|
Post by patience on Sept 20, 2013 17:35:12 GMT -6
CHAPTER 45 August, 2012
Ronnie thought about the money thing for the next week and decided a couple things. One, nobody should be tempted beyond their limits, no matter how good the person. So, when Tara and Matthew had both gone to work for Todd on his new barn, he came in from hoeing the garden and moved the 4 jars of silver to his toolbox in the old pickup. He locked the toolbox as usual and went back to work.
The second thing he had decided was that the money needed to be put to work, or they would just spend it all eventually. He'd put it in the truck because he planned a trip to town tomorrow to see the banker. He thought that one remaining bank was probably who owned the Duncan place now. That farm joined his Grandpa's--well, his farm now. It was a lot bigger, but had about the same amount of tillable ground and more pasture land. If he could afford to buy the place, now seemed like the time to do it. While everything was all messed up he hoped to get a bargain. Ronnie didn't expect things to stay a mess forever. _________________
Vickie had cleaned the house for the second time this week. Her garden was perfectly weeded and cultivated, and she had already canned the tomatoes that were ripe enough. The house was so empty without Lennie there, but the clatter of pots and pans in the kitchen helped keep that feeling at bay. As long as she could stay busy it didn't hurt so bad, so she made sure she went to bed exhausted so she would fall asleep instantly. The trouble was waking up alone in bed and wondering why she should get up that day.
Maybe Mel needed some help with canning his garden produce. It would be something to do, and somone to talk to. Vickie saw him in his garden when she got the breakfast dishes cleaned up. She decided to go talk to him about it.
Mel saw her coming and guessed that she needed to talk to someone. People who were grieving were like that. He had never had anyone to confide in, so he couldn't really relate to it, but he liked Vickie and would be happy to help if he could, or just listen. She was a good woman, in his opinion. She had stayed with Lennie through thick and thin until he died, and loyalty like that was something Mel held in high esteem.
"Hi Mel. You going to can those tomatoes soon?"
"Yeah, I thought I'd just make juice out of 'em. Less fuss to do that."
"Want some help? I'm looking for something to do."
"Mel chuckled and said, "Now, woman, that's the wrong thing to say around me. I'm liable to have you digging post holes in this heat! Ain't you got enough to do at home?" He grinned a little when he said it.
"No, I've about wore the pattern off the kitchen countertop cleaning it, and I need to be busy. With Lennie gone, it's just too quiet in the old house."
"Okay. Lemme see here. I got cucumbers ready to pickle, an' there's okra that's ready to cut if your hide is tough enough to stand the prickles on it. I got a can of crawdads out and had in mind to make some Jambalaya with the tomatoes an' okra an' some Sassafras leaves for seasoning. You up for that?"
"Oh my, I haven't made Jambalaya in ages. I hope you've got a recipe."
"Yep. From an old Cajun buddy of mine in the Army. I got some rice cooked to go with it, after you get the rest done. Lotsa red peppers growin', too."
"I hope you don't like it too hot, or I won't be able to eat it, but you show me the recipe and I'll get it started."
"I'll just add extra hot sauce in my bowl. Made some last year in an old beer bottle. I dried the peppers and crunched 'em up, then stuffed all I could get in that beer bottle. Then I filled it up with vinegar. It's been soakin' in there since last Fall, so it's gettin' about right now. When the vinegar gets low in the bottle, I'll just add some more. I can do that about 3 or 4 times before the peppers is wore out."
"I bet that stuff would take paint off, won't it?"
"It's considerable hot, for sure."
The noon meal of fresh Jambalaya was eaten in good company, with plenty left over for a day or two. Mel left it on the back of the wood cook stove in his garage. It was too hot to cook inside now. There was an old cast iron trivet hanging over the wood stove that said, "Kissin' wears out. Cookin' don't". Vickie took note of that, but didn't say anything about it. _______________
Early the following Saturday morning, Ronnie told Tara he wanted to go to town for some things and asked if she wanted to go along?
"Yes, I want to see if the grocery has any spices and I'd like to find some new shoes if we can anywhere. I thought there might be somebody that had some at the farmers' market. They drag everything in there to sell now, I heard."
He asked Matthew what he was up to today since Todd's new barn was finished, and found that he had a job working on the inside of Ed's new pole building. The boy was making some money, Ronnie thought with some satisfaction. He was going on 16 now and growing fast. The boy would need some new clothes, but Ronnie told him he would take care of that.
"Okay. We shouldn't be gone too long. Might be home for late lunch, but better take something with you in case we don't make it back by then."
"I'm not worried about that. Joann will feed us, and she's a good cook, too."
"All right, we'll see you sometime this afternoon then. You want anything from town?"
"Naw, I'm okay."
On the way in town, Ronnie told Tara he wanted to talk to the banker and ask about the Duncan farm.
"That's a good idea. It's right next door and you could clear out that strip of woods and make one big field out of it. The house isn't too bad, from what I saw just looking at the outside. Wonder what they want for it? I'd beat him down as cheap as you can. There hasn't been anybody buying anything that I know of." _____________
"Yes, we own that property. I'll look it up." Mr. Foster, the bank president said it briskly, like he had lots to do that day, even though they were the only customers in the bank. The only other person in there was probably his wife, who had a "Teller" nameplate, but was dusting the counters.
Ronnie and Tara were amazed that his computer worked, and even more so when he used the internet to find the property tax due on the place from County records. He was wondering why their internet didn't work, but didn't ask about it.
"Hmm. It looks like the taxes would be $480 a year on it, and we have to have $56,000 for it."
Ronnie looked at Tara and frowned. He knew the story on the farm and asked Foster, "How much was that boy's bail that the county wanted for it? It couldn't have been that high. More like $20, 000 I think I heard."
"Ahem, well, we paid the county a premium for it, and there are the normal expenses to handle the closing, so our cost basis in higher than that. We need to make a little money on it for our trouble, too, but we could probably let it go for $45,000."
"What would you have to have for it in silver?"
Foster had trouble keeping his bargaining face on. The exchange rates for silver left a lot of room for him to make serious money on a deal this size, but there were very few silver coins that came in for exchange. He wanted the silver payment so bad he could taste it.
"Let me do some calculation here," Foster said. Finally he said, "At the official exchange rate, "$45,000 comes out to $281.25 face value in silver. I can let you have it for $260 in silver, and you won't beat that price for a property like that."
"And if I don't buy it, what are you going to do with it? It will sit there and the cedar bushes will be taller than I am next year, so nobody will want it. The roofs are leaky now, and I don't see you putting the money in the place to fix anything, so the buildings wil be shot in a couple years and you won't ever sell it. I'll give you $150."
"Now wait a minute, that property is a pretty good farm, and I offered you a giveaway price on it!"
"Farmers can't get fuel to put a crop in this year, so they sure as hell ain't gonna be buyin' another farm, now are they? I'll be back in a minute. I have to go get something."
Ronnie went to this truck and unlocked the tool box, then carried in one jar of coins. He asked Mr. Foster if he had a change counting machine to save time and trouble if they could reach an agreement?
He did have one, like all banks.
Ronnie said, "If you don't sell that place to me, you most likely ain't gonna sell it, are you? I'll give you $150 in silver and you're lookin' at it. Take it or leave it."
Mr. Foster finally crumbled and said he'd do it. He signed papers for a while, then Foster sent his wife to the Courthouse, then they made out a Warranty Deed to Mr. Ronald J. Nichols for the farm. His wife had the paperwork done pretty quickly, Ronnie thought. He had almost half the jar full of silver when he left with the deed in his pocket.
Tara was impressed. She said, "Remind me to never dicker with you! That was quite a performance in there!"
Ronnie said, "I guessed that he doesn't have a penny in that farm, because the Feds bailed out all the banks that had bad loans the second time, remember? So, anything he could get for the place goes in HIS pocket, I'm thinkin'. It was already a write-off. I couldn't hardly come out and SAY that to him, so I just played my best poker game with him and didn't come out too bad, I think."
Tara smirked and said, "Let's see how you do buying me some shoes."
Ronnie grinned and headed for the fairgrounds. _____________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 20, 2013 22:05:52 GMT -6
We have company coming this weekend, so here's something to tide you over until I get back to writing, maybe the first of the week.
CHAPTER 46 September, 2012
The farmers market had grown a lot since Ashley had been to town. Harvest time was coming, so everybody would be busy then and had to get their business done now if they could. The government had opened the grain elevator and published prices that would be offered for grains at harvest time. They would pay in New Dollars, of course, but that was better than nothing.
Wes was really irritated by this. He told Kate and Ashley, "It doesn't matter what they pay for grain. They are going to just print the money anyhow, so they could pay any price. But leave it to them to keep it low. The poster at the grain elevator said they would pay $38 a bushel for corn, $62 for soybeans, and $42 for wheat. But diesel is up to $44 a gallon, and I used to sell corn for $7.00 at harvest time and paid $4.00 for diesel. They got it backwards. With no fertilizer available, I don't think most farmers can make anything at their prices."
Kate said, "A lot of farmers will have to sell at their price to pay their property taxes and buy what they must to get through the winter."
Wes said, "Yeah, they will. But what it is doing is making everybody so poor they can barely afford to produce a crop. When they hit some big expense for machinery or something, they'll be out of luck. We're better off to feed it to hogs, because we can feed out a 200 pound hog on 15 bushels of corn or less, and we can get $800 for that 200 pound hog. That's like selling corn for $53 a bushel. Of course there is the work of raising the hogs, but that's a good profit. I wish we had more hogs now."
Ashley said, "How about chickens? Hogs have a feed conversion rate of around 4 pounds of feed to get a pound of pork, but chickens are 3 to one or better."
Kate said, "The problem there would be finding enough chickens to raise. I don't know anybody who is raising chicks around here. And you sure can't order them from a hatchery like we used to."
Wes said, "Other people are going to see this same thing, and the price of feeder pigs will go nuts pretty soon. We need to breed hogs and sell feeder pigs. It takes less feed and the profit will be better."
Ashley said, "I'll ask around about baby chicks. If nobody is doing that, maybe we should raise some."
Kate smiled and said, "That's my girl!"
Wes was about to make some snappy remark about his wife having babies on her mind all the time, but thought better of it and kept quiet. They found some things they wanted at the market, and were especially glad to find sugar. It was turbinado sugar, the first refining run of cane sugar, so it was still slightly brown and had a hint of molasses flavor, but it beat nothing. The government had decreed that white sugar used too much natural gas to refine so for now it was this or nothing. It had more moisture than white sugar, and bigger grains, but it would make jams and jellies. Wes was wondering where he could get seed for sugar beets, or sorghum cane. Their internet still didn't work, so he would look it up in Joe's old encyclopedia set tonight and learn all he could about those crops and processes.
Kate bought a 50 pound paper bag of the sugar and a 10 pound sack of roasted coffee beans. Her mother's old coffee grinder still worked, and she felt lucky to have it. Wes found some used socks that were in pretty good shape, and Ashley bought a pair of women's white leather shoes, the kind that nurses wore. Their purchases seemed expensive, but they had the money from selling some hogs lately and could afford it. The prices made them shop pretty hard, though, and they passed up a lot of things that would have been nice to have.
On the way home, Wes said, "If they don't get some parts in at the equipment dealers soon, there's going to be a lot of machinery that breaks down before long. The whole country is running on the ragged edge of falling completely apart. I'm glad I finally found that old metal lathe and milling machine, 'cause I'm afraid I'll have to make my own parts before long the way things are. And I can't make hydraulic hoses, or ball bearings. Some stuff just has to come from factories. It scares me bad. I just hope we make it through harvest time this year without any bad breakdowns." __________________
Ronnie had worried for a while about what he would do with their new farm to make some money, so he took a long walk one Sunday with Matthew to look it over good. They figured out pretty close to where the boundaries were, and walked down one of the big hollows to the creek bottom below, a drop of almost 300 feet that was steep enough to slide in places. In a forest cove at the bottom, he saw some familiar yellow leaves and red berries. It was early for Ginseng to turn colors yet, but it had been pretty dry lately.
He pulled out his folding belt knife and whittled himself a pointed digging stick. A regular Ginseng hoe would be better, but a blacksmith would have to make that. It had never been a commercial tool. Some people carried digging forks when they hunted it, but they got pretty heavy climbing over the hills. Matthew found another patch across the creek that was even thicker. Thinking about it, Ronnie decided that nobody had been out digging the stuff for a couple years, and this was pretty remote, too.
They dug about every third or fourth plant, pulled off the berries and scattered them back in the patch to seed a new crop. The last he'd heard, this stuff was worth over $200 a pound dried, and that was before any of the devaluations. But Ronnie wasn't planing to sell it. He planned to keep it for medicinal uses, so they didn't dig but a few plants. A little Ginseng goes a long ways. They washed the roots in the creek and shook them dry, then cut off the top of the plants and carried the roots in their shirt pockets. They also dug some Yellowroot, also called Goldenseal, a powerful antibiotic herb that commonly grew in the same sort of places as Ginseng. Harlan had taught him well about hunting and wildcrafting.
Facing a long hard climb back to the top of the hill, Ronnie bit off a very tiny piece of root and chewed it. It had an acrid, slightly bitter taste, strongly flavored like dirt, but it was a powerful stimulant. This creek was so remote that nothing but animals were in the area, so he got a handfull of water to chase the taste out of his mouth and wash the Ginseng into his stomach to be absorbed. Matthew tasted it and chose to do without the stimulant. After a brief rest, Ronnie felt much better and began the climb back up the fields above.
The farm was on the broad end of the ridge and had more flat table land on top than most of the properties up here. Out of the 80 acres he had bought, there was probably 20 acres or more in one irregular field, and almost that much in another one, plus a small sloping pasture lot of about 6 acres. All of it was overgrown with tall weeds and some scattered cedar bushes. It needed to be cut over this Fall and reseeded with pasture grasses this winter if it was to be useful next year. He would pay Ed Wilson to do that. The old fences were rusty and brittle, but would probably hold cattle. The gates were trash, but he could make new ones.
He had exagerated how bad off the buildings were, knowing the fat Mr. Foster would never actually come out here to look at the place. The tall farm house roof shingles were old, but appeared to be intact. The metal barn and shed roofs wanted some nails and a coat of roof paint wouldn't hurt, either. He wondered if he could find any roof paint. He had some nails, so he could tend to the worst of it. Ronnie didn't see any broken windows, so it wouldn't take much to have the place in shape for winter. He tried the hand pump on the old well and after about a dozen strokes, it began to pump rusty water. It soon cleared up and didn't taste bad at all.
Ronnie discovered a big pig pen overgrown with horseweeds taller than he was. It was in pretty bad shape. He walked on to look at the wood fenced garden spot, also gone to weeds, but with a couple determined tomato plants along one edge. All the place needed was a little tender loving care.
Matthew wandered into the barn and looked around. He climbed into the loft to look over how it was built with hewed beams and pegged joints. There was a little wood siding missing, but it was in good shape. He'd already found enough old boards in a stall to fix the siding. The loft floor still had a little hay trash in spots, and piles of old junk, the cast offs of previous residents. Matthew ignored all that, interested instead in the immense amount of work the builders had done to create such a thing, mostly with axes and chisels. It looked strong enough to stand at least another hundred years, like Harlan's old barn. This one was a little bigger than Harlan's barn, and had a laid limestone basement that opened on the lower side level with that part of the hillside where it sat. He loved the old building. It was something he would like to build as his masterpiece someday.
As the two of them walked toward the road, a pair of big does snapped their heads around to look at them in alarm, then flipped up their tails showing the white flag of retreating deer as they bounded for the trees. _________________
|
|
|
Post by kaijafon on Sept 21, 2013 4:50:33 GMT -6
thank you! great chapters! I appreciate ya!
|
|
|
Post by idahobob on Sept 21, 2013 8:27:44 GMT -6
Thank Yuuuuuuuu!
Bob III
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 22, 2013 19:30:05 GMT -6
Chapter 46, cont'd.
Alicia was relieved that the girls had been sleeping through the night for the past couple weeks. They had spent a couple nights upstairs in Chris' room, but they woke with nightmares and Alicia had to go calm them down. That had gotten worse after the shooting across the highway. It made sense to have them closer, so the kids traded rooms, with Chris back upstairs and the girls right across the hall from the adults. More than once Alicia had slept half the night with the girls after having them wake up screaming.
Chris was doing his best to comfort them in his own way, showing them around the place and talking with them. Today, all three of the kids were out with Todd in the new barn working on a wooden bin to hold their share of the wheat from Dan Billings crop. It was still stored in grain wagons at Dan's farm, but he would soon need the wagons for corn harvest. Alicia walked out there to tell them that lunch was almost ready.
"Hey Mom! Look what we're doing! This room is going to be all full of wheat, and Dad says we can make bread out of it," Christopher enthused.
Sophia asked, "Can you make bread Mom?"
Alicia was a little startled being called 'Mom' for the first time by her, but tried to hide that and said, "Yes, I can make bread. We haven't had much flour for a while so I've been using it for other things, like gravy and baking cornbread instead."
"That's good. I like bread to make sandwiches."
"We'll have to grind the wheat to make flour first," Todd told them. "I have a flour mill that will do that."
Alicia asked Todd, "Won't mice get in there with the wheat?"
"I'm going to line the room with those rolls of aluminum over there, to keep them out of it. They can't chew through metal."
"I'm hungry," Chris said, and started for the kitchen. The girls ran after him, followed by Todd and Alicia.
"The girls are settling down finally," Alicia said.
"Yes. I was wondering if they would ever get over what happened to them," Todd said.
"They won't ever forget it, but maybe we can cover their bad memories with good ones." ___________________
Vickie Hoskins had gone with Mel Sawyer to the Saturday market at the fairgrounds hoping to find some chili powder and any medical items available. She realized that she was the medical resource her neighbors had now, with virtually none in town. Halfway through the first row of sellers she ran into an old friend from her hospital days and chatted with her while Mel went looking for his own things.
Vickie learned about the disarray of the medical community, only now starting to come back together as State and Federal governments issued one dictate after another, few of which could be communicated to the right parties, let alone be implemented, so were mostly being ignored. She also learned that a Mrs. Margaret Duncan had passed away at the hospital, for lack of her blood pressure medication. That was not long before the hospital ceased to function in any useful way. Vickie dreaded having to pass that along to Todd and his wife, certain that this was their girls' grandmother.
There was next to nothing in the way of medical supplies. A few veterinary items were displayed on the tables and blankets, but nothing useful to her except a big bottle of gentle iodine solution. It was a good general purpose disinfectant for wounds, so she paid a good price for it. ________________
"We've got to give the combine a good going over before corn harvest to make sure everything is as good as I can make it. We can't stand having a breakdown with parts almost impossible to get," Wes told Ashley and her mother. "So, if you women can handle the canning for a few days, it would sure help me and Larry have time to get through the mechanic work."
Kate said, "Of course we can do that. We always did do it since Ashley was a little girl, and with Gloria to help, it'll go fast."
"Even with only half our normal acreage we need that combine to work perfectly. I don't want to think about having to pick 30 acres by hand. Joe said he'd helped do that as a kid, but it would take weeks and we wouldn't have a way to shell it. I am SO glad that we put all new hydraulic hoses, drive belts, and bearings in that thing last year."
Kate said, "It looks like good corn, even with the dry weather at the end of summer. It should dry down good and that's a blessing since we don't have gas to run the grain dryer."
"I think it looks about as good as last year. If we get 90 to 100 bushels an acre, that will fill the other bin at around 2,700 to 3,000 bushels. The Nitrogen in the plowed down clover really helped it, I'd say, with no fertilizer to put on it. Helped the ground hold moisture, too, through that dry time. So, that clover seed we combined last year is going to be worth gold if we still can't get fertilizer. We can go back to what Joe said about crop rotation to keep up the fertility."
Ashley told him, "Dad did that most of the time anyway, the best I remember. That's why the ground is in good shape. If we're really careful with crop rotations and manuring where it needs it most, maybe we can get along without so much fertilizer."
Wes said, "I'm glad I had time to learn what I did from Joe. Cultivating corn is important, when you don't have chemical sprays to keep the weeds out. I think I can figure out what to plant where next year, but I have to use a pencil and paper and Joe could do it in his head."
Larry walked into the kitchen and got himself a glass of water. "Did I hear somebody take my name in vain?"
Wes laughed. "No, I was just sayin' that it will take you an' me a while to go through that combine before picking time."
"We'll get it done easy enough. Not to worry."
"It's my job to worry," Wes said. _____________
"Do you know anybody that has any sewing needles? I just lost one somewhere and I only have a couple left," Joann told Ed.
"Not offhand. We'll have to ask around at the market. That drug store used to have a little sewing stuff, but I bet it's gone now. I'll look next time I go to town," Ed said. "That's just one more thing I should have thought about last year."
"Don't be too hard on yourself. I think you did a great job of getting ready for this. Most people had no idea what was coming and that meant they did without."
"We'll be doing without, too. It's just a matter of time before we run out of something important."
Laura came to the door and knocked.
Joann said, "Come on in! What are you in such a hurry about?"
"The internet is back up!" __________________
|
|
|
Post by kaijafon on Sept 23, 2013 3:43:29 GMT -6
thank you! that should be interesting, unless the gov has complete control over it. lol!
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 23, 2013 15:55:55 GMT -6
FROM THE BOTTOM UP, Part Four
The New Normal
CHAPTER 47
Eds' laptop booted up and gave the familiar Microsoft screen, then his desktop. He opened his homepage, Google. He clicked on a favorite financial site and got a screen that said the site was not available. The screen changed immediately to an unfamiliar notice.
Official Government Information
Read Notices in the links below
There was a list of links that followed.
The gist of the information links was that many sites had been deemed detrimental to the public and/or national security and had been permanently blocked. The remaining sites were all vetted by government security, or published by the States or Federal government itself.
Ed fumed. "No more alternative news then, huh?" Joann was looking over Ed's shoulder as he read. ________________
Christopher had discovered they had a web connection and his parents had a similar reaction. Laura sat down and painstakingly dug down through all the government links and found one to an Indiana State site for Education. It said that public schools would be closed for the foreseeable future due to budget constraints, so homeschool materials were available on the internet to be downloaded for personal use. It would be parents' responsibility to use these materials and educate their own children. A standardized test would be published online with parental password security.
Todd got disgusted quickly and went outside to work on his barn.
Alicia kept digging. She found Federal and State sites that outlined a new "Fair Tax" structure. It simplified the tax codes to a one page form that asked for income from any source paid in any manner, and the taxpayer was then required to pay their 25% tax to "Auditors" who would collect in each town or city, in cash or "kind". For farmers, that meant shippable produce, grain, and livestock. For any business that produced a tangible product, it meant cash or government ordered production of products to be specified by Auditors or their Authorized Deputies who would inspect the premises and make determinations based on their observations.
Under Martial Law for "The Duration of The Emergency", tax collection would be aided by military troops as found to be "necessary for orderly function of the process", and "Places of Ordinary Business" would have Deputies assigned to check on "proper record keeping for tax purposes". Paper money would be phased out, along with silver and gold, with the goal of all paperless transactions.
Under "Aid Programs" there were many pages with titles only, and others that were blank. Only the Food Aid had any details, consisting of requirements to be eligible for Food Aid, and that mostly bulk commodities would be delivered as available to central distribution points, with minimal details about that.
Land line telephones were being phased out as too costly to maintain in the new streamlined economy. Cell phone service was back in major urban areas and would soon extend to rural areas.
Alicia used a little of their precious printing paper to print out the things she thought were most crucial for people to know about. Over the next couple days, the information spread faster than gossip, but talk about how to deal with all of it spread even faster. _________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 23, 2013 17:43:58 GMT -6
How about some ideas for where the story goes from here?
|
|
|
Post by nancy1340 on Sept 23, 2013 23:46:50 GMT -6
You are doing pretty dang good so far. LOL Thank you.
|
|
|
Post by idahobob on Sept 24, 2013 9:29:38 GMT -6
You are doing a fine job.
It figures that the FedGov feels that they can collect taxes with the military's assistance.
I see a major uprising, besides the goblins, on the horizon.
Bob III
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 24, 2013 17:35:48 GMT -6
Chapter 47, cont'd.
People everywhere put all their efforts toward how to survive another day, through the summer, and how to live through the winter. Paying taxes was not a high priority. Avoiding taxes was a high priority. Black market trading flourished, and was patronized by those few Government employees assigned to monitor business and collect taxes. They couldn't get the necessities of life any other way, so they turned a blind eye to the cash sales and trading that went on under their noses, only asking for an occassional bribe to help them make a living.
The government desperately needed to collect grain and meat, so they put emphasis on getting it done. Corruption was rife among the Tax Auditor Deputies who were of necessity local people, being the only ones who could locate the farmers to be taxed. They collected a modicum to satisfy their federal overseers, took a lot of bribes to become very nearsighted when inspecting farms. On the odd chance that a Federal Auditor would accompany them to inspect a farm, word somehow got to the farmers in advance and there was very little to be found when the Auditor and Deputy arrived.
That gave rise to new terms, like "flying pigs/cows/sheep" , and "floating corn". When the Auditor was expected, some means was found to have the commodities be elsewhere. More than one Auditor solicited bribes, too. It was cheaper than paying the 25% tax, so Auditors lived well. If the Auditor was properly "greased", he didn't "squeak" to those above him.
___________________
The past winter of scarce food and fuel, and a certain amount of violence, had cost a lot of lives. There was no estimate yet of how many survived, but more than half the houses in Salem were empty. Great numbers of the town's residents had moved in with relatives or friends, with 2 or 3 families sharing a home for reduced cost for heat and to share food and other expenses. A lot of those had moved to rural areas, but some stayed in town where natural gas was available for heat and cooking. Some people died in nursing homes, the hospital, or other places where the death was recorded, but others died in varied circumstances with no record of any kind.
Employment was hard to find. The town still had its' Mayor and City Council, but they were barely to exist on their salaries. Both City and County governments were out of money until the next disbursement from the State, and that was long overdue. The water treatment plant and gas company had been taken over by the Federal government, but they were unable to send out or collect bills with not enough employees, and no functional postal service due to lack of fuel. There were posters in the County Courthouse promising that mail service would resume as soon as fuel was available. The real reasons had more to do with lack of vehicle maintenance, and inability to pay employees enough to live on.
With only a small percentage of the population working jobs for pay, very little tax money was collected in cash. Factories were already tasked with making what the government told them to make, so it wasn't difficult to shunt some of that production to government use, except the government didn't need much of what they could get that way, so they used what they collected to help pay government employees. Most of those goods were traded off on the black market that sprang up instantly.
Farmers were hard to collect from, also. Having barely a subsistence living, they had none to spare and giving a quarter of it in taxes would leave them destitute. Consequently, crops were not sold to the government as expected, but grain was kept and fed to livestock to defer any income until the next year. Livestock were slaughtered and sold on the black market then reported and "died". Tax collectors were shunned from society and denied the benefits of the black markets, thus remaining at or near poverty level. Clandestine trading meets were moved constantly to avoid a few overly zealous tax agents, and some of those tax agents who infiltrated these meetings never made it home.
Minimal amounts of grain and livestock were produced that year, but a little of that was sold for cash, then the taxes dutifully collected at the grain mill on that income. What taxed cash income people made, they used for buying fuel, sugar, coffee, and a few other manufactured and regulated items.
The tax take for the year was less than 5% of what had been budgeted, and the difference was promptly made up by the digital creation of more New Dollars. Banks had already been flooded with New Dollars to make them functional, so government bonds found no bid from other countries. The exchange rate for foreign currencies took another dive, making imported goods almost impossible to buy. The US population reached a new low standard of living. The government was unable to pay its' employees a living wage without creating even more New Dollars. The New Dollar had crashed to 5% of its' issued value by the Spring of 2013, and was falling faster. Most people with real incomes elected to pay their taxes in Dollars that were now virtually worthless, a hollow victory for the tax collectors.
Despite arguments for war on those countries who refused to accept Dollars for payment, the US was unable to confiscate adequate supplies to feed its' military reliably and suffered mass desertions as a consequence.
For all intents and purposes, the Federal Government was non-functional. States had already begun to fill the void, but in only minimal fashion. The States major achievement so far had been to keep the electric grid running, with some generating plants being shut down as demand fell and some equipment failed. Repairs were miraculous, when they happened at all. Telephone and internet services were a thing of the past. __________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 24, 2013 18:22:40 GMT -6
CHAPTER 48, July, 2013
Wes looked over his herd of hogs grazing in the creek bottom on what had been his neighbor's farm. That family had been killed in a confrontation with a mob of starving people last year. Several farm families had come to their defense too late to save them, but the mob had been destroyed. By mutual agreement, the farm was split up and used by those who had defended it. He hoped he had enough fuel to harvest the crops he'd planted and tended this year. There had been no new fuel supplies, or much of anything else, available since last Fall. With parts and fuel unavailable, Wes was thinking hard about training some of his spring calf crop to use as oxen. He had been looking around the area for equipment he could convert to use with them. He wasn't sure he had enough shop supplies to get the job done.
Canning lids had been unavailable for over a year now, but he thought they had enough to last this season and maybe next if they used the root cellar and other means of preservation a lot more. After that, he wasn't sure how they could handle what they grew. He needed some new stove pipe for the kitchen range, and decided he would have to make it somehow. Maybe he could chisel out a section of sheet metal from Bob's old car in the back gulley, burn the paint off of it, and make it into a pipe. That might be the best thing to do. He had to save what roofing metal he had for roof repairs.
They didn't have much gasoline left, and he was worried about how to cut firewood, too. ___________________
The dismal results from tax collection were duly noted and methods debated on how to achieve better results. The rapid failure of the New Dollar, the Yen, and the Euro had made it clear that the days of pure fiat currencies were over. China, Russia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, India and Turkey had been amassing gold to back their currencies long before the crisis hit. They now conducted trade among themselves, after having adjusted exchange rates to suit the relative amounts of gold backing them. International trade was now cleared through the new Trade Bank established by the BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
Those countries had their problems, too, with the crash of the Dollar causing horrendous impacts on all the US trading partners. Russia had an internal coup with a new leader in command for a short time before Putin had the new guy killed and regained his position. China had a series of uprisings from their unemployed and starving masses. That resulted in a new "Democratic Peoples' Republic", mostly differing in which of the surviving members of the old gang were in which new slots. Most countries in the world had changes of governments, some improved, but with many new despots were in control, too.
The big losers of power were the bankers, who moved off center stage. They had not lost any of their wealth. On the contrary, they had made the biggest grab of worldwide wealth in history by looting all of the economies of the West. They simply hid in the shadows with their accumulated wealth awaiting the opportunities they knew would come to reestablish their puppet-master positions.
The US officials decided that with minimal resources they could not force a confiscation of precious metals, but they could push for taxes to be paid with gold and silver. That would bring a flow of the metals to the US Treasury and provide the start of a basis for a new, metal backed currency. To accomplish this, gold and silver would have to be given temporary status as legal tender. Fiscal and monetary advisors were sought out and the path to a new currency was plotted with the help of those old banking fortunes who could supply the needed vaults full of gold in addition to what the government could collect. The game was about to be restarted. ______________
The income and lifestyle of the average US citizen had sunk to resemble that of an average African citizen. Some were doing much better than others, which depended on how well prepared they had been and how fast they could adapt to the ongoing changes. In general, rural citizens had a better survival rate, but the most clever of the city residents would recover faster, if they lived long enough. ______________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 24, 2013 20:38:46 GMT -6
Chapter 48, cont'd.
Ronnie and Matthew had spent some time last season gathering and drying Yellowroot (Goldenseal), Ginseng, Honeysuckle blossoms (antiviral), Forsythia blossoms (used in conjunction with Honeysuckle), and Elderberries. Tara had gathered and dried Marsh Mallow plants (digestive soother), peppermints (digestive aid), corn silks (diuretic), blackberry leaves (astringent aid for diarrhea), and other herbs she recognized. The barn loft on the Duncan farm was filled with hanging bunches of dried herbs. Ronnie was hunting for containers to put them in, so he could more easily keep them clean. Vickie had already bought a collection of herbs from the family.
When Ronnie and his family had taken a collection of their herbs to market one Saturday, They sold briskly, but containers to put them in were at a premium. Most people scrounged up some paper of some sort to wrap up their purchases. Gloria was one of the buyers, seeking information on how to use the herbs also, like everyone else. Kate had a bad cold and seemed to be getting worse, she'd said. Gloria was afraid she had heard the deep congestion of pneumonia with her stethoscope.
The pasture looked good, having been mowed last year and reseeded. Ronnie had Ed clip it early in the year and again recently to stop weeds from going to seed again. The 20 acres he'd had Todd rent for corn was looking good, although some rain would help it to fill out better. The corn and wheat on his original farm was good, too. Like Ed, Ronnie had bought some old grain wagons from an old farmer's widow to store his wheat crop. The corn he would pick by hand and store on the ear. The hogs and cows could do the shelling and grinding themselves. _____________ Ed had searched several markets before he found a man selling out the remaining stock of a paint store. He bought a few gallons of outdoor oil base paint, and enough latex base white paint to cover the barn on his small farm. He looked in vain for roof paint, but found none. He settled for 10 gallons of green oil base enamel for 50 cents in silver a gallon. It was expensive, but paint was not available, otherwise. He had a few brushes and could use diesel and gasoline to clean them.
The real find that day, however, was cases of new empty quart and gallon paint cans. He got a few of the lever tools to open them, and was delighted at the low price. He'd found his seed storage containers. He had used some of his ready money, but his few silver coins had bought a lot. He would be collecting soon for the seeds they had grown, and the cans would last for a long time. He decided to spend the time to paint the outsides of the cans to prevent the thin tin plated metal from rusting. There was no telling when he would be able to get more containers, so he had better make these last.
Joann had hired the Reynolds kids to help harvest their garden seed crops, only leaving those plants that were biennials to bear seed the following season. Matthew had earned a few coins protecting the vegetable seeds from deer and other wildlife. He got to keep whatever animals he shot doing that, so Matthew had deer jerky, hides, and had provided fresh meat to his family during late summer. The animals still ate some of the crop, but most of it survived to harvest. _______________
School had started on the ridge road as soon as corn harvest was over. Alicia used the education materials she had printed out while the internet was still working and collected whatever school books she could find at the markets. They usually went very cheap. She had taught Christopher, Emily, Sophia, and Matthew through the winter and on until it was time to plow and plant. At that point, practical life lessons were what counted. Todd had finally remembered his stash of cheap printer paper, toner cartridges, pens and pencils when he began to teach math class and saw the kids needed them. Alicia had trouble deciding whether to thank him properly, or jibe him for waiting so long to find them.
A bigger challenge came when Emily's first menstrual cycle came along. Alicia had already told her what to expect, but it was accompanied by the usual nervousness and distress. The real problem was coming up with suitable home made pads. They worked the problem out together and Emily learned something about sewing and more about laundry in the process. Once that problem had been dealt with, Emily was less of a problem in class, and got back to learning at her usual high rate.
Todd had been carefully maintaining his solar batteries, knowing there were no replacements available. He had collected rain water and carefully filtered it through an old Tee shirt, then bottled it to use for maintaining the fluid level in the batteries. He did a desulfating charging cycle at recommended intervals, and so far it seemed to be working. He never let the battery bank get below 70% charge level, and was hoping to get more than the expected 10 years out of his premium Rolls Surette cells. As he had read on the internet, batteries are too often mistreated leading to short lifetimes. He wanted all the life he could get out of them. They provided refrigeration and lights, both very rare things in this new world. ______________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 24, 2013 20:43:34 GMT -6
CHAPTER 49, November, 2013
Laundry had been a problem since things had gone bad. The most common method now was to boil clothes in whatever big container was available, using home made lye soap. Stirring them vigorously with a stick helped loosen the dirt. Then the clothes were dipped out with a stick into rinse water and agitated as much as necessary to get the soap out. A second rinse helped. Then it was hand wringing and drying on a clothesline or a handy bush. The labor was intensive.
Clothing was worn for longer periods and everyone tried to keep their clothes as clean as they could for as long as possible. A kid who willfully got into mud was asking for the "board of education to be applied to his seat of learning". Then they got to help with the laundry, and that usually cured the problem.
Mike Wilson had applied himself to this problem and had recreated some antiques. First was a hand cranked wringer made of wood. To make the wringer rollers, he had to first make himself a wood lathe. He dug into his book collection and found drawings of what he wanted. He and his Dad had a good selection of hand wood and metal working tools, so he set to work.
Using steel from old coil springs he salvaged from a junk car, Mike forged some chisels in the blacksmith forge, a gouge, a skew chisel, a round nose and a vee point. Those he fitted with handles made with an axe, drawknife and hand drilled them for the chisel tangs. The chisels were ground sharp with his pedal powered grindstone, a relic from his great grandfather. The whole blacksmith shop had been something he had insisted on when they went off grid. Mike didn't have a lot of experience at this, but he was learning fast. He already knew how to harden and temper steel from his experience as a metal worker. Doing it without all the modern technology made it more of an art than a science, though.
The tools ready, Mike proceeded to chop out the lathe frame members from saplings the size of his leg, and used a few bolts and lag screws from his stash to put it together. Turning the stick in the lathe was simple, but not convenient. He tied a rope around an overhead tree limb that was springy, then wrapped the rope a couple turns around his workpiece in the lathe. It was then tied to a crude pedal made of a split piece of wood under the lathe, hinged to the back leg. When he stepped on the pedal, the work piece revolved, and then revolved backwards as he raised his foot and the overhead limb pulled the rope back up.
Because he could only cut when the piece turned the right direction, it was slow going, and tiring to the legs. But it worked. He got a pair of rollers turned straight and smooth before lunch one day. He forged a crank from some junk steel, then drilled the roller and pinned the steel crank in place by cross drilling it and putting a nail through the whole works. It was slightly off center, and didn't work very well in the frame he'd made. Laura used it anyway, and was grateful beyond words. He promised to make a better set of rollers as soon as he could.
The answer was to find a way to put the crank and axles through the wood first, then turn the rollers using the axles to center the work. He had to make a suitable fixture for each end of the lathe, but he got that done and the next set of wringers worked perfectly. He had a marketable product, and he knew it. The second wringer didn't take nearly as long to build. He made 4 in the first week and had them all sold before he finished them.
He didn't mention it yet, but he had an idea for a hand operated washing machine, too, and it would be a lot easier if he could find what he wanted for materials. _________________
|
|
|
Post by notchman on Sept 24, 2013 21:11:20 GMT -6
patience, you've really got me hooked on this story. It's as good or better than Dirty Money.
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 25, 2013 19:44:48 GMT -6
Thanks notchman! I really appreciate the comments and compliments. Here's a bit more. Author's Note: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU8psaS62b8 (Go to about 11:00 min. into the video for how to use this for washing clothes.) _________________ Chapter 49, cont'd. When Mike and Laura set up their homestead off grid, they had bought a good used Maytag wringer washing machine, since those used less electrical power and less water. They had to run a small generator to power it, because their 2 solar panels didn't provide enough power, but the machine worked very well. Now, with gasoline almost unavailable, the generator was not an option. Mike had seen a YouTube video by a guy called Solarcabin who built a hand operated washing machine, and it was as simple as could be. Mike needed some plastic barrels and a few other things. The barrel he found on trading day in town. The man who had owned the local car wash was selling barrels that he'd bought with detergent in them. Mike bought all he could fit in his Dad's little truck, eight of them. It took some rope to get them to stay on the truck. They made a trip back to the man's home and bought 8 more barrels. Those he cut in half with a hand saw for rinse tubs. The washing machine consisted of a plastic barrel laid on its' side, with an axle through the center of both ends. Mike used some salvaged metal pipe for the axle and drilled holes to fit it. That axle was supported in a wood frame allowing the barrel to rotate freely. A small door with a latch was cut in the upper side of the barrel for adding clothing and wash water. A wood handle was bolted to one end that was used to agitate clothes inside by moving the handle up and down, rotating the barrel first one way then the other. Some pieces of plastic pipe were bolted inside to assure that the clothing got bounced around in the wash water. To empty water from the barrel, you simply turned it with the door on the bottom. By the next wash day, all the women on the ridge road had a hand operated washing machine and a pair of rinse tubs, and a hand cranked wringer, so their life got a lot easier on wash day. Mike began to have women pestering him and Laura about other things they wanted. They took a variety of things in trade, some of Lennie's clothing and a pair of boots supplied by Vickie, a grown pig from Ronnie and Tara, Gerald paid with an assortment of junk steel, 500 rounds of .22's from Todd, and so on. Mike had used a lot of his stash of small bolts building all the washing equipment, so he was looking hard for a supply of hardware. _________________ Ed was getting concerned about fuel for his tractor. There had been no fuel available since last Fall, and although his supply would take care of his needs for this year and more, he wanted the income of doing work for others, too. Few people drove anywhere now, unless it was a trip to town for market day and may people walked there. Bicycles were valuable items now, even the old heavy single speed kind. They would carry a heavier load than the modern ones, if you could find good tires for them. Fuel for transport was becoming a real problem, too. There was no source of real news to know if fuel or anything else would be available any time soon. Commerce was almost at a standstill now, except for locally produced items. New items were not being made, and existing warehoused supplies were not being trucked to stores. The majority of stores were closed because business owners found they could not afford to buy imported items, and lack of fuel, and thus transportation, meant that existing goods could not be shipped. Government efforts to jump start the process of commerce had largely failed for lack of a sound currency to pay for it. The only goods available were those left over from generations of over consumption. Some of the warehouses in cities had been broken into and pillaged. The thieves didn't bother to close the doors so the remaining goods were exposed to the elements and more thieves. A few enterprising individuals made it their business to exploit those warehouses and haul away whatever they thought they could sell at local market days. But some important items were very scarce. Batteries, medicines, sewing basics, most clothing, shoes, petroleum products of all kinds, staple foods, and repair parts of any kind were almost impossible to find. The nation's poor had always needed to find alternatives to buying new items, and became the new merchants of salvaged items of any sort. Saturday trading markets began to resemble a combination of a traditional farmers' market and a large yard sale. Finding something specific was a real chore. Nobody asked too many questions about where things came from, but a growing number of empty homes began to look vandalized. If the doors and windows had not been broken, they had been carefully removed and reappeared at the markets along with other parts of plumbing, bedding, clothes, and furniture. The difficulty of transporting heavy and bulky items to market caused "yard sales" to see a new resurgence, and vendors at the markets often had signs listing items they could supply, but were at another location. One of those signs caught Mike's attention on market day, advertising hardware. He questioned the man and later followed him to an old garage where he found stacks of boxed bolts, nuts, washers, hooks, and hinges among a pile of unrecognizable things. Some discussion and bargaining followed, but a bargain was struck. Mike would repair the man's drains in his house and take his pay in hardware. The marked prices on the hardware would be used and traded for Mike's labor at an hourly rate, plus whatever materials he needed. Mike spent the afternoon under the man's house and scrounging the market for a few things, but he got the drains working again. He went home a muddy, smelly mess, but he had a good assortment of new hardware and a promise to do more business with the man. _______________ Trips to town were reduced to one a month for the families on the ridge road, and those were done with Ronnie's pickup pulling a light farm wagon to haul the goods they offered for sale, and haul home their purchases. Every one chipped in some gas from what little they had to make this possible. Gas was very hard to find and was very expensive now, which dramatically reduced the number of customers from outlying areas. People had begun to travel in groups, with at least a couple members obviously armed. On the last trading trip, Ed had spotted a sign that said, "Old tools", and asked the seller what he had. Upon naming over some things, Ed got interested. He knew the man slightly, who had once had a flea market in town. Later in the afternoon Ed went home with him and bought 5 old crosscut saws, an adze, a broadaxe, 4 scythes, 2 large cast iron kettles, and several axe heads. He paid the man with garden seeds, 20 pounds of wheat flour, and silver. They were both happy. Ed and Mike spent some cold rainy days repairing the tools and making new handles for some. Mike sharpened them all on his pedal grindstone, then rubbed them all with an old bacon rind saved for the purpose, to prevent rusting. They found that a sharp, properly set crosscut saw could fell a tree in short order. Using an axe, the tree could be trimmed of branches almost as fast as with a chain saw. Large limbs were chopped off with the axe and taken to Ed's buzz saw mounted on the tractor for cutting into firewood lengths. The remaining log would be cut into firewood lengths with the crosscut saw when no other job was pressing, then split with a maul, or a sledge hammer and wedges. It was a hard way to make firewood, but it could be done without gasoline. The small garden near Mike and Laura's house was still producing turnips, kale, cabbage, and some surviving brussels sprouts. They had enough firewood cut and stacked for the winter, there was hay in the barn for the cattle, and corn stored. Canned food in the houses and cellared potatoes meant they would eat well this winter. Not everyone could say that. ______________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 25, 2013 20:03:05 GMT -6
My word processor program says we are at just over 118,000 words now. I'm thinking we should be at least 2/3 of the way through it.
|
|
|
Post by kaijafon on Sept 26, 2013 0:59:36 GMT -6
Thank you! I'm really enjoying the story.
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 28, 2013 19:16:51 GMT -6
It is unedited, but here is a bit for this evening.
CHAPTER 50 December, 2013
Unknown to the public, the central banks of Europe, the UK, and the US had been in negotiations with the real fortunes in London's "City" district to fund a new currency that would be backed by gold. After the Euro debacle of some overspending nations causing the demise of the Euro, there was little taste for anyone to join such a plan. Oddly enough, it was the worst offender of overspending that objected the loudest, the US. A compromise was reached, whereby each country would have their own currency, also backed by the gold of the money masters, but each would have control of only their own currency. The money masters would still have ultimate control of all the nations as before by controlling the gold behind it all. They could continue to loot the real wealth of nations at will, as before.
Announcements of the new currencies was done piecemeal, first the new Gold Euro, then the new Gold Pound, and finally the Gold Dollar. Exchange rates were intially set somewhere close to parity, as in the past and the currencies would be free-floated to seek their own value in the markets, but with a great degree of influence by the money masters. Within days of the introductions, trade was resumed among nations with a few caveats. Any trade between Europe, the UK, or the US with other nations outside the money masters control would be cleared through the BRIC countries Gold Exchange Bank for settlement. Trade between BRIC nations and their partners would still be outside the control, but not the indirect influence of the masters' fortunes.
Sovereign debts remained in place, keeping the nations beholden to TPTB, but none of the details of how that worked were disclosed. The issuance of new debt, however, was controlled by credit available from the Super Banks in the "City". Everything appeared to go back to normal, but with tight reins on the spending of each nation.
Superficially, it looked like some miracle had been performed by governments to bring the world back from disaster. Trade began to move again, slowly, but within a few months something like the old normal was starting again. The big difference was, all the countries backed by the Super Banks were now less wealthy by a factor of about 1/4 of their old value, based upon their indebtedness to the Super Banks. _______________________
The first anyone in the Salem area knew about this second new currency was on a cold winter market day in late December. Sellers at the market had some of the new printed bills with gilt edges and "Gold Dollar" prominently printed on both sides. The current Presidents picture was on the face of the one dollar bill, something that did not create enthusiasm for it. But customers were told they had 3 months to turn in their New Dollars for Gold Dollars before the last currency would be declared void. The exchange rate was ten New Dollars for one Gold dollar at the local bank. This new currency was said to be backed by gold and good for international trade, so imports would begin flowing in again. Everyone thought that was a doubtful prophecy.
The only good news as people saw it was the government gas station was open again, with gasoline and diesel rationed, at 10 gallons each per customer, and you had to have identification to buy it so they could assure you didn't try to buy more than once. Few people could afford it anyway, and the ones who could used silver to pay for it at the rate of a silver quarter for a gallon of gas, or 3 silver dimes for a gallon of diesel. Ronnie filled his truck by having his wife also buy 10 gallons. The excess went into a couple plastic gas jugs. ____________________
Making change was a problem for a while with the new currency, because the old pennies and "clad" coins had disappeared, since the copper in them was worth far more than their face value relative to the New Dollars, and nickels had likewise been melted for their nickel content, or hoarded for it. That was all illegal, but it happened anyway, mostly sold by importers of what little foreign goods had been coming in. So, new coinage was a must, but it would not be available in any quantity for a while yet. People solved that problem by making the difference up in barter exchange, or using New Dollars as change for a couple months before the new coins appeared in some quantities at the bank. They were all made of steel and plated with something pretty durable.
Silver and gold were recognized as Legal Tender again, with the exchange rate to Gold Dollars being 15 Gold Dollars for one dollar face value in silver, and 600 Gold dollars for an ounce of gold, in bullion or slight variations for various gold coins.
Having been burnt more than once by paper money, nobody wanted to let go of their precious metals, but many were forced to spend it by necessity. When silver and gold made their way to banks, it was promptly exchanged for Gold Dollars at the set rates, and taken out of circulation. That fact was soon discovered and less of the metals got to the banks. Nonetheless, a great deal of it did go to the government coffers and was used to help offset their debts to the Super Banks cartel. The game had begun again, in earnest. _______________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 29, 2013 14:18:44 GMT -6
Chapter 50, cont'd.
By March of 2014, the hospital in Salem had opened again, with 2 doctors on call and 4 nurses doing both nursing and office duties. The pharmacy had a few needed drugs in stock, and a few more OTC medications. Medical care was available but waiting times were long, treatments were limited, and prices were high. Ronnie found a brisk market for his herbs on market days.
There were a few sewing notions available at the pharmacy, more staple foods at the only grocery, and fuels continued to be rationed. A special ration of fuel was available for agriculture needs, based on acreage to be planted. _____________________
Todd Reynolds had bought a shortwave radio reccomended by a preppers' site. He got materials for an antenna and other accessories then packed it away in a waterproof container he found as military surplus. He forgot all about it, preferring to get his news on the internet. When the internet has shut down the last time, Todd was busy enough with farming and daily problems it never came to mind.
Now he really wanted more information on the new money and remembered the radio, hoping someone knew more about what was going on. He read the literature with the radio again, and a couple other reference books he'd bought with it. Next was stringing a longwire antenna between a couple handy trees and hooking up the radio with the lightning arrestor and ground wire. The radio would operate directly from his 12 volt solar system, so that was no problem.
English language news from China came in loud and clear, with much disparaging talk about the international money situation. They didn't have anything nice to say about Europe, the UK, nor the US, claiming the US especially had repeatedly devalued their dollar to rob China of their investments in US Treasury Bonds. Australia had little to say about the US, but a lot about their new trading alliances in Asia, having reciprocal currency agreements with China and other nations there.
Todd continued to listen and scan the SW bands for news from closer to home. A couple nights later, taking advantage of the better reception at night, he heard a scathing critique of the new US Gold Dollar, saying the government had sold out the country to European bankers to back the new currency. Todd didn't quite know what to expect it would lead to, but it fueled his distrust of the new currency.
He did learn that the New York Stock Exchange was open again, and the DOW was trading around 800, reflecting the various devaluations of the US dollar. Todd suspected that most of the stock trading was being done by a few big banks. His Humana stock wasn't mentioned, but he doubted that it was worth much with most hospitals either still inoperative, or mere shadows of what they had been. Todd had the foresight to obtain paper stock certificates, back when they still did that, so even if his brokerage firm was defunct, he might still one day get something from his investments, but he had small hope of it being anywhere near what it was originally worth. There was no mention of hedge funds, ETF's, or anything except major company stocks. Those more exotic instruments probably no longer existed, as far as what he could learn from the government broadcast.
It took a lot of time to gather much information from the radio, so Todd gave Alicia his notes of what he was interested in, and what frequencies to check with the broadcast times. She, Emily, and Christopher each took a turn at listening and making notes whenever someone had time. The picture that emerged over time was of a world that deeply resented the currency manipulations of the western countries. Asian trade alliances had formed for the express purpose of fixing higher prices for goods sold to the West. Chinese goods were again showing up for sale in the US, but they were no longer the bargains they had been in the past. The quality was as good or better, but prices were about 4 times what people had seen before, and there was much less variety. _______________
_"They've done it to us," Todd told Alicia coming out of the Dollar General Store, "The banks have taken all the wealth in the country and left us poor."
"I know we can't begin to afford what we once did. The prices in there are atrocious. They want $2 in the new money for a package of sewing needles that I once bought for one old dollar, and that was when we had lots of money. It's a good thing I saved baby clothes and you had bought cloth diapers. But I didn't keep all that many of Chris' bigger clothes. It will be expensive now to come up with something for Logan to wear."
"Logan is growing fast," Todd said. "We can go to the farmers market and look for clothes for him. It shouldn't take all that many. It's not like anybody worries about style now."
They had left all the kids, including their one year old boy Logan James in the capable hands of Joann Wilson while they and Ed had come to town. Ed was shopping at the grocery nearby.
Todd said, "I don't have my head around it yet, but it looks like we are far poorer than the average person used to be. I have to learn more about what other things cost and farm market prices, for example, to know where we really are, but my gut tells me we are poor now. It looks like prices are about double what I remember from before the dollar crashed, but now a Gold Dollar is a lot harder to get. Just roughly speaking, I think what we sell will only bring about half what it used to, based on what I saw for grain prices at the elevator. I think that puts us at about 1/4 of the buying power we had before the dollar crashed. The big problem is, I don't have the big income now."
"They have devalued the money so much and messed with it until I can't keep up. What bothers me is, what's to keep them from doing it again? ______________
|
|
jackorchuck
New Member
Enter your message here...
Posts: 19
|
Post by jackorchuck on Sept 29, 2013 18:21:35 GMT -6
Patience, great story, well written with a great amount of detail which demonstrates the strength of the rural sector. Thank you.
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 29, 2013 19:13:54 GMT -6
Thanks! I just hope to get people thinking about what could easily happen here. Here's little more for tonight.
CHAPTER 51 April, 2014
Ashley carried her toddler on her hip to the barn then sat her beside a straw bale while she milked the goats. Ella Katherine didn't stay there long. She wanted to see the baby goats and crawled over to peer into their pen. She used the pen slats to pull herself up. The goats came over and nuzzled her nose through the slats, making her giggle. Ashley let her play with them until she was finished. It took some cajoling to keep the little girl out of the pen while Ashey freshened it up with clean straw.
Ashley put the covered bucket of milk in the tank of cold water by the well pump and went inside to wash up. Gloria had the stove hot and was making whole wheat pancakes. There was a platter of fried ham on the table that smelled wonderful. Ashley sat down, thankful for someone to cook . She fed Ella some mashed pancakes and some very finely chopped and mashed ham, then let her nurse while Ashley ate. Her mother had told her that the longer you nursed a child, the healthier they seemed to be and it was less likely that she would get pregnant again right away. Ashley planned to let Ella nurse for another year, so she drank a lot of milk to keep herself healthy. She had regained her figure pretty well, mostly due to the farm work. She only had two nursing bras that she had to make herself, with much experimenting. They were a Godsend, though.
Another blessing was that she had started with potty training. What a relief it would be, to be free of the diaper mess. Thankfully, Kate had never gotten rid of the cloth diapers that Ashley herself had worn. The cloth was so old that it tended to tear easily, but they had gotten by using them. There were a lot of her old baby clothes, too, which had saved no end of trouble. Ashley still had no idea what all was stored in the attic of the old farmhouse, but she had Wes and Larry drag the old treadle sewing machine down and put it in the dining area. It would be warm to work there in the winter and the big dining table was handy when laying out a pattern. She really needed more sewing thread, the way she had been going through it lately.
Wes recently learned about the hand powered washing machine from Mike Wilson and built her one. Wes had made some improvements on the wringer, too. Although electric power was available, they had elected to do without it when the State had begun sending out bills for it again. The bills were high and they could get along just fine without it, so why spend the money that was needed for so many other things? It made some things harder for Wes and Larry in the shop, but they had been getting by. They might decide to get the electric turned on again, if his shop business picked up again. They had a small generator now that they used when needed, but only when a shop customer was providing gas for it.
The hand pump supplied water for the house, and the wood cooking range had a tank to heat water. Wes had arranged water to be siphoned from the small pond on the hill above the barn to fill the hogs water trough. It would freeze in winter, but for most of the year it was no work at all. They planned to have most of the hogs sold before it got that cold. His best move in her mind was the bicycles. He had traded a hog for a pair of touring bikes with trailers, and got their tool kits, frame pumps, spare tires and tubes in the deal. Those bikes had already saved them a lot of gasoline when gas had been hard to get.
The way things were now, the name of the game was to live as cheap as you possibly could. ________________
The welder was running, finally. Mike had traded a ham and 100 pounds of freshly ground cornmeal for it, knowing the machine had been sitting outside for a year or more. It was a gasoline powered Miller portable, the sort used on construction jobs, and capable of doing heavy work at 200 amps and would run a disc grinder from an outlet on it. Rain had gotten into the gas tank and fouled everything including the carburetor, but diligent cleaning had fixed that. A battery to start it with was a problem, but they had been getting along borrowing the one from Joann's car.
He had gotten a few ratty cardboard boxes of electrodes with the deal, but they were mostly rusted and barely usable at all. Mike had dried them out on top of their wood cook stove so they worked with only some sputtering. The find of the year came from the town mayor, when he had asked Mike to do some welding at the water pumping station. The town was pretty broke, so they couldn't pay him in cash, but some old fellow had died and the town had taken his property for back taxes. In the garage was a cheap welder, a grinder with extra wheels, and a big collection of electrodes stored in an old refrigerator. Mike made a deal for it all and was now stocked up on electrodes and had the dead refrigerator to keep them dry. He couldn't use the AC powered welder, but he used the cables and kept the rest for parts. He had a few cans of gasoline stored, with a little STABIL put in each one, but he had run out of the gasoline preservative. He could do a lot of work with what he had on hand now, as long as nothing went wrong with his equipment that he couldn't fix.
Mike made sure to collect part of his pay for any work he did in scrap metal. With his blacksmith shop and the welder plus their hand tools he began to do some business. Now he could earn some money beyond common labor rates. ______________
|
|
|
Post by kaijafon on Sept 30, 2013 3:09:45 GMT -6
I like how you are giving us a view of a "not so complete" collapse, where the gov doesn't completely break down but is around just enough to foul things up for people. Most PAW stories have the gov "disappearing completely" until after the hero's get all set up. I like this perspective.... for at least one reason: this is more realistic. I can SO see the gov ...local and state and federal, being around just enough to do these types of things.
thanks!
|
|
|
Post by patience on Sept 30, 2013 7:33:49 GMT -6
Chapter 51, cont'd. Only the first home on the ridge road had electricity before the crash, belonging to Charlie and Denise Allen. They had used the electricity during the crisis months when it was free, like everyone else, but when the bills began to come in, they had it shut off. There was no way they could afford it with only their Social Security checks coming in to the bank now. Benefits had been cut in half, per the agreement with the Super Banks that had forced the government to get their spending under control. There had been no deposits from Social Security while the banks were closed, nor until the Gold Dollars came out had the deposits resumed. Their benefit amount had been small to start with, but now it was impossible to make ends meet. They had to save to pay their property taxes, and had to work to pay for food and other needs. The Allens were old enough to have known what living without electricity was, and how things were done back then. Food preservation methods were different, not depending on refrigeration and freezing. Water was pumped by hand, or dipped with a bucket out of cistern. Lights had been kerosene lamps, and if you had a radio, it ran on a battery that you took to town once a month to get charged up while you did your "trading". The kerosene lamps they had bought for power outages were not the best light, they made an odor with the poorly refined kerosene of today, and it was expensive, besides being a fire hazard. The couple had made it a habit to "go to bed with the chickens" as was once the saying, and get up at dawn. Charlie was looking for a better way. He wanted some way to power a radio, too, and from what he had learned from Todd, he wanted some small solar panels and deep cycle batteries, but both were nearly impossible to find. Charlie worked wherever he could, and had been helping Dan Billings cut firewood. When Charlie had talked about his need for a battery and solar panels, Dan suggested the battery from the raiders' truck they had given him last year. And maybe he could figure out a way to make the alternator from the truck charge it up somehow. Charlie accepted the battery as part of his pay for the week, and borrowed some tools to go take parts off the truck, now deep in the hollow where they had pushed it. Next, he talked to Mike Wilson about making him a windmill. The hilltop where he lived almost always had a stiff breeze. It made the house hard to heat in the winter, but maybe it was good for something. Mike had thought about the same thing, and had once looked into the old Savonius turbine design. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savonius_wind_turbineHe was convinced he could make them from old barrels, but some other parts were needed, particularly some roller chain and sprockets to speed up the alternator to generating speed. He also knew that the whole thing needed to be up off the ground to catch very much wind. Still, Charlie wasn't looking for a lot of power, so it might just work if they used enough barrels to make a tall rotor. While Mike was thinking about it, Charlie put the nearly dead battery in his car. He used jumper cables to start the car from the charged battery he'd removed, and let it charge up on the next trip he made to town. He couldn't afford to let the car sit and run to charge it every day, so the wind turbine would be the right answer. Mike had some plastic barrels he had bought for washing machines, but hadn't used. He needed some kind of bearings for the top and bottom of the shaft, which he planned to be a piece of pipe he had in his pile. The barrels he could cut in half with a handsaw vertically to make the rotor. He had metal to fasten them together overlapping in the required S shape. He used the drive from an old chain drive rototiller to get the speed increased, so all he had to find was heavy bearings and some cables to keep the thing upright. He put the word out on market day that he needed a couple hundred feet of small diameter steel cable and thought hard about the bearing problem. It came to him when he remembered that he would need brakes of some kind on the thing to keep it from going too fast in a wind storm. What he needed was the rear axle from a truck for the bottom bearing. It had both great bearings and brakes. A front wheel spindle would do for the top bearing. And Mike knew just where to find those in a hollow not far away. _________________ Rolling the truck over to get to the axle, then dragging the heavy rear axle out of the hollow required the use of Dan's tractor and all the log chains they could find to reach it, but it came out, leaf springs, brake cables and all. The front spindle was more work to get loose, but not so heavy they could not carry it out. Mike spent a couple days putting the thing together with Charlie's help at his place so they didn't have to haul the completed rig. It took the help of the front end loader on Ed's big tractor to set the thing up and get it guyed in place with 3 cables solidly anchored to trees. The rotor shaft was a 21 foot long piece of 2" pipe, somewhat rusted, but now sporting a coat of leftover green paint from Ed painting his barn roof. The 6 blue plastic barrels were soon spinning merrily in the breeze atop the truck axle standing on end, with half of it buried in the ground for a base. The internal gears had been removed to let it turn freely, and Mike had filled the axle with oil they drained from the truck engine to assure the top bearing would get lubrication. Mike locked the exposed brake with a lever he'd made to stop the thing while he hooked up the roller chain from a sprocket on the truck wheel to the rototiller drive case, then a belt to the alternator. The ammeter from the truck was wired to the setup and showed that the battery was being charged at a slow rate. They finished off the installation with a plastic igloo style dog house over the whole drive works on the ground to protect it from the weather. It was held in place with a big rock, and easily removed when Charlie wanted to change batteries. He would use both his car battery and the one from the truck, with one being in the house to use, while the other one got charged. Charlie had taken the dome light, backup light, the front running lights, and the radio from the truck. They were installed in the house. Charlie and Denise were all smiles when it was finished. For his work on the project, Mike took home the leaf springs from the truck, the front coil springs, and a big can of bolts. Charlie had agreed to work 5 days for Mike for his labor, and paid him $2 in silver coins for the barrels, his welding rods, and other supplies he used. Mike was pretty sure that when other people saw the setup, he would be building more of them. __________________
|
|
|
Post by nancy1340 on Sept 30, 2013 16:44:00 GMT -6
Thank you.
|
|