As he accumulated the firearms, Glenn began to wonder what would happen in he did lose the farm and ranch, anyway. He began to plan a small retreat some distance away from the farm and ranch. There was plenty of land available, with the market the way it was. Glenn thought about setting up a second farm. A much smaller one. But he decided the place would be a simple hole-up retreat. A place to stay and recoup if he ever needed to do so.
It was relatively simple, and not all that expensive, to acquire a small piece of property several miles from the farm and ranch. It was hilly and of very little use for farming. Nor was it prime real estate for development. It was ideal for what Glenn wanted. He wanted as few people as possible to know about it.
Glenn decided to make it a one-man project. Everything was going well at the Farm. They could spare one of the Unimogs. For the first stage of the project, Glenn had the backhoe attachment mounted on the back of one of the U500’s. Glenn disappeared for three days with it.
He had his camping gear and camped out at the site for those days. It took him two full days to dig out the area where the retreat shelter would be. When he went back to the farm he had the backhoe dismounted and a dump bed mounted on the truck and the pallet forks mounted to the front lift arms. An equipment trailer was attached and Glenn headed for St. Louis.
The truck wouldn’t make it up to the site with the trailer. The truck alone had barely made it. Glenn securely blocked the trailer and unhooked it. He began to unload the trailer with the forks on the front of the Unimog, taking each pallet up and placing it where he needed it.
With the materials he needed in place, Glenn went back to the farm. One of the A300’s was loaded onto the trailer, along with several attachments and Glenn again disappeared for several days. After unloading and transferring the A300 and attachments to the building site, Glenn unhooked the trailer and went to the nearby gravel pit.
He made several trips to and from the local gravel pit to haul in aggregate with which to make concrete using the Portland cement he’d picked up in St. Louis. After moving the sand and gravel, Glenn took the Unimog into Cape Girardeau. It didn’t take long to buy and install a five-hundred-gallon plastic water tank on the bed of the Unimog. Glen also bought a pump and hoses with which to transfer the water. The farm store agreed to let Glenn fill it for a small fee.
Glenn took the load of water back to the building site. It was back breaking work mixing and pouring the concrete Glenn made up in the Bobcat cement mixer for the footings and floor of the shelter, using the trucked in water, aggregate, and cement.
He took a break when the floor was finished and just relaxed for several days while the concrete set up enough to add the walls. Glenn had thought the concrete work was bad. Laying the cinder blocks in the hole in the ground was worse. But he worked steadily, mixing up small batches of mortar as he worked around the perimeter of the building, laying the H-form blocks among the vertical rebar and adding horizontal rebar every course of blocks.
After a few rows were laid, Glenn mixed up another batch of concrete and filled the blocks. It took a solid week to compete the walls and columns that would support the roof. Glenn backfilled against the walls, after bringing the waterproof barrier up the outside walls that he had put down before he poured the footings and floor. He took another break then, taking the equipment back to the farm for security.
Glenn checked on the operation of the farm and ranch. Everything was going well. So, after two weeks of rest, Glenn took the Unimog again, with a flat bed mounted on it and the forks installed, and headed into St. Louis again to pick up the components he needed to make the roof supports for the concrete roof. It took him another week to place the timbers using an extension boom on one of the forks of the Unimog, and apply the cross timbers and galvanized metal.
When the rebar was in place above the metal he went after the A300 and cement mixer again. The roof pour took two days of steady work, with Glenn only taking twenty or thirty minute cat naps between pours, the same way he had when he’d poured the floor, to keep a good bond at the joints of the pours of the concrete.
He rested for a couple of days and then began the finish work. That consisted of laying a thirty-inch diameter galvanized culvert from the hole he’d framed in one wall of the shelter to a point forty feet away that would be used as an emergency exit/entrance.
Glenn also finished the regular entrance and the interior of the shelter. It took a couple of trips with the Unimog to move the stuff he’d bought to equip and supply the shelter. When everything was inside and secure, he went to a wrecking yard in St. Louis and bought five wrecked Cadillac’s.
He paid to have the front seats cut out, large holes cut into the floor pans of all five cars, and their wheels removed. Glenn hauled them to the site and placed one over the main entrance/exit and one over the emergency exit/entrance. One of the cars was set over the buried water tank. The other two he placed randomly and added a few old appliances and other junk here and there.
Glenn broadcast grass and flower seed over the areas he had disturbed. In a few months the place would look like a wilderness dumping ground. Satisfied he had a secure place to which he could bug out if he needed, Glenn smiled and headed home, ready to take on the next project he’d been thinking about during the idle hours of the retreat building.
CHAPTER FOUR
After all the hard work he’d done that summer, Glenn was in the best shape of his life. He intended to stay that way. The local hospital was good, but he had quite a few people working and living on site at the farm now. Accidents can happen. So can disasters.
He caught Brittany leaving her research greenhouse one afternoon. “Brittany, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“I’m just on my way back to the workroom to log some data into the computer.” She held up a clipboard. Can it wait just a little while?”
“Sure,” replied Glenn. “Whenever it is convenient for you.”
“About six? At the workroom?”
“I’ll be there. Thanks.”
Brittany smiled a distracted smile and hurried away.
That summer was a scorcher. Glenn whiled away the hours checking on the various working groups, asking if everything was going well and if any of them needed anything. It was somewhat amusing that what he got asked for the most was a swimming pool. The work was going well, with everything that Glenn had furnished.
It was only four o’clock when Glenn finished his ‘rounds’, as he thought of the trip. He went back to the house and studied the large drawing of the farm and ranch facilities on the wall of his study. He began to smile. A pool would work into what he already had in mind. “It’ll be even better,” Glenn muttered to himself.
He made several calls and then went to meet Brittany. He knocked and entered the workroom when Brittany called, “Come in.”
She was still working at the computer. “Just a few more minutes,” Brittany said over her shoulder.
Glenn found a place to sit down and waited patiently. It was almost 6:30 when Brittany turned around and noticed Glenn. She colored slightly. “Oh! Glenn! I’m sorry. I forgot all about our meeting.”
Glenn waved a hand. “No problem. Our meeting was at your convenience.”
“So,” she asked, “What did you want to talk about?”
“I was hoping you could provide me with some contacts with nursing or pre-med students. I’m thinking about putting in a small clinic, for just in case events. I’m a little worried about someone getting hurt out here and suing me. I want to provide some immediate first-aid care.
“I know the ambulance service and hospital are good, but we’re a ways out… And… well… just because.”
“I think it’s a good idea.” Brittany waved an arm toward the first-aid kit and fire extinguisher hanging on the wall of the work room. “Of course we have those, but something more in depth would be nice. And I think I know someone that would relish the chance to set up an aid station out here. He’s involved with the nursing pro
gram at the college.”
“What’s his name?”
“Harry O’Malley. He’s a Paramedic. He takes the pre-med and nursing students on ambulance runs on a regular basis to get them some real world training. We’ve dated a couple of times, but he’s a little too intense…”
Brittany pulled her organizer close. “I’ve got his number in here.”
Glenn took a pen and a notebook from the breast pocket of his shirt.
“Here it is.” Brittany gave Glenn the number and he wrote it down.
“Thanks, Brittany,” Glenn said as he stood. “Everything going all right with the work? You have everything you need?”
“Everything is great,” she replied. “You’ve really done us, and the community, a service by setting this place up the way you have.”
Glenn smiled as they walked out of the work room. “How’s Tabitha handling the fact that the place is making money?”
Brittany smiled in return. “She’s coping. She’s actually rather proud of some of the compliments she’s received on her work with organic vegetables. She’s also pleased with how green you’ve made the place. It was far more than she expected.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear it. Thanks again for your help. I’ll see you later.”
Brittany watched Glenn walk away, rather jauntily, a curious expression on her face. She thought, after the first couple of meetings with him that he was interested in her, but he hadn’t really shown it since then. “He’s not that much older than I am. Oh, well,” she sighed, and turned toward the stairs leading to the second floor.
Tabitha was approaching. “Brittany, hi! You finished for the day?”
“Yep. What’s up?”
“Some of us were going to get a Mancala tournament started. You in?”
Brittany shook her head. “No. I need to do some research after I get a bite to eat.”
“Well, if you change your mind, we’ll be in Augustus’ room.”
Brittany went to the common kitchen and made herself a sandwich. She’d taken a real liking to the ostrich burgers the butcher was making. It didn’t take long to grill the patty and she was soon eating it on a whole wheat bun one of the dietetics had made from the organic wheat grown on the farm.
She was the only one in the kitchen to start, but others began to filter in and Brittany finished up and cleaned up, then went back to her work room, feeling just a bit unsettled.
Glenn called Harry O’Malley and left a message on his machine when Harry didn’t pick up. Glenn got on the computer and began researching medical equipment.
It was two days before Harry called Glenn. They set up a meeting at the Farm for that following Saturday afternoon. When he showed up and shook Glenn’s hand, Glenn could tell what Brittany meant. Harry was a very intense person. Also tall, dark, and very good looking.
“No wonder she dated him,” Glenn thought to himself.
“Harry, what I need is some advice on setting up and equipping a clinic here on the Farm, in case of accidents.”
“Sure. No problem. Something like a stationary ambulance?”
“A little beyond that,” Glenn said. “Though that is a good thought. Something that would allow you or a doctor to do your stuff, excluding major surgery and elective procedures.”
Harry’s eyes widened. “You want a real clinic, then?”
Glenn nodded. “Say a trauma room, couple of general treatment rooms, four to eight bed recovery ward, nursing station, some offices, supply room and whatever else might be needed.
“Wow! I can help, be glad to, actually, but you really need to talk to someone with more clinic experience than me.”
“Okay. I’ll do that. But it’s okay if I call you for some advice later?”
“Sure thing. Hey. I heard that Brittany Jones-Shaeffer was working out here. Any chance I can talk to her?”
“Don’t know if she’s here or not. Go over to building five. Someone there can direct you to her work room or apartment.”
“Okay. Thanks. Call me any time.” Harry was gone.
Glenn got out his St. Louis yellow pages and did some research and then planned a trip to the city to do a little hands-on research.
He visited two dozen clinics in and around St. Louis and then went to see his architect friend. “Can you design me a small, comprehensive, clinic, with an exercise room and attached pool facility?”
“Branching out a little, I see,” Clay said. “I’ll need to bring in a consultant on this, but sure, I can do it.”
“As soon as you have the basic dimensions, let me know so I can start the preliminary work.”
“Okay. Man, I’ve got to come down and take a look at this place of yours. What else you planning to add?”
Glenn grinned. “Don’t know right now, but you’ll probably be second or third to find out.” Glenn shook Clay’s hand and left, headed back to the farm in his Talisman.
He began the ordering process for those things he knew would go in the clinic, exercise room, and pool, which would have a greenhouse enclosure.
It was late fall before Clay got back to Glenn, other than to say he was working on the project. Glenn stored the things he bought for the project in the still unused second barn. As soon as spring broke, Glenn broke ground on the project. It took all spring and well into the summer, but finally the health building, as Glenn called it, was complete.
There was the well equipped clinic; exercise room; the large, greenhouse enclosed pool; and two locker rooms, men’s and women’s, to serve the exercise room and pool. The pool and exercise room were instant hits and received much use.
Glenn was well pleased with the minimal amount of wood the outside wood furnaces were burning during the winter, but he decided he wanted a better supply. Right now he had to buy a few cords to carry the farm through; over and above the amount of free wood he got having worked deals with tree trimmers and the electrical company for their take downs, and various businesses to get their discarded single use wood pallets.
Glenn bought two more hill farms and began to harvest the wood from them, replanting with ash so he would eventually have fully coppicing wood lots, either one of which would provide more than enough wood for the farm.
Spring time rolled around, as it usually did in March. All the students that had left for the winter were now back, ready to start on the spring work. Glenn decided it would be a good time to go camping.
The long range forecast was calling for some rain, but Glenn had good equipment and didn’t mind camping out in poorer weather. He had second thoughts about it when he saw the news the night before he planned on leaving.
Things were heating up in Eastern Europe. Russia had just had a communist coup and troops were advancing toward the Belarus and Ukraine borders. Germany immediately went on alert and called for UN action.
China immediately recognized the Communist government and offered assistance if any of Russia’s neighbors tried to interfere. Both communist governments warned the UN leadership not to interfere.
The US protested the coup and refused to recognize the new government. Like Germany, the US went to a higher state of alert. France called for a cooling off period. Communication with Poland was cut off, apparently by the current régime, though there were reports of fighting all over Poland. The Southern Republics, too, went silent.
There was nothing but rhetoric for three days, and then the new Communist Government of Russia called for a new Warsaw Pact. Poland would be a charter member. There was still nothing from Poland directly. Similar announcements were made from Moscow about the Ukraine and Belarus.
When the government in Moscow declared that the new United Germany would come into the new Warsaw Pact, intact, Germany launched a pre-emptive strike at the Russian forces advancing now through Poland, Belarus, and the Ukraine.
Brutally enacted coups, undoubtedly orchestrated by the Russian communists, brought new communist governments to Slovakia and the Czech Republics.
France declared its neutr
ality. The British government joined Germany in declaring war against Russia.
China immediately declared war on Britain and Germany, and began an invasion of Taiwan.
North Korea invaded South Korea. Three nuclear devices were detonated in Japan. Immediate speculation was that it was North Korea. Others blamed China, since they were already staging amphibious assault exercises on their coast of the Sea of Japan.
Two days later, on March 27th, 2008, after it was announced by the President that a nuclear device had taken out a US ballistic missile submarine on station off Japan, the US Congress, in joint session, declared war on Russia, China, and their allies.
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