I woke up this morning earlier than usual, stepping onto the deck with a cup of coffee and no plans for the day. I had learned much since I came home. The lesson repeating itself in my head was how devastatingly quiet and isolated my world had become. They say to be careful what you wish for. If “they” were standing here in front of me, I’d probably put a few rounds through the shotgun. Staying focused and busy during the first week was no problem. After securing the house, building a network of tripwires around the property, and constructing booby-traps at both entry points, I started the gardens. There were no flat clearings of earth within a mile of the cabin, so I had to create them on the driveway. I built two twenty-by-twenty wooden frames – with plans to build more – that held nearly two feet of soil. (At first I attempted to till the road, but after digging up layers of gravel, I hit rock.) After filling them with soil, I made a varmint fence with chicken wire. Using the seeds my mother stored for her smaller version beside the utility shack, I finished the job in a grueling three days.
