So fire still raging towards my house. I've worked with the crews for 5 days straight, I probably know more about fighting wildfires than some of the crews out here.
Neighbour across the way had a stroke of genius. We were talking and we know they are "letting" it burn as a form of future fire prevention. Thing is, our houses are in the way of their plans, so we cleared out his back field, and we offered it up as a chopper refulleing station. We now have 50,000 gallons of aviation fuel, and a non stop stream of water choppers landing. They HAVE to hold that staging spot, so now they are dropping water on the hill above them.
4 different crews came to my property on 4 different days, and installed 4 different sprinkler systems on the house. Talk about make work programs. What I discovered was that legit fire guys care about people and want to be here. The rent-a-cop firefighters couldn't care less about anything, and it's just a paycheque, and they will milk the taxpayer for every red cent. Anyway, I've started pricing out parts so that I can have a permanent sprinkler system set up on the house, so that I can specify who and when crews come on the property.
Had a chat with rcmp. Learned a lot from them too. They CAN'T remove me from the property even under an evacuation order, but they CAN arrest me for trying to return once I leave. The attempted pillaging is insane, none of the owners are leaving because there's every sort of thief patrolling the roads, day and night. The rcmp are supposed to be "protecting the properties from theft" and they do that by parking window to window 20 kilometers away. Just absolutely useless.
3am last night I was called to the neighbour's shed. 2 meth heads in there trying to steal his side by side. Couldn't start it, but too methed out to realize we could hear them for miles. Let's say that IF they ever make it back to town, I doubt they will ever come back this way. It's unfortunate what happened to their vehicle. tsk. must have been vandals out as well, really worked over their ride.
So I just installed 2 driveway alarms, one at the road, one half way up the laneway. I am going to install sodium (or better) floodlights on sections, so I can light it up like the surface of the sun, with vantage perches so that I can properly 'greet' visitors. The lane is 3/4 of a kilometer, and 300' rise with 7 switchbacks. It's also the easiest way to get to the house from the road. I caught 2 guys on the first turn with a double flatbed, just "accidentally" coming up to take whatever they could get about 2 months ago. The way it works, they show up, take any vehicles they can, and they leave a note with the amount they want to bring it back. Since it's a "certain demographic group", the police won't investigate, so they do it in broad daylight, as the only risk is the homeowner catching them. They won't be back any time either. Ever wonder why people carry "truck guns"? Well sometimes they are necessities of life.
I am having an absolute blast. I really was born for this. Give me the right to police my own property, and no misconception that police can just come on your property whenever they feel like (like they would do back in London) and I sleep great at night. The only thing I won't really have is real night vision goggles...they're WAY too expensive.
Definitely not the life for everyone, but for those of us that just want to truly be left to our own devices, it's pure heaven
