TOLD YA SO!

[papaof2]

I asked for 10 more chapters earlier today - and it worked!

Wonder if it will work again ;-)

Thank you for a great story.

Sent from my IdeaTabA2109A using proboards

[biggkidd]

Very good 

 Thanks Again

 Larry

[patience]

Chapter 21

The next day Josh and I took his bigger truck to the junkyard and bought a pile of 2" pipe. It was painted bright OSHA colors, red, blue, and yellow, indicating to me that it had been various kinds of gas lines in a factory somewhere. There was a big pile of it and the price was right, so we loaded the truck. Some of it was so long that we had to tie it down on the front end. A red rag on the overhanging ends made it legal to haul. We hustled home and began to sort it out.

Susan called and said the posts were in and she had measured the space between them at 14 feet and 2". "A shorter gate is stronger, right Dad?"

"Yep, you did right. We'll get right on it."

"We bought used pipe from that guy in Jeff that welds on tugboats and stuff. He always has a big pile of steel. I had Angelo dig the holes 4 feet deep and about the size of a bucket. He had to mix a lot of Sakrete. When the stuff set up some, he mixed more and poured the pipes full, too. He said that would make them stronger."

"That's perfect! He knows what he's talking about."

"Yeah, he's good. He used a level and got the posts about perfectly plumb, too."

"Great! We'll get busy cutting and welding today. Should have something in a day or so. I'll call you."

"M'kay. Bye Dad."
__________________

We finished the gate in a day, but we waited another 10 days for the concrete to harden around the posts. Thankfully, the weather warmed up for a while so the concrete could set up. Angelo had banked some dirt over it to keep it warmer, too. I put some gas in Josh's truck and loaded the portable welder in it with chain hoist. We put the gate on my 2 wheel trailer and piled the truck full of the necessary tools and parts.

I had welded hinge pins to the gate, then on site we welded the hinge plates to the posts. I did the one pin up, one pin down thing to assure it could not be lifted off the hinges. It was there to stay. I welded on a shelter box for the lock so it was impossible to get bolt cutters in there. It kept the rain off the lock, too. They put a serious padlock on it and Susan began to touch up the paint on things where we had welded and made a mess of it.

The gate was actually held shut by a 1" diameter hardened pin with the padlock in the bottom of it. So, If a truck ran into the gate, the 1" pin took the hit, not the lock. The gate was built with 6 horizontal pieces of 2" pipe and 4 verticals. I had steel brackets on top with 3 runs of barbed wire angled out along the top to make it hard to climb over. That gate was not going anywhere.

Art had been busy, too. He had strung 2 runs of barbed wire above the woven wire farm fence that enclosed the property. One wire on each side of the posts made it hard to climb over without getting skinned up. If they did make it over, there was an electrified barbed wire running 3 feet inside the fence and about knee high for another surprise. It would not stop a determined effort, but they would have to think about it.

He had also added infrared sensors that activated a buzzer and a separate light for each sensor to show location. They expected some false alarms from deer and other wildlife, but those animals would run into the dogs to discourage their visits.

That would give time for their two German Shepherds to get there and investigate. They had bought the pair from a security company who had them train with the dogs for a few days before they took the dogs home. They were not pets. They were working dogs and were still getting used to their new place, so they stayed in the basement while we were there working. The dogs would sleep in the house, but had their own doggy door to use if they alerted to something outside. Susan and Art did not intend to be surprised again.

Susan added one finishing touch to the gate. It's hard telling where she found the official looking sign. It read, "QUARANTINED-DO NOT ENTER-ANTHRAX". It had the CDC logo and everything.

Once we had their gate finished, I built on one for our driveway. I had enough 1/2" square stock to make grilles for all the house windows, so I put Josh to using the scroll bender so we could pretty them up a bit. I planned to mount the window grilles on plastic insulators. I really liked the electric fence idea and I planned to make use of it in creative ways. We had other work to do, so I kept plugging along at the security things as I had time, but we painted the decorative window grilles white like the house trim and got them up quickly. I also saw to it that we had drop bars installed for both entrance doors on the house. Our doors were wood, so I made two drop bars for each door. It wasn't perfect, but it would make enough noise getting through that to wake me up. I planned to have the shotgun handy, too.
_______________

Brenda didn't like the looks of my gate much. We figured out that it was just a reminder that the world wasn't a nice place now. I think Josh carried that little Berreta of his all the time. I had taken to carrying my old .38 most of the time, too, after the home invasion deal at Susan's. Tammy and I were outside clearing off the back porch one morning and putting things away before bad weather came in earnest when I asked her if she wanted a pistol to carry for personal protection?

"I've shot Dad's rifle and shotgun, but not a pistol. I'm not very comfortable with them."

"Talk to Josh and if you decide you want one, I have Dad's old .32 revolver in the closet. I think there is even a box or two of shells for it. You're welcome to use it if you want. You just have to learn how to be safe with it, but we can teach you that."

"I'm afraid Hailey would get hold of it."

"That is a very important point. You would have to work out ways to make sure she doesn't. That's why we keep all the guns out of her reach, or on our person at all times. The purpose of a handgun is protection when you need it. When you decide to carry one, there is a big responsibility that goes with that. Anyhow, it is there if you want it."

"I'll think about it. It's not like you can feel safe now."

"I think we're pretty safe here at home. There's always several people around and that helps. We know about everybody for miles around with the shop business going. What I worry about now is the business could draw undesirables in as well as the good folks."

Tammy was sweeping the porch and I had the last armload of plant pots and garden tools to put away. As I left for the storage barn by the gardens, she said, "I'd like to try shooting that gun of yours. It would be nice to know I had something, just in case."

"Okay. Tell Josh and we'll do some target shooting together."

What I had was Dad's antique, an H & R top break, hammerless 5 shot "Police Safety" revolver. It had a round butt and would easily fit in a big coat pocket. With no hammer to snag, it would come out of a pocket easily. The .32 cartridge probably wasn't much more powerful than a .22, but the bullet was a little heavier providing some thump. When Tammy tried it, she liked it. It was double action only, so there was no forgetting to c*** it. It was simple-point and pull the trigger until it goes bang. It was not an accurate gun, but she could hit a bucket with it at 30 steps and that was good enough for what she needed. Josh thanked me, saying he'd been worried when she went somewhere alone and this would help.

There were some things happening with gun laws that had us worried, so the couple talked it over and decided not to try for a carry permit. It would just draw attention and we didn't need any of that. She made a spot to stuff it in her big purse where it would be handy. Her winter coat would hide it easily as well. She began to carry it around at home, to get the feel of it, but she always put it back in her purse on the high shelf in the closet. We all felt a little better now that all of us had something to carry. It was an uncertain world.

I would have offered to get Carmen a gun, too, but I knew she would never go for that.
__________________

[patience]

Chapter 22 December, 2014


Elvis was crooning Blue Christmas from my truck radio as we rolled downhill into town, slowing to allow for the slush on the street long before the traffic light. The antilock brakes did their chattering anyway. There was ice under the slush and it was getting colder. I got stopped in time, half a length behind the little car in front of me. Brenda was insistent on getting a few presents for the family at home, or I'd have vetoed the trip.

We found a really nice old hooded parka with a real fur trim at Goodwill. We knew it would fit Tammy and she needed it. It was high priced at $40, but far better than the new cheap things and it looked good. Goodwill's prices were way up. The bad part was, so was everywhere else, and worse. A cheap imitation of that coat at Wal Mart would be $125 on sale. Several higher priced stores in Clarksville had closed. Wal Mart had become the high priced place. We took the coat and some work socks she'd gotten cheap to the truck. As soon as we were seated, a young guy came to my window.

"Hey man, could you spare some change? I ain't had nuthin' to eat for a couple days now."

He looked to be about 25 years old and didn't look like the winos I used to see panhandling in the bigger cities, and this was small town USA. I had an idea.

"Want to come with us and let me buy you a burger?"

"That'd be great! I'll ride in the back."

Brenda said, "No, you get in on this side. There's room."

Over a cheap lunch at a local diner we let him eat until he was slowing down. He was pretty skinny. The lunch there was heavy on mashed potatoes, gravy, and vegetables, but light on meat. The burger was small and not the best beef, but he ate it like it was a good steak. Brenda gave me that look that meant she was on board with me.

I asked him if he had a place to stay?

"I'm stayin'with my brother. It's cold 'cause they got no heat 'cept the livin' room an' kitchen where we all sleep. We ran outa food a couple days back."

"We don't have a lot of money, but we've got food. Would you want to cut firewood for groceries?"

"Heck yeah, man! I don't care what the work is, I'll do it! I got no car, though. If I can get a ride, you tell me where an' I'll be there. There just ain't no jobs nowhere."

"Any kids live with you?"

"Nope, just my brother an' his girlfriend an' me. My brother got some day work when they was cleanin' out that old Armory building. Some guy had a business in there went bust and they sold it off. Donnie helped sweep it out and scrub the floors and stuff, but that was a couple weeks ago. None of us got anything since then."

"I'm Jeff Hesston. We do a little farming out south of town, and I have a welding and machine shop where we fix some farm equipment. What's your name?"

"Ansel Deckard. Pleased to meet ya."

He offered his hand and I shook it.

"That's not a common name around here. You got family nearby?"

"No, we're from Paoli. Me an' Donnie worked at the ski place until they closed last year. Then we came here because his girlfriend got Donnie a job at the Fairgrounds last summer. That didn't last long, so we've been gettin' day work when we can. His old car quit so we can't get anywhere else now."

"What kind of work have you done? We can use a hand now and then around the shop and the farm."

"I worked for a Carnie once, helpin' him keep his rides goin', an' I was in maintenance at the ski place. Mostly I've done labor for construction before that."

"Tell you what. How about we take a ride out to our place and get some groceries, then I'll take you home so I know where to pick you up. I'll have a few days work cutting trees and making firewood. You ever drive a tractor?"

"I've drove a backhoe and the lift machine for a roofer once. I ain't good at it, but I know how they work."

"Good deal. We'll find you something to do for a while, okay?"

"Man, I owe you. I was real hungry. I'll work, you show me what you want done!"

I paid our bill and we drove home to load up some things. I got him a bag of potatoes and had him dig a few carrots and turnips from the garden. He was amazed to find them under the straw. I pulled the straw back and cut him a head of cabbage, too. We went to the henhouse and gathered 8 eggs. While he was stowing all that in the truck, Brenda went in and got a couple quarts of canned green beans and a quart of canned soup meat from the beef we'd butchered. I ground about five pounds each of whole wheat flour and cornmeal and gave it to him in a couple gallon plastic bags. He said they had a gas stove to cook on. If they could pay the rent and the gas bill, they'd be okay for a while.

When we dropped him off where he lived, his brother looked out to see who it was. It was a small old house that needed paint. We got introduced when we carried his stuff inside. Donnie was a little bigger, but his clothes were too big for him. We talked and I told him I'd pick them both up early the next day, about daylight. Ansel said he had an alarm clock so they'd be ready by 7:00.

Ansel followed me to the truck and said, "I really appreciate this. How come you didn't blow me off like ever'body else does?"

"I'd rather hire you and feed you than shoot you when you got desperate. People shouldn't have to get that hungry. I'll see you in the morning. Don't worry over it."

He waved as we left.

Brenda said, "I wonder how many more there are like him?"

"Way too dam many," I said.

We finished up our shopping and got home well before dark. I told everyone we'd have help tomorrow for wood cutting, and to plan on 2 more men for lunch.
_____________________

By lunch time the next day, Donnie and Ansel were both pretty tired. We knocked off a little early and walked from the woods to the house. The men were both wearing worn out sneakers so I knew their feet were cold. I told them to warm up by the wood stove after lunch, I'd be back in a minute. I went to the storage barn and dug in the loft for a tub with old things in it. I thought I could guess their shoe sizes, but we'd have to try them.

My old work boots fit them both close enough. I gave them each a pair of thick socks and told them we couldn't have them suffering from the cold and expect to get a day's work, so call it part of the deal. That let us work a little longer in the afternoon, so we had at least 3 cords of woods loaded on the 2 farm wagons by evening.

I gave each of them $20 and asked if they thought what they'd gotten so far was enough for the work they'd done?

"We never expected no money," Donnie said. "You give us enough groceries for a week."

I asked, "Can we call it even for today then?"

"Heck yeah! We did good!"

"Okay, then tomorrow we need to split and stack that wood at the house. I've got a hydraulic splitter, so that helps, but it's hard on your back. You guys game for that?"

"Sure thing!"

"Good deal. Just so you know what's coming up, those logs we cut today are for farm lumber. I know a man with a band saw mill that is going to saw it up for me. There'll be some work for you then handling the lumber. Until he gets here, we need to cut more logs and make firewood out of the tops like we did today. We'll have at least 3 more days of that before we get to sawing. You guys talk it over how you want to be paid. I can pay each of you $40 a day in money or some combination of that with food we have. You decide and tell me later, okay?"

"Ansel said, "That's great. We'll be ready in the morning when you get there."
____________________

[nancy1340]

Thank you.

[kaijafon]

awesome! thank you!!

[idahobob]

Just got caught up with the story. It's a good 'un!

Keep up the good writing!

Bob
III

[patience]

Chapter 23


I had a couple jobs to do in the shop so after the guys got started splitting and stacking wood I let them do that while I did work that paid me better. Josh had a car in the basement shop, so we each did our thing. It was working out pretty good, giving us time to cover all the bases in our operation.

When we went to dragging logs a few days later, I took Julie out for that and the 2 young guys were pretty bug eyed about her. It was easy work for her, which was good because her belly was getting huge. I never asked her to pull much of a load, but she got around in the woods much better than the tractor did, and it was all downhill pulling to the lot by the machinery shed. She was loafing more than half the time.

There were 31 logs of various sizes in the lot when the band mill showed up. He kept the 2 men busy for a couple days sawing while I dragged in more logs. I had him saw me some spacer sticks from the rough parts of the logs. The men used the tractor and wagon to haul the sawed lumber to our big barn and stacked it in the end where I planned to build a hog facility. With spacer sticks between each layer, it should dry well this winter.

I had warned Ansel and Donnie that my work was about to run out, so be on the lookout for anything else they could get. They talked to the sawmill man and found he could use them for a few days, if they had transportation. Josh looked over Donnie's car and found the bad starter relay. He had a used one laying around and gave it to them. Ansel knew how to change it, so we loaned them enough tools to do that one evening. For part of their pay the next day, I gave them 5 gallons of gas. The gas in my storage tank was getting old so I needed to rotate it. That evening, Donnie said his girlfriend Megan had got a job stocking at the grocery where she had worked before. It was just until the end of the month, but it would help. She hoped they would keep her on longer.

Hiring the 2 men had been a good deal for me. I got some cheap lumber out of the deal and enough firewood cut for the next winter without interfering too much with my shop business. It hadn't cost me much, either. They didn't know many folks here, but they now they knew the sawmill man and our neighbor Stuart besides us. Stuart had been down one day when they were splitting wood and told me he needed a hand sometimes. That was another prospect for them. They had some groceries stocked ahead now, a little pocket money, and their car was going again. I thought they had a good chance of getting through the winter now. And I had some good help available if I needed it.
________________

Business hadn't stopped entirely, it was just running about half throttle. Several retail stores had closed, mostly the ones that sold imported junk, along with several restaurants. There were a lot of enpty houses in town now, a lot of them with foreclosure notices stuck in the front windows. One truck service place had closed up, but there were a couple mechanics like Josh that did work at home if you knew where to find them. The car dealers were in deep trouble. They ran on credit and credit was very tight.

The best I could tell from what I read, the problem ultimately came from what they called debt saturation. Paper, or "fiat" money was only created by creating debts. We had hit the point where there was too much debt to be paid back because there was no growth to pay the interest on it. They had kept the game going by having governments borrow when nobody else could afford to borrow more. When the government debt load hit the wall, people lost confidence that it would be paid back. They might pay it with more paper money, but it would not be worth much.

Our problem now was to invent a real economy that did not depend on debt. Any money generated by what little business existed now was being taxed away to pay off those old government debts. People hid what they could from taxation by producing for their own needs, but that wasn't enough to live on. Governments had taxed away the money needed to form new productive businesses. That had to end and it did on the day the 3 biggest banks in the US folded up. There was a plan among nations to deal with such things, but it had not worked. Adding more of the same debt-money to the equation had made things worse. Nobody wanted to use the fast depreciating dollars that were being diluted daily to be worth even less. Imported items now were almost unaffordable. I was glad we had bought a lot of teabags and instant coffee before the prices went out of sight.

We were trying to live now on about 1/3 or maybe 1/4 of what we had been used to having. Our Social Security checks kept being deposited, but we had to really scrimp to keep from dipping into our silver savings. The shop income was good in summer, but less in winter. I had been using out of the steel rack and hadn't bought any for a while. I hadn't been able to save much business money back for steel, either. That was worrying me because our electric bill had gone up with more winter lighting and some shop use. We needed to get the solar system operating to reduce that electric bill. The problem was, cold weather would make it tough to be climbing around on the roof putting up panels.

I built mounting racks for the panels like I planned to do. I had lucked into a load of steel angle last year that I would use for the panel mounts. I made them adjustable for the up angle for better output in winter and I could lay them down a bit for summer use when we used a lot in the shop. Our few panels would not begin to power the shop, though. They were on;y for lighting in the house, the basement garage area, and running the freezers and fridge. If we could get a freezer emptied that would leave more power for other things, like shop lights.

Welding is not something you even consider for solar power. When electricity had doubled in price, we had cut back on it everywhere so we could use the freezers and run some things in the shop. Gasoline had not gone up nearly as fast as electricity, because of some government subsidy deal, so I told shop customers that if they needed welding done they should bring me some gasoline for running the old Miller portable. It did a lot of welding on a gallon of gas, an hour or two, depending on how much time it was idling between welds. I didn't have to tell people to bring steel if they had it. They did that to save buying any more than necessary.
________________________

We put up our eight 200 watt solar panels on a cold day in January. At least there was no wind to speak of, but it was hard to get small bolts and wires installed with numb fingers. There were 16 Trojan T-105 batteries already at full charge that we hooked in through an MPPT charge controller. It did some magic that allowed it to use whatever voltage the panels put out without wasting hardly any. That covered one freezer, the fridge, and a bunch of lights in the house, plus whatever little use our 12 volt TV and radios got.

One freezer was still on the grid power, but we were emptying it as fast as we could. The women got busy canning what meat was still in it and finished in less than a week. That was a good thing because our power went off a couple days later.

We seldom watched TV unless the weather was threatening, but it was on the 12 volt solar system so it worked with the grid power off. There was a special report going about the power outage, saying it was done as planned, coordinated with other portions of the Midwest power grid. There had been short notice because it was prompted by failures at two nuclear plants that had to be taken down for repairs. A third plant was also being shut down for preventative maintenance, being of the same age and design. That left a shortfall of power for the whole Midwestern part of the country, but some power was being shared from other main sections of the system to keep disruption to a minimum. The announcer talked about conserving power and how to do that. He said this could take several weeks, so get used to it for now, and so forth. They had decided to switch us on for 4 hours then off for 4 hours around the clock. We had to wait and see when the times would come for us.

Brenda said, "We knew the grid was in bad shape. You said that power company guy told about shoddy maintenance last year. I wonder how bad off the rest of the system is?"

I said, "Yeah, he told me they never fixed anything right. They were told to just patch it and get it going again. Been doing that for years. It looks to me like it's not going to be reliable now. Good thing we have some backup power, but it's not enough."

Carmen said, "But it runs everything now, except that one freezer and we emptied that."

Josh had been in on the installation and we had talked about our solar power at length, so he knew how limited it was. He said, "Mom, it doesn't run the water pump, or any of the shop except a few lights. We'll have to hand pump water until we have power again."

Carmen said, "You mean we don't have water?"

I said, "We have over 8,000 gallons of water in the cistern under the back porch. The problem is getting it out of there. The electric pump in the basement uses way too much power for the solar system, so it stays turned off. We can drain water in the basement by gravity flow from the cistern for use in the laundry there, but for the house we'll have to use the hand pump on the porch."

Brenda said, "It's no big deal, just a pain in the butt. You've used the pump when we wash vegetables out there."

Carmen had a hard time getting her head around this. She was used to turning on a faucet and having water come out. She was bright enough and understood the pump system when Josh explained it to her. She just didn't like the idea of a "primitive" hand pump.

We immediately began to use the hand pump on the back porch. It was a chore to carry water for flushing the toilets, but it worked. We got frugal with water real fast. It got pretty frosty out there in cold weather. Thankfully, the pump didn't freeze up. It drained back down into the cistern automatically when you weren't pumping water.

Our electric bill the next month showed an emergency rate increase to pay for the repairs being done. We paid about the same amount as when it was on all the time. The 4-on, 4-off schedule let us do a little work in the shop, but we had to watch the clock carefully, or be caught in the middle of something when it went off again. That played hell with our business and everyone else's. I thought that only a bureaucrat could hose up the works this bad, but I was wrong. The central bankers were worse.
______________________

[patience]

Chapter 24 January, 2015


"OOOF! Dammit! That was bad. I never saw a pothole like that before," Brenda said.

I pulled the truck over to check for damage. A walk around didn't show anything, but I worried about the tire that had hit it and wondered if the front suspension was okay.

"I don't see anything, But we'll be careful from here and take a better look at home," I told her.

"You can't see very well on these back roads, either, because they don't mow the edges now. What are we paying taxes for anyhow?"

"To feed the politicians. It's not like they do much good with the money," I said. "They are letting everything go to pot. That's another reason I don't want to go to Louisville. I don't trust the bridges."

Brenda said, "It's not just the roads and bridges. I talked to Marge Sanders the other day in town and she said they are on city water and it isn't fit to drink. It makes suds when it comes out of the faucet, and it never gets clear no matter how long you let it sit in a glass. Tastes terrible, too, so they buy water at the grocery and pay a lot for it."

"A lot of this is because the money went bad," I said. "It means the City and the State are just as broke as we are. There's not much they can do but keep trying to patch things."

We were almost at Susan's driveway, so I stopped talking to pay more attention to the sharp turnoff into their driveway. I stopped at the gate and called their house on my cell phone to let them know it was us at the gate.

"C'mon in Dad. I shut the alarm off and shut the dog door.

I had a key for the gate and gave it to Brenda. She opened it so I could drive through, the locked it again. She got in and said, "That quarantine sign looks like the real thing! Where did they get that?"

"I don't know, but I bet it makes people think twice about coming in here!"

I parked by in front of the garage and got out, picking up the foam cooler in the back of the truck. Susan came out and I said, "Here's the beef!"

Brenda gave Susan a hug then went inside.

"Where do you want this?"

"Put it on the counter here and I'll put it away, Dad. Thanks for bringing it over."

"There's another cooler in the truck. I'll go get it."

When I got the second cooler inside, Art came up from the basement.

He said, "What do we owe you for all that?"

I told him, "I weighed it at home and got 54 pounds. At $7 a pound that's $378. It's pretty well all boneless, too."

"That's pretty cheap for beef. Is that enough?"

"We can raise it for a lot less than that. We bought this one for $3.28 a pound on the hoof, and it dressed out right at 65%, so we have about $5.84 a pound in the meat. All we did was butcher and package it, then freeze it. That pays us a little for the work and it got our second freezer empty so we could shut it off to cut the electric bill."

Art shook his head in dismay and said, "The cheapest we can find beef in town is $7.99 for ground chuck, they call it, but it is tough to chew, even being ground. This will last us a long time, too. We sure appreciate this."

"We'll have pork before long, if you want some of that. I'm buying several hogs from a friend of ours and we'll butcher one of them before the weather warms up too much. We have some room in our main freezer now after they canned up some stuff and we've used a little out of it. It won't take much freezer space, because we're going to dry salt and smoke most of it. There should be room to freeze the tenderloin chops and the bulk sausage we don't smoke of fry up."

Susan said, "YES! We want some! You let us know what you have and we'll come get it. Do you want help with the butchering?"

"I think we'll have plenty of help. The house isn't that big, so any more help and we'd be getting in each other's way. I'm going to feed that hog for a while. They are up to maybe 280 or 300 pounds, I'd guess, and I'd like it bigger. I'll pick it up next week and start feeding it some of that corn I got when we bought the farm. I know a guy who is making biodiesel out of soybeans, so I can get the leftover soybean meal cheaper than the feed store. That will make a pretty good mix for the hogs with some oats thrown in."

Art said, "Pork is outrageous, too. If you can do as well on selling it, we'll buy our share."

"Okay. We'll get back to you on that."

Brenda asked, "Have you had any prowlers lately?"

Susan laughed and said, "Yeah! We had one! Some guy might have been rabbit hunting for all we know, but he came up to cross the fence and had to have seen the No Hunting and No Trespassing sign, then started across the fence anyway. I saw him out the kitchen window when the alarn went off. He had just got on top of the fence when he must have touched the elecrtic wire and threw his gun. He fell off into the INSIDE electric wire and was fighting it when the dogs took off for him at a run. You should have seen him getting back over that electric fence!"

"He got away then?"

"Yeah, but he lost his shotgun. He ran off before I could get out there to talk to him, so we have a nice Remington shotgun now!"

I take it he didn't try to come back and get it?"

Art laughed and said, "NO, he was moving pretty good when he went out of sight!"

Brenda said, "I'm glad it worked."

Susan said, "I'm sure he was hunting. He wasn't trying to rob us. He had an orange hat on and the gun was loaded with #6 shot for rabbits. But it serves him right, because he had to see the No Hunting signs. Art nailed those to every third fence post."

Art said, "It's a nice shotgun. It just had a little mud in the barrel from when he threw it. I cleaned it up. Do you need a shotgun?"

"No, I like the one I have, but thanks anyway."

Brenda said, "Josh could use a shotgun. What do you want for it?"

Art said, "It didn't cost us anything. You can have it. You've done us a lot of favors."

I said, "Okay, but I'll get you a good deal on some pork, okay?"

Art said, "That works for me!"
__________________

"What do you mean, a free gun?"

"Art and Susan gave it to us for you Josh," I said. Then we told him the story and we all got a good laugh out of it.

"Besides, they appreciated your work on the gate installation. They haven't had anybody try to get through it without permission. Art rigged a hot wire on top of the gate, too, so you have to know how to get past that. Oh, yeah. The shotgun came with 8 shells in it because it has that magazine extender. That's not legal to hunt with, either, so he wasn't what you'd call a well mannered hunter. That's a 26" modified choke barrel, so it will be good for birds and rabbits. It's not the best for ducks or geese, but we'd go after them sitting anyhow, so no matter."

"Man, do you know what these things cost now? I saw a new 870 in the Rural King ad paper for $889!"

I smiled and said, "It's about time you had a break coming your way, don't you think?"

Josh spent the next day making himself a simple but nice wood gun rack to hang his .22 and the shotgun up high on the wall in their room. I went to the storage barn and found him a box of #6 shells so he had some extras. We'd look for a deal on ammunition later.
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Chapter 25 February, 2015


Our rebuilt stock trailer got used for the first time hauling the hogs home. The big barn had a ramp for unloading livestock that fit the trailer, since Lester had built it himself, so unloading the hogs was a simple job. Julie didn't seem to like them much and did some snorting, but she settled down. We got the hogs in their pen, then Josh and I fed and watered them, so they quieted down pretty fast. There were four sows, a boar that went in his own pen, and 2 barrows we planned to butcher. The sows were bred and supposed to farrow sometime in April. By that time, the cattle would be outside on pasture so we'd have plenty of room for separating the sows into individual pens long before then.

Tammy had come out to do the feeding and said, "Jack, take a look at Julie. She's about ready to foal, I think."

I had noticed the day before that her udder was filling up, so I knew it wouldn't be long. When I looked closer, I saw that her vulva was swollen and she was a little nervous. We talked to her and I got more fresh straw for her bedding. She snuffled at it and pawed it around some.

I said, "I think you're right. She's acting like it, kinda making a nest there."

I spoke to the horse, "Julie, are you okay girl?"

She nickered at me and went back to pawing the straw into a heap. I watched her belly for a while and said, "I think I saw the foal move in her. She may be having contractions. We'd better keep an eye on her tonight."

Tammy said, "I'll stay here for a while. You two can go get something to eat and I'll come in later."

"Okay, we'll see you later."
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When Josh and I went in for supper I said, "It might be a late night for us. It looks like Julie is ready to drop that foal. Tammy stayed at the barn to watch her."

Carmen was elated. "Oh, I've got to see this! I'll take a turn at the barn with her. We get along good."

Brenda said, "I wouldn't volunteer if I were you. It's pretty chilly out there tonight. But if you're going, I'll make another pot of coffee and bring you some."

The power was off right then, so there was no electricity in the big barn. I hoped the utility power would stay on enough through the winter to keep the water tank thawed. I found a battery powered lantern to take out there since it was past sundown and would be dark in the enclosed stall. I took it and a cup of hot coffee out to the barn so Tammy could come in to eat. I got there just in time to see Julie lay down in her pile of straw and saw obvious contractions. She picked her head up for a couple minutes and looked at me, then laid it down again as I hung up the lantern.

Tammy said softly, "There it comes!"

The foal had just been born when Julie got her bulk up off the floor and turned to it. She cleaned it's nostrils and face, then rooted it in the belly until the new foal gave a grunt and was breathing fine. Julie went to work cleaning the foal which soon had it's head up looking around at its' new world. it was soon struggling to stand and Julie was helping, pushing it with her nose to help it gain its' balance. The little rounded hoofs got some purchase on the floor so it got up on wobbly legs. In a matter of a couple minutes, it was nursing.

"We need to stay and make sure she passes the afterbirth. If she doesn't clean herself out, we'll have to call the vet," I told Tammy.

I frowned when Julie pulled away from the nursing foal then turned and laid down. The foal wasn't finished yet and wobbled over closer to her. Julie paid little attention. I was worried until I saw another contraction and decided she was passing the afterbirth, but then I was astounded to see another little head coming out.

I said, "She's having twins!"

Tammy squealed a little and got closer. The second foal was born quickly. Julie was tired, but got to her feet and dealt with the second one. We watched as she cleaned the newest foal and got him on his feet. This one was male, a "horse colt" was the old term, or just "colt" now. He began to nurse as his sister went to the other side to finish her first meal. I hugged Tammy and said softly, "She did good! A good mother and doing all the right stuff. Now we watch to make sure she gets cleaned out and that everyone gets bedded down tonight."

"They are small, aren't they, for such a big horse?"

"Devin told me that Percherons have smaller foals. It makes for easier births. They grow fast, so don't worry about that. We'll have to feed Julie really well while she's nursing both of them," I said.

"She can do it. Her udder is big, almost like a cow," Tammy said.

Carmen couldn't stand it any longer and walked to the barn. She came in quietly and spoke to us,

"How's she doing?"

About the time I said, "You missed it," Carmen saw the stud colt nursing and exclaimed, "Oh, isn't it cute!"

Tammy half hid a smirk and said, "You ought to see the other one."

"Huh?"

"Over here," Tammy said, and pointed.

"Omigosh! She had TWINS! Oh, Julie you did great! I'm proud of you!"

Julie wasn't paying a lot of attention to us. Her head was hanging low and her droopy eyes showed she was exhausted. I told the women, "I'm going to leave the lantern on in here tonight. With two of 'em to watch out for, she needs to be able to see 'em."

The filly had all she could hold and had laid down in the straw pile. The colt finished soon after and joined her, looking sleepy. Julie nuzzled them both and snuffled at them, like an experienced mother. Before long she laid down near them and passed the offal which we cleaned out of the stall immediately. I bagged it up in plastic to hide the smell of blood. I didn't want the odor to attract any coyotes. We could lock up her stall, but she didn't need the stress of predators around.

We set up a schedule to have someone there with them all night with a gun and spare batteries for the lantern to make sure the new family was not disturbed. Carmen volunteered for the first shift, so Tammy and I went to the house so she could eat and we could tell the family about it all. The only thing that bothered me was that Carmen refused to have a gun with her.
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[patience]

Chapter 26

There were coyotes around the neighborhood, but they must have been more attracted to the commercial poultry houses up the road from us because we weren't troubled by them. The next day I went to work doing a better job on individual feeding pens for the hogs. I hadn't planned to buy that many hogs initially, but thought it would be better to breed and raise some. The Amish man had needed some money, so he made me a good price on them and I couldn't pass that up. By late Spring, we'd have a lot of little pigs running around.

That meant we would need a lot of feed by next Fall, so I began to think about growing some corn. We'd discovered an ancient moldboard plow and a small disreputable disk in the weeds when we were cutting logs and firewood. They were very rusty, but seemed to be intact. It was a pretty day so I got the tractor started with the help of a little ether and lifted the old plow out of the dirt with the front end loader, then hitched it up and took it to the shop. I worked on it with the sanding disc on my angle grinder until it all 3 moldboards were shining. It was worn but would do for a few acres a year.

The disc was more trouble to get cleaned up, and the blades were badly worn. It was all I had, so it would have to do. I didn't have a corn planter, nor a cultivator so I'd have to look about getting something. Money was getting very tight, so I was getting discouraged when it occurred to me that the garden tractor had a cultivator and I had a little push planter I used in the garden. If I spaced the rows wide enough to let the garden tractor through the middles, I could do it with that. After all, I was only thinking about 2 or 3 acres of corn. It would take some time, but I had plenty of help.

What I had in mind was to just raise the corn, but not plan on picking it. I'd let the hogs do that themselves. We'd have to put up a fence to keep them out of the corn until it was ready, but that was no big deal. Looking over the place I decided I'd plow up the flattest part at the back end of the pasture. My plans made, I set to work on the disc and got the old bearings taken out, washed and greased. They should have been replaced, but this was a low budget operation. In the days that followed before the Spring rains began, I got some of the rust cleaned off the old implement frames. I hauled them to the big barn and Carmen got some paint on them. Meanwhile, Josh and I worked on setting fence posts when we had time between other jobs.
_________________

Now I had a problem. It was time to butcher those two big hogs before the weather got any warmer, but the smell of blood would drive the other animals nuts. The last thing I needed was a panicky horse around two little foals. Since it is nearly impossible to drive hogs across an open field, I decided to load the two up in the stock trailer and take them over to the big machinery shed for butchering.

"Ladies, we need a lot of pans and buckets cleaned up to put meat in," I told everyone over a very early breakfast. "Unless you'd rather load and haul hogs, that is."

Brenda wrinkled her nose at me and said, "I'll get some water heating on the wood stove. It's going to take a lot of hot water."

Carmen said, "I'll clean up after breakfast so Tammy can help you getting ready."

The loading and hauling was easy enough. I got the tractor started and Josh shot the hogs in the trailer, then I used the loader to lift them one at a time for butchering. The tractor and loader made easy work of hauling the offal to the woods and burying it. Since meat was precious, we saved the hearts and livers to eat or sell. The kidneys and other organs we would grind like sausage and freeze it to make dog food later by cooking it with some ground cornmeal. Sonny would love it. There would probably be enough to add some to the chicken feed, too. Waste not, want not.

Josh took Vivian some fresh liver to cook, which pleased her no end. It was pretty late when we sat down to eat supper. We had the mess cleaned up and the hogs shaved and hanging in halves to get cold back in the upper floor of the big barn where it would be safe from predators. Tomorrow would be soon enough to begin cutting meat. We were all worn out.
________________

It was two weeks later when I took down one each of the sugar cured and smoked hams, shoulders, sides of bacon and jowls from our improvised smokehouse in a shed at the farm. Brenda and I wrapped them all in some old pillow cases and sheets she'd saved for the purpose. The rest we left to hang there for storage. I put a stout padlock on the door, we loaded the truck with the wrapped meat and headed for Susan and Art's place with 140 pounds of cured pork. That was half of one hog. We hadn't weighed them, but the hogs must have been close to 400 pounds each when we butchered them.

I had also put a bucket in the truck that contained fried sausage patties preserved in lard. We still have 3 buckets of lard at home, one with sausage in it and the other 2 plain. The hot lard was perfectly sterilized and now hot packed and sealed in the buckets. That would all stay good until hot weather if kept cool.

"Oh good! You brought lard. Nothing makes a pie crust like lard," Susan said.

Art said, "I'll help you carry the meat. It goes in the back room of the basement. Don't worry about the dogs. I put them in the the garage."

"It's heavy. The ham and shoulder are probably over 40 pounds apiece. I had to split them open to be sure the salt and sugar cure got all the way through the meat. That's why there are so many pieces."

"This is enough meat to last us a year, with what beef we have," Art grunted it out as he struggled with the awkward shaped chunks.

"It won't keep forever just cured and smoked, but it will be good for a couple months at least, probably more. You'll have to freeze it after that," I told him.

"We have freezer room now, but I want to keep it as-is for a while so we don't have to slice and package it, and we can just cut off what we want to use without having to thaw it out."

"Okay. Keep an eye on it, and if you start to see any mold on the surface, just wash it with strong salt brine and then rub more dry salt on it. Remember you have to soak it overnight to get some of the salt out of it before you cook it and make it moist and tender."

We had it all hung on nails in the overhead joists. Susan knew all about this process and had given us some thin aluminum pie pans, the throwaway kind. We tied a short wire to each piece of meat and poked it through a pie pan upside down over the chunk. The wire was hung on a nail overhead, so it a mouse managed to get up there, he'd fall off the slick pie pan to the floor. We'd done that for a lifetime and never had a problem with mice.

I sold them the meat for about 2/3 of store price, and we made enough on the deal to pay for the whole hog. The rest of the meat from that hog was our profit.

Back upstairs with the women I asked, "How are things going for you?"

Susan said, "We're doing good. Well, we're doing better than most. We're both working. My job kinda sucks now, because they have cut back so many people I'm doing about 3 jobs in the Records Department. The hospital isn't getting near the business they used to, probably because people don't have insurance and can't pay them. The emergency room is overrun with welfare cases, and the regular rooms are only half filled. The law says they have to treat emergencies even if they can't pay, so they aren't making much money. The stockholders are screaming bloody murder."

"I thought that Obamacare made sure everybody had insurance."

Susan laughed and said, "It's so much cheaper to pay the fine than to get the insurance that almost nobody signed up for it. That's going to break the hospitals and doctors. The drug companies are sucking air, too, because nobody can afford their high priced drugs."

"What are people doing for health care then?"

"They're doing without, that's what. I hear that the animal vets are doing a good business, though. They are a lot cheaper because they don't have the malpractice insurance, and a bunch of other overhead. They get drugs for near nothing too, by comparison."

"You mean people are being treated by vets?"

"Oh yeah. If they get caught, they go to jail, but they have to make a living, and people can't afford to take their animals to them now, so it's a big black market thing. All cash business, too."

"Sounds risky to me, for doctor and patient alike," I said.

Susan shrugged. "It beats dying I guess. People are having a hard time of it, so they do what they have to do."

Art said his maintenance deptartment had been cut back so much that they had unsafe planes flying. They couldn't keep up with the workload and the company lied about the required maintenance checks and flew the planes without it. We agreed that this was not going to end well.
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[patience]

Chapter 27 March, 2015


Julie was loving the grass that just turned green again with the warmer weather. I watched her and the 2 foals wandering the pasture with the cattle while I worked in the barn. I had turned the hogs out to the other half of the pasture so I could clean their pens. It would be a job to get them back inside with their noses in the fresh grass, so I'd wait until feeding time tonight then shut them in. The manure pile outside was getting big. There should be plenty for the corn patch I wanted to plant.

I heard, then saw the EMT van go past and thought it was probably a wreck somewhere up the road, but I saw it stop at Vivan's house. Very soon it was heading to town. I was finished in the barn, so I went to the house to tell the family about it.

Carmen said, "I saw the EMT's go past. It sounded like they stopped down the road."

"Yes. They went to Vivian's and I guess they took her to the hospital. They were just there for a few minutes."

Carmen said, "I hope she's all right. I was going down there later today to clean. I guess I could call the hospital and maybe find out what's going on."

Brenda said, "She's getting pretty old. It sounds bad to me."

Tammy said, "She had to have called them herself, with noone else there. Maybe she just fell or something."

Later, Carmen said, "I called and talked to the emergency room. I lied and told her I was her niece and asked where she was so I could come visit her. They told me she was dead on arrival. They said Trask Funeral Home would handle the arrangements."
___________________

It was a week later when Brenda got a call from David Martin, Vivian's nephew. He was the executor of her estate and said she mentioned Carmen, Joshua, and Tammy Ellis in her will and had given our address and phone number. I put Carmen on the phone.

"Yes, that's me. Okay, what time? Ten o'clock. Okay. We'll be there. Thank you."

Carmen hung up and said, "We're supposed to go to the reading of her will tomorrow at ten. It's at some lawyer's office in town. I can't imagine why she'd leave us anything, but we'll go and find out I guess."
__________________

Vivan had left them $1,000 each and a letter of thanks for "being very nice to an old lady", in her words. She had left a bequest of money to her church. The house and lot and the balance of her estate was to be split between David and his brother however they saw fit. It was a week after that when we saw David moving in. Josh and I walked over to see if he wanted help moving things, since he seemed to be alone.

"Hello. I'm Jack Hesston, your neighbor. You've met Josh, I guess. Want a hand with some of that?"

"Yeah! That'd be good. The furniture isn't that heavy, but it's awkward for one man."

We carried in the bedroom furniture, a couch and chairs, and a dining table then stopped to rest.

David said, "I sure appreciate that. I had the devil of a time getting it loaded on the trailer. I feel like I know you, because Aunt Viv talked about you a lot. Said you were real nice neighbors."

"We liked her a lot. She was a sweet old lady."

"I have to make another load today if I can before time to run the school bus this afternoon. I'd better go get something to eat and get busy."

"You're welcome to come over and have lunch with us. It'll be pot luck, but there's always plenty. We'll just set another plate."

"I hate to impose on you."

"Not at all. C'mon with us over to the house. It'll be a good time to start getting acquainted."
_________________

We learned that David was a widower and had a small internet business besides driving the school bus.

"My brother and I made a deal for my house. He plans to rent it out. Said that income would do him more good than having money with nowhere safe to invest it. I just didn't want to live there after my wife passed away. I always liked Aunt Viv's place and spent some time there as a kid, so it kinda seems like home to me."

"We're glad to have you as a neighbor. If you want, I can work up the garden space there when I work up a corn field. It's right there by the machinery shed, so it won't take a minute."

"That would be great! All I have is a tiller and that would be big job for it. I hope I can do something for you sometime., " David said.

I told him, "We're just getting started at this farming thing. We'll need a hand when it comes time to make hay, so don't commit yourself too much here!"

Carmen said, "That's right. Be careful or he'll work you to a frazzle!"

David laughed and said, "I think I can still pick up a hay bale. I'd better get going. Time flies when you're having a good time, but I have to be there on time with the bus."

When David had gone, Carmen said, "He seems like a nice guy."

I agreed with her. I had noticed she'd paid close attention to him at the table, but I didn't mention it. He was about her age and she hadn't missed that, either. Anyone could see what Carmen was thinking, all the time.
__________________

David hadn't missed it either. He walked over a couple days later and asked if someone had time to drive his pickup back for him so he could go fetch the school bus? I was busy on a welding job, and Josh had a car he was working on, so I went to the house with him. Tammy was cleaning up Hailey after lunch, so Brenda said, "You want to do that Carmen?"

"Sure! I can drive a pickup. I don't want to try the bus, though!"

David smiled and said, "I wouldn't do that to you. I could get my brother to help tonight, if it's too much trouble."

Carmen smiled and said, "No, I don't mind."

David said, "It would save me a trip if I don't have to take him home."

They left together and were back in an hour. When he dropped Carmen off, she looked happier than she had since she moved in with us. David was smiling as he waved goodbye, too.
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[biggkidd]

Twins how cool. Good story. Chapter 23, 24 are on twice. 

 Thank You 
Larry

[patience]

biggkidd, Thanks! Fixed that. More soon.

[patience]

Chapter 28 April, 2015

It had not been easy, but we had managed to load Julie and both foals in the stock trailer and take them to an Amish fellow I learned about. He had a really good Percheron stud. I didn't know who owned the horse she was last bred to, and I probably couldn't afford his stud fees anyway. This man's fee was reasonable and he would keep all 3 of them to keep the mare satisfied. He had pens that allowed the foals to be next to their mother while she associated with the stallion to get her in the mood. I left them all at his place for 3 days until she came in heat and the deed was done. He gave me papers to file for registering the foal when the time came. I had not known his stud was registered, but he assured me it was a very good bloodline. He had inherited the horse from his father who had paid a great deal for him.

Green, really green grass made everyone feel better. The Daffodils had poked up their yellow heads. The colts were playing tag in the pasture among the cattle. Julie was grazing peacefully while she kept an eye on them. I had penned the hogs up close to the barn to keep them from destroying our pasture before it grew enough for them.

Sonny had his tail in the air coming back from the fencerow. He had caught himself a rabbit for lunch and was proud as could be. My old hunting buddies would say that was a cardinal sin to let a hunting dog eat what he caught, but these were hard times and I was glad he was feeding himself part of the time. He brought it to me anyway. I told him he was a fine dog, and gave it back to him. he carried it off into the yard to lay down and have a meal.

Spring rains had left the pastures soggy and too wet to plow. I had plowed 2 of our 4 big gardens last Fall, though, so two days of sunshine had those dry enough to disk and plant. The two new patches had cover crops of winter wheat that would need to be mowed off and plowed down when the ground was dry enough. The wheat would discourage grass from the old lawn there, due to some chemical that wheat produced. I wanted to add manure to enrich those plots and plow it down, too.

All the farmers in the county were trying to get ready for planting season, so I was covered up with shop work. Josh had become acquainted with the garden tractor so he got the disking finished and helped Tammy set out the plants she'd started indoors. Cabbage, broccoli, and onion seedlings were all we felt safe to put out now, with the threat of frost lingering. They sowed seeds for kale, peas, radishes lettuce, endive, carrots, spinach, and I don't know what else.

Tomorrow was Good Friday, the traditional day here to plant early potatoes, so Brenda was cutting seed potatoes today to give the piece time to dry on the surface, and "heal" as dad used to say. It was supposed to help prevent rotting in a wet year. Some onions had wintered over and I'd left a row of beets to go to seed near one edge of a patch where we could cultivate up close to them. We had saved seeds from everything we knew how to do, but there were still some seeds we would need to buy. Overall, I thought we were doing pretty well growing food for a very low cost.

When Josh shut the garden tractor off, I could hear David's tiller running across the low pasture. Like us, he was getting an early start with cold weather crops. I went in for coffee and said to the women in the kitchen, "We've got an abundance of seed we had saved from spinach, kale and radishes. Somebody could take an envelope of each down to David."

Brenda said, "That's a good idea. Carmen, you want to take him the rest of that stew we had yesterday? It's not enough for a meal for us and I don't want it to go to waste."

"Yeah, I'll do that. I don't know if he can cook or not. I doubt if he's eating right since he lost his wife."

Later, as I worked on a big field cultivator, I heard the back door close and saw Carmen going towards David's place. I thought the least we could do was to give her some social opportunities.
__________________

Spring is a beautiful time of year and full of opportunities on a farm, but they come only with a lot of hard work. Everything wanted attention at once. I needed to clean the hen house and put that manure on the gardens. The pile of manure by the barn wanted to be spread on the fields and gardens. I had just finished some pens in the barn for the sows that would be having little pigs any day now. The yard was needing to be mowed, a useless task in my opinion. It made me want to move the pasture fence closer to the house so the cattle could do more of the mowing. Or maybe I should just plow it up and plant something. I wasn't sure which. Just then, I had to get the repair job finished and start on the next one.

I finished the cultivator and a small welding job on a lawn mower and in the middle of that the owner had picked up the cultivator. We called and left a message for the owner of the mower, then Brenda, Tammy and I took off for town to get what garden seeds they wanted. We hadn't been to town in a while, so we all went together in Carmen's car and had plenty of room for Hailey's car seat. Carmen said she had a pie to bake so she was staying home with Josh.

As we got to the edge of town Brenda said, "There's a lot more empty houses now."

"I saw that. More empty business buildings, too. It looks like that rent-to-own place is gone, and the video rental place closed last year. The only thing left in that little shopping center is the discount grocery and the dollar store."

Tammy said, "Josh told me the auto parts store on Main Street closed. There's just two of them now, Auto Zone and O'Reilly's."

I said, "There's not enough business to keep them all going, I guess. I hope we don't lose too many businesses."

I needed some things from the farm store and the whole crowd went in with me, needing the break from home life. There was only one other vehicle in the lot besdies ours and I recognized it.

Our son Brad almost bumped into me as I rounded the end of an aisle.

"Hey, Dad! How're you doin'?"

"I'm fine. Good to see you!"

Stephie came up behind him with their cart and spoke to us. We all made the usual friendly noises and then got down to serious shopping, us for batteries, bolts, and garden seeds. Brad needed fence staples, barbed wire, and gate hinges for the goat project, and Stephie wanted some leather gloves for helping him. We got back together on the way to the checkout.

Stephie said, "We're about done with the fence. We're supposed to get the goats next week. One is about ready to kid and the other is not far behind her, so we built a little shelter for them. The Billy is very protective they said, but we want them closed up inside at night because of the coyotes. It's just 12 feet by 16 feet, but it doesn't take much room for goats."

Tammy asked, "Are you going to drink all that milk, or sell some?"

Stephie said, "Oh no, we're going to make cheese! I love goat cheese and it is far too expensive. We'll raise the little ones and see if they look to be good milkers, and butcher the billys and culls for meat. We need to clear some brushy ground and goats will work hard at that. If we follow them with a few pigs, they will dig out the roots and both will fertilize the ground. then we eat the meat and sow grass seed..."

In the checkout line Brad was turned toward the women to listen, but also heard the one guy in front of him say something that caught his attention. I saw Brad look over his shoulder at the man, but I couldn't see what was going on. Apparently the guy hadn't seen us walk up behind him, either. He was concentrating on pointing his pistol at the clerk and demanding money. Brad is thin and wiry, and very fast. He spun on his heel and whacked the guy a good lick sideways on the back of his hand with the foot long gate hinges he had. The gun clattered to the floor, and the man yelled in pain.

"Ain't havin' that here buster, so get the hell out before I hurt you!"

The young man stood there for a few seconds, obviously hurting, and Brad hit his other hand with the hinges and said, "I told you to LEAVE, and I mean NOW!"

The guy screeched and ran. Brad was standing on the pistol the man had dropped. He bent over and picked it up saying, "I guess he didn't want this since he left it layin' here."

Brad checked the gun's safety then put it in his pocket and said to the checkout girl, "Sorry about the disturbance Ma'am. I need to pay for this stuff."

He laid his hardware on the counter. The girl was stammering something, still in shock at the attempted robbery. Brad said calmly, "Ma'am, if you don't mind, me and the family have a lot to do today and I don't want to spend the whole day talkin' to the police, so if it's all the same to you, this never happened. What do you say?"

The girl was pretty pale, but she got it together well enough to say, "That's fine with me."

Brad asked if the store had cameras in it? She told him yes, but they couldn't afford the alarm service now so they didn't work.

Brad said, "Take your time and let your nerves settle down. We're not in that much of a hurry, okay?"

"Ye-Yeah. Okay."

"Since you don't have a security service now, would you want this gun he had for your protection?"

"YES! This isn't the first time. I wish I'd had a gun when he was here! I could never afford one."

"Okay, here you go. D'you know how it works? How to put it on safety and load and unload it and all?"

"Let me look at it."

Brad held it out holding it by , watching her carefully.

"Yes. That's a .45 Colt. I've handled them before. My ex-boyfriend had one like that. This is the safety and it's on now, right?"

Brad told her she was right. and watched her drop the magazine out, flick the safety, and shuck the round out of the chamber. She picked up the loose round and stuffed it back in the magazine, then put the magazine back in it's well. Satisfied she wouldn't accidentally shoot somebody, Brad told her, "Don't point that thing at anybody you don't intend to shoot, okay?"

"I won't. I was WISHING SO HARD I had a gun when he tried that ----! Well I've got one now! And pieces of crap like him had better behave." She put the gun under the counter and said, "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"No problem Ma'am. You just be real careful with that thing, okay?"

"I will. I know how it works. I'd better get busy and get you checked out."

The middle aged woman was lean and muscular. She had the tanned and slightly wrinkled skin of an outdoor person. I judged she had grown up with guns, from what I'd seen. She had calmed down pretty fast, which looked like she was pretty stable. She got us all checked out in businesslike fashion and we were on our way. She gave us a big smile and a wave as we left.

Outside, Brad said, "I hit that guy pretty hard. He won't be doin' much of anything but soaking his sore hands for a while. Probably broke a few bones in there. That generally takes the fight right out of 'em"

Stephanie said, "I didn't recognize him, so he must not be from around here."

I said, "Yeah and that worries me a little. We don't need any trouble coming to town."

Tammy said, "That one won't be any trouble. Did you see his face? He was hurt bad. He won't be back."

As we got in the car Brenda said, "I hope you're right."

I said, "Anybody that tries something like that needs to get his head thumped and it'll slow down real quick. Changin' the subject, but do we need to make any more stops in town?"

Everyone agreed to a quick stop at the grocery and we were on our way home.
________________

[patience]

Chapter 29 Early May, 2015


We told our stories when we got home to Carmen and Josh. Josh's look sharpened to alert status, but his mother got bugeyed.

Josh asked her, "Mom, are you about ready to get a gun now?"

"Guns scare me. I don't want a gun."

He said, "Better to be scared than dead," then turned and went back to work in the basement shop.

Carmen didn't want to hear any more of that and changed the subject. She asked Brenda, "Didn't you get any celery?"

"The grocery didn't have any fresh celery," Brenda said. "I wanted it too for the vegetable soup." She was putting away the few things we bought there.

Carmen said, "We can use celery seed for some flavor, but it's not the same. They used to have celery, so I guess they just ran out."

"There wasn't much in the produce section. There were some nasty looking pink tomatoes, a few heads of cabbage, and some shrivelled green peppers, but not a lot else. I didn't see anything but the cheap white bread, and they didn't have much milk, just 2% milk and not much of that. Maybe we need a milk cow. Stephie said they would be getting goats soon."

I asked, "What would we do with that much milk? You're looking at 4 to 6 gallons a DAY!"

"Oh, I know,"Brenda said, "It's just so frustrating to not get what we want at the grocery, even though it's not much. And it keeps getting worse. They don't have a lot of spices, and sometimes they don't even have black pepper. I want to plant a lot of cayenne peppers this year."

The talk stopped when Josh came upstairs with a bleeding finger. He had it wrapped in a clean shop towel, but it was still dripping a little.

"Get to the bathroom," I told him. "We'll get you fixed up."

"I was cutting out a gasket for the thermostat on that car and I slipped. It's pretty deep, I think."

I used the shop towel as a tourniquet to stop the blood flow long enough to work on it. I just tied a big knot in the towel on the back side of his wrist and told him to twist the knot tight. It worked well enough to let me clean the cut with Betadyne solution and then douse it with triple antibiotic cream. I cut 2 butterfly bandages from adhesive tape and stuck the sides of the cut together. It had made a mess in the sink , but he hadn't lost much blood.

"Okay, let up on the tourniquet and let's see if that's got it."

He did and we saw only a seep of blood. I put a compress pad of gauze with antibiotic cream on it to prevent sticking. I dug in the first aid cabinet for a popcicle stick and taped it in place to immobilize the finger.

"Now, keep that elevated for a while until it quits seeping. It needs to seal up naturally. You don't want to break that seal open either. That will be all of the wrench work for today, and probably a couple more days, or you'll screw it up."

Josh said, "I promised to get her car done today. She needs it to go to work tomorrow."

"Okay," I said. "You relax for a half an hour and then we'll go see what's left to do. I can finish it up. We can get the women to pinch hit for me on the chores tonight if necessary."

"There's not that much to do. I can sit there and show you where I put everything. It's just do the thermostat and put the radiator back in. Then the hoses and antifreeze, and that's it. Well, if the used radiator I got was good. We'll have to start it up and be sure it doesn't leak, then put the grille back in. Maybe an hour and a half if you take your time. I told her I'd deliver the car and she's supposed to bring me home."

"Okay. You go sit in the kitchen and have some coffee and I'll see about getting it back together. Keep that arm propped up on the bar with your hand in the air for at least half an hour. Then you come down to the shop and I'll show you how to cut out a perfect gasket with a ball pein hammer."
____________________

When the car was finished, we left it running in the driveway for a while to make sure that used radiator was okay then shut it off. It was, so we ran my tractor in for an oil and filter change. It need the fuel filters replaced. I hadn't been able to find them in town, but Lester had a couple stashed. I'd need to find some soon. It was time for supper, so we went back upstairs and washed up.

Vegetable soup smelled really good as Tammy dished it up into bowls. She said Carmen had taken a quart of it down to David and would be back soon, so we sat down and got busy eating. Carmen came storming in the back door looking upset, but said nothing until Brenda asked, "What's wrong?"

"David pointed a GUN at me! I saw him in the kitchen, so I went in with the soup, then he turned around and was going to SHOOT ME!"

I asked, "Did you knock on the door?"

"What difference does that make? He had no business pointing a gun at me! He can go straight to hell! I don't ever want to see him again."

Carmen stomped off to the bathroom and slammed the door. Nobody said a word. We could hear Carmen crying in the bathroom. The phone rang and I answered it.
"Hello?"
"Jack?"
"Yes."
"This is David Martin. Carmen just left here screaming I was going to kill her, and that's not how it was."
"I didn't think so, David. She gets hysterical sometimes."
"I was cleaning up in the kitchen and when she walked in, I didn't know who it was. Could've been one of those home invasions we hear about now. I've taken to carrying my pistol at home because of that, and she took me by surprise. She didn't knock or say anything until she was inside. Scared the crap outa me, and then it went downhill from there."

"I thought it was something like that. Don't worry about it David."

"Look, I'm sorry I scared her. I wouldn't hurt her for anything. It's just the worry about crime these days, you know? Would you tell her I'm sorry about that and I apologize. I keep the pistol on safety and I had my thumb on the safety button. There was no chance I'd shoot anyone until I KNOW they are a threat!"

"I'll explain it to her David. I can't guarantee that she'll listen, though. Carmen goes kinda nuts about guns."

Carmen had heard me say that when she came out of the bathroom. She came into the kitchen and said, "Who are you telling that I'm nuts? Is that David on the phone? Give it to me!"

I told David, "I'll call you later," and hung up.

"Yes, that was David, telling me what really happened. You barged in and scared the hell outa him. You ought to expect to get shot doing that these days! You're real lucky he's a level headed guy!"

"So you say! He's just another gun crazy fool like you and Brenda and that boy of mine! You even gave one to Tammy! NONE of you should have guns! You're all a bunch of pyschos!"

Brenda started to say something, but I beat her to it.

"CAN IT, CARMEN! I've had enough of your liberal crap! Face reality for a change! The WORLD is a little nuts now, not us! We're trying to take care of you idiots that can't seem to muster the courage to do it yourself, so shut the hell up, okay?"

Carmen started crying again. I thought Brenda would go to her and sympathize, but instead, she said, "That will be enough of that Carmen! You don't live here and talk to my husband that way. You can shut up this minute, or you can pack your sh!t and leave. I don't care a lot either way!"

Carmen stood there in shock for a minute, then her face got pale and she went to her bedroom.

I said nothing, just looking at Brenda.

Josh spoke from behind me and said, "We'll move out if you want Jack. You've treated us good, and she's got no right to talk like that. I won't put up with it and she's my mother, so you sure don't have to."

I had calmed down some, having gotten it off my chest. I said, "Wait and see what she has to say. You and Tammy are welcome as long as you want to stay here."

Brenda said, "I'm going to have a talk with her. Right now."

Her face told me to get out of her way, so I did. You don't mess with Brenda when she's on a mission. She went into the bedroom with Carmen and it got a little noisy in there for a while. I never cared to be around screeching women, so I asked Josh if we didn't need to deliver that car?

Some loud boo-hooing came from the bedroom. Tammy rolled her eyes and said, "I'll get Hailey."

Josh, Tammy and the baby got into his truck to show me the way and I followed in my truck. Josh had the woman drive the car and see that the power steering worked now, and it didn't overheat. She thanked him and paid him in cash, then they all piled into my truck to go back.

When we went in the back door, Brenda and Carmen were standing in the kitchen waiting.

Brenda said, "Carmen has something to say to all of you." She looked at Carmen who was pale, but calm and serious.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I'm really sorry."

She paused and searched for words, then said, "I'm...I don't know what to say. I need to go stay with Charlene and Howard. "I don't... I shouldn't stay here now."

"Tell him what we talked about!" Brenda was not taking any half steps.

Carmen's face got even more drawn, but she got it out.

"Brenda said I always wanted someone to take care of me and I had to learn to do it myself now. She said..."

"Not what I said, Carmen! What you agreed to!" Brenda's eyes were flashing lightning at her sister.

"I wanted to move out tonight, but Brenda said no."

Brenda stood with her hands on her hips and said, "TELL HIM!"

"OKAY! I said I'd have you teach me to shoot a gun."

I looked at Brenda and got a determined stare that flashed back at Carmen. Carmen looked utterly terrified.

Brenda said, "AND?"

"We would start as soon as you got home..."
_____________________

[biggkidd]

Really Good! I would love to know how you guys come up with these stories? I guess my mind just doesn't work that way, but I sure enjoy reading them.

Thanks again

Larry

[patience]

Chapter 30

Brenda had already made Carmen call David and apologize for walking in without knocking. David was apolgizing too, so it must have been quite a conversation.

I wasn't so sure I wanted to give that woman a gun at that moment, but Brenda had that figured out. It was to be only handling taught tonight, and probably for several days until we were sure she wouldn't do something idiotic. As it worked out, it was a month before I showed her how to load my revolver, and like Barney Fife, she only got one shell at a time.

Carmen was getting bored by the routine of safety drills and said, "Why do we keep going over this? I know how it works now. I knew right away."

"Because it's not about how it works, it's about how YOU work with it. Since you had no idea about gun handling, we're going over it until you can do it in your sleep, or when you first wake up, or when you're scared to death because that's when you have to be able to do it right. It's about responsibility. You carry deadly force in your hand, you are RESPONSIBLE for what you do with it. No mistakes are allowed, ever. You make a mistake, and somebody dies needlessly. I don't want you to wake up and shoot one of us because you heard a noise and got scared, okay?"

She took the lecture better than I expected. Brenda standing there might have had something to do with it.

"Put your ear muffs on. Brenda, show how it's done." Brenda put 6 rounds in the center of the straw bale in a spot the size of a baseball. I wanted Carmen to know how loud it would be to get that surprise out of the way.

"Okay, let's do it," I told her. We were down by the barn, and all the stock was in the other half of the pasture. There was a nice big hill for a backstop that had been explained to her in detail. I had put a bale of straw about 20 steps away and covered it with a sheet of newspaper. Carmen had dry fired at it many times, the last few with me thumping the gun to simulate recoil. Even with light loads, a .38 has some recoil and I didn't want her to get hit in the face with it, or worse.

She had learned to hold it with a solid two hand grip with a passable Weaver stance. I had to keep telling her to unlock her knees. I'd never seen anyone so tense.

She loaded one shell in the revolver and dry fired it at the target until the loaded round was next. We were doing it double action only, because that was what she would have to do if she really needed to shoot something. She tensed and squinched her eyes as she started the trigger squeeze.

"STOP! Open your eyes! You have to SEE what you're shooting at!"

She trembled slightly, but she did it. Then she finally fired and looked pretty wobbly, but she kept the gun aimed in a safe direction. She missed the straw bale, but I expected that.

I let her get her nerves calmed down some and handed her another round. She took a deep breath and loaded the round. I ran her through the 3 dry fires before the live round came up.

"Keep BOTH eyes open. Breathe slowly. Sights aligned. Sights on target. Don't jerk the trigger. SQEEEEZE it slowly. The firing should be a surprise when it happens. The gun should come back down on target for the next shot."

She hit the paper that time. It was high and to the left, but it was on the paper. She took a deep breath and looked at that hole. I gave her another round. That one went closer to the center. She shot a few more and I called a halt to change the paper.

I put a squirt of black spray paint in the center and went back to the women. We spent the next 2 hours at the routine. Fire 6 rounds, open the cylinder and eject the empties. Lay it down until I change the target paper. Reload and do it again. When she had fired almost 100 rounds, I called a halt. She was putting 6 rounds in a spot the size of a dinner plate by then. That was good enough for double action shooting, I thought.

"I don't want you to wake up with sore hands and wrists. Even though those are light loads, they hit you harder than you might realize. Let's call it a day."

Carmen said, "My hands do hurt a little, but not too bad."

"We'll give it a few days and come back with this gun to just shoot a few every couple days. That will help burn into your memory everything you learned. Tomorrow, you get the .22 and before long you will learn to pot a squirrel."

Carmen ejected the last empty rounds and handed me the gun. I said, "How about you carry it to the house and put it away?"

"Okay." She sounded kind muted. I let it lay. I saw her look at the cylinder to assure herself it was empty, then carry it one-handed while I picked up the empty brass and the target papers. I handed those to Brenda and put away the now shredded bale of straw.

I knew David had heard the target shooting, and probably saw who was doing it. I let nature take its' own course there. It was well into the second week when Carmen finally walked to his house and knocked on the back door with a peace offering of some fresh baked bread.

It looked like things might be getting back on track. A few days had passed after our third target session when Carmen caught me alone in the shop and thanked me for teaching her to shoot. I just said, "You needed to learn. Are we good now?"

"Yeah. We're good."

I gave her a smile and got one back.
___________________

[patience]

Chapter 31 June, 2015

Our early tomatoes had some big green ones on them, a few turning orange, but the red ones I'd seen were gone that morning. We'd been having fresh salads for a while now with lettuce and radishes, and some wintered over kale greens. Something had been chewing on the garden plants and had eaten part of a row of green beans. Carmen was planted those beans and was pretty mad about it.

I was in the shop one day and saw a rabbit hopping his way slowly out of the garden toward the raspberry briars at the back fence. We had cleaned the rabbits out of there with box traps last year, but some more had moved in. It was time for a break so I went in for afternoon coffee.

Carmen was busy cutting up a tomato on a bowl of lettuce. I said, "I know what's eating the beans."

She gave me a sharp glance and said, "What?"

"Rabbits. We've got some more in the fencerow. I saw one leaving the garden."

Brenda must have made quite a point about Carmen taking responsibility for herself. Carmen started to say, "You're going to..." Then she stopped and said. "Show me where you saw it."

We walked out to the back porch that overlooked the lower gardens. "Just about where that big wild cherry tree is in the fence row is where he went in."

"Okay. I'll watch for him," she said.

We went back inside and she went back to fixing the salad. I noticed she glanced at my 10/.22 that I kept hanging over the back door. It was the only way I could assure that Hailey couldn't get to it. Carmen could barely reach it on tiptoes. She'd had plenty of bench time and was pretty good with it. I got myself a cup of instant coffee and went back out to work, wondering if Carmen was serious about rabbit hunting.

It was a warm day so we had the windows open to let the cooking heat out. After supper, Carmen was washing dishes and Tammy was drying while the rest of us began putting things away. Carmen left the sink, drying her hands. She got the .22 off its' hooks and had Tammy raise the window screen. The rifle barrel went out the window and rested on the window sill. Everybody got quiet while she sighted through the scope, then the rifle popped and a shell ejected into the dish drainer.

I looked out the screen door and saw a bunny laying dead in the garden. Carmen put the gun back on safety and hung it up, then disappeared out the door. In a few minutes she came back and laid the dead rabbit on the picnic table by the porch.

She said, "Josh, would you skin that thing for me? I need to finish the dishes. I plan to fry him for lunch tomorrow and he needs to soak in salt water tonight. I'll learn how it's done on the next one."

I gave her a smile and said nothing. She gave me back a smirk with one corner of her mouth and turned back to the sink. That answered a question I'd had since we started the whole gun thing with her. I doubted if she was ready to kill a beef yet, but she had the general idea.
____________________

Brenda and I talked about it late that night. She explained how it was.

"Our dad never let any of us kids touch his gun. He was paranoid about us getting hurt and kept his shotgun unloaded and locked away in the trunk of the car. There were a lot of us kids and I guess he thought that if one of us could get to it, it would be a disaster. He made sure we were scared of the gun so we were afraid to touch it. You remember how hard it was for me to shoot the first time?"

"Oh yes. It took forever explaining how it worked and exactly what was necessary to make it safe."

"I had a hard time getting Carmen convinced that she could learn to shoot without getting shot. I don't think she would have tried, except that I told her that she could either learn, or leave right that minute. She had no place to go and she knew it. Once she made the decision, it got easier, but she was scared stiff all the way."

"I saw that and did the best I could with it."

"You did fine. She needed the authority you represented to get her over the worst of it. Now she's more confident than she has ever been in her life. She's made some dramatic changes. I wonder how that is going to work out with her temper."

I chuckled softly and said, "It reminds me of a sign I once saw over a secretary's desk at work. It said, 'I have PMS AND a handgun. What do YOU want?' "

Brenda grinned and said, "Yep, that would be her."
_________________

[patience]

Chapter 32


Our hay ground was ready to cut, about 25 acres of it. I was sure this would be an adventure since we hadn't used any of the equipment yet. I had tried everything out the best I could, but the proof would be in using it. I thought it best to not bite off the whole thing at once, so I set out to only mow about 10 acres. I had been to town to buy baler twine, some spare mower guards, and sickle knife sections, but didn't get as much of any of that as I wanted and it all cost too much. The baler twine had been about $25 a roll, but had gone up to $44. I had spent over $300 and hoped it would be enough to get me by this cutting of hay. The woman who worked at the farm store was real nice to me, though, and said thanks for all our help--it had sure come in handy for her. We let the other folks in line wonder what that was all about.

The TV had said the weather was supposed to be clear all week, so I began mowing hay as soon as the dew was dried off the next morning. I hit a couple dead limbs next to the woods on the back side, but I didn't break anything on the mower, so it went pretty well and I finished up in time for an early supper. Sickle mowers can't cut as fast as the new disc mowers, but they didn't cost the price of a new car, either. I'd let it lay the next day to dry out and then rake and bale the day after that.

Brenda was talking on the phone when I came in, hot, sweaty, and dusty dirty. I got a glass of iced tea and went to the back porch hand pump to rinse off some dirt before I dared go in the house to wash. I used my bare hands to wipe the excess water off my face and arms, then stood there in the slight breeze to cool out and get dry. The iced tea hit the spot.

Brenda came out on the porch after she'd hung up the phone.

"That was Charlene. They've lost their house," she said.

"Oh, hell. Here it comes."

"No, they're not coming out here. They're moving into the store building. I guess they had an efficiency apartment in it where Mark has been living, and the store building is paid for. They have something set up in the warehouse area in back that is next to the apartment, so they can all fit in there."

"I bet it's a mess in there with four married couples sharing the warehouse," I said. "They'll have plenty of furniture, I guess."

"The bad part is, they aren't selling hardly anything. She said they've been getting food from the church down the street, and she's worried about being able to pay the electric bill when it comes in. If they can't keep the lights on, the store is history."

"What happened to all that money they had invested?"

"Their bank went broke and somebody stole all the money. It wasn't a bail-in like you thought would happen. Some big shot just took it all and is gone. The FDIC has it closed down and is supposed to pay off their insured amounts, but they said it could be months before they see any money. Mark is working at day labor and that's what is keeping them fed right now while they mind the store."

"Yeah, that store that ain't selling anything. Do they owe on their merchandize, I wonder? Most stores do."

"She said they did, but it's a loan at the same bank where they had their money, and that will be in bankruptcy court for a long time."

"They might skate by on that, but I'd be afraid the Court would order all the creditors to pay up and let the FDIC settle with the depositors. That would mean they'd have to pay the loans without getting their own money out to do it. If they can't pay, they lose their merchandise and the manufacturers won't take it back. The lender will take it and auction it off to get what they can. I warned Howard about that. Of course HE said it would never happen."

"I wonder how they've been getting along so far with litle or no business?"

"Charlene said they had sold some things, but she didn't say what. I'm betting they don't have much left."

"She couldn't talk very long because she was using a cellphone and it was about out of minutes. She just wanted to let me know where they were so we wouldn't think they were in a FEMA camp or something."

"They're liable to land there if things don't work out with the bank."

We let it go at that and went inside, her to work on a meal with Tammy, and me to get a shower while the power was still on. She said Carmen was going to eat down at David's tonight. She'd gone to tell him we'd be needing help with the hay in a couple days, and he'd invited her for a backyard cookout. I thought that maybe those two could work out in spite of everything. Maybe I was being optimistic, though.
___________________

I had Josh driving the tractor to rake hay while I worked on fixing another farmer's baler in the shop. I got that job finished and was back to start baling by noon. We got it all baled, but with only one tractor, we had to pull the loaded hay wagons in with my truck. David could drive it pretty well, so he backed the wagon up to the barn so he and the women could unload and stack the bales inside. I was steadily getting ahead of them and having to wait for an empty wagon, so we quit pulling a wagon behind the baler so I could keep going, dropping the bales on the ground.

That meant double work because they'd have to pick the bales up off the ground and load them on a wagon later. I had to keep going because if the hay laid in the sun another day, the sun would bleach out too much of the nutrients, and there is always the chance of a rain shower that would spoil it. When you start making hay, you just have to keep going until you get it finished.

When the baling was done, I put the baler away and used the tractor to pull a wagon to load. We had saved the steep parts to do that where the truck would lose traction in the grass with a big wagon load of hay. We got the last wagon loaded about 7:00 PM, and we were running out of daylight. I backed that last load in the barn to unload later and called it quits for the day. That wasn't too bad a day, considering we were all pretty much greenhorns at this. I was well satisfied with 12 loads of 56 bales, or 672 bales total. That was 67 bales per acre, not a bad yield for this poor ground.

That would be plenty to feed our stock this winter, and I had hay left over from last winter, but if we wanted to really make the place pay, we had to get more cattle before these were sold so we would have some to sell each year thereafter. Besides that, I planned to raise the 2 colts and they would eat--like horses. The rest of our hay ground wasn't quite as good, so if we got another 600 to 700 bales off the last 15 acres, I'd be happy. I had been hearing that grass haylike this was selling for $4 a bale now, so If I had excess, I could sell the leftover old stuff cheap and still have more than enough. We could use the cash.

I cut less acreage the second time so we could finish at a reasonable time. When the last part was done, we'd put 1,450 bales up this year. I put an ad in the paper to sell the old hay at $2 a bale and got rid of the last 320 bales of it fast. It wasn't much money, but it cleared out barn space and I would replace that with straw when Stuart combined wheat this summer. I wanted to have plenty of bedding in case we had a bad winter.
______________________

[patience]

Chapter 33 July, 2015



The hogs were on pasture now, and enjoying it. I kept them out of the pond and continued to water them at the barn. That was for sanitary purposes, because hogs can make a muddy mess out of a pond. Their pasture would get bigger when the field corn was ready. We had put in a cross fence and planted 3 acres in corn for them. The hogs cast envious eyes at the corn across the fence, but we had built the fence, "horse high, pig tight, and bull strong", as the old saying went. They would have to wait until I opened a gate for them to get into it.

I thought we did pretty well with our crude setup for the sows. It was just individual pens for them with a rail around the inside to keep baby pigs from getting trapped next to the pen fence when momma pig laid down. The four sows had farrowed a total of 48 pigs and raised 42 of them to weaning size. We kept the little pigs inside the barn when we weaned them onto ground feed, and turned their mothers out to pasture back in April.

Now, the young ones were up to about 70 to 80 pounds now. We had castrated the boars at around 30 pounds, before they got too big to handle, and they were outgrowing the gilts now. We gave them all the ground feed they wanted and let them run in the pasture to eat whatever they wanted. Their pasture had the small sinkhole and was somewhat steeper than the other half. My Dad had always said that pastured hogs were healthier, because they got a better diet. These sure looked good, and because they spent their time in a large area, there was almost no smell from them. The 4 sows and the boar in the barn made a bigger mess and stink in there than 42 did outside.

We had used some of the sawmill lumber from last winter to build a series of small hog shelters in the pasture, just big enough for 5 or 6 of them to get into. They had shade trees and a mudhole to play in down by the sinkhole, but they had to come to the barn for ground feed and water. We made that a regular thing, feeding morning and night to keep them coming to the barn. They were there early every time, squealing their protests that I was too slow. So far, they were all healthy. I had given them all a dose of worm medicine back when they were smaller, and they showed no evidence of any problems now. The level of corn in the grain bin had dropped noticeably, but we would a lot left over after feeding these out. I hoped it would keep until we could feed it all.

The tractor made feed grinding easy enough, after I figured out how Lester had done it. He had a small elevator stuffed inside the grain bin with a gasoline engine on it. That made it easy to get the corn out and into the grinder/mixer. I had to use buckets to get the oats in the mixer from the barrels where I'd stored it, but it worked. Then, Lester had rigged a chute above a metal lined feed bin in the barn where we could use the auger on the mixer to dump it right into the feed bin. It went pretty fast, and we only had to grind feed about every two weeks. Kitty cat was hanging out in the barn now, and sometimes she didn't even come to the house to eat. She found all the mice she could handle around the feed bin. She was looking pretty big in the middle, so I guessed that there was a tomcat around somewhere and soon we would be blessed with kittens. We got along with her pretty good though, and she allowed most of us to pet the cat, unless she had other business.

Because we had all that corn left, I had turned the boar in with the sows to do his thing the middle of June. We could expect another batch of pigs 114 days after breeding, or sometime in early December. I had to check out the market for hogs soon, because by the end of October, we'd have a bunch to sell. Taking care of the hogs wasn't much work in warm weather, but it could be a real hassle in winter when water froze in the troughs and we would keep them inside requiring daily mucking out of the pens.

Josh and Tammy were helping with the chores, so I'd told them they'd get a share of the proceeds when we sold them. Josh would haul the pigs to market, and what cattle we would sell this Fall, too, so that would be applied to the last $500 he owed me for his truck. It was all working pretty well for all of us, but I had to think about what would happen when Brenda and I were gone. We wouldn't live forever, and we had two kids of our own that would inherit our place. Brenda and I had some estate planning to do.

When we bought that additional acreage, we had filed and recorded an 'inter vivos trust' at the Courthouse, making Brenda and I Joint First Trustees, and Susan and Brad and their spouses Joint Second Trustees. That meant that legally they already owned the property, although Brenda and I retained all rights to do whatever we wanted with it during our lifetimes, even sell it. But if we owned it when we died, our kids would inherit equal shares in it. That was fine, but we had to do something to assure that Josh and Tammy got something for all the hard work they put into the place, too. Brenda and I had kicked around the idea of making up a tenant contract with them, but we hadn't done anything about it yet.
There were lots of other things on our minds. The TV said that taxes were going up, and the announced that Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Health Care Act could no longer be funded as of the end of the month.
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[patience]

Chapter 34

The Federal budget cuts might as well have not been done for all the effect they had. They had cut the military budget in half, and most everything else, but it was a few years too late. The next day the dollar was rejected virtually overnight around the world. What federal budget remained was as good as nothing, since it wouldn't buy anything much, as prices began to go beserk. We had already seen a lot of problems, but things had been functioning, sort of.

We saw the National News on TV at 6:00 PM and they had some video of rioting at practically every store on the East coast. The news broadcaster said they would not have any more aerial footage because they had no fuel for their helicopter. It had begun with an electronic run on the US banks, like back in 2008, but nothing the Federal Reserve or government did had any noticeable effect this time.

Carmen had just told us over supper that she and David planned to marry soon and she would be moving in with him. When she heard the TV news, she turned white as a sheet and asked me, "What does this mean?"

I had been trying to figure that out as we watched. I said, "I'm not sure, but I think it means we are all flat broke now."

Brenda said, "We were pretty close to broke anyway. We've been spending money pretty fast lately."

Josh said, "Good thing you did, 'cause it ain't worth nothing now. Tammy, how much money do you have?"

She said, "I still have a twenty dollar bill and some change left after we went to the store today."

"That's good. I've got about $200. I'm glad it ain't more," he told her.

The news droned on, saying that banks were closed until further notice, but the government had planned for this eventuality and were on the job to implement a new currency, blah, blah, blah.

The family talked on about what might happen next, but I sort of tuned them out for a minute or two, my mind racing doing an audit of what we had on hand. The livestock feed situation was good. I had just hauled home another big load of oats that I'd bought, and there was a couple tons of soybean meal on hand. I estimated that the grain bin still had over 400 bushels of the old corn.

We had plenty of water for man and beast, although we might have to pump it all by hand. The pantry still had an excess from last year and we were steadily adding to that from the gardens. The freezer had enough meat to feed us all until we butchered again this Fall, and the solar system would run it. We had plenty of canning stuff on hand.

The TV interrupted my reverie.

"Martial Law has been declared in all major cities in the US, and troops are being dispatched to enforce a dusk to dawn curfew..."

"Oh hell! That'll be a mess," Josh said.

Brenda said, "I'm calling Susan." She went to the phone and when they answered she said, "Are you watching the news?"
Pause.
"Okay. Call me back."

"She said they've been onto this for a while. She heard something at work. She's going to call back after while."

The TV news probram was followed by a News Special, explaining in more detail what was going on. When they got to the part about implementing Executive Orders due to the Declared Emergency, it had my attention. The government would seize control over all energy and fuels, food production, water supplies, transportation, mining, forestry, and on and on. I knew then that we were in for a civil war. You don't just take away everything people own and expect to get away with it. Not in the US.
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[patience]

Chapter 35


Atlanta, Los Angeles, Saint Louis, Chicago, Louisville, Newark, Richmond, and portions of Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington D. C., San Francisco, and Seattle burned in the next 3 days. In the midst of the chaos, a military coup took over the Pentagon and what was left of DC. The President, VP, Secretary of State, The Speaker of The House, and all but 37 members of Congress (who were out of town) were charged with Treason and imprisoned at Riker's Island with Marines replacing the staff there. A five star Army General, an Admiral, and a General of the Air Force were now the Triumvirate leadership of the US. They had declared all orders of the old government null and void, and would administer martial law until new elections could be held. Those charged with Treason would be tried by a military court.

It may have been one of the shortest revolutions in history, but it would surely be one of the longest of recoveries in history, as the nation groped without a currency and without rule of law in most areas for the next month.

After a week, the Triumvirate had a working plan in place to issue a new currency under the auspices of the Federal Reserve Bank, now nationalized and working diligently to issue newly printed currency within the next month to all banks in the US. The printing had been done long ago and the notes warehoused to be issued after a planned failure of the dollar. The difference was, the new notes were not to be pure fiat, but backed by gold on deposit at Fort Knox and in New York, the deep underground vault being fireproof and still secure.

Casualties were high in most cities as water and sewage sysems failed for lack of operating staff in many of them. Some fared better than others. The National Guard was still charged with maintaining the peace in most cities, but so many had deserted their posts when the currency failed as to be largely ineffective. The cities continued to smolder.

On the second day of the initial rioting, Howard and Charlene Andrews and their extended family loaded their remaining food and what belongings would fit into the furniture store's delivery truck and hastened across the Kennedy bridge as the National Guard was preparing to close the bridge to traffic. Howard drove steadily through the crowds gathered around shopping centers and on some streets toward his wife's brother Jim's place on the north side of New Albany. The truck had 3/4 of a tank of diesel fuel and was big enough to not be challenged by crowds in the streets. Their son Mark was in the back with the door raised a foot and lying prone with a shotgun to guard the people and contents.

Approaching Jim's place from the county road, they found him and his son Kenny watching the road from inside the house, guns at the ready.

Howard slowly got out of the truck, leaving the engine running.

"Hello! Jim? Are you home?"

Kenny opened the door and said, "We're home. Come on in."

Howard went inside and saw Jim, shotgun in hand, sitting by a small open window still watching outside through the curtains. Jim said, "Good thing I knew the truck. We had some punks come by that thought they was going to come in and we sent 'em on their way. I put a few loads of shot into some of 'em. The world has gone to hell."

"They had set fire to our store as we were driving away," Howard told him.

"You got nowhere to go, is that it?"

"That's about it."

"I can't feed you. We barely got enough to make it for a few days, until we get something out of the garden, and that isn't much."

Charlene came to the door, spoke to Kenny and walked in. "Are you okay Jim? We almost didn't get away in time! They burned our store!"

"Yeah, I'm okay. But I don't know how safe it is here. Already had visitors."

" Maybe we should go see Brenda and Jack. They've got a farm now, so they have all kinds of room and they grow things to eat."

"Jack already has a houseful. Carmen and Josh and Tammy are there, and their baby."

"I know, but everyone else we know is too far away or they live in the city. Who else is there?"
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[patience]

Chapter 36



Carmen and David decided to go ahead with a simple ceremony at his home with his minister officiating. David paid the minister with 2 big sacks of food from his garden. David planned to spend part of the next week getting his Aunt's old wood cookstove reinstalled in the old farmhouse. It had been relegated to the garage long ago, but would be pressed back into service. David was unsure if he would have a job driving the school bus in the Fall, so when he had the stove installed, he would cut up some of his fresh early potatoes to plant and hope they would make a crop before frost.

We had just returned home from the wedding when the furniture truck pulled into our driveway and Howard and Charlene got out. When I saw Mark getting out of the back and more following him, I told Brenda, "We have company. Lots of company."

Howard and Charlene came to the back porch as three more couples got out of the back of the truck. I knew deep inside I would have to feed this tribe somehow, but I didn't want to admit it to myself yet. Daniel and Heather, Ryan and Megan, Brittany and Kevin all came to the porch and gathered around as Charlene asked Brenda if we could possibly give them a place to stay?

"We don't have room," Brenda said flatly.

"There isn't anyplace we can go," Charlene said. Her face was wide-eyed and stressed, her knuckle white as she clenched and unclenched her hands. She wasn't crying yet, but that couldn't be far off.

Charlene said, "The furniture store was burning as we left. The mob had set fire to most of the block by the time we finished loading the truck and got away. All we have is in that truck. We have a little money but I guess that's no good now. We don't have much left to eat."

"We don't have beds, or room to put them if we did," Brenda told her. She told me later that she had been remembering how Charlene had said "If things get as bad as you expect, I'll just come to YOUR house!"

"We brought mattresses and bedframes and bedding," Daniel said. "We put in 4 chests with our clothes in them, but we didn't bring any other furniture because there wasn't enough room." He was their oldest son and had been running the store before things came apart. "All the rest is in boxes in there."

Everyone else was silent, waiting on a pronouncement from Brenda or me, I suppose. It was her family, so I let her decide. She was upset and I could see it. I put my arm around her and knowing what she felt like she had to do, I said soflty to her alone, "If we could store our living room furniture in the truck for now, we could set up 3 beds in there. Howard and Charlene could have Carmen's old room. We'd have to eat in shifts, but we could do it."

Brenda didn't say anything for a couple minutes. She just looked daggers at Charlene. It was a near thing. Finally she asked Charlene, "Did you bring any dishes or kitchen stuff?"

Charlene had been sweating bullets and it showed in her face. With great relief she said, "Oh, yes. We have all our things, service for 12 and all the cookware. and there's a lot more things..."

Brenda looked at me with a mixture of resignation, frustration and who knew what else. To Charlene she said, "Let's get started then. The young people need to empty the truck of everything. When that's done, come see me in the house about clearing out some room. Charlene, you find the dishes and cookware and get that off to one side somewhere. We'll find a place for it later. I suppose you are all hungry, so Tammy and I and Charlene will get something started cooking."

Without another word Brenda walked back into the house followed by Charlene. Soon I heard the clatter of pots and pans. I looked at Howard and said, "We're going to have to replant a lot more garden and we don't have much time to get it done. Let's you and me get started on that."

Howard hadn't done any manual labor in at least 50 years, so I didn't expect much, but he made an effort to keep up with me. I got him going on the garden tractor with the tiller behind it and showed him what needed worked up where early crops had been picked. He was a couple years older than I so I didn't want to overload him. I busied myself with finding seeds, fertilizer, and tools. We had some rows marked out with the push cultivator and were ready to drop seeds when Tammy called from the back porch saying supper was ready. Howard and I finished planting late green beans, sweet corn, kale, turnips, beets, and a lot more before dark. He was ready to fall over and I was too, but we got it in the ground before it began to rain that night.
––––––––––––––––––––

Our living room furniture was all in the truck now, except for our bookcases and a couple of the smaller chairs. The living room was now a double bedroom. Ryan and Megan got one half and Britanny and Kevin the other half. I had used a spare clothesline strung across the long narrow space the short way and hung blankets on it so each half had some privacy.

Carmen's old room was still furnished so Howard and Charlene got to sleep there as it was, and we left their bed in the truck. Daniel and Heather got put in the small den after we took a couple big chairs out to the furniture truck, and my computer desk got moved to our bedroom. Josh and Tammy stayed in the bigger room next to ours that had been designed for sewing. The built in cabinets and shelves all along the end wall had enough vacancies for the baby's things. Brenda's sewing machines were still in there, the new electric portable and the old treadle machine that had been her mother's. The whole house was packed with people like sardines in a can.

It was something of a race with the weather, seeing thunderclouds forming as it got dark that evening, but everything got put away before the storm got there. The people got settled in for the night, Brenda and I wondering if we had bit off more than we could chew.
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[patience]

Chapter 37 Late July, 2015


Early the next morning I used my home made dipstick to check the cistern. I had drilled a hole in the concrete floor of the back porch that covered the cistern, and plugged it with a plastic stopper to keep dirt out. The dipstick was just a piece of slightly rusty steel rod marked at the full level. I'd made a ring on one end to hang it on a nail under the eave of the house. It showed about 3/4 full. I got the steel tape from my pocket and measured from the bottom end up as high as it was wet. 73", it said. I wrote it on the calendar in the kitchen, came back and plugged the hole, then hung up the dipstick. I was really thankful for the rain that had brought it up from 57", a good thing with so many people here now.

Figuring in my head, the cistern level had raised 16". Our roof collecting area was about 8 times as big as the cistern area, so dividing 16" by 8 meant that we had gotten about 2" of rain. That should get our late garden growing.

The cistern was 8 feet deep, 96", so we had just over 3/4 of a tank. Filled, it held about 8,000 gallons, being 12 feet by 16 feet long, the size of the porch. I would have to watch the water level really close, because late summer was usually pretty dry here. We might not get any more rain for a couple months. Inside, I smelled pancakes frying and ham. Three women in the kitchen and one setting the dining room table had the place packed. Megan was fishing around in a big box of dishes in the sunroom/summer kitchen and Tammy had the breakfast bar set with plates and glasses. Brenda had a big saucepan on the stove stirring home made syrup. Brittany came out of the bathroom and I heard it flush.

It was more than cozy in the house. It was crowded as hell. We only had 2 bathrooms, we would be stretching our cistern capacity to the limit, and there was no good alternative for a water supply. I explained the water situation and made a rule immediately. NOBODY FLUSHES until it is absolutely necessary, and ALL males would have to pee outside somewhere. There was no way that our cistern could support 12 adults who flushed every time they had to pee. The toilet used about 3 gallons per flush, so if all 12 of us flushed 4 times a day, that was 144 gallons a day, not counting what water we needed for drinking, cooking, and laundry. We could blow through what water we had in a month if we didn't conserve it. The septic system wouldn't handle it either.

I made the ouside pee rule an Edict from King Jack and added that, "In bad weather we can keep containers inside at night for the men to use. A rich man has a canopy over their bed. Poor men have a can of pee under theirs."

I got a few mild chuckles, then things lightened up some as the young men joked about it and dug into the pancakes.

Brenda said, "That's not good enough. I have a better idea. The women can do that too. There's room to put that camping pot we have in the bathroom to pee in and when it needs emptied, it goes onto the garden. It can use the nitrogen, and if we DON'T do that, we will run out of water. Y'all got that? If we begin to run short of water before the Fall rains, the offending parties will be carrying water from the pond to flush with. And don't be getting your clothes real dirty, either. You can wear clothes for a couple days with no problem, and it will save on laundry. Sponge baths will have to be the rule now, until the Fall rains come. If you need to shower, you can run the water to get wet, shut it off, scrub, and then rinse off."

"Don't be rinsing dishes and letting the water run in the sink. Stack the dishes and we'll wash them all at once. We'll use the dish pan in the sink because it takes less water. Come talk to me when it's time to do laundry. There's a lot to know about that, too. I hope you all can do this, because this time of year it's important."

All heads nodded agreement. It looked like we were off to at least an agreeable start.
______________

It occurred to me that our gasoline tank wasn't quite full. Thankfully, I had recently had the farm diesel tank filled, and that had cost us a big chunk of our remaining cash. I'd even added a couple bottles of stabilizer to it. The 500 gallon LP tank for the kitchen stove was nearly full, too, at around 95%. Normally, that would last us for 5 or 6 years, but with so many to cook for, it would go a lot faster. We'd have to conserve that, too. The woodpile was in good shape, with about 8 cords stacked under some old roofing metal sheets in the back yard. That would be good for almost 2 years of cold winters. Then I realized we would be heating the whole house now, not shutting off some rooms as we normally did. We should cut some wood when it got cool enough to do that.

I checked the little storage barn in the back yard and found that I didn't have as much 2 cycle oil as I'd like, and more bar oil would be good, too. I though we should risk a trip to town for those things and as much gasoline as we could get, or afford. I gathered 9 eggs from the nests and went back inside with them. Our 14 hens ha slacked off laying in the hot weather.

"Look," I told the group over a late breakfast, "We don't know how long it will be until the money gets straightened out, so we'd better think like it could be a long time. We could use some gasoline to fill our trucks and the storage tank. I need some oil for the chainsaw, and there are probably other things the women will think of. I don't have enough cash, if anybody will accept cash, to do much. If gas stations will still accept cash, we need to spend it now, because they won't be taking it for long. Any volunteers to help here?"

Howard said, "We have about $400 in cash to contribute. It's the least we can do."

Ryan said, "I've got a little cash, maybe $30." He pulled a few wadded bills from his pocket and put it on the table. Kevin had $53, and Daniel came up with $165. Megan dug in her purse and came out with another $23. I came up with $284, and Brenda had $124 in her purse. Josh and Tammy put in $223.

I counted the stack and handed it to Howard who counted it. We both got $1,182. Howard said, "I don't know how much that will buy, if it will even buy anything, but you spend it all. You know best what we need the worst."

"Who wants to go along and ride shotgun? I haven't heard of any trouble here yet, but it could happen any time."
____________________

Daniel, Josh, and I got into Josh's truck and drove to town. We had filled our trucks and the garden tractor from what gas cans I hadn't emptied into the storage tank and had 8 empty 5 gallon cans in the back. Josh's truck had about 1/4 tank when we got to the farm store. The sign on the door said, "Cash only". Our favorite clerk lady was working, and nobody else was in the store.

She smiled at me when we went in. She pointed to the hand written sign above the counter and said, "Prices are 5 times what is marked. The money just isn't worth much now. Sorry, but I can't do anything about that."

"I expected things would be high. I'm looking for chain saw oil."

"Back in the first aisle. We just got a pallet of bar oil there."

It was marked as "On Sale" for $5.99 a gallon, so at 5 times that it would be about $30 a gallon. I left that sitting and went to the 2 cycle oil. I could use regular motor oil for the chainsaw bar, or even used oil if I had to, but the engine oil had to be the right stuff. A 6 pack of bottles was marked $14.49, so that would be about $72.50 now. I picked up 4 of them and went to check out. The total was over $290 with sales tax. I paid her and she said, "I know you need some bar oil, too. There's a pallet on the dock out back that hasn't been officially received yet. Help yourself. I don't know nothin' about it."

I gave her a blank look and she winked at me. I said, "Thanks!"

She said, "Thank your boy for me."

"I will! Let's go guys."

We drove around the back of the store and stopped at the dock. I pulled out my belt knife and cut the plastic wrapping. "Load it up guys, this is a one time deal."

Daniel said, "What's up with this?"

Josh told him about the foiled robbery and giving the woman the gun. Daniel said, "And she remembered that today."

I said, "Small towns are like that."

We loaded about half of the pallet and called it good, since the little tarp we had would cover that much. The gas cans held down the tarp as we drove off. Only one gas station still had gas and it was the highest one in town, of course. The pumps said $42.29. I gave the guy $890 I had left and he began pumping. The truck took 12 gallons to fill it. He got one 5 gallon can filled and another about halfway when the pump cut off at $890. The guy said, "Be careful with that gas. I don't know when we'll get any more and we're about out."

I thanked him and we drove home, Josh taking his time to conserve fuel. The folks at home had the TV on and were amazed that we got anything for the money. The news said that new currency would be issued at the banks soon at 100 to one for the old money. Nobody had any idea how that would work out with prices, so they had quit selling anything for the old dollars.
_______________

That afternoon we spent some time getting everyone acquainted with the farm and how it worked. The livestock were shy around the crowd of new people, but came to the feed troughs readily enough. Sonny was beside himself trying to meet and greet all the new folks. Kitty cat was nowhere to be seen. We left her a bowl of cat food in the barn at her new regular feeding place, since she stayed in there most of the time.

Looking over the gardens, I noted that it was about time to dig the potatoes as soon as the ground dried out some. We dug a bucketful with the digging fork and washed them at the irrigation tank. I explained how that worked, collecting water from the shop roof that we used to water the chickens and the gardens by gravity flow when they needed it. I made sure everyone knew to never leave the outlet valve dripping, or it would empty the 3,000 gallon tank in a few days. I hadn't made any effort to filter that water supply, so while we could use it for the initial washing of vegetables, we probably shouldn't drink it.
____________________

Two days later we dug potatoes and I was thankful for a bumper crop. It was the best crop I'd ever had in 50 odd years of raising them, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Julie did her part perfectly, pulling the potato digger and the city folks were all amazed at how slick that went. All 12 of us were out there picking up potatoes, and I was scrounging for any container to put them in. The next hurdle was to find a way to store about 500 pounds of spuds. Temporarily, we put the hodge-podge of baskets, buckets and boxes in our basement, but it cramped Josh for room in his mechanic work area. For good or ill, he wasn't busy in there just then, but we had to do something better pretty quick. We needed a root cellar and we needed it fast.
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[patience]

Chapter 38


"Howard, I appreciate how you're trying to make this work. I know it's all new to you and it can't be easy," I said.

"I don't have any choice," he said. "I don't want to ask for anything, but it was either here or some government camp. I'm not sure they even have room now."

"I wouldn't do that to anybody. That has to be bad in those places."

He said, "That's what we heard. Like the things we heard about after hurricane Katrina. People are getting beat up and killed in those places."

"We might have to defend our place. Depends on how bad things get, I guess."

We were walking to the barn to do the morning feeding. Howard had found some jeans and a tee shirt, but his shiny shoes would suffer out here, I thought.

He said, "Daniel has his shotgun and I have my pistol I kept by the cash register at the store, but we don't have much ammunition."

"What caliber handgun," I asked.

"It's a little one, a .380 automatic I bought years ago."

"Josh has one of those. I think he's got a box or two of shells for it. Is the shotgun a 12 gauge?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is."

"I have some 12 gauge shells. We'll get by if we're careful not to waste ammunition."

The horses had come to their stall looking for their feed. I told Howard how we did it and let him meet the Julie and the foals. They were a rambunctious pair and messed with each other's grain, got bit and tried it again. Howard let them smell his hand and scratched their ears while they were eating. Julie liked him right away and stretched her long neck to sniff his clothes. He petted her nose and she trusted him instantly, from what I could tell.

The cattle were shy around any stranger, but came in to eat without any trouble. The hogs were just hogs about eating and didn't care who supplied the feed. It went pretty well, so we walked out to the pond where we could see the whole fencing layout. I explained how we rotated the critters from one lot to another to keep grass from getting too short.

Back in the barn, we shoveled out the manure for the day, and threw in a little fresh straw. I told Howard I was at wit's end wondering what to do with the potatoes so they would keep through the winter.
"The basement is a little too warm and dry. They need to be in a cellar with a dirt floor so it stays moist and cool, but I can't justify digging a cellar when we have another hay cutting coming up, and gardens to tend and all the rest."

"How big does it have to be?"

I said, "It doesn't take much room for potatoes, but there are apples coming up and we could use it for a lot of root vegetables if we had enough room in a cellar. Most root cellars are about 8 feet x 12 feet, and maybe tall enough to stand up inside. That's a big hole to dig, and we can't afford concrete for the walls if we could even get it now."

Howard said, "I saw a thing on TV about a guy who buried an old freezer to put his vegetables in for winter. It was one of those homesteading things about Canada, or Alaska."

"Hey! I've seen that too in magazines or something, but I'd forgot about it. Now all I have to do is find a junk freezer."

"Is there a landfill around somewhere close where you might find one?"

"Yeah, but they won't let you take anything now. Something about liability. Wait an minute! There's a shop in town that sells used appliances. The man that owns it lives on a county road not too far away. I'll call him. Thanks for the idea."

That idea got put aside when we got to the house.
________________________

Brenda had covered all the big issues with one exception. Charlene had always been her big sister, so when they were kids she'd been able to tell Brenda what to do. I had seen that Brenda didn't like it then and she liked it even less now. As I went in the door, Brenda was making that clear.

"It might be a better place to put the the dishes, but I want them here in the cabinet. Okay Charlene?"

Charlene said, "I was just trying to help. I always do things in the kitchen the best way so it will be easier to cook for so many..."

Brenda interrupted, "CHARLENE! Here's how it is. I don't care how YOU did things in YOUR kitchen. This is not YOUR kitchen. This is MY kitchen. You don't HAVE a kitchen!"

Lightning flashed in Brenda's eyes.

Charlene's face turned red as she tried to think of a comeback. She started to say something when Howard, good old ever peaceful, henpecked Howard, said, "That will be enough Charlene. Let's go outside and talk about this."

"BUT SHE JUST.."

"CHARLENE! NOW!"

Brenda had a really big soup ladle in her hand and death in her eyes. I said, "Time to chill out Brenda."

She instantly turned on me and yelled, "Now YOU'RE going to tell me what to do? I don't think so!"

I was just trying to prevent an assault. I didn't say any more, but I stood my ground between them.

Charlene glared at Howard and said, "Of all the NERVE! This isn't your business, and you certainly aren't going to tell ME to go outside!"

Charlene was so shocked by Howard's next intervention that she didn't think to resist it. He grabbed her by the shoulders and ushered her swiftly out the back door before she could protest. Howard was a big man, over 6 feet tall and well over 200 pounds. Charlene was much smaller and got propelled twenty feet before she could try to stop. The screen door slammed shut and I closed the inner door so I didn't have to hear them at full volume, then stood blocking the door. Brenda was more than enough to listen to.

"Jack you get out of my way right now! I'm going to settle this with her!"

"Not with a weapon, you're not. Cool it! Okay?"

"I'm not listening to another word out of her! She does NOT run MY house!

It stayed pretty hot for a while, but after Howard had stepped up to the plate, I thought we had a good chance of settling this down without bloodshed. Both of us listened to a lot of acrimonious talk for what seemed like an hour, but both women calmed down. Neither was happy.

From the back porch we heard Howard say, "You are a GUEST here and it is time you act like one! We are lucky to have food to eat! Haven't you gotten that through your head yet?"

Charlene preceded Howard back into the house half an hour later. Howard's blood pressure was still up in stroke territory and he had a grim set to his jaw. Charlene, under duress, told Brenda, "I'm sorry if I upset you. I was just trying to help..."

Howard interrupted her, "NO! You were NOT trying to help, you were being your normal overbearing, obstinate, bossy self! It stops now, or you will find yourself at the roadside. Alone."

"YOU don't talk to ME that way!"

"I do now and I should have 40 years ago! I swear I will throw you in a roadside ditch as the rest of us leave, if you don't stop it this instant!"

Howard punctuated that speech with a finger at her nose. I thought we'd have a brawl between them any second. Charlene broke first. Her face fell and her whole self seemed to shrink a few inches. She turned away and walked silently to their bedroom and closed the door.

Brenda was so amazed to see Charlene's ego deflated that she stood there without a word staring at Howard. He didn't say anything , either, but followed his wife into the bedroom. Neither came out that evening until after we had gone to bed, and they were very quiet when they went to the bathroom. I didn't venture to say anything to Brenda that evening. She had a lot on her mind and didn't have anything to say, either.

Josh and Tammy had been outside in the garden during the blow up, but the others were all someplace in the house when it had happened. Nobody said much at supper, and only Josh and Tammy and I seemed to have much of an appetite. Charlene and Howard didn't come out to eat.
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I came out of the bedroom after Brenda and found that Charlene was up early and was talking softly to Brenda as I went outside. When I had finished chores at the barn and came back inside, all the women were busily making scrambled eggs and ham, and taking biscuits out of the oven. Howard had been to the chicken house and came in after me with the fresh eggs. He put them in the bowl to be cleaned and sat down at the table with a solemn look about him. The verbal fallout at breakfast was minimal, but it was a tense meal.

In a matter of a few days, we were all getting along after a fashion. Each of us had reevaluated the others and come to a sort of detente, with Charlene not even trying to dictate the terms of that tense peace. Brenda was in charge in the house, and she let it be known that she would accept no question about that. She was a pretty benign dictator, but a dictator she would stay. I didn't question her authority there either. I knew she had to have room to make it work the way she had begun, so I let her do it, but I wasn't enjoying it a bit.
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