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Post by papaof2 on Oct 22, 2019 10:38:22 GMT -6
Chapter 13
Tuesday, 5 August, 7:10AM
"Good morning, sweet girl."
"Good morning, Daddy. Is it early? I'm still kinda sleepy."
"Not early. It's later than usual because you were awake…"
"The storm! Do we still have swings?"
"Huh? Swings? Uncle Jack, why are you here so early?"
"Good morning, other sweet girl. Not early, as I just told Lisa. And 'swings' because she asked about them again."
"The storm!"
"Is there an echo in here?"
"Daddy, you're silly."
"But that's what you just said, Lisa."
"I guess I did."
"Girls, you still have swings but we'll be looking for a new limb to hang them from. The lightning damage to that tree means it will have to come down."
"It'll be firewood?"
"We'll cut it to length and run some of the wood through the splitter but it's not truly firewood until it's seasoned for a number of months."
"Seasoned? Like with salt and pepper and nutmeg?"
"No, seasoned as in dried enough to actually provide useful heat when it burns."
"Dried… 'cause the wood has sap in it that's wet when you cut the tree?"
"Among other things, smart girl. There's a book on the second shelf of my bookcase that's titled 'Processing Your Own Firewood'. That book can tell you all about it. There's also a dictionary in that bookcase if you find words you don't know."
"Yes, teacher. I told you I wanted you to be my teacher and you are."
"Teach me too?"
"I enjoy teaching my smart girl and I might enjoy teaching my other smart girl."
"I like being your girl for any reason."
"Me too!"
"It's too late to cook?"
"Yes, but not too late to eat. Sarah did a bacon, eggs and hash browns breakfast casserole and I think there's enough left for couple of little girls."
"We're drinking powdered milk?"
"Or powdered orange juice or maybe hot chocolate?"
"Hot chocolate!"
"Then out of bed and…"
"Potty, wash hands, dress and go to the table."
"Have I said that before?"
"Only every morning when you wake me up."
"Are we getting into a rut?"
"If we are, I like it!"
"Then we can call it a tradition."
"What's a 'tradition'?"
"It's a dictionary word for both of you after you eat."
"Yes, teacher."
And they head off down the hall with a smile. Teaching smart kids can be fun - if you can keep up with them.
---
"Status of the barn roof, Willie?"
"Some small dents from the hail but no real damage. With the sun and light wind we have, that roof should be dry enough to work on in two or three hours."
"Then I'll take the girls to Martin Duke's place when they finish eating and we can see about a couple of horses and feed for a while. He mentioned that there were once good fields of hay and oats on this property. The oats can be used for grazing and also be harvested for the grain and silage and he said grain yields can be as high as 55 to 60 bushels per acre."
"That plus some Bermuda or alfalfa would feed two horses from a relatively small amount of acreage. I'll run the numbers on that."
"Thanks, Willie. Now to round up my girls."
---
"Martin, this is my daughter Lisa and her friend Lacey. Lacey's dad has been my universal handyman for fixing things around the house for a number of years. The girls are within a few months of each other so they decided they wanted to be 'roomies'. Sharing a room has worked so far but probably not so well when the two of them are in double digit ages. I don't know that sharing a horse would work any better, so having two horses works for them and also doubles the amount of farm work we could get done."
"How much horse-drawn equipment do you have?"
"Parts of two barns are filled with it. Most is in good condition considering its age. Wood we can repair or replace; harness we can repair if we can get leather. There's probably a machine shop that could handle the small metal work - if they have power. I'm guessing you either shoe the horses yourself or there's a farrier nearby."
"Don Atkins and I can both do shoeing and I've done some repairs on the small amount of horse-drawn equipment I have. You mentioned having had solar power in the past. I'll give you one of the horses if you can make the solar system I spent big bucks on work."
"After the girls have met the horses, I'll take a look. I do have a little test equipment with me."
"Then to the corral."
---
"That one's so pretty!"
"So's the other one!"
"Martin?"
"Both gentle mares. Both are saddle and harness trained. I grew up in Amish country and I always thought that having horses as backup farming equipment would be useful. For a while, I also made money renting 'saddle time' but that's been going away and is certainly gone with the coming of this new 'flu'. Let me get some kids' saddles out and they can ride while we lead the horses around in the corral."
"Daddy, she's so big and strong but she's so gentle! It's like she knows I haven't ridden a horse before."
"Me too, Uncle Jack!"
"Maybe they are smart horses and they do know? Should my smart girls have smart horses?"
"Yes!"
"You understand that you must help take care of the horses?"
"Un huh."
"Then we'll help you down and take the saddles off. Then you two can lead them back into the barn and Mr. Duke will show you how to do some of that care. That will take a while, so when you're comfortable with the 'doing' we'll go check his solar system while you complete your chore."
"Not a chore, Uncle Jack! We're taking care of our horses."
"Jack, if you can keep them in that frame of mind it will likely never become a 'chore'."
"I hope to do that. We have a tractor and maybe a season's worth of diesel for the limited farming we plan to do, but I'm not confident that we'll be able to replace that diesel in a few months."
"Me either. Horses just might work for you on that land, once it's been whipped into shape with the tractor."
"We'll know soon."
---
"Martin, this is a grid-tie system that someone tried to add batteries to. Their connections do provide a limited charge for the batteries so they haven't died from abuse, but this needs several changes to make it work when the power is off."
"You can fix it?"
"Yes. I'll need to do some rewiring of the charge controllers and batteries that were added and connect the inverter that's mounted on the wall but not wired. I have some #4 and #10 wire at home. We'll be putting rails and solar panels on our barn roof when I get back. When the wiring for those is finished, I can bring tools and equipment and another body or two for moving some of the batteries around and doing the rewiring."
"You want to take the horses today? The trailer can handle two horses and quite a bit of tack and feed."
"Let's plan on tomorrow. I'm not certain there's enough space for two horses in the barn so we need to sort through and move things before we get them."
"Good planning and I'll see you tomorrow. Bring the girls if they want to spend more time with the horses. My wife Betty will be here and she'd love to have two new students."
"Mid afternoon good for you?"
"We'll be here all day. I'll go help you shoo the kids out of the barn."
"You've done this before."
"Many times. Girls and horses are like the north and south poles of magnets - they always attract each other."
---
"Really? Tomorrow? We'll have them tomorrow?"
"Yes, Lisa. Tomorrow. A couple of hours after lunch. We have work at home that needs to be finished. Now, do you want to go home or go with me to the hardware store to pick up our order of supplies for growing things we need?"
"With you, Daddy!"
"Me too, Uncle Jack!"
"Buckle up. Remember that the truck will ride differently with a trailer behind it and there will be new noises coming from behind us."
"Noises?"
"An empty trailer will shake and rattle as it rolls along."
"I've heard 'shake and rattle' before."
"Me too, Lisa. Daddy sings a song sometimes with 'shake, rattle and roll' in it. Is it about trucks and trailers, Uncle Jack?"
"No, Lacey. You should ask him to explain that song to both of you when we get home."
"OK."
---
"You have a boyfriend, Lisa?"
"No…"
"But he ran up and hugged you!"
"Lacey, I was with Daddy and Uncle Willie when Tyler wrecked his ATV and I held his hand while they got it off of him and then I helped Daddy with the splint for his arm."
"So he's saying 'Thank you' with a hug?"
"And hoping she'll bake some more of those yummy brownies!"
"We gotta ask about that, too."
"I think that trailer will hold it all, Jack, but it'll be heavy."
"The hitch is rated for 10,000lbs and this trailer for 8500. I may be in four wheel drive much of the way home because of the rain."
"That load's about 5300lbs so you're fine. I just see so many people who don't understand how much some of these things weigh and they back in a 1750lb rated trailer for a 5000lb load. Not just the rain in some places. There were tornadoes that downed trees and took out miles of the high voltage lines that provide power to most of the county. Current guess is three to four weeks to fix that."
"I hadn't heard that, Don. You OK without power?"
"Thanks to the modern miracle of inverter generators, we can have limited power for a long time with the amount of treated fuel we have stored, both here at the store and at home. Not so much for a lot of folks so we could start seeing more thieving that usual. Being hot, hungry and thirsty can make a person do stupid things."
"I understand. We've been on generator since we moved in and we're living in half of one floor of that big house because we're only running the one central air unit. When we get all the solar installed, we may be able to run that much A/C on solar during the sunniest part of the day and have enough battery capacity to run it overnight, but just one night. We'll be working that out as we go."
"Do we cool the house, cool the food or pump water?"
"Exactly."
"Cash, check or plastic, Jack?"
"Check if you think the bank will eventually be open. Otherwise cash. Without power in most of the county, I don't think plastic will work."
"Instant verification won't be working, but out here they still let me use the carboned receipt forms for my manual embosser - at least for the cards that still have the number embossed on them. From you, a check is fine. You'll make it good one way or another. It's not like I have a way to buy more stock for the store this week. Here's the receipt with the total."
"Pretty good discount you gave me."
"Pretty good neighbors to find my grandson within a minute or two of him flipping that ATV."
"Thanks, Don."
"You too, Jack."
"Girls, time to go."
"Coming, Daddy. Bye, Tyler."
"Bye, Lisa."
"Bye, Tyler."
"Bye, Lacey."
"You're mighty quiet, boy."
"Just thinking about how nice Lisa is, Gramps. She never said that I'd done a dumb thing running off on the trike."
"But you know she was thinking that?"
"Un huh. I won't do it again but she doesn't know it - but she still treated me like I was OK. Better than all the aunts."
"Those ladies do tend to go on and on at times."
"Will they ever stop?"
"When one of your cousins does something similar or worse. Then he'll be the one they talk about and to."
"So I gotta put up with it until then?"
"You do the crime; you do the time."
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Post by texican on Oct 22, 2019 22:04:56 GMT -6
"Un huh. I won't do it again but she doesn't know it - but she still treated me like I was OK. Better than all the aunts."
"Those ladies do tend to go on and on at times."
"Will they ever stop?"
"When one of your cousins does something similar or worse. Then he'll be the one they talk about and to."
"So I gotta put up with it until then?"
"You do the crime; you do the time."
That is what aunts are for.... Seems like hard times are coming for some that will end up SSS....
Thanks PP2 for the chapter.... Texican....
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Post by papaof2 on Oct 24, 2019 19:01:30 GMT -6
Chapter 14
Tuesday, 5 August, 1:40PM
"All of you missed lunch, Jack."
"That's OK, Carl. There will either be leftovers from lunch or we'll eat the leftovers from breakfast. We get two horses tomorrow so we need to make space for them and some tack and feed in the barn now and then this trailer needs to be unloaded so I can use it to move horses tomorrow afternoon. I'll also need some help to get Martin's solar system working. Someone tried to add batteries and an off-grid inverter to his grid-tie system but didn't get it right."
"Smoke?"
"No. They did get enough panels and controllers wired to keep the batteries charged but the off-grid inverter was never wired and the configuration the solar panels were left in wouldn't have been able to power the off-grid inverter."
"So you'll need at least one grunt tomorrow to do the heavy work. Battery size?"
"Trojan L-16. But a bunch of them. I think he said 1400AH at 24 volts."
"Big bunch at 70lbs each. From the bags I can read, we have seed corn and other things. Did you get everything we mentioned?"
"No goats or pigs yet, but I think this is everything else that was mentioned."
"Horses come with saddles?"
"For kids and adults, so four saddles. The trailer will also be loaded with feed so plan on space for that. Martin said his wife will give the girls riding lessons. They did get to ride around in the corral today with someone leading the horses."
"Then they're hooked and will become even more horse-crazy."
"Probably."
---
"Carl and Willie cornering me together. I think this smells of security."
"It does, Jack. We didn't give you the hourly and daily power requirements for the various cameras and motion sensors. I'm sure it will have some impact on the available power after dark but I don't know how much."
"OK. Six pan, tilt and zoom IP cameras and six motion sensors using an average of two watts each is 24 watts times 24 hours or 576 watt hours. Divided by 12 volts, that's 48AH if they're DC powered or about 53AH if they're powered by wall warts."
"Wall warts in the house; DC in the barn."
"I'll make it worst case with all of them on wall warts and that will take about 18 hours off our maximum 143 hour backup when not using the A/C so we'd have about 125 hours or five days with no solar power or generator or three days with the freezer powered continuously and no solar power or generator. Any solar power will improve things and full sun can do a 90% recharge in less than two hours - if we're not using the central air. With the central air on for eight hours a day, we'd have power for about 22 hours without sun or generator but to recharge the batteries we'd have to choose between not having central air or running a generator for the central air the next day."
"And the humidity here is too high for a more efficient 'swamp cooler' to work."
"Correct."
"Not a lot of options."
"It's what we have to work with in semi-stealth mode. Willie, you said something about another diesel tank?"
"Deputy Thompson's brother Alec mentioned it when we were at the hospital. Five hundred gallon double-walled tank. Maybe three or four years old. Inside a shed on property that they have rented out to a neighbor for farming. There may be Pri-D treated fuel in it from last year."
"Can we move it?"
"Several hundred pounds for the tank, maybe seven pounds/gallon for diesel. Full tank weighs maybe 4000?"
"How big is the transfer tank on that old trailer in the second barn?"
"About 500 gallons. It has a manual pump."
"A manual pump is OK for filling the tank on the tractor but more than that requires a powered pump. Where did I see…? Among the other things on the metal shelving in the old smokehouse, there's a box with 'Fuel Transfer Pump' on it. If it's DC, it will have a plug for the lighter socket or battery clips. If it's AC, there's a 2000 watt inverter in my truck. That wagon can be hitched to the tractor and pulled to the tank's location. Then we empty the tank in the shed into the transfer tank and move the tank in the shed to the truck's bed. It could be in place here before the tractor gets back with the fuel."
"Might as well get that tank and do the solar install - it'll be too wet to plow for another day or two."
"Then most of us on solar here today. Willie and Carl with me today to get that fuel and we'll be fueled for working as many of these acres as we have planned this year and maybe part of next year. Willie with me tomorrow to get Martin's solar power working and we bring back horses. We do need to work on the plowing layout - which way the rows go in each section."
"I have that."
"Yes, Carl?"
"It varies within the various fields because they're not flat. You'll need to change the direction several times for water control. We won't be doing pivot irrigation so we need to capture as much rainfall as possible in the row crops."
"Thanks for the map. Anything else?"
"I have directions to the shed so I'll drive the tractor if one of you will help me hook up that wagon."
"I'll help you, Willie, and Jack can look for that pump."
"I'm on that. Will we need to disassemble the shed that tank is in?"
"Alec said it's about to fall down and any assistance with demolition will be appreciated. Maybe use the tractor's bucket to take the roof off that shed and then pull down the walls with the tractor and some chains?"
"We have the chains. Get your boots and gloves."
---
"How full, Carl?"
"Sight glass is dirty but maybe 300 gallons?"
"I think that's worth pumping and moving. Don't think any other place would be giving $1000 for a couple hours work."
"$1000, Jack?"
"At $3.30/gallon, that's the current price of 300 gallons of off-road diesel, plus the value of the Pri-D."
"And the bonus of a tank to store it in."
"Will lifting the roof work, Willie?"
"I think so. Looks like the corner posts are in concrete so the nails should give before the posts pull out of the concrete."
"Then we'll get out of your way."
---
"How much longer, Jack?"
"Maybe 30 minutes. The pump's box has '200GPH' on it and we've been pumping fuel for about an hour. We can unbolt the tank from the concrete slab while we wait."
"Pump's sucking air so it's done. Now the chain through the lifting eye on the tank and over the tractor's bucket. I think we can lift the tank high enough to get it in the bed of your truck."
"Let's do it. Remember what we did here so we can secure that tank when we're home."
"Pictures and video, Jack."
"Excellent."
---
"Was it worth the trip, Jack?"
"Sarah, each of us was paid over $100/hour for the hours we spent there."
"How?"
"About 300 gallons of diesel at $3.30/gallon plus the Pri-D used to treat it and a tank to store it in."
"On that basis, it was a good afternoon. Walk around behind the barn."
"It's also been a good afternoon for everyone else. Are we making power yet?"
"Harry said there some things he wanted you to check before he made the last few connections so get the diesel off your hands and go be an electrician for a while."
"On my way."
---
"Looks good, Harry. I agree these two charge controllers should be swapped to put the odd group of solar panels on the lower power controller. Are the wires long enough to just move them or do you want to retain the symmetry?"
"Symmetry makes following the connections easier when troubleshooting."
"Then let's unbolt and move the controllers."
"That's done. Breaker from the battery bank to the inverter."
"On."
"Meter shows we have split 240 on its output."
"Breaker from first charge controller to the battery bank."
"On."
"Display lights up and the shows the batteries at 25.61 volts."
"Do the other breakers in order."
"Two. Three. … Nine. Ten."
"All look good. Breaker from the first solar array to its controller."
"On."
"Display shows 76 volts and no amps but that quickly drops to 42 volts as the amps increase. Now up to 11 amps and the voltage is rising as the MPPT circuitry tries to get the most out of the solar panels. Batteries at 26.1 volts. Rest of the solar breakers with ten seconds between them."
"Two. Three. … Nine. Ten."
"Current to the batteries is up to 120 amps. Battery voltage is 26.4. Time to operate some AC breakers. House lights."
"One. Two. Three. Four. Five."
"Well pump."
"On."
"Battery voltage down to 26.2. Normal for this much load. Remaining identified breakers."
"Central air. Fridge. Freezer."
"Combined charge controller outputs now up to 180 amps. Battery voltage beginning to climb slowly. Looks good. Thanks to all of you for your help. I'll make a pass with the IR thermometer to check each connection and each piece of equipment and I'll be checking things every hour or so for the rest of the day but I think we'll have reliable power. Now that we have lights at the flip of a switch and running water without gassing up a generator, please remember to turn off the lights when you leave a room and don't leave the water running."
"Yes, Mother."
"Enough from you, Jesse."
---
"Space in the barn for horses, tack and feed?"
"All four stalls are cleared. We found some bagged feed and some square bales of hay in the loft. Don't know that we'll want to feed the horses anything of unknown age but the hay still works for litter and bedding. There are several banded 55 gallon steel drums with labels of 'Oats', 'Corn' and the like, so we have vermin-proof feed storage."
"Very good. What about running water in the barns and at the pig pen?"
"Available at all of them."
"So we're good for bringing in the horses?"
"We are, except for the sleeping bags or cots so the girls can sleep out here with them."
"I'm certain they'll ask, but someone will only be spending the night out here if one of the mares is ready to foal."
"They're bred?"
"Both of them and to different stallions. We might be able to replace our horses over time."
"You got a good deal."
"We did. And Martin won't be feeding horses which have no paying riders."
"People aren't driving out to go for a horse ride in the country."
"Or a buggy ride with a picnic. I'll ask about the price of a buggy tomorrow."
---
"Explain this auto-switch from grid-tie to off-grid, Jack."
"Carl, this contactor is held on when there is grid power and all the house circuits are powered. If the grid voltage drops ten volts, the monitor circuit starts the soft-start inverter. If the grid voltage drops another ten volts, the monitor releases that contactor and it connects the essential circuits to the inverter. If grid power fails abruptly, the contactor will be released and the essential circuits connected to the inverter. If the inverter's surge rating is high enough, that won't be a problem. If the inverter can't handle that surge or some of the appliances don't like being powered up by the soft-start, the monitor can be set for a ten second delay on abrupt power failures so the inverter will be at full power and the monitor will operate up to four contactors ten seconds apart so the load on the inverter is brought up gradually."
"I've never seen a power monitor like that."
"It's my design and I have a patent on it. Looks like I should have gotten it into production a year ago - but I do have a half dozen prototypes so we can get Martin's system going because that system is complicated enough to need a sophisticated monitor/controller like this one. The one installed here is the latest version with wifi and Bluetooth communications options so I can do selective load shedding without going to the control panel. It also provides remote display of the system's status, including ambient temperature and the temperatures of the battery bank and the inverter."
"All those leads you added after everything was working and closed up."
"Correct. The monitor being PC-based, it also can manage the RS485 communications with the charge controllers so we can track solar volts, amps and watts plus the temperature and throughput of each controller. It keeps a rolling seven day history that can be graphed by week, day or hour using the app I wrote."
"This spike in power?"
"The compressor for the central air starting."
"This one?"
"The well pump starting."
"This one?"
"The freezer's compressor starting."
"No spike for the fridge?"
"It's a dual evaporator Samsung fridge with a different system for powering the compressor. No compressor startup spike of many times the run power."
"Speaking of the fridge, I promised the girls they could help with spaghetti for supper. Time to get them started. Lisa, Lacey! Time to cook."
"Washing my hands, Uncle Carl!"
"Me too!"
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Post by texican on Oct 24, 2019 19:17:36 GMT -6
PP2,
Thanks for the chapter....
Texican....
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Post by 9idrr on Oct 24, 2019 21:09:10 GMT -6
You kind of lost me, sir, with the electrical lingo. I ain't much good once I get past "flip switch, light goes on" but I'll take your word for it that that stuff's accurate.
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Post by papaof2 on Oct 25, 2019 12:34:08 GMT -6
I put my small solar system together because 1) I wanted to explore the possibilities of solar power and 2) I wanted to have first-hand experience with what does and does not work. There has been lots of hype in some of the solar advertising, such as NOT mentioning the actual number of not sunny days, and I wanted to do small but long term tests to have numbers for "cabin in the woods" or "two months without power in the suburbs" situations. Lots of Youtube videos about what they can power with a single 100 watt panel or how great 400 watts of solar power is but almost all of it is short term - maybe one or two days. Some of the RVers are much more practical, with "I can run the little fridge, my laptop and a couple of lights with XXX amp hours of batteries and 200 watts of solar panels, but only if there are ZZ hours of sun." One of the RVers even has a small wind turbine - if it's raining and there is no sun, he might have wind with the rain. I've tracked the weather here for several years (inexpensive but functional weather sensors on top of the house) and I know there isn't enough consistent wind for anything other than the whirligigs in the flower beds. There's a reason the big wind turbines are located where they are and they base that on the "80 meter windspeed" - what the wind is doing 250 feet above ground, not at the peak of your roof.
I could make a video of powering things from the inverter and showing how the battery voltage drops under load and then connect the solar panels and show the voltage rising slowly as long as the solar power is greater than the load but there's no place on this forum for huge video uploads - huge in comparison to an 800 page book anyway.
That might be a future project for a Youtube upload, just so people can see the numbers as things run. I could do that using both analog and digital meters so you could watch whichever side of the screen suits your fancy ;-)
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Post by texican on Oct 26, 2019 22:46:07 GMT -6
There's a reason the big wind turbines are located where they are and they base that on the "80 meter windspeed" - what the wind is doing 250 feet above ground, not at the peak of your roof.
So true PP2....
There is a wind farm going up on the ridge line along the north side of the valley at the west end.... Got to have consistent wind to make wind farms pay....
Texican....
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Post by papaof2 on Oct 27, 2019 13:43:47 GMT -6
There's a reason the big wind turbines are located where they are and they base that on the "80 meter windspeed" - what the wind is doing 250 feet above ground, not at the peak of your roof. So true PP2....
There is a wind farm going up on the ridge line along the north side of the valley at the west end.... Got to have consistent wind to make wind farms pay.... Texican....
The Science Channel had a segment (Engineering Catastrophes?) on the unexpected wear on the blades of the wind turbines. It seems the tips are actually moving at several hundred miles per hour (but below the speed of sound) so even raindrops can cause wear, not to mention hail or the sand and saltwater for those in beach or openwater locations. Think of a fiberglass bandage that is epoxied on to replace the damaged areas. Even the best engineers don't think of everything :-(
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Post by papaof2 on Oct 27, 2019 13:45:05 GMT -6
Chapter 15
Tuesday, 5 August, 7:40PM
"Did I just hear 'Twinkle, Twinkle'?"
"Daddy, Aunt Sarah's been teaching both of us!"
"As usual, you're excited to be learning."
"Un huh! But she says we gotta stop for baths and bedtime."
"That happens about this time every evening. You can do more piano tomorrow and you can help me teach Lacey the four rules…"
"Lacey, the first one is 'All guns are always loaded'."
"I can remember that."
"Then I will quiz you tomorrow. Which adult washes your hair tonight? Don't answer with anything other than an adult's name as you won't be doing it yourselves. You were allowed to help each other with that last night and both of you left the bathroom with soap on your hair so I took you back in, removed your jammie tops and had you lean over the tub so I could rinse with the handheld shower. Both of you need to watch how it's done to someone else and pay attention to how proper rinsing feels on you."
"Aunt Sarah?"
"And how do you ask her?"
"Aunt Sarah, please help us with our hair."
---
Tonight's chapter was short and Sarah said both girls paid attention during hair washing, even asking the other one to turn around so they could see how proper washing and rinsing was done from all angles, so they did get two chapters even if both of them were asleep before the end of the second chapter. Now to continue last night's adult discussion.
"Power status, Jack?"
"Looks good, Luigi. I'll be able to tell you more about our autonomy in the morning when I'll have data about our first overnight run of fridge, freezer and A/C on batteries. By 5PM tomorrow, I'll know whether the solar power has been able to run the A/C and recharge the batteries with full sun. From the spreadsheet numbers, that will be close but sometimes the real world does deliver bonuses. The 250 watt rated Jinko panels I had tested for use at my old house actually delivered 235 watts in backyard sun. The spreadsheet assumes the panels will only reach their NOCT ratings which are about 73% of the rated power. I tested four brands of 100 watt panels that never got much above 75 watts so I'm a pessimist until I actually see better performance. By 5PM tomorrow, the panels will be at their hottest - hot panels deliver less power - and I'll know how much power we can realistically expect from the rated 9800 watts of solar panels that are on the barn's roof."
"Like derating generators as the altitude increases?"
"Yes, Jesse. With generators, it's the decreasing atmospheric pressure and thus oxygen availability. As a side note, solar panels produce slightly more output at higher altitudes because there's less atmosphere and therefore less attenuation between the sun and the panels."
"Does that mean that the solar panels used on satellites produce more power than those on the planet?"
"Correct. Some of the early satellites had very inefficient solar panels but those panels received strong sunlight and therefore were able to produce useful amounts of power. Some of the early military satellites used nuclear 'batteries' using the heat of nuclear decomposition to warm the thermocouples to provide long term power."
"Jack, I think we can start plowing as soon as the fields have been cleared with the bush hog. The tractor doesn't need as much traction to pull the bush hog so that can be done on somewhat softer ground. Probably tomorrow for the bush hog and maybe the next day for plowing."
"Willie, I'll leave that to you and Carl but I think any of the adults could learn to drive the tractor well enough to do bush hogging. Plowing requires a steadier touch on steering and more attention to ground speed so best done by those who have some hours in the tractor's seat."
"Sounds like the voice of experience."
"Jesse, my grandfather broke his arm the summer I was 14 and I was the available 'hand' for weeks. Different tractor, an old Deere diesel with the 'pony' engine for starting it, but driving a tractor hasn't changed much - other than air conditioned cabs and GPS units."
"And the electronic positioning and steering that can keep the tractor within an inch or so of a straight line so you can get more rows on the same acreage."
"That too, Sarah. How'd you know?"
"One of the systems Mark worked on a few years back. There's probably a backup drive with blueprints, schematics, program code and everything in the RV."
"I'd like to see that."
"I'll get…"
"Not alone. Mark's still in custody but, as Don said, 'we could start seeing more thieving' so no one outside alone after dark."
"You'll hear no complaints from me."
---
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Post by papaof2 on Oct 27, 2019 13:55:35 GMT -6
Bonus weekend! The deck on the riding mower had a convulsion and died this week (mandrel bearings died with noise of a small jet taking off and vibration at 4.5 on the Richter scale) so I've had a little more free time while waiting for parts. I also found complete mandrel assemblies at 2 for $35 delivered instead of $35 (plus delivery) for shaft and bearings to rebuild one of the originals (which lasted 16 years). I think the aftermarket mandrels will be fine for the perhaps five years left in the 2003 mower.
Chapter 16
Wednesday, 6 August, 6:30AM
"Good morning, sweet girl."
"Good morning, Daddy."
"Good morning, other sweet girl."
"Good morning, Uncle Jack. We get to cook?"
"I thought we looked at some recipes last night…"
"The breakfast burritos!"
"Then…"
"Potty, wash hands, dress and to the kitchen?"
"Make it so."
"Yes, Captain."
"Captain, Lacey?"
"Yeah, Lisa, from that space TV show where the Captain always said 'Make it so'."
"The guy with the shiny bald head?"
"Yeah."
---
"Who do I thank for today's breakfast? The burritos are good and there are even jalapenos on the table!"
"Luigi, that would be Carl and the girls. Carl for the idea and some help stuffing and rolling the burritos and the girls for doing most of the work."
"Gracias, Senoritas."
"You're silly, Uncle Luigi."
---
"Willie and the girls with me to see Martin Duke for horses and to fix his solar power. Everyone in masks and gloves before we leave the property."
"But Daddy…"
"No buts. They're not comfortable but we'll all be wearing them to keep us safe."
"I guess we gotta."
"Only if you want to see and ride your horses before we bring them back."
"We gotta!"
"Willie, who's handling the bush hog?"
"Carl, who will also give Jesse, Luigi and Sarah lessons on driving a tractor."
"Then let's go get horses and make power."
---
"Girls, this is Miss Betty. She'll be teaching you about the proper way to ride. That will also include learning to care for your horse; there's a lot more than the brush and comb you used yesterday."
"Yes, Daddy."
"Yes, Uncle Jack."
"Martin, did this system ever produce useable power?"
"When it was initially installed. It pretty much offset the power used by the A/C on sunny days. Then I asked if that additional power could charge batteries so we could have some backup power when we lose the lines to thunderstorms with high winds in summer or freezing rain in the winter. The installer said 'Sure, it's just another $5000' but he disappeared a couple of days after the batteries were installed and he never answered his cell phone or responded to email after that."
"The easiest way to give you power to run the A/C and other things during the prime sunlight hours is to run a very small inverter from the batteries and provide just enough power to make the micro-inverters on these solar panels think the grid is powered. Then they will power the house as the initial design intended. My monitor device will control the changeover to battery backup when the solar panels can no longer handle the load."
"You can charge the batteries with all these panels and not just the few they installed for fallback?"
"My monitor can control that switching. I designed it to do the things I thought a solar monitor/control system should be able to do without constant attention. With grid power, the micro inverters on the grid-tie solar panels assist the grid during the sunny hours. Without grid power, the small inverter will fool the grid-tie inverters into making power as normal. In either case, the solar power not needed for the grid-tie inverters can charge the batteries during the sunny hours and then the batteries and the off-grid inverter provide power overnight."
"So it'll work automatically as it did before?"
"Yes, but you will need to pay attention to the 'Battery Low' warning light. You'll start getting warnings when the battery is 40% discharged. That's your cue to shutdown things like the A/C, the freezer and the microwave oven. If you don't do selective shutdown manually, the controller will turn off power to everything when the batteries drop to 50% discharged."
"But what about food in the fridge and freezer?"
"Two things. One, the fridge should keep eight hours or more if the door isn't opened and the freezer should keep 16 to 24 hours. Two, the fridge and a few lights will run for days on the power the A/C uses in a few hours."
"So it won't be 'Just like the grid' as the salesman and the installer said?"
"Not even close, unless you triple the solar power and at least triple the battery bank."
"Not something that can be done under the current circumstances?"
"Not with most people wearing masks and gloves and trying to quarantine in place."
"Before our cell phones stopped working, we saw pictures from the wreck Deputy Thompson was in. It looked like there was blood on the truck's windshield so we started wearing the masks."
"One of the EMTs thought it was blood coughed up by the driver. We're fortunate to have some UK-produced masks that are a different design and they work well on the girls' smaller faces. Neither girl is happy to be wearing them but they also saw those pictures. The sudden death of the cell phones probably means the generator at the nearest cell tower ran out of fuel. I'm not sure where the next closest tower is, but out here I'm sure it's at the maximum possible tower spacing distance so anything smaller than a bag phone with its higher power probably doesn't have connectivity."
"Don't think many people are going to be working if it requires contact with a lot of unknown people."
"That will also affect mail, parcel delivery and trucks delivering to the grocery stores. For the grocery stores that have power or a generator, their usual 'three days' of stock will unquestionably be gone by the end of the week."
"You don't think this will be over soon."
"Maybe three weeks for power restoration in this county IF all the workers were available. How long when some of them are sick and others don't want to risk infection? If groceries aren't getting here, how will the co-op get wire and transformers when they've used up their spares? We're in an information hole and I hope to listen to some of the 'clear channel' AM stations elsewhere in the country tonight and see what the national picture of the 'flu' is. We have an idea of how bad it is here but we could be assuming that things are better elsewhere when the only difference is that they still have power."
"You are a real ray of sunshine, Jack."
"Just telling you what I see."
"You have an outside decontamination shower?"
"Not yet, Martin. But we did find all the needed pieces in one of the outbuildings. That's on the 'flu'-related project list but after bush hogging, plowing and planting."
"You're doing things that produce quickly?"
"Some, but we should have a decent remaining growing season here for some other things. Root crops that take a little longer can just be left in the ground for storage."
"Makes sense. You'll let me know what you find out about the rest of the country?"
"You still have a CB radio stashed somewhere? I see an antenna on top of the house."
"Probably in the old smokehouse. I can run the base station off AC?"
"Yes, but don't leave it on 24/7 unless it's one of the solid state versions. The old Johnson 'white face' tube type radios were nearly indestructible but they needed a lot of power to keep the tubes hot."
"I think there's a President <something>, a Citizen and a Midland. One in the house, one in my truck and one on the tractor when I was farming a number of acres."
"We'll be monitoring channels 9 and 17. We have SSB capability but basic AM makes us compatible with more of the radios people are likely to have stashed away somewhere."
"Your property is the highest point for miles around."
"Lisa's property. I'm just the caretaker until she comes of age."
"Jack, I like your outlook."
---
"We can ride when we get home, Daddy?"
"You can help get Molly and Sally comfortable in their new surroundings. Let the adults get them in place and check their hooves for anything they might have picked up in transit and then we'll tell you when to start with the scoop of corn and then you can talk to them and use brush and comb."
"Like you braiding my hair makes me feel special?"
"Yes."
---
"Jack?"
"Yes, Luigi?"
"Found this under the seat of Willie's new vehicle."
"Harris RO® Tactical SATCOM Radio. Is it charged?"
"About 60%. I'm hearing some traffic from USAMRIID investigators in the field. Sounds like that storm dropped both viral and bacterial material with the rain - almost like there's a something moving with and seeding the clouds. The regional range for these radios on a given satellite beam is 100 to 250 miles so I'm guessing those people aren't that far from us. If you can put this on charge and listen for several hours, you might hear a name you recognize from your time with the assorted bio-defense groups at Fort Detrick."
"Then I have my primary task for the rest of the day. Would you go check on the girls? I'm sure they're OK with spending 30 minutes doing the brushing and combing but probably not much longer than that. Betty did show them how to get a bridle on and off so maybe let them practice the 'on' part and then a short ride in the corral and then practice the 'off' part. There are some scrubbed apples in the kitchen and those might help the girls get the horses' attention long enough to put on a bridle. There is a stool they can stand on to reach that high."
"I'm on that, Jack. You said 'scrubbed apples'. I take it that means we need to clean any produce we bring in?"
"Yes, Luigi. I'll see what the USAMRIID people are saying about meat and eggs, if anything, but we may not be enjoying fresh eggs for a while. If there's someone I know on-channel, I'll ask for an update. I'll also be checking the clear channel AM stations tonight for info from the rest of the country."
"You go do that. I'm better at helping little girls ride the horses they love."
---
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Post by udwe on Oct 27, 2019 19:25:54 GMT -6
Thank you! Another great Chapter! Keep going, Please!
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Post by texican on Oct 27, 2019 20:16:45 GMT -6
Raining bad stuff from seeded clouds.... What next? Texican....
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Post by papaof2 on Oct 27, 2019 20:37:05 GMT -6
Raining bad stuff from seeded clouds.... What next? Texican.... Don't you wish you knew more people with twisted imaginations? ;-)
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Post by texican on Oct 27, 2019 21:46:10 GMT -6
Raining bad stuff from seeded clouds.... What next? Texican.... Don't you wish you knew more people with twisted imaginations? ;-)
PP2,
You have sufficient twisted imagination to equal three or four other twisted individuals....
You definitely keep it interesting....
Texican....
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Post by papaof2 on Oct 29, 2019 12:21:52 GMT -6
Chapter 17
Wednesday, 6 August, 3:30PM
'Sergeant Davis for Major Tallant.'
'Tallant here.'
'Approximately 30 civilians on the road, on foot with backpacks and small children.'
'Any sick?'
'Two children lying down in wagons. Traces of blood on their clothes.'
'Get them to quarantine. Keep me posted. Tallant out.'
'Davis out.'
'Colonel John Thomas Wilson for Major Tallant.'
'Tallant here, sir.'
'Relax, Tom. It's Jack.'
'Good to hear from you, Jack. Didn't know you were part of this mission.'
'Only by accident of location. We're just outside Smithville.'
'Then you know what the infections are like wherever the storm front passed over.'
'Nationwide?'
'Wherever this storm front has produced precipitation. The biological matter in the rainfall is infectious to more than half the population who are exposed and fatal to almost half of those it infects. There may be some genetic components as people with brown eyes seem the most susceptible - they're the majority of the "very sick".'
'What about foodstuffs subjected to that rain?'
'Scrubbing produce works for things with smooth skins such as apples and tomatoes but not so well for peaches and potatoes.'
'What about eggs, meat animals and fish?'
'Group from the CDC still testing that. So far, the brown eggs they've tested don't carry the infections but the other eggs do, whether from caged or free range chickens. Most meats show some level of infection. Your water also needs to go through a virus-capable filter as a small amount of the virus is entering groundwater.'
'We have a Sawyer Point Zero Two filter that filters down to 0.02 microns.'
'That's excellent, Jack, as the virus component is about 0.05 microns.'
'Cooking doesn't destroy the bacteria or the virus?'
'Temperatures above 375F can destroy the bacteria but it takes 500F to destroy the virus.'
'Not temperatures we'll have in cooking when most meats are fine at 165F and boiling at 212F doesn't clean the water.'
'Correct. High pressure flash steam that's above 500F is needed to clean the water if you don't have a proper filter.'
'So a steam-driven power plant next to a water treatment plant could provide the conditions for creating safe water but there's not much else that can do it in quantity.'
'Correct. Reverse osmosis also work but that capability isn't common. All the portable military reverse osmosis plants combined aren't big enough to provide water for the number of people affected.'
'Things will continue to deteriorate.'
'Correct. I hope you're in a good place with the resources to wait out the next eight inches or so of rainfall that should clear the ground enough for raising food for people and animals.'
'Status of the hurricane heading for the Gulf?'
'Possibly over you in ten days. Four to six inches of rain with locally heavier rainfall. If you get the "locally heavier" part of it, you should be OK to plant, but that's subject to further investigation at the CDC's Atlanta labs. The next hurricane is about three days behind this one.'
'Status of transportation?'
'Report on that and other production items queued to your device. It's about ten MB. You can copy it to a thumb drive or print wirelessly.'
'Thanks, Tom. I'll leave this radio on. Wilson out.'
'I'll provide updates as I get them. Tallant out.'
"Major, I don't recognize the name."
"Dawson, the Colonel was at Detrick for several years. He was one of the best investigators/researchers they had. He's officially retired because of injuries received in Tikrit, but you can't retire a mind so he's still on 'consultant' status. I don't know how he got that radio but I'll ask no questions. I'll just be glad to have him available when we get in deeper than we can dig ourselves out of."
"You expect things to get worse?"
"Dawson, how many people are we equipped to care for?"
"About 2,000."
"How many people have come here in the past three days?"
"Last count was 1537."
"Has the number of people per day decreased?"
"No… So we'll be at capacity tomorrow and at twice capacity by Sunday?"
"At the current rate. Where will we put them and what will we feed them?"
"The warehouse with hay bales to sleep on? Harvest the crops that are all around us?"
"And after that?"
"We're screwed."
"And so are they. Think about it and ask if any of the locals know where we can get more safe food. At least the reverse osmosis filters are sized for 8,000 people - but that might not be enough in another week."
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Post by texican on Oct 29, 2019 14:51:25 GMT -6
The virus is spreading and is deadly.... What next? Thanks PP2 for the chapter.... Texican....
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Post by 9idrr on Oct 29, 2019 16:19:50 GMT -6
Always glad to see more, sir.
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Post by papaof2 on Oct 31, 2019 15:42:17 GMT -6
Chapter 18
Wednesday, 6 August, 11:20PM
Well, I've marked the US state outline map with the places that still have power for local radio stations and the few places that have a radio station running on generator power. Hawaii and Alaska were untouched by the storm. The storm didn't hit Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana or North Dakota but it touched some portion of all the other 48 contiguous states. The normal traffic through those states has guaranteed that the infection is everywhere and people from California evacuated to the north and east so all the contiguous 48 are covered with some level of infection. The incubation time of 12 to 96 hours means a number of people left the 48 contiguous states without visible signs of infection and are now spreading the 'flu' elsewhere in the world, including Alaska and Hawaii. I'd expect more 'flu' visitors in Canada than in Mexico because Canada is often the nicer - and safer - destination.
The first of the contaminated rain in the US was on 2 August so we're four days into this. That has to have impacted the 'three days' of food most grocery stores stock, so some people in the western part of the country may already be getting hungry and that will only spread, along with unrest and violence. Unlike the days when even some city-dwellers had a small garden spot, almost no one has food growing where they live. Much of the grid is up, the primary exception being that the International Atomic Energy Agency mandated ALL of the US and Canadian nuclear plants be shut down before the 'flu' could affect a significant number of their workforce. Areas across the country are in the dark with rolling blackouts because the remaining plants can't fill that gap. Even with some of the older coal-fired plants brought back into service temporarily, there may not be enough coal available to provide the power needed at the end of August. Or maybe that's enough diesel to fuel the engines of those coal trains? Maybe if it were October and the need for cooling not so great? And how will that impact heating in January? And maybe we need more firewood?
We can manage on our stored food for several months but we need to start producing some food very soon. Will we get the rain needed to clean the ground as storms from the current hurricane go over us or those from the one about three days behind it or maybe from the combination of both of them - but without more wind and lightning damage or more tornadoes? I'll check tomorrow to see if there are any status reports on the co-op's power restoration efforts.
I'll share these things in the morning. Everyone needs to know, but at least some of them will get a good night's sleep.
---
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Post by papaof2 on Oct 31, 2019 15:43:54 GMT -6
Bonus! Two chapters ;-)
Chapter 19
Thursday, 7 August, 5:20AM
Bee-deep!
'General Charles Carlton for Colonel Wilson.'
Good thing I decided to keep this radio near me.
'Wilson here.'
'Jack, I'm sending you a large sitrep download. Satellite imagery for the past several days shows more than usual unloading from cargo ships at Mexico's Pacific ports. The conex boxes can't be identified but today's images show large numbers of people in uniform exiting the ships along with military equipment. The tanks are unquestionably Chinese. No aircraft visible yet.'
'Charles, is Zeus fully operational?'
'You know about that?'
'I had some input on the design of the two dozen "weather and ecological mapping" satellites. Half of them are armed. All of the missiles are remotely programmable and half of those missiles have individually programmable MIRV warheads. One of the smaller nukes could destroy a port and make the area too hot to use for decades. Advise our President to tell the Mexican President to direct the Chinese back on their ships and that movement is to be completed within 72 hours, starting at the time of the call. No action in 24 hours means we'll take out the port where the fallout is least likely to affect the US - I think that's Lazaro Cárdenas but I need to check a map; if I'm correct, fallout from there would go across Mexico City. Then plan to escalate as needed, including napalm bombs on the troops and equipment. The latest Chinese tanks are good but they don't survive fire any better than the Nazi cities did in WWII.'
'Do I hear some anger among the planning?'
'How many of the 'flu' victims have you seen up close and personal?'
'Only pictures.'
'They don't even come close to showing how bad those deaths are. Whoever is behind this bit of bio-warfare is pure, unadulterated evil. I have no qualms about wiping out whatever forces they send. Speaking of things 'sent'. Did anyone trace that storm front out over the Atlantic where it dissipated?'
'Not that I know of. Why?'
'I suspect some type of aircraft, maybe a blimp, was used to carry and dispense the biological elements. Any hardware evidence makes our actions a response to an act of bio-warfare and not a unilateral attack on an 'innocent' country, although I suspect other countries are beginning to see some cases of 'flu' from people who were infected but not showing symptoms when they left the US. You might also find evidence of a HAARP-type weather control device.'
'I'll get a satellite shifted for immediate images and follow up with aerial and water-based searches. If the weather control was Chinese, the equipment would be identified with the "Purple Moon" logo. Thirteen countries have reported cases of 'flu' involving travelers from the US and there are an unknown number of people who were exposed to the infection during flight and at the airports in those countries.'
'Does USAMRIID have any ideas on treatment?'
'So far, primarily prevention. Avoiding contact with unknowns is key and using N95/P95 or better masks or respirators plus nitrile gloves when contact is needed. Large doses of Tamiflu in the first 12 hours after exposure help but many don't show symptoms until much longer after exposure and there's not enough Tamiflu available to do blanket treatment of the entire US population - if we had transportation and people to get it to those affected. They also expect to see ongoing new infections for months as people eat contaminated food, grow food in contaminated ground or irrigate growing food with contaminated water or they drink, cook or wash foodstuffs with contaminated water. Even a shower that gets contaminated water in your eye or mouth or up your nose or in a cut in your skin could lead to infection.'
'So "The Ancient Mariner" is playing out again?'
'"Ancient Mariner"?'
'The line "Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink" from that poem is now our real circumstance.'
'It is. That sitrep should be downloaded now. Read it over and contact me with any ideas you have. Carlton out.'
'Wilson out.'
Not a set of circumstances I expected to encounter, but it's fair to call this an SHTF event or maybe group of events. Let's do a normal morning of bubbly girls excited about cooking before I unload this on all of them. All? The girls have been informed of everything else that's happened. I think they need to know as much of this as they can understand. Lisa certainly hasn't had a protected childhood and I know Harry tries to be honest with Lacey about everything she can understand. They may need lap or shoulder time later but they'll know why the adults are acting as they are.
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Post by 9idrr on Oct 31, 2019 18:24:22 GMT -6
Please thank your Muse for me.
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Post by texican on Oct 31, 2019 20:32:30 GMT -6
PP2,
Thanks for the two chapters....
Now as to Mexico, 24 hours to have the the Chinese troops back on their ships or nuke all of their west coast ports....
Prevention is always better that fighting a war....
Once it is determined that China is responsible for the flu and seeding the storm, then rain hell down on China....
Texican....
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Post by papaof2 on Oct 31, 2019 20:43:55 GMT -6
PP2, Thanks for the two chapters.... Now as to Mexico, 24 hours to have the the Chinese troops back on there ships or nuke all of their west coast ports.... Prevention is always better that fighting a war.... Once it is determined that China is responsible for the flu and seeding the storm, then rain hell down on China.... Texican.... Perhaps they'd rather not have lots of fallout from halfway around the globe? There are some surgical strikes that could kill China's economy.
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Post by texican on Oct 31, 2019 20:50:50 GMT -6
PP2, Thanks for the two chapters.... Now as to Mexico, 24 hours to have the the Chinese troops back on their ships or nuke all of their west coast ports.... Prevention is always better that fighting a war.... Once it is determined that China is responsible for the flu and seeding the storm, then rain hell down on China.... Texican.... Perhaps they'd rather not have lots of fallout from halfway around the globe? There are some surgical strikes that could kill China's economy.
PP2,
Let it be so, if currently only in written form....
Texican....
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Post by udwe on Oct 31, 2019 21:18:36 GMT -6
Thank you!
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Post by sniper69 on Nov 1, 2019 4:19:38 GMT -6
Thank you for the latest chapters. I'm enjoying your great story.
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