The Problem started in July. By August, I had gotten the cabin organized, with all the food properly stored, and a good start on a supply of firewood. All that physical work, and the more healthy diet, had trimmed me up a bit. (No more cheeseburgers from McDonalds, no more oatmeal raisin cookies from Hilda's.) I was getting some good calluses on my hands from handing the axe while chopping up wood and splitting it for the winter.
The weather in August in this area is usually quite warm, many days in the upper 90's and into the 100's. It's not like the heat in the East coast, though, as there is usually not much humidity to go along with the heat. And the evenings usually cooled down into the low 60's at my place, with a little bit of a breeze.
In August, I started a garden area. I spent some time clearing out a small area by hand, and then put up a wire fence to help keep most of the critters out. I tapped into the water pipe from the stream to irrigate the garden. It was getting late for most crops, so I started with some cooler weather vegetables. I also planted a couple of short rows of corn, a variety that grew a bit faster so that, with any luck, it would be ready before it got too cold.
I also started work on a small greenhouse against the southern wall of the cabin. It wasn't very big, but I thought that it might be useful later on for some smaller plantings, and to start some other plants in the late winter and early spring. I was pretty much a novice at gardening, but I had some basic gardening books that I had purchased before the Problem, and they helped out a lot. And I had lots of different kinds of seeds that I had bought, all carefully stored in the basement.
There was a lot to keep me busy. There was the garden, woodcutting, expansion of the little dammed up area on the creek for my alternate water supply; lots of things to keep me busy. I also started building some simple traps for small animals as a supplement for my food supply. I wasn't too successful at first, but managed to catch a few rabbits and squirrels, which I roasted over an open fire. The rabbit was good, the squirrel passable (it tastes like chicken, of course), but I developed a tolerance for the taste.
I worked outside most of the day. I also did quite a bit of hiking around the area, but was really careful to make sure that I wasn't seen by anyone. The area around the cabin was pretty remote during normal times; you might see the occasional hiker or biker during the summer or weekends.
But these weren't normal times, so you wouldn't see the 'flatlanders' coming up in their SUV's and four-wheelers traipsing around all over the place. And my place was off the beaten track to begin with, so that reduced the chances of anyone being around.
I was still careful, though. I always carried a gun with me for self-protection. I stayed off of the roads, preferring to use small-game trails that were in the area. The forest around the cabin is not very dense, it's pretty open, so you can usually find a way through things.
I had a small backpack to carry a couple of things like food and a water bottle, a small first aid kit, a large plastic trash bag (good for an emergency rain coat), matches in a waterproof container, and my good six inch hunting knife. I also had a good compass (along with a small GPS unit; the GPS satellites still seemed to be working OK), and the topographic map for the area. On these trips, I checked out the perimeter of my property, looking for any signs of two and four-legged critters. I was more worried about the two-legged variety, although some of the four-leggers could be a problem, too.
On more than one excursion, I saw some mountain lion (or cougar) tracks. They are not uncommon in the area, and have been known to attack humans when cornered. I recall an instance in the mid-90's about a cougar attack on a lady jogger in an area similar to mine. She was jogging alone, and apparently came around a corner and startled a mountain lion. She made the mistake of trying to run away, and mountain lions are much faster runners. The paper didn't tell much detail, but I had talked to a friend of mine who was in the Fish and Game department, and he said that there wasn't much left when the cat was done.
So I was careful during my hikes. When you are confronted by a mountain lion, or other critter, there are some things you can do to help ensure your survival. And I knew about them, partly from my Fish and Game friend, and partly from some other research I had done. I was lucky; I saw mountain lion tracks only, no actual lions. I did happen upon some small herds of deer, though, which I would usually watch for a while before moving on. And of course there were other critters like chipmunks, squirrels, birds, snakes (rattle and otherwise, which I knew to avoid), and other forest critters.
I usually tried to go on a hike once a week, just to check out things. I only went on day hikes, though. And I never went without the basic hiking supplies, which included my gun. I didn't use the gun, however, as I was still keeping a low profile.
Most evenings I would fix my small dinner, then sit in the cabin (with an oil lamp when necessary), reading my books on gardening, outdoors, or other useful survival-type books. By the end of August, the electricity was getting a bit more erratic, so I couldn't count on it at night. I would usually eat and read for an hour, maybe two, and then go to bed.
I'd get up most days before sunrise, which was a pleasant time of day. It was pretty quiet that time of day. Well, come to think of it, it was pretty quiet most of the time. Before the Problem, you'd hear the jet planes overhead as they headed to and from the Sacramento airport. And there was the occasional light plane flying by. But now, there was just the sound of the critters and birds. The large birds, the eagles and hawks, still lazily circled the sky, catching the breezes and updrafts, occasionally making a dive for a meal.
So my days were mostly filled with working, getting prepared for winter, with the weekly hike around the area. My nights were spent reading, mostly by light from the oil lamp if the electricity was off. When the power was on, I would refill my water tanks from the well, so I had a good backup supply of water. And I was careful of my use of the water, even taking to flushing only when necessary. I remembered the old saying from the drought years of the 1980's: "When it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down."
And that's the way it went, from the start of the Problem in July, through the fall.