life and eviction at 292 wolf creek road

 I moved to the Twisp Carlton road near Carlton in the summer of 2015. 

I set up my 19 foot trailer on 10 acres, and built an irrigation system. I suppressed the weeds, and made it green and grassy. It was sold in 2018, and i moved to 292 wolf creek road to improve 45 acres of abandoned ranch basecamp. This property had been the original homestead where Wolf creek flows into the Methow river. It had ruined buildings, a giant collapsed root cellar, and was a knapweed plantation. The owners are the Belsbys, a ranch family with large holdings in eastern Washington. They would provide sewer and power, and i would drive the 420d backhoe and pile up the old buildings burn them. make heaps of big rocks, and gather naily boards. After my 400 dollar work trade was paid off each month at 30 dollars per hour, I would work at another Belsby property for a reduced hourly rate of 20 dollars per hour. 

There was power when we checked the place out, but no water or septic. We ended up trenching and running new wires to the well. We found an old out house, that I could rebuild and use. 

The neighbors started to complain from the first day that I arrived. they would drive by and lean on the horn, and shout curses out the window. The Wolf creek property owners association is a wannabe gated community with a lot of rules. And, they are notorious for driving less advantaged people from their area of the valley: They hire private investigators who trespass and take photos; They write letters that a lot of people sign and give to the county, etc. Quite a few members tried to make believe that I did not live there, and  continued to walk their dogs and ski across my rented property. They immediately got the outhouse condemned, and when we bought a brand new outhouse, they called in another series of complaints about the new outhouse.

The building inspector, the county planner, the fire department, the electrical inspector, the health inspector, and others came again and again. We were asked to build a septic system, and the Belsbys agreed to that. I built more buildings, so that I would have a shop to work in, a separate kitchen where I could cook without smoking up my tiny bedroom/office, a chicken house, a climbing gym, etc. A year went by, and we did not build or even permit the septic. weekenders continued to call in complaints during busy weekends. The county started to fine the Belsbys 25 dollars per day for no septic. The health inspector could find no heath violations on the property, so they were willing to overlook the code violation, and give the family more time to build the system. 

Sadly I found out that Daren Belsby did not own 292 WCR by himself. It was owned by Badger LLC that included a second member, who is Daren's Brother Brian Belsby. Brian visited, and was unwilling to admit that any work had been done. He considered me to be a low quality person who his brother should not have made an agreement with. He refused to survey the septic, or even to buy the permit to build it. The county got madder and madder, and sent the health inspector to try to evict me. I was taking a nap naked in the sun when I was approached by a fat drunken man with an n95 mask on. He could not speak understandably through the mask in his impaired condition, and could not explain why he had disturbed my nap. I insisted that he return to his vehicle, and drive away. Finally, standing in the spray of my sprinkler near his government truck, he was able to explain to me that he had seen my truck, and had been tasked with evicting me.  I called him the next day at his office, and he did not remember my name or the previous day's encounter. He was drunk again, and did not recognize my voice from our 90 minute talk the day before. He though that I was his boss calling, and he told me the truth about 292. Only one influential person had called in exactly one complaint. [I now suspect that it was Brian Belsby!] He had been driving around, and saw my rig, and thought that it would be convenient and easy to get me the heck out there with a few threats. About 10 minutes into the conversation, I told him who I was again, and he had straightened up enough to comprehend that. He agreed not to return for another drunken eviction attempt. I had him repeat it 3 or 4 times, and warned that if he forgot and returned, I would treat him like a dangerous trespasser. I told him that I totally understood about the drinking, and thanked him for continuing his somewhat competent work during such a stressful pandemic. However, if he continued the harassment, I would have him fired for smoking or drinking so much while working. He understood that very well, and has never found it convenient to return to attempt further evictions.

I tried to live at the Cherry Springs Ranch, which is owned by Daren and Brian's father, Gary Belsby.  Daren towed my largest building to a location near a building that needed remodeling. That was a bit of misdirection, because they actually wanted a ranch hand who could do very heavy lifting and drive over very rough terrain chasing cattle and bison. The lifestyle was not suited to a disabled elderly person, and I became bedridden and more disabled in general.

Covid hit, and I came flying back to my buildings. I started to ski very avidly, and skate skiing became my way to get up from bed, and work through the pain in my back. There will be a later blog post, [and maybe a video], about this issue of using skate skiing as physical therapy.

4 years after my rental began another complaint came in, and the county sent a bill for 37,775 dollars to the Belsbys. 25 US dollars per day for 3 years. The family hired a ambulance chasing lawyer to pester at me instead of building the septic. I had been paying the electric since I began to get disability checks, but the family retook possession of the account, and had the power disconnected. By this point, I had found 2 places to move to, but each was withdrawn after I had spent a lot of money and done plenty of work. Stuck at 292, I spent every penny that I had to purchase solar panels and batteries and solar energy equipment. I got one building set up completely, but needed another 3k to complete the other building. Then my truck died, needing a new ignition system.

At present, there is 18 inches of snowpack, and i have still not been able to lift my woodstove to install it, much less get up on an icy roof to cut a hole for the pipe. One of the two energy systems is complete, but it was drained in the first 2 days and nights of a 4 day storm. all of the perishable food was lost when the batteries quit. Frozen stuff thawed and refrigerated stuff got too warm. I had water in a tank, but it has a thick layer of ice on top now. It is nasty firefighting water, that sat in an open tank all summer.  I called the Okanogan Sheriff , and requested an emergency reconnect of the power. The officer was not from the local police force, and he seemed avid to arrest someone after my explanation. But, he explained, the real crime is not a landowner disconnecting power on a property with an unwanted squatter.  It was the landowner collecting rent for years while refusing to permit or build the required septic system. In addition to the detailed police report, i filed a permanent complaint against Badger LLC with the Washington state attourney general.

That is where I am at now. the Belsbys scratching at me, the scammy lawyer sending me stupid documents, no water or grid power, and a dead truck. I have needed medical attention to stay alive several times recently, so I estimate that I would last less than a year as a homeless disabled person. I can not tow 5 or 6 buildings around with a dead Tacoma, so I have no option to leave.  disconnecting the power after forcing me to pay it for over a year has made them seem cruel and greedy.  The family's cruelty has trapped me here. disconnecting the power has bankrupted me so that I can not move even if I find a place. The Belsby family has a history of 'helping' a poor person, and then evicting them without any of their possessions. That happened at least twice while I lived at 292, and we have an abandoned RV on the property filled with one guys chattels as well as a 25 foot trailer that was given to me after another man was ousted from Daren's home place in Winthrop.

update jan 14th 2023....

i bought enough solar panels, but not near enough batteries to form 2 complete solar energy systems. i can have lights and computer for 3 days into a storm, but the storms are 2 weeks long now! I sold my truck to  buy more batteries. so far, i ordered a single LiFeO4 12 v 200 amp hour cell, and i am testing that now. if it pasees, i plan to buy 3 more of the same cells. the 4 can be configured into a 200 amp hour 48 volt bank, a 400 amp hour 24 volt bank, or a 800 amp hour 12 volt bank. That is convenient, because i currently have an inverter of each size.

NOTE: I did save up money in a bank account, and tried to spend it on the batteries. The bank is run by the US government, and they are not sending any of their money to China these days. i was unable to buy a single battery of the desired 3. Even the helper at the government bank explained to me how to launder the money so that it can be spent on Chinese goods. [Amazon!]. However, it seems dishonest to accept disability money from the MAN, and then defraud them by using light fraud to spend it efficiently. It seems that fraud is no longer a crime in the US. Citizens are encouraged to lie in order to get more money. Lying to get money is not a sin, but rather, is now thought to be admirable. We elected a lying president!

ski conditions have gotten acceptable a few times, and i have managed a 60 km ski with little trouble. the 100 km that is my goal seems unlikely. there is just not enough time in a day. i have been trying to speed up, but then i poop out too quickly.

update feb 21

i have had some luck getting into shape for skate skiing.

I have gone over 60 km maybe 20 times, but have not reached the desired 100 km goal. I got very tired of sitting in the dark after my lead acid batteries were all drained. i sold my toyota tacoma, and bought a LiFePo4 battery with high energy density.

i set up an inverter system in my office, so that when the lights go out, I can switch to one final back up system and watch it carefully as the voltage drops.

I used an old charge control and inverter at first, but this system needs to be silent and very efficient. I used more truck money to buy a fan-less inverter from Morningstar.

The redodo brand battery has already proven to be astounding at retaining a charge [with almost no loss over time], and at taking a charge [with little or no internal resistance] In short, it stays charged, and it charges so easily that a tiny trickle will work over a long period of time. If you are familiar with solar energy systems, there is no float stage needed for a lithium ion battery. it does not require a small current to be added to stay charged. i selected the 200 amp hour 12v  plus model, which is the more expensive one that has a larger battery management system so that it can provide 2000 watts instantly.

Once a user has tried lithium batteries, i am pretty sure that there is no going back. I hope to double the battery next month, while the first is new enough to pair with an unused battery. Then, there will be 400 amp hours of 12v storage available, which is a pretty big backup. It is roughly half of what is stored in the larger buildings. The kitchen has 200 amp hours at 48 volts, and the shop has 350 amp hours at 24 volts.

update march 4

The morningstar inverter in the previous photo worked for a few days, and then had an internal fire. It stunk up the house, and had to be immediately unmounted and put outside. It is lucky that the plastic shroud over the front of the device did not get hot enough to melt and ignite and catch the wall on fire. This is the second morningstar product that has melted down on me, so it is the last of their products that i will try. It seems that they are yet another company that has loosened or stopped doing quality control. Amazon has pioneered this idea of sending out every unit that is made, and letting the customers see which ones work well. If nothing else, they can drag their heels on returning the money, and keep it for a few months at least.

 I have managed to ski 90 km on an icy day when the entire methow trails system was groomed. i skied there and back on the entire methow community trail that runs from Winthrop to a point about 15 km past mazama. I am reminded that these endurance stunts are kind of stupid. the supposed endurance athlete is simply doing 2 days of activity in a single day without sleeping in between.

Badger LLC and the eviction:

Seeing the snow melt off is making me worry about the eviction again. i have no vehicle, and have been towing a propane bottle to town on the ski trail. I also bring home food using the trail. Skate skiing with a pretty heavy pack, or adding the pack to the full propane tank on the trailer.

The property owners are the Belsby family, who own the sprawling Cherry Springs ranch in eastern Washington, Spring Creek Ranch in Winthrop, and many other properties. Daren lives in downtown Winthrop and Brian lives in a gated community near Spokane. The senior Belsbys live at Cherry Springs ranch, near Spokane.  There is some question how such a powerful family could mistreat an elderly and disabled employee. An employee that became disabled while working for the Belsby family. It seems sure that the employee must be a bad person who stole from them, and refused to carry out their end of the work. This is not the case, and there were never any hints that the Belsbys were dissatisfied with my work on the parents Cherry Springs ranch [heavy machine work, welding, mechanics], Brian Belsbys property [complete wiring of a new shop], at Spring creek ranch in Winthrop [heavy machine work, carpentry], or at 292 Wolf creek road [heavy machine work, agriculture]. 

my work at Cherry springs was well compensated, so the parents appreciated and paid for any work that they received.

It seems odd that a very powerful family would collect rent at 400 dollars of work per month, and refuse to build a septic on the property. I built 5 portable buildings, and was always standing by to do the backhoe work and the plumbing for the septic system. I made about 20 or 25 thousand dollars worth of improvements at 292, and this can easily be shown using old and new google maps. The last owner of 292 stopped by to voice his surprise that a single person had cleaned up that trashed out property. When I looked into the matter, it seemed that the 2 brothers, Daren and Brian Belsby, had both refused to work the Cherry Springs ranch. They each have something going in either Winthrop or Spokane. Daren is the head smoke jumper for the Winthrop area, and Brian has an engineering company in Spokane.  They are very very different for 2 brothers! Daren has 2 kids that he treats really well. He is the ideal dad and employer. He is always trying to help people in need, and that has led to some trouble. He met his wife, Sarah, while jumping out of aircraft into ongoing fires! Daren and Sarah own a cat 420d backhoe in working condition, and i have used this machine a lot. hundreds or thousands of hours of operation. knocking down unwanted buildings, filling huge holes, piling trees and old foundation material for burning, creating new roads, etc.

Brian owns an even better backhoe, but he has never used it, and does not know how to use it. he has an airplane, and he flies it really well. He also has 2 kids and a wife, but he does not treat them as well as Daren treats his family.  He is abusive and kind of mean. While i worked for him doing the original wiring on his new shop, his dog attacked me over and over. Brain refused to believe that the 120 lb rottweiler could attack anyone, and demanded proof in the form of a video. I was not able to shoot a good video while running from the attack dog, so i figured out how to park my truck so that i could enter the shop without letting it bite me. coming outside to pee was a big problem.  I saw Daren make many trips to Cherry springs ranch to help his parents, but I did not see Brian helping, even though he lives nearby. And sadly, Brian did not understand what an LLC is. He formed Badger LLC with his brother so that they could profit from 292 wolf creek road without being exposed to personal financial loss. But, he thought that he could lie and do crooked business deals as a member of an LLC. He believed that his identity was hidden, and that an LLC enjoyed freedom from oversight.

When i checked this, it was far from the truth. An LLC protects its members from personal loss UNTIL there is fraud or other illegal business dealings. There is no question that Badger refused to build a septic, and also continued to rent 292. Badger wanted both things. improvements to 292, work on the other Winthrop property [spring creek Ranch]. And, they wanted to avoid the 25,000 dollar fee for a septic system. It is ironic that Badger tried this fraud, because they now owe the county several times the cost of a septic system in fines, and by any definition, they owe me about 25,000 dollars in rent. They need to return any rent paid after the first year. We were allowed to have an outhouse for the first year. for the next 3 years, i was under constant attack from the neighbors at wolf creek, the county, and lately, from Badger LLC. Badger is reluctant to try a legal eviction, since it would likely lead to a lawsuit and the loss of at least 292 wolf creek road and Badger LLC. There is no way to argue anything but purposeful fraud, because the septic permitting fee was also never paid. someone who actually intended to build a system would have paid the 500 dollar fee 4 times. It is clear that they always intended to have me improve the property, and then evict me before the county tried to collect the huge fine.

Knowing both brothers and the parents, I can say with certainty that Daren would never have come up with that plan. i saw his face when he proudly showed his brother the improvements to 292 wolf creek road. He had obtained these improvements simply by giving a poor person [me!] a place to live and a backhoe to use. Brian saw no improvements, and therefore, no reason to waste money on a fancy septic system. My buildings would be lost to a disagreement between wealthy brothers. Also, in loosing the address, I will loose the disability payments from the US government. they do not give those payments to homeless people, but only to those that reliably pick up their mail at a street address. Also, any lawsuit that I might wish to make to recover the 25,000 dollars in rent would not be possible. Homeless people do not have lawsuits or attend court sessions. I could be shown to be a hapless drifter, who is lazy and dishonest and does not deserve disability payments and a safe place to live. The cops could be sent here to taze me a lot of times, and give me some random injections. put my head in a bag, and push it down into the snow until I stopped being such a poor person nuisance.

However, i called the police when the Belsbys shut off the power at the start of winter. I was paying for the power, so it was a clear attempt to drive me from 292 to avoid building the septic or paying the fine. The police were very angry about this, and asked me to write to Ecology of Washington. They are the ones who need to bring the Belsbys to court to pay the fine or build the septic. Ecology has my statement now, but it could take a long time before they begin a court case: maybe years! Our local Sherriff is very willing to assign an investigator, to find out if Badger LLC broke any laws in refusing to build the septic, refusing to pay the fine for the refusal to build the septic, and doing harsh things to a disabled renter to drive them from their own buildings.

I welcome a full investigation of these events. secrecy will help Badger LLC. They will continue to sit on millions of dollars of wealth while I am driven from place to place as a homeless and disabled person. The buildings were the last things that I constructed while I could still lift fairly heavy things like sheets of plywood and timbers. I feel that watching them burned by the Belsbys would negatively affect my physical and mental health. It seems likely that I would die very soon. Badger LLC should not kill anyone to avoid obeying laws and paying fines. That is not the reason that LLCs are formed.

I like irony, so I have to point out that i am the black sheep member of a wealthy Jewish family. My father and his brother own the Randell press. It is on 6th avenue in Manhattan. If I had wanted a lot of money, I could have just stayed home! I spoke with my father at length about the problem with the 2 Belsby brothers. The problem was very familiar to my father, who had always done the printing at the Randell press, and left the money handling to his older brother. my father was always trying to help people, including the poor homeless folks that he would find sleeping in the somewhat protected doorway of the Randell press when he opened the shop. He was not so good with money, but he was [and still is at 90!] a gifted athlete and deeply ethical. Maybe ethics and honesty are for the impractical folk that do the actual work of society. the money handlers concentrate on harming others to get more money. They use numbers of dollars in the place of ethics. Numbers on a spreadsheet are far easier to work with than human lives.