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Post by gipsy on Jan 12, 2021 7:41:06 GMT -6
Karma is cool
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Post by rvm45 on Jan 12, 2021 12:51:16 GMT -6
"So he got a tarp from the shed, some tree branches and an old broken yard chair and put them in the truck bed."
Good story, but John must be very fatigued…
To use a "Tarp" instead of a Tarpaulin.
Sorry, but folks chopping Tarpaulin off to "Tarp" is one of my pet peeves in life.
{This falls under the category of what I call "Ugly Chops" But "Tarp" is the UGLIEST Ugly Chop…}
….RVM45
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Post by solo on Jan 12, 2021 15:07:09 GMT -6
"So he got a tarp from the shed, some tree branches and an old broken yard chair and put them in the truck bed."Good story, but John must be very fatigued…
To use a "Tarp" instead of a Tarpaulin.
Sorry, but folks chopping Tarpaulin off to "Tarp" is one of my pet peeves in life.
{This falls under the category of what I call "Ugly Chops" But "Tarp" is the UGLIEST Ugly Chop…}
….RVM45 I guess I am missing it because I have used the word Tarp my entire life. I have never used its full name. Maybe it is part of the country? I don't know. I am enjoying the story! Please keep it coming.
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Post by rvm45 on Jan 12, 2021 15:27:54 GMT -6
Friend,
My father always said "Tarpaulin." I never thought much about it.
Then a "friend" went hunting in Maine and he heard someone use the word "Tarpaulin" for the first time.
He come back laughing scornfully about what he considered ridiculous hillbilly terminology.
I never liked him much after he—unknowingly—cast aspersions on my father and all the old folk in my family.
"I didn't know" will not be accepted as an excuse on Judgement Day.
Anyway, that was the beginning of my fierce one-man campaign to make "Tarpaulin" the preferred term once again.
And on "U" Tube, arguing with strangers—I have been much more caustic.
That's all...Oh, Ugly chops
It is a Tomahawk—not a "Hawk."
It is a Delicatessen—not a "Deli."
They are Side Orders—not "Sides."
They are Nunchaku—not "Nun-Chucks"—How many Nuns would a Nun-Chuck chuck if a Nun-Chuck could chuck nuns??
I also note a distressing tendency to turn double words into single words.
"Chow-Chow" has become "Chow."
"Kuru-Kuru" has become "Kuru."
Why???Doesn;'t anyone see how much less elegant these Ugly Chops make the American Language!?!
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Post by iamnobody on Jan 12, 2021 16:25:09 GMT -6
John made it to the feed mill and went in with his list. Going to the camping section he was able to find several hammocks. One was designed for double occupancy but he didn't see a need for that in any near future. He found a single person hammock that even included some hardware for hanging it. He found a flat cart and loaded it on and headed to the feed section. He found a 50lb bag of wheat, 50lb of cracked corn, 50lb of rolled oats, 50lb of pinto bean, 50lb of peanuts and 50lb of loose salt. Pushing it through the store, he saw a hand cranked grain mill and added that to his cart. He parked the cart near the cashier and said he was going to the gun section. The cashier nodded in understanding and kept working.
Once there John is looking around wide eyed at everything. He sees AR15's, M1 Garands, AK47's, SKS's, FAL's, M1A's, guns he has only heard about on the internet. He looks at the price tags and then quickly sets the gun back on the display rack. They are way out of his price range. John decides he will be sticking with his Savage 340 bolt action 30-30 rifle and let the expensive guns to the PAW stories. He asks the clerk about a sling for his rifle and selects a sturdy no thrills leather one. Next is some extra magazines for his rifle and the clerk finds 4 of them. John knows he only has a partial box of 14 rds of ammo and asks about that. The clerk shows him some premium ammo at $35 a box. John asks him about the cheapest 30-30 ammo they have. The clerk shows him some PPU ammo made by a company in Serbia. They were 170gr bullets and only $14 a box of 20rds or $12 a box if he took a case of 10 boxes - okay. All this was added to his pile.
John had lost his shotgun when Rick and Sally had taken it and then wrecked. He would like another one to replace it and maybe a bolt action 22LR. Many PAW stories wrote about having handguns but John figured the long arms would do him fine. He looked at a new Rem 870 Express defense shotgun with an 18 inch barrel in 12G - $500. The shotgun would have to wait. As he was getting everything on his cart and gun stuff rang up by the cashier, a man came in with several guns wrapped in blankets to sell. He overheard the gun clerk tell the guy they weren't buying any more because they had no more room to put them due to people selling guns for money to buy what little food was available. John paid and then backed his truck up to the loading dock, removed the tarp, tree branches and junk lawn chair. He loads his truck, pulls the tarp over everything and weights it down with the tree branches and lawn chair. It now looks like a load of junk.
John sees the man with the guns heading for his car and he yells for him to wait up. John asks the man what all he has and the guy lists 8 things. John's interest perks up when he hears 12G and 22LR. John is soon looking at a worn but serviceable Rem 870 Express pump action defense model like he wanted and a Marlin 25N bolt action in 22LR with a 4X scope. Both had worn bluing and lots of dings in the stock but both bores were good when John checked them. John did some haggling and soon got both of them for $350 total. The man was happy and John slid the guns under the tarp, got in his truck and headed home. When he got home and unloaded and went inside John noticed his phone's answering machine light was blinking. He looked the caller ID and saw it was from his boss at the job he hasn't been working at for the past 2 weeks.
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Post by solo on Jan 12, 2021 16:42:29 GMT -6
Friend,
My father always said "Tarpaulin." I never thought much about it.
Then a "friend" went hunting in Maine and he heard someone use the word "Tarpaulin" for the first time.
He come back laughing scornfully about what he considered ridiculous hillbilly terminology.
I never liked him much after he—unknowingly—cast aspersions on my father and all the old folk in my family.
"I didn't know" will not be accepted as an excuse on Judgement Day.
Anyway, that was the beginning of my fierce one-man campaign to make "Tarpaulin" the preferred term once again.
And on "U" Tube, arguing with strangers—I have been much more caustic.
That's all...Oh, Ugly chops
It is a Tomahawk—not a "Hawk."
It is a Delicatessen—not a "Deli."
They are Side Orders—not "Sides."
They are Nunchaku—not "Nun-Chucks"—How many Nuns would a Nun-Chuck chuck if a Nun-Chuck could chuck nuns??
I also note a distressing tendency to turn double words into single words.
"Chow-Chow" has become "Chow."
"Kuru-Kuru" has become "Kuru."
Why???Doesn;'t anyone see how much less elegant these Ugly Chops make the American Language!?! Okay, thanks for explaining.
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Post by papaof2 on Jan 12, 2021 18:03:58 GMT -6
If you're discussing one of the blue plastic things from Harbor Freight, it may not last for the time it takes to pronounce those extra syllables ;-)
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Post by kaijafon on Jan 12, 2021 18:44:08 GMT -6
bygollycheesewhiz!
Ok, needing some MOAR asap! 'cause them there tar-u-paul-lins ain't gonna be 'raound about much longer
Oh that was so hard to write. hahahahahaha!
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Post by udwe on Jan 12, 2021 22:09:33 GMT -6
Oh, keep writing, please!
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Post by texican on Jan 13, 2021 1:36:06 GMT -6
ian,
Keep them chapters coming.
rvm,
Pleasing to see you vent and undoubtedly you are feeling better afterwards.
Texican....
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Post by kiwibutterfly on Jan 13, 2021 13:01:19 GMT -6
I am thoroughly enjoying this story so PLEASE keep up with it.
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Post by iamnobody on Jan 13, 2021 15:07:13 GMT -6
John is thinking what could his boss want, will have to call him to find out. His boss answers on the 3rd ring and John identifies himself. The boss wants John to come into work, he wants to discuss some things with him. John says okay, hangs up and gets ready to go to the warehouse. When he gets there his boss is waiting for him at the entrance and tells him to clock in, as this is company business. Then they go to the office and the boss says have a seat. The boss says he has 2 things to discuss and the 1st thing is this. The boss slides an envelope across the desk to John and John opens it – a check, a big check. John looks at his boss with a raised eyebrow. His boss says it is a life insurance payout for Sally and the baby. John now remembered that he had taken a life insurance policy out through his job, on her when he married her and added the baby when he was born. His boss said it wasn't much but John looked at the check for $6,000 and thought it was big to him.
The boss said the 2nd thing was they were getting small batches of food in and was John interested in working a few hours a day. That it wasn't frozen food section like John was used to working in but in the canned food section. John said okay and ended up working for 5 hrs. The company had got several skimpy trailer loads of canned food and dried beans but by the time it was shipped out to 10 different company stores, each store didn't get that much. When John was done working, on the way home he stopped at his bank and deposited the insurance check. At home he tended his livestock, had a bite to eat and into bed as his boss wanted him back in the morning for a few more hours.
Over the next few days John worked several hours each day which would give him a paycheck. What he learned though was that there was very little food in the supply chain. Several partial trailers of food each day but when that was divided between 10 stores that the warehouse shipped to, it didn't look good. John's boss had told him he wasn't sure how long they would get even the small amount each day. One of their delivery trucks had even been hijacked on the way to the store. The driver was okay but a group of men had boxed him in and forced him to stop. The group had pulled their own truck up and took all the food and left.
When John wasn't at his job, he was on the prepper sites learning. John had even made cornbread several times from the grains he had bought. He had set up the hand grinder up on the edge of the kitchen counter. When the people on the prepper sites said grinding by hand was hard, they meant it. He used a recipe he had found on the back of a cornmeal bag he saw when he had been shipping it to a store. It called for 1½ cups of cornmeal and 1 cup of wheat flour. It sure tasted good to him. Being made with fresh ground grains, it was so flavorful.
John had also begun expanding his garden space. He read about garden beds instead of a big solid garden spot. That way he wouldn't be fertilizing and weeding walkways, just the growing areas. Also so that it would be less noticeable from the air by the government. It would be a bed here and a bed over there, making it look random instead of organized rows. Though John couldn't see any reason why the government would want to use drones to spy on what people were growing. But John did spread the garden beds out or as the old saying “don't put all your eggs in 1 basket”.
To start new garden beds in his grass filled yard, he built some things that were called chicken tractors and pig tractors. Chicken / pig tractors were movable pens containing a few chickens or pigs that were moved across an area with the pens being moved 1 length every day or 2. The garden beds were 5ft wide so John built his pens the same width and 10ft long and 3ft high. A size that a single man could pull by himself. He had a pen built for each. In the 1 he had his 6 chickens, 1 rooster and 5 hens. The other pen held his 2 feeder pigs that now weighed about 80lbs each. The chickens were scratching up the grass, eating any seeds and bugs they found while depositing a layer of manure. For the pigs John used a digging iron to poke holes in the ground into which he poured a handful of corn. The pigs were rooting up the grass to get the corn while also eating the weed roots and depositing their manure.
John ran the “tractors” in each area for 30ft which would make each garden bed 5 X 30 = 150 sqft. He had talked with a farmer who had some junk hay, big round bales for $10 each. John had bought 20 of the bales and the farmer charged an extra $20 for delivery. After the pens were at the end of the strip, John man handled the hay bale to the strip and unrolled a layer of hay. Then he covered that with 2 inches of compost that he had bought and hauled home in his truck. Then spread some lime on it, another layer of hay and 2 more inches of compost. Once it rained on it, the hay would start decomposing into a fertile garden bed.
John had also been reading about square foot gardening, and about a system called dutch buckets and another method called the kratky system. All of them looked interesting from what John had read. In a way John thought it was good that he was only working a few hours each day. That gave him time to be doing the different things he knew he would need to produce food.
John attended church again on Sunday. This time no one moved away from where he sat in the back, though the people still ignored him and the same person as before gave him a slight nod. The young preacher didn't give a sermon directed at him but at the end he reminded people about tithing and how it was 10% on all money received. Seems like he knew about John getting an insurance check.
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Post by iamnobody on Jan 14, 2021 12:32:04 GMT -6
On Monday John only got 2 hours of work at the food warehouse. The food deliveries were really slowing down again. Each trailer that came in had just 3-4 pallets of food. A pallet may have 85 cases of 15oz canned vegetables on it with each case being 24 cans. Divide that among the 10 company stores means each store only gets 200 cans divided by the 1,000's of people trying to buy food. On his way home, he stopped at the feed mill and went to the gun section. John had been wanting some ammo for his 12G and 22LR. Looking around he found a case of 200rds of 00 buckshot, a 200rd case of 1oz slugs and finally a 100rd pack of #6 birdshot. Looking for the 22LR's he found a case of 5,000rds of 40gr lead round nose. He asked the clerk about some extra mags for his Marlin 25N, the clerk found 2 of them. John added another 200rd case of the PPU 30-30 ammo he had bought before.
In John's reading of the prepper sites he heard about reloading rifle ammo, so he asked the clerk about equipment for doing that. The clerk said they had everything from progressive presses to slow hand loaders. The clerk showed him some Dillon progressive loaders that once they were set up would load 500rds an hour. It looked impressive. John looked at the price tag $700 and grimaced. The clerk then showed him a RCBS single stage press. It would load 200rds an hour. The press plus needed accessories would cost $450. John was thinking he would have to pass on reloading but then the clerk said they also had a Lee Loader for $40 and it would load 20rds per hour. Now this was in his affordable price range. The clerk told him all he would also need was primers, powder and bullets. Said the reloaded ammo would cost about 40% of what a new round of ammo cost. So John ended up buying the Lee Loader, a pack of 1,000 primers, a 8lb keg of powder and a 500rd bulk pack of 170gr bullets for his 30-30. John got his purchase loaded in the truck bed and covered so that it looked like a load of junk and headed home.
At home he unloaded his purchases and then saw that that the phone message light was blinking. The caller ID showed it as being Brenda, the younger sister of Sally whom he had only met once at his wedding to Sally. What could she want. John plays the message and Brenda says she is in the area and would like to stop in and talk with him, to call her. Brenda is 3 years younger than her sister. John was trying to think of what she would want to talk with him about but couldn't think of any reason. So John called her back and she told him she could be there in an hour.
Almost to the minute an hour later Brenda arrives. John had heard her car coming and was surprised to see it was a late model Mustang. He couldn't believe she had made it up the road without ripping something off the bottom of the car. John walked over as Brenda shut off the motor and got out. As a Christian, John was very glad he wasn't standing in front of the door when she got out because she had on a very short skirt that only came a few inches down her thighs and a shirt that was deeply plunged in the front. Otherwise he would of seen things that he didn't need looking at on a woman who wasn't his wife.
John invited her up to the porch to sit and talk. When she was on the porch she continued to stand and her head was swiveling as she looked around. Brenda admired the outside of the cabin and said it looked great. Then she asked how much land he had – 5 acres John tells her. You own it, no mortgage – yes. Brenda – hmmmm. Brenda sits down near John and tells him she is sorry for the way Sally treated him, that he deserved better. Then she says that Sally always told her things and Brenda had known about Sally's adulteries and the baby not being his. That Sally always kept a diary her whole life and normally kept it in a spot she made inside the bed mattress. John says he had taken the bed out and burned it as being polluted. Then John outright asked her why Brenda didn't tell him before. Brenda said it was because Sally was her sister.
From the porch Brenda sees the chicken and pig tractors and asks what they were as she starts walking towards them. John is walking towards her and she was already at the pig tractor and said how cute they were, then she bent way over the fencing to reach down in to scratch the pigs ears. John quickly averted his eyes as her short skirt pulled way up. Then Brenda moved over to the chicken tractor and John moved to the other side of the pen so he was not behind her again. John had forgotten about her low cut shirt until she bent down to pet the chickens. He suggested they both go back to the porch to sit. When there John offered her a sweatshirt to put on and a blanket for across her legs. She said she was alright but John insisted. With a pouty look she put them on. She asked him about his job at the warehouse.
He told her he had only had 2 hours of work that morning because there wasn't much food being shipped. She asked him didn't the company give him 1st choice on buying the food before the store got it. John told her no, that he had to go find it at the store and pay full price just like everyone else. Brenda - oh....
John told her he had work to do tending the animals. She didn't take the hint and said she would help as she removed the blanket and took off the sweatshirt. John's thinking - help, what can she do to help. John goes to the shed and gets the pig's food which is a mash type. He adds some water to it and stirs it into a thick soup. During this time Brenda has managed to accidentally bump into him with her chest several times. To stop this John tells her she can carry the bucket of soupy pig feed. By the time she reaches the pig tractor, her legs are covered in pig feed. John swills the pigs while she is rubbing at her legs. He then checks the chicken tractor making sure they have feed and water. He collects 2 eggs that had been laid.
They go back to the cabin and John says he is going to have a quick bite to eat. Brenda watches as he takes some of the chicken mash, adds water and starts cooking it. Then he takes the eggs, and makes scrambled eggs. Then he offers for Brenda to partake of the food. Brenda says no way, that is animal food. John shrugs his shoulders and say this is what I have, then thanks God for the food and starts eating. John can hear Brenda's stomach rumbling but she won't eat that animal food which is not for human consumption.
While John is eating, Brenda starts asking about a place to stay as it is a long drive back home, if she could stay the night at his place. He tells her all he has is a hammock to sleep in. She says that they could both share it. John says no, that she is not his wife. Brenda says she would be real nice to him. John again says no. He tells her that since she has arrived, all she has done was try to show her body to him and to rub up against him with her chest. That she knew about Sally's actions and did not warn him before. That John was not interested in a “good time” while letting her stay at his cabin. That it was time for her to leave.
Brenda stomped out of the cabin to her car. Started it and spun dirt everywhere as she sped off. John was sadly shaking his head in disbelief at what Brenda had been trying to do. He realized that she was trying to fool him for a place to stay and being taken care of.
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Post by texican on Jan 14, 2021 16:46:28 GMT -6
John was sadly shaking his head in disbelief at what Brenda had been trying to do. He realized that she was trying to fool him for a place to stay and being taken care of.
ian,
This is the way of some women. Sad, but true.
Now, will John find another wife at church?
Several more chapters will reveal.
Thanks for the story.
Texican....
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Post by beeman on Jan 14, 2021 17:47:10 GMT -6
Let’s hope John has learned a proper lesson. Once bitten, twice shy. The sister just proved the necessity of that.
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Post by papawolf on Jan 14, 2021 20:11:36 GMT -6
Love the story, all the stories on this sight have made me try writing again. John is defiantly in a different disaster than we are currently living through. Ammunition that is available and affordable, Primers on the shelf. The only Ammunition I can find right now is: Rifle: 500 blackout, .17, Hornet, 220 Swift, 243 Win, 270 Win, 6.5 mm Creedmoor, 6.5 Grendel, 25-06 Rem., 44-40, 257 Roberts, 280 Rem, 28 Nosler, 7mm-08 Rem., 30 Nosler, 300 WSM, 338 Rem., 375 H&H Magnum, 50 BMG. Handgun: 45 Colt, 32 S&W, 41 Rem Shot gun: 16 & 410, I do not know the shot size, don't have it - don't need it. For reloading, I haven't seen any primers in over four months, Christmas seems to have wiped out the powder. Bullets are down to even more obscure sizes and only #8 shot is left. The web sits say they have a wider selection, but the shelves are nearly empty. You need to have the manuals for the rounds you’re reloading also, Lyman, Sierra, Speer, Hornady among others. there not really interchangeable. if you buy a Speer book, it will not help much if all you can find is Hornady XTP bullets.
I personally need five different primers that I cannot find, ppp on my part.
At the start of Covid, I had only large pistol primers & shot gun, no small pistol, large rifle, small rifle or Large magnum. I was able to get less than a thousand Magnum from a friend and even less small pistol from the store, but that is it. I counted on being able to reload if I needed to, then forgot to buy more primers. brass I am good for stuff I don't even have, but not for what I shoot.
Ammunition always seems to be available in these kinds of stories, but reality is saying otherwise. Love the Story, always asking for MOAR.
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Post by iamnobody on Jan 15, 2021 12:50:48 GMT -6
That night John was sleeping when he was awakened by a ruckus from the chickens. He pulled his pants on, slid his feet into the boots, grabbed the shotgun which was loaded with buckshot, the flashlight and out the door he went. The light beam showed a raccoon trying to reach through the pen fencing to get a chicken. The critter saw him and backed away. John gave it a round of buckshot. He threw the raccoon into the woods and checked the chickens. They looked okay and the fencing was still good. He went back inside, put a new round of buckshot into the shotgun magazine to replace the round he used. He laid back down to try for some more sleep.
The next day was a trip to the feed mill since the boss had said there was no work. John got a solar powered fence charger, electric fence wire and several spools of the heavyweight 4 point barb wire. He wanted these for around his yard and livestock. Once home John set the electric wire up like he had read about on the prepper sites. He placed 1 wire at 18 inches and the next at 24 inches from the ground. Then several feet inside his yard he also placed a wire at 8 inches and then ran a grounding wire at 6 inches from the ground. That way smaller critters would be shoving their face into a positive and negative wire at the same time. The fence charger was a strong 10 mile fencer so hooked up to the wires around his place, it would give a very strong jolt to whatever touched it. The barb wire he strung about 12 inches high, 20 feet back inside the woods on his property.
Several weeks have gone by. John has been tending his garden beds and livestock. His chickens have increased by 4 when his one hen had gone broody and just hatched out some chicks. The electric wire has kept his livestock safe as at night he has been awakened by a raccoon squealing when it encountered the electricity. He hadn't had much work at the warehouse, just 4 hours a week. The food was very scarce and costly. A FEMA person had set up in town for food distribution. John was still attending church on Sundays. He always sat in the back, everyone still ignored him except for the same person who gave him a slight nod each time. John noticed the young preacher was pushing people to use FEMA for getting food since they had come to town. Free food.
John had been practicing with his rifles and shotgun. He had been an okay shot before but now he was a lot better. He had started with his 30-30 rifle, shooting from a rest and the target at 100yds. Then he had switched to shooting offhand, kneeling, and prone. He also had set up targets at different distances from 25yds to 100yds and practicing taking quick shots. John was hitting the targets most times now. After each target practice, he would reload the spent brass with the Lee Loader. As the clerk said, it was slow but it worked just fine.
One night soon after, John was awakened by human screams. He slid into his pants and boots, grabbed his shotgun and out the door. Flashlight on as he heads to the sound of screaming. He finds 2 people just inside the woods, a man and a woman tangled in the barb wire. The man he recognized as Tim, another buddy of Rick who didn't come along on the trip before when Rick came for Sally and the baby. John turned the flashlight on the woman and the light revealed – Brenda. He's thinking they are definitely sisters. Sally went with bad boy Rick and Brenda went with his buddy bad boy Tim.
John told them to shut up. He focused the light on the barb wire and said for them to untangle it from their legs. When they were free, he told them to walk to his cabin. Once there he forced them to lay spreadeagled on the ground. He tells them if they move, he will shoot. John reaches inside the cabin door and turns on the floodlights to light up the area. Then picks up the phone on the wall by the door and calls the sheriff.
By the time the sheriff gets there, John has got the story out of them. Brenda had told Tim about the chickens when food ran out for them and decided they were entitled to them. They had stepped over the barb wire in the woods, crawled under the 1st set of electric fencing and kept crawling towards the chicken tractor. Neither saw the 2nd set of electric wires located several inches off the ground and both stuck their faces firmly against the positive and grounding wires. The 10 mile fence charger pulse hit them several times before they could pull back, they busted through the other higher set of wires as they ran and forgot about the barb wire until they tangled their legs in it.
John told the sheriff what happened and the sheriff was trying to suppress a grin when he heard about the electric fence on their face. The sheriff said these 2 were wanted for several other crimes in town as he handcuffed them. As the sheriff was putting them in the back of his car, Brenda was already crying and saying she was a poor innocent woman mislead by Tim......
When daylight came, John repaired the electric wires that were broke. He also added more barb wire strands spaced several feet apart from the original strand. They were all 12 inches off the ground and he made an effort to camouflage the strands.
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Post by sniper69 on Jan 15, 2021 13:36:02 GMT -6
Two sisters, similar fates. Thank you for the latest chapter and sharing your writings, I'm enjoying this story immensely.
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Post by iamnobody on Jan 16, 2021 9:55:01 GMT -6
John made the trip to the sheriff's office to file the criminal charges against Tim and Brenda. He talked with the sheriff about how things were. John learned that there were a lot of break ins and thefts, more reports of gunshots with wounds and even several deaths. People were desperate because of food shortages. On his trip home he did some thinking and came to the conclusion he was done going to work. He was only getting 2-4 hours work every week. John didn't have much at his place but he didn't want to lose what he did have. The chicken theft attempt by Tim and Brenda helped make up his mind. John lived way out in the rural area but knew it would be just a matter of time before people thought of his place.
When John arrived home and parked his truck he saw something on his porch – a dog. He took his rifle from behind the seat and walked over to look. He saw a dog that looked to be a Heinz 57 dog, a little of this and some of that, mostly a terrier though. Kind of skinny and mangy looking. The dog is looking at him and gives a small tail wag. He tells the dog that he doesn't have room nor feed for a flea bitten, mangy porch sitter. The dog walks off and goes into the woods. The rest of the day John keeps an eye open for the dog. He sees him several times but always in the woods. That night John is awakened by the chickens squawking and he is going out the door thinking its that dog, I should of shot him earlier before he got my chickens.
John comes up to the chicken tractor with his shotgun and light, he sees the dog. But wait, the dog has a possum in its mouth. The dog brings the possum to John's feet, drops it and then sits down while looking up at John. He stares at the dog and then tells the dog he is still a flea bitten mangy mutt, but you can stay. The dog follows John back to the cabin where John opens a $10 can of spam and spoons it out on an old plate. When done eating, the dog gives him a tail wag and goes to lay down by the rocking chair on the porch while John goes inside to go back to sleep.
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Post by gipsy on Jan 16, 2021 12:05:02 GMT -6
A friend indeed.
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Post by texican on Jan 16, 2021 21:44:07 GMT -6
A good dog before the second wife is definitely the way to go.
Texican....
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Post by iamnobody on Jan 17, 2021 10:45:33 GMT -6
The next day John needs to make a run to the feed mill for dog food and other things. He figures the way things are going, there may not be many more trips to the stores. So after chores he gets his money, grabs his rifle and heads for his truck with the dog following him. At the truck he stops and tells the dog he is going to the store and for him to be good. John opens the door and before he can get in, the dog jumps up in onto the seat. John just stands there looking at the dog which is already hanging its head out the passenger side window. He just stands there a few moments, shakes his head and mumbles about every pickup truck needs a dog.
At the feed mill John grabs one of the big flatbed carts and heads for the livestock feed section. First stop is for dog feed. The dog had been walking with him. As John is looking over the dog food selections, he notices the dog is no longer with him. He looks around and sees the dog sitting in front of a stack of dog food. The dog looks at him and then back at the stack. John gives the dog a look, then loads several bags of the dog food onto his cart. Then onward to add bags of wheat, cracked corn, rye, rolled oats, pinto beans and salt.
Next over to the trapping supplies. John had been reading on the prepper sites about traps being a more effective way of taking animals vs the time hunting them. He got a dozen #110 Conibear traps which are body grip traps. They would be good for squirrel and rabbit. Then a dozen of #220 Conibear traps for raccoon and groundhog size animals. Also several spools of wire for attaching the traps to anchoring points.
Over to the fishing area for line, hooks, sinkers and a casting net. He had read that trotlines and casting nets were better for fish than sitting on the bank with a fishing rod.
On to the vet medicine for some that he read about. Some worming medicine caught his eye and he thought about the dog, So a pack of that also. The dog had been staying right beside him and had been mostly ignoring the other people. John saw the church deacon and watched as the guy walked by him a few feet away without saying a word. John suddenly realized the dog was giving a low growl – interesting.
Over to the clothing section where John picked out several quality work pants, shirts, vests, coats, work gloves, winter hats, some broad brimmed summer hats and socks. Then he found 2 pairs of leather work boots. Added extra bootlaces, boot polish, leather cleaners and leather oil. A lot of people forgot to take care of their leather boots and they didn't last long. John was feeling that things were going to get worse and he would need to keep everything in good shape.
He headed for the cashier, paid, loaded everything in the bed of the pickup, pulled the tarp over the load and covered it with the tree branches and junk chair. Time to go home.
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Post by cavsgt on Jan 17, 2021 13:09:21 GMT -6
Nice story Keep up the good work.
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Post by solo on Jan 18, 2021 8:58:50 GMT -6
I like the OPSEC with the tarp and trash in the back of the truck. No one can see what you are bringing back to the house... Now it does worry me that the Deacon, who is obviously no good, saw your flat bed while you were picking out items. And it also worries me that John didn't keep an eye on that deacon; that man probably shadowed him to see what all he got and all. Keep up the posts, I am hooked. It also helps me with my OPSEC to consider all these possibilities.
Solo
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Post by papaof2 on Jan 18, 2021 9:01:31 GMT -6
I don't trust that deacon either. Next thing you know, the "preacher" will be telling folks to "tithe" 10% of the food at their house - and possibly making lists for each person.
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