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Post by ydderf on Oct 12, 2023 15:50:03 GMT -6
Thanks
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Post by imahic on Oct 13, 2023 14:48:50 GMT -6
Much obliged for the new chapter.
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Post by ncsfsgm on Oct 20, 2023 22:29:59 GMT -6
Chapter 48
The builders began working on the store. Paul and Eduardo had gotten the lumber moved and tarped the day before. Pilings were in place quickly and it would be a couple of days before the heaving construction got started. Eduardo went to pick up the roofing needed, and Paul called Adam Jones to arrange for the additional solar panels they would now have extra room for. Half of them would be PV and half for hot water.
Angel was already quickly running out of space to sell home canned foods people were wanting her to sell on consignment. They set up a meeting for all those interested to set up a rotating schedule of foods to be displayed, so no one would be upset if they came in and didn’t see their products on the shelf. The items would still be available for sale by request, just not readily available on the shelves. Kiera was going to hire a temp girl to maintain the stock rotation.
The community was thriving and so far had been relatively safe. The Sheriff’s Deputies kept constant patrols, and the largest community watch in the state kept the law enforcement officials informed of what was going on, sometimes too much so. Mrs. Hatley had to be cautioned occasionally about her numerous calls. Finally, her niece gave her a Havanese puppy, and the number of calls decreased, but she was keeping her eyes open and her cell phone handy during her walks with the puppy. Her health improved also. Angel laughed when the Deputy told her the story and she made a note to make sure Kiera kept Mrs. Hatley’s favorite food on hand for the puppy. Things in Washington weren’t doing so well, there were big fights in Congress about spending. Of course, politicians loved to spend to get the votes. The Spending Clause was a politician’s favorite part of the Constitution. The problem was when their debits were larger than their assets, they borrowed. The last two natural disasters had put a big dent in the nation’s purse and an election year was coming up. They had to spend money on disaster relief, but the nation’s debt was getting larger every day and they had earmarks they wanted to be included. The politicians needed those earmarks for their pet projects they didn’t want scrutinized to get those votes to keep them in power. Heaven forbid they cut any government programs or raise taxes, so they went to their old standby; cut the military budget and DHS, which they did to the detriment of the country.
It had been on Angel and Kiera’s minds for a while. People had asked for seafood, even if it was frozen, but they didn’t have that much freezer space on hand to store enough to make it viable. She could easily receive weekly deliveries from the Gulf if she just had the room to store it. A matter of an email or phone call would get them what she wanted. They had the space for more freezers, but she didn’t want the expense of brand-new ones. So, she and Keira began looking. She also talked to Adam Jones about her power requirements. He gave her an estimate of what it would take to expand her battery bank and to add a couple of vortex wind generators, and she told him to go ahead and do it. At least they would have the power available when they found some freezers.
A Sheriff’s Deputy told Kiera about a store south of the river near Morrison’s Bluff that was going out of business. With the specifications of her freezers in hand, Angel and Paul went down to check their equipment out. The three units turned out to be identical to the ones she had, and a little newer, and she bought them on the spot. She told the owner they would have the units out within the week. It was going to be up to Paul to get them moved. How he would do that was already flowing through Paul’s mind on the way home. They did stop by the store, for Paul to see the area with which he was working. There are already four pallet dollies at Shaner’s that could hold the individual units, so he just saw some heavy labor, but they could do it.
When the current administration come into power, and for whatever reason dismantled the border security plan of the previous president, many complained about the lack of verification of the illegal immigrants and the lack of tracking where they were going, due to the possibility of terrorists being able to game the system. 9/11 had already showed them that it only took a relative few to cause untold destruction, terror, and uncertainty. The complainers were shouted down and now what had been feared was about to become reality.
Paul, Eduardo, Mateo, and Roberto moved the freezer units but didn’t connect power right away. They let them sit in place until a refrigeration technician came out and checked them out. He was actually the one to connect the power to the units. Kiera ordered an assortment of shrimp and wild caught fish to fill the freezers.
Once the addition was complete, Marisol Garcia was hired to maintain the stock rotation of the consignment goods. They all pitched in to move everything back into place and were ready by the weekend, which was good because many that were attending the Music Hall, went into the store to see the changes. Marisol also took it upon herself later to print up recipes to have people to take for some of the seafoods people were not familiar with.
Paul would like to have more propane on hand, but AmeriGas wouldn’t sell him any more tanks to keep filled. He had three 1000-gallon underground tanks but would like to have at least 10,000 gallons on hand. He had heard about a farm store up in Madison County that sold bulk propane to farms and decided to check them out.
Hindsville was a community of around 90 people, more females than males, and a bunch of poultry houses. It boasted one of the oldest reservoirs in the state, a liquor store, and a gunsmith. What else did you need? The store did sell bulk propane and also just about everything a farmer would need. It even had a small café that made a great bacon cheeseburger. Paul managed to buy three 1900-gallon underground tanks, but Paul would have to get the holes dug and have a crane to move the tanks off the truck. The tanks would be filled in increments over a period of two months. Paul also found in the store another supplier of sorghum seed, although it had to be ordered in advance.
At 0200, two fishing boats anchored at precise points off the coast of Maryland in Chesapeake Bay. It wasn’t unusual to the casual observer for boats to be in the Bay at that time of the night, until they saw the flashes of rocket trails heading for the land from the boats.
Cove Point LNG Terminal was hit by four unguided rockets, determined later to have been made out of common sewer pipe. Six kilometers up the coast, Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant was hit with two unguided rockets. The ships turned to the outlet from the Bay, autopilots set, and improvised shaped charges set to blow holes into the bottoms of the boats. The four men on each boat were taken off by a speed boat and dropped at an isolated area below Patuxent River Naval Air Station, disappearing into the night.
Mike hammered out the dents in the shields of the combine and welded cracks that had formed. With a grinder, he leveled out the weld seams and got the shields ready for priming and painted John Deere green. All the major repairs had been done during the winter, so he was just doing cosmetic work. Every tractor, combine, trailer, and truck had been closely inspected to make sure they wouldn’t have any breakdowns during the harvest. Oil changes and greasing were next on the schedule. Going as far as he could for the day, Mike cleaned his hands and headed back to the house. Hanna and Annika were supposed to be packaging freeze-dried herbs today, and they were just putting away a case of them and putting away the sealer and bags they hadn’t used when he arrived home.
“How did it go?” Mike asked Hanna.
“No problems. I put together a case of various herbs together for Ben’s family. It’s in the pantry.”
“Okay, that’s good. I’m sure they’ll appreciate them,” Mike replied. “He’s coming over Saturday to go duck hunting so I can give them to him then. What’s for supper?”
“Smoked sausage and sauerkraut. Would you like corn bread with that?”
“Yeah, that sounds good,” Mike replied.
Mike went to take a shower and put on some more comfortable clothes. Afterward, he opened a cold bottle of mead, poured it into a pewter mug, and went to check the servers. He noticed a secure message was waiting from Taylor, so he pulled it up and read what it had to say. It was just an intelligence report with facts, as they knew them, about the rocket attacks and warning there might be other attacks from other terror cells in the future. Interesting, but there wasn’t much terrorists could screw up around this area. Nothing of any strategic importance anyway. He watched the computer news feed to see if he could possibly spot a trend that would indicate the next target of America’s invaders. The four men had never met before but had trained at the same training bases in Lebanon and Iran. They had all become normal citizens and had waited. When they received the signal, they gathered at the rendezvous and got the equipment from the storage unit. The team numbered four because of the weight and the necessity to carry it to the positions and get away as quickly as they could. They only carried a half dozen rounds but it would be enough to carry out the mission.
The Bahr-23 sniper rifle was exactly the same they had fired in training so many months ago. Instead of the standard tripod, this one used a special bipod that would take the recoil of the 23mm round. Designed for airfield suppression missions, the 62-kilogram system would take out the wind generators with no problem from several thousand feet away.
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Post by feralferret on Oct 21, 2023 1:46:56 GMT -6
Oh boy! Fried wind turbines coming up. Just puncture the gearbox full of oil and cause an arc. Instant torch.
Ncsfsgm, thanks!
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Post by gipsy on Oct 21, 2023 15:17:10 GMT -6
Fine update thanks
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Post by ncsfsgm on Oct 25, 2023 20:15:00 GMT -6
Chapter 49
Mike listened to the news as he sipped on a cup of coffee. Four of those wind turbines over near Bloomfield were out of commission. Their being down hardly made the lights blink. However, what really raised his concern was hearing the substation for the farm had had bullets fired into the transformers. Mike knew those transformers were hard to replace, not that the wind turbines weren’t. The costs would somehow fall into the laps of the taxpayers one way or another. Another thing that concerned him was initial reports said the turbines were hit with special large-caliber bullets used for destruction of light armored vehicles and aircraft. The bullets exploded and destroyed the controller and damaged the main shaft bearing, throwing the slow and high-speed shafts out of alignment, causing the turbine to overheat and catch fire. They had one witness explaining how the nacelle caught fire and eventually the tubular steel tower weakened, and the top portion just folded over.
To Mike, it seemed like an inefficient way of destroying infrastructure, but, then again, maybe it was a test run and they were just on a learning phase.
Mike finished making Hanna’s Red River hot cereal, about the only thing she could eat at this time of day. Her morning sickness had been tamed a little, but the cereal seemed to help the most. It seemed to energize her for the rest of the day. She stayed out of the kitchen while he fixed his ham, sausage, or bacon. It meant that he got up a little earlier to cook his breakfast and get the smells out of the kitchen. Thank goodness she was all right the rest of the day.
Hanna walked in just as he was finishing making the dry toast. She got out a bowl and spooned the porridge into her bowl and exclaimed, “Oh good! You put blueberries in!”
The tree came crashing down, and Paul and Eduardo began trimming the limbs off and stacking the limbs for further processing. Getting the tractor, Paul used the claw and picked up the trunk of the tree so Eduardo could place the dolly under it. After dragging the log out far enough to get the other dolly in place, Paul moved the tractor around and lifted the other end up for Eduardo. While Paul went to take the log to the sawmill, Eduardo cleared the underbrush away from the next tree.
When Paul returned, they went ahead and cut down the last two trees before moving the logs back to the sawmill. They would let the logs sit for a couple of days before they started milling, and took the tractor and trailer back and began cutting up limbs for firewood and kindling. Once that was done they would chip up the debris for use around the farms. Mary and Cynthia liked to use the chips for mulch in their flower beds also.
Paul was pretty confident they could continue with wood gathering. The crops were doing great in the greenhouses, their freezers were full of meat and vegetables, thanks to Jeremy they were flush on weapons and ammo, they were up on fuel, so they were sitting pretty good if things went haywire.
When the last of the cut underbrush and tree limbs had been chipped up, Paul and Eduardo began cutting the logs into lumber. José took care of the slabs, pulling them away from the saw and cutting them into lengths to make kindling. The three worked until 1130 then went to Paul’s house for lunch. Carmelita had opened a 1/2-gallon jar of beef stew and had baked fresh bread, a meal that would stick to your ribs. All she had to do was add a little thickener and some spices to the stew and it was ready to go in no time.
Mike spread the manure on the corn patch to let it leach into the soil, then spread a little wheat straw to keep the soil moist. They would get more rain before planting time and the straw would help maintain the moisture content when it was turned under. More straw mulch once the plants sprouted would help keep the weeds out. Mike was going to plant acorn squash in the upper field along with the corn, while at the garden space down at the old homestead he’d plant popcorn and musk melons this year. Hanna had bought several different kinds of melons, and they tried freeze drying each variety, and musk melons tasted the best after freeze drying. Melon chips were a pleasant change from popcorn as a snack during movie nights.
There had been no more damage to the windmills after the first try. Mike suspected they were testing and looking for a way to get the greatest damage with the least effort, which he was partially right. DHS had identified some of the terrorist cells and were drawing close to the other suspects.
Mike had run the numbers, and he and Didrik gone in together and had three more silos put in to store almost half of their harvest. They could hold off selling it until the prices quit fluctuating after harvest and get a little more per bushel. Unless the crop was damaged by bad weather, they should have a good harvest this year also.
When there were no intelligence bulletins to send out, Taylor at the Net Control Station began sending out How-Tos on subsistence farming. The latest one had been about growing potatoes in towers and even plastic laundry baskets. Mike was going to give it a try this year. They grew most of their vegetables, and Annika and Didrik were putting in a 40-foot greenhouse. If it got down to the nitty-gritty they might have to skimp on meat once in a while, but they wouldn’t starve, and have enough to put away for the winter.
Eduardo took four more pallets of firewood up to the greenhouses and sat them under the boiler shelters. Mateo kept the greenhouses at a constant 76 degrees, and it really didn’t take that much wood to do it. The fish tanks acted like heat sinks and kept the temperatures at a constant level. Mateo and Paul felt confident the setup they had would feed their group and then some.
Paul had an inexplicable feeling that they weren’t at the critical point yet. They had crooked politicians, rigged elections, terrorists, erupting volcanoes, and earthquakes, but the feeling was there that another level hadn’t peaked yet, just wouldn’t go away. The men on Crooked Creek discussed it often, but all they could do was plan and prepare for what they could and hope the next calamity was above the local level at the worse. The politicians continued to ignore the pleas of the people to rectify the election process, a symptom of their conceding to the power base of the elite. They didn't care because they didn't have to. Anything that could implicate them in the fraudulent elections and other corruption of the system in Washington was discarded by those same elites. This is the same with the immigration laws, laws against theft, rape, and murder, even under local governments in the big cities, especially Democrat controlled ones. That didn’t matter because “We the People” did not live in a constitutional republic anymore. Our rights have been overtaken by their system of graft and clout, of power and prestige. As Paul had heard on a western one time, “There’s some people that just need killin’.” It hadn’t gotten to that level in Johnson County, but the movement was spreading farther each election.
Equipment maintenance was caught up for the winter, so Mike worked in the server room. The satellite link was weak, so Mike installed an alignment app on his phone, got a couple of wrenches and Loctite and went outside. The storms this winter had pushed the dish out of alignment, so Mike loosened the nuts, aligned the dish using the app on his phone, and dripped Loctite on the threads before tightening everything down. Mike went back inside and ran a speed test, and he was getting a great signal. Curious, Mike pulled up a search app and searched for “Potato tower” and browsed the results. He picked out a design that made sense to him and printed out the instructions. He had some scrap lumber he could put a couple together with. Placing the instructions in document protectors, Mike put on his coat and went to the shop. He spent the rest of the afternoon measuring, cutting, and building the potato towers.
Mike was kneeling, placing potting soil into the bottom of a tower, preparing to plant the seed potatoes when he felt the shaking. It took him a second to recognize the tremor for what it was and carefully stood up. The tremor lasted just about ten seconds then stopped. Mike left everything to go check on Hanna when she hurried out the door looking for him.
“What was that?!” Hanna shouted, looking to the south.
“Just an earth tremor, Honey. We’ve experienced them before.
“Oh God! I’m sorry, but with all the years with Omaha being a nuclear target, it all flashed back.” Hanna said.
“Well, let’s go inside and let’s see where the epicenter was,” Mike said.
Mike got on the computer and went to the USGS website and found the epicenter for the 3.6m tremor was at Wausa, Nebraska, about 108 kilometers to the northwest of them and 98 kilometers west of Sioux City.
“I imagine that gave people in Sioux City a fright.” Hanna said.
“Probably so,” Mike said.
Hanna went back to making supper and Mike went back to finish planting the towers. He moistened the soil a bit, checked the temperature, then went out and added more wood to the outside furnace. He stacked the tower boards that would be added to the sides of the tower as the plants grew and cleaned up a bit around the greenhouses. Going inside, he washed up and changed out of his boots.
“How are you feeling?” Mike asked Hanna.
“I’m feeling fine. I hardly had any nausea this morning.” Hanna replied.
“Good, I’ll fry some hog sausage in the morning and see how you are doing.” Mike said, smiling.
“You ass! I said I hardly had any nausea, not that it was completely gone.”
“What about fried liver pudding?” Mike asked.
“I might could handle that,” Hanna replied. “But use shortening instead of lard.”
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Post by gipsy on Oct 25, 2023 21:32:46 GMT -6
Thanks for the update.
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Post by feralferret on Oct 25, 2023 21:33:43 GMT -6
Another fine chapter, ncsfsgm. Thank you.
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Post by ydderf on Nov 8, 2023 9:36:40 GMT -6
Nice update thanks
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Post by ncsfsgm on Nov 9, 2023 9:35:42 GMT -6
Chapter 50
Mike went in and put water on to boil for tea and had Hanna sit down in the family room in her recliner.
He got an automated message on his phone, notifying him there was a Type Gray message from the NCS on the server. Mike went downstairs and quickly scanned the message. Type Gray was a level below a Routine message but was considered information the recipients should have. It was instructions on building emergency earthquake kits for home and auto. Mike printed it out and left it in the printer tray, then went back upstairs.
Mike put a Chamomile tea bag in a mug on the tray and laid a napkin, teaspoon, tea bag squeezer, and a small bottle of honey on the side. When the kettle began whistling, Mike filled the mug and carried the tray to Hanna.
Mike walked around the inside of the domes and checked the earthquake straps on the taller pieces of furniture. Although not intended for that; Mike had been planning for shocks from a nuclear explosion, it was all the same. He hadn’t expected any cracks and leaking pipes but checked for them anyway. He went outside and checked around the domes and the pad. It looked as though a pile of steel from the tower remains might have shifted, but he didn’t find any damage. There were no cracks in the pad, so he went back inside. Hanna had finished her tea and was napping in her chair. Mike picked up the tray and returned it to the kitchen. He had no idea what Hanna had planned for supper, so he got out a couple of pieces of pork loin and went out to gather the makings of a salad from the greenhouses. Fried pork sandwiches and salad would fill them.
Roberto and Mateo started two more towers of red potatoes. Two towers were ready to harvest so Mateo decided to get two more towers ready. He was on schedule to do three harvests a year.
John pulled up towing a cargo trailer, and Paul and Eduardo helped him unload the medical supplies. When John ordered supplies for his clinic, he would split them in thirds; one third to be kept at his house, one third went to the clinic, and one third to Paul’s. John kept a minimum of narcotics at the clinic, and they were in a walk-in medical supply vault.
The next morning Mike was awakened by a 1.9m tremor that originated 8.2 kilometers from Charleston, Missouri. For the next week they didn’t get any more tremors except once when Mike felt the concrete vibrating for a few seconds, the pad was acting as a receiver for the vibrations. Ducks down in the swales took off as one unit and stayed restless for a while. Then things were peaceful for a while and quakes were just an afterthought but stayed on Mike’s list of things to prepare for.
Mike and Didrik killed enough ducks to last them until the next season. They each had gotten a deer in the last days of the season and had begun stocking up on beef, pork, and chickens for the next six months. Another year had arrived, and the future was as uncertain as it had been the year before. There was unrest in the hotspots around the world. Sand-pounders stirring up trouble again and reputably might have cells established in the country. Cultural Marxism was running rampant in the U.S., Riots about gender dysphoria, racial and economic justice, Black Lives Splatter, etc. Nothing had touched them out there in the middle of Burt County and for that, they were grateful, but like a wildfire, trouble could be sparked by any malcontent for the littlest of things. Mike figured they needed to keep their eyes and ears open and their powder dry.
Paul and Eduardo had begun their Spring wood cutting right after the corn and sorghum fields were plowed after the last frost, or they hoped it was the last frost. They waited a few days after plowing before planting the sorghum, but they were on schedule with the rest of the planters. In total, they would have ten acres of sorghum planted.
Paul squeezed out every usable bit of lumber from the logs he could. They milled dimensional lumber first, then made stakes used for tying up tomatoes or surveying. A local garden center bought all they could get, bundled, of course. The slabs went into a lot of firewood or at the very least, wood chips, which were used to augment the soil, firing the outdoor boilers, or used in landscaping. Once they had filled their log storage area at the sawmill, they began laying out logs in the field across from the airstrip.
Except for the corn planting, Mateo and Roberto, his son, took care of all the planting and work in the greenhouses. They kept a steady stream of fruits and vegetables coming out of the structures. Liz Carpenter had developed a line of smoothies at the diner that even the old timers enjoyed after their coffee. Some of the regulars at the music hall found the smoothies were especially good with a couple of ounces of moonshine added to them.
Jeremy arrived back in the Twin Otter with a load of HK416s with more 5.56 ammunition. Paul had forewarning so he was ready to move the guns and ammo.
“Where in the hell did you get these?” Paul asked.
“Found them headed to the IRS. I decided they wouldn’t be very useful to accountants, so we relieved them of their future tools for better purposes.” Jeremy replied.
They stacked the weapons crates to the side and added the 5.56 ammo to the inventory.
“There are 38 HK416s. I want you to hold 25 of them for later issue and the rest, give one each to our friends around the lake.” Jeremy said. “Are you expecting something?” Paul asked.
”Not necessarily, it’s part of preparing, you know, just in case.” Jeremy replied.
From an alert given to him over the radio, the gunner assumed an 18 degree launch profile for a top attack, centered the sights on the limo as it came into view, and launched the missile. No one even observed the propellant ignite. The gunner sprayed the CLU, wiped it down and left the CLU in place to be found by investigators. The missile launch unit would later be identified by the serial number as having been sold to the government of India. The next day the identifying and selection of a new head of the Department of Interior would begin. A communique was also distributed explaining why he had been removed from government service. The team knew something was up, so they tightened surveillance. Augmentation was called in when they understood what the game plan was. The cell they were surveilling consisted of six personnel, three men and three women that would break up into two-person activity units. The surveillance teams knew they were going to hit targets that would affect the electrical grid and would have to be taken out before they did any damage. As the terrorist cells deployed, auxiliary support teams deployed to the areas to search out means to dispose of the bodies of the terrorists. The most common method of “disappearing” a body was through hog farms, or feral pigs. Feral pigs were the best option, but some areas weren’t as overrun as others. They did have “friends” that commercially raised swine and kept a couple of dozen pigs aside to serve as disposal units. These pigs were never sold to pack houses. They also policed up any bone and hair remnants and disposed of them. Once the cells had been eliminated, the teams returned to their stations and the searchers continued to do their jobs.
Federal and state investigators were going nuts trying to come up with clues to the recent murders of two people, a male and a female, who were found near the Hudson Valley Switch station with crossbow quarrels through their backs and their throats cut. Investigators had found plenty of evidence, but it led nowhere. Hair samples collected had apparently come from ten different men and was later determined to have come from the dumpster of a barbershop outside Fort Drum, New York. Investigators seem to be taking two steps forward and three steps back.
The quarrels had actually been manufactured from arrows for sale in sporting goods stores. The arrows were remanufactured so there were fingerprints for several people who had inspected the arrows prior to purchase. Purchases of the arrows were from stores all over the United States. They had one man who made the quarrels, who resided in Iowa.
The two bodies were the only ones found from the three teams deployed from the terrorist cell. The next morning, the terrorist’s safe house was blown up in a gas leak in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania.
The Operations Section began planning to take out the next cell that Homeland Security had no idea even existed.
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Post by gipsy on Nov 9, 2023 10:03:02 GMT -6
Right as rain. Thanks for the update.
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Post by rep1270 on Nov 9, 2023 10:50:00 GMT -6
Thank you for the great story. Ralph
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Post by feralferret on Nov 9, 2023 12:02:33 GMT -6
Ncsfsgm, thank you.
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Post by ncsfsgm on Nov 22, 2023 18:29:21 GMT -6
Chapter 51
After planting the corn, beans and squash, Paul helped out in the greenhouses helping plant new tomato plants. They usually got around five months out of a plant then they were removed, shredded up and added to the compost pile. By Mateo’s schedule, it was time to remove the older plants in order to keep twenty-five plants producing at all times. Paul brought the mulcher trailer he had built, a dump trailer with a 5-hp leaf mulcher on a tongue platform. They hauled the plants out, dumped them into the hopper and the mulcher spit them out into the trailer.
Over time, more unease erupted. It went from Antifa to BLM to Marxism to the beginning stages of Communism. Anti-everything organizations grew on college campus at a disquieting rate. It was sad, the students were too young maturely, to be an adult, but they were too immersed in propaganda to be naive teenagers.
The balloon was twice as tall as the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. NORAD had spotted it before it entered the North American Air Defense Zone and had requested permission to shoot it down but after consultation with the Canadian Prime Minister the Resident of the United States decided to let it go. The balloon eventually was an afterthought on the news but was still being tracked.
Then people began dying.
At first, no one noticed, but the deaths caused by respiratory problems began in the northwest and worked its way through major cities in the west and Midwest of the country. An enterprising investigative reporter correlated the track of the disease and the track of the balloon across the country and filed a story. The story was quickly picked up by conservative “right-wing” media while the left-leaning publications declared it conspiracy theory and declared it a political move by far-right organizations to discredit the Resident.
The infection, caused by a virus, was much more virulent than the Covid variety and hundreds were dying each day.
Jeremy blasted out a Code Red message and Mike had been at the control panel when it came in. Quickly reading the message, Mike read it again before going to the storeroom. He grabbed two canvas grocery sacks and threw in bottles of elderberry capsules and a dozen KF94 masks into each bag and headed upstairs. After explaining to Hanna the warning message, Mike went down to the Edwinson’s and explained about the balloon and the virus. Annika and Didrik immediately took a dose of elderberry to help boost their immunity and fight against respiratory problems, and turned on the three safe room air filtration units that kept the house over pressured.
Hanna had taken a dose of elderberry, but she wasn’t too worried about the mask. Mike had fitted the house with the best of NBC filters, and she shouldn’t need the mask unless she went outside the over pressured domes.
When people began putting two and two together, the balloon was shot down over the southwest corner of South Dakota. Intelligence organizations and the CDC converged on the crash site, gathered up the debris, and took soil samples and even a couple of cows to run tests on. Of course, the news spread like wildfire and calls for the Resident’s impeachment flourished. Mike thought a few people in the Pentagon should be gathered in the courtyard and shot for incompetence. Things basically returned to normal, but Mike kept his eyes and ears open to all the news coming out. He ordered more medical supplies; baby formula and what baby items Hanna asked him for, and of course more LTS foods,. They traveled little, having been pretty stocked up, and when he went out to any populated area, Mike always showered in the garage bath antiseptic/antimicrobial liquid soap before going into the main area of the domes.
At their get together on Saturday, John briefed everyone on what to look out for as far as the virus going around. He encouraged them to take the immune boosting supplements he had given out and to report anything, including a cold anyone got.. So far, he had not encountered the virus in any of his patients, but everyone was susceptible if they had contact with large amounts of people. Angel began carrying the over-the-counter immune supplements in the store along with K95 masks and hand sanitizer and had the crew in the café checked by John. Liz Carpenter made sure her work crew were practicing elevated levels of cleanliness and each table was cleared and sprayed down with disinfectant before the next customer took a seat.
Paul had the airfield extended out to the range in order to enable medium cargo aircraft to land and take off. It was nearing the time to get their yearly wheat shipment from Jeremy’s contact in Nebraska and they could get a cheaper price if they returned the empty barrels from the year before and picked up their order while they were there. Paul and Eduardo had been cleaning and drying each barrel as it was emptied, so they were ahead of the game on that. Jeremy bought his wheat from the same supplier, so he could just stop at Crooked Creek, load their empty barrels and be back the same day.
Jeremy had bought the restored C-117D at a bankruptcy auction and his first trip of the year had been up to see Mike to negotiate a grain deal. They finally agreed that if the barrels were returned and filled barrels were delivered to Sioux Gateway, they could have the grain at a set price, which was cheaper than the price they normally paid and the shipping. Jeremy let Paul know of the takeoff and landing specs and Paul had his airfield modified.
Roberto took the last slab over to the chop saw and cut it up into firewood and laid it on one of the modified mill carts. The mill carts originally had iron wheels that didn’t roll very well in the dirt, so Paul had replaced them with solid wheelbarrow tires. Now, one person could easily roll it to the long woodshed they had built. They were rapidly closing on the 14 cords of firewood Paul liked to have on hand. The Forest Ranger had marked trees in the national forest they cold harvest along with the deadfall, and they would have more than enough wood for the next winter unless the ice age crept back onto them.
Jeremy, a co-pilot, and a crew chief flew in to test the runway. Originally a Navy R4D, the engines had been replaced with turbo engines and required a 900-foot runway to take off and 1600 feet for landing with a 28,000-pound load. The plane touched down at the threshold and came to a stop well within the specifications, even though the plane was empty. Jeremy saw no problem with landing with a cargo of wheat. Jeremy asked permission to use the field when they had a full load to test the plane and Paul had no problem with it.
Pharmaceutical companies quickly came out with vaccines for the new virus, but a majority of people were reluctant to get the vaccine after the lies and disastrous results of the COVID campaign. Town and city leaders were reluctant to delve again into vaccine passports, mandatory closures, and other mandates. Eduardo’s and Mateo’s kids were saying there wasn’t any unusual number of students missing from school due to sickness, but they all did wear masks if they wanted.
Mike finished work in the server room and went upstairs. Hanna wasn’t feeling well so he decided to just have a salad. Mike went out to the greenhouses and put together a salad for her. Once he got everything gathered, He took the fixings into the kitchen and turned the oven on. Slicing bread slices from the oldest loaf, he cut the slices into cubes to make croutons. Drizzling garlic-infused light olive oil over the cubes, he placed them in the oven to toast. Washing the vegetables and spinning them in the salad spinner, Mike cut up cherry tomatoes and fried bacon for the salad. Taking a pint jar, Mike measured out light olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, honey and pressed three cloves of garlic into the jar. Adding a little salt and pepper, put the lid on and shook the jar until the dressing was a creamy color. Mike put the BLT salad together in a salad bowl, sprinkled the croutons and toasted almonds over the salad, put the salad and a cup of tea on a tray and took it into the family room where Hanna was watching the news.
“What’s going on?” Mike asked.
“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.”
“Same as usual then?” Mike asked as he sat the tray on Hanna’s lap.
“Thank you so much sweetheart. What are you going to have?”
“Mike’s South Sea Mix.” Mike replied, grinning.
“Thank God you made me this salad then!” Hanna replied.
Mike went back to the kitchen and got a can of smoke flavored SPAM, diced it up and fried it in a pan. He started a package of par-boiled rice and opened a can of pineapple chunks. Once the Spam was browned, he added two tables of minced garlic, a package of frozen mixed vegetables, and some light olive oil. When the rice was done, he dumped it into the frying pan and splashed some soy sauce into the pan. He kept mixing it and adding soy sauce until the rice was the color he wanted, then added the pineapple chunks. Placing his meal on a tray, Mike grabbed a beer and joined his wife in the family room, far enough away she couldn’t smell what he was eating. When they had finished their meal and the news was over, Mike took the trays back to the kitchen and washed the dishes while Hanna watched one of those music reality shows. He made her another cup of tea and made himself a stiff drink.
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Post by gipsy on Nov 22, 2023 19:30:38 GMT -6
Fine update. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving
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Post by imahic on Nov 22, 2023 21:12:09 GMT -6
Thanks for the update.
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Post by feralferret on Nov 22, 2023 23:22:55 GMT -6
Ncsfsgm, thanks!
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Post by prepguy on Dec 2, 2023 21:59:37 GMT -6
This is a really good story
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Post by ncsfsgm on Dec 4, 2023 12:18:54 GMT -6
Chapter 52
Mateo and Roberto were removing the carrots and radishes from the foot-deep and shallower trays and placing them into perforated produce bins, while Paul was refilling the main water holding tanks for the greenhouses. It was too much work to bury water pipes and would require a bigger pump to move water from the creek to the greenhouse tanks. They would have had to entrench and lay almost 800 feet of pipe. Instead, Paul purchased a used 1,000-gallon water trailer and now used a solar jack pump to fill the trailer from the creek, move the trailer to the greenhouse and refill the tanks. They only had to do this a couple of times a month to keep fresh water for the greenhouses and it took little time. They could park the trailer and a float valve would shut the pump off when the trailer was full. Paul was watching this spring’s weather patterns develop and was getting concerned. One of the more accurate weather prognosticators was calling for a warmer spring along with cooler air being moved by the northern jet stream, making tornadoes more likely at times, and heavy rains through the mid-west to the Appalachians. Something to do with El Niños and La Niñas. They had nothing to worry about as far as flooding, except for the ford egress route on the creek, and everyone had shelters or safe rooms to get into in case of a tornado. March had come in with higher-than-normal temperatures, which hadn’t hurt them any, but they were preparing to irrigate their fields if necessary. At worst case, they could use the water trailer with multiple manifolds to irrigate. Paul was already checking sales ads for another used tank trailer.
During their normal Saturday afternoon burger burn, the adults sat down and voiced their concerns about things they observed. Paul started off with his limited information about possible weather problems and John brought up the rear with medical concerns and information. John was concerned with the possibility of more than normal rainfall, mosquitos could breed more easily, bringing in more mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika virus, West Nile virus, Chikungunya virus, dengue, and malaria that were showing up because of the open border policies. He was going to have on hand the correct medicines to treat the diseases and Paul was going to order more insect repellant. And Mary volunteered to research natural bug repellents.
Mike was also watching the weather because they were due to start harvest is a few weeks. Of course, expecting the weather forecasters to be able to predict the weather that far in advance was useless. They just hoped for the best and prepared for the worst. Tomorrow, Hanna had an appointment at the Oakland Mercy Hospital for a wellness appointment. So far, they had found no problems, so this was just a normal checkup. They were in the GP’s office for about 30 minutes then headed north on 77 to Sioux City to do some shopping. Most of their shopping was for things to fill in stockage they had used from their supplies. They needed brown sugar and raisins they used a lot of with their oatmeal. Hanna had figured pretty close on how much of the latter two items they needed for the oatmeal they often made for breakfast. They had just received 100-lbs of Augason Farms Quick Rolled Oats, so they needed to have the other ingredients. Hanna and Annika also needed around 100-lbs of butter and four cases of pork loins. Mike and Hanna had gone over the inventory spreadsheet the night before and checked against the rotation dates to make their shopping list. He didn’t think he needed it but took the cargo trailer anyway. Hanna was still collecting baby things they had more than a surplus of. She haunted consignment shops looking for baby clothes.
They went to a case lots store and picked up those items first. A nearby consignment store caught Hanna’s eye, so they had to stop there next. At Sam’s they picked up four more cases of toilet paper, a case of frozen orange juice concentrate, big containers of Tang and Gatorade powders, and more cans of coffee in metal cans. It wasn’t a brand of coffee Mike particularly cared for, but it stored for a long time. A flash thought went through Mike’s mind, and he tucked it away for later. They finished their shopping day by picking up the butter and cases of pork loins before heading back to Snail Mountain.
Once Mike had the truck and trailer parked in the garage, he sent Hanna in and began unloading their purchases. When he got to the coffee, his previous thought was remembered, and he was determined to check on it. When he finished unloading and storing, Mike went to the server room and checked the control panel. Seeing no problems, he switched to a search engine and looked for can seamers and a source for #10 cans and lids. He could have the coffee blend he liked ground and seal the cans himself after adding oxygen absorbers.
Mateo doubled the amount of lettuce he normally planted. It was coming up on spring and the people were naturally craving more green vegetables. He’d had a good crop of tomatoes, onions, and radishes and they were eaten almost as fast as he could harvest them. Soon they would be planting squash, beans, and melons in the open fields with the sweet corn. There were calls for more musk melons this year because they could be freeze-dried and eaten over the winter as snacks. Melon chips were as popular as popcorn. The melon chips they had dried the year before were eaten before the winter was over. Mateo was perfecting his planting schedules, so he had salad vegetables being harvested at the same times.
Paul and Eduardo were back to milling timber. One-third of what they milled was set aside to paint with pine tar oil to help preserve it. Paul had found a 55-gallon drum of "Dark" Pine Tar at a salvage company and by adding linseed oil would preserve almost as effectively as pressure treating.
Back at Shaner’s General Store, Lois Ann Chalmers, a temp worker that Angel brought in was working the register. She noticed the car pull up to the pumps and a man walk into the store supposedly to pre-pay. The hoodie-wearing man pulled out a pistol and told Lois Ann to give him the cash from the register. Angel stepped out of the office with a Black Aces Tactical Pro Series S Mini 12 Gauge Shotgun and quickly fired two rounds, knocking him into a potato chip rack and hitting a couple of two-liter Mountain Dew bottles. Lois Ann quickly dialed 911 and asked for a Deputy and an ambulance. Angel slid the gun away from another of society’s “victims” with her foot and loaded two more shells into the shotgun. The Deputy soon arrived, followed by the ambulance a few minutes later, but it was too late, the “victim” having bled out with two #7 pellets to the jugular. Angel called Paul and he was soon there, still in coveralls peppered with sawdust. Paul gave Angel a reassuring hug and monitored what the Deputies were doing. When the CSI personnel were done and permission given to begin cleanup, Paul helped mopping up the sticky Mountain Dew and blood. By 11:00 that night, everything was cleaned up and back in place. Don used toothpaste and touch-up paint to fill in the pellet holes in the door frame. When Angel was satisfied that everything was as it should be, she sprayed two cans of Lysol spray in the store before they headed back home.
“Paul, do you think I need a different gun in the store?” Angel asked. “That mini holds only three rounds.”
“You only have to get the first shot right and you don’t have to fire two.” Paul said. “After reviewing the security tape, your second shot wasn’t really needed and wasted some good Mountain Dew. Not that you did anything wrong, but an accurate snapshot would have stopped having to take a second shot. I’ll take you and the other women to the range and practice that.”
“Okay. But I’d like another gun in the back somewhere,” Angel said.
“I can do that,” Paul said. “But with something longer than a ten-inch barrel, and we will practice with both.”
Paul and Eduardo built walls at the range that concealed different positions the target was set up in until you peeked around the sides of the walls. They had six set up when Paul ran Angel through the training first, letting her practice snapshots on stationary targets. When he moved her to the walls, she did very well quickly bringing the stock into place and shooting the target without using the ghost-ring sites. When it was Lois Ann’s turn, she had not one problem. Her father used to take her quail hunting and she had learned not to depend too much on sights but the position of the barrel. Paul ran them all through the training using both the Black Aces Tactical Pro Series S Mini with a ten-inch barrel and the Black Aces Tactical Pro S Max with a twenty-inch barrel.
Apparently, there were people out there that figured out that going up against a woman with a shotgun while carrying a cheap handgun just wasn’t worth it. They had no problems after a sign was posted on the outer door telling people to keep their hands in sight. The regular customers thought it was funny, but admitted they felt comfortable with Angel’s stance. In other parts of the state crime was getting worse and finally word began getting out about people protecting their lives and property. More and more business owners and individuals were depending on personal firearms for protection and crime began to ebb a bit.
Browsing the internet, Paul saw that Smith and Wesson had come out with a .22 Magnum pistol and went to their website to find the closest dealer. Surprisingly, there was a shop in Larmar and a Pawn Shop in Clarksville that either had them on hand or could be ordered through them. Paul went to the pawn shop, and they had one on display. Paul had quite a few bricks of ARMSCOR ammo, and he wanted to do some fun shooting. He’d tried the Kel-Tec pistol and had too many malfunctions, which reviewers online had said the same thing. The few reviews he had read about the S&W were great, so Paul decided to take a chance. As soon as Paul returned home, he grabbed his range bag, a brick of ammo, and headed to the range and set up the steel plates rack and the Steel Auto Reset and Spinner Shooting Targets, then started having fun.
Mike signed for the UPS delivery and got the hand trucks. He had two cases of powdered eggs, three cases of powdered milk, a case of cheese powder, a case of Freeze-Dried Pineapple, and a case of dried blueberries he had ordered from Augason farms. There was also a case of cedar planks for cooking that he had ordered from another company.
He set two planks in water and got out the slab of salmon they had bought about a month before out of the freezer to thaw. He would grill salmon served with a dill sauce, a pilaf, and salad for dinner. Hanna was picking through the baby clothes before washing them as he took the #10 cans out of the cases, marked the current date and stacked them on the shelves.
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Post by gipsy on Dec 4, 2023 14:06:15 GMT -6
Thanks. Fine update. Did you know the number of self defense incidents is over 1,000,000.
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Post by feralferret on Dec 4, 2023 21:51:05 GMT -6
Another fine chapter! Thank you.
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Post by ncsfsgm on Dec 26, 2023 14:46:27 GMT -6
Chapter 53
Mike had the procedure down for filling the grain barrels and the amount of Diatomaceous earth and oxygen absorbers needed in each barrel. Pilots for Jeremy had already delivered the empty barrels, so they were ready to fill. For the first part of the harvest, he filled the barrels and Hanna sat on a stool and tossed oxygen absorbers into the barrel, Mike filled the barrel with grain, then Hanna sprinkled a cup of diatomaceous earth over the top of the grain. The grain had been at a perfect moisture content so they could load straight from the truck. When a barrel was filled, Mike used a homemade torqueing wrench and tightened the screw-on lids down. Hanna went back to the house while Mike tied down the barrels on pallets and loaded them onto the flatbed trailer. Mike would fill his and Didrik’s grain barrels later. He got in his truck and went down to the field Didrik was currently harvesting, climbed into the combine and fell in line with the other three combines. Meanwhile, Hanna was going through the greenhouses picking tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, onions, and cucumbers.
It was Fish Friday. Mateo harvested the Tilapia when they were of size, cleaned and froze them until they had enough for a Crooked Creek fish fry. Cynthia and Mary collaborated to come up with a different delicious dessert every time. This time they came up with something that took them days to prepare to have enough to serve everyone.
Mary had had Pavlova before. The light and airy dessert of a baked meringue base, could be made ahead of time, stored in dry, airtight containers and when ready to serve, topped with Chantilly cream and fresh fruit. It was an instant hit served with fresh strawberries from the greenhouse.
Paul thought they were in pretty good condition. The plane had dropped off the barrels of wheat and they had plenty of food stored for anything that could happen. They had plenty of weapons and ammo set by to cover a great deal of contingencies, and the local community security people often met to train and talk over any problems they could foresee.
Mike and Didrik finished harvesting the last 700 acres of wheat and 200 acres of barley they had planted. Most of the barley was going to Kentucky. Didrik kept some for himself to brew his own spirits. Mike figured much of what they had harvested was going to food or spirits. The gradual maintenance program began on the equipment and needed parts ordered. Most days, when Mike returned home, Hanna was either floating in the pool or had just gotten out. The baby was causing her a lot of lower back pains. He picked up more house chores and cooking, which he didn’t mind. When the ducks and geese began migrating, Mike and Didrik went hunting at least one day a week, sometimes two. Sometimes they were joined by a few men from the reservation. The swales were attracting more fowl than places near the river, probably because of the wild rice and because they always left a strip of grain next to the swales. As soon as the harvest was over, ground-level hunting blinds were emplaced for the coming hunting season.
Ben even came down a couple of days with hunters in a tribal transit bus from the Omaha Reservation. If someone didn’t get their quota for the day, it was only because they quit shooting.
While Eduardo was painting pine tar oil on some of the wood they had milled, Paul was helping out in the greenhouse. The harvested potatoes had dried long enough on the screen, so Paul was rubbing the last of the soil off the Russet potatoes with gloved hands and grading them by size into split white oak ½ bushel baskets before bagging them in burlap sacks. The smaller Russets were used for making hash browns and frozen. Roberto was cutting up the seed potatoes and Mateo was re-planting the potato towers.
They had six each towers of Russet, red or Yukon, and sweet potatoes. Last fall’s harvests had been a bumper crop of foods they had planted in the outside gardens. Corn, beans, melons, and winter squash were harvested, and they planned on doubling their planting this year after Paul had gone over the usage amounts. Except for grain, they weren’t buying many bulk food products now except seasonal fruits at the farmer’s market. They got plums, peaches, and an heirloom apple variety out of their orchard but not enough for everyone to get as much as they wanted. Even adults needed something sweet at times.
Celery and carrots were almost ready to harvest from the greenhouses, and boxes were built from their treated lumber to store the vegetables in the cellars. Celery and carrots could be stored in damp sand and would last up to four months. The good bit of the celery was blanched, and they froze some of it, and freeze-dried another part of it. It was a great addition to soups, and of course cornbread dressing at Thanksgiving.
Everyone had plenty of beef and pork put away also. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t like the kielbasa or beef sausages Paul made and smoked, so he was always in demand for making that. He made quarterly trips to Rogers And Little Rock to Cabela’s and Bass Pro shops getting sausage seasoning kits. Paul’s Chorizo, Polish sausage, and beer salami were always in demand.
One day Angel came home with a bottle of cane syrup and had Paul try it. Paul thought it was good and Angel said she could get a truckload of bottles and cans whenever they needed it. Steeds Mill had a regular delivery route in the mid-west and could deliver whenever Angel needed it. Angel ordered enough to stock her store and Paul bought the rest to add to their supplies. They were still planning to cook the sorghum this fall but this would tide them over. The Steen’s syrup was made with ribbon cane and not sorghum and was a might milder.
Paul found two 55-gallon drums of Kiln Burned Pine Tar by calling around to salvage companies on the east coast. He got the barrels for $800.00 a barrel which was a bargain from the normal $2200.00 a barrel he found in California. He had to pay retail for the linseed oil he had to mix with the pine tar to make a wood preservative, but still the costs were still cheaper than commercial wood preservative and the pine tar oil was chemical free. Paul was going to use their present preserved wood stocks to build a lumber shed to store the treated wood in for easy inventory. The local forest ranger did a timber cruise with Paul and marked trees in the national forest they could harvest. There was one area a small tornado went through last fall that held some harvestable board footage, but much of it would be used as firewood. Through the summer, Paul and Eduardo would go through and gird what they needed to.
Looking ahead to the sorghum harvest, Paul ordered a Digital Brix Refractometer for each grower to test the cane to determine when it was at its highest sugar content. The growers would let Paul know and crews would be formed to strip the leaves and cut the cane to be hauled to the juicer mill. The roller mill had been repaired and firewood collected to boil the juice. They had already decided to make molasses with 2/3rds of the juice and 1/3 into sugar. More quart mason jars were bought and ready to fill. All the growers agreed to only take two to three gallons of molasses for their own use and the rest would be sold at the store to help fund next year’s operations. By Late August or early September everyone’s extra time would be in sugar and molasses production.
Liberal politicians in Little Rock were complaining that Johnson County had become an armed camp. Indeed, it had. The townships were organized and were ready to take on, with help of the other communities, any threat they would face. The Sheriff’s Department cut the amount of county patrols they ran and focused on the exits off I-40. If you exited the highway, you were more than likely going to be questioned on why you were in the area. The word got out and motorists passing through made sure they didn’t have to make any unnecessary stops anywhere in Johnson County.
The women in Crooked Creek had a plan for all their canning. Every family and house would have a full year of canned vegetables even if he had to go buy the shortages from the farmer’s market. They had a steady supply of carrots, beets, squash, tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes, celery, lettuce, melons, and various herbs coming in. What they wouldn’t be consuming for the next week fresh was canned and stored. They were also adding a percentage of their canned food to the church food bank.
So far, they even had enough to trade some items for foods others in the area canned at home. Blackberries were a favorite. The Taylor farm had tons of blackberries and they were traded all kinds of vegetables for them. The Taylors favored Paul’s venison jerky too, so that was easily traded. Paul expanded his smokehouse operation and built another smokehouse, then roofed over everything around the two side-by-side smokehouses in the fashion of an old-timey tobacco shed. Paul was going to process a couple of hogs a week to smoke hams, shoulders, chops, and once Sabrina began serving tenderloin sandwiches with hand-cut steak fries and coleslaw and smoked porkchop sandwiches, they became some of the favorite items served at the café, right up there with hot buttered biscuits and apple butter a lot of the old-timers enjoyed at breakfast. Tenderloin sandwiches were more popular in Nebraska, Iowa, and some parts of Indiana but they were catching on quickly in Johnson County and people were coming from all over to sample the food. Angel was talking to an architect about drawing up expansion plans. She could only have 50 people, by law, in the café building at a time, according to the county fire Marshall. Angel was thinking of renovating the dance hall for café seating space and building a new music hall with some improvements to be added, like more daycare space. Younger couples with small children were starting to attend on the weekends.
Paul was maintaining a optimistic attitude but kept a cautious watch on the local and national events. They might not be able to conquer a standing army quickly, but they could take care of the threats close to home.
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Post by gipsy on Dec 26, 2023 17:12:27 GMT -6
Thanks for the update.
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Post by kiwibutterfly on Dec 26, 2023 18:03:25 GMT -6
Many thanks for your great stories, keep em comin please.... Hope you had a fine Christmas and all the best for 2024.
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Post by feralferret on Dec 27, 2023 0:49:29 GMT -6
Thank you, ncsfsgm.
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