Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, it's James. I just wanted to explain why
Speaker 1: you're only going to hear my voice in the first episode,
Speaker 1: but you're going to hear Garrison in the other episodes
Speaker 1: as well. And that's because I went into Natius Unicorn
Speaker 1: Ranch twice, once during the period that we're going to
Speaker 1: call the siege, and once again in the summer. And
Speaker 1: so the part that only I experienced only I'm going
Speaker 1: to talk about. We felt that was the most honest
Speaker 1: way to do it. I hope you enjoy it. I
Speaker 1: have worked on this for a very long time. Hard
Speaker 1: scrabbled pass in southern Colorado in the winter. It's not
Speaker 1: where you'd expect to start a story that's fundamentally about
Speaker 1: the Internet, but it's where a four wheel slid a
Speaker 1: rental car in the spring of If you remember, back then,
Speaker 1: Biden had just been inaugurated, some chads had stormed the capitol,
Speaker 1: and vaccines were gradually being administered across the country. Less remarkably,
Speaker 1: frontier rail lines are taken forever to find my damn bag,
Speaker 1: and I was trying to get there before dark about
Speaker 1: a week before it's in a tweet, I thought that
Speaker 1: this is a Nature's Unicorn Ranch because I grew up
Speaker 1: as a farm who didn't really slide quite as easily
Speaker 1: as others did into the supermatcho stuff, and I certainly
Speaker 1: didn't slide anywhere near conservative politics. What the ranches were
Speaker 1: doing building a queer haven and anarchistyle pack of farming
Speaker 1: co op inspired me. I've been missing country life a
Speaker 1: lot during the pandemic, and they wanted to get out
Speaker 1: onto the ranch. But that wasn't really why I was
Speaker 1: driving an appropriate, rittle car through a white out. I
Speaker 1: was doing that because I've seen this tweet, and that
Speaker 1: tweet said there ranches under attack and they needed help.
Speaker 1: The tenacious Unicorn Ranches under attack by local biggots and militia.
Speaker 1: They have threatened violence publicly to us and those that
Speaker 1: help or associate with us. They have encroached on our property,
Speaker 1: armed at night, with the intent to harm those of
Speaker 1: us that live here. We need help. That's where the
Speaker 1: story starts for me. It's where the story starts for
Speaker 1: a few characters you're going to hear this week, but
Speaker 1: it's not where the story really starts. It starts with
Speaker 1: Penelope log we'll call Penny, working at a big box
Speaker 1: store dealing with increasing transphobia both online and in person
Speaker 1: in the early Trump era. Penny's a veteran and a
Speaker 1: country girl, and she was looking to get out of
Speaker 1: the city along with her partner's Canton Gin. She decided
Speaker 1: to rent some land and set up Founding Rescued Our Packers.
Speaker 1: So we started in Livermore, Colorado, which is on the
Speaker 1: whole entire other side of the state. UM, And it
Speaker 1: really was a reaction to what was happening to the
Speaker 1: queer community, UM, not only locally, but kind of what
Speaker 1: we were seeing nationally. Went about two years into the
Speaker 1: Trump presidency where things were just getting really bleak and
Speaker 1: dire for the majority of people that we hung out with. UM.
Speaker 1: We we were originally going to try to like just
Speaker 1: make a make a bus that was roadworthy and we
Speaker 1: could live in and just kind of be nomadic, but
Speaker 1: we couldn't really on board and help other people that way.
Speaker 1: Like that was really just like it would have been
Speaker 1: hard to have the cats we had. Yeah, we also
Speaker 1: like even at that point we had like four cats,
Speaker 1: so it was two three cats whatever at the time,
Speaker 1: but still too many umbo young dogs and whatever. So
Speaker 1: so we uh so I had always wanted to do
Speaker 1: a homestead, and I grew up farming and ranching, so
Speaker 1: it was very natural for me. Um, And so we
Speaker 1: found a ramp that we could rent and livermore Um
Speaker 1: and knee cat and gen Um just uh kind of
Speaker 1: set out to start somewhere. So that was a haven
Speaker 1: for queer people, um, but also a home for us.
Speaker 1: You know. It turned out the United States didn't something
Speaker 1: given alt pack of crisis. The animals were once extremely fashionable,
Speaker 1: and herds popped up over the West in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: Now that generation about pacer ranches are aging out of
Speaker 1: the hard physical labor that makes about every day on
Speaker 1: a ranch, and there are packers are often left to
Speaker 1: their own devices. The unicorns, as the people in the
Speaker 1: valley called them, adopt these al packers, which are often
Speaker 1: to elected, and care for them. They re feed them
Speaker 1: slowly so they would't die from the blow that comes
Speaker 1: from refeeding too fast, and they sell their fiber as yah. Gradually,
Speaker 1: with a ton of hard work and a growing community,
Speaker 1: they built their ranch into a sustainable operation. But as
Speaker 1: the herd grew and their unfortunate rental agreement became clearer,
Speaker 1: they decided they needed a different ranch, and so they
Speaker 1: moved across the state to Westcliffe and it was a
Speaker 1: rented ranch that we were trying to rent their own.
Speaker 1: We thought we were renting their own actually um, and
Speaker 1: then that rug got pulled out from underneath us, like
Speaker 1: they just they just when we went to purchase it,
Speaker 1: they were just like, no, you haven't been renting, going,
Speaker 1: you've just been renting. And we were in an additional
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars, So it was like, yeah, we had
Speaker 1: to move right as COVID was getting bad in America.
Speaker 1: So like March of that was fun. It was it
Speaker 1: was the worst and best move all at the same time,
Speaker 1: because the roads were fucking empty, like if quarantine was
Speaker 1: in full effects, so the roads were empty. So we
Speaker 1: were traveling with trailers full of animals on empty roads.
Speaker 1: And then after like the restrictions lightened and we got
Speaker 1: used to what like the normal traffic flow was, we
Speaker 1: were like fuck this, like but it was cool, like
Speaker 1: having everything shut down. We couldn't like the big problem
Speaker 1: was we couldn't rent anything because every rental place had
Speaker 1: shut down, and so the really it was like the
Speaker 1: beginnings of like the community for for us right. It
Speaker 1: was like we taped friends and you know, comrades to
Speaker 1: how social media. Yeah, and everybody really stepped up and
Speaker 1: helped with that move. So it was it was cool
Speaker 1: West Casts where I met them. It's a beautiful town
Speaker 1: in the sound grade to Christo's. In the summer, it's
Speaker 1: full of tourists taking weekend trip to the mountains and
Speaker 1: eating ice cream. And in the winter it's quiet, snow covered,
Speaker 1: beautiful and absolutely freezing. In March, I drove through the
Speaker 1: town in the afternoon and what I figured was an
Speaker 1: inconspicuous man. Everyone else who visited the ranch that month
Speaker 1: and picked up a tail. Aside from a few strange looks,
Speaker 1: I think I got through, okay. I took a long,
Speaker 1: lonely winding road through the valley and then turned down
Speaker 1: a dirt road towards the ranch. Penny met me at
Speaker 1: the gate in a plate carrier with a rifle. We
Speaker 1: briefly hugged, and then I quickly parked my car outside.
Speaker 1: That don't that the grown queer community at the ranch
Speaker 1: called home. It was a profoundly strange experience. Inside the
Speaker 1: house was full of warmth, conversation and laughter, people enjoying
Speaker 1: each other's company and enjoying being out of the biting
Speaker 1: wind and snow. Outside was cold. We wore plate carriers,
Speaker 1: and the ranches carried long guns. I carried a camera
Speaker 1: and go pro and a kniffac and then dressed in
Speaker 1: battle rattle. We broke the eyes on the art pack
Speaker 1: of drinking tanks and tried to stop the recently adopted
Speaker 1: animals from re feeding too quickly. I walked and talk
Speaker 1: with Penny and j another of the unicorns, whose story
Speaker 1: will get you later, about the stress that the increasing
Speaker 1: threats to them had had on them. But first we
Speaker 1: met the animals. We have sheeps, we have goats, We
Speaker 1: have of course alpaca. We have ducks and chickens um
Speaker 1: day to day, five Pyrenees which are life stock guardian dogs,
Speaker 1: and a couple of blue heelers rescues um and my
Speaker 1: dog Starbuck, and oh yeah, eight cats. Um, But the
Speaker 1: vast vast majority are the alpacas. It might sound a delic,
Speaker 1: and in many ways it is a dilic, But the
Speaker 1: work on the ranch never stops, and sick al packet
Speaker 1: need tending to almost constantly, even during the seats, which
Speaker 1: we will get too soon, I promise there was a
Speaker 1: lot of volunteers could help with, but animal husbandry wasn't
Speaker 1: on the list. So even after long night's patrolling their ranch,
Speaker 1: cold and afraid, Penny and j often had to take
Speaker 1: it in terns looking after old animals with blow let's.
Speaker 1: They labored to breathe. Here's one that I recorded, m
Speaker 1: can you set that down? Help me stand her up,
Speaker 1: because we're just gonna see if we can give her
Speaker 1: to walk, all right, if you'll run it, okay, I yeah,
Speaker 1: there you are there, you are there, you go. My
Speaker 1: felts are perfect. Good. Next up, they can set it
Speaker 1: in there. Gotta walk, baby, that's part of this. I
Speaker 1: know that's part of this through Okay, okay, okay, oh baby,
Speaker 1: I can't do that. It's all right, laugh it's sorry. Well,
Speaker 1: if you're not gonna walk, my love, I gotta do this.
Speaker 1: I know it hurts. Yeah, okay, let's get you crush. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's okay. There, that's Cooper sounded like there was a
Speaker 1: little bit more movement. Yeah. I'm getting the feeling that
Speaker 1: they probably didn't even start asking for help until the
Speaker 1: we guess thought they heard was actually dying in the
Speaker 1: old field. The story about how we got from a
Speaker 1: thriving and happy ran community built on the anarchist principle
Speaker 1: of mutual aid and solidarity to what the Unicorns called
Speaker 1: the seat. If the story it's about lies, bigger tree,
Speaker 1: and the Internet, but it's hard to think about those
Speaker 1: things too much of the ranch, because in the two
Speaker 1: trips I've taken I felt nothing but incredible sense of love, solidarity,
Speaker 1: and supportive community. If you've engage with the story of
Speaker 1: the ranch at all, perhaps following Tenation's Unicorn Ranch online,
Speaker 1: it's probably because of the siege. But I don't want
Speaker 1: this to be storied. It's just about guns, bigger tree,
Speaker 1: and community defense. I also wanted to be a story
Speaker 1: about how long before the stiege began, the community at
Speaker 1: the Sana's Unicorn Ranch realized that nobody was coming to
Speaker 1: save them, and so they decided to save themselves. They
Speaker 1: were they want to kill us, and they yeah, but
Speaker 1: when we like call it out, you know, um, I, hey,
Speaker 1: stop killing us, not even like fuck of just hey, like,
Speaker 1: did you just like lay off the whole killing us thing?
Speaker 1: You fucking fun half like fucking unsympathetic victim screaming trainings forgot?
Speaker 1: All right? So no, the anther, no, you can't stop killing. Excellent,
Speaker 1: Maybe time to get guns now. The day I slip
Speaker 1: slid my way across hard scrabbled past in my not
Speaker 1: so trusty nous and our mirror with the same day
Speaker 1: that the gunman walked into a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado
Speaker 1: and killed ten people with an a R pistol. My
Speaker 1: social media feed was filled with the sadly all two
Speaker 1: common reactions to these, all two common mass murders that
Speaker 1: happen in this country. But the next day I saw
Speaker 1: people flooding gun shops in the fear that the state
Speaker 1: would begin enforcing to gun control laws. It didn't. As
Speaker 1: I edit this draft, another young man with another gun
Speaker 1: has walked into a gay bar in Colorado Springs, about
Speaker 1: an hour from the ranch. It's an intensely conservative city.
Speaker 1: The host focus on the family. You'll know by now
Speaker 1: that the club queue shooting result in the death of
Speaker 1: five people, including two trans people, and in your twenty
Speaker 1: one more, I'll be honest with you, it felt a
Speaker 1: bit weird driving through Colorado to write a story about
Speaker 1: guns was broadly positive, and in a sense it still
Speaker 1: does today. But the reason this story about guns is positive,
Speaker 1: really has very little to do with guns and everything
Speaker 1: to do with people. It's really a surly about solidarity
Speaker 1: what it is about a R fifteen, But some people
Speaker 1: will never get part of the A R fifteen enough
Speaker 1: to see that. In case you missed it or you
Speaker 1: caught one of the reports at the time that seemed
Speaker 1: to skim over the fact that the ranch is around.
Speaker 1: We should give an account of the siege up top
Speaker 1: here so you understand what happened. Understanding why it happened,
Speaker 1: that's another episode. So for now, just to understand. It's
Speaker 1: some boomer's log in to their social media and the
Speaker 1: queer elimination rhetoric we've reported so much about overlap with
Speaker 1: their small community in a valley in the Soengreade to
Speaker 1: Cristo Mountains, and this was a result. Things started, as
Speaker 1: they often do these days, online, with a throwaway comment
Speaker 1: about a parade in town. The girls didn't really know
Speaker 1: that they had moved into the reddest county in Colorado
Speaker 1: at the time. Lauren Bobot was that congress person. But
Speaker 1: soon they started to get an idea of what some people,
Speaker 1: pretty small minority of people as it turned down, thought
Speaker 1: about them. So It started on Facebook, like honestly, like
Speaker 1: we started seeing more comments and people getting weird about it,
Speaker 1: and then there was literally to this day, I will
Speaker 1: still say it was a fascist fucking parade. You're talking
Speaker 1: about July, they had a fascism, Like the local fascist
Speaker 1: did a fascism And we observed this by accident because
Speaker 1: we were like, oh, parade, that doesn't sound interesting, but
Speaker 1: we did go into town to get some coffee and
Speaker 1: ran smack into a fascist parade and and fascist and
Speaker 1: what what sort of like so fascist in the most
Speaker 1: like like direct way that there was Christian nationalist flags,
Speaker 1: three percent flags, Confederate flags carried by armed white people
Speaker 1: screaming about the government and the Libs and the queers.
Speaker 1: Like it was a they did a fashion there's that
Speaker 1: one guy with a shirt that says I know things
Speaker 1: and own guns or something like that and shooting and
Speaker 1: shoot things yeah, um and so like it was a
Speaker 1: overtly hard right sponsored parade that was supposed to be
Speaker 1: like hard like that, like it was like set up
Speaker 1: as a protest because of the COVID restrictions. They weren't
Speaker 1: letting people have a parade, and this was their answer
Speaker 1: to that. Um, and so really all we did was
Speaker 1: call that out on Twitter. We're like, wow, Like, there's
Speaker 1: a fashist parade in West Clifton. We'll come back to
Speaker 1: this parade next episode. It's organized by a local newspaper,
Speaker 1: which is, to be perfectly frank the most batchit, crazy,
Speaker 1: boom and brain worm thing I've ever seen in print.
Speaker 1: It was an open carry event where malicious from across
Speaker 1: the US come to open carry unloaded guns for reasons
Speaker 1: that we can't really pin down. Soon. The unicorns calling
Speaker 1: out the parade on Twitter set keyboard fingers clicking. I've
Speaker 1: said fingers here, but these people give off a distinct
Speaker 1: single finger typing vibe if I'm honest. We started. The
Speaker 1: first thing that we noticed was the tails. We started
Speaker 1: getting tailed from points that everybody that we were very
Speaker 1: public about frequenting, like Peregrine Coffee and Chappie's. We started
Speaker 1: getting picking up tails from those points routinely. Um, and
Speaker 1: that so like people like following you, yeah, yeah, not
Speaker 1: very covertely in the same three vehicles. And they wouldn't
Speaker 1: just follow us anyone that they figured out knew us. Yes,
Speaker 1: anybody that announced on any social media platform that they
Speaker 1: were coming to see us. They would then follow and
Speaker 1: then it really got it became super into the physical
Speaker 1: world when nine News, well nine News did a piece
Speaker 1: on us in which the Sheriff's department came up because
Speaker 1: they were mass reporting us for animal abuse. A lot
Speaker 1: of the harassment came from a website you're probably familiar
Speaker 1: with now, but maybe you wouldn't have been back then.
Speaker 1: It might have been farms and locals. You don't have
Speaker 1: to say their names, yeah, if we could blank out.
Speaker 1: But it's one of those things where like sis, people
Speaker 1: don't even know that Kwie Farms exists, and more people
Speaker 1: need to fucking now because it's it's it's ridiculous harass.
Speaker 1: We've done a couple of episodes. I don't want to
Speaker 1: give them attention, but like I don't know, I don't
Speaker 1: know whatever you think is best. Yeah, it's an entire
Speaker 1: forum dedicated to harassing Frans people that get any sort
Speaker 1: of popularity, ruining their lives as best they can with
Speaker 1: his stay did goal of making trans people kill themselves.
Speaker 1: And it's there's a lot of members like like like
Speaker 1: like notable turfs are part of it, like like like
Speaker 1: everyone has found this website now and people need to
Speaker 1: know it at least existed, and it's a truly awful
Speaker 1: cesspool of They spent all of their time obsessing over that.
Speaker 1: It seems like it's worth naming them, but please save
Speaker 1: yourself the time and don't click over there. It's nothing good.
Speaker 1: Soon things got more real. A local news report who
Speaker 1: covered the rude you've got apostle with a white powder
Speaker 1: in it. That powder wasn't deadly, but it was a
Speaker 1: real threat. Soon that threat came to the ranch, the
Speaker 1: nine news reporter. Thing happened, and then we started getting
Speaker 1: like warnings from people that were monitoring chat rooms, Like
Speaker 1: they were like, oh, hey, like the chatter about y'all
Speaker 1: has skyrocketed, and like it is blatant, like people making
Speaker 1: plans to burn your home down and kill you, like,
Speaker 1: and locals started warning us that like, hey, this has
Speaker 1: happened before you got to get ready. This is real.
Speaker 1: Don't have pea, like, don't be predensiti about this, Like
Speaker 1: we're being serious, And so me and Jay started for
Speaker 1: about two weeks, we were walking patrols around the perimeter.
Speaker 1: The unicorns are afraid, so they took steps to defend themselves.
Speaker 1: Lots of the people that they ranch, like Jen and
Speaker 1: Cat you can hear anything interview, didn't want to carry guns.
Speaker 1: Penny and j had some military experience and they knew
Speaker 1: how to use and carry guns. So every night they
Speaker 1: set out walking the perimeter to what for intruders on
Speaker 1: their property line patrols. They realized that there were people
Speaker 1: out there at the night looking back at them. That
Speaker 1: night is when me and Jay came back from that
Speaker 1: and put out a very whole heartfelt cry on Twitter,
Speaker 1: like we don't know what the funk to do. We're
Speaker 1: terrified and any help would be amazing. They were armed
Speaker 1: at this point, but they weren't ready for a gunfight.
Speaker 1: That's a very different thing. Sadly, though, the gunfight they
Speaker 1: weren't ready for wasn't going to wait until they were
Speaker 1: yeah armed, um rudimentally armed by the way, like Jay
Speaker 1: had a hunting rifle, no a shotgun at that point,
Speaker 1: Um and I had my springfield a r U and
Speaker 1: so we scared them off. But like that made it
Speaker 1: like clear and present for us, and so we put
Speaker 1: a heartfelt call out onto Twitter. Um and although was
Speaker 1: up here like the next day and caught people on
Speaker 1: the property that night, like it was armed people on
Speaker 1: the property, multiple people. Altho arrived the next day, spread
Speaker 1: on by that same tweet I'd seen. This isn't his voice,
Speaker 1: but they are his words. We wouldn't say too much
Speaker 1: about him other than that he has significant experience with
Speaker 1: this kind of thing, and he spent his own time
Speaker 1: and money to drive across the west to help some
Speaker 1: queer folks he'd never met. He just wanted to raise
Speaker 1: our package, and he left the funk alone. I saw
Speaker 1: a post on Twitter from someone else boosting the original
Speaker 1: Tenacious Unicorn ranch plea for help. I reached out to them,
Speaker 1: and after some back and forth and letting them vet me,
Speaker 1: we agreed I would drive down to help them out.
Speaker 1: I took a little time to do some map studies
Speaker 1: of the area and confirm some suspicions about local law enforcement.
Speaker 1: The sheriff at the time had publicly spoken at and
Speaker 1: supported oath Keepers rallies as a keynote speaker, alongside Stewart Rhodes,
Speaker 1: as well as other prominent oath keepers and three per centers.
Speaker 1: The cops haven't ever been much of an option in
Speaker 1: keeping marginals people safe, but this was on a whole
Speaker 1: other level. I called some people to tell them I
Speaker 1: was heading to its nacous unicorn ranch for accountability's sake.
Speaker 1: At the time, I was binging an unhealthy amount of
Speaker 1: letter Kenny, And when one of them asked me why
Speaker 1: I was driving six to seven hours to help total strangers,
Speaker 1: the first thing I thought was when a friend asked
Speaker 1: for help, you help them all. They gave us his
Speaker 1: account of what happens. Again, for everyone's safety, were not
Speaker 1: going to use his voice. But that night he patrolled
Speaker 1: the mentor, often nearly being run off the road on
Speaker 1: the way to the rug. He said, at first, when
Speaker 1: he saw at a tweet, he thought Penny and j
Speaker 1: were of reacting. But after that tale, and after what
Speaker 1: happened that night, he knew something very strange was going on.
Speaker 1: So on arrival at the hard Pack road off the highway,
Speaker 1: there were two cars on the other side of the
Speaker 1: highway from the intersection, backed in with their headlights off.
Speaker 1: There's an old Durango and a truck that I couldn't
Speaker 1: make the model of on the other side of that Durango.
Speaker 1: Once I turned down the road, probably two yards after turning,
Speaker 1: I looked back and saw one of them turn on
Speaker 1: their headlights and started gaining on me until they were tailgating.
Speaker 1: I started to slow and pull over to see if
Speaker 1: they would pass, and they slowed and stuck with me.
Speaker 1: I had a suspicion about the two cars initially, and
Speaker 1: this was confirmation. I can't really see how fast we
Speaker 1: started going, but I know it was significant enough that
Speaker 1: I was starting to oversteer and lose traction on the
Speaker 1: back end of my car on turns. I knew Penny
Speaker 1: and the rest were waiting at the property gate, so
Speaker 1: I signaled Penny to say, hey, I got a tail
Speaker 1: keep the gate locked. You'll see me driving by. Tell
Speaker 1: me what vehicle is following me. The vehicle slowed down
Speaker 1: we approached the gate, so it appeared they may have
Speaker 1: been anticipating me to do the same. Once I passed
Speaker 1: the gate, they continued to follow. It turns out it
Speaker 1: was the Drangle, which I later found out had been
Speaker 1: doing drive byes of the property of the past couple
Speaker 1: of days. The Draga quickly realized what all those doing
Speaker 1: and pursued him pasture rog further down that snowy do it.
Speaker 1: Right after I passed the ranch, I accelerated a little
Speaker 1: more to create some distance and drove to a spot
Speaker 1: that I had seen on the map on the way
Speaker 1: down that looked like I could effectively turn around without
Speaker 1: extra maneuvering. As I turned around, they had closed the
Speaker 1: gap and started to slow. Once they were pulling up
Speaker 1: next to me, I turned my high loom and carry
Speaker 1: light on them to at least disorient or over stimulate
Speaker 1: them with bright white light and try to catch faces.
Speaker 1: The windows had a dark tent, so it was not feasible.
Speaker 1: My other goal was trying to convey I see you
Speaker 1: and I have the advantage without actually visually threatening them.
Speaker 1: The driver had been rolling their window down until I
Speaker 1: put that light in the window, then immediately stopped and
Speaker 1: rolled it back up. At that point, it was apparently
Speaker 1: enough to make them decide it wasn't worth it and
Speaker 1: take off. I legally carry a side arm with me
Speaker 1: the majority of the time and had it on me.
Speaker 1: I had my hand on it, but didn't feel the
Speaker 1: need to draw during that encounter. In the two minutes
Speaker 1: since he turned off the hard top, does ideas about
Speaker 1: what he was in for had pivoted almost as fast
Speaker 1: as his car did not put out earlier on while
Speaker 1: driving to the ranch from my house. I had the thought,
Speaker 1: you know, this is probably bullshit and a bit of
Speaker 1: an overreaction on their part, So maybe at least I
Speaker 1: can deescalate some of their anxiety and give them some rest.
Speaker 1: This will probably just be a lot of nothing. Clearly,
Speaker 1: I was mistaken, and after that encounter my mind was
Speaker 1: very much re oriented to the present reality. Driving through
Speaker 1: the gate, I had to prepare myself to the new
Speaker 1: possibility of actual exigency, and I thought, oh shit, there's
Speaker 1: something to this well petter pattern. Motherfucker's I'll just send
Speaker 1: a message to Penny saying that he was free of
Speaker 1: his tail, and she opened up the gate quickly. He
Speaker 1: drove up the same dirt road I did a few
Speaker 1: days later to the dome. We had a scared and
Speaker 1: sleep deprived unicorns were hiding from the cold and from
Speaker 1: the same people who had just tailed him down a
Speaker 1: dirt road. Once I the house, we made introductions, and
Speaker 1: I explained that a trusted source had boosted their call
Speaker 1: for help, and I was willing to drive over to
Speaker 1: see what, if anything I could do to offer them
Speaker 1: in the form of assistance. They gave me situational awareness
Speaker 1: of the property who lived there, et cetera. Then went
Speaker 1: over what had been happening up until my arrival. The
Speaker 1: local harassment people following them and doing drive bys of
Speaker 1: their property, the Kiwi farms threats of quote burning them
Speaker 1: out of their home. They had also mentioned there was
Speaker 1: a probing incident a couple of nights before that had
Speaker 1: really set them off when they caught another unknown individual
Speaker 1: probing their fence on the southern side of the ranch.
Speaker 1: They detailed how they hadn't slept for almost forty eight
Speaker 1: hours since that incident, which had prompted their call for help.
Speaker 1: I could tell they were just done mentally, emotionally, physically,
Speaker 1: but still keeping it together. So I said something to
Speaker 1: the effect of you've done a great job, go get
Speaker 1: some rest. I'll stay up and take the watch. That
Speaker 1: was around nine pm. The crew went to get some
Speaker 1: deserved rest, and I got ready to go out. Before
Speaker 1: stepping back outside, I had to ask myself what the
Speaker 1: actual funk is going on? I walked outside, grabbed my
Speaker 1: rifle and plates, put on some extra layers of warm clothes,
Speaker 1: and got ready for what turned out to be a
Speaker 1: long night. Quickly as Unicorn slept, Aoud got to work
Speaker 1: making a plan to keep the property and the people
Speaker 1: they're safe. Having never been on the property, I went
Speaker 1: ahead and to the best of my ability in the dark,
Speaker 1: started estimating distances high low ground, points of opportunity, weakness, cover, concealment, hazards,
Speaker 1: and any other unclear backdrops. But the other residences that
Speaker 1: I had needed to be aware of that all came
Speaker 1: into play later. Based off what I found my best guesses,
Speaker 1: I started working at patrol on foot, covering the areas
Speaker 1: I thought were vulnerable and most likely for incursion. The
Speaker 1: roadside seemed like the most likely point of opportunity for
Speaker 1: them since there was no barbed wire and a single
Speaker 1: low wire fence being the only barrier to entry on
Speaker 1: the property. Pretty quickly things got weight. At around I
Speaker 1: heard the first vehicle pass by. There was decent moonlight
Speaker 1: at the time time and I could see that it
Speaker 1: matched the shape and size of the Durango. They were
Speaker 1: driving by with their lights off, slow rolling and had
Speaker 1: made a stop about halfway down the property line on
Speaker 1: the roadway. They repeated this multiple times, so this kind
Speaker 1: of confirmed my theory they would go for the easiest
Speaker 1: point of access off the roadway. The drive by has
Speaker 1: continued sporadically, and twice from high point on property, I
Speaker 1: watched them turn their headlights back on, heading towards the
Speaker 1: highway and stop on the hard pack, where another vehicle
Speaker 1: could be seen sitting with its headlights on. Although is
Speaker 1: pretty experience of this scenario, so it's Pool another of
Speaker 1: the defenders who came a few days later. And it's
Speaker 1: not my first radio with these things either, But that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it wasn't scary for all of us, but
Speaker 1: especially for Ald, who arrived first and was patrolling a
Speaker 1: small farm he'd never seen, facing attacks from an unknown
Speaker 1: number of armed assailants. I can't remember how many times
Speaker 1: I wish I had my m v g's with me
Speaker 1: for better situational awareness, but they have been sent off
Speaker 1: for repairs, so I relied heavily on the moonlight, which
Speaker 1: there was a decent amount of not ideal doing a
Speaker 1: foot patrol on your own and the dark with an
Speaker 1: unknown number of people. Multiple times I thought I should
Speaker 1: get one of them up. There's way more ground than
Speaker 1: I can safely cover. I don't know the terrain well enough,
Speaker 1: and doing this alone is fucking dumb if this turns bad,
Speaker 1: But of course I ignored that intuition and told myself, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm overthinking this right now. These dudes are just trying
Speaker 1: to funk with the queers, and this is purely intimidation.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna keep working the vulnerable areas, watch them
Speaker 1: play their dumb, bullshit games, and let the Tenacious Unicorn
Speaker 1: Ranch folks rest. Besides, at the time, I didn't know
Speaker 1: the Tenacious Unicorn Ranch folks before that night. While they
Speaker 1: did great with what they had available to them, I
Speaker 1: had no idea how they would respond and a ship
Speaker 1: hit the fan situation, what their personal capabilities were, if
Speaker 1: they could be relied on for team movements, and didn't
Speaker 1: want to risk relying on someone running on fumes, so
Speaker 1: I said, fuck it, it'll be fine. His fears, as
Speaker 1: it turned out, were more than justified. A little before midnight,
Speaker 1: cloud cover came in while I was walking along the
Speaker 1: west fence line and saw what I assumed was a
Speaker 1: dim flashlight or a cell phone light flash about halfway
Speaker 1: along the north fence line by the road, and I
Speaker 1: fifty to twenty seconds later another flash, making me think
Speaker 1: that they were moving west towards the ranch gate. It
Speaker 1: was the first time I noticed anyone on foot, so
Speaker 1: I started slowly working my way down quietly to see
Speaker 1: if I could get closer for a good visual on
Speaker 1: who it was walking the roadway. Since the moonlight went away,
Speaker 1: I stopped about forty or so yards from the gate
Speaker 1: and squatted download or reduced my profile and just watch.
Speaker 1: After about ten minutes, I heard quiet voices and then
Speaker 1: a very distinct earl from the man that appeared and
Speaker 1: turned to call out after he activated the gate's motion
Speaker 1: sensing light. I remember I had to stop myself from
Speaker 1: laughing from them not only having such shitty discipline, but
Speaker 1: also about what was a perfectly comical chud name. I
Speaker 1: stood up and watched another dude come out of the
Speaker 1: dark into the light of the ranch gate, who very
Speaker 1: much had the build of an earl. The first guy
Speaker 1: began lifting and pulling at the gate lock and chain
Speaker 1: while earl was trying to cover the most and sensing light.
Speaker 1: They stood at the gate and I could hear them
Speaker 1: whispering for about a minute before I got annoyed at
Speaker 1: just how dumb they were and how they didn't notice
Speaker 1: me creeping closer to them while they were doing all this. Finally,
Speaker 1: from around fifteen yards. I went to had and lit
Speaker 1: up the two males on my flashlight, who both had
Speaker 1: their faces covered in no visible weapons and a fairly
Speaker 1: sarcastic voice. I said something to the effect of, Hey,
Speaker 1: what are you idiots doing? Stop playing with the gate.
Speaker 1: Go away it would I didn't really feel I had
Speaker 1: much recourse other than to give a verbal warning at
Speaker 1: that point, because they were still technically not on the
Speaker 1: branch property and they had not made any visible attempts
Speaker 1: to trespass or do any property damage. Both of them
Speaker 1: ran off in the most awkward, non athletic way you
Speaker 1: could think of. I didn't see anyone else in the area,
Speaker 1: so I approached the road to watch them jump into
Speaker 1: a car and drive off. I kind of laughed at
Speaker 1: myself and remember saying out loud, cut, you guys are
Speaker 1: impressively stupid. Okay, they're probing the property. Now I realized
Speaker 1: these guys weren't working at a higher operational capability. I
Speaker 1: also felt a little more comfortable that even though I
Speaker 1: didn't have my n VGs to work in the dark environment,
Speaker 1: they didn't either. After staying out for another thirty minutes
Speaker 1: to make sure they were taking a break, I went
Speaker 1: back inside to warm up for a few minutes, get
Speaker 1: some food, and change my socks. After its scene, they
Speaker 1: had maybe gone and re convened after they got caught
Speaker 1: trying to tamper with the gate. I turned off the
Speaker 1: lights inside the house that were visible from the road
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't be visible, and also just to see
Speaker 1: if that might make someone tempted to believe that the
Speaker 1: nation's unicorn ranch folks had turned in for the night.
Speaker 1: Things were quired for the next hour or so. While
Speaker 1: out walking close to the east fence line towards the road,
Speaker 1: I remember a fox letting out a scream from less
Speaker 1: than a hundred feet away from me that honestly was
Speaker 1: more startlingly all the other events in the night up
Speaker 1: until then. If you haven't heard of fox screaming, it
Speaker 1: does indeed sound like someone being murdered in the most
Speaker 1: brutal way possible. I had a fox, probably the same fox,
Speaker 1: a few nights later on the ranch. Even in the
Speaker 1: midst of the siege, it was still a working ranch,
Speaker 1: and so as a word of protecting people from violence
Speaker 1: the ranches, and they're pretty in mountain dogs also had
Speaker 1: to make sure they were protecting the chickens from Foxes. Sadly,
Speaker 1: though Foxes weren't the only visitess that night. A few
Speaker 1: hours later, a much more serious threat emerged. The night
Speaker 1: continued to be quiet for the next while, and I
Speaker 1: decided to move along the east side of the property line.
Speaker 1: The cloud cover broke around two fifteen and I could
Speaker 1: see some movement and hear low voices again. I got
Speaker 1: low in held my position since it was fairly safe.
Speaker 1: It could make out two figures walking towards me inside
Speaker 1: the property boundary. I waited until they were about thirty
Speaker 1: or so yards away, and I was pretty sure there
Speaker 1: were no others working flanks before using my rifle light
Speaker 1: to begin the process of p I d and figuring
Speaker 1: out if they were armed. As soon as I saw them,
Speaker 1: I noticed they were both armed, one with an A
Speaker 1: R with no optics and the other with an M
Speaker 1: one A with optics on it. I realized that while
Speaker 1: I had the high ground, I was not comfortable with
Speaker 1: the backdrops due to the house across the road potentially
Speaker 1: being in line with my firing position, and started shifting
Speaker 1: to a safer spot in case the confrontation escalated into
Speaker 1: an engagement. I called out my first command while moving
Speaker 1: to a better position to their left side, you are
Speaker 1: trespassing on private property. Slowly, placed your weapons on the
Speaker 1: ground and show me your hands. Do it now. The
Speaker 1: two men frozen place but did not comply, and I
Speaker 1: recognized in that moment that these were two different men
Speaker 1: than who I had seen earlier. I called out again,
Speaker 1: drop your weapons or I will fire on you. Do
Speaker 1: it now. As soon as I finished that sentence, they
Speaker 1: both looked at each other with their rifles and low
Speaker 1: ready turned to the right and ran. I pursued them
Speaker 1: so that I wouldn't lose the advantage I had, and
Speaker 1: to make sure there was no way they can make
Speaker 1: it up hill towards the house or get into a
Speaker 1: more advantageous firing position if they decided to turn on me.
Speaker 1: While parallel to them, so I could keep on the
Speaker 1: uphill side, I called out, stop and place your weapons
Speaker 1: on the ground. Realizing there might be others out there
Speaker 1: watching my light move, I turned it off so I
Speaker 1: wasn't such an obvious target and made short bursts of
Speaker 1: the two men fleeings that I could maintain a visual
Speaker 1: on them. It wasn't an ideal way to handle it,
Speaker 1: but This was all an incredibly unideal situation to begin with.
Speaker 1: After sustaining a fast paced run over uneven terrain and
Speaker 1: somehow not falling on my face, I realized we were
Speaker 1: moving toward the fence line and quickly looked around with
Speaker 1: my light to make sure no one else was waiting
Speaker 1: for them and also armed. At that point, I turned
Speaker 1: my light back on them, and they both pivoted directly
Speaker 1: to the fence, since we were still some distance from
Speaker 1: the gate, where it appeared they were heading toward. The
Speaker 1: first one with the m one a pushed the fence
Speaker 1: down and hopped over. The second one panicked and with
Speaker 1: both hands tossed his a r across the small ditch
Speaker 1: on the other side of the fence, and I watched
Speaker 1: it fly halfway across the road while he struggled over
Speaker 1: the fence. He scurried over and kicked his rifle across
Speaker 1: the road before picking it up and disappeared with the
Speaker 1: other mail into the small ravine on the other side.
Speaker 1: I realized I was disadvantaged where I was located, and
Speaker 1: repositioned to a small rocky mountain nearby so that I
Speaker 1: can at least get prone and have some cover if
Speaker 1: they decided to fire on me. I laid there and
Speaker 1: recovered my breath for a minute or so, watching to
Speaker 1: see if anyone else was out there, and then moved
Speaker 1: toward the house to make sure there weren't other incursions
Speaker 1: I may have missed while occupied with the other two
Speaker 1: who disappeared after trying and failing for a second time.
Speaker 1: It seems that the local biggots took a break for
Speaker 1: the evening, but out in the unicorns couldn't. That was
Speaker 1: it for the rest of the night. I did go
Speaker 1: back down and find their entry point, where the fence
Speaker 1: had been newly damaged and bent inward, and tracks leading
Speaker 1: over the patchy snow from the roadway. Then I walked
Speaker 1: back to their egrest point, where the fence had been
Speaker 1: bent outward. Everything that occurred that night was clearly a
Speaker 1: hostile incursion, and they demonstrated intent to harm others on
Speaker 1: their own property. The only reason that didn't happen is
Speaker 1: because we were armed and prepared. I think they realized
Speaker 1: at that point that the ranch was not a soft target,
Speaker 1: and the occupants these men painted as weak were in
Speaker 1: fact hard people willing to protect themselves and stand up
Speaker 1: against their aggression. More importantly, the residents of the Tenacious
Speaker 1: Unicorn ranch just wanted to be left the funk alone.
Speaker 1: It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media.
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