Trip Date: May 24, 2021
Find this SpotThis story cover this trip and the prior one.
This is our 4th trip up to the property this year I believe. Unfortunately, last trip up, we discovered that we had been robbed again; now the second time. It really seems like more because the hurt is so deep and painful, but it has only been twice. However, they stole much more and did more damage, physically, psychologically, spiritually this time.
They stole 2 Honda generators, our 100W solar panel, a brand new deep cycle battery, the uninstalled flooring for my cabin, a jack, and I am sure a few odds and ends we haven’t yet realized. What is super gross and creepy is they wrecked the trailer door to get in and stayed in the trailer for some period of time; leaving behind a pillow, sock, cigarette butt, dirty dishes and an old sticky note with Debbie’s phone number (530) 708-7543. They kicked in my cabin door and wrecked the lock, but fortunately did not break the door or the glass.
They unhooked the propane tank and the stove in the kitchen and had some cool old kerosene lanterns all in the middle of the floor, but for some reason didn’t take them. They cut our brand new wire fence and just drove up the hill, so that also needed repairing. By the time Mike arrived later in the afternoon, I had talked to Kristen and Dave Adams and the sheriff’s department to report the break-in, so I had already gone through several of the stages of grief. However, seeing him go through it all was really difficult and we cycled through together a few more times. If I had a rocket launcher…
The best thing to happen for us was that Kevin and his son Alek came, and their presence forced us to move away from the anger and focus on the positive; we were here, nobody was harmed, stuff is replaceable, the views, quiet, rocks, birds, and flowers – all the things that we love about the property are still here and will never go away, so we were able to turn the corner, and get on with making the best of this visit to our property. Kevin and Alek got to setting up their tents and Mike and I settled our emotions, and it was soon time for cocktails and soup.
I didn’t sleep much, wrestling with raw emotions and high anxiety. I got up pretty early and found Kevin kicking back with a book and coffee on a cool crisp spectacular clear, calm morning. It was a welcome image and a soothing one. I don’t recall what we did as we had no power and no way to create more. I recall a lot of yakking. We bagged up the detritus from the invasion and bagged it for the sheriff. I don’t think we did anything with the deck. We walked down the road to see where they cut through the fence and drove the faint 2-track behind the cemetery to the pavement, presumably heading back to Ravendale. All suspicion seems to lead to Ravendale.
Mike wanted to mark our property boundary better so we headed out into the pasture to find the posts that Leo had put in when they did the survey. I found the NW corner and propped up the metal post and painted it orange, but I couldn’t find the BLM/USGS monument. I walked South from there and was lucky enough to find the midpoint post and the monument. I pounded that metal post in the ground and painted it orange. I walked East back to the road where Mike waited for me.
He suggested we take a look at the SW corner, so we drove out to it. I propped up a white plastic tube on the metal stake next to the BLM/USGS marker so it could be seen more easily, then we drove back to the North side to paint the fence-line where South Grasshopper road first crosses onto our property. Then we drove out to the SE corner just to say hello. We stopped at the spot next to the South gate where they cut the fence to see what types of deterrent we could erect as the intersections of the 3 roads made a huge clearing that exposes about 100’ of fence-line. It is an obvious weakness in our perimeter. Although still feeling quite exposed and vulnerable, we were beginning to turn the corner on a response that would at least make us feel better.
The next day, Kevin and Alek drove up into the Modoc to hike into the Wilderness and to check out the campgrounds for a future gathering of the Taylor brothers. Mike and I tried to inventory the missing items and discuss rational, effective security measures. I told Dale what happened and he said he would come up soon to repair the fence. Mike and Brett were supposed to come up and talk well and septic system on Tuesday, but they called and said they had other stuff come up, so they would try tomorrow, which then was going to potentially be awkward because we had another well guy from Reno coming up, but we can only control what we can control.
Kevin and Alek left on Wednesday, but not before Kevin gave us a hand on repositioning the posts for the water tower. Mike and I found ourselves fooling with them because we could do it with just the drill packs that Mike brought up charged. We unscrewed the boards that held everything in place and pulled the four corner posts in a bit to get them closer to the 87” inched diameter that the 100 gallon water tank is. We pried some rocks out of the ground and got the posts on decent level soil as opposed to sitting on the tips of pointy rocks. We got them pretty level and screwed the support boards back to hold them in place until next time. I felt good about just getting a little something done.
The well guy called me right on time and he was up on top of the hill in minutes. He was a real nice guy, and seemed very knowledgeable and experienced with well drilling, but in no time we got to the anti-vaccine, and not wearing masks, and my wife read an article that said more people died from this vaccine than all the others combined…It is a real interesting dichotomy with these redneck, cowboy, independent, country folk out here. With very few exceptions, they are the nicest, most giving, helpful, reliable, honest people around. But their brains are empty wastelands, with very few checks and balances on what goes in and stays. So so many have irrational fears and believe in lies, conspiracies, and inaccurate information.
He stayed quite a while and yakked our heads off. He had no qualms about drilling from up top the hill as we wanted, which, while the chances of us actually doing a well were very slim, made us feel better to get what we wanted if we did it. He said materials were super expensive (metal and steel of all types) and they were super busy, but that he would get us an estimate in a few days. And I’ll be damned if he didn’t. A few days later I got an email to confirm a few things, and a few days after that we got an estimate for $40,000, which was about twice the estimate I got 3 years ago when we first bought the property. But, oh well!
Mike and I went down to patch the hole in the fence temporarily as I didn’t know how long it would take Dale to come out. I told him we had to delay the fence building we had scheduled for the SE corner, but we discussed adding a gate part-way up the hill in the rocks to make it difficult for someone to get through or around. It felt a little better once Mike and I had filled the gap with wire, and as luck would have it, we barely got back up the hill when Dale called to say he would be out tomorrow for the repair. That made us feel even better.
Mike and I were cleansing ourselves of the violation and getting on with what we enjoyed doing at our property. We futzed with the tower a bit more and talked about what we needed to replace. Mike called again and said he couldn’t come up until tomorrow morning, and that meant Brett couldn’t come. That was OK, as long as they came early as Mike had to get going. Sure enough, about 8:00 am Mike’s giant pickup crawled atop the hill and here were Mike and Dillon. It is always great to see Mike, but especially good now.
Mike and I were prepared to tell Mike about our 5 projects for him; septic system, upper road loop, big rocks, little rocks, and scraping the little berm out of the lower road. Mike and Dillon shared our grief for a bit and then we got to it. There was still paperwork to do for the septic system, and the well permit had to go with the septic, and the little rock was dependent on Tim, but we hoped to move forward with the loop and arranging some boulders down at the bottom of the road by the cemetery where they bad guys had cut through the fence.
As they drove off, I was cautiously optimistic that we were moving forward again. Mike left right behind them, and I was left alone to contemplate everything that had occurred. I called the sheriff’s department to make sure officer Starkey was on his way, but he had not been told by officer Loflin that he was supposed to come here Thursday morning to pick up all the evidence. Even though both officers told me the State will not process any evidence unless it is a serious/violent crime, they did say they would come out to get it, and I assumed someone would call Debbie…. So despite that fact that we had a pillow, presumably with hair and a cigarette butt, and Debbie’s phone number, we shouldn’t expect anything to happen.
Before I could get too pissed off, up came Dale just as I was making a sandwich and getting ready to kick back and wait for him. It was great to see him and his three crazy little terriers. He grabbed a beverage or 3 and we sat on the deck talking and laughing. Eventually, it was time to head down to the fence. I apologized for not taking off the crap that Mike and I had put up to fill the void, but he said it was not a problem and that he had already removed it. I wanted to talk about the gate higher up on the road so I walked ahead of him to the general area where he met me with his rig.
We walked to road a bit, looking for a spot low enough that you couldn’t see any structures but high enough to still be in the rock. Dale understood what I was looking for and proposed a steel fence with wings maybe 50’ or so out into the rock. We discussed the types of gates and locks and lock boxes or steel plated coverings to protect the lock from bolt cutters, etc. We got to a pretty good place and I pounded a couple stakes in the ground to mark the approximate location. We agreed to both look for gates and materials and keep in touch.
Dale is one of those guys, like Mike, and Cowboy Dale. He is absolutely golden. His work is impeccable. Honesty, integrity, sincerity. He has a million guns, listens to way too much country music, loves diesel, probably votes Republican, maybe even is a Trumper (although I hope not), but I would trust him with my life. I have every confidence in him. We don’t need to agree on politics or range management, or wildlife management, or the role of hunting and predators on deer populations. He teaches his boys about life, is way into sports, and has helped us a great deal, and I am very grateful for our friendship.
As I drove off down the hill, I passed Dale working on the fence repair. I tossed him a boundary marker plate I had found and he seemed to appreciate it. I forgot to thank him for the jerky he gave me, although I have since told him it was so good I ate all 5 sticks in the truck on the way home. We have since discussed gates and such and Dale told me he had all the materials to build everything except for the lock protector, so I am hopeful we get to that soon.
Since nothing was going to come from the evidence, Officer Starkey just said he would come pick it up in a couple weeks when we came up next. Well, I guess you will never believe that he didn’t show up that Thursday either, so we are “0” fer for the Sheriffs. Officer Adams said he would install some trail cameras along our road after the first time we got robbed, and now they weren’t even coming out to take a look around or collect the crooks belongings. With our very small sample size, I am beginning to understand how left behind these folks may feel, I mean, you certainly don’t get the sense that you are protected or that anyone else is going to do or provide anything for you. Yes, living out of town, away from services is a choice, and that comes with consequences, but along with the quiet comes an enormous sense of being alone. On your own, without support. It doesn’t take much or many occasions when you feel like you could use some help or perhaps get something in return for the taxes you pay, that you could come to resent government officials and lose respect for what they do, even though it is only for other people.
Now it is another 2 weeks later, and again nobody has picked up the box of DNA evidence or called Debbie. Nobody has called to follow up or do anything or say anything to show any level of caring, compassion, support, or certainly do anything about it. Is it any wonder, people feel like they need to take matters into their own hands? If the police and/or authorities don’t want citizens to arm themselves and take action themselves, if they don’t want vigilante law or militia’s, then they have to provide the services they are paid to provide to everyone, even those in the boonies. Hire another officer, drive around more, show your damn face, be a presence. It really is that simple.
Rather than going down that gigantic sucking rabbit hole of anarchy, we tried hard to focus on the positive. Nobody was hurt, we were fine, we are able to buy more stuff and replace what was stolen, and the essence of the land is oblivious to insignificant human inhabitance. The air, views, rocks, flowers, birds, etc. still remain, and if we can focus on that, we will be in good shape. Curiously, the plants seemed greener this trip than last, there certainly were more flowers, and we had picked up and patched things up as best we could.
As I came through the gate on the 24th, I was apprehensive as hell and looked closely at the fence-line where Dale made the repairs by the South gate. I looked intently for tire tracks and at the closed outhouse door, and finally at the top of the hill. No moleste. I was hugely relieved and the comfort meter moved a little more towards happiness and enjoyment rather than toward revenge and violence. I called Kristen to let her know I was there and began unloading. Mike was up top before too long and we celebrated a crime free couple of weeks since our last visit.
Mike was excited to show me his new solar panel and the generator he bought. We again were amazed that the batteries powered the side push-out on the trailer. I re-installed the kitchen propane tank and stove, and then we got to pumping water from the kitchen tank to the trailer. It went really smoothly, so we decided to pump water into the kitchen barrel at the sink. The trailer pump was sputtering and not exactly right, but we kind of recalled it had always acted a bit strange before getting started.
We set up the cabin and trailer and kicked back for a bit. Mike was fooling around with the solar, and propane and trailer stuff, so I went down below to begin dragging the Junipers that Dale had cut when he built the fence into the clearing next to the South gate where they cut the fence. I had my heavy chain and my logging truck tie down chain and they worked great. I soon had a good little routine going of setting the choker cable on a tree or gathering a few smaller ones together and dragging them up the road in 4 wheel drive and a cloud of dust.
I was amazed at how light the trees were, which allowed me to drag them by hand from the truck to the fence-line and then push them up against the fence. I did about 10 runs and got maybe half of the Junipers in place in about 2 hours of work. It looked pretty good already and the other half would certainly fill the gap and add to the bulk, heft and height of the obstacle. The trees and branches certainly could be pulled out of the way as easily as I put them in place, but we hope that the combination of obstacles, in their entirety, make it too difficult, or takes too much time, or becomes not worth the effort to continue to rob us.
The Junipers along the fence-line, boulders lined along the other side of the fence, another gate and steel post fencing that extends out into the rock, combined with not leaving anything of value behind to steal are the basic tenets of our modern Maginot Line. We hope to have better results, but we also have given some thought to building a caretakers home and having someone live on the property. That will definitely take a significant investment, and is a huge endeavor to prevent misdemeanor thefts, but it is on the table. Hopefully these people change their behavior or move or stop for whatever reason, and we can get back to fun trips and happy memories.
I was back up top about 5:30 and got cleaned up. Mike was puttering around the trailer and came up to the kitchen for cocktails and reheated chicken enchiladas that Kristen made ahead of time for us. We were both in bed early. The massive moon and bad thoughts kept me up much of the night, but the morning was again spectacular, as it has been almost every morning I have been there. After coffee, spinach quiche, and a slice of pumpkin pie, I was ready to rage on the deck. Unfortunately, Mike realized our water pump was leaking and had made a huge mess in the trailer, soaking the carpet and the flooring. He was able to disconnect the hoses and stop the leak, then remove the pump.
I was impressed that it was so easy to access, under a cabinet that was otherwise empty. Mike went in to Susanville to get another pump while I focused on the deck. I bought a new mattress for the Mike to use in the trailer, wanting to eliminate the one that our crook slept on. We kind of wrecked the beams for the deck that we had set in place last trip getting it in the trailer, and we had also moved the corner deck support last trip in order to drain the cabin water tank, so I had to get a lot of the beams and supports back in place before I could begin screwing at altogether. I was torn between double checking everything we did last time, triple checking level and re-measuring over and over. Once I began screwing things together, it felt right, so I went hard. Once I had the inside beams, those closest to the structures, attached to the piers and to each other, I began to get the outer beams in place. With a little tinkering and scrounging, I was soon back to where I thought I would be beginning.
I soon found a good groove and everything was going well, and once I laid out the deck joists, I knew I was in good shape. I had precut these joists 2 trips ago. Forgetting that I had planned on 18” spacing, I was surprised that I had so many to work with. I cut a board 16” long and used that as my spacer, quickly moving down the length of the trailer, putting one screw on each side. My back was getting sore from the bad angle of hunchness, but progress was swift. I turned around and came back putting 2 screws into the other side of the joists and marveling at how strong they were once in place.
By the time Mike came back from finding the new water pump in Susanville, I was working on the joists in front of my cabin, and by the time I was done with that short stretch, he was done replacing the pump. There was much rejoicing. In this one day set aside for the deck, Mike also replaced the water pump and cleaned up much of the water. It was another great day up here, and despite the human interference, the land and structures seemed to be cooperative and responsive to what we were trying to do. It was windy again, so we didn’t want to BBQ, but instead went with the sausage, onion, and pepper brew Kristen made for us. It was freakin delicious.
Mike was pretty early to bed. I was following the play-in basketball game on the phone, but it was windy and cold, so I headed into the cabin. It is so sweet in there. It is like a sauna, with the light and heat coming in through the massive glass. It is always warm and toasty in there and certainly was this evening. I looked at the laptop and followed the game on the phone and stayed up until almost midnight just hanging and looking out the window at the landscape highlighted by the moonlight. I slept well, but was up early.
Again a spectacular morning, filled with enthusiasm about the day before and hope for the day’s events. On the agenda: progress on the water tower. Last trip, we had moved the corner posts in, so now we wanted to double check that and then set the rest of the posts. We checked and re-checked distances and level and got the 4 corners to a final position. We used all the rocks that Vinny and Ken collected last year and put in the wire bin to build up a base around the 3 posts on the East side, the slopiest and rockiest side, then we worked our way around to the South and then West sides. We easily dug out rocks we needed to and made nice flat and smooth settings for the posts to sit on; pretty soon we had 7 exterior posts in position and supported by a variety of bracing. We were lucky to find a post of the exact height for the center post and used more rock to help stabilize it.
There was no way to place a mid-post on the North side, up against the deck as it has several boulders protruding from the earth. Even the center post had to be positioned in the best spot it could be because of these boulders. After getting at it for a while, all of a sudden, we were done with our posts and it was only lunchtime. Feeling great, we had a good break and then replaced the temporary bracing with criss-crossed 2×6 on the inside and outside. We kept piling rock around the base of the posts until we didn’t have any more rock within reach. Like an ant hill, we had removed all rock debris within our working radius. We couldn’t believe our progress so we decided we should try to cut the posts to the right height, but my chainsaw wouldn’t start. That could have been the end of it, but Mike had brought his little electric one.
We fired up the new generator and marked the posts and that little McCullough saw hacked away at the massive 6×8 weather hardened creosote soaked railroad ties like a tiny aggressive beaver. I was amazed at how it clawed through the top of the first post and then the next and the next. I was sucking in creosote dust and sawdust, but we were going great guns. It was really something to see all the posts at height, braced, and stable as hell, even though they were just sitting on the ground. We couldn’t help but heave the 2 matching railroad ties up top of the posts for the horizontal beams, but we didn’t have a matching 3rd, and then we realized we didn’t have a midpost on the West side. Oops.
We went back to our pile and fortunately found exactly what we needed. One post was exactly the length we needed, but while I was cutting the long tie for the 3rd beam, the wood pile fell over on me just as I cut through the railroad tie. Fortunately, it barely got me. I got cut up by the wood pile falling on me, but not by the chain saw. After walking it off for a minute or several, we hoisted that bitch up top and stepped back to enjoy our creation. It was quite impressive and incredibly stout. We were impressed and it was quitting time.
The evening, as predicted, was really calm, so Mike BBQ’d the steaks and we played some CSN&Y. It was an excellent evening. Mike made it to half time of the game, and I was not far behind. I again stayed up on the laptop and followed the game on the phone. Sleep was glorious. We had wanted to put up our trail cameras before Mike left Thursday morning, but we didn’t have the memory card for them. That gave us a little more time for a few final pieces of bracing for the water tower and to cut some of the metal strapping to put on next time. I am really happy with and confident in the tower, and after some evaluation of the elevation, we decided we might want to use both pieces of the double 3/4” plywood to make sure it would drain down-slope by gravity to the kitchen sink.
With that, Mike was off. I cleaned up and organized a bit, half heartedly still expecting officer Starkey to show up to pick up the DNA evidence of the break-in. He never showed. I loaded up the truck and headed down to the South gate and hauled the rest of the Juniper trees up against the fence. There was enough material to really make it look like a significant deterrent; at least a good first line. I drug every tree, branch, and branchlet Dale had cut, and I even drove down to the SE corner to pick up another load. It did not cooperate as I hear that part of the Hill is pretty rough, so being in shorts, sandals, and shirtless while wrestling dry Junipers was fairly brutal. I won the battle but definitely left my pound of flesh.
I had hoped to get Mike up here to install the rock barricade, but that didn’t work out this time. As I left the property under this new policy of leaving less behind for the future, or for the locals. I really didn’t feel like it was that much more work. I guess I really was only taking my bedding, the propane tank and camp stove from the kitchen, the generator, and probably a few tools I would otherwise have left. Eventually that will also include a solar panel when Mike gets the other one delivered. But all in all, a small price to pay for a slightly bigger piece of mind of having more stuff ripped off. Fucking bastards.
I have to include a mention of another super helpful person we have come across in having this property. TeriLynn from Steve’s Pumps and Well has just been incredibly helpful, and kind, and generous with her time and expertise. I first talked to Steve and his partner John about 3 years ago when we first bought the property just to get an idea of what it might cost for a well. This year, we thought we might put in a septic system for the trailer, but along the way TeriLynn told me we have to submit paperwork for both even if you are only considering one or the other. TeriLynn and Steve had just sold their business and so wouldn’t be able to do a well for us, but she still insisted on helping me with the paperwork and together we submitted the first form; “the form to request the form for the permit” as she described it.
Unfortunately, in the exchanges, she didn’t know that the attachment was the completed and signed form as opposed to the original blank form she sent to me. In the meantime, we started talking to Mike and Dillon about putting in a septic system for the trailer. Dillon left the same form for us when they came to look things over. Since TeriLynn seemed to lose the form, I completed the one Dillon left me and the next form, the actual permit request simultaneously. Unfortunately, I completed that form honestly and naively, stating that we were going to hook up our trailer to the septic. Well, that is not allowed in Lassen County, and so it was denied.
All this time TerriLynn was checking in with me, talking me through the steps, offering to help any way she could, just being one of the nicest, most gracious people I have ever met. And, I don’t know her, I have never met her, and she knows they aren’t getting any money from me. She is just another of the handful of fantastic people up here we have met or done business with or just run into who genuinely care about other people, honestly want to help out, truly care about their neighbors, and have their hearts in the right place – right out in front, before their ego, quest for money or notoriety or popularity. There are some really good people around and TL is one of them.
So now, no septic, no well, no SE boundary fencing. But we are beefing up the security, continuing with our infrastructure improvements, and hopefully will move on to another cabin soon. Having the deck between the trailer and cabin will be cool, having the kitchen tank up on the platform should be super helpful, and hopefully adding the gutters and the 3k gallon water tank at the trailer cover will give us all the water we need for a season. Mike and I continue to have a great time doing what we do and enjoying the mornings and evenings immensely. We keep saying we want more time to just mellow and explore a little, but that really can happen whenever we want to make it happen because the projects will never end. We know dat!
Hart Hill with Mike May 24, 2021 Photo Gallery
