Chapter 2

When I got home, I sat on the porch of the house with a beer and did some thinking. With the money the law dog got for me from Mr. rich man, my moms insurance, my savings from the corps, and my medical pension, I sure had no money problems. But I was not the sort to just sit on my butt and vegetate. I could go to school, but I was an outdoor person, no way could I be shut up in a classroom all day. Plus, I just knew that fate was not done with me, so I guess I was a bit paranoid. Another concern was my money. I knew that it would buy me a lot of friends, especially woman friends, and they were not the kind I wanted. So I had to do something to demonstrate that I was a normal working man. I went to bed mulling several ideas over in my head.

The next morning I had a plan that would solve both of my concerns, to appear to be a working man, and to prepare for the sword of Damocles that I somehow just knew was going to fall on me. Paranoid did seem to be an accurate description after all. I would go to a school to learn to operate heavy construction equipment, then buy equipment and use it to set myself up in a business. I would appear to be self employed, so no one but the tax man would know how little income my “business” produced. Instead of working for others, I would use my skill and equipment to turn the farm into a redoubt. I would fort up to prepare for the calamity that I just knew was coming. Definitely paranoid.

I spent the next two months learning to operate heavy equipment. As I was doing that, I was having the farm house torn down. I then hired a crew, who had a lot of experience building in stone; build me a large two story house with two foot thick stone walls, barred windows, and a slate roof. It was as close to a castle as I could make it. Like I said, paranoid. In the cliff face behind the house I had a large cave dug out, that’s where much of the stone for the house came from. That cave, my full basement, and the oversized stone garage and workshop, were going to be my supply dump. I decided that a two year supply of everything that six people would need should get me through any calamity.

Some natural gas had been found in the area, so I had experts check out the farm. It seemed that I had some gas under the farm, not enough for commercial use, but the crew said I could run the farm for centuries on what was available. I went ahead and had a well put in, and converted all my vehicles and equipment to use the gas. At the same time I beefed up the water powered generator that dad had placed under the waterfall that came down the cliff behind the house. I also stocked enough parts to rebuild the thing five times. Like I said, paranoid, rich and paranoid.