The cabin: my home since the Problem started. The Problem was almost inevitable, so I prepared it well.
It wasn't hard to build a cabin up here in the hills outside of Foresthill. Foresthill is a small community in the old gold mining area northeast of Auburn. Most of the land around there is US Forest Service land, there were a lot of timber operations at one time. You could get a 99-year lease from the Forest Service for a large area of land; mine was about 40 acres. And it was situated next to a large tract of Forest Service land, so I didn't have any neighbors to worry about.
Foresthill is located in Placer County, which is a pretty large county that covers about Roseville (northeast of Sacramento CA) to the border of Nevada by Lake Tahoe. So I've got the 40-acre lot in the hills outside of Georgetown. It took a bit of searching to find the right lot. It had to have access to the microwave towers, so I could grab access to the phone system. The area around Georgetown is the foothills to the Sierra Nevada mountain range, with remnants of old gold mining sites. There's lots of trees, mostly pine, lots of it good timber land. Due to the drought in the 1990's, there's no shortage of dead trees that can be used for firewood for heating and cooking.
I also needed a good supply of water. The lot I found had a small, year-round stream called Magpie Creek running through it. The building site of the lot had good potential for a well. Water is easy to come by in many areas of the Foresthill Divide. The soil had good 'percolation' for a septic tank, and was good for growing food - I'd need to plant a garden to supplement my food supplies during the Problem.
The cost of the lot was reasonable. It was about 40 acres, and was surrounded on two sides by the Desolation Wilderness State Park. That would protect my privacy during the Problem, and the years leading up to it. There wasn't a road to the building site, but that wouldn't be too hard to fix with a rental of a small tractor.
When I bought the property in the early 1990's, the real estate market was a bit soft, so the price was pretty reasonable. The economy in the area was a bit soft, too. One of the main industries in the area is (was) lumber. Much of the land around the Foresthill Divide was leased by the timber companies from the Federal government. There are a couple of sawmills in the area. Most of the residents are working in lumber-related businesses. They include the lumberjacks, the truck drivers, the skip loader drivers, and all the other workers. But the timber industry was cutting back, so there was lots of real estate available, and prices were cheap.
The people in the Divide area are mostly private. There's a little distrust of any 'flat-lander' that was buying up property. That worked to my advantage, because I didn't want anyone finding me during the first part of the Problem.
A quick trip to the real estate office to sign some papers and a deposit on the property, and the purchase paperwork was started. I used my post office box in Auburn as my current address. My credit report wouldn't be a problem, either. Although I used credit cards, I didn't use them a lot, and the balances were low compared to the credit line. Besides, I'd already hacked into the credit bureau computers to check out my report.
It took only 30 days to get all the paperwork completed for the purchase. I did take out a mortgage on the land, but since the payments were all to the Post Office box, there wouldn't be an easy trace back to my home address. While waiting for the land deal to close, I started making plans for the cabin.
Electricity to the property was one big expense. PG&E, the local utility, was used to running lines to cabins in that area. Even though the nearest neighbor was 20 miles away, PG&E had a big transmission line running nearby. They were more than willing to run a power line to my lot, especially when I paid the $10,000 cost of the line. I was willing to pay for it, since the electric line was my backup connection into the phone network.
Most people are unaware of it, but PG&E started using their transmission lines for their own little phone network. I knew it, though. I'd done some work for them on one of their networks. They had a couple of well-hidden back doors into their system, which I would check on from time to time. These checks were never destructive, and the back door accounts had no other purpose than to provide me access. I like to keep a low profile on all of my systems.
The biggest expense would be the electric lines. I would cost about $10K to get some lines strung to the building site. A significant cost, but one I could handle. I'd made some good money over the years with my little computer consulting business, and the alarm system. Some of the work I farmed out to a core group of consultants. I was expensive, $200 an hour, but I was worth it, because I delivered. I didn't spend my time doing the grunt work; I farmed that out to a couple of other independent guys (and one lady) at $30 an hour. So I had a bit of profit in my billing system. I'd make the appearances at the client site, but I did most of the work remotely, a lot of times using specially built script files to perform maintenance or upgrades. Telecommuting was a big thing, and I took advantage of it. And my remote access was useful for other purposes. Like posting these pages to the server I found that was still functional after the Problem.
My cabin was a pretty simple design. Nothing fancy, a couple of bedrooms, kitchen, living area, and a bathroom. (There's a link on the left that shows the basic floor plan.) Water wasn't a problem. Magpie Creek ran very near the cabin building site, and a well would give me nice clear water, better than the bottled water you used to buy at the local grocery store. (Much of the water that you buy in a bottle comes from mountain springs and wells.) And the septic tank system would take care of the waste water.
I had some plans ready. There's lots of cabin plan books; I just picked up a couple at the Tower Books in Sacramento. Once you find the right plan, you can purchase full building plans. The plan I settled on was a small, two-bedroom cabin with a full basement, with a small kitchen area, a living area, and a nice large fireplace. The house was designed for energy efficiency. The walls were six inches thick with fiberglass insulation, and the whole house would be wrapped in plastic 'Tyvek' for low heat loss. The windows would be dual pane with a good energy efficiency rating. The fireplace would be just the right size for a high-efficiency wood stove. I'd need to use the wood stove/fireplace for cooking after the Problem, due to uncertainties about the reliability of the electricity supply.
I'd have to make some modifications in the plan. The second bedroom would be outfitted as the office. Before the problem hit, I'd need to install my computers and radios in there. I planned on doing a lot of telecommuting as the Problem got closer. I didn't want to get caught away from the cabin when the Problem hit.
The kitchen was small, but efficient. I changed the plans to include a large pantry area. I'd need to store a lot of food to get by during the Problem; that was the purpose of the basement. I'd also need a fairly large garage and workshop area.
The first step was to clear the lot, and improve the access road. I didn't want the access road to be too good, but there were a few spots that needed to be leveled out so that I could get in and out, even during winter. Before I could do that, I needed some better transportation.
I did a bit of looking around the used car lots in Sacramento. I'd done some work for one of the bigger dealers in the area, so had them as contacts too. I figured that I'd need two vehicles: a larger flatbed truck to carry materials, and a four-wheeler truck for basic transportation.
I found a used Chevy 3500HD flatbed truck with fairly low mileage. The last owner was a contractor that had gone out of business due to the real estate downturn. Rust was not a problem in California, so the body was in pretty good shape. The mechanic that looked it over found that the engine and transmission were in good shape. A thorough overhaul, some new shocks and springs, and a brake job were all that was needed to make the truck serviceable. I wasn't planning to put a lot of miles on it, but would need it to get the cabin lumber to the site. After the cabin was built, I could use it to ferry the larger supplies that were needed.
The Chevy would be a gas hog, though, so I would also need a regular size truck for smaller loads, and access to the site during the winter. Using my contacts, I found a Ford F150 truck that had four-wheel drive. Once again, a trip to the mechanic ensured that the truck was basically sound. It was an older model, but the advantage was that the engine was not burdened by excessive pollution controls. I needed a good sturdy engine that would be easy to maintain. This truck would be one of my main modes of transportation during the Problem. It had to be easy to maintain - I work with computers, not engines, although I had a little bit of knowledge about basic engines from an auto shop class I took in high school.
The F150 was a good find. The body was in good shape, but it needed a careful overhaul. I took it to the folks at Capitol City Four Wheelers down in Sacramento. They have a great shop, and a great mechanic, and they were on the leading edge of the four-wheel drive work. I talked to the owner, who was looking at an upgrade to his computer system for his shop. We agreed on a discounted price that included a computer system that I would install and configure for him.
I had plans for a complete overhaul and upgrade of the F150. The engine was stripped down and rebuilt, with new generator and water pump, etc. I had them put in new heavy-duty shocks, a complete brake overhaul, and the transmission was overhauled as well. I also put in new seat covers so that it would be a bit more comfortable to drive. The owner of the shop wanted to put a new paint job on it, but I figured that I didn't want the truck to be an obviously 'tricked-out' model. It needed to be sturdy, and tough, but not look like it.
With a heavy-duty hitch, and a transmission cooler, I was ready for towing. I found a good winch to put on the front; I'd need that while working on the cabin. I also put a heavy-duty bumper guard on the front with a tow bar in case I'd need to tow it to the cabin with the big truck. I might have to push some dead cars out of my way during the Problem.
It took the Capitol City mechanics about a month to get the truck ready, but when they were done, the truck worked great. You couldn't tell by looking at it, but there was lots of power in the engine and transmission. The outside looked a bit ratty, though, but that was part of the disguise. I added a big full-width toolbox on the front of the truck bed. A quick trip to the tire store for some fresh tires (including the spare) took care of that problem. Then off to Grand Auto for a "club" for the steering wheel, a heavy-duty chain and lock for the spare tire, and some basic spare parts. On the way up to the check stand, I picked up an air horn. A bit frivolous, but it would get the attention of people as I was driving down the road. I had ridden my motorcycle down to pick up the truck, so I strapped it onto the back of the truck when I picked it up.
So I had the vehicles ready. The F150 would be used for ferrying smaller materials, and the Chevy 3500 would handle the heavy-duty stuff. I'd still need to get some really big material delivered, but it would be fairly anonymous. I didn't want anyone to remember the place, especially after I started the real preparations to the cabin to make it self-sufficient.