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Post by cashless1 on Mar 31, 2024 21:30:45 GMT -6
no apologies needed, I do not believe any of us are perfect
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Post by kaijafon on Apr 1, 2024 10:32:01 GMT -6
Your wife should have caught that for you
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Post by pbbrown0 on Apr 2, 2024 9:43:10 GMT -6
Post # 93 Stirrings
There seemed to be a renewed energy at the Haven over the next few days. Everyone was concentrating on getting ready for Fall. The weather was still very warm, but the fact that the calendar was changing from August to September this week was on everyone's mind. The sun was coming up a little later in the morning and going down a little earlier crowding the days at both ends. Some of the taller grasses in the valley at the foot of the mountain farther from the tree lines, were less green than they were back in July. The long, hot, dry summer was finally taking its toll on them. The creek was still flowing, but not quite as deep. The well that Isaac's father had put in was showing no signs of strain even with a lodge full of people drawing on it. The well, Pete and Joann had dug was also doing fine, although it was not being used nearly as much as Isaac's well was by the community in the Haven.
The children were helping to make sure the newly planted garden beds were well watered, and Gerry had held some training sessions for a few of the ladies and men in how to hand harvest hay in preparation for the winter. At the request of the women folk several more raised beds were built and those were quickly filled and seeded. The chickens were still laying and the ladies had been busy boiling and 'canning' them to store up eggs for the winter months when the hens slowed or stopped their production. There was also new 'crop' of young chicks that had been hatched a few weeks after the house guests had arrived. Joann had set that up, but she also stopped reserving more eggs out for hatching soon afterwards. She was concerned about having very young chicks trying to survive should a winter cold snap come through.
The men seemed to be working harder than ever on the new lodge. They completed the roof by the end of the day on Wednesday, and were almost finished with the doors and double shuttered windows. As the were finishing the roof, several of the men began working diligently to craft windows using some of the Plexiglass that Gerry and Patty had acquired in Jemimasson. Once the roof was finished the men jumped in to preparing another foundation spot close at hand for the first bedroom/restroom module. The decision was made to focus on completing these two outer shells first, rather than trimming in the details and sectioning within.
Toward the middle of the week plans were being made to make another supply run to Jemimasson for more Plexiglass and more food. Randy had also announced that he was ready to start using the radio system he had put together. He also mentioned that after it was tested and proven in a moving, long range application like on the run from the Haven to Jemimasson, he would be ready to install an additional relay point at Gerry's farm.
These decisions were all congealed in the Wednesday evening meeting of the Family. It was also noted during that meeting that every day this week during the time when the cattle tending group was doing their thing, both morning and evening, many of the others were making a point to get a little more work in on projects and tasks on the agenda rather than just hanging out around the Haven. The decision was made to consolidate the fuel reserve tanks and put one of the empty tanks in the back of the truck to refill on the trip to Jemimasson on Friday.
Pete and Joann were sensing the added energy, and Pete was also feeling the fatigue of expending his own energy. Rather than letting down after full days of work they were squeezing in extra bible studies every day, both early in the morning and in the evening after the daily planning meeting times. Patty and Gerry were reducing the number of bible study times they had been having so that Pete and Joann could accommodate the others who also wanted to study.
After the Wednesday evening planning meetings Patty and Gerry slipped out and drove over to visit with Isaac and Mark. The spent some time with the two older men in actual Bible study, but most of the time was spent talking more about what was going on with the two of them and their looking ahead to what was coming next. That evening it was already dark before they got back to the Haven. When Patty and Gerry slipped quietly into their respective sleeping quarters in the Smith and the Cooper trailers, those two older couples were already asleep.
The trip to Jemimasson on Friday was an eye opener. Linda and Betty rode along with Gerry and Patty in Gerry's truck. All four of them took turns with the radio checks along the way. Because of the testing they were doing, Colleen and April were doing the talking at the Haven base station while Randy silently monitored the equipment functioning. The radio system was working just as intended without a glitch. The real glitches came once they began taking care of business in Jemimasson. Linda and Betty were introduced to Jacob Sterling by Gerry and Patty. Then Gerry and Patty went to fill up the reserve fuel tank and to get more Plexiglass.
The price of the Plexiglass had jumped twenty percent at the building supply store. When they pulled up at the gas station they saw that the price of fuel had leaped nearly thirty percent in the last two weeks. Gerry went inside the station to get the pump authorized and handed over several hundred dollar bills to the clerk at the register for security. After Gerry filled the reserve tank, he had started topping off the tank in his truck, and the station manager came running out to stop him.
“Mister, you need to stop!” The manager was shouting while he was obviously out of breath from running, or perhaps he was just overly excited. “I didn't realize you were trying to fill up one of those big storage tanks. I can't sell that much fuel at a time to a retail customer.”
Gerry looked at the man for a few minutes before speaking. “I'm not trying to break any rules, but I don't understand. What is this about?”
The manager was starting to recover from the exertion and replied. “There is a shortage of fuel right now, and the Governor has implemented Emergency Price Gouging Controls. He put a controls in place to prevent people from exploiting the situation. There is a schedule for how fast a dealer can raise his prices, and also there are caps on how much you can buy at a time so people don't try to hoard gasoline and make the crisis even worse. You can't buy more than 100 liters at a time unless you are driving a vehicle that has a Commercial Truck license. Even then you cannot buy more than 200 liters at a time.”
“I run a farm and have equipment and vehicles to operate.” Gerry replied. “It is a long way to town from my farm so I try to get enough fuel for all of them without having to drive or tow each piece of equipment to and from the nearest gas station. That actually reduces the overall fuel consumption, which is helpful if a shortage is the concern.” Gerry tried to reason with the manager, but the manager was clearly getting even more stressed.
“I don't make the rules. I just have to follow them or they will just shut me down and confiscate the fuel I already bought and paid for. They put some teeth into this emergency regulation.”
Gerry saw the situation very quickly and knew it would not help to argue about the wisdom of the measures. Obviously it was problem for the station manager. It was also obvious that this Emergency Regulation had not originated with the state governor. “I see your point. I don't want to cause you trouble, but I did not know anything about this new restriction and I think you can see where I am coming from. I am paying cash, rather than using a card. There is no record yet of a transaction except the pump having dispensed too many gallons. Is there any way, just this once, that you can ring this up at the register as multiple purchases. Like for instance if I pulled up with multiple vehicles that I wanted to gas up, and I wanted to pay for all of them. I could give you cash to hold until I fueled up all of them. Then rather than shutting the pump off, paying for some, then resetting the pump for the next vehicle, I just kept the pump running until all of them were filled. That stays within the spirit of the regulation doesn't it?”
The manager scratched his head and looked stressed. “Don't ask me about the spirit of the regulation unless you want an earful, mister. Here is the deal. If I try to to fiddle with the records, they are bound to challenge me when they come checking on my compliance with this new decree. I need a record of license plate numbers to confirm there were multiple vehicles here being fueled in one pumping session. Give me the tag numbers off of your other vehicles so I can cover myself. Otherwise I am supposed to call the sheriff to straighten this out.”
Gerry replied with a controlled calmness, “That is not going to be necessary. I told you I was not trying to violate any regulations. If necessary we can pump the extra fuel back into your underground tank.”
“No, no, no. That would mess everything up! I don't even have a clue how we could straighten that mess out explaining the imbalance of how much we pumped out against how much is still in our tank. The weights and measures people would have a stroke! You have no idea how many bureaucrats are going ape over fuel these days.”
“Okay.” Gerry said in a calming voice. “Give me just a minute. I'll call back to the farm and get someone to check license plate numbers.”
“Make sure you get a general description of the vehicle that goes with the license tag. I need to have something to tell them when they grill me about all the vehicles.”
“Okay.” Gerry replied. “give me just a few minutes.”
Gerry got back in the truck and wished that Jenny and Betty were still with them. He explained the situation to Patty quickly and got on the radio. There were a lot of back and forth short quips using multiple and changing radio handles. Eventually they had recorded four different license plates, including Gerry's truck. They also had Pete's, Gene Lassiter's, and Bruce's trucks.
Gerry was about to climb out of the truck when Patty grabbed his arm. “Wait, Darling. Let me make a call.” She pulled her metal box out from under the center console seat and pulled out her cell phone. She plugged the charger cord into it and into Gerry's truck and dialed her Dad. He picked up right away and she explained the situation to him. He gave her the tag number off of his truck., and she passed that to Gerry. “Use this instead of Bruce's tag number. That way all of them will be from this area of the state instead of one being from out of state.”
Gerry nodded to her and let her continue talking to her Dad, as he slid out of the truck. He gave the notes to the station manager. “I really appreciate your doing this.” Gerry told him. I really didn't know this was a problem. We really do use the gas driving around here and running equipment on our land. It's just that there aren't any gas stations near us and it doesn't make sense to burn several gallons of gas on each vehicle just to get each one of them to the gas station and back.”
“Hey man,” the manager said. “I get it. You don't have to explain. Some of the big corporate farms file all kinds of paperwork with state, so they can get unlimited gas deliveries straight to their really big storage tanks. It doesn't cost them an arm and a leg, but they know the right people so their permit paper work doesn't get lost while being reviewed. The small farmers are the losers, just like you described. I wish it wasn't so, but I have to cover myself. I need this job and the owner needs his business to not be shut down and tens of thousands of dollars worth of fuel stolen from him by the state. He didn't make up these crazy decrees. Can you believe they set the limits in liters? We have to have our pumps accurately calibrated to thousandths of a gallon, but they set the dispensing caps in liters! Hold on. I'll get your change and be right back.”
When the manager came back, Gerry held out his hand. “I'm Gerry. What's your name mister?” .
“I'm Leslie.” Leslie shook Gerry's hand. “For now, lets' just stick with first names.” Leslie made a slight nod and gave Gerry a tight lipped smile. “You two have a good day and watch your six.”
Gerry got back into the truck and drove back to the grocery store.
He and Patty sat on the parking lot in his truck and Gerry pulled out his handheld radio to call Jenny. “Wrangler calling Tawney Owl. Come in.” He waited a moment.
“Night Raptor here.”
Gerry handed the radio to Patty. She keyed the unit and said, “How are you to coming along?”
Betty Lassiter answered, “We may have to go on a diet with the way prices are going.”
Gerry looked at Patty. “I want to go help them but I remembered Rick Huffstetler warning me a couple of weeks ago about people looking for you.”
Patty looked like she was thinking for a minute. “Daddy said that the Carter brothers were giving the impression they were backing away some. He and Frank are both noticing a lack of sheriff deputies patrolling up and down their streets and following wherever they went, like they had been doing a few weeks ago. But they don't trust that. It isn't like Sheriff Carter to let go of a grudge. I'll be okay here in your truck, especially with the trailer attached where they can't see your plate number. We are outside of their jurisdiction I'll just wait here until you all get done, and then we'll leave.”
“Patty, I am not comfortable with that.” Gerry replied calmly. “Like your Dad pointed out, it is not like that sheriff to simple drop something that has troubled him. He also has shown that he doesn't feel constrained to color within the lines. More important though is the way that thought popped into my head as I was planning for us to go inside to meet Jenny and Betty. I want us to keep alert and be able to dodge with out being spotted should a deputy from wherever come snooping around like they might be looking for you. Avoidance in this case seems a far better choice to me than taking risks and dealing with a confrontation if it by chance occurs.”
“Okay, Gerry. There is sense and wisdom in what your are saying. We can keep a look out and meet Jenny and Betty at the loading dock in back when they are finished.” Patty started to key the hand held radio when her eyes caught something in her peripheral vision. She turned toward it then grasped Gerry's arm. Two lanes over in the parking lot she could see a light bar moving along just above the roofs of the cars over there. It was moving slowly like the law officer was searching carefully for something. Gerry was parked with his truck and small trailer taking up two spaces end to end. He started his truck and as the light bar moved further away along the other aisle, he pulled out and turned in the opposite direction.
Gerry continued through the lot working his way away from the patrolling car. He and Patty could not see it well enough to know for sure if it was from Fox County or Daniel County. They made their way around toward the back of the store where the delivery trucks unloaded. Gerry was aware that you could get in or out of that back lot from either side of the store. He saw spotted a couple of inter-modal transport containers behind the building and slipped his rig in between them so he could watch both back corners of the building without being readily noticed. He kept the motor idling while they waited, watched, and listened to their radio.
Finally Jenny called over the radio and indicated they were checking out. Gerry replied informing them that Mutt and Jeff were waiting near receiving for Betty Boop. A few minutes later Jenny and Betty appeared on the loading dock followed by several store clerks pushing loaded flatbed carts. Gerry had Patty scrunch down in the front floorboard of his truck then he pulled over beside the dock. He asked Betty and Jenny to stand by waiting while he joined the clerks in loading the groceries into the truck and trailer. As they were doing this a Fox County Sheriff Department cruiser turned the corner into the back lot and crept along watching what was happening and continued on around the other side of the building.
When the cruiser was out of sight Gerry hurried the clerks along in their loading. Once they had finished and gone back inside he handed the truck keys to Jenny and had Patty climb into the back floorboard of his truck. He raised the foldout back seat and climbed in beside her. When everyone was inside the truck he told Jenny to contact Colleen by radio and to drive toward Newbury County to the southwest of Daniel County. As they were leaving the lot. Betty reported that the Sheriff's Deputy was now patrolling up and down the aisles in front of the grocery store.
Gerry filled Jenny and Betty in on the background surrounding his precautions leaving the store. He also filled them in on the price changes at the building supply store and their experience at the gas station. Jenny and Betty in turn updated Patty and Gerry on how much the prices had changed on many of the groceries and the places they were confronted with empty shelves at the store. About twenty miles down the road, as they were nearing Newbury County, Gerry suggested they start watching for roads or signs pointing back toward Bear County. The were keeping radio checks going more frequently than normal because of going off route.
Colleen, April, and Randy were managing to locate them on a map without them being too specific in describing their location. They never had a problem with the radio signal, and Colleen was able to guide them as to turns coming up to keep them on a good return route without giving away their location over the radio. Over all the radio system was a huge success and quite a relief to Jenny who was driving part of the way on unfamiliar roads without a map. By early afternoon Gerry and Randy were both back to work helping with the new lodge.
The evening family meeting was a strange mix of encouraging and sobering information. The radio system was working great. The work on building the lodge was progressing faster than before. But there were new troubles developing outside the Haven that were going to require some adjustments. When Gerry spoke to the larger group the reactions were mixed as well. After the meeting there was a different mood among the families. People were wanting to talk more with each other, but they were also uncertain what to say about these new troubles.
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Post by gipsy on Apr 2, 2024 21:06:15 GMT -6
We're from the government and we're here to help you.
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Post by pbbrown0 on Apr 6, 2024 6:30:18 GMT -6
Post # 94 Pressing On
This Saturday was very different. Everyone was focused and working hard, yet through the day there was a sense of confidence in the air. The women were everywhere at once keeping the children active helping in the small ways they could like herding the chickens who were foraging in the forest. Cleaning and putting fresh straw in the nesting boxes and on the floor of the coops. Flushing and refilling the water troughs for the chickens, and herding them back into the coops at the end of the day. They were also fetching water for the raised beds where there were the first signs of the seeds starting to sprout. At breakfast the women were scurrying around to make sure everyone was quickly fed so they could get on over to work on the lodge. Mid morning the ladies were there with cool water for everyone working on the lodge and at lunch time the sandwiches and fresh fruit were brought to the men before they could even set their tools down. In spite of the diligence there was a relaxed feeling among the community. Periodically one or more of the men and one or more of the women would take a short break to have their turn with Joann or Pete in short Bible studies. Pete and Joann were taking notes during these study times so they could keep up with where each person was in their studies and the questions they were asking. They did not want these Bible studies to be a canned series of Bible passages to read through. Pete and Joann of course wanted to be sure to cover the fundamental concepts they themselves had found encouraging in the Bible, but they also wanted to help each person find answers to the questions that were important to them. At the end of the day the walls and roof were up in the first family wing for the new lodge. The doors and windows still needed to be built and installed. The plumbing was far from ready and there were no interior walls in place to divide the structure into rooms, but the shell had been completed. They even has a short roofed boardwalk from the family wing connecting to a door into the Main Lodge core building. The nightly community meeting was basically a continuation of supper this night. The mood was more one of celebration than talking business. The only piece of business was arranging for who was riding in which run of which truck to the Sunday morning meeting, since everyone was wanting to attend tomorrow. Gerry and Patty were planning to leave very early the next morning to pick up Issac and Mark. They had already spoken to Bruce about their plans and that they would not be able to take an additional load in the morning. Pete and Joann were going with them so someone else would be needed to drive Pete's truck and Patty's truck to carry groups to and from the Meeting Hall. Sunday morning Gerry and Patty were up very early tending to the cattle. By the time the other cattle tending group arrived that work was almost finished. Gerry and Patty finished breakfast very quickly then grabbed Pete and Joann. The four of them were gone almost before anyone else had a chance to notice. They arrived early at Mark James' house, but they were expected. They spent a short time talking before loading into Gerry's truck and making the short drive to the Meeting Hall. They were a little surprised at how many vehicles were already there. Just as they entered the building all of the elders along with Brother Andrew were emerging into the main foyer from an apparent meeting. Brother Isaac and Brother Mark were being very warmly greeted by the elders, but Brother Andrew and Brother Kelsey focused their greetings on Gerry and Patty.
“Mister Kerry, Miss Decker, so good to see you this morning.” Brother Kelsey greeting them warmly. Brother Andrew and I would like to visit with you two for a few minutes if that would be okay with you.” It was a little while later when the first wave of trucks started arriving at the Meeting Hall from the Haven. Isaac Gambrell and Mark James were already sitting inside along with Pete and Joann. The wives of the congregation elders, along with Brother Andrew's wife, were also in there chatting with them. As the families from the Haven came to the building they were being greeted first by the elders and then as they entered the small auditorium the elders wives greeted then and began talking with them about how things had been going over the past week. It was some time before the next round of trucks arrived so they had more time than they'd had previously to get to know them. About the time the second wave of trucks arrived more of the Brothers and Sisters from the town of Bear Creek were arriving. The auditorium was filling quickly but very few of the people were sitting down. Most were moving around greeting and conversing with each other. Many of the greetings were punctuated with hugs as well as handshakes. With all of the adults and children from the Haven there, the small auditorium was almost full. Just before the meeting began, Brother Kelsey, Brother Andrew, Gerry, and Patty slipped in and took their seats. The meeting proceeded as usual, but after the meeting Patty and Gerry once again slipped out of sight. It was well after most of the congregation had left when Gerry and Patty emerged from two of the small meeting rooms in the building. Pete and Joann were waiting for them along with Brother Isaac and Brother Mark. Brother Andrew and his wife had left about thirty minutes before. When they got to Brother James' house they helped the two elderly men out of the truck and got them inside. There was a lot of well wishing, hugs, and congratulations being passed around. Joann was grinning and shaking her head in amazement. “I've been in the Brotherhood for quite a while, and this only the second time I have seen this process handled so quickly. Carl and Colleen being the first of course. I know in a lot of churches a decision to join is sometimes as simple, on the surface at least, as someone making a decision on the spot and walking to the front at the end of a meeting. Then the pastor decides while standing there to announce it to the congregation. Our process of meeting individually with several different elders to see if the candidate really understands what they are committing to may seem overly complicated to some, but a decision this important deserves careful and informed consideration. It just usually takes more time to schedule separate meetings with multiple elders to complete the process even if there are no issues about whether or not the person understands the seriousness of their decision.” Gerry nodded his head. “I actually was expecting to face some concerns, because we were looking to join the Brotherhood and ask for a Marriage ceremony conducted by a Brother so close together. Way too many people decide to get married in a rush and then it doesn't work out. I wondered if they might question our thinking or motives as having gotten confused with the request for both coming at virtually the same time.” Brother Isaac spoke up about this issue. “These guidelines the Brotherhood have adopted are not meant to put obstacles in the way. Nor are they intended to make sure someone has a perfect understanding of the Bible. There are however some very common misunderstandings we want to avoid up front if possible. But there is also a fairly common problem with someone saying they want to join us for the wrong reasons. We, as an organization, have in the past had the unfortunate experience of government informants go through the motions of joining us and even acting their way into being given positions of responsibility only so they could report to a hostile government information about our membership and our practices. It was a lengthy and painful experience trying to root those impostors out and to restore the confidence of the Brothers and Sisters who were betrayed and even prosecuted. It is also discouraging to a congregation when a person joins us, not because they truly believe what we do, but rather they are joining us merely to please someone they want to impress or to please. Eventually the truth becomes apparent, but again there is harm caused if the congregation begins to question the sincerity of other Brothers and Sisters. That is why we are so careful.” “Brother Kelsey told me the elders will meet later today to see if there were any of the elders who felt uncertain about your sincerity, which none of us here doubt.” Pete shared with a smile. “The baptism ceremony will likely be next Sunday after the Congregation Meeting. As for the wedding, they will be open to scheduling that ceremony any time you two want. Of course you'll need to get your marriage license for legal purposes.” At Mark and Isaac's insistence, Gerry, Patty, Pete and Joann stayed there with Mark and Isaac for lunch. When the four of them returned to the Haven that afternoon they tried to avoid a grand entrance and went on with their relaxing Sunday afternoon activities like it was a normal Sunday. Monday came around and it was much like the Monday before. No one seemed to notice that the calendar had rolled over to September. The weather hadn't changed that anyone could tell. Only the sun rising and falling a few minutes earlier was the only indication of the coming changes. By mid week the progress on the new lodge was going on mostly on the interior. The floor of inch and a half thick planks with carefully cut interlocking edges was down throughout the residence module, except in the space where the restrooms were going to be placed. The restroom space was floored with smooth finish and carefully sloped concrete. The shower stalls were partitioned with stone and mortar, not with cob. The sinks and shower spaces had troughs running to drain pipes through the walls to direct the 'gray' water outside to empty into a natural wash easing its way down the side of the mountain. As for 'black water' the design team had decided to acquire composting toilets and to implement the same solution for the old lodge. The outhouse solution had been there for a very long time, but now there were quite a few more people being accommodated by those facilities. Carl had brought this up before, but tonight at the family meeting he was going to be more insistent about acquiring them right away for both lodges. He just hoped that these items had not already started jumping in price like the more popular consumer goods had recently. At supper in the main lodge that night Gerry and Patty were quietly sharing with their friends, Randy, April, Carl, and Colleen, a little about their personal plans for the next few weeks. Gerry and Patty were expecting to be baptized and officially join with the Brotherhood after the regular congregation meeting this coming Sunday. After that, hopefully a week later, they were planning to have a simple wedding at the Meeting Hall. Their plans beyond that were not so simple. Gerry wanted to get some of the cattle moved back to his old place, but there was the uncertain issue about when there would be enough rain to support them grazing there. It was not just a matter of the well filling fast enough. It also required the grazing vegetation to be adequately recovered after the rain they were hoping for. If the rain came too late in the year they would not be able to graze the cattle there until spring. Gerry was eager to get the cattle in a situation where both locations were supporting the cattle so he could safely start expanding the herd. This group of friends did not need someone to explain to them that having a productive herd of cattle could help with the cost of food for this large group of people. They were also aware that Gerry had a comfortable and spacious house at his farm that was currently sitting vacant. Randy was enthusiastic in his congratulations to Gerry and Patty, as the other friends were, but for most of the other conversation he seemed very subdued. He did mention that as soon as it was convenient, it would be a good idea for him to set up another repeater and antenna at Gerry's farm. He already had the components to do it, and doing so would radically reduce the chances of any government snoops being able to located any of the transmission points. But he had little else to say and it seemed to some of the others that he was unplugged from the rest of the discussion. Patty started noticing a growing concern on Aprils face as she kept glancing toward Randy while everyone else was talking. Finally Patty spoke up. “April, Randy, are you two okay? If there is a problem, maybe we can help.” Randy let out what sounded like a cross between a stifled laugh out loud and a choked kind of cough. 'I'm sorry,” said Randy. “I didn't mean to do that. I don't know what any of us can do to fix this, Patty.” Patty looked taken aback, but it was Carl who responded to Randy. “Randy, we all know you are a bit nerdy sometimes, but we're all friends here. Something is bothering you. We'd rather you share it with us, even if we can't fix it, than for you to shut all of us out. We can at least stand by you and help you get through it, whatever it is.” Randy looked at Carl somewhat dubiously for a moment then said, “Those antennas I set up are two way. They can broadcast farther, but also if they are pointed in the right direction they can pick up a normal broadcast signal from farther away. I've been scanning and I've had my computer tablet recording and parsing what I heard. There is a lot of trouble brewing out there. It has me worried. Nothing we can do about it, but it doesn't look pretty from my perspective.” “Like what, Randy? Give us some examples.” Gerry asked. Randy looked around the table as if he really didn't want to talk about it, but he knew it was his own fault for piquing the curiosity of his friends. “Everything. The whole thing is like a house of cards that is made of really slippery cards. There is conflicting information out there, so you can't take everything that is said at face value. Lots of problems are clearly being hidden, like for example the realistic rate of inflation, and the problems that are being acknowledged are being addressed with solutions that most people, including me, seem to think will be either ineffective or actually make the problems worse. Life is getting harder and harder for more and more people in countless ways in spite of everyone claiming that they are working to build a 'better world'. Political posturing of the past seems like a love fest compared to what is going on right now. There is an awful lot of anger and distrust out there and it is heating up really fast. What is really scary is that none of these problems are limited to our country. The same kinds of problems and the same solutions are being implemented in other countries, just like here, and the reactions of the people in those countries are pretty much the same, too. Oh and the political posturing is getting heated between countries as well. I'm not talking about the usual perpetual hot spots. I'm talking about the big dogs pushing and posturing, but also they appear to be prodding at each other, too.” Gerry leaned back and looked over at Carl and back to Randy as he listened to Randy's concerns. Randy was drawing often conflicting information fragments from many different conversations. He had overheard. He shared a few anecdotal examples with his friends to support the conclusions he had expressed. No one said anything for a minute or two. Gerry leaned forward across the table and spoke thoughtfully to Randy. “That is some pretty heavy stuff you've been hearing and thinking about, Randy. You're right about there not being any thing we can do to fix it. We're fixing to go down and put the cattle to bed for the night. Why don't you and April come with us. You don't have to help. You two can just watch and hang out with us. If you decide you want to try your hand at what we're doing, that's fine to. Just get out and away from that system you've been focused on. Spend some time with us, relax a bit, and clear your mind.” The six of them cleared their dishes from the table and headed out down the hillside toward the creek. When they reached the creek, they turned east and walked upstream toward the pastures. Before they reached the pastures, they found a good crossing spot and switched to the north side of the creek. Gerry, Patty, Colleen and Carl started in on their nightly routine of checking the pastures and the herd, then getting them queued for time to drink some water and mosey on under the trees for the night. While they were working that several others from the community joined them until each member of the herd had settled in for the the night. At the family planning meeting Carl once again put the need for obtaining composting toilets before the family, not only for the new lodge but also for the old lodge. They all agreed that a trip was needed this week to go to a Home improvement store to obtain what they could and order more if necessary. The question thy had was whether to try going to Jemimasson or to try the other direction toward Clear Water. Patty pointed out that her father had carried a few at his lumberjack store for outfits setting up a lumber camp. She just had not shopped for one at the home improvement store in Jemimasson, and she was also not familiar with the product lines at the various stores in the Clear Water area. In recent years the area around Clear Water and River Rest had begun to cater more and more to recreation area visitors vacationing there and coming there periodically for personal getaway times. Gerry pointed out that they had been going repeatedly to Jemimasson in the last few weeks and it might be wise to try the other direction so they did not establish a pattern that was too predictable. He thought that maybe there was a market for these special toilets among those who were outfitting their own getaway cabins. Carl agreed that Gerry's ideas made sense to him, but he added that they might have to visit multiple stores in various locations to obtain enough toilets to meet the needs of this large a group. Gerry brought up to the family the concerns the Randy had mentioned, and then went on to mention his hopes for splitting the herd and increasing the size of the herd to provide both food and possibly revenue. He told them about Rick Huffstetler's comments about buying beef at a higher price and even processing the beef a much reduced price than previously. Finally, Gerry told all of them of his and Patty's plans for joining the Brotherhood. Bruce also had something to add to the discussion. “We are in a place now, almost, where we are reducing how much fuel we are using. A lot of that is due to the help Randy had provided with his technical skills, but also because we are not having to acquire from scratch every little thing we need to function around here. With the recent restrictions on fuel purchases, we need to be rotating which trucks we are using when we do send someone out to acquire supplies. And we need to be diligent to keep all our gas tanks topped off. We can not predict when the fuel supply will be interrupted or for how long, but we can be confident that it will happen.” Now Colleen stepped in with another suggestion. “I've been doing some thinking about our security. In addition to rotating vehicles and not getting into ruts about where we are going, we need to be rotating who is going out and who is operating the base station. In spite of our code talking and Randy's work on skipping our radio signals around, if for example Gerry is always driving, then his handle and the several variations on 'Wrangler' that we use are being repeated again and again. If we keep rotating through the family with who is on each ends of the radio link, that will further reduce the chances of any radio snooping agency making the connections and narrowing down who and where we are.” Rob spoke next. “I don't have any projects to report on, but I have something to say.” every one turned to him to listen. “A few months ago we were worried because we saw what we figured were bad things coming and we knew deep down that if we did nothing it would be bad for us. I can't exactly chalk that up to our being so smart or perceptive. The fact is we aren't that smart that we can see what others can't see. It was just that, well it was kind of like a voice inside us urging us to 'Get out of there.' We barely had a clue what we were doing, and we could easily have been making a lot of mistakes. None of us then imagined our being where we are right now, but here we are. I can't help but believe we have had more than a little help. Why we have received that help is not easy to explain, but I think it has been in some degree because we were willing to listen to that voice inside us, all of us together, and let go of a whole lot of what we had thought before was the way to succeed. Think about it. When we started this we were adamant about gathering all the money we had worked hard for and accumulated so we could protect it from being taken from us. Now here we are having taken in a whole community of strangers to house and feed, and even then still paying them to work for us. Now we are preparing for a time when what money we have left may, and probably will, be worthless.” The whole family was quiet and waiting for what Rob might be about to say. “Is there anyone of us here who regrets any of that?” He waited and no one answered. “I guess my point is, I think there is someone, the Creator,who is watching out for us and trying to guide us in ways that are wiser than we can grasp, and we need to be listening carefully while we keep pressing forward where He is guiding us. We need to be listening carefully, because the noise 'out there' is getting louder and more confusing. Dad, you need to help all of us with how to do that. I know we all have to think and choose for ourselves, but you need to keep urging and encouraging us to keep our focus in the right places.” Pete became very serious when he responded, “Son, I fully agree with what you are saying, and I need to take your request more seriously than I have been. At the same time, all of you must remember something. You cannot depend on me to receive a message or directions from the Creator to pass onto the rest of you. You are each going to have to seek that kind of guidance for yourselves. All I can do is to encourage you to seek that guidance and to listen attentively and thoughtfully for when it may come to you. I can share with you how that seems to work for me and what I find in the Bible about how to do that, but I can't do that for you.” When they went in to talk with the larger group, Gerry slipped in to his usual role. “Folks, We have some things to talk about tonight. We are getting closer to a transition point we have talked about before, finishing building another house besides this lodge that most of us have been sharing as a temporary home. I hope everyone will keep the following in mind when we reach that point and each of us has to decide 'What's next?' There are a lot of things that are changing all around us. There are a lot of troubling developments in the economics, political power struggles, societal values, legal requirements and constraints, natural disasters, and even global power dynamics. At the same time there have been a lot of things changing here among us, that are encouraging rather than disturbing. We are making progress in reaching some goals, and our relationships as employers and workers has been changing more toward families becoming friends. As things get worse out there, we are working to make things better here. As for what we are planning for this week, we plan to keep pressing on.”
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Post by feralferret on Apr 7, 2024 0:01:44 GMT -6
Thank you.
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Post by pbbrown0 on Apr 13, 2024 18:10:44 GMT -6
Post #95 Lessons In Economics
It was Wednesday when Rob and Jenny set out in their truck toward Clear Water to find some composting toilets. Gerry and Patty were riding with them because they needed to visit the courthouse in Clear Water. The plan was for Rob to drop Patty and Gerry off at the courthouse and then drive to the other side of the lake and look around in River Rest for composting toilets. They would keep in touch with each other using the hand held radios on the two watt rather than the half watt channels. Once again Jenny and Rob saw the subtle but unmistakable differences in the general character and atmosphere between Clear Water and River Rest. Clear Water was definitely trying to be more upscale in their marketing. River Rest was an old small town that had benefited from the growth of a nearby economic upturn over the recent decades, trying to hold on to what it was, yet wanting some of the boon from the nearby economic boom.
Rob and Jenny check in home improvement stores, sporting goods/outfitter stores, hardware stores, appliance stores, plumbing supply stores, and everything else they could think of without any success. It was at the second plumbing supply store where an older man past retirement age who was working as a counter clerk informed them that county ordinances prohibited use of any outhouses or toilet devices in or near a residence which was not connected properly to the county sanitation system or to a certified and licensed septic tank system. Even leach fields, though allowed under state laws, were prohibited by regulations and ordinances in this county. While this search was going on, Gerry and Patty had finished their business at the courthouse and started walking around in the surrounding area looking for possible merchants near the courthouse. A couple of blocks from the courthouse they found a group of merchants who were in some old two story brick buildings that looked to be about a century old. One of them turned out to be a plumbing supply store. When they asked about a composting toilet the young counter clerk's eyes got suddenly big. He ran to get the manager who came out of his office to greet Gerry and Patty. After the initial introductions the manager asked. “Bobby said you were asking about composting toilets. What do you folks know about those devices?”
Gerry paused and scratched his head. “Actually not a lot. A friend of ours was telling us about them. They work somewhat on the same principles of a compost pile. The good ones, though are designed to eliminate the smell and to be easier to operate if you include the use of the right kind of wood flakes, and such.”
The manager scrutinized both Gerry and Patty. “You are aware that it doesn't connect to your plumbing and you have to hand carry a bucket full outside to the compost pile periodically?”
“Yes, sir. We know all of that.” Patty replied.
The manager's eyes darted back and forth several times between Gerry and Patty. “Well,” said the manager. “I do have a couple of them in stock, but they cost a bit more than a regular toilet. The ones I got are a lot more sophisticated than a five gallon plastic bucket with a seat attached. These meet the state regulations for approved design and sanitary effectiveness. I got them a few years ago when the state passed a sanitation law update allowing them in a residence. But you two are the first folks that ever asked about them.”
“That's great!” Gerry replied. “Let's have a look at them.”
The manager went into the back storage area and brought a large box out to the side of the counter. He carefully slit the tape that was sealing the top of the box and proceeded to unpack the contents. Eventually he had a small mountain of packing materials pile on the floor and he asked Bobby, the counter clerk there in the store, to help him lift it out of the corrugated cardboard shipping box. They lifted it out together and set it on top of the counter. There was a clear plastic bag still down in the corner of the shipping box which he pulled out to show Gerry and Patty.
“It's been several years since I saw this demonstrated, well not actually demonstrated, but just given an overview of the functions and features really.” the Manager explained. “That was back before the epidemic turned everything on its ear. I ordered two of these because of the new law and thought there would be some people interested in them, but then everything went to... I mean everyone's attention got captured by the epidemic. What was supposed to become the new eco-fad, never panned out.”
The manager proceeded to point out the features and fittings that were provided with this design and making comparisons to other unknown brands and models of composting toilets. He also told how they could order online prepackaged wood chips of various types depending on their preferences. He concluded by saying, “As you can see I was greatly understating, when I said this is far more sophisticated than a five gallon bucket with a snap on seat.”
Gerry looked to Patty who looked back with a slight nod. Gerry looked to the manager and asked, “how many do you have in stock...” and Patty extended his question with, “...and what kind of volume discount can you give on the price?”
The managers looked back and forth between them with a dubious have smirk on his face thinking they were joking. His look dropped to a slack jawed disbelief when he realized they were serious. “I … I … I need to check with the supplier. I only have two in the store right now. I don't even know what the current wholesale price or suggested retail price.” He started toward his office and stopped to turn back. “How many were you wanting to buy?”
Patty turned away from him to whisper to Gerry, “I wish Linda was here. What should we tell him?”
Gerry looked over Patty's shoulder. “That may depend on the price. We may want none. We may want twenty-five,” he threw back at the manager.
The manager looked like a deer caught in the headlights for a moment then he hurried to his office.
Gerry asked Patty to wait inside while he stepped outside to call Rob and Jenny on the radio. He was back inside while the store manager was still in his office. There was nobody else in the store at that moment and Bobby, the counter clerk approached them.
“If you don't mind my asking, oh, I'm Bobby. My Dad you were talking to owns the store. I 'm curious. You are to first customers that have asked about these. I thought you might be building a new house, or maybe a vacation cabin. But you mentioned maybe twenty-five. Are you building a bunch of vacation cabins like a retreat campground or something?”
Patty and Gerry looked at each other a little concerned about being too loose with information. Patty replied first. “We already have a house built, but we have a lot of friends that like the idea of a cabin in the wild.” She gave him a big smile. That seemed to satisfy him since he nodded with a serious, knowing look on his face. It was taking the manager much longer than they had expected. It wasn't too long before Rob and Jenny showed up. They were introduced to Bobby, and then Gerry and Patty started briefing the others on the descriptions provided by Bobby's Dad. When they finished Bobby's Dad was still missing.
“Bobby?” Gerry asked. “There seems to be some sort of problem. Would you mind asking your Dad if he can send word through you to let us know what is happening?”
Bobby disappeared and soon his Dad was coming back with him. “I am so sorry about the delay. I …” He stopped when he saw Rob and Jenny standing there. “Has Bobby been able to help you?” he asked looking to Rob and Jenny.
“We are with them.” Rob replied gesturing toward Gerry and Patty.
“Oh, my goodness. This is so embarrassing.” He grimaced. “I mentioned I have only two of these units, and I have had them for some time.” Gerry was starting to tire of being told that piece of information again, even if it would be helpful in negotiating a price. Bobby's Dad continued. “The original distributor who sold these to me has been bought out by another company with a headquarters in Oregon. I was told that they have temporarily closed their marketing office for this region. That sounded really strange to me, but I told them I had a potential volume customer, you, wanting to buy multiple units. I asked if they could email to me a list of other stores in this area that might have units in stock. I have been calling these other stores, trying to cobble together a deal so I could quote you some volume and price points. I should have come out to explain this earlier.”
Rob spoke up and asked, “I'm afraid I didn't get your name.”
“Oh, I am so sorry. Where are my manners?” Bobby's Dad replied. “I'm Leslie Braden.” He reached out to shake Rob's hand again.
“So, Mister Braden,” Rob continued. “Can you tell us where you are with gathering inventory and price points?”
“All over the map.” Leslie reported waving his head back and forth. “Some small business owners are not that clever, sad to say. I am finding the inventories are running one or two per store, except where they no longer have any. Some are eager to get rid of them because they haven't been moving. Some are trying to hold out for MSRP thinking there is a customer wanting to buy more than they can find in stock. The other problem is that they are scattered all over the place. I could send you to the stores I have found that have one or two in stock, but you would be be negotiating over and over to get a good price, and driving several hundred miles to round them all up. I was hoping to work a deal where they would send them here, and I could then sell them to you for a consistent average price. So far I have only found eight of them and from what I heard talking to the new national distributor, they aren't interested in shipping more units to this area for a while.”
Jenny took a half step toward Leslie. “Mr. Braden, how many do you have here, right now?”
Leslie looked at Gerry and Patty, then back to Jenny. “As I told your friends, I only have two of them.”
“Yes,” said Jenny, “and how long has it been before today since a customer showed interest in buying one of them?”
Leslie froze for about two blinks and then let out a sigh. “Almost four years, Ma'am.”
“Well, Mister Braden,” Jenney said sweetly. “You have customers here today who are interested, but they will not be here tomorrow. How eager are you to seize this opportunity to generate some revenue, in cash, today, before that opportunity disappears to parts unknown?”
Leslie glazed over for a minute as he weighed his options. “I'll sell them both to you for $300 each. That is way less than the contracted minimum retail sale price and even less than my original cost. The company I contracted with no longer exists, and I would rather sell them at a loss than to leave them in storage. Besides, in this economy I am trusting cash more than virtual cash, if you know what I mean.”
Rob spoke up. “I think you just made a wise deal, today, Leslie. Now just so you know, we are going to be looking for more. But like you mentioned it doesn't seem like a smart idea to us to be spending a lot of gas driving all over and finding stores that cannot fill our needs. Why don't you give us a phone number we can use to get in touch with you, say Friday afternoon. Then we can see what kind of deal you might be able to offer us if you can line up more of these toilets to sell us.”
Leslie frowned a bit. “I'm not sure I can get you more at that price. Like I said some of the store owners are still keen on that huge profit they were promised by the original distributor. There is also the issue of the cost to transport the units from where they are located to wherever you want them delivered.”
Gerry responded. “Leslie you were wise enough to see the opportunity you had and seize it without being greedy. We can respect that. If someone else is foolish enough to think things haven't changed since the epidemic, then life is liable to be very hard for them. Maybe you can't duplicate this deal with future sales to us, because of the current market conditions, but so far you are our 'go to' merchant for finding more of these. Maybe you can convince some of the other store owners to make wise choices, and maybe you can't. We would like to work with you more, if we can. We'll see what you can come up with by Friday, and go from there.”
They paid Leslie in cash and got the units loaded in the back of Rob's truck. As they drove out of town, Patty pulled her phone out of the metal lock box and called up her Daddy. She talked with him for some time talking about the plans she and Gerry were making and the developments at the Haven. After they had talked a while she asked him about the composting toilets, she had vaguely remembered at his store. He did remember they had three units left. And he remembered they had only sold one just before the epidemic was getting cranked up. He offered to let them have the toilets at no cost. He had decided to hire a broker to sell his business and that small a portion of the inventory would not have an appreciable impact on the total sale price. Patty asked about the inventory of wood burning ovens and cook stoves that were left. He replied that he would have to check on those. The wood burning cook-soves were considerably more expensive than the toilets, but he did not remember off hand how many or which models they had left. It was less than half an hour later when Patty's phone rang. Her Daddy gave her the information about what was in stock, both for the composting toilets and the wood burning cook stoves. He also repeated his position on giving the toilets to them at no cost. He dodged her question about pricing on the stoves saying something about the various prices on different models and that he wanted to talk to the broker he had engaged to discuss the impact on selling his business. Patty explained that she would bring that information to the family during their regular meeting and she would get word back to him. It was early afternoon when the four adventurers returned to the Haven. They all four slipped back into their places on the various work teams. Rob had parked his truck near the temporary storage spot where Pete and Joann had first stashed their supplies. This was close to the site where the second lodge was being built. He barely had time to climb out of his truck before there were people coming to unload the toilets. It did not take long for word to spread about how the search for toilets had gone. There was a general curiosity about them among most of the team. Some had heard of these devices but almost no one had seen one, beyond the cheap kit versions meant for camping that used a bag lined five gallon bucket for a base.
That evening at the family meeting they discussed the results of the trip made earlier to search for toilets and also the information gathered by Patty from her father. There was a bit of discussion about whether or not they needed a second cook-stove at the first lodge. Pete pointed out that he and Joann had already bought one for their house which was now going to be another lodge, even though it would not hold as many people as the first one. There was also a discussion about how many toilets they needed to acquire. They decided that they needed four toilets for each lodge. Jenny, Joann, and Linda were all three talking about an extra cook-stove for each lodge. The pointed out that at some point the kitchens would be needed for doing more then preparing fresh meals. They were going to be canning foods and dehydrating foods for longer term storage as well as cooking hot meals for everyone to eat.
Patty was listening quietly but attentively, until the discussion seemed it was about settled. Then she felt that she had to speak. “I know I haven't been a part of these meetings very long, but there are some things I think all of you should consider. So far things out there are just starting to rumble and the storm that we all know is coming still seems to be 'out there'.” Patty gestured with her hands like she was dismissing something far away. “I know we have all trained ourselves to budget our spending and to not buy things before we really need them. If you hadn't been doing that all along you would not have the money to do the things you have been doing here. I'm pretty sure we need to re-examine that practice considering how things are changing and what we have already talked about. The cost for everything is going up fast, IF we can find what we are looking for. A time is coming when we won't be able to pay for things, even if we do find them. I've missed out on many of your previous discussions. Are we planning to stop with the lodge we are building right now, or is there more?”
Patty looked around at the group seeking a response. Linda responded first. “You are right, Patty. We had talked about building a house for each of our families. I for one envisioned a house with a big kitchen so I could bake breads and tasty treats for everyone. I also wanted to raise honey bees.”
“I suspected something like that.” replied Patty. “We are going to need toilets and cook-stoves for those other houses as well. Gerry and I need to refit the house he built, too. We can't count on gas deliveries to continue to fuel his gas stove, and reworking his plumbing system will help reduce the demands on the water supply he has to water the cattle. This is why I started that line of products at my Daddy's store.”
Carl spoke up here, too. “With the design we are using we'll need some wood stoves for heat in each of the residence modules for the new lodge too. The heating in the core module just will not spread adequately through the hallways to the attached additions that we have designed. Patty is right on target, too, about what we have discussed before. The economy is only beginning it's changes. It's going to be like a leak in a levee or a crack in a dam that becomes a torrent. We need to get ahead of it while we can.”
Colleen had a comment to make. “I'm not sure, but something we haven't discussed in specifics is how our expectations have changed. We had a sudden spurt of people who were helping us suddenly needing our help. We responded quickly to that because we already had the seeds of that kind of response in our hearts and minds. Carl's mention of a levee failing made me think that we may need to plan on the possibility of more people stumbling into our safety net when we are considering what we need to get.”
Rob stepped into the discussion, too. “That all makes sense, but we need to do some careful planning before we run out and buy everything we can think of that we might need. We need to have a plan that is flexible, but that takes into account our need to reserve enough money for food and gasoline until we are able to be self sustaining.”
“We need to sell our trailers!” Bruce blurted out. Everyone looked at him in shock. “Think about it. We are about to have room in the new lodge for us to move out of our travel trailers. We need to do that as soon as we can, because there is a lot of money tied up in them that we need to utilize elsewhere. We need to sell them while we still can. Once the economy implodes it will be really hard to find a buyer that is able to pay us in a manner that will benefit us.”
Patty responded with another comment. “I don't know what our cash position is, but I'm going to be a part of this family soon. I cashed out my bank accounts, and have some money I can contribute for immediate purchases until we get a more thorough plan in place for liquidating and allocating our assets.” “Okay, everybody.” Bruce was getting his head into all of this. “I need to spend some time on all of this. Patty, I for one am pleased that you are going to be part of our family. You are a practical asset to us, in addition to being such a likable person. I need to talk with you about what your financial position is so I can factor that into our financial plan. I need to put together a straw man kind of money plan to present as a starting point for our discussion. Patty, I'll also need the specifics of what your daddy told you and what you remember about his inventory of what we might need. We need to plan on a short trip so Patty can use her phone to start making arrangements with her Dad and also to contact that plumbing store fellow. Leslie, was it?”
When they moved into the lodge Gerry wasted no time in small talk. He went right to the heart of the matter. “Folks, It is now September and fall will be on us in no time. You have all been working very hard to help us get ready and we need to keep that going. There are some of you who are needing to make some decisions soon. We are not asking you to leave by any means, but we are almost through with the first residence we are building and that is all you committed to stay for. There are signs that the economic situation is going to get troublesome and we are wanting to acquire some of those hard to get items as quickly as possible, while it is still possible.”
Gerry paused a minute before he went on. “From where I stand we have all been blessed here in the past month. I am grateful for that, and I expect you all are too. If you haven't heard yet, Patty and I are making a life commitment and getting baptized after the congregation meeting this Sunday. She and I will officially be members of the Brotherhood from then on. I hope you will all be there when we make that public commitment, because it is a very important step for the two of us. If for some reason you do not want to be there for that, you can either wait at the parking lot of the Meeting Hall until we are through, or you can talk with Bruce to see if he can arrange transportation back here. I only ask that the arrangements take into account that I would not want anyone who wants to be there to be asked to miss it just so someone else can miss it.”
Later that evening, when the normal group was attending the cattle, Bruce caught Gerry while he and Patty were not right together. “Gerry?” Bruce spoke quietly. “I don't mean to intrude, but I was wondering when you and Patty are thinking about tying the knot. It is obvious you are going to, But I am wondering about the arrangements and what we might do to help.”
“Bruce, I don't think Patty or I either one are too keen on putting that off, but honestly I have trouble with the idea of a honeymoon split between your trailer and Rob's trailer. I just think it will be best if we wait until we can manage a joint habitation. Ideally when the rain comes, we would both like to split some of the cattle off and take them back to my place and live there. Of course that will be risky until we are sure the well can sustain their water needs. There is also the issue of not seeing all of you on a daily basis, but being practical about it, using up fuel to drive back and forth from my place to her is not a wise plan.”
Bruce was caught suddenly trying to wrap his head around some issues he had not previously considered. For the past few months it seemed he had all he could handle trying to address tomorrow and the day after that. His look further down the road was too fuzzy to bring it into focus. The family meeting tonight had been a wake up call to his thinking regarding his view of the road ahead. He needed to consider what Gerry had shared as he put together a straw man budget but the things Gerry and Patty were looking to do would definitely have an impact on everyone's plans. So too might the unpredictable weather have a serious impact.
By Thursday night Bruce was close to having a draft of their financial status and a plan for moving forward. They knew they would be contacting the manager of the plumbing store the next day and would need to respond to him if he was able to work up a deal. They also needed to get back to Patty's Daddy with an idea of what they were interested in buying from him. Patty had only asked him to check on the cook-stoves, but had not asked him about the wood burning heater stoves in stock. They had decided they needed a minimum of ten toilets just for the old lodge and the new lodge with only the one residence wing that was almost finished. They also needed more for Gerry's house and the two houses yet to be built for Rob, Jenny, Bruce, and Linda. There was also the question of how much they might need to expand these dwellings for more families, and should they be prepared for that or not? What should their number be? That would also affect the number of heater stoves and cook-stoves they acquired.
When they started talking numbers of toilets and stoves and discussing what they were willing to pay for individual items on the list Bruce was quickly multiplying in his head and reminding them of the total dollars they were talking about. Those total dollar numbers were quickly becoming intimidating to several members of the family. Carl finally put his two cents in. “Guys, when we were on the way here I was talking to you about the money I had saved, and how I wanted to use a chunk of it to get a small place and build a house for Colleen and me to raise a family. We never agreed to an actual figure as to how much I would spend for that because our whole way of looking at it and the way we acquired things got, well some very surprising help from unexpected places. What I'm saying is I still have that money and I no longer need to spend what I thought I would. So that big chunk is available for this, and I think we should plan for more than we expect. I also believe we should get these items as soon as we can reasonably, or maybe even unreasonably by previous standards, get them.”
Patty quickly jumped in. “I agree with Carl, and I assume Colleen, about that and, Bruce, you know how much money I have available to help out with this. Honestly, I do not even know yet what kind of cash resources Gerry has so I'll let him speak for himself. I am just feeling an urgency to get what we need before we cannot get it, and I am also feeling more and more that the people we have helped so far have helped us as much as we have helped them.” Rob was about to say something when Patty jumped in again. “I just have to say this. I think we all sense that we are getting help from outside ourselves; even from outside the people that are around us. In my opinion the Creator has a purpose for helping us, because He also has intentions for doing something with us or through us, and those intentions are connected to the help he is giving to us. I think it would be wise on our part to keep that in mind while we are trying to make good decisions.”
Rob responded to Patty, saying, “Patty, I have to agree with you on that, and thank you for that reminder. I know we haven't finished our whole plan from a financial point of view, but we need to get our thoughts together so we are all on the same page when you talk to Leslie as well as when you talk to your father tomorrow. I do not think Leslie will have rounded up enough toilets for us to cover all we might ever need, but we need to decide a framework for deciding and communicating to him our intentions now and where we hope to go with this. Let's talk about our guidelines or limits regarding whatever Mister Braden might offer, then we need to talk about what your father is willing or able to do.”
Gerry cleared his throat and spoke. “Leslie stepped up and took a hit for us, because he sensed it was right. He sold us two units at what I am sure was slightly below his cost for something he had not been able to move for some time. Since then I am guessing he has been working to broker a deal which has required him to cobble together multiple deals with other merchants. If we make a deal with him, he ought to get some compensation for his work. At the same time I do not want to reward other merchants who are overly greedy. I think we ought to set a maximum reasonable price for the units we buy from him, and tell him that those who are pricing themselves out of our range will simply lose our patronage.”
“I think you have the right idea.” Bruce chimed in. “So, now the question is what is that price, and how many are we willing to purchase at that price?”
Patty responded, “My Dad said he had 3 in stock and he would give them to us at no cost. That doesn't affect what we are willing to pay per unit to Mister Braden, but it should be considered in how many we need right away.”
Linda jumped in here. “This is supposed to be my area of expertise, so I'd better put my two cents in. With the two we already have and the three Jim Decker is giving us we need five more immediately. Apparently Mister Braden was not too specific about what cost was. If he sold us two for $600 to at slightly below his cost, we can figure he paid about $700 for the two of them or $350 each. Y'all didn't say anything about him pulling out his calculator when Gerry pressed him for a number, so I'm doing some rounding here like he probably did. You didn't tell him anything about where we are located so when he was talking about transportation cost, he was probably figuring that the other store owners would be thinking about gas to deliver the toilets to his place. With the cost of gas what it is right now they are probably thinking twenty to fifty bucks for a round trip. Let's call it twenty five per item. Some will have two in stock. Some will have only one, some one may have three. If they have three, that is more efficient and works in their favor. That puts it at $375 each for approximate cost to the merchant. They are going to want a 20% mark up on the original cost which is another $70. That puts us at $445 without any commission for Mister Braden.”
Linda stopped a minute while everyone settled those numbers in their heads. “I say we need to agree among ourselves on a ceiling price of $475 per unit. That ceiling covers the original cost plus transportation, plus a total of $100 per unit, or about 28% mark up, not counting transportation, for Mister Brandon and the other merchants to split up among themselves. We do not tell him that ceiling, but we keep in mind that any offers above that are not doable. We also need to keep another ceiling in mind. We will limit the number of units we purchase this coming week to ten. Then in three more weeks we may buy up to ten more, if the price is doable. The idea is to get the merchants competing for a finite number of sales. They also need to know that we will not buy any if the pricing is not good. If for example their bids for only five toilets at or below our ceiling, then five is all we buy. If there are only a few this week he will only have until we come to pick those up to get some more of the bids down to doable. If this first week there are no bids below our ceiling, then we tell Mister Braden he can try again over the next three weeks, but if it can't be done by then we will look for other sources. ”
That approach caused some of the family members to be thrown slightly off balance. Then they started thinking about it from the merchants, perspective. Rather than pricing their product with a goal of how much profit they might make, the merchants would be competing against each other for a finite number of sales that could be made to the only buyer. Linda was putting it together more like a corporation issuing a structured request for bids, rather than making a shopping list and searching for a merchant whose products we can afford.
Several members of the family also noticed that Linda's plan was giving consideration to both the need to acquire enough items for uncertain future needs, but also avoiding the trap of going out and buying right now as much of something as they think they might ever need. Her plan was to buy enough for what they were certain to need, then to wait a few weeks before committing to buying more.
Patty spoke up again. “I know it's been my phone that we were protecting when I first came here, but a few things have changed since then.” Patty grinned. When we send some one out to call Mister Braden, I really think Linda needs to explain our position to him. We are all understanding the basic strategy, but Linda has a special talent for communicating when it comes to negotiating.”
Rob did not need to wait for a vote. He could see on everyone's face they were all of a like mind on this. “I think we are all on the same page on this topic, but there is another sub-topic we need to discuss.”
Jenny spoke up at this point. “I think this one falls under my area of responsibility. Yes we have two wood burning cook-stoves right now. One was in the lodge before we came here and one was bought by Pete and Joann for their future house before we even decided to come here. With the way we are operating right now it is sometimes challenging to prepare a meal for this many people with the one stove in the lodge. Especially with the ideas we are working through for preserving food that we produce or acquire. I recommend that we plan for two in the old lodge and two in the new lodge, which means we are only half way there. We also, as I understand it, need to be looking ahead to getting at least three more, one for each of the other houses, meaning the Kerry, the Cooper, and the Smith households. Related to that but slightly different in the practical details are the wood burning heaters or stoves that will be needed. We also need to address that issue.”
Patty reminded them about the inventory her father had. “He has enough of the cooking stoves in stock to take care of our plans, but there are only nine heater stoves still in stock. He is trying to sell his business through a broker, and he was going to discuss with them about the impact on the sale of reducing the inventory of certain lines of products. He said he would have some answers by tomorrow.”
Pete had a suggestion that he wanted to share. “We are trying to keep from being caught in a situation where we cannot obtain what we need, but also avoid spending too much too soon before we are confident about what we will need. Now that we know what Jim has available why don't we wait and see what he has to say about pricing before we rush ahead. I suspect we can make a reasonable deal with him once he gets a better picture of the inventory value, and when we have more information about our own plans worked out. Another consideration is that wood burning heater stoves are a lot more common in this part of the state than the wood burning cook stoves are. I have seen them from time to time in a variety of stores since I moved up here. Timing is important, but rushing in unprepared is risky.”
The family all agreed with Pete's advice. They closed their meeting and followed up with a brief report to the rest of the group about the plans for Friday. When that was done the cattle tending team had to hurry down to the cattle in order to finish up before dark. Gerry noted and shared with the others that they were going to have to adjust their schedule soon to accommodate the changing daylight hours available.
The next morning Bruce had decided to drive his own truck to take Patty and Linda out away from the Haven to make their phone calls. He had referenced some of his paper maps to plan a totally new route out into nowhere so that the radio calls would be from places never used before. For this run he plotted a route that would take them to a higher elevation inside a national forest. He took advantage of a mountain there to line them up with access to the base station, but where the mountain would block the signal from anyone on the far side of that mountain. They left fairly early so they would catch both Mister Braden and Jim Decker at the very beginning of their day.
“Mister Braden?” Patty intoned as he answered the call with his usual telephone greeting for his store.
“Yes this is Leslie Braden. How may I help you this morning?” he replied.
“This is Patty. My friends and I were there earlier this week and you were going to check on finding more inventory for us to consider.”
“Oh yes, how are you this morning?”
“I am fine. Thank you. I am going to pass the phone to a close friend, Linda. She is going to talk with you and represent our group of friends in the discussion of what you might be able to do for us. Here is Linda.” She handed to phone to Linda.
“Good morning, Mister Braden. This is Linda. I'm sorry we couldn't meet in person this morning. If you have good news for us, then maybe we can arrange that later in the week.”
Leslie took a deep breath. “I certainly look forward to that, Miss Linda. I certainly do.”
“Mister Braden, I am going to get straight to the point. I know you have been working to try and find what we need from various sources, and we appreciate that. Since Miss Patty and those with her the other day visited with you we have been talking and want to clarify for you just what our needs are. We need to get the best prices we can, and we also need to control our cash flow. So here is our deal. We are going to split this into two rounds of bidding in kind of a reverse auction. You will be the auction manager/broker for this process. Your commission will have to be taken out of the final bid that you present to us on each item. So, for example, if you obtain a bid to sell a unit to us for ten dollars you might offer it to us for eleven dollars. If we accept the bid, we will pay you eleven dollars and you will pass the ten dollars on to the other merchant. If you offer it to us for eleven -fifty and we accept the bid, then you can keep the dollar and fifty cents and pass the ten dollars on to the other merchant. Are you with me so far?”
“Yes, Miss Linda. That is perfectly clear.” Leslie responded pleasantly.
“Good, so far.” Linda replied. “Now here is the sticky part. We are not obligated to accept any bid. If we think any bid to sell to us is too high, and remember that bid to us includes your commission, we will simply reject that bid. If we are hoping to buy ten units and only five bids seem doable to us, then five is all we will buy this coming week. In three more weeks we will do this all over again. At that time we are also hoping to buy ten units. After that we will not be coming to you again for more units. If we do not get a full ten units this coming week, that will have no effect on how many units we get from you three weeks later. Do you understand our conditions?”
Leslie paused a moment. “So to be clear, you are wanting to buy a total of twenty toilets in two separate batches. But, if I am able to acquire only seven toilets this week at a reasonable price you will still only purchase a maximum of ten units in three more weeks; not thirteen. Is that correct?”
“That is exactly right, Mister Braden.” Linda replied cheerily.
“Well let me ask you this.” Leslie paused a moment. “I'm just asking to make sure we are understanding each other. You said I would be the auction manager/broker. If I can obtain eight units for eight dollars and two more for eleven dollars, Then I could in theory offer you ten units at twelve dollars taking a one dollar commission on two units and four dollars on eight units, but you would not know the variance in commission.”
“That is true, Mister Braden, we would not. However, you do not know if we might reject a bid above eleven dollars and you might get nothing for all your troubles. You might on the other hand offer eight units for nine dollars and two units for eleven dollars. That might give you eight one dollar commissions if we accept the lower bids and reject the two eleven dollar bids as too high. Then you would have to wait three weeks to try again, but there is no guarantee of what we will consider too high on either set of ten bids.”
Leslie paused a little longer this time. “Miss Linda, you are a shrewd business woman. I've got to tip my hat to you. It looks like I'm going to have to earn my commission on this arrangement. Of course that's what you are looking for too, isn't it? I tell you what. Let's get some more details worked out here. You obviously want the best prices possible, but it is also to your advantage to obtain all the units you are looking for without having to pursue other sources. Also I have to get the units you are purchasing here so you can take delivery on them. I am also sure you will not be paying in cash until you actually take delivery. So, perhaps I can obtain a small concession on your part to achieve a mutually beneficial process.”
Linda grinned. “I appreciate your polite approach to this, Mister Braden. I am listening.”
“Let's say I present only a few bids that you accept today and I arrange to have them here for you to take possession on Wednesday of the next week. What if I am able to obtain additional units at or below a price you accepted, and have them here when you come to pick those you already agreed to purchase. Will you accept that late bid and pay to purchase the additional units?”
Linda paused for a short minute. “Mister Braden, That is a reasonable proposition, but I have to present another condition into our arrangement. If you cannot on the Friday before we pick up guarantee delivery of at least three units when we arrive on the following Wednesday, then we will have to cancel the auction for that week. We cannot justify the expenditure for fuel to make the drive for less than three units. So, do we have an agreement?”
“I'd have to say we are really close. I think I have only one more question. Especially since these condition were not discussed before today, if I present you some bids based on the information I was able to gather and you find none of them doable, Will I be able to offer adjusted bids until I find something acceptable to you?”
Linda thought a moment to run through some scenarios in her head. “Mister Braden, I think we have our platform for our working together on this now.”
“Thank you Miss Linda. Now if you don't mind I would like to get started.” Leslie replied.
“Mister, Braden. There is on more thing I need to mention.” Linda said. “Well, Miss Linda, so far all of your conditions have been acceptable to me. I assume that this will not derail our business arrangement.” Leslie was still being cordial.
“I certainly hope not, Mister Braden. I need to mention that is is Ms. Linda, not Miss Linda.” Linda stated with a touch of formality.
“Duly noted, Ms. Linda. Now down to business. Let me start with a bid to sell you two units at $375. Another bid is for two units at $425. I have a bid for one unit at $465, one unit at $480, two units at $500, and two units at $550. I believe that is ten units, that you said is your limit for this round. I have other bids that are higher, but those are the best ones that I have managed to collect so far.”
Linda signaled Patty to make some notes. “Mister Braden, I'm going to repeat that to make sure of your numbers and so that Miss Patty can write it down. You said there is a bid for two units at $375, two units at $425, one unit at $465, one unit at $480, two units at $500, and two units at $550. Is that correct?”
“Yes, Ma'am. That is correct.” Leslie was very matter of fact in his confirmation.
Linda paused a moment while she did some mental arithmetic. “Mister Braden we will accept the bids for five of those units for a total of cost of $2,065. We do not consider the other five units to be a doable price.” Linda responded.
Leslie took only a moment before asking. “Just to confirm our arrangement, you will be paying $2,065 in cash for five units next Wednesday morning. Also, you will be willing to purchase up to five more units at that time if I can get the price for them down to $465 each which will be a total of $2,325 more. Is that correct?”
Linda paused. “That is our deal for five units this coming Wednesday, Mister Braden. I need to caution you, however. You may not count on $465 being an acceptable bid on this coming Wednesday or three weeks from now. You need to make that clear to the other merchants but also in your mind as well. This is competitive bidding. You showed good faith in giving separated bids today rather than adding in extra commission for yourself and making all the bids equal. If we see evidence of you fattening your cut by leveling all the competitive bids you receive before presenting them to us, we will not hesitate to no-bill all of the bids you present whether they are the new bids on Wednesday or the bids three weeks from Friday. If we no-bill all of the bids this Wednesday or those you present in three weeks you will not get a second chance to adjust any of the bids. Is that clear?”
“Ms. Linda, That is perfectly clear. If I were to gather better bids and try to get greedy, I would have to face the potential anger of a number of my peers, wouldn't I? Again, you are a formidable negotiator. Ms Linda.”
“Thank you Mister Braden. I look forward to meeting you in person on Wednesday morning.” With that Linda disconnected the phone and handed it to Patty.
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Post by sniper69 on Apr 13, 2024 20:40:59 GMT -6
Linda is a force to be reckoned with. Thank you sir for the generous helping of Moar feed. It was a satisfying dessert this evening.
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Post by pbbrown0 on Apr 15, 2024 16:56:21 GMT -6
Post #96
Lessons In Life
Patty was staring at Linda as she took the phone. “Wow. I am so glad we decided to let you do the negotiating. That was impressive.”
“Thank you, sweetie.” Linda said with a restrained smile. “Sometimes life teaches you lessons, if you let it. I guess it's your turn now to call your Father. I hope it goes well.”
Patty checked the antenna strength on her phone. Bruce had been driving at a leisurely pace along a switch back road up the mountain. Her signal was good so she started the call to her Daddy.
“Hi, Daddy. How are things going?”
“High sweetie, how are things going for you?” Patty noticed he had sidestepped her question.
“Things are going really well for me and Gerry. It sounds like things might not be going so well for you. What is happening?” Patty's voice showed a genuine concern.
“I never have been good at hiding anything from you, have I, sweet girl?” He chuckled. “Truthfully, Patty, I am doing okay. I've just been talking with my business broker and of course with Frank as well. I am having to reevaluate some things. Before I get into that, I have a couple of questions for you. You told me you and Gerry are both planning to be baptized this Sunday, right?”
“Yes, we are. Why are you asking?” Patty was cautiously curious. She knew Frank was not too comfortable about the Brotherhood and some of his attitude had influenced her father's attitude toward them over the years.
“When you told me that, I got to thinking and I've been talking this week with Frank about it. I wanted to ask you if it would be okay if Frank and I … If it would be okay with you for Frank and I to come to the Meeting Hall down there and sit in on the Congregation meeting this Sunday? We want to be there at the ceremony when you two are baptized.” Patty's eyes got big and her jaw went little slack. Her Dad had never been openly critical or rude toward anyone in the Brotherhood that he had encountered, but he had always been very reserved around someone he knew to be one of the Brothers.
“Daddy, I would be more that happy for you to be there. Of course you are welcome, and Frank, too. I'm surprised about Frank, but I can't imagine either of you not being welcomed at the meeting or at the baptism. I didn't tell you, but the baptism ceremony will be after the congregation meeting is over.”
Jim continued but he sounded more subdued than his usual self. “Thank you, Patty. I know this is something very important for you, and we both want to be there for you. Frank and I have been talking about a lot of things this week. I'll talk more with you when we get there. We have missed you. Changing the subject a little, my business broker has been talking with me a lot this week too. Rather than selling my business, it looks like the smart thing right now is to sell my inventory to some distributors in this area and then sell the building and property, rather than trying to sell an intact business.”
Patty instantly understood the implications of that. The business her father had worked so hard to build was done for. There was no sale of a viable business going to happen. The inventory would be sold for less than he had paid for it. The same was probably true for the building and property in the current economy.
“Patty? Are you still there?” Jim had not heard a reply which was not normal for his daughter.
“Yes I'm here Daddy. I was just processing what you said.” Patty tried to pull herself back together for her father.
“I know, there are a lot of memories for you about that store, but life goes on.” Jim cleared his throat. “Speaking of which, I want to talk with you and Gerry more about your plans to get married. But right now I want you to know something. Those wood burning stoves in inventory, both the nice ones you brought in for kitchens and the less fancy ones we were carrying for heating camp cabins and such; I am going to give all of those to you and Gerry as a wedding present.”
Once again Patty was quiet. Linda notice that Patty was quiet again after her comment about processing. Linda turned to see if she was okay and saw her eyes glistening like she was on the verge of tears. Linda signaled for Bruce to pull over and she climbed into the back seat with Patty. Linda reach over to hold Patty's hand just as Patty spoke again.
“Daddy I don't know what to say. That is so sweet of you. I'm afraid I may have a bit of a challenge learning to cook on that many stoves at once though.” She giggled. “Of course the real problem will be finding room for that many camp stoves inside of Gerry's house.” She heard her father laughing on the other end of the phone. It was the first time in quite awhile that she had heard that cheerful sound coming from her father. She turned to Linda and gave her a big smile to reassure her that things were okay. “You have a point there, Patty Cake. The truth is I have realized how important this must be for you, but also for those people you are helping that use to be under my wing. Things are not getting better out here. I ... I also want to talk to that family that has taken you in, sweetie. I hope some of them will be there at the meeting hall Sunday so I can make contact with them, too.”
“I'll let them know you want to talk to them, Daddy. I'm sure we can arrange something.” Patty realized that the last time her father had talked with them, they were still blindfolding anyone who they took to the Haven. Frank certainly knew where the meeting hall in Bear Creek was, through his brother, Brother George Rogers. The two of them had been working together to help get the clothing and personal items out of Hollerton and to the guest families at the haven.
“Thank you, Patty. I look forward to seeing you Sunday, and Frank does too.”
“Bye Daddy. See you then. Tell Frank I'm looking forward to seeing him, too.”
Patty disconnected her phone and turned to Linda with a stunned look on her face. Linda was trying to get a read on what just happened.
Linda finally spoke since Patty was obviously speechless. “It looks to me like that was a golly-gee-what-just-happened kind of phone call, Sweetie. You want to talk about it or do you want to bottle it up inside?”
That kind of question from Linda was just what Patty needed to reconnect. “Where to start.” Patty took a deep breath and let it out. “My father was advised that selling the business he built over a couple of decades, was just not going to happen, so he, and apparently his best friend since right after high school, have been reevaluating their view of things. He wants to talk with you all, the family, and he is still aware of your efforts to avoid exposure. He and Frank want to come to the congregation meeting in Bear Creek on Sunday and also the baptism ceremony afterwards. Also he wants to give me, and through me, he wants to give the Haven, for the benefit of all those who used to work for him, all of the wood burning stoves, both the heater types and the fancy kitchen types. Those kitchen stoves were retailing for $1,500 to $2,500 each, by the way. The biggest thing though I think, is that I heard him laugh out loud for the first time in I can't remember when. I somehow got the impression that there is a lot more coming that he just thinks is not quite clear enough for him to talk about. Golly-gee-what-just-happened is a good description of that phone call, Linda.”
Linda put her arm around Patty and gave her a hug. Then she turned to Bruce and said, “Why are we sitting here in this great big truck on the side of a mountain in the middle of nowhere, Brucie? We need to get home.” She winked at Patty as Bruce recovered from his momentary fluster and started up the engine.
The mood at the Haven was gradually getting more upbeat after the Coopers and Miss Decker returned. The details being passed around were minimal but the emotional attitude was becoming contagious. The air was also a couple of degrees less intense and there were slight breezes swirling gently through the trees. Both segments of the new lodge were completely dried in, room partition walls were all complete now. They were putting the finishing touches on the surfaces of the bathroom floors. The men were focusing on building cabinets, counter tops, butcher blocks, and work tables for the kitchen. They were also building beds, bunk beds and chairs for the rooms. Attention was also being given to the design of the laundry devices. The non-motorized washing machine being used in the first lodge could be duplicated, but a couple of the men were working on an improved design. During the Friday night family meeting Linda reported on how things went with the bids for the toilets and how Mister Braden had responded. Then Patty filled in the details of her Fathers offer regarding the stoves. Carl discussed with the family some needs regarding plumbing fixtures like sinks, wash basins, faucets, and tubing to control the water flow. Bruce suggested that if things continued to go well with Mister Braden they might consider seeing what he could do in providing some of those plumbing needs.
Saturday morning after they had worked for several hours on various tasks, Gerry and Carl decided to go pay a visit to Brother Isaac and Brother Mark James. They found Colleen and Patty who wanted to go with them and they all made a trip over to Brother James house. They spent a couple of hours there talking, discussing how things were progressing, taking a little time for Bible study together, and having lunch. The two couples took their leave after lunch realizing that the two older gentlemen were tiring. They promised to be back the next morning to help them get to the Meeting Hall.
The next morning the process of getting everyone to the Meeting Hall started early. Gerry and Patty had Brother Isaac and Brother Mark there before anyone else arrived and they had to wait until one of the other brothers arrived to open the Meeting Hall. Once they got inside, Patty and Bruce left to pick up some others at the Haven to bring to the meeting. Gradually the number of people there grew and everyone was greeting each other and catching up with each other on how their previous week had gone. Gerry saw Frank's truck turning into the parking lot and he went to find Patty. She and Gerry did not wait for Frank and her Dad to get to the building. Patty went out with Gerry to greet them before they were half way to the door. When they got inside Patty began introducing her Father to everyone. She also introduced Frank to a couple of people before he separated himself from them and went off on his own. Patty wondered what was going on with him but could not see where he went.
After many introductions were made Jim questioned Patty quietly. “Patty, they are all here. ALL the people that went to work for the Smiths and Coopers are here. Are they being pressured to come?”
Patty looked stunned. “No. Absolutely not. It started out with just a few coming and the others gradually asked if they could come too. It is quite a job to get them all transported, but we do it because they all are asking us to help them get here. I was wanting to introduce you to Brother Isaac and Brother Mark, but I don't see them.” Patty looked around. “Did you see where Frank went? Its almost time to get started.”
“Don't worry. Patty. I'll save a seat for him.” Jim said calmly to his daughter.
Patty and Bruce led Jim into the auditorium and found seats for the four of them. Jim left an empty seat next to himself by the aisle. Just as one of the elders was walking to the front to start the meeting Frank slipped in and sat in the seat Jim had kept open for him. Jim had never been to a meeting of the Brotherhood. Even though Frank had described for him, just in this past week, how they were conducted, Jim was still impressed with the difference between the format for this meeting and those he had attended before in several Christian churches.
After the meeting an announcement was made that the congregation was invited to meet at the customary place on the creek to witness the baptism of Gerry Kerry and Patricia Decker. It took about fifteen minutes for everyone to clear the hall and relocate to the creek. The ceremony was very simple in spite of its significance for Gerry, Patty, and the congregation. Afterwards Gerry and Patty had to go back to the Hall to change clothes. Jim was waiting for them, but he had engaged Rob and Bruce in a serious conversation outside the hall.
When Gerry and Patty emerged they joined the men and women who were clustered together. There were other families waiting, off to the side, to be transported back to the Haven. As Patty and Gerry were approaching they heard Jim talking about respecting the need to keep the actual location of the Haven concealed. Patty noticed that Frank was again missing. After a few minutes Frank emerged from the Hall with Isaac, Mark, and Frank's brother, George.
Isaac spoke up first. “Patricia, with you having family here, I have asked George if he would get Mark and I back home this afternoon. I hope you have a pleasant afternoon. Thank you both so much for your help in getting us here.”
As Isaac and the others moved away Bruce addressed Gerry and Patty. “We were talking earlier just before you came out. We thought your Dad might want to see Gerry's farm. Why don't y'all take a break this afternoon and get out there to have some time together. We'll get all the rest of the folks back to the Haven.
Patty and Gerry were happy to take Jim and Frank out to Gerry's farm. They talked on the way out and learned a lot before they arrived at the farm. Frank had been meeting with some of the elders before and after the meeting today to start a process of reconnecting with the congregation. He and his Brother, George, had been raised in this congregation. When he was in his late teens, Frank had been a bit of a rebellious teen and got crossed ways with some of the leaders of the congregation, like Isaac. Long story short, Frank left home and settled in Hollerton where he met Jim and finished high school there. He had essentially severed his relationship with the Brotherhood and had not attended a meeting of the brotherhood anywhere since then until today.
Patty was still a bit confused. “Uncle Frank, I'm not sure I understand. You have always seemed to have a poor opinion about the Brotherhood for as long as I have known you, but you were raised to be one of them. Just because you had a disagreement or difference of opinion with some of the leaders, how did that become a dislike for all of them?”
“Patty, I even got baptized when I was barely out of adolescence. I was a hot headed teen-aged know it all when I got older. I thought I had it all figured out better that those older folks, and I wasn't so polite as to simply call them older folks. I made a foolish choice and left my family and that whole collection of Brothers. I had to justify to myself that hot headed decision rather than face the fact that I was an arrogant young man. My self justification became a mind set that kept me captive for most of my life.”
Patty thought about that. “So why now, Frank? What prompted you to reconcile with them now?”
Frank let out a sigh and replied, “Where do I start? I guess It started when things went crazy with the Carters. The effort Gerry and the rest of the clan made to get all those families to a safe place was impressive. It also hit me that all the people coming to help were in the Brotherhood. Then Jim found out the arrangements you had made for really helping them in a bigger way than anyone expected. I was not that impressed about my brother helping until I learned about some of the other Brothers and Sisters helping out to make sure those folks had winter clothes. All of this started crowding my attitudes and presumptions I had spun in my head about the Brotherhood. I guess the final straw was when your dad and I started talking about the two of you deciding to join the Brotherhood. I just could no longer maintain the narrative I had spun in my head about them.”
Patty was pondering this when her father spoke. “Like Frank mentioned, we have been discussing a number of things this past week. You and Gerry and the decisions you two are making, but also the information and advice I have been getting from my attorney and the business broker I hired. A lot of things are changing around us that we never would have expected. Our expectations are irrelevant. The world is changing and we either adapt or we get crushed. We are liking more and more what you folks are doing, but I understand the desire for secrecy about your location. I figured that you and Gerry would be living at his farm after you get married, and he had not kept his cattle farm quite so secret. Bottom line is I want to help you two, and I hope we can help each other.
Before they got to Gerry's farm Gerry had explained how they had to set up and relocate the cattle because of the drought. They also talked about the hopes for moving some of the cattle back and expanding the size of the herd once they could re-establish an adequate water supply and the fields recovered from being grazed during the drought. Jim still wanted to see the place, which neither Gerry or Patty minded.
When Gerry started slowing down, Jim started looking concerned. “You've got a cattle farm out here?” Jim sounded dubious.
Gerry did not respond. He merely pulled of into the turnout in front of his gate and pushed the button on his fob. He eased forward gently bumping the gate open and pulled through. He stopped a short distance past the gate and jumped out to close it. Jim and Frank were watching the ground among the trees along the dirt and rock drive way. They were not saying anything and Gerry understood their doubts. The view changed suddenly as they pulled up to his house. Off to the sides were his fenced fields and barns. The fields were not that green but it was clear they were covered with late fall grasses.
Gerry and Patty climbed out. Jim and Frank followed. Patty started leading Frank and her Dad around the fields explaining Gerry's system of moving the cattle periodically to a new pasture space. She then took them to Gerry's water control panel and above ground reservoirs, explaining their operation and the problem they had encountered with the well. Next she led them to the barns and explained the methodology there just like Gerry had explained to her. Finally, she led them to Gerry's house and gave them a tour including his basement food storage area. When the tour was completed, Jim started asking questions.
“How did you find a meadow for cattle in this county. This county has more than a reputation for being rocky.” Jim smirked at his own joke about Rocky County.
“I didn't.” Gerry answered with a dead pan face for about fifteen seconds before he smirked right back. “I got the property for a really low price because everyone saw it as worthless. Then I started with a few cattle that were naturals for foraging and browsing on bushes and low tree foliage. I worked the biology side of it really hard and gradually built up the quality of these fields. When I finally had to move them I had reduced the herd to 70 head because of the drought and the expected need to rely on almost all purchased feed to get them through the winter. So far I have only managed to built up about one fifth of the total acreage I have from worthless to good grazing land. I could have made it through the winter buying feed for the cattle, but the well started drying down and it couldn't provide enough water for the herd and a household. That is the one thing I did not anticipate.”
“Let me get this straight.” Jim started in a contemplative tone. “You bought a large plot of seemingly worthless land. You used the science you learned in college and applied it in a practical way to transform that land into a productive cattle farm. How long did that take you?”
Gerry paused before answering. “It took ten years once I saved up enough to buy the property. I worked really hard for ten years to get just a small part of the land into a state where it could support a small herd of well managed cattle. But, I'm afraid I did not learn the science of that in college. What I learned about applied agriculture came from the mentoring and the library of a high school agriculture teacher that took me under his wing.”
Jim pondered that for a minute without comment. Then he said, “I'm impressed, Gerry. Now I'm curious about how you got connected with the Smiths and Coopers. I'm pretty sure they aren't from around here.”
“That is … Wow. I was trying to figure out how to explain that without making it too complicated. The more I think about how I connected up with them; the stranger and more unlikely it sounds even to me. You remember that Agriculture teacher I mentioned? He retired or actually quit his teaching job at the high school. The next year Joann, Pete's wife started teaching there. She quit after one year, but remembered hearing about him. Pete's family followed him up here from Texas. Please don't take this wrong because I really respect them, but they were a bit clueless when they got here. Joann and some of the others went to see my old Ag Teacher for some help. One of them noticed this unusual breed of cattle described in that library of his that I also mentioned a minute ago. Out of all the students he had taught over the years, I was the only one he knew that raised that breed of cattle, so he referred them to me. They came out to actually see the cattle and ask some general questions about them and that was that. Except, a few days later, Rob and Bruce were in the capital when the earthquake hit. They were stuck in a traffic gridlock because of some bridge damage, that was not ever reported in the media. Knowing how bad the situation was they wanted to let their family know that they were safe, but were going to be delayed getting back. They used a radio in their truck to try and find someone who could relay a message to their family. Now I told you at that time they were a bit clueless. They did not know radio protocols, and they did not know anyone besides themselves who were using that type of radio, but they were determined to give the good ole college try. Rob and Bruce by chance got a hold of my old Ag Teacher. Neither one of them had met him and he did not even know their names, because they were into their secret anonymity thing. Furthermore, they did not want to use the real names of any one in the family. But they wanted to relay a message to them. By chance my old teacher had stayed in touch by radio and he learned that I was possibly in the general vicinity of this family they were trying to reach. He took a long shot and contacted me and I was able to reach them on the radio. Crazy as it sounds the ladies at their camp figured out it was that cattle farmer they had talked with a few days before, who had relayed that message to them.”
Gerry continued. “Please bear with me on this because it gets even crazier. Because of that scare, they got really obsessive about staying in touch as they were traveling all over to find the supplies they needed. They asked me how they could do that without being tracked down by big brother so to speak. Radio expert that I am not, I tried to help them in the best ways I knew how. The more time I spent with them the more I liked them. While I was trying to help them and keep my cattle farm going, suddenly my well was no longer providing enough water and my farm was in a crisis. Kind of like when Sheriff Carter lost it and we jumped in to help our new employees and their family, without so much as a blink they rescued me in ways that went beyond what any reasonable person would expect. It seems like every problem or challenge we faced just brought us closer together.”
Gerry was shaking his head in amazement when he looked back on how things has 'just happened' and progressed in totally unexpected ways. “At this point we have become like close family partners in a joint enterprise except it is not only the family ties holding it together. There are legal agreements in place.” Jim was surprised at that last comment. Frank had been sitting off to the side listening carefully but not engaging in the dialog. He too was pondering the tale that Gerry had spun. Patty got up from where she had been sitting and announced that she was going to get started on supper. She insisted that the men needed to continue talking together, and she could handle getting the meal together by herself. She was also pondering the story because there were several parts of it that she had not heard before.
When Jim saw that Patty was focused on getting a meal prepared, he leaned a little more toward Gerry and spoke softly but soberly. “Gerry, I mean it when I say I am impressed with what you have done here. Now I need to ask you something before I bring the subject to my daughter. I do not want to cause even a small conflict between the two of you. If you are uncomfortable with this I give you my word I will not ever bring this up to her.” “Stop right there, Jim. I appreciate your not wanting to create conflicts between us, but I am not going to hide something from her. If you talk to me about something I am not going to mask that you and I had a conversation. If you want I will be glad to talk with her about it for you, but do not ask me to hide something from her.”
Jim was surprised again. “I just thought... well, never mind what I thought. Obviously I was not thinking right about that. I am sorry, Gerry. I'll talk to both of you about this over supper. By the way would it be possible for Frank and I to borrow a couple of your extra beds tonight? We really don't want to be getting back into Hollerton at night.”
Gerry started to say yes, and then another thought hit him. “Jim I need to talk with Patty, first. I don't expect there will be any problem, but I need to ask her to be sure about that. I know we aren't married yet, and technically, for now, this is my house, not hers. However, relying on technicalities is not a good basis for building a marriage relationship. I'll be right back.”
Less than sixty seconds later Gerry was back and inviting Jim and Frank into the kitchen to help with supper. “Patty,” Gerry said when they entered the kitchen. “I don't want us to get in your way, I would like to help, if it will actually help you, but right now our conversations involve you, and I think it would be better if we included you from the start.”
Patty winked at Gerry and started assigning tasks, if you could call them that. She already had something heating in the oven. Mostly she assigned tasks like getting dishes and utensils on the table, getting some tea brewed, getting a pot out of the cabinet, and also sending Gerry downstairs to get a couple of canning jars of vegetables and a very large onion. The net effect was that the men did little talking because they were focused on their tasks. It also resulted in Patty being able to get some biscuits mixed up to add to the oven shortly, and then she started on making gravy to go with the pork loin medallions that were already in the oven. Gerry was back from the basement quickly so she got him to peel and slice the onion. Her Dad had the tea brewing already so she had Jim empty the two jars of veggies into separate sauce pans and put them on the stove top. In what seemed like almost no time they were putting the meal on the table, Thanks, in part, to Gerry having prepared a variety of food options in advance that were ready to cook or heat up at a moment's notice.
After Jim and Frank had sampled everything and expressed their appreciation. Jim settled in to what he had started to say earlier. “Patty, I asked Gerry if Frank and I could borrow a couple of beds here tonight and you take us back to Frank's truck sometime tomorrow.”
Patty looked at her Dad curiously and said, “Shouldn't you be asking Gerry that? It's his house and his truck.”
Jim and Frank both chuckled. “I tried asking Daddy, but he said to ask Mommy.” Jim replied with a grin and in a very fake innocent child's voice. Then they laughed a little louder.
Gerry was suppressing his own chuckle and corrected Jim. “Jim, that is not exactly accurate is it?” He then turned to Patty. “Darling you did not warn me that your father was such a kid.” He let that hang there for a moment then explained. “I told your father that very soon this house is going to be yours too, and I don't want to get our marriage off to a poor started by acting like it is not yours yet so you have no say in the matter. I also told him I did not foresee any problem but I would check with you just the same.”
Patty gave everyone an exasperated look. “I never did understand all those hints and innuendos about girls being the silly ones and men being generally more serious. That was just a satirical joke, wasn't it? Of course. I would love to have you as guests in OUR house.” She gave everyone a big grin, then she caught her breath. She continued with a more subdued, far away voice. “I guess it's a good thing Gerry had enough foresight to build us a house with four bedrooms.” Her thoughts continued silently, “That will at least buy us some more time.”
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Post by gipsy on Apr 15, 2024 18:14:22 GMT -6
Cool
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Post by sniper69 on Apr 15, 2024 19:41:14 GMT -6
Thank you for another excellent chapter. I'm trying to figure what the "That will at least buy us some more time." cliff is about. Maybe I'll just have to re-read the chapter again.
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Post by pbbrown0 on Apr 24, 2024 16:48:51 GMT -6
Post #97 Shuffling the Deck
Jim and Frank exchanged a look, then Jim said, “Frank and I have decided we are getting out of Hollerton. We need to leave as soon as possible so we need a temporary place until we can work out an acceptable permanent place to live. We were thinking of trying to negotiate a temporary arrangement with the clan at the – Haven? That's what you call it. right? Anyway, after seeing what a great job Gerry has done with this place we are asking if you will consider letting us stay here until we can work out a more permanent solution. We have no intention of freeloading. We will compensate you for your trouble.”
Jim got a determined look on his face. “I've missed getting my hands into my work. Seeing this setup you have here, Frank and I would enjoy working as hired hands, even without the pay, if the you and rest of the clan are open to it. We would love to work along side of those folks getting things ready, wherever it is they have that place hidden. That's another thing. Frank and I have taken off our rose tinted glasses. We know things have passed the tipping point on so many levels. We see the expedience of their secrecy, concerns, and efforts. Say, maybe Frank and I could help with things here at Gerry's farm getting things ready to bring the cattle back. Maybe we could help get a new well drilled and connected. Maybe you need some work done on moving fences, modifications to the barns, or changing the watering troughs before they come back here. We could help you with those kinds of things.”
He was going on and on, and suddenly interrupted himself. “I just remembered. I never did get back to Jenny about that guy with the excavator that I know. I also have a friend with a cement business. I might be able to work out something beneficial for you all through him. Frank and I both have trucks, too. I noticed you were having to run a shuttle service to get that whole crowd of my former employees and their families to the Meeting Hall this morning. Frank and I are not far from retirement and we have a little saved up that we can use to help you with operational funds. Of course it's not as much as we had planned on having.”
Gerry interrupted Jim at this point. “Jim, Frank, am I understanding that you want to join our group, or are you really just wanting to see more of Patty and you figure this is a good way to insure that access?”
Jim looked at Gerry, then Patty, and then back to Gerry. “Absolutely.” He pause with a straight face. “It is not an either or, Gerry. First off, I know that Patty is going to be safer, now that she is here. I can't tell you what a relief that is to me. When she first came out here, or actually at the Haven, I was thinking any harbor in a storm. But I was thinking short term emergency. When she got more comfortable and was showing no signs of coming home I was honestly getting worried. I am finally realizing that she wasn't really safe, when she was living near me. Now, I need to get to a safe place, too, because the disease in society that has corrupted Hollerton is spreading. I was first thinking that the Haven, as you call it, could be the safe place for Frank and I. I was thinking that Frank and I were going to need to work hard, and fast, to earn their trust so they would let us join them. Then I realized that this place is part of the Haven too. Of course Patty is going to be here with you working to make this part of the Haven work well. I know this will be your home, but I can see that you two are too personally connected to them to cut those ties. I'll work wherever you need me, but it looks to me like you two are going to need help here more than there pretty soon. I'm not the free ride kind of guy, Gerry. Earning your trust for me needs to go way beyond doing enough to be in your good favor. For me it is a matter of integrity.”
Gerry looked over to Patty and she him gave a tight lipped smile. “I need to get on the radio and check in about our plans. Tomorrow we need to talk with the family about this. Like I said this arrangement goes beyond just being a family that seems for the moment to be headed in the same direction. I'll get on the radio and then we can get things arranged for the night.”
Gerry got up and walked over to a desk where the radio was parked. “Bovine Wrangler calling Night Owl's Brood. Bovine Wrangler calling Night Owl's Brood. Come in Broody Bunch.” Gerry waited a half minute. “Wrangler without a herd calling the Broody Bunch, come in Broody Broody bunch. He waited a little longer then heard.
“Bear Bull here. Switching to channel X.” Gerry changed the channel on his base unit and heard. “This is the Double B. Que pasa, Dry Hole?”
Gerry thought a moment then said. “Schedule change needed. While the young 'uns are are munchin' down, meet us back at today's drop zone, but only bring a nest of raptors.” There was over a minute of silence, then Joann replied, “Wildcat saying copy that, Wet Behind the Ears. Anymore catnip for me?”
“Hugs all around. Over.” Gerry hung up the mic.
He came back to sit with the others and noticed that Frank and Jim had some very odd expressions on their faces. Frank who had been quiet up until now could not hold back any longer. “Could someone explain to me in complete sentences what that was all about?”
Patty grinned and dove right in to the explanation. “Gerry simply said, 'This is Gerry. If anyone in the family is listening, please answer me.' Then he repeated that until Bruce said , ' This is Bruce. I'll switch to our predetermined channel so we can confuse any eavesdroppers.' After he switched he said, 'This is Bruce again. What's happening. Gerry?' Gerry answered 'We have changes our plans for tonight. Instead of driving home we need to meet you on the parking lot of the Meeting Hall after you feed the cattle tomorrow morning. But only bring a few of the family not the others.' That last part of the message was a bit cryptic, so Joann got on and said 'We understand your message, Gerry. Is there more?' Then Gerry said, 'Nope. I am hanging up now.' That was it, plain and simple.”
The next morning they were on the parking lot at seven-thirty. A few minutes later two pickup trucks were coming down the state road from the north and pulled into the parking lot with eight members of the Family inside. Pete hung back a bit until all of the people managed to arrange themselves in a relaxed grouping. He was the last to close up the final gap. He was amused with a mild curiosity about how everyone seemed to naturally make subtle adjustments in their positioning so the spacing was relatively even without any apparent direction or sudden shifting among them.
“That was quite a stunt you pulled yesterday evening, young man.” Pete spoke in a semi relaxed manner, yet he was making a statement. “A last minute no-show for the evening bedding down AND the morning turning out of the herd? So, do you mind giving us a clue about why we are here?” Pete paused, but he was no good as an actor, so his demeanor collapsed into a smirk and a grin.
Jim and Frank both noticed that none of the family members had remained behind to keep an eye on what was happening back at the Haven. Gerry was a better actor and had remained stone faced during Pete's greeting. He did not laugh with Pete, but instead started speaking like he was about to announce an issue to the whole clan. “I'm actually glad you all came so I won't have to repeat this again, later. We have a serious issue to discuss. We have received a petition grant asylum, for two people who already have family here. This brings up a lot of issues regarding nepotism, accommodations, security, policies, that we haven't yet addressed, and also the compensation we will require for granting this boon, if we choose to do so.”
Pete sobered up but remained calm as he looked over to Patty. “Are you sure you want this guy for permanent partner? I suppose you might be a more tolerant person than I am, but be very careful what you choose.” Pete winked at Patty with his eye that was on the side away from Gerry. “Are we talking about the company that is present in our family meeting, Gerry?”
Gerry smiled a little. “Yep.”
“Well, I guess the fair thing to do is to hear them out, before we make any decisions. If there are no objections I would like to hear from Frank, first.”
Frank looked a bit surprised, but more concerned than surprised. “Thank you, Brother Smith. I suspect you know more about me than some of the others in your family do through your connection with my brother George. I guess I need to explain a few things, though. When I was growing up my parents were in the Brotherhood. I was baptized when I was in my early teens. However I was a bit of a hot headed teen aged boy and at one point I got caught up in my own arrogance and got into a disagreement with one of the elders. I got really wound up in it and got to acting more and more adamant about my position, and both my parents and then the elders tried to talk me down. I don't mean they tried to argue or talk down to me. They simply stated they did not see things the same as me on certain points and they politely tried to encourage me to dial down the rhetoric I was offering. Being the hot head I was I did just the opposite. Long story short, I ran away from home and left the congregation. I went to Hollerton and finished high school there. That is where I met Jim. I eventually got older and cooled down, but by that time I had rationalized a lot of my mistakes with a narrative in my head about how flawed the Brotherhood is. Fast forward thirty plus years and I started having contact with you folks. I saw the things that are going on around us. I saw your interaction with the Brotherhood and your connection to them. I saw what they were doing to help you and the families of those people who used to work for Jim; people they didn't even know. I could no longer validate the false narrative in my head about the Brotherhood and realized how foolish I had been. Now I want to reconcile with them, and you have been a big part of bringing me to that point without you even realizing it.”
Everyone was quiet, waiting for some the next thing that Frank would say. It was Jim, however that spoke next. “I need to make some connections in our story here. Frank and I became best buddies in High School after he showed up in Hollerton. He dodged any questions that came up about parents, and that did not bother me. It actually was a subconscious plus about him as far as I was concerned. Never really knew about his disagreement with the Brothers in the Brotherhood. I only got the hints along the way that he didn't think too highly of them.”
Jim continued. “I've had a change of heart of a different kind. I'm sorry to say this, but when I first met you, at least the first group I met I sized you up as a bunch of greenhorns that were clueless about how to do the kinds of things that you were wanting to accomplish. I actually felt sorry for you, because I saw you as folks that were running for the hills because things were getting harder, rather than just dealing with what came your way. I am sorry for being an arrogant fool.” Jim was looking down at the ground at this point.
Jim took a deep breath and raised his face to look around at the group. “As I saw more of what was happening all around and how you were dealing with those problems, it began to chip away at my arrogance and to change how I was gauging you folks. Over the last few weeks my perspective has been changing out of personal necessity. When my daughter called and told me that she was joining the Brotherhood, which my life long friend had such a poor opinion of, and that she was planning to marry a fellow that was part of the group I had once thought were such losers, I didn't panic or blow up. Instead I started thinking how could I have been missing so much? How did I get so blinded to the clues that should have been obvious? These people at least were able to see what was staring them in the face, and they chose to do something other than stand frozen like a deer caught in the headlights.”
Jim looked at Frank then back at the group. “Frank and I have talked this through and we are not holding back any more. The hand writing is on the wall. We are just asking you what do we need to do to ride on your coat tails. Please tell us what we need to do. Both of us have always been resourceful and self reliant before. Yes we still have some resources. It is just that you folks were seeing clearer than we have been and we need to be in the role of helpers rather than leading the way in the wrong direction.”
Bruce took a step toward Jim and Frank. “I'm not trying to get you to buy your way into this group, but you said you had some resources and you need someone to tell you what to do. Can you give us some idea about what those resources are?”
“Frank and I both have decent homes.” Jim started answering. “I am trying to sell off all my store inventory that I am not giving to Patty for helping out in what you are doing here. The building is up for sale too, but we have no idea when or what it will sell for in this economy and in this location. Frank and I have modest retirement funds. I have dipped into mine trying to keep the store going so it is more modest than Franks. Frank and I both have Pickups that are in good shape. Then there is my bank account that is still frozen. There is about $40,000 in it which is still frozen, because the responses to my attorneys request are being slow walked through countless layers of bureaucracy. There you have it.”
Rob spoke up, though quietly. “Thank you Jim, and you too Frank. Would you two mind giving us a minute to talk among ourselves?”
Jim and Frank nodded and turned back toward Franks truck that was still on the parking lot. Rob started the conversation once they were out of the way. “I doubt if any one is opposed to this after hearing the two of them, and considering that Patty is barely one step away from legally being family. The problem is the logistics are tricky right now. The old lodge is full. The new lodge is almost but not quite ready. There is space at Gerry's but driving back and for from there to here every day is fixin'-ta-git expensive. Sorry Gerry. I haven't asked if you are open to that, but we are talking about your soon to be bride's daddy.”
“Dad,” interrupted Carl. “We are closer than you think with the new lodge. If I hear them right, Jim and Frank are ready to sleep on the floor if necessary. By the end of this week we'll have four toilets in there and some furniture. We can move the stove Grandpa and Joann bought in there right now, even if we haven't gotten any from Jim's store yet. As for driving back and forth to Gerry's place we need to get that worked out anyway. As soon as we get some rain coming in we need to move some of the cattle back over there. Someone will have to be there tending them morning and evening when we do.”
“You're right, son. I guess I've been putting off thinking about that situation with the cattle as long as I could because it means we'll be missing some of our family on regular basis once that starts.” As Rob was finishing a couple of heads turned toward the southeast. Far in the distance they were hearing a soft rolling rumble. Rob who had been talking asked, “Are we about to have another earthquake?”
“No, Rob.” Joann put in. “That was thunder. A long way away. I can't even see the clouds with the angle of the trees, but it was thunder.”
“Back to our discussion.” Bruce tried to push past the interruption.
“That is connected to our discussion.” Gerry started up. “When we get enough rain, the pastures at my place can support some of the cattle, as long as the well can also support them. When we get to that point We can move part of the herd there and start expanding the herd. We need that to provide food for us in the near future and also bargaining power. It would like you said mean Patty and I would need to move there, but it would also allow accommodations for Jim and Frank. They already said they were willing to help with the work, there or here.” Gerry paused and started to bring up another topic, but decided that would wait a little longer.
Colleen did not wait until later to bring up a new issue. “April and Randy are going to be leaving with the others that are joining their families out in Get Lost. Randy is eager to get things set up at Gerry's place before the rest of those folks decide it is time to go.”
Now Bruce and Rob were both off balance and wanting to get the meeting steered in the right direction. Jenny saw that frustration and spoke with gentle strength. “All of these items are connected, but at this moment we need to focus on the fact that Jim and Frank are waiting for our response to their request. As for the logistics being tricky, yes and who knows what tomorrow will bring our way. We all agree that we are willing to let them join our guests and work for their supper, so to speak. We need to let them know that first, and then work out the details, don't you think?”
Everyone was sweeping the others in the family group with their eyes, gauging attitudes and finally Rob said, “Let's do it. We need to let them know then let the rest of our guests know. We'll work out the rest of it as we go. Gerry. it's your turn, now.”
Patty squeezed Gerry's hand and Gerry waved Jim and Frank over. When they got to the group, Gerry spoke to them saying, “Jim, Frank, Welcome to the Haven. Even though you already know many of them, we need to introduce the two of you to the rest of our guests.”
With no more fussing or fretting, the whole collection of folks loaded into their trucks and drove the long way around to the east end of the Haven. Jim was riding in Frank's truck, which was not four wheel drive. Frank was following Bruce's truck and Gerry was following at the rear in his truck with Patty sitting beside him. A half hour later, they all trooped into the main lodge. With all of the family having gone to a special meeting, they had had suggested before leaving that many of the on going project could wait until they returned. Those who were outside working anyway, heard them coming and headed toward the old lodge to find out what all the hoopla was about. The last of the stragglers were entering the old lodge just as the three trucks arrived. Everyone was stirring inside the lodge as the group of twelve stepped through the door.
Gerry stepped forward and got everyone's attention. “Folks, if you would all listen up for a minute We need to talk to you.” He paused for things to settle and then addressed them all. “It is a strange world we are living in today. Many things are changing in unexpected ways. That is many of those changes are unexpected for most of us. Many of you already know or at least know of Jim Decker and Frank Rogers. We want to let you know the the two of them are going to be joining you as guests of our family here at the Haven. The whole concept of permanent versus temporary has been challenged in my recent experiences, so I will say that as far as we can tell right now this is a long term rather than a short term arrangement.”
There were many restrained but positive responses heard from scattered people around the great room of the lodge. Gerry continued. Today some things are getting a late start, But all in all we are in a good place with our progress. Today is still a new day and tomorrow will be, as well, here at the Haven. There are other changes that will come along and they will affect us, but we will all do our best to work together and face those challenges. I hope the rest of the day is pleasant and satisfying for all of you.”
Gerry turned and stepped over to Jim and Frank. “There may be a few folks who want to say a word of greeting or ask questions, but I need you to join Patty and I, along with a few others, in ten minutes to come help with the cattle this morning. We are late and I'm not sure how the cattle will or will not react to that.”
Over the next week the progress was very encouraging. The family managed to get the three composting toilets from Jim's store, five wood burning kitchen stoves, and twelve wood burning heater stoves. They also had a bit of success in a trip back to see Mister Braden. There they had additional bids waiting for them to provide more toilets. The bids ranged from $360 to $475. There were a cluster of bids at $465 and one bid at $475, all of which were rejected. Linda did accept three bids at $360, $395, and $415 for a total of $1,170. That meant the they had acquired a total of ten toilets so far.
Linda had a conversation with Leslie Braden about the bids, after things were settled. Leslie posed the question about accepting and rejecting certain bids. “Ms. Linda, I understand about your rejecting the bid at $475, but there were several bids at $365 that you rejected even though you accepted bids for that price before. I know you wanted more than three more toilets, do can you help me understand about those new bids you rejected so I can better respond to the offers I am getting from these other merchants?” Leslie waited patiently for her response.
“Mister Braden, there was more than one reason for rejecting those offers. If you remember I warned you that these are competitive bids. I don't know what prices you reported back to the merchants from last week because I assume you had to adjust that by whatever margin you decided on for your cut of the proceeds. I also warned that there was no guarantee that we would accept another bid at the same price as the highest bid we accepted last week. It appears that either you or they assumed that was a bluff. It wasn't. The other and lesser factor was that there were three bids at that price which would have pushed us over our limit for this week's acquisition.”
Leslie frowned. “I see. You are going to hold carefully to what you say, But that means you may be short on getting what you need if you hold to your stipulation for ten more in three weeks? I assume that your rule still holds that you again may or may not accept a bid next time that you accepted this time. Will you try again if you are short on the number of units you were hoping to get in three more weeks.?”
Linda responded with no hesitation, “No. That will be the end of it. If the bidding seems successful to us next time we may come back to you for other plumbing supplies, but that will be it for the toilets.”
“But, what if you only get five acceptable or doable bids next time? What will you do about your needs?”
Linda smiled sweetly and responded in a honey sweet southern accent. “Mister Braden, we already found and acquired some of these units, at a price I am sure you could not beat, from another source. We consider that a providential find. So if we are still short of our requests after the next round of bids, we will assume that we over estimated our needs, unless of course we are providentially blessed again. Do you understand our intentions now?”
“Yes, Ms. Linda.” Leslie still had not been told the last names of any of the folks from the Haven that had made contact with him. “ I must say that is an unusual position, but perhaps that is uncommonly wise. I hope to hear from you again in a few weeks.”
“I hope you will, too, Mister Braden.” Linda replied as they left with their purchases loaded in Bruce's truck.
Back at the Haven finishing touches were being applied to the new lodge and modifications were being added to the old lodge. It was fortunate that the new lodge was almost finished as there were two days in which they experienced a light rain. This rain had little effect on those working in the buildings. As for the cattle, they seemed not to notice the rain. The fields where they were grazing had thick enough grass cover that the mud caused by the rain was barely perceptible. Patty was privately asking Gerry if he thought they could move out to his farm soon, but his response was disappointing. “This will help the grass to recover a bit and that is good. It hasn't been enough yet to soak down to the water table so the well can recover.” Gerry replied with a reluctant frown.
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Post by gipsy on Apr 24, 2024 20:44:49 GMT -6
Fine update. Thanks
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Post by feralferret on Apr 24, 2024 20:55:40 GMT -6
Thanks!
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Post by pbbrown0 on May 1, 2024 18:22:45 GMT -6
Post #98 What Is In The Cards?
By Saturday evening the new lodge and the first residence module were finished. They were also making good progress in creating restroom extensions for the old lodge to replace the out houses nearby. The group of guests that were planning to leave once the new house/lodge for Pete and Joann was completed agreed to stay through until the modifications to the old lodge were completed. Everyone agreed that when those projects were done and with the five families now heading to the Get Lost area, there would be plenty of room for everyone plus spare room for unexpected guests. Randy was pushing harder to allow him time to get the radio setup established at Gerry's place as soon as possible. While the radios were working fine already, he felt very strongly about the need to confound the efforts of authorities to find their transmission points. He already promised that a similar setup would be put in place in Get Lost as soon as he got there.
Sunday morning, by squeezing people into every available seat, they were able to get the whole Haven community into one or another of the available trucks, so no one had to wait for the second wave except Isaac and Mark James. This Sunday, Carl was driving Patty's truck, and he and Colleen went to pick up Brother Gambrell and Brother James before the meeting. The folks in the Congregation there “growin'” on the folks from the Haven and the other way around as well. The natural almost inescapable 'Us and Them' grouping that happen without fore thought were getting hard to find so quickly that most of the folks chuckled to themselves at the irony of it all every time one of those thoughts tried to creep in.
It was a really new and unfamiliar situation for the Brothers and Sisters there to be surrounded by an equal number of non-Brothers and non-Sisters in their gathering of the congregation. Just about every time one of the Brothers or Sisters thought about that, they reminded themselves that they always talked about helping others find their way into the Brotherhood. So, how would that ever happen if they did not come and share in the meetings of the congregation, and study the Bible to learn the wisdom and guidance provided by the Creator that was written there in plain sight?
Likewise, the Haven folks from time to time would catch themselves musing about how easily they had gotten comfortable with this different style of Sunday meeting. There was not a single preacher leading the meeting or providing spiritual guidance each week. The meetings followed the same orderly pattern each week, but the congregation avoided formalities. The individuals from the congregation taking the leadership responsibilities in the meeting, like conducting the question and answer style Bible study, changed each week. Occasionally a brother from one of the several nearby congregations would come to provide a brief talk on a Bible topic, before the main Bible study began. Most Sundays that responsibility was handled by one of the local older Brothers. Comments on the questions raised during the Bible study were welcomed from everyone present. Even the non-members were encouraged to offer comments. With that kind of inclusion and the friendliness of the members before and after the prescribed meeting time. Many of the “visitors” felt more and more like they were part of the congregation rather than merely a temporary guest at a private, religion based meeting being held by a members only organization.
After the meeting there were the conversations that were now becoming common and comfortable among those living in the Haven and those living in the town. Eventually Bruce and Rob took to finding who was ready to ride back to the Haven. That was when Bruce got tangled in his transportation efforts. In order to get everyone a seat coming to the Meeting Hall, some of the families had to split up between two different trucks. Now with some more reluctant than others to leave the meeting hall, the task of arranging families and splitting them among different trucks got more complicated. Furthermore, Bruce could not find Tom, Sally, and Zippy Wooley. Nor could he find Randy and April Roarke. He started asking everyone if they had been seen.
Colleen knew right away that Randy and April, along with Frank had gone to the library room at the Meeting Hall to meet with Frank's brother, George, and Brother John Ross to talk about radios. Apparently George had finally gotten Brother John to open up to the advantages of utilizing them to help the congregation in a real emergency. He had also learned about some other Brothers like Brother Ruben in the Beaver Creek Congregation that were beginning to use them. Colleen waved Carl over and asked him about the Wooley family.
Carl spoke quietly to Bruce and Colleen, after hearing their question. “The Wooley family is talking with Brother Isaac, Mark James and Brother Kelsey. With the work on the new lodge almost finished the Get Lost group are talking over their plans for disappearing. The problem is that group has been really impressed with the Brotherhood and the way this congregation has warmed up to them so quickly. There is also the factor that they have learned the Brotherhood long ago embraced some beliefs Tom and some of his family out in Get Lost had found in their Bible Studies that other denominations seem to dodge or skip around. Tom and his family are concerned about keeping ties with this congregation, even though they are not in the Brotherhood.”
Eventually everyone got back home, whether that was to the Haven or in town. Late that afternoon, Randy managed to catch several of the family together and asked if he could talk with them. Rob corralled the family down by the new lodge thinking they could meet there in the shade and perhaps talk together about the coming week rather than waiting until sundown. The sun was setting earlier every day now. In spite of the heat in mid-September, there were clear signs of fall approaching.
“Okay, Randy.” Rob began. “We are all here. Tell us what is on your mind.”
Randy had a curious look on his face. It was not a grin or a grimace or a frown or a look of frustration. It was just an odd look. “There are some things I want to talk about. You probably have heard rumors or gossip about some of it, and I want to make it clear for you rather than leaving you to your imaginations. I also have some news that may or may not affect us. First the news. There is a lot of chatter on the airwaves about this. It seems the media is downplaying it, which is in itself news. A year ago this would have filled the broadcast news with warnings of apocalyptic weather coming, but now it is almost like they don't want people to be aware until it is too late. There is a hurricane building in the center of the Gulf of Mexico. I won't bother you with the path from its inception, but right now it is like it is winding up for a big pitch. They do not know or will not say where they expect it to hit, but it is moving very slowly and building up energy. It may hit anywhere from Corpus Christi to Tallahassee but most guesses put it west of New Orleans.”
“The last report this afternoon says it just reached Cat 5 and it is growing. The bottom line is it is expected to get much stronger before landfall. It is also expected to carry an enormous amount of precipitation inland. How far, how much, and where it will spread the rainfall is pure guesswork at this time. Even the when is up for debate, but this is a genuine big deal even if we don't get a lot of rain, locally.”
“Now for some things that are more within our control. April and I are going to be leaving, along with several other families, to go to the Get Lost area within a couple of weeks. Some one already mentioned a desire to buy a few cattle from you to take with us, so that is something we need to settle as a go not no-go. There is also an issue about radio networks.”
Joann spoke quietly, but everyone heard her. “I knew something was stirring, but I was mistaken about what was causing it. I thought things were building for our first fall and winter front coming down from Canada. I should have realized there was a low pressure pulling while the high pressure was pushing.”
Randy considered what Joann had just said before continuing. “That makes sense. It could get interesting. There are some things I wanted to talk about that we or you may want to do before it gets interesting. Since April and I are essentially joining the Get Lost group, they asked me to pass this along to you while I was sharing these other concerns. Several of you are in the Brotherhood and I, well Joe and I, were not asked to keep this to ourselves, so we thought you might be interested.”
Randy continued. “While I was talking to some of the brothers about the hurricane news I had gleaned, as well as my wanting them to understand some help I wanted to offer in the radio arena, Joe was also talking to some of them about our moving, but wanting to stay in touch with the congregation. There isn't one, a Brotherhood Congregation that is, in Get Lost. But as you can imagine, planning on traveling back and forth once a week seems less than wise at this point. Brother Ross and the others agreed that they wanted to talk seriously with Brother Andrew, or should I say Brother Larkin? They want to discuss what I can do to help them with communications should there be a disaster, but also about the possibility of connecting with other congregations should there be uhm, err, trouble. They also want to talk with him about helping to shepherd our group in the Get Lost, and what advice he might have for how to organize that.”
Randy pursed his lips for a moment. “This just gets more and more complicated. It's like describing the arrangement of the pasta strings in a spaghetti bowl. I really need to get a repeater set up at Gerry's place, because I might be having to set up some more elsewhere. Oh, don't worry. Someone else is offering to pay or at least help pay for those additional units other than the one at Gerry's. The issue is just timing and getting them all set up to communicate with each other. They may decide a unit is needed for the Meeting Hall but with the antenna and repeater somewhere else in Bear Creek. That would be in addition to one or more in Get Lost. There may be even additional units set up for other Meeting Halls. You see why the timing gets to be an issue if we are leaving here in a couple of weeks.”
Bruce was very straight forward in responding to Randy. “If you are leaving that soon, another issue is training some of us to be able to operate your directional management of the antennas in your absence. We need you to let us know your thinking about specifically when things need to happen where, so we can manage the transportation side of things. When are they expecting that Brother Andrew will be out here to talk with them?”
Randy was a bit surprised that Bruce was giving such a clear response before there was time for the others to discuss matter. “They did not say specifically. I got the impression that someone was going to call him this afternoon hoping he could come tomorrow or possibly Tuesday.”
Pete stated, “It is more likely he will make time Monday rather than Tuesday, from what I know of his normal schedule.”
“Okay. Good to know,” said Randy. “Not knowing I would have guessed the reverse of that. If that is the case, then I would like to get out to Gerry's place early Tuesday and get his rig set up. If we get a favorable response from Brother Larkin tomorrow, I'm sure the Brothers will need a day or two for planning the coordination with other congregations and acquiring the supplies that are needed. I'm also guessing they have not budgeted for this yet and will need to arrange for a small measure of funding for what they decide to do. I am clueless about their procedures for things like this.”
Bruce replied, “So, you and Joe need to get to the Meeting Hall sometime tomorrow. Then you will need to get to Gerry's place early Tuesday. I guess beyond that we will need to play it as it comes.”
Jenny had a question here. “Randy, you said that you and several other families are planning to leave within a couple of weeks. Can you give us a little more precision in that statement? If there are uncertainties there can you help us understand those?”
Again, Randy pursed his lips before speaking. “I was asked to speak to you folks on behalf of those who have been planning to leave, as well as for April and myself. I have done that, and now you are asking me to speak about rather than for the others. Please understand that this next part is my observation rather than what I was asked by them to say. It appears to me that among the four original families plus April and I; that there are two families than are struggling more than the others about leaving you, this place, and also the congregation in Bear Creek. We will have to see what happens after Brother Larkin and the elders get their heads together and how their plans affect those feelings. The question of when may also be affected by what they decide. The plan at the moment is two weeks. By the way if you do sell a few head of cattle to us, we will have to arrange how to get them to Get Lost. Then there is the issue of the radio set up with the congregation or congregations. Those sentiments about the Brothers and Sisters are not going to allow us to leave them in the lurch wanting a system set up and usable for emergencies, but without the expertise or ability to implement it before we leave. To do that would really cut us off from the congregation and a plan like that isn't going to fly with this group that is planning to move.”
The members of the Family were more surprised by his response than they had anticipated. They were not certain how to respond. Linda finally said, “Randy, we appreciate you and the others in your new group. Y'all have been a tremendous help to us. We didn't realize how hard this transition was going to be for y'all, probably because we were wrapped up in ourselves. Keep us up to date about how things are progressing, and let us know how we can help.”
It was the next morning when George Rogers called the Haven over the radio. Brother Larkin had been talking already with the Congregation Elders and he wanted to talk with several of the people at the Haven as well. He specifically asked for Pete, Carl, Frank, Randy, and Joe. Bruce decided to send them all in his own truck and to let Carl drive them on the short route to the Meeting Hall. Frank was totally surprised at the route they took. Frank and all those waiting at the Meeting Hall were stunned at how quickly the Haven folks arrived after they were contacted.
Brother Andrew [Larkin] was already very positive about using radios because of his experiences in other countries where the communications infrastructure was seriously lacking outside of the cities. However, he was wanting to understand more about this system that Randy had developed. He spent about an hour and a half quizzing Randy on the principles of how it worked and why he thought it was so important. Then he asked some questions about the cost for the equipment and the effort required to set it up properly. He also asked about the regulations and legality of the system in light of Randy's statements about the efforts of agents trying to locate the transmission points. Finally he asked about the difficulty of teaching ordinary people how to use the system.
Next he took some time just talking with Randy and Joe about why they were wanting to help put this system in place for the congregations nearby, and why they wanted to keep in touch with them when they moved to a new location. After that Brother Andrew wanted to talk with Pete, Carl and the elders. Brother Andrew and the elders began discussing the pros and cons of adopting the system that Randy had proposed. They also discussed the request from Joe to help those who had been visiting the congregation here, but were planning to move to an area where there was no Brotherhood congregation.
While they were talking, with Pete and Carl listening in, Pete felt compelled to ask a question. “ Excuse me Brother Andrew. There are a few things I do not understand. First I do not understand why you wanted Frank here, and second I do not understand why you wanted Carl and me here. Is there something we are missing? Are you wanting us to provide you with some specific information?”
Brother Larkin was quiet for a minute like he was thinking. “Brother Smith, what you and your family are doing is somewhat unusual among the Brothers and Sisters. It is not totally unique, but it is not exactly common. Brother Isaac is the only Brother other than you in this area, or elsewhere that we specifically know about, who has set out to do what you have done regarding the Haven and your intentions there. There is one big difference between you and Brother Isaac, however. He was an elder in our congregation until his health made it necessary for him to step aside, because the responsibilities we ask of the elders are numerous. You are not an elder, but the results of your work are appearing to be much more effective than Brother Isaac in spreading the good news we find in the Bible and drawing others to that truth. Because of that we wanted you to be a part of this process.”
“As for the radio system,” Brother Andrew continued. “I cannot personally tell the congregations in my assigned district to implement it. However, I see a real advantage to using it in in our district during emergencies and also to communicate among congregations in emergencies. So I am going to recommend to the nearby congregations that they begin setting up with this system that Randy has developed.”
Brother Andrew's tone changed just a bit. “Frank Rogers is wanting to return to the brotherhood. One item is not to be discussed outside of this room, but he has said that if we decided to go forward with it he is going to contribute most of the funding for the initial set up of the radio system connecting the nearby congregations. I see this as a step on his part to show us his commitment to what we as the Brotherhood are doing here. I expect this congregation to help him in his effort to reconcile and with us and to continue to help him heal his heart and his relationships with us.”
“That leaves one more matter to be decided, and it isn't a hard decision, from the standpoint of the Brotherhood. The Get Lost area appears to be an area un-reached by the Brotherhood. It is also an area that is showing receptiveness to our efforts, at least within the month with this group that are planning to move there it will be. We need to find a person, or perhaps a married couple, who are willing to take on a special assignment to move out there and work with these eager ones to establish a group that might develop into a congregation out there. We may find someone from the Bear Creek congregation, or perhaps from another congregation in our area to take on that challenge. They will need a radio set up to keep in contact with the sponsoring congregation, which should be this congregation, don't you agree?” He looked around the room and saw a collection of nodding heads.
“Okay so here is the plan.” Brother Andrew continued. “Brother Ross, I am going to ask you to take the lead in working with the elders here in Bear Creek to find if someone in this congregation is feeling inclined to take on this special assignment. I will make contact with the other congregations to get them started on the same effort. If more than one candidate steps forward, we will get back together to interview them and then consider whom we should send. In the mean time, Pete, I need you and Carl to be working with these folks who are preparing to move, as well as Frank Rogers and Randy. You need to arrange for the radio system that will go to the Get Lost area, and also the other congregations around here. George, will you take the lead in coordinating that effort among the congregations around here?”
“I would be glad to do that, Brother Larkin,” George replied.
Brother Larkin excused himself explaining that he had work to do communicating with the other congregations about the need for someone to take on a special assignment, and also the need to implement a radio system for emergency communications within and among the congregations in this area.
Brother Ross brought Joe, Randy and Frank back into the room as Andrew was leaving. He explained to the three of them what had been decided and how they planned to proceed with the radio issues. He carefully dodged any mention of Frank's commitments but included him in the team that would be implementing the radio system around the area. Then he explained to Joe what they had decided to help those moving to the Get Lost area with their desire to remain connected to the congregation. The would have someone or perhaps a couple to help them continue with Bible studies and regular meetings without having to worry about a fuel supply issue interrupting their spiritual needs.
Carl raised the question about training on the radio system. “Randy is going to be very busy with the physical installation and set up if this is going happen in a number of locations. There are several categories of work that need to be addressed and coordinated. Number One: We need to know how many locations and where they are. Two: We need to Acquire the equipment for each location. Three: A decision needs to be made about whether anyone of the Brothers is going to be trained on installation and set up, in case other congregations decide later on that they need to get on board, too. Number Four: It needs to be decided whether the training on use of the equipment, once it is set up, will be repeated over and over at each location, or, as I would recommend, are we going to schedule a time and place to train a whole group of people to operate the system in each location. I would recommend the group training idea, because that is much more efficient. And while we are deciding that, it also makes sense to me that more than one person should be trained for each location.”
Carl paused to get back on the original track. “Number Five: Randy needs to plan out what training is needed so we can document the training for future reference. Number Six: we need to find out each person that Randy is going to train and schedule them to be at the training. Number Seven: we need to schedule and implement the physical installation and set up to coordinate that with the training.”
Pete notice several of the elders subtly eyeing each other and nodding almost imperceptibly their agreement. Brother Ross spoke affirmatively in response to Carl. “Young Brother Smith, your words are well spoken and appreciated. I think we are all in agreement with your recommendations. We are more familiar to some of the other congregations, so we need to take the responsibility of talking to them and recruiting resources, but it appears the we need to follow your lead in getting this project successfully completed. Brother Larkin will be sending a letter via email to all of the congregations involved and reinforcing his recommendations with phone calls, but it is up to us to get some traction on this and speed the process along. It will still take a couple of days, at least, for word to get out to the members of those congregations and to recruit volunteers, but that will give us some time to get the materials together as well. If you, Randy, Pete and Frank can get your parts ready, we'll be responsible for getting the recruits and scheduling a time with them for training. Does that sound reasonable to everyone?”
George laughingly quipped, “Honestly, it almost sounds like it will take a miracle to get everything done in a couple of weeks. Of course looking at things with eyes of faith, I have become quite fond of seeing a miracle for what it is once in a while. I think it's a great plan, and I think it will work.”
Randy has acquired the supplies for the setup at Gerry's farm from Ross Bartley's store almost a month ago. So Bruce set him up with a crew to go to Gerry's farm to get that set up as soon as Pete, Carl, and Randy returned. Frank had stayed in Bear Creek so he and his brother could start hunting down suppliers for nearly a dozen base station set ups along with a hand full of repeaters and directional antenna rigs. Frank suggested stopping by to see Jacob Sterling. It had been a while, but Frank had met him several times. George agreed saying he had met him not long ago at a Brotherhood district meeting.
When they arrived the two Rogers brothers went to the service desk and asked to see Mister Sterling. After a few questions that revealed this was personal business rather than a customer service issue, the clerk called Jacob's cell phone. After a few minutes Jacob arrived and George reintroduced himself and his brother as members of the Bear Creek congregation of the Brotherhood. Jacob enthusiastically welcomed them to his store and asked what he could do to help.
“Brother Sterling,” George began, “We are looking for some information. We were meeting with Brother Andrew Larkin earlier today. I'm sure word has not reached you yet but we are starting a project to help the congregations in this area so they can keep in touch in case of an emergency. With you being a merchant here for a number of years in this community, we thought you might be able to point us to someone in the area who carries radio equipment.”
“It's interesting that you mention that. I had some folks in here a few times recently, and they mentioned using radios to keep in touch. Appears they are not too keen on everyone carrying a cell phone, at least not their own folks. Anyway, there's ... well they mention to me about looking into getting some radios set up so I could keep track of deliveries out of town, and when I sent a truck to pick up from suppliers, if there was ever a problem getting deliveries in. Long story short, I did look into that and learned about a supplier that could get in the kind of stuff they were talking about. Some of the stuff he was real enthused about selling like Base stations and repeaters. He got a little squirrelly when I started talking about some of the things these folks mentioned. I kind of dropped it after that. Right now the phones are working just fine and it doesn't seem too urgent to get an alternative. As for receiving deliveries, it would mean a serious change of the way business is done in groceries for the suppliers to have the store come pick up their own orders. Oh, Sorry. The fella I was talking about has a place down north of Jackson. If you are interested I can give you his information.”
“We'd appreciate that, Mister Sterling.” Frank jumped in hoping to forestall his brother George offering any more information about what the Clan and what they were doing, or asking questions of Brother Sterling that might lead to him connecting the Smith-Cooper Clan to Bear Creek; even though he was a Brother. “We appreciate your help.” Jacob pulled up the contact information on his phone and transferred it to George's phone. Then he excused himself and returned to his work.
“ Jackson is a bit far.” George mused. “I think we'd better call before we make a trip out there to find out what is in his inventory and about him acquiring the things we are going to need if he doesn't have it in stock. I am surprised that there isn't a dealer any closer than Jackson that even carries what we need.”
Frank was frowning. “I talked with Gerry and some of the others who understand more about what we will need. All I have is a detailed list of items. I really am only beginning to grasp how they all work together. I was told that they had given the fundamental concepts to Brother Sterling along with a list of the components he would need for a single long reach base station. Brother Sterling has the connections to find merchants from all around for various kinds of products. I'm sure he found the closest dealer to his store, but his store is a long drive from the Haven and from Bear Creek. He knows where Bear Creek is but that was not a consideration for him when he was looking for a supplier. I'm guessing there are certain to be other dealers at the state capital or in other cities over to the east that carry these products. We need to go back to the Haven and talk with the others to make a better plan. Let's call in and tell them we are getting on the road again.”
The two brothers got in Roger's truck with Roger driving and Frank picked up the radio mic. “This is Prodigal calling the Macro Nut Nursery. Prodigal calling Macro Nut Nursery. Come in Macro Nut Nursery.” He paused a minute and repeated the call.
Frank was about to make a third call out when he heard. “Wrangler hears you, Prodigal. Switch to channel XYZ.”
Frank glanced at the index card channel reference he had been giving before leaving the Haven and replied. “Changing channel.” He reached over and changed the channel. Then he waited a moment.
“Wayward Son, you have the Cattleman. Over.” Frank heard.
Frank replied, “Wayward Son learned only of a vineyard in a far distant land. Tell my father it is time to kill the fatted calf. Over.”
The quick response Frank was expecting did not come.Frank was waiting but beginning to think he must have been too obtuse in his reference to returning home. He was about to offer a more direct and to the point message when he heard a message coming through.
At that time Gerry was at his farm with Randy getting the new set up installed there. The call from Frank had come through just as the team at the cattle farm was starting to test the link up. They had been thrilled at the success they recognized when they heard Frank's call out being relayed to them from Jemimasson through the Haven repeater and on to the new repeater at Gerry's farm. When Randy heard the message about the distant vineyard, which when translated in context of their current mission meant the only radio equipment merchant they found was too far away, Randy had a quick discussion with Gerry before he replied to Frank. “Fatted Calf is not ready. Repeat, Fatted Calf is not ready.”
Frank got that message and replied, “Copy that, Cattleman.” Frank then turned to his brother, who was not grasping the code talking, and said, “They don't want us to leave yet. Pull over until they decide what we should do.”
It was about a minute later when Gerry called out again. “Cattleman to vineyard harvester. Come back.”
“Copy.” Frank replied.
Gerry continued. “Divide harvesting baskets. Parse cloudy vineyards with pop tech. Caravans must travel to safe oases. Over.”
Frank paused only a moment before replying. “ Copy that. Over. Out.” He then reset the channel indicator on the radio unit and hung up the mic. He turned to George and said, “We need to go back and get permission from Brother Sterling and some others merchants or delivery services to have our purchases sent to them. Then we need to go to the local library and use the internet to find several suppliers. We'll divide up our shopping list and order online. We will also divide up our delivery points for our orders, so we can come back and pick up everything.”
The Rogers brothers first returned and talked with Brother Sterling about his store being a pick up location. Then they went to see Rick Huffstetler. After that they went to a local storage and and moving truck rental dealer to negotiate an arrangement for having packages delivered and stored there until they could return to pick them up. Next they went to the public library where Frank worked as quickly as he could. He found some sites where he could buy direct from the manufacturer. Strangely, he found better pricing at sites run by major distributors that had been referenced on the manufacturer's websites. For some reason the warning from a day ago about the storm developing in the Gulf was stuck in his mind. Because of this he selected only distributors on the west coast or in northeastern states. He also paid the extra fees for expedited delivery of the purchases. Another tactic he followed was to buy multiples of the same item in a given order, like putting five repeaters or four antennas in a single order, rather than bundling a whole set of components needed for each site all in a single order (like including base station, repeater, cables, specialized antenna, and antenna rotating mechanism all in one order). He also spread these orders out among multiple distributors as much as he could so there would not be enough units in any order to attract attention. He also could not shake from his mind a need to buy more supplies than they had originally planned. He did not mind that all of this buying was emptying his remaining bank account at the bank in Hollerton. After what they had done to Jim's accounts, he had emptied all of his savings from there weeks ago.
It was late afternoon when he and George were finally ready to return. Frank sat in the cab of his brothers truck as George was gassing up for their return trip. It was taking a while because George had an extra large gas tank and tried to only fill up when he was in a larger town where the prices were better than in Bear Creek. Frank was listening to the radio while he waited. It was tuned to a local radio station that had never been bought out by one of the major radio broadcast networks, so the local announcer was very hometown in his style. It grabbed Franks attention when one of the songs finished and the announcer came back to the mic with a concerned query.
“Hey guys and gals.” the announcer cut in. “I got a question from one of my listeners, and I need your help with it. Have any of you heard from your kinfolk down on the Gulf about the storm brewing and the port activity? I haven't been able to find any official word, but there is talk about the port activity there locking down; battening down the hatches, so to speak, ahead of the storm. I'm hearing that this shutdown is stretching from southern Texas coast all the way to Mobile. I was looking up some info and that covers way over half of the import and export tonnage for the entire country. So far the storm is still almost two hundred miles off shore, and they don't know where or when it is going to hit. Best bets are that it's going to be a doozey.”
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Post by feralferret on May 1, 2024 20:19:05 GMT -6
Pbbrown0, another wonderful chapter. Thank you.
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Post by gipsy on May 1, 2024 20:57:23 GMT -6
Thanks for the update
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