TEOTWAWKI, has come and gone

Be nice, this constitutres my first ever effort: all opinions are welcome.


As he leaned back against the clump of maples next to the fire, Tim reflected upon how life was destined to do only one thing. Change.

For, in fact, this would probably be the last open fire he would be able to enjoy in his lifetime.

So sad he thought, recollecting all the pleasant times he and his extended family had enjoyed over the years, basking in the warmth and light of late autumn and early spring fires.

Many a birthday party, weenie roasts, 4rth of July, Memorial and Labor day, had all been celebrated and enjoyed in the warm glow of a brushy pile of debris casually collected by children and grandchildren from the twenty surrounding acres.

God himself seemed to provide the fuel for those occasions, never did a fire require more than a brief trip through the woods to yield enough fuel for any impromptu gathering that demanded the sacrifice of a little of Gods’ bounty, in exchange for a burnt dog or a melted marshmallow, or even just a warm butt.

Children and grandchildren, happy to escape the confines of whatever particular urban environment they existed in - long enough to burn the hell out of a wiener and a couple of dozen marshmallows and to consume them with a glee that was matched by nothing else in their lives.

TV, Nintendo, the X box, nothing seems to delight a young child as does the time spent with those they love in front of an open fire. It is down right magical at times.

But, the magic was over.

It is now December 31, 2007. Tim’s’ holdings were to fall under the control of the UN’s’ Treaty on bio-diversity, beginning at midnight that very night. At that time the fire would become a crime against all humanity. A crime punishable by, fine, imprisonment, death, or forfeiture of property. Depending, of course, upon the animus of the environmental courts in charge of hearing such matters.

However, Tim had no problem with that, his fire would be extinguished before 12:00 am, and he would never light one again. At least, not without, the requisite permits fees and notice. For that was now the way the world “worked”, now. Anyone could do as they wished, just like always, provided all the proper authorities had been notified, and all the proper permits had been secured.

We are still, naturally, protected by the Constitution of the US of A. Anyone can do anything they wish, provided of course, that they have filed the appropriate permits, request and paperwork, and paid the appropriate fees.

This is, after all, still America.

Tim let his mind wander as he enjoyed the heat from the duff and forest trash warm his aching legs. Back to when he was a young man in Wyoming, in the winter of 1976…. The heat from slash burned in a 55-gallon barrel, in that weather meant the difference between life and death in the cold - ever so cold - weather. A bureaucrat demanding a permit for a fire at that time would have resulted in a dead or frozen bureaucrat.

That pervasive cold is what had driven him south, all the way to Tennessee, never, EVER, to be that cold again. His only goal when he turned 18 was to never be that cold again.

After meandering through the Northeast, the West, and the Deep South, he finally decided to try Tennessee, The high country along the highland rim, back where God and the hill-billies live. They had mountains, hills, and even more important water!

Rough country, not fit for cattle, corn or easy life. But, beautiful country, country that will take your every ounce of being to tame, and then nurture your very soul when you can no longer fight it.

When he arrived, he discovered that the mentality he arrived with, was just what had existed here all along:

He had come home. Odd that his Granddads had never found this oasis for he knew that they had searched for it for years.

Descent honest folk, that really appreciated a steadfast neighbor, a good man, or women, honesty and hard work.

The local accent dropped into his voice without his notice. The tenacious desire to live without help from “outside”, was the norm. He didn’t look to government for help…he deigned to help government get the hell out of his way.

The old “Bulls of the woods” gradually accepted his citizenship, …. Frequently at the end of a shotgun. The law came to know that he represented stability in the extreme end of their enforcement areas, a local reinforcement of their will, if you will. But only if their will was just

He had finally come home, and his people were happy to meet him there. And his people, in the form of his descendants were glad for what he had found, and shortly they too moved to be with him in Gods’ country. Or, at least very closely nearby

Not too bad for a sorry assed Wyoming Hill-Billy just looking for a warm fire.

Tim checked his watch, 11:30pm, time to go he thought to himself. Freeing his “firehose” from it’s mount, he peed out what was left of the fire and collected his gear. Time to see what I’ll be doing illegal tomorrow he thought. As he made his way to the single wide he and his wife considered home..

You write very well. Sure this is your first try? Another two or three hundred pages will be just fine, no real rush, tomorrow would do nicley!


Cat

Chapter 2

As Tim worked his way back to “the trailer”, he suddenly remembered that he needed to close the sluice gate on the water wheel. “No sense setting off the low level alert at the Corps of Engineers monitoring site tonight”, he grumbled. He turned back towards the dam and quickly installed a cap on the 3 inch PVC line that fed water from the pond through the dam to his home made water wheel.

As he watched the water wheel slow and then rumble to a stop, he inwardly smiled at the simplicity and rugged beauty of the 6-foot diameter wheel. He had built it 3 years ago. It had all been made out of stuff he already had laying around and had cost nothing more than about a week of his free time.

Made out of scrap oak from his former neighbors’ sawmill and used wheel bearings left over from a brake job on his old truck. Around the perimeter of the wheel he had chiseled a perfect circle and nailed old lawnmower V-belts up side down around the entire circumference. The V-belt turned a gang pulley on a shaft and the gang pulley turned the shaft of a standard automotive alternator. The alternator charged an old cast off 12-volt battery, which provided juice to a cheap 300-watt inverter. The AC traveled 600 feet up the road to the tool/genny shed and powered another battery charger that charged and maintained his house battery bank.

It was a quite crude set-up, but it worked, and more importantly it was working in the spring of 2005 when the President invoked the executive order declaring an energy emergency nation wide. Essentially, the executive order had nationalized all energy production, storage and use. To most people it changed little, but to Tim, and those like him that lived off-grid, it declared complete control over how and how much power they were allowed to generate. That was just one of many impacts of it.

The EO had been issued in response to increased energy demand nationwide, while worldwide production of oil was plummeting. The failure of the political process in Iraq, followed by, yet another, popular revolution in Iran, closely followed by the assassination of King Faud of Saudi Arabia….and ultimately the loss of all petroleum imports from Venezuela, as President Chavez went completely off his rocker and took the whole country down with him.

The country was awash with demand, and lost almost all its imports overnight The price of gas doubled and then doubled again, it now costs around $8.00/gallon, and even at that price most gas stations are unable to supply enough gas to satisfy all their customers. Spot shortages caused immediate panics as motorists bought all the gas they could from other local stations….which caused those stations to run out…..which caused more panic….well you get the idea, it was a self-perpetuating downward spiral into the nearest gutter. Fist fights over gas, long lines at the pump, cases of road rage deaths attributed to gas shortages all became standard footage for the nightly newscasts as the mainstream media attempted to pin the blame on this person or that party or some particular “evil”.

In the end the President was forced politically, to take drastic action. Not to solve the problem mind you, but to perpetuate the sense that the Fed.Gov. was going to save average American from the “evil” oil companies etc. He created (and congress funded) an entire new bureaucracy, under the supervision of the DOE, to review, revise, approve, and regulate every aspect of energy use nationwide. As would be expected the EO did nothing to solve the problem, it merely added yet another layer of bureaucracy, and cost, to the already heavily laden energy production industry.

Sweeping powers were included in the DOE mandate. DOE could (and does) visit any home, at any time and without a warrant, for the purpose of inspecting appliances for inefficiency, checking for thermostats that are set too low or too high, or for any other reason they wish, as long as it is directly related to controlling energy demand. In actual practice, this power is rarely used, except as a method of harassment toward certain vocal critics of the Fed.Gov. or the DOE.

Additionally, every new electrical, or gasoline operated appliance or tool must be approved by the DOE before it can be sold.

It also gave absolute power over all electrical generation to the DOE. Public or private generators are expected to operate exactly as the DOE determines they should. And the DOE has absolute control over the new construction of any electrical power production and/or distribution.

Tim’s’ water wheel, gas powered battery charger, standby generator, and even his two 75 watt solar panels, fell directly under the authority of the DOE. All were metered, inspected, and tested twice a year. Any repairs or modifications had to be approved in advance…in writing.

But Tim was quite lucky for all his equipment was allowed under a Grandfather clause, it was older than the order that regulated it, and a good thing it was. New installments had to meet rigorous efficiency requirements, environmental approval, and huge building fees/permits. To build his water wheel now, Tim would have had to go through several years of legal hoops before the first water could be allowed flow through the sluice gate. Tim merely had to file a declaration of his production equipment, have it inspected by the local DOE field officer, have the meters installed and pay the $150.00 annual permit.

In fact, the whole process had been pretty mundane, except for lacking a permit from the Corps of Engineers for the dam. All the existing equipment had been allowed without exception. However, the field officer had taken great pains to explain that any modification…or any new construction, had to be approved by him first. Failure to do so would be grounds for revoking all Tims’ permits, and Tim could even expect to spend time in jail for some offences.

Tim called the local Corps of Engineers office and scheduled a dam inspection. The inspector came and reviewed the dam, installed a level monitor, and warned Tim not to let the level fall below a certain point or the alarm would sound at the local office, prompting an emergency visit from the sheriffs department. (The monitor was to warn the Corps of a possible dam failure.)

During the inspection, Harold – the inspector- noted the grass Tim had planted to stabilize the dam after it had been built.

“That’s creeping red fescue is’nt it?” Harold asked.
“Yep, an old farmer told me to use that, it’s got a deep root system and it can live in this sorry clay soil”, replied Tim.
“I know, said Harold, we used to use it too. Can’t no-more…EPA has listed it as an invasive species”.
“Well it must have been listed lately, it wasn’t listed last I checked” counter Tim.
“Two weeks ago” allowed Harold as he finished up the monitor installation and packed his tool kit to leave.

Tim assured him he would maintain the minimum level, paid his $150.00 inspection/permit fee and that was that. Two weeks later he received his official DOE certificate of authorization for electrical generation.
It was great to be an American, you can accomplish anything you want, provided of course, you have filed all the correct paperwork and paid all the appropriate fees.

Tim turned again and headed towards the trailer, stopping to check the battery SOC at the genny shed on the way. The State of Charge meter showed 12.6 volts, not entirely full, but full enough to log onto the ‘net and catch up on the days headlines. Provided of course that the phone system would allow it tonight. But that’s a story for another time.

As he entered the trailer, the phone was ringing. He picked up the handset and said Hello.

His wife’s sweet voice echoed his Hello, and added a Happy New Year. They spoke for several minutes and then hung up after expressing their love to each other.

He hated being alone on New Years Eve, but as she only had News Years day off of work, they really couldn’t justify the expense for her to travel home only to return to work less than 20 hours later. Besides, she had just been home for 2 days over the weekend and her next weekend was just 4 days away. Just.

Hey I'm liking this work. Well, sorta. In some ways it's too real!

Keep going you're doing well.


Cat

PLEASE IGNOR THE ABOVE POSTED STORY.

After I got further into it, I realized I need to add to the first chapter.

After doing the re-write, I discovered I couldn't edit the post.

I asked Dennis to fix it but He wasn't able to.

For the current Version See the TEOTWAWKI has come and gone Take II.

Thanks for the comments catshooter.

Anybody else have any comments?

well, since this is a dead end thread anyway, let me begin by saying that you definately have story telling skill and for the most part the story flows well. there are a couple of minor changes that need to be made though. one is point of view. this story is predominantly past tense, but occasionally skips into presence tense. if your point of view is past tense you need to maintain that in all descriptive writing. dialogue is another story entirely, and past or present is up to the writer, but descriptive, or narrative, needs to be one or the other.

the second point is, the overuse of comma's. if you, use comma's, too much, you break up, the flow of the read, making it harder to understand what is going on. to solve these points i found it useful to have someone else proof read my chapters out loud so that i could listen to it and 'feel' how it flowed.

still, these are minor points in an otherwise excellent story beginning. i am looking forward to much more of this.

btw, the story IS too real. :lol:
we are already to that point in many areas...needing permits to breath almost. the situation you are describing is a scary one, made moreso by the realistic nature of it.