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Post by ncsfsgm on Sept 11, 2023 16:23:01 GMT -6
Chapter 41
Mike noticed, by the addition of a few things, that Hanna and Annika had been out shopping again while he and Ben had been hunting. A few things had been added to the nursery like the Baby Musical Mobile hung above the crib. Mike took It as a portent of things to come.
After storing the meat in the almost empty third chest freezer, Mike took out 25 pounds of pork to thaw and began checking to make sure he had enough ingredients to make Stångkorv (Swedish Breakfast Sausage). Stångkorv was a fermented sausage that required Bactoferm to ferment the meat quicker. He had barely enough to make ten pounds of meat. He’d have to make a trip to a meat packer in Sioux City to get more, that and pork belly to be ground with the meat. Mike put the meat in the fridge in the pantry to thaw and went to find Hanna.
“I need to go to Sioux City to get more Bactoferm and pork belly to make the sausage. Do you want to ride along?”
“Are you going now?” Hanna asked.
“Well, yeah, I want to start grinding the meat in the morning.” Mike replied.
“Mamma is coming over in the morning to help me make Lihapiirakka (Pronounced ‘LEE-hah-PEE-rah-kuh’)” Hanna said.
Mike loved the Finnish meat pies.
“Well, make them with the yeast dough. I like them the best.” Mike said.
“I know, I’m filling them with what grouse we have and pork.” Hanna replied.
“Make some with elk meat too. I’ll pull out some to thaw.” Mike said.
“Okay, but you need to send a few to Daddy,” Hanna said.
“No problem. Is there anything you need for me to pick up?”
“Not really. I’ll need you to grind some flour when you get back.” Hanna replied.
“Can do. I’m headed out then.” Mike said.
Mateo ordered another load of gravel for planting medium. The larger planting trays would be in in a couple of days, so he wanted to be ready to set everything up quickly. Eduardo and Paul had been busy cutting oak and building stands to put the trays on. Paul had told Mateo to go ahead and order the parts and tanks to set up the rest of the greenhouse. Mateo also ordered spare pumps in case of failure. He had a good relationship with the hatchery in Lonoke, so he could get fish whenever he needed. The strawberries, the radishes, and lettuce were practically jumping out of the grow bed. The tomato plants were growing quickly. Although tomatoes were self-pollinating, Mateo was going to hand pollinate a couple of the plants to see if it improved the yield. The first new bed he put in he wanted to plant some Spring onions. There were a lot of things Mateo wanted to try out. The EPA’s Clean Trucks Plan, in the name of “Environmental Justice”, was putting a strain on the trucking industry, slowing food deliveries, and raising food prices to levels never seen before. Along with California’s own environmental laws, the “Greenies” were slowing shipments of foods and fruits from out of the nation’s cornucopia of the valleys of California, which fed much of the nation, and causing additional strain on food supplies in the major cities. Criminals had become so emboldened they were hijacking trucks coming out of major food processing areas, leasing box cars, and shipping the produce to the major population centers by rail. Many of these gangs were sponsored by drug cartels to include therein their shipments of drugs. The war on fossil fuels was slowly bringing the country to its knees and building considerable unrest. The immigration crisis was putting a strain on feeding the influx of refugees in the large democrat-controlled cities, increasing the unrest and fears of the residents, afraid there wouldn’t be enough assets to go around.
Paul and Eduardo unloaded the pallets containing drums of nitrogen packed grains and put them into storage. They had enough for three years, but hopefully would be able to order again the next harvest. They could order the grain from Nebraska easier than they could grow it themselves. The rest of the things they ate could be either grown on the farm or purchased relatively cheaply in the surrounding areas. They made extensive use of other’s abilities to grow crops they didn’t, or the abundance of food found at roadside stands. Paul had expanded their orchard area and made a new one, planting apple, peach, and plum trees along with various nut trees. A grove of Black Walnuts was planted separate from the other trees because the roots didn’t allow other plants to grow near them. They had ordered hundreds of Mylar bags and corrugated boxes to store the vacuum-packed pouches which in turn were stored into acquired shipping containers.
Mike had been busy setting up racks and more components for a TOR network that Jeremy asked him to establish. Mike had deduced a while ago that Jeremy must belong to an intelligence service because of some of the things that traveled through the servers. An unusual photo had caught his attention one day and he had scanned it. There was something encrypted embedded in the photo, but Mike couldn’t decrypt it. He had sent Jeremy a message saying he needed to have a face-to-face conversation and Jeremy had flown up, landing on the highway, and pulling the plane into his driveway. When Mike showed Jeremy the photo, Jeremy nodded and explained that it was digital stenography they were using, and someone had made the mistake of using a photo that could gain attention. He thanked Mike and Mike explained he was concerned that the photo might have been sent by someone without authorization outside the network. Jeremy told him it was one of his people. He recognized the I.D. key.
With Mike’s question answered, Jeremy gave him another piece of equipment to install on their secure network which would give him secure VOIP so he could ask questions directly to Jeremy. It would take a little time to develop a conversation because only snippets of the conversation were sent at a time in burst mode lasting no more than 1.5 seconds, sent through the network, and pieced back together at the receiving end to form the complete conversation. This also occurred during the streaming of data, so the bursts were completely concealed from detection. Jeremy waited while Mike installed the board and did a test message with another site. It was slow, but if they kept their messages short, it would work well enough.
When Jeremy left, Mike reconfigured his control board and updated his controller software to send an alarm to his personal phone if a VOIP initiation came through. Mike went upstairs to the smell of baking bread, sliced a piece off and buttered it, pouring a glass of tea to have with it. Hanna was zesting an orange to make a loaf of Limpa bread.
“I’m going to need more flour after today,” Hanna said.
“I’ll grind some after I finish this bread,” Mike replied.
Mike finished the last bite of his buttered bread and finished the tea. Rinsing his glass and setting it in the sink, Mike headed back downstairs to the storeroom. Rolling a barrel of wheatberries over to the grain mill, he took the top off the drum and began scooping the grain into the hopper. Turning the adjustment knob to get a fine grind, he placed the bin under the mill and flipped on the switch to begin grinding, gradually adding more grain to the hopper. When he had about 15 pounds of flour ground, he put the top on the flour canister they kept in the pantry and began cleaning up. This was a lot easier than having to run down to Lyons and buying the flour. Clamping the lid back on the drum, Mike rolled the barrel back into place and carried the 5-gallon flour canister back to the pantry.
Eduardo brought another of the logs they’d set aside for milling into lumber to the sawmill. They were cutting 2x4s, as many as they could out of the logs. Mike Best was willing to trade a 1-year-old steer for enough lumber to finish building his chicken house. Everyone seemed to be growing more of their own food these days and not relying on the grocery stores. A lot of forgotten techniques of feeding families were shared throughout the community.
Peter Stegall had been a professor of Agronomy at Auburn University before he retired. He liked to collect vintage farm equipment and had come into possession of a Manual Cane Press Juicer Extractor Mill setup to make sugar, syrup, and molasses. The boiling pans were stainless-steel, so they had no problem cleaning up, but he needed help with the juicer, it seemed to have a broken piece that held the rollers. Peter had gotten in touch with Paul through Kiera at the store, and he and Paul sat down and talked for a few hours about sorghum production. Peter had access to vintage seed, the University had success in growing, that came out of South America. Peter could get enough seed from them to grow a few fields. They could save seed and start sugar and molasses production in the area. Enlisting the help of a couple of local farmers, they began making plans for the spring. A local machinist and a mechanic were going to repair the mill and a central location was selected to set up a processing area. Soon, the whole community was involved in getting everything into operation. Jeremy even got involved. From somewhere, he came up with two wooden cases of sugar cane knives from India, each case containing 48 knives. The plan was coming together.
Paul went to Adam Jones, the solar installer, and had him design a system to power the electric juicer. The boiling of the sap was going to be done with wood, so men began gathering wood to feed the fires. They had no idea how much firewood would be needed, so they were going to stockpile through the winter to make sure they had enough. The District Ranger, who was in charge of their area of the Ozark National Forest was turning a blind eye to the permits to gather firewood. Firewood wasn’t supposed to be gathered for commercial use, but the actual gathering helped in wildfire management, thereby helping the forest. He even went out and marked living trees for the men to cut that needed to be removed. The community was looking forward to the coming endeavor. Sugar prices had gone so high it was unaffordable for most people.
Mateo was getting tomatoes out of the greenhouse now. He had received the grow beds and had installed them, and everything was balanced out. In a couple of more months, they would be able to harvest a few fish, which were growing rapidly.
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tzr
New Member
Posts: 10
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Post by tzr on Sept 11, 2023 16:50:57 GMT -6
Thanx for the update
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Post by freebirde on Sept 11, 2023 17:08:43 GMT -6
My father told me that the best wood for boiling sorghum was willow because it was not a hot burning wood. A local sorghum producer uses steam to boil the syrup to prevent scorching. Scorched sorghum is not good tasting. A wood fired boiler system would give more control during the cooking. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvOMIqBjX4g
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Post by gipsy on Sept 11, 2023 17:55:54 GMT -6
Fine update.
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Post by ncsfsgm on Sept 16, 2023 4:38:33 GMT -6
Chapter 42
Mike watched the weather reports and didn’t like what he was seeing. An Alberta Clipper looked to be forming. Generally, they usually kind of brushed by them and headed on across the Midwest and on into the mid-Atlantic and New England states. However, there was a stationary High system that had formed over Ontario that could push the weather pattern further south. The rapidly intensifying storms sometimes spread heavy snow over parts of mid-west and northeastern USA and southeastern Canada. Generally, the main weather features associated with Alberta Clippers are some light snows and a shot of bitterly cold air over the eastern USA. They could have heavy snowfall even before Thanksgiving. At worst case, a warm front could move up from the south, bring moisture with it and really snow them in.
“If you need to get any shopping done for Thanksgiving, you need to get it done soon,” Mike told Hanna.
“What’s wrong?” Hanna asked.
“The weather is building for a big storm that could close the roads for a while,” Mike replied.
“I just need some almonds and cream cheese for desserts. I usually get them at the Fareway. We have everything else,” Hanna replied.
“Okay, let’s go this morning and get it done,” Mike said.
“Let me change clothes,” Hanna replied.
Although Hanna ended up with more items than she had told Mike, they were in and out of the Fareway grocery store quickly. Mike stopped at the Walmart Supercenter in South Sioux City on the way home and picked up 10 bags of ice-melt. Mike stopped by Didrik and Annika’s on the way home and dropped off five of the bags for them. All they could do now was wait and see what transpired.
Mike went to the greenhouse and picked a dozen ripe lemons, juiced, and strained out the pulp then froze the juice in silicon ice cube trays. He then peeled potatoes and carrots, helping Hanna with the Kalops (Swedish Beef Stew). Later in the afternoon he went to the old farm and put out hay for the feeder calves. Mike cursed himself for not bringing along a shotgun when he flushed up two pheasants from near where the big bales of hay were laid out.
Mike used the loader on the tractor and built a pile of sand, gravel, and ice melt and stored it near the garage and covered it with a tarp. The big concrete pad could get slicker than snot on a doorknob when snow began to melt, or even worse if there was a lot of sleet mixed in with the snow. He could easily spread the mixture about to give traction for the vehicle tires. He had a front mounted hydraulic sweeper for the tractor that he would run in the spring to clean everything back off the pad. What he swept up was added back to the pile. With no more preps to do, Mike put the tractor away, attached his snow blade, and went back to the house. The smell of baking Cardamom Bread greeted him as he walked into the mud room and changed out of his boots into moccasins. Mike turned on the TV to KPTH in Sioux City to get the latest weather.
Before they went to bed, Mike checked the weather station control panel in the kitchen and saw the winds had picked up to 35 miles per hour, but there was no precipitation, or at least nothing liquid anyway. It wouldn’t be until midmorning the next day when anything began falling. At first there was light rain that soon turned into sleet, then the snow began.
Horace Smith built the four molasses cookers at the cooking shed. Paul, Mateo, and Eduardo helped haul the used brick and steel plates to the site for him. Each cooking pit would hold a 3'x6’ stainless-steel pans for boiling the sorghum juice down. He figured four such pits would handle the amount of sorghum juice from the sorghum being planted the next spring. Several different farmers were each going to plant an acre so they would have a variety of soils. The molasses taste would depend on the type soil you had. It would take ten gallons of juice to make one gallon of sorghum molasses. The heat from the wood fires would be evened out by the steel road plates laid halfway up in the pits. The fire was to be built under the plate and the heat was dissipated, much like a cast iron frying pan. It was easier to control the amount of heat boiling the juice. Using wood instead of propane was a more difficult way of boiling the syrup but if watched by a dedicated fire tender, could be kept regulated. There were several old timers around that would help out instructing the volunteers, keeping the operation running smoothly. Trailers were modified from chassis laying around farms to haul the cane stalks. It seemed everyone was pitching in something to support the effort.
The Freight Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters decided to go on strike. They were striking for higher wages to offset inflation and the higher costs of living. Even though in doing so, they would be shooting themselves in the foot, by causing a further increase of food prices and further weakening the economy, they voted to strike. Initially, independent truckers bore the brunt of the load and kept up the haulage of foods across the country, but with the increase in hijackings, many of the drivers stopped hauling. The government refused to step in and do anything, saying the economy was doing fine. Slowly but surely, the fuel and foods quit reaching their intended destinations and lawlessness took over. Accusations of hoarding soon began to fly and politicians, instead of addressing the root cause of the problems, soon began to pass bills that would have little effect on the growing problem.
Paul ordered a refill of his fuel tanks online and began gathering lubricating oils where he could. It was soon hard to find 30 weight motor oil anywhere within the Little Rock area. Mostly, the Crooked Creek residents had everything they needed, the men and women were collecting for the future; for bartering purposes because it was taking more and more dollars to get anything. The value of the dollar was dropping to lows never seen before, but people were willing to trade for the things they needed.
If anyone read about the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire, they would see a lot of similarities with what was happening in America. Of course, there wasn’t large numbers of barbarians attacking the United States, there needn’t be. They were already embedded within the inner cities controlled by Democrats, and only the Lord knew what was coming through the open borders unvetted. Constant social welfare programs and overspending had significantly depleted tax dollars, and oppressive taxation and inflation widened the gap between rich and poor. In the hope of avoiding the taxman, many members of the wealthy classes used loopholes designed by both parties, plus hid their money overseas. Although America no longer depended on slaves for a labor force, America still had a deficit in people who were willing to work. When the government would give you more money not to work, the people would be more than willing to sit on their asses. Then the workers at jobs historically designed for those with minimum skills and were paid minimum wages, decided they should be paid as if they had a PhD in burger flipping. You ended up with people who wouldn’t work, or those whose value to the job force was overrated or fell in line with the perpetual tit-suckers of the government.
The politician’s desires to control everything led to an expansive government that bred corruption because the sheer size made it difficult to govern, plus incompetent political appointees in leadership positions only served to magnify the problems already caused by government interference.
Prior to the fall of Rome, the Barbarian attacks on Rome, partially stemmed from a mass migration caused by the Huns’ invasion of Europe in the late fourth century. When these Eurasian warriors rampaged through northern Europe, they drove many Germanic tribes to the borders of the Roman Empire. The Romans grudgingly allowed members of the Visigoth tribe to cross south of the Danube and into the safety of Roman territory, much like we are letting every Tom, Dick, and Harry through our borders unvetted. America has yet to reap the entirety of the vile crop of this massive invasion.
The decline of Rome dovetailed with the spread of Christianity, and some have argued that the rise of a new faith helped contribute to the empire’s fall. The Edict of Milan legalized Christianity in 313, and it later became the state religion in 380. These decrees ended centuries of persecution, but they also eroded the traditional Roman values system. In America’s case, it is the decline of Christian values and the acceptance of decadent morals that was weakening the country. The final outcome is still in doubt.
In the Hagarville community, the opposite was in effect. The Church’s chapel was being expanded to accommodate the influx of people who were drawn to the fellowship and comradery of the community.
Mike heard the noise of the wind as it changed and went into the library and turned on the security system. The camera to the northwest was not viewable, probably the lens block with ice or snow, so he switched to an eastern camera and watched the snow blowing horizontally from west to east. Pulling up the weather console screen, he saw the wind was fluctuating between 60 and 72 miles per hour. The vortex generators where in high output mode. Mike checked the controls for the vortex generators and made sure the controls were set to shunt the power away from the battery bank when a certain level was reached or exceeded.
Mike glanced out the window from their bed the next morning and saw everything was a ghostly white. It wasn’t daylight yet so he could only see that it had snowed but had no indication yet of how much. Leaving Hanna sleeping, he dressed and went to the kitchen to start the coffee. Putting on a pot of water to boil for oatmeal, Mike stoked up the wood stove and got it burning, taking the chill off somewhat. The house, to Mike, was comfortable at 60 degrees, but Hanna liked it a little warmer. Going to the mud room, Mike put on his parka and trapper’s hat, took the snow shovel out of the corner, and went outside to clear around the entrance door and from in front of the garage door. On level ground, there was around 20” of snow but it had drifted up in some areas, especially around the greenhouse structures.
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Post by bluefox2 on Sept 16, 2023 8:01:28 GMT -6
Your comparison to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire is something I have been saying for quite some time
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Post by gipsy on Sept 16, 2023 9:33:40 GMT -6
Thanks for the update.
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Post by feralferret on Sept 16, 2023 23:15:41 GMT -6
Thanks, ncsfsgm.
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Post by ncsfsgm on Sept 20, 2023 6:59:25 GMT -6
Chapter 43
Paul, Eduardo, and José were milling lumber when Jeremy arrived, without warning, leading four trucks pulling 40-foot tilt deck shipping container haulers carrying shipping containers. Pail shut the saw down and met Jeremy as he got out of his truck.
“What do you have here Jer?” Paul asked.
“I’m not sure quite what all, they were listed as additional supplies for a Continuation of Government facility in West Virginia.” Jeremy said. “I figured civilians could use the supplies more than politicians when the stuff hits the fan.” Eduardo guided the trucks over near where they had the rest of the containers and he and José placed 6x6 timbers under the containers as they slid off the trailers. They could move the containers back under a grove of pines and further camouflage them later.
“How is your aquaculture project going?” Jeremy asked Paul.
“It’s going great. We’re expanding a little now.” Paul replied.
“I’m thinking of doing the same thing.” Jeremy said. “Two commercial poultry house kits have come into my possession. The suckers are 50 feet by 593 feet. I figure to put up a half of one and go from there. Do you want the other one?”
“A whole one? Sure, I’ll take it We could do a lot of expansion with that.” Paul said.
“I’ll send it up to you. It comes on a couple of flatbed trailers.” Jeremy said.
They would have space to expand to the east of the greenhouse. A poultry house might work even better than a greenhouse. They might need some grow lights. He’d let Mateo make the call on that.
Mike cranked the tractor and let it idle to warm up. Thank goodness the cab had HVAC. The wind chill was on down there. Even though in a shelter, the glass on the cab was a little frosty. As the frost turned to beads of water, Mike squeegeed it off to have something to do. Once the heater had the cab toasty, Mike left the shelter and lowered the blade to push the snow to the side of the drive. He cleared out to 51, then cleared half the main road up to the driveway to the house and began clearing the driveway. At the top, Mike began clearing the pad and pushed the snow into berms around the sides of the pad. Hanna must have cranked the heat up in the house. He saw water dripping down the dome and already forming icicles. Finishing clearing the pad, Mike put the tractor away and took his truck down to the shed and mounted the snow blade on his truck. He then headed back down to the highway and proceeded to clear the road down to Didrik and Annika’s. It was only a little over ¾ of a mile, but he knew Hanna would be heading down there sooner or later today. Women can’t stand to see each other shut in. He hoped they would get frisky and make some apple pies.
Paul, John, and Brad dug through the shipping containers to verify contents that were unclear from the manifest. They found a lot of feminine hygiene products, prophylactics, and cases of named brand aftershaves. All three men were disgusted. They could understand the hygiene products, but the rest? They must be planning 24-hour orgies to use that many. But that was how politicians worked; screwed around while their constituents suffered.
Paul, Eduardo, and José went back to milling logs. Cutting as many 2x6 boards as they could out of a log and finished out with 1x2s for battens. Cynthia wanted a cover to put over her deck then a car shelter for her vehicle. She didn’t want a garage, just a shelter to keep her little Subaru out of the sun and weather and be able to get to it without having to fight the rain. It would be easy enough to do.
They finished the last log and Paul and Eduardo began cleaning up, while José began running slabs and strips through the chop saw to cut into firewood. When José finished, they all grabbed push brooms and swept up the sawdust into piles to be cleaned up with the large shop vac. Paul made plans to go into town the next day to get the concrete post bases for the carport and more nails for the nail guns. They could have the whole structure done in a couple of days with John and Brad’s help.
Paul talked to Mateo about the poultry house and told him to start planning for an expansion of two structures, 250 feet long. It would require another outdoor furnace or two to maintain heat in them, but that shouldn’t be a problem. It would mean more firewood to heat everything, but Paul already had 12 cords of firewood in reserve and could harvest more as needed. He knew the location of several dead trees they hadn’t even touched yet.
After a few more curtailed food distributor hijackings, Gangs were backing off and instead went back to drug distribution. This was starting to become a problem because their shipments were either being destroyed or not arriving. To keep it a little less bloodless, at least on Jeremy’s side of things, Jeremy had his white hats begin finding ways to frame gang members to make it look like the gangs were skimming the profits of the cartels. Blood did flow, but it was thief against thief. Not since the mafia was in power were so many retaliatory hits made , even cartel against cartel. The cartels were getting desperate because they weren’t getting enough money to pay off the police and politicians, who both groups were looking for ways to get off the hook they were on. The war on drugs successes had reached a level the U.S. government had never been able to obtain because the gloves had come off. The two gunners set up their separate weapons 100 meters apart 500 meters from the north end of the runway in the sagebrush. The suppressors would keep the dust down from the muzzle blast, but they still laid down a damp sheet of canvas in front of the guns. As the darkness turned to daylight, the four men lay under their camouflage, sipping water from the hydration bladders. The codeword came over the radio and each gunner loaded a magazine that had three rounds of green and silver tipped MK211 HEIAP and chambered a round. They steadied themselves when they saw the Cessna 182 on approach. When the plane crossed the runway threshold at 50 feet, the first gunner fired, nicking the propeller, exploding the RX51-PETN charge, driving the tungsten penetrator into the aircraft’s engine, causing a flash of flame as the fuel line was severed. A half second later, the second gunner’s round penetrated the engine cowling and exploded. If the pilot had continued his approach he might have landed but he kicked the controls and cartwheeled down the runway in a cloud of dust and remnants of two marijuana bundles.
The first crash responders, upon seeing the debris, quickly donned their oxygen gear and just used extinguishers to put out the flames, then backed off. Samples of the pills and the spilt white dust from split opened packages were collected and tested. The warning that had supposedly come from Homeland Security the day before had been spot on. The plane had been loaded with a hell of a lot of drugs. And a goodly portion had been cocaine and Fentanyl. By the time the search for the location of the firers began, the four men and their equipment were long gone and dispersed into a nearby national forest.
Thanksgiving dinner was held at the Anderberg home and was almost a one-week affair. Annika was there every day helping prepare the dishes that weren’t common in many homes in America, being of northern European roots, but they were thankful for what they had anyway. Hanna had also invited the Thorensens. They were a retired elderly couple who lived nearby and had no other family.
The food was delicious and as the group sat and ate sweets with their coffee and tea, Hanna came to the table with the surprise she had for her parents. Hanna handed Annika a flat box wrapped in Thanksgiving theme paper that contained a little white “onesie” that had “I can’t wait to meet you Grandma and Grandpa!” printed on it. Annika gasped and her hands flew to her face.
“Oh my! When?”
Hanna grinned. “Morfar måste anställa en ny förare till skördetröskan.” (Grandpa will have to hire a new driver for the combine.)
Annik jumped up and hugged Hanna as the Thorensens congratulated the expecting parents.
The men moved to the family room and had glasses of folksprit from the clay jug Gene Thorensen had brought, while the women cackled like a pen full of hens while they put the leftovers away and cleaned the kitchen. Everyone eventually gathered in the family room; the men talking of the weather and crops while the women gabbed about babies and eventually drifting off to look at the nursery Hanna and Annika had been putting together.
As Paul predicted, Cynthia’s car shelter and deck cover went up quickly. They roofed everything with steel roofing, interspersed with clear polycarbonate panels to let light through, and several solar lights spaced around for safety. José even devised an alarm that sounded when Cynthia backed or pulled into the shelter and reached close to the extent of the parking area. Cynthia and the women made a nice meal for the men to celebrate and to thank them. They had the meal early enough to make it to the music hall for the first jam sessions. The crowd was just as large as every weekend. The café menu for the dinner meals had been extended and many families came in to eat before the music started, then had appetizers throughout the evening available. Many more musicians overcame their shyness and were performing. Paul was amazed at the natural talent that was available throughout the surrounding communities. They very seldom had any problems with newcomers and visitors. The word had gotten out that these people were loaded for bear and didn’t cater to any foolishness.
Many of the teenagers got their first jobs at the café, music hall, or the childcare room at the music hall. Angel was even considering putting in a game room at the music hall for the teenagers that didn’t want to spend all their time in the music hall. She was in negotiations with a game supplier who would maintain the equipment.
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Post by gipsy on Sept 20, 2023 9:29:26 GMT -6
Thanks for the update
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Post by ncsfsgm on Sept 25, 2023 13:07:12 GMT -6
Chapter 44
Hanna did head to Annika’s, and they made peach and apple pies from the freeze-dried fruit. Didrik was a big fan of peach pie and Mike liked the apple, not that he would turn away a slice of peach with a big dollop of whipped topping. Mike finished the clearing and checked the weather reports before removing the snow blade. Hanna had a roast prepared to go into the oven and had left Mike instructions on the counter for when to put it in. Mike set the timer on his phone and went downstairs to check the networks. He ran a Cable for the WIFI extender, so he had whole house coverage. He left the cable hookup to the library in place as a backup. He wasn’t worried about emissions due to the wire mesh they had put up on the outer walls before spraying on the insulation. It was one big Faraday cage, which was kind of a pain in itself because it required external antennas for everything.
Paul paused the saw as he felt another tremor. That was the third time that week they’d felt the ground shake. The news was filled with reports of the New Madrid fault activity. Although he wasn’t especially worried, it was a little unnerving. Scientists were running new airborne electromagnetic, magnetic, and radiometric surveys of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain to update and analyze any changes in the data they collected. Paul wasn’t especially concerned though. The were on the outer edge of the weakest part of the seismic zone and were pretty well set with food and supplies, still, he was going to update his inventory after talking to Angel to see if there were things she wanted to add. Cops are cops no matter where you find them. Cops on the street have a tough time predicting when a crime spree will take place and usually don’t solve the problem until after the fact. Cops in the scientific world (Scientists) are always finding things, but again only after the fact. Most of their published “facts” were usually scientific wild ass guesses, backed up by adjusted grant-producing studies. They just couldn’t keep up with earth changes. They only understood what had happened after a long period of intense study. When the climate change protesters mouthed off about saving the planet, Paul couldn’t help but laugh at their naïveté; people thinking they could change what the earth was going to do anyway, no matter what they did. Common sense was scarce as hobby horse crap in the world today.
Paul had enough timber cut to build the woodshop. The sawmill gave him enough rough-cut wood, but he wanted to make more finished things, so he bought a planer, joiner, router tables, table saws, bandsaw, and every other dream machine you could outfit a first rate woodworking shop with, even a vacuum system. With the help of his friends, they had the structure built in a couple of weeks. With the battery bank he had, he couldn’t run more than one of the machines at a time, but that wasn’t a big inconvenience. Paul would take his time to get things right, otherwise he would have some fancy firewood.
Angel had started getting in to stocking up supplies for bad times. She had glanced over his shoulder one night while he was reading an article and she asked him to print it out for her. It was about the “50 Items That Will Disappear Fast in A Crisis.” That was now her project, to accumulate those items. Not that she believed they would need them, but other people might. The Dollar Store, Doller General, and Family Dollar became some of her familiar stomping grounds. Little Tony came to recognize the things she was looking for and would reach out of the cart to grab them, even when she might not be shopping for the item at that time. She kept a tight watch on expiration dates on items and when they were close, would take a load down to the county food bank and then go shopping for replacements.
Angel and Keira hired a woman to help Keira out in the store and Angel was rarely behind the counter any more with Tony demanding her and Paul’s attention. He loved sitting in his stroller watching Paul running the sawmill. Paul got him a set of electronic earmuffs and he was so cute with his eyes locked on everything Paul did. While emplacing seismometers near Marston, Missouri, seismologists were showered by a sand blow during a 2.6 earthquake. The Seismologists scrambled away from the area because sand blows often accompany the liquefaction of sandy or silty soil over a fault. As they slogged back to their truck parked on the county road, the men were breathing hard. No one had ever been that close to a sand blow before.
Hanna wanted to go to Omaha to shop for baby items such as diapers, lotions, and other things women like to baby babies with. The roads were clear, so Mike had no problems driving her there. He was amazed at the amount of diapers she was planning to purchase. She explained that they were different sizes and would cover a full year.
“If we don’t feed the baby, he or she won’t mess up as many diapers, will they?” Mike asked. That got him a slap on the back of the head.
"Maybe if I don’t feed you, you wouldn’t use as much toilet paper!” Hanna replied.
As the press conference began, simultaneous data dumps were sent to the FBI, the Washington Times, and the Washington Examiner, detailing Senator Duncan’s links to organized crime, some bank accounts that were in question, and a major pedophilia ring. When The senator’s aide pulled him away from the press conference and ushered him to the limousine, the car only moved a few meters when a loud bang was heard, and the car came to a stop. An explosive charge had cut the drive shaft and rear axle in half, stranding the Senator with the reporters. The Senator had been speaking of his efforts to curtail crime in the Washington D.C. area.
"A crook!” Hanna said as Laura Ingraham signed off. “Here the man was patting himself on the back for fighting crime and he’s up to his eyeballs in it!”
Mike took a sip of his mead and shook his head. “A bisexual alien pedophilic race has taken over the minds and bodies of a minor, but very vocal, portion of the country and the entirety of the Democrat Party. They should bring back the gallows.”
The wheat crop was looking good and Didrik was looking for a hand that could take Hanna’s place. There would be transient workers coming through, but he wanted someone he could work with before they got here. Ben came up with a 19-year-old young man who would work out well. Machinery was pulled out and maintenance was a constant event. The equipment was checked up before it was put away and major repairs done throughout the winter, but final checks were always done before the beginning of the cutting. Didrik’s silos had finally been emptied at the first of the year when grain prices had suddenly risen due to conflicts in Europe. Nothing had changed so it looked like grain prices would be good this year too.
Mike and Hanna made their trip to Omaha and came back with the truck and trailer completely packed. They had to go to a few different places to round up the diaper sizes Hanna had on her list. They bought lotions and Desitin by the case. Instead of baby powder, Hanna found a source where she could buy arrowroot powder in bulk as a substitute for baby powder. The jury was still out on whether talc caused cancer.
On the way out of Omaha, they stopped and had tenderloin sandwiches instead of going home and having to fix supper. Hanna was excited about having her baby list fulfilled except for a food grinder. The machines she saw were nothing more than food processors and she already had one of those. Mike even had a manual grinder and plates and knives plus a food mill that would make baby food. She was planning to breast feed for as long as she could and then begin weaning the baby onto food they ate, sans spices.
Mike had been reading a series on off-grid living. One article was about a couple with a baby that had been born not long after they’d built an earth sheltered home. Washing diapers had become a problem so they stocked up on disposable diapers which brought about another problem; how to get rid of the used diapers. It was ten miles to the county waste container sight and the diapers added up quickly. With his father, they got some steel plating and welded together an incinerator that quickly and efficiently turned the diapers to ash. Using woodstove catalytic combustors, there was barely any smoke from the plastic in the diapers burning. He took notes and some screen shots and printed them out. He just needed to find someone to build it for him. Mike’s welding skills were limited to drawbars and fabricating/repairing stanchion mounts.
It was Ben again who came to his rescue. There was a man on the reservation who did steel fabrication who could probably build the incinerator.
Ben took him to see the guy and Mike showed him the screenshots of the incinerator he wanted. The man said it would be no problem, he would just have to find the combustors. Mike volunteered to pick them up for him and the man said he would start on the incinerator right away.
Mike went into Sioux City the next morning to the Stove Shop and got the Catalytic combustors and delivered them to the metal shop. He really wouldn’t need the incinerator for a while, but it would reduce the garbage he took to the waste drop every two weeks. They already sorted out the things they could compost and recycle. He might be able to cut his visits to the waste containers down to once a month.
Mike stopped at the general store on the reservation and bought Hanna a couple of bottles of the chokecherry syrup she liked. She was getting grumpy lately and craving weird things.
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Post by gipsy on Sept 25, 2023 13:31:19 GMT -6
Fine update. Thanks
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Post by feralferret on Sept 25, 2023 15:14:16 GMT -6
Thank you for the new chapter.
"While emplacing seismometers near Marston, Missouri, seismologists were showered by a sand blow during a 2.6 earthquake."
Definitely NOT a good sign! It looks like the fan is being brought up to speed in preparation for the application of manure.
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Post by texican on Sept 25, 2023 16:03:25 GMT -6
"Maybe if I don’t feed you, you wouldn’t use as much toilet paper!” Hanna replied. --------------------- That would definitely stop most men from griping.
The notation on food products is Best By Date which means that the product will loose some nutrition and taste, but is still eatable and will still provide nourishment.
We have consumed food products past the Best By Date by over 5 years without any problems.
Manufacturers want you to believe that prescriptions and food both expire so you will buy new product. DOD did a study and found that prescriptions really do not have a expiration date for years since most are just manufactured chemicals that could breakdown over a long period of time due to heat and age, but mainly heat.
Texican....
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Post by feralferret on Sept 26, 2023 4:12:00 GMT -6
"DOD did a study and found that prescriptions really do not have a expiration date for years since most are just manufactured chemicals that could breakdown over a long period of time due to heat and age, but mainly heat."
True for MOST prescriptions, but there are a few that do break down fairly quickly. Be sure to research your medications rather than just assuming.
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Post by kaijafon on Sept 26, 2023 20:15:39 GMT -6
I had found some old thyroid meds that were at a lower dosage than what I currently take; I tried ONE and immediately, before I swallowed it, I could tell I needed to spit it out. REALLY bad... it was about 1 year old
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Post by ncsfsgm on Oct 2, 2023 14:43:14 GMT -6
Chapter 45
Paul carried the cases of 20d, 12d, and nails into the shed and stacked them against the wall on the floor. He wanted other sizes, but he would have to go to Little Rock to get the cases instead of the small boxes.
It looked like every utility vehicle in the area was parked at the house. The women were canning today, carrots he believed. Mateo had harvested a couple of bins of them the day before. There was also a bushel of new potatoes they had taken out of the potato planter boxes. Angel said they wanted to can them also instead of bagging them in the root cellar. Mateo had done an excellent job with the aquaponics setup. They had fresh salads all the time. So much Paul would get to craving meat, which reminded him that his meat order was ready at the processors and needed to be picked up.
They were doing very well on food storage. Brad and John had fenced in pastures on their land and were raising a couple of yearlings each. Paul had done the same thing but just had one butchered, so he needed to buy another yearling. The animals were grass fed so the meat had just enough fat to make the meat tender. Everyone raised hogs around them, so they didn't bother raising pigs. Plus, they could buy pork bellies by the case to cure and smoke.
Tomorrow, they would be fortifying the ford to Brad's place. They were going to use an excavator to line the ford with larger boulders and fill it in between with four- and six-inch rock, and then a bed of gravel. They would probably have to replace the gravel from time to time that washed out during flooding, but it would establish a good bed to drive across.
Mike kept watching the approaching storm to the northwest as he drove back home from Sioux City. The storm looked like an approaching Ragnar k. The weather broadcast said it was another typical late winter storm, but it looked more severe than that to Mike. Before he reached his driveway, ice and rain began to fall and the windshield wipers were caking with ice. After pulling into the garage, Mike cleared the ice off the wipers then stood at the open garage door and watched as the ice accumulated on the ground. If it kept up, it was going to be a mess tomorrow. Mike went inside and turned on the NOAA radio and listened to the forecast. It looked to be a doozy of an ice storm. Mike walked into the kitchen where Hanna was making fried apple pies. They smelled delicious.
"Be careful if you go outside. The ground is covered in ice and it's getting worse." Mike said.
"Oh my! I haven't looked out the window in a while. I did notice by the light through the windows that it was getting darker." Hanna replied. "Did you get the pork?"
"Yes, but instead of doing them myself, I went to Hardison's and bought eight sides of bacon. They can cure and smoke them better than I can. Four of them are for your folks."
"They'll appreciate that", Hanna said. "Why did you buy so many?"
"I want to thick slice them, ours, at least," Mike replied.
The more Paul used the woodworking equipment, the more power he wished he had. He called Adam Jones and had him come out to do an evaluation and design on a system that would handle his woodworking shop for a few hours. Meanwhile, Paul was gathering woodworking plans and working on small projects. He had built a half-dozen stackable sawhorses, a table saw blade storage box, a mobile cut-off bin to hold scraps that were too good to turn into firewood, and a power tool table. He was looking forward to working with Amish, Mission, Cottage, Rustic, and American Colonial styles of furniture. Presently, he was finishing up a Wood Crate Keurig K Cup Holder with two drawers for Cynthia. Each drawer consisted of a 1/8th piece of plywood with holes cut out to store the K cups in. Cynthia drank mostly tea, so most of the holes would be filled with tea K cups and a few coffees for visitors.
Mateo drove up with the eight-pressure treated 4x4s and roofing they needed to build the storage shed next to the greenhouses, to clear out some of the clutter. Mateo had priced storage sheds in Clarksville, and they could build a shed much cheaper than for the small company to build and deliver it. They had the rest of the lumber on hand they would need.
After treating the bottom of the posts with Cuprinol, Paul and Eduardo laid their lines and dug post holes with the tractor auger. They placed large, flat river rocks in the bottom of the holes, set the posts and secured them in with concrete. It took them six days to complete the shed, two days which were delayed by rain. The clutter was finally moved from the greenhouses and stored in the shed.
To Paul, Tilapia was basically tasteless, but Carmelita, Angel, and Cynthia came up with some decent recipes that gave the meat some flavor, mostly through the judicious use of spices. They were getting a steady harvest of fish out of the tanks with Mateo adding more fries as needed, and he had set up another tank for Tilapia fry to grow in. The economy was still uncertain and prices on products had risen to where more and more families were living paycheck to paycheck just to pay for fuel, electricity, and food. The current resident of the White House had campaigned on not raising taxes, but the people were suffering due to his inflationary policies. Deficits were edging closer and closer to a breaking point and the government was steadily borrowing and spending money like there was no tomorrow. The country was in trouble.
Overall, the residents of Crooked Creek were in good shape. They would be able to manage through most crises, but continued to stock up. The fuel tanks were kept full, and they ordered LTS foods while they could still get them.
Paul had to smile at the number of scientists who were coming out and calling the Climate Crisis B.S. (probably because they had been pushed away from the grant trough.) Also, you saw more and more doctors calling B.S. on the pandemic policies of the CDC. They waited until it was too late to fight and were next to useless to the average man-on-the-street. The policies that had been, and still were, implemented caused about as much damage. They could have just sat back and done nothing and hurt no more than the harm they caused. People were just too susceptible to government propaganda. There was that event up in Washington and Oregon they attributed to made-made climate change instead of inattention or in some cases, lack of funding for equipment needed, and the blame game went on.
Mike got the meat slicer out and thick cut one side of bacon. The other sides he wrapped up in butcher paper and hung in cotton bags in the pantry. He sliced two sides of bacon for Annika, wrapped them, to be delivered when the weather cleared. About a half-inch of ice had built up, then an inch of popcorn snow, then wet snow on top of that. Mike had used a Handheld Broadcast Spreader early that morning to spread ice-melt, but the temperature was still around 28 degrees, and the ice wasn't melting very fast. It was dangerous to be on the roads, even with chains, so Mike kept close to home and did little projects, one of which was drying herbs and packaging them with Hanna.
The sun came up the next morning flashing over a crystal encased world. Mike spread more ice-melt out, and before noon, the water was running in rivulets in the stone-lined drainage ditches down to the road ditch and into a marshy swale that ran a mile up the wheat field to the east. Mike reseeded the swale every fall with wild rice which brought in lots of ducks and geese. Mike always got his limit every fall when the birds traveled the Central migratory bird flyway. Hanna had perfected duck confit and orange duck recipes they enjoyed often. The duck fat was reserved for other dishes as well, especially frying red potatoes.
Eduardo rolled in the tank of nitrogen and attached the hose with their filler adapter. Paul had gotten a good deal on 900 pounds of bagged rice from a processor over in Harrisburg. The only things he was missing were buckets and gamma lids. He had a hard time getting together enough food-safe buckets to hold all the rice. It took them a while to pound on the rims for the gamma lids, but once they got one on, they set up their filling jig to fill the Mylar bags and flush them with nitrogen. Once the oxygen was flushed out, the bag was hand-sealed with a thermal sealer, the 5-pound bag was placed into the bucket, and the lid screwed on. They could store up to eight five-pound bags in each bucket. This would give each person on Crooked Creek a two-year supply of rice. Once they had a rhythm down, the process went quickly. FEMA didn't seem to be purchasing much rice, but were sure putting a dent in other foods they gathered for disaster relief. Paul had already placed an order for the wheat they bought each year and paid in advance before the prices went up before harvest. The commodities market prices weren't that high for rice, so Paul had called around and scored the deal. Paul was also watching the prepper blogs for deals on various things.
Eduardo and José, his son, used a UTV to deliver the buckets of rice to the families, while Paul carried his buckets into the basement and stored them away. Their next project was hanging the grow lights in the greenhouses. Mateo had run a test, and the green beans were growing much better under grow lights.
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Post by texican on Oct 2, 2023 15:11:54 GMT -6
Seems like what is happening in our world today.
Texican....
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Post by gipsy on Oct 2, 2023 15:59:55 GMT -6
Cool update. Thanks
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Post by ncsfsgm on Oct 5, 2023 19:04:27 GMT -6
Chapter 46
At first, the shaking didn’t alarm Paul, only it lasted far longer than earlier tremors had. It was enough that it awoke Angel and Tony. Eduardo was down quickly, and they inspected all the buildings and the creek banks. They found the creek bank to the south of them had sheared off on the opposite side of the creek and had partially dammed the creek, but not enough it wouldn’t wash out the next time the creek flooded. Angel called around and made sure no one was having any problems. Paul wondered how people closer to the faultline had faired. He and Eduardo split up to go eat breakfast. Angel had the TV on and was switching through the local stations catching bits of news of the quake.
“Anything?” Paul asked.
“Looks like the Ohio and Mississippi rivers now flow into a new lake that runs just north of New Madrid all the way up Rockwood Park. Cairo, Illinois was about completely wiped out."
Paul grunted. “I guess river traffic will be delayed for a while until they can survey the navigation channels.”
“Can we take the plane and go see the changes?” Angel asked.
“I suppose so, we might not be able to go too low though,” Paul replied. “The place will probably be swarming with helicopters supporting the recovery effort.”
“I’ll call Mom and have her come down and sit with Tony,” Angel said.
“I’ll go get the plane ready,” Paul said.
Paul towed the plane out to the front of the hangar, pulled the big propeller by hand, through several blades to verify there was no hydraulic lock. He then got in the pilot’s seat, gave it five strokes of prime, engaged the starter, counted three to five blades, energized the boost coil, and switched on the mags. Five cylinders were primed, so they fired first, then the others joined in. This was accompanied by a cloud of smoke as the engine cleared itself. The sweet sound of the radial engine coming to life was a beautiful. The big radial engine held a lot of oil and required a ten-to-fifteen-minute warmup.
When Angel arrived, manifold pressure was well on the way to 36.5 inches as the engine pleasantly rumbled. Once Angel was seated in the right seat and belted in, Paul released the brakes and taxied out to the runway. When the manifold pressure was at 36.5 inches, Paul adjusted the flaps, pulled on the throttle, and the plane roared down the runway. Halfway down the runway the plane leaped into the air and Paul started a slow climb to 5,000 feet, heading northeast to Caruthersville on the bootheel of Missouri. An hour and a half later, they reached the Mississippi at Caruthersville, and it was clear they had taken a lot of damage. Paul changed course and headed north to New Madrid. They could see the new lake from a good distance off and Paul noticed some small settlements were completely gone. Flying on north, they found Cairo was under at least eight feet of water. It had been set in a bad place anyway. It was right above the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers with the Mississippi to its west and the Ohio to the east. Seeing a Zenith CH750 flying in circles ahead of them, Paul banked the Beaver and set a course back to Crooked Creek.
Thursdays had habitually become canning days. Mateo and Roberto would harvest vegetables on Wednesdays for the women to can the next day, then cut herbs Thursday morning and put them into the dryers. They would store the dried herbs in ZipLock bags and turn them over to the ladies to further store as they pleased.
Mateo constantly had potatoes in potato towers. As the potato plants grew higher, more boards were screwed on and straw and sandy soil were added to the tower, covering some of the stems. Potatoes would grow off of the stems too. The most he would let them grow was three feet. They had been doing this for a while so Mateo could look at the height of the tower and tell you how big the potatoes were. Mateo was only growing two varieties of heirloom potatoes; Bliss’ Triumph and Green Mountain, although he was going to try four towers of ‘Russet Burbank’ Potatoes. The people were wanting baking potatoes. Paul had constructed ten extra towers to place outside in the spring.
Each of the chicken/greenhouses had several bumblebee nesting boxes built by Paul and Eduardo. He would like to have used honeybees, but they were just too much work, so Mateo tried bumblebees ordered from Koppert Biological Systems out of Michigan and they began getting a better harvest of tomatoes. He began finding bees in the water tanks that had drowned while trying to get water, so Mateo set up bee waterers and feeders near the nesting boxes and that reduced the rate of bees dying.
Mateo ordered four Meyer Lemon Trees, four Clementine Trees, four Key Lime Trees, four Bosc Pear Trees, and four peach trees, all dwarf, to plant in containers at the far ends of the greenhouses. The varieties of apples he wanted weren’t in stock at that time so they would have to wait.
Mike helped the delivery driver unload the boxes into the garage. Each box held ten seven-gallon, 100 mil food grade buckets. Other cases held gamma lids and enough oxygen absorbers to pack almost two tons of wheat. He was going to store more wheat this year, but not that much. The remaining buckets would be used to store other foods. After the driver left, Mike moved the buckets into the attic storage of the garage. He was accumulating a lot of storage items like Mylar bags, buckets, and vacuum packing materials.
It was stunning to watch the news videos of the New Madrid quake destruction. Like many others of his mindset, thoughts ran through Mike’s mind of how he could prepare for something like that. Number one, stay away from faults and other areas of possible natural disasters. They were pretty much set for things like blizzards, tornadoes, and such that were common to their area. Although tremors were not common in Nebraska, they did happen occasionally, but the preparedness for the other disasters was transferable. No, they were in pretty good condition unless the North Koreans parachuted into the grainfields around them.
Mike got up, went to the study, turned on the HF-VHF-UHF base station, put it on scan, and listened to what was going on in the world.
At Crooked Creek, they were experiencing aftershocks in a diminishing frequency. Some scientists were saying the most recent quake was an aftershock of the 1812 quake. Paul couldn’t help but shake his head. It seemed all the experts were working off suppositions. All he and his neighbors could work on was preparing for what the scientists and the government could only guess at. Life was a game of risks and all you could do was alleviate as many as you could.
Paul was working on the sawmill when he thought he heard a DHC-2 overfly. He walked outside the shed and caught a glimpse of it setting up to land. Paul walked over to the hangar and watched the Beaver land and taxi over. Jeremy got out grinning.
“What’s going on?” Paul asked.
“Just ferrying a couple of tons of relief supplies over to the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Hayti,” Jeremy replied.
“I didn’t know there was an airfield there,” Paul said.
“Oh, they have a half-assed field, but it was full of sand volcanoes,” Jeremy replied. “ One of my other pilots found a usable field outside of town. I needed to get a few things out of the container to add to the supplies.”
They walked over to the shipping containers Paul was storing for Jeremy and they pulled the doors open. Jeremy handed out six Crown Berkey water filtration Systems and six cases of ceramic filters.
Jeremy packed the cases of ceramic filters close to the CG of the plane but put the Berkeys where he could. “The Berkeys don’t weigh hardly anything and won’t interfere with the center of gravity,” Jeremy said.
“Do you need fuel?” Paul asked.
“No, I’ve got plenty for the whole trip,” Jeremy replied.
Paul waited until Jeremy had taken off and went back to close up the container and lock it.
Jeremy Flew directly to Hayti, keeping an eye out for other aircraft. Thirty minutes later he saw the little town by the river and set up to make a low pass over the church. With no other obstructions in the area, he flew at 200 feet over the church then flew back. A man came out of the church and pointed west so Jeremy banked and headed west, following one of the streets to the west side of Hayti Heights. He spotted an assemblage of all kinds of trucks and a sea of black faces. One man ran out into the field and held up a long pole with two long strips of white cloth tied to the end to give Jeremy an idea of the wind direction. Jeremy eyed the street but there were power lines on one side of the street and a telephone cable on te other and he didn’t want to thread the needle. Lining up on the field, Jeremy flew low and slow to look for ditches. Seeing none, he banked back around and set up for a STOL landing, coming to a stop near the parked trucks. When he shut the engine down, the men and trucks began moving in his direction and quickly formed an unloading team. The preacher greeted Jeremy and Jeremy quickly explained about the water filters.
“We sure do appreciate this. Not much of the government or red cross have been down our way,” Reverend Johnson said as he shook Jeremy’s hand.
“I’m just doing what I can,” Jeremy replied. They watched as the men quickly unloaded the plane. The men even rolled up the cargo straps and placed them neatly on the floor. Jeremy began putting them back into the worn parachute kit bag and placed them next to the side wall. Jeremy reached inside and took out a contractor’s garbage bag that held about thirty pounds of hard candy.
“I got a little something for the kids too Reverend.”
“Well! That’s mighty nice of you!”
Jeremy checked to make sure everything was stowed, did his preflight, and because the engine was still warm, it started quickly. The winds hadn’t changed so he was off the ground in no time. He slowly overflew the town, and it didn’t look to bad. He could see signs of repairs being made and debris clearing. There were a lot of big cracks in what streets that were paved. Shaking his head, Jeremy set course for Washita Lodge and climbed to 8,000 feet.
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Post by feralferret on Oct 5, 2023 20:24:37 GMT -6
Thanks, ncsfsgm.
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Post by gipsy on Oct 5, 2023 21:26:59 GMT -6
Fine update for sure
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Post by ydderf on Oct 6, 2023 16:59:03 GMT -6
Wow I'm finally caught up. Many thanks NCSFSGM.
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Post by ncsfsgm on Oct 11, 2023 11:08:37 GMT -6
Chapter 47
Mike had felt a slight tremor that morning and quickly turned on the TV and the weather radio. There were no EAS messages on either, so he made another pot of coffee and parked himself so he could monitor both. Soon the purveyors of doom were announcing the earthquake along the borders of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Illinois.
“Here we go again!” Mike thought. “First, the quake in Washington and Oregon, Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens going active, what was next?” Mike pulled up his inventory on the computer and scrolled through it, going over possible scenarios in his mind. Short of a full nuclear war, they were pretty much set. He still needed to accumulate NBC supplies and wrote a note to himself. Listening to the news reports on the TV, Mike began a search for NBC gear. He wasn’t too concerned about the chemical aspect, but if they had it, he would go ahead and buy it.
The late Winter and Spring rains came, hampering some of the recovery efforts. but the work continued. Crooked Creek swelled and with the addition of the debris from the slide, changed the tone of the creek. Paul went down to check it out and water had pooled up behind the debris field, but the force of the water was beginning to wash the rock and dirt on downstream. Paul rode on down and inspected the bridge. It was still as strong as the day it was built. Paul rode up to the greenhouses and found Mateo setting up potato towers. Initially, you put a layer of dirt in the bottom of the tower, then plant your seed potato chits four to six inches apart. Roberto was sorting through the potatoes that had come out of the towers by size on a table where they had been drying and placing them in baskets, rubbing each potato with gloved hands to remove any remaining dirt. The bigger potatoes would be sacked in burlap bags and placed in the root cellar. Carmelita would select the sizes she would can and the fingerlings that would be cooked soon.
“All of those came out of four towers?” Paul asked.
“Yep,” Mateo replied. “You should talk to Gary down at Marcie’s Market and see if they want to buy any. We can easily have potatoes in stock and sell a big part of them.”
“Or trade them for produce we want. I’d like to have a couple of cases of pineapples,” Paul said. “Keep ‘em coming.”
“There is that.” Mateo replied.
There wasn’t much FEMA could do and they, in most cases, did less than that. They were stretched thin with disasters on the west coast and the central U.S. They did set up trailer parks of travel trailers for survivors but hadn’t learned much since the last time the trailers were used. The trailers had been stored out in the sun, which cooked the chemicals out of the materials used in their construction, and people could barely sleep in them. The food was adequate due to the efforts of the surrounding communities. A couple of trailer truck loads had gone out of Clarksville in support. Paul donated 300 pounds of new potatoes. Churches and civic clubs throughout the county supplied the majority of the contributions.
John was offering his medical services to refugees from the affected areas and keeping a watch on current members of the community to try and curtail any malnutrition problems. The churches would warn him if there were any suspicions of any of their members. The community melded together and made sure no one was left wanting.
A lot of their greenhouse harvest was also being used in the café. She kept an account of what she used and placed the money in a separate account accessible to Mateo to buy things for producing more crops. Angel had considered expanding the café because of the amount of customers they had built, but she and Paul sat down and talked. They had enough money, and she wasn’t in it to get rich anyway. She just wanted the café to serve good food. If she was going to do an expansion, it would be for the store to carry the products the customers wanted. Moreso, she was accepting many locally produced foods and was selling them on consignment. The idea of turning it into a true general store was more in Angel’s mindset. In fact, Paul was helping her draw up plans for a 30x50 foot expansion for the store building to offer up items for a simpler life that could be only ordered from distant online stores or larger cities; like cast iron cookware, kitchen gadgets that were hard to find, food preparation items, in other words things that had disappeared from store shelves for modern convenience.
Paul had already begun milling wood for the store expansion, keeping with the current store motif. The new wood siding would be stained to match the current weathered siding of the store. New windows would be added to the west side of the store to capture the afternoon daylight, a time when many people shopped before going home from their jobs. Angel had even paired with Haney’s Smoked Meats down in Lamar to keep them supplied with smoked pork and poultry to sell on consignment. The local people were pleased that Angel was listening to their desires of what they would like to see stocked at the store.
Overall, the people around Hagarville were doing fine. If anyone needed help, there were plenty of volunteers ready to step up. Reverend Bowman was not only the spiritual leader of the community, but also the clearing house for getting help to those who needed it. He was also, although not elected, the de facto mayor of the community. The Reverend had his hand-picked council of advisors, in areas not addressing spirituality, which included John, Brad, Paul, and Eduardo.
Paul and Eduardo, using the materials list for the store expansion, were counting dried lumber, and stacking it separately from the rest of the stacks. He made sure they had the required materials plus ten percent for spoilage. The only thing he was really short of was the ship lap for the walls in the new area. Angel wanted them to show some rough texture so Paul had six seasoned logs they could cut the ship lap from; they would give them a light planing on one side of the board then run a wire brush wheel over them to bring out the grain. The builders would be coming in the next week to begin building a wall separating the construction area from the rest of the store and Sunday afternoon was set aside for rearranging the store to make room.
Eduardo went to get the tractor and log dolly while Paul set up the sawmill to do the rest of the boards. They had enough logs to finish out the requirements but would need to fell the trees in the spring that they had girded last summer to bring their stocks back up.
The mayors of New York and Chicago were assassinated, not by outside entities, but by their own constituents. In New York, six people died including the two shooters, an innocent bystander, two bodyguards, and hizzhonor. In Chicago, it was a vehicle ambush with the mayor’s vehicle blocked in and besieged with Molotov cocktails. Again, innocent individuals were killed when the protection detail began spraying the area with automatic fire. Although the death toll would not reach the previous weekend’s toll in the city, the main shock was someone had the audacity to kill a socialist democrat mayor in these times of progressiveness, and by his own people too.
During their weekly Saturday afternoon get-together, John sat a bag down on the table in front of Paul.
“Store these with the rest of the medical supplies. These are samples given to me this week.” John said. “I’ve also ordered a case each of saline, D5W, and Ringers Lactate to place in stock. I’ll order more next month.”
“Thanks John. We’re almost as well stocked as your clinic. I appreciate you keeping us up on this.”
“It’s the least I could do. Let’s just hope we don’t have to rely heavily on it. I just pray someone doesn’t see the clinic sign, think ‘drugs’ and destroy everything looking for a fix.”
“Maybe you should mislabel some bottles and fill them with fentanyl, just in case.” Brad said.
“First, do no harm.” John replied, waving a finger at Brad.
“You should write a paper and explain that to the abortion mills.” Brad said sarcastically.
The men started their weekly exchange of ideas on how to make their lives better, ideas on preparations, and security. They discussed the assassinations and local crime, which was rare. Most of the men, and many women had a gun in reach at all times. Paul always wore his pistol, and even carried a long gun and an AA-12 behind the seat in his truck. The Sheriff’s Department had got funding from the state to set up substations in every town and village, and more officers were being hired. Training had been started for auxiliary deputies, for which they all were being trained. Johnson County, Arkansas had become the criminal’s unfriendliest county in the state.
Billboards, mostly paid for by private citizens, were erected on every road entering the county warning people if they entered the county with criminal intent they could very well leave in an urn. The most favorite slogan was brought up out of the past; “WHEN THE LOOTING STARTS, THE SHOOTING STARTS.” The people were serious, and it wasn’t unusual for even old ladies to answer the door with a shotgun or pistol in their hands. Gun shops were doing brisk business, but the price of ammunition was rising rapidly. Paul was making a list of common ammo that was in short supply and was going to see if Jeremy could help them obtain extra supplies.
A week after sending the message, Jeremy showed up with a shipping container on the back of an 18-wheeler.
“I’ve just about everything you asked for except there’s not much .32 caliber.” Jeremy said. “They might as well be using a pellet gun anyway unless they press the barrel up against the perp’s forehead.”
“Where’s this from?” Paul asked.
“CBC Global out of Brazil. They are partnered with several different ammo companies and have just about everything. I noticed you didn’t have any 50-cal marked down.”
“No, I think we have the only M107s around.” Paul replied.
“Well, there’s 500 rounds of match and 300 Raufoss Mk 211 in the back I put in."
“Okay, I appreciate that.” Paul said.
Paul called Brad to come help him. Between Eduardo, Paul, and Brad, they unpacked and re-arranged the ammo to fill the wish lists of those that needed the ammo.
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Post by gipsy on Oct 11, 2023 12:01:26 GMT -6
More ammo is always a good thing. Thanks for the update.
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