s practical. I added it awhile back to my “how to do
it” library collection for new ideas and so that I could show
others some concepts I learned in the military. It’s the
older issue Vietnam version pamphlet that was issued
during that era so it’s a little dated in current building
materials or thinking. But for me, it was just what I needed
to inspire me to customize some plans and help direct this
project based on some real battlefield type engineering
with logs and sand bags.

“You see LowBuck, the way that I figure it; we might
just need something like this type of structure pretty soon.
A strong shelter will help us weather this solar storm after
effects as well as serve many other purposes. Like I have
said before, there is going to be some hellacious weather
coming from this storm if it plays around with the air
currents based on geomagnetic influences and other
phenomenon that affect weather. It might get kind of rough
in some areas. Think about it. If we get some kind of a
tornado swarm around here, like the one that happened in
the Midwest not so long ago, it could be worst than bad .
That was after an M class solar storm, no telling what we
get after a big X class flair and CME. Well then, if we are
thinking about possible unknown disaster effects in that
direction of probable or improbable scenarios. Then I want
some solid cover to take for our storm shelter that I don’t
have at the moment. We can make this structure our bad
weather bunker, or use it as a place of last fortified retreat
if we are ever threatened by aggressors who might have
designs on my supplies I don’t agree with and come
knocking. We can also get some use out of it as a outdoor
cookhouse on a daily basis in summer so the house don’t
heat up anymore than it has to with no AC.

I got a ventilation system designed in my mind to
install that might make it feel almost air-conditioned in this
little fortification, that is if my theory is right. That is also
dependant on if I have enough good cut lumber to make
the moving pieces of my little invention to get a somewhat
movable ridge vent that I can close when it rains. Besides
my friend, this project gives me a good excuse to get you
to fill a bunch of sandbags for me for low to no pay there
Mr. Bubba!” Donald said smirking at his friend LowBuck
and thinking to himself that he was managing to get some
of his projects he had been considering for sometime done
and as a bonus, get it done without him having to be there
to help Bubba and Michael do it while he was gone. He
would have been trying to do a ton of work all by his
lonesome if this solar storm hadn’t sort of thrown them all
together into the same boat!

“Hey guys what’s up?” Michael called out as he
walked up the trail from the properties backwoods and by
coming up from behind the garden he caught Bubba and
Donald by surprise...

“Man you scared the shit of me! I didn’t hear you
coming or even expected you to come around today!”
Donald said slowly releasing the death grip he had got on
the shovel after the sudden apparition of Michael had
made its self known and given him such a startle.

“I didn’t hear you either. What are you doing
sneaking up from the back 40 anyway?’ Bubba grumbled
somewhat good naturedly in a relived greeting as his own
heart slowed down from trying to jump in his throat...

“I wasn’t coming in from the woods back there; I just
walked up the bulldozer path road from your orchard by
the driveway. I see Donald you just added a few new items
to the orchard trail, but I couldn’t tell what the plants were.
Where did you get those new trees you got mulched and
planted circling the road?” Michael inquired describing an
arc with his arm in the general direction.

“Ha! A very cool thing happened for me right before
I left the city to come back down here. Those trees I just
planted got delivered to Janice’s house 3 days AFTER the
solar storm hit! I brought them back with me to pretty much
complete my prior edible landscape plan. Probably that
package will be the last mail or package I will ever see
again for sometime now. I suspect that’s a main part of the
reason I came back from the city to the old farmstead so
quick.

I needed to get them trees planted and growing in
the ground as soon as I could, as well as get together with
you all to discuss a few things about what we might need
to do in the future...I got all sorts of different trees in that
came in that order. But mainly I received a dozen
conservation grade 3ft black walnut trees that I planted
running down the middle of that orchards entry road. I
hope that by planting the trees the way I did it will
eventually close most of it off and narrow its access in that
field by a decent margin. That will make the orchard I less
exposed from the road. How long it will take for those
walnut trees to grow that big and produce some nuts, who
know. They are planted in the ground now and fertilized so
that’s something anyway accomplished. Black Walnut
secretes juglone too which is a natural herbicide. It won’t
allow the undergrowth to get all overgrown leading back
there along my road and trails. The black walnut tree
produces a strong-smelling, pungent substance called
juglone, which is a natural insect repellent. You can take
advantage of this strong scent and use the juglone-rich
leaves and/or branches around your house as a natural
repellent. But you'll need to be mindful of where you use
the leaves and branches, because juglone can be harmful
to nearby plants.

I also got in that last UPS package a couple
butternut trees that are pretty fast growing for a nut tree.
They only live about 70 yrs though so I got them close to
the edges of the access road for harvesting way in
somebody else’s future. I have a couple Carpathian
walnuts in back of these that are also very fast growing but
a much longer lived and hardy tree.

Isn’t just plain weird that I have to try to think about
how this place will look that far down the road or in my
near future at this stage in my life and at this very moment
to boot? We all will be dead and gone by then and no
telling who might be living here, that is if anybody at all is
left that would want this little place. I kind of want to
wishfully think that somebody will give me a mental a nod
and some thanks to my foresight on down the road though
and appreciate my little touches I tried to do for them in the
here and now.” Donald said wistfully and went back to
digging with renewed effort.

“
Donald considered for a moment to himself that
this line of thinking was pretty depressing and morbid but
on the other hand he was leaving a legacy to the forest
and whoever might come after a legacy and this pleased
him.”

“I am going to go let Harley off his chain he has
been growling and fighting with his tire for awhile so he
might be tired enough to be reasonably calm and let him
hangout here with us. Also I will be back in a few minutes.
He can also start doing his guard dog duties of warning me
about any people sneaking up out of the woods on me
when I ain’t watching!” Lowbuck said handing his shovel
accusingly to Michael.

“Ha! I warned you Mike about standing to close to
Bubba if there was work to be done in the vicinity! He can
be a tool pusher extraordinaire if he gets half a chance
“Donald said smiling at the funny put on show Michael was
acting out with gestures like a mime doing a show. He
would alternately stare in amazement at his hand like he
was wondering how a shovel had suddenly and magically
appeared in it and then make faces at Bubba like he was
out of his mind for having magically putting it there. Looked
like it might have had some un-removable glue attaching
his hand to the handle too hah! Seemingly by Michaels
exaggerated hand motions, getting rid of that shovel was
pretty darn difficult to do by the way he attempted to
occasionally try very hard to remove it with his other hand
and it was evidently impossible because it kept apparently
sticking to it no matter how hard he pulled it!

“It appears now like I remember something like that
Donald. Ok you rascally old Bubba you got me tied to this
thing for now.” Michael said, waving a mocking fist at a
chuckling Bubba who was smiling and walking back
towards the house as slowly as possible and whistling like
he was the most innocent person in the world at the
moment and Michael hadn’t fell for some devious trick of
his.
“You are going to get this shovel back with your

name and operators license on it as soon as you return
you know that you sorry old soul ” Said a smiling Michael
who then began to good neighborly fashion pitch in on the
task at hand of shoveling the muck out of the way of the
foundation..

“Oh, sure Michael, I wont be long at all, you can
count on it!” Bubba called out and grinned as he took his
sweet time going to unhook Harley off his chain.

A few minutes later Harley came bounding excitedly
up to the worksite to investigate the entire goings on as
Bubba slowly sauntered his way back from the house. He
was not appearing this morning to be in any great hurry to
retrieve his shovel and was looking around the yard to find
some other distraction to delay the task further.

“Digging a hole! Digging a hole! Hot Doggity Damn
they digging a hole! The other masters were digging a
hole! Oh Joy! Oh Wonder! Dig! Dig!” Harley the bulldog
excitedly growl talked to himself and the humans in a
garbled voice that sounded a bit like a Scooby doo carton.
Then he stopped bouncing around for the moment and the
dog happily greeted the two men who were his masters
friends and snuffled around their work with his butt
gyrating his stubby tail to beat the band before running off
suddenly on a forgotten mission to relive himself by peeing
on one of the garden fence posts about 50 feet away from
the dig.

“See that? My furry boy over there is doing his job
already by helping to scare off the deer and rabbits.”
Lowbuck said watching Harley alternately spray and
investigate the garden fences perimeter one by one for
signs of other critters as well assert his territory dominance
and doggy domain to any other animals in the vicinity.

“That’s good, I am glad he is killing the grass, but
you be darn sure to keep him out of the garden! That city
dog doesn’t recognize at all or in anyway shape or form
the difference between a bunch of tomato plants or a
raised bed garden box corner when he aims with that that
whizzer of his. Outside of the garden fence posts is fine,
don’t let him inside the garden yet.” Donald said making
Michael grin at the hounds description as a city dog.

“Ah, Don you know he is a good old buddy dog, just
takes him a little while sometimes to learn what’s expected
out of him when you change environments and
surroundings on him all the sudden.” Bubba said while
going to reassure himself and see that the gate was
secure and not able to be pushed open by a curious four
footed snoot-faced battering ram that may or may not
come the first time he called once Harley got inside that
garden fences perimeter with so many restricted things to
check out before he paid attention and finished a last
squirt here or there.