The Solitary Man’s Refuge

by Ron Foster

  “That sounds like a good plan. That also gives Janice some time to work on her mom to move to the country.” Betty said.

  “She not wanting to go?” Donald said with some interest.

  “She is being difficult. I will tell you about it later.” Janice replied. “I have got enough gas in the truck to make 3 or 4 round trips back to my farm pretty easy. After I talk to my office, I need to go fill in LowBuck on what I know and see about a few things. You want to go with me the back way past your relatives’ houses and you can check on them or drop some stuff off?” Donald asked planning his next steps.

  “Yes! I want to go! So, I finally get to meet LowBuck and his wife. That will be cool. I will decide on if I want to move any preps down that way by the end of the week. I am still thinking I might. Let’s see about getting dinner together.” Janice said smiling and giving him a hug because she was happy to see him home and there for them if needed.

  END BOOK ONE

  THE SOLITARY MAN: COUNTDOWN TO PREPPERDOM

  ASSENDUM BOOK ONE Considering that most people don’t discuss how to handle people during or after a disaster I have attached this article excerpt below

  How to Be With a Katrina Survivor This info is intended for (unaffected) family members, friends, acquaintances, and anyone that isn't a trained professional that encounters a person directly affected by the Katrina tragedy.

  1. First, it is important for you to be available faceto-face. Many of us are experiencing so much of our own pain and suffering, it is difficult to be present for someone who has experienced a traumatic event. You may want to read this article, Dismantling Walls

  ( http://evelynrodriguez.typepad.com/crossroads_dispatch es/2005/09/dismantling_wal.html), for some suggestions. We are all wounded healers at some level, so don't expect perfection from yourself. If you still feel you are too fragile to be present for another, please be honest but don't ignore the person entirely. For instance, you can say, "I have so much of my own issues that I'm feeling tender right now with all that's happened. I don't know how to be helpful. What do you think would be helpful?" Find other family members, friends that can listen and be present. Find counseling resources - whether through a relief agency, your local hospital, local clergy, local therapists and/or social workers, and/or meditation and yoga centers. Help in the manner you have the capacity to help.

  2. Your intent matters more than anything. Even silent communication is powerful as people pick up resonant energy in their limbic systems. Don't stress too much about if what you are saying or doing is "right." If you come with a hearfelt intent, it will come across somehow.

  3. Don't assume talking will "make it worse." Many people avoid others that have gone through a traumatic event believing that not talking about it will somehow make the pain go away. It's a particularly lonely time if everyone has the same thought. It's not necessary to walk on eggshells, so to speak, with a trauma victim. After the tsunami, people really appreciated an attentive ear and a shoulder to lean on. People want to talk. Most really need to talk. There are some folks that tend to withdraw ("I just want to be alone"). Reach out and let them know you are available. Call or come by every few days (the "alone" phase will pass away).

  4. Be patient. Everyone has their own timetable for grieving. Two weeks after the tsunami, I had friends suggesting that it was "time to move on." If the person seems to be attempting to heal and reach out, then they are doing just fine even if it's not your timetable (i.e. they are seeking counseling, meditating in a support group, etc.) If they have withdrawn from all support, that's when you can be helpful to a) listen b) find resources for healing and get them there.

  5. Pity and sympathy aren't necessary ("oh you poor thing"). Compassion and empathy are. Imagine you are on a hospital bed with a terminal illness, you wouldn't expect friends to visit so they can suffer with you. A kind, benevolent, lighthearted, confident presence is preferred. Be yourself as much as possible. Joining in their suffering isn't necessary, or desired.

  6. This is not the time for lectures or getting on your soapbox. For instance, "Why didn't you leave?" or "We create our own reality; the poor make their choices" or "Well, you know that New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen; what do you expect?" In fact, this would be a good time to ensure the survivor isn't harboring self-blame and guilt. Let them know it's NOT their fault: what happened, happened. In fact, if you have strong opinions or judgments, this is time to keep them to yourself. I'm speaking from personal experience here, these are other uncalled for responses that do not help the survivor recover: "My pastor said that those in the tragedy were being punished by God.", "Why are you so upset - you didn't see any dead bodies yourself.", "Wow, that must have been quite an adventure!"

  7. Don't make leaps and assume that every survivor is going to have post-traumatic stress syndrome. This may unnecessarily scare the survivor in regards to their longterm mental state. Humans are very resilient and psychologists are studying post-traumatic growth these days. I experienced symptoms of acute stress disorder for about the first ten days after the tsunami (anxiety, frequent heart palpatitations, difficulty sleeping). And I don't have PTSD today.

  8. Do what your friend believes to be helpful. For instance, they may ask you to pray with them or read a passage from the Bible. Or take them to a movie. You might object because you're not Christian or you think their suggestion is 'stupid.' But in reality, they are simply asking for your support and your love in a form they understand. If it's not going to kill you, just do it.

  (Katrina Help, 2005)

  Katrina Help (2005.15 Sep). Counseling/Healing

  Services Offered. Retrieved June 8, 2006, from Katrina

  Help Web site:

  http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Counseling/Healing_S

  ervices_Offered

  The end Begin book 2

  The Solitary Man In Defense Of Preppers

  20 The Bunker Boys

  Bubba and Donald walked down from the house to the jobsite which was a 15 x 30 dirt excavation dug out of the side of a very small hill. They stood next to a wheelbarrow full of tools eying with disdain the mixture of sloppy clay and mud that needed to be removed in order to build the foundation for a “fortified tornado shelter”.

  “I have been throwing compost and brush on to this patch of mud off and on the last few months ever since they bulldozed this area clearing trees. These last few days of rain washing down the hill really soaked this area. It looks like we still got a mess on our hands to muck about in today.” Donald said poking at a reddish orange patch of ground in front of him and noticing the clays almost buttery texture.

  “How deep does that crap go?” Bubba said observing the globs of clay sticking to Donald’s square point shovel.

  “Well, I guess we are fixing to find that out now!” Donald said grinning and drawling out the southern phrase.

  “Lets getter done!” Donald said laughing as he hefted a big shovel full of the sludge like muck off the floor of the muddy trench and slopped it into the wheelbarrow.

  “This isn’t too bad though I don’t think it’s as bad as it looked. It’s only a shovel full or two to get down to some harder ground. Now that might be just another layer of clay or sandy soil or whatever like tree roots, I don’t know. When they cleared the trees and brush off for the garden, the landscaper put a layer of clay in here. It also used to get a lot of natural rainwater runoff from the hill, but after this first 6 ft or so back, its fairly solid ground even after it rains.” Donald said dumping another shovel full of clay slop in the wheelbarrow.

  “You got any use for this nasty mucky muddy stuff? Or are we just going to go dump it somewhere near the woods edge to get it out of the way? “Bubba said while digging into the soil mixture with his shovel and then slinging it into a wheelbarrow parked a few feet away.

  “I am thinking it would be good for stucco mud or something, anyway we are just going to pile it up over there on that berm until I can figure out a good use for
it. That dang stuff is like shoveling wet taffy.” Donald replied fighting to remove some particularly tenaciously adhering sticky clay and twigs that didn’t want to get off his shovel on his first pitch to get rid of it...

  “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.