|
Post by patience on Oct 1, 2013 18:15:36 GMT -6
CHAPTER 52 June, 2014
Larger acreage had been planted in crops this year for several reasons. There was fuel available rationed in larger amounts for agriculture by the Federal government who retained control of the oil industry. Also, the State of Indiana, recognizing the need to feed the nation, had allowed the use of abandoned or unused farmland by any farmer who could make it produce. Fertilizer was still in woefully short supply, especially nitrogen products, but some potash and phosphate was being distributed by rail, and offered to farmers on credit by the State, to be paid for in grain after harvest. The Federal government was unhappy with that arrangement, since it bypassed their taxes, but the States held sway and the Feds knew the grains were needed. And, they could be taxed later.
City populations had fallen drastically, but there remained a lot of mouths to feed, and most of those were unemployed, or claimed to be. The Federal government had few resources to provide for those in need, but the States had more due to closer proximity and a more flexible approach to tax collection. The balance of power had shifted back to the States with the money flows. The States were also in a better position to collect and provide food commodities to their employees, generating a lot of loyalty.
Todd had gone into partnership with Dan Billings and Ed Wilson to farm about 400 acres of corn and soybeans. Wes had partnered with his neighbor, Neal Davis and was planting nearly 500 acres of mostly corn. Their main limitations now were the lack of nitrogen fertilizer, and the lack of chemicals to prevent weeds, necessitating plowing down weeds and later cultivation. Plows and cultivators were in short supply, and using both took large amounts of fuel and time. Parts were still in short supply, being mostly old stock since manufacture had not restarted as quick as agriculture. Some parts were not available at any price, making viable equipment another limitation. States were offering tax breaks for partnerships and leases that made use of functional machinery.
Natural gas and some oil was coming in from Canada, as in the past, but no oil was being imported from other countries, per the radio news, where there was constant talk of fuel conservation. Electricity was available, but more limited and expensive because of several generating plants having been shut down that still required maintenance crews to keep the nuclear plants in a safe idle condition. Materials and personnel to service and run the Midwest's coal generating plants were easier to find, and the Midwest States had relaxed regulations on those, after the Federal regulatory departments were no longer operating. Still, generating and maintenance costs were high, and fewer people could afford the power. The goal, however, was to provide power to restart maufacturing, with consumers helping to finance the grid. Industries would bear their share of the cost when they were running again.
Chemicals and pharmaceuticals were slow to restart, not being amenable to running at less than full capacity for the reduced demand. Where possible, chemical plants were restarted, and the products shipped over larger areas, so one plant could operate at efficient levels. That put a strain on fuel for transport, so it was a balancing act, again, one performed by the States involved. Government had been forced by their own desire to survive to once again serve the needs of their people first.
Once again, cell phone service was back. The service was not the best, and billing had to be reinvented since credit cards were not working. Service minutes were now payable only by direct deduction from a bank checking account, to be accomplished by a long and tedious process. Internet was up again, but still limited to the 'permitted sites' and some internet providers were not operating yet, having been taken over by the Federal government who lacked the personnel to keep them going. ______________
Cell phone service had always been unreliable on the ridge road, except at Charlie and Denise Allen's place, so nobody in the community had bothered to try to get phone service again. Things were working just fine without the expense, and at the much more relaxed pace of life that everyone was beginning to enjoy.
Ed got a message on market day to go see his old factory boss. They wanted him to come back to work. The money offered was good, but he did not trust the money system, nor was he much interested in working indoors again on their confining schedule. The cost of fuel to drive to work was a big factor, although the factory would get extra gas rations for him. Ed thought hard about it, then agreed to come back for a short time to assist in getting the place operating again, but told them he would disappear at harvest time, so plan on it.
He wasn't going to worry much about getting there on time, since they wanted him, rather than him needing the job. Ed did make it a point to go in early the first day to learn more about what was going on. For the first couple weeks, Ed's main duties were not supervising production workers, but working closely with the tool and die shop as they built and tried out tooling for new products. It wasn't auto parts now, but instead, can openers and small hand garden tools that would be the first products out the door. It was a State government contract to supply local needs. Other products would follow in quick succession.
Ed learned that a Canadian steel mill was shipping coiled stamping stock in by rail. There was a 2 week long problem figuring out how to get the heavy coils from the flat cars to a truck for the half mile trip to the factory, since steel had always been shipped in by truck before. Wes Blake made some money using his grain truck to haul coils to the factory. The rail line had supplied a crane car normally used for track repairs, to off load the coils onto the truck. The factory had an overhead crane and other handling equipment to take it from there.
Ed enjoyed using what he had learned over the years about metal stamping and how to keep a stamping press running smoothly. The two old toolmakers in the shop were long time friends, also recalled from retirement as part of the skeleton crew of 15 people running only a portion of the factory that had once employed over 300 people. The time flew by as long days were the ordinary thing, often 12 hours or more. But as soon as the first dies were running, Ed took leave of the place to cultivate corn and soybeans for a couple weeks. After the hectic factory, he enjoyed the relative peace of driving a tractor. ________________
|
|
|
Post by idahobob on Oct 2, 2013 10:22:38 GMT -6
You know, your concept of an "partial" collapse with this story, is very interesting. Most PAW fiction that I have read, has a total collapse with extremely dire consequences.
This is very interesting and thought provoking.
Keep up the good work!
Bob III
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 2, 2013 16:39:33 GMT -6
Chapter 52, cont'd.
Canning jars were available again, in limited quantities, and plenty of spare lids for them. The Ball Brothers plant in Muncie, Indiana was up and running again making Mason jars in quantity. The Canadian steel manufacture was the key item for making lids again, producing the special thin sheet metal for them. To their credit, Indiana and other states had negotiatated hard with the railroads to restore limited runs for shipment of critical goods, notably coal to the power plants and steel to manufacturers. Higher shipping rates per ton-mile were allowed due to the "short run" nature of needed shipments, and truth be told, the railroads had little choice but to forget their past policy of only running long trains of bulk items for more profit. It was a changed world, so they had to adapt or be taken over by the government. They chose to adapt.
Trucking was all local now for lack of fuel for over-the-road runs. That was being replaced by trains with a tremendous savings in diesel fuel. Semi trucks were parked by the thousands, with the few exceptions being runs of 30 to 80 miles where there was no rail service. Truckers were already idle, and were glad to get any job available, but the vast majority of them would never be needed again, those jobs a casualty of scarce, expensive fuel and greatly reduced shipping volumes.
Rail shipments were so few that it was no problem for trains being mandated to stop at the closest possible point for dropping cargo, many times where a mainline crossed a highway for off loading to a local delivery truck. Manpower replaced forklifts, and there was no shortage of manpower for these jobs. Soon there was pressure on the rail lines to build new sidings closer to points of use, often simply repairing old ones that had been abandoned when the short runs were dropped in the past.
A new Freight Department was added to most States' government with broad powers to order a rail pick up when needed goods were ready to ship. Delays were inevitable with the added bureaucracy, but it did force necessary commerce to function. Bickering over shipping charges was constant. ____________________
County governments were broke, so road maintenance was almost nil. The thin blacktop paving began to break up as farmers moved heavy loads of grain and machinery on them. Potholes were patched with crushed stone, if they were patched at all. The Counties began to allow a hundred year old practice of letting landowners pay their property taxes by working on road repairs. Paved county roads began to revert to gravel as blacktop crumbled. The local stone quarry reopened after having been closed when business had fallen a couple years before the crash.
Lesser used gravel roads began to revert to dirt, and the counties abandoned some altogether. The ridge road was one of those. The State highways stayed in better repair, using what little asphalt was available to keep them from deteriorating. Lesser traffic helped with that, but weather still took its' toll. Speeding was not a problem now. The rough roads and expensive fuel took care of that. __________________
State Usury Laws were enacted and State Bank loans were available to businesses at low rates to enable maintaining an inventory of raw materials and goods between infrequent shipments. Defunct tanning and nail salons became warehouses for nearby grocery and hardware stores. Investors who had the foresight to buy up empty business properties cheap began to earn a decent return on their money by renting them for storage. If the local warehouse ran out of an item, you had to wait for the next shipment, which caused people to do more planning ahead. Instant gratification had become a thing of the past.
Expensive restaurants were a thing of the past except in certain large cities, being replaced in the smaller towns by "blue plate special" diners with scratch cooked meals for hard working people. The menus varied with the seasons, depending now on locally produced food items. Citrus fruits and bananas had become rare treats in Indiana, but black walnut pies and persimmon pudding was common in season. Long keeping food items like crackers, roasted peanuts, candies, and some cookies showed up in groceries in small amounts, but most people now did their own baking to save money. A lot of gardens had popcorn growing, but unless there was local maker, potato chips were not to be found.
Salem had a local wood worker who began to make hand carved wooden toys that became popular on market days. Beck's Mill with its' overshot water wheel was running again, not as a tourist attraction like after it was first restored, but to grind cornmeal and flour for local consumption.
The US had come to resemble what it had been 80 years before. ___________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 3, 2013 7:58:37 GMT -6
CHAPTER 53 Late September, 2014
Wes took the sample of shelled corn out of the wood cook stove's warming oven where it had been since morning. He weighed it carefully on a postal scale and did his calculations. Fresh shelled weight minus dry weight, then the difference divided by the fresh weight gave him the percentage of moisture.
"I think we can run corn pretty soon, Larry," Wes said.
"What did you get?"
"I got 13% moisture. That is as dry as I have ever heard of this time of year. I think it will keep all right, if we run the fans for a while in the bins. We could wait another week or two, and if it stays dry we might get by without the fans for very long."
Kate said, "I'm in favor of waiting a while. If it stays dry out, that corn will dry down on the stalks to 12% or less and that will keep without getting hot in the bin. You know how electricity costs now. I'm not sure it was the right thing to get it turned on again."
Wes said, "I agree, it's cheaper to let God do the drying. We have plenty to do otherwise. I'm a little antsy, though, with so much acreage this year. How about we combine what we're going to sell, and let the government worry about drying that much?"
Kate said, "Well, that would be all right I suppose. I'm not used to thinking about selling so much. We can use the money."
"We sure can,"Ashley said. "It's bad enough to have everything all screwed up, but with corn at $3.00 a bushel, everything will have to go right to make much money on it. Diesel fuel is still over $4.00 and everything we need to buy is outrageous. I saw a 12 ounce can of coffee at $12. Can you believe that?"
Kate said, "That's why I dug all those dandelion roots this summer and dried them. I've been roasting and grinding those and mixing it with the coffee to make it go farther. I don't see how most people get along now, unless they have family to help like we do. Larry, I don't know what we'd do without you and Gloria. It takes so much work just to keep the place going and do enough to make a living that one couple just can't do it all."
Larry said, "We've talked it over and we're planning to sell our place. We rented the ground out to the neighbor this year because it's too far away for us to farm from here. He wants to buy it since it joins his farm. He wants the barn and outbuildings, but has no need for the house, so I think I'll tear it down for the materials. It would give us a lot of repair materials here, and we'd like to buy in to the farm here with what we get from our land."
Ashley said, "That makes a lot of sense to me. You deserve more than wages for the blood, sweat, and tears you put in here."
Wes agreed. "I like that. We can take the big truck over there after harvest and probably haul all of the house materials in one load."
Ashley said, "Well, it ought to be on paper and recorded at the Courthouse, like any partnership. I can start to work on a partnership contract, if you want me to, and you all tell me what needs to be in it. We need to make sure you and Gloria get credit for all you've contributed."
"I'll help you work on that,"Kate said. "I've been hoping things would turn out this way."
Their corn crop began to be sold to the grain elevator the next day, the start of a long harvest season. _____________
|
|
|
Post by kaijafon on Oct 3, 2013 10:49:18 GMT -6
this is such a bleak future and sadly I think an accurate one. Makes me wonder just how those without farms will fair. thank you for the story and giving us so much to think about.
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 3, 2013 12:10:21 GMT -6
kaijafon, Yes, some have paid a big price and many others didn't make it, but for those who did, the future may come out to be not so bad.
Chapter 53, cont'd.
Harvesting was going well for Todd, Ed, and Dan Billings, with no breakdowns so far. Dan had another good crop of winter wheat that sold high this year. The 3 of them had out 120 acres of soybeans, the limit of the seed that Dan had in the bin. Even unfertilized, it made 30 bushels per acre, but getting it hauled to the grain elevator had been a problem. Dan's old grain truck would only haul 300 bushels so Todd had bought a trailer to pull with his pickup that could haul 100 bushels. It still made a lot of trips to the elevator to move the 3,000 bushels of beans. There was a lot of waiting in line to unload as the grain elevator augered beans into waiting railroad cars. One whole day was lost waiting for a switch engine to move cars into loading position. Todd and Dan got disgusted with the delays and decided to keep the last 600 bushels for seed the next year.
Ed knew that every truck in the county would be busy when corn harvest began, so he looked into the problem early. One of the men hired at the factory had a semi truck and a grain trailer, but it needed license tags and insurance, plus fuel. He didn't have the money for that. Ed talked to Ronnie Nichols and arranged for money to get the truck on the road by the time corn was ready to pick. Ronnie leased the truck and driver to work through harvest for him, Ed, Todd, and Dan. There were other farmers in the valley below the ridge community who kept the man running constantly through harvest time. It was a good thing for the truck owner, since the factory was idled for a couple months after filling their last contract. They were refitting dies from another company to run later, but it would take several weeks.
Harvest went slower than it had in years past, for lack of equipment. Too many farmers had put off repairs until too late to get parts, or had suffered financially so they couldnt afford parts while they were still available. As the season dragged on, some early Fall rains began to weigh down unharvested corn stalks. Very little hybrid corn with its' sturdier stalks had been planted. The old open pollinated variety that Wes had provided for seed grew much taller and thinner stalks that were prone to deteriorate fast and fall over in the least amount of wind. The combines could not reach fallen stalks to pick them up, so several farmers were in a panic to get their crops in fast. The weaker stalks made no difference when corn was picked by hand, but that was impossible with the huge acreages planted now, requiring machinery to harvest it fast before it rotted in the fields.
Larry and Wes had finished picking everything except the 30 acres on their home farm when a gusty thunderstorm almost flattened it. There was no way to get it picked with the combine, except for a few acres that was sheltered from wind by a wooded area. Larry had gotten good at running the combine, so he had taken turns with Wes and Ashley to keep the thing running almost around the clock in order to get as much done as they had. This was one of the better fields they had planted this year, and had promised a good yield, as much as 90 to 100 bushels per acre. the combine would be lucky to pick up a third of it, and would mash the fallen stalks to the ground to rot. At $3.00 a bushel, they were looking at a loss of around 1,800 bushels, or $5,400. That was more than a lot of people made in a year now.
Wes came in from looking over the field and said, "That's going to hurt. The profit margin is too slim to let this go. We have to save it somehow. I guess we can snap it by hand and then shovel the ears through the combine, but that is going to take all winter and a lot of it is going to rot."
Kate said, "We have some money, enough now to do us through the year. What are feeder pigs selling for now?"
Larry caught on right away. "YEAH! That field has nearly new fencing! Just turn some hogs in there and let them do the picking!"
Wes said, "Why didn't I think of that?"
Ashley said, "Because you were thinking too hard about how to combine it, that's why. Nobody can think of everything."
Wes said, "Okay, how about pigs for free?"
Everyone gave him blank looks until he explained. "Neal was telling me that there are a lot of hogs running wild in the creek bottoms and they had gotten into one of his fields there. We think they came from those farmers who got killed last year."
Larry said, "I heard that too, but how do we catch 'em? Those things get mean."
Wes said, "I'm thinking about that. They hang out just down the creek from our back pasture. If we can get 'em into our pasture and close the gate, they are ours."
Kate said, "The way to a pig's heart is through his stomach. Why don't you leave a trail of feed for them to follow? There are all those wormy apples I couldn't can this year, and they love apples."
Larry took his smaller tractor to the orchard and used the front end loader to scoop up half rotten apples, aided by the others raking them up. They were loaded on a hay wagon and hauled down near the creek, then scattered in a trail up to the pasture gate. Larry stationed himself in a deer stand on a tall tree to watch that night. They had run over some apples with the tractor to smash them and spread the smell. It was almost daybreak when he heard grunting and awoke from dozing off. The quarter moon's light was enough to see the mostly white hogs slowly following the trail of apples into the pasture. When he didn't see any more coming out of the trees beyond the pasture, Larry quietly got down and closed the pasture gate, then went to the house for some sleep.
"I counted 62 head in there, but they were moving around some, so it may not be right," Ashley said.
Wes grinned, "Problem solved, thanks to that idea! That isn't enough to eat that much corn, but with what hogs we already had, it should do it. Boy, do I feel better now." ________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 3, 2013 19:46:04 GMT -6
Chapter 53, cont'd.
"We need to get married, you know," Gloria told Larry. They were getting dressed for the day and it was just light enough to see in the room.
Larry said, "Yes. Uuh, I want to, it's just that everything else keeps getting in the way. The Courthouse is working again, I think. Do you want a big wedding?"
"No, definitely not. I had one of those and it didn't work out. I'm talking about the partnership in the farm here. So you will have legal title to your share if something happened to me. It's just the right thing to do legally. Besides, I think I want to keep you."
"I for sure want to keep you, too," Larry said with a grin. "I guess you've got it all planned out how you want to do this, huh?"
"No, I was just thinking that it needs to be done before we write a contract."
"Okay, how about we go to the courthouse and get this done next time we're in town?"
"Oh you romantic devil, you!"
"Hey! You're the one started talking like it was a business deal!"
Gloria giggled and said, "I couldn't pass that up. If that's a proposal, the answer is yes, I'll marry you the next time we're in town." She kissed him and said, "We better hurry before Wes eats everything Kate is cooking for breakfast."
Passing the biscuits and meat platter around the table, Gloria said, "We plan to get married as soon as we can. Does anyone need anything from town when we go?"
Kate about spit food in her plate. "WHAT? You can't just do it without us planning this! You've got to have a dress and there's the service and the food to get ready..."
"Hold it! We don't want to go through all that. No big wedding, and all that trouble. We just want to get married before we make a partnership contract, and do it all legal."
Ashley asked, "Do you really wnat it that way?"
Gloria said, "Yes, we do. I do, and Larry agreed. We're going to stay together anyway, but there are lots of reasons to get married besides that. All the legal stuff and taxes and all."
Larry said, "It doesn't have to be today. We just mentioned it so we can plan for it the next trip we make. Didn't mean to get anybody all stirred up. Wes, are we going to get some creek gravel today like you said? That place by the barn is pretty soft and it'll be a mess if we don't do something about it."
Wes said, "Yeah, that'd be good thing to do before it gets any worse. We can use your tractor and loader to dip it out of the creek, and I'll get a hay wagon to haul it on. Then we'd better repack your front wheel bearings to make sure we get the water out of them."
Kate said, "Well, I never in my life... You two talk about getting married like it was no more important than anything. I guess that's all right, but it takes me some getting used to."
Gloria said, "Kate, Larry and I did all the talking and promising a long time ago. That's the important part to me. I wish I had known that before I got married the first time. We're just making it official what we have already committed to, is all."
Kate said, "When you say it like that, it makes sense. There's a lot of couples that didn't figure that out before they got married. I'm thankful that Joe and I did."
Ashley smiled a little into her plate, seeing her traditionally-minded mother unbend that much. It meant she had a lot of respect for Gloria and Larry both.
Gloria was remembering the talk she'd had with Larry several months ago, when she told him she wasn't able to have children. Larry said that was all right with him. He didn't need children to make a marriage, just her. ________________
"Mom, can I go look for Ginseng with Christopher and Matthew?"
"I suppose so. Make sure you have them show you the poison ivy and help you keep out of it, Emily. Tell them I'll make some food for them to take, and be sure to take some water. I don't want anyone getting sick from drinking creek water."
"That's one thing I want to learn from Matthew. He knows all about the stuff in the woods. Thanks Mom!" Emily raced off outside to the boys who had found some old back packs to take along. She told them her news and came back in to get her own old school backpack.
Soon they were off together, with Matthew carrying his ever present rifle, and Christopher proudly carrying his, too. Alicia had worried about the boy and his rifle, but he had earned her confidence enough to allow him to carry it in the woods. It was the lesser of two evils, as she saw it. You never knew when you might need a gun these days. The weather had turned cool enough that snakes probably were not a big concern. Mothers had a lot to worry about, not the least of which was the obviously terrible crush that Emily had on Matthew.
She could do a lot worse, Alicia thought. He was a pretty good boy and ambitious at almost 17 years old. With Emily at just past 14, they were far too young to be serious, but of course kids didn't know that. Christopher made a good chaperone, though. And Emily was the tomboy of the two girls, always outdoors if she was allowed. Sophia was altogether different, quiet, studious, and a born homemaker. The younger girl loved to help in the kitchen and knew a lot from the short time she had been helping Alicia cook. She had no interest in wandering in the woods at all. She would help with anything, but her preference was to be in the house.
Todd watched the kids leave and waved from the barn where he was doing maintenance on his tractor. He had confidence in their kids, too. Christopher had matured fast, in the sense that he was a responsible kid, and reliably obeyed what he was told. Todd had drilled him with the rifle for almost 2 years now, and was confident he would handle it right. He had gotten his first squirrel with it over a year ago and thought of himself as a hunter now. He watched as the kids disappeared into the woods across the road from their cabin, Emily paying more attention to Matthew than to where she was walking. Todd shook his head and went back to work. ______________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 4, 2013 18:42:39 GMT -6
Chapter 53, cont'd.
Ronnie Nichols had planted 20 acres of corn on Harlan's farm and 20 on the Duncan farm, not expecting that to do as well, having not been planted for four years. It surprised him that although he had some weeds to contend with, he got over 80 bushels per acre from it. He'd had Dan Billings combine that and sell it for cash income, but picked the rest from his farm with Harlan's old ear picker and stored it for hog feed at home. He had over 100 head of hogs to feed out this winter, so that income would go on next year's taxes when he began to sell them sometime in February. There were small livestock auctions now in Salem and Brownstown that both seemed to bring better prices in winter. And, there was always the State sales in Indianapolis. He could ship the hogs there by train, but the prices there had been unpredictable.
He wanted to expand the hog operation, but there was a limit to how much work the 3 of them could do, and hogs took a lot of time. So, he had Todd cut the other 26 acres on the Duncan farm early for hay, and gave him half for the cutting and baling. Ronnie's half now filled the barn on that farm and some in the barn at home. The hay fields had grown back and were now ready for pasturing through the winter. Ronnie made a trip down the valley below looking for cattle to buy.
Two farmers there had young calves to sell. Ronnie brought them home 6 at a time in his pickup with the old stock racks on it. Four trips got the 2 dozen calves home. He and Matthew had set up a water tank for them by the old hand pumped well and bought a windmill to do the pumping from an antique collector. It had been a job getting it home and putting it together again, but it was in reliably good condition. That allowed him to rotate the calves from the back pasture where there was a pond to the front one near the old house.
The old Duncan farm house was now occupied by a renter. Bob Clemmons was a middle aged man that Ronnie had met at the farm market in Brownstown. He had been working for the vegetable produce growers in the river bottom to the north a few miles. Bob was out of work there for the winter, so he agreed to watch over the cattle operation and help clean up the place for reduced rent. He had paid Ronnie in cash to rent the house until next Spring when he would go back to work again. Bob drove his old pickup pulling a small camper with all his worldly goods inside. He said it was all right for summer living, but winter was a different story.
Bob did a good job of cleaning up the old root cellar and helped Matthew make a new door for it. The potatoes he'd gotten from his last farm job went inside. He fixed siding on the barn and cleaned out a lot of trash. Ronnie told him he could have whatever he found in the buildings to sell for scrap metal, or whatever, so Bob unhooked the camper from his truck and left it parked in an unused shed. Bob hauled a couple loads of his salvage on market day to sell. He came home with an old shotgun and some shells for it. Ronnie lent him a chainsaw to cut some firewood right away and agreed that Bob could hunt all he wanted to for meat. Within a week there was a deer hanging in the barn being made into jerky, and a small salad patch of greens planted under some old windows Bob had found in the shed. Bob let it be known in the community that he was available to work, so Todd hired him to help during corn harvest, following the combine with truck and trailer to keep things moving.
Alicia fed hired hands lunch as everyone traditionally did. Conversation during the meal led to Bob telling of living near Indianapolis and working for a landscaping company before the crash. When he lost his job, he hung around for a few weeks looking for work, but gave it up when his south side neighborhood had some rioting. He didn't know anyone on his street that had work and trouble was brewing. He was renting the place by the month, so he'd left for Brownstown where he had distant relatives. From what he had seen back then, a year ago, the city was full of hungry people. He had seen hitch hikers on the road but didn't pick up anyone. There had been many people asking for farm work after he got a job a year ago last Spring. There were more asking for work this year.
Todd had noticed Bob was little reluctant to talk about the rioting. When they were back outside after lunch he asked Bob if it had been really bad?
"I saw two men get shot getting out of their cars, and then the mob set the cars on fire. The cops never showed up. One of the cars caught a tree on fire and it spread to a house. The house burned down and the fire department never came. I left early the next morning when there wasn't anybody around outside. I had heard that the East side was mostly on fire back then, but I didn't want to get close enough to find out. Comin' down I-65, there looked like there had been some fires here and there until I got south of Franklin. I didn't stop until I got to Uncle Marty's outside of Brownstown. He let me park the camper there last winter, but I couldn't get enough gas to keep it warm. I like to froze in that thing."
Todd told him it had been quiet here, except for one incident, but better keep his eyes open anyway.
Bob said, "That's why I traded for a shotgun last week. All I had was a .22 pistol, and I didn't think that was enough." _________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 5, 2013 13:32:52 GMT -6
CHAPTER 54 December, 2014
"Louisville has started the Christmas Season, with more merchants for shopping this year. Third Street downtown is decorated and lit up like the proverbial Christmas Tree, enticing shoppers with new gifts to purchase, including a lot of hand made items from area crafts people."
The camera cut to a shot of people looking at dolls and toys in a store as the announcer said, "Credit cards are back with the refinancing of banks by the Federal Reserve, and that gives shoppers a new lease on spending...."
"They didn't learn a damned thing, did they?" Ed was fuming.
Joann said, "Some people have never thought for themselves in their whole lives. They just do what they see other people doing."
Ed said, "We'd have been better off if they never started TV broadcasting again. It's the same old, same old. Buy, buy, buy. You'd think that after all people have been through, they would learn something, but they're acting like fools again."
"They probably just want to forget about it all. They think that shopping and buying will make them feel better, like it used to be."
Ed said, "I wonder if it's really like the TV is saying. I didn't see any pictures of the big shopping malls like they used to show, with crowds of people beating the doors down. It makes me think this is what they WANT us to think. TV was always a propaganda machine for big business, and then for big government. I'm calling BS on this. Let's just shut the thing off."
Joann said, "I want to catch the weather forecast. I need to do laundry."
"Okay, but I don't want to watch it. I'm going out to take care of the chickens."
The door closed a little harder than it needed to as he went out. Joann started sorting clothes and was thinking that Ed was probably right, and she was, too. She knew for certain that she had no intentions of going shopping in the city, even though they had the money for it. Ed had dropped a hint that he really liked black walnut pie, and that's what she planned to make him for Christmas. They had started going to church lately, down in the valley below the ridge. It was a social thing as much as it was religious for her, but she liked the sermons, too. She and Ed had gotten married there last month, and had been attending since then. The Christmas service should be nice, she thought, with a pageant to be put on by the kids. It made life seem a little more civilized for her. ______________
Larry Barnes was having similar thoughts. He had seen the TV ads as well, but they sounded more like desperation than sales promotion. There were no "overstock sales" or "going out of business" sales like he used to see. Instead the commercials all showed the outside of the store and a few well stocked shelves, but never the whole store. He thought the city stores were like the local ones, with half the shelves crammed together in storage at the back, and only a few shelves in front with goods on them.
He didn't plan on going shopping either, although they had just sold the first batch of hogs that put over a thousand dollars in the bank for him and Gloria. They had decided how they would use that money, and they would spend the majority of it within the next couple weeks on repair parts for farm equipment, diesel fuel, some new clothing, and shoes, too, if they couldn't find them used. After the sale of his land, he and Gloria had been able to buy a 20% share in the farm partnership, almost half of that from the farm equipment and livestock he had been able to contribute. He was in good shape financially, and he planned to stay that way.
Larry noticed that Kate, Wes, and Ashley had said much the same sort of things he had in mind. They were all as close as any immediate family now, everyone having lost some relatives during the trouble. _________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 5, 2013 20:04:06 GMT -6
Chapter 54, cont'd.
The first snow of the year came down fast, with big wet flakes and lasted all night. The ground was already frozen on top, and it was getting colder. An 8" layer covered everything, making chores and driving troublesome. County road maintenance no longer existed, unless the residents did it themselves. Ed had made a large Vee-shaped drag out of a pair of logs with 2 smaller ones cut to fit on top for braces. His tractor would pull it easily and it helped to grade the road with it and keep the small holes filled and levelled.
When the snow stopped, Ed decided he'd better get busy clearing the road before anyone had to drive on it and packed the snow too hard to scrape off. Halfway down to Ronnie and Tara's farm he saw a couple dogs he didn't recognize loping through the trees to his left. They ran heedlessly in front of the tractor where one was run over and killed, the other barely bumped by a front wheel. It acted like it had been seriously injured, so Ed stopped the tractor to get a better look.
The dog was close enough he could see a dazed look from the dog, and foamy drool coming from its' mouth. It wandered rather aimlessly, then staggered and fell in the snow. Ed knew what it meant and pulled his old .30-06 out of the crude scabbard he'd made for it on the fender. One shot and the dog fell in a heap in the dry weeds. Ed looked at the one behind him laying in the road, crushed from being run over by the tractor then the drag. It wasn't moving either. He watched them both for a couple minutes. After deciding they were in fact dead, he stepped down off the tractor and went to the one he'd shot. It was very thin, and had dried drool on its' muzzle. What was left of the other dog showed the same signs. Ed was pretty sure they both had rabies, so he didn't touch either one.
When Ed got to Ronnie Nichols' place, he stopped the tractor on the road and walked down to the house, afraid the drag might still have some infected remnant of the dead dog on it. He knocked on the door and was met by Matthew.
"We got rabies in the neighborhood," Ed told him. "Better get your folks for me."
"They went over to the other farm to take Bob some lard and stuff. Where'd you see something with Rabies?"
Ed told his story and advised Matthew to stay away from the place until they could burn the dog cacasses.
"I'm going to need some help with that, because I don't want any tools or anything to touch those dead dogs."
Ed, Ronnie, and Bob went to work moving the two dogs into the clearing just off the road using a pair of fresh cut poles and with a bit of rope tied them together for crude tongs. They laid the tongs aside and dragged deadfall wood from the surrounding forest into a big pile of brush and wood. The carcasses were placed on top of the pile and it was set on fire, poles and all. They continued to heap wood on the smoky fire. Soon they were joined by Gerald Tomes and Mel Sawyer who joined in to help gathering wood. When the fire was burning well, Ed offered to take the message about rabid dogs to the rest of the neighbors. The rest of them would stay and feed the fire until the dogs were consumed.
Bob wanted to go home to get his shotgun. Ed gave him a ride home and back on the tractor, making a better job of clearing the snow on this second pass with the drag. Ed stopped to tell Mike and Laura what happened so they could pass it on to Joann who might be wondering why he was late.
By the time Ed got home, it was getting to be well past lunch time, but he had alerted the whole neighborhood, along with Dan Billings and his wife. Dan said they would pass it on to neighbors on down the highway in both directions. As soon as word got to where someone had phone service, it spread a lot faster. People began to check their guns and watch carefully any time they were outside for any animal behaving oddly.
Kate heard about it from their neighbors. Every farmer in the north half of the county was watching for signs of Rabies. A week later, someone shot a skunk that was acting aggressive and another shot a coyote. It would be well into Springtime before the scare began to abate. ________________
"The TV said that FEMA was handing out food for the needy in Louisville today," Gloria told everyone at lunch.
"What, are they only about 2 years late now?"
"Wes, that's pretty cynical," Ashley said.
"It's the truth. Where were they before half the people died over there?"
Gloria said, "They were pumping it up like it was the grandest thing that every happened. I'm sick of their talk."
Larry said, "That's what you can expect from them. They might tell the truth, but it's so twisted you'd never be able to tell it from an outright lie."
Gloria wasn't finished. She said, "They said there was a big problem with cases of the Flu this year, too, and said flu shots were finally available again. They wanted everybody to come get a shot and it would only cost $24 this year."
Wes said, "Yeah, that's about what most people make for a day's pay, and they used to be free from a lot of County Health Nurses and schools and stuff. I guess that's gone forever. I bet they didn't say anything about the measles or pneumonia that is going around over there, did they?"
"No, they didn't. Where did you hear that?"
"From a trucker at the farm store. He was delivering from Louisville and was worried about his kids getting measles. Said it has killed some kids and adults, too."
Gloria said, "It's no wonder, with people not getting enough to eat, and some don't have heat. It could get pretty bad. The news did say that Federal Income Taxes were going up this year, because the government needs to pay back some on the gold that backs the dollar. I was surprised that they admitted that. But the next breath they were bragging about having the city buses running back and forth across the river to New Albany again. I suppose they want us to go over there and buy stuff where they have a 12% sales tax. It's bad enough here at 10%.
"The only way we can have anything like a decent living is if we just our trade in our community and don't use cash unless we can't avoid it," Wes said. "Otherwise, the bankers will end up with all of it again like they did before." ________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 5, 2013 21:33:47 GMT -6
Chapter 54, cont'd.
Alicia took her job as teacher for the 4 children seriously. She had a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a double major in Literature and Sociology, but little science or math background. Todd had some math background with his degree in Business and a minor in Economics. Alicia was sure they could do a good job up to high school level in most subjects, and had studied what books she could find on high school level science and biology. She was even working on a section in comparative religions to fit into the sociology class she had planned out. She was grateful for the fairly new encyclopedia set she had found at the market, with the internet having been off and on again for months at a time.
What concerned her now was how to teach kids what they needed to know to make a living in this strange new world. She thought they needed trades, like the German high school programs she had read about, where kids were carefully tested for aptitudes, then taught the trades or other skills they needed to get real jobs. College education was pretty much out of the question now for lack of money, transportation, and probably a lack of colleges, too, considering how bad off the cities were said to be.
Farming was what most people did in the rural areas, but other things were needed, too. There were a lot more occupations in the world. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and 4H clubs were gone. It would be up to parents to supply that sort of teaching, if they got it at all. Alicia began a list of skilled jobs. Butcher, baker, candlestick maker. Sewing, canning, horticulture, nutrition and health related skills, mechanic's and things like construction, plumbing, electrical work. There was no way she could learn enough to teach all that. Then she realized that the historical answer had been apprenticeships. Children had been essentially given to some tradesman to learn their skills. In the past they were used as nearly free hard labor, but they did learn something and earned their own bed and board while doing it.
She thought about what skills were available in the immediate area. Dan Billings was a pretty good farmer, from what she had heard. Todd had learned a lot from him and some from Ed Wilson. Mike Wilson could do welding and designed machines. Ronnie Nichols knew everything his grandfather Harlan had been able to teach him about wild herbs and their uses. Denise Hoskins was a retired nurse, also a medical resource. Alicia had asked her, and yes, she still had her college books from her nursing program at U of L. Gerald Tomes made some excellent wine, and could use an apprentice, but he had no children at home now. Mel Sawyer had shown to be a very good soldier, and although her mind rebelled at the thought, the kids should all learn how to defend themselves and their community.
Then, Alicia began to think about the 4 kids and what they would be suited to do. Matthew was easy. He wanted to be a carpenter and build things. Ronnie would teach him a lot about farming and wildcrafting, and had in fact been doing that. Sophia should have the best Home Economics teaching she could get. Alicia was a good cook because she enjoyed it, but Sophia could learn from others, too, like Laura Wilson who was the acknowledged local expert on baking. Sophia should spend some time with Laura.
Emily was still a tomboy, and loved the outdoors. The kid liked people and was gregarious. She was good help in the garden, but she was distracted so much by Matthew right now that it was hard to tell what she should be studying. Alicia needed to have a talk with the girl.
Christopher had her baffled. The boy had taken to the rural life and never mentioned anything from the past. He idolized Matthew's skills in the woods, loved to hunt squirrels and rabbits, and wasn't averse to doing the skinning and butchering, either. The trouble was, not many Daniel Boones were needed, except to add to the food stocks. He loved his Dad, but had little interest in farming. Maybe Todd could help her figure out what Chris would want to do for a living. What jobs would even be available, for that matter?
Alicia felt like she was getting a late start, and she would take all the help she could get with this problem. _________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 6, 2013 18:33:28 GMT -6
A reader on another site reminded me that Alicia was also pregnant...
This part should have been near the beginning of Chapter 51. I forgot all about it. ________________
Alicia loved Todd for many reasons she reflected, one of which was his diligence. Their year old son Logan James crawling around the kitchen reminded her of both Todd's strengths and some shortcomings.
Because she was not on board with the idea of preparing yet Todd had been doing it all pretty much on his own when he was buying things to prepare for a crash, so Alicia didn't have any input into what was needed in the way of baby things back then. Todd did pretty well, she supposed. He had bought dry baby cereal, a hand crank blender, prenatal vitamins, liquid baby vitamins, a breast pump, bottles and nipples, bottle liners, cloth diapers, dry bleach powder, dry detergent, fabric softener, mineral oil, diaper rash ointment, baby cold medicine, some vet medicines, baby blankets, toys, clothes for both boys and girls up to size 4, and vacuum sealed most of it in bags, then put it all in sturdy plastic storage boxes.
He had been thorough, but in his rush to get things bought, moved, and stored, his organization left something to be desired. It had taken several months to find it all and by the time they did, most of the boxes had been gone through and the baby was due any day. Alicia had forgiven him for being a little disorganized and forgetful sometimes. After all, he'd done a pretty good job of getting her and Chris out of harm's way and providing for them. But for his foresight, they might not have survived.
Now she had two boys to raise in a very different way of life. With Todd's help she was sure they could handle it. ________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 6, 2013 19:58:49 GMT -6
Chapter 54, cont'd.
" 'Gold is the money of kings; silver is the money of gentlemen; barter is the money of peasants; but debt is the money of slaves.' I'm quoting that from a book called Money and Wealth in the new Millennium by Norm Franz. He had some great insights into how money and currencies work. I won't bore you kids with all the details of it, but the man helped convince me that paper money is worth what it is made of-paper and ink. I learned the hard way that promises may not be worth much, even if they are written on paper. Thankfully, I learned that soon enough to convert some of the paper promises I had into something real that represents real wealth."
"I don't mean to say that I am rich. I'm not. Wealth is what any of us own that is REAL, whether it is a metal coin, land, or some food. Those things have real value to us. Paper money does not necessarily have value unless a lot of people believe it does. What happened to our country was that we did things to make others lose confidence in our currency, and that meant it was worth almost nothing. It's sort of like a fairy tale, where magic works only if you BELIEVE in it."
Todd was addressing their home school class on economics. He meant to tell them the truth about it, too.
"More important to each of us than money of any sort is our ability to earn enough to live. It doesn't matter how you do it, but we all have to eat and have clothing and a place to live. Some work is worth more than other kinds of work, depending mostly on two things, how much you have to know to do that work, and also, how badly other people need it done. If you are sick it is worth a lot for someone who knows medicine to help you get better. But if you want help cutting firewood, most anyone can do it, even if it is hard work. Guess which one pays the most?"
"The doctor or herb person is worth more," Matthew said. "They don't have to work as hard, either."
"That's right," Todd said, "and there aren't nearly as many doctors and herbalists as there are people who can cut wood. You kids all get to choose what you want to do to earn a living. It's worth thinking about before you decide. There is no test on this subject except that it be the best you can figure out. There are no wrong answers, but some are much better than others. If you can make a lot of money doing something you hate, is that a good idea? Or, if you can't make much at all. but you love it dearly, is that any better? You get to decide those things for yourself. Look around at the people you know, and we will tell you about other people and what they do. Next week, I'll ask you to give me your idea at that time. You are free to change your mind later, so just come up with the best idea you can by then and we'll talk about it, okay?" The kids were very interested in what Todd had to say and it showed. It was quiet after he finished. Todd told them, "That's all from me for today. Talk about this among yourselves and with everyone you know. Let's get some lunch and Alicia will have English class afterward." He smiled at them and got some smiles in return. ________________
|
|
|
Post by kaijafon on Oct 7, 2013 14:28:47 GMT -6
I think we did our society a real disservice by getting rid of apprenticeships. As usual when someone abuses a system (harsh child labor abuses) they get rid of the WHOLE system...
thank you!
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 7, 2013 17:07:26 GMT -6
CHAPTER 55 March, 2015
Warm days came early, a welcome relief from a bitter cold winter. Cold frames were readied and planted with salad greens, and cold weather crops were planted in gardens with anticipation of fresh vegetables to add to the winter diet. The warmer temperatures came with plenty of rain, replenishing soil moisture but adding to the muddiness from the recent thawing of frozen ground. The river bottom fields were flooded and where the lower county roads were not flooded theywere too soft for traffic. It was what older generations called 'mud time'.
Mike Wilson was watching the evening news with Laura. The newscaster had been talking about the excessive rain and a drainage problem. Mike said, "Did you see that car lot behind the reporter? I think that was The big Ford dealer in Louisville, and the lot was empty."
Laura said, "I don't think anybody has even thought about buying a car for ages. No wonder they are closed up."
"Yeah. Todd said they heard on the shortwave radio that Detroit hadn't made a car in over 2 years. It was like a war zone in downtown Detroit before that. I can't imagine what it is now. Todd said Indianapolis isn't much better, from what he heard. You know Bob Clemmons said the street gangs were taking over a couple years ago when he left Indy. I wish we could get some good video of what the cities look like, instead of the cherry picking views they always show."
"The guys at the gas station hear things from the truck drivers. You know they all travel in pairs now, and carry all kinds of guns. Your Dad said he'd been hearing that Louisville is maybe half of what it used to be. The odd thing was, the downtown area isn't near so bad as the suburbs, from what he said. I guess the suburbs went stark raving crazy down there. Of course, the West End is about all burned out, and people are living like rats in the churches and old store buildings that are still standing. They'll never show THAT on TV."
"Yeah, somebody high up decided that we don't need to see anything but the best of it. Like maybe showing a few stores open will get us country folks to go there. Do they think I've got STUPID tattooed on my forehead, or what?"
"It would be nice to get more than one channel, but I guess they would all have the same nonsense. All I wanted to see is the weather and what the government is liable to do next. Whatever they do, you can bet we won't like it. You can shut it off if you want to."
Mike shut off the small 12 volt TV and said, "It doesn't look like much is changing down there. Todd told me they only have one channel going because they have been scavenging stuff from all of the old stations to keep one running. I guess they aren't getting much in the way of electronics from Asia yet to fix it up. Probably can't pay the staff much, either. Their hairdos and clothes don't look near as slick as they used to."
"Clothes are going to be a problem. They all used to come from overseas somewhere, Indonesia, Malaysia, China. There's not much coming in from there that I've seen, so I doubt if there is a clothing store open anywhere. Walmart still hasn't reopened except in a few big cities the truckers say, 'cause the cost of import goods is so high. That business model of cheap imports here is dead and stinkin'. Imports are the new high priced stuff now."
"Maybe we'll get some business running here for a change," Laura said.
"We can hope so. There's a couple plastic molding plants in New Albany that are crying for recycled plastic I heard. Some guy at market day said he'd buy all he could get, but there wasn't much in his bins except what kids had found laying around somewhere. I bet with the price of oil so high, that making new plastic is pretty expensive now. You don't see hardly any in the stores. Everything is either in cardboard, or bulk packed in barrels."
"You ready for supper yet?"
Mike said, "Yeah, put it on to heat. I'll go feed the dogs and the pig."
As soon as Mike went outside, she heard him shoot his pistol, twice. ______________
|
|
|
Post by crf78112 on Oct 7, 2013 17:58:53 GMT -6
I think we did our society a real disservice by getting rid of apprenticeships. As usual when someone abuses a system (harsh child labor abuses) they get rid of the WHOLE system... thank you! Some of the construction trades still use the apprenticeship programs and a few shipyards still utilize it. I did a dual apprenticeship in the early 70s as an electrician and HVAC tech. 4 years of electrical and 5 years of HVAC. Passed my journeymans tests in both trades and went on to master electrician and passed the State Mechanical Contractors tests. My personal feeling is not that the abuses of the apprenticeship system ended it as much as: 1. The unions abused the system to promote and keep less than competent people in skilled positions, after the title journeyman and master or 1st class vs second class did not mean what it once did, employers tired of paying the high rates for less quality work. No offense to union members but the unions themselves produced a less trained workforce than the old masters did. 2. The professional education system has hornswoggled the public into believing people who never performed a job could teach others to do that job better than people with experience performing the work. I am not saying there is no place for higher education but that I believe our system is failing the students. 3. Some parts of our education system have basically been bought off by big business. There is a history of BIG pharmacy companies underwriting colleges if the colleges allowed their input into the system, hence homeopathic and herbal traditions went out of favor to be replaced by purely pharmaceutical treatments. At least one healing herb was outlawed at the behest of Big Pharma and the Oil Kingdom. Apprenticeships are past due to return and unless our society quickly reverses course, will be one of the few options available. I'm loving this story with the partial, fragmentary collapse and hope that is as bad as it will get in reality. All opinions are free of charge and offered without malice.
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 7, 2013 20:23:35 GMT -6
Chapter 55, cont'd.
Laura grabbed her pistol and ran to the door. Mike was just outside, looking at a dead coyote. He said, "That one was headed for the pig pen when I came out. He didn't get that far. I saw a few others, but didn't get a shot at them. We better get the pig in the barn and close it up."
"I'm glad that's all it was. You had me scared for a minute there."
"Sorry, but I had to shoot when I had the chance, or I'd have told you what it was."
"That's okay, I just wondered what I needed to shoot."
"Maybe I'll leave him there for bait tonight. If they come back, one of our dogs will wake me up and maybe I can get more of them. I better tell Dad and everyone about 'em, too."
"I'm going over to help Joann can up some meat tomorrow, so I can tell them," Laura said.
"I'd better look for some 9MM ammunition pretty soon. Ammo of any kind is scarce now. If they are still making any, you can bet the government gets first dibs on it. I'm saving my brass, in case I find somebody who can reload it."
"Didn't Mel say something about that once? Or was it Todd? I'll ask around, too," Laura told him.
"It was Todd," Ed said, startling them. He had just materialized out of the bushes beside them. "I heard the shots and got here as quiet as I could, not knowing what was going on."
"I'm glad you came Dad, but you scared the snot outa me. Better be careful about that!"
"Yes, we need to work out some signals or something." ___________________
"Yes, I have reloading equipment, but I've never used it yet," Todd told Mike. "I stocked up on whatever they said it takes to do 9MM, .38 and .357, .44 magnum, .40 S&W,.45 ACP, .223 Remington, .308 Winchester, .270, .30-06, and 20 gauge and 12 gauge shotgun shells. I got the presses and dies and powder and primers, and I got bullet molds, too. There's some buck shot, and some #6 shot, and I don't remember what else. Come on in and we'll dig it out."
There were 8 big covered plastic totes marked "RELOADING, NO SMOKING, FIRE OR FLAME". Todd didn't know what most of it was, but the boxes were labeled and there were 3 reloading manuals plus some other books that looked expensive.
"I didn't have guns for all those calibers, but I thought it was a good idea to get all the most common ones," Todd said. "I bought what the guy at the gun shop told me to buy. I told him I wanted enough to make a business out of it, too. I just hope he was telling me straight. I think he was, because he was a prepper, too. We got pretty well acquainted."
Mike smiled and told him, "You did good! This will keep all of us shooting for a long time. How long did you work at getting all your stuff together? I keep being amazed at what you have here."
"I worked on it pretty hard for about 3 years. And, I had a lot of money to throw at it, because I became convinced that it was just a better investment than what I had in stocks and bonds. I watched for a high in the markets and sold those and put it all into this place and what you see here. I missed some things, but not many that were really important. I wish I had bought more cloth and sewing things."
"You're going to need a bench to set this up," Mike told him.
"I have some lumber, but I'm not much of a carpenter. Maybe we'd better get you or Matthew to make that."
"I've done a little of this with a friend of mine, would you want me to set it up for you?"
"That sounds good to me. In fact, I'd like for you to just take it home and do the work and give me a percentage of what you make with it. I bought it for an investment. I don't know anything about it, and frankly, I don't care to learn. I have all I can do to learn about farming and how to make it pay. There is a lot to figure out about how to do all this and then how to charge for it. Can you do that?"
"I'd love to! Let me work on it a while and work out some ideas then let me get back to you, okay?"
"Deal!" Todd offered his hand and they shook on it.
Ed had cleaned out one of his pre-fab sheds when they used most of the building materials that had been stored there. The tractor shed he'd built was big enough to handle all his garden tools, too, so Ed had dedicated one of the 2 pre-fabs to his garden seed business, and the other just had some odds and ends in it. They agreed to make it the reloading building and moved it farther away from Ed's trailer, at Joann's insistence. They put the building in a small grove of Eastern Red Cedar trees, thick enough to completely hide the building.
Mike soon had a work bench built and some shelves put up, then put a solid lock on the door with a steel bar across it. He welded up some grates to cover the windows and called it secure. Only then did he move Todd's reloading things inside and began to organize it. When plowing time came, Mike had a good start on an ammunition business. He didn't advertise it at all, but told people he knew where he could get it done for them. He and Todd began to make money. _________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 9, 2013 11:30:47 GMT -6
CHAPTER 56 April 2015
Plowing ground was a necessity now that chemicals were not available for weed control. The problems were twofold; one, plowing took a lot of fuel, and two, plows were scarce because farming had come to depend on chemical weed control for no-till planting. Todd had been fortunate to find the set of equipment he had bought at the last minute. Ed had more time and still looked for along time to locate his equipment. Harlan had never changed to no-till, so what Ronnie had inherited was a complete tillage setup with cultivators and all. Other farmers were not so lucky, and had been scouring the area for what they needed to get crops in the ground.
But plows, disks, and cultivators all wear out from digging the soil, so that began to take its' toll, and replacement parts were not to be had. Mike was busy welding wear-resistant surfaces on plow points and cultivator shovels using hardfacing rods he had be lucky to find. He also did some modifications to various plow points to make them usable on the equipment at hand. He could make things last a while longer, but eventually they would have to get parts, or make them. When a State Representative came to town, he heard a lot about the need for repair items for many things.
Not all politicians had survived the hardest times, and not all wanted to go back to Indianapolis after seeing the condition of it. Those hardier souls who did so were well aware of the needs of their people by the time a new legislative session was called to order. They found an horrendous set of problems when they attempted to force production of critical items.
Manufacturing was desperately needed, especially the forged steel and cast iron parts for farm equipment, the precision items for medical use, and the chemicals for agriculture and medicine. The problem was, anyone they talked to in manufacturing told them they needed inputs from many other suppliers to get started. Some chemical plants were idle for lack of some specialty valve, or electronic component. Those were made in other countries and not available because trade had not been worked out with them yet. Two oil refineries were shut down for lack of demand for their products. The flow of gasoline and diesel fuel had bogged down so pipelines were not able to dump their products to storage and truck transport. Plastic molding companies could not get bulk plastic because the makers were lacking petroleum precursors.
Restarting the economy would be a lot harder than it had been to shut it down. ____________________
Christopher had made notes of what he heard on the shortwave radio news reports and gave them to his Dad. Todd read and tried to understand what he had. An oil field in Saudi Arabia had dropped production to less than a third of it's recent output. There were a lot of comments about that following.
"Are you sure of this name, Chris?"
"That's what it sounded like to me. Guh-war."
"Okay. That has to be the Gawar oilfield. That is the largest of all the Saudi fields. We have a problem. I saw a book some time ago that said the Saudi's were lying about how much oil they still had in the ground. He must have been right. What about this one? What did they say about it?"
Todd pointed to a note about the Bockin oil and gas field. "Did they say where this was? North Dakota maybe?"
"Yeah, that's in the US."
"That's the Bakken field. OOOH Boy, have we got problems." ___________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 10, 2013 10:02:10 GMT -6
Chapter 56, cont'd.
Todd loaded his fuel tank on the heavy farm trailer and headed for the Jackson County Farm Bureau Coop. He used his agriculture ration allotment for the year completely by filling both tanks on his truck and filling the 300 gallon farm tank on the trailer at $4.12 a gallon. Following Todd's advice, Ed Wilson ordered immediate delivery to fill his farm tanks and drove to town to fill his truck and all the cans he could find to use up his ration limit. Ronnie Nichols and Dan Billings did the same for their farm allotments, as did all the ridge community.
What was left of international commodity trading lost no time in adjusting crude oil prices when the Saudi's production dropped by 30% in a month. Being the second largest producer in the world behind Russia, at 13% of the world total meant that they reduced the world oil supply by 3.9%. On the heels of that came the news that the much touted US Bakken oil field reserves, always a controversial amount, was in serious question after 24 oil wells quit producing the same month. Mexico's Cantarell field had been pumping 94% water for some time and was almost ready to be shut in, since they could barely make a profit on it at $120 oil prices, and the diesel fuel used to get that crude to the refinery was not much more than it produced. Norway had some wells hitting that Energy-Return-on-Energy -Invested limit, too.
Crude oil prices went to $260 a barrel overnight. The next day the futures market on Brent Crude went to $315 before noon. Brent closed at $382 a barrel that night in London. Fuel prices followed almost instantly, tripling the per gallon prices at the pumps in the US. No US oil was being sold abroad, the Alaskan North Slope crude having been diverted to US refineries, but crude was still a world priced commodity, with British Petroleum being a price-setting player in the US.
US supplies were not immediately impacted all that much, but the Federal Government tightened rationing policy by 20% immediately based on the world wide shortfall. __________________
Larry Barnes was in town that Friday with their farm truck to get a load of lime at the quarry. A sign at the scales cautioned that the price had gone up by half. He got all he could pay for and stopped at the gas station to get their ration of diesel for the week put in the truck. What money he had saved for fuel only bought part of the rationed amount, at $12.45 a gallon. In shock at the prices, Larry didn't stop for anything else and drove straight back to the farm. By the time he got there, The rest of the family had heard the news on TV.
Wes was doing some math on a piece of paper and talking about it. "When I started farming with Joe we were getting about 160 bushels of corn per acre, and it was bringing $4.50 a bushel. That gave us a gross income of $720 an acre. At that time, diesel cost us about $3.80 a gallon and we were paying $160 for a 50 pound bag of seed corn."
"Now, we raise our own seed, but without chemical fertilizer this year we averaged 62 bushels per acre on 400 acres. We sold most of that at $3.00 a bushel, for a gross of $186 per acre. With diesel fuel at $4.15, we could make some money, but not all that much. After expenses, we netted $112 per acre. We took the risk that our equipment wouldn't break down beyond repair while parts are impossible to get. We all worked our butts off and put more wear on the machinery than we used to do in 5 or 6 years, but we only made $45,000 to support all of us. I don't think we can afford to do that next year. We have to find some better ways to farm, or as soon as we have a major equipment tailure, we are finished."
Kate said, "Don't you think the price of oil will come down when they get over their panic? We've seen this sort of thing before and prices always came back down a lot."
Gloria said, "I think this is different. What we saw before wasn't a real supply shortage like this. I hope I'm worng, but I think we'd better look at this like these prices are going to stay where they are."
"The news reporter said they were looking into making gasoline out of coal," Ashley said.
"If they do that it will take years to get it going. They'd have to build some big place to process the coal, and I'm not sure anybody has the money to do that now so I wouldn't count on it," Wes said.
Larry said, "I'm glad we filled up the farm tanks and bought motor oil and grease right after harvest. At least we've got that much. I'd hate to think what that would cost now."
Wes said, "You all might think I'm nuts, but I've thought about training some calves to work as oxen. I don't know how much we could farm with them, but it would sure keep our cost down to almost nothing. But that takes a couple years to get them trained and in shape to work, and I'd have to figure out how to come up with a plow and disk and all that to make it work. I don't want to start on something like that if there's a better way. But I don't want to use up all the fuel we have now without having a way to keep going, either."
Larry asked, "What about biodiesel fuel? I read somewhere that farmers could make their own out of soybeans."
Kate said, "One thing is for sure, we can't make a living the way we have been doing it if fuel is that high. And if lime went up so much right away, I bet everything else goes up, too. We need to know for sure what prices are before we do anything drastic."
Wes said, "We ought to look into biodiesel and see if we could do any good with it. I have heard about it, but I don't know how it's done."
Ashley said, "Mom's right. We need more information. I think we need to wait a few days and watch prices on things and see what the government is going to do."
Larry said, "We know the government already cut fuel rations 20%. The gas station guy told me that. So they aren't going to be helping any from what I can see. And if we need to get into farming with oxen or horses or something, we'd better figure it out fast, because everybody and their uncle will be looking for the same stuff and the prices will go outa sight."
Ashley said, "I heard on the TV that electric rates are going up again because oil went up. They said most of the East Coast uses oil to make electricity, and we share power with them, so they are averaging out the cost of it even though Indiana uses coal for electricity."
Larry said, "If we can't afford fuel or electricity, then next week we'll be living like the Amish, whether we want to or not." _________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 10, 2013 11:14:03 GMT -6
Chapter 56, cont'd.
"It will affect everything," Todd told the kids. "Everything that is made uses some kind of energy, electricity, diesel fuel for transport, and energy to light up the stores that sell things. When one kind of energy source gets more expensive, they all do because to some degree they are all interchangeable. So prices of everything we need to buy will go up."
"What happened to all the oil?" Sophia looked suspicious.
"We used it up driving around, making things we didn't really need, heating houses when we weren't even home, fighting wars, building cities, all kinds of ways."
Emily was skeptical, too. "I don't see how we ran out of oil all at once and nobody expected it. It doesn't make any sense."
Todd said, "You're right, this was not a secret, but nobody wanted to talk about it. People didn't want to believe that oil would get to be precious someday, and oil companies didn't want people to look for other energy sources so they could sell their oil."
"We didn't run out of oil, and I expect we won't run out for a very long time. There just isn't quite as much available now as we need to keep things the way they were. At first, we used all the oil that was easy to get out of the ground. Some of it was even under pressure and squirted up into the air when they drilled into it. Now, all that easy oil is gone, and we have been drilling under the oceans and all kinds of more difficult places that cost more to get it out. It takes a lot more energy now to get a barrel of oil than it used to, so it is more expensive to produce. There are oil wells now that are being shut down because it costs more in terms of both energy and money to get it out of the ground than it produces."
Matthew said, "Why don't we use something else? We all use wood stoves to heat the houses now instead of oil or gas. Why can't we run engines on something else?"
Todd said, "I'm no expert on that, but from what I have read, gasoline engines can be converted to run on natural gas, or LP gas, but that takes new parts and time and money. And there aren't any places set up to fill our tanks for that, like there are gas stations. People have tried to use all kinds of things to run cars and trucks, from batteries to solar panels, but none of them can either gather or store enough energy to do very much. Batteries have to be recharged too often to be very practical, and big trucks and tractors need a lot more power than batteries can produce. And batteries aren't free, either. As far as I know, there aren't any practical ways to replace using gasoline and diesel fuel directly and get the same RESULTS."
Alicia was listening and asked, "What do you think is going to happen now?"
Todd said, "Nobody is going to like it much, but we are going to have to get used to using a lot less energy and paying a lot more for it."
Alicia said, "I don't see how that is possible. We don't drive unless we really need to, and we heat with wood, dry our clothes on a clothesline, we cook with gas, but when that runs out we have the wood cook stove you bought. Were can we cut back that we haven't already?"
Todd said, "All the items we buy had an energy cost to make them, so when we buy clothes, or anything else we are buying that energy it took to make them. We will have to find ways to make more things ourselves. We will have to drive even less. I'll have to find a way to farm that doesn't take hundreds of gallons of fuel. I might have to farm using horses because we can grow their feed. If I don't do something different, we can't make any money at farming. We have to learn to live with what we can produce, or it is not a sustainable way to live."
"Think of it like this. If we used more firewood each year than what grows in our woods, before long the woods would be gone and we'd have no heat. You can't live above your income level forever. It just won't work."
"This is going to suck," Matthew said. ________________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 10, 2013 11:45:07 GMT -6
CHAPTER 57 May, 2015
Mike said, "There are all kinds of things you can use to fuel an engine. Natural gas will work, which is methane and you can make methane by composting. And LP gas will work, but it is made from oil, and both of those need a gas bottle for a fuel tank, and both take a special carburetor."
"You can run a gasoline engine on alcohol and make that from corn, or sugar cane, or several other things, but that's a lot of trouble and work, and it uses up our food supply. I don't think it's a smart idea to use food for fuel."
"You can run a gas engine on wood smoke. They call it a wood gassifier, and the wood burns slow, just smoldering. It makes carbon monoxide gas and can kill you if you breathe much of it. You have to go to a lot of trouble to get the impurities out of the smoke, or it'll screw up the engine quick. And, we only have so many trees that we need for building, heating, and cooking."
"Diesel engines can run on vegetable oil made from soybeans, or sunflower seeds, or other seeds, but that gets into our food supply again and it takes special presses to get the oil out of the seeds, and chemicals to treat the oil. That might be hard to find now."
He was talking to Laura, Ed and Joann, all gathered at Mike's house for supper.
Joann said, "What's the right answer? How can we keep on living with things so expensive?"
Mike scratched his head and said, "I don't know any easy answers. The simplest thing is to only use what we can afford. That means we don't buy any more fuel than we have to, and find ways to use as little as possible. It means we do a lot of walking instead of riding, and anything else we can do to save fuel."
Ed said, "I'm too old to cut hay with a scythe and stack it with a pitchfork. We'd better be thinking about how we can farm and raise a garden without it costing us an arm and both legs. It looks to me like now we are in the same shape as all the poor countries around the world. The smarter we are from here on, the better off we will be." _________________
|
|
|
Post by kaijafon on Oct 11, 2013 8:58:00 GMT -6
thank you!!
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 11, 2013 19:14:07 GMT -6
Chapter 57 cont'd.
"I think you were right, Wes," Ashley told him. "Trying to farm a lot of land is too risky. Just working on our farm is plenty of work and I think we can make it here."
"I hope I was right. At least Larry agreed with me, I think mostly because he knows that if we wear out the equipment we're in trouble. Your Mom was probably thinking how they had done it years ago. Gloria is depending on us to make the right decisions. You probably have a better idea of where we really are than anybody."
"I don't think anybody knows what to do, Wes."
They were walking out to check on the cattle in the back pasture near the creek. Gloria and Kate were cleaning up the kitchen after a supper of leftovers from the midday meal, and watching Ella, their toddler. Ella was almost 2 years old and could be a handful. Ashley was thankful for a break from minding her.
"Neal Davis and the Martins are all going to just work their home place this year," Wes said. "We're all going to use the old Byerly place for pasture and hay ground and split what we get off of it. As far as we know that abandoned farm rule is still in effect so we can do that. But nobody wants to take a chance on putting livestock there with dog packs and coy dogs around."
"The TV said the government would pay more for corn and soybeans this year," Ashley said.
"Maybe so, and maybe I'm wrong for staying smaller this year, but I'd rather go for what I know for sure we can do than take a chance on losing it all if our combine or something else decided to die on us."
"That's what I think, too. I meant that if the price does go up some, we'll come out okay. We've got the hogs to sell, too, and should have a dozen head of cattle for market by Fall, so we'll be fine." _________________
Todd was thinking the same way. He only rented 80 acres this year to do by himself, instead of partnering with Ed and Dan Billings. They all decided to just farm what they could afford to plant without borrowing any money for fuel or other needs. Farmers all across the Midwest were doing the same, planting less than half what they had the year before, despite encouragement from official government sources to plant more. Nobody believed anything the government said anymore.
Those who had a job did not believe they had any real job security, and likewise cut back on their spending in the face of high fuel and retail prices. Retailers felt the reduced sales quickly and made adjustments, laying off some help and reducing their orders for new stock. The fledgling economic growth that had just begun slowed down again.
Lacking any better information, people felt the tightening economy locally, and made decisions intuitively from the small signs around them. More and bigger gardens were planted, clothing was patched, shoes were mended, and purchases were put off or forgotten. The whole population was forting up in case things got really bad like they had been the past few years. No amount of propaganda would change that in Middle America. City folk had also had enough hardship to react in the same fashion, buying at produce markets, canning food, and reducing spending to an absolute minimum. _________________
Central planners and the major banks who effectively set the prices of commodities, had colluded to produce the oil price increase. The intent was to put pressure on the general public to go into debt as they had in the past to maintain a standard of living. They had generated pressure to do this through lots of messages that the economy was picking up, that employment and retail goods were to be had again, and good times were returning.
But, the unexpected bad news on oil supplies had created a much greater oil price increase than had been planned. The oil price shock was followed by inevitable retail price increases and that had torpedoed their plans to milk the public for interest money. The bankers had squeezed a little too hard this time, and it had blown up in their faces. There was very little tax money to be had, and virtually no new loans being made. There were a lot of heated meetings in high places that followed with much finger pointing. There was plenty of blame and guilt to go around for all parties concerned.
The Super Bankers who had backed the new Gold Dollar had a choke hold on government money printing and refused to allow more deficit spending. Without that credit there was no government money to spread around, so their influence on affairs of the States was reduced to near nothing. The States, with a few exceptions, had been more prudent in their affairs after the crash and many passed Constitutional Amendments that disallowed deficit spending.
The States were also given credit for keeping the electric grid running through it all, even if the price had been high. More States had passed resolutions declaring their rights and powers under the US Constitution. As more State programs began to have their effects, more power devolved to State governments as they had been originally. Whatever objections the central powers had, they had little force with no money to back them up. The bickering began to be diffused as the Central Bank now had 50 States to contend with , instead of one central government.
States could not be bullied as easily, as they learned to apply leverage with their individual riches of commodity resources through trade deals with each other. The central government chokehold on grain and meat prices was loosened as other markets appeared, trading between States. A fight was coming as the Federal officials prepared to use their Interstate Commerce authority to stifle this trend. The States fought back by rescinding Federal use of National Guard assets. Battle lines were drawn, but it was a stalemate so far.
The banks who backed the US currency watched this develop and decided they did not want civil wars to erupt that would further damage their cash cows. They applied pressure to the central governments in the US, UK and Europe to defuse similar conflicts in all three. The word was given to those in power that there was to be no conflict of arms. Negotiated settlements with member States would be made and business would continue without interruption. If they wanted to continue having gold-backed currencies, that is. Those terms were accepted and negotiations began in earnest. _______________
|
|
|
Post by patience on Oct 12, 2013 9:53:41 GMT -6
Chapter 57, cont'd.
"Don't throw that away Chris," Alicia said, "We can use it."
"What good is an old bottle cap?"
"I don't know yet, but plastic can be used for something. Put it in the box for plastic out in the storage building."
"Okay Mom." The boy headed out the door, closing it carefully. He put the cap in the box marked PLASTIC. There were several of his Dad's totes there, now empty of the things he'd bought long ago. They were used now to store recycled materials. The one for glass was half full of various bottles, washed and dried with their caps in place. If they didn't use them, Ronnie and Tara would always trade for them for their herb preparations. There was also some window glass, salvaged from an old house that was falling down, the owners long gone. That glass was stacked against the wall with a piece of plywood in front of it for protection. A broken window was a near tragedy now, since glass was impossible to buy new.
Old shoes and leather items, mostly belts and purses, were in another tote. Some had pieces cut from them for repairing something or other. The lid for that was sealed up tight to prevent moisture from causing mildew. Chris knew that some guy down in the valley was tanning leather and would buy hides, so he had learned from Matthew how to "case" hides from the rabbits he trapped, and dry them on a willow stretcher to trade to the man. Rabbit fur made wonderful warm mittens. The man would trade 4 to one, four dried raw hides for one tanned and ready to use. Matthew had shown him how he'd learned from Ronnie to make a box trap, and how to set a snare and make deadfall traps. Todd had paid the man in silver to tan 4 deer hides for him with the hair removed, and Chris' mother had promised to make him and his Dad jackets from them. They would help protect his shirts from snags and tears.
There was a tote with paper in it, of all kinds. If it could be used for writing, it was saved separately. the rest was used for lesser purposes, the worst for starting fires in the kitchen wood cook stove, but they mostly used dry cedar bark and shavings for that, like Mike Wilson did in his forge. They tried to keep a fire going somewhere, because matches were expensive.
Chris had a box of his own for deer antlers he had found in the woods, and some from their own kills. Ronnie showed him how to hold them in a vise and saw off thin slices to make buttons. Drilling the holes took some concentration and sometimes broke a drill bit, so his Dad had told him to burn the holes in them with a red hot piece of wire. It stunk like burning hair so he had to do it outside, but it saved drill bits. Chris had done a lot of that last winter and had a big jar full of buttons to trade now. He was hoping to get more .22 shells for them somehow, since .22's couldn't be reloaded. He saved all his .22 brass empties so he could trade them to Mike Wilson who used them to make jackets for high powered rifle bullets. Mike had showed him how to make a small cloth bag to fasten on his rifle to catch the empties as they were ejected.
His Dad had a good sized pile of old metal things outside that he had found and saved. Chris kept a watchful eye out for such things, because Mike Wilson would trade for most any metal to use in his blacksmith shop. Newer stuff brought a better trade. Mike had made some parts for his Dad's farm equipment.
There was a trash can in the kitchen, but it was mostly a place to hold things until they could be sorted for other uses. Wet garbage went into a big tin can to give the chickens who got the eggshells, too. Ronnie said that crushing the old eggshells and mixing that in the chicken feed would give the hens what they needed to make good hard shelled eggs.
They didn't really throw away much now.
___________________
|
|
|
Post by kaijafon on Oct 12, 2013 16:04:08 GMT -6
Thank you! I remember as a kid, the can of glass jars my granny had out behind her house. We would search through those so thoroughly just to find the "right one" for fireflies. A wonderful memory.
|
|