by Gene Skellig
They had no idea where they were going, nor how they would feed themselves, but believed they had been smart to flee before the coming storm.
When they reached the Oregon coast they were quickly rewarded. The economic crisis had taken its toll on the lumber industry, but there was a much better community spirit in the small towns. To the Jasmine family it appeared that the America they loved was alive and well in the small towns along the coast. In sharp contrast, the larger cities were economic disaster areas full of people depending on assistance programs.
Cities across America had become increasingly hopeless and alien places. Well educated adults couldn’t comprehend what had caused the land of opportunity to change so drastically that they suddenly couldn’t find ways provide for their loved ones. In fact, with unemployment standing at 35% or higher in most cities, things were worse than during the great depression of the 1930s. To make matters worse, the failure of global commerce had reduced the flow of food and trade goods to only a small proportion of what was required to keeps any large city functioning. As a result, some of the more enterprising communities tried to promote “Victory Gardens” like those that sprang up during the Second World War.
This proved to be difficult because people no longer had the basic agricultural and handcrafting skills to provide for themselves. The cities were filled with educated but completely redundant, essentially useless people.
3
SETTLED
08 October: 7 Months Before NEW
While the Jasmine family and many others sensed that things were going to get much worse, and took steps to find a more viable way of life, the Callaghans moved into their new home.
Casey no longer felt that strange feeling you get after first moving to a new house. After having moved to the HOTH that July, the family had settled into new routines and the HOTH started to feel like home. The school year had started, and the girls, Hope and Tara, were excited about their new social lives. They had become popular. Their exotic Irish – Russian roots helped, but it was their confidence and spirit that other kids were drawn to. Casey put it down to the excitement and energy the entire family felt, having moved into such a beautiful permanent home after so many short-term military postings.
The older boys, Liam and Justin, were doing well too. Liam found his own group of friends in his grade eight class at Kwalikum Secondary. He stayed clear of his sisters during school hours, meeting up with them only after school when Mama would pick them up each day. Liam was always greeted by the happy smile of his baby brother, Donny strapped into his car seat in the middle row of Mama’s minivan.
Justin was fitting in well at middle school. He hung around with the boys he had met in 4-H Junior Members Club.
Things were not so rosy for many other children. As more and more economic problems began to filter through the community, school children were being affected. Some families were in real hardship and had been ashamed to ask for help.
When Tanya Callaghan heard that some children were showing up at school without a proper lunch, she personally intervened and organized a “free lunch” soup program at all the schools in the Oceanside region. Recognizing the need, the families of the Oceanside community rallied around Tanya’s call for support. Donations of farm produce came pouring in. People volunteered to help with cooking and serving, and the children felt that they were actually part of a larger, supportive community. It also helped Tanya settle in and get to know people on her own.
The communities of the Oceanside area were undergoing other changes, also caused by the depression. There was a greater emphasis on local food production. More and more families had taken up gardening and, to various degrees, hobby farming.
Casey had negotiated with the 4-H coordinator, Klara Rekert, to begin a customized program for his children. They would be responsible for a variety of animals through every stage in the breeding cycle, from insemination to birthing, and the care of calves, foals, piglets and so on.
The “Breeding” project was meant to be a valuable life experience for his children, and a shakeout of the barn that Casey had built and outfitted. Casey felt that going through the life cycle in their own barn would be a great way to really put theory into practice. Mrs. Rekert, for her part, was glad to have the facilities to work with, and the cash.
After each successive animal project was completed, Casey wrote up his observations as “Lessons Identified”. Then he modified the layout, equipment, or supplies so that the “Lessons Identified” became “Lessons Learned”.
His goal was for his family to be able to care for horses, chickens, pigs, and dairy cows at some future date. And as the economy continued to deteriorate, Casey ramped up his purchases of feed, nutritional supplements and other supplies that he was learning about in the family’s initial foray into hobby farming. If a total economic collapse happened, Casey reasoned, obtaining animals would be easy. The hard part would be finding the feed and other supplies that would suddenly become scarce. Inside the HOTH, as the family enjoyed the extra space, they engaged in other projects. Casey and Tanya designed databases to record the energy used in various household activities. This would later prove useful.
The family experimented with hydroponic gardening in the barn/greenhouse complex. They started with just one tenth of the available space, growing a range of vegetables, fruits and herbs. They became less intimidated as they learned to manage the chemistry, humidity and lighting. The Callaghans were soon enjoying tasty salads made entirely from their indoor garden.
This helped Casey determine what needed to be stockpiled, in terms of the primary nutrients of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, such as “20-20-20”; and the secondary nutrients of Calcium, Magnesium, Sulphur, Iron, Molybdenum and Boron. Controlling the lighting was more complex than Casey had expected, but he soon understood which plants worked best with High Pressure Sodium light bulbs and which with Compact Fluorescent. Casey and Tanya discovered that CFL was very good for spinach, carrots, beets and lettuce, while HPS was best for tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchinis, potatoes, corn, and melons.
That night in early October, when Casey and Tanya had their cup of Russian Chai by the wood stove in the kitchen annex, they discussed how well the family was settling into the HOTH and how well the overall design had turned out.
4
ARCHITECT
02 April: 25 Months Before NEW
Casey was uncomfortable with the idea of lying about everything, but it was necessary. After getting off the Skytrain at the last stop of the Canada Line into Richmond, he walked the two blocks to a five-story building on Minoru Boulevard. After finding the information board, he headed up to the fourth floor and ‘Winston Brothers’ architectural firm.
“Hello, I have an appointment with Rob, at three. I’m Dave McKenzie”, Casey lied to the receptionist. To him, she had a remarkable resemblance to the actress, Meg Ryan, with a sparkling kindness in her eyes that made Casey feel welcome.
“Oh yes, Mr. McKenzie, Mr. Mynarski is ready for you in the conference room. It’s down the hall on the right.”
The firm seemed just about right. It was large enough to handle his commission but small enough to be discreet. The pictures on the wall showed residential and commercial projects, mostly in concrete, and some using the ICF system that Casey had chosen for the facility. And it was a facility more than it was a home.
The project had been his main focus for the last three years. It was more than just a personal dream; it was a necessity. Casey had concluded that survival in the near future required him to follow the example of his ancestors in Ireland and Scotland and build what was, in essence, a keep. A well fortified structure, made of stone, and designed to withstand a long siege. The HOTH would be a keep equipped with sophisticated technology, based on a well thought-out design, and built with modern materials.
When Casey completed his overview of the project, Rob Mynarski began speaking, slowly at first. “Well, Mr. McKenzie, I think I understand what you hav
e in mind. However, there seems to be some uncertainty about the project location, timeframes and, possibly, names?” Rob said this with a mischievous smile. “So to be consistent with the emphasis you have placed on security, you will understand that our own policy in such a case would be to require payment up-front for the work you require.”
Casey nodded, indicating that Rob had read him correctly, and that Casey was willing to proceed on that basis.
“So this is how it works. You pay us nine dollars a square foot. We provide you with the design work and the associated engineering, but we won’t put our engineers seal on the plans until you allow us to carry out on-site geotechnical work. As you don’t appear to want to do that, what we’ll be doing for you will be up to code, according to industry standards, but will be ‘notional’ from our point of view. The plans will be labeled: “NOTIONAL – FOR PRELIMINARY DESIGN PURPOSES ONLY’. If you want our seal on the engineering you’ll have to pay another $5 per square foot, give us full access to the property for any tests we need to conduct, and we’ll need full disclosure from you.
If you go ahead and use the notional plans we generate for you, that’s your business.” Mr. Mynarski explained all this with a calmness that indicated to Casey that he had gone through this sort of discussion with other prospective clients.
“We will provide you with as many sets of the plans as you like, including our full suite of three-dimensional renderings of all interior spaces as well as the exterior views, of course.”
Mynarski then paused, moved his chair a bit closer to Casey, and looked meaningfully into his eyes as he continued.
“We are a bonded institution, Mr. McKenzie, quite capable of keeping your secrets safe. Banks use us to design their vaults for God’s sake; you can trust us with the specifications of your panic room.”
“Thanks, however I would like to proceed as you say, on a discreet consultation basis at this time.”
Casey wanted to trust Rob but he had security in mind. He would not trust all the details to anyone who was not a long-time personal friend with proven loyalty. Too much was at stake. With this understanding with the architect in place, over the ensuing six weeks Casey had several productive meetings with Rob. As they went over the smallest of details, Rob rapidly built up the computer-based design of the facility. Rob’s architectural firm had clearly mastered the art of building with concrete, and incorporating Insulated Concrete Foam, or ICF, into more traditional suspended-slab designs. This made for rapid progress.
Rob confirmed where Casey’s initial sketches and assumptions were correct and explained where a particular concrete beam had to be larger or have a shorter span. He explained technical details that left Casey with no doubt that he had chosen the right firm. In most cases the changes to the plan were quite simple and logical. Casey had taken the design a long way on his own, but Rob really surpassed Casey’s expectations in the details of the mechanical systems, such as air handling, air filtration, hydronic heating, geothermal heating, and panic room design.
“Why do you need to be able to get from the basement mechanical room to both of these panic rooms AND onto the roof level?” asked Rob. “It makes more sense to leave this one in the master bedroom closet, and take this one out through the exercise room.”
“No, in this case, I’m sticking with the vertical connectivity here, here, and here. That’s firm, Rob,” responded Casey, without explaining how the interconnected aspects of the panic rooms and hidden mechanical spaces were actually intended for fighting off the scale of home invasions that Casey was concerned about.
“With all of these security cameras and computer network linkages from your office to this Panic Room, this storage area AND the room up in the penthouse level, why don’t you link these into a security company and police alarm systems?”
“Because, Rob, and I’m straying from my principles here a bit, the purpose of this facility is for problems much larger than a simple home invasion.”
Rob reflected back on how the elusive Mr. McKenzie had first described his project. He had stressed that the house had to be designed to withstand the extreme heat and dryness of a sustained drought or an unprecedented heat-wave, as well as stand up to massive snow accumulations and extremely low temperatures. Rob considered these to be completely ridiculous conditions, but he mentally bowed to his client and engineered for them.
They had worked together on the finer points. Rob was confident that he was adding value to the project. He had to doff his hat to the customer. Mr. McKenzie had thought a few things out in considerable detail.
The facility would have a drilled well, with the pumps located in the mechanical room in the basement. There would be a back-up, hand-powered pump in the event of a failure of the electrical grid. So whatever happened there would be fresh water. The plumbing system would include a grey water system, keeping laundry chemicals, bathtub and dish soaps separate from the biologically active sewer water from toilets. So there would be one septic tank for the toilets, and a secondary one dedicated to the grey water system.
The design called for the septic distribution field to be covered with an incredible three meters of overburden material. The overburden was to include as much clay as possible from the materials available at the construction site. This was clearly intended to protect the distribution field from freezing up in extreme cold conditions over a long period of time.
A geothermal field was to be the heat source for the facility. Two four-tonne heat pumps would heat boilers for an extensive hydronic heating system. Total heat demand and scale requirements of the heating system, along with the associated thermostats, zones, pumps and control valves were easily calculated once Rob had the baseline heat-loss calculations, window design and sizes, and environmental assumptions.
Insulation would clearly be a major expense in this project. All exterior walls were to be constructed using ICF. In addition, there was to be ten centimeters of sprayed insulation on the inside walls once the metal studs were installed and the electrical, plumbing, and other services were roughed in. This would be an exceptionally solid and well insulated structure.
Rob had wondered why Mr. McKenzie was not going for any mass effect, whereby concrete walls are used to store heat from passive solar heating. The idea would be to insulate on the outside and allow the mass to transfer heat into the interior spaces during the dark hours. Rather, in this case, the concrete mass of all the perimeter walls seems to be for other purposes. The use of concrete, therefore, must be primarily for the purpose of strength and perhaps fire-resistance, certainly not for cost savings.
Fire protection was clearly important to the customer. There would be a roof-mounted 1550 gallon tank. The tank would be topped-up from the drilled well down in the mechanical room.
The electrical system was conventional in one sense, as the facility would be wired for the normal range of electricity-hungry devices. But there would also be a duplicate electrical circuit for essential systems, scaled for minimal electrical consumption. The two electrical systems came together in the mechanical room, where there was also a bank of batteries which were fed by a pair of five meter helical wind turbines, mounted on the roof.
Each turbine would be capable of generating up to 5 kilowatt-hours of power when the winds were at least sixteen km per hour, well in excess of the 1.3 kWh normally consumed by an average house. Not counting recharging loads, the calculated load demand of this facility would be as high as 6 kW-h if fully inhabited and facing extremely cold temperatures. By switching to the duplicate electrical system when winds were calm, the draw on the bank of batteries would be minimized.
Similarly, the electricity-hungry pumps of the geothermal system were to come on automatically whenever wind power was high. This would bring up the boiler to maximum heat for the hydronic heating system in the concrete slabs, which would serve as a form of heat storage. This residual warmth would last for several days, until the winds picked up and the boiler and hydronic heating lines wer
e cranked up again. It would take some management on a day-to-day basis, but in the extreme cold scenario all heat sources would be closely monitored.
At first Rob had thought it strange that no consideration was given to solar power. But now all of these features made sense. It was with the clarity of a sudden and complete understanding that Rob realized that this structure is designed to survive a nuclear winter.
“OK, Mr. McKenzie, now I think I understand what you are trying to achieve. I’ll need some time to go over the scaling of the electrical and hydronic systems again on my own. I’ll need to recalculate your heat loss numbers based on a longer, nuclear, winter. That is your reference scenario, isn’t it?”
Casey nodded, grimly accepting the fact that his architect might be the sharpest tack in the room.
“And I think the electrical system should also incorporate a trickle-feed option for a solar power array, even if you don’t plan to install one,” continued Rob, now highly energized by the new dimension that this project presented to him as a systems engineer and designer.
“OK, Rob, but don’t put too much into that. I suppose you should also provide me with a few recommendations for solar panels which could be bought and stored for later installation. I am not saying that there will be a nuclear war. I am saying that I want a facility that can stand up to the worst environment imaginable. I want this facility to have every advantage that money can buy. So now that you completely understand my reasoning, please don’t judge me, just do the job I hired you to do.”
After that point, the weekly updates with Rob were extremely productive. Rob’s technical skills were working in unison with Casey’s vision for the facility. Then one day Rob said something that made Casey very alarmed. “You know, Mr. McKenzie, I have another client who may have some things in common with you. And I wonder if it would be OK if I arranged a meeting?”
