Clark Story #2 - Effies Farm

Clark Story #2 - Effies Farm

Clark realized too late in the last half of his senior high school year that his grades would not get him a college scholarship. He buckled down and finished the remaining time in high school with respectable grades. He actually learned something when he started paying attention to the teachers. He had had a great time in the small town WV school; he was a starter for the basket ball team, a wide receiver for the foot ball team and wrestled for one year before deciding he didn’t like to be in such close proximity to another male. His forte was sprints and distance running and his time for the 100 yards was a respectable 9.87 seconds. If he got the required 2 steps on a defender in either basketball or football, only a cheetah could catch him. He was one of those individuals who had that long wiry frame and his stamina was way above normal. He was 6 foot 2 inches tall and weighed 175 pounds. He had really wanted to go to college but things did not look like they were going to go his way. His parents were both service provider workers and did not have the money to send him to college, heck they couldn’t even afford to buy him books to go the local community college. That left one option. He went to the recruiters’ office a week after high school. The reason he waited a week was that was the day he turned 18.

4 years later he returned, honorable discharge papers in hand and the wherewithal to attend college for 4 years. He was a little older, a little wiser and a little stronger. He had spent 4 six month tours in a war zone, did some things no normal 18 or 19 year old should have ever been required to do. And learned some things no civilian walking around in the USA would ever think of. A small scar less then ¼ inch long adorned his left cheek. He laughed at that every time he looked in the mirror. He was in a concrete building and the phreakin place had only one window in it – you guessed it he got cut by a piece of flying glass from a grenade blast one of his squad had dropped from the top of the building to eliminate a person sneaking up to that window. He got a purple heart for that scratch and it wasn’t even hot metal that dinged him. There were several firefights he was involved in and he was sure nobody got hurt on any of them at least on his side. His luck held all during his time in that country and the IED (improvised explosive device) detonated on the opposite side of the HumVee he was riding in. The soldiers on that side were severely injured. He continued his sprints and distance running, but he had to do it later in the evening due to the heat. He found his limit was ten 5 minute miles, anything over that and his time went up to almost 8 minute miles. He was thinking he would try out for football and basketball at the college in 2 months when classes started.

The SHTF the week of July 9; his dreams of attending college were instantly shattered.

It happened so quickly the good sheeple of the USA had no idea anything was wrong until the lights went out permanently. The terrorists’ teams had to have planned this for many years. The 24 main power grids that transferred excess power from Canada to Mexico and from the east coast to the west coast were blown up at 3 pm pacific time on the 9th of July. 72 power generating dams across the US and Canada were damaged so heavily that it would take years if ever to repair them. 41 nuclear power plants in the country were each shot with one AT-4 anti tank missile on its dome. This ruptured 36 of the domes and caused the plant to SCRAM (shut down). The other 5 were manually shut down and it would take many months or years to check the integrity of those. 400 critical relay and electrical power transfer stations were blasted with 60mm mortars and completely destroyed. Hoover dam was invaded by 3 teams of terrorists and the generators blown up with large charges of C4. The power generating capability of the USA had been terminated.

The US military went to DEFCON 1 or THREATCON 1 - They did not yet have a country to retaliate against. The President of the US got on the hot line to Russia and China and received some more bad news – Their countries had also been struck and struck hard.

The satellites were still working because they were out of reach of a 3rd world country terrorist capability. So everyone thought. The terrorists knew they could not reach the satellites but they sure could destroy the ground infrastructure which they did with a vengeance. The only satellites still working was linked to on protected military installations and the terrorists did not have the man power or the weapons to take on a fully alert military base.

The terrorists had small planes flying low to the ground when the representatives were helicoptered out to their secure locations. They noted these locations and went into hiding for now.

The stock market just vaporized, there was no trading nor would there be any for who knew how long. The money printing presses in Washington DC rolled to a stop. Social Security checks could not be electronically transferred or sent by US Mail. The food stamp cards and welfare checks ceased. The big grocery chains sold out in 48 hours. There would be no more just in time deliveries for years. In other words if you didn’t have it, you ain’t gonna get it.

Untold thousands of critical care patients died from lack of food and or critical needed power to keep the systems up and running.

Back to our main character Clark.

story #2 part 2
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4 days had gone by since the power went off. Clark was sitting on his dad’s front porch saying a dirty 4 letter word over and over. The temperature in the shade was 93 degrees with 90% humidity. Sweat was dribbling down his forehead. He kept thinking I never sweated like this in 115 degree weather and the thought hit him – Ah there was no humidity in the desert. His dad came out and sat in the swing beside his boy. There was a little quiet tension for a few minutes until Clark broke it. He told his dad we cannot stay here, this city is going to explode soon and when the water tank up on the hill there, he pointed at the huge tank on the mountain top, dribbles out the last bit of water, there will be real bad times. His dad agreed with him and said your mom has a 1st cousin who is quite old and lives about 95 miles out of the city in the country and lives on a small 1 acre lot with a creek running through it. I have about 10 gallons of gas in the little shed and that will be enough to get the pickup there.

Clark asked him about guns, his dad said just those 4 long arms and a 357 revolver. A 12 guage pump, a 30-06 bolt gun, and the the lever action 30-30 I bought many, many years ago. There are 2 and ½ boxes of 180 grain 06 bullets, 2 boxes of 30-30, and about 75 #5 or #6 shot shells for the 12 guage and a full box of 50 158 grain jacketed hollow points for the .357. The last time they were out of the closet was when we went squirrel hunting and the last time for the 06 and 30-30 was when we went deer hunting. Clark sat there and said that was over 8 years ago. His dad looked at him and said yep. His dad said your mom is ready to leave; we just have to load the truck.

Clark backed the truck up to the shed which was beside the side door of the house. His dad poured most of the gas in the truck, kept about 2 gallons for the dual fuel lantern and Coleman stove, and Clark started loading their personal possessions. He brought all their important papers because he didn’t figure the house would be here when or if they ever came back. They did have a small amount of camping gear, the cupboard was emptied and his mom brought her sewing materials. The fridge and freezer had been emptied yesterday and the spoiling goods put in trash bags and placed on the curb where the rats and animals would eventually get into them because there would be no more trash pick-up.

Clark asked them if that was all and his dad said just a couple of more things to do, he turned the water, the main breaker and the gas off. Everyone said good bye to the house they had lived in for so long. Clark told his dad to load the pistol, the 06 and the shotgun and cover them up under a blanket on his side behind the driver’s seat in the bed of the truck. On second thought he said, give me the pistol and lay the box of shells on the floor board. Clark was back in combat mode.

just anoter story 2 Part 3
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They almost made it past the city limits on a back road before trouble struck. There were 4 autos in front of Clark and 1 behind him. He heard that unmistakable sound of gunfire.
He pulled over to the side of the road and motioned for the auto behind him to pass. The idiot got up close behind him to where Clark could not maneuver. He started to get out of the pick up and tell the idiot to let him back up. He looked close at his side rear view mirror and saw there were 3 guys, all black with big grins on their faces. Ah ha the thought hit him this is an ambush set up and he was last man to be picked off. He sure wished he had his squad with a SAW (squad automatic weapon) and a few other neat devices. Not gonna happen today he thought. OK this is easy. He jumped out of the truck and fired 3 rounds at the car behind him. The driver was the 1st to get shot. The passenger next and the dude smiling under the rear view mirror in the back seat lost his front top right tooth as the 357 bullet took it out through the back of his head. He jumped back in the pick up and told his dad to reload the pistol and backed up beside the car behind him after he had the reloaded pistol in his hand – Lucky me, he thought, he grabbed an AK 47 leaning on the seat beside the driver and a bandoleer of loaded magazines. The back seat man had an AR 15 or M-16 type weapon beside him on the seat. He grabbed it and 5 fully loaded magazines. He then backed up 200 yards and got the 06 from the bed of the truck. He checked under the bolt and saw the shiny brass round gleaming in the sun. He asked his dad about the 06 which had a no name brand 4X scope on it. His dad said ain’t anybody touched that gun since you shot it last. He dug deep in his memory and remembered he had zeroed it in to shoot 2 inches high at 100 yards and that would put him back on at 225 yards. He did all the 30 caliber weapons he picked up in that war zone the exact same way. It worked for him.

He settled down to wait and see how many idiots were robbing the unarmed sheeple. There were 6 of them. Pretty good odds for the amount of firepower he had laying beside him. He told his mom and dad to take a small walk to a grove of trees about 50 yards behind a small mound. He handed the shotgun and the pistol to him. He said if I remember right you cannot hit the side of a barn with a rifle. His dad gave him the finger and said yep. He parked the truck sideways in the middle of the road and pulled a pillow out of the back of the pick up. He leaned across the hood of the truck lay the 06 on the pillow and grinned an evil half grin. He laid the box of 06 bullets on the hood of the truck and took an aim at the big black guy who seemed to be screaming at the other 5.
Well, he thought I cannot stay parked here in the middle of the road with dead people everywhere, if there are any police working it will really look bad for me, unless I kill the police. Nope don’t wanna do that right now; things haven’t went all the way completely down hill yet. He held his point of aim on the big guy’s sternum and was going to track right to the other dude who had hair that looked like it stuck 2 feet straight up. The 1st 2 shots went true. The next 2 went true. Uh Oh the 2 remaining dudes took cover. Well I have to reload this sweet shooting gun. So he did. He walked behind the pickup and lay on the hot asphalt and saw their feet moving around behind a Chevy pick up. He grinned again and when one of the feet quit moving he shot it dead center right about 6 inches above the foot. The other 2 feet were moving to fast away from the auto for him to keep track of. He walked back to the hood and saw the guy about 320 yards away moving fast through a field of 2 foot tall hay. He held just on the back of his head and squeezed the trigger. A red spot appeared about mid center of the running mans back. Now I wonder how much damage was done to that idiots shin bone. He laid back down behind the truck and saw the man laying on the ground holding on to his leg and quivering all over. He shot him again, this time in the stomach. The quivering stopped and the guy ended up in a spread eagle position. He watched him for 2 minutes and there was no movement. He whistled for his dad and said lets get away from here. He picked up the 06 brass and pocketed it.

just another story #2 Part 4
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Clark stopped to check the other vehicles for survivors; his mom was giving him down the country for shooting them people. He snatched open the side door of the pick up and almost grabbed her by the hair of the head but came to his senses. The fiery combat mode was slowly fading. He politely asked her to come over to the side of a Ford car and look in the back seat. There was a 2 year old white boy or girl, he could not tell the sex that had been shot in the top of the head with a large caliber bullet and its little tongue was hanging out about an inch from its mouth and both eyeballs were hanging on its cheeks. He said to her in a really low voice. Mom, please do not try to second guess me on some things I do. She puked all over the side of the car. He left her to recover herself. His dad was looking around and said to Clark, they ain’t anything wrong with this Chevy 4 whl drive pick up other then the 2 dead people in it. Clark asked him if he wanted it. He said it has a full tank of gas and is loaded down with supplies that may come in handy later on. Clark said, good thinking dad. Let’s take it. I’ll get mom and put her in our truck. I don’t think she could ride in a blood spattered auto right away. It will take time until she realizes this is a changed country. He helped his dad remove the bodies from the Chevy and they headed out again.

just another story #2 Part 5
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He looked at his mom several times while traveling along. She had a glassy eyed look; he hoped it wasn’t a precursor to shock. A few minutes went by and she said Oh My God several times. It looked like she was going to pull herself together and she did. She looked at him and said, I didn’t know there were people who could do those kinds of things I just saw.” He answered her back, mom you ain’t seen nothing yet. If the military cannot get a handle on the masses in the cities there will be millions of people murdered and/or tortured for a little food. Those gang guys were just early opportunists and probably looking for money or valuables that aren’t going to be worth anything soon. Clean water, food and shelter will be the number one priority for survivors. He glanced again at her and noticed a kind of hard resolve come on her face. She said I hope you continue doing what you did, I was wrong to say anything. I am so glad you went in the military, they taught you some things extremely well. She then said about 40 more miles we have to take a right turn onto a small connecting road called Sommerlee Lane.

Clark was really good with finding his way around in a featureless desert combat zone. This was ridiculous 9 different turns onto different graveled roads in a mountainous forested area. He finally asked his mom how did you ever find this place the 1st time. She said, Oh I forgot to show you the markers. We used to come here a lot when I was young and my dad showed me the rocks and small metal stakes that the locals put up for night time travel. They finally arrived at Cousin Effie’s small stone cottage about 630 pm. There was an elderly lady on the front porch in a rocker with a shotgun leaning against the door jamb and after Clark got a closer look, elderly was way off. She was ancient. Effie said howyadoin Pearl. Clark had not heard anyone ever call his mom, Pearl before. She looked at Clark, giggled, and said I’ll tell you about the name later.

They were invited to the porch and the story swaps began. Effie said I hope youall’s got a gun or some ammeenition for my polkstalk. Them bad Ferdnand boys been ridin by on bicycles and givin me the evil eye. They don’t know I ain’t got any ammeenition, I used the last shell 2 days ago to shoot close to their feet when they started walkin towards my house.

Joe, Clark’s dad said we got some shells that will fit your gun Effie. Good, so ya’ll wanna stay here till this trouble goes away in the city. Joe said that was what we was going to ask you Effie. Of course ya’ll can stay here, I need the company and I need a little help canning up my garden. Why don’t we get in outta this heat Effie said? They walked in and Clark was amazed it was 20 some degrees cooler inside and he didn’t see an A/C, he smacked himself, no electricity. He asked her straight off how she kept it so cool. She gave him a toothless grin and said, why I just open up them thar vents to the root cellar under the house and let the cool ground air come in.

After they had a glass of tea, Effie said you should bring your stuff in and fix that other bedroom up. And you young man can have the couch. Clark looked at the couch, it was one of them ancient ones that was about 7 feet long and that suited him fine. He looked at it some more and saw it had hardly been used. She grinned and said to him that couch is 45 years old and ain’t nobody hardly ever sat on it. We un’s all sit on the rockers in the kitchen.

It was still daylight and the house had been set up for Clark’s family. Effie told Clark to take a look around outside and when you get on the other side of the garden watch for snakes in that rocky area. Clark put the .357 in his waistband and went for a stroll. It got dark to quick for him to recon the entire lot, so he went back in an they sat around the kitchen table talking till about 915 pm. Effie was on her way to bed when she told Clark she got up at daylight. Clark said that would be fine since that was about the time he got up.

Clark helped Effie make some breakfast. They had eggs and home made sourdough bread toast that was cooked outside on the wood burning porch stove. She said I always use this stove in the summer, keeps the house cooler. His parents got up about 9am.They found several pounds of coffee in the white pick up and had coffee and toast for breakfast. Clark noticed the vents to the root cellar were closed at about the time his parents arose.

just a story part 6
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Clark got some ideas about the surrounding terrain from Effie. Earlier he had taken his small amount of combat gear out that he had hidden in the bottom of his foot locker to send home on his 4 different trips. He had accumulated some pretty good gear, all except weapons. He put on his desert combat boots, one of 4 new pair he had, his Alice gear, he decided not to take today, just a shoulder rucksack. He got the 357 revolver to fit in the 9mm automatic holster and hooked that to a web belt and added a canteen. He put on a woodland BDU fatigues (set of camouflage fatigues), folded up the desert camouflage ones and pulled out a fatigue hat. He went through the gear and smiled when he pulled the generation 5 night vision helmet monocular out. He was a little scared when he reported it lost on a combat patrol with his helmet. The supply sergeant just issued him another one with a new Kevlar helmet. He took the thing apart and mailed half of it home and put the rest of it in his foot locker. The most important part had been mailed home so he wasn’t afraid of anyone finding some broken parts in his gear. He got away with it. He always wanted an AK, but the idiots in charge refused. He did send some wooden AK stocks home just to spite the military brass. A lot of his buddies had friends in the AF that were flight crew members and he knew for a fact they had sent a bunch of weapons home with them. Ah well one can’t have everything. He was just happy he had what he had. The laser 1600 yard rangefinder was his other jewel he had managed to obtain. Enough reminiscing he thought. He hefted the ruck sack with a few cans of beanie weenies, some extra ammunition and set off on his recon mission.

The 1st place he was going to look at was the bad Ferdnand boys’ property. After watching the place from a wooded hillside for a few hours he understood why they wanted Effie’s property and her supplies. They literally had nothing, it reminded him of those stories from the 1800’s, how people lived in a wooden shack on hard scrabble land. They had 2 pigs that he could smell from 500 yards away, their garden was about 6 foot by 6 foot and he guessed they lived on food stamps or welfare money. There was no way those 2 pigs and that little garden would feed 3 men through a WV mountain top winter. He knew trouble was coming but he would take care of that another day. He watched a little while longer as they cooked something that looked like a rabbit or a squirrel on an outdoor stone cook pit. The 6 X40 binoculars were pretty good but he wished he had a little better set. He left the area after 3 hours of watching their routine.

He hit a gravel road that Effie said would make a large circle if he kept making left turns on each new gravel road. He started jogging. Effie said it was about 9 miles around the area she lived in. He saw wood smoke and smelled it in several locations. He would recon those areas another time. Today was just to get a feel for the place. He made it around the area in about 2 hours. He then slipped off into the woods near Effies cottage and scouted the place for game. There was plenty of squirrel, rabbit, pheasant and turkeys. He watched several deer bed down in some laurel thickets. He eased back onto the gravel road in front of Effies and returned to the cottage.

just a story - part 6a laying some groundwork
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It was a question and answer session for Clark with Effie. His dad and mom chimed in every now and then. The conversation went something like this –Clark - Effie how ya fixed for chicken feed for the chickens? Effie - We gonna have to eat and/or can the chickens afore winter comes, ain’t got but a 20 pound sack of cracked corn left. Clark, why can’t ya lettem free range? – Effie - To many coyotes, skunks, chicken hawks and what not out there, had to put double layers of steel fencing around the coop to keep the chicken eatin critters away. I do takem to the garden when the plants are up to lettem eat the bugs and new grass and then it’s a big chore to gather em back up when I do takem out of the coop. Clark – Do you have any fencing? – Effie – Nope, cost too much. Clark – I see you have rabbit hutches against the shed. – Effie – Yep, had to eatem and can em – Cost of rabbit food got to much. Clark – I also see there is a pasture out there with 4 foot tall grass in it. – Effie – Yep, had to have Burl and another man come get my cow and butcher it for me. She went dry. – Clark – How ya fixed for canned vegetables and meat in the root cellar? Effie – Got enough for 4 people to eat for 2 years. Got enough of a garden and enough chickens to replace what we eat to add another year to that. Iffen I had a fence or one of dem movable chicken things We could keep the chickens till maybe late November. Also, Iffen I had some rabbits, I could get enough worms to dry and feed the chickens up until February, but that is a maybe., won’t know it until I try it. We also gonna run outta flour in about 2 mos, ain’t got but that there 50 pound sack left and its getting kinda buggy, have to run it through the sifter every time I get some out.
Clark just said, I see.

The food situation wasn’t too bad yet, Clark thought. He was going to have to do some requisitioning – Just like everybody else was going to have to do.

just another story #2 Part 7
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Clark didn’t do anything for 3 days except run the gravel roads and think. He knew one thing Effie could have worked in any 5 star kitchen as the chief cook. He had never eaten such fine food. Everything she cooked tasted 10,000 times better than what he had eaten before. Maybe it is the mountain air, Maybe it is living in a pollution free place. He had no idea except he would probably weigh 500 pounds if he wasn’t careful.

Clark hit the dirt and rolled into the forest. He knew what that angry hissing sound was that flew past his head; he had heard it many times. He was about 3 miles from the cottage on one of the gravel roads and he was also close to the bad Ferdnand boys place as Effie called them. The sharp crack of the rifle came a second or so later. This ticked him off. People should not be shooting at innocent people and he laughed and that evil grin came on his face. There was no question in his ex-military mind who had done the deed. All that the bad Ferdnand boys had done was shorten the time they had on this earth. He had asked Effie about where the mother was. She just said the mommy had taken the 2 young girls and packed up and left. She kind of had a far away look in her eyes when she said – I heard something about incest. He just nodded his head.

He reached in his rucksack for the hard case he kept in it. He put the heavy duty military issue, strap around the head, safety glasses on and started running through the woods. They were really for night time use while on patrol in a forested area to keep anyone from losing an eye. He wasn’t taking any chances because he was going to run flat out in case one of the idiots would track him. He didn’t want to get in a gunfight with a pistol when the other guy had a rifle. He had run up a 30 degree slope on a mountain and it just about wore him out. He also knew, unless the other guy was a world class running athlete, there was no way anyone was going to catch him. He made about a 4 more mile circuit of the hills at a slow jog; he was keeping a lot of energy in reserve in case he had to depart the area quickly.

22 year old Jed Ferdnand said to his 21 year old brother Bubba, you missed him. Bubba said that’s ok I’ll run him down and shoot him. He ain’t got a gun as far as I could see. 30 minutes later Bubba hollered for Jed to come help him find the guy – I found his tracks and it looks like he ran thataway. Jed said well lets follow him he can’t be very fast with those combat boots on. We oughta catch him in an hour or so. 2 hours later Bubba told his brother half way up that 30 degree slope, this guy must be in purty good shape. I’m about wore out. Jed said let’s go home we can get him tomorrow. He don’t know it was us n’s that shot at him. Bubba said that’s a good idée.

Clark made it back to the cottage at 4pm. He had come through the woods and exited onto the road as close to the cottage as he could. He ran flat out to the door and entered.
After telling everyone what had happened, Effie asked him if he could shoot that rifle he had. Clark grinned at her. She said I know a little deer path about 700 yards on the other end of my lot that will getcha about 300 yards from the front door of their cabin. Clark said I know where you are talking about. I looked over their place from the other side on that mountain. She grinned at him and said I knowd you was a good boy.

Clark ate a sandwich, lay down for 15 minutes to regather his strength. He then set off with the 30-06 and 40 extra rounds. He thought if I can’t get three people from 300 yards away with 40 bullets I ain’t got no business people hunting.

He got there just as Bubba and Jed walked up to the cabin. Both of them had a rifle over their shoulder. Bubba sat down on a stump outside and laid the gun on a log table. Jed came out with what Clark thought was a cleaning kit. Yes it was a cleaning kit. He did not have the 3 piece screw together cleaning rod. He was using probably a nail tied onto a string and pulling some material through the barrel. He found a nice swale in the ground and got into a prone position. He waited till Jed and Bubba were lined up and shot bubba through the chest hoping the 06 bullet would have enough oomph to take Jed out also. He immediately tracked left and shot the other man, Delbert, in the chest. He knew their names because Effie had told him, but he wasn’t sure which one was which. All 3 men were down and there was no movement. He waited half an hour before approaching. The shot on the 2 men had done just that. The 06 180 grain bullet had punched through the first one he called Bubba and then hit Jed in the chest. He looked at Jeds chest and the hole going in was about the size of a 5 cent piece, and coming out of Jed was about 2 silver dollar sizes. But it was a ragged double silver dollar size hole because of the meat and bone it had pushed through the body. So he knew the 8 year old 180 grain bullet had expanded perfectly. The other guy had been hit just a little bit above the sternum and punched through his spine while exiting and made a huge exit hole mess.

Clark sat there for a few minutes. Effie had told him no one ever went on their property because they were afraid of them. That made things simple for Clark. He took all their clothes off and threw the naked men in the double pig pen. The pigs were about 400 pounds. He would check back tomorrow and remove the bones if any were left and bury them on the back side of one of the mountains in a post hole digger size dug hole. Before he left he burned their clothes, He went in the shack and got all their clothes and burned them too. The rifles were both 30-06 Remington bolt action, one had a, surprise, surprise, a Vari X 3 Leupold scope. Must have stole it, Clark thought. He spent about 30 minutes going through everything in the cabin. There was a Browning semi-automatic 12 guage, another surprise, and 6 boxes of #4 lead shotshell, squirrels, rabbits and turkeys he thought. He found 2 tubes of silver dollars and 4 tubes of Mercury head dimes. Some body was thinking ahead and saved some silver. There was 8 boxes of 30-06 180 grain Remington bullets. Those were what he was using. This was a good find. There were some fresh dug potatoes, 2 ten pound sacks of flour, some fresh dug onions and a bunch of spices. This was going to take him 3 or 4 trips to haul the goodies home.

just a story #2 part 8
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He carried the 06 with the high dollar Leupold scope home and the 2 sacks of flour. Effie looked at him and said I hope you eliminated some vermin. Clark nodded. He told his dad, you can make that little walk with me tomorrow and we can load up some stuff and bring it back on the road on those bi cycles they got over there, or we can drive over there and load some stuff into the pick up and make one trip. His dad said lets take the truck.

They got to the Ferdnand’s place about 615am and loaded up everything worth while into the truck. He told his dad to stay by the truck for a while, because he wanted to check on something. There was a lot of meat left in the pig pen, he would ride a bi cycle back tomorrow and make another check. The pigs looked healthy and a lot fatter. He grinned.

His mom didn’t say anything about the supplies they brought back. Effie had a toothless grin that lit up the house. Clark decided to make the recon on those other places he had smelled and seen smoke. He asked Effie about what she knew about the other people living around her. She said most of the people are really closed mouth and don’t shoot the breeze much. But here’s what I know about em.,,

Clark spent 6 days checking the other residents out. They were just what Effie said they were. Survivalists or preppers. They did not bother anybody; they tended their large gardens and minded their own business. Clark noted some of them had large solar systems and 50 foot tall short wave antennas. He wrote down in his log to ask them how the rest of the world was getting along and if the government had started their broadcasts. That posed another problem. How do you approach them without getting shot from long range? Information was needed to find out if there are any diseases ravaging the country or if the government has set up logistic points to resupply the local people with food and medical help.

The next morning he talked it over with them and Effie said that’s simple on how to contact them. Leave a note in their mailbox and raise the flag. Ok. Now what does the note say. They slung that question around for a while. Effie again solved the problem with a simple solution. Why dontcha just askem if they have any news about what we talking about, and if they do to put it in Effies mail box. One more thing I wantcha to askem, see if they have anything to trade and if they do list the items. Well Clark thought that’s simple enough to do. 14 notes were written and placed in the mailboxes.

just another story #2 part 9
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When he rode the bicycle back to check on the remnants of the bodies he found 3 skulls and some long bones. He gathered that mess up and put it in a burlap sack he found in a shed. He continued to search around the property and found something really useful. 2 50 foot rolls of ¼ inch mesh rabbit fencing and another 5 rolls of old rusty 50 foot, 36 inch tall chain link fence. Well here were the makings of a chicken sled. Continuing his systematic search of the property, he found a small cave that had a still in it and at least 20 bags of 100 pound cracked corn for making moonshine and 500 pounds of sugar. The sugar was in 50 pound bags and was as hard as a rock. He didn’t think sugar went bad or spoiled. Now he knew where the silver and high dollar scope came from, moonshine profit. WooHoo he thought – He could now have eggs and fried or roasted chicken for another couple of years.

It was the 30th of July and the chicken sled was completed. It took Clark and his dad to move it every day but there was no chicken feed being used. And the chickens were as happy a male rabbit with 10 female rabbits in a cage. If the chicken sled was to be moved a long distance, the truck would be used. The Chevrolet pick up had ¾ tank of gas and the family truck had ½ tank. The bicycles were used by everyone except Effie. She slowly walked to wherever she wanted to go.

There were 8 notes in Effie’s mail box. The US had collapsed and there were no resupply locations being set up by the government. Diseases of all kinds were rampant in any population center. The population had shrunk to less then 40 million people. The farmers had been inundated with overflowing frenzied fleeing city people. The farms in other words were overrun and basically destroyed by city folks who had no idea of what a person had to do to eat another day. They took it all and ate it and wondered why the ground was not producing bread and vegetables for them to eat the next day.

This is what Clark did not want to hear, but it was the result he expected. He would start scavenging some equipment to keep this little piece of property running for many years. He made of list of things he would need.

The rest of the world was someplace a human did not want to be. Anarchy reigned in all the European countries due to the collapse of their money and the US dollar. No exports to feed the starving masses in the 3rd world countries were shipped out. Most of those dependent on US food died off. The US was in super bad shape as far as transporting and feeding the remaining population. Disease was rampant and no new medical supplies were being produced. This meant anyone dependent on long term medicine would soon die. The military still had fairly good control of the big installations that housed the nuclear war heads. All in all No country wanted the nuclear wrath of the US to descend on them. So the status quo as far as another country taking over the US remained the same.

Now back to those 4000 terrorists that started all this, the remaining numbers had fallen to about 2900. That was still a formidable force to be reckoned with, especially when the US was trying to get a handle on the major outbreak of diseases that were tearing through the country.

just a story #2 part 10
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The remaining terrorists had gone to ground after the 1st attack. Some lived in tents in deep woods, some as regular people in apartment buildings. Anyways they were spread out and had extremely well documented backgrounds that would pass a cursory examination. They were just biding their time waiting to implement their next pre planned attack. The people that had formulated this plan were some kind of evil geniuses. They didn’t know that what they had done would cause such massive damage. If a Muslim knew how to high five they would all be doing it 29 days after their 1st attack. On the 30th day they set out to complete the 2nd phase of their plan. Since the USA had 3 time zones in the lower 48 the attack would have to be staggered to accomplish their goal. The small contingent in Alaska had their own time table. The attack was set to drop a cocktail of contagious airborne weaponized virus at 220 am on each military base. Only two 60 millimeter mortar shells would be fired into the personnel sections of each military base. The shell heads were constructed of super tough plastic that would shatter when hitting the ground and if they did not shatter a large rifle primer would detonate along a specially designed seam to crack the shell head open and release the cocktail of virus. The large rifle primer could not be activated until the shell had traveled 100 meters. These devices had been tested and were 99% effective. At 220 am in that time zone 329 military bases were infected with common and a not so common virus. The locations that the representatives had been choppered to were also hit at that time. The powers that be had let the representatives and senators out of the shelters during the day because there was no NBC (nuclear, biological or chemical) threat. The terrorists buried their equipment and headed for a pick up point on the coast of northern Maine. The pick up was set for April of the following year giving the attackers plenty of time to travel the distance. The last phase of the operation was for the ones coming from the west coast to drop an pad infected with mad cow disease and hoof and mouth disease on as many working cattle farms they could access easily on their trek east.

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just another story #2 Part 11
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Clark’s parents had been slopping the hogs for a while now. They asked Effie what they should do with that now almost 1000 pounds of pork on the hoof. No one but Clark knew the hogs had eaten the Ferdnand clan. Effie said, lotta work to butcher a big hog like dat. I use ta do it when I was younger. Iffen you un’s wanna butcher it, I cn show ya how. Can’t do it now – too hot, After the first frost we un’s cn do it. Probly make some hams, bakin, and a lotta pok chops and pok roasts, shud save a buncha lard too. It be best to trade one of em on the hoof off for somethin.

Clark wanted to make a run to a ravaged city, anyone would do, He needed some things that regular city people had no use for. Number one on the list was a few good chain saws. He knew the winters were really cold up on the 17 and 1800 foot levels of these mountains. He had been looking at Effies wood pile and they would be lucky to have enough to cook on for a couple more months. He had looked at her inside wood/coal stove for heating. It was a huge one made back in the early 1920’s and the metal casing looked to be ½ inch thick and the grate on the bottom would probably last another 200 years. He asked her how good it heated the house up. She said – I have ta quit putting wood in it about 7 pm or the house gets to hot to sleep in. It ain’t got no hot coals in it when I get up but the metal lid is still warm. How about smoke coming in the house when the door is open. Nope, as long as ya gotta good fire burnin in it. Iffen you ain’t gotta good fire it’ll smoke the livin room up. About 20 some year ago I got one of dem good rebate checks from our gubmint and I bot some high dollar stainless steel chimnee pipe, sposed to last 50 or more years. So I reckon the pipe be here long after I’m gone. The outdoor wood stove vents up through some fancy stone work and the kitchen stove goes through the wall and straight up through some more fancy stone work. Ain’t never had no trubble with either of em. I always get a hot fire in em and that cuts down on the tar bild up. The caps on the top of the outside chimneys are made out 5/16 inch iron and they look just as good as the day they were put up there 50 year ago. Burl come by about 25 year ago when I was havin trubble with chimney swift birds bildin nests in em and covered em in some thick ¼ inch holed stainless steel fencing stuff. And that eliminated that problem.

Clark had looked at the construction of the house and was amazed at the fine work that had been done 75 or more years in the past. He knew why it stayed cool when she opened the root cellar vents into the house. The walls were about 22 inches thick and had an air gap in the middle – The builders had put a 10 inch stone on the inside and a 12 inch stone on the outside with as far as he could tell a 2 inch gap between the stones. The interior of the kitchen ceiling was real 2 X 12’s and entry up in the attic showed that the 2X12’s had been covered with that 12 inches of insulation they used 75 year ago and that was covered with real 1 X 10 planks. The roof joists were real 2 X12’s and the covering on the roof were more 2 X12’s and the outer covering was 1 inch thick slate on a 6 – 12 inch pitch for snow to slide off and no chance for rain to gather in a crack. Whoever built this house 75 years or more ago wanted an eternal small castle. And it has held up extremely well. The root cellar was the same dimensions as the upper floor of the house with a dirt floor and you guessed it 2 X12 shelves all the way around the cellar walls from 1 foot off the floor all the way to 12 inches from the 2nd floor under the kitchen. The shelves were anchored into the stone walls with heavy metal fasteners. He wondered if there was insulation on top of the bottom floor under the kitchen. He was willing to make a bet there was. He was curious and measured the thickness of the bottom floor where he could get a sheet of paper up beside it against the wall. Yep – 2 X 12. There were ingenious sliding boards that opened up to each of the 5 rooms in the house and that was the vents that let the cool air up into the house. It was about 50 degrees in the root cellar, a place to go to if you ever wanted to cool down quickly in the summer. There were 2 heavy doors you had to open to gain entry into the root cellar and he was amazed at how tight they were even after all these years. Yes indeed, the builders of this house were master carpenters and stone masons.

2 other things he noted. The kitchen had a manual well pump as did the bathroom to flush. He asked Effie about the pipes going up the bathroom wall beside the shower and iron tub combination. She said oops i fergot to mention that to ya. There is a 25 gallon black cast iron tank on the south wall outside, iffen ya wanna take a hot shower in the evening ya gotta open the valve to the tank and pump water into it so's it'll get warm in tha day. It ain't much good in the wintertime unless they be an Indian summer or a cupla hot days.

just another story #2 Part 12
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They sat around the table and made some lists up on what they thought they would need in the coming times. Effie had a short list – see if ya cn find me a manual wringer washer, I knew I shud not have sold mine to that idjut woman collector when we got electric power out here. Clark said there is one in the Ferdnand’s shack. Dang, Effie said I didn’t think them boys ever warshed anything. Another thing Effie said I like store bot soap, I cn make all that gritty soap a person wud ever use. But I dun got partial to that sweet smellin Dial soap. I’d like to have sum more kerosene, I theenk there is 12 or so gallon in the shed and if we un’s careful, that otta last about 4 years. Keep in mind it get dark early here in winter an we gonna need some good light. If we gonna make them hams an bakin outta that hog, we gonna need some brown sugar and a hunnert or so pounds of salt, not that kind that got idine in it. I ruined some good meat one time usin that. That’ll do me for a bit. Just use some common sense when ya gatherin stuff up.

Clark spent the next 2 days in classroom work teaching his mom how to handle and shoot the M-16, it was an M-16 full auto. People who have never touched a firearm before, especially women tend to pay attention and learn more then the average red-neck who has went deer hunting with his drunken buddies and shot a box of ammo off once a year. The last words he told her before he left the following morning were, do not put that selector switch to full auto unless there are 40 Zombies coming through the door. He had let her shoot 30 rounds and she was surprisingly a good shot out to a hundred yards. She did get to find out what would happen if the gun was put on full auto. Clark had put 6 rounds in the magazine and she said Gee Whiz that was mighty quick. Clark grinned.

Clark and his dad left the following morning. They had 4 guns, the 06, 12 guage, AK-47 and the 357. They had to bring the little 1000 watt generator, that was in the chevy pick up with them, they may have to find a pump and pump some gasoline out of a service station tank. They had both read the information that was in Effies mail box about the diseases that was running rampant throughout the US. Clark told his dad you are going to have to stay in the pickup with one of those masks we found in the truck. I am going to wear one also. I have been vaccinated against most of this stuff floating around and you haven’t. My vaccinations are still current from my military time. The news had not yet filtered out about what had happened at the military bases. Effie had told Clark about the 2 small towns that had good hardware stores and decent grocery stores and were just a little ways off the main highway. They drove through the 1st town at a high rate of speed and stopped out of sight around a curve. Clark hit the woods and started a recon. His dad had backed the truck up into a 1 lane rutted road that ended 50 feet back in the woods, it was enough, the truck was invisible from the roadway.

Clark walked the whole town and never seen a soul or heard a sound. The hardware store was trashed but what he was looking for he found. Chainsaws, pump, some hose for the pump, a set of 30 inch bolt cutters, a small tool box to remove batteries and some hand size heavy duty wire cutters. 8 metal 5 gallon gas cans were in the ware room. He gathered everything and placed it by the back door. Next stop, the grocery store, All the food was gone, he expected that, he found the salt and brown sugar and a case of dark molasses. There must have been 500 bars of soap strung all over the place he got a buggy and picked it all up, several packages of safety razors and some shaving cream. Some feminine pads for his mom, all the toilet paper was gone but there were 3 cases of Bounty towels on a side shelf. All this went to the back door. He ran and got his dad and 2 quick stops later they had the items in the back. They stopped at a gas station and Clark screwed the cover off the underground tank. He dropped the 25 foot of black hose in the hole with a metal weight tied to it. He pulled it up and saw there was about a 6 inch wet spot on the hose. They fired the generator up hooked the pump to it and filled the truck first then the 11 cans they had – He had brought the 3 empty ones from Effies shed. Clark figured there was probably 200 gallons or more in that underground tank, so he screwed the lid back on it. They stopped at a NAPA and found 2 12 oz bottles of Stabil on the shelf. If you didn’t get down on your hands and knees and shine a light back on the shelf, you would not have found them. Well dad we been lucky so far, want to push it a little. His dad looked a little nervous but he said I’m game. Clark told him he wanted to cruise around the wealthier neighborhoods and look for some solar panels. If we don’t do any good there, we can cruise the railroad tracks and find a solar operated switching station and take it and the battery. That will give us some real florescent light instead of candle or lantern light. They were at the end of a large cul de sac when Clark looked at a 3 story mansion and said that must have been nice to stay in and have parties. His dad was making the turn when it clicked on him, the porch light was on. He said go out to the end of the corner and back into a driveway and wait for me. Clark got out and followed the chain link fence around to the back of the huge house. He noticed the grass had grown up and the plants and flowers in the hanging vases were dead. There were leaves in front of the door and spider webs on the door handle. He eased around to the front and the front door and plants were the same as the back. OK, he clipped the pad lock on the back walkway gate and entered. Dang, I bet those solar panels are running a burglar alarm. Not to worry he thought, he hadn’t seen a soul in this town, much less a police presence. He cut the lock on the driveway gate, ran and got his dad and drove the pick up behind the house after he shut the gate.

OK dad, unless these people are holed up in a bomb shelter, we should be OK. He went back around to the front of the building and unscrewed the 100 watt florescent bulb and put it in his ruck sack. He started to use the large crow bar on the back door, when his dad said have you turned the knob? Clark felt stupid. The dang door opened. He noticed right away the blinking light panel on the side of the wall. Uh Oh, well I’ll just have to wait till it goes off and tear the alarms off the wall or wherever they are. He laughed; a voice came from a few speakers saying the police have been notified of a burglary in progress. It kept saying it over and over and over and it finally got on his nerves. Let’s find the batteries for that solar system and disconnect them. The batteries were in the basement and were those huge ones like a mine buggy battery that weighed several hundred pounds. His dad said do not disconnect anything yet, the lights will go out.

They searched the house for useful items, the guy had to of been a prepper, there were 10,000 rolls of toilet paper in one basement side room. Strange Clark thought no food. His dad said I betcha he has one of them bug out places and will probably be back for this most important item and he started laughing and couldn’t stop. Clark just stared at him for a bit before he continued to search the house. He found a dolly, the kind that you could walk up and down steps with the extra wheels. Let’s take 2 solar panels today and comeback with both pickups tomorrow and get some toilet paper and as many batteries and solar panels as we can next trip. Sounds like a winner his dad said. They made it home and still did not see anyone. This is strange Clark was thinking.

just a story #2 part 13
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They unloaded the items and carried the solar panels to Effie’s barn. The gasoline was treated and put in the shed. After supper Clark and his dad told Effie about the days events. Effie said glad ya got the salt, molasses and brown sugar. We can cure up a bunch of stuff from that hog after it gets cold. She took at least 25 bars of soap and walked to her room with a wide toothless grin. Pearl as everyone had started calling his mom said I would like to go with you to that house and look at the curtains and towels. Clark didn’t see anything wrong with this and told them he would drive their truck and fill it up at the gas station before going to the solar paneled house.

3 days later and 2 men with almost broken backs were finished gathering the toilet paper, panels and those heavy, heavy batteries. Clark told Effie that in a few weeks as soon as he got the solar panels rigged up on some metal racks beside the house, she could use her electric washer. He mentioned quickly that he was going to bring the manual wringer washer from the Ferdnand’s place and store it in the barn. That made her happy. They still needed a few things and were planning another trip to gather some transmission fluid to use in the chain saws for bar lube. And look for some Stabil or Pri – G. She told him where an Advance Auto and an Auto Zone store were in a 3rd town which was larger then the one he had just been in. They had taken all the screw in Florescent 100 watt bulbs from that house and replaced Effie’s 60 watt incandescent bulbs throughout the house including the 2 in the root cellar.

The next trip netted him the Pri-G from Advance auto, 2 cycle oil and the transmission fluid. He and his dad could now cut some firewood for winter. They stopped at the gas station they had been taking gas from and Clark poured in enough Pri G and STP water remover to treat 200 gallons. That would be their long term personal stash of petrol.

They cut some dead wood first to increase the wood pile and then cut all the 4 to 6 inch trees by the road to eliminate any long hauling of wood. They mostly got lucky and 95 % of the cut trees fell on the road way where it was cut into 18 inch sections for the house stoves.

Clark knew you were not supposed to cut wood in the summertime when the tree was full of sap, but he had no choice in the matter if they wanted to stay warm this coming winter. He hoped Aug, Sep, and Oct would be enough time to dry the logs. They were stacked so they had air moving over and through them. 16 cords of wood later they called it quits, cleaned the chain saws, emptied the petrol and let them run dry, because he had not found any carburetor repair kits for those models he had. He did find some spark plugs at one of the auto stores and a 3 way file to sharpen the chains at a hardware store. They poured the chain saw mixed gas through an old T-shirt into one of the treated 5 gallon gas cans and marked a big C for chain saw on it. Both pickups were for all practical purposes full and the oil looked clean in them so they parked the trucks. He would like to have one of those 2 car aluminum car ports to keep them out of the snowy weather that would be here in a little over 3 months. Effie had plenty of room on the farm to set one up but she had no cement to anchor the posts. He talked that problem over with his dad and Effie and she said I gotta post hole digger out there in the shed, Clark knew this because he had used it to bury some bones, he grinned at that thought. Effie continued on, don’t need no cement, just make dem holes 5 feet deep and chunk some rocks in around em afore ya put the dirt back. That’s all we ever did when we put a post in da ground. Clark thought that would probably work. They planned to make a trip to the closest town they had 1st been to and jack one of them 2 car – car port posts out of the ground with a bumper jack. It will be simple to screw it apart and let the top hang out of the back of the pick up when we bring it home.

3 days later and many burst hand blisters from using the post hole digger, the car port was up and Clark knew the 4 foot he had buried the posts and the 5 inch bolts he had put near the bottom of the pole through a drilled hole in the pipe would insure the wind would not get under it and blow it away. The cab of the trucks just cleared the top of the car port by an inch or so. Good work he told his dad. Let’s rest up for a few days before we tackle any more jobs. Clark only ran 4 miles that evening.

just a story #2 Part 14
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Clark told the family at breakfast the next morning that this waiting on the neighbors to leave them a note in the mailbox was not a very efficient way of getting information or communicating. They made another trip to town looking for trucks with CB antennas on them, preferably one of those long springy ones attached to the bumper. A base station would really be nice. They found 2 cars that had the magnetic 12 inch antennas on the roof. They took the CB’s and the antennas and kept looking. They found a taxi stand that had a base station and a large antenna on the back of the cab stand. This would do for now. On the way back from town Clark’s dad told him to stop at an excavation site they had noticed on the 1st trip. There was a white pickup with a 12 foot antenna on the bumper. They took that CB and the truck antenna. They were now set to communicate with those neighbors that had CB reception.

Before they got home with the disconnected CB’s and base station which was in the back of the truck. There was something else the terrorists did while they were on their way home. The terrorists had launched 4 enhanced scud missiles on each corner of the US pointed inwards from small 50 foot or so long boats. The scuds had small nuclear devices, bought from Russia. The missiles detonated about 60 kilometers high producing an electromagnetic pulse that entirely covered the lower 48 states. This further damaged small electrical systems the small infrastructure left alive, from the riots and food stampedes, had set up. This was something else the terrorists did that they did not find out till later.

They could not install the base station until the solar panels and batteries were hooked up, but they could install one of the CB’s in their pickup with the long antenna. That was done that evening. A note was put in the neighbors’ mail boxes telling them they would broadcast and listen on channel 16 at 8 am, and 6 pm. The neighbors were also informed that they had a base CB station and were going to hook it up in the next several days and they would then monitor it from the house all the time unless they were working in the garden or out and about. Clark thought this was a start and put in his log book to look for a shortwave radio and the appropriate antenna.

Over the next week 2 more scavenging trips had to be made to gather some nuts, bolts and some more metal poles to place the solar panels on, a battery box was made with scrap lumber and some roofing put on it beside the house. Finally they had power 10 days after they started putting the system together. The only reason this system, the CB’s and the base station worked was it had all been disconnected from any long electrical wiring systems. The reason the automobiles worked was they were down 45 feet in the excavation pit parked by a large metal bridge footer on the west side that was being erected, removing the CB from that construction job truck. The east coast pulse went to both sides of their automobiles; the west coast pulse did not have enough pulse to cover the 2500 mile distance to reach them. Talk about luck the Clark family was rolling in 4 leaf clovers. There would be very few new automobile gasoline engines running in the US, unless it was parked on the lower level of a massive concrete parking garage.

Clark wondered how Effie used the electric washer with no water pump on the well. She showed him the 40 gallon cast iron tank mounted in the corner of the kitchen with a pipe running in and one running down to the washer. She said it was a little bit of work to pump the water into the overhead tank, but that tank held enuff water to do a load of laundry. I always wanted to run a line off that one way up there by the ceiling down here to the sink and then use dat to rinse dishes and wash things up without pumpin the handle ever so often. Clark thought that since they now had power he may be able to rig up some kind of pump to alleviate that problem. That job went in his log book.

The news was eventually passed on to Effie and Clark’s family on what had transpired in the US in the past few weeks. The entire legislative body was dead due to some disease or virus that had gotten into their shelter. Over 300 and some military bases had their personnel reduced by 95%, cause – Virus. The US was just about 100% dependent on its nuclear submarine force to provide a nuclear deterrent. The men and women who were manning the nuclear missile arsenal had to come out of their underground bunkers. There had been no resupply of food or water. Most of the bunkers only had enough supplies for 30 days. The huge 25 ton blast doors to Cheyenne Mountain were opened, same reason, no food. The military that had been locked in were told to scavenge for food and if a large enough supply were found to contact the staff that were remaining. Never did happen. The military people went either to their homes or became small survival groups, living off the land. They were well armed.

just another story #2 Part 15
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End of August the 4 were busy canning produce from the garden. There were many things they did not have but they were getting along. They were lucky in the dental department, Clark and his dad had those teeth with the perfect gap that did not allow food to get trapped, plus the dad and Pearl came from good dental stock. So far no one had any medical problems. They had no idea about Effie’s health; she hadn’t been to a Doctor in over 30 years. All she would say is I know I am getting old and I have some aches I never had many years ago. They all wondered about her vision, she just told them, I can still see a fly on the window. The window was 30 feet away, so they didn’t say anymore about that.

Clark and his dad had studied and thought and came to the conclusion there was no way they were going to get a pump hooked up to the well without digging a new well and installing one. That wasn’t going to happen. So everybody got a workout on the manual pumping of water. They did hook some plastic pipe up to the kitchen tank and ran it to the sink. They now had a supply of water for rinsing and a quick hand wash. Clark thought the tank water would get nice and warm in the winter time with the stove burning and some warm water would be available for dish and hand washing. The creek was looked at as a source of water to be pumped to the house. After measuring the distance 630 yards, they just put that on a something to think about list.

It was a really hot August and what remaining plants there were almost wilted away. A few good rains pulled them back from becoming compost. A thought hit Clark’s dad. He asked Effie about garden fertilizer, she said all I ever used was cow droppings I gathered up in September and October and spread em out in da garden. She looked at Clark and his dad and said we un’s either gonna have ta get a cow or some of dat store bot fertilizer for nex year. Effie knew from long gardening experience that when you took something edible out of the ground, you had to put something back, namely fertilizer. Clark said, well I guess we will put a cow on our find list. Effie said, not yet young man. I ain’t got no hay, corn or feed ta feed it over the winter. One other thing ya cn theenk about, need us n’s a female cow bout 3 yr old. And while ya thinking on that, need ta get her serviced so’s we cn have sum calves an milk later on. Clark looked at her and said, there is a lot more to this farming then I knew. One more question he asked. What about putting the cow out in the pasture so it can eat during the winter? She said something Clark hadn’t heard since he left the military. Yeah right, and who gonna move da 4 or 5 foot of snow offa dat covered up grass so’s da cow cn eat. He shut up because he was way out of his depth.

just another story #2 Part 16
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They knocked around some plans in the morning; nothing seemed to spark any of them. They did their daily routine and thought some more in the afternoon. Effie said for starters, if we un’s gonna get a cow, you may as well start gatherin up some hay from da abandoned farms out on da main hi way. Gotta have hay for da barn for da cow to stay in either in da winter or da summer. Mark down whereya see some corn or cow feed. Sure would like ta have some baby chick feed to start some new little ones this spring. Iffen ya can get one of dem hay haulers, load it up an we un’s cn park it in the barn, so’s ya won’t have to unload it. I thought of a few more things, but dat’s enuff for a start. Clark asked her where she thought a good abandoned one would be close enough for them to make a look-see. You’n a purty smart boy – I been to several of dem small farms in outta da way places. Let me draw ya a map. The 1st farm they went to, 2 bullet ricochets’ off the asphalt road in front of the truck enlightened them. They made a hasty retreat thanking someone somewhere for the people in that farm for not shooting them through their windshield.

The 2nd farm had some hay but no hay hauler. The 3rd farm they hit the jackpot. When the farmer had left he released his cows into the pastures, think big, 4000 acres of pasture land. Clark counted about 22 cows and calves near the barn. The hayloft was full of string tied square bales and a road traveling hay hauler was in a large shed. Clark and his dad had a smile on their face. They loaded the hay into the hauler and hooked it on to the pick up. That job wore the muscles in both their arms out. They headed home to tell Effie about the find. The hay was parked in the barn. Effie said to them. That’s good work, now which one of ya know how to tell which calve belongs to which cow. She got a blank look. OK I will go back with ya’ll tomorrow and we will bring us ‘ns our cows home. Nope, she said, we’uns need some cow feed/oats and a trailer to move em. Ya’ll go look some more and find those things afore we bring any cows here.

Clark and his dad finally, after a 2 day search of 8 more farms found everything Effie told them to get. After the barn was stocked with feed for the cow, Effie got in the pick up with them and went to retrieve the cow and calf or calves. Effie looked over the entire (she called em a mess) herd of cows and picked a healthy looking momma (her words) and 2 calves, 1 female and 1 male. Clark and his dad learned something that day. She grabbed the nose ring on momma cow and pulled it into the hauler and took a switch and beat the 2 young ones right in beside the momma. The tail gate was shut and she said I wanna look around this place afore we go home. There was no food, but she spotted the 2 freezers that were empty with the lids open. That be your next pick up she told them. She found an electric butter churn and got that big toothless grin. We take this with us now. She picked up several things and loaded them in the pick up and said, this place has lotsa stuff we need and we’uns gonna make another trip here tomorrow and we bringin Pearl.

The terrorists who were trekking east ran out of virus, (hoof and mouth and mad cow) on the eastern side of Missouri. They were still infected on their clothes and foot wear for another 100 or so mile before the virus died out on their shoes and clothes. The ultra violet sun rays did most of the killing. The rest of the virus just fell off or was damaged by sun light; the sun did most of the destruction. The date was August 10th. The damage had been done to the western portion of the US. It would be a long, long time before the cows would perish. The funny part is, if you can call this funny, the double whammy of hoof and mouth and mad cow were counter productive. The hoof and mouth disease would kill off the cows before the mad cow disease got a good foot hold (pun intended) on the surviving cow population. But that would be many years in the future before it was found out.

just another story #2 Part 17
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As Pearl and Effie were going through the abandoned farms items, Pearl said to Effie, don’t we need a hamburger grinder to make sausage and hamburger. Effie said we’uns sure do. Is this not one of them Pearl asked. Yep, sure is. They continued through the items, a commercial meat slicer was marked for pick up and a steak cuber tagged. There was lots of cooking items and two 30 some quart pressure cookers, the one that didn’t have the rubber seal. The aforementioned items were loaded in one of the pick ups. Clark asked if they had everything, Effie said nope, but she had a small notebook in her hand and had written down some things that they may need later on down the road. Effie asked Clark and his dad if the power they had at her farm would run the big 220 volt meat grinder. Clark said only for a short while. She said well if you hooked that small generator up to the system would it help? Clark said for maybe a little longer. Effie said we need to run this thing for about 6 or 8 hours to grind up the hamburger and the hog to make hamburger and sausage. Iffen that won’t get it, I recommend you get a bigger generator. We only need to do this once a year so’s that won’t use that much gasoline ya got stored in that tank down in that city. Effie asked another question, If that electric system he had would make enough power to keep those 2 freezers working. He answered in her language, yep.

So another search was started the next day for a 6 or 8000 watt generator just to run a hamburger grinder. That search ended quickly when one was found or for better lack of words, in his log book. They retrieved the generator and checked it. It started right up. They did the same thing to it they did to the chain saws. And then covered it with a plastic tarp and placed it in the barn. Effie asked Clark to take notes on what she was going to tell him. He did. She said you have to run da hamburger meat through da grinder twicest because that made it good for teethless people like her to eat. That ain’t the main reason; it just makes da tough cuts of meat not so tuff when ya fry em. It ain’t necessary to do da pork sausage da same way. Pork ground meat is soft and easy to eat; I don’t know why, but once through the grinder is enuff.

Clark kept his thoughts to himself about why Effie made him write down the instructions on grinding meat, maybe she knew something he or anyone else did not. It would be disastrous for her to die and they were not even close to being ready for long term Survival without her around, maybe he should start asking more serious questions on how to do some things.

Every thing was organized back at the cottage about 4 days later. Effie said if you ‘ns are done workin, I wanna go back and get us a 700 pound or bigger grass fed calf and butcher it. And we can fill up them 2 freezers we got. Don’t wanna wait till cold weather, somebody may gettem all before then – I cn show you’ns how to butcher it an we cn hang 4 skinned out sections of it in the root cellar for no more then one day before we’un’s finish the job and freeze it. Clark said we can probably do that, but is there any reason other then you being afraid someone may steal them all. Effie said nope and one more thing, I aint plannin on dyin before cold weather when we havta butcher da hog. Clark talked her out of butchering the 700 pound calf they brought back for a few weeks. He probed her mind and found out if they grain fed it for a week or so, the meat would tenderize a little bit and if they did it for 3 weeks they would have some grade A prime beef. That is what was done.

just another story #2 Part 18
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The refinery plants in Texas were just idle for no better words. They could use fresh refined gasoline to power the in house generators. The problem was no oil was coming in. The small contingent of terrorists was waiting on the security forces to be laid off or become complacent - 11 August, the refineries were destroyed. The Muslim terrorists bartered no quarter. They wanted the non-believers wiped off the face of the earth. They were having no such luck with Israel. The Israelis had decided there would be no quarter given and unleashed 150 of their 350 nuclear weapons arsenal on the 12th of August. The instructions that were to be given the terrorists Maine boat pick ups were not sent. There were no insane mad Ayatollahs to rant and rave about what they were going to do. The Muslim war against the non-believers was over and nobody in the world knew it except the Israelis and they were not talking.

just another story #2 Part 19
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All 4 of them went to the farm about mid morning the next day. They took both vehicles. Clark had noticed a trip would have to be made soon to fill the vehicles; he didn’t want them to go below a half tank. Earlier Clark and his dad took the 4 cows to the 4 foot tall grass pasture and if there was a cow heaven, the cows were in one. Pearl and Effie went through everything the farmer had left and just about filled up the bed of one pickup with their pickings. The other truck was loaded down with starter chicken feed. There were no chickens left on the farm, just those 22 cows. Clark and Effie both thought the same thing. The people at the place where they had been shot at had done some meat requisitioning. Effie told Clark that he had to come back and get the rest of the hay in the barn. When this was gone there would be no more unless they could get a lot of machinery running to cut and bale some hay. Clark told her I don’t think we can do it Effie. She said, I know. Anyway, there is enough cow feed and hay here to last our cows till we butcher the 3 young ones. Some day next year we may find a bull and freshen our milk cow up. The pasture I have will keep one cow alive if we can find some more hay next year for the following winter. We need a lot of rolls of that plastic that goes in one of dem vac sealers to keep the meat fresh in the freezers as long as possible. I am purty shore these cows we leavin here won’t make it through da winter.

They arrived home later that afternoon and put everything away they had taken from the farmers place. Clarks dad asked, are you ready to go fill the trucks up at the gas station? Clark said yes, we can leave now and be back in time for supper. While they were filling the pick ups at the gas station, Clark’s dad said we are using to much gas. I think we should look for you or both of us a small motor bike or a scooter to make these foraging trips. OK, let’s ask Effie if she knows of a bike place around here. Clark’s dad walked over to a phone booth and looked in the yellow pages. No need to ask her. There is one in the next town. Let’s leave one of the trucks parked here and we will go look. After going through the bike shop, they looked at each other and started laughing. There were 2 Vespa motor scooters and one 125CC trail bike left on the show room floor. They squeezed all 3 of them in the pickup and looked for some repair parts and manuals. They found some spark plugs and the manuals. There were 10 screw on lid, empty 5 gallon motor oil cans and 2 full ones of oil. They packed all them around the bikes and went to retrieve the other truck. Clark asked his dad how many of these cans should we put gas in. His dad said fill all of them, the gas is treated and won’t go bad in these metal cans. Let’s stop at the grocery store and see if we can find some of that plastic Effie told us to get. Their luck was running good; the shelves had 48 boxes of the plastic, seems like no one was thinking ahead like Effie. They wandered around the smashed shelves and noted down what supplies were left.

Effie looked at what they hauled in and said you boys did good. Pearl said to Clak’s dad, I want to ride one of those scooters, I always wanted one to piddle around town, but we could never afford one.

Around the middle of September the mountains started to cool down quickly as soon as the sun went down and everyone dawned a sweater of some type. That orange hue came on the leaves at this high of an elevation indicating cold weather was fast approaching. Effie said won’t be long afore we do sum butcherin. I hope you kept those light bulbs you n’s took outta my lights she asked. Clark said yes mam we did. Good, cuz we gonna need em. Clark wondered, but didn’t ask, he knew she would tell them. Got a little manual labor for ya boy’s ta do tommorry.

The next day they found out what Effie had in mind. They had to clean the chicken coop out and install the cold weather ends on the coop, but before they put one end on, She said I wancha ta run dat xtension cord to the coop and mount 2 light bulbs. One in dat glass and wired cage and hang it against dat water pan to keep it from freezin. Da other lite goes in da middle of the shed over the laying section. That otta put jus enuff heat out for em to keep layin all winter. We just gotta make sure the lite is on at 6 am and off at 9 pm, makes em think it still summer time.

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just another story #2 Part 20
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Everyone had chores except Effie, the colder it got the closer she stayed to the kitchen wood burner or the wood burner in the living room. She still did most of the cooking and the rest cleaned the mess up. The worst job was mucking the stalls. Effie had told them to use the wheelbarrow that was under an outdoor shed by the garden and dump the manure and straw right beside the garden, they would spread it out in November and let it break down over the winter under the snow. They wouldn’t have but one stall to muck when they slaughtered the 3 calves that were getting a little weight on them from the grain they were being fed every evening. Pearl learned how to milk a cow and said it was a lot of work. Either Clark or his dad carried the milk in where either butter was made in the electric churn or it was drunk. A lot of it went to the hogs which were about 800 pounds apiece now. The butter was made into blocks and frozen and then placed in a vac pack bag and returned to the freezer. They quit making butter when they had 60 pounds. Effie told Clark he was going to have to go to a feed store about 40 miles away and see if they had any animal feed made from wheat. This was she said pure wheat berries, they would then freeze the wheat in the freezer and winnow it and repack it back in the bag it came in and store it in the root cellar. There was a grain mill that would make flour and also was capable of grinding corn and beans. It is a goodun she said.

The extra hay from the farmer’s farm had been gathered with much expended labor and stored in the hay loft. Effie told them next week the slaughter would begin. It will be a hard job, she said. 4 animals is a lot of work and will probably take 1 day for each animal. If the weather is perfect we can hang the 3 calves for a few days to age them and do one or both of the pigs while they are aging. I have been on da CB telling da others we have a 800 pound hog on da hoof for trade and I have got a few nibbles, but nothing concrete. I was gonna wait a week after we did the calves and feed da calf guts ta da hogs, but that don’t look like it gonna work out. We un’s just gonna have ta wait an see, ever ting depends on da weather. Clark asked Effie what she was asking to trade for the hog. She said, 250 pounds of wheat and 15 gallons of oil and if we can’t get dat, we will make cured hams and bacon for ourselves and keep the lard for us n’s. If we do the butcherin right we can get all that meat in dem freezers. It will be a tight fit, but dey will fit. Gonna make at least 800 pounds good hamburger, lots of pepper jerky and you’ns have to decide what kinda steaks and roasts ya want. The pigs will be easier, because we gonna make a lot of hams, Canadian bacon, regular bacon, lots of lard, a few pork roasts and sausage. There are other things we can make. I letcha look at my book and ya’ll decide. She lay a Morton’s complete home meat curing and butchering book on the table. I still got about 20 pounds of tender quik and some other Morton stuff, but I like my own brown sugar and salt mix. We can use both. Clark sat there in a small daze amazed at what this woman knew about living on a farm and things in general, she was overloaded with common sense.

just another story #2 Part 21
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Clark rode one of the Vespa scooters to the feed store. After breaking in through the back door he found two 100 pound sacks of animal feed – the rest was treated stuff for planting. He dragged the 100 pound sacks outside and placed them out of the weather under a large overhang beside the rail road. He continued his search of the store and found 15 five gallon buckets that had treated corn in them for planting. He carried them outside to where he had placed the sacks of wheat. He thought the buckets could be used for anything even food storage. He would ask Effie about that. The trip home at 55 mph only took him about 35 minutes. He never saw another soul anywhere. He wondered where in Hades had everyone gone. He would find out eventually.

Effie told him when he had returned with the items in the pickup. Boy you just don’t know how lucky we un’s is. What you brought home will keep us alive for 40 years. Even though dat corn is field corn, we un’s cn eat it or make corn flour. And what’s left over da cow or if we get another pig or even another calf. Dat dere stuff after its growed is good fattenin food for em. Since dat stuff is treated we un’s cn take a cupla buckets and dump em in a sack and store it in the root cellar – Its cold enough in there, won’t no bugs get to the corn an we ‘un’s cn plant some of it nex year. Da buckets I got a good use for em. Wisht I had 10 more empty ones. Clark told her there were lots of buckets there with grass seed and the like all over the feed store. You un’s go gettem. An we cn dump dat stuff out in a compost pile. So Clark made another trip just for buckets full of grass seed and whatever else was in them.

The air temperature in the day was about 45F and in the night got down to 36F or so. Effie said lets gather everthing we need for the butcherin we gonna do tomorry. The hoist was set up behind the barn, the 200 gallon galvanized tub was placed beside the outdoor fire pit, knives were sharpened, saws were brought out of their storage places, the skin scrapers and brushes for the pig skin were placed close to the galvanized tub, they were ready.

Effie checked her indoor weather monitor and it showed fair skies for tomorrow.

In the morning one of the calves instead of being taken to the pasture was brought behind the barn. Clark used the .357 to shoot it in the brain. It was hoisted up by both back legs and the butchering began. The temperature was 41 degrees. Effie said, iffen dis weather holds we un’s gonna have some nice aged beef. The gut pile or most of it was caught in the wheel barrow. Effie said you see dat small stomach dere. Clark and his dad both said yes. Cut it out carefully and wash it off and lay it on da butcherin table and cut it into 1 inch pieces and freeze each 1 inch piece in separate sandwich bags. Clark arched his eyebrow at her. She said rennet for makin cheeses. OK, Clark thought. They got the hide off without getting to much hair on the carcass. Effie told them Ya gotta pick ever bit of hair off an use some buckets of water to rinse it off. They had to stand on a ladder to get all the hair off, Pearl even helped. OK, Effie said, we done now except for cleanin up an haulin dat gut stuff and hide off and rinsing all da blood away. The calf was hung onto a 6 X 6 inch 12 foot long bar with upside down Y 4 X 4’s holding the 6 inch bar up 9 feet off the ground. Effie said dey had hung 6 full grown 1200 pound cows on dat bar and it never sagged or creaked.

The routine the next day was repeated. And the next day was a repeat of the 2 before it. The cows were hanging in a cold 40F degree weather that dipped to 34F at night. Did I ever say the Clark family was lucky. The weather held and on the 5th day Effie said it is time to butcher the 1st calf. They split it down the spine, Clark and his dad wore one arm out with that saw. Clark told his dad we could have done this in 5 minutes with a reciprocating saw. Yep his dad responded, but we ain’t got one. The work continued till dark. Effie and Pearl took the cut up sections and ran them through the grinder twice for the hamburger. Clark was amazed at how clean the operation was and the cool weather was invigorating. Finally at 9pm they got finished cutting and vacuum packing the whole thing. Effie was right on about how much meat they could get in the freezers. The 1st freezer was about a third full. Effie had been smart and went in and filled up two 4 gallon galvanized buckets with water and placed them on the 2 stoves. She said somebody was going to stay up late to take a warm bath to warm a third bucket up. The bloody clothes were thrown in the washer. Clark took them out 30 minutes later and hung them on a stretched out clothes line in the living room close to the wood burner. It didn’t take long to heat that third bucket and Clark had a warm bath. Everyone was asleep by 10 pm.

2 more days later and a worn out Clark family took a day off to recuperate. Effie said since no one has offered ta trade for our pig, we gonna butcher both of em. But it gonna take 3 days a pig because of da work involved.

The dehydrator she had was running 24 hours a day making cracked peppered jerky. Clark ate a strip after it was dried and smacked his lips. Better then any store bought I ever ate.

Effie said OK hogs are nasty and it gonna be some kinda job to get dat 800 pound thing in the pickup and brought here. I have a block and tackle and ya’ll boys gonna have ta kill one of em and snatch him outta that nasty pen he in. But when ya kill it, ya gotta cut his throat and let him bleed out while ya putting him in da truck. Iffen ya cut its throat while its alive da pork meat will be a 1000 times better then if ya try to bleed it while its dead. Clark asked her how the easiest way to do it would be. She went in her bedroom and brought back a razor sharp 24 inch sword. She showed him in da book where da juglar was and said one swipe of dat in dat area and ya will do a good job.

Clark and his dad drove to the pig pen and looked at each other. Clark said I’ll do it. The cut of the sword was perfect and the hog bled out as they watched. The other hog began lapping up the blood. The hard part began. They got the block and tackle erected and hoisted the hog up in the air and swung it over the hog fence. They dropped it and erected the block and tackle again and got it in the air, Clarks dad backed the truck under it and they took it home for the final butchering. When they got there the 200 gallon tub was bubbling with boiling water. Effie said as soon as I cool dis water down a little bit, drop him in da tub, she poured a half bucket of cold water in. The block and tackle was again erected and the pig was lowered into the hot water. Clark asked why she had poured cold water in. She said, don’t wanna cook it, jus wanna soften up, and scrape da hair, mud, and feces off da skin so’s we un’s can work on it on da butcherin table. The skin scraping in the hot water took over an hour. The pig was then hung and gutted. Effie again came to the rescue. She said see all dem small guts full of ever thing. Clark and his dad again nodded. Well,cuttem loose from whatever they hooked to and squeeze whatever is in em out in da gut pile. Clark again looked at her in a questioning way. She said dat dere is sausage casings we need ta put da sausage in. After ya get that done we needs ta run water thru em and clean em out good, then we gonna puttem in a small sack with salt in it to keep em from spoiling and refrigerate em. Then we gonna run water thru em again before we put sausage in em.

just another story #2 Part 22
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I must be getting old or forgetful Effie said. Cut dat sausage casing in about 5 or 6 foot lengths and turn em inside out so’s we un’s cn clean da inside of da gut and then we put it in the salt bag and put it in fridge. Next, one of you boys cut da head off. Clark saw that this was easier said then done. He finally got it off. Ok now cut da jowls off for some seasonin bakin and throw the rest of da head away, unless somebody wants some brains, tongue, eyeballs or dem ears fried up. The head went in the gut pile. One more thing we’un’s can do or maybe 2 before we quit for da day. Saw it in 2 pieces but leave about a foot an a half of skin near where da head was ta hold the 2 parts together. Rinse everything off good she said. Now after it quits drippin water we cn scrape da leaf fat and trim da fat around da hams and put it into 5 gallon buckets. Does anybody want any kidney meat? OK cuttem out an puttem in gut pile. Clean da gut pile up boys, dat’s all we cn do today. Tomorry after da hog is chilled down good we will start da butcherin. Gee clark thought and its only about 3 pm.

That evening Clark and his dad helped Effie and Pearl render the 5 gallon buckets of fat they had. Each of them took a turn at stirring the huge soup stock pot that Effie had on the stove, Clark asked questions this time and noted the candy thermometer stuck down in the lightly bubbling lard. Effie said its all in da book, da rite temperatures, dat is. Later on he watched her drop a potato down in the lard and again watched as Pearl scooped the lightly browned cracklings off that floated to the top. Finally about 830 pm the 2nd stockpot of lard was cooled down enough to put in another one of those nicely sterilized 5 gallon buckets that had had grass seed in them. Effie told Clark and his dad to puttem in da root cellar. We un’s got about 2 or 3 more ta do tommory. Wow Clark thought 25 gallons of lard should last a long time and this is only the 1st hog. And then he thought of all the back breaking manual labor that went into getting that lard. Clark’s dad, Joe took the stock pot out after some boiling water was put in it to remove the fat residue in the bottom of the pot. Effie had told them she didn’t like to put fat down the drain into the septic system. He dumped it in a place Effie had designated. She said she always put the little scraps and things there because the ground was soft and was easy to
turn over with the spade. The scraps just decomposed back into the earth and there were no food scraps laying around for rodents to nibble on.

The next morning was almost frosty and probably would have been if there wasn’t a slight breeze. Effie checked the hanging carcass and nodded her approval. OK, you cn cut da skin holding dem 2 parts together and both of ya can manhandle half of it ta da butcherin table. Clark looked at Effie and said, it is to heavy for both of us to carry it without dropping on the ground. OK, she said dey is more then one way ta skin a cat. Move the butcherin table over underneath it and drop it down. Clark said, now that we can do. Took both of them 10 minutes to get the flat topped 200 pound log table under it; finally after intense instruction from Effie, the butchering was finished on both halves of the carcass. She told both of the men to go get the maple box from the barn; the one about as big as a foot locker. Pearl had boiled up about 3 gallons of water and sat it on one end of the butchering table about 30 minutes ago. Effie brought out what Clark would describe as a needle and plunger for injecting elephants. The tender quik was mixed up and injected into the hams and bacons. They were then covered with a mixture of Morton cure and her home made cure and placed in the maple box, Dang she said. I knew them hogs were ta big ta fit in dat one box. There is another maple box in da loft. They drug it down and the rest of the hams and bacons were rubbed with the mixture and placed in it. Dat’s it for dat part, it gonna get really cold in about a week and we gonna have ta keep dem boxes from freezing so’s da cure can work for a long time. Take da boxes and puttem in dat little corner room in da barn, they used the dolly. We un’s gonna watch the weather and when da temp go below 34 degree, we gonna lite up 4 kerosene lanterns and place em beside da boxes until da cure is finished. Dat room is good an tite an da temp shudn’t go below 38 or so degree. It never did when we did it before. Let’s get da rest of da meat vac packed an we make sausage after dat. Before the sausage grinding was done, Joe and Clark went in an dumped the lard from the 1st rendering in one of the 5 gallon buckets, cleaned the pot out and refilled it for a 2nd rendering. They finished the grinding and vac packed the sausage and froze it just in time to dump the 2nd fat rendering into another 5 gallon bucket. They cleaned the pot out and a 3rd rendering began. Clark looked on the fridge door and there were dates marked when to turn the bacon and hams and repack the cure.

Dang Clark thought this farm life is for hardy people.

Effie told them the barometer indicated bad weather coming so we gonna wait for it ta clear up afore we do da other hog. Ah a break, Clark thought. Not to be. At daylight Joe, Clark and Pearl were spreading the manure out on the garden. And after that the chickens had to be tended to, the cow milked and Pearl and Joe slopped the other hog. The cow had figured out that after morning milking it was to go to the pasture and close to dark it would come to the barn for the 2nd milking. Clark mucked the one stall and thought now this ain’t so bad of a job. Clark took his scooter and went to a department store Effie had told him about. He needed a pair of winter boots, those desert boots were made for just that, the desert. He found 3 pair of winter boots in 13 W that were a pretty high dollar set and he was tickled pink. He grabbed some running style tennis shoes in his size and returned home.

That evening Clark looked at all the things Effie had put out on the table and asked her what it was for. Well we un’s is gonna start making some cheeses, she said. So the cheese industry as Clark called it was started. He finally found out how that little piece of stomach from the cow was used.

The next day it was spitting snow flakes. Effie told Clark to go and get some of that hickory you cut down and a couple of limbs off that dead apple tree in the orchard. He smelled something delicious coming out of the oven and asked what was for supper. She just told him you will find out later. He found out and before he could get any of it he had to do some work. He built a smoky fire in the BBQ pit and laid the ribs that had been precooked in the oven. Pearl handed him some BBQ sauce in a mason jar. She said some of Effie’s work from the summer garden. Baste them on one side after you turn them, Effie’s instructions. So that night Clark had a delectable return on some of that hog labor.

just another story #2 Part 23
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They were all waiting on Effie to tell them when to butcher the other hog. She just said, not yet. So Clark and his dad made some plans to scavenge a couple of snow mobiles for winter time use in case they had to evacuate or scavenge for a critical item they had not yet thought of. Effie told them, dem boys in dat 3rd large town had lots of dem machines ya talking about. I’d go lookin in some garages dere. They did and found 2, both of them were on small tow trailers, one of the machines had 3 full 5 gallon gas cans on its trailer. Shucks, Clark said we going to have to make another trip. Clarks dad said maybe not. They slid the other trailer up on the 1st one a little ways and used a tow strap to attach it. If we go slow Joe said we won’t have any problem. Clark said dad I sure would like to watch some movies, I am tired of reading paperbacks that we took earlier from that store. Another trip to find a phone book and they discovered where an electronics store and a movie rental place were. They took 3 lap tops with 20 inch screens that had a DVD burner/player on it and 3 small digital cameras to download pictures to one of the computers for future reference. Clark took his time and selected about 400 movies and Joe just snatched another 300 or so for the women to watch. Clark asked his dad what kind of movies he wanted. Joe told him I like what you picked and will watch them. They wandered through town and stopped at a drug store which had the doors torn off. The pharmacy was a wreck and Clark said I bet they ain’t nothing missing but narcotics. A PDR (physician’s desk reference) was picked up and browsed. They took a few of those quart sized plastic jars with antibiotics in them and a few other things they couldn’t remember if they had on hand for cuts and bruises. Joe loaded 4 buggies up with feminine pads, shampoo and some beauty aids that he knew Pearl had used in the past. Clark said I know we have a lot of tooth paste, but let’s take another buggy full and all the toothbrushes and dental floss. As they were leaving town Joe noticed a large sign on the front of city hall. He asked Clark to stop so he could read it. It said town is infected with unknown bacteria and virus. We have gone to, a location was given and that was it. They just stared at each other. Clark said I think whatever was here is long gone or we would have been infected more then a month ago when we first came here. Joe said I sure hope so. The trip home was really silent.

just another story #2 Part 24
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They got home, did their chores and stabilized the gas in those 3 jerry cans. Clark started both machines they ran fine. Next he checked the tracks and they looked almost new, so someone had taken care of these machines. The gasoline was drained from them and the engines were run dry. He refilled both gas tanks with stabilized gas and went in for supper. Clark’s dad got a big hug for the feminine stuff he had bought home. They finished supper and Joe told Effie and Pearl what the sign had said. Effie just harrumphed and told them, can’t worry about it now. Tomorry you boys gotta make 2 boxes to cure the hams in. Clark told her Ferdnand’s shack had oak siding. She said dat be fine. They finished the boxes up about noon and used the Ferdnand’s bathroom door and bedroom door hinges for the box lids. Effie said fair weather tomorry, we butcher at daybreak. Joe told Clark; well we will find out if that reciprocating saw with a hack saw blade or wood blade you found will cut through that back bone. Clark said I sure hope so; it will save us an hour and a half of manually sawing that thing in 2 pieces.

Clark got lucky again and cut it in the right place. The heart pumped out most of the blood before the hog died and the heart quit. They had made a few changes to the block and tackle system and only had to lift the hog to the fence and drop it in the truck. The reciprocating saw worked great. The dipping and scraping in the hot water went faster this time as they had an idea of what to do. Clark had hooked the hose up to the well pump end and they used the hose to clean the pig up while it was being cut in 2 pieces. This also made cleaning the hog gut pile remnants easier. There was a piece of 48 inch tough rubber mine belt under where the meat was hung and this helped out a lot to spray the small chunks of meat and dripping blood into one place and scoop it up with a snow shovel. They finished at 130 pm this day. Effie had stayed on the porch by the outdoor cook stove that was fired up early when they arose. She told them, just holler out and ask me if you forgot what ta do. Don’t ruin a bunch of meat because you n’s afraid ta ask a question. That afternoon she said the temperature is 39 degrees F and the barometer says another fair day tomorrow. Just say a small prayer that it don’t drop down ta 15F or so. Dat freezes da water in da hanging meat and almost will ruin it. They got lucky again. Effie told them when they were butchering it on the 2nd day to make a lot more Canadian bacon this time. The 3rd day the temperature hung on 34 and dipped below freezing after they had finished grinding the sausage. Effie told them tomorrow in the day time when it went above freezing to use the hose and clean the butchering area up. Joe went and lit the kerosene lamps next to the curing bacon in the barn. Effie asked him if he had put a long wick in the lamps. He said no it darkens the lamp glass. She told him, don’t care about glass turning black, need heat, not light. So Joe went out and raised the wicks a ¼ inch more and shut the door. They had been lucky again; the temperature that night dropped in to the upper teens and stayed that way for a week. Clark had found the blackberry, peach, blueberry, apple, apple butter, jellies and jams in the root cellar and a happy gleam came from his eyes. He took 2 jars of different jams to the kitchen and Effie flat out told him, you u’ns can only open one jar at a time and when dat is finished, another jar cn be opened. He hung his head, but he asked her why. She told him, dat is homemade and ain’t got no preservatives in it and don’t last for months after ya open it like dat store bot stuff.

just another story #2 Part 25
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Sure would like some corn bread and pinto beans, Joe said at lunch one day. Effie laughed and told him, ain’t got none. Now iffens you and young Clark dere wanna go look and find some, I be happy too. Oh and when ya lookin for dem beans see iffen ya can’t find a 22 and some bullets to shoot a mess of squirrels for some thick white squirrel gravy. Don’t like squirrels dat been shot with shotgun. Da BB’s really hurt my gums when I bite one. So another trip was planned, they debated taking the scooters or the truck, but when Clark said it is 19F outside, a little gas could be spared. They would take the scooters in the truck to search the large town that supposedly was infected. In the manual and literature they got with the scooters. It said they would get about 115 miles per gallon and that thought Clark was really sipping on the gas.

They used a 2 X 8 to push the scooters up in the truck and tied them to the truck bed hooks with tow strapping. They first searched the grocery stores, all the food, except sugar, salt, molasses and strange items, was gone. They stopped and planned their next move. Clark said there are 4 or 5000 houses here and that is a large search area for 2 people. Well, Joe said whatcha want to do. Clark said I have no idea. Joe said well let’s look at all the stores before you grid this town off and we each start searching houses. A house is probably where we will find a 22 rifle. I expect all the people took their large caliber rifles and pistols. Clark said OK. In a small mom and pop store they found a 20 pound sack of pintos, three 25 pound sacks of rice and 5 2 pound bags of kidney beans, Joe said ah, we can have some chili now. They laughed when they hit the family dollar store; there were about 40 of those little single serving boxes of corn bread/muffin mix on a shelf. OK Clark said that will take care of us for a long while. Now let’s go find a 22 rifle. Clark thought it was the 76th house he searched that he found a Ruger 10 – 22 with a 1 inch 2 X 7 power Bushnell scope on it and a 30 round empty magazine in it. There were no bullets in the house that he could find. He went to the next and next and on and on. He met up with his dad at the time and place they said they would meet. Clark showed him the rifle and Joe said nice, now we can go home. Clark said we have a small problem, I never found any bullets. Joe said argghhh. They went back and looked in the yellow pages for a gun store. They found 2 gun smiths but no gun store, Joe said look for pawn shops. 1 pawn shop and 2 gun smith places were put on the search now list. The pawn shop had nothing but dust in it. The 1st gunsmith house netted them some shotgun and 30-06 rounds. The 2nd gunsmith, of course it is always the last place you look, they found what they were looking for and a lot more; AK-47 bullets, 2000, 223 bullets 1000, 22 bullets, 10 bricks or 5500 rounds. They loaded their great find and left the town, hoping it would be a long time before they had to return, Clark had that itch he sometimes got when he was under observation by the enemy in the war zone. They made sure they were not followed, filled the truck tank up and took a circuitous route home.

15 of the terrorists had made it to this town and were staying in a gridded off section of town in 2 houses which were to be searched next. Clark’s luck was holding. One of the hot heads told the element leader to shoot them and take that automobile that is running. Our friends have put us on foot from the EMP (airborne electro magnetic pulse). No the leader said, they both have long guns and that young one in the front has an AK-47 at the ready and he looks and acts like those trained enemy soldiers we have seen in our country. We will search this and the next few towns we come on and wait for them to come again. They cannot live to far from here and I know gasoline is hard to get right now, that is why they are riding those small motor scooters to save on gas. They probably only have a small amount.

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just another story #2 Part 26
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Joe and Clark got back about 430pm. Clark told everyone at supper there would be no more trips to town till Christmas. They all looked at him. He just said I’ve had these feelings before and I trust them. There are bad people in that large town. I recommend we not use the radio any more and go back to those mailbox deliveries. I am going to put in that message for the mail boxes there are many armed Arabs in town. Pearl said, you don’t know that and then she remembered something that happened on the way out of town. She just said forget I said that. Effie said some of those people want a meeting held ta meet us. Clark said something only his dad heard, hope there are some pretty young girls, Joe grinned. Pearl said yes, I would like to see the faces of those voices I hear on that radio.

The meeting was set for 3 weeks from today; Clark looked on the fridge to see if any bacon turning was to be done that day, no turning. Clark asked Effie why the bacon was in a box. She just looked at him as if he had turned into a stone cold idiot. All she said was mice, done got ta cold for bugs. He turned kind of red and mumbled something. They all watched whatever movies they wanted. The solar system was a good one and Clark and Joe followed the instructions, they had gotten with the panels, to a T on watching and charging the batteries and checking the acid levels. Joe had his corn bread and pintos and a few days later they had chili. Clark took the 22 and sighted it in, grabbed his rucksack after morning chores and went squirrel hunting. Effie had told him where the hickory and nut trees were at the end of the property and there were probably 2 or 300 squirrels there. He shot 7 squirrels in the head and a 20 some pound big tom turkey in the head. She said good, dere is our Thanksgiving dinner. She had to show Clark and Joe how to skin a squirrel the correct way. The turkey she said can be dry plucked or the easy way is ta take da big heavy copper bottomed stock pot and boil some water on the BBQ grill and pull em out and drop em in the pit, da feathers burn up good when ya start a good fire in pit. Just gotta make sure ya gettem all in pit, cuz they make a mess if ya lettem blow all over yard. The turkey was dipped in the boiling water and Joe and Clark plucked it. Effie had to show them how to get the guts out without ruining the bird. She told all of them I don’t like gizzards and only liver I like is a mess of chicken ones. The gizzards went in a bucket to be disposed of with the squirrel skins and guts. The turkey was washed out and hung outside to drip dry before it would be vac packed and put in freezer.

The next evening after chores, Clark had the best gravy he had ever eaten. The squirrel meat covered in the gravy with home made bread right out of the oven with real butter was an extravagant meal. He wished he could make gravy like that, because he would eat it 24 hours a day till he burst. For dessert he grinned as he emptied the pint jar that had blackberry jam in it on to a thick slice of still steaming bread with melting butter on it. He said next one I am going to try is strawberry jam.

just another story #2 Part 27
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At lunch on a single digit really cold day, Effie told Clark and Joe to bring in the planters on the porch. She had them set on the metal brackets under the 2 south facing windows. She sprayed a little water on the dirt and said now we gonna watch to see if any bugs hatch out. This here gonna be my herb garden for da winter. Iffen any bugs hatch out I gonna pour some boiling vinegar water on da dirt and you n’s set it back on porch to freeze da hatched bugs under da dirt. After 2 days we bring it back in an I plant my herbs.

Another week before we meet these survivalists or preppers Clark thought. They must really be stocked up to not have to go into town. I am going to recon those 3 towns before it snows. He asked his dad to do his chores for him for a couple of days. He told him what he was going to do. His dad said, be really careful. Clark took the super quiet scooter 14 miles to the last turn off before he would be visible from the main road and parked it 10 yards back in the woods. It was one of those painted in a camouflage pattern and was extremely difficult to see. He took to the woods like a phantom. The weather was really cold, but he was dressed for it. He took the M-16 because of the massive amount of automatic firepower it had instead of the slower shooting AK. He had 5 magazines loaded with 19 rounds in each. The 357 rode smoothly on his hip. He had his night vision with him. The Alice pack had eveything in it he would need for 3 days. He was in combat mode and on the hunt.

just another story #2 Part 28
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He knew the 1st 2 towns intimately and it didn’t take long to see that they were deserted. The 3rd town he knew about half of it fairly well. He set up an observation post about a mile back from the town on a knoll and looked for smoke, steam or some heat waves going up in the air. A normal human needed heat and shelter at least 12 hours of the day to survive in weather this cold, unless they were on the move or dressed properly. He glassed the town and there it was, a white mist of smoke coming from 2 house chimneys. He continued his looking and said to himself, lookee here, there was a man like figure about 800 yards away in a small grove of trees moving around trying to keep warm. Clark figured this was the 1 or more look out people; now if I was smart and knew about combat tactics, where would I put the other 1 or 2 watchers? He glassed for a long time across the road from the houses and saw a little movement in a 2nd story window that over looked the heated houses and the main road. OK, gotcha, that’s number 2, now if this guy leading this crew is any good there should be another one on the 3rd leg of the triangle. He glassed for another hour but did not spot anyone. So he remained where he was and would see where the relief went to when the changing of the guard occurred. Right at dark 3 men left the 2 houses and headed out – he wasn’t worried about the 2 that were headed to the known positions. He almost lost the third man when he turned a corner, but he showed back up and went into a house about 500 yards from where Clark had figured the man was supposed to be. The 3rd man went into a single story house and another one departed soon thereafter. Well, well, well there is a combat team of what looks like Arabs in this town, he mentally patted himself on the back. Now what am I going to do about it. He thought a while and said, I ain’t going to do anything. It looks like there are too many for me to take on single handed. I ain’t got a silenced sniper rifle or I could take out the 3, but that’s just wishful thinking, I would have to get a lot closer unless I had a .50 caliber sniper rifle. I ain’t got that either, so I’ll just keep a watch till I get cold or run out of supplies. He got cold about 130 am. He eased back to the next town and started a small fire in the back of a garage that had the windows missing from it, he left the pull up door open about 4 inches so there would be a cross draft. The floor was concrete so he wasn’t worried about burning the town down. He just needed some heat to get through what had to be below zero weather. He lay down about 4 feet from the fire on his rolled up ground pad, which was a short one and 3 inches thick. He got warm for 5 hours, had some coffee in his GI canteen and heated up some beanie weenies for a protein breakfast. The fire was left to die out at day light.

He eased back into the woods and travelled to his original observation post. He must have missed the shift change because nothing happened all day. He decided to go home and check on this team in a few days if it didn’t snow. He could be tracked back to the cottage in the snow. He got to the scooter when those large flakes started falling. The temperature had risen into the 20’s and the clouds overhead looked ominous. He parked the scooter in the barn, warmed some water up, took a bath and told everyone he was going to sleep for 5 or 6 hours and he would then tell them all about his trip.

just another story #2 Part 29
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When Clark woke up everyone else was asleep. He chuckled and went back to bed, the many miles of running between towns and the extreme cold had taken a little out of him. He woke up about an hour before daybreak and started a fire in the kitchen stove. He then stoked up the wood stove in the living room. Effie came in to a warm kitchen, gave him a big toothless grin and made herself a cup of tea. Clark decided to have a cup of coffee and he made some hobo coffee, dumped in 4 or 5 tblspns of grounds into a pot of boiling water, let it boil for a minute or more. Took the pot off the stove and dropped a few drops of cold water in it to settle the grounds. Effie handed him a muslin cloth and said pour yourself a cup through that. Clark added a little milk to the cup, leaned back in the rocker sipped on the strong coffee and was at peace with the world. He and Effie watched the snow covered land light up as the day brightened. There were about 6 or so inches of snow on the ground, this made what he was looking at through the kitchen window look exactly like a winter wonderland. Effie eventually tore her gaze from the spectacular outdoor scene and made some biscuits. Soon the kitchen smelled just like a bakery. They had eggs, biscuits and Effie surprised him with a large bowl of squirrel gravy she had made last night while he was asleep and kept in the fridge. He ate like he had never eaten before. Then he finally opened that strawberry jam up and put it on a melting butter covered biscuit. Clark thought this is a good life until he remembered he had chores to do. Effie looked at him and said, farm life is hard, da work never stops, it just slows down a little in da wintertime.

Clark milked the cow for his mom, mucked the stall and made sure the cow could get to the pasture. He had looked and there was enough browse above the snow for the cow to graze on. He remembered what Effie had said about 4 or 5 feet of snow. He guessed the cow would stay in the barn then, he would ask her. He had checked the fridge and today was a day to rotate the contents of the curing box. He did that and scooped the cure on the bottom of the boxes back up onto the meat. That brown sugar made the boxes smell really good. He sat there on one box just inhaling the ham sugar odor for a few minutes. He refilled the kerosene lamps, checked the curing room thermometer for the temperature, 39 degrees F. Now what to do next, he thought; he remembered Effie’s words, the work just slows down a little in the winter. He decided to do nothing then, just relax and think about those guys in town and wonder about the new people he was going to meet in a couple of days.

just another story #2 Part 29
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When Clark woke up everyone else was asleep. He chuckled and went back to bed, the many miles of running between towns and the extreme cold had taken a little out of him. He woke up about an hour before daybreak and started a fire in the kitchen stove. He then stoked up the wood stove in the living room. Effie came in to a warm kitchen, gave him a big toothless grin and made herself a cup of tea. Clark decided to have a cup of coffee and he made some hobo coffee, dumped in 4 or 5 tblspns of grounds into a pot of boiling water, let it boil for a minute or more. Took the pot off the stove and dropped a few drops of cold water in it to settle the grounds. Effie handed him a muslin cloth and said pour yourself a cup through that. Clark added a little milk to the cup, leaned back in the rocker sipped on the strong coffee and was at peace with the world. He and Effie watched the snow covered land light up as the day brightened. There were about 6 or so inches of snow on the ground, this made what he was looking at through the kitchen window look exactly like a winter wonderland. Effie eventually tore her gaze from the spectacular outdoor scene and made some biscuits. Soon the kitchen smelled just like a bakery. They had eggs, biscuits and Effie surprised him with a large bowl of squirrel gravy she had made last night while he was asleep and kept in the fridge. He ate like he had never eaten before. Then he finally opened that strawberry jam up and put it on a melting butter covered biscuit. Clark thought this is a good life until he remembered he had chores to do. Effie looked at him and said, farm life is hard, da work never stops, it just slows down a little in da wintertime.

Clark milked the cow for his mom, mucked the stall and made sure the cow could get to the pasture. He had looked and there was enough browse above the snow for the cow to graze on. He remembered what Effie had said about 4 or 5 feet of snow. He guessed the cow would stay in the barn then, he would ask her. He had checked the fridge and today was a day to rotate the contents of the curing box. He did that and scooped the cure on the bottom of the boxes back up onto the meat. That brown sugar made the boxes smell really good. He sat there on one box just inhaling the ham sugar odor for a few minutes. He refilled the kerosene lamps, checked the curing room thermometer for the temperature, 39 degrees F. Now what to do next, he thought; he remembered Effie’s words, the work just slows down a little in the winter. He decided to do nothing then, just relax and think about those guys in town and wonder about the new people he was going to meet in a couple of days.

just another story #2 Part 30
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It started snowing again about 11am and dropped another 5 inches on top of the 6 that was already there. Clark told Effie it is getting to be a pain in the legs to get to the barn with all that snow. Ain’t no way I am going to remove a hundred yards of snow with that snow shovel. Effie said next time ya go ta barn in curing room, look over door about 6 feet above door, there are 3 sets of metal snow shoes with nylon strings on em. Ah ha Clark thought. Effie said takes a cupla hours ta learn ta walk and run in em. Clark mushed himself to the barn and brought the snow shoes back to the porch. About 2 hours before supper, Clark started on his self training program to learn how to use the snow shoes. It took the 2 hours to find out it was going to take another 2 hours tomorrow morning to get around on them.

It snowed some more that night and the snow was about 17 inches deep when he made his trip to the barn on the snow shoes. Effie had told him to use the right side of the double barn door, it opened both ways. She looked at the snow and said, it’s ok ta let da cow out to pasture, she cn get dere. We will have ta keep her in da barn when da snow gets another foot deeper. That answered the question he was going to ask her. Then she said you n’s gonna have ta muck da barn 3 times a day when she in da stall. Just shovel it in da wheelbarrow till it full and ya can wheelbarrow it out the side door and dump it in dat big hole by da barn, dat be our compost pile for next fall. Clark wondered how he was going to get it out of the hole when it came time to spread it next fall. He was sure he would find out when the time came.

The 15 terrorists were stuck in the large town. The leader said all of you people will have to search every house for food; this is going to be a bad time for us. We will cut the watches down to one man in the 2 story building across the street. No one is going to be moving around in this snow unless they have tracked machines and we will hear them coming from a long way off. The leader was only partially right. Clark wasn’t through with them yet.

just another story #2 Part 31
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There were 6 of the 14 families at the designated site. 1st mailbox on right going east, Clark chuckled at those directions; wouldn’t mean much to anybody unless they were extremely familiar with this area. The thought the postman would probably know where it was and he grinned. 15 minutes after the meeting started, Clark was ready to go home. 2 of the families were religious fanatics, not just bible thumpers, they were rabid holier than thou people. The cute girl that shyly looked at him several times was with the rabid fanatics. Not much of a chance going that route he thought. The other 4 families were so closed mouth that Clark wondered if they talked in their houses. Effie struck up some kind of a trade deal on some cured hams and some processed flour and made another meeting scheduled for the 4th of January. Right before Clark and family rode the 2 snow mobiles home the girl edged towards him and said these people I am staying with are not my parents. She sidled back to her group and everyone went home. On the way home Clark locked into his memory every feature of the girl; blonde, sky blue eyes, 5 ft 8 or 9 inches tall, maybe 135 lb; couldn’t tell much about the body because it was bundled in winter clothes. The rest of his thinking was, well I can dream about her and scheme how we can get together. Clark could be a ninja thinking person when he wanted to.

He asked Effie why the trading for flour, we have 200 pounds ready to grind. She said I know, but ya gotta start a trade system up with sum tradin and barterin. She continued, dem people grow some things we un’s ain’t got and dey got da seeds I want. Clark just told her to wait till they planted them and he would go steal the grown plant and she would have the seeds she needed. She said it may come to dat. And young Clark, just what did dat yello haired girl say to ya? He didn’t answer for a few minutes, but he finally told her what the girl had said. Effie said that is the best news I heard in a month of Sundays. Clark didn’t reply to that comment.

The Clark family fell into that farm routine and Clark had to do his running exercises on snow shoes which he finally mastered after a week. He talked it over with the family about what he wanted to do. Effie said ya cn do it when it starts snowin. Just ride da snow machine to where ya parked da scooter and use da snow shoes to get to em; ya cn do some damage to em while it snowin. Da snow fall cover your tracks up when ya come home. Clark lay on the couch that night and ran some scenarios through his head. I can burn them out with some Molotov cocktails and probably pick off 4 or 5 before running to another location. I have the night vision and I bet they don’t. He grinned again and thought about them trying to chase him through 3 feet of snow without snow shoes. I’ll make some more plans before I do anything. First thing I have to do is wait for an evening of snow.

Effie was looking at the schedule of turning the bacon on the fridge door when clark came in from outside. She said it time to bring da bakin here and slice it. She told him to fill the big stock pot with warm water and set it on da porch. When ya got da slabs here, rinse em off in stock pot and lay em beside da slicer, when da water drained off em, slice em up and bring da slices in house beside vac packer.on table. Joe and clark made short work of rinsing and slicing about 70 pounds of bacon. They had to change the stock pot water once, but Effie had already thought of that and had some hot water ready to mix in with the cold. Effie and Pearl were vac packing them in 1 and 1 and a half pound packages. Effie said we un’s gonna have fried potatoes, bakin sandwiches, and my famous egg cheese omelet with our home made cheese this evening. Clark got to slice the potatoes. Effie strained and saved the bacon grease into a large ceramic bowl and put it in the fridge. Joe said, I ain’t never ate bacon that good. Clark chimed in right behind him with a ditto. Clark really had not eaten properly home cured bacon before and it was, he wanted to say out of this world, but he just said ditto. The potatoes were perfectly fried and Effie had put some bell pepper slices she had rehydrated in them, they were perfect, the egg cheese omelet was another perfect strike to Effie’s cooking. The cooking utensils and dishes finally cleaned up they argued like a good natured family over which movie they were going to watch.

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just another story #2 Part 32
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After doing his chores Clark came in and looked at the 3 of them looking at him. Clark said what? Joe started the conversation off about him eventually finding a woman; Clark said that would be nice. Well we have been talking about it and made some plans you may have not thought about. This is going to be a lot of work to. We want you to move a large trailer here and park it on the north side of the house and place it on blocks for a permanent parking. There is enough electricity for you to have a fridge and if we notify each other you could run a small microwave in the trailer. The heat would have to be a wood stove placed in the center of the trailer living room. Effie tells us that the hook up and clean out entryway to the septic system is right beside where the trailer would be parked. We haven’t quite figured out the water situation yet, but we have some ideas on that; this all being contingent on what you do about those Arabs in the city. It will be another month and a half before the next meeting, so we have plenty of time to make plans and do things. Clark said, dad you know you are 100 % right and I am glad you brought it up. Just some more plans to go along with what I am planning. Joe said Effie tells me about the middle of December the snow usually melts away until the next big blizzards come along.

That night Clark solidified his attack plans on bad people in a place he needed to go to often. 2 days later about 3pm it started snowing. Effie told him its time if you are going to the city. The only extra things he took on this trip were 4 pint mason jars full of gasoline with new lids and duct tape around the lids to insure no leakage. The 4 lids with wicks inserted through them were in his Alice pack. It would not do to have a leak in his Alice pack ruining everything and the main reason, leaking and catching his back on fire. He shuddered at that thought. The other thing he had was a zeroed in vari 3 Leupold 4 X 10 50 mm scope on one of the Fednand boys 30-06. He had run 50 rounds through this gun and it shot super fine out to 500 yards. The scope had extreme low light gathering capability. He was depending on that. The 06 was strapped crosswise over his shoulder on his back and the M-16 slung on his shoulder butt stock hanging straight down. He took a chance and drove the snow machine through the woods to the edge of the 1st city. Snow was falling heavily and the noise the snow machine made could not be heard over 20 yards away. This cut off 7 miles of him tramping through the deep snow on snow shoes. It wouldn’t do him any good to go to his original scouting post. The visibility was about 50 to 75 yards. He scouted the 1st single story building for an observer. There were no foot prints around the building, so the leader had pulled this post. He went to the woods where the 1st man he observed was. No tracks in this area either. That left the 2nd story house overlooking the road and the 2 houses the terrorists were in. He could smell the wood smoke coming from the chimneys of the 2 occupied houses. He came in from behind the 2 story house and looked at the front door. Yes, a deep trail from across the street to this house was visible.

This could not be this easy he thought. He sat down and to himself said do not get overconfident. There may be 25 armed people in those 2 houses. The only problem he had was what the man in the 2 story house was going to do when he pitched the 4 Molotov cocktails through the windows of the 2 houses. If he looked out the window Clark was going to take him out and run down the street across the road and take out any people running into the street. Then he was going to wait and start sniping on any movement with his night vision. He figured he could get 10 or more before the leader if he was a good combat technician tried to either surround him or rush him. He had no plans of staying in one spot over 5 seconds. He could move through the deep snow, they couldn’t. he wished and wished for 2 grenades, they didn’t appear so he tossed the lit gas bottles through the 4 windows beside the chimneys. The M-16 stuttered 5 rounds at the mans face in the 2nd story window. He was on the move now. 50 yards away across the road, down from the 2 story building, he could see a large group of men bunched up outside the house on the roadway. He got all of them and moved behind the building and back up to where he was 50 yards away on the other side of the 2 story building. Some gunfire roared at where he had last been. He noticed where it came from and unstrapped the 30-06. He could see the mans shoulder behind a wooden corner fence planking. He shot him and that gunfire stopped, He moved 10 yards closer to the side of the 2 story building. Some more gunfire came from beside the burning building. He waited and re-slung the 06. He could hear the foreign language and men moving around beside the burning building. He left where he was ran behind the building down the road a hundred yards. The visibility cut him off from anyone in that area. He ran across the road and went 2 hundred yards into the woods and slowly moved back towards the burning buildings. He was in extreme combat mode now. 10 yards more he could hear some people forcing their way through the deep snow. He turned on his night vision and there they were 5 men in a file with weapons pointing outwards. Well if I can do it once maybe twice is a charm. The 06 was pointed at the 1st man, they were all in a line. He fired. 3 men fell the other 2 started firing blindly at where his muzzle blast was. He was 15 feet to the side and had the M-16. He made short work of those 2. He gathered his 06 up and re-slung it.

He wasn’t sure how many people he had killed, but he thought it was 12. He back tracked the 5 men he had just shot. He heard 2 men talking in Farsi about 10 or so yards away. He eased up behind a large (what he thought was an oak) tree and lay on the ground. He eventually got situated enough to where he could peer around the bottom of the trunk. There were 3 men, one was on the ground and another was wrapping something around his head. He could see through his night vision the scorched clothes. He eased the M-16 around the tree and shot all of them. He didn’t know it yet, but he had wiped out the entire terrorist team and burned 2 nice houses down to the ground. Good thing it was snowing heavily or others would have caught on fire. He went on a, what he called a stealth patrol, he made a 300 yard circle of the 2 houses he had burnt down. There were no tracks except the snow shoe tracks. OK he thought, no one has left the immediate area. He closed the circle down to 200 yards. No tracks yet. He took another gamble and cut it to about 75 yards. He stayed right where he was for an hour not moving, just listening, nothing, not a sound. He moved in closer and started running into dead bodies he had shot. He continued to search. He found no human tracks made today anywhere outside of those 2 houses. Well I guess I got all of them. He went to the 2 story building across the street, went upstairs, drug the face shot man to a corner and watched the area for 3 more hours.

No sense in me freezing my butt off out here, he went home.

just another story #2 Part 33
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OK dad the Arab problem has been taken care of. On the way back I thought about parking a trailer on cinder blocks and it ain;t a very good idea. Need a footer to keep the trailer from sinking into the ground on a corner or the middle and causing the thing to crack in places, maybe even crack the outer shell. Joe said well let’s think about it. We ain’t got no heavy equipment, probably could get a small back hoe or something if we plan it out. I noticed there were diesel pumps at that station we been getting our gas, might be some left in them tanks like the gasoline. Clark said those 2 pick ups we got won’t even come close to towing an 80 foot long 14 foot wide trailer up here. We done thought about that, we seen 4 or 5 one ton trucks, older ones look like diesel engine ones in several places. Clark knew this was just a planning stage meeting and Pearl was taking notes. Effie was drinking tea taking in every word. Effie finally broke into the conversation. Iffen you could get eight 20 foot steel beams up here and bury em in da ground after ya weld em together. You n’s wouldn’t have ta worry about da trailer sinkin in ta da ground. You n’s could then put da cinder blocks on da beams and dat would take care of da sinkin problem. Clark said we still going to need some cement to cement the blocks together. Effie said won’t need much, go check da hardware stores in da ware rooms out. Pearl said where you going to get the steel beam. Effie said at da steel beam place. She continued on by saying ya could get one of dem steel buildings and fix da inside up like ya want it. Dat be a whole lotta work. You n’s can get on dem snow machines tomorry and look da 3 towns over. That’s when the 1st planning meeting broke up, everyone headed out to do their chores.

The next morning Clark and his dad were in the excavation pit parked beside the white truck from which they had taken the CB and antenna. Parked next to the bridge footer was a small diesel backhoe, an older model. Joe said I bet that one will start if we jumper the battery. Clark said probably. They went to each town and went through the yellow pages. There was a cement plant about 4 miles out of town. They looked it over and there were enough bags of ready mix to do a footer and cement for the cinder blocks which were stacked up on pallets for about 500 yards; could build a big, big house with that many blocks, Joe said. Clark said now to get all this stuff to the property when the roads clear. They found a tilt flat bed that would handle the block, cement and back hoe. They continued their search of the cement plant an found a manual cement mixer, Clark said this should work for just the one job that I am going to be a brick layer, Joe laughed.
They checked the diesel tank at the gas station and the hose came up showing a wet spot about 26 inches on the hose. Clark said we should look for some Pri-D, the thought that we may use diesel equipment never entered my mind when all this started. A large supply of Pri-D and the stuff that stops bacteria from growing in diesel fuel was thrown into the back of the diesel flat bed they were going to try to get started when the roads cleared. The trailer sales park had a diesel truck that was set up for towing the behemoth trailers. Clark went trailer shopping and found a fully loaded 14 X 80 that was set up for the colder regions of WV. It had 2 X 6’s in the walls that had 6 inches of insulation in the walls. He kept on looking and found all kinds of doo dads and plugs that he did not know what they were. He sat down and read the brochure about the trailer and he said, I’ll be danged, there are eight 4 X 8 height and direction adjustable solar panels on the roof of this thing. They found a charge controller ready to be attached to batteries in a large empty battery compartment. Clark told his dad, this one will do.

They still had not figured out the water situation yet. Clark thought about putting a 2 or 300 gallon pressurized tank beside the trailer. Joe said the water will freeze into a solid block of ice in the winter. Ah ha Clark said, we will have a back hoe, we can bury the tank to keep it from freezing. Joe said yes and I just wonder who is going to pump on that well pump long enough to fill that tank. Clark got a kind of dejected look on his face. Dang dad we got power, we should be able to figure some way out to pump the well water to both places. Lets go to that plumbing shop in the big city and browse around the equipment; you’re going to need some sewer pipe and some ½ inch pipe and fittings to do this job that we haven’t figured out to do yet. Joe said I have no earthly idea how to dig a well. Clark said me neither. They spent 2 hours in that cold building and stacked a bunch of stuff by the door to be picked up later. They had 6 different kinds of electric water pumps with all kinds of fittings to try and drop one of them down beside the pump. Joe said I got it. OK, Clark said lets hear the solution. We take the kitchen well pump out and drop the electric one down, Effie said its only about 28 feet to the bottom of the water in her well. We can just put an electric pump down in the well and hook it all up under the sink and she will have a Fawcett to turn on and that eliminates one problem. We can tee off the top of the pipe coming out of the well and run your water pipe to the trailer underground and you will have water. Glad you got that figured out dad. Now we can go home and make some fancy measurements before we destroy Effies water supply. His dad looked at him in an odd manner. They couldn’t carry much back with them since they were on snow machines. They had the pumps and the plastic fittings and some pipe glue they hoped was still good after freezing, they were going to glue some parts together and see if they could pull them apart before gluing up an entire system.

Clark came out of the root cellar with a jar of canned green beans. He asked Effie how come the basement didn’t have ground water or dampness on the dirt floor. She said let me tell ya a story. Bout 30 some year ago, I let a man sleep on my screened in front porch and fed him 2 or 3 meals. He tole me ta follow him an bring pen and paper. Well he got dem 2 limber sticks he had with him a quiverin like snakes as we walked over da property. He was a water witch man an I show ya da map I drew following him around da property where all da underground water is. Da kitchen well is at da edge of one of dem underground streams. And iffen ya go ta da root cellar You will see da well is on da outside of da house wall right over top of da stream runnin down towards da woods over dere. Ain’t no water under dis house unless it 10000 feet down. The Clark family was amazed at this story. Da man dat had dis house built musta knowed it too.

just another story #2 Part 34
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The thanksgiving dinner was a feast for a billionaire. Effie even let Clark open a pint of apple butter. Joe cut the turkey and juices sprayed up to his arm. Clark thought to himself I hope that bird is as juicy as what I saw squirt out, it was. The bird had been soaked in a brine for 3 days and everyone had to take turns bringing the soup stock pot with the turkey in and the thermometer in the water was checked, when the temperature got back to 42 it was placed outside for several more hours. Effie did not tell him, even after he asked what kind of spices she had put in the brine. She said Pearl knows and it is in one of my hand wrote cook and preparation books. The light smoke taste that was barely hinted at in each bite, Clark knew about. He had dumped some wet hickory shavings on the smoldering fire in the BBQ pit and the turkey was placed on the grill. The stock pot went over the top of the turkey while Effie supervised Clark in how much wet chips for him to throw on the smoldering fire. The turkey was placed in the oven at 9am to finish off. The mashed potatoes were smothered in butter and if anyone desired any gravy, they had to add some brown gravy from a large steaming bowl in the center of the table. 3 large loaves of French type bread were cut thickly and melted butter was drizzled over them. The 2 loaves not being eaten were placed beside an open burner cover on the kitchen stove to stay warm. Of course green beans, but these were a tad different; they were really wide, cut about 1 an a half inches long and plump. Effie said dem beans are Italian ones and I really likem. The super bacon flavor was barely tasteable, but it was there. Sorry we ain’t got no fresh salad makins. Dat be a while yet. There were a few other things – some stuffing and he remembered everyone got a really small bowl of corn floating in cow butter. What topped it off was home made vanilla ice cream with pieces of hickory nuts and some chocolate homemade syrup. When Clark finished eating he did not think he would be able to get up, he knew he weighed at least 10 more pounds then he did this morning. 2 hours later he did the last chore of the day. He told his mom he would milk the cow for her. Joe fed the chickens and cleaned the coop. Right at dark the snow started, Clark and his mom sat on the screened in cold front porch and watched the flakes slowly do there little fluttery dance to the ground. Effie told Clark the next morning, can’t let cow out today. He looked and it had been a huge snowfall. He checked the solar panels, most of the snow had slid off and he still had about 2 and a half more feet before it got to the bottom of the panels.

Not much to do on a day like this after chores was done. Eat left over’s, read a little and sit around the kitchen and talk.

10 days later the snow was gone and the temperature was about 45 degrees F and sunny. Effie told Joe and Clark, if you got things ta do in da city, now is da time. Dis weather ain’t gonna last long.

They took 2 empty 5 gallon cans and pumped some diesel out of the gas station tank. Jump started the back hoe which of course would not start till Clark poured a lot of Pri-D in the tank and stirred it around. He had a can of ether from the gas station and sprayed it into the system. It started. Clark told his dad don’t look at me, they let me drive a tank around for 50 feet and familiarized me with the controls and then my buddy didn’t feel good one day so I got to drive a 5 ton crawler around. It took Joe 30 minutes to get the shovel and the stabilizers up. They drove it up out of the pit onto the side of the road. The ton and a half tilt bed truck was next. It was easy. They drove it to the back hoe, dropped the bed down and drove the back hoe and truck to the gas station and filled them up, Clark added Pri-D to them. Joe took it home and Clark started the big fork lift they had at the cement plant. They loaded the cement mixer on first, tied it down and Joe started putting pallets of cinder blocks on the ton and a half. Clark had calculated how many they would need using a simple system – 80 feet X 4 for 1 side = 320 X2 = 640 and 4 X 12 = 48 for each end X 2 = 96 and total was 736 cinder blocks He was going to take 1000. Clark stopped his dad when he had 400 blocks on the bed. He told him the truck is getting down to the over load springs. Joe looked at him and asked a simple question, how we going to get these blocks off the truck when I get home? Every thing came to a screeching halt. A dirty 4 letter word was what Clark said. It is simple really, Joe said, we need another fork lift. They scoured the cinder block plant yard, nothing there; they went inside and found a twin to the one loading the truck. Lucky us, Joe said. So they took all the block off and Joe drove the extra fork lift to the gas station after they started it and filled it with treated diesel and then drove it off the tilt bed at home. It was a little after noon by the time they started loading cement on the truck. It took 3 trips to get all the block home. The cement was dropped off on a heavy duty new plastic drop cloth and covered with another new one. The rebar was picked up on the last trip, the hydraulic rebar cutting machine, a small one less then a hundred pounds was un bolted from the shelf it was on at the cement plant and borrowed for an indefinite period of time. A spool of wire to tie the rebar together was loaded alongside the rebar cutter. They stopped at the plumbing shop and took enough pipe to plumb a new 2 story house and left for home.

They went back to town about 4 pm, got the trailer towing truck started, filled it with diesel and treated it. There was a little more to do then just tow it home; all the tires were flat when they lowered it to the ground off the jacks it was on. They searched for an air pump, the kind that plugs into a lighter or hooks onto a battery with alligator lips. There was one in a small maintenance shed behind the main trailer sales office. They pumped the tires up and headed for home, deciding to tow it home in the morning. Clark asked his dad, where they may find some golf cart batteries or solar panel batteries. Joe said a golf course. They stopped the truck and looked in the yellow pages, sure enough about 20 some miles past the large city there was a golf course beside the New River. We will go there 1st in the morning Clark said. They did in fact this time go home.

They did their chores and left about 7am – Clark was glad the cow was back in the pasture, he surely did not like mucking that stall 3 times a day. 8 batteries would fit in the trailer compartment, his dad told him to take 20 from the golf machines. Why? You are going to need some replacements years from now and some of those batteries we just absconded with may not be any good. Clark decided to drive the trailer home. His dad stopped and filled the truck up and the slow 5 to 10 mph trip home wound through the mountains. Clark said where should I park it? His dad said how about where you got it sitting there in the roadway. If a herd of buffalo come down the road they can surely get past you. Clark laughed for a good minute. They planned a little more that day and finally went out and staked out the ground where they were going to dig the footer. The distance to the septic tank pipe was measured out and marked well with a 4 foot red painted stake. Clark told his dad to practice digging the water pipe trench, they had to go out to the trailer and find out where the water hook ups and drain was, that caused another problem. They had to move the stakes and reset them. All kinds of problems can occur if you ain’t got the experience or a good plan with contingencies built in. They were beginning to find that out. Clark’s dad only dug a trench about 3 feet long, he decided to get the footer in before risking tripping in a ditch. He would figure it out before they poured the cement that the trench for the water from the house had to go under the footer as did the sewer pipe. Before Clark fell asleep he thought long and hard about what he was doing. This was virgin territory for him. He had a dream the trailer with him and his new woman slid down a hill and over a cliff because it fell off the cinder blocks.

After an hour Joe got a handle on this trenching business for the footer. The width of the digging blade was 16 inches which was going to use a lot more graveled cement. He and Clark had measured between the beams on the trailer before they started that morning and found out they would have been off if they had dug the footer using the current lines. They moved them again and re measured where the beams were. 2 trenches for a footer were dug 1st across the middle to let the trailer mid section beams set on. Joe checked his work when he was done and gave himself a silent yahoo, it was good work for a first time. Short sections of pipe for the water and sewage were placed in the trenches covered and temporarily capped off. The rebar was sat on half bricks which were staggered and tied with the bailing wire. They were ready to mix cement. Effie was sitting on the porch in the 45 degree weather with a sweater on keeping a close eye on things. The next evening the 8 inch deep footer was finished, they leveled it off with the string line as they poured. Joe had watched many construction jobs in his youth and knew the importance of having things square and level. He used a 4 foot concrete level from the cement plant to make a final check when they were smoothing the concrete off. Clark said wow dad both my arms need a break, turning that concrete machine and heaving those 80 pound bags into the hopper will put a hurt on you. Joe just grinned, Clark was only 22 years old and would recover from sore arm muscles quickly, he ran 8 or 9 miles a day when they finished, Joe thought if he could have used those leg muscles they would have already been done.

Pearl said I want to put the cement on the cinder blocks. Joe said lot of work, if you get tired of it let me or Clark know. She was the one who should have been a brick layer, she had the touch and every sling of the mud onto a cinderblock was perfect in the right height and thickness. She became super proficient on reading the level and using the end of the cement trowel to square a block off. With 3 of them laying block and waiting 1 day between courses, they laid the last block on the 4th day. The grunt work of just mixing cement and filling the center hole of each block where a stick of rebar was sticking up level with the block began. That took one more day. Joe told all of them he hoped they didn’t get mad at him when he busted some blocks out. They stared at him. He just told them, you have to have 1 or 2 entrances to get under the place. One of the across the middle block sections has to be knocked out so you can move from one end to the other. I recommend we only knock the far end of the middle block out and leave this end solid and have 2 side entry ways. He finished explaining before they could ask any questions. The water pipe comes in here and the stove sets here right close to where the water comes in. We do not want a draft under the trailer so this end across the middle will be solid as it is closest to the wood burner which is where the forced air vent is (he had looked) and if we remove the air vent from where it hooks up to the floor register, there will be some warm air going into this walled off section under the trailer. This will keep the water pipe from freezing. Everybody just stared at him and Clark said, great thinking dad. I wondered why you wouldn’t let us put any rebar in that interior end middle section and the two 48 inch outside sections. I forgot to mention the trailer was on jack stands over top of the cinderblocks and just had to be jacked down. It was easy to get it in that position; a new trailer had 6 plum bob locations to center a trailer on a new foundation. Before the center cinder blocks were laid, the trailer was driven in between the 1st course of block and the plum bobs dropped. The trailer was then jacked up 6 or 7 feet where it was perfectly centered over its foundation. The tires could then be removed or left on, most people removed them and either stored them or sold them back to the trailer dealer. When the trailer was dropped onto the foundation there were metal tie down straps already attached to the beams on the trailer. These were bolted into the cinder block assuring a wind or hurricane steady house.
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Effie told them on the 6th day that the barometer showed bad weather coming. They finished up the under the trailer hook ups and the water line to the cottage. Dang Clark said we didn’t put a wood stove in the place. Effie told them that they had better find a good one because they didn’t want any smoke in that new house. Clark told Effie he hadn’t really been looking for wood stoves, but he surely would have written one down in his log book if he had seen one. Da man dat delivered my new stainless steel chimney pipe worked in dat Ace Hardware in dat 2nd town, Dat store is on a back street and is kinda outta da way. It was only 1 pm so they decided to take the truck to town and look around. Dang Clark said how did we miss this store. Don’t know came the reply. They had to break in the place. They found one that had a glass window and one that had no window. Joe said I would not like to have a stove in my house without a window on it. Now some of the places I worked at it would be OK. Let’s take that pretty pale green one that says air tight on the label, Clark said. The name on it was Heritage – soapstone collection. The price sputtered out of his mouth when he looked at the price tag, 3700 dollars. Take a few minutes to see if this one can go out the side of your trailer, you cannot use a top vent stove because of the solar panels. May as well look for some type of stone floor thing to put it on Joe said. Clark said this one goes out the back. OK now you need some pipe and some stuff to put logs in and a brush and heck just all kinds of things. Clark said Effie don’t have all that stuff. Yes she does, Joe said, you just never paid any attention. Clark thought back to an image of the stove in the living room, yes there was a little log holder and a brush, shovel and a little thermometer on top of the corner of the stove; how on earth could he have forgotten that as many logs as he had carried in and placed in the log holder. The thought hit his mind, is this the way you get when you get old.

Fortunately they had thrown the dolly in the truck. They found a heavy 1 or 2 inch thick piece of larger then half heart shape slate or some kind of material to set the stove on to keep from catching the floor on fire. The stainless steel chimney gave them fits, there were tons of 8 inch but he needed 6 inch diameter. Finally Joe hollowed out from a back corner, here it is. Enough of those sections went in to raise it 15 feet in the air. You need a 90 degree elbow to take it straight up when you get through the wall. Half an hour later it was found. Joe said now if I remember correctly there is some kind of special pipe that comes out of the stove before it is hooked into this double wall stainless. They finally sat down and read the directions in the box. Ah ha Joe said a thimble to take it through the wall to keep the pipe from catching the walls on fire. Now we need to find some of that fireproof cement to cover the 3 holes you are going to drill in this special pipe and seal the connection permanently. I have no idea how to connect the chimney to the side of the trailer. Let’s read some more. Clark thought his dad was attacking this logically whereas he was stampeding headlong into a mess without analyzing things like a normal educated or common sense person would. They finally found some wall connectors and some extensions that would allow him to keep an 18 inch outside distance from the outside trailer wall. They left after picking up a few more neat things; one was a couple of cases of miniature fire logs to start a fire. These were worth there weight in gold on a cold morning when you would want a fire started quickly.

Since it was late when they got back they left everything in the truck, ate supper and did their chores. They got another fair day but the temperature dropped down into the mid 30F range. They disassembled the manual well pump and studied and scratched their heads, shined a light down and sat around and talked for a bit before doing anything mechanically different to the working system. We will never know if we don’t try, Effie said I sure would like ta be able ta turn a Fawcett on and have water. They hooked up half inch pipe to the 110 pump, lowered it all down to where it hit bottom and raised it a foot. They held their breath when they plugged it in; a steady stream of water with a pretty good pressure behind it streamed into the sink. My goodness was all Effie said. They spent the rest of that day and part of the next plumbing it all in. A shut off valve to Clark’s trailer had been installed and no water had yet been sent to the trailer. Joe told him he was going to have to make sure the hot water tank, the hot water valve to his washer and the rest of the hot water valves in the trailer were turned off. But before any water was sent to his trailer, he would have to be living there in the winter time to make sure the pipes did not freeze and burst.

They had 32F weather the next day and started installing the stove into the trailer. They liked to never got the 500 pound thing in the door. They had to disassemble the thing partially to slide it up the steps. They had run electric to the trailer, but nothing was turned on except for whatever power tools they were going to use that day. They had taken all the screw in florescent 100 watt bulbs from the hardware and squirreled them away. There would only be incandescent lights used in the chicken coop in the winter and three 100 watt bulbs in glass wire mesh cages in the barn close to the cow to generate a teeny amount of heat on those sub zero frigid nights. They would make a note to put florescent bulbs in during the summer in the coop and the cow barn. They did some fancy metal cutting with the reciprocating saw to get through the trailer wall. It took them all day to get the stove installed. Since there was such a small amount of cold particulate matter coming from this premium stove, the solar panels would not be affected. Effies stove belched out the smoke and particulates. But the cottage solar panels were out of the wind stream from her stove.

It snowed 2 days later and Christmas was fast coming. The next meeting was a few weeks away and Clark was getting anxious. He had made note on top of note with messages to give her on how to surreptitiously meet.

That ain’t at all how the girl meets boy meeting went down.

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just another story #2 Part 35
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At breakfast one morning, Joe told Clark you should build another storage room, we have some block and I know where to get some more, he grinned when he said that. Clark asked what do you have in mind. Clark didn’t hear him the first time clearly. He did the 2nd time, and blurted out no absolutely not, it would take months to build something that big. Joe said we haven’t got anything but time and chores. What Joe had proposed was a 24 by 48 foot concrete building with a 4 inch thick concrete floor. Joe said we have the equipment and the wherewithal to do it even if it takes a few summers. Clark said no way am I going to manually mix that much cement up. Joe countered with there is a diesel motored mixer at the plant. But who is going to lift that thousand bags of cement into the mixer. Joe said a forklift. We can leave it on the pallet and cut it open over the hopper and push it in. Well Effie what do you think about it. She said a mouse proof storage area built inside that big building would be a life saver. Clark thought a concrete room within a concrete building. Well Pearl, Clark asked what do you think. She said it will give us something to do in our dead time. That settled it. Clark said, OK lets draw up some plans and talk it out before we do anything.

Clark had shot 2 more turkeys and 8 or 10 more squirrels which had been cleaned and frozen. Effie told them ham for Christmas with baked potatoes, asparagus, hot rolls and some corn, may also make some pudding for dessert. Clark started salivating like the dog in Pavlov’s experiment.

Christmas came and the food was again beyond superb. The plans for the building were rehashed many times and this time they had thought out in minute detail how they were going to do this big project. Of course they couldn’t do anything with a foot of snow on the ground. Clark asked Effie if she wanted a deer for some deer steaks or roasts. She gave him that you are an idiot look again. She then said what would you really want to eat in the dead of winter, a juicy cow steak or a dried up piece of deer meat. He again shut up. She said next month when we get through eating a few things we have in the freezer, you can shoot some pheasants and some grouse.

The meeting was the next day.

just another story #2 Part 36
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Joe asked Clark if he was ready to go, Clark came back with I don’t think I’ll go. Clark heard that double negative again, yeah right his dad said. Effie had 5 pounds of sliced bacon and a small ham in a sack. They got there as the other people showed up. He looked around and immediately saw that golden hair glistening in the sunlight. Effie as usual had to start the talking, this time 3 more families had showed up to see these 3 new additions to Effies household. A lot more conversation went on about long range planning and what had happened to the residents of the cities. Clark got involved in one of these conversations and was asked what happened to the armed Arabs. He didn’t want to flat out lie so he was careful in his response. He just said Allah must have called them because I can’t find a living soul in those cities. The conversation then went on to gardening and Effie joined in. Clark eased back and bumped into the yellow haired girl. They talked for a bit and she said the people I am living with are my kin on my dad’s side of the family. He and mom were supposed to come get me when all this started. I don’t want to talk ill of the people that have been housing me, but it is definitely time for me to move on. I just cannot live in that much hullabaloo any longer. Clark never one to miss an opportunity, said why don’t you come stay with us for a bit and see if you like it. I do not think you can make it in the empty cities by yourself. There is hardly any food and no power to do anything. They talked for 10 more minutes and she told him, I don’t have much could you come get me tomorrow. Clark asked her if she could get it on both snow machines. She said yes. Clark floated home, he felt like he was about 6 inches above the machine he was riding. All he saw were little golden beams of sunlight bouncing from the snow.

Then reality hit him when he walked in the cottage. Another softly spoken dirty word slipped from his lips. There is no place for her to sleep here unless I get the trailer stocked up. It was noon and they were eating and talking about the mess Clark had gotten himself into and they were all laughing except Clark. Come on people help me out. Dad if I remember correctly it was your idea to get me a trailer in case I found a woman. They all quit and he said I know son, we have a small plan and we are going to implement it right now. They went to town to get some new sheets, blankets, pillows, silverware, plates, cast iron cookware to cook on top of the wood burner. They had turned the power on to the trailer before they left. Pearl stocked the fridge with eggs, milk, meats and put some of Effies canned goods in a cabinet. The bread and anything requiring baking would have to be done in the cottage until Clark built a porch and installed an outdoor cook stove. Effie baked 2 loaves of bread and would have Clark take them to the trailer this evening when he got back from town. A 1 gallon tub of lard was put in the fridge along with about a quart of strained bacon grease. They got back about 5 pm and Pearl helped Clark and Joe make the beds. Effie took the cast iron goods they had brought back and began to season them in the oven. Clark had earlier stocked some shelf stable items like soaps for the washer, bathing and dishes. He brought back towels, wash cloths, some disposable razors, feminine pads and what not things for women. The trailer was as minimally ready as it was ever going to get for occupancy. Clark had fired the wood stove up and was going to spend the night. He sure was taking a chance on all this preparation. He shut that thought out and went to sleep.

just another story #2 Part 36A
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Clark woke up and was chilly; I have never been chilly before. Oh! I am in the trailer and I can see now this place is not as warm as the cottage and then again maybe not, he opened the bedroom door that had been left open only about an inch and the main part of the living room was still warm; going to have to leave that door open more if I want to stay warm. He was surprised when he opened the stove door to still see live coals. This is a better stove then Effie has. He put some water on top of the stove to warm up for tea or coffee. He looked around and didn’t find any. OK, a trip to the cottage is in order for some thing hot to drink. He and Effie talked and sipped hot tea. Effie said to him, I ain’t gotta talk ta dat girl, but sumtimes, ya just know when a person is good. Clark pondered that for a bit and asked her if she wanted some breakfast. Yep, came the reply. He cooked her 2 over easy eggs in bacon grease and made some toast on the little wire grill she had to place over the open top port of the stove. He fixed himself 5 scrambled and 2 pieces of buttered toast. He saved the used grease after straining it into a cup she kept on the stove. The 2 dishes and cups were washed nd put away, a quick wipe with the clean grease rag and the cast iron skillet was hung over top the stove. She said yore mama and daddy can fix dere own breakfast. I goin ta take a little nap.

At 9am Clark and Joe went to get the yellow haired girl. He had to laugh he never asked her, her name. His dad chided him unmercifully on that one.

She was walking up the snow covered road when they met her. She had 1 box and 1 suitcase. Not much Clark thought, until he remembered she was just visiting. Very little talking went on, on the way back. He showed her, her bedroom and asked her if there was anything special she wanted to do today. He figured she would talk about the religious people when she got around to it. She opened the fridge poured herself some milk and said OMG you have real milk. Yes Clark said for another couple of months until the cow dries up. Is that bacon I see there and a ham and cow steaks? She just said thank you lord for rescuing me from the rabbit eaters. They talked till noon and Joe came and knocked on the door and said come over to Effies, Pearl and her fixed up a nice lunch. And what a lunch it was, A beef stew with chunks of beef and at least 3 quart jars of different vegetables Effie had canned. The girl, her name was Annie, yes, Annie, ate like a normal human but Clark had the feeling that if no one were around she would have used both hands shoveling it down her throat. The reason he thought like that is because it was often what he wanted to do. Annie said I can’t remember when or if I have ever eaten anything so scrumptious. She actually used that word. Effie beamed with that toothless grin. Pearl said you can thank Effie for that delicious lunch time meal. The talk revolved around food and what she had eaten at her kin folks during the past several months.

just another story #2 Part 37
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Clark asked Effie how she was holding out on tea and then he asked his dad about coffee. Both said very little left, maybe a couple weeks before its all gone. Annie said why don’t you go to McDonalds and take there supply. You could hear Clark, his dad, and Pearl’s brain working. All 3 tried to say it at the same time, thank you Annie, because none of the grocery stores had any. They had planned to go through houses to find some. Since Clark didn’t have any in the trailer and it was just past 1 pm. Clark and Annie got on one machine and Joe and Effie took the other. They went to the 1st town and went through the McDonalds there and found enough tea and coffee to last them a year or more. Joe told Clark as soon as the snow goes away; we are going to have to get it. Clark wrote it in his book. Annie said she wanted one of the coffee pots and was shot down, Joe said not enough room on machines to carry it back. Oh, she murmured. Clark said we will get one when we can drive the truck here. She was relieved. Clark asked her why she wanted a coffee machine; she told him I used to work at Mickey D’s and got hooked on the freshly brewed stuff. As a matter of fact I haven’t had a cup of coffee since about the 1st of July last year. Clark grinned and told her I bet I can make a better cup then comes out of that machine. She grinned and said I’ll believe it when I taste it. He said I hope you like milk in it because it will need a little. She looked thoughtful at that remark. They took a small bag of ketchup, mustard, black pepper, and hot pepper samplers. Clark squeezed a large roll of Reynolds wrap foil onto his machine. Joe said that’s it folks, I am cold and we need to get home.

Instead of Clark and Anne cooking anything that evening, they ate the stew for supper. Annie followed Clark down to the barn and watched while he milked the cow. She said will you teach me to do that. Clark said yes. This is normally my mom’s job and I am 100% sure she would like some help on this job. While he was milking the cow he told her if they didn’t get the cow serviced this spring when she dries up, there would be no more milk. She playfully asked and how you going to get her serviced. Clark turned red and said; well you know find a bull. She kept on and said, I see. Clark kept on milking with his head down. Annie just giggled.

Clark said, well here it is and he handed her a cup of hobo coffee made on the wood burner in the trailer. She said more milk puuleasse . She sat there after drinking a cup of it and said if you had strained the grounds out of it, it would have been great. He smiled and said next time we’ll do just that. He opened the lap top up and laid 20 or 30 movies out for her to choose from. OMG, you have movies. I am not leaving this place, never, never, never. Clark said I was hoping it would be for something other then a movie. She said we will see. He at least got his hopes up.

He got up long before Annie did and placed the tin foil on the top of the wood burner to keep the grease off and to keep from scratching the stove up. He had told her about leaving the door open and she again teased him, not gonna jump in bed with me and take advantage of me, are you. He turned red again and said no, but you will freeze that pretty rear end of yours off if you do shut the door all the way. Things settled down, he told her what time he got up and the chores he had to do. She said if you need help wake me, if not, I get up at 615am every morning unless an atom bomb goes off near the house. At 6am he fried some bacon and sat it on the side of the stove to keep warm. He waited till she came out of the bathroom and said smells good in here, he handed her a cup of strained coffee and she said now this is good stuff. He handed her a plate with 3 scrambled eggs and some bread that he just lay on the stove an let it brown a littlee and slathered some butter he had set out to soften up near the fire. She ate like she hadn’t eaten in a week or so. You do know that I have not had an egg in 6 months or bacon. This is amazing what you all have here. I ate rabbit cooked every which way it could be cooked. I never did like rabbit but if its rabbit or starving. You know what you will do. He said eat rabbit.

They visited with Effie for a while before returning to the trailer. Today, if you help me a little bit, I will install the batteries for the trailer solar panels and in a day or 2 or 3 we will have a micro wave. Holy cow, she said. They had a little teeny solar panel and a boat battery and all it would run is a small 15 watt florescent bulb in that dark log cabin. I should be thankful though the place was warm and he has at least 10 years of wood cut for the stove. I don’t think they have any more gasoline for the chain saws. But 10 years is a lot of time for things to either get better or worse. He asked her how she was set up for clothes and shoes. She said what you see is what you get big boy. He laughed and told her I know where a department store is that has just oodles of clothes for you. She said the jacket I wear belongs to Ellie and I told her I would get it back to her. OK, Clark said it takes a lot of gas to run the snow machines to the city, but I think this trip will be OK. Make you a list and after we eat lunch we will go clothes hunting. She said that is wonderful. Joe said to Clark, we really don’t want to make a trip today. Why don’t you and Annie take both machines so you will have a lot of room to bring some things back?
It took him 3 minutes to show her how to ride the machine. He also told her we do not go fast or act like teenagers on them because this is all we have and we ride them very carefully and always stay on the snow, so as not to wear the tracks out. She said – Got it.

She was a no nonsense girl when it came to gathering up rugged clothes that would last a while and some good winter, summer boots, walking and running tennis shoes. She spotted some house shoes and took 2 comfortable looking pair. Took her about 45 minutes to get her clothes. She went in the make up department and filled a small bag. She said how are you set for toe nail clips. He said mine are just about worn out get me a couple sets. She went to the sock department and looked at him, he said I got a few pair when I picked my boots up, plus I still have my good ones from Uncle Sam. She looked at some lamps and asked for his pen, he had anticipated this and gave her a small spiral book and a pen and a pencil with a small pocket knife. She looked at the knife, he said for sharpening the pencil. She giggled and said OK, Robinson Crusoe, what do we look at next. He said there is not much we can pick up till the roads clear. But we can look around town and the drug store has only had the narcotics stolen from it. They went to the drug store. She went to the pharmacy and came out with a large quart or half gallon sized plastic jug. He looked at her; she said I’ll tell you later. It hit him, birth control pills. The dirty little part of Clark’s mind was jumping for joy. They wandered in and out of businesses for about an hour. She had made a copious amount of notes. He was dying to know what she had written down.

just another story #2 Part 38
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They parked the 2 machines in the shed, refilled the gas tanks, turned the gas tank switch off and let the engine run the carburetor dry. She asked him can I wash clothes yet, he had to look at the gage and it showed an 80% charge on the 8 batteries. He said let me check with what dad is running in the cottage. He unplugged both freezers on the porch and opened the doors since it was 3 degree F. He told her we have plenty of power to wash clothes and if we had something to microwave, we could do that too. She washed all the colored clothes together with no soap. He had hung the clothesline up straight down the dining room across from the fireplace. She had used a gentle short cycle and in 15 minutes they were hanging clothes up with a big bag of wooden clothes pins. The white things were done the same way and she giggled at him and said – no touch my undies, he again turned red. They talked for a while and it was bed time. He asked her what she wanted for breakfast, eggs and bacon or bacon and eggs. She laughed at him and said I want 4 eggs over medium tomorrow morning, 4 pieces of bacon and 3 buttered toast. He said you are going to get fat and she said nope, I am going o work tomorrow and burn all those calories off. He just said OK, see ya in tha morning.

Annie asked Effie when she thought the cow would quit producing milk. Effie said I hope no earlier than April. I have a plan for us to save 60 or so gallons of milk. Annie said ugh, you are not going to make milk powder. Effie said nope, we are going ta town and get a large freezer and some gallon jugs and freeze da milk. That means we will be down ta using 1 gallon or so a week. Unless we find another cow with 2 month old calves. Cows have same birth period as human. Ya really need 2 cows ta be in milk all year long. Da cow give milk for 300 days an then it dry off for 2 month and get serviced again. 9 month later plus 2 months to feed the calves with da milk and da cycle keeps on goin till cow wore out. It never stops unless ya can’t find a bull. Ya really gotta have 2 cows with one dropping calves about 240 days before da other cow run dry plus da time ya gottta wait. Did I make myself clear. Clark got it and went back over it in plain English for everyone else. So Joe said we need to find a bull and another cow and get the times for different birthing dates in synch. Dats it Effie said. Clark said I hope we don’t have to get 2 freezers. Da cow is now givin about 4 or 5 an a half gallons a day, when it is in full production it give about 9 gallons a day, so mommy cow is on down hill end of producing milk.

Clark and Annie went to town again on both machines and did a complete search for freezers in the stores and gallon milk jugs. They found both. The problem now was they needed a little more power and they had to run the big generator every now and then to get the batteries back in synch. They never let them go below 70%, And when the sun did shine they had enough solar panels to charge them back to the 99% level. They brought some coffee and tea back just as insurance and Annie got Effie a nice flannel night gown and some new house shoes. No one else had thought of this and proud Effie never mentioned anything she personally wanted. But Annie had talked with her many tmes and found out some things she never told any one else. There were many bottles of Motrin for Effies aches and pains and some Murine (it does not freeze) with the lubricants in it. Effie beamed all the time now. Clark found a whole case of geriatric vitamins in the kitchen cabinet for Effie.

Effie told Clark one morning when they were alone that if Annie left, she was going to use her polk stalk and shoot him and then she was packin up and leavin with Annie. Clark pondered on getting shot with a 12 guage shotgun. The thought was not a nice one. He thought he was getting along fine and making some sort of romantic progress with Annie. He asked her about their possibilities of having a romance. She said soon. I am thinking other things right now, but don’t you dare quit being sweet on me. I will explain it all in a while just hang in there. Got lots of things on my mind. She asked him the next day to take her back to the log cabin. Clark’s heart dropped almost to the floor. She said I want to take Ellie’s jacket back to her and some gloves I picked up for the kids. I also want to take a gallon of milk to them and a pound of bacon to make that nasty rabbit taste better when they fry it. Clark said OK. Clark didn’t go in the cabin, and she wasn’t there but 4 or 5 minutes. Ellie hugged her on the porch. Clark noticed Annie’s eyes were misted over. She said I didn’t ask you all for what I gave them, but since I picked up the spices in McDonalds, I thought they were mine. I gave them 20 packages of mustard, 20 packages of hot spices, 20 packages of ketchup and about 200 of those little pepper packets and sugar packets. They have salt. Clark said that’s great, I wish we could share more. When we can get the truck to town we can bring back lots of things except food. There isn’t any. You must remember Annie they never mentioned on the CB that they needed anything. I thought most of them were survivalists and preppers living out here on the mountain. She said that’s OK I feel a lot better now knowing that the rabbit will taste better. She laughed then and said rabbit really is nasty and every time I ate it, I wanted to puke, but the need to survive was greater then puking it up. He hugged her a little and got a hug back.

They became a couple that night after returning from the log cabin.

just another story #2 Part 39
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Early March, the snow was gone but it was a brisk windy day. The 2 pickups made the 1st trip to town to bring back lots of stuff. They had prioritized their trips during the long cold snowy months of January and February. The gasoline cans were refilled, the coffee and tea retrieved from the 1st McDonalds. The trailer diesel truck was brought back to get it out of the way on the farm. The ton and a half tilt flat bed was parked at the cement plant to be reloaded again. The Vespa scooters were brought out and the countryside scoured for live beef. Joe found a bull. The bull had been on a farm with haystacks everywhere and Joe saw a covered shed with one door gone that the bull must have stayed in during the cold time. Some of the hay stacks were only half size when he looked the place over, so the bull was a smart one and had survived. He made a circuit of the rather large ranch and found 3 cows with small calves. How could this be? He kept on searching and found another covered over shed on a section with haystacks that the cows were on; Lucky cows. The bull had broken the fence down and got to the cows. This solved the milk problem, and the service problem for years to come. They would just bring momma cow here about 2 months after she dried up and nature would take its course. He continued to look the farm over and some of the haystacks had been covered. Enough hay to feed 2 cows and a bull for many years. He would look in the barn for other feed later. Effie was ecstatic.

All of the materials to build a concrete shed were finally assembled at the location. Construction would not start for several weeks.

Another meeting was held and the religious fanatics were shouted down and some real bartering began. Items that the people on the other places did not have were talked about. Clark asked why no one else had gone to town and scavenged. They had no gas and their vehicles would not run. Clark told them if they were really ready to become a community, he would bring a diesel bus out here and show them where to get fuel for it and they could all plan and make trips to the empty cities.

Effie got her seeds.

The concrete shed was finished during the 2nd summer.

An Army Hummer with some National Guard and remaining Federal Military troops came through town that 2nd summer and the information on what had happened to the occupants finally came out. The Commander of the military base that had been attacked with one of the 60 millimeter mortar shells releasing the cocktail of virus had sent a squad of infected Soldiers and Airmen out to warn the communities to move to a protected base that had also been attacked and was not known by anyone till the damage had been done. The fleeing citizens died from some type of infection on their way to what they thought were safe havens.

The population of the US was down to about 25 million.

The Nuclear submarines were still on patrol on both coasts of the US and were short of rations. The West Coast submariners had made contact with some farmers near Port Hueneme Navy Base in CA and were going to be restocked with some vegetables and fresh corn. They were told to come back in 60 days and some Corn flour and deer meat, fresh and dried would be available. Fresh fish was caught by the submariners which supplemented their diet. The East coast Submariners were not as lucky as their brethren on the West Coast and had to send out hunting/scavenging parties and eventually a third of its crew to farm some land for fresh food for the submarine. The submarine commanders had SEAL teams on board and were planning on sending them to the military bases that housed the Nuclear weapons to secure or destroy them and determine the status of the in ground nuclear missiles. Neither the President nor any ranked US elected officials could be contacted. The Submarine Commanders were on their own.

The major cities in the US had imploded; surviving gang members and gang warfare over turf and food had reduced the populations to just about zero.

Some forms of agricultural communities began to appear all across the US.

There were no cattle alive west of Missouri and some smart people had figured out what the terrorists had done and just decided to let the virus die off before bringing cattle westward again.

Small militias in and around Maine had intercepted the remaining terrorists and executed them by hanging; One brilliant or evil minded militia member paraded a pig in front of them before their execution and told each one of them that he was going to place part of this pig in their mouth after they were hung and that would stop their ascent to the 72 virgin program and they would all rot in a pig sty haven for eternity.

Effie was as healthy as a young horse on her 92nd birthday and still giving out instructions to the Clark family, which would soon increase by one. Clark eventually found out Effie had no plan for removing the composted cow manure from that 25 foot deep hole that they were dumping the waste from the cow in. But they did dig a ramp down to the hole using the back hoe and used the compost every fall.

AND the reason Clark’s mom was called Pearl was she had eaten a whole string of pearls when she was 4 years old out of a bowl on the kitchen table that Effie was going to restring after the string they were on had broken. They took her to the doctor and the doctor just said let nature take its course.

Small amounts of oil would eventually begin to flow to the remaining refineries in the US and life of the greatly US reduced population would regain some normalcy in the future.

Just another story #2 - Ending. Thanks for reading…

Just read this one again. Gets better and better each time. Thanks again Scrachline!

Scrachline.
Been awhile since I've read one of your stories.
It was as good as I remember them being.
Thanks for sharing.

Thank you :).

Scrachline Great story, I also just reread it and enjoyed it Thoroughly.
Thanks
Wayne

Great read Thank you