The Shelter: Book 1, The Beginning (11 page)

President Obama responded to McConnell’s speech by saying he was going to use his executive power to mandate welfare payments which he’s going to fund through taxes on people’s savings, checking and investment accounts. Any account with between $100,000 and $250,000 will have a special one-time tax of 10%. Those accounts with combined balances of $250,000 to $750,000 will be taxed at 12% and all accounts over $750,000 will be assessed a one-time tax of 15%.” This was going to hurt our plans. When we won the lottery, we placed the bulk of our funds offshore but when the EU started to fail, we moved the funds back to US and Canadian banks. With the newly announced taxes, I had to quickly get as much of our funds out of US banks or converted into hard assets as quickly as possible. Our accountant convinced me to put more than half of our money in Switzerland. We also kept two large safe deposit boxes, each was filled with two million in cash. This we moved into a new hidden safe in our sub-basement. We recently added a second large safe in the sub-basement filled with gold and silver coins. We don’t know what the coins are going to be worth in the future, we’re just happy to have them. Lacy looks at me saying, “Jay, I know what you’re thinking, stay calm. Most of our money is safe. Even if we end up having to pay the tax, we’re going to be fine.”

“I know, it’s just that I hate that man. I worry he’s going to force the Swiss into telling the Department of Treasury who owns accounts in their banks, then the IRS will tax us on our offshore holdings.”

Lacy nods in her understanding, she says, “I didn’t think he could issue an executive order taxing our bank accounts. I thought only Congress had the power to set taxes.”

“Lacy, in normal times, I’d agree with you. He knows that any suits will take years to work their way through the courts, whichever way a judge rules, there’ll be an appeal, it’s going to take years before this is decided, during which he’ll be collecting the taxes.”

“Honey, what about an injunction blocking his Executive Order?”

“Good question, I think that even if different groups brought suit, a judge is going to say the case should be heard, thus taking years.”

“So we’re screwed?”

“In a word, maybe.”

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I had previously made an agreement with the Wise Company in Utah for the purchase of a year's supply of food for thirty people. It was very expensive since every survival food company was back ordered for over a year. They contacted me on March 31st, telling me if I still wanted my order it had to be paid for up front and picked up right away. It cost me $75,000 to ensure we were moved to the front of the line and the promise we’d pay in cash. I asked Fred to send his two sons in a truck to Utah to pick up the food and drive it home. They made the 1700 mile trip in 30 hours. Due to bad spring storms, it took them 45 hours to return with the food. The farmers thought I’d gone crazy buying the freeze dried food, they argued the whole reason I bought the farms was to have a supply of food. I replied with the question, “What are we going to eat if the fields get burned or due to outlaws we can’t harvest the crops? What about if the government shows up to take our crops? I like to eat, don’t you?”

Fred and Rich asked if things were going to get that bad. I told them there was a good chance that law and order are going to break down, making the country like the old Wild West. I told them things were going to be worse than anything in our worst nightmares.

We’ve named ourselves the Portland Families, named after the closest town, Portland, Tennessee. The four families are, Lacy and I, Fred and Cheri, their sons Mark and Ryan. Rich and Jill, who have a son Jon, and a daughter Liz, they live next to Fred and Cheri. Randy and his wife Janice, and their teenage son Bob own the farm that borders Randy’s. The last of our group is Paul and Flo. They have two teenage sons named Bill and Joe. Our group, without our kids, numbers seventeen. Seventeen people to defend over 900 acres. Working the acreage isn’t a problem with the machinery we have. I’m not sure if it’s possible to defend our land with such a small number of people spread out over such a large area. We need to build defensive positions and find a way to multiply our small force to protect us and what’s ours. We need what the military calls a force multiplier, something that enabled the seventeen of us to defeat numbers ten or more times our numbers.

On the evening of March 31
st,
we invited our neighbors to a meeting at our house. We laid out cold beer, wine and sodas for the kids. Lacy prepared some snacks for everyone. I prepared a large map of our property. When everyone is seated with a snack and drink, I got started with the reason why I invited everyone together. ”Everyone, thank you for coming over on this lovely spring evening. I hope you’re all comfortable.” Everyone nods their agreement. I sip my diet root beer, not wanting to drink until we’ve covered the key points of the meeting. “I’m sure everyone’s heard the news about the economic meltdown. It’s happening quicker than I thought it would happen. The economy and the country are on the way into the crapper. There are seventeen of us, we have over 900 acres of land between us.” Fred laughs, saying, “Actually, Jay, you own 955 acres. We’re your tenant farmers.” Everyone laughs.

“Fred, thank you for reminding me. The very reason I asked everyone over tonight is to discuss how we’re going to defend what’s ours.”

Jill asks, “Jay, do you think it’s come to that? Do you really think people will come after us? We’re north of Nashville, most people won’t be able to walk this far or find us since we’re not located on any main road. We have crops to get into the ground, we have farm work that needs to be done. None of us has any military training. We all know how to shoot, but we’re farmer's, not warriors.”

“Jill, I expect the economy and the country to collapse much quicker than any of us expected. The stock market is headed down faster than a crashing plane. I’m expecting the government to come apart within ninety days and when that happens, the entitlement class is going to realize there won’t be any more checks coming. They are going to riot to get food to feed their families. When the cities run out of food, the hungry will flee the cities like waves of locusts stripping fields. They’ll find us and they’ll try to take by force what they want. Farms will be one of their major targets because they’ll assume farms have food. The hungry will do anything to feed their families.”

“Randy asks, “Jay, what are you proposing?”

“Here’s a map of our area. At first I thought we could build a wall to surround our land, I soon learned that’s out due to cost and manpower. I now think we ought to be able to string barb wire around our land. No one is going to bat an eye to four farms buying a lot of barbwire, you use it all of the time to keep your animals on your land.”

Fred nods, saying, “Yes, we all have rolls of barb wire we use to close off the fields so our animals don’t wander off. Since all of our farms are now one, we can use the barbed wire to string along the border of our land. If we need more, it’s available at a number of local stores.”

“Fred, I suggest we send a couple of the kids to town first thing tomorrow to buy up as much barbed wire as possible and anything else. We should get everything we can think of now before the prices skyrocket or the local stores run out of what we need.”

Paul nods, “Great idea, we’ll make a list of what each of us needs then we’ll combine it into one master list. We’ll send the kids into town tomorrow in one of our larger trucks to get everything on the list.”

“Paul, great. The next thing I want to discuss is the second layer of defense. We have a couple of backhoes in our group. I suggest we dig a trench connecting each home. My thought is if we come under attack, we’ll use the trenches for fighting positions, the trench will give us some protection from the invaders. While the trenches are dug, we can use the soil removed from the trenches for sandbags piled in front of the trench. I think the trench should be five feet deep and go from home to home and circle back. One large circle.” I draw it on the map. Everyone stands up to look at the map I have on the wall. They nod in agreement. “We’re also going to need a way to slow any attackers down before they hit the trench line. I suggest we dig trenches in our driveways to stop any vehicles coming to attack us.”

Cheri asks, “How do we get in or out if we have trenches dug in our driveways?”

“Good question, we cover them with steel plates like the highway department uses. When everything is fine, we cover the trenches in our driveways with the plates, at night and in times of potential attack we remove the plates uncovering the trenches. In risky times, we cover the trenches in our driveways with painted bed sheets so anyone approaching us won’t notice they’re about to drive into a trench. I expect any attack will come at night so we should also rig up motion activated lamps to light up all around our homes and barns. A third line of defense I suggest is a series of small pits around the natural approaches to our homes. I’m hoping these catch the attackers after they’ve dismounted from their vehicles. These pits should be on the sides of the driveway and the approaches to our homes from the street. We should also remove any large trees from around our homes. Large trees can be used as cover for the attackers. We can use the wood cut for firewood and to build defensive positions. We want to have a clear field of fire in front of the trenches. We can’t leave anything that could give invaders any cover.”

Janice says, “My fruit and shade trees? No. I’ve been tending to those trees for fifteen years.”

Flo says, “Janice, why can’t we transplant them? The holes left behind could make good traps.”

Janice isn’t happy, but nods. “Flo, you better help me.”

Flo says, “Janice, I know a company that plants trees, I’ll call them tomorrow.”

I continue, “I also suggest we circle our homes and property with hunting traps, this will stop many when they get their foot or ankles broken. If we can get enough traps, we should hide some along the inside of the barbwire. If people get through the barbed wire, they’ll run into the hidden traps. If they get through the traps, they will have to get past the small pits.  If they get through those, the motion-activated lights will go on. I’m expecting large numbers of people to try to attack, our goal is to be slow them down and stop them before they get close to our homes. Anything we can do to delay them, to reduce their numbers, reduces the numbers we’re going to have to actually fight. We might even scare them enough to leave before they reach our homes.”

Randy adds, “Jay, we should have an alarm system that goes off when anyone gets past the barbed wire. If we wait until the lights turn on, we won’t have enough time to defend our homes.”

“Good idea, however, I don’t know how to rig an alarm like that.”

Janice says, “I know a really good alarm company in town, I’ll call them tomorrow.”

“Perfect, thanks, Janice.”

Matt says, “Can I ask something?”

“Sure, Matt, what’s on your mind?”

“Let’s assume people get through everything, what do we do?”

“Matt, then we fight. I should have asked this before, do you all have weapons?”

We go around the room, at the end of the count, which I mark on a large sheet of paper tacked to the wall. “We have between us, five shotguns, four hunting rifles and three Ruger 10/22s. I have twelve AR15s and four home defense shotguns, plus our semi-auto handguns.”

Matt asks, “Jay, what’s the difference in our shotguns and yours?”

“Good question. Yours are configured for hunting with a 26-inch barrel, mine are configured for close shooting with an 18 and ½ inch barrel. A last resort weapon. We’re going to need additional weapons in order to arm everyone. I’ve asked a few people I know for help, we should get a response in a day or two.”

Randy asks, “What are you looking to buy, I know the owner of the local gun store.”

“He’s not going to have what we want or need.”

Fred says, “Huh?”

“You’ll see.”

We agree on the plans and the next day construction begins on our defenses. Matt and Ryan go to town picking up rolls of barbed and razor wire and hundreds of hunting traps. They purchase every trap within twenty miles of our homes. I get the call I’ve been waiting for. I call Fred, who agrees to take a trip with me. “Lacy, Fred and I are going to make a quick run to the border.”

“Please be careful.”