Saving Grace

[ydderf2]

Thank you.

[CountryGuy]

I was away a few days and chomping at the bit to get home to read the next installments in Saving Grace and Diluvium. Glad to have gotten my fix with more excellent story time.

[ncsfsgm]

Chapter 83


"Hey Grace."

"Debbie! How's the whirlwind life of the renowned authoress in Connecticut?"

"As you said, a whirlwind. So much, I can't get my creative thoughts in order."

"Well, why don't you come down for a while. We could put you up in the Taylor…no wait, Jon is there. Just come on down and you can have the guest cabin for as long as you like. You can unwind and get refreshed. You could be with your number two family for the holidays."

"Wrong! You all are my #1 Family! How are the twins?"

"They are great and growing like weeds. Alana is at that stage where she doesn't know whether she's a tomboy or a little lady."

"Well, a few hours shopping and I can change her mind." Debra said, laughing. "I feel better already."

"Good. Then pack your bags, jump into that new car, and get down here."

"I'll pack and leave in the morning, but I'll take my time. I'll stay in Roanoke Saturday night and drive in on Sunday."

"Great! We'll throw some steaks on and have a little celebration"

"Did Gil make any of that strawberry wine this year? I really miss that."

"He certainly did. I'll make sure we have plenty chilling."

"All right then, I will see you Sunday!"

"Drive safe! Love ya!"


Gil drove up to the office trailer and Jon's car was there. He opened the door and walked in to find Jon at his computer set up behind four 30" monitors, manipulating some architectural drawings. Gil laid the flash drive on the computer desk next to Jon and watched what he was doing.

"Morning Gil. Just doing some tests. Are these the drawings?"

"Yep."

Jon quickly made a directory and dumped all the files from the flash drive into the hard drive directory.

"Nice setup you have here." Gil said.

"With the right software, and I have just what I need. I can do just about anything."

Jon pulled up the first Riven Haven file and pulled it up into a conversion program, saved it to a format he could edit, then onto the screen. He rotated the 3D drawing on it axis so you could see the drawing from all points.

"Amazing!" Gil said.

"Now, all I have to do is design the space and block it out. I can then run it through the construction program and it will give me a skeleton view of what it will look like. Once we have all the specifications entered I run it through another program and it will spit out a materials list down to the psi of the concrete, if any is used, but that's simplifying it a lot. There's still a lot of work to do. Now I need some Idea of what you want it to look like."

"Can you come up with a few common ideas of what it can look like. I'd like to bring in some other people to get their input. The only guidelines are, for the first chamber it needs to be multipurpose, housing, social/recreation area. Somewhere within the complex I want to be able to house 500 to 750 people, plus a cooking and feeding area. The rest of the space will be taken up by storage."

"Okay I'll get on it." Jon said.

"I'm headed over to your house building site. They start doing your foundation today. Keep your radio turned on and handy."

"Will do, Gil."


On the way out to his truck, Gil called Drake Simpson to begin putting a PV system together for Jon's house that could handle the electrical load.

When he got to the construction site, they were pouring concrete for the foundation, Gil had opted not to put a basement in the house but to add more square footage for a larger utility room that would have room for the battery bank. Gil looked at his watch, drove to the sawmill, and helped them run some more logs. They were mostly just squaring the logs to be cut into planks later as needed. They stopped long enough before lunch to clean up the sawdust and bag it. Brad started the hit and miss to get some power and lit the heater in the sawdust storage shed. Grace had found a Dyna Glo shop heater at a yard sale and Brad had modified it to run on methanol. They'd drop down the side curtains on the shed and run the heater to dry the sawdust out quicker. The only downfall was it required electricity to run the blower. It put out the heat and did the job.

They stopped for lunch and went home. When Gil walked in, Mollie was pulling a loaf of fresh baked bread out of the oven and Grace was dishing up beef stew out of a pot.

"Just in time!" Grace said.

Gil went to wash up and came back.

"Guess who I talked to this morning?" Grace said.

"Who?"

"Debbie Gibbons."

"Oh yeah? How is she doing."

"It sounded like she was in the doldrums, or homesick, or writers block, or all of the above. She coming down to visit for a while."

"That's good. She probably just needs the fresh air and some of your and Mollie's cooking."

"She'll be in Sunday in time for lunch, I thought we throw on some steaks and have the gang up."

"Sounds good. That reminds me, I need to bring up another bag of charcoal. I'll pull out some baking potatoes while I'm down there. How many will we need?"

"Better get about twenty. Glen and Jarrod haven't been over to eat for a while."

I'll bring everything up when I come back this evening."


When Gil got back to the sawmill, Brad and Colt were ripping spacer sticks up to put between the sawn beams. Gil grabbed their scrap and cut it up and threw it on the firewood pallet. After they had ripped about 300 sticks they went back to milling the logs. When they finished the truckload, Brad and Colt took the logging truck to get another load of logs while Gil cleaned up. When he finished up, he called Brad and told him to just park the truck when they got back and stop for the day. They'd start again in the morning. He stopped the heater blower and turned the heater and the hit and miss off. Gil got a basket out of the greenhouse, selected the potatoes out of the root cellar and drove the Gator over to his charcoal storage and got a bag of hickory charcoal and one of oak. It would be nice seeing Debbie again.

[gipsy]

Thanks for the update.

[ydderf2]

Thanks for the update

[CountryGuy]

Think I missed that Debbie had left the lands to the big city. a few youngsters have been scarce lately... wonder what their all up to...

[ncsfsgm]

Chapter 84


After Church Sunday, everyone headed to Gil and Grace's to help out, either in the kitchen or to warm the deck chairs and make sure there wasn't an overabundance of mead left around. Gil had the steaks laid out, all peppered, salted and a little garlic powder on them, on a couple of huge military surplus baking sheets to warm up to room temperature. The charcoal fire was started and was coming along nicely. The men's mugs were half empty when Debra drove up. Gil got up to meet her and yelled for Grace. Grace came out of the house and ran down the steps to give Debbie a big hug. Gil got his hug and Grace pushed her inside into the kitchen.

"Trace, how far along is the cutting crew?"

"They're about ¾ of a mile from Harmony Road."

"Good. Since this project is an open secret. I want to build a staging area for materials outside the entrance. I'll go down tomorrow and mark it off. Once you've reached Harmony Road, move them down there and clear the lot. Stack the logs inside the cleared area on the north side. Leave the hedgerow between the lot and the road. I'll get some culvert tiles and we'll build a road in to it. Eric, how's the hunt for steel going?"

"I've got four places lined up even as far as up in West Virginia. I'm just waiting for the materials list from John."

"Good. As son has he has that, strip out the list of steel and you and Jacinta take a trip and visit everyone. See what they can provide and we'll buy the rest from Vulcraft or that place out in Missouri."

Gil went in and brought the first tray of steaks and threw them on. Billy came out with the other tray. As the steaks reached their levels of doneness, Gil would call out and people would come and get their steak. Gil pulled his off early and finally the last steak was served. The big bowls of hot baked potatoes still in their foil were emptying quickly and soon the only sounds of knives scraping plates, the occasional opening of a beer, or the occasional wisecrack was heard. These people took their eating seriously.


Monday, Gil called a meeting between Jon, Reverend Jim, Grace, Allie, Eric, Jacinta and himself to select a structure design. Jon had transposed his work area into a briefing room. He had a AV projector connected to his computer and ran the slideshow with a remote control. He went through the complete presentation before taking questions.

"As you might have seen, the skeletal structure is basically the same for all designs. Now, if you al can come up with a consensus on the design I can finalize the materials list and get this show on the road."

Gil watched as the women scrolled through the different examples and kept his mouth shut. Let the women have what they wanted. They finally settled on a design that reminded him of a 50s small town. It had a warmth to it. Gil voted for it with the rest and that was done.

"Gil, remember the two side passages we found?" Jacinta asked.

"Yeah, did you check it out? "

"Yeah it comes out below Haven road. A little work and it could be used to access chambers two and three to bring in supplies. The only problem is the passages are a little small for a forklift."

"I've got things to do today but I want to take a look at the passages in the morning. Can you meet me on the road where the passages come out tomorrow morning at 0900?"

"Sure, no problem."


Gil went back to Bluff View and wheeled out the SuperSTOL and did his pre-flights. Lifting off he did a shallow bank to the left and climbed to 2000' to look down at the knobs that stretched to the south through the middle of the Sacred Lands. He made a few circles around River Haven and flew north along the range of hills. He could see where Don's crew had gotten with the road. Soon they would link with Harmony road and it just a matter of widening the road from there to River Haven. Gil was feeling good so he flew on up the river enjoying the flight. He didn't get much time for this these days.

The next morning Eric and Jacinta were waiting for Gil beside of the road. Gil got out and followed them through the brush and suddenly came up on the two openings about four feet apart. Each opening was about three feet wide by eight feet wide. The ground to the sides were littered with stone rubble from when the passages were hewn out.

"I don't know how in the hell they did this, using primitive tools. It must have taken them years to dig these 30 foot passages." Gil said.

"These are too small for a forklift to get in. How are we going to make these bigger?" Eric asked.

Gil was looking around noticed the small shelf in front of the passages. "I think I have an idea."

Gil Walked back to his truck and called Steve.

"Steve? It's Gil. Do you still have contact with the Mad Scientist Harold?"

"Sure Gil. He was up a couple of weeks ago and we went fishing."

"Well, I've got some rock I need cutting. Is he still in the business?"

"Well, not that particular business but I'm sure he'd welcome the diversion. Want his number?"

"If you would. You need to come down sometime. I've got new things to show you."

"Well, if Harold comes down I'll come down with him."

"Great. Send me Harold's number and I'll give you a time frame."

"All right, text coming to ya."

Gil got the text and saved the number in his contact list.

Gil dialed the number.

"Hello?"

"Harold, this is Gil Conner. You did some rock cutting for me a while back."

"Oh Yes! I remember. Fine whiskey! Fine whiskey!"

"Yes, thank you. Are you in a position to come out and do some more rock removal? I've got about a 30 foot long area that is partially open but I need to make it bigger."

"Is it vertical or horizontal?"

"It's horizontal."

"Good. Shouldn't be a problem. When do you want this done?"

"Whenever you can break free from whatever you're doing."

"How would next week be?"

"That would be fine. Steve said he would come down when you did."

"Good. I'll call him and set up our travel. It's good to hear from you Gil. I'm looking forward to seeing you again."

"Likewise. I'll talk to you later."

"For sure. Good bye."

[gipsy]

Thanks for the update.

[cavsgt]

Thank You

Now I need a map to get everything in place in my mind.
phill

[gipsy]

 Over the hill and through the woods to Grandfathers house we go.

[ydderf2]

Thanks for the update

[texican]

How many kegs of whiskey will Mad Scientist Harold need to do the rock work?

Texican....

[ncsfsgm]

Chapter 85


Billy sent the text and slid his phone back into his vest pocket. What an unadulterated A-hole! When were personal political opinions part of the curriculum? Billy kept his opinions and his disgust of many of the professors and instructors under the radar. He had been successful so far and none treated him any differently. Thinking he was a gifted student, or a fellow traveler depending on who was paying attention at the time. He had learned more in the library own his own than from the majority of the classes. He began to wonder if he'd just be well enough off taking just enough classes to get access to the facilities. He wasn't looking for a paper pedigree he could build upon and flaunt in front of people as he sucked up taxpayer dollars. He didn't care to be one of these tenured charlatans appointed for life to corrupt young minds and not subject to dismissal except for a grave crime. He already had tenure, tenure in the Land. Billy was going to finish this semester and only do as few classes as he could get by with. He just needed access to the banks of knowledge and the advice of those he trusted and didn't wrap themselves in their socialist convictions.

Billy had sent Carrie a text telling her he was going to wait until she got out of the last class. His last class on Thursdays finished an hour earlier than hers. Unless something was pushing, he'd wait for her and they'd convoy back to Bluff View, sometimes stopping to have dinner before going home. It was like having an extra date night during the week. Sometimes they'd meet at Auntie Anne's in College Square Mall for hand-rolled soft pretzels and sodas before heading home. Today he'd wait for her in the parking lot at school. He was reading a book called "The Weather Conspiracy: The Coming of the New Ice Age" published in 1977 he had found in a used book store. It was put down as a conspiracy theory, but what wasn't these days. If someone didn't agree with your theory, it was automatically labeled a conspiracy. Billy tended to think of it as an alternate possibility, especially after HAARP was revealed as a way to manipulate the weather by an Air Force Secretary testifying before Congress after being called a conspiracy theory for years. Billy liked to get all sides of the story and make his own decisions. He was concerned tax dollars were being used in off-the-wall experiments in geoengineering efforts and how it would affect them in Bluff View. What did they need to do to prepare for something like that? As long as someone didn't trigger an event, Billy had come to the conclusion that global warming and cooling were normal earth cycles. Whether man shot radio waves into the ionosphere or added CO2 to the atmosphere didn't change much in the big scheme of things. The Earth was going to do what it wanted. We were just here for the ride.

Carrie knocked on his window breaking his chain of thought. Billy rolled down the window.

"You looked like you were a million miles away." She grinned, then leaned down and kissed him.

"Oh, I was up in space looking down at the Earth." Billy grinned.

"Pretzels?" Carrie asked.

"Sure, I'll follow you."

Billy backed out of his parking space and followed her to the mall.


The loggers quickly got the River Haven lot cleared and Brad and Colt moved the logs to the sawmill. A bulldozer did the final leveling after the loggers had removed the stumps and several dozen yards of gravel was spread and packed down. Gil hated to do it, but he moved a couple of the boulders in the breastworks to allow a forklift to get through and cleared the thicket back to allow access to the front passage. They then built a macadam roadway up to the passage. They would need to bring the laser rock cutter through this way because it was the only entrance that was big enough. They finally had everything ready the day before Harold and Steve arrived.


The familiar helicopter from Clarksville Helicopter Services showed up with the cutter sling-loaded. The pilots did an expert job of setting the load on the trailer and after dropping the nylon cables, moved to the side and landed. Harold and Steve stepped off the ramp with their bags and the helicopter took back off.

Gil met Steve and Harold as the helicopter took off and shook their hands.

"Good to see you two!" Gil said.

"It's good to get back. Are we storing the net and straps in the hangar?" Harold asked. He was all business.

"Yes. As soon as we get them off, I'll take you to the site." Gil replied.

They got everything stored and got into Gil's Power Wagon for the trip to River Haven.

"We found three more chambers." Gil explained. "They are even bigger than the ones at Bluff View."

"That's going to be something to see!" Harold said.

Gil pulled into the staging area and backed up to the passage entrance. Colt came out with the all-terrain forklift and took the laser cutter off the trailer and dropped it down to within a few inches of the ground. The passage was wide enough but the height was less than what Gil wanted, They would fix that, Once the cutter was inside, Colt set the shipping crate on the floor. Brad and Trace began unscrewing the crates sides and in the light of the work lamps they might as well have been on the dark side of the moon.

"How big is this chamber?" Steve asked.

"It's a shade under 244 meters long."

"My God! You could almost fit the Hindenburg in here!"

Yeah, but we'll use it for people."

"Where do you want to start?" Harold said.

"We'll start in the morning, but I want to start on the this passage first. I need it squared up with the dimensions of 12'x10'. That's the size I need for the door I ordered."

"No problem there. We'll just roll this baby off the platform and leave everything here." Harold said.

"Well, let's get you two settled in. You'll be staying at my house. One of you will be in Billy's room. We've got a guest in the cabin."

"Where's he going to sleep?"

"In the Chamber."

"Well, I don't want to put him out."

"To him, staying in the Chamber is like glamping. All the comforts of home."


After dinner that night Gil laid out the aerial photo and the laser generated drawings of the chambers and his tentative plans.

"This is quite the noble undertaking." Harold said.

"Well, it needs to be done. There are still some good people around and I'd like to keep them protected if possible."


The next morning Colt and Brad were waiting for them. Brad was checking over the 30 kw generator and prepared to crank it while Colt was laying out electrical Cable to the passage. Gil and Steve helped Harold push the cutter over the passage and plugged in the power. Harold locked the cutter down and began to set it up for the first cutting. Steve reached into the accessory box and pulled out goggles for everyone and when Harold warned them, they pulled their goggles in place. As the machine cut the four inch thick slice, it was ejected out the back where Brad grabbed it and placed it on the pallet he had set there. Colt grabbed the next one. Once Harold began straightening the passage, some of the blocks were sort of wedge shaped and were set aside so as not to make the pallet uneven and unstable.  When they finally reached the outside they pulled the machine back through the passage and set up for the left side cuts. Colt moved the pallets of stone out of the way and brought three more empty pallets.

"This is something I added." I just set my setting on how wide I want the distance to be between the two walls and it will adjust itself for the cut." Harold said. This pass down the chamber was taking longer because the cut was wider. They'd only gone about twenty five feet when they stopped for the day. Harold shut down but they kept the generator running to provide lighting. Colt moved the rock stacked pallets over with the others and brought back enough empties to finish the side wall tomorrow.

"I guess the hard part starts tomorrow." Gil said.

Harold chuckled. "You mean the roof of the passage? That's going to be easy. That's what that longer chute is for. When we're ready, I'll bolt that on and the blocks will slide right down and pop out the back. If you had a tractor with a bucket you catch them with the bucket and carry several over to the pallet at the same time. A lot less lifting."

Colt looked at Brad. "We're loading up the tractor when we get back!"


When they got back to Bluff View, Gil went and filled fuel cans for the generator and sat them on the trailer with the tractor Brad and Colt had loaded. It was still an hour before dinner so they all went up to Gil's house to partake of liquid refreshment. Trace joined them and Harold, Steve and Gil had their two fingers of River Bank while the others had mugs of mead. Soon, Allie showed up with the dinner she had made for Brad, Shannon and Kaylin arrived with Colt's dinner and Sarah came in with Trace's dinner, soon followed by Billy and Carrie just getting back from school. The Tell-A-Women net had been active and they decided to put on a big buffet. Billie and Carrie set up tables for the food and Mollie made two more gallon of iced tea. Grace leaned against the kitchen counter next to the sink and looked around. She loved having their extended family together.

[gipsy]

Thanks for the fine update.

[ncsfsgm]

Chapter 86


Jon stood bent over at the waist gulping air. He stood a little straighter and walked around the intersection to get his breath. He had made his milestone. He had been running a little farther each morning and had finally reached the intersection of Bluff View and Haven Roads at the top of the ridge line without stopping. A great deal of the two mile route was uphill and a challenge for him. His goal was to run ten miles in the hilly terrain without stopping. Well, he was one-fifth there. Pulling a water bottle from his running belt, he took a long drink as he continued walking around to keep from cramping up. He was about to take another drink when he heard the sound of running footsteps and turned his head. Running up the drive from below, he saw Debbie panting up the hill. She hadn't seen him as she reached the more or less level terrain and stopped.

"Keep walking or you're going to cramp up." Jon said."

Debbie's head snapped up, looking around. Spotting Jon, she smiled and started walking toward him.

"Good morning." She gasped.

"Good morning Debbie, here." Jon said, handing her the other bottle from his belt.

"I don't want to take your water from you."

"Go ahead, I rarely drink the second bottle lately. Besides, it's mostly down here for me from here going back."

"For me to, thank God." Debbie said, taking the bottle and drinking from it.

"Come on, let's keep walking." Jon said, guiding her down the road a few yards then back to the intersection.

They finally got their breath back after about the third circuit.

"The view from here is fantastic!" Debbie said, looking toward the river."

"Yes it is." Jon said, looking at Debbie.

Debbie glanced at Jon and saw him looking at her. She blushed.

"Well, I need to get back. I'm meeting Gil at the Haven this morning." Jon said.

"Okay, have a nice run." Debbie said, handing Jon the empty water bottle back."

Debbie watched as Jon replaced the bottles into the belt pouches and headed back up Haven Road with renewed vitality.


Brad started the generator and Harold began cutting. Harold had bolted a shield on the cutter to protect the eyes from the laser light so they were able to see better today. Colt had the bucket of the tractor down to catch the rock semi-blocks as they came out of the cutter chute. Brad and Steve stood by and moved the rock around in the bucket so they could get as much in it as they could before they had to unload it.

"This won't take long." Harold said to Gil, as the first block slid down the chute.

An hour later they had widened the passage all the way to the outside. They rolled the cutter back through the passage and Harold pushed a couple of buttons and the cutter began extending on the support legs until he had it at the height for the top cut. Before he went farther, Harold took the big spotlight and inspected the ceiling of the tunnel.

"What are you doing?" Gil asked.

"Checking for cracks. If an area needs shoring, I would have to increase the cut to include the thickness of the shoring material."

They found no cracks, so Harold bolted on the chute extension and Colt moved the tractor bucket into position. When the first block of rock slid into the bucket, it was much bigger than the rest had been, filling the bucket much quicker. Gil pitched in to help unload the buckets of blocks. They were a little over half way through the passage by lunch time when Grace showed up with sandwiches, potato salad and iced tea. They all went outside and ate under the trees.

"It's pretty out here." Grace said.

I think I know what to use some of the rock blocks for." Gil said. "We could build a little park with picnic tables and stone benches down here under the trees."

When they finished lunch, they went right back to work, wanting to finish the passage that day. By 1700, they were finished. Gil, Steve and Harold hooked the cutter towbar to a Gator and took it to the second passage while Colt and Brad moved the pallets of stone down by the cleared staging area and sat them in the trees next to it. Gil and Harold then rolled up the electrical cable and towed the generator nearer to the second passage. This time, Harold checked the ceiling of the passage first.

"Gil, you are going to need shoring on this one." Harold said, showing Gil faint cracks here and there along the length of the passage.

"Do you have timbers for that?"

"We've got plenty of 8"x8" oak timbers."

"That will work. We can just shore it up as we go along. It doesn't look like there will be any danger of it collapsing any time soon, but there are the occasional earth tremors once in a blue moon."

They got everything ready for the next day, fueled the generator and went back to Gil's for dinner.


The coyote sneaked down the edge of the fence keeping its eye on the calves next to their mothers. It stopped, sniffed, and took a few steps farther. It never heard the sound of the shot that took it under the right ear. Jerry stood up and unscrewed the silencer Brad had made for him from the barrel of the rifle and dropped it in a side pocket on his pants. He headed back to get the Gator to haul the body away.


The next morning Colt went ahead with Steve and Harold to the Haven while Gil and Brad loaded 8"x8" beams on a long trailer and gathered the tools to do the shoring. Because of the racks in the ceiling, Harold started the cuts there four feet in then adjusted the cutter and they did the side walls. Gil, Steve and Brad would then come in and shore up the area. It seemed they were slower but they were moving along fairly rapidly. By lunch they were a third of the way down the passage. They were actually cutting less rock because of the two narrow passages they were connecting into one passage. Gil walked outside and checked the shelf that extended out away from the passages. They wouldn't be able to bring an 18-wheeler in there, but they could trans-load and bring in, like a C5500 flatbed, and be able to turn around. He just needed a parallel road up to Haven Road. Don and his crew had the road widened to the power line intersection and were headed this way. They only had a little less than three miles to finish and were moving rapidly. The only thing slowing them down was they were having to put in more culverts along this stretch.

Gil went back inside and they all rotated on the shoring crew and the rock removal crews, except for Harold. He took care of the cutter. Jon came up to help and shared the work on the two crews. By the end of the day, Gil was pleased with the progress they had made. It had become easier to cut and move the stone. The next labor intensive job would be setting the blast doors and filling them with concrete.


The last piece of shoring went in a few days later. They went back to Gil's early and celebrated, leaving the final cleanup for the next day. An arduous task had been completed and the men were proud, and excited. There was a lot of work still to be done but everyone had a good feeling. They got everything cleaned up the next day, the cutter back into its shipping container and back down to the airstrip. Steve and Harold each left with a two gallon keg of River Bank complete with stand and bung spout, Harold with a hefty check stuck in his shirt pocket. Harold cradled his keg in his arms as they boarded the helicopter. Gil watched as they lifted the sling load and flew to the west, then set about the next phase.


Gil told Eric to start gathering the steel. Because of the weight and the length of some of the beams, Brad got busy and put together a dolly system, much like a log dolly to move the beams inside the chamber. The front dolly was connected to a tractor and towed. The rear dolly was like a tiller fore truck. It had a steering position to steer the rear of the load around. Brad had taken a tractor seat and the steering wheel and shaft from an old John Deere tractor and it worked great. Gil could never figure out where Brad got his ideas. Lifting the steel beams into place seemed to be a problem until he talked to a crane rental service in Knoxville. They didn't have one, but showed him a picture of a crane that would do the job. The SPYDERCRANE URW706 mini crawler crane. It could lift 13,330 pounds and had a tipping height of 83ft with a 10' jib. It was only 5.48' wide, 7.17' high and 18.4' long so it could fit right through the passages. Because they would have to use it for a long time, Gil opted to go ahead and buy one instead of leasing it. As the steel beams and girders came in, they moved them in and laid them out in the order to be used. Jacinta and Eric kept inventory to make sure they had what they needed including the correct specification bolts. Gil contacted the Steel Erectors Association of America in Winston Salem, North Carolina to find the nearest steel erection company and was just waiting to get all the steel in before putting them to work.

[gipsy]

Thanks for the update

[ydderf2]

Thanks

[udwe]

Thanks!

[iamnobody]

Poor Jarrod.

1st I thought he would get Debra but now it looks like Jon will get her.

Then maybe Jacinta but now Eric has her.

Then thought maybe Carla but Jerry seems to be looking at her.

Who will be for Jarrod? Or is he destined to be alone for life?

[gipsy]

I have faith he will get his match

[freebirde]

While trying to go back to sleep this morning, this story and logistics rear its ugly head. Some say more, some say less, but I'm lazy and say 400 pounds of grain per person per year. A five-year supply is one ton per person, so they are looking at being able to store between 500 and 1000 tons of grain plus animal feed if they have no way to grow more during that time. Volcanic winter or asteroid winter will cause short or no growing seasons for about that long.

And no, I didn't get to go back to sleep, the cat demanded attention.

[ncsfsgm]

Chapter 87


"Gil, I just buzzed Reverend Jim through the gate." Grace said.

"Okay, I'm down at the wind turbine. I'll meet him at the drive."

Curious, Gil jumped in the Gator and headed to the house. He was just parking the Gator when Reverend Jim got out of his car.

"Good afternoon Gil. Do you have a moment?"

"Of course, come on in."

They went inside and Grace had coffee for them at the breakfast bar.

"I have a situation." Began the Reverend. " There is a family in town that lost their house to fire."

"Everyone okay?"

"Yes, they were at the movies, but they lost everything. The local Red Cross has them temporarily in the Comfort Inn but they'll need a place to live."

How large of a family are we talking about?"

"There are the parents, a son 13 and two daughters ages 10 and 9."

"Can we meet with them? You know why."

"Yes, that's why I came. I hope they'll be okay but I don't have your 'sense' of things."

"Do the parents work?"

"Yes, the father is an electrician and the mother works part time at Food City. She makes sure she's home when the kids get out of school."

"Well, when came I meet them?"

"What about right now?"

Gil looked over at Grace. "I'll call you. When I do, be ready to get some food and things together over to the Collins place."

"No problem."

"Let's go Reverend. Let's see what we can do."

Gil followed the Reverend in his Suburban to the Comfort Inn. The Reverend led him to a room on the second floor and was introduced to Bill Gregory, his red-eyed wife Linda, the son, Jimmy, and daughters Jill and Mary. Gil was not alerted.

"Bill, I've got a four bedroom furnished house waiting for someone to occupy it."

Bill's eyes widened. "I sure appreciate this. I'll pay you back as soon as I can."

They gathered up their things the Red Cross had provided them and the family got into their car to follow Gil. Before they left the hotel, Gil stood beside the Gregory's car and called Grace.

"Grace we need to do a full workup. I'm going to turn you over to Linda. She can give you the needed information."

Gil handed his phone to Linda and she started answering questions. Gil left his phone with Linda and went to his Suburban and pulled out. Reverend Jim followed them out on the drive to the Collins house off of 344 . When Gil pulled up to the renovated house, Debbie pulled up right behind them in one of the E-Tucks and she was followed by Lynelle Johnson in her patrol car. Lynelle got out and walked over to Gil.

"Lynelle? Is something wrong?"

"Yes Gil, there is. A good family lost everything they had last night. The men and women in the Department took up a little collection." Lynelle said, handing Bill an envelope.

Bill's eyes were glistening as he took the envelope. Lynelle, I can't take this…."

"Shut up Bill. A lot of people don't forget those times you've done off hour repairs for people and wouldn't charge them anything. So take it and with it our thanks, and sadly our condolences."

"Thank you Lynelle, and thank the rest at the Sheriff's Department." Bill said, wiping his eyes.

Lynelle patted him on the back and went to her car and left, and just as quickly Grace and Allie pulled up in the other E-truck with garbage bags in the bed.

"We'll let the men unload." Grace said, taking Linda by the elbow and guiding her into the house.

"Well, I guess we have our marching orders." Gil said, grinning.

He, Bill, Reverend Jim and Jimmy unloaded the food from the back of the first truck and took it into the kitchen where the women started putting it away. Then they went back out to unload the packed garbage bags with name tags of the family members on them and carried them inside.

"Sorry, we did a hurried pack job and bags were the easiest things we could grab." Grace said. "If you need anything else, just give me a call. I'm sure we have the sizes you need."

The men went outside to get out of the women's way.

Gil, I don't know how to thank you." Bill said."

"Neighbors help neighbors, and now you are a neighbor. Bill, where do you work?"

"Allison Electric, but work has been slow and we get paid by the job, not a salary. I've managed to keep our heads above water by doing side jobs, but now…"

"Well, I've got a project going where I'll need electrical work done. It's a long-term project. How many years' experience do you have?"

"Seven years."

"I'll pay you $1100 a week. You won't be doing electrical work all the time but I'm sure you'll chip in on other things. This house is yours for $200 a month for as long as you want to live here. The house is off-grid and there aren't any utility bills."

Bill took a big breath. "I'll take it, both the job and the house."

"Good! Welcome aboard. Did you lose your tools too?" Gil asked.

"Just the ones in the garage that I don't use a lot. Most of the stuff I had in the trunk of my car."

"Okay, well, if you need a piece of equipment, just let me know and we'll get it."

"They went inside and things had settled down to a dull roar and they were served coffee by Linda. Linda was sniffling.

"I don't know how to thank you Gil. This is more than an answer to our prayers."

Grace, Debbie and Allie came in from helping the girls put their things away.

Linda, what do you do at Food City? Gil asked.

"I work in inventory management. Every three days I go in when the delivery trucks arrive and make sure the computer inventory is correct. I then give a printout to the manager and he makes out the next order."

Gil look at Allie, who just nodded.

"Well, we'll get out of you folk's way and let you get settled down. Call if you need anything."

The Gregory family all thanked them, then Gil and the rest of the Bluff View crew returned home. Reverend Jim got out and declined to come in.

"Gil, that was a wonderful thing you did Gil. It was actually more than I expected." The Reverend said.

"You've just got to put the round pegs in the round holes, Reverend. Round pegs in the round holes."

[gipsy]

Thanks for the update. The crew is coming together.

[udwe]

Thank you!

[ydderf2]

Thanks for the update