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Post by pbbrown0 on Jan 13, 2024 5:44:41 GMT -6
Post # 76 No Surprises
Rob and Bruce walked over to where Gerry was sitting between Pete and Patty. Rather then drag him off to a corner to talk they both squatted down behind him to talk to him over his shoulder. Rob also got Pete's attention as he started talking. “Gerry, Dad, There have been several of the folks asking about going to the congregation meeting tomorrow morning. We don't know how many will actually want to go until we ask and get a head count. Dad, I'm assuming the Brothers won't mind more visitors. Tell us if you think there might be issues that we need to consider. Gerry, we need you to talk to the whole group and ask who wants to go. We only have so many vehicles, but I imagine we can work it out once they tell us who actually wants to go. We just need to work out arrangements for getting them there and back.”
Rob was about to stand up when Bruce spoke from the other side of Gerry's back near Patty. “Hold on a minute, Rob.” He reached out and touched Rob's arm from his squatting position. “I think there is something else we need to tell them. Remember when they were asking about news from the outside, and we talked about reliability issues? I think we owe it to them to tell what happened about using cash today. I kinda think we ought to tell them something about that information I got and that your dad shared that convinced us to come here. If we do that we need to be objective about where we got the information and not try to convince them of our being correct in our interpretation. But we need to be straight with them about what facts we know.” Patty was hearing Bruce's recommendation and felt she needed to say something. “I'm not sure about what facts you are referring to, but I think it is significant that the sheriff was able to freeze my Daddy's account at the bank without any indictment, and the same day we learned that, we hit the 'no cash allowed for buying groceries' problem.” Rob responded like he was stunned. “I just remembered those two men at the state capital who we that sold us a bunch of our land. They had their accounts frozen before there were any indictments for them, too.” Gerry turned further around in his seat. “That's something you never told me either. I know it happened before I joined with you, but that is a perspective I was missing. It would also help me know what to say and what not to say if you would refresh me on your decision to come up here, in case I missed something in that tale back when I was new to the group. Is there anything else we need to know?” Rob tipped his head and looked at Bruce quizzically. Bruce ducked his eyes like he was thinking for a second. “Gerry is right. We were so paranoid when we first got here, we were reluctant to even give our first names. As more happens we are connecting the dots to things Gerry didn't even know about. We need Gerry to come outside so we can sort through some things for him so that he can talk to everyone. There is no reason for us to hide things that we have learned from these people, whether they are staying or not. If you saw a tornado coming your way on the weather radar, you wouldn't hide that fact from your neighbor, even if they weren't the best of neighbors, would you?” The four men, Pete, Gerry, Rob, and Bruce stood together and started walking toward the door. A number of heads turned at the sudden unison movement toward the door of those four. It was about five minutes later that they all slipped back in. Three of them found a place to sit down, but Gerry stayed on his feet in front of the main door to the great room. “ Gerry raised his voice just a bit above normal to get everyone's attention. “Folks? Everyone. Could you hold all your conversations for a minute or two, so we can discuss a few things together?” It took a minute for everyone to stop talking and things got quiet. “There are a couple of things we need to talk about. First: A couple of days ago we talked about the need to get information here from the outside, since we are rather isolated. We mentioned then that we needed to be careful taking in news because we had observed some issues about the reliability of the news being put out by various sources. Today we came across some pieces of news that we saw evidence of without having to evaluate the source or the filtering that might go with that news. We tried to buy a bunch of groceries today at a large grocery store, and we were told that they would not accept cash payments. They would only accept some form of bank card or card issue by the state's department of welfare. We did not see any evidence of that elsewhere, but we were not checking other stores to find out if they had a similar policy. We were able to buy with cash at a smaller grocery store in a different town, at a gasoline station , and at a farm supply store out away from town. The reason given at the grocery store that refused the cash was that their bank had informed them there is a cash shortage. Possibly unrelated, or possibly not, Jim Decker's bank has frozen his account with them even though he has not been indicted for any crime.” Gerry paused before going on. “Several of us had a discussion about another piece of information that was not in the news a several weeks ago, but we decided it would be only fair to share with you because it sounds similar; Several weeks ago we bought a fairly significant part of the land, that y'all have been seeing here, from two gentlemen who live in the state capital. It wasn't planned that way, but they were eager to sell that land to us because the very day we made an offer to buy with cash, both of them learned that all of their bank accounts had been frozen without any indictments having been filed against them. Again this may be unrelated, but to us it sounds perhaps more than just coincidence that these unusual measure sounded so much alike. We also think it would be unfair for us to not share with you why we think these incidents may in our minds be related. Remember this is about our perspective, and we are sharing this with you because it was a significant factor in our deciding to leave our former life and come here. We are certain that many of you have wondered why we, well the two families excluding me, came here.” Suddenly the sideways glances and eye contact between spouses seemed to fill the room for a moment. Gerry let that settle down while he collected his thoughts. “The family, as I will refer to them, had been having growing concerns about problems and changes all around them in the city where they lived. One member of the family had a position of responsibility within a large company. One of the super geeks in that company, who's job it was to and accurately assess and predict economic trends and changes, confided in this member of the family that there were actions and measures being put in place in high places to be able to control, as in shut down at will, the ability of anyone not in favor to use their own money. That sounded frightening but also incomprehensible to the family until another member of the family pointed out a prophesy in the Bible that predicted exactly that scenario. That is why this family converted whatever they could to cash and 'got out of Dodge' as quick as they could. That, indirectly, is why all of you are here listening to me this evening.” The room was totally silent for a moment. Then Gerry said, “That's all I have in the way of news so far, except that we are planning to contact a grocery wholesaler to try buying some more groceries, and we also bought an extra reserve of fuel today. Now on another topic, some of you have expressed an interest in going to the Sunday morning congregation meeting at a meeting hall where some of us are attending tomorrow morning. We need to know who is interested in going along so we can figure out the transportation for those wanting to go.” There were a number of hands going up all around the room. Gerry gestured for them to lower their hands. “Okay that is quite a few. I tell you what. How about this. Bruce and Pete, over at the end of that table there is some empty space.” Gerry gestured toward a corner of the room. “Why don't you two grab a pencil and paper and head over there. In just a second we'll ask each family with someone who wants to go tomorrow to send one person over to Pete and Bruce. Then you can tell them how many from your family want to go tomorrow morning. Now before we do that, does anyone have a question or issue that they think needs to be addressed?” One of the uncommitted workers raised a hand. “Yes, Fred.” Gerry gestured to him. “Whatcha got? Speak up so everyone can hear.” Fred cleared his throat and spoke out. “You said Mister Decker's bank accounts were frozen but he wasn't arrested. There was also an extra truck brought here today. A bunch o' folks was gone all day. Can you fill in some of the gaps for us?” Gerry looked around. “Okay Fred that's a fair question. That truck belongs to Gene. He offered to let us use it to help with transportation seeing how we have a lot more people here now than when it was just the menfolk coming out here to work. That congregation where a few members of our family are members, it turns out that one of the spiritual Brothers there is the natural born brother of Mister Decker's best friend who had been given the key to Gene's truck to take it back to Hollerton after we got all of you here this past week. This Brother and his wife drove over over to Hollerton 'to see his brother, since they were not well known in Hollerton. They retrieved that truck and brought it here so we could use it. They also were able to set up a conversation by phone between Patty and her father. That's how we got that information. Mister Decker was questioned by the state police and released without charges, but the sheriffs department has been doggin' him night and day. He is contacting an attorney to help him out with his problems with the sheriff there. As for the people who were gone, there was a lot of shuffling around getting some groceries from a small town fairly near here. Then there was an attempt to get more groceries from a larger store farther away. As you heard that attempt was blocked. We did manage to acquire some fuel transfer tanks and fill them with gasoline. We also got some water storage tanks and pumps so we can water the cattle that we plan to move here next week. That is pretty much the substance of what happened. If you are wondering why it take so many people to get that much done, it's because we are making a point to stay within radio range of each other for safety reasons and the truck radios only reach so far. So when we have to go a long way to find a bunch of groceries and such, it takes several trucks to relay the signal far enough in addition to those gathering the groceries or loading up the tanks in the back of a truck. Any other questions?” The people seemed satisfied or in some cases gave up trying to follow all the explanations. So with no more questions raised, Gerry gave them the signal to talk to Bruce and Pete about transportation. Gerry looked around and no one was coming his way with any questions they were shy about asking in front of the whole group. He saw Colleen and Carl across the room talking with Patty. He decided to go ask Carl about the progress on the watering troughs. When they saw him approaching they all three stopped talking and waited a couple of seconds for him to close the gap. “I didn't mean to break up your conversation.” Gerry quipped with a slightly exaggerated innocence. He was a bit off balance as no one retorted with a clever comeback. “Is something wrong?” Carl spoke up. “No we were just gossiping about how you are handling the crowd so well.” He dead panned. Gerry laughed, more than the others, before he spoke to Carl. “I was wanting to check on the progress with the water troughs.” He stopped there not wanting to assume anything with his questions. Carl responded, “We got six made. We we did some tongue and grove interlocking so they wouldn't leak as bad along the corners. They are not too big, about five by two by two. We wanted to be able to move them without a lot of trouble, but being made of wood, they are fairly heavy for their size. Thin wood just won't hold up with water standing in them 'round the clock.” “That's all good.” Replied Gerry. “I didn't get to talk to you about them. I like your thinking on how you made them. Fortunately these cattle aren't prone to crowd around in a tight cluster to drink unless they have been prevented from getting to water for a number of hours. We need to start moving them Monday. The well should hold them until then, but after that it starts to get dicey. The dicey part is that the grass is getting over grazed and over dry. I haven't much experience with the herd in those conditions, and I don't know how they are going to respond to it. It also looks to be a hot spell coming up and they don't have as much shade on my place as they will have here. I'm going to need to show you and some others how to put together a pump for filling the troughs from the stream. Then you all can build several of them while I wrangle more cattle over here.” Carl thought a minute. “Do we need to buy another generator, or would it be better to hook up some electric lines to power them from the generator Grandpa has? I don't know how much power the pumps will draw.” Gerry grinned. “They won't draw any amps. We'll let the stream power them. The first load of cattle will be a small one. Your Grandpa, Joann, Patty and I will get them loaded in the small trailer early Monday morning and bring them here. I'll show some more of you here how to unload them and guide them to the right paddock. Then I will hold a Ram Pump construction class. We'll get the first pump going, then some of you can stay here working on building and installing the rest of the pumps while another crew takes the big trailer for a load of cattle. I figure we can be finished with all of it before we knock off work Monday afternoon or early evening. I don't know for sure how many cattle we can get in the big trailer in each load. If it is less than I am thinking we can be running the smaller trailer back and forth, too.” Gerry was watching Carl for his reaction to the plan. He looked a little stunned. “Do you have concern about that plan?” “Well, first off,” Carl started hesitantly. “I have no idea what a Ram Pump is or how complicated it is to build one. I'm concerned about your time estimates for teaching us how to build them and for how long it will take for us to build the first few with you not even here to guide us. Second, I am concerned about how early we can realistically get this started on this pump building project if you and Patty and my grandparents have to drive to your place, load some cattle, then drive back here, and unload them the cattle before we even start the lessons on how to construct a sophisticated water pump”. Gerry pondered whether or not to play with Carl, but decided against it. “Carl, relax. Patty bought all the parts which are hardly more than some standard plumbing pipes and couplings plus a pair of one way water valves meant to prevent a back wash in a piping system. It's a simple design. The Department of Agriculture was printing pamphlets a century and a half ago to show farmers, who had no electricity and no one around to guide them through the process, how they could build one with simple parts. If I go slow and let you do yours along side of me you can make your own pump in half an hour. As for that drive time. I already talked to your Grandpa about him and Joann to make sure they would be able to spend tomorrow night at my place. I had to clear the transportation thing with Colleen's Dad too. Then I asked Patty if she wanted to come and see my place and the cattle there before we have to move them all over here. Now I need to let Bruce and Peter know that she is coming along with me to my place tomorrow. I'll be right back.” Gerry left almost before he could finish talking. Patty was looking at Carl with a flustered expression. “Why were you acting so clueless about my going to Gerry's to see the cattle before we begin moving them here, Carl? That is exactly what I was telling you we were planning just before he came over here.” “I needed to hear him explain it in his words, Patty. The words he chose told me more about how he was viewing what was happening. I really don't know about those pumps, but now I understand how he is looking at your going over there tomorrow.” Patty stared at Carl not comprehending his reply. “Okay, Carl this must be a guy thing. I don't get it. Help me out here.” Carl smiled. “He's treating this like a date to impress you, Patty. He had to get all the elements lined up and assured before he could ask you to come over to see his place and all his cattle there, before they were moved here, which is not his place. He couldn't ask you to come until everything else was lined up and confirmed, or he would risk having to back out after asking you to come there. Now he has to run back and announce to the others 'She is coming with me.' He didn't want to tell them he wanted to ask you to come there and then have to go back to tell them you weren't coming after all. He didn't want to ask you to come if he might later have to tell you that it wasn't going to work out after all. It was all bound up in the importance of wanting you to be wanting to come see his place like he had made it. It had nothing at all to do with him needing help with his cattle. How many times do you think he has needed someone else to help load up his trailer of cattle in the last ten years? I'll tell you. Zip. Zilch. Zero. He never even once considered it.” Patty was looking at Carl but not really seeing him. Her face was showing a pondering expression like she was struggling to comprehend. Colleen had a comforting arm around Patty's shoulders and Colleen's expression was a curious mix of a barely perceptible smile on her lips but a delighted smile in her eyes. Of course Patty wasn't seeing Colleen's expression anymore than she was seeing Carl's. Colleen and Carl were quiet now, staying there in support of Patty but not wanting to intrude into her pondering of what Carl had said. When Gerry went to talk to Bruce and Pete he was surprised that they were still busy. It appeared that all of the committed families were wanting to visit the congregation's Sunday meeting. What was keeping Pete and Bruce busy however was the array of questions from the uncommitted. They had politely hung back while names were being taken of those wanting to go. With that finished, there were three more, one of the male workers and two of the wives, who were unfamiliar with the brotherhood. They were curious, but cautious. The stories that Joann had read caught their attention, and they were asking if there would be more of that at the Sunday morning meeting. The male worker, Fred, was waiting and listening, but not asking any questions. Pete had explained to the two ladies more about the kind of Bible study and program they could expect if they attended one of the congregation meetings. Then one of them asked if Joann or when Joann might do more of the story reading or story telling. Pete replied that he would ask Joann, but with the interest shown be expected she would be doing that on a fairly regular basis. Finally, when the two women had walked away, Fred stepped closer. “Mister Pete,” he said respectfully. Then he gestured to Gerry who was standing nearby and also waiting. “Mister Gerry here was talking about someone in your family, and I'm guessing that was you, who pointed out a prophesy in the Bible that predicted problems with the money system. I don't recall anything about that being in the Bible, unless you are talking about where it talks about a walled city being under siege and the food runs out. Would you mind showing me where you found that prophesy?” Fred didn't seem like he was challenging what Gerry had said, but he clearly wanted to see for himself. Pete asked him to wait just a minute. He quickly went to the book shelves along the front wall of the main room and pulled out several Bibles. He brought them back and spread them out on the table. “Fred,” Pete started out. “I'm sure you know that the men who originally wrote the different books that we call the Bible did not speak English. Of all the books and letters that we include in the Bible, the last ones to be written were first written down almost two thousand years ago. The Bibles we have in English today have been translated at different times some of them over four hundred years ago. In the last four centuries even English has changed a lot in the words we use to talk with each other. So sometimes our English bibles are worded differently in some places. For example, I can say 'since you are a tall man, you probably wear a big shoe.' or I can say 'because you are of impressive stature, you are certain to have large footwear.'. Those two statements have essentially the same meaning. But some of the words sound quite different. Two different people trying to translate a book from Greek to English might to use the same words in some places, but different words in other places.” Pete waited for that notion to sink in. I'm say this because I'm not sure which translation you are more familiar with when you say you don't recall the statement we are referring to. So, I have several here, and when I show you where the Bible talks about this problem, we can then look at the words in that same passage in the Bible translation that is most familiar to you, Okay?” Pete waited. “Okay.” Fred nodded. “That sounds good.” “Okay, now the passage I referred is in the book called The Revelation. In that book it actually states that much of the Revelation is recorded using symbols. Sometimes the book used symbols and then provided an explanation of those symbols. Other times the book does not spell out the meaning of those symbols. This passage does not spell out what each of those symbols mean, but I think it is most reasonable to look for other places in the Bible where those same symbols are used so we can get a better idea of what they mean. Does that make sense to you?” Pete paused again. Fred frowned. “I tell you what. Why don't you show me what it actually says. Then if I have questions, I will ask about it then.” “That sounds good to me.” Pete replied. He picked up one of the bibles and turned to Revelation, chapter 13. “Okay, Fred. Here it is at verse sixteen and seventeen. Go ahead and read that and then tell me what it actually says.” Fred read it to himself. He looked up then looked down and appeared to read it again. Then he said, “Do you happen to have a King James translation in with those copies there?” Pete looked at them and picked one up to hand to Fred. “Here you go, Fred. Check it out in here, too.” Fred opened it and checked the first few pages then turned over near the back of that Bible. He turned a few more pages until he found the passage and stopped to read. Fred lifted his head, still frowning, and said “There 's maybe a word or two that are not identical, but they both are saying the same thing. It says the beast, which is a symbol, will be compelling people to get his mark on them, either on their right hand or on their forehead. Then, no matter who you are, rich or poor, a powerful person or a nobody, a servant or a free man, you will not be able to buy or sell unless you have his mark on you. I remember hearing and reading about the mark of the beast and the number of the beast. I kind of had a notion about what that symbolized, but I didn't remember this part. How did I miss that?” “Fred,” said Pete, “There are several passages in Revelation that talk about that mark and how you get it. You may have heard one of those other passages used in a sermon, or someone referred you to one of those other passages that did not specify this warning, and you read it yourself. You might have read this passage, and you just didn't remember the restriction it stated because you were pondering the symbolism of the beast and the mark. The point now is this. You have read it, and now you have been forewarned. It's up to you what you are going to do with that warning.” Fred was in a thoughtful daze now. He thanked Pete and wandered off without saying more. Gerry stepped closer and spoke quietly to both Bruce and Pete. “Guys, I need to tell you something. Bruce I told you we would need a truck to take to my place tomorrow afternoon to pull my small trailer back with cattle in it on Monday morning. Pete I asked if you and Joann could come to spend the night at my place and then come back with me when I bring the first cattle back here. I just want you to know, so there are no surprises, that Patty is coming with me tomorrow. I don't know which truck you will want me to take, Bruce, but just about any of them except Pete's will work. I know you have a lot to figure out before morning so I'll get out of your way now.” As Gerry walked away, Pete and Bruce looked at each other. Both of them chuckled. “No, surprises.” they said in unison.
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Post by feralferret on Jan 13, 2024 23:50:26 GMT -6
Another thoughtful chapter. Thanks!
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Post by CountryGuy on Jan 14, 2024 9:59:17 GMT -6
great new piece... sounds like love is in the air... Another wedding soon? But maybe no until the FIL to be is freed of the dastardly Sheriff.
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Post by pbbrown0 on Jan 17, 2024 8:52:10 GMT -6
Post # 77 Learning More
The next morning things were busy as usual in the kitchen getting breakfast for everyone. A couple of the ladies from the uncommitted group came in and asked what they could do to help. Fred and one of the other uncommitted men had managed to corner Pete and were trying to talk with him about things they remembered hearing were in the Bible. Pete was being very polite and patient with them about facts they thought they knew were in the Bible, but that Pete was pretty sure weren't the way they remembered. When one would make a comment or ask a question about something like that, rather than saying they were wrong, he would reply, “I don't remember reading that in there. If you find out where it is I would like to look at that with you.” After breakfast there was a bit of cleaning up to do. Jenny had a menu planned for lunch and there were some items that she wanted to cook low and slow. She asked if any one in the kitchen was not going to the meeting later, and found out that only the 'uncommitted' families had not asked to go. She was surprised at realizing that clear demarcation but tried not to show that. She did ask the two 'uncommitted” wives if they would mind watching the stew pots she had on the stove top while the others were at the meeting. She told them if they would do that, then she would make sure their children had someone to watch over them during lunch and on into the afternoon so they could have some free time. Bruce had his hands full sorting out who was riding in which truck in order to get everyone to the meeting and back because three trucks, Pete's, Patty's, and Gene's, did not have blinders on them. He decided to let Gene and Betty drive in their own truck with a couple of young children from other families riding in the back crew seats. Bruce would let them follow him and Linda, carrying another family in the back of their truck, to and from the Meeting Hall. He realized that this was loosening their security further, but Betty had already been to Bear Creek and to Gerry's farm so there wasn't much additional information those two were going to learn collectively in this trip. During breakfast he had found Patty and Gerry, and asked them to come talk with him for just a second. “Gerry, I don't have any problem with your decision to 'open the curtain' so to speak for Patty yesterday. I would appreciate it ,though, if you two would tape those foam boards back up just for this morning. We have a lot of folks that want to go to the meeting this morning that we haven't decide to open all the curtains yet. So until we make that decision I would prefer to not throw down our security measures simply because it would be more convenient. If you two would drive the Roarke family, Liam, Sheila, and Shannon, they can ride in the back. Then after y'all get back you can pull the foam board out again for your trip over to your farm latter today. By the way, Patty, thank you for all the help you have been. Letting us use your truck, and paying for the pumps is, I know, only a part of all that you are doing. Thank you.” Bruce worked it out so that, with the exception of Gene and Betty Lassiter, only some of the children of the committed workers were able to watch the road on the way to Bear Creek. There wasn't much for them to see except for the trees on either side of the roads and a few state or county road signs at intersections. They created a bit of a stir once they reached the Meeting Hall, however. This morning there were Pete and Joann, who were fairly new in the congregation, and Carl and Colleen who were very new in the congregation. Now with the rest of the clan and the committed workers families there were twenty six visitors. That was quite a few visitors for a congregation that had only about sixty members, counting the four recent additions. It took a few minutes longer than usual to get everyone seated and quieted down after the moderator for the morning announced it was time to start. The visiting parents were sitting with their own children and in one instance holding a not yet walking baby. The women of the clan were also deliberately sitting near some of the children. After the talk, the visitors were startled at first how the people and children of the congregation were actively participating in the discussion during the Bible Study time. After the meeting when they were no longer being shushed, a number of the visiting kiddos were asking about why some of the children were being allowed to talk along with the adults. On the way back to the lodge Shannon asked Sheila, “Mommy, can I answer a question next week like the other kids?” Sheila stammered around a little bit until Gerry spoke to Shannon through the partition of foam board. “Shannon, This is Gerry up in the front seat. Can you hear me?” Shannon stopped and perked up. “I can hear you but I can't see you. Are you the man who talks to us at our new home?” “Yes Shannon, That's me. I heard you ask about answering questions at the meeting. Do you really want to do that?” ask Gerry gently. “Yes.”said Shannon. “I like being a big girl.” Gerry smiled really big and controlled his urge to chuckle. “Okay Shannon, but first you have to talk with your Mommy and Daddy about this because you have to get their permission. If they say it's okay you still have to get ready to answer questions. You need to ask Joann about the lesson for next week. She can show you the lesson they will be using next week. You can go over the lesson with Joann and your parents. That way you can find a question they will be asking that you might answer. That way you can think about your answer before the meeting. At the meeting next week, you have to raise your hand if you want to answer the question. If you raise your hand the person leading the meeting might call on you. They try to let more than one person answer each question. But they might not call on you. You just have to keep trying until you get your chance. Okay?” Sheila spoke up with a question here. “Aren't they going to just pick members of the congregation who will know the right answers to call on at the meeting?” “Actually, no.” replied Gerry. “I asked Pete about that. They are particularly interested in hearing what a visitor has to say, if there is one trying to comment. If a visitor tries to answer with a question, they defer that to a discussion after the meeting, because that can lead to chasing rabbits during the meeting, rather than allowing the congregation finishing the discussion of the subject they are on. The discussion moderator is looking for people who feel they have an answer to the question presented to speak up and even to elaborate on the simple answer. If someone gives one answer and another gives a different answer, they don't tell one of them they have the right answer and the others they have the wrong answer. They want all the people there to consider what different people see and think about what they are reading in the Bible about the subject, and they let everyone draw their own conclusions.” “Are you, seriously telling me,” asked Liam, “that the moderator will actually try to include a visitor in looking for comments on the lesson, even if they don't expect the visitor to be in agreement with the beliefs of the brotherhood? And then if they were correct in their expectation of the disagreement by the visitor, they won't try to correct the 'misunderstanding' of the visitor?” “Essentially yes, but,” replied Gerry, “the moderator will look for someone in the congregation who can clearly express their understanding of what the Bible says on that subject, without being argumentative or attacking the other person's right to their opinion. The goal is to get people to think and consider thoughtfully the understanding offered by the Brotherhood, rather than get into a debate where someone is trying to establish a winner and looser of the contest. The truth is more import than who is speaking the truth, or not.” Liam and Sheila were silent until Shannon asked, “Mommy, can we talk with Ms. Joann about the lesson for next week?” Sheila hesitated, and Gerry and Patty could not see what was happening in the back, but soon Sheila replied, “Yes, Shannon. You need to understand that Ms. Joann may be very busy this week. But we will try to talk with her about next week's lesson.” When Gerry pulled up outside the lodge he jumped out and hurried to the other side of the truck. There he opened both the front and the back doors on that side. He helped Shannon as she climbed down, then he squatted down so he was at eye level with her. “I'm glad you enjoyed the meeting, Miss Shannon,” he said with a smile. Then he stood up as Shannon and her parents walked toward the lodge. “She is such an adorable little girl, isn't she?” he said to Patty. “I particularly like her spunk.” “I do too,”replied Patty as the two of them also began walking toward the lodge. After lunch there seemed to be a lot of folks trying to talk with Pete and Joann, but also with Carl and Colleen. Patty and Gerry were each separately eager get away to Gerry's farm, but they were also recognizing what was happening with the questions they were fielding for those who visited their congregation's Sunday Meeting. Gerry decided to talk with Carl some more when he saw a lag in the number surrounding Carl. He pulled Carl aside and began explaining to Carl the concept of a Ram pump and how it would work. He also showed him where all the parts were in the back of Patty's Pickup. The two of them unloaded the pipes, hoses and bags of parts and carried them to Pete's truck so Carl could look over the array after Gerry left for his farm later in the afternoon. While they were doing that Colleen and Patty were able to talk more. Those two seemed to be finding each other's company more and more comfortable recently. It was about two o'clock when Colleen and Patty found Gerry and Carl still talking about the pumps and how they needed to place them the next morning. By that time most of the parts for one pump were loosely assembled. Colleen told them that Pete and Joann were grabbing a few things for overnight and would be coming out soon. Patty already had her backpack and was ready to go. Gerry suggested that Carl and Colleen might want to walk down to Black Bear Creek later and scout out a place or two where they could set the Pumps and feed pipes to take in the creek's flow and empty the out wash of the pumps with the least mud disturbance. Colleen were already busy removing the foam board panels from Patty's truck, and about that time Pete and Joann arrived. On the drive to Gerry's Farm the conversation started out with a discussion of Patty's first time to visit a meeting of the Brotherhood's congregation and her reactions to both the things she noticed, and also the ideas that Gerry had shared with the Roarke family. It surprised Patty that Gerry knew so much about the process in the meeting when she learned that he himself had only visited one time at one of their meetings before today. Soon, however, the conversation turned to Gerry's farm and how he had gotten started with it. He went to work, straight out of High School, for a man running construction crews over in Barnsville. He saved every penny he could living in his Dad's home and keeping an eye on his Dad in the evenings. His Dad had ruined his liver and kidneys drinking too much for years after Gerry's Mom died. When his Dad passed away Gerry was really scrambling. His Dad had been making the mortgage payments and the money Gerry was paying for room and board after he turned eighteen was enough to cover that when added to the early withdrawal social security benefits his Dad had filed for when he got too sick to work. When those payments stopped Gerry was really scrambling to make ends meet until his mentor and High School Ag. Teacher helped him file with the probate court for settling his Dads affairs without a will. Gerry was able to picked up the payments on the mortgage for a while out of the small savings account his Dad had started years before, but then neglected for many years. There wasn't any family, other than himself that Gerry knew about. Gerry kept in touch with C.J. Sullivan, and started looking for some land as soon as he graduated from High School. Based on things he had heard he figured the cheapest land was bound to be in Stony County, perhaps the only county in the state whose natural characteristics out weighed the tendency of the legislature to name a county after some hero, renowned politician, or lucrative benefactor. On weekends after he got off work, he would drive out there and look for possibilities, then try to ask back in Rockston who owned the land that he had found. Meanwhile he was doing everything he could think of to make and save a few extra dollars. Finally, he found a parcel that now looked worthless after the owner had it all but clear cut to make some money off of the timber on it. He made a miserably low offer for it and the owner jumped at a payment now, rather than waiting years to be able to harvest more. Patty was remembering what little she had seen and was newly impressed with how the part she had seen looked now compared to the description Gerry had given of its condition nine years before. When they had pulled in through the gate and stopped near the house, Patty was slow to step out, as she looked all around. It actually startled her when Gerry opened the door next to her. Gerry asked Joan and Pete if they wouldn't mind him showing Patty around the place while they made themselves comfortable inside. Showing her around took much longer than he had expected because he had forgotten to take in to account how inquisitive the Puzzle Master could be. It seemed to Gerry that she wanted to know about EVERYTHING in sight. It was after five o'clock when Gerry and Patty got back to his house. Joann and Pete were well into making supper when they walked inside. Joann stopped working for a minute. “Did y'all enjoy your walk around?” She asked. Patty answered with enthralled enthusiasm. She was going on and on, it seemed to Gerry, about everything he had told her, except what he had spoken of as ordinary facts, she was turning into awesome and amazing wonders. Joann was listening with amused, but attentive silence, but soon interrupted Patty. “Gerry, I know there is a lot more Patty needs to tell me, but I have to finish getting supper ready. Why don't you spend just a little time showing Patty this house you put together. Then you two can get cleaned up to eat. It won't be much longer now.” With that Joann returned to the kitchen where Pete was still puttering around tending to the meal preparation. “Thank you, my love. That was a brilliant move. For a minute or two I was beginning I would be finishing the supper preparations, solo.” Joann chuckled. “You poor baby. If the truth be known, I was rescuing Gerry as much as you. His face was saying very clearly that he was overwhelmed by how she was describing his place. If I'm not mistaken when they come back, she is the one who is going to come back overwhelmed. What Gerry accomplished out there on the land by himself is really impressive. But what he did inside here is going to hit home to her where she is clutching to and hiding her most cherished dreams.” It was almost fifteen minutes later when Gerry and Patty slipped back into the kitchen. Gerry seemed a bit concerned as he pointed out to Patty some of the features and personal touches he had put into his kitchen. Even when he pointed out the pantry and opened the door, she only nodded as she looked inside and did not comment. As they all four shared the meal Patty seemed detached and here responses were positive, but brief. After supper, Pete mentioned that Gerry had been asking for some more time with him in Bible Study. When he brought that up, Joann suggested that Pete and Gerry should study together while she and Patty had some private study time together. Pete and Gerry ended up going into a small room where Gerry had set up his office space. Joann and Patty started out sitting on stools at the island in the kitchen, but soon they migrated to the rockers out on the front porch. In both cases the reading and discussing and meditating the two pairs of people got into passed too quickly and it was more than two hours later before they realized how late the time had gotten. When they met again in the kitchen Gerry was no longer troubled and concerned about Patty's apparent swings in attitude and mood. Patty in turn was seeming more happy in a peaceful way. Gerry thanked Pete and Joann for coming, and directed them as to which bedroom they should take for the night. As they headed down the hall, Gerry turned to Patty. “Patty, I hope this has been a good day for you. I am sorry it is at the last minute before moving my cattle away from here, that you first got here to see it. I wish there had been more time for you to take your time and enjoy yourself here. I know the past few weeks have been rather like a tempest for you. I would say I hope things are more peaceful for you soon, but I expect it's going to get worse before it gets better. Let me just say, you are welcome here anytime if you need a place to take refuge, but I hope for a time when you can come just to enjoy it rather than having to flee to it. I probably need to stop before I try to say something encouraging and it sounds even worse than what I already said.” “Don't worry about it, Gerry. I understand what you are saying. Thank you. I appreciate your inviting me.” Patty smiled. “Why don't you take the bedroom on the left at the end of the hall. It has an attached bathroom. If you need something that you don't find there, just knock on my door. You know which bedroom I'll be in. I'll see you in the morning. Good night, Patricia.” Gerry smiled at her as she told him good night and headed down the hallway. He kept watching until she opened the door to her room and stepped in. The next morning Gerry was up earlier than usual. He wanted to make a special breakfast for his 'guests'. He was startled when he groggily turned the corner into the kitchen. He could smell the coffee that had already been made and there were four large coffee mugs out on the counter next to the stove. Patty was standing at the stove with her back to him. He could smell breakfast cooking, and it looked like she had more than one cast iron skillet going on the stove. She turned around and took a step toward him before she stopped and gasped. “What are you doing in here?” Patty gasped. “I was coming in here to fix breakfast for you … and the Smiths.” Gerry replied; also startled. Patty was recovering her composure a little now, and she responded. “Well that is really a sweet thing to do for your guests, but you were so nice to bring me here, I thought I would do something nice for you. I was just coming to start waking you all up because breakfast is ready, now. Why don't you fix yourself a cup of coffee while I go wake Pete and Joann up for breakfast.” She side stepped Gerry and headed down the hall as he turned to watch her. He saw her turning her head to look back, and he ducked deeper into the kitchen. He looked at the stove top and saw a deep skillet holding scrambled eggs with crumbled sausage and bacon stirred in. In another skillet was a batch of Pan Fries, thin strips of potato, peppers and onions, slightly browned on the edges. He peaked in the oven and saw a tray of biscuits almost done and starting to brown. He closed his eyes and deeply inhaled the aromas. He reached into the cabinet and started grabbing plates to put on the table. He also pulled utensils out of a drawer and butter out of his fridge. He was arranging things on the table as Patty walked back into the kitchen. Gerry turned and stopped her as she started to speak, “Patty, this is awesome. This is a perfect breakfast in my book. Thank you.” Patty was obviously pleased, but also embarrassed by his praise. “I need to check the biscuits.” She opened the oven and then picked up a pot holder off of the counter to pull the pan out. “Joann and Pete will be out in a minute. You didn't get your coffee.” She set the baking pan of biscuits over the pan of eggs, then reached for the coffee pot to pour two mugs of coffee. It was only a couple of minutes later when Pete and Joann joined them and they all sat down to eat. Gerry told Pete and Joann how he had come in to fix breakfast, but Patty had beaten him to the job. He went on to praise her choices and cooking skills in preparing the super breakfast, much to Patty's embarrassment. He then went on to talk to everyone about getting the cattle loaded. He wanted to get four cows and two calves into the trailer for the first load, so he could show everyone how to handle the Mama cows protectiveness. He walked them through the steps while at the table. When they finished eating, he told them he would clean up while they got their things put into the truck for the ride back. They all went outside and he had Patty pull her truck over to the trailer. He got the trailer hitch out of the tool box he has attached to the trailer tongue and fastened it in the hitch receiver. He asked Patty to back the truck up to the trailer's tongue hitch while he gave her signals to guide her into place. They got the connections all made then he had her back over to one of the gates where some of the cattle were fenced in. Gerry opened the doors at the back of the trailer and had Pete and Joann slip through the gate then hold it closed while he directed Patty to get closer to the gate. He showed the other three how the ropes he had in the trailer would loop around the gate posts to keep the cattle from slipping through the gaps. With those tied in place, he led them into the pasture. They first selected two cows without a calf and herded them over toward the gate. He positioned Pete and Joann where the two cows were held near the trailer but with Pete and Joann not crowding them too closely. Then Gerry took Patty with him and they selected two cows who had calves with them. The calves were about five months old. Gerry and Patty approached one of the mothers on the side away from the calf and started stroking the cow's shoulders, and then her neck. He had Patty move ahead of the cow and talk to it quietly as he began to gradually apply more pressure urging it forward. He too was talking to the cow. He reached back and patted the cow on the back near the rump and the cow started moving forward as Patty continued to coax it toward her. The cow lumbered along in no hurry to get anywhere but gradually it made progress toward the trailer; the calf staying right beside it's Mama. They stopped short of the trailer. Gerry reached inside and pulled a coiled hank of rope off of a small hook on the inside. He walked gently over to one of the cows. He stood beside the cows neck facing forward, and dropped a length of rope over the opposite side of the cows neck. He reached under and grabbed the loose end. He made a loose loop by simply holding the end against the length of rope, as he gently took hold of the horn. On his side of the cow. He gently walked the cow up into the trailer which had a simple tubular steel divider about fifty-five inches high splitting the trailer front to back. He walked on one side of the divider, reaching over the top, until the cow reached the front. Gerry held it there and asked Patty to come in and close a small gate behind the cow about half way up the trailer. He dropped the end of the rope and the cows horn and walked out of the trailer. Gerry repeated the process with the second cow which didn't have a calf. He dropped the rope end at the back of the trailer and swatted cow on the rump urging it on down the path on the near side of the trailer. He followed it in and closed the small inner gate behind the newly loaded cow. Pete and Joann were watching the process but keeping the Mama cow and calf in sight not too far from the trailer. Gerry and Patty headed out to the pasture and repeated the process of coaxing another cow and calf to the trailer, except this time Gerry added the rope trick to his technique. When they got closer to the trailer they dropped their attention to the second Mama and picked up with giving the first Mama cow into the trailer. There was a shorter inner gate that they closed as soon as they shooed the calf in beside the mama. Then they coaxed the second mama and calf into the trailer and closed it all up. Two minutes later they were on the way out of the gate of Gerry's farm and on the road to Black Bear Mountain. Pete and Joann were in the back seat and Gerry was now driving Patty's truck with Patty riding Shotgun. The started talking about how Gerry went about loading the cattle. “It's all about the Mama cows.” Gerry said. “They are very protective of their young. They have to feel safe and that their calf is safe. So you lead the Mama and the calf follows. You don't try to lead the Mama to a place where there are no other cows around. Leading the first Mama on to the trailer was doable because she saw the other cows being led there with no problem. The second Mama went on because she saw the previous Mama and her calf get on without a problem.” He glanced over to Patty. “Patty you and I are going to need to work together to coax the first Mama cow out of the trailer. She is going to be in a strange place with no other cows out there to help protect her and her calf when she first backs out of the trailer.” “Pete, Joan,” Gerry called over his shoulder. “When we get the first cow and calf out, I'll need you two to immediately get the cow without the calf that was right in front of her out of the trailer, so the Mama has some herd support as soon as possible. Then Patty and I can help get the second Mama out and you two can repeat the process. When we get the larger trailer going it will be easier. It has a side door near the front so the cows can see better what kind of environment they are stepping into, and there will already be a small herd waiting there for them. This first group are the trail blazers so we have to be their herd for them.” Joann spoke up with a question. “Tell me, Gerry. Where did you learn this? As a biologist what you are saying makes sense to me, but I don't remember anything in any of the Agri courses or text books about this. There were a lot of students from farm families in the program, and I don't remember any discussions about this with them either.” Gerry started talking about how for several years he was working the cattle farm by himself. Most cattle farms have at least a family and often several hired hands who are experienced in wrangling the cattle, The techniques they use and that are taught in schools assume that it takes a whole crew of wranglers, because the cattle are often balky and dangerous when being transported. Cattle prods, shouting, and waving your arms or coils of rope are recommended to scare the cattle into going from a disturbing threatening area into a calmer but enclosed area, then quickly locking the gates once the cattle in place. These techniques were developed in the days of cowboys driving whole herds hundreds of miles then loading them into rail cars or into stock yards with high wooden fences to contain the wild cattle before they were slaughtered.” Gerry continued. “Being by myself that approach didn't work. All that I could accomplish was to scatter the herd away from wherever I was standing and acting like an idiot banshee. I had to rethink what I had been taught and figure out something that made more sense. Then I had to experiment and test my ideas. My theories may be flawed, but the technique works. Some of it, like holding the horn, or holding one end of the rope, so I can drop it rather than putting a noose around the neck of the cow are methods I tried after I encountered some painful problems, and they have worked well, too.” “Gerry,” Patty spoke up. “Thank you for letting me come to your place and seeing what you have been able to accomplish there. I learned a lot about your cattle and about what you were able to do there by yourself. And thank you for letting me help the way you did. I haven't been around cattle much at all before this. I actually enjoy working with them.” “I'm glad you enjoyed it Patty.” Gerry responded. “I'm just sorry you weren't able to spend more time seeing the routine parts of taking care of them. I think you would enjoy that more. Maybe one of these days I can get them back there and you can find more time to stay longer.” Patty was quiet as was everyone else in the truck. The trip from Gerry's Farm to Black Bear Mountain took a little longer this time. Gerry was going a bit slower pulling a trailer with cattle, including young calves, which werestanding on their feet as Gerry drove up and down hills and around the curves in the road.
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Post by gipsy on Jan 17, 2024 10:26:49 GMT -6
Fine update. Thanks
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Post by feralferret on Jan 17, 2024 21:23:16 GMT -6
Pbbrown0, thank you for another wonderful chapter.
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Post by pbbrown0 on Jan 22, 2024 15:26:01 GMT -6
Post # 78 Which Way To Go?
When Gerry pulled the truck and trailer off the county road and into the woods near the eastern foot of Black Bear Mountain he took a different path toward the west, farther north than the rest of the clan had been taking. He made a mental note to have a discussion with the clan about this entrance area and how to keep it from being so worn that it drew attention from anyone watching the terrain and vegetation to the west side of the county road. By taking this more northerly route he was able get to the fenced area on the north side of the creek that was formed by springs and run off and then flowed toward the west north west. When he pulled up to the fence near the southeast edge of the meadow there were quite a few people who were startled as they were expecting him on the south side rather than the north side of the creek. Pete and Joann climbed out of the back, while Gerry 'helped' Patty out of the front of her truck. Pete and Joann approached those who had been waiting for them to arrive and motioned them to come on across the creek. It was only about a foot deep at this points and the bed of it here was a solid layer of rock that had been washed clean over the years. Patty occupied herself talking gently to the cows and calves inside the trailer and occasionally reaching through the open bars along the side to stroke the fur of the cows. She was being very careful to pay attention to the location of the calves so she could always keep the mother between her and the calf. While she was doing this, Gerry was talking to those who had come to help and learn about the approach they would be taking to unloading these cows and those which would come later. When Gerry finished his cow handling lesson, he had each of those planning to help come over to the trailer one at a time to mimic what Patty was doing. He also made a point of having each person lightly stroke each cow's muzzle and let them smell the back of their hands. The next step was to get the helpers scattered out in the field to stand around as if they were just hanging out and not to focused on anything. Next he had Patty back the trailer up to one of the gates, and he got help tying the ropes between the gate posts and the back corners of the trailer. Finally he had Patty focus on one of the mother cow's head while he opened the trailer gate behind her. Pete and Joan were near, but to the side waiting carefully and patiently. It was the calf that slipped out first, so Pete and Joann backed away. Patty patted the cow gently on her forehead and started making short strokes from her neck behind her head and back to the cow's shoulder while coaxing her with her voice. The Mama acted a little nervous but managed awkwardly to back out of the trailer and turn towards her calf. She mooed at him and he mooed back before frolicking over closer to her she walked between him and Pete and kept walking as the calf followed. Pete hurried into the trailer and opened the gate behind the cow at the front. He backed out of the trailer as Joann slipped around beside the trailer and started urging the cow to back out. Gerry reminded her to take it easy and not to rush it. Eventually the second cow was out and lumbered off in the direction of the other cow and calf. Jerry gave everyone two thumbs up. Next he and Patty started working the second Mama cow. They both talked to her and stroked her for a while. Then Pete opened the door behind her at the back of the trailer and watched while Patty coaxed her out. This time the Mama backed out first with her calf following. Again Pete released the inner gated and Joann worked the cow at the front gradually toward the back. The fourth cow stood there for a second, looked around and started moseying over to the mini herd in the meadow. Gerry held a quick debriefing asking for questions and comments. Then he talked about how they were going to apply the principles to moving the rest of the cattle. He wanted to use both the small trailer and the larger trailer. The small one could handle a maximum of four adult cattle and the large one could handle about fifteen or sixteen. That would mean about three more trips for both trailers. He reminded them about keeping the cattle calm and taking it slow and easy on the drive from his place to here. He also said some of the group might prefer working on projects here at the mountain rather than taking the role of wranglers. He turned to Carl. “Carl, have you been thinking about the pumps and water plans?” “Yes, I have. I've also been studying that pump design. I am pretty sure I can take responsibility for that if you want to focus on helping with the cattle today. How about I explain the fundamentals of what we're are doing with the pumps and then divide the teams up based on who feels more comfortable with which project?” Gerry nodded. “I like that. As long as we don't get too out of balance on our team sizes, I think it's better if people can work on something they want to work on. Go ahead Carl.” Carl had a nearly assembled ram pump ready to show the group and began explaining the principles of it. “Folks this may seem a bit quirky to you at first but it really is a clever design that someone dreamed up over two hundred years ago. The idea is that a stream flowing down hill has a lot of energy. If you can find a way to capture some of that energy you should be able to harness it and use it to drive a pump. The pump can then pump water to another location even considerably higher than the creek. It's not about the incline of the creek and redirecting the water flow of the creek back up hill. It is simply using the energy of the flowing water to drive the action of the pump. What is quirky about this pump is the simple way that energy is captured and redirected.” Carl motioned for the group to gather 'round as he said, “Y'all come over here and take look at this.” Carl proceeded to show the group how the parts were put together and how the water flowing in from the feeder pipe would force the one way flapper valve to shut. He then traced how the bounce of the water compressing and decompressing would force the other one way flapper valve to be opened briefly pushing a small amount of water into the collection chamber. He took them through the dynamics of the mechanism step by step. “So these pieces are relatively simple to put together. There are two keys to making this work well. The first key is to place the input end of the rigid pipe in the water at a spot in the creek that is high enough above the pump assembly so the water pressure is strong enough to generate some energy. That will allow the pump to work more efficiently. Think about a town the has a water tower which is basically a tank of water high enough to provide enough water pressure to push the water through many faucets and water hoses all over town. We don't need to have a pipe that high, because the flapper valve amplifies the water pressure with a shock wave and we will only have one hose used to fill our water tank. But the more difference we can get in height between the intake point and the pump assembly, the more pressure energy we can capture to pump the water faster into the water tank. From that water tank or reservoir we can open the valves or faucets periodically to fill the troughs, or even water vegetable gardens.” “The second key,” Carl continued “Is this. The water hammer effect or the pulsing nature of this pump means it needs a very sturdy and stable base so it doesn't shake and jar itself out of position. There are other considerations, of course, but those two are, I think, the biggest challenges here.” Gerry took over here. “Bruce, do we have some other projects going today? Do you and Rob need some people on another team?” Rob took a step forward. “Bruce is wanting to help with the cattle today, so I'm filling in for him on some other things today. We need to get someone out to a town where we can pick up another Mobile radio unit to put in Gene's truck. He was generous enough to let us use it to help with transportation, but our safety policy requires that we must keep in touch whenever some of us are traveling away from our home. So before we can utilize it we have to get it equipped to keep a radio link with us.” He took a deep breath and continued “It will probably require two trucks and four people. We are waiting until tomorrow to get into a large project to contact and hopefully buy from a food wholesaler in a town farther away and it will take more trucks to stretch our radio reach. So with that agenda in mind, why don't those with a preference speak up and we will get you assigned to a work team. ” Bruce was the first to step forward to stand closer to Gerry. “I want to work the cattle along with Gerry and Patty,” he said. Anyone else who is interested in doing that step over here by us. Rob also noticed that Patty was already standing very close to Gerry, and all the other women who had come out to see the cattle, including Joann, had already started walking back to the lodge. Gene Lassiter, Joe Hinkley, Jeff Richards, and two of the uncommitted workers, Fred and Arnold started moving toward Gerry. Liam O'Hare, Sam Kline. And two other uncommitted men, Will and Tom started moving themselves over toward Carl. The only two left, Randy Roarke and Pete were walking toward Rob. “Rob,” Pete started speaking softly to his son. “Randy has come up with an idea that may help us a lot with our radio communications. He talked it over with Colleen and she asked me to talk with you so it wouldn't seem like Randy was proposing this on his own. We need more than another unit to go into Gene's truck. We need to set up an antenna system on top of the mountain here and maybe more than one. Randy thinks we can reach a lot farther from here and he can build it with just the antenna wire and some transmission cable, but he is suggesting enough transmission cable to put a second antenna system at the other end of the mountain. He thinks that would be better, not only for actual reach, but also to muddle attempts of someone trying to find the source of a far reaching signal. We still have to locate the right supplies and calculate the cost. If it works it would sure save a bundle on fuel and man hours when we try to travel to get supplies. I'm thinking that we have a better chance of finding what we need either at Jemimasson or at Cambridge. He and I want to work with Carl on the pump project, but we wanted to let you know so you and Bruce could work it into the plans.” Rob nodded. “Thanks for the heads up, Dad. We can't … Wait a minute. When I send that group to get another radio unit today, maybe we can talk to that supplier about ordering the extra supplies. Then we can go back and pick it up in a few days when it arrives. That would save a lot of fuel and manpower. Let's try that before we launch another armada of radio equipped trucks to Cambridge and back. Randy, when I send the group to get the radio unit, I'll send you with them. I appreciate your working on this.” With the groups divided up, Carl and his group got together and started putting pump assemblies together. Rob went over to the cattle group and started giving seat assignments to the members of the team. The two uncommitted workers were assigned to ride in the back of Bruce's truck. Gene Lassiter was given the shotgun position in that truck. Now Rob faced a decision. Joe Hinkley and Jeff Richards were both among the committed group, but no one had mentioned taking the blinders off of either one of them. He could put one of them in the back seat of Bruce's truck and only allow one of them to ride without blinders in the back of Patty's truck with Gerry and Patty. But how would he choose one over the other. He paused a minute and decided to say a quick silent prayer. That being done he decide have both of them, Joe Hinkley and Jeff Richards, ride in the back of Patty's truck. It took a few minutes to get the larger goose neck trailer hooked up to Bruce's truck. Gerry looked inside the trailer and noticed there were a few divider 'gates' inside but not enough. There were also no ropes available. He took a minute to explain to the team about that need, and then told them they would spend a little time at his farm getting better rigging put together before they started loading any cattle. Everyone then climbed in and Gerry told Bruce he would meet them at the farm to let them through the gate. He reminded Bruce about the need to drive more gently when hauling the cattle and that he might practice that on the way to the farm. They had not been on the road three minutes before Joe Hinkley was thanking Gerry for letting them ride without the blinders. “Mister Gerry, We sure do appreciate your letting us ride without the blinds on the windows and all. I know that is a little unnerving when you are being so careful about security.” “Joe, I'm not saying that I disagree with the decision, but Rob is the one you need to thank. He made that decision, and I am trusting his judgment. We are working together and having to trust each other about a lot of things.” Gerry replied. Patty half turned in her seat to look back at Joe. “It feels really good when you are shown trust, doesn't it, Joe?” Jeff jumped in at this point. “Yes, Miss Patty, it does feel good. Mister Gerry, I need to thank you, too. Not just Mister Rob. You could have raised a question about this and he would have taken you seriously. So you all don't discuss who has earned enough trust from the group to get more privileges?” “Jeff, the fact that you and Joe are expressing your appreciation reinforces the decision to trust you. Trust is like that. It's part of a relationship that grows stronger as the relation grows stronger and healthier. Patty asked me the same question yesterday. I explained to her that the relationships with in our family, or I suppose you could call it a clan since I am not technically a part of their biological family or legal family. Regardless, our trust with each other has grown to the point that if one of us feels confident enough to, for example, take the blinders off someone without consulting the others, that decision will be accepted by the others. If one of us has a strong reason to disagree or request that the decision be reconsidered, then we will listen to each other out of trust and respect.” “What about our wives?” Jeff asked. “You are showing your trust in us, but you have cautioned us about talking with others. You took the blinders off of us, but you didn't necessarily decide to take them off of our wives, did you?” Gerry was quiet for a bit. “Jeff, I don't know much about the marriage that you and Cathy have. I don't know much about the marriage that Joe and Susan have. I am not married myself so you may dismiss this as idealistic day dreaming. If I decide to get married I hope I have have the sense and opportunity to find a woman I can trust, completely. I want her to be able to trust me completely and that needs to go both ways for it to be what I want and intend to make of it. Call me naive if you want but I just don't know how two people can make it work as partners forever unless they are both committed to that kind of trust. I have to assume that you and your wife trust each other completely, Jeff. We've got no business trying to meddle with the relationship you and your wife have. So, if you don't have that kind of relationship with your wife, then you are going to have to decide how to manage the information we share with you.” The crew in Patty's truck was quiet for the next couple of miles. It seemed like everyone was wrapped up in their own thoughts about what Gerry had declared, including Gerry. Eventually Joe started talking about the cattle that Gerry had brought to the mountain. “You know, I was really surprised about those cattle. I don't know that much about cattle, but are those cows a bit on the small side of normal? Even at that, though those horns are a bit intimidating.” Patty started talking before Gerry responded. “They are a special Irish breed that apparently developed naturally in the rocky hills of southwest Ireland. Recently some strains have been developed that are essentially hornless, but around here there are arguments to be made in favor of them having a natural defense against wild predators. If handled the right way they are very docile around people, so they are easier to handle, yet they will defend each other against coyotes, and wolves.” “Does that include Bears and Pumas, too? I haven't seen any yet, but I have heard the name Bear Creek. I also assume we are in the northern half of the state. The state wild live commission finally conceded there are Mountain Lions, or Cougars, or Puma, or whatever you want to call them, still living in this part of the state. The bears are definitely more prevalent here than wolves are.” Gerry spoke up now. “Yes, there are definitely bears in our area. As for cougars I have not seen any big cats, myself, but they are more stealthy than the bears. My land was too rocky for cat prints to show up, but I have seen bear prints. I have not lost any cows or even calves to predators in almost a decade of raising these cattle. There are also definitely bears on the mountain we just left.” “Wait, there are bears back there where our children are?” Joe exclaimed. “Easy, Joe.” Patty tried to calm him. “There are lot's of people there watching over your children; Cathy is not alone. The bears will keep their cubs away, because there are so many people. They are smart enough to not go looking for trouble. If anyone sees a bear the first thing they will do is to get your children safely inside away from the bears. That is why children have parents and other adults around, to keep them safe until they have been taught the things they need to know to keep themselves safe.” “Miss Patty's right. I've seen lots of bears around lumber jacking operations. They try to keep their distance, unless you get careless and leave food out unguarded. Bears are simple creatures. They will eat what is easy to eat, nuts, berries, grubs, bugs in rotting logs, honey in hives. They avoid trouble if they can. It is only when their cubs, their food supply, or their ability to reproduce is threatened that they become aggressive. Of course if men mess with their heads about any of those things, they can get confused and attack because they think they are threatened, whether we see it like they do or not.” Jeff seemed confident and matter of fact about his assessment as he spoke about bear psychology. Then he continued talking. “Gerry, where exactly did you see bears on the mountain? I haven't seen any signs of them around where we've been.” Jerry chuckled. “The mountain we are on is rather unusual. Our side of the crest is a varied slope descending to the north. To the south side there are a series of bluffs stepping down toward the south. These bluffs have layers of expose rock including some caves that are occupied by bears. The step tops are covered with trees and the top bluff is twelve to twenty feet high. That side of the mountain is outside our property line so we haven't thoroughly explored it yet.” “So I take it you have actually seen some bears down there. It's pretty hard to see a cave in the face of a bluff if you are standing at the top of the bluff.” Jeff was stating a fact, but his tone of voice indicated it was a question. “Yep. Carl is the one who actually saw them. There was a family of them scrambling out to run into the trees just as one of those earthquakes hit a few weeks ago.” Gerry related to the crew. Patty cooed. “Ooh, That is so cool. That would be exciting to see.” “As long as you have a twelve foot cliff separating you from the frightened bears.” Jeff quipped. Joe changed the subject. “Back to those cattle of yours, Gerry. Why did you pick such a strange breed?” Patty jumped in and asked, “Do you mind if I tell him, Gerry. I'm just really excited about them.” Gerry glance at Patty in surprise. “Well, sure. Just don't … never mind. Go ahead, Patty. Tell it your way.” Patty looked at Gerry carefully before continuing. “Gerry told you a little about them earlier; where they came from and all. So they were naturally adapted to the kind of land that Gerry got for his farm. Fortunately the characteristics of the breed are almost like they were designed to be easier for a small farmer to raise and handle. They are basically docile around people, unless you try to apply the techniques that some people have developed for managing much larger and more aggressive breeds. They are naturally protective of their young and their herd, so you don't need to take the protective measures against predators like you would with some breeds. They are smaller and lighter weight, so they are easier to move and also easier to handle for butchering. Also, they have a better meat to hoof weight ratio than most breeds that have been selectively bred for producing meat. They also have a better milk production to hoof weight ratio than most breeds raised for milk production. They are really good foragers; not dependent on having perfect pasture land to fatten up on. As a matter of fact there have been studies conducted in Europe where they showed themselves to be better than a popular breeds of goats when placed on land with a mix of pasture and brush and not fenced in. Oh yeah. One more thing. They have one of the best non-troublesome birth rates compared to other breeds.” Jeff and Joe were both wide eyed and impressed. Gerry, too, was astounded. “Patty where did you learn all of that? You were talking about things that a lot of farmers raising this breed don't know.” “When I figured out what kind you were raising I did some research. The more I read the more I was impressed with your choice and the more I wanted to learn.” Patty replied quietly. Gerry, too was talking quietly now. “But you haven't been able to get on the web to research anything since...” His voice trailed off as he realized that Patty must have figured out the breed before the clan was being straight with the workers about whether the fencing was for cattle or some other kind of livestock. “That's impressive, Patty.” “Thank you.” Patty replied softly. “So, how many cattle are we going to be moving?” Joe asked “Counting those we already moved, there are seventy. Seventeen of those are calves. Twelve are between a year and two years old. I cut back on the number I had bred this year, because I was anticipating a dry year. I did not expect it to be this dry.” “So help me understand your thinking on that.” Patty replied. Gerry began to explain, “When working a cattle farm you have to look ahead. Do I want to increase my herd and make money later by selling them for meat processing, or by selling more milk later? Or do I want to raise calves to sell to other farmers who want to raise them? Maybe I want to shift to reducing my herd so I don't have to feed as many through the winter. Then you always have to factor in the cost of raising them, grow your own hay and feed or buy the feed. Either way there is a cost for harvesting your own. Keeping the cattle off of a field so you can harvest it, means they have to be fed from some other source. You are also thinking about what the other farmers and cattle raisers are doing. If everyone is trying to reduce their stock, the price you can get when selling your cattle will go down. I was expecting the market price to go down because the cost of feed would go up with a dryer growing season. That would point toward more farmers reducing their herd lowering the prices you could get from selling some of your own. So I only allowed less than half of my cows to be bred. I still have to look to having cattle to sell next year when some farmers will be looking to increasing their herd, if the weather cooperates with more rain.” Jeff spoke up. “Wow! I'd never thought about that before. I knew farmers worked hard and depended on the weather. I never realized the complexity of strategies involved in running a cattle farm, even a small one. So if you don't mind my asking, with the drought being worse than you thought, what are you planning?” Gerry was quiet and did not answer. Patty was watching him and saw the strain on his face. Finally, She turned toward the back seat and spoke. “That, Jeff, is why it is so hard to be a farmer. He can't give an answer yet, because he is still trying to find the wise course. Is it going to start raining again in late summer, early fall, next spring? Will it snow enough this winter to feed the streams so they can provide water to the well? For now, we are moving the cattle to fresh grazing and letting the older grazing area rest. It's a blessing that Gerry hadn't seen coming that he was helping the Smiths and Coopers, and they in turn had an option available that they wanted to share with him. Maybe it will be enough to get them through the winter with enough grazing that we won't have to buy feed for the cattle. Maybe we will have to sell some cattle for whatever we can get to have money to buy feed for the rest. Maybe we can get milk from the cows when the calves are weaned, and that will help feed the children or we might find a buyer for that milk. Maybe we will butcher some of those young cattle for food or sell them to a meat processor. Maybe, maybe, maybe. The only thing that is certain is that we will keep working and thinking and trying and praying that it works out. That's how it is when you make a commitment to farming.” As Patty had twisted around in her seat to talk to Jeff and Joe in the back she reached her hand over to touch Gerry's arm and she gave him a gentle squeeze. It wasn't long before they were pulling up to the gate at Gerry's farm. Gerry pulled out the fob and pressed the button to release the gate. He slowed to a stop and Patty jumped out to swing the gate out of the way. They were assuming that Bruce was several minutes behind, so they went on the the house to wait for the next crew.
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Post by gipsy on Jan 22, 2024 18:14:08 GMT -6
Fine update. Thanks.
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Post by feralferret on Jan 22, 2024 19:38:20 GMT -6
Pbbrown0, thanks!
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Post by pbbrown0 on Jan 26, 2024 17:17:15 GMT -6
Post # 79 A Monday In August
Carl was leading a group of about six other men, including Pete, to work on the pumps. He had them gather all the parts. including some lengths of one inch steel pipes, along with a couple of tool bags. He led them down to the west along the south bank of the creek. It was a couple of minutes before he had them stop. “Okay guys. The first thing we need to do is to figure out how to place everything. My first thought is to place the reservoirs slightly elevated from where they are going to deliver the water. That way the pumps can gradually fill them all day and all night if necessary. From a large reservoir filled with water we can open the spigot and fill a watering trough fairly quickly through a hose. Likewise we can have a reservoir near but uphill from the next lodge we build. Then we can use gravity to provide running water for the lodge.” Arnold, one of the uncommitted workers spoke out. “Beggin' pardon, Mister Carl. How are we getting water to the lodge right now? Why don't we just use that water?” Liam spoke up to answer Arnold. “Stop and think a minute, Arnold. Do you see any electricity at the lodge? So how are they going to run a pump to get the water from there to here? That building was built almost a century ago. They drilled a well and built the lodge over it. Inside the kitchen and out by the chicken coop they have hand pumps. They can pump a bucket full of water to water the chickens or to use in cooking and making tea, but someone like your wife or mine has to operate that pump lever by hand. If we put all this pipe we have here together end to end we couldn't reach a tenth of the way to the lodge. I for one am not to keen on lugging water from there to the cattle fields one bucket at a time.” “Yeah, I guess you got a point there. That's part of why I wanted to come with this group. I wanted to start figuring how to deal with things when it starts getting worse. Mister Carl, can these pumps you are making work for a water well, too?” Arnold asked. Carl was trying to be patient. He had explained some of how these ram pumps worked, but obviously not everyone had grasped the concepts. “I'm afraid not, Arnold. They work best if you have a stream or river running down hill so you can capture some of that energy of the water pushing down hill. You might be able to make it work if you have a lake, a pond, or a man made water tank that catches the run off from rain and snow. But that will only work if the level of the water is above or up hill from the place you want to put your pump. It may make a lot more sense once we get one in place where you can see it operate. Carl had scouted along the creek bed the previous afternoon and found a spot where the creek cascades down through a section where the underlying rock was slightly tipped. Over a run of about fifty feet the creek bed dropped about eleven feet in elevation. He led the group over to the top of that section where the slop was steeper. “Guys, we need to set up a catch basin right about here and the lay a length of pipe down to where we place the pump or pumps down below. We need the intake or drive pipe to be fairly straight down hill from the intake reservoir to the pump itself. Let's connect some of the pipes end to end and see if we can get them to lay inside the creek. If not, we may have to do some trenching and dig out a catch pool at the edge of the creek. They got busy coupling sections of one inch steel pipe together. Then they tried laying them out in the creek bed. It was not pretty. No matter how they laid the pipe, angled it across, moved it farther upstream or down stream, either the upstream end or the downstream end was sticking out of the water. So, Carl called an audible. “Okay everyone. We are shifting to option B.” He walked back and forth across the creek checking both sides and looking down stream just a bit from several angles. He finally settled on the south side of the creek. “We need to get some shovels and dig a small holding reservoir right here. Then we need a narrow channel pointing straight from that down into the creek, down there.” He was pointing to a place about fifty feet from where he was standing. “ We have to place the input pipe where it is in a straight line without waving side to side or up and down. We also need to dam up this reservoir so that the pipe we lay is the only place where water can flow out of the pool unless it spills over the top of the reservoir at a higher level than the end of the intake pipe. It would be best if we channel that overflow back to the creek so we don't accidentally create a mud moat around the reservoir. That is where it will get tricky; letting the stream keep the reservoir full enough, but making sure that if the creek rises the overflow from the reservoir goes back to the creek. I've never done this before, but I'm sure that together we can figure this out.” Two of the men headed back to the original camp area that Pete and Joann had set up to find some shovels among the tools. While they were gone, Carl was going over the parts of the pump and describing how they worked with those who stayed at the creek. Carl figured that the more times he did that the more familiar they all would be with this new contraption, and it would help them better understand how it really worked. The two men that had gone to get shovels were back soon with five shovels between them. They got to work on shoveling out a small depression near the creek as Carl went on describing how they needed to configure the excavation. With a little dialog they determined that they would dig the ground tank and then gouge out an overflow channel to redirect the excess water back toward the creek from the down hill side of the little reservoir. They decided to make the reservoir a full two feet deep and about five or six feet in diameter. One of the workers pointed out that they needed to pack the dirt as tight as possible in the overflow channel and line it with rocks or it would quickly erode and get out of control. It was pointed out that the ditch holding the pipe feeding water down stream to the pump needed to be filled in after the pipe was laid so it did not create a channel that caught run off water from rain. That too would begin to erode quickly unless they were careful. Carl was taking in all the ideas being offered by the group and making sure all the ideas were given due consideration. He was also looking more closely at the supplies the team had brought to this location. He was remembering some of the supplies that Gerry and Patty had bought that the team had not carried down here. He now saw the need for those extra supplies that he had previously set aside. The reservoir was nearly done and Carl was carefully inventorying both their materials and their tools. He sent three of the men back to the camp to bring specific tools and supplies back so the work could be completed. When their digging and channeling was completed the one inch steel input drive pipe, with a ball valve included before the pipe reached the stream and at the end of the downhill run, was buried in the dirt but extended into the deeper part of the reservoir. They also had a section of PVC laid into a notch in the side of the reservoir and extending slightly down hill and back toward the nearby stream. Next they cut a channel from the side of the reservoir excavation pointing slightly upstream toward the creek. Using the slope of that pipe they gauged the approximate channel depth they needed to cut a channel for the PVC pipe from the stream to the reservoir. They found it a bit challenging to get that pipe in place without letting the stream rush around the edges of the pipe and down the channel all the way to the reservoir, once they finally cut through the side of the stream bed to allow the end of the pipe to tap into the flow of the stream. Once the end of the pipe was able to drop low enough into the stream, everyone with a shovel was working frantically to shovel dirt, which had been loosened by digging the channel. Back into the space were the stream water met the pipe laying inside the channel. Eventually they stemmed the flow of the water until they could start packing the dirt tighter and adding more dirt until there was a significant mound of dirt there at the side of the stream and the open end of the pipe was extended under the surface of the water. With that done they went back to the reservoir to watch it fill. It took a while for the reservoir to fill but eventually it did and they watched the overflow start to run out of the other PVC pipe back toward the stream at a slightly lower spot. With that flow into and back out of the excavated reservoir, the group took to refilling the trenches where the PVC and steel pipes had been laid. Carl told the men that soon they would need to put a removable screen over the end of the steel pipe that was in the reservoir, but for now it was good enough to see that the water was flowing to the right places. Carl called for them to all take a break. After the break Carl had them work as a group, taking turns like a relay, to carry one of the water reservoirs they had bought from over to the north side of the creek and placed it on a slightly elevated knoll under some trees. After that they connected an ordinary garden hose to one of the pump assemblies and ran the other end over to the reservoir that had been bought from Mister MacSheehy. Soon they were rechecking the connections on the pump assembly and connecting it to the steel pipe coming down from the excavated reservoir a short distance up stream. With all the connections made, Carl said, “Here goes nothin',” and he opened the ball valve to the steel pipe. There was a hiss followed by a slosh of water dumping out of the pump 'waste' valve. There there was a click and a thunk sounding so close together they were almost but not quite at the same instant. Then there was a slight pause followed by more water dumping out into the stream. Then the click and thunk were repeated as the water stopped flowing out again. Soon there was a steady rhythmic pattern of sloshing water, a click, and a thunk sound repeating about every second. Carl led the group over the creek to take a look at the tank they had put in place on the north side of the creek. When they got there, the tank was empty. But a few seconds later a small pulsing stream of water began flowing into the tank. It looked as if a water faucet supplying the hose was turned on low and someone was walking along stepping on the garden hose making the flow lessen then resume with each step. The group was both delighted and a little incredulous at the results. Carl spoke up. “Okay, It works. Now we need to strap it down so it doesn't knock itself over or unscrew itself from the pipe fittings. We need to shut off the valve and strap it to some rebar rods underneath to stabilize it. Then we need to run a hose from the tank to over near the watering troughs, so we can fill them up when the tank gets full.” Bruce had gotten a crash course in pulling a long trailer behind his truck during the long drive to Black Bear Mountain from Texas only a few weeks before. Now he was trying to re-accustom himself to the notion of pulling a heavy trailer with a less stable payload in it. He had shared with the Smiths his dream and intention of raising a small herd of cattle on the land just north of the mountain side. This project of moving a herd of about seventy cattle was suddenly getting real to him and he was trying to focus on his driving and also how he would need to be driving in a very different style soon, But he could not keep from pondering the realities of actually raising and tending a small herd for himself, soon. “Mister Bruce?” Tom called through the foam board partition toward the front of the cab. “Yes, Tom?” Bruce replied. “Mister Bruce, I know you all are looking at some of us who are working for you in a different way that some of the others working for you, and I want to talk with you about that, if I may.” Bruce paused for just a moment before he responded. “What's on your mind, Tom? I'm listening.” “Thank you, Mister Bruce.” Tom cleared his throat before continuing. “This is a bit complicated, if you make it that way, but it doesn't have to be. Gene up there and a bunch of the others are developing a different relationship with your family than a few of us are. It's understandable that the closer you work with someone the stronger your trust and your bond with them grows. I'm guessing that there are a bunch of the workers whose families are going to end up staying here for quite a while to come. I don't know that you all have worked out a formal agreement to that effect or not, but that is just what I see coming. I just don't want you to misinterpret the fact that a few of us are not going to be here permanently as an indicator that we disagree with what you are doing, or that we do not respect you for what you are up to here.” Tom paused to think a moment before proceeding. “I just happen to know something about the four of us whose families who are not getting 'on the inside', so to speak, with you all, that I don't think you all know. We already had plans for dealing with the troubles ahead. Our plans involve our extended families outside of this place. I don't want to take anything away from what you are doing with Gene or any of the others whose families are casting their lot with you, so to speak. I just want you to understand that our not going all in with you all has nothing to do with our not agreeing with you about what you are planning or any kind of lack of respect for you. Because of our plans, we understand your concerns for privacy and security. That's why, up until now, you haven't known anything about our plans.” Bruce had been quiet while Tom was talking, but his mind had been chewing on what Tom had said. When Tom stopped, Bruce waited a minute before replying, wondering if Tom was going to say more. “Why are you telling me this, Tom, and why are you telling me this now?” Tom chuckled. “Mister Bruce, ...” “Mister Tom,” Bruce interrupted, “If you don't mind, could you just call me Bruce instead of Mister Bruce. I know it's a culture thing, and I've been told it is just a way of showing respect. But, it feels like you are putting me on different level that yourself, like you should be respecting me a little more. I'm not accustomed to calling you Mister Tom, but I don't want it to seem like you are trying to give me the respect due to me, but I'm not returning the favor. You deserve the same respect as me.” “Okay … Bruce.” There was still a hint of frustration in Tom's voice as he continued. “That respect thing is what I wanted to try clearing up. We all respect you and your family. You all are treating us really well, and we don't want you to misunderstand our position on joining with or not joining with you all in what you are trying to do here. We still plan to work with you while you need us, and to stay friends afterwards, if that is possible. We just have to plan on taking slightly different paths eventually due to family commitments. In the mean time, we hope we can keep this mutually beneficial and amicable.” Tom stopped but his tone was not simply matter of fact. Bruce glanced over to Gene who was in the front seat by the other door. “Tom,” Bruce replied. “I appreciate your explaining your position, but it sounds like something still is troubling you. Is there a problem I am not seeing?” “I'm not sure, Bruce. Maybe I'm anxious about something I don't need to be anxious about. I guess I'll tell you what I'm afraid might happen without it being an accusation that it is already happening. I'm afraid you are going to pigeon hole the four of us and our families as the ones who are on the outside and you can't trust us, while the other families are on the inside so you can trust them. I'm afraid, because I know human nature and I can see how it might develop that there will be two classes of workers; those you see as on your side and those you see as exploiting you for what they can get out of you before they turn against you. I don't want that to happen.” Bruce was quiet for a while. “Tom, it sounds like you are concerned about being trusted; like you are afraid we will hold back in how we relate to you, because we are seeing our relationship as temporary and we don't expect it is going to last.” “Yes sir.” Tom replied. “We like you and admire your family, but it feels like there is an invisible wall that is keeping us from being good neighbors or friends. We don't know where exactly we are, but what if we wind up being with our own family only a stones throw from your family. And what if we wind up being fifty miles from your family. Just 'cause we don't see each other everyday, don't mean we need to care less about you or you about us when the rest of the world gets caught in the latrine, does it? We see your family or clan as being good folks. We'd hope that you could see us as being good folks, too. I'm afraid there are going to be a whole passel of folks you and we aren't going to be viewing as good folks before long, and even more folks that are going to look like unfortunate fools getting kicked and stomped on, that you nor we have the where-with-all to deal with in any way shape or fashion, if you get my drift. Are you starting to see what I'm talking about having friends? Now don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about you seeing us as some of those who will come running to you for help the minute things get dicey. I'm talking more about being someone you can trust enough to share some give and take, so both can survive. Like you all raising cattle, and someone else has an orchard, and someone else has skills as a blacksmith to make tools. And neither one nor the other is blabbing to the authorities about who does and who doesn't carry the mark. ” Bruce was starting to grasp Tom's intentions, but with the last remark Bruce heard him like he was gently stroking the rim of a crystal goblet with a wet finger tip. “Tom, I see what you mean now. I will talk with my family about this. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.” By the time Bruce had his crew ready to help with the cattle at Gerry's farm, Gerry and Patty had two cows loaded and were giving gentle attention to two Mama cows near the back of the small trailer. Gerry waved them over. To get closer. “Guys we got here a bit before you all did, so Patty and I got things started, but we wanted yo to be able to watch at we loaded the two Mamas cows and their calves. That is the more delicate part of the process, because they are very protective of their young. Patty has been stroking these two Mamas to get them comfortable with her and not threatened by her. She's being careful to stay on the side of the Mama away from her calf. Now watch how she stays calm and talks softly to the cow and leads her into the trailer where there are other cows already in there.” Gerry motioned Patty to go ahead. Patty slipped a length of rope over the top of the cow's neck and reached under to take hold of the knot on the end. She pulled the knot up and grasped it along with the extra length of the same rope in one hand while she was still gently patting the cow's neck with her other hand. She casually shifted her hands so one hand was holding the rope loosely around the cow's neck and the other hand was resting gently on the horn of the cow. Then she started ambling toward the trailer's tailgate. As the cow stepped up into the trailer, Patty released the knot of the rope and let the rope slide off as the cow moved deeper into the trailer. The calf balked for just a moment then slipped in beside its Mama, and Patty gently closed the tailgate on that side of the trailer. Patty ambled over to Gerry and stopped with her hands on her hips. “So, how did I do?” Patty asked with a confident smirk. Gerry looked at Patty a moment and said, “Patty that was perfect. I couldn't ask for better.” He turned to the men who had been watching. “Guys, that's the way to do it. I don't expect it to go that well when you start out, but that's the way to do it. What I want you all to try for your first load is to do something a little easier. The first load in the big trailer I want you to load only cows without calves. They won't be as sensitive or nervous. After we get that one under our belt, then we can work with you on the others for the next load. Right now, Patty and I are going to load one more Mama and calf, then we will pull the small trailer out of the way and you all can help get Bruce's rig backed up to the gate.” Gerry stepped toward Patty and talked to her as they swung wide to approach the other Mama Cow from the side away from her calf. “Patty,” Gerry said, “Have you worked with cattle or other animals before?” “No. Why are you asking, Gerry?” Patty was hesitant. “It's just that it seems to come so naturally for you. Even when I decided to change how I was handling the cattle, it still took a lot of work and time for me to get good at it. You just seem to know how without even trying. I'm really impressed, Patty.” Patty seemed pleased with the compliment. “Thank you Gerry. That's nice of you to say that. I'm just trying to do it the way you told me. Come on. Let's get the next one loaded so we can get our rig out of the way.” Gerry had several lengths of rope hanging in the back end of his cattle trailer so he handed them out to the crew. The crew worked together tentatively at first, but with Patty and Gerry coaching them got the hang of it before too long. They were able to load the cattle in the larger trailer three across and in four successive rows from front to back. The first couple of rows took more time than the last two. The work went fairly smoothly with no mishaps. They got the large trailer pulled away from the gate and the gate shut. Gerry told Bruce to let him lead the way in Patty's truck heading back to the mountain, and for Bruce to follow fairly close behind. It was approaching ten o'clock when Gerry led Bruce into the woods on the north side of Bear Creek. Unloading was a simple matter for the larger trailer. It had a door that opened on one side near the front, so the cattle were able to move forward out of the trailer while the crew carefully opened the barriers one at a time within the trailer. Gerry and patty managed to unload the smaller trailer while the rest of the crew were working the larger one. It was ten minutes after ten o'clock when they were ready to go again. At that point there were twenty cows and four calves grazing in their new pasture with plenty of waist high grass. To an experienced cattleman it would have looked like the grass was much higher, because the backs of these shorter cattle were barely above the top of the grass. Gerry, Bruce and the others took a few minutes to check with Carl and his crew on the progress with the pumps. By this time one of the water tanks they had bought from Fergal MacSheehy was in place just under the trees to the northwest of the main meadow and about half full of water from the stream. They were already started on the excavation of another creek side reservoir on the north side of the creek. After a short discussion they selected another elevated spot in the trees to the northeast of the meadow for a second water tank to be fed by the second Ram Pump. Gerry recommended that the troughs be placed within each of the paddocks, one per paddock, and also under the trees. His plan was to get all the cattle moved into one paddock area and then divide them approximately in half among two paddocks, except for his two bulls, which would have a separate paddock to themselves. As the two cattle crews were driving back to Gerry's farm, Gerry started talking about what was happening with the cattle being moved to the new pasture. “This is really encouraging. I had not realized how grazed down the pastures at my place had become. With the drought the grass was not growing back so fast and the trees I nurtured on that rocky ground have not yet grown as tall or full as the trees over at the mountain have. The shade provided by the taller trees has kept the grass from being as stressed from the lack of rain. It gets more morning and evening shade at the mountain. The grass being taller at the mountain also is helping to keep the ground there cooler, so there is less evaporation from the soil. This has been a brutally hot summer. Getting the cattle off of the fields at my place will hopefully let those fields recover, before we move them back. Come to think of it, we may not move as many back as we are bringing over. Dividing them up long term will help prevent over grazing at both locations.” Gerry found himself directing his discussion toward Patty and almost forgetting that Jeff and Joe were in the back seat listening in. Patty replied to Gerry, “I guess we'll have to see how the rain comes before moving any of them back. When it does, what are you thinking about the numbers at the mountain and in Stone County?” “Some of that will depend on several factors, like how many cattle we want as our base line for production to sell, milk, barter, or butcher. We will need to watch more closely how the grazing area at both sites holds up and recovers. We also have to take in to account who is living where, because for any of the cattle to stay at my farm we need enough people there to tend to them properly without having to drive back and forth every day.” Gerry suddenly got a serious look on his face. Jeff spoke from the back seat. “Gerry, I thought you said you had done that all by yourself for nearly ten years. If you cut back on the number of cattle that are there...” Jeff trailed off and didn't finish his thought. “You are right about that, up to a point, Jeff.” Gerry replied rather somberly. “But the world is changing and sometimes people need to make changes in order to deal with the changes that are going on in their surroundings.” While Gerry an Bruce with their crews were shuttling back and forth moving the cattle, Carl had his crew working more efficiently on the water systems. Eventually they had three Ram Pumps set up and working. One of those was actually idled since the first two were more than adequate for providing water for the whole herd of cattle. When they reached that point Carl went to his Dad and gave him a status update. Rob quickly put together a team to travel over to the River Rest-Clear Water area to get some radio supplies. He sent Carl to retrieve Colleen to go with the team, since it was one of her areas of responsibility. Rob estimated that the radio reach might work with two vehicles, but he decided to play it safe and use three vehicles. The crews had all finished lunch before Rob sent the radio acquisition team out. Bruce and Gerry's teams continued working the cattle transfer right through the afternoon. Colleen, Carl and Randy came back before the last load of cattle were even leaving Gerry's farm. They had a new mobile unit for Gene's truck and only one antenna device. Rob was very concerned about the supplies they had ordered, because they spent considerably more than he had been expected. Colleen and Carl promised that they would be able to explain and justify their purchases as soon as everyone was together that evening. The two of them, as well as Randy Roarke, seemed very excited about the impact their purchases would make on keeping in touch when traveling. Almost as soon as they checked in with Rob, the three of them left with the purchases that had been in stock at the store and disappeared. It was late afternoon and the last of the cattle had been loaded in the two trailers. The two bulls had been loaded into the smaller trailer behind Patty's truck with no other cattle on board with them. Gerry asked Bruce to go on ahead with his crew and the large trailer. Gerry wanted to check things out at his farm one last time before leaving, since he wasn't sure when he would be coming back. Jeff and Joe stayed with the truck while he and Patty made the rounds checking on everything before leaving. He turned off the circuits for his pumping control board. There was enough water in the reservoir to provide a couple of days of water for the house, if he needed to come back. Hopefully, if that was necessary, there would be some water accumulated in his well that he could pump up to extend that time if he had to come back anytime soon. Gerry continued his inspection tour with Patty staying close at hand. He checked the gates. He checked inside the barn and the locks on the barn doors. He checked the circuit breakers at his house. He went around the house checking electric devices and lights. He checked his refrigerator and his freezer. He checked his cellar pantry scanning the status of the shelves and stock of food down there. He checked all the rooms in the house pausing in each one to look around. Patty was seeing that more was going on in Gerry's head than simply leaving for a few days. His face was slightly tense and sober. She stepped in front of him as he crossed the main room and headed toward the front door. “Gerry, stop a minute. Okay?” Patty said gently. “Gerry, I know things are changing, but we are not leaving here permanently. We will be coming back here with your cattle. We are not going to be permanent residents in the Cooper's and Smith's travel trailers. You know that old saying about putting all your eggs in one basket? There is still wisdom in that and you and I both know that. We'll be back here and we'll be operating this farm that you built to raise cattle and all the other things you intend to do here. This farm is still a valuable resource that you put a huge part of yourself into building, and you are not walking away from it. Are we clear on this?” Gerry looked at Patty and his expression relaxed. “You're right, Patty. I was getting into one of those mind traps again. Thank you. We will be back. Let's go.” Gerry walked to the front door and held it open for her. He turned and locked the door on his way to Patty's truck.
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Post by feralferret on Jan 26, 2024 22:21:14 GMT -6
Another thoughtful chapter. Thank you, pbbrown0.
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Post by gipsy on Jan 26, 2024 22:24:39 GMT -6
Thanks
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Post by pbbrown0 on Jan 28, 2024 11:39:31 GMT -6
Post # 80 Still Monday in August
On the drive back to the Black Bear Mountain Gerry, Patty, Jeff, and Joe had a conversation that seemed energized. Everyone was in a good mood over what they had accomplished and the start of a new phase in their work. The fencing was done. The cattle were all but moved. The workers were actually learning to work with the cattle. Another team had managed to set up a water system to keep the cattle hydrated without fouling the spring fed stream. Everyone had a safe habitation out of reach of the draconian sheriff. They were all eating well and being paid for what was at this moment steady work. When they arrived at the mountain, Bruce and his crew were already well into the process of unloading their cattle. Soon Gerry was backing the small trailer up to a new gate to a separate paddock for the two bulls. Jeff and Joe helped Patty and Gerry to get the bulls backed out of the trailer and watched as they meandered out into the high grass.
With the cattle all out and the gates latched, Bruce and Gerry pulled the trailers over into the trees and got them unhitched, then they pulled the trucks around to the other side of the creek and parked them. “Gentlemen, thank you. All of you did very well at learning and performing a new job skill. In the next few days I may need you to help divide the herd and move some of them to a different paddock. Bruce, I suppose you will be dealing with payroll for a few minutes. If you need any help let me know. If not, I'll head back to the lodge.” Bruce replied, “I think I can handle the payroll, except...” Bruce looked at Gerry and Patty like he was about to say something, but then he said, “Never mind about that for now. If you would, Gerry I need you to send the other workers this way so I can pay them, too. Also, let the others in our family know that there is an item or two that we need to discuss after supper tonight.” Gerry nodded his acknowledgment and turned in the direction of the lodge with Patty walking beside him. Gerry was quiet for a minute and Patty was too. Then she began speaking as they walked through the forest. “So, what's next?” Gerry turned his head briefly toward Patty then turned his eyes back to the path ahead, but he did not speak. They kept walking. “I guess we will find out when we find out. Do you think you'll be telling all of us about tomorrow after your family has that meeting tonight?” Patty said in a voice that seemed to have a hint of disappointment. Gerry glanced up at the tree tops as he walked along. “I have no idea what Bruce or any of the others might bring up that may or may not change the plans for tomorrow. Rob mentioned needing to get more groceries from that wholesaler. Colleen and Randy were working on a better arrangement for our radio reach. Carl I know is wanting to get started on building a new house or lodge for his grandparents.” Gerry kept walking and thinking silently. Then he said, “This was a good day, Patty. I enjoyed this.” He paused. “What I mean is that I enjoyed working the cattle with you. I always get a kind of satisfaction working with the cattle. But doing it with you was very satisfying. With the cattle being here now I am going to be checking on them, their water, how the grazing is progressing; all of that every day, both early in the morning and late afternoon or possibly evening before sundown. I would enjoy your working with me on that anytime you want to. I would really like for you to help me if you can when I divide the herd. When I decide to do that, I'll let you know ahead. If you are interested, that is.” Patty waited a minute to see if he was going to say more. “Thank you, Gerry. I would like that. I enjoyed working them to. I'd ... I'll do that with you. If you don't see me right away when you decide to head over there to the cattle, I'd appreciate your looking for me or sending word to me so I don't miss it.” “Okay.” Gerry said. “I can do that. I need to get cleaned up a little before supper. I'll see you in the main room in just a bit.” “I'll see you there.” Patty replied. Carl, Colleen, and Randy did not get back to the lodge until minutes before Pete offered a prayer of thanks for the meal. Gerry and Patty were already seated before Colleen and Carl had cleaned up and sat across the table from them. Randy and his wife April sat down next to Colleen and Carl. The six of them had a lively conversation going about the day they had experienced. April related to them the activities Joann and Colleen had led in addition to the meal preparation and the women without children staking turns supervising children so the mothers could take short breaks or help with the meals and such from time to time. Patty talked about the process of moving the cattle. Carl talked about setting up the pumps and water tanks. Randy, Colleen, and Carl all three joined in to talk about conferring with the owner of the electronics store and the plans they refined for managing the radio needs of the community on the mountain. They finished up by describing the quick and dirty setup they put together to prove their design for a signal repeater near the top of the mountain with a directional antenna pointed roughly toward Jemimasson to see how far the signal would reach when the team went there tomorrow to talk with the grocery wholesaler. Gerry was amazed. “You really think you can reach all the way to Jemimasson with the signal? But what about the signal from the trucks? They don't have directional antennas. How are they going to put out a signal strong enough to be picked up here?” Randy jumped right onto Gerry's questions. “That is the least certain part of this, and we still don't have all the elements of our design available. Some things are on order and some things I'm going to try to build. We are rushing to test the results with a partial implementation while we have a caravan going out tomorrow to a considerable distance. It just seems better to partially test the range effectiveness when we have to spend money on fuel already, rather than wait for a maximum design test when we have to spend money on fuel only to test the the design. As for receiving the signal from the truck radios, one positive characteristic of this directional antenna is that it is more efficient in both the broadcasting and the receiving of the signals. Another element of our design is the fact that we are putting the antenna in the tree tops on the ridge of the mountain. The idea is to get the signal transmitted and gathered from a line of sight that has far less interference from the hills and trees between here and there.” Randy paused like he was thinking before going on. “There are a couple of other things I can do and test them out when we have time. I want to craft some enhancements on the antennas we use at our bases to make them even more effective and less likely to be found if someone comes looking for them. I also want to try some things to make the antennas on the trucks more effective when necessary, but that will take some time and effort as well as getting all the right supplies picked up.” The look on Randy's face was one of careful contemplation almost like he was cautious about sharing the information. Gerry noticed Randy's body language and subtle facial nuances. He decided he needed to talk with him in a more private setting. It wasn't that Gerry distrusted others that might overhear in this dining hall type setting, but Randy was uncomfortable about something, and Gerry felt like he needed to understand why. Colleen had a little more to say on this topic. “Randy has been a huge help in figuring out how to help with our safety policies on communications. Staying faithful to that safety principle has been costly in terms of both the fuel and the man-hours it required. If we can get this system set up to work like Randy envisions it will really help tremendously in making faster progress toward our goals and having the funds to keep moving forward. That is something we need to discuss with the family after supper tonight.” Gerry nodded and replied, “Speaking of which we need to get to that shortly. I need to check on the cattle this evening before it gets dark. That is going to be hard to do if it takes a lot of time for the family to discuss everything on the agenda tonight. I am supposed to get word to the rest of the family about us meeting after supper. If you'll excuse me, I think I'd better take care of that, right now. Oh yeah, Randy, you got back here a bit later than the others. You need to come see Colleen's Dad about your payroll disbursement for today.” “Oh, you're right!” Randy responded. “I certainly don't want to overlook that. Excuse me, April. I'll be back in a minute.” Randy was a bit rushed trying to get up from the table, until Gerry slowed him down. “It's okay, Randy. I'll come with you and explain that you were working later than the others. It was my mistake that you didn't get the word I was supposed to pass on to you until just now.” Gerry was rising from the table more slowly, and gently patted Patty on the shoulder before walking away with Randy. Colleen noticed Gerry's subtle gesture to Patty and Patty's attempt to minimize her response to Gerry's touch. She smiled sweetly toward Patty and said, “It sounds like you had a good day today, Patty.” Patty smiled back and replied with a nod. “Yes, I think I had a very good day. I hope I'm not making this up in my own head, but it seems to be getting better day by day.” Gerry was walking beside Randy but he did not see Bruce in the main room so he guided Randy out to the front porch. He saw Bruce, Linda, Jenny and Rob out under a broad oak tree. Before walking toward them he stopped and turned to Randy. “Randy I need you to come clean with me.” Gerry said calmly but with a touch of confrontation in his voice. You are working on something that is very important to my family and that potentially has an impact on every family here. We have to be able to trust each other, but back there you were hiding something about what you are doing. I need to understand what you are concerned about. Give it to me straight.” Gerry was looking Randy in the eye with intensity until Randy looked down at the ground. Without looking up Randy began talking. “There are two things that were worrying me when I was talking about the design. One is that I pushed Carl and Colleen to do something that they had said they needed to discuss with the family. I pushed them to go ahead and do it before they had that discussion. That excursion to Jemimasson is an opportunity to test the proof of concept without spending a lot of money on fuel. Carl's Dad is already concerned about how much this project is costing. But to test this concept I had to know exactly what direction from here to point the antenna toward Jemimasson. They did not know the layout of the towns around here, so for me to know where to point the antenna, they had to tell me where we are so I could look it up on my offline map app. I had to know in order to know how to align the antenna, so I pushed them to go ahead and tell me.” Randy took a breath before continuing. “The other thing is maybe a little paranoia on my part, but the bottom line is that with the way things are going and what I have seen ... I don't trust the government agencies and employees to color inside the lines, and that worries me!” Randy raised his head and looked Gerry in the eye for that last statement. Gerry looked back with intensity, but curiosity. “Randy that view can lead to a multitude of possible problems and scenarios, so I need you to walk me through specifically what scenario is in your head related to that. Okay? Talk to me.” Randy took a breath and blew it out. “When we went to the electronic shop in River Rest, The owner let me hop on his WiFi with my tablet to look up some FCC regs about GMRS antennas. Some of those regs pointed me other regs and so on through multiple layers, and I did not have time to use a web crawler to get outside of the common browser data bases. So I can't be sure there wasn't an internal agency policy decision or memo, not listed in the actual regs, which specifically prohibits what I am trying to do. Even if there is nothing specifically prohibiting it, if some monitoring techie notices our signal and gets a … bur in his britches because it looks unusual to him, or her, these geeks can get like a dog with a bone – obsessive. Who knows what trouble they can cause. I want to keep this under the radar but I can't be confident of that until I get all the safe guards I'm planning into place.” Gerry thought for a minute. “Okay, now I understand. Thank you for being honest with me. I can deal with the truth. Dealing with persisting deception, however, is something that would require drastic measures. Do you understand, me Randy?” “Yes, sir. It won't happen again.” Randy answered. “Now,” Gerry changed his demeanor. “Let's get you paid, and then I need to make sure the right people are ready for that meeting I mentioned.” Gerry apologized for not getting Randy to Bruce earlier, and then went to hunt down Joann and Pete. He had missed seeing them before supper. He told them about the meeting and then asked if he might get time with Pete for some Bible study time after he checked on the cattle and after the family meeting was over. Pete was quite agreeable to that, but then Joann asked a question. “What about Patty?” Joann asked. “She seemed to enjoy our study time at your place yesterday. Would she be interested in some study time with me and maybe Jenny? That was one of the reasons we first connected with Patty. Things have been so busy and changing around here. It seems like it's been a month or more since we first got back with her, but in fact it's been barely over a week.” “I'll check with her.” Gerry replied. “She's going to help me check on the cattle. She did amazingly well handling the cattle today. She seemed to pick it up like she was an experienced handler. I was really impressed with her.” “That's good to have someone who can step right in and help you, isn't it?” “Yep. It's nice. Really nice.” Gerry's demeanor abruptly changed. “I guess we all need to gather up and have our pow-wow. There are some things we need to consider together it seems.” Gerry walked somewhat quickly with Pete and Joann back to the front porch of the lodge where the rest of the family had gathered. When everyone was gathered Gerry notice the elevation of the sun above the western peak of Black Bear Mountain. He wasted no time starting the discussion. “Bruce I know you asked me to let everyone know that we had some issues that need to be discussed. But I don't know what those are. I am aware that I have been asked about the agenda for tomorrow and that affects everyone. I am also aware that there is information that needs to be shared and also perhaps discussed about our communication set up. I was thinking if we get all our topics out on the table then we might prioritize what to discuss first if there are factors affecting that decision.” Gerry looked around and waited. “Well let me say that my topic has to do with personnel. Since I am pretty much handling payroll, that my be the reason that issue came to me. The issue is about clarifying our relationship with the various workers and avoiding our inadvertently creating a caste system.” Rob spoke next. “I am aware of what Gerry said about our communications. The bill for the additional pieces was considerably more than I expected, and I was just concerned about understanding what direction this is going and being sure our strategy is the right one. Related to that, we have a pool of money and we've been spending money on what seemed right at the moment. However, that money is finite, and the economy is fixing to get disturbed. I am concerned about us having a view of where we stand with resources and having a better view down range regarding our plans for those funds.” Now Carl spoke up. “I'll let Colleen fill you in on the communications strategy and the cost effectiveness of that. I suppose this is a good place and time to talk about building another lodge for Grandpa and Joann's home. That factors in on the issues of agenda for tomorrow, finances, strategies, personnel, issues, et cetera. So I'll wait until we decide on our topic priorities before I talk more about that.” Jenny spoke up next. “I am assuming and hoping we are sending an excursion to negotiate with the grocery wholesaler tomorrow. This many people can run through food a lot faster that the Smith-Cooper clan use to back in Texas. I will definitely need help from Linda for more than just negotiations there. We need to be thinking about large quantities of food and strategies for keeping those foods if every trip to the grocery store means almost a hundred mile trip both ways. And of course there are the issues of the economy and what that may do to our plans.” Now Colleen stepped in. “I know you have concerns and questions about the communications and the costs involved there. The good news is we think we can set it up so that we will be able to send a single vehicle to say Jemimasson and back without ever loosing contact with them. If that is true, and we think we can prove it, consider the cost savings in fuel, but also consider the savings in man hours. Furthermore, it should, we believe, reduce our exposure to radio communications sniffing, since radio checks and message relaying will be cut down to a fraction of what it has been.” Colleen decided to stop there until she got a go ahead from the group about discussing the details. Everyone seemed to pause. Then Pete said, “Before we go any farther I would like to say a prayer asking our Creator for a some wisdom and clarity in our thinking. As much as we have to consider here and as little as we know about what is happening around us, I think we may need some help as we discuss and decide things.” “I think I would have to agree with your assessment on that, Pete. Thank you for remembering that.” Pete said a prayer and then there was a moment of quiet before anyone spoke. Finally Bruce spoke. “I know we didn't talked about this just a minute ago, but there is an elephant in the room. And if you have ever looked at an elephant it is not just big, it is also composed of a number of very unique parts. I talked with several workers today who were worried that we were assuming the wrong things about their motives for making certain choices. Turns out that they are probably correct in their concerns. And then there is Patty. Patty started out as a young lady who's hunger for trying to make some sense out of the insanity of this world captured Jenny's heart and then Joann's heart. Then she became a catalyst for us finding the workers we needed. Unfortunately, when a couple of those workers did not work out, she became a catalytic pivot point for a total legal crisis in Fox County. All kinds of problems, solutions, restructuring, operational and emotional upheaval, and improvements followed that debacle. Then, very quietly, and I say very quietly because up until this moment only two of us here were aware of it, she made a personal decision and commitment to go all in with us without asking for or getting anything promised to her from us in return. Since then she has continued to work and act on that commitment. There are a number of families here whom we thought were just not with us, when in truth they were standing by their commitments already made to members of their extended families. At the same time Patty has made a commitment to us that has cut her off from her own father who is in an especially difficult place. That predicament which he is in was in part a result of what we are doing here. I'm not stating what we need to do about any of these things. I just think we should all be more aware of the character of the people around us.” Colleen was the next one to speak. “While we are on the subject of character. Carl and I had to make a character decision this evening. We told Randy very specifically where we are located. His design for improving our radio reach is ingenious, and it is going to save a lot of money and prevent a ton of unnecessary time spent with caravans of people struggling to keep each other safe. He put together a quick and dirty antenna rig with a repeater that we think can keep us in contact with a single truck all the way to Jemimasson and back. We need to test it when we send a truck there tomorrow, but for safety we still need to send at least one truck to extend our link up just in case it doesn't quit reach all the way with the incomplete set up. We had to give him our position so he could aim the directional antenna properly and to be sure there were no intervening mountains that were too high between here and there. If it works like we think it will, the full implementation will allow us to extend our reach from a base station three to five times as far as we can reach right now. Daddy, you can figure how much that will save us in fuel and also wages for sending the extra people out in trucks in our buddy system over and over to obtain supplies here, there and yonder. For every project we launch and all the food we need. If you want more details it will take some classroom time, but Carl and I are convinced that Randy has his facts lined up and the math for the savings is easy peasy.” “From what I vaguely remember back when I first set my station up, at C.J.'s insistence, it is possible to reach even considerably farther away than Jemimasson, point to point, if Randy gets it implemented properly. I just never bothered to figure it out because C.J. was the only one I talked to and he could reach me just fine.” “I think I can go with that.” Rob said. “I just wanted a reality check before spending too much on something we did not understand. It would help if I was keeping up or had a periodic report on our financial status. That's not a complaint. It is just an emotional security thing for me.” Bruce had a contemplative look. “So, you think we can maybe do it with one truck but we need two to be sure. How confident are you that two trucks will make it without a third? If we have to change from two to three it will delay the turn around time because the extra crew has to be gathered and dispatched. Then they have to drive out to get into position before the primary team can proceed to the town.” Carl responded. “We should not take the risk even if we are 99.9% certain. Have the third one standing by. Send the first out, then the second at our standard interval. Have the third one ready to leave at the standard interval. If truck three leaves then all three can maintain the link until the third truck reaches the point on the road that truck one was at already. If truck one reaches the town and still has contact with the base, then the other two trucks can return without going further or waiting. If truck one gets out of reach with the base, then we know how far the second truck can go while still supporting the first truck with it's link to the base. If when the first truck reaches the town while truck two is still in contact with the base, then truck two can stop and wait while truck three turns around and returns. If truck two passes the limit of the base's reach before truck one reaches the town then all three continue until truck one reaches the town. In that last case once truck one reaches the town, both truck two and three stop and wait for truck one to start it's return journey. That way no one has to travel farther than necessary.” Bruce and Gerry were nodding their heads. Rob and Jenny were both quietly voicing their agreement, Linda quipped, “That's as confusing as a Tower of Hanoi puzzle if you ask me, but it sounds like we'll be able to contact everyone for help if there is a problem. Can we work out a plan for tomorrow, now?” “Jenny, how many people do you need with you to load up groceries tomorrow?” Rob asked. Jenny pursed her lips before she replied, “Truthfully I think I need three women and two men and a trailer.” There were several shocked faces among the family as everyone stared at Jenny. “Think about it people.” Jenny continued. “This many people working hard and being fed three meals a day are going through more food than some restaurants prepare. We don't have the refrigeration and freezer space to keep the food in and we can't afford to drive two hundred miles round trip every couple of days to get more fresh food. We sure can't afford to get the food delivered here like a commercial restaurant would. We need more equipment and different methods of preserving food. With the troubles that we know good and well that are coming, we really need to stock up on food stored to get us through the winter. Then there is the problem of making sure we have power to run the refrigerators or freezers or food dryers or canners or what ever we decide we need to make this work. This is getting serious really fast.” Jenny stopped talking and was breathing hard. Rob turned to her and wrapped her up in a hug. Joann waited a moment and then spoke calmly to the group. “Folks we need to think before we leap. For now we need to make a grocery run. But we need to do some serious strategy work on how to feed this community before we jump on this or that as a stop gap solution. If you see an aggressive looking bear in the woods and you want to avoid becoming a meal, the last and worst choice is to turn and run without a plan for where you are going and how you are going to get there.” Gerry looked at Bruce and Rob. “We need a plan for tomorrow so we can let our people know what to expect. The unknown creates a fear that turns into unproductive worry. Useful work is an encouragement to everyone. Joann is exactly right. Ladies, you need to talk, really talk, with the other women about our concerns and how to handle this. There is a lot more collective knowledge among them than they realize going back several generations into their family experience. They need to talk with their husbands, too, about things they remember about their grandparents and what they learned from them. All of us need to pull together on this. This is fundamental. Without this being addressed, the rest of what we are doing is just play acting.”
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Post by feralferret on Jan 28, 2024 17:47:41 GMT -6
Thank you, pbbrown0!
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Post by pbbrown0 on Jan 30, 2024 22:14:04 GMT -6
Post #81 Calming Cow Time
The family worked out a plan for the next day. Then they went inside to talk with the families inside the lodge. The family all took seats except for Gerry, who stood near the front door. He spotted Patty sitting among Joe Hinkley, his wife Susan, and their three kids. He realized his attention had gotten snagged on that sight and he shook himself loose to get the attention of everyone else in the room. “May I have your attention for just a minute?” He called out to the crowd. They got quiet fairly quickly and he continued. “This has been a busy day starting this new week. We have completed some very important goals. We have also begun thinking more about what is ahead of us with our recent accomplishments behind us, or should I say with us, now. Tomorrow we are going to keep going, but with a slight shift in focus, but also in perspective.” Gerry paused knowing that his last statement would prompt some thinking as well as listening. “We are all working together, because we have some common or at least very similar goals. We all want to take care of our families. We also want to make sure that the troubles ahead have a hard time getting to our families and those who are dear to us. Some of those troubles have visited you all to some degree already and my family, that is the Smiths, Coopers, and I tried to help you by providing a safe place for your family and food to eat. We also employed you because we needed help with reaching our goals. I am not saying this to elevate my family in your view. I am trying to emphasize that we have been working together for everyone's benefit. That mutual benefit is something I want to come back to in a minute.” “For tomorrow we are sending a team to buy some more groceries and talk with a grocery wholesaler some distance from here. Another team of workers is going to stay here and start work on building another lodge, similar to but not identical to this one to be used for essentially the same purpose when things get really bad. And, by the way, many of us here expect things to get considerably worse than what we have seen so far.” “Now there is one more team we need help with tomorrow which is tied to what I was saying a minute ago about mutual benefit. Before I get into that there is something else I need to say to all of you. It has been brought to our attention that we have been making a mistake in what the Bible cautions against in relating to one another. The term favoritism is a good way to describe it. For example some of you look at the resources my family used to provide you shelter and food, so you started calling me Mister and calling the women in our family Ms. Honestly, some of us were differentiating among you because of something we perceived that you did or did not contribute. This is not about blaming anyone. It's about fixing this mistake from all directions. We are all going to be valued. We are all going to be treated as someone who is valued.” “Now,” Gerry took a breath. “We need the women to take the lead in this, but I think you all should talk with your husbands about things they know or remember too. Here is the project, and this is maybe the most important project we need to work on. We need to develop a strategy and implement a strategy for feeding this group during the coming winter and the troubles that lay beyond this winter. We already hit one grocery store that would not take cash to pay for groceries. Even if we keep finding places that will take cash for groceries for a while, our cash for groceries is going to start buying less and less until we can no longer afford to buy groceries. Of course there is a lot of evidence pointing toward folks like us soon not being able to buy groceries, even if we still have cash. Tomorrow we are planning for a team to drive two hundred miles round trip to buy groceries for all of us, and that takes fuel which is also going to rise in price. We have to figure out how to get ourselves out of the grocery buying business, and how to afford to buy groceries, until we have succeeded in getting out of the grocery buying business. This is going to require all of us working together to succeed in this project.” There were a few questions posed to Gerry some of which he deferred to Rob, Bruce, and Jenny. When the questions died down Gerry turned to find Patty so they could go check on the cows, but Bruce grabbed his shoulder lightly before he stepped away. “Gerry,” Bruce spoke quietly. “I talked with Rob about this and we agreed. We would like for you and Patty to go with Jenny, Linda, and Joann tomorrow. You and Patty are both from this area and you have more farming experience than anyone else I know in this room. I and a number of others want to learn more but you have some experience and also I understand you had some mentoring in agriculture from C. J. Sullivan. Joann has training in biology so that should help too. Jenny and Linda are going to talk to Betty about getting the other ladies organized to do some thinking and brainstorming about what you presented to them this evening. Try to explore with this Huffstetler fellow about supplies as well as the possibility of exchanging or supplying to him from what we produce here. We have the beginnings of being able to produce chicken, eggs, milk, meat, and anything else we can grow. Again this is exploring, but not trying to lock in a production agreement. I know you need to get to your cattle now, but I figured you could mention it to Patty while you are taking care of the cattle. I'll see you in the morning.” Bruce turned and walked away. Gerry headed toward Patty wondering how Bruce knew Patty would be helping him with the cattle this evening. When he got to Patty she was talking with Colleen and both of them greeted him with a smile. He told Patty that he needed to get to the cattle soon, and she asked if Colleen could come with them. Bruce laughed out loud and Patty looked confused. “What's so funny about Colleen helping with the cattle?” Jenny looked back and forth from Gerry to Colleen and Colleen started laughing too. “I was just remembering the first time Colleen was introduced to one of my cows.” Gerry said trying to get his chuckling under control. “Colleen was reaching over the top of the fence where the cow was grazing. She leaned down and rubbed the cow's neck. The cow raised her head and licked Colleen from her neck all the way up the side of her face. I'll never forget the face Colleen made. It was priceless.” “So, you won't mind if Colleen comes with us?” Patty asked. “Of course she can come and help. I know she likes the animals. That's an important factor, in my opinion, about learning to work well with them. That's why I asked about who wanted to help when I was picking a crew for moving them. How about Carl or your Mom and Dad, Colleen? I know your Dad is wanting to raise some cattle. When did he plan to start?” Gerry grinned. Colleen seemed surprised. “Are you sure that would be alright?” “If he is serious about wanting to raise cattle, he'd better get started. He doesn't have time during the day to work with them. He stays busy juggling trucks and people and counting payroll and keeping track of our finances. I hope he doesn't plan on Patty and I to be taking care of all his cattle until things settle down here. Things are unlikely to settle down here. At least not for a while yet. I don't expect to be dividing the herd up into his and mine immediately. But he'll never be ready to take care of his or to know how many to call his until he decides how many he can handle.” Colleen looked at Gerry with a serious grin. “Gerry, sometimes you make so much sense its startling. Hang on a minute. I need to wrangle up some wranglers.” “Patty and I need to go ahead and start down there. You all can catch up. See you there.” Gerry said and turned to Patty. “I'm not in a rush. I just want some fresh air, if you don't mind.” Gerry started walking outside with Patty by his side. “Gerry,” Patty said as they stepped across the porch together. “I don't want to misinterpret or misunderstand things about what you were saying. Can I ask a question or two?” Gerry chuckled. “Patty, you are quite capable of asking a dozen or two, with or without asking anyone's permission.” He turned and grinned at her. Patty met his grin with a mock shocked look. “Are you insinuating that I ask too many questions?” “I would never do that, Patty” Gerry replied with mock innocence. “But that doesn't mean I can't have a little fun with the fact that you were asking if you could ask a question. Go ahead and ask, if you are brave enough to hear the answer.” Now Gerry was giving her a teasing smirk. Patty dived right into her questions. “When you were talking about dividing the herd up between you and Bruce. That was unexpected and disconnected information for me. Can you better explain what you meant to help me understand rather than me making guesses about what is going on?” Gerry was confused. “What part was confusing to you?” He asked. “All of it,” she answered. Gerry thought a second. “Oh, I forgot. The last week and a half has been so full that my perspective on time has gotten distorted. There are things that happened just before you … connected with us that I forgot you don't know about them yet.” “Gerry, less than a week ago I was still riding around blind folded in my own truck. You all were trying to keep almost everything a secret from me and everyone else.” Patty was talking like she was trying to explain to a concussion victim who had forgotten how they got hit on the head. Gerry started slowly and carefully. “I'm sorry Patty. Let me try to fill you in. I guess that was a bit confusing. Some of it was confusing to me at first, too. A few weeks ago Bruce had shared that he wanted to use some of the property they had here to build a house for Linda and himself and to raise a small herd of cattle. Not long after that the Smiths and Coopers decided to fully include me in what they are doing. I was already helping them so much to get started that they decided ...” Jerry paused in what he was saying as they continued walking. “They decided that I was already 'all in' even to the point of putting everything I had worked to build at risk in order to help them. So they, we, made a legal agreement that made us legally equal owners of everything. That included my farm, their land, their money, and my money. This was before Carl and Colleen got married, but they were included in the agreement as well because they were already engaged. Carl and Colleen had said that they wanted to build a house to but only raise a few cows to help take care of their family, which they didn't yet have.” Gerry continued, “With all that has happened since then we haven't talked about the particulars of how Bruce and Carl are going to take responsibility over a portion of the herd. You and I were talking – was that yesterday, or was it today? – about spreading the herd between my farm, which is technically theirs too, and here, which technically is part of my farm now too. Well technically the part that is mine too is a little farther down the mountain yet, but that is a different story. Does that answer your questions?” Patty was chewing on that for a minute. “Well I'm still wrapping my head around it, but it answers some of my questions about what you said.” “Okay what part do you still not understand?” Gerry asked. Patty was thinking as they walked. “Well it's … well, when you asked me if I wanted to come with you this evening to check on the cattle, it almost sounded like a kind of date; you know time for you and me to spend together with just us getting to know each other better. But then you talked about every morning and every evening like a regular time for us to spend together if I wanted to. When Colleeen heard we wre going to check on the cattle and asked if she could come, so I asked you rather than assume you wanted only me there. You said it was fine for Colleen to come and invited her Mom and Dad and Carl to, I got all confused about having misunderstood what you really intended. But then you mentioned you and I taking care of Bruce's cattle until things settled down like you assumed I would be with you every time you check on the cattle on a permanent basis.” Patty stopped talking and kept walking. “What exactly are you thinking this is, my coming to help you with the cattle, I mean?” Patty was a little tense, but calm. Gerry was walking while he was thinking. “Patty, I'm trying to sort that out myself. I guess the best way to answer is to just tell you what I've been thinking and what I am thinking, well maybe just what I'm sure of that I am thinking until I'm sure of more. That day when everything went haywire, we spent a lot of time together but the stress levels for everyone were so high that most of what I was thinking all of that day was 'how do we manage this so we don't make it worse?' And I also was concerned about how hard these developments must be on you. That reminds me, Bruce wants you and me to go with Jenny, Linda, and Joann tomorrow when they go to the wholesaler to explore longer term possibilities with him about supplying the wholesaler and being supplied by the wholesaler. I was thinking that might be a good opportunity for you to take your phone out of it's metal box and call your father. We can talk more about that later.” Gerry cleared his throat. “I'm sorry. I got off track there. Back to your questions. After that really crazy day, you and I have spent a lot more time going places and doing things together; sometimes with others around and other times with no one around you and me except the two of us. Most of our activities in that time, for each of us, have been you and me working together. I am liking that. I am enjoying that. Every day it just seems to get better and better, and I like that. I like you Patty. Yesterday was good for me. Today has been really good for me. The things I was saying about us working the cattle together whether with just you and me or with others around, whether is was implying it was for once in a while or for a steadier longer time, it was all about my trying to move things toward what I am hoping. What I am hoping for is more opportunities to spend time doing things with you, Patty.” Patty was walking along, well actually, as anyone who has walked through a forest where they are not following a trail understands, she was picking her steps through the vegetation on the forest floor while trying to keep up with Gerry with his longer legs, and trying to process what Gerry had said. Her first impulse was to ask another question to narrow Gerry's answers down to a definitive clarification. Then she thought about giving a response that would provide Gerry with clarifying feedback. But she remembered the advice from Joann, and Pete, and Jenny, and Colleen that she had heard in recent days. 'Be patient.' She decided not to say or ask anything. Instead, she hurried her steps just a fraction to fully catch up to and step closer to Gerry. Then without saying a word she reached over and curled her right hand into Gerry's left hand and kept trekking through the woods. Soon they crossed the creek and entered the paddock containing most of the cattle. Gerry went straight to the watering trough to check the water level. He saw that it was down to about six inches of water. Gerry's was clearly concerned about this. “Patty, the first cows got here early but that was only a handful. It has been essentially nine maybe ten hours since the first group arrived and the last ones got here two hours ago. Averaged out the water consumption is like five hours of a full herd being here. This is all just an approximation, but it looks like we need a minimum of two troughs full of water per day. Three would be better. Until we have a lot more troughs to spread out among the different paddocks, we either need to have someone keeping an eye on the water level in the troughs and refilling them all through the day, or we need to consolidate the troughs in the paddocks where we have the cattle and move the troughs whenever we move the cattle. We need to be organized to cover this first thing in the morning. Right now we need to refill this trough and the trough in the next paddock. Then we need to open the next paddock so these cows can get to both troughs during the night.” As Gerry was talking Bruce, Colleen, Carl, and Rob were crossing the creek and coming toward Gerry and Patty. Gerry jumped right into explaining the problem. Bruce pointed out that the one paddock with the two bulls would be okay with only one trough. Carl suggested that they start moving the empty troughs right now so that there were two troughs in one paddock for the cows and calves and three troughs in the other paddock. By keeping the gate open between the two paddocks they should have plenty of water to make it through the night and then some. Carl said he could then get a few men to start working on more troughs first thing in the morning. Gerry said that would be a good plan so the supply of water in each section would be more substantial and not need to be refilled so often. Bruce said he would take responsibility for monitoring water levels while Gerry and Patty were on the trip to Jemimasson. Patty spoke up and said for right now, she and Colleen would start figuring out the faucets and hoses to get the troughs refilled while the men worked on relocating the empty troughs into place. One half hour later four of the troughs were full and the fifth and sixth one were being filled. Gerry was re-explaining to all of them about getting the cattle use to being physically contacted by the people who were working with them and getting accustomed to the sound and intonation of their voices. “They need that familiarity in order to build their trust in you.” Gerry explained to them. “If they trust you they will respond positively when you nudge them or gesture for them to move where you want them to go. If they do not trust you they will be uncertain, anxious, or even fearful of following your signals to them. So building trust makes the job of managing them far easier.” Gerry was encouraging everyone to move gently among the cows, stroking their necks and talking in a soothing voice. As they went from one cow to another, Patty and Gerry were doing what Gerry had described to both demonstrate the method and also, as Gerry had mentioned to Patty, to reassure the cattle who found themselves in a new and unfamiliar place. Every once in a while someone would watch Gerry or Patty to reassure themselves that they were mimicking their mentors correctly. Patty was watching these family members, too, noting the slight differences in their style of establishing that contact, while staying sensitive to their positioning themselves relative to the calves with their Mamas. During one of these pauses to watch the others, Patty suddenly caught her breath covered her mouth with her hand and started giggling. Gerry heard her gasp and had turned to see what was up. He was really puzzled when she started giggling. Gerry stepped toward her and asked gently so it would not distract the others. “What is it, Patty?” She reached out and took his hand and had him turn toward the others. “Watch. Bruce and Rob are turned away so they won't notice you watching them. See how they are stroking and patting those two cows? Now watch what happens when they move on to contact some other cows. Watch the cows they left behind. There! That one has stopped grazing. Now it's going to the water trough. See those cows at the trough. They are fixin' to leave the trough. See that clump of cows over there deep in the shadows of the trees. They are laying down chewing their cud. Those cows leaving the trough are heading over to join them. I got tickled when I realized the pattern because it made me think of how parents teach their little children a pattern to get them settled down for bed at night. It struck me that we are getting these big beasts tucked into bed like little children. That's what made me laugh. I just love it.” She squeezed Gerry's hand as she finished her explanation. Gerry smiled back at her. “You are such a natural for this. I finally saw that pattern after a couple of years of working with them. You saw it in less than a day. It's like knowing these cattle and how to care for them was coded in your DNA or something.” “I'm not sure I would go that far.” Patty's face twisted comically. “I do know, however, that I am fascinated with them, and I really feel a satisfaction in working with them and learning more about them. I really love being able to spend time doing this and knowing that it is helping. I could enjoy doing this as a long term adventure.” Just then, Colleen appeared next to them. “Sorry to interrupt. The troughs are essentially full unless you want to stay here late and really top them off after every single bovine has had their last sip for the night.” She shook her head and chuckled. “We still haven't worked with those two bulls over there, but I suspect it would be better for some of us to build up our own confidence, before we start trying to make them feel more secure here.” “You're probably right about that, Face Lick.” Gerry teased with exaggerated seriousness. Colleen playfully poked him in the ribs and he feigned injury. Patty laughed. “You had that coming, Gerry and you know it.” Gerry replied, “Come along. I need to get you two hooligans out of this field before you disturb the cattle and undo all the calming they have received this evening.” He put an arm gently around Patty's shoulders and grabbed Colleen's hand, then he started directing them toward the gate. He caught Carl and Bruce's eyes and gestured with his head toward the gate in the fence around the paddock. He let go of Colleen's hand and slipped his other hand down to Patty's hand as he stepped through the gate. He continued holding her hand in his left hand and the gate with his right until everyone had filed out of the fenced in field. “Thank you, everyone.” Gerry spoke to them once he had closed and latched the gate. “You all did well and as you can see, the cattle are settling in for the night. Patty and I will be down here for a brief check on them in the morning before breakfast. You are all of course welcome to stop by any time, morning, evening, or in between to check on them or to help out. I'd like to split the herd evenly between the two fields tomorrow evening if you want to help. Are we good with the plan for tomorrow?” Everyone nodded and verbalized their assent with a 'yep' or a 'got-it'. “Great, and Thanks again.” Gerry reaffirmed them. “Let's head for the house.” As they were walking back, Gerry spoke quietly with Patty. “Patty I arranged with Pete to have some Bible study time when we get back to the lodge. As far as I'm concerned you are welcome to join us in that, but Joann also offered the option of you having some Bible Study time with her and Jenny.” Patty looked at Gerry as they were making their way along. “What would you prefer, Gerry?” Patty asked. Gerry stopped and turned to her. “Patty, please hear me. I don't need you to be making decisions based on what you think will please me. I am pleased enough with you being you. I would be happy for you to study right along with me. I would be happy for you to have some time to study with Jenny and Joann so you can enjoy their company and their insights. I would be pleased with … honestly I am happy right now, and I don't see me reacting negatively to whatever you decide you want right now. I am not going to try and read anything into what you choose. What you choose is what you choose. You are you, and I really like who you are. Don't try to make yourself different for my sake or so that I might like you more. That wouldn't work if you tried.” Patty was staring at Gerry trying to grasp his meaning. “But, Gerry ...” She stopped. Hadn't Gerry said earlier that he wanted to spend more time doing things with her? She liked him saying that, and that made her want that too. It made her happy that he wanted that, and she wanted to keep that in mind when she was choosing what to do, and yet now he was saying he didn't want her to change in order to please him. She also remembered wanting to come to this place so she would be able to spend more time studying, spending time with, and learning from Jenny and Joann. She still wanted that too. What really got to her, though, was how he said that he likes who she is and not to change that. That couldn't be a manipulation to influence her choices. That had to be real, even if she didn't... “Gerry, I want both." Patty blurted out. "I want to have Bible Study time with Jenny and Joann, and I want study time with you, and I want more time with you even though we've been spending almost all day together lately. This evening I want to study with Jenny and Joann, but can we also plan for time later this week to study together, too?” Gerry at first looked a bit stunned, then a smile began to spread across his face. “I was fixing to suggest that very thing just a minute ago and stopped myself. I wanted you to make your choice without my suggesting other options for you to grab at out of trying to please me. I trusted you to take me at my word and to choose what you really wanted. Now I know what you wanted, and I love what you chose.” Gerry gave both of her hands a squeeze. He turned to head on to the lodge still holding her hand, but Patty used his hand to turn him back towards her and wrapped her arms around his chest in a hug. Gerry gently returned her hug and laid his cheek on top of her head. They released each other from the embrace a few seconds later and hurried on toward the lodge. They were both wanting to catch up with the others and eager to find their mentors.
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Post by feralferret on Jan 30, 2024 22:42:08 GMT -6
Things are developing nicely with Gerry and Patty.
Thank you for another fine chapter, pbbrown0.
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Post by gipsy on Jan 31, 2024 9:01:36 GMT -6
Fine update
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Post by pbbrown0 on Feb 4, 2024 11:56:15 GMT -6
Post #82 A Bright New Morning
Gerry and Patty were out of the trailers and on their way to check on the cattle across the creek just as the sun was breaching the horizon. Even though it was hidden below the trees to the east, they could see the crest of the mountain to the south of them was bright already. The cattle were still under the trees sleeping when Gerry opened the gate. The water in the troughs did not appear to be touched overnight so he and Patty turned to head to the lodge for breakfast. Bruce met them at the gate. “I thought I would get up early and check on the herd, but I see you to beat me to it this morning.” Bruce said. Gerry noticed that Bruce was awake but not fully alert yet. “Good morning, Bruce. We just beat you by a couple of minutes. It's good to see that you are getting into tending to your herd so quickly. You are going to be a good cattleman, aren't you?” “I'm going to try, Gerry. I have a lot to learn, though.” Bruce replied. Gerry grinned. “Patty and I checked and it looks like the cattle are still not stirring from the night. The water is fine, so they must have gotten enough to drink before we left them yesterday evening. It will be two or three hours before we need the water to be checked again. How about we head to the lodge and get some coffee and see what time breakfast will be ready.” “Y'all go ahead.” Bruce replied. “I'll check on Linda first and see if she's ready to walk over with me. I'll see you two in a bit.” Bruce turned back toward his trailer, so Gerry and Patty turned toward the lodge. As they were trekking through the woods, Patty and Gerry were talking with each other. They had talked before while hiking between the lodge and the trailers or the meadow, but today is was more relaxed and conversational, rather than like an exchange of questions and answers. “Gerry, I was thinking about that trip today. I know Jenny was thinking about driving her truck and pulling your trailer in case they brought back a freezer or other equipment, but it sounded like the strategy for this trip changed with them wanting Joann and us to go along.” Patty was pausing every couple of seconds in her talking when she altered her footing on the uneven ground and vegetation. “Yep. That's what it sounded like to me.” Gerry was glancing over and back at Patty periodically to make sure he wasn't out running her as they progressed through the woods. “I was thinking,” Patty continued, “I would like for us to take them in my truck, instead. The partition and such is still up in Rob's truck. Also, we left one of the fuel transfer tanks in my truck, and we didn't get one loaded in their truck. We ought to fill it up if we can and bring some fuel back here, hopefully before the prices are fully impacted by the problems east of here.” “That's a great idea. I hadn't thought of that. There is so much going on I seem to be missing some of the details that we need to be thinking about.” Gerry was both enthusiastic and chagrined in his response. Patty decided to tease him a bit. “Yeah, I figured since I was being such a distraction for you, I'd better try to make up for that by doing some of the thinking for you, as well.” She watched and giggled as she saw Gerry almost miss a step just ahead of her. He didn't turn to glance back for a bit longer trying not to acknowledge how he had been trying to watch out for her so frequently as they trekked along. “The truth is,” she continued, “I have gotten pretty comfortable being driven around in my own truck by a good looking chauffeur. I never knew how pleasant that could be.” Gerry couldn't let her get away with the continued teasing without turning the tables. He stopped and faced her. “It is very kind of you, Madam, to say so. Although, I am merely doing my job. Still, it is pleasant to know that my skillful efforts are properly appreciated.” He punctuated his response with a dramatic bow. When they reached the lodge Patty broke away saying she wanted to see what she could do to help Jenny and the other women with getting breakfast ready. Coffee was only starting to brew, so he had to wait for that. He spotted Carl and Pete sitting at a small table in a corner of the main room. It looked like they had a study going, so he decided to not interrupt them. He went out on the front porch and sat down in one of the chairs out there. He heard some talking off to the right and saw Bruce and Linda making their way through the woods from the east coming toward the lodge. He greeted them and stood to follow them inside. Linda was making a beeline to the kitchen, telling Bruce she would be back with a cup of coffee for him. In a matter of minutes she was back with a cup for Bruce and a cup for Gerry, too. Bruce and Gerry went back out to the porch to sit and talk. “Bruce, Patty had an idea about our trip to Jemimasson this morning. She thought we might use her truck instead of Rob's truck. She pointed out that the partition was already down in hers, but more important was the fact that hers has one of the fuel transfer tanks still in it. She thought it might be wise to fill it up if we can get a decent price over to the west. The shock to the fuel prices from the quakes over to the east may be a day or two slower getting over there. I was thinking that even if they are already rising there, it might still be a good idea to get a load of fuel to bring back before the prices get even higher.” “You're both right about that, Gerry.” Bruce was nodding his head. “The price from day to day is impossible to predict, but if we have extra already on hand we can ride out a short term spike, and at least cover ourselves if there is an actual shortage at a gas station, which I have seen before. That is not a pretty sight when it happens. I've seen people get in physical fights over getting to a pump when they were thinking the station wasn't going to get a gas delivery for two more days. I saw that once when a hurricane down in the gulf prompted a couple of refineries to shut down for a few days.” “That sounds bad, Papa Cooper, but think about it this way.” Carl had slipped out onto the porch quietly and startle both Bruce and Gerry when he spoke up. “ A lot of workers live paycheck to paycheck, and some don't even make it that long if they have any small hiccup in their expenses. Now think what might happen to them if they missed two days of work because one person in line ahead of them got the last tank full of gas. First they might miss two days of work and that is forty percent of their weekly paycheck. For them that is not a small hiccup. But wait, if they are getting paid weekly, these days, chances are their employer has a lot of turn over and a lot of part-time low pay rate employees. That means the employee is seen as commodity labor, so there is a good chance they will be fired for missing two days. Then they are in real trouble. So how hard would you fight to be next at the pump, if your job depended on you getting that position?” Bruce was quiet for a while, and so was Gerry. Bruce was the first one to speak next. “Sometimes we get comfortable with the blessings we have and loose sight of what others are dealing with. Rob and I both got decent jobs a number of years ago when things were more 'normal' and we got use to that. These people working for us were fortunate enough to have decent jobs with a decent employer, but those jobs were the new version of decent; not like what we called decent twenty years ago. When your grandpa was young the 'decent jobs' these folks had would have been considered a hopeless dead end. The the epidemic hit and they lost their jobs. It never clicked in my head how long these folks who are helping us 'make it' went without steady work. Patty mentioned that they were checking back with her regularly about her having news about any work she might have heard about. No wonder they were so eager to take a job without even having a clue where they were working. It never occurred to me that Gene was the only one who still had a vehicle, and not one of them expressed a worry in the world about what would happen to their homes or belongings back in Hollerton.” Bruce was very somber now. Gerry stood up. “Bruce, things have been getting gradually harder for a lot of people. Some of us haven't been paying enough attention to it because we were busy taking care of our own business rather than worrying about other people's business. It's too late to go back and fix what is now too broken, and what is beyond our means to fix. We need to learn a lesson from this, but we have to look realistically at what we can do going forward. You can't plow a straight row, if you are constantly looking back over your shoulder. We have to get some strategies and priorities in place, if we are going to succeed in helping anyone, including ourselves. That's what we need to put our energy and our heart into.” The three men went inside and found seats at a table where Rob had been sitting by himself with a cup of coffee. There were already plates and utensils on the table and in a few minutes ladies were bringing serving dishes of hot food to their table. Everyone stopped for a moment as Pete stood up to offer thanks to the Creator for the food they were receiving. Jenny came over and sat by Rob. She mentioned that she only had a few minutes and she would need to be back in the kitchen soon. Bruce talked to her while she was eating about the suggestions for altering the plans for the trip to Jemimasson this morning. Everyone else was thanking her for the breakfast that they had been served. Few minutes later Linda and Joann came to sit down and Jenny jumped up. Pete showed up less than a minute later. Most of the men were almost through eating when Patty and Colleen came over prompting Joann and Linda to excuse themselves. Pete looked over at Patty. “Good morning, Patty.” Pete said. “I didn't realize that you were on the kitchen crew.” Colleen jumped in with a reply. “We are kind of fluid with the scheduling of the women. Any one of us can volunteer for working on one of more of the meals, helping with the kiddos, cleaning, everything like that. Jenny has designated team leads for each area of work every day, so we know who to report to. If the lead has a full team already, we can go to a different lead and volunteer. If a lead sees they are going to be shorthanded they check around to see if someone else is willing to help. If that doesn't work, they can see another team lead about borrowing from another team that was already formed.” Rob seemed like he was concerned about what Colleen said. “Does that mean that if you need more help and no one steps up you just let it go, and those who did step up have to carry the load for the others?” Colleen turned to Rob and looked carefully into his eyes, not in a challenging way, but more like she was studying him. “Papa Smith, I can understand your concern about what if someone is a shirker, but let's take a look at the positive side first. We told these families that as long as the husbands are working for us we are going to consider them our house guests. Grandpa Smith, Joann, Carl, and I are responsible for this lodge and for the people we take in as guests here. The four of us take that responsibility as hosts very seriously, and we also take our personal integrity very seriously. When we tell someone they are our house guests then they can be certain that we will stand by our word.” Now Colleen transitioned to a different perspective. “Now as for your worries that someone might abuse the lack of demands placed on them, we don't see any signs of that becoming a problem with these families. You also need to remember that the guests you are talking about are all women. No offense meant, but there are things about women that most men do not understand. If there is a reason that one of us women needs to not be helping with this or that chore right now, we, that is all of the women, we'll be able to see very quickly the difference between one of us needing a hall pass and someone shirking their responsibility to the group. Trust me. The kinds of problems we find will be dealt with in ways that are ... not limited by policy. We don't need to have a rule laid out for every situation that might arise. Women can be subjective and still be very effective. Most important, though, is that there is no sign of that kind of trouble with any of these women. Everyone here wants to make this work.” Patty who had been eating while Colleen was talking wanted to add to the discussion. “I know I'm not part of your family, but I have been aware of these people for a while now. Colleen is right about this group. They are so grateful for what you all have done for them. They don't want to do anything that might mess up this opportunity for their families. You are taking care of their needs and they all want to do whatever they can to return that favor.” “That is encouraging to hear.” Bruce responded. “We need to be able to trust each other. That's one of the reasons I appreciate Gerry talking for our family to the other families. The way he frames things when he is talking to them just seems to capture that. We have enough problems trying to deal with the world out there, without having internal issues. I just hope the women can develop some good strategies for keeping all of us fed. I don't know how far any arrangements with this wholesaler are going to be able to take us.” Pete, who usually just listened to these discussions had something to say about this conversation. “You're right about what you were saying, Bruce. We have a lot of challenges to face. Y'all were touching on some things that are very important for us to remember. We have to keep our integrity. If we deal with others, inside or outside our group, with fairness and genuineness, we are more likely to get that fairness and integrity returned in how they treat us. Some people of course will not give back in the same way, and we need to be alert to those who don't. They are not to be trusted. If we must deal with them we do not want to slip into doing business their way, because that course is full of hidden traps and snares. We need to keep seeking guidance and wisdom, while we stay faithful to the effort to do the right thing.” Rob added in, “I think what Dad is saying is that we need to keep on praying, not just for help, but for help in doing the right thing and being who we are supposed to be. Gerry, I hear you and Patty are going with our wives this morning to see what you can find out from the wholesaler northwest of here. I hope that goes well and y'all stay safe.” In order to assure the communications stretch they decided that Pete would take the first truck (after the lead truck with Gerry, Patty, Jenny, Linda and Joann), Rob would take the second truck with Gene, Pete would take the third truck with Colleen, and if necessary Bruce would take the fourth truck with Randy. With the sun still rising very early, the first truck was away before seven o'clock. They figured that would put them in Jemimasson at about 9:45 Once on the road the team in Patty's truck began talking about their approach to Mister Huffstetler. They did not have an appointment with him and knew that might be a problem. Patty had her phone with her but with all the anxiety from a few days ago, she was reluctant to use it until she was well away from Black Bear Mountain. She decided she would call the wholesaler right at eight o'clock. That would be about the earliest they could get hold of someone to talk about appointments with the boss, and they would be just outside of Fox County by then. They also did some brainstorming about questions regarding pricing on purchases as well as possible products they might sell to the wholesaler in the future. Back at the haven, Carl was dividing up the men who were going to work on the new lodge and on the troughs. He put Jeff Richards, Sam Kline, and Tom Wooley on building more troughs. The others he kept with him to start laying out the work of building a new lodge. The first thing Carl had them do was to sit down together at the table near the semi-covered kitchen which Pete and Joann had built. Then Carl got the sketches and notes that had been made for the house that Pete and Joann want to build. He wrote a number on each page and then passed these sheets of paper out to the group and told them all to make a hand copy. Once they had made a copy of the page they had received, they were to trade their original sheet with someone else so they could make a copy of the next sheet. Eventually everyone had their own full copy of the notes and sketches. Then they went over the notes and sketches together. Now Carl addressed the five men with him at the table. “There are a lot of people not here who have a stake in how this is designed. But before we start working on the work of building there is a lot of work still to be done. You are going to help us finish designing this house. We have to put some dimensions down and decide on how many bedrooms and other rooms to include. Then we need to work out details like what materials to use where, how to position the different rooms, how to set up the plumbing, how to arrange fireplaces, all the details that must fit together. In other words we, those of us here are going to determine and document a fundamental design. Then we will present the design for comment and approval. There will certainly be modifications and requests before the design is finalized and approved, but this team is going to put it all together. Hopefully, we will be getting more help on most days with the actual build, but we are the ones who will call the shots, because we will know the plans and how it all fits together. Are you with me?” Around the table there were a number of uncertain looks. Some were not sure they were hearing what they thought they were hearing. Liam finally spoke up. “Carl I don't think any of us have ever built, much less designed a house from scratch, before. I guess we were assuming you or one of your family would be telling us what they wanted done and how to do it. If you want us to take responsibilities for being team leaders and making sure we and the other workers stick to the plan you have, that is one thing. But you sound like you are expecting something different from that. Can you help us out with what your intentions are?” Carl looked around the table. “You are right Liam. What I am expecting is something different. I want us to be a team that does more than serve as construction team leads. I want you men to join with me in owning this plan. We need to work at being the architect and the contractor as a team. Think about this guys. If you take every person in all our families put together you will not find anyone who has either designed or built a house from the first notions to handing over a completed house to the new owner. All of us are in a position to be eager to help 'any way we can' but that won't work. We do not have resident experts for this and for that. We have no one to run to to ask 'How should I do this?' or to say “I have never done this before. Can you help me out here?' I have worked for a construction company before, but I would be lying if I said I know how to build houses. So here is the deal. We, all of you and I together, need to step up and own the building of this house. I need each one of you and all your brainpower to be able to figure this out. Frankly, I am going to be praying a lot for us to get what help we can from our Creator to think clearly and to have a lot of mental help as we tackle this project. That being said, We are going to have to take the lead in getting this house built without any excuses. Everyone else can be the followers on this, but we cannot. If any of you don't think you can do this, you can get up and walk away now. I'm sure Jeff, Tom, and Sam can use your help, I need people on this team who are committed to this. We will take input from anyone and everyone, but we have to have people on this team who will own more than this process. We need to own the results.” Carl stopped and looked as no one showed any sign of hesitance, several of the men were among those his family formerly referred to as the uncommitted. “I know some of you have commitments elsewhere and are not planning on staying here after this job is done. I appreciate your making this commitment, and I suspect the experience will prove helpful wherever you go next.” Unknown to Rob and Bruce, Randy was by himself near the crest of the mountain south of the lodge.
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Post by techsar on Feb 4, 2024 18:26:23 GMT -6
Sounds like some serious lack of communications, since Rob was supposed to be in the second truck and Bruce and Randy were to be in the fourth truck - if necessary. And who is monitoring the radio at the base?
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Post by feralferret on Feb 4, 2024 18:36:41 GMT -6
Pbbrown0, thanks!
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Post by pbbrown0 on Feb 7, 2024 18:21:06 GMT -6
Post #83 . . . With Scattered Clouds
Randy knew he was taking a risk and what he was doing was deceptive. Some might even call it dishonest. It wouldn't be the first time he could have been subjected to that kind of accusation. He had moved out here in the middle of nowhere without finishing High School, when all of his college acceptance letters had been rescended by those colleges' presidents. He had decided very early on that marching to a different drummer was not something other people tolerated well. Too many people in authority had a personal agenda that wasn't necessarily good for those under them. Too many people wanted oversimplified answers and were suspicious of complicated answers. Too many people made decisions based on their notions rather than the facts. He didn't like it but more and more often he found himself taking the course, of “what they don't know won't hurt them.”
But then he had been called out by Gerry yesterday. He had made a promise and he wasn't going to risk the consequences of breaking that promise. That is why he had gone to tedious lengths to write out his concerns and plans for addressing those concerns about the design for the antenna system. He had given it to Colleen insisting that she deliver it to her father before the first truck left this morning. If he was right, the truck that he was supposed to be riding in with Colleen's father this morning would never even leave the haven.
His design, even as incomplete as it was, would start having an impact on the family that would be enormous. His stop gap design was crude, depending on ropes and swivels suspended from the trees. Once he got the rest of the supplies from the radio outfitter he would be able to control the direction of the directional antenna by remote control. Yes, it would be slightly more complicated for the base radio operator, but one person could do it and still operate the base radio itself. This morning, however, he would have to adjust the direction of the rig manually, estimating the direction on the compass from the base antenna to the primary truck based on the time on the road and the expected position of the truck on the map. He had spelled this out in the papers Colleen was delivering to her Dad.
“We need more chickens and we need to wean some calves! I don't know how much those little cows can produce, but we could easily make good use of two or three gallons of milk a day, especially with all these children. We can also use some milk and eggs in puddings, casseroles, and making more nutritious breads to supplement our meals.” Betty Lassiter had barely finished calling the women together do discuss the strategy for feeding the community when Sally Wooley jumped up enthusiastically with her solution.
Martha Kline jumped in with her input, too. “Don't forget those cows. They may be small, but there is a lot of meat on them. If we can grow that herd, we'll have all the meat we need.”
Betty saw things about to get out of control very quickly. “Ladies please. I know everyone is thinking right now, but we need to work together to make sure we are not missing something. We have short term issues as well as long term issues. Yes we need food months from now, but we have to manage our food needs right now so we are not wasteful until we can feed ourselves. We need someone to write down all the ideas that are shared so we can look back and not forget any of the ideas that are shared. Is there someone here who would be comfortable being our recorder?” Judy Sawyer raised her hand. “Yes, Judy?”
“I would be willing to try recording our ideas. I might need some things repeated, though, if the speaker gets too far ahead of me.” Judy seemed a bit shy, but Betty was relieved that someone was willing to do that task.
“Okay, Ladies. Your ideas are important. If you don't want your ideas to be overlooked it is important to make sure you are heard and the Judy gets them captured. We need to keep this orderly. I will give everyone opportunities to contribute, but we need to take turns so everything and everyone gets fair consideration. I think it may be best to look first at the near term, before we look too far ahead. If you think of things that need to be done soon on order to be in position for the long term, we need to take those ideas too. We will need to make that clear in our discussion so Judy can capture that, and we don't forget it. So let's look at our near term problems or challenges first. What problems are we facing right now?”
Sheila raised her hand. Betty called on her and she began. “One problem is how to keep the food fresh, and that gets complicated. Until we produce our own food, no matter what type of food it is, we have an issue of keeping the food so it doesn't spoil before we can eat all of it. Even dried foods like beans, flour, and rice, can be ruined by too much moisture or from bugs or rodents getting into them. We are isolated. It takes time and money to get to a large supplier, so we want to reduce the number of trips. That means we need enough of any food we buy to last at least week or more. A month would be nice but maybe not be practical. This same issue needs to be addressed even when we get to a point where we are producing our own food. Let's say we butcher our own cow or a young bull, which by the way, we are not yet prepared to do properly. Even with these small cattle we will be getting well over two hundred pounds of meat per head. With our group, as large as it is, it will take some time before we use up all the meat that one cow provides. How do we keep that much meat so that it doesn't spoil before we eat all of it. We also need fresh vegetables in our diet. How do we keep them fresh until our next grocery run. If we grow our own vegetables in a garden, how do we keep a large harvest so that it lasts until the next growing season?”
Martha Kline was the next one to speak. “Both of my grandmothers canned a lot of food for the winter. You can keep vegetables, fruits, meats, just about anything and it last longer than in a refrigerator.”
Betty acknowledged Carol Green, next. “Speaking of grandmothers, my Grandma had a root cellar. Grandpa had dug it out right next to the house, then lined the walls with brick and mortar. They kept all kinds of food in there for months. It was on the north side of the house so the ground there was always shaded. Down under ground it stayed cool in the summer and winter, but it didn't freeze in the winter because it was insulated from the cold. They had shelves with slats instead of solid wood to let the air circulate. They would use sun baked straw as Grandma described it to separate and cushion the vegetables and help keep things dry and cool. Grandpa told me he kept the door and door frame tight and clean to keep bugs and critters out.”
April Roarke raised her hand, and Betty recognized her. “I haven't done it but I've read about drying or dehydrating food. It is supposed to allow food to last a long time with out loosing it's nutritional value. They make all kinds of dehydrators, but if the climate where you live is not too humid, you can air dry food or build sun powered dehydrating boxes. Re-hydrating is a simpler process that is basically adding water and waiting for the water to be soaked back up. That process is supposed to be really quick if you do it in heated water or use the dehydrated food in cooking.”
Becky Ross had her hand up before April had finished. “Yes, Becky. What would you like to say?” Betty asked.
“This is connected to what both Martha and April were saying as well as what you said earlier, Betty, about bugs and rodents getting in to the food.” Becky was very deliberate, like a school teacher, in what she said to the group. “My mother use to store cereal, flour, dried beans, and all kinds of what she called non-perishable food in big glass jars to keep bugs and other critters out of it. She said she learned early on that mice could chew through just about anything eventually except steel and glass. I also remember reading about dry canning. Things like I just mentioned can get tiny insects in them sitting on the store or warehouse shelf before you ever buy it. Dry canning or heating it in a jar before you store it away will kill any bugs or eggs that got in it so you don't have a whole colony of critters growing while you have it in long term storage on your own shelves. I even thought of that when April was talking about dehydrating our own vegetables so they can be kept longer without getting infested or devoured before we can eat them.”
Susan Hinkley hadn't said anything but her hand shot up as Becky was finishing. “Yes, Susan?” Betty pointed to her.
“We keep mentioning this, but we pass over to other points.” Susan seemed chagrined. “This is something we need immediately so we can benefit from it in a couple of months. We need to plant vegetables, and grains for that matter. We can have fresh vegetables in the early fall and later only if we plant now. Some things are considered fall or cold weather crops like broccoli and cabbages, but there are other vegetables we can plant now and still harvest this year because we have temperatures in September that other places consider summer temps. Winter usually come late here. Another thing we need is a green house. We can grow vegetables year round in one if we set up for that. We can also sprout seeds early and get them in the ground outside the greenhouse earlier in the year if the seedlings are strong enough. Typically stores that have seeds left over are trying to get rid of them now so they don't take up display space. We ought to buy them while they are cheap rather than waiting for them to be full price in time for hobby gardeners to look at spring planting.”
Katy had her hand up and a concerned look on her face. Betty called on her. “Katy it looks like you have a concern.”
Katy actually stood up. “Yes, I do.” She looked around. “First I want to say that I am really encouraged and impressed with all the ideas that everyone is sharing. There are a lot of possibilities I had never thought about that are being shared. I do have several concerns related to money. Most all of us here came here after a spell of little or no income and trying our best to scrape by. Then the Smiths and Cooper literally took us in and saved our hides from having to skip even more meals to feed our children. Now just listening to us, it sounds like we think the Smiths and Coopers have unlimited funds to implement whatever plans we come up with. Just for example, I know that canning is a great way to store food, but there is an initial cost for the jars and lids, not to mention getting big pressure cooker pots and large boilers for canning efficiently. Think about how many people we have here right now. You do realize they are starting work on another house with a similar capacity so they might be able to help even more people. Now think about those numbers and figure out how many days out you want to be able to store enough food to feed them. Now how many jars is it going to take to store enough food for all those people? Last I noticed in a grocery store the price per jar was about a dollar fifty per jar. Right now is when the stores are getting their new jars in for the canning season at their premium price. Like they've been telling us, if we were listening, those earthquakes have caused some problems with getting products into the stores, and that always means higher prices. I'm not saying our ideas are wrong. I'm just saying that our planning also has to address having enough money to make our plans work.”
Gerry was moving on down the road pulling the smaller trailer and checked his mileage. “Ladies, I hate to interrupt but it is time for a radio check.”
Patty turned in her seat and gave attention to the radio. “This is Puzzler calling Bull-Bear; Puzzler calling Bull-Bear. Come in.”
Bruce responded immediately. Loud and clear Puzzler. Loud and Clear.”
Patty keyed the mic again. “Check Complete. Over and out.”
Gerry glanced at Patty. “That was quick. Didn't even change channels.”
Patty replied . “No need to. There wasn't really a message to transmit. No since giving big Brother a chance to grab another snip of information about our normal patterns if we can git it done with an abnormal process step. If we were farther down the road or had been delayed, we might need to communicate that since we have this radio test we are conducting, but the less we show our cards, the better off we are in my opinion.”
“I have to agree with you there, Darlin'.” Gerry froze for a moment wondering if he was going to get questioned about using that endearment. He hadn't thought before it came out, but if anyone noticed they didn't say anything about it, and neither did he.
About fifteen minutes later, Bruce was ready for another radio check. Rob was ready to leave to take his place in the stretch, but Bruce had another idea. He asked Rob to contact Patty using his truck radio before leaving. Rob did and even switched channels before signing off. Bruce was confident the base station would be able to still reach them in another ten minutes so he had Rob wait before leaving. Ten minutes later he had Rob try again. Once again the connection was loud and clear and Bruce had Rob wait until after Bruce made contact with Patty's truck using the base station before Rob and Gene left. Bruce told them to stay in contact with Patty's truck using more frequent radio checks than normal, but to gradually stretch the distance between them until it was showing a weakened signal. Then they could tighten it up when they had a better measure for the workable distance between the trucks.
Rob and Gene had pulled out when Bruce suddenly turned pale. He realized that with Rob on the road he was the only one minding a base radio and he was planning to drive the fourth truck. He had sent four of the nine family members plus Patty in a single truck trying to get all of their experience into the process once they reached the wholesaler. If he went in one of the trucks with Randy he would have to pull Carl off the house building project to monitor the base radio. Now he was kicking himself for just planning in his head how to cover the radio coverage and who would manage which project segment today rather than charting things out like the project plans he had used in his old job. This communications issue was becoming a serious hindrance to productivity. This project to go talk to a grocery wholesaler and maybe buy some more groceries is tying up thirteen people this morning largely because of the challenges of safety communications in case something unexpected happens.
Bruce was thinking he did not want to leave the radio base station so right now he would have to wait until Pete and Colleen showed up before he could … Wait! He just remembered the hand held units They had agreed to carry. He again kicked himself mentally for not having his radio clipped to his belt. He started scrambling around the the things Pete and Joann had stored under the tarps in the original campsite. He finally found a box that was almost empty except for one hand held unit. He turned it on and the battery was almost dead. He set the channel and keyed the mic. “This is Bull Bear calling Song Bird, Bur Oak, and Path Finder. Please respond. Bull Bear calling Bur Oak, Song Bird and Path Finder; Please respond. Over.”
“Pathfinder here.”
“Songbird here”
He got two quick responses and then nothing.
Bruce keyed his mic again. “We need to talk. Bring Bur Oak. Over. Out.” Bruce sighed with some relief, but only some. He looked at the Radio Chargers and the base radio plugged into the power strip which was then plugged into the battery of batteries that were connected to the electric generator. His brain tripped over the homographs used to describe the electrical system components they were using. That system was yet another issue that needed to be addressed. When he was able to get away from his post to retrieve his own radio, he needed to be sure it was properly charged.
About the time he saw Pete, Colleen, and Carl approaching the rustic table at the old camp site, he heard Rob hailing Patty. Pecan Tree calling Puzzler. Pecan tree calling Puzzler. Quick Check.”
A few seconds later he heard, “Quick Check copied. Over.”
Bruce keyed his mic, “Quick check confirmed as double check. Do you copy double check?” He waited.
Patty replied “Double Check is loud and proud. Over and out.”
Then Pete responded, “Double check copied. Over and out.”
Bruce laid down the mic and turned to his family. “I fouled things up, big time. I got out this morning without my handheld, and then I fumbled the plan for getting people to Jemimasson and back. My plan this morning is going to leave no one minding the base station, which means Carl would have to leave his crew to monitor things here while Randy and I joined the radio stretching convoy. Randy, by the way, I learned just a few minutes ago is up near the crest of the mountain, manually adjusting the directional antenna so it can reach the lead truck. I hope its directional reach is wide enough to catch the second truck as well or we are going to have more trouble. I do not think Randy has a handheld for me to check with him on that issue, does he?” Bruce turned to Colleen with a questioning look.
Colleen gasped and covered her mouth. “Oh, shoot. I didn't think of that.”
Bruce looked at her seriously. “Colleen, I am not going to say that's okay, because it isn't okay. What I will say is that several of us did things or didn't do things that are not okay, including me. We have to fix some things, and not make these mistakes again. Pete you and Colleen need to leave here in ten minutes. Colleen I need to ask you to run to my trailer and get my radio and bring it back to me. That will put a bandage on Pete's mistake and one of my mistakes. While you do that I need to explain to Carl and Pete how we are going to address putting a bandage on my other mistake, and Carl will put a bandage on your mistake after you get back with my radio. Run on now.”
Colleen took off at a run up the hill towards the two camper trailers. Bruce turned to Pete. “Pete, I am stretching the space between trucks on the road. I understand more now about the design Randy is using for the antennas and such, so I am more confident that it will work as he intends so it will reach all the way to Jemimasson. If we are wrong, My mistake is going to cause a lot of complications. I am trying to cover my mistake be stretching the space we are allowing between our trucks that are trying to extend our reach relaying our messages from truck to truck. As I was reading Randy's notes I realized a flaw in his plan for today working with my plan for today.”
Bruce continued. “If he is pointing a directional signal towards Jemimasson in order to reach the truck there, the signal from here to the truck at the tail end of our string of relay trucks will be much weaker. I have to be able to coordinate with Randy regarding where he is aiming the antenna in order to assure we can reach each of our trucks, just in case the signal cannot reach all the way to the end of the line. When Colleen gets back, Pete you and Colleen need to establish contact with Rob and Gene then get on the road following them. I have this hand radio on the charger right now. Carl you will need to take my radio, when Colleen gets here with it, up to Randy so I can coordinate with him. He needs to stay up there instead of coming down to ride with me. On the way back down, Carl, you need to pick up one of your men to go with you in the last truck. That way you won't be alone, and the two of you can replace Randy and I taking the last truck. That way Randy and I can stay here and coordinate the aim of the antenna with the approximate position of each truck we have on the road.”
The three men went back over the modified plan to be sure it was clear and that they were not missing something again. Pete remembered a compass and a map he had packed away in this stash here at the old campsite, so he pulled those out just as Colleen was returning. Based on Randy's notes Bruce suspected that Randy had the same items with him op at the crest, but he could not confirm that yet. Pete and Colleen got in Pete's truck and contacted Rob and Gene. Bruce was listening in and gave them a thumbs up sign. He completed a radio check with the other two trucks as well. Using the hand held unit he told Colleen they could go ahead and get on the road, so they started off. He nodded to Carl who started up the hill at a strong and steady pace.
As the morning progressed, Bruce thought more and more about that child's puzzle game that Linda had mentioned regarding the process of sending multiple trucks out and then getting them to return. In fact they were able to reach all the way to Patty's truck when it was parked in Jemimasson. With the ability to coordinate with Randy and his shifting the direction the antenna was pointing, they had kept contact with all of the trucks that were out. Carl was able to turn around and head back with Arnold Ross almost as soon as Gerry and the ladies in Patty's truck had parked. Bruce was hesitant to call all the other trucks back right away, but he decided to go for it and called all of them back at once. He also indicated they should top off their tanks on the way back. This way all of the trucks carrying Colleen and seven of the men would be back at the haven by eleven:fifteen. Bruce would still have to monitor the base radio, but even Randy would be free to do other work until the crew in Jemimasson was ready to head back.
Gerry had been aware of the changes in how Bruce was handling the radio checks. He had not discussed it with Bruce before they left the haven earlier this morning, but it was clear that there were some impromptu changes being made to their normal patterns during the last half of the trip to Jemimasson. He also knew they could not discuss it over the radio. He would have to wait until they returned to find out what had happened to prompt the changes. When he parked the truck and trailer on the fringe of the “Huffstetler's Wholesale” parking lot He made a note of checking the view toward the horizon back toward Black Bear Mountain. While they weren't exactly on a mountain here, he was aware that Jemimasson was situated at a higher elevation than the crest of Black Bear Mountain to the southeast. As they had planned, Patty was keying the mic to check the signal back to their base station.
“Riddler calling Bull-Bear. Riddler calling Bull-Bear. Are you there Bull-Bear?” Patty hailed the Base Station.
Almost immediately they heard a clear call coming back. “Bull-Bear going to Channel 'X', Bull-Bear going to Channel 'X'. Over.” Patty calculated the channel adjustment, based on the day of the week, the day of the month, and the fact that it was morning rather than afternoon and changed the radio channel.
“Jigsaw Fiend calling Market Breaker. How is your hearing aid, Market Breaker?” She released the mic button and waited.
“This is the Stock Whisperer advising you that you do not need your megaphone, Brainteaser. Over and out.”
Suddenly Gerry raised two fists side by side over the steering wheel and hissed, “YES!”
Patty was startled by his demonstration and asked. “What is it, Gerry? Is there something I missed?”
“This is huge!” exclaimed Gerry. Think about how many people had to drive out this morning just to make sure we could call for help if something went wrong. Think of how many hours of work that means we didn't get done back at the Haven. Think also about how much gas it is taking for all of those trucks to be out on the road, and how exposed we are by having a string of truck running out from the Haven and back along the same path whenever we go somewhere. We don't have to do this anymore.”
It began to sink in for Patty and for the other three women in the back of her truck, how important this radio experiment was, especially since it had worked out as well as it had. They had honestly somewhat doubted that it would work as well as it had.
“Look,” Gerry said “Let's get out and stretch our legs. Our appointment is just over thirty minutes from now. Patty, why don't you get out and call your father. The rest of us will be just hanging out near or just inside the front entrance over there. We'll be waiting for you.”
Gerry and the three ladies in back started climbing out. As Gerry walked in front of the truck he saw Patty sitting in her seat and following him with her eyes. He circled around thinking she was waiting for him to open her door. He smiled and mused about the time she balked at him opening the door for her. When he opened her door she still sat there not climbing out, but turned toward him.
“Gerry, would you mind walking with me while I talk to my Daddy?” She seemed almost embarrassed asking him to do that.
Gerry tipped his head slightly to the side. “Sure, Patty. I'd be glad to. Is there something wrong?”
Patty had a pensive look on her face. “I don't, Gerry, sometimes my Daddy is … Well, I'm not worried about him giving me any trouble. I just don't have a good feeling about how he is going to deal with the troubles in Hollerton. He can get pretty stiff necked sometimes and the situation there has been stewing in his mind for a couple of years now. They ruined the business that he worked a long time to build up. I don't see him letting go of that. I wish he would take what little is left and leave that place, but I just don't see the Jim Decker, Lumber Jack, that I know walking away from this without him trying to get justice for what they have done to him. The real truth is I want you to be there so I'm not alone when I face the fact that my Daddy and I are parting our paths.”
Gerry gently took Patty's hand. “I'll be there for you Patty. I will.” Patty climbed out of the truck while holding Gerry's hand and began walking as she turned on her phone again. She scrolled through some settings and made the call. The first part of the call was cheerful and animated as they greeted each other. Jim seemed to have a lot of questions about how Patty was doing. She was very positive in her responses, but guarded about the location and some of the details of how things were progressing. At one point he must have asked if she was there at the site right now because she replied that she was in Jemimasson at the wholesaler's facility. Then, once again she seemed to dodge more questions about that.
She then turned the direction of the conversation to asking Jim about how he was doing and what was happening there in Hollerton. What followed was a lot of Jim talking about things with Patty responding in non verbal grunts and hums indicating she was listening but not commenting. Finally Jim started fishing for her real responses to his plans.
“Daddy, I understand why you feel that way, but that is not a path I want to commit to. … Yes, I agree that what they have been doing is wrong. It is very wrong.... Daddy the way it looks to me is that assuming you win this battle, you are then set up for more battles, and then more battles. I do not want to spend the rest of my life fighting those battles and never getting clear of that battle mode. … No, I do not, Daddy. Think of it this way. If you had a boat crossing the ocean and you ran into a small iceberg that damaged your boat. Would you stay on the same course and hope that was the biggest iceberg you would encounter, or would you look for a course that would take you to warmer waters where icebergs were less likely? ... I am planning on finding a way to make a life for myself where I am right now. … Yes, I do. Daddy, I am already happier than I have been since well before that epidemic started.... Yes. … Yes. … No, I actually closed that. No, not a thing. … Yes. … They don't need to take care of me Daddy. … Well yes. Let's just say it is a two way street. … Yes. … Very much so. … No, Daddy. That's not going to happen. … Yes, Daddy, I am certain about this. I love you too, Daddy. And Daddy, If you decide you've had enough of playing dodge ball with the icebergs, let me know. I think I might help you find some warmer waters. ... I do too, Daddy. I'll check back in a few days. Bye Bye.”
Patty was still holding Gerry's hand, but her gaze was a thousand miles away.
Gerry was quiet for a while. “How are you doing?” He finally asked.
She gave his hand a squeeze. “A lot better than I would have been if you hadn't been here with me.” Her voice started to pinch up and Gerry turned to face her. When he did she stepped closer and laid her head on his chest as she slipped her arms around his ribs. “I think he knew this was coming. He wasn't as adamant as I expected. With your being here I didn't feel so totally alone as I expected.”
Gerry gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “There is a reason for that.” He said quietly. “It's because you're not alone, Patty. You are not alone.”
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Post by sniper69 on Feb 7, 2024 19:07:18 GMT -6
Thank you for another great chapter. I'm really enjoying your story.
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Post by pbbrown0 on Feb 14, 2024 20:56:45 GMT -6
I want to apologize for it being so long since my last post. My story has been taking me to unconventional places. As it turned out I am posting TWO chapters back to back since this post got a bit long. I hope you enjoy picturing the scenes of this tale using your own imagination. - Paul
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Post by pbbrown0 on Feb 14, 2024 21:00:21 GMT -6
Post # 84 Adjusting The Sights
Bruce was feeling a lot of mixed emotions. He was really excited about how far the new antenna was able to reach. That was going to help in so many ways. Working with Randy talking over the handheld sets and going back and forth was a different experience. He was so accustomed to keeping communications cryptic and limited so the snoopers could not make any sense of it. When he first contacted Randy, using the hand set, Randy recommended switching to channel 11 and using only half a watt of power. At this close range the reception was good, and Randy assured him it would keep the signal from getting outside their small valley. Their working together helped Bruce to start developing a better perspective on the things Randy was telling him.
After Bruce called the other trucks back he took time to make some more notes on the sheets that Randy had sent to him. It was clear that Randy intended to provide ways to automate the antenna movements which he had performed manually this morning. Bruce had also spent some time making notes about the way he and the others had been dealing with their areas of responsibility. A lot of those notes were about the failure of his own method of 'winging it' when trying to work out the allocation of resources, whether those resources were individual people, the skills or propensities of those people, or the tools and equipment they were using. He suspected very strongly that managing these and other resources, like money, cattle, building materials and such were going to need close and careful management.
Bruce suddenly smacked himself on the forehead. He realized that no one in the family was here at the haven except himself. He and Randy were the only ones on site that even had a radio. He needed to get word to the women who were at the lodge that a number of people on the team would be back and needing to eat earlier than planned. He needed to stay here at the base station to monitor the radio in case a problem arose. Randy needed to stay up at the antenna on the crest of the mountain so they could keep in touch with the multiple trucks that were already heading back. They would be spread twenty miles or more apart until they had all returned. Once again in this one day, he had made a mess of the coordination of different groups by crafting a solution on the fly and not ... not examining a check list of requirements and possible issues. That was a key to making all this work. They needed a checklist of things they knew were needed and might have to be addressed. Some things might not be foreseeable, but all the problems he created today were foreseeable.
Betty had to call a halt to the brainstorming about food supplies. There were children that needed tending to and chickens that needed tending to. Shea also needed to get things organized for lunch preparations and plans for the evening meal as well. Fortunately, this being early in the week, just about everyone had clean clothes. She made a note to talk with … Hmm. She wasn't sure who, so she would talk to either Jenny, or Colleen, or Joann, or maybe Linda. Anyway she would talk to someone in the family about their clothes. They left Hollerton in such a hurry that most of their clothes were left behind. They could manage for now with doing laundry frequently, but fall would be just around the corner. Everyone that she knew of had paid their rent at the first of the month with the pay they got before everything went crazy. Technically they should be able to get back into their old homes to get their stuff until the end of August, but nothing was a sure thing anymore, was it?
She spent some time with Judy, going over her notes discussing how much to include and making sure nothing significant was missed. Judy wanted to write them out in full sentences rather than just having the key words that she had captured. She left Judy at a small table in the main room to work on that. She needed to get the team leaders and teams lined up so the necessary tasks would be handled appropriately. She found herself hoping the Joann was not too late getting back this afternoon. The kids would miss her Bible story time if she was too late. The truth was that the kid's mothers would miss it too.
It was ten o'clock when Carl and Arnold Ross pulled up near the table where Bruce was monitoring the radio. Bruce was very relieved to see them. “Carl, I know you need to get back to your crews, but I need to get word to the ladies in the kitchen team that some of you will be getting back sooner than planned for lunch. I also need someone to check on the water in the water troughs. I told Gerry we would take care of that, but I need to stay here to monitor the radio until everyone is back.”
“That's okay, Papa Cooper. I need to check on my crew that is working on the additional troughs. I'll send Arnold to the kitchen and then he and I can meet back with the group working on the house plans.”
“Thank you Carl” Bruce was obviously relieved. “I need for all of us to talk tonight about better planning and communications among the various groups that are working on all these projects. They are more interconnected and interdependent than I had realized. I'll talk with y'all later.”
Carl was very pleased when he checked on Jeff, Sam , and Tom. They had finished one trough and were making progress on a second trough. They were more than happy to check on the water levels of the troughs already in service. They actually seemed cheerful about the work they were doing. Carl was very happy at the progress being made by his other team in spite of both Arnold and himself being absent for almost two hours. They had realized a number of significant design criteria, like the number of people the house would be able to accommodate, was something that would have to be discussed and approved by others. That decision would in turn impact more than the number of bedrooms to include in the design. There were also considerations regarding bathrooms, and the size of the kitchen and great room that would be adequate to support the number of people that was decided.
Rather than hold off until the decision about numbers was made, they decided that modularization in their design was the way to go. It seemed to them that a suite of rooms, bedroom, bathroom, and small sitting room, or parent's room, bathroom, and children's room for each family would end up being too wasteful. On the other hand having more than one family, both men and women, share a common bathroom was not an acceptable solution either. What they settled on was a design for a three family cluster. Three bedrooms for three couples, a bedroom for boys, a bedroom for girls, a bathroom for men and a bathroom for women designed as an integrated unit. Of course the two children's bedrooms could be adapted for single adults or used for couples without children when needed.
Carl was excited about their design notions, and had some input of his own. Carl envisioned positioning and connecting these units so they could be inserted among the trees in the forest. He wanted to avoid the need to clear cut a mass of trees to accommodate a large solid square or rectangular shaped building. His idea was to build a core, then to attach appendages to that core. The appendages could be extended into spaces in the forest nearby where there were fewer trees to contend with. Being 'among the trees' during the summer months would provide more shade from the sun so the house/lodge could be cooler without air conditioning. As an added benefit it would be less obvious if someone was scanning a satellite view of the area.
Carl had not been back working with his team for very long when Colleen and Pete returned. He heard Colleen call him on his handheld, just to check in and let him know she was back. Bruce let her make that call, then asked Pete and Colleen if they could talk for a few minutes before heading to other tasks. “Pete, Colleen, I come close to messing up a bunch of things this morning and I am going to need your help. I don't want this to happen again, and I need you two to think about methods, procedures, communications among teams, checklists, 'something!' so we don't miss connections or double book something or someone and create problems with wasteful consequences. I want us to meet about this tonight after supper, but I wanted to give you a heads up so you can be thinking about it.”
Pete looked calmly at Bruce and asked, “What kinds of problems, came up. Give me specifics rather than concepts.”
“Okay, Pete.” Bruce conceded. “I understand that just the concept might leave gaps in what we anticipate so here goes. You and I were both caught without our hand sets that we had agreed to keep with us, back before the number of people here tripled. I needed assistance this morning when I recognized some problems, but I could not leave my post to call anyone. Also I had promised Gerry that I would be checking on the water levels for the cows while he was away, I scheduled myself to monitor the radio while teams were away from the Haven, and I scheduled myself to be in the last truck to go out, without scheduling anyone to take my post at the radio. I scheduled every person in our whole family to be in the trucks away from the Haven at the same time with no one here to even listen in case there was unexpected trouble. I do not know if anyone told the people working in the kitchen who would be here and not be here or when that was supposed to happen. When I realized that had been overlooked, I also realized that I had no way to contact them to let them know about either the original plans or how those plans had changed. Last night when we were talking about the effort to test the antennas, neither I or anyone else, checked the plan closely enough to spot significant flaw in the test procedure. I, and I assume everyone else, was satisfied that Colleen and Gerry saw the concept for the changes to the system was basically sound, but no one double checked Randy's test design so there was a serious gap in how the interim testing was set up, before the whole system he was designing could be put into place.”
That was a lot more than Pete had anticipated when he asked for particulars, and he had to think a minute before responding. “I see why you are so concerned, Bruce. I did not realize what a challenging morning you have had. You are right we need to think about ways to prevent this kind of trouble when we can. By the way, why did you start calling this the Haven?”
“When I was talking on the radio this morning,” Bruce started, “I realized that we need a way to refer to this place without indicating to anyone on the outside where it is. We don't exactly want to broadcast 'Black Bear Mountain', while we are trying to stay out of sight. Even shortening it to simply 'the mountain' narrows down the possibilities for anyone on the outside holding a map, and even more so if they have a MAP APP. What we have here and what we are trying to build here is quite simply a haven, so there you are.”
Gerry and Patty walked across the lot and in the front door. Joann, Jenny, and Linda were standing at the front desk and starting to turn around. Linda spoke to Gerry and Patty when they got closer. “We went ahead and sent word to Mister Huffstetler that we got here early. So now we wait.”
While they were waiting all three of the other women noticed Patty's quiet and pensive mood. Jenny stepped closer and asked quietly, “Patty are you okay?”
Patty squeezed Gerry's had and crossed her left arm across to touch his forearm with her left hand. “I had a talk with my father over the phone. It was hard, but Gerry was there with me, so I'm handling it.”
Jenny looked concerned. “How is your Father? Is he okay?”
Patty tightened her lips into a smile that showed no hint of joy. “He's is what he is, so I guess he is okay. He has decided to stay there and engage in a legal battle with the Carter Brothers. He has decided to have Hank Jenkins file a civil suit against them for violating the legal limits of their offices and causing financial harm to his business and all of his employees, as well. I'm afraid that is not going to end well even if he wins. They are not worth the effort, in my opinion, but he is determined that he has to stand on his principles. I just don't see that winning this battle is going to really change things enough to make a difference. I wish he would walk away from it, like I decided to do, but he has to make his own decisions. ”
Jenny was trying to read between the lines and decided not to risk making assumptions. “So, … You are planning not to pick up that legal fight with him, or you decided not to go back when the dust settles, or what?”
Patty looked at Jenny like she was confused. “Jenny, like I told my father, I am planning on finding a way to make a life for myself where I am right now. I am fully aware that we need to keep this location and what we are doing here under the radar. Speaking of which I hope we can be cautious about how much we reveal to Mister Huffstetler. I do not know anything about him except that he owns this business. He has a lot of people working for him and even more people scattered over a big chunk of the state who have an ongoing business relationship with him. There is little chance of containing any information about us that gets out here.” Patty was looking concerned toward end of her comments.
Joann and Linda had stepped closer an were listening in to what Patty said. Linda also spoke more quietly than what was normal for her. “I had not thought about that angle, Patty. I appreciate your reminding me to watch what I say. You know how I am about letting rip with stuff that pops into my head.” She grinned and rolled her eyes.
Joann looked a little perturbed. “She's right and I am grateful too. I have been thinking so much about exploring possibilities that I hadn't been thinking about our security issues.” Gerry spoke quietly and calmly. “We can tell him we are starting up a cooperative among some small operation farmers. Tell him the nearest grocery store is tiny and we are concerned about hitting supply issues again like we had during the epidemic. We also are interested in the possibility of selling produce locally rather than scrambling to make a buck or two at roadside stands and selling cattle straight to a mega-meat packing operation that sees us as too small to bother with.”
Jenny was listening to everyone and she, too, was talking barely above a whisper. “Those are all good considerations, but we need to go slowly. We need to be careful about asking too much before we know more about him and his people. Right now we are concerned about having enough food for ourselves. That is the first priority. We can ask about bits and pieces of his operations, like a casual curiosity, rather than negotiating for a full blown partnership that we are not yet in position to engage in with him. We can learn a lot about someone else by listening to the questions they ask. Likewise, if we are too liberal and careless about the way we ask questions, we may enlighten them regarding things about us that we were not intending to give away.”
“Ms. Decker?” They were startled by a voice they had not expected and they turned to see a very tall man that even Gerry had to tip his head up to look in the eye.
Patty was still holding Gerry's hand, but let her other arm drop to her side as she turned. “That would be me. And you are?”
“My name is Harry Huffstetler.” He smiled and held out his hand.
Patty released Gerry's hand to shake hands with Harry and introduced herself as Patricia, then she introduced the others by their first names only. Patty had identified only herself by name when she had called earlier in the morning to make the appointment.
Harry looked around at the group and asked them into his office which was simple and not fancy. There was a plain looking square oak table with eight chairs around it that took up most of the office and he asked them to have a seat. He offered to get them all either coffee, water, or sodas to drink if they wanted, and they all asked for coffee. Once they had all settled in he asked, “What can I do for you folks?”
Gerry answered without skipping a beat. “Most of the grocery stores near us are fairly small, and when we shop for food it makes an impact on their inventory. In the past few years we have all seen some inventory issues in various places, and we are interested in finding a reliable source so that we are not rolling the dice when we make a grocery run.”
Harry looked around the table. “How many people are you buying groceries for?”
Jenny did not pause in responding “Let's call it forty to eighty.”
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Post by pbbrown0 on Feb 14, 2024 21:03:20 GMT -6
Post # 85 The Dance
Harry's face changed subtly, very subtly, as he paused without speaking. Finally he leaned forward. “I'm not sure what you want me to do for you. I gather grocery supplies from multiple sources, both local and larger regional producers. Then I distribute to a number of local and almost local grocery stores. I admit that some are very small, but some are not so small. You've heard the odd expression, I'm sure, that 'When you go to a dance, you should dance with the one who brought you.' If I cut some kind of a deal to sell you groceries at a discount, I would be undermining the grocers that keep me in business. I could give you the names of a dozen grocery stores on the list of retailers I serve who could easily handle the volume you are talking about, and some of them might arrange a volume discount for you. I'm sure some of the smaller ones I serve would be thrilled to do that if you promised to come to them for your needs. If you assure them you'll be doing that, and especially if you give them advance notice, they can adjust their normal orders from me so it will not adversely affect their inventory and ability to serve their long time faithful customers.” Harry was talking in a pleasant matter of fact manner. “I'm afraid with the volume you are talking about it just wouldn't make good business sense for me to offer a special price break to a single retail customer, or even a customer co-op of the size you are talking about.”
Linda leaned forward, smiled at Mister Huffstetler, and spread her hands on the table. “Mister Huffstetler, may I call you Harry?” She continued sweetly without waiting for his response. “We know you have a big enterprise going here that you worked hard to build, and we have no intention of disrupting your excellent business model or undermining your strong customer loyalty. Even if we did want to cause you trouble, which I assure you we do not, we would just have to take a number and wait out in the waiting area until the big guys finished taking their turns at ripping to shreds everything you have spent your life trying to build. That would be a foolish endeavor on our part, because by the time it came our turn, there won't be enough of what you built for you to even recognize. Now what kind of perverse pleasure do you think we could possibly get from messing with those tiny fragments?” Linda all this time was talking in such a sweet, pleasant, and compassionate tone of voice that Harry had to shake himself to be sure of what she was actually saying.
“Wait. … What did you say?” Harry was still not believing his ears.
“Oh, sweetie, I know it's hard to wrap your head around. It took me almost three years to see the hand writing on the wall. Have you heard about Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago? Oh I guess not. Those are in other states. How about this? You remember that earthquake that hit Memphis a few weeks ago. it was just a tiny jiggle by the time it reached us. What did you hear about the casualties in our state capital?” Linda continued to smile innocently.
Harry looked confused. “Casualties at the capital? There weren't any casualties at the capital; barely anything you could even call an injury. The way I remember it, there was nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises reported.”
Linda continued like she was brushing off and dismissing something she had no control over. “I guess that in order for it to be reported, a reporter has to get it past the censors. Too bad my husband and Jenny's husband aren't qualified as reporters. I guess the police officers they talked to and showed them where the dead man was whose car fell off the bridge that collapsed during the earthquake didn't qualify as reporters either. Poor man, I wonder how many more like him weren't news worthy. I guess if the loss of human life isn't worth reporting, then it's not worth reporting all the railroad trestles, Dock facilities, and Interstate overpasses that are unusable in St. Louis. It's just a rumor, of course and you know what they say about rumors, but why didn't the Fed in St. Louis foresee this problem and stock pile more preprinted monetary notes. That poor grocery store in River Rest just couldn't convince the bank to let them use real currency until the Fed could get more shipments in from the engravers. As for Chicago, well that's so far away, it couldn't really affect us here, right? ” Linda kept up the ruse about being so innocent and accepting the unreliable nature of her information until she finished and sat back with a skeptical look.
Harry too sat back with a serious look. “So,” Harry finally said, “you think you have better sources of information than the standard new media. How do you see this affecting my business plan?”
“You know your business better than we do, Harry. And you didn't build this enterprise up by acting like you were lacking a brain. Did you?” Linda had dropped all of her pretense now. “Harry, I'm not trying to be mean here, but we've been wasting time and we don't have much more of that to waste. I see you have a few books there behind your desk. One of them looks like a Bible. Have you read that book or is it just for show?”
Harry looked like he had taken offense at Linda's last question. The rest of her group were holding their breath wondering what she was going to say next.
Harry started making excuses. “I do read it from time to time, but running a business takes a lot of attention and time.”
Linda relaxed for a moment. “Okay, Harry, That's good. I'm sure it's a really tough job working for yourself. You look like the kind of boss that expects more of himself than of his other employees.”
Linda leaned forward again and in a stage whisper she said, “Harry, this isn't a criticism. It's a heads up like you would give a friend when you see a storm coming. You are running out of time to read it. We are almost to the last few chapters already. I'm pretty sure we are at least half way through the last book, at least.”
Harry reflexively glanced over his left shoulder toward the credenza behind his desk, then turned back to Linda. “Are you talking about the book of Revelations? I was told that book is so full of symbols that people are just spinning their own imaginations into anything they say, when they try to tell what it means. No offense, Linda, but you don't exactly fit my mental image of a Bible scholar.”
Linda chuckled. “Thank you Harry. I'll take that as a compliment, even if it is a backhanded compliment. Here is a clue, Harry. Unless you think that God only wants geniuses to be saved, then doesn't it make sense that the Bible was written with the intention of most everyone being able to understand it? I know, I know. The Revelation is full of symbolic language. It even says so right from the get go. But Harry symbolic language is just another way of saying metaphors. Shoot, Harry, the so called uneducated use more metaphors in their language without having to tell each other they are metaphors, than the so called educated who like to use fancy words they coined as code for some concept they dreamed up. How many times do you hear folks using metaphors like 'well that came out of left field', or 'you're getting the horse before the cart', or ' he made that up out of the clear blue sky', or how about 'it's time for you to either fish or cut bait'. And people using those metaphors aren't about to stop mid conversation to explain the meaning because everyone in their culture knows enough to make some sense out of it. Most of those symbols in The Revelation were already used more than once earlier in that book, the Bible, and some of those symbols The Revelation uses are explained, clear as day just as soon as they are written down. If someone tells you it is too difficult to understand then they must be trying to help out the one that Bible says has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.”
Harry was sitting there with his mouth half open looking at Linda and then at the others sitting around the table. Gerry and Jenny looked shocked but slightly amused. Patty was covering her mouth struggling not to laugh, and Joann was perfectly calm but pleased as punch about Linda's discourse.
“I thought you folks had come here to talk business, not religion.” Harry was unsure what to say now.
“How you do business is a reflection of your religion, whether you talk about it or not.” Gerry commented.
Jenny added, “And when the ancient writings of your religion predict incomprehensible warnings about how business will be affected in the future, then you suddenly see clearly what that prediction meant because it is happening before your own eyes, today, you either pay attention ...” added Jenny.
“Or you get swept away by the flood, like the people in the days of Noah.” Joann stepped in and finished Jenny's thoughts with her own flourish.
Harry sat there speechless for quite some time, but at least he remembered to close his mouth. "Crazy as this sounds, you got my attention. But I still don't know what I can do to help you. Honestly, I don't know what I can do to help myself, right at this moment. I want to know what you all are doing, because that might help me get a clue. Okay here's a question. What was that stuff you were talking about with the Fed and that grocery store and real currency? What is that all about?”
Linda sat forward on her chair. “I was hoping you caught that Harry. That is what prompted us to come here. Ya see we went all the way over to River Rest and Clear Water area to find a larger grocery store. We were almost checked out, but they would not take cash as a payment. We didn't just put two and two together on our own. We checked out several sources to corroborate the situation in St. Louis being behind that. Of course we had already figured out … Never mind that for now. It was on the way back from there that someone in our group mentioned you and your operation out here. We thought that you were far enough from the disruptions that some of the trouble might not have reached you just yet.”
Harry was shaking his head. “I had almost forgotten about those earthquakes. We just barely felt anything here, and the news downplayed it like there was almost nothing to report.” How did you learn so much about it?”
Jenny answered. “Linda mentioned that her husband and mine were in the state capital when Memphis got hit. A lot of our other information came another way. Joann and her husband are members of a religious organization that believe in taking care of their own people. They are organized so that if there is a natural disaster or civil 'event' the elders in each congregation check with everyone locally to see if any of them need help. They report that up the chain to the national headquarters. That way if there is a serious problem that occurs the national organization can quickly get help out to their people who need help. When teams were sent out to Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago, they found out first hand that the problems were far more serious than what was being reported in the news. We also got some advanced warning of things that are coming from a personal acquaintance who is a skilled and experienced private industry corporate analyst. His work is not subject to editing by government appointees trying to please politicians. So once we hit the problem in River Rest, we started putting the pieces together.”
“I have a store in Clear Water that I sell to. You all were a long way out there if you are from this area, I mean right now. What I mean is that I can tell some of you all are from Texas. I just assumed you must have moved closer to here at some point if you are going to River Rest or here to find groceries. But Clear Water and Jemimasson are about three hundred miles apart. That's a long way to go for a quick trip to the grocery store.”
“That is only one of the challenges we are dealing with, Mister Huffstetler.” Gerry was looking Harry with a steely gaze.
Harry was taking long pauses betweenthe times that he spoke. “I am assuming that you hoped to buy some groceries here today. But the things you have said to me are drawing my attention away from that. I really want to talk with you about some of that information you are using to tease me. Like you said, whether you realize it or not, your religious beliefs influence how you conduct your business. That is true even for people who arrogantly claim they do not believe in religion. Reliable information that is not filtered by the news organizations can also be a factor in planning business adjustments. I also respect the fact that you have other responsibilities that brought you here far beyond your desire to chew the fat.” He nodded to Linda. “There is another of your cultural metaphors.” He paused again. “I want to fairly compensate you for indulging me in a discussion that I want, and also allow you to address your original intentions with at least a degree of success. If you will tell me approximately how much you were hoping to spend here today on groceries, I would like to offer some reasonable and fair help in one of the stores that I work with in exchange for a few of you staying with me for a while to talk.”
“I thought you said we are too small to bother with discounts.” Linda jumped on that last statement with her typical sassy style.
“Yes, Linda you may call me Harry. I said you are too small for me to offer you a discount, but I also said you might negotiate a discount with one of the retail grocers. I know their margins and strategies as well as their tactics. I intend to pay out of my pocket for your providing me more reliable information, but I might also find a way for you to better leverage my help with one of the retailers. To do that however I need a little more information about your grocery shopping tactics.”
Jenny, Gerry, Linda, Patty, and Joann all looked around the table at each other. Jenny spoke for all of them. “Depending on what we find here, were hoping to get at least a thousand dollars of groceries, maybe more. However, we have an issue with storing a large volume of perishable food. As Gerry mentioned, transportation cost is one of our issues. If we could keep a larger volume of food fresh for a longer time, we would be buying more on each trip and making fewer trips to control our fuel costs.”
“So, are you in cars or trucks.” Harry queried. “That's a lot of food to fit in cars with five of you. A refrigerator or freezer to store food in would take up a lot of space in the bed of a truck. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to meddle. Like I said, You all have caught my interest, and I'm just always thinking about logistics”
“We have a crew cab truck and a small cattle trailer here today.” Gerry replied.
Harry perked up. “You raise cattle?” he blurted out.
Gerry face changed. “I … we raise a few.”
Harry could tell by a great deal of experience that Gerry was not playing games in his response like so many cattle men he dealt with. That stumble from “I” to “we” also caught his attention. “That's a different subject. I tell you what. There are five of you. Could I convince two of you to stay here and talk with me? That way three of you can go ahead and shop for groceries. I'll make a couple of calls to see if I can round up a few used refrigerators or freezers that you can pick up cheap. I'll give you a call with what I find and you can decide about the volume of groceries you can handle. Then I'll call the store manager and see what we might work out. I'll even arrange for him to provide some help in getting it loaded for you. Worst case, if I can't work out something better, is that I will give you two hundred dollars as a consulting fee that you can apply to your purchases today.”
Patty reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. She handed it across the corner of the table toward Jenny. “Here you go. You can use my phone. Gerry and I can stay here and talk with Harry. You three have more experience with this kind of shopping than I do.”
Harry gave them directions to the retail grocer, and Gerry handed them the keys to Patty's truck. The three ladies made their way out of Harry's office, and Gerry and Harry sat back down at the table with Patty. Harry made a phone call to his facilities manager and spoke to him about what happened to the refrigerators that had been in the break rooms before they were remodeled. He also asked about any freezers that might have been replaced in the employee's cafeteria. When he got off the phone, he turned his attention to Gerry and Patty.
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