Clark Stories

[Lbox88]

Part 14.

There was not much free time for any of the 7 people on the farm. Clark had gone over the instructions on breeding the cows, chickens and pigs Virgil had meticulously written down and had Teena put on the computer.

Fall was approaching rapidly A large portion of the nuts were harvested and the kids would have a ball cracking them after they dried out. The commercial grade cherry pitter had already been used with excellent results. Destiny told Clark she wanted squirrel and wild rabbit on the menu at least once or twice a week as soon as it frosted. He said what about the turkeys and pheasant out in the fields. She said shoot 12 to 15 of the turkeys in the head with the 22 and we will process them and freeze them. She said it is a lot of work to de feather them so make sure you do not kill more then 2 or 3 every 3 days. I can brine, lightly smoke or just freeze them. Leave the phesants alone for this year.

They were starting to get a little bit organized until Destiny said it will soon be hog slaughter, bacon /ham curing, smoking and pig breeding time. He was glad there was real good instructions on smoking and curing things. He did not know Destiny already knew most of this stuff from growing up on a small farm. He would be glad she mostly knew how to hot water dip pigs in the old time iron bathtub, butcher pigs and cows in the coming months all he knew how to do was gut, skin and quarter a deer. He did not know how to cut roasts or steaks out of an animal. The little people were extremely helpful when it came to feeding the animals, milking the cows and doing the small needed chores.

Clark would have kissed Virgil if he could for buying the automatic cow milk machine. The children also took care of that. When Virgil hired the men to help put the fences up he had them gravel and blacktop a path from the barn, pig pen, root cellar and chicken coop to the walk in cooler and then on to the cabin. This allowed the small kids to pull the milk and eggs on a 4 wheel flat bed cart to the cooler without having to hand carry the pails of milk or eggs. Destiny wished he had paved a small section from the butchering area to the paved path to eliminate the heavy carrying for the 10 feet to the paved area, but Virgil had not done that. Clark told Destiny he would get some 10 foot long treated 2 X 12 oak planks from Lowes bolt them together and lay them on a graveled section so they could use the 4 wheel flat bed cart to take care of that heavy carrying problem.

Clark and Destiny soon saw they needed more freezers and coolers. She told him to go to Sears and get what they needed but before he went to gravel over the ground, enclose the open pole barn and put some boards down or make a floor to set the coolers and freezers on. Clark sure was glad the old miner had wired up all the places for electricity including a light fixture and two 3 prong plug in outlets in the pole barn. Clark also did not know that the thousands of feet of 10-3 gauge outdoor wiring in sealed plastic outdoor pipe that was hung all throughout the out buildings including the root cellar and mine had also been absconded from the coal mines over a period of years.

The 2 pregnant Dexter cows dropped a male and a female calf. Destiny said this is great because we can breed the new male with the other females. Clark said I know about that. She said I want you to brand each cow to make sure we keep the breeding program right. She said it will be easy just use a number starting with 1. He said and just how am I supposed to do that – she just said any old piece of iron with a number on it will work. He just said OK and thought about where he would get an iron number until he thought of the chain link fence place in town that already had the iron numbers made up. He would just weld or bolt the number to an iron bar - heat it and do the deed.

Clark had installed a CB in his truck 3 years ago and began to think about communications with Destiny when he left the farm. The CB did not now work but he knew that disconnected items were supposedly not prone to EMP damage like his laptop and computer if they were not hooked up. He looked in Sears and then stopped at a Radio outlet after he picked up the coolers and freezers. He picked up some base station short wave radios that could either be in an auto or a house, hand held short waves, hand held FRS radios, big and little antennas, repeaters and a new CB and CB base station before heading home. He would stop at the junk yard on another trip to see if Joe Bob at the junk yard had gotten any of those diesel trucks he was working on put together and running.

One large freezer had enough blueberries, raspberries and blackberries in it for fresh eating, pies and cobblers. Another had dehydrated apples, peaches and pitted cherries. The pears were mostly for fresh eating but some were canned in light honey syrup. Destiny told Clark and the kids to make sure to pick all the available ripe wild blue berries next summer. She printed out a next year calendar and wrote it across the middle of May, June and July to do just that. They moved the 3 girls back into the cabin when it got cold. They stayed in the living room on 3 blow-up air mattresses. The propane was being rationed for hot water and sometimes baking. The wood stoves flat top surface was just fine for cooking things that needed to cook on a burner.

After the pig was processed, Destiny told Clark to shoot 2 deer she was going to make sausage and deer burgers. She also said you are going to have to start harvesting deer because the local deer herd that was feeding in the pasture was too big for our local pasture to sustain them and the cows. She said I hate to just have to eat the back straps off them but that’s what it looks like we will have to do if you want any pasture left for our cows. She said don’t worry about killing them off because there are no hunters or vehicle deer crashes to eliminate them. They will eventually eat every thing get sick and die off and the cycle will begin again. I also want you to go to a butcher store and get me an electric meat grinder with the attachments - this hand cranking burger and sausage is for the birds and pick up an electric slicer and steak cuber for those tough cuts of meat. Ah yes one more thing I want you to look for is a baby cook food book and 2 extra blenders so I can puree some vegetables for when we have a little brat, don’t forget to look for cloth diapers and safety pins. Clark laughed all the way to town on that last little brat comment.

Clark got a big surprise the next evening – Destiny sang chestnuts roasting by the fire and that is exactly what they had – There were 2 chestnut trees in the midst of the hardwoods and she and the kids had picked a bushel of them and stored a lot of them for winter. He wished she would have saved that surprise for Christmas Day but he was sure she had something planned for that special day.

Clark got busy and installed the CB radio and a shortwave receiver in his truck. The kids all laughed at him as he struggled and got a 30 foot 3 inch iron pole antenna pulled up into position beside the house which was already on the top of the mountain. He read instruction after instruction on what kinds of antennas to stick on the 25 foot tall antenna. It worked. He told the kids that 20 miles away there was a road leading to the top of a mountain that over looked the 1st town and he was going to put a repeater antenna there with a little solar panel and a battery from the radio store. He did not know how much range the repeater would add so he planned on putting 2 or 3 more out in his general area on top of any mountain that had a road leading up to the top.

________________________________________
Part 15.

Clark never figured out that the multi virus flu shot he got along with the tetanus shot had killed the 1st virus that entered his body and activated his immune system which was now actively seeking to kill any other invading Insidious virus. These two shots given simultaneously and within 15 days before being infected by the virus were the only thing on the planet that would protect you from this virus. Your immune system had to be activated against the virus before the virus settled in the lungs and that 15 day period was critical and absolute.

No other animals or birds were affected by the virus. It appears the MRSA bacteria that was invaded by the virus was human DNA specific and would not cross over into any other species.

The 5 kids had slid down a slicky slide in the school grounds and had been scratched by the rusting metal – all 5 of them had climbed on to the slide and slid down behind each other not knowing the rusted metal would scratch them. One sharp parent noticed this and they all were taken to the same Dr. office Clark had gone to that morning. The same nurse treated all of them and injected each of them in separate cheeks of their butt with a multi virus flu shot and a tetanus shot. None of the kids remembered this. Even Clark and Destiny had forgotten about it since it had been well over a year and a half ago.

Clark found another running diesel pickup at the junk yard as a matter of fact there were 3 of them. He had Destiny drive one home for her personal automobile. He disconnected the batteries in the other 2 trucks and left them there for spares but before he disconnected the batteries he filled the fuel tanks and treated the fuel with pri-d. So for the current moment they were set for vehicles. The next thing he and Destiny worried about was how to get a 10000 gallon tank of diesel and propane up to the farm. He had not yet found a semi diesel truck that he could get started to pull the tankers up to the farm. They both decided to treat the diesel fuel in several 10000 gallon tankers and bring a hundred gallons at a time to the farm to refill his diesel tank. Propane was another problem he had not solved on how to get it to the farm. He thought he would get one of those 500 gallon tow along tankers filled from a big truck and tow it to the farm with his truck. He put that on his next project list.

Destiny said we need a greenhouse but it would be an awful lot of work to put it up and maintain with just the 2 of us putting it up with all the other work we have going on. He said we could probably have the children help on taking care of the contents after we figure out how to do it our self. She agreed with him and said we will go get 2 large ones at Lowe’s and start on one of them as we have spare time.

During her home school class she asked how many of them liked bacon and of course all 5 hands went up. That is how she introduced them to slaughtering of the pigs. The same went for the chickens and cows. The children had not yet seen Clark kill a squirrel, rabbit, deer or turkey but they were all involved in the butchering process and the stinking dipping of the turkeys into the hot water to pluck them. She told Clark she was going to wait till next year to show them how she cut the throat of a chicken and let it bleed out. He did not say anything about her teaching techniques because it must have worked on her and her siblings. She also said she would like them to learn how to play the 3 instruments she knew how to play but she did not have the time to start on that. She also told him to pick up 6 miniature piano keyboards, 6 violins and 5 small guitars whenever he thought he had the time.

In the midst of several winter blizzards Destiny found the time to start the children on the musical instruments.

They found during the winter they would need a lot more supplies for the kids and a lot more storage. Destiny said will your truck pull those tow a long U-Haul trailers. Clark said that is a great idea. We can load the different size clothes and shoes for the kids in them. She said you will have to put moth balls or some kind of bug deterrent in them I don’t think mice can get inside. Clark said cedar chips or cedar slabs from Lowe’s will stop the fabric eating moths.

They started on another list for the kids. A partial list was socks, tennis shoes, boots, Levis, shorts, coats and shirts. Destiny said the girls don’t need feminine hygiene products yet but they will and they will need lots several years from now. Clark asked her if she had any idea how many of those 8 X 12 U-Haul trailers they would need. She said no but when the weather warms up we will all go and fill one up with feminine hygiene products and we can figure out from that one. He said OK. He told her I am going to have to go to town as soon as the snow melts off the road and replenish our toilet paper supply. She said we will take both trucks and bring 2 U Haul trailers full back with us.

They talked about teaching the kids with BB guns and pellet rifles to start them on the road to handling firearms - Destiny thought that was a good idea because her daddy had taught her and her siblings how to shoot a 22 rifle when they were about 6 or 7 years old. She said the survivors out there may be a violent bunch of people and 3 little girls and herself would be a real treat for some bad guys.

Part 16.

Clark knew about firearms and had been an avid hunter with a rifle and a bow. He got into skeet shooting for a while and without reloading the shotgun shells it got too expensive for him to keep doing it. He did not have what a survivalist would call a combat weapon. He had a bolt action 06 with a scope, scoped bolt action 264 for long range gopher shooting, a 12 gauge pump shotgun, 22 bolt action rifle, a pellet gun that did not work anymore, his boy hood Red Ryder BB gun, cal 45 1911 pistol, and a 6 inch barrel 22 revolver. His ammunition stash was not even noteworthy unless you would call about 800 22 rounds a stash. Weapons, ammunition and reloading equipment would be a priority on his scavenge list.

The snow melted off the mountain top. Clark talked Destiny into leaving one boy and girl to feed the chickens, pigs and milk the cows. He thought they were mature enough to handle that simple job. She thought about it for a long while and then she went and asked for 2 volunteers to stay. All 5 volunteered so then she had to make them draw straws. It ended up with 2 girls staying. She was happy it was 2 girls because the boys still wanted to act and play silly games. That would change sometime in the near future. The only reason she let the soon to be 7 year olds stay was because there had been no sign of humans anywhere near the farm in the past 6 months. She was worried about black bears and gave them strict instructions to run in the cabin and into the basement and lock the door if they saw one.

They had to drive 18 miles past the town to get to the U Haul rental place and Clark had to push 30 or 40 automobiles off the road. The place was loaded with all sizes of tow a longs so their storage requirements would be taken care of for many years to come just from this one rental place. They drove 11 miles further to another Super Wal Mart deciding to leave the one closest to the cabin alone for the time being. The 3 kids and Destiny filled the 2 trailers with toilet paper while Clark rummaged through the firearms section of the store. He had to go to the tool department to get a crow bar and hammer to break into the weapons cabinets. He loaded a flat dolly with 7 pellet rifles, 7 semi auto 22’s, 8 AR 15’s, 5 410 single shot shotguns, 6 20 gauge pump shotguns, 6 bolt action 30-06 rifles, 3 12 gauge pumps and 4 semi auto 12 gauge shotguns and a fair amount of ammunition for all the firearms he had on his cart. He worried all the way to the U Haul trailer about leaving those semi-automatic 30-06 rifles – As soon as he emptied the cart he pushed it back to the gun department and put 7 new 30-06 semi automatics on the cart. It would be 6 or 7 more years before the kids would be big enough to shoot the 06 rifles but something about having and not needing or something like that kept pinging around in his mind so he took the guns. Destiny asked him where he was going to store all that equipment. He said for the moment in the pole barn with the new coolers and freezers. My next trip I will have a designated U Haul trailer just for firearms and ammunition. She said you will need more then 1 U Haul trailer because I do not see knives, hatchets, camp cooking gear, archery gear, tents, binoculars, gun scopes, spotting scopes, suppressors, night vision or fishing equipment. He said I know, I know this is a start. He told her I may have a separate trailer for the ammunition and powder for the reloading equipment I don’t yet have. She said we have a lot of work to do.

They walked through the store, their headband LED lights lighting the way. He heard her laughter, choking and more laughter. He walked over to the gardening department to see what she was carrying on about. The only seed packets left on the shelf were Okra. She was laughing so hard tears were flowing down her cheeks. She finally got herself under control and said Teena would have loved to have seen this. She took the packets of seed looking at him and saying extreme emergency food. He grinned at her knowing how much she disliked Okra.

Between snowstorms they made 6 more trips to the distant Wal Mart and various other stores including gun shops. They could hear people talking on the shortwave but the people’s transmission power was so low or was so far away they could not understand what was being said. That gave them hope that there were other good people out there. They were not quite ready to make contact with those people.

It was just beginning to warm up early in the spring. The 7 of them had got one greenhouse put together and had some early plants in flats growing for the garden which was now 150 X 150 feet. They decided that would grow enough for them without killing them in labor. The winter squash, summer squash, pumpkins, watermelon and cantaloupes were in another plot as was the huge potato patch and the corn was in a fenced off section at the end of the pasture. They had decided during the winter to grow enough of the flat Italian Romano string less green bean to have it every 2 days. Clark had picked up Destiny one of those fancy spaghetti makers so the kids would be able to have spaghetti and cheese in lieu of macaroni and cheese till they ran out of Velveeta cheese. Desserts were mostly one of the big 5 (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, apple pie or peach pie) made multiple different ways with honey instead of white sugar. They had run out of white sugar. Destiny had threatened him with bodily injury if he did not help her with gathering the honey. Clark or Destiny always peeled and cut up an apple or pear a day during growing season for each of them. That task would soon be relegated to the kids.

Destiny told him in about 3 months we will need some wheat for flour unless we start grinding something else up to use instead of wheat. Clark said that would be blasphemy. She laughed heartily and said I know but unless we take over some other farmer’s field, grow it and keep the deer out of it we will run out. Clark moved wheat up to the top of the scavenge list. Clark had wondered about yeast until Destiny told him there are several hundred packages in the freezers and Virgil had bought 6 or 7 five pound jars which were also in the freezer.

Clark had thought about wheat for a week and knew there was no way he could plant an acre or so and harvest it unless it was done by hand. He did not think that would go over to big with the other 6 people. In the Ohio Valley there were huge wheat fields and silos on a lot of farms. That left only one thing to do – a 2 and ½ hour drive to the Ohio Valley to check those silos. 10 or more 55 gallon drums with some CO2 in them to kill the bugs and bug eggs before they were sealed up would last them for many, many years. He was not sure what kind of wheat, hard or soft, grew there but any wheat was better than no wheat. It was a shame there was no more internet because he could have looked it up. But then again there was always the library.

They decided to go in about 30 days after firearms’ training for the kids was finished. Clark was afraid to leave the farm alone and again 2 of the kids would stay. Destiny decided to take both trucks with a tow a long that would carry 20 or more 55 gallon drums each. She rightly figured if the wheat was left in the silo too long it would get buggy or the heat and humidity would ruin it.

Destiny grabbed a pencil and pad and started calculating. She told Clark there are about 6 bushels of wheat in a 55 gallon drum and you can roughly get 90 small one pound loaves of bread from a bushel so 90 X 6 equals 540 loaves of bread from a 55 gallon barrel of wheat. Roughly speaking 40 drums will last us about 50 years. Now if we can get 60 or 80 drums we can have 10 or 20 barrels to trade for something in the future.

He used her scratch pad and said OK we can take 11 empty 5 gallon buckets, fill them up and when they are gone we can crack a new barrel and fill the 5 gallon buckets up and add a little CO2 to the 10 buckets that you will not be using and we can have some kind of fresh wheat for as long as we live. She said where you going to get the CO2. He said at the soda pop plant.

[Lbox88]

Part 17.

After firearms training one afternoon Destiny told him we should start thinking on how to get each of those kids a 2 or 3 bedroom trailer up here for them to live in if they find a mate or if 2 of the girls stay with 2 of the boys. He just looked at her and said that is sure some long range planning. She said I know but those tires on those trailers will probably rot off in 10 or 12 years. And I wish you would tow my non running auto off this hill; you can also tow that truck that used to be hooked to the 5th wheel trailer off the place also. He thought that was a good idea. He unbolted and stored away the 5th wheel tow attachment in the bed of Virgil’s truck and complied with Destiny’s wish.

They headed to Ohio one morning right after breakfast and the cow milking. Food was placed in the fridge for the 2 remaining kids and all they had to do was check on the chickens, feed the pigs and milk the cows if Clark and Destiny were not home by nightfall.

They crossed the bridge over the Ohio River into Ohio near Point Pleasant about 3 hours after they left. Clark had to push 35 or so autos out of the way. They struck pay dirt or wheat at the 1st silo they came to 45 miles into Ohio. The silo was half full of he assumed triple cleaned wheat and Clark did not see any mice running around, bugs crawling or insects flying above the stored wheat.

The information he had gleaned from the library indicated most of the wheat grown in Ohio was soft red or white winter wheat but he and Destiny had decided that was better then no wheat. It would make excellent biscuits, cakes and pie crust – they would also use the soft wheat to experiment on fried flat bread and other types of bread. After he had learned that it was soft wheat he decided to store 10 pounds of hard white wheat berries they were currently using and he would experiment with a few small patches to see if it would grow in his area and if it did he would mix a small amount of hard wheat to the soft wheat and see what happened. They had 64 55 metal gallon drums with the side snap lever vacuum attachment lids on the 2 tow a long wire mesh side dual wheel trailers. After spending 45 minutes in the silo Clark figured out how to release the wheat with a manual crank to open the chute. He would not know how lucky he was going to be because the heat and humidity had been just right for this silo and the wheat berries were dried perfectly. He used one of the dollies to bring one of the large CO2 cylinders with the hose under the chute and started filling the metal barrels with a small amount of CO2 and wheat berries. It was a good thing Destiny had thrown those cotton masks into her glove compartment or they would have had their lungs filled with wheat dust. He could fill 4 before he or Destiny had to dolly each barrel to the trailer and use the come-a-long to pull them to the back of the tow-a-long. The job took more than 7 hours to fill 64 barrels and 11 five gallon buckets - It was after 6PM when they headed home.

Things settled back into the normal hard work farm routine. One of the boys almost got bitten by a rattle snake while picking blue berries. So the new rule was to carry a long stick to beat the ground around an area before they picked any type of berry.

Clark started killing deer by the dozens later on that week. Every evening he looked out the pasture had hundreds of deer eating the cow’s clover. He really did not want to do it but it was between the 7 of them having milk, cheese and real cow steaks. The steak is what really convinced him. When it was over he had killed about 500 deer, cut the filet mignon out and carted them off to where he pushed the carcasses over a cliff that was 300 yards below the ridge. After that he saw maybe one or two out browsing but he could live with that. He hoped the rotting flesh was far enough away from the farm that he would not smell it during the summer heat.

The girls had moved back into the 5th wheel trailer for the summer but space was still short in the log cabin. He began to seriously think about how to get those trailers up to the farm and how to hook them into the water, sewage and electric. He knew he had enough electric to run florescent lights in 5 trailers. Heating would absolutely have to be a wood stove. It would be inconvenient in the summer to have to go to the pole barn for refrigerated items. But that was all he could do or think of right now. He also would like to have a 14 X 40 work trailer for reloading and a workshop. He looked around and laughed the place coming in looked like a U Haul rental lot but everything was lined up in rows and the doors were spray painted with a number indicating the contents listed on the computer. Clark had also put the kids to work inventorying everything and entering it in one of the new laptops from Wal Mart.

Clark charged up a 24 volt battery, gathered his tools, pri-d, 2 cans of ether and went looking for an old diesel semi tractor trailer. He did not have to look far he found an older non computerized model at the diesel sales lot. After 3 hours of working on it he got it running. Clark patted himself on the back because he really was a good diesel mechanic. He was happy because now he could haul the 10000 gallon diesel tankers and propane tankers up to the farm where he could keep an eye on them and they would be handy to get to. He left the old semi diesel truck there and went home to tell Destiny and finish his chores. He would move the diesel and propane tankers to the farm as he had time. He would have to venture out further to find empty tractor trailers.

She told him in the next 2 or 3 days I want to go pick out 4 or 5 trailers preferably those new ones with the solar panels on the roof and already set up to install wood or coal stoves. He told her I will have to get some gravel because I used all we had for the freezer/cooler shed and then I will have to level off 5 spots to park the trailers, run water, electric and sewage to them with the back hoe. He told her it would be an all spare time summer job. She said that’s OK we can pick out the trailers, put a wood stove in them and make sure we get the right ones. He grinned at her talking like he could do it in 15 minutes but kept his mouth shut.

They could still hear people talking on the short wave but he and Destiny had already decided to wait another year before trying to contact any one. They wanted the farm to be totally self sufficient and all the major work done in case they had to hide or defend themselves from bad people. Clark figured by late next spring they should have gathered up all they would need for many years or at least until the kids got into their teens.

18

Destiny told Clark to take 2 of the kids that were not doing anything and gather a bunch of leeks up from the swampy area down by the creek, our last year onions are really getting strong and pick a mess of dandelion greens they are ready to pick now; you may want to take all the kids to get the dandelions. We are having cooked dandelion greens, a leaf lettuce salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, radishes, leeks, and cut up hard boiled eggs and deer filet mignon fried up in garlic, leeks and onion for supper. I can make up a weak vinegar type dressing because we have nothing but lard left and I have never made a salad dressing with just pork lard. He told her the weak plain vinaigrette would be just fine. Clark was always pleasantly surprised at the variety of garden vegetables and wild vegetables that turned up on the menu. He wished he had some rice to mix in with his deer/beef chili during the cold time.

After supper Destiny said I hate to have to give you another job but we have run out of vegetable oil. We have plenty of lard. I need you to make a press for some corn oil or sunflower seed oil. Teena left me a bag of oil sunflower seeds and I can plant them now or early next spring. We can get a little corn oil this summer if you make me or find a press. He asked, you know how to make corn and sunflower seed oil. She just stared at him. He said OK, OK. As he was walking away she said I really want the press to put your fat head in. He kept walking.

The next week they were in the closest Wal Mart and they had their lists. An hour later she said I cannot find a spray duster the one we have been using to spray the cabbage, Brussels sprouts and broccoli is on its last leg. We have two 50 pound bags of copper dragon and three 50 pound bags of Sevin that I repacked into some 5 gallon buckets to keep it from drawing moisture and caking up so we are good on insecticide for a long time. I was always amazed reading about those people who grow organic. There is no way on this earth that hot pepper spray with garlic will even touch the bugs that eat up the cabbage and other things. They found the section the sprayers were in and she took 4 she also took 4 pump up 3 gallon liquid sprayers. Clark asked her what she had planned for them. She said I picked up some Round-Up and some one year total ground killing spray. I have a plan to plant something over near the hardwood trees in a year or so and I want all the ground vegetation dead before I plow up a small section of ground and fertilize it with cow manure and compost. I will probably use a few hand full’s of the 2 tons of 10-10-10 pellets we have to add some more growing oomph to the ground. If we have any extra fish parts left over I will have the kids bury some there also.

On the way home they heard clear talk on the short wave truck receiver. They hurried home and locked the gate. She asked what is left to do off the farm. He looked at her and said the 5 trailers and wood stoves. They monitored the shortwave and the CB for the next 2 days and did not hear any more talk. She said let your chores go today and go get the trailers and the stoves. He left by himself at daylight the next morning. The trailers were no problem he dropped one off and got another. He had to take one of the dual wheeled wire sided trailers to get the stoves, chimney pipes and all the parts. He was completely worn out when he got home that evening and went straight to bed.

The next morning after breakfast she said do we have spares of everything we will need. He thought and said I have one spare and bought one extra expensive outback inverter for another spare when I bought the nickel iron batteries and 1 more extra well pump which gives us 2 extra pumps. Yes - we do not have to leave for a few years if we don’t want to. She said let’s talk about contacting those people on the radio. They talked for 2 hours and decided one more year they would hide out before they would figure out a way to safely contact some people.

She said my mom taught us genetics and in one of her classes we learned that the absolute minimum to keep civilization from becoming extinct is 50 healthy young unrelated fertile couples, she also said 100 un-related couples were better. So really it is a no brainer that we have to become associated with a bigger group or at least have contact and relations with them. He went to bed thinking about that.

Part 19.

4 of the kids were really bright but the one boy Robert had to have a little extra help after everyone else was excused from class. It took about 15 to 20 minutes to clear up what he did not understand during class time.

Destiny told Clark the kids’ education was on track for their age. She said they mostly are smarter then city school kids of the same age because of the survival situation they are in.

2 of the girls could sing decently the other girl and the 2 boys could not carry a tune in a 5 gallon bucket. 4 of them were learning to play the 3 instruments - it appeared to Destiny Robert was tone deaf so she did not bother to ask him to continue with his music practice.

All 7 of them decided on a small Christmas tree to chop down. Clark handed the small saw to the boys and leaned back in the truck while they sawed the tree down. The girls and Destiny threw it in the back of the truck and they hurried home to put icicles, lights and bulbs on it. Of course Clark had to make a stand for it that let the sawed off portion stand in a bucket of water to keep it fresh for the next 10 or more days. Destiny took the 5 kids with her to snip some small pine branches to hang around the house to give it that Christmassy smell.

Clarks Christmas presents to the 5 kids were a multi tool and a small 2 blade folding knife to carry in their Levi pants pocket. He left a note in the multi tool box that as soon as they went to town again they should pick out a military style belt to attach the multi tool to. He knew he would get questions later on as to why it should be a military style belt but he would not answer them. All he told them was I will explain it during one of the coming classes. Even Destiny asked and he said you will just have to wait. She walked off in a huff mood.

Clark’s Christmas present for Destiny was 2 days after Christmas. He fixed breakfast, lunch and supper for her and the kids and would not let her do any work the whole day except walk around outside, watch a movie or read. She really did not know how to relax but after lunch she calmed down and rested the remainder of the day.

Clark let 3 classes go by before he told everyone about the military belt. Clark knew a lot of the coal truck drivers were ex military and they all had a shoot the bull session while waiting for the coal chutes to open to fill their trucks. He also noticed that they all wore military belts so he decided one day to ask. They all started to speak but they let one big ole boy do the talking. He said the main reason was they could be used as a quick tourniquet because of the way the belt slid into the locking belt buckle. Another reason is they will last many years without breaking and if you do not cut the end off and leave it long like he did you have a larger belt to hold your pants up under that growing sagging belly. They all laughed at that but it was true. The military belt buckle is a unique design in that you can buckle the belt without looking down to find the hole to buckle it like you do the nail sized bar that fits in a small hole on regular leather belts. It comes in handy at night when you are out in the field and have just used the great outdoors for a toilet and do not want to light a light to fasten your pants back together - Another laugh from the group. He said there are a few more reasons but the buzzer sounded for the trucks to start loading and they all jumped back in their trucks. And that is what Clark told the 6 people in the room. The kids loved it and screamed they all wanted one. Destiny did not say anything.

Clark had noticed the last summer that the chickens had scratched all the grass out of the 60 foot run so he decided this year to plant grass seed and a few other fast growing weed plants and keep them in a 20 foot section for several days to let the grass grow back in the other 2 sections bringing bugs with it. He also was going to hang the 5 mosquito zappers in that 20 foot section they would be in for that week and then rotate them to another section. Virgil had wired a small 3 to 5 watt clear light bulb on each zapper to draw more insects then just the blue light the zapper emitted. He thought the zappers would supply all the protein the chickens would need during the summer. They would all keep an eye on them and the egg production to see if additional protein in addition to the small amount of calcium and small amount of remaining cracked corn would be needed.

Clark had put a frost free faucet in the run and a timer ran the water twice a day into the 2 winter time heated water troughs. Sometimes he would use one of the water trays to fill it with milk, he always laughed when the milk finally curdled and the chickens went crazy over the chunks. Enough water came in the bottom of the trough to wash any debris the chickens may have gotten in them. The excess water and debris ran down a small concrete path out of the enclosed area and soaked into the ground 20 feet outside the 60 foot long coop fence. He noticed small animals and birds kept the area clean and he did not have to rake the grassy area to eliminate the small amount of grain that was washed out. He only had to use the water hose to completely clean the water troughs out about every 2 months. But now the kids had taken over that job.

Clark listened in on one class when Destiny was teaching about vegetation that needed to be foraged. She said you all know about dandelion greens because you picked them last spring. The only mushroom we will ever pick or eat is the Morel that pops up in the spring. If Teena was alive she was an expert on mushrooms but that knowledge is lost to us. Any other mushroom we will consider as poisonous, remember that forever. I may as well say this about mushrooms – They have no nutritional value to them, you would die if that is all you had to eat. They are mainly a mild flavor enhancer or a non nutritional snack.

There are very few growing things that have most of the vitamins, minerals and roughage in them to keep you alive for a long, long time. Jason stuck his hand up and asked about that. She said we will get into that in another class but 2 of them are hulled sunflower and pumpkin seeds and they freeze well for I know at least 4 or 5 years if they are vacuum packed.

She said I will talk slowly and spell some of the words on the blackboard so you can write or print all this and memorize it over the next few winter months. You may want to put it on your laptop for easy reference after class. This spring and summer I will show each of you the plants I am talking about in this class that we will forage to supplement our diet before we start getting produce from the garden. If we find a big patch of some of the items I am talking about we can blanch, can and freeze a lot of it for late summer or winter supplemental food. We will talk about freezing some of the items this spring and summer as we see what is available. We also will not take all of the available plants but leave enough for them to grow back for the following years.

Lambs quarter, just simmer the leaves and stems till they turn a dark green and shrink down, add a little salt and it is similar to spinach and ready to eat. Ramps are the same as a mild leek and can be used as an onion replacement. Curly Dock is simmered for a few minutes and eaten with a sprinkle of salt or vinegar and tastes just like spinach. Nettle is picked young with gloves on and washed then boiled in salted water for a minute or so then eaten or added to other already hot cooked soups - it is mushy if over cooked - the older leaves on nettle are only good for stinging you.

Poke, a trick her daddy taught her to keep getting fresh young leaves from poke before the toxins build up is to cut the mature plant down it will re grow and you can cut the young new leaves off all summer - Boil the young leaves 3 times and change the water each time - the taste is a cross between spinach and asparagus. My daddy used to cut down several 2 to 5 foot young stalks, peel them, cut it into 3 inch sections and fry them in egg, flour or cornmeal. I was always afraid to try that because the whole stalk has a mild poison in it but we never got sick so we may try it next spring. You always have to boil the young Poke leaves at least 3 times changing the water each time or you will get stomach cramps and diarrhea.

Plaintain we only have once or twice in the spring because it is labor intensive to pick. I have a simple recipe which is 3 cups of diced young leaves, 4 cups milk or water, 2 eggs, ½ cup flour, 1 turnip and 1 potato, adding and stirring in the egg yolk first and the white of the egg stirred in next, then stir the flour in and simmer till the leaves were soft and sprinkle pepper in when it was almost finished. I called that back yard wood stump soup - You can triple or quadruple the recipe for however many when you have it for a meal.

Purslane is an all summer weed that tastes sort of lemony when eaten raw. It can be added to salads and when cooked and added to stews it gives a spinachy flavor. The cooked Purslane is added to the soup or stew when they are almost finished cooking. I do have other recipes but we will talk about them when we have the vegetables and I am ready to fix them. I did not tell you what vitamins and minerals each plant has but we will cover that in the years to come.

[Lbox88]

Part 20.

Clark told Destiny he wanted to go on a house to house search in several of the towns. She asked why he would want to go in houses with rotting dead bodies inside. He said I am willing to bet some of those houses had survivalists in them and they may have supplies like white sugar, other foods and military grade weapons hid amongst other things we have not thought we may need. She said well the best time to go would probably be when it is cold so the smell wouldn’t be as bad. He said I was going to get one of those charcoal filtered gas masks I saw in one of those gun stores or one of those dual canister paint fume masks. She said it is not a bad idea and since all the major jobs are caught up I imagine you can start anytime.

She told him it may not be a bad idea to do all the far out farmhouses first and then work way back to the towns. Then do a street by street search and to spray paint a purple or whatever color spray mark beside each door after he searched the house in case he lost track of where he was in his search.

Armed with a sledge hammer, 3 pry bars, 48 inch bolt cutters, battery powered metal saw and a big crow bar he left on his search 2 days later early in the morning. He had went to the 911 call center and took the maps of the 2 counties that had each street, farm road and house listed and then he stopped at the police station and found just about the same map but these had been cut into notebook sized sheets and pieced together under a piece of plexi glass. He thought these would be better to carry around in a notebook and he could use each page as a grid indicator for the houses.

Starting out 23 miles in the opposite direction that he normally travelled he went to the furthest house indicated on the map on a farm road. Cutting the lock on the locked gate he drove about 2 miles up to a large 2 story house which sat almost on top of the mountain. He blew the horn. He did not expect to get a response and he didn’t. The door was a steel one and he had to use the crow bar and a pry bar to get a gap big enough to where he could use the metal cutting saw to cut the 2 dead bolts. He was on the 3rd battery and 2nd saw blade before he cut all the way through the dead bolts. He had walked around the house and saw all the windows were barred so he thought his easiest entry would be to cut the dead bolt or bolts. The smell was pretty bad so he put on his paint fume mask and it worked great. There were 3 bodies in the house they must have died at about the same time or else someone would have carted the dead ones outside. There was one body on the living room couch and 1 body in each upstairs bedroom bed. He had already made up his mind how he was going to search. He hurriedly looked in each bedroom closet that had a body in the bed and did not find anything. The empty bedroom upstairs was a gold mine. He knew he was a little bit lucky but this was just like hitting the 100 million dollar jackpot and on the 1st house. There must have been 80 Five gallon no he thought these buckets were a little larger than 5 gallon buckets maybe 6 gallons. There was just enough room to walk between the aisles of the double stacked 80 or more buckets. On each bucket Honeyville Grain was stenciled and what its contents were. He now had white sugar, red kidney beans, lima beans, dehydrated sliced potatoes, dehydrated celery, freeze dried mushrooms, freeze dried broccoli, freeze dried pineapple, dehydrated bananas, popcorn, great northern beans, navy beans, freeze dried peas, white rice, cocoa, powdered chocolate milk and stacked up against one wall in the corner was 14 cases that had 6 number 10 cans of different freeze dried cheeses including cheddar in each box. He stopped looking upstairs and looked for a basement entrance because he knew whatever was in the rest of those buckets he and Destiny were going to take it all. He would ask her what in the world a person would use a 6 gallon bucket of blue corn for. He also knew the kids would love those cases of fruit smoothies.

Finding the unlocked 4 inch thick wood/steel basement door in the kitchen he automatically turned on the light switch and lo and behold he had light. There must be some solar and batteries for the basement if the lights still worked because he had turned on other lights in the house with no result. Walking down the stairs he saw more buckets and another steel door like a vault door. I bet the weapons are in there and I will need to torch the hinges off because the crow bar and sledge hammer will not touch that door. He walked up to the door and pushed the handle down and it was as if a lightening bolt hit him. The vault door opened. There were about 18 rifles in a metal rack and they had what he thought were high dollar scopes on some of them. Down one side of the vault room were 10 bunk beds so this house was set up to hold 10 people. He had heard of day night scopes but never seen one and he would be willing to bet some money that is what they were. Ammunition was stacked up by the crate and it took up about half the 30 X 40 vault room. He had to sit down and think about this. There was no way he and Destiny could carry 200 or 300 one hundred pound crates up those steps plus he did not have any place to store it. This meant another trip to the U Haul place to pick up several tow a longs. He again stopped and said to himself I have a running semi tractor trailer why not just tow an empty tractor trailer here and fill it with everything and make one trip. He stopped again It would take them days to carry all those heavy ammo crates up those stairs. He walked out to the truck and called destiny on the shortwave. He gave her directions and told her he had a lot of stuff to carry home but he needed her input before they started hauling stuff to the farm. He started the truck engine, turned on the heater and waited on her figuring it would take 30 or so minutes for her to get here.

Part 21.

Destiny arrived about 40 minutes later. He gave her another dual canister paint fume mask and told her to follow him. He told the 2 boys she had brought with her to stay in the truck because he did not have a stink mask for them. She read the label on each 6 gallon bucket in the bedroom and said a country thing just a little loud through her mask (YEEHAW). She asked him if the windows had screens on them in the bedrooms the bodies were in. He looked and told her yes. She said why don’t you open the windows and shut the bedroom doors. We should wrap that body on the couch in the blankets it is laying on and drag him out the front or back door and then open some screened windows down stairs. Destiny told him to go to a bathroom and get a couple of towels and stuff them under those 2 upstairs bedroom doors to keep any smell from coming back in the house. After this summer the fluids should dry up and if we need this house for anything we can move the beds and those bodies outside. She said before he could say anything - yes we will bury them.

He said I want to take the guns and 6 or 7 things home with us. She grinned and said which buckets are you taking; he hemmed and hawed around and finally said – kidney beans, white sugar, navy beans, great northern beans, elbow macaroni, white rice and a #10 can of freeze dried cheddar cheese. She let out a little laugh and said I presume you want chili with rice, navy beans and ham, great northern beans and ham and the kids can have macaroni and cheese. He grinned at her and said my woman is soooo smart. Of course she punched him. While helping him carry the guns out she said it looks like they ordered everything from this place. He said I bet that place is for people who store goods for hurricanes and things like that. She said that is part of the answer this Honeyville place must be a survivalist outfitter. She told him to make absolutely sure he grabbed 2 of the gallon pails of coconut oil because she could now make some mayonnaise and deep fry some chicken and things. He wondered what it would taste like since she had been using pork lard to fry everything in and they had had no mayonnaise for at least 3 months.

When they got all the guns in the truck she said I am not carrying 3 or 400 one hundred pound boxes up those 22 steps. Did you look for another door in that basement? He said no I was so excited about finding all that stuff that I didn’t think of it. She said let’s walk around the outside of the house and see if we can find one. Sure enough there was a ramp leading down to a steel door. He said that solves one problem but now we have another problem and that is how to get it up into the truck. She said don’t those lifts I see on the back of trucks work on hydraulics and battery power. He said OK I see what you are talking about. I will look for one and tow it here and wire the truck battery into my truck battery and we should be able to operate the lift.

It was really simple after he thought about it. Tow the non running vehicle here and back the lift to the top of the basement ramp and then back the empty semi trailer up next to the lift. Dolly everything up to the top of the ramp and load the lift and then the trailer. 3 days later when they came back with a lift truck it really was that simple. The only problem was Destiny made Clark slide or lift every crate of ammo onto a dolly and then she would help push or pull a dolly up the ramp to the lift. The buckets were loaded into a U Haul trailer and parked in line with the rest of the goods. There was 18 buckets of hard red winter wheat so they would mix the soft and hard wheat and have a decent loaf of bread. They could also now make spaghetti with the hard red wheat if they needed anymore for at least 20 years unless they found more hard red wheat in another survivalist home. He had went into the battery and generator room and found 7 dry forklift batteries that were to be used as backup’s for the 7 that were hooked into the working solar system. He took the dry batteries and made a note to come back and get the ones that were active. He checked the fluid on each battery and had to put some distilled water in 3 of them. He decided to let them maintain a charge until he returned to take them too.

3 days after everything was organized back at the farm Destiny said well are you going out to look anymore? He said tomorrow morning. She grinned behind his back because she knew he had no intentions of looking for any more survivalists homes. But she had sort of shamed him into it and pricked his pride. She was really thinking 30 and 40 years ahead for the children’s welfare. That was the primary reason she wanted to stockpile what would eventually be equivalent to a large warehouse full of useful things.

He had searched 111 homes and found nothing except a small amount of spices a few guns and odds and ends in the kitchens. He struck pay dirt on the 112th home. It sat out about a half mile from town and the house could not be seen from the highway. There was a heavy logging chain across a graveled road with a sign that said keep out. Clark cut the lock and drove about a half mile around a stand of hardwoods before he saw the house. It was a single story ranch that was really large with a covered ground swimming pool in front that you had to drive around to get to the front door. He was thinking that was such an odd place to put the pool but it was not his house so there was not much he could say about the intentions of the previous owners. He blew the horn and waited – no one came so he got out and tried the front door. It was open he stuck his head inside and retreated to get his paint fume mask.

There was a woman leaning back on the couch with 2 babies that had fallen to the sides of her arms. It looked to Clark as if they had all had the lung infection and died near the same time but he really couldn’t tell because of the dried blood on all of them. He thought to himself it must have been really awful to die like that – he said a little prayer and hoped the babies had died first. He went into a bedroom and got a sheet and covered the grizzly dried up bloody mess. He never found the man of the house. He saw pictures of her, the man and the 2 children but he was no where to be found. He started his search by looking for the bedrooms. There was nothing but an expensive double barrel shotgun in the closet of what he thought of as the master bedroom. He did not find any shells and that was strange. He kept on looking till he got to the kitchen and he found a fully stocked pantry – even the fridge was full but the contents were rotted and he quickly shut the door. He found the door to the basement behind the back pantry wall and shelves. He wondered why the pantry was 10 feet wide and only had 2 foot shelves on the side walls which left 6 feet of dead space. The door was steel and it was locked. He wondered if he spent a little time looking for keys would be in his best interest. He looked for the ladies purse and found a big key ring with lots of keys. He started checking the keys and of course it was the next to last one that opened the door. A loud siren went off when he pulled the door open and it was really loud. Clark went outside and sat in his truck till the siren battery ran down. 15 minutes later he could barely hear the siren so he went back in.

Part 22.

What Clark did not know about the man of the house and never would was – the man had hobbled into the living room from a bedroom and saw his wife and 2 babies covered in blood. He must have gone insane because he ran out the front door slamming it behind him and into the deep woods behind the house. He ran till he could no longer run and fell down on the carpeted forest floor. His infection was on his upper leg and had weakened the main leg artery it burst from all that activity. He bled out where he lay. The forest animals and bugs soon reduced him to a shiny white skeleton.

This was a really huge basement or bomb shelter because he believed it was just as big as the house on top which was he guestimated to be 70 by 40 or so. One wall had what he called Wal Mart metal wall shelves completely down one side. They were at least 3 feet deep and the bottom and next to bottom shelves had those 6 gallon buckets all the way down the wall. The 3rd shelf had #10 cans and he thought home canned mason jars, he looked at a few of the jars and read the contents on a neat computer print out sticker label. It had the contents - date packed and estimated expiration date on it. He looked all the way down the shelf and said I will never need another mason jar. These jars also had the reusable lifetime lids and he was glad of that because Destiny had told him the lids on the store shelves would eventually dry out and not seal anymore.

There was a section for anti-biotic and first aid supplies. Destiny would be happy to see 2 of the 6 gallon buckets had heirloom vegetable garden seeds in them and the list of the seeds was in a plastic packet attached to the bucket handle. This family definitely liked pure maple syrup because there were about 40 quart size cans from a New England syrup manufacturer. He and Destiny had a small plan to tap the maple trees but it looked like it would be many years before that was necessary. The guns were on a rack on the back wall and the ammunition was stacked in a corner but this guy did not have but about 20 crates of ammunition. Clark laughed about that because the other house had enough ammunition to start and finish a small war. There was another small room made of cinder block in the far back corner and Clark saw that it held the generator. He decided to see if it would start and it did. He was not familiar with the electrical panel but he turned the main breaker on and the lights came on so the house had power but he did not know how much fuel the tank that ran the generator held. He left the generator running and went outside to call Destiny on the shortwave.

While he was waiting on Destiny he pulled the couch with the woman and 2 babies on it out the front door and used his dolly to take the fridge out the back door. He saw a big stand up freezer in the corner and took it out the back door also. He saw the front door and the back door had storm doors with drop down glass in front of screens so he dropped the glass down and left the inner doors open to start airing out the house.

Destiny and the 2 boys showed up about 50 minutes later. She said do I need a mask and he said not if we go in the back door. When she got in the basement she said Oh my – my - my - this is too much for us to take. He told her I thought the same thing. She said let me see what they have different from what we already have and we will take that.

Clark watched her pull 6 gallon buckets off the shelves and then she started back the other way sitting mason jars on the floor. She looked at him and said this will save me a lot of cooking and preparing time because each quart Mason jar is a meal by itself and we will eat it. Looking at the cases of Campbell’s Soups and other canned items on the top 3rd and 4th shelves she let out another whoopee and had Clark lift down several different kinds of soups. She told Clark to take two of the 6 gallon buckets labeled from a place called Oh Nuts to the steps and he wondered what was so important about those until he read the label – assorted hard candy in one and the other said dehydrated seedless carob pods. He thought carob was something you made chocolate from but he would either ask Destiny or go to the library and look it up. She stopped after an hour and said I need to come back and finish going through this. Let’s leave what I have pulled off the shelves and when I am through gathering stuff we will take it all in one trip.

She walked out the back door and saw the fridge and freezer she said I bet that stinks. Let me go get my mask. He waited on her to come back with her mask she said come on and help me. She told him to open both doors on the fridge and help her lay it on the ground with both doors open. They did that and everything slid out on the grassy area. OK let’s dolly it over under the car port and leave the doors open for 6 months or so and it will be just as good as new. They did the same thing with the freezer. She said the small animals and bugs would eliminate most of that in a few months or so. He walked back to the basement and turned the generator off, shut and locked the door then slid the pantry shelf hiding door back over the steel door. He told her a woman and 2 babies needed to be buried and he wanted to take them back to the farm wrapped up in the sheet and bury them there. They gingerly lifted the wrapped up woman and babies into the back of Clark’s pick-up. She said let’s come back in a couple of weeks and gather that stuff up. He would get the guns when they came back with 4 of the kids to help load the stuff.

3 days after they used the back hoe to bury the woman and 2 babies Clark was walking around one of the 10000 gallon diesel trucks when he started acting like a guy on a used car lot – he kicked the tires. That little kick brought up another long range problem – tires. Writing that down in his shirt pocket notebook he continued on his little walk.

The next day he asked destiny if she wanted to go to the library with him, she said not today I am going to take it easy. He never did find out the information he really wanted but he got enough to start on a mission to save some tires for use 20 or 30 years from now. He went to a tire shop and the 1st thing he checked was if it had one of those 100 year metal roofs. Next he found 3 drawers full of those hard to see through thick plastic oily looking bags that tires sometimes came in on the delivery trucks from the tire factory. Seeing that the ware room was windowless and dark which was what he wanted. He went looking for the tires that would fit on a semi and the cab - he used about 18 bottles of liquid tire preservative from Advance Auto. He waited on the tires to air dry then bagged them up and plastic twist tied the bags and put the bagged tires on the metal racks that were designed to hold tires. Next he went looking for pick up truck sized tires, motor cycle, his tractor, and the 4 wheeler tires. He bagged enough up for at least 3 tire changes. That job took him 5 hours. As he walked out he thought that was the best he could do to preserve the tires without more information or an army to help him.

Arriving home he told Destiny what he had done and she said I would have never thought of that – he said neither would I until I kicked a tire on the diesel tanker and saw it had cracks in it. He told her I want to store another 36 tractor trailer tires the same way in another metal roofed dark ware room tire shop as well as the pick up truck and other tires. I’ll do that in the next couple of weeks when I have a little time.

They went back to the 112th house with 4 of the kids and loaded up one tow a long with what Destiny had said was different from what they already had stored. She kept giggling about the Campbell’s soup and how it was such a treat for her to get a can when she was little. She said it will lighten the cooking work load up on me for a long while when I do open some soup cans. Clark said I was always prone to that Chef Boy Ar De spaghetti with meatballs in a can. She hit him because she knew he was joking with her. Her home made spaghetti sauce and meatballs were to die for. She knew they would have to go way out to find an empty tractor trailer to put the rest of the stuff from the shelter in. They had thought about leaving the stuff there but were afraid a raiding or looting team would come through and take it. They thought there was enough room in the root cellar to store all the bottles that would freeze and burst and were making plans to use the back hoe to dig another root cellar in the side of the mountain to store stuff that would freeze and break.

The next morning Clark asked her what kind of grain he was eating with blueberries because it is chewy – she laughed and said whole grain oat groats. It came from one of those 6 gallon buckets we just picked up. I already put it in #10 cans and stuck them in the freezer because I am not really sure how to store it after opening the bucket and breaking the vacuum on the mylar bag. My daddy would bring a 25 pound cotton sack home once a year and my momma would put it in mason jars and put them either in the fridge or the freezer. He said I really like it. She said that’s good because it is supposed to be healthy for you to eat.

About that time Kaylee came in and said we are running low on cracked corn for the chickens. Destiny told Clark that this would happen and we definitely needed some type of grain before next winter arrived. He looked at her and said another trip to Ohio to a silo that held corn. Destiny said I can’t remember if we fed our chickens’ whole kernel corn except what was on a dried cob. Clark said I am going to the library.

4 hours later he came back with his notebook. He said there is so much I did not know about feeding chickens. I have a teeny idea now and lots of notes about home made feeds we can make. Destiny said why don’t you drive down to Greens feed and seed in Charleston to see if there is anything left in their warehouse I just remembered the place that is about 40 miles from here. We will do that tomorrow and did you know there are 2 schools of thought about feeding chickens whole kernel dried corn. One group believes it does not have time to digest and the other says it is OK. I forgot to mention the 3rd group that solved both of the other groups’ problems. They said just soak it in a flat tray till it starts to sprout in 24 hours and then feed it to the chickens - that little green sprout on the kernel would supposedly take care of some of their green vegetation requirement.

The next morning after breaking into the warehouse at the feed and seed store he was not going to worry about whole kernel corn for years to come. The warehouse had 30 or 40 tons of cracked corn that was going bad but the chickens would eat it bugs and all. He had read that in the library. There was enough premixed chicken feed here to feed a chicken farm for many years if he could save it. There was no whole kernel corn in the warehouse and when he searched for vegetable seed he did not find any. He thought he could get many loads of hay and straw from the over head bins before it went bad. But in the main store there was a treasure trove of products they would be able to use for many years - Just to mention a few, barn fly traps, potting soil, planting flats, and umpteen packages of plant fertilizer. He called her on the shortwave and told her to bring one of the large tow a longs. He went back outside because the thousands of mice were running across his feet. He laughed when he saw 5 or 6 stray cats run in the raised up loading dock door. Under his breath he said go gettem guys. He thought he would bring a cat trap back another day and catch one to turn loose in his barn. He was going to the soda pop plant and get a hundred or so empty 55 gallon metal sugar barrels and do the chicken feed and cracked corn the same way he had packed the wheat in the barrels with the CO2. He just sighed and thought that was going to be a big job unless the whole family helped him.

[Lbox88]

Part 23.

Destiny went with him several days later to help him finish storing the tires. She talked him into taking a battery, small inverter and a vacuum packing machine. Her logic said if there was no air or very little air in the plastic factory oily bags the tires would not oxidize and would last much longer. The slow suction of the machine took them almost 8 hours to do the new tires and the tires he had already put up. He was in a hurry to get home when she said slow down - the farm and the kids are safe and not going anywhere. I want to take a look in that jewelry store on the next block. I think I want to put some jewelry for the girls away and if we can find any some wind up watches for the 3 girls and 2 boys. Clark said nothing. He finally did say as he was breaking into the store that it was a good idea she had.

They got back well before dark with the jewelry and watches and the kids had fixed themselves chicken noodle soup and a big hunk of bread from the bread machine. Clark and Destiny ate the same thing but did not say anything about the bread being real chewy and doughy tasting.

Clark asked Destiny what she thought of getting some horses. She said no, no, no - I really do not want to eat one and laughed, they are too much trouble for us to feed and take care of at this time and the kids cannot throw a saddle up on one to ride and who is going to trim their hooves and put horseshoes on them. He said I just thought I would ask. She said and you got an answer. Her next question she asked him was should we put an above ground plastic swim pool up for the kids during the summer. He did not even think about it – he said yes. He continued on and said I think if we use the back hoe to dig a round or square hole we can just drop the round or square pool into the hole. We have enough summer time electricity to run the pumps to keep the water cleaned up (we will use creek water) and we can pump the water out and cover the pool for the winter It should last hopefully 8 years if we cover the bottom of the hole with sand before dropping the plastic pool in the hole. Years from now when the kids are old enough to help we can use some cement from the cement place to make a concrete pool.

She asked him when he was going to start fixing some of those diesel trucks up. The kids will need one in a few years. The only fuel we use is for the pick up and a little bit for the generator. He said I have been thinking about that and I want to go to places like NAPA and automobile parts departments and get the small neoprene O rings that I will eventually need to keep the engines running years from now. I was thinking I would fix 10 new 4 cylinder diesel models for all of us if I can find and replace all the fried computers and computer chips in them. She watched him lean back and drink a cup of coffee before she said well times a wastin. He put his jacket on and left the cabin. He grinned all the way to a new car lot that sold diesel pick ups. He thought she sure does have a way of getting me off my butt.

Clark found the vehicles he wanted and proceeded to go through the parts department looking for computers. He changed one computer out and then had to go find the shop manual for that vehicle to see where the other computer chips were. He almost gave up when he saw how many he was going to have to change out. He worked on one vehicle off and on for 4 days before he got it running right. He thought now I only need 36 days of free time to fix the other 9.

Destiny listened to how long it was going to take to fix the other 9 vehicles. She said eventually the kids will need a vehicle to go exploring so take your time and fix them – what do you think about motor bikes or 4 wheelers? He said I will work on that after I get the 4 cylinder diesel trucks fixed. You should find a place under a carport to keep them out of the weather for the next several years or even better leave them parked in the auto garage until we have to bring them here for the kids. He said OK I will work on them when I have a little free time but it will probably take me a year to fix them all. She said that will be fine. Don’t forget to store some tires away. He said that is on the top of my list. She grinned again because he probably had forgotten all about the tires while he was concentrating on fixing the computers and chips. He had not forgotten about the tires on the new trucks he had planned to put the trucks up on jack stands and treat the tires with the tire preservative and then wrap the tires in the special plastic sleeves from the tire shops. He had also decided to fill the fuel tanks and treat the diesel every 3 or 4 years and go all synthetic engine oil and leave a dry battery with the acid in the pick up bed and bring the keys home with him.

Clark told Destiny I had to throw all the craw dads back they were too small. She said well feed em the chicken guts, cow guts, deer guts and pig guts instead of burying the waste. If you cut the guts into ½ inch chunks the catfish will probably grow a lot faster too. Just don’t put so much in that you foul the pond. My daddy always fed our fish in the pond with the cut up guts. And we had big fish and huge craw dads.

For several days they had been hearing chatter on the shortwave and some of the talk was clear. Clark said it sounds like teenagers. Destiny said I noticed that. Clark said do you think it’s time to try and make contact. She said yes. He said well I will do it from my truck parked on top of the mountain overlooking the town. She said I will go with you – he said no but you can be my back up in town where I will meet them. We will go set up an over look spot and you can take your M-16, one of the long range rifles and the shot gun. She said wear your bullet proof vest you got from the sheriff department. He said I will.

The next morning Destiny and Clark set out to hopefully make safe contact with other people. Clark helped destiny carry her weapons up to a 2nd story window in a 4 story building overlooking the intersection where Clark would meet whomever. The building had 3 different escape routes so Clark wasn’t worried about her being trapped.

Destiny had her shortwave portable and could hear Clark talking on top of the mountain to the unknown people. She could not hear the responses. She did hear Clark tell them he would meet them in a town named Ravenswood and to send a representative or 2 to chat. She heard him say he had been living in the town for the past year and was anxious to talk to any other survivors.

She watched as Clark pulled up to the intersection and lowered the tailgate and sit down. His M-16 within arms reach – There were 5 three round burst M-16’s found in the 1st survivalists house amongst other weapons including two 50 caliber rifles.

Part 24.

Clark and Destiny could not believe their eyes when a military Humvee pulled up in front of his truck with a 50 caliber machine gun mounted. They would eventually find out the up armored Humvee 50 caliber could be remotely operated by a common remotely operated weapons system (CROWS). This left the operator fully protected inside the vehicle. Clark made absolutely no move towards his M16. He got off the tail gate and walked away from his truck with his hands held somewhat up. A young girl maybe 16 or 17 dressed in camo fatigues with a gun like he had seen on TV, he believed it was called an M4. The teenager said hello there you can put your hands down. Clark pointed to a bench out of the sun and said let’s have a chat. The girl slung her weapon on her shoulder and sat down at the far end of the bench and said my name is Gwen. He took a chance because this girl did not look mistreated or radiate any bad vibes. He said mine is Clark and there are 7 of us 5 six year soon to be 7 year olds and my wife. There are 3 six year old girls and two 6 year old boys.

She said there are 96 of us, 6 adults and 90 others ranging from 6 to 17 mostly 6 or 7 year olds 45 are female. I started looking for survivors a long time ago and everyone with us has been found in small towns over a thousand mile area. I found my husband who was an active duty Army Sgt and he and I gathered up what we have now. We are looking for a solar factory or distributor because we have decided to settle down around here. The reason here is we all like 4 season weather. We noticed many cows roaming the fields so we will at least have milk and beef.

Clark said there is a solar distributor in the big city 41 miles west of here on route 60. 15 miles before you get to the city there is a town called Cedar Grove. It has about 140 new Mc Mansions or high dollar homes most have solar installed. There is a bridge there that crosses the Kanawha River to route 61. On the other side of the river there is a 900 yard wide strip of pasture land about 4 miles long. There is enough pasture to run a sizable herd of cows year round. I know of at least 2 year round creeks that flow across it down to the river so water will never be a problem. And the river bank and road side is fenced off. I know there are houses on Route 61 beside that strip of land that people can stay in and take care of the herd or people can rotate back and forth. She said that sounds like what we are looking for. Are you going to join us? He said if that is where you settle down you will be close enough for us to visit and interact and when I have free time I can help.

As she was walking back to the Humvee she turned back and said I forgot to mention the other adults. We have a 27 year old female ER nurse, a 25 year old female 3rd year dental student, a 22 year old male plane mechanic who also can fly single engine planes, my Army Sgt husband and a 49 year old Biology professor.

He said to her if you get a larger antenna for your mobile Humvee or automobile shortwave radio we can keep in touch for hundreds of miles if you are on top of a mountain when you broadcast. Oh yes one more thing he said to her if you need chickens we can hatch some out for you so let us know when you get settled in. She said we will definitely do that.

What a weird meeting Clark thought. He waved to destiny to come down. He said let’s go home and I will tell you all about it.

Clark and Destiny were still suspicious of the newcomers. About 10 days had gone by since the newcomer meeting. They had heard the talk on the shortwave between the newcomers talking to each other about moving this and that to here and there. He told Destiny I am going to be nosy and spy on them for a little bit. I know there is a telephone, TV microwave tower on the mountain across the river over looking the town and I want to see what they are doing and really look to see if there are kids. She said you be careful. He told her I can get on top of that mountain from the backside and no one will ever know I am up there. He put his 60 power spotting scope and a good pair of 10 power binoculars in the front seat of the pick up.

It is a good thing he had not waited 6 or more months to travel on this bull dozed road up to the top of the mountain or it would have been a trail bike or walk trail only. He made it barely after having to back up several times to get a little run at a gravelly big pitched patch of trail. He turned around right before he crested the hill and eased up to the microwave tower. The solar panel and battery were still good on this and several other towers on the mountains because a person could see them blinking at night.

He trained the bipod held 60 power scope on the town and settled down on a fold up lawn chair to watch the activities and see if there really were that many kids in the town. He definitely did not want to take Destiny into a town that had 90 men and only 2 or 3 women in it because that would be big trouble. After 3 hours of watching the activity in the town he knew the girl named Gwen had told him the truth about the make up of their group.

Clark told Destiny it was time they met with the adults of that group. He called them on the shortwave and asked permission to visit in the next day or so. Clark knew he and Destiny had some knowledge they did not have and could save them weeks of research at the library and eliminate a lot of trial and error.

They milked the cows, turned the chickens loose in the 20 foot section of chain link that was full of zapped night time bugs and put 4 pumpkins and 6 squash in the pig pen. Clark did cut the stuff in 3 pieces to keep the pigs from fighting over the food. He had been putting a cut up squash in the chicken area every 3 or 4 days just as a food supplement. The chickens of course loved it. All 7 of them left about 830 AM after breakfast.

Arriving at the town of Cedar Grove Clark saw every one was feeding themselves over small Coleman stoves. He thought that was stupid because right there on the side of the road was a cafeteria that would seat them all. He thought if they parked a propane truck by the kitchen and changed the jets on the ovens and stoves they could have community meals and save a lot of time. He did not think they had gotten organized and he would bring it up in the adult meeting he hoped to sit in on.

Part 25.

The adults all had FRS radios and Gwen called them to the cafeteria to have a meeting. Clark immediately saw that the professor and the Sgt would chair the meeting. The Sgt greeted everyone and asked everyone to introduce themselves and please tell their age and what kind of specialty they had if any. Clark saw that there were 2 more 16 or 17 year old girls and one 14 or 15 year old boy. He would find out their age in a few moments.

It was Destiny’s turn but before she could speak one of the 16 or 17 year old girls blurted out – You are that country music star. Destiny blushed and said yes I am but that is not what I want to talk about. She said I am really a country farm girl and I have a lot of knowledge about pigs, cows and chickens. I also know what wild plants there are available locally and how to fix them. I do not want to get into how you run your town here. But I will say a few things that maybe you do not know or maybe not even agree with or already know. You will need a huge vermin proof chicken coop and chicken run probably on the order of a 200 foot long chain linked 8 foot wide run and a huge coop. This must be built before we bring a hundred or so chickens for you to eat and have eggs. A large pig pen must be built, a smoker and a barn and a huge root cellar to store items for the animals and yourself. We have enough apple and pear trees to feed everyone here an apple or a pear every other day or so. We also have hickory, walnut and butternuts freely available. We know where you can get wheat to make bread if you store it right it should last all of you a lifetime. All that information is free. You will have to break up into groups on farming, cow milking, pig feeding, butchering, chicken feeders and egg gathering. I will be available most of the day time on the radio and if you would like I can come and give 3 or four one hour special classes every other week or so until you get organized. Your mechanic will probably be able to get all the diesel tractors running you will need to do most of the work. The garden will be labor intensive and then there is the processing, canning or drying of what you have grown to take care of yourselves and the animals. I know I forgot a lot of things but I am sure the forgotten items will come up. There will be a lot of work that needs to be done in the coming months and years and you will have to plan for contingencies. We have not yet been attacked by bad people and do not know if there is a bunch of them roaming around the country. We have seen several wild dog packs but so far they are just killing deer for food in the over populated deer herds. Destiny said Clark and I will wait outside while you talk about what I have said.

Clark said wow Destiny you laid it on the line. She said I know and the professor is probably the only one who has a clue how hard it is going to be for them to become a surviving community and most importantly keeping the human race from becoming extinct. I think we should wait a few months before bringing up mating and keeping track of each baby and their parents. I would be willing to bet the professor knows about it already but has not said anything.

An hour went by before Gwen came and got them. The professor took the floor this time. He said we were aware of some of the things that need to be done but you made it clear. We are going to break up into planning groups and do most of the things if not all you touched on. Whenever we get organized and running on track would you put on a show for us. She blushed again and said I would be glad too. In a few days he continued after our groups have some sort of basic plan to keep us alive for the long run we also would like for you to talk with our planning groups to see if we are going to do it right. She said yes. We have 5 tractor trailers full of food we took from a military bunker that will last us quite a while hopefully till the 1st garden and butchering session comes in. The meeting broke up.

Clark caught up with the mechanic and told him he was a pretty good diesel mechanic and if he needed any help to call him. One more thing Clark said you should start looking for the preservative pri-g and pri-d amongst others to start filling some diesel and gasoline tankers to have fresh fuel for a long time. The mechanic told him he would probably be in charge of the maintenance group and would put that on top of his list.

Destiny caught up with the nurse and the dentist and they talked for an hour before she had talked herself out talking to other women.

The 5 kids that Clark and destiny turned loose on the group had already made 10 or 15 new friends. Destiny said gang, we have to go but we will be coming back many times and you will be able to visit with your new friends then. Robert said will I be able to have a girl friend like Jason and Kelly are because Sandra and Rebecca do not get along with me very well. Clark answered him – of course you will there are plenty of girls here for you to meet and Sandra and Rebecca will look for a boy friend also. That pleased Robert and they drove home.

They decided to have canned soup, a baked potato, green beans, bread machine bread and fresh churned butter later on that evening to lighten the cooking load on Destiny.

The professor decided to call another meeting that evening. He was really worried about storage of the garden produce to feed the pigs and chickens. One of the girls said why don’t we look for an abandoned mine close by and put a covering door deep down in the mine with rabbit and fine mesh metal screen to eliminate mice and rats from coming in from deep in the mine and that screening would allow the colder air from deep in the mine flowing towards the entry way to keep our produce cool. I am sure we can use some cement and build a vermin proof outer door to stop the outside rats and mice from entering. The professor thought the answer the girl gave was brilliant and would save them a ton of labor from building a root cellar. They talked another 45 minutes and firmed up the planning working groups.

Destiny was true to her word and went back a week later to give 3 one hour classes on taking care of the future coming chickens, pigs and the already herd of cows they had.

Clark waited 2 more weeks to check on their progress. He was impressed – They put together an insulated aluminum building and added the laying boxes along the wall the building was raised up one cinder block so the cement floor pad could be washed down. He noticed a solar powered 200 gallon pressurized tank that got water from the creek for the chicken’s drinking water and enough pressure to wash the floor. There was a small electric heater in the back that blew hot air through out the building and six 100 florescent watt electric light bulbs strung down the center to keep the chickens thinking it was summer. He noticed they had 14 solar panels on the roof connected into 6 large fork lift or mine buggy batteries backed up by a small diesel generator that would power the lights and the heater during the winter. They had stainless steel feeding and watering trays, he wondered where they had found them. The chicken run was huge and had 4 gates inside to keep the chickens in one area while the other area regenerated and there were 8 mosquito zappers with the same extra small light bulb attached to the zapper like Clark’s. There was another building beside the coop that had well over 100 55 gallon drums of the chicken feed from the feed and seed store Clark had used. The girl that was in charge of the chickens said we did the same as you did and filled the barrels with CO2 to stop further bug infestation and to kill the current pests and eggs. We should have enough till we get our corn growing and a roller to crack it a couple of years from now. Clark thought they got the chicken situation well in hand – He moseyed over to the pig pen. Again it was large and they had put a pad of cement back to the small areas the pigs would sleep in at night there were 2 mud bogs at the end of the cement pad and a small carport thing down past the end for the pigs to get out of the sun. The pigs also had stainless steel feeding troughs. He noticed the same set up with another 100 or 200 gallon solar powered pressurized tank to clean the cement and a huge portable dumpster to throw the pig manure into which would be taken 200 yards away to a compost area. The 2 story aluminum barn would be done in about a week. He would come back to take a look at it then. The pre fab buildings sure made the work go quickly.


________________________________________
Part 26.

Clark was following Robert out to the milk station when he heard an awful noise. He looked out in the pasture and saw a huge black bear had one of the bulls by the head and was trying to snap its neck. He ran 5 yards closer which put him about 15 yards away and opened up on the bear with his shotgun. The 1st shot was double ought buck and the second was a slug and so on he shot all 5 rounds into the bear and started reloading slugs from the butt stock of the shot gun when the bear let loose of the cow and fell over. Clark ran over to it and shot it 5 more times with slugs and pulled his 45 out and shot it in the neck and head 6 more times before he calmed down.

Destiny said the cow was only scratched but was scared. She led him to the barn and used bag balm on his wounds and turned him loose back into the pasture. She told Clark to use the end loader and take the bear carcass at least 2 miles or so from the farm so the animals would not smell it anymore. Robert was still standing there with his mouth open. Clark told him to go in the house and bring him 5 double ought buck shells and 5 slugs. He finally turned around and ran to the cabin. Clark thought dang now I got to clean these guns. I need some 45 shells to fill my magazine back. He wondered if he should start carrying 7 rounds in the magazine or the 6 he had been carrying to save the magazine spring. He thought 6 were enough since he had 2 magazines anyway. He remembered the way the double ought buck hit the bear and it really did not do much but the slugs hit the bear with authority and hunched it up when he made a body hit the 2nd slug really did the damage because it wasn’t but 4 or 5 seconds after that 2nd slug shot that the bear let the bull loose and went down. If there was not the threat of wild dogs I would not load double ought buck in the gun but the wild dog threat is real and I may need the double ought 32 caliber size shot in the shotgun to disperse a pack I think I will add 5 more double ought buck to the butt stock.

The 2 months of feeding the guts to the fish and craw dads in the pond made a huge difference in the size of the craw dads and fish being caught. He wondered what the new group was doing to harvest fish.

He and Destiny and the kids made a trip to Marmet to mingle with the people 5 days after he caught enough large craw dads to have a mess for them.

He asked the professor about fish and the professor grinned. He said I am an avid fisherman and we got 4 or 5 motor boats running and set out 12 or so trot lines below the creeks running into the Kanawha River. We caught so many fish the first day we had to take the bait off the trot line hooks. We did not expect to catch so many so we had a giant fish fry that evening. We are now set up to freeze the filleted fish.

Clark looked at the now completed barn and thought I sure wish I had one like this. Destiny was asked to come back in 2 days to supervise the 1st cow butchering. They mostly knew how to do it but wanted to make sure they did it right. They had completely covered the roof top of the cafeteria with solar panels to operate the huge walk in cooler there. They went to a butcher shop and solar paneled that place as a back up for the cafeteria walk in cooler. Gwen said it sure stunk when we opened the door. 5 of us used some old bleach and scrubbed down the walls and floor and let the place air out. The door is still open now because we have not turned the compressor on to cool the cooler down but we tested it and it does work.

On the way home Robert said I think I have found a girl friend. I told her that I liked her and she said she liked me. Clark and destiny grinned at that statement. Destiny said in a low voice to Clark - Hope Robert has not met a “Little Town Flirt”. Clark laughed. He did not know that Destiny had heard that 1960 song by Del Shannon on an oldie but goody station a long while back.

While they were eating a baked potato off the outside grill Destiny asked Clark if the newcomers had enough eyes or seed potatoes to plant – He said I don’t know I will call them on the radio and ask. He got Gwen and she said no. He said I have a solution for you but it will take a bunch of help. All of the houses in the towns had a potato patch in the back yard so all you have to do is send a crew around to dig the new potatoes and big potatoes that are currently growing. Gwen said I will pass it on to the farm/garden crew. It took Clark 2 visits before he figured out how all the work was getting done – there were quite a few 12 and 13 year old girls and boys who were physically capable of doing light manual labor. And that gave Clark another thought but he would talk it over with Destiny first. He made a note so he would not forget it.

Part 27.

That evening after supper he told Destiny that he would like to have 3 or 4 of the 13 or 14 year old boys or girls come live in the trailers for the summer to help with some of the chores and for us to teach them the way we do things. She said that is a good idea but I will have to have one of them help me in the kitchen to cook for 10 or 11 people. He said we can rotate them out of the kitchen duty after a couple of weeks to see how we work the rest of the farm. She said I will bargain with them when I give them the 1st 50 baby chickens. I am going to space it out to give them 50 chickens every week for 3 weeks. I want to give them 50 chickens of each of the 3 breeds and 3 roosters of each breed. The professor already knows how to separate the roosters out when he needs a new flock of chickens. Clark said that sounds like a good solid plan to me.

Clark and destiny ended up with two 14 year old girls and a 13 year old boy. The boy and one of the girls were a couple and the nurse had previously put all the 13 and up aged females on birth control until they were at least 16 years of age. The professor and the ER nurse had decided this would be the minimum optimum age for birthing and most females had physically matured enough to handle child birth. They also decided that education up to that 16th year was extremely important. This was also dependent on the female wanting a child at that time. The professor knew that teenagers with raging hormones were going to have sex and the few adults that were available could not monitor them 24 hours a day. So the professor and the other adults decided to let nature take its course. But the teens and some 12 year olds had sex education classes on just what the professor had previously talked about.

Destiny was super glad to have 2 young females to talk to and pass on some of her personal knowledge about how she grew up. The 2 female teens were in awe of this super country music star and hung on her every word as if it were gospel. Since Destiny had some help in the kitchen she was not as tired at the end of the day and she would take her guitar and either just strum and pick for the on lookers and/or sing a few ditties. This was a happy time at the Clark household.

33 weaned pigs that were sired by one boar were picked up by the new group. The 26 females would be bred by a 2nd boar and so on and on. The professor had set up how this was all to take place for the next 5 years. The boy had freed up Clark or destiny during apple and pear harvest time by driving the 4 wheeler with 2 tow along carts. The Cedar Grove group had sent 10 people to help in the pear, apple and nut harvest. Even after Clark had stored his year supply of fruits and nuts for themselves and the pigs and the Cedar Grove group had taken truckloads to their mine root cellar there were still apples, pears and nuts left in the orchard and around the nut trees.

The smoke house was running 24 hours a day smoking and curing bacon and ham. In a few weeks the Clark household would have enough to last a full year before the smoking and curing would begin again. The only reason it stopped was because of freezer space. They had to keep enough empty space for the berries, fruit and beef. With winter coming on it was time for the two girls and boy to return to the other group. They all wished they could come back next year but they knew a new group would be sent. They said they would visit when they could. Destiny said to Clark after the 3 had left that it really took 5 adults and 5 kids to keep ahead of the summertime work to keep a family of 7 to 10 well fed and healthy and the farm running smoothly.

The Cedar Grove group was running like a well oiled machine – barring any injuries or illness they were on track to accomplish all the tasks that were needed to become a thriving community. The young people did 3 hours of work and 3 hours of class work or on the job training. The young 7 and 8 year olds learned quickly that nonsensical activity in a class room or on the job training resulted in a paddling and if the paddling did not work they went to bed hungry. The professor and the other older people had decided early on there would be no class clowns or shirkers in this community. When they were old enough to leave (16) if they still continued their disruptive activities they would be banned from the community. Whether these future to be banned people would cause trouble remained to be seen.

Destiny and Clark had the 1st of their 4 babies 2 years after the Cedar Grove group became self sufficient. The ER nurse delivered all of them. Destiny was glad the now 10 year olds could baby sit, cook and do most of the chores without supervision. Since the biology professor knew more about the human body then most medical doctors and had taken several classes in organic and inorganic chemistry the groundwork of future MD’s was available and would be taught to several interested young people.

After some practice and more self study the dentist became a real dentist and would train future dentists. Yes Robert found a lifelong mate and it was not the one that said she liked him. It would be 20 more years before anti biotic would be made in one of the former drug producing laboratories’. The new babies that were born must have had an inherited immunity because none died or the virus itself had died out.

Contact was not made with any other people until some enterprising young people 25 years later got some large ocean vessels going and discovered some natives on remote tropical islands. The natives living in the deep jungles would not be discovered for at least 90 more years.

The world was empty of people - maybe this new growing group of survivors would do it right this time around - then again maybe not:


End Story #20

[Lbox88]

Clark Story #21 - Divorced with Prejudice

Here is another novel length sized book I will take a break after posting this one

________________________________________

Part 1.

This was a bummer – what person in their right mind would want to live in a cold A## cave on the south side of a WV mountain. Clark looked at his meager possessions as he leaned back in a lawn chair. Sleeping bag, cot, Coleman stove, portable toilet, a few rifles, shotguns and pistols and right outside under the 20 foot over hanging cave his pride and joy – a 1974 4WD diesel pickup with a new engine and 4 new tires. He had to go to court to make his ex-wife release the truck to him. The judge sided with Clark on this and a few other items. The judge looked at his ex-wife and said with no transportation he cannot get to work and he cannot keep up the child support payments. He said since you have 2 new paid for automobiles and 2 young daughters I cannot see why you would want a 37 year old truck that probably needs constant maintenance.

Clark got a big break when the judge told his ex wife that he would send a deputy with Clark to pick up his truck and a few tools to keep it running. The safe that he kept his important papers and his small really valuable coin and stamp collection was in the garage bolted onto a metal work bench. The deputy drove Clark to the house and said I will wait out here - Clark said that will be fine everything I need is in the garage. His ex knew he had a few coins and stamps from his child hood collection but did not know the value. He took the title to the truck, the pistols, rifles, his family pictures and the coin collection with most of the tools in the garage. He even threw a weed eater, the small plow, shovels, rakes, axes, his fishing and camping equipment and sledge hammers into the bed of the truck. He used a piece of duct tape and left a note on the front door telling the vicious ex wife that the title to the house and the automobiles was in the safe that he had left open in the garage. Earlier he had no idea how he was going to get his collection because she had gotten a restraining order on him the day she told him she was divorcing him for another man. He had almost broken into the garage and took his stuff but his lawyer told him he had appealed the property decision and she had been told she could not sell anything until the appeal was final.

The restraining order was given to him when he got home from work and all he was allowed to take with him was his clothes. Later on he tried to use his debit card to get some money but there was no money in the bank. He had two 20 dollar bills in his wallet and a hundred dollar bill hidden in the truck under the dash board. His ex-wife made such a scene about him getting back in the truck that the deputy asked him to leave with him. The deputy dropped him, his duffel bag and 2 suitcases off at the YMCA. Clark had several friends but did not yet want to impose.

At work the next day he asked one of his friends if he would loan him 500.00 and to hold an 800 dollar coin for him till payday (there was a small problem, the coin was in the safe but the loaner did not ask for the coin). Clark knew his friend had a lot of money and was pretty sure he would loan him the money. His court date was next Monday – he got paid on Friday. His lawyer had already told him he had talked to the judge hearing his case and it was a done deal – he would get his truck back.

Clark planned for 3 days on what to do. He had rented a clunker for 30 dollars a day to get around in till he got his truck back. He was not sure if his pay check would be taken this early in the game – he hoped not. He planned on returning to work after he got his truck back and would take the next 3 days off to cash in some coins. That meant a trip to the northern part of WV and then on over to MD. After renting a storage unit Tuesday morning he took off to cash some of his coins in. He had looked up on the YMCA computer where the closest coin grading and buying stores were. He planned on getting a few of his coins professionally graded and then selling them to the coin store that graded them minus the grading charge. But the stores had to be PCGS (professional coin grading service) rated. There was 1 in WV a bunch in MD and a bunch more in DC. He was going to spread the wealth around. He chuckled at that thought. He definitely did not want to flood the market with the same date coins he had. He would sell some of the high dollar stamps and gold coins in a few months.

Walking into the coin shop about 11AM he handed the 3 envelopes to the man who said he was the owner with the 3 coins he wanted to get graded and sold. His story would be the same in each coin shop he went in. He knew the value of the coins approximately. He had looked them up and graded them himself based on his knowledge of coin collecting over the years. He was pretty good on grading coins from about good to brilliant uncirculated or toned. But when it came to the mint state 60 and above grading he was not too sure. The man asked him where he got the coins and Clark told him they were passed on to me from my dad and grandfather and he wanted to get them graded to see how much they were worth. The 3 penny coins were a 1914D, 1909SVDB and a 1955 double die penny. Clark valued all 3 coins at 3500 to 5500 each. Clark was 100% positive the coins would grade well above mint state 60 but was not sure how high and each number above 60 increased the coins value tremendously.

Part 2.

The man placed each coin on a scale and then under a microscope and spent about 5 minutes on each coin all the while scribbling on a pad. The man slid each coin back to Clark on a piece of paper and said 2 of them grade just a tad over mint state 63 but you have this one which grades between mint state 65 and 66 - When he said that Clark automatically added 6500 to 8500 dollars to that coins worth. He turned his computer screen around to the current PCGS price guide so Clark could see it. He said it will be 110 dollars a coin if you want me to slab them – Clark knew that meant he would permanently seal them in a plastic slab with the PCGS grade permanently marked on the plastic holder. Clark said I am willing to pay you to slab them but how much would you give me for all 3 coins – I know you have to make a profit and I would even let you take the grading price out. The man said 2 of the coins I will give you 800 dollars less then the current retail price and this one here I can get a little more out of it so I will give you 500 dollars less then the retail price. Clark said I am having a lot of trouble with my ex wife garnishing my wages and taking everything I own – could you make this a cash purchase. The man said wait here a minute I have to ask my partner. The man came back with 18,750 Dollars Clark pocketed the money, and said I have a few gold pieces that I may come back with in a few months. The man asked if they were of the same quality the pennies were. Clark said yes, tipped his hat and left the store. He had 147 pennies or 49 coins of each coin left of what he had just sold the man. His grandfather had bought the shiny new 1955 double die pennies in early 1956 for 5 dollars each and his great grandfather had collected 50 shiny new 1909SVDB pennies and the shiny 1914D pennies way back when and wrapped them in linen and kept them in a mason jar in a safe. But that is not all that the 2 old gentlemen had collected.

On the way to MD he changed his mind and decided to go back to the YMCA. Thinking he should let those 3 coins disappear off the market before he sold another 3.

That evening he laid on his bed just thinking about his future. The evil woman had ruined his life. The coins he had were to be cashed in when he got older or needed the money to send his kids to college. The last options for the coins were to be used to buy a nice piece of property to build their dream house when he was in his 40’s. He sure was glad he never told her he had a small fortune in that little safe. His dad had told him long before he died that he was to make sure he took possession of the coins and stamps in his safe if anything happened to him and not tell anyone the value of the collection. Yeah Right; he now had possession of the collection but his life and emotions were currently in ruins. He had money but he did not want anyone to know he had money and if he went on a spending spree, bought a new automobile or rented a high dollar apartment. His ex would come after him for more money. Nope he thought that ain’t gonna happen. She got me good once and shame on me if she gets me twice.

Later on that night the thought hit him I can camp out since it is spring and no one will find me. He called his boy hood friend and asked him if he still worked for the Montgomery Heirs (they owned a sizable chunk of mountain ranges for about 45 miles running along the main high way). His friend said to Clark you know it is a life time family job and when I retire my boy takes over. Clark asked if he had the keys to the gate leading up to the over hang cave they used to play in when they were in the scouts. His friend said yes I do but I haven’t been up there in 4 or 5 years I am not sure if the road is still drivable. Clark had to explain to him what had happened and what he planned on doing for the coming summer months. His friend asked him when he got off work tomorrow and they decided to meet.

Clark met Horatio at McDonalds – their friendship went way back because Clark never called him the horn blower or laughed at his name and sometimes took up for him in school. So they kind of loosely hung out together all through grade and high school. Horatio told Clark to follow him because they would probably need the equipment in his truck to get into the area. After driving on a graveled dirt road for 5 miles they made a left turn onto a rutted road that led up to the steel pipe gate that had a sign on it saying no hunting and no trespassing. Horatio told Clark this is my fault for not checking this lock at least once a year. The key would not open the big hidden Yale lock. He pulled his truck over to the gate and unrolled the hose to the torch. He had to cut the 6 inch by 3/8 inch thick steel box off to get to the lock to cut it off. He pulled out a new box and a new lock and welded the new box back onto the gate and spray painted his welding. He handed Clark 2 keys and he put one on a key ring that had 50 or more keys on it. Clark said how on earth to you keep track of that many keys – Horatio said I don’t I just start trying keys. Clark shook his head and rolled his eyes.

Part 3.

They drove about a mile and a half on a really washed out road till they came to their young teen age years play place. The road was only there because the gas company had made it while they were drilling for new gas wells 40 or 50 years ago. The place must not have been a good place for gas because there were no wells for at least 6 miles on up the road leading to the top of the mountain that they had turned off of. Horatio said the company has a small dozer that would fix this road up in a few hours. Clark did not say anything. Horatio said I will fix the road this weekend. Clark patted him on the back.

That weekend after Horatio graded the road and dumped a load of gravel for Clark to use whenever the rains started grooving or washing out the road again. But basically now the road should last for a hundred or so years because Horatio had graded the road down to mostly sandstone. They both sat in a couple of lawn chairs under the overhang and talked for quite a while. Horatio handed Clark a Montgomery Heirs laminated card with his name on it. The card just said Clark was an employee of that company. Next he handed him a letter with the Montgomery Heirs logo on it saying he was an employee and was authorized on all the Heirs property. Clark asked if he got paid and surprisingly Horatio said yes. Clark grinned and asked how much – it was Horatio’s turn to grin – he said 1.00 a month. Clark jabbed him on the shoulder. Horatio said I had to put you on the payroll as my part-time helper in order to give you an ID card and the letter. The letter and the card will probably never be looked at but sometimes I have run across a game warden here and there that questioned me.

They walked over to their swimming hole they had worked on for 2 summers many years ago to get it deep enough to at least set in. The creek was fed by at least 3 mountain springs that fed it year round but in the summer it warmed up enough to splash around in. Clark knew something that Horatio did not know about the over hang cave and he doubted anyone alive on earth did either. Around the side of the mountain a spring came out of the mountain that fed the creek and that spring was behind the end of the cave. Clark knew this because one day he pulled some rocks away from the back wall and felt the cool air come from inside the mountain and knew there was another cave behind the one he was in. He never got around to telling Horatio about that nor did he pursue it. But he always kept that little secret in the back of his mind. Clark said I need one more favor. Horatio said if I can do it. He asked if he had an auger powered machine and Horatio said we do. Clark said could you dig me two 6 or 8 foot deep holes right there out of the way for an outhouse. Horatio said I can do that but I don’t have any outhouses. Clark said I can build one really cheap that will last a long time and I want to make sure it is snake and spider proof. Horatio laughed and said I will be back next weekend. Clark said I shouldn’t say this but will you not tell anyone where I am. Horatio said you got it and gave him a Boy Scout salute. Clark had forgotten all about that salute and after he had left Clark burst out laughing every time the image of Horatio giving him that salute popped into his mind.

Clark got busy after Horatio left by sweeping the mostly level sandstone floor with a push broom and then using his gasoline blower. He had to set outside for an hour after he used the blower to let the dust settle but the cave floor and walls looked pretty good. Before he left he grabbed the gallon jug of 1 year spider, insect and bug killer and started spraying the place down from the back ceiling and walls outward. He would not return till Monday evening and the place would air out nicely by then. He just insured he got rid of the creepy crawlies for a while. Mosquitoes would be another problem later on. He had planned long and hard the past few days about living here and had a bunch of good ideas on how to fix the place up reasonably. He now had a good bit of money and was going to use it for himself.

Part 4.

This is great he thought. Monday morning he got laid off because there was not enough work to keep him on the job. He wondered if that little official document from the state garnishee office on his wages had anything to do with it. He went straight to the unemployment office and food stamp office and signed up. That was an all day job.

The next day he drove 70 miles away with his measurements and his company letter to a chain link shop. He wanted something strong enough to keep the black bears out of his living space and something to secure the limited amount of goods he was going to store in the cave. There was a place closer but he wanted to make sure the people that put the fence up would never come back to look around. The man told him it would be an extra 125 dollars because of the distance. Clark said that was fine because he did not think he had the equipment to dig 3 feet into sandstone to set the poles nor the equipment to secure the cross bottom pipe into the ground to keep a bear from pushing it inwards. The upsizing the pipe from 2 and ½ to 3 inch pipe cost extra also. The cost was 1517 dollars for 6 gauge chain link fence. He almost decided to do the job himself but decided it would be stupid for him to put up a fence 18 feet high that weighed way more then he did. This was one job he would let 2 or 3 other people who were professionals do. The appointment to install the fence was set for next Tuesday and he told the company man he would meet the installers at the only red light on the highway by McDonalds in the town.

He went on a small shopping spree and loaded his storage container half full and spent a lot of his money - Looked like he was going to be selling some stamps or a gold coin in the near future. Next he called a satellite TV company and ordered him a mobile antenna for computer and TV hook-up. He stopped at a coal mine office and asked to talk to the purchasing agent who ordered batteries for mine buggies. He found out the company name that sold them and then checked the price on fork lift batteries. He decided to go with the fork lift batteries because he could buy almost 3 of them for the price of 1 mine buggy battery. He was starting to think long term and knew the initial outlay of cash was going to be high. That night he downloaded some plans for his outhouse. The 2nd hole had been covered with a 3 foot 4 inch thick slab of sandstone. To be used whenever the 1st place was filled which Clark thought would be at least 30 years since Horatio had dug the 20 inch holes 11 feet deep. He would drop his list of wood off at a small lumber yard that would cut the wood for you for a small price but it would be worth it because then he would only have to make some minor cuts to build whatever he was building. He knew about solar power because several times he had almost pulled the trigger and had it installed on his house.

The chain link fence installers had the right equipment to install the heavy gauge fencing at the cave but it still took them all day. Clark paid the man the balance in cash and got a receipt. Horatio showed up after the fence men left and installed a lock box over the pad lock. Geesh he said you could probably keep a saber tooth tiger locked behind this fence. Clark said I know it takes a 36 inch set of bolt cutters to cut it and most thieves don’t carry tools that big around with them. Horatio asked if he wanted to torch a few bolts to make sure no one screwed the bolts out. He melted the nuts on the ends of 39 or 40 bolts and said that will do it. Clark told him he was going to spray paint the chain link flat black so it blended in with the cave. The outhouse will be a camouflage color so it also blends in on the side of the mountain. He did not tell Horatio that he was going to put flat black screen wire on the inside to eliminate the flying bugs and insects when he had a light on in the cave. Nor did he tell him he was going to put triple hinged 4 X 8 flat black ¾ inch painted treated plywood and 4 X 8 clear plexi glass up for winter time living. The fence installers had set the posts so they were 7 foot 9 inches apart so an 8 foot section of plywood would attach onto the posts. Yes Sir Clark had lots of plans.

________________________________________
Part 5.

Clark needed to sell a coin or a stamp. He headed back to the shop in northern WV with a stamp and a gold coin. The owner of the shop said hello and what can I do for you today. Clark asked him about stamps and he said my partner is the stamp man. Clark laid the 2 envelopes on the counter. The man slid the coin out onto a rubber mat and put on a pair of thin cotton gloves. He weighed the coin and looked at it for 10 or more minutes. He slid the coin back to Clark and said don’t move. His partner came to the counter and did the same thing the other man did but he took 15 minutes. They both walked away and talked for 2 or 3 minutes before they both came back. He slid the computer monitor around and punched up 5 dollar Indian head gold. They both put their finger at the top of the screen that said mint state 63 and below that was 1909–O 5 dollar Indian head. The price was 115,000 dollars. The other man said these are extremely rare and in this type of condition I could sell it for that price in 30 minutes. The other man said we will give you 85000 cash and no questions. Clark thought this was great because everyone was going to beat the US government out of taxes. Clark said sold. The other man said he would have to go to the bank. Clark said he never looked in the other envelope. The man dumped the stamp out on the rubber mat and a bunch of what looked like baby powder but was probably borax sprinkled out with the stamp. He put it under the microscope and mumbled you gotta be Sh###in me because I have only seen one of these at an auction and it sold for 42000 bucks. The stamp was the 24 cent 1918 inverted airmail postage stamp in pristine condition. Clark had 10 of the stamps and 8 of the 5 dollar gold pieces. He didn’t even bother to ask his partner he just said 33000 cash and no questions. Clark again said sold. It took the man about 30 minutes and when he came back he said lots of people in the safety deposit box room. He counted out 118 - 1000 dollar bundles. Clark said I have a 1922 type 2 no mint mark Lincoln penny in red tone mint condition. I will be back in a few months.

His post office box was in the next town with a different zip code to insure his ex did not get any of his mail. He opened up an account at a different bank 30 miles away and deposited 8000 dollars. He next set up a bill pay account to insure his 500 dollar a month child support payments were paid through a bank in a different state so his ex could not check up on him. The main reason he made the payment was he would lose his drivers license if he did not pay and he cared for the 2 girls. It wasn’t their fault their mom was evil. But he could see it was rubbing off on them.

Horatio laughed as he helped Clark slide the outhouse down onto the not yet set up cement footer Clark had put down to insure the place was level and would not let snakes crawl under the treated wood through a hole in the ground. He asked Clark when he was moving in. Clark said in about a week I have to run some water lines in from the creek around the mountain side to take showers and one out to drain the sink and shower. How you going to heat the water? Clark said I have 3 or 4 options but have not yet decided which way to go. In the summer it will probably be a big black barrel outside right above the outside edge of the cave. I have already bought 4 or 5 DC pumps to pump water everywhere. Horatio said I have to run me and the kids got some shopping to do before we go on a short fishing trip.

[Lbox88]

Part 6.

Clark started on the electric panel for the solar system – 12 hours later he had wires running out of his ears but they were all tagged and would reach the outlets and batteries. He now needed Horatio to bring the welder back so he could build his 10 rack solar panel. He painted them with rust proof paint and would only need to touch up where they were welded. He forgot to ask if Horatio had a fork lift because the batteries weighed 735 pounds each and he had 6 of the huge 750 amp hour things. He had the measurements of the batteries so he had some 4 X 4 treated lumber cut at the lumber yard that he would bolt together to hold the batteries off the cave floor. They would be set against the extreme edge of the cave right under the wiring in the 3 inch water pipe coming down the hill from the panels. He checked the wind on that side of the cave because that is the side that had the small hole in it he had found many years ago. He now knew he could enlarge that hole to get a greater outward wind blowing from deep in the mountain. The cool air always blew straight out on that side of the cave and would carry any fumes out. He had decided not to put the batteries in a box because of the way the cave vented and he would always have easy access to them, he did decide to put a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood up in case a battery exploded. There would be a wood/coal stove on the other side of the cave with a 30 gallon water tank to heat water in the winter. His shower and bed would also be on that side of the cave. For an emergency he would have a 2000 Honda generator and a hundred gallon tank of gas inside close to the battery area. No sense in putting gasoline outside yet because as sure as he breathed someone would steal it. The 12 volt DC fridge and freezer would be on the battery side of the cave. He still had not made up his mind whether he wanted to put a 6 man winter/summer screened tent up in the middle of the cave and leave the tent entry way open on the wood stove side for winter time heat – he had lots of options.

The next day he took his chain saw up above the cave and cleared off an area for the solar panels and the satellite antenna dish. He leveled the ground as much as he could and sprayed a one year Round-Up plant killing spray all around the area. He saw he would need a few bags of cement for a footer to hold the racks onto the slightly sloped mountain side.

He had talked to Horatio about the Montgomery Heirs selling off the property and Horatio laughed till he almost choked. He told Clark never in a million years would that happen as long as they owned the mineral rights. He said there is enough natural gas in these mountains for them to sell or collect royalties for the next 300 years plus the coal they can strip mine out. They have deep mines running 25 or so miles with coal that will also last another 300 years. And one of my distant cousins is one of the Montgomery Heirs and he made sure my family would have a job as long as he or any of his dependents are alive. This place you are fixing up here is as safe as a bomb shelter out in the desert. Horatio also said I see with a little help you could probably pull everything out of here in 12 hours or so except for the chain link but if necessary I can explain that away. I thought about it and came up with the answer that the gas company built it a long while ago to store some of their extra natural gas generators and equipment and use the place as a break room or emergency staging area which would be the best story. So for all practical purposes you can stay here till you die. Clark grinned real big at that answer – a rent free, property tax free, utility free place to stay in forever. He also knew that without the coins and stamps his deceased parents and grand parents left him he would not be able to do it unless he wanted to live like a Hobo.

________________________________________
Part 7.

His target date of moving here in a week was going to be stretched out at least 2 or maybe 3 more weeks. There was a lot of work to do. He sure was glad he made the entry door/gate 5 feet wide so he could use the bob-cat to carry the heavy stuff into the place. The next evening he noticed the mosquitoes so it was time to put the screen up over the chain link to eliminate that problem. That was an easy job but time consuming. He shut the gate that night and set off 8 bug bombs in the place to eliminate the flying biting critters.

Clark was not a survivalist or prepper in any sort of sense. Until Horatio told him he was going to bring a half semi- trailer and park it at the curve coming in. Clark asked him what was in the trailer and that is when he learned about becoming a survivalist/prepper. The trailer was full of long shelf life food. Horatio had been a closet survivalist for the past 10 years. He told Clark that he wanted half of his food someplace else besides his house and if he needed a place to run to he would bring his family here and shelter with Clark. Clark laughed until he saw the serious look on Horatio’s face. Horatio told him I just like being prepared. If nothing ever happens I will eventually eat the food in that trailer. Horatio told him what his distant cousin had told him. The US and world economy is close to collapsing and that was 10 years ago he was told that. Horatio said I am glad I have had all this time to get ready for anything. My family feels safe and I can somewhat protect them if I have to. Horatio gave him a list of sites to look at on the internet to show him there were other people with the same mind set. Horatio told Clark to get his swim trunks and they splashed around in the swim pool like they had when they were 13 years old for an hour or so and let civilizations worries go by. They even hunted for caught and released craw dads and salamanders for another half hour before splashing the mud off themselves in the pool. Horatio left for home with a big smile on his face.

He read a little that evening at the YMCA computer and that gave him a bunch of food for thought. The next day his 20 solar panels came in – He found that if he bought 20 it would be the same as buying 14 at full price. So he now had 10 spares of 275 watt panels. Horatio did not have a fork lift but did have a small bob-cat that could drive through the cave gate. He rented a flat bed truck and loaded the 6 batteries and the bob-cat on the flat bed and placed the batteries on the wooden heavy duty frame he had made. He did make the frame big enough for 6 more batteries if he ever decided to buy more. Next he used the bob-cat to pull his solar frame up to where he was going to install it and cement it to the ground. The frame was set at 30 degrees and with the removal of 3 bolts the angle could be set to any degree up to 50. The next day after the cement had set up he hand carried each solar panel up to the rack and using special anti theft bolts bolted the panels to the steel frame. All the while he was doing this he made sure each battery was fully charged by using the Honda generator to charge them. After he hooked the panels into the expensive Out Back charge controller he sat down and thought about his next project.

He measured the empty wall on the sides of the cave back to the hole in the mountain and placed an order for more pre cut wood to install a 30 inch wide bench and 2 foot wide shelves. He had thought about metal shelves but due to the odd contours of the cave floor and wall they would waste space. The dimensions of the cave were 19W to 26 W X 63L with a varying cave height from 11 to 23 feet. He used a nail gun to mount the shelving brackets because he did not want to drill 4 or 500 holes in the sandstone. He had installed a double row of 100 watt florescent pull chain lights about 8 feet high and the cave could now be lit up. 5 days later and 14 trips to Lowes he was finished with what he thought of as the infrastructure of a livable house.

Part 8.

So far he had spent about 30000 dollars of the 118 thousand and he knew he was going to spend at least 25000 more. He had bought one of those hand held battery powered sewing machines that would sew leather and put 50000 dollars in the back of his upright truck seat. The sew job looked just like the factory one so he knew the bulk of his money was safe and would not be found and stolen. He buried 20000 dollars in a metal box around the side of the mountain inside a Tupperware container and carried the rest in his front pants pocket. Everything he ordered he paid by bank or postal money order with a note attached on where to send the goods. 12 days later he still had not moved in because this getting prepared was an expensive and long drawn out job.

After some more research and reading he decided a travel trailer propane stove and oven would suit his needs better then the Coleman stove he had planned on using. This would involve buying a 3000 gallon tank and filling it from 100 gallon tanks. This stuff was getting labor intensive and complicated. He definitely did not want a propane truck driving up to his place unless he used his Montgomery Heirs identification and claimed it was for coal or gas company use. He would think about that before he did anything.

He got his propane stove and oven installed and had a 20 gallon tank servicing it. He had thought long and hard on the propane tank and decided after making several calls that he could use a small propane company 35 miles away on the other side of the mountains. He would not need any more propane for at least 5 years was his thinking and by that time the propane company would have forgotten about him. He went to another propane company and bought the piping, extra regulators and connectors before he bought a used recertified 5000 gallon tank from a private individual 40 miles away who said he would deliver the tank and set it up for 600 dollars more. Clark bought the tank and had the place leveled off before the tank was delivered. After the man hooked the tank up he said you got some nice piping and connectors and you done good on the length of the pipe you only had 2 feet extra. Clark ordered the propane and gave a location on where he would meet the propane truck driver. This was cash on delivery deal and he had to pay the 10000 dollars + up front before the man filled the tank. OK he was just about furnished out. Next would be long term food supplies. He had his DC fridge working that had his daily food that needed to be refrigerated in it. The DC freezer was hooked up but not turned on.

On the 29th day he moved in - the first thing he noticed was the upper 4 X 8 sheets of plywood that were on hinges would have to be tied or braced to keep them from swinging open and shut. He was going to stay in the place for a couple of days and see what else he would need to make this a nice place. He did not like eating off the bench because he had to sit on a high stool so a 2 X 6 home made heavy duty kitchen table with dining room chairs was put on the list. At least he did not make that mistake with his computer table. A recliner type chair and maybe a couch would be nice. The first night he slept on one side of the cave against the wall was a no no. He did not like sleeping in such a wide open cavern on a cot. The tent would be put up and a king or queen sized bed would be put inside. The next day at breakfast he saw mice running everywhere so mice traps and bucket traps would be on the agenda and that would probably be a forever thing. He saw very few bugs and that was probably because of the one year bug spray he had put down. He decided to use it again and sprayed a 1 foot wide strip outside and inside around the chain link hoping that would take care of ants and other crawling bugs. He would probably have to spray the cave every 9 or 10 months with the bug killer and leave for a day after he sprayed to let the smell dissipate. He was not sure if the fleas on mice or even if mice had fleas carried Lyme disease so he wanted to eliminate that problem before it got started plus he did not want the mice chewing on some of his exposed electrical wires. He had been bitten by a black widow spider when he was younger and definitely did not want to go through that horrible scene again. He had fallen asleep while fishing one night and did not have his T-Shirt on and when he woke up he knew he was going to die itching himself from the thousands of mosquito bites and he definitely did not like mosquitoes.

________________________________________
Part 9.

Today he had to go sign up on the work program to keep his food stamp card active. He knew no one ever got hired so he just followed the herd. He checked his mail picked up a local newspaper and headed back home – he liked the ring of that word – Home.

Settling down in front of his satellite driven computer he started shopping for long term food. He liked the selection from Honeyville and made an order for about 1700 dollars. He would pick up the money orders and send them out for that tomorrow. Horatio stopped by about an hour later – He always blew his horn to let Clark know he was coming when he got within a hundred yards of the cave. He talked about communications and chickens on this visit. Clark thought a portable ham radio and a ham outfit for the cave and his vehicle was something to be researched. He had no ideas about chickens but would look at that site Horatio gave him to peruse.

2 days later he just said this is ridiculous he was throwing 40 to 50 dead mice out a day it was wearing him out resetting traps. He walked outside and looked at the sides of the cave the fence posts were up against and saw a lot of cracks and crevices. He mixed up a wheel barrow of cement and sand and started filling in holes. He knew the mice could climb up the chain link so he brought out the ladder and went up to the top of the chain link and filled in some more holes. He had almost used a whole wheel barrow of cement. He would check his mouse traps and water bucket traps tomorrow he was glad he had not yet seen any rats.

The next day he said now this is more like it he had only 11 mice instead of the 50 he had been catching a day. He would take another look at the outside walls again in a few days. The next morning he only had 9 mice he grinned and said I am going to win this battle.

His 55 gallon plastic black barrel up in front of the cave worked great for taking warm showers and washing dishes. He had put a float cut-off in it so he would not have to monitor it when it was refilling from the spring that flowed into the creek. That barrel would be drained during the winter time and the wood stove hot water tank would be used during cold weather. He had a lot of plumbing to do to get that fixed up. He had just got the drain for his travel trailer sized DC clothes washer hooked into the shower drain that ran out over the cliff down onto some sandstone and through some rocky ground and earth before it reached the creek 200 yards down below. Most of that soapy water in the summer would be absorbed by the ground and plants. He had an outdoor clothes line and had one rolled up hanging on the cave wall for winter time drying. He liked the outdoor one because it was under the overhang and clothes could be left out in rainy weather or the dew filled summer mountain nights.

He had not caught any mice for 3 days and on the 4th day he caught 27. They have eaten a hole through somewhere and I better find it he told himself. It did not take long to find where they had eaten through it was at the bottom of the plywood the little beasts had eaten through the aluminum screen and the plywood. He rolled out a 12 inch sheet of aluminum and covered the bottom hoping they could not get a good enough purchase up higher hanging onto the chain link to eat through again. If they did he would cover the whole outside screen with 1/8 inch steel mesh. He would wait and see. He knew this mice battle was going to be an on going thing.

Part 10.

Horatio stopped by Sunday evening and shot the breeze a while. He asked Clark if he had been watching the news and Clark told him they ain’t nothing worth watching and the news makes me mad. Horatio said you know the economy is going down hill and if you have money in the bank you should get it out. Clark said all the money I have is in my pocket. Horatio said it would be nice if you had a little stash of silver and 1/10th oz gold pieces to buy things when the dollar dies. Clark said I never thought of that. How about guns Horatio asked - Clark said well I bought two of them AR 15’s, I have a semi auto 06, a scoped bolt action 06 and I took your advice and bought about 1500 rounds for each gun and that Lee Loader and reloading stuff. Also got a 12 gauge Remington pump, 12 gauge Browning semi-auto, 22 semi-auto rifle, .357 revolver, a 22 semi auto pistol, and a bunch of shells for all them, those generation 3 scopes and a monocular. He looked at Clark’s shelf of food and asked if he planned on buying anymore. Clark said I got another truckload coming in this week. Horatio said you should be good now all ya need is some chickens for fresh eggs and fresh meat. Clark said I been seriously thinking about that and will probably get a few chickens after I make a varmint proof coop. He told Horatio I ordered a hand held Ham radio and a base station for the cave but you will have to bring the dozer up here and make me an S curve path up to the top of the mountain so I can put up the 1000 feet of antenna wire and the 30 foot antenna I ordered. Horatio said I will stop by next week and we can plan that out.

That night he started thinking about having some silver and small denomination gold on hand. He had a small amount of gold and silver but it was collector grade stuff and he did not have enough in quantity to buy anything if something bad did happen to the dollar. He called the coin shop owner at home and told him what he had to sell and would be there tomorrow. The man said not to bring anything worth over 75000 dollars. Clark said I plan on doing some trading this time and told him what he was looking for. The man said I have it.

Clark took 2 shiny new 1916 standing liberty quarters and one 1922 plain type 2 Denver mint penny with no mint mark (In 1922 the only copper pennies were made at the Denver Mint). There was a mistake made and several grades of the Denver penny were made without the mint mark and the ones Clark had were the most valuable. It also stood to reason the 1st year of a coin made would be worth something later on down the road and his great grandfather had pulled 20 of the sparkly new shiny 1916 standing liberty quarters from a new bank roll of quarters and stored them away as he had done the other low mintage coins.

This time Clark ended up with 11 ounces of 1/10th oz US gold coins and 7000 dollars in face value dimes, quarters and halves of pre 1964 silver coins, 230 Morgan silver dollars, 300 silver eagle dollars and 18000 dollars in greenbacks.

________________________________________
Part 11.

When he returned his 2nd shipment from Honeyville and Nitro Pack was ready for pick-up. From Honeyville he just ordered things he liked and from Nitro Pack he ordered the 3 month supply for 4 people and that plus what he had already ordered he was good for at least 3 years. He looked some more and made notes on things he would like to try. One of the things he was curious about was the combat rations for soldiers of other countries. He could not find an outlet for them on the internet so he composed a nice email message and sent it to 18 of the embassy countries that he had read about their food. Hopefully he would get a response and an address where he could order some of those foods.

He started on the plumbing for hot water to his sink and shower. This was going to be a nightmare and there would be pipes hanging from the cave roof all over the place. But he was not worried about pretty he was looking for functionality. In the summer it was easy he just pressurized the black 55 gallon drum outside in the sun and he had warm water for the sink and the shower. This winter he needed to use the 40 gallon drum he was using for drinking and another 20 gallon stainless steel barrel drum beside it to pump the stove water to it and then combine it with the 40 gallon cold water plastic drum and then let the pressure in the barrels pump it to the sink and shower. He bought 2 more small air compressors for spares. He did not know how long the little supposedly quality 5 year guaranteed air compressors would work and he did not want an air tank and another nightmare of air pressure hose hanging everywhere. He laughed and said to himself I could have designed this system a little better. But he knew how it worked so he would live with it. He had to make a trip to Lowes because he needed a bunch of ½ inch pipe and some fittings. He was going to pump it straight from the stove to the sink and shower but decided to do it another way even if it was more work. Since the DC pumps and small air compressors were cheap he decided to buy 12 more for spares.

The plumbing job took the better part of a week before he got it right. One thing that made him happy was he had no water or air leaks. He was glad Horatio had not showed up to plan the antenna wire stringing trip. But the next day he did show up with the dozer. He showed Clark an aerial picture of the cave and the mountain leading to the top. He had copied it onto paper and had drawn the S line from the cave to the mountain top. He said I will have to teach you to use the dozer and the auger because I don’t have time to do it all. What I am going to do is make the path up to the top of the hill and you will have to use the auger to put the treated 10 foot landscape 3 X 3’s down that I picked up for 150 bucks to string the wire on. I have a 3 inch auger so you may have to pound them down but that means no digging or tamping the ground. It took Horatio all day to make the 800 foot S path to the top of the mountain. Clark walked down from the top and looked at the work left. There were about 95 six inch to 18 inch trees that could possibly fall on the wire. He would start from the top tomorrow cutting them down. After that he would drive up the hill and dig the holes with the auger. He could not decide yet on whether to put the posts in the ground when he drilled the hole or come back and do it on another trip. Horatio helped him put the 90 some posts on the dozer and Clark threw one off every 8 feet. This was going to be another pain in the foot job because he had to screw the antenna wire hanger 8 feet up on the top of each post after it was put in the ground.

[Lbox88]

Part 12.

He had been getting letters from the evil ones lawyer requesting his income status and since he did not have a job he did not tell them what he was getting from unemployment. He just told them he was unemployed. He would have liked to have seen their faces when they got that information. He was making about 1200 dollars now and that was down from 3900 he was formerly making a month. He also mentioned in his reply that he did not have a permanent place of residence and was staying with various friends.

After he got the posts in the ground for the antenna wire and all the trees cut that could possibly fall on it he used the bull dozer to flatten a 100 X 100 foot area for his garden and a place to put his planned on chicken coop. Horatio told him the deer, rabbits and squirrels would eat everything he planted unless he fenced it in and electrified the fence. Clark just cussed for a few minutes because he had planned on becoming a farmer. Horatio laughed and said go ahead and use the auger to drill the 3 inch holes but make the holes 4 feet deep. He told Clark I know where a double sized abandoned tennis court is and if you help me we can bring that fence here on a flat bed truck. Clark said I have never played tennis how big is the courts. Horatio said the fencing I have looked at is about 120 X 100 feet that should enclose your garden and make a big run for the chickens. Clark asked when we gonna get it. Horatio said tomorrow night. Clark grinned at that because it was going to be a night time illegal requisition. Horatio said to charge up your batteries on your metal saw because we are going to cut the poles off next to the ground and cut the fence so we can get it in 8 foot by 12 foot sections to carry it on the flat bed truck. Clark asked him if he meant cut all the connectors holding the fence together and Horatio said yes. Clark mentally calculated for a minute and said that means I would have to buy about 250 four dollar pole clamps. Clark said let me take my drill and unbolt all those clamps before we cut the bottom posts off. Horatio said yes that is smart there is no sense in throwing a thousand bucks away when it is not necessary.

The next night Horatio and Clark went to the place and unloaded 2 ladders. It took them about 5 hours to unbolt the bolts. They took all the nuts and bolts with them but left the fence hooked together. Horatio said it will be about 4 days before I have another evening free and we can do the job then. Clark had noticed that the people who had installed the fence had used an 8 foot bottom section and a 4 foot top section. That would make it easy to put the 8 foot section up because all he had to do was turn the fence over, remove the 4 foot fence and use the poles to install the fence at his place. He liked that terminology – His place. He laughed because he was going to have about 60 eight foot sections of 4 foot fence with no poles.

They only got half the fence the night they went back. Horatio said it is supposed to rain all day tomorrow maybe no one will go over there. It poured the rain all the next day and stopped at dark. Clark and Horatio got the rest of the fence that night. They had the fence stacked in 8 big piles in the middle of the future garden. Horatio told Clark me and my boys will come help you put it up next week. Horatio looked over at the edge of the garden and saw where Clark had taken about 4 feet of the mountain leaving a 4 foot high dirt cliff. He said either me or you need to catch one of those special mountain side grass seeders with the spray truck and have him spray that before the rains wash the whole mountain down here. Clark looked and saw that the last big rain had already started grooving or causing the mountain to wash out. He took the dozer and re-squared the mountain edge. Horatio said they are spraying up near that strip job so maybe you had better take a hundred dollar bill or 2 and bribe them to spray this tomorrow.

The next morning Clark stopped the truck that was just starting to go to the other side of the road and spray there. He told the man what he had and how many feet long and high it was. The guy looked at the gauge on his truck and said cost you a hundred bucks. Clark handed him the hundred and the man followed him. It took him about 6 minutes to spray the newly cut mountainside. He waved at Clark as he drove off. Clark looked at the mountain side and saw there was a million green grass seed embedded in the dirt in some kind of green slurry that made it look like it was already growing. 3 days later it was growing and fortunately for Clark it worked and stabilized the dirt.


________________________________________
Part 13.

It was sometime near the middle of August before Horatio and his 2 boys showed up to help Clark with the fence. Clark had already designed the chicken coop from plans he got from an online place called Back Yard Chickens. And the saw mill was cutting his treated wood for the coop. He also noted that in a place that had a lot of predators some type of metal wire or tin was placed on the coop to keep the predators from eating through the wood. He had ordered enough 4 X 8 foot slabs of aluminum to cover the coop including under the floor. He was also going to use whatever left over chain link to put on top of that. The coop was going to be painted in a camouflage color. He thought it is nothing but work and I have nothing else to do. They got the garden fence up in 2 days. Clark wanted to drop the fence in 6 inches of cement all the way around but saw it was beyond his ability to do that in a timely manner without a lot of help so he did the next best thing he dug a 6 inch trench and dropped it in that to slow burrowing animals down. It took them another 2 days to build a covered 36 by 6 foot wide 8 foot tall run He wanted to make it 4 feet wide but the tractor would not fit in that space. Before he finished it he plowed it and planted grass and 2 pounds of plant seed he picked up at a chicken place that said it was specifically for chickens to eat.

Horatio told Clark the abandoned apple orchards apples will be ready in about 2 weeks. You will need a root cellar to store a few bushels in or a giant walk in cooler. Clark said a root cellar. Horatio said yep. Clark said I have no knowledge of root cellars. Horatio said well use your computer tonight and do a little research. We may have time to build a small one for you before the apples are ready. You will need one next year anyway to store some peaches, pears, persimmons and potatoes you will grow. Clark said hold on a minute. I already have most of that freeze dried except for those pucker up persimmons. Horatio said I know but things are happening pretty fast with the economy and people are losing their jobs rapidly. He told Clark I hope you have time to get everything done before the balloon bursts. He handed Clark a little list on what he thought Clark needed to do to become almost self-sufficient. He looked at the list and saw a small diagram with things like blackberries, raspberries, asparagus and a small section for fruit trees and beside that a smokehouse. Clark said I can’t do all this by myself. Horatio said I know me and the boys and my gardening wife will help you on a lot of those things every weekend for a few months and then he said something Clark barely heard. He said I hope we have time. They had time.

That night Clark looked at root cellars. Clark thought about this for a while and said if it was just me an 8 X 8 foot one would be big enough to carry me from year to year. But if I ever find another woman it will need to be bigger and If Horatio moves in it will definitely have to be big. He copied the standard sized 24 X 24 with 3 or 4 dividers and the vent over each section. Now where was he going to put this hole in the mountain that was easily accessible? Maybe it was time to knock a hole in the back of the cave and put a door up. He took his sledge hammer back to the wall and started beating on the sandstone. Just in case - he got on the radio and told Horatio what he was doing and if he did not see him or hear from him in the next day or so he would know something had happened and where he was.

He quit at 10PM he had a hole about 3 X 3 and he could see the place was huge and went back maybe 200 or more feet into the mountain. The spring was bubbling up to the right of him about 15 feet away and cold cave air from deep underground was whistling out past him. He put a piece of plywood over the hole, took a shower and went to bed.

The next morning he found 6 mice in his traps. I better check for damage. The little beasts had eaten through above where he had put the aluminum. He attached the wire mesh all the way to the top of the cave over the screen. This was not a good solution because when he had the 4 X 8 plywood shutters open it cut his daylight way down. He would put some more 4 X 8 plexi glass up in several spots hoping they would not eat through that and if they did he would use real glass. He said that will do it until the little devils find another entrance. He had thought about a cat and a dog but he was somewhat allergic to them and they made him constantly sneeze.

He called Horatio on the radio and said everything was fine.

Part 14.

He did not want to do anything today but research some things. He copied some plans for a medium size smoke house, checked on plant dates for raspberries (he did not like blackberries that much because of the large seeds (unless it was jelly), looked at peach, pear and apple trees. His neighbor had a cherry tree but the birds ate all of them. The neighbor on the other side of him had blueberry bushes and if he did not put netting over the bushes he did not get any berries. He thought he would grow 2 dwarf cherry trees and put netting over it he had read the netting was good for 7 or 8 years before it had to be replaced. He would do the same with blueberries or build a small cage area to keep the birds off his blueberry plants. There were wild blueberries growing on the mountain because he had seen them when Horatio made the wire antenna trail. But they were teeny. And he knew the commercial ones would grow well here in the black acidic mountain dirt. Ha he said to himself the things a person can learn by taking a little bit of time to read about it.

The next morning he started on his 8 day planned activity. Yes Sir Clark had made another plan. He took the kill everything growing Roundup and sprayed the inside and around the garden. This spray killer was only good for 90 days. He rode the dozer up to the top of the mountain and used the 6 month spray 4 feet on both sides of the posts holding the antenna wire. He was glad he dug the holes 3 feet that left the poles 7 feet high and he could easily put the cable hook on it was definitely tall enough to let deer and bear run under the cable. That took 5 gallons. He had bought a grass seed that was supposedly not supposed to grow over 6 inches and had great roots for holding dirt. He had planned on seeding the S path 6 month vegetation killed area at the end of the 6 month kill date with that grass. The S curve for the path to install the antenna wire would help keep the mountain from washing out it worked as he would find out the following year. He had bought 20 gallons of Roundup spray and the remainder was on an upper shelf out of harms way. He thought about it leaking out and decided it was OK where it was above his tools. It was time for supper after he finished those tasks. The next day he spent 9100 dollars on a new Kubota BX2660 tractor with the attachments he needed. The dealer was closing and had slashed the prices down to what he paid for the machine and attachments. He had started tilling up outside the garden where he was going to plant his raspberries with his small front push tiller and said No - this ain’t gonna work I’ll be here for 2 weeks tilling all this ground up. After he got home and thought about it he went back to the dealer and bought another 1800 dollars worth of attachments. He could now use it to ride to the top of the mountain and he would not need the dozer or the bob cat any longer and Horatio could take them back to the garage he stored them in.

The way the economy was going down hill and the dollar dropping in value Clark needed to spend some greenbacks. He had to buy a 500 gallon diesel tank and stand for fuel to run the Kubota. A new tank was found 55 miles away with the stand. He loaded it on to a tow a long and parked it close to where he would place it on a cement platform. On the way home he stopped at a marina and bought 8 gallons of Pri-D and 6 gallons of Pri-G he would have bought more but that was all they had in stock of the gallon size. The dealer talked him into buying 4 gallons of Pri-Ocide for long term storage of diesel fuel. He had already treated the gasoline with Pri-G.

An email told him the remainder of his out of stock Honeyville order would be in tomorrow. He also got a bunch of emails and addresses where he could order the foreign troops combat rations. He looked through what they had to order and made a 3000 dollar order from 11 overseas companies. The shipping almost made him not order the stuff but he bit the bullet and ordered it anyway. He thought something different in his diet would be a good thing during the long cold winters. He had to get a bank prepaid master card to make these orders but that was OK because he only deposited the amount of money he was going to spend.

The hole to the back of the cave was finished after 5 days of sledge hammer work. The 6 milk crates of apples were placed in a corner on some pallets. He had room to spread everything out in here. He hooked into the power and ran a triple row of 100 watt pull chain curly cue florescent lights in the cave and that eliminated most dark spots. He laughed at the door he made for the cave he had to contour it to the crooked sledge hammer hole he had made He had left a wire screen caged hole down where the original air hole was to let the same amount of air out of the now root cellar cave as before.

2 more weeks and he could plant the berries and trees he had the nursery order for him. The holes for those plants were dug and fertilized. He bought 800 pounds of 10-10-10 in 40 pound sacks and was itching to put some down but he wanted 2 more rainstorms to wash the ending 3 month ground poison a little deeper or dissipate it. He would re plow the garden the first week of March.

Finally he got the dwarf trees he ordered; 2 red delicious, 2 granny smith, 2 Georgia peach, 3 cherry, and 2 pear trees. He had fun putting them in their hole. He had to buy three 100 foot sections of garden hose to water the place and he had to use his black warm water tank because it had the bottom male threads that would fit the hose. He would solve that problem before winter was over and that went on his to-do list. Winter was coming and he checked his wood pile he figured he had about 16 cords of hardwood that had been drying about a month and there was probably 300 more cords of wood he had cut down around the antenna line. He would hook those trees to the dozer and pull them down here to be cut with the chain saw during the winter.

Part 15.

The chickens arrived on Monday. There were 12 four month old hens the roosters for reproduction would arrive in 3 months. Clark had read for a week about chickens and when he made his order he specified he wanted no related chickens and that cost him extra but he supposedly got what he wanted. The coop was split up into sections that could house the different roosters and the run had been set up to keep them separated till a specific rooster had bred the specific chickens - Clark thought it was a lot of work to keep a breed true for its purpose which of course was egg laying and meat production. He knew the chickens were capable of living from 6 to 12 years if they stayed healthy. The egg laying would taper off dramatically after 2 or more years and eggs would be what he wanted. There were 8 egg layers and 4 meat chickens that he would breed till his freezer was full.

There were 16 55 metal drums that he had filled with chicken feed. He had seen real quickly that the little wild animals would make short work of any food outside that was not in a steel barrel. He had to build a 24 X 36 metal roofed pole barn that he enclosed on the back and sides. He could use that to also place his tractor, 4 wheeler, motorbike and tools under. He hung a couple of sets of aluminum snow shoes up he had bought for a just in case under the pole barn roof. The drums were placed on cinder blocks and filled. He thought it was a good thing he had used the dozer to level this spot 2 months ago because the ground was now hard and the cinder blocks would not sink into the ground. He had read about bugs hatching out from eggs in the feed and ruining it but that problem would soon disappear when the temperature dropped below 32 degrees and stayed there for a few weeks. The only way any live bugs would get back in is when he opened the barrel and that would only be one barrel at a time unless he had to open another one for the new chicks next spring.

That night he thought that running this mini- farm without cows or pigs was just about all he could handle. He was going to make a run to sell a few stamps and a few coins but he wanted to trade even for 50 or 60000 dollars worth of small denomination gold and silver coins. He had been keeping an eye on the economic news and the US was hanging on by a small weak thread before chaos set in. He hoped that did not happen but the way this insane political crew was running the country he saw nothing but a major disaster in the making. He used the auger and prepared about 10 holes to hide his coins in. He was going to use Mason Jars with glass lids that he could glue and tape on or seal with melted wax to eliminate water seeping into the jars. He would research the best way to do that in a little bit.

He pulled his laptop out and went through his on hand goods. He was looking for Mason jars and saw he had 3 gross of wide mouth quarts and 3 and ½ gross of life time quart Tattler reusable lids. He had skimped on pints and only bought a half gross with ¾ gross of life time lids. Horatio had told him the regular lids dried out after a few years and caused a lot of problems.

He had a pot of stew in a large cast iron pot on outside over the wood fire grate right under the edge of the over hang. He had 2 iron tri-pods to place over the fire letting the tri-pod adjustable hanging chains hold the pots or pans up it worked well when he wanted to cook over an open fire and play-act like he was an old timey mountain man. He did not know it yet but the play-acting he was doing now would become a way of life in the coming years.

After Clark ate his stew and stored the left over in the fridge he checked his ½ size 55 gallon burn barrel and noticed it was ¼ full of burned cans, ashes and tin foil. He dumped it all into a trash bag and made a trip to Kroger’s trash dumpster and threw it in. He spread it around where he threw his trash so no one would notice him every 2 weeks when he got rid of his 1 or 2 bags of trash. He burned everything except left over food which he put in the small plastic carry home shopping bags to put it in and then in another large plastic trash bag on a shelf that hung by small diameter chains from the cave roof to stop ants from invading the place. He disposed it when he dumped the burn barrel contents. So far by doing this he had kept all the animals and insects seeking human food waste from his area. There had been no more mice after he put the wire mesh up and they did not eat through the new plexi glass windows. He grinned everytime he thought of winning the battle against the mice.

He thought about fast foods after he had eaten and wondered about making Taco’s and some Mexican foods. He made a note to research what he would need to make a decent taco, chalupa, gordita and Taco Bells Mexican Rice. He was set on hot sauces; he had 10 gallons of green and red hot Tabasco sauce and another 10 gallons of assorted sauces from hot sauce world. He knew that as long as the bottles were not opened they would probably have a 50 or more year shelf life.

Part 16.

It was chilly when he woke up in the morning and he saw why when he went to the outhouse. There was a thick frost covering everything and the early morning sun sparkled off the icy whiteness as far as he could see even the trees were frosted up. It would soon be time to fire the wood burner up. The frost reminded him of hunting season which should open in a week or so. That brought up his mom’s thick white creamy squirrel gravy. Clark loved gravy of all kinds but his mom’s squirrel gravy was the best, he had tried over the years to duplicate it and had not quite gotten it right. But this year he was determined to get it right. There were bushy tailed squirrels running rampant through the hardwoods and he had especially noticed they were hitting the white oak acorns hard about a quarter mile down the mountainside. When hunting season opened he would harvest 30 or so and try again to get the gravy right. He thought he may harvest a deer or 2 and use the smoker and also make some sausage. Ha - he had lots of plans now all he had to do was carry them out. One really important thing he found out was it was not cold enough to start the wood burner but just cold enough that his black water barrel did not get the water warm enough for showering and dish washing. He shopped around and found a 20 gallon propane hot water tank and spent 14 or so hours plumbing it in. He was now set up for real hot water at anytime. He knew he would get lazy when he wanted warm water and would fire up the hot water tank using a small amount of propane. He could live with that to have a little modern day luxury.

He took a drive out over the mountain into the country and stopped at a small country grocery store for a break and a soda. The first thing he noticed was the pepper covered fish net covered hams hanging from the ceiling. He thought I have some freeze dried ham but I don’t have any thing like that. He looked at the price and whistled and said now I know why they are still hanging here. The price was 109.95. I bet if I went internet shopping I can beat that price and hang 10 or so in the cave root cellar.

He did beat the price on the country store ham by 43.00 a ham. He researched the shelf life of one of those salt cured pepper covered hams and saw the recommended use by date was one year after purchase if stored at 75 degrees F. The storage cave was 46 degrees so that should extend the shelf life by 10 or more years using the posted internet knowledge from the government laboratories. He ordered 60 salt/sugar cured pepper covered hams weighing from 18 to 24 pounds from 3 different companies. He would use the bones with a little meat left on them he would save and freeze for beans.

Beef would be a problem because he loved fresh ground chuck and steaks. He ordered some of those freeze dried irradiated steaks sealed in foil and tried them out. Hot dog he said these things after rehydrating are like good apple pie. He grilled 2 on an iron grill outside over a small hickory fire and smacked his lips like an idiot after eating both of them with a giant baked potato smothered in Amish cow butter. The freeze drying and the irradiation eliminated all the bacteria that cause spoilage and after vac packing in foil that resulted in an indefinite shelf life. He had canned hamburger rocks for chili, tacos and spaghetti sauce. He was overloaded with greenbacks and saw how much the dollar was depreciating so he ordered 200 of these 8 dollar steaks and stored them away in big plastic Family Dollar tubs. The shelf life was indefinite so he was set for a steak or 3 a week for a long time. A week later he thought it would really be a bad thing if the mice ate into his plastic tubs and ate his steaks. He built seven foot lockers made from treated 2 X 12’s and covered the bottom, back, front and sides with roll aluminum. He thought it would have to be a mighty mouse to eat through the treated 2 X 12’s and aluminum. He would keep an eye on them just in case the mice found a way to enter the cold cave. They did not enter before and he wondered about that. Probably because no food smell and the windy, cold temperatures was the only answer he could come up with. Ten days later he ordered 300 more of the steaks and that would fill up most of his 2 X 12 wood built aluminum covered foot lockers.

The next week he got a letter from the court telling him he had a court date the following Wednesday for unpaid child support. Ha - he thought this is going to be fun. He printed out all the MSN bill pay checks she had cashed, his unemployment checks and made a copy of his food stamp payments just in case and his documented attempts to find a job. Tuesday he drove to the court appointed lawyer section and met with a free attorney. The attorney said that lady must be crazy. Clark said no she is living above her means and thought this would be something easy for her to get by with. The lawyer said I can stop this now if you want. Clark said no let’s let this play out and see how far she will perjure herself.

10 AM Wed morning Clark had on an old worn scruffy suit and beat up shoes he had kept. The tie was wrinkled and the white shirt he had on had a frayed collar. He really looked like a man down on his luck. His lawyer looked at him and smiled. After the court fiasco his ex wife got 24 months probation and 200 hours of community work. The judge had a few choice words for her and her new husband. If either of you had a job I would probably fine and jail both of you – If your ex husband had a permanent residence I would take those 2 girls away from you and give them to him. He would probably raise them better than you have been doing. Clark would have said something but the 2 girls had even lied on the stand telling the judge they had not gotten any money from their daddy. The 4 or 5 times he had went to visit them they had told him they did not want to see him anymore. That really hurt him so he had steeled himself to not worry or think about them too much anymore.

[Lbox88]

Part 17.

Clark ran into Horatio at the Wal-Mart super market the next afternoon. Horatio said what could you be shopping for here – Clark said I like head lettuce, thick sliced Kahn bologna, sliced American cheese, fresh grated Parmesan cheese for my spaghetti and believe it or not Twinkies. Horatio jokingly said build a green house so you can have head lettuce year round. Clark just said that’s not a bad idea if I have to stay there forever. Horatio just looked at him. They talked about one thing or the other until Horatio picked up a 2 pound jar of honey. His eyes twinkled when he said to Clark 2 or 3 honey hives would be nice especially when those fruit trees you planted start to come in. Clark said I have five 6 gallon buckets of honey. But he then pulled his trusty notebook and pen out and quickly scribbled – greenhouse and honey bee hives. Horatio said if you are really interested in honey hives I will call old man Ferrell and radio you when you can visit him – he keeps about 20 hives on the back side of his farm. It probably wouldn’t take him but 2 or 3 hours to enlighten you. He would like the company since all his family live out in California.

Clark did visit with Mr. Ferrell and learned a lot in the 4 hours he was there. He did pay close attention when the man said to buy the Langstroth hives unless he was a real good carpentry wood worker. After he took one of the empty hives apart Clark agreed with him there was a lot of detail work involved and it may not be cheaper but it sure would be simpler to buy the completed factory made hive. Ferrell continued on by saying so far I have not had any trouble with the die off of my bees because I clean the hives 3 times a week instead of the one time the Bee keepers association recommends and use the apistan impregnated plastic strips for the varroa mites and the hives all have screened bottoms. Clark thought this would be a neat project and a lot of fun if a person did not get stung. But he thought the smoking of the hive would eliminate that big problem. Furthermore a person dressed up in that head mask and bee suit would not have any problem at all. He got the address from Mr. Ferrell for the best hive makers not necessarily the cheapest. And put it on his to order list.

He walked through the rather large greenhouse he had and asked a lot of questions about the plexi glass or glass he built the place with. Mr. Ferrell said I made a couple of mistakes when I built the place and spent money on stuff I did not have to but after 40 years I got it right. Clark took notes. He found out that the side that did not get the east-west travel of the sun plexi glass was used because it made no difference if it clouded up after aging. But the top and side that did get the east-west travel of the sun real glass was to be used. Gravel over sand on the floor was way cheaper then putting down a sloped concrete floor. Aluminum racks were better then pressure treated lumber because it would not mold like the wood would and could be sprayed clean forever. Ferrell pointed to the ceiling and Clark noticed the 8 foot single light florescent fixtures were on a hanging adjustable brass chain and there were 3 of them 1 in the middle and one on each side but the side ones were angled inwards towards the grow shelf and separated from the center light by about 2 feet and they could be lowered so the light hit the sides of the plant. Neat set up is what he thought. He mentally calculated the wattage necessary to run 120 watts of bulbs for one side of the green house and thought 16 feet long and 12 feet wide was doable with a little less then 240 watts of power being sucked out of his batteries 12 hours a day. If necessary he could cut it down to one 4 foot wide 8 foot long grow shelf and only use three single 8 foot 40 watt florescent bulbs which would be 120 watts being used.

Late that evening he heard his chickens making a fuss. He looked out one of the 4 X 8 foot plexi glass windows and saw a big fat black bear. The bear had turned over the only 55 gallon barrel that did not have the lid locked down. This made Clark extremely mad. He took the loaded 30-06 by the entry way, cracked open the gate and shot the evening raider in the head. Clark’s luck was bad this day. The bears head fell straight into the mixed grain that had spilled out of the barrel ruining half the contents with blood and brain spatter. He thought this is a true mess of the 1st magnitude. He was worried about shooting a bear out of season and had no idea what to do with the 400 pound creature. He sat down for a minute to think this through. He knew the shot could be heard pinging around the mountains for miles but he did not think anyone could get a true direction of where the shot actually came from so he thought he would be safe from the game warden.

It looked like he was going to have a real bear rug for his cave. He had never skinned anything but a deer so he thought after he gutted this thing he would look on the internet for some more instructions. He tied the bears head to the shovel on the tractor and raised it up out of the grain. He drove over to a hundred foot drop off and parked the tractor with the bear hanging in the air. He used his knife and pulled the guts out to where they dropped on the ground by the edge of the drop off. He got a few sticks and propped the cavity open. It was in the 40’s F this evening so he did not think the meat would spoil. He broomed the guts over the cliff, washed up and fired his computer up.

After finding pictures on how to do it right he made a few changes. He did not need the head, legs or tail. All he wanted was the squared off pelt minus those items. This was going to make the job real easy to do just the pelt. Saving some of the meat for jerky was another thing he would look up. He found a place he would use the back hoe to dig to bury all the bear parts he did not want and he would do that deed early tomorrow morning.

Turning two 100 watt florescent bulbs on by the pole barn he started on skinning this big animal. Since he did not need the legs, head or tail he just sliced through the skin and pulled the big hide off and laid it on the ground fur side down. He dumped about 20 pounds of salt onto the skin let it soak in a bit and rolled the skin up. He would work on it tomorrow. 3 hours have gone by and he was looking up information on the best part to make jerky out of. He had already decided to throw both hind quarters into the smoker, save the back straps and bury the rest. With some help from his electric saw he separated the hind quarters and left those lying on the work bench under the pole barn. Another quick wash up and some more research on what to do with the meat and he was ready for bed. He did hang the 2 hind quarters and back straps in the smoke house to keep any night time crawlies away from the meat. He checked the thermometer and saw it was exactly 39 degrees so he had no worries about the meat spoiling. He had a lot of work to do in the morning.

The first thing he did on this really chilly morning was dig a 5 foot deep hole and bury the rest of the bear. He hung the hind quarters up and washed them off and let them drip dry. He was going to slice them up on the bench under the pole barn and he had allocated 4 hours for that task. He also was going to try and cut out a roast to see if he liked bear meat since he had never had any. The back straps on deer were excellent but the rest of the deer meat to him was so so.

It was 130PM before he got the meat sliced and placed in a sweetened vinegar soy sauce brine. He was a little concerned since he read that bears like pigs carried trichinosis. He would make sure he got the smoker up to 160 degrees F after he finished drying the meat. He never did find out if the vinegar and soy sauce would kill the parasite. He bet it did but would not take the chance of eating it till that magic number of 160 degrees F was reached and maintained for at least 30 minutes. The roast was vac packed and in the freezer with one back strap. He was going to fry the other back strap tonight for supper since he had found a good garlic, onion, pepper and salt recipe that sounded good to him. When he read about the parasite he became extremely paranoid about cleaning and sterilizing everything the bear meat had come in contact with. The other thing that slowed him down was the bear was extremely fat and had eaten well all summer long getting ready for winter hibernation. The trimming off the fat took him an extra hour and a half.

A week later he tried the jerky and it was outstanding. He placed the roast in the slow cooker and had it with some root vegetables. It also was excellent. He was going to save that last back strap for a special occasion because the 1st one was out of this world.

Part 18.

Horatio called him on the radio the next day – Clark always wondered why he never used his cell phone because Clark had good coverage where he was. Anyways Horatio said if you have cash I recommend you start spending it during the next 3 months. Clark wondered about that but he was planning on buying a few medium priced items quickly including the bee hives and all the equipment to take care of 4 bee hives. He looked at his list and saw the 220 volt Millermatic MIG welder was near the top and the news paper said the welding shop 33 miles away was having a sale. He would need a bigger generator that had 220 volt plug on it and he researched Honda and found the EB5000 with the 2 wheel kit would do. He asked the MIG welder salesman what the contractors had been using to power the welder at remote sites and the Honda 5000 was one of the top 3 he mentioned so Clark headed over to the Generator shop.

When he entered the generator shop he saw a big heavy looking green thing with a belt on it. He walked over to it and read all about it and saw the small amount of diesel it used and the amount of power it put out. What impressed him most was how several hundred of them had been used in India without being serviced for 50 years. The salesman came over and talked to Clark about the machine. Clark told him he wanted the Honda 5000 and he was interested in this Lister generator also.

He would have to take down some shelves at the end of the cave to install this 1300 pound 6200 watt generator but he could do that easily. The salesman told him they had just reassembled a brand new one to check for sand in the engine because the engines were cast. That one is in the box and ready to deliver. Clark bought it and sat down at a table asking about rebuild parts and he liked the 30 gallon barrel attached to the floor display. The salesman said yes we have a complete rebuild kit and the 30 gallon fuel tank on its stand ready to be hooked to the machine he just bought. He said to put it on the dual wheel tow along with the rest of his stuff. He laughed when he looked at the tow along it was full and the crew was finishing loading filters and oil in the back of his pickup for the Honda. He ticked off the amount of 11300 dollars he had just spent.

The bee hives and the machines took a good chunk of his cash. He wondered if he should take some pennies and a stamp to sell because if what he was thinking was going to happen happened his 5000 dollar pennies would only be worth a penny. And his 40000 dollar + stamps would revert back to being worth 24 cents. He laughed because the 24 cent stamp would not mail a letter today he would have to use 2 of them. He made his mind up to sell 6 pennies and 2 stamps tomorrow. Hopefully he would get a bushel full of silver and some small denomination gold. Gold was pushing 2500 an ounce and silver was about 45 dollars an ounce. Gasoline cost 6.49 and diesel was 7.39. He stopped at a small grocery/butcher shop store where the butcher cut the beef chuck up in front of you and ran it through the grinder twice. He bought 10 pounds of ground chuck and four 2 inch thick T-bones that the butcher had just cut and they looked like they were marbled just right for grill cooking. He used his food stamp card to pay for it. When he got home he separated the T-bones out and individually wrapped and froze them. He made about 4 inch round kind of thick patties for the hamburger and vac packed and froze them except for what he was going to broil in the propane oven tonight. He saw he did not have any hamburger buns and cussed a little bit. He mixed up a batch of dough that made decent hamburger buns and rolls and fired up the bread machine. Good thing he had several hours before supper but it would not take but an hour or a little bit more for the bread machine to churn and raise the dough through its cycle. He would bake 2 large buns in the propane oven and either freeze or refrigerate the 4 left over dough balls. 2 huge cheeseburgers, baked steak fries and a small salad ended his night.

Soon he would shop at Lowes for the piping to make a permanent green house and he had just the place to put it. But some trees would have to be cut down to make sure it got all the southern exposure day light.

He went to 2 PCGS coin shops in DC and got what he wanted plus another chunk of cash. Stopping at a glass craft shop on the way home he bought 15 one gallon wide mouth jugs that had screw on real glass caps. He had found out how to waterproof the lids but one way was forever permanent and the 2nd way would work for a hundred years or more and the lids could easily be removed if he used good clean melted beeswax on the threads to air proof and water proof the jars. Gorilla glue was a permanent lid lock down and was also waterproof for as long as the glass held up which in some cases could be thousands of years under the right conditions.

Looking at his lists he decided to order 2 more Out Back inverters and 2 more MPPT controllers. He called the factory that made the fork lift batteries and requested 6 batteries without the acid. He told them he would pre pay and they could send them to any of their distributors within a hundred miles of his zip code. He got the location and told the salesman he would deposit the money on his credit card tomorrow and call back to confirm the order and payment. He gave specific instructions that the distributor was not to put acid in the batteries. He would demand a refund and cancel the order if they put acid in the batteries. He downloaded plans for a green house of 24 X 10 feet and modified the plans to use the aluminum tubing, steel beams, steel glass holding brackets and 4 inch steel water pipe he was going to use for the corner and door posts. He would pick up the materials at Lowe’s and have the glass company cut the glass and plexi he was going to use. He bet himself a nickel the thousands of brass or stainless bolts, nuts and lock washers he was going to use to bolt and screw the green house together would cost a pretty, pretty penny. That wasn’t the half of it he could have bought a do it yourself one for way less then a quarter of what this permanent lifetime green house was going to cost. He had decided on a special outdoor caulk for the outside edge of the glass that supposedly had a durability life of 50 years. He hoped Horatio and his boys would help him put the thing together on the weekends.

He got so involved in reading about the process and the difficulties of making taco shells he almost gave up. He downloaded the instructions, ordered six 5 gallon buckets of dried field corn, the lime, a tortilla press and called it a day. He would have plenty of time during the cold winter to make tortillas and curve them into a taco shell.

He looked at his 2 X 12 made 48 inch X 48 inch wide kitchen table and his 2 X 12 made 36 inch wide X 18 foot long working kitchen shelf and decided he needed a cover for them. He made exact measurements and drove to a countertop business in the city. He gave the measurements to the working clerk and sat down. 30 minutes later the cut to order Formica in yellow was placed into the back of his truck with the special glue to adhere it to wood. He talked to one of the installers and found out how to properly use he glue and was told to make sure he had some kind of heavy weight to place around the edge for at least 12 hours. The man said if the top was not abused he should get 50 or more years use from it. That evening after gathering up some 2 X 4’s and heavy #10 cans to put on the 2 X 4’s around the edges to hold the glued part down he was ready to put the top on his table and kitchen work bench.

It was not as easy as he thought it would be since he had never done it before. He remembered the words the installer told him to make sure he did not let the back of the Formica touch the glue unless he had it where he wanted it because it was almost impossible to break it loose without breaking the Formica. He asked the man how they did it in the shop he laughed and said we cut the Formica bigger then the top we are going to put it on and if we make a mistake we are still OK because we use the router to cut it square. Clark thought long and hard before he did this job and decided if he could get one end perfect he could roll it out and everything would work. He got 3 wide wood glue clamps and spaced them 4 inches apart on one end of the kitchen table above the glued surface and eyeballed his Formica and saw he had it perfect. He pulled the end clamp off and saw it went where it was supposed to go and finished the kitchen table up, He looked at that long roll for the 18 foot bench and decided he would need 8 or 9 glue clamps to make sure he rolled it out in a straight line. He patted himself on the back for a professional job well done when he was finished and went to bed. He would remove the weights in 2 days to make sure the glue set up properly.

Part 19.

After he came back from Lowes and the glass company he cut down the trees below the side of the hill that were blocking sunlight. Since the dozer was still here he used it to dig a 16 inch deep by 30 X 16 foot foundation hole for the 28 X 14 foot green house. He knew this was much bigger then he would need but if he did have to use it he had room to walk down the middle, ends and side aisles of the six eight foot long 4 foot wide slatted aluminum benches.

The placement of the corner, doorway and center posts was critical to this job and everything had to be square. He was going to use 2 measuring techniques to place the 4 inch metal water pipe down into the holes that would be cemented down in a few days. He stopped there because he needed help to make sure when he cemented the posts in the ground that the measurements were right and the posts were perfectly vertical. He would rent a dump truck tomorrow to put the sand and gravel next to the hole for the floor. Supper was 4 over medium eggs on 4 slices of toast smothered in bacon gravy with hash browns on the side and 3 celery sticks filled with cream cheese. That night he again looked at aluminum benches for the green house. He thought if he put a 6 foot bench in the center of the two 8 foot benches that would give him plenty of room to put a wood stove at one end for winter time heat. He did not think he would do much if any growing in the summer time but he went ahead and designed the end intake and exhaust fans in for a just in case.

He swore to himself he would take a break after this week and go squirrel hunting Monday and Tuesday.

He did not get much done the rest of the week and Horatio and his boys did not show up on the weekend so he piddled around and cleaned his shotgun for the Monday morning squirrel hunt. He heard shots everywhere all around the mountains even from across the river at daylight Monday morning. Lots of people out hunting he thought. He got his bag limit of 6 before 8 AM. He decided to gut and skin them where he was so he would not have to carry off the guts and skins when he got home. He was just about at the end of the property where he cleaned the squirrels so he kicked a little dirt over the guts and skins and walked out to the road to walk back up to the gate which was a lot easier walking. Of course the 1st vehicle that came down the hill was the game warden and he got checked for license and his game bag was searched as well. The game warden said I did not see a vehicle parked on the road so Clark went into his spiel about how he was an employee of the Montgomery Heirs and had a key to the gate where he had parked his vehicle. The game warden actually called Horatio to verify this – after that shakedown he was turned loose. Dang he thought the state must be broke looking to fine an honest hunter or that game warden was totally ignorant. He had no idea how many people were hunting without a license because they could not afford to buy one nor did he know how many tickets the game warden had given out nor how many guns he had confiscated nor the amount of animals he had taken from those people. Things were happening that Clark and a lot of people had no idea about.

He picked up the disassembled bee hives at the UPS office and brought them home to figure out the jig saw puzzle he knew he was going to have. He drove his tractor up to where the solar panels were and moved 15 feet back from them and leveled the ground off for 6 bee hives about an 8 X 24 ft area. Horatio and his boys showed up just after he had the ground leveled and the dirt put in a useless gulley he had wanted to fill up for a while. He told them the 2 projects he had going, the green house and fencing and electrifying the soon to be installed fence around the bee hives. Horatio said the boys can handle the fence and gate at the bee yard. We will put together the hives and work on getting those posts for the green house up and squared. Clark was telling him about all the shooting when he went squirrel hunting and Horatio said I know people are getting hungry. The game warden that called me and 5 others in the state have been killed in the past week. Clark said I kind of figured that one would get blown away because of the way he talked to me. It is not smart to talk to a bunch of armed men out in the woods all alone especially when you talk down to them.

They got the bee hives put together in about 3 hours that was a lot less time then Clark figured it would take. Clark told Horatio he wanted to put some thin white aluminum on the roof and sides instead of painting the hives. He would put several real good coats of out door paint on the bottom that sat on the porous solid cinder blocks it would set on. The hives should last 20 years easily he told Horatio. Horatio said yes you have eliminated the big problem of wood rotting away in the elements. The boys sprayed the one year kill all plant Roundup mixture around where the hives would set. Horatio said tomorrow the boys will put the fence up as soon as the cement hardens in the ground around the fence posts. The boys then made a 60 inch gate that was big enough to drive the tractor with the hive boxes into where they would be permanently set. Horatio said it will get windy up there where you are going to put the hives. Why don’t you cement the cinder blocks to the ground and put 4 metal straps on each hive connected to the cinder block since you definitely ain’t gonna move the hives once they are set in place. The boys went back up to the hive location and used the 16 inch auger to drill 8 inches into the ground and filled that with cement and placed the cinder blocks about 2 inches down into the wet cement. They had to stay there about an hour to make sure the cinder blocks did not sink and make sure they stayed level.

[Lbox88]

Part 20.

Clark and Horatio got the green house poles set in cement, squared off and vertical. He said we will do some more next weekend. We can probably weld the steel beams and gable poles up and put some more paint on the poles. Clark had washed the beams and poles at a car wash on the way home and using his spray gun had painted a good quality rust prevention paint on them 2 or 3 times while they were laying on saw horses.

Clark made squirrel gravy twice that week and he almost had it right. He calculated 2 or 3 more ounces of carnation milk will do it.

The next weekend Horatio said I had an attempted break in at my house 2 nights ago and I shot the perpetrator in the leg with my shot gun. The police just said it was happening everywhere. I did not have my alarm on but I won’t make that mistake again. The town is becoming an armed camp and the police are walking patrols to maintain order. The city is gang controlled and violence occurs every minute. I want to tell you if you need anything order it, have it delivered to the UPS place and try not to leave the place. If you need something like lettuce call and I will get it for you if it is available in my small town Kroger’s. We, I mean my 10 neighbors have a mutual aid group so I think for now we will be Ok for several months. No one knows you are here so you should not be bothered unless a hunter stumbles onto the place. I don’t want to tell you what to do but it would be in your and our best long term survival interests to not let that person leave. Clark was not stupid he knew exactly what Horatio was saying. He had read a lot of those PAW fiction stories late at night.

They got most of the green house finished the next weekend. The boys got the bee hives mounted and strapped down. Clark and Horatio set up the 4 strand electric fence around the bee yard and hooked it into the solar powered system that he had bought just for this job. The boys had put a 12 inch strip of stainless steel mesh around the bottom of the fence 4 inches deep to keep the mice out. The first wire was 1/4 inch from the top of that mesh to keep any mice from climbing up and under the hot wire. The rest of the hot wires were for squirrels, possums and skunks. A bear would make short work of the flimsy 11 gauge chain link unless he did not like to get shocked. The bee yard was 24 X 8 feet with enough room to put 2 more hives.

The winter was a snowy one with sometimes 3 and 4 foot snowfalls. Clark enjoyed himself in the warm fully stocked cave. He would walk through the woods down to the road and saw there were no traveler tracks so he trudged back home to amuse himself on the computer, books and TV shows he liked. He made one awful mess experimenting making masa harina for tortilla and taco shells. He said before I do that again I will make sure I have help. When he was done he saw it was doable but it really was to him a labor intensive operation.

When the snow was over 4 feet deep and his burn barrel was getting half full he had to dump the burn barrel into plastic bags and put it in the back of his pick up – Next he had to start a hot wood fire in the burn barrel and put his trash food bag in the fire to get rid of it since it was almost half full. He smiled to himself and said there is more then one way to skin a cat.

Things settled back down in the cities and the small towns. The military had arrived with FEMA and food was distributed. This calm would last for several months. Clark ordered 2 more bee hives and the bees for 4 hives. He thought 4 would be enough for the time being. Dumb mistake. Although during several warm days in December he did get the 2 bee hives mounted and tied down in the bee yard.

He got into reloading hot and heavy that winter and managed to spend about 9000 dollars on ammunition on some of Sportsman Guide sales with free shipping. His 2 go to guns were the AR15 and his bolt action 06. He standardized his bullets for the AR15 and the 06. He went with 62 grain hollow points for the 223 but he did order 4000 rounds of Lake City over run 223 bullets 62 grain FMJ. The 06 he went with 2 bullets the 180 grain and 168 grain in Remington premier core lokt ultra PSP - He wanted the 168 grain for distance deer shooting and the 180 grain for black bear which he had already used and knew it worked just fine.

The strip mines had about 2 or 3000 yards of open space for shooting and he set up targets out to 800 yards and practiced a lot. He found with the 357 pistol off hand he was only good for 10 yards but if he had a post to lean on he could keep all 6 rounds in a 5 inch circle on a deer chest at 60 yards. His rifle shooting was superb after 45 days of practice and using about 8 pounds of reloading powder to reload. He found that 600 yards was just about his maximum shooting distance with good accuracy on deer or man chest targets and of course that was shooting either lying down or off his home made shooting bench.

He found his generation 3 four X Raptor rifle scopes could see further then he could shoot. It was fun trying to hit a coyote 1100 yards away on a starry night. He never did hit one. It was fun though because he could watch rabbits and the coyotes chasing them in the dead of night. He ordered another precision bolt action 06 rifle with the same quick detachable system he had on the one he was using to change scopes for day or night shooting. He thought about ordering day night scopes but the scopes he had were always on dead zero when changing the scopes with the quick detachable mounting system he had. He liked night time shooting and became real good after 14 or so nights of burning ammunition up like it was gasoline. But he always replaced or reloaded what he shot up. When he got through spending money on more bullets, primers and cases he had about 15000 rounds for his two 06’s and about 20000 rounds for his AR15’s with the ability to reload that many at least twice. He just hoped he never had a fire down at the end of the cave where all those munitions and powders were stored in metal cabinets.

He even got Horatio and his family up on the mountain shooting everything that moved. Horatio told him this shooting 30-06 bullets gets expensive and Clark just said yes it does but I reload quite a lot. He asked Horatio if he knew any retired military people and Horatio said one is in my mutual aid group. Clark told him he had read about this place called CMP and any retired military person after filling out some paper work can order 06 bullets for 96 dollars for 192 rounds which was a decent price for a 150 grain military bullet. He also said they have those M1 WW11 Garand rifles from 400 to 900 dollars and they also could be ordered by the retired man. He said it would probably be easier to get a rifle if that retiree would drive there and pick them up. Clark said I would like to have 2 of those 30-06 - 995 dollar M1’s that are just about brand new if you can talk him into going to buy them or order them and 20 of those 192 round bundles, 1000 armor piercing and 2000 tracers all in 06 caliber of course. Horatio said he would see what he could do.

Part 21.

He bought another 500 gallon diesel tank and 500 gallon gasoline tank. He got to spend a little bit of silver on these private purchases because the people were getting smarter. Horatio and the boys helped him set them up. They emptied the 100 gallon gas tank that was in the cave and moved it outside under the overhang. Clark had no idea how he was going to get another 500 gallons of gasoline and diesel into the empty tanks. Horatio said I see you have the pump to pump petrol from one tank to another and petrol is available all across the USA at the moment. Why don’t we mount the 100 gallon tank on a flat bed and go to 10 different fuel stations and fill it up. They brought the tractor over and lifted the empty 100 gallon tank onto a coal company flat bed that Horatio borrowed for a few days and Clark started making trips to different gas stations. It took him 2 days of buying 7 dollar a gallon gas and 8 dollar a gallon diesel but all his tanks were full again and treated with preservative. They had to use ten 5 gallon GI cans to refill the 100 gallon tank they had removed from the flatbed but that only took 2 trips. He checked his propane tank and as far as he could tell he had only used 115 or so gallons. It would be a long time before he needed propane. He did go and buy a 100 gallon tank and put it back into his big tank and had the 100 gallon tank refilled again.

Summer came his garden was growing like wild fire. Horatio and his boys had helped him plant most of the garden. His fruit trees were a few years away from supplying him with any fruit. He practiced canning things as the vegetables ripened. He did not do too badly and he experimented outside on an open fire .That was a tad difficult keeping the heat right and it made sure you stayed in the close vicinity while doing it outside. He made several different kinds of pickles and foolishly made enough to last him several years because he liked pickles. He dehydrated some peppers, tomatoes, apples and store bought bananas just to practice. He did not get his bananas to come out like the commercial ones but they were edible.

The thoughts of having a goat passed through his mind for fresh milk and experimenting with cheeses in the back of the cool cave. He was just as dumb as the rest of the people he let the thoughts of milk animals pass by because it was again available in the stores. Another dumb mistake - even though he had enough non-fat powdered dry milk sealed in #10 cans to last him 15 or 20 years. He really did not want to bull doze another area to chain link the animals up to let goats run around inside and the way he thought it would have to be a huge area.

Horatio drove up to Clark and said give me some money Mr. Hector is going to buy the 06 ammunition and the guns and had already pre ordered them and put them on his Amex card. He is leaving tomorrow to Camp Perry in Ohio and will pick up everything we asked him for. Clark remembered he wanted about 3800 rounds of ball, 1000 rounds of armor piercing and 2000 rounds of tracers and 2 M1 rifles which came to a little over 5500 dollars – He gave Horatio 6300 dollars and said Mr. Hector can keep the change for doing this for us and tell him to spend it on the trip. Horatio left. Clark said to himself hot diggety dog new guns and light up the night ammunition to play with.

Things were looking good for the summer Clark had even had some encounters with some lusty women in some drinking holes he visited. He had restocked all the canned food he ate all the time. He even ordered over the course of 4 weeks 300 pounds of ground chuck from the small grocery store he frequented. He made patties out of all of it and vac packed it. That cost him the price of another DC freezer to store it and another spare but he had plenty of green backs and was contemplating selling another 3 coins.

He had received his rifles and ammunition 3 weeks ago and had shot both of them twice. He shopped around and found a place in the city that would mount 2 X 7 Leupold scopes on the M1’s and he dropped the rifles off and got that done. He sold 3 more pennies and was loaded down with cash, silver and gold. He was planning on buying another diesel tank. That stopped when the Muslims went on a rampage and cut all oil supplies to the USA off.



Russia was fighting the crazed religious idiots on several fronts but it was a losing battle because the 7th century think a likes had out bred most of the world and indoctrinated the new ones into idiocy. China launched tactical nukes on some of the border towns that were 100% Muslim but the remaining survivors went underground and started a sabotage campaign that would have made Hitler proud.

The Saudi leaders had all been beheaded and the non reading 1st grade educated indoctrinated Quaran worshiping clan was ruling most of the Middle East. Israel was about to be thrown 200 miles out into the ocean and our president was going to meetings bowing till his head hit the floor to any Muslim that showed up at the White House and making speeches that he and his brothers would soon have world peace. The speaker of the house introduced a bill allowing more Muslims into the US and that would show the world and the Muslims that we were on their side. Sheer lunacy was all Clark could sputter out of his mouth as he watched the main stream media spin this as a good thing. The insane female liberal speaker of the house and the left wing idiot senate leader remarked that if we spread a little money around and treated those people like they were down trodden they would come around to our way of thinking. The world was in chaos and the politically correct people were talking about using a single sheet of toilet paper to stop a tsunami.

Part 22.

Clark had quit going to town and stayed glued to the news channels. He always got a kick out of the liberal idiots saying the president had it under control and then over to Fox news and he never thought he would actually see O’Reilly writhing his hands together in total despair. The military had been down sized and what were left was pulled back to surround DC and their home bases. Clark quit watching TV it was too late to save the republic. He went down to the entry gate and made sure he swept any tire tracks out of the ruts leading up to the gate. A hard rain would cure any thing left and the grass would again start growing. He helped it along by putting some grass seed out in the entry ruts.

Horatio called on the radio and asked how things were and Clark said I am as snug as a bug in a rug. He said turn the local news off and start listening to the local ham and shortwave channels. Things are about to get hot again. We are in good shape in our small town and have beefed up our local police force with some military veterans. Stay hidden and then he said - Horatio out. Clark chuckled at that comment that sounded like a little military speak.

He took Horatio’s advice and pulled his recliner near the speaker to listen to the local and short wave channels. The real local and national news did not sound good – Gas and Diesel had shot up over that number that would cause grave national damage. Over 10 dollars a gallon and most stations were rationing what little gas they did get.

That system they used for national terror alert status was now stuck on red. Fox was the only channel that displayed the alert system. The liberal news stations thought it would go away like their president said it would and did not bother to inform the masses what was really happening. When he heard on the shortwave the US could not pay the welfare recipients any longer he sat straight up in his recliner because he knew that was the beginning of the end. It just kept getting worse. The military had their pay cut by 75% and the mess halls were only having one evening meal a day. Social Security and military retirees had their pay cut also by 75%. All the bank assets in the US were seized by the government to try and meet their foreign and local obligations. It was not enough. The Muslims chose that time to strike at the infrastructure – Grid power towers all across the country were blown up. Most small power generating plants were damaged beyond immediate repair. The downsized military tried to protect the nuclear power plants and most large hydro outlets but that did no good because the power that could be generated could not be sent out. The large cities were uninhabitable. The old, sick and real young people did not have a chance there was no medicine. There was no power; no food deliveries and the clean water had quit trickling from the faucets. The USA was thrown back into a 4th or 5th world status. The only reason another country did not try to invade was because of the nuclear might the US still maintained plus they had their own Muslim problems.

The inhabitants from the large cities fled in automobiles if they had fuel. Most did not. But they fled to the countryside to get away from the marauding gangs that were killing everyone and taking their belongings especially what little food the fleeing people had. It was late September and the hard cold WV winter would soon be on the land. Clark had told Horatio he was going to start making walking patrols. All Horatio said was look at everything in a 360 degree circle and be careful because people are taking to the hills everywhere. Most of them are unarmed and have no idea how to survive in the wilderness and the gangs are right behind them.

Part 23.

Tingo led his small gang of Crips from the city. There were 11 of them. They had been chasing 5 teenage girls and 2 boys for the past 8 hours. Tingo was not exactly dumb he had finished 6th grade and could read a map of which he had a local one in his hip pocket. The 11 of them sat down in the middle of the road to take a break. It was obvious the 7 people in front of them had some food and water or they would have never been able to keep up the pace they had been on. Tingo and his gang had just barely been able to keep the people in front of them in sight. One of the gang asked when they would catch up with those fine lookin white wimmen. Tingo knew what would happen when they caught up because he had seen it before in the city. Another one said doncha think we otta be movin on. Tingo said what’s your hurry they ain’t got no place to go but on this road - you don’t think they gonna take off into dem dere woods. All of them eyed the woods with a wary eye. They had never been out of the city concrete jungle they lived in. They just happened to get caught in that backwater city while selling some drugs when everything fell apart and those idiot Mooslims started blowing things up. The other problem they had was there was no petrol anywhere to fuel the three vehicles and they just drove till they ran out of gas and could not drive around anymore. They had stayed in the city causing mayhem and other violent crimes till they could not find any more food or clean water and that is when they saw the teen agers leaving the city on the main road with backpacks on.

The fleeing 7 teenagers had picked up the pace when they saw the gangbangers had sat down on the road. The teens always kept at least a ½ mile or more from the gang chasing them. They knew they had to do something to get away from them. The turn off to the road leading up the mountain past Clark’s cave came into view and they all made a decision to take it because the gang was out of sight. They hit the dirt road at a jog and did not stop for 45 minutes before they had to take a breather. The road was only about a 4 or 5 degree uphill grade which inexorably led up and around the mountain to the strip mine. The 4 or so degree uphill slope was not too visually noticeable but the legs sure noticed it. The reason these teens could run or jog for extended distances was they were all on a high school basketball team and in peak condition. Each one had a small backpack with high energy foods and bottled and canteens of good drinking water along with a few survival related items. The street roaming gangbangers were also in decent shape but did not have the stamina nor the food and water the teens had. The teens were a group of people who had a better chance of surviving in the woods then 95% of the people in the US because one of the boys was an Eagle Scout.

Clark was fortunately or unfortunately about 7 or 800 yards back in the woods heading for the road down by the high way when the teens passed him going up the hill and he did not know they were there. He had to cross the road that led up the mountain to reach a knoll that overlooked the highway. This vantage point gave him a clear view of the highway for a mile in each direction.

[Lbox88]

Part 24.

The 2 or 3 million or so Jihadist Muslim idiot sleeper fanatics that had entered every country including the USA illegally through most countries porous borders including Mexican and Canadian borders over the past 10 years had actually done something right for a change. They had brought the Great Satan to its knees and they were not done yet. The goal was to bring the US and the worlds Infidels under Muslim control and move it back in time to the goat eating and camel riding era of the seventh century. The clandestine laboratories in Somalia, Iran and several other 3rd world pestholes that had produced massive quantities of every known deadly contagious germ and virus had all been released mostly in an aerosol cocktail at peak traffic times in every large, medium and some small size cities all across the world three days before the last and irreparable destruction of each countries power grid.

The Muslim clandestine leadership struck every major world city at nearly the same working day time period in that time zone thinking the release of the virus would kill maybe 2 or 3% of the population. They really made a tactical error on that assumption. The germs and virus were released in the major cities world wide at the same time of peak city traffic movement and within 10 days of that release 85% of the world population including most of the Muslim leaders would die. They somehow believed that no country or people should have electricity and 3 days after the release of the germs they attacked every nation’s grid supply and power generating stations.

Ilona Zickafoose had been living about 5 miles from Clark just around the next mountain across the road. She had been laid off from her community college job as a forestry teacher. People just did not have the money to send kids to college anymore and her class only had one person sign up for it. The College Board deleted the class from the curriculum and laid her off till times got better. Since most of her start out pay was in benefits (room and board and health insurance) instead of salary her unemployment check was only 190 dollars a week. There was no way she could pay 450 dollars a month apartment rent and pay utilities. She did the same thing Clark was doing only on an extreme small scale. In her last year of college her parents had took their motor home and went to Mexico. They were never heard from again nor was the motor home found. Their insurance policies were supposed to be enough to bury them and she used it to pay her bills and remove her stuff from the reverse mortgaged house.

She had wandered the mountains in her first year with some students identifying the local flora and found the almost inaccessible cave like overhang. It really wasn’t a cave it was a 25 foot overhang that was recessed about 32 feet into the mountainside. When she found it she thought a person could live in a tent that was protected from the elements on 3 sides plus the mountain stream running below the cave could supply fresh water year round. She followed the stream back around the mountain and saw it came from inside the mountain so the water was probably safe to drink at the source. She filled an empty water bottle with the water and took it to be tested at the college lab.

She would not be able to make her 489 dollar monthly car payment and knew as soon as she quit making payments it would be repossessed. Using the car she made about 60 trips and carried all her stuff to the overhang. She used her food stamp card and purchased over a period of time 900 dollars worth of long shelf life food. She got 230 dollars a month food stamp money. On one trip to Kroger’s she came out to go back to the cave and her automobile was gone and had been repossessed. Fortunately for her she had removed everything from the automobile in case that happened. Calling a friend with a pick up truck she had her drive to a used bi cycle shop where she purchased a 10 speed girl bike with a front basket and metal luggage carrier over the back fender. The bike was in good shape for 29 dollars. She had 2 new tires, tubes and brake pads put on and bought 2 more tires, 4 tubes and a bike pump. She had spent almost 71 dollars but she now had transportation. She had carefully watched the man replace the tires, tubes and brake pads and he showed her the important parts to oil on the bike. He made a few recommendations and showed her how to fix a broken sprocket chain with a reparable link kit and talked her into buying the link and 4 more brake pads. Her friend dropped her off well above her entry way to the cave with her groceries and tires. She coasted down the hill to the faint deer trail she had been using and pushed her bike about 50 yards into the woods where she put 2 stones under each tire to keep them off the damp ground and slung the cheap camouflage waterproof canvas she had bought at an outdoor shop over the bike after chaining and locking it to a tree. Well she thought I am now screwed without an auto. But I can still get down off the mountain and back with the bike instead of walking. So I guess things could have been worse.

________________________________________
Part 25.

Her dad had taught her many things about the wilderness and long term camping out on summer vacations and hunting trips when she was growing up. She was involved in the planning of the 2 or 3 month summer trips and had used most of the planning she had done before in setting up the camp area she was staying at. During those summer trips over the years living sometimes a sort of primitive lifestyle she knew what supplies were really important and had incorporated those into her plans. There were 12 solar spike ground lights, a small roll out solar panel, 2 solar shower bags, a pump up sprayer. Two small 12 Volt motorcycle batteries, a rechargeable battery powered AM-FM-shortwave portable radio, the 4 season 4 man tent with a queen size blow up mattress and a few DC powered lights in the tent. There were a hundred other things in the sheltered area that she had carried in on her 60 some trips. She was set up for long term camping. She like Clark had a .357 revolver. A one pump 22 caliber pellet rifle, 22 auto rifle with scope, 243 caliber scoped rifle, 150 pound test cross bow and a pump 20 gauge shotgun. She would have never gotten the heavy items to the place without a game cart. She had not yet needed to go hunting but would soon do so. She had planned well and had 4 years supply of tampons which did not take up much space but were just a bit bulky in their small boxes. Her college degree was in forestry with a lot of botany classes and she was well aware of the various edible plants in this area.

The only thing she would really miss was an electric washer and a flush toilet. But she was going to make use of a toilet system she could use in the hot days of summer. She had a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat on top and no bottom on the bucket. She could only do this if 1 or maybe 2 people would be using the outside toilet. Her dad had told her a lot of old timers used this system to make use of the hot days of summer sun. They would scrape a small 3 or 4 inch deep hole just large enough for the bucket to set on top and use that spot for 3 or 4 days and then move the bucket to another hole 2 or 3 feet away. The rain would fill the used hole and the sun would dry it out quickly and by the time the 4th hole was used for 3 or 4 days it was time to start back on the 1st hole. The sun would dry the human waste out and the bugs, worms and flies would break it down so in 12 or 15 days the rotation could start again. The supposed logic behind this system was the user always knew where the waste was and would not step in it. Needless to say toilet paper was not used 15 or so butt rags were incorporated into this type of toiletry. She had many pounds of powdered bleach and bottles of dish liquid so theoretically she could make 3 or 4 thousand one gallon jugs of fresh bleach to soak, sterilize and wash her butt rags in. Winter time she would just put a plastic bag in the bucket and when she had a big outdoor fire she would burn the bags. She had not brought but 12 rolls of toilet paper because it was just too bulky to carry.

Part 26.

When Clark crossed the road and had just entered the woods above the highway his shotgun was knocked off his shoulder by some tremendous force. When a bullet hits something that it cannot penetrate all its kinetic energy is released into that object. Clark heard the shot and instantly deduced someone had shot at him and hit the shotgun. The shotgun was on the ground beside him so he snatched the strap and rolled to his left and took off running into the thick forested area. After a hundred yards he looked at the shotgun he had been carrying and saw it was ruined. The bullet had hit the breech right behind the barrel and as he looked closer he saw the metal was cracked and a half inch deep dent was there. He picked a spot out and hid the shotgun planning on coming back to get the strap and the barrel. He picked up his pace to a slow jog but did not hear anyone chasing him. He had violated the rule Horatio had told him to follow. He did not survey the area in a 360 degree circle before crossing the road. He kept up a fast walking pace and decided to walk around the mountain and come out near the top before crossing over to his side of the road.

Tingo said to the man carrying the AR 15. Well go up dere and see what he has on him. The man asked 2 other gang members to come with him into the woods. He knew he had hit the man almost in the center of his back and if he wasn’t there he was not going far. Sounding like elephants trampling through the woods they went to where the 3 of them had seen the man go down. There was no trace of him except for some leaves that had been kicked around down to the dirt. They were extremely wary of snakes and most of them would probably scream if they saw one they looked around for a few minutes and none of them would go into the woods where they lost sight of the road.

They reported back to Tingo that the wounded man had run off into the woods and was probably hiding somewhere. Tingo asked why dey didn’t follow him. One of the men that had been up on the side of the hill said dey be snakes in dat thick timber and I ain’t goin in dere. To keep peace Tingo pulled his map out and saw the road they were looking at led to a strip mine and gas well. He told the gang dey ain’t nothing up on top of dis hill but a mine and I can bet all my money dey ain’t nothin to eat up dere. Now dis here map says if we go 5 miles dat way on dis road we will run into a town. I also bet dem teen agers are headin for dat town. So let’s go to dat next town and do our thing.

After walking about a half mile 2 of Tingo’s gang started projectile vomiting. They could not stop vomiting and lay by the roadside holding their stomach. Every time one of them tried to drink water the violent vomiting began again but this time it was tinged with blood. 15 minutes later they were dead. Tingo had 2 men get sticks and push the bodies over the side of the road. Another ½ mile and the rest of the gang were on the ground with the same problem. Some people that contacted the super bug bacteria survived but only after a severe fever and diarrhea. If the bacteria attached to the walls of the stomach that was a guaranteed 100% fatality rate - If the bacteria attached inside the urinary tract a bad fever happened but the urinary urethra was a bad place for the bacteria because if the patient could urinate it would eventually flush the bacteria out. Hand cleanliness after this infection was mandatory or the person would be infected again and maybe this time it would attach to the stomach.

Part 27

The Eagle Scout and one of the girl basket ball players had the urinary tract infection. The other boy and 4 girls died about ¾ mile above the college professors’ place and about a half mile above Clark’s entry road.

The Eagle scout saw the amount of blood coming from the mouths of his friends he said a little prayer hoping he did not have what they had. He had a small fever but his mind was functioning just fine. He told the girl whose name was Deely (he never asked her if that was short for Delilah) to take their dead friends packaged food and the small 4 oz squeeze dropper bottles that had bleach in them for making water safe to drink without taking the time to boil it. Do not take their water bottles unless you find one that the seal has not been broken on. And keep you hands away from your eyes mouth. He took the small folding saw from his dead friends back pack and gave the boy’s hand axe to Deely. He said I think Rhonda has a 6 inch stainless steel hunting knife in her pack add that to your pack it may come in handy. He told her we need to find a stream and make a shelter because I feel really bad now. She said Becky who had died on her side has a whole bottle of aspirin, Tylenol and a hundred count generic multiple vitamin bottle in her pack. He told her to get it and don’t touch her skin or step in any of the vomit.

He had noticed there was a small amount of running water in the ditch and wanted to find out where it was coming from. 30 yards further he saw where it came out of the woods into the ditch. He did not bother to find a path into the woods he started walking in the 3 inch deep water that was coming from the mountain. About 80 yards in he saw where the water was coming out of the mountain but the main part of the stream was running off into the woods and going down hill parallel to the ditch. He told her to gather some wood he would make a 3 sided shelter with the space blankets, He had 14 space blankets. It will get cold tonight and maybe drop some rain or snow. Using 8 space blankets he quickly made a shelter with the silver side in. He used the last 2 CO2 cartridges and blew up their 2 cheap lightweight plastic air mattresses as long as they were on a space blanket and no sharp points protruded through the blanket they would be fine.. He looked at the pile of wood she had stacked up beside the shelter and said that should be enough for few days. I don’t think we will be able to do much tomorrow if this fever I have gets much worse.

Deely you are not going to like what I am going to tell you but this is the only way I can figure out to keep us healthy. You will have to squat in the quick running creek water to use the bathroom. Then you will have to use the creek water to clean yourself. Next you must use one of the four 16 oz bottles on that flat rock to wash your hands. And then use a little solution to wash the bottle off and rinse it in the creek. She asked him what was in the bottle – he said 24 drops of bleach and 6 drops of anti-bacterial dish soap. They got the big fire ring built so the large rocks would reflect the heat back into the shelter. The fire was started and then they took everything out of the packs and put it under what Deely called a huge Christmas tree that still had its dark green needles showing. He thought correctly that if there were any germs on the goods they had taken from their friends the cold night air would kill it. After they had the stuff spread out under the tree they again washed their hands.

They filled all the water bottles and put the recommended amount of bleach plus 2 more drops in them and set them in the back of the shelter in case they could not get out of bed. This was a smart move. They boiled themselves a canteen cup of creek water and added a dry pack of chicken noodle soup and called it supper. They washed their cups out and refilled them from the creek for a morning cup of oats or coffee.