4)    ”The natural formation of the country is a soldiers best ally.” Sun Tzu

        This lesson has stood me in good stead from age fifteen when I hung my first beers on a string in the family spring to keep dad from finding them. Although there was a cow later on, who got into my pot stash outside of town; I caught her munching on three bags of herb. Several stick whacks and a lot of running later, she dropped a bag and a half. Nobody noticed pot laced with cow spit, so all was well. Still better than being busted with a felony amount of marijuana, which was something these officers were really hoping for; and I did have a dog who got into my downer stash outside. Darn thing ate fifteen or twenty and strung another fifty all over the grass. She walked sideways and fell over a lot for three or four days, but with the exception of running into things for the rest of her life, recovered nicely. Then again there was my pet hog, she ran wild, and at 250 pounds, nothing messed with her. However, one morning she flipped over a big flat rock and grabbed my whole winter’s worth of saved roaches, probably a good quarter pound. Right then seemed like a good time to butcher, so I ran out and shot her. But pigs are tough, and a little twenty-two to the ribs only tickled. She spit roaches all over the yard, then headed to the woods. I picked up roaches for hours, and never did butcher that hog. She adapted to the wild nicely. I would see her from afar, and then she’d melt into the scenery; smart hog. The common thread of all these stories, looking back, is my use of the country’s hidey holes, to aid me in pursuit of continued freedom. The land tells no tales, and is a staunch friend.

         Right now, these boys think I have ESP when the solution sits less than two miles from here. My little enterprise lays all bagged up, in a hole, under a rock, under a log, and with town in plain sight just down the hill from which I can see four directions.