[FICTION]Tom & family go for their vaccines...

Ah, Sunday… we were scheduled to join everyone at the Harrisons today & did just that. Incredible how traipsing a half mile down the road to another kitchen & front room suddenly feels like a major expedition. We were all up by seven or thereabouts & after getting up at five for a few weeks now, that seemed like a really lazy morning. Those of who hadn’t taken good long baths or showers last night did so this morning. I STILL feel grimy & don’t get the women started on that subject! We moved the cattle to a pasture a bit farther from the house today, just one over from the swampy area. The grass there is lush & the ground is dry enough not to bog down the cattle or horses. Before leaving, we made sure the chickens were secured, as well as the piglets. We simply can’t afford to lose them. Andy & Sam volunteered to stay behind for the first part of the day & later, Alex & Jake will come back & take over, giving them a chance to visit too. Leslie, the baby & MT stayed behind as well – they’ll be fine with the men.

It was a pleasant walk over for the rest of. I’d forgot how nice it is to walk without feeling you’re wasting time by not moving more quickly. We all noticed things we used to take for granted – how much grass & hay is growing, water levels in the stream & the odd puddle, how well fences are holding up & the weather. It was a bright day but with clouds rolling in & sure enough, we have a gentle rain falling now.

We arrived at the Harrisons shortly before eleven thirty & were just beaten by the Greenes. The Merriwethers & Runnings were late, choosing to put in some hours of work this morning on their fields. That’s just as well as they’re quite a bit behind where the rest of us are right now. They showed up at about one o’clock & sure looked ready for a couple of hours of rest. By the time they arrived & everyone had a chance to greet everyone else, it was time to eat. Maxine & Cindy had done some baking, so we provided some of the desserts. The Runnings brought a really nice rice pudding & the Merriwethers a nice chocolate bread – there’s something I’ve not eaten in a while. For the main course, we had roast chicken; something we’ve all missed.

Goodness I didn’t think we’d ever get everyone served & seated, but the Harrisons did it the same way we did; buffet style with people grabbing seats wherever they could find an empty corner. Wow, what a meal too! Perhaps it tasted better because we didn’t have to cook it! We did clean up afterwards though, as I know the Harrison women must have worked since some time yesterday preparing this wonderful meal. They have two kitchens as well, a main kitchen & a summer kitchen which they certainly put to good use today. I always liked the idea of a summer kitchen & if we didn’t have several rooms we can use for cooking & ‘private’ kitchens, I’d be whining until Morgan & Joe built us a summer kitchen.

Wade was proud to give us a tour of the place & with reason. The house is clean as a whistle although Lisa later told me the women drove everyone nuts yesterday evening & this morning, tidying up! They have a few less outbuildings & barns than we do but boy, do I envy them their chicken coop – or rather its occupants! Drew had sent over a cow & calf, as well as a cow they’re milking, no calf at foot & those are some spoiled animals! They’ll keep the 2 cows, hopefully both in calf this winter & will slaughter the calf as late in the fall as they can get away with. Drew assured Wade that sometime soon, he’d send over another couple of cows, some older ones so that they’d be guaranteed meat this winter. Wade was delighted & generously offer us the use of his back woods for hunting later. His pastures border on a large stretch of woods, a good 200 or so acres & he says Nathan tells him it’s thick with deer & small game. Just as importantly, he also has a major stream or creek, whatever you choose to call it, running just behind the woods. He’s invited us to fish there when we get tired of meat.

Wade still has extensive stocks of feed as well as seed. He’s guarding that seed as if it were gold & who can blame him? If, God forbid, something knocks out his crops before much more time passes, he could replant. If it’s not needed, he has a reserve for next year. He & his family have been working all hours & have well over 100 acres planted so far. Not having the number of cattle we do, they’ve been able to concentrate on people food & feed grains for their pigs & chickens. He has 2 nice hay fields coming up & said he’ll be harvesting that in hopes of selling or trading it with others later. Now he has something we don’t have, fairly extensive plantings of fruit trees as well as strawberries & raspberries. Noreen has some but not nearly enough for all of us over the course of a winter.

What we do have that the Harrisons don’t are herbs – much more than I thought we’d have. We’ll be quite happy to trade some of those, both the culinary & medicinal types for berries for jam. It’s also a bit of a relief knowing he has so much hay coming up. Now it’s a long way between growing & harvest, but still, it’s insurance. One thing they are low on & asked us for was – believe it or not – socks! Wade says they’ve been going through socks faster than they would have believed & they obviously didn’t get enough when they made supply runs of their own to town. Well we have hundreds of pairs – literally shipping boxes full of them & sometime this week, we’ll send some over. We should have thought to do that when we switched our guard teams earlier today.

The kids certainly enjoyed an afternoon of play. Once they’d eaten & everything was cleared away, we turned them loose outdoors & I’m not sure where they found the energy, but they spent all afternoon racing around as though they’d been housebound for days. About 50 yards from the house, in an old oak tree, the kids who would have lived here before; grandkids I think, had quite the tree house. All the kids have been crawling in & out of that tree today, having a grand time. Annette & Sean from the Harrisons also took them all to the pond not too much farther on from there. It’s a wide pond, fairly shallow around the edges & the Harrisons have invited us to bring the kids to swim here, adults as well later on when the water warms up some.

The teens also wandered off, initially as a large gaggle before they splintered into smaller groups reflecting their ages & interests. We have a small group of 10 – 12 year olds who seem to be hitting it off well & they wandered off. If there were only one or two in that age group, I’d feel sorry for them, stuck as they are between childhood & being teenagers. But with four of them, they needn’t feel isolated. They were quite happy to get off on their own & spent most of their time hanging around the pond, tossing rocks & sticks.

The twins have settled a bit & we were all glad to see that. For once they weren’t dressed like, excuse me but tarts. Both had jeans on & decent t shirts. Judging by their hands & hair, they’ve not had much time to worry about makeup or styles for a time. They were pretty quiet & subdued most of the time they were here. I don’t think for a minute they’ve changed their spots, but they had the good sense to keep their mouths shut unless they had something to contribute. Jack told me privately that he & Alia had finally realized they had to get the girls working if they had a hope of making it through the winter. It’s been tough he admitted; initially they needed to be supervised every minute & he eventually found it necessary to use a bit of physical discipline. I could tell he didn’t like that at all & I had the feeling he was almost retroactively asking my permission. I told him sometimes, it’s necessary & that a smack on the butt or in this case, a slap across a nasty, foul mouth wasn’t going to cause permanent damage. They certainly didn’t have child protection services to worry about these days & it wasn’t as if he was beating the girls half to death, was it? He was horrified at that question until I assured him I meant it rhetorically.

It’s been hard for him to get a grip on those 2 as well as the younger kids. I get the feeling he’s almost too easy going; that he prefers to let things ride & avoid conflict. As a parent, especially of teens, I’ve found that to be a huge mistake. Avoiding small conflicts when they’re younger does children no favors. At some point, they must learn that adult life is full of disappointments & that adults have to do just as many things they don’t enjoy as children do! Certainly right now, he needs every pair of able bodied hands he has & the girls are learning invaluable skills. Right now, he & Alia have them doing much of the cooking, while the younger ones clean up after meals, set tables & do pretty much the sorts of things our children are doing. The girls are also minding the kids, Chelsea is helping with planting & Farrah also, as she is able. Thankfully, she’s having a reasonably easy pregnancy so far. She has about 10 more weeks to go, so should be able to do a fair bit of work for some time yet.

We adults enjoyed spending time speaking of the kids, all of them. All parents & I guess we have to call them, (informally), adoptive parents are very keen on continuing their children’s education as best they can. I’ve committed myself to putting together lesson plans, methods of testing & also teaching formal & informal classes this winter. Actually, I’m really looking forward to that. Although none of us & we DO have 2 teachers, have really worked in elementary education, the basics are the basics. Sam promised to help me with specific teaching practices that work best with younger ones. Alia will be quite happy to work with the older ones in math & science – thank God because my math skills are primitive & rusty, although English, history & geography suit me fine. Our other adults are going to help out as well, teaching some of their particular skills & talents, most of which are based on solid academics. It’s going to be a challenge to mix & match what knowledge is vital today, what we NEED them to know to survive post Outbreak, with the more formal education they will need or MAY need later as life returns to something resembling normalcy.

I can’t help but wonder – we all do; how on earth public schools are going to resume teaching children? I can’t see that happening for at least 2 or 3 years & then schools will face multiple problems. They’ll need to find teachers & then somehow, test the kids to see what level of education they currently have. Boy that alone could take ages. I don’t think the old system of grade placement based on ages is going to work. I never really liked that anyway & hated how kids seemed to march in lockstep depending on their ages. I know I remember Sam being very articulate, very bright & working well ahead of his age in English, history & other ‘soft’ subjects. However in math, he struggled to keep up with grade level material. I’ve seen it in my students as a teacher & am certainly seeing it now with the children here. Some are well ahead of their years in different subjects & perhaps a bit behind in others. It makes sense; different parts of the brain develop differently & at different speeds.

The other ‘fun’ aspect of teaching a small group like this is I can cater somewhat to individual interests. Annette for example, seems really keen on working with animals. She may become a veterinarian at some point in time or a veterinary nurse. Who knows, she might decide she wants to manage a livery stable. We can certainly teach her the biology & other specialized subjects she would need. As the others begin narrowing down their ideas of future occupations, we can assist that process. Most importantly, we can teach them to THINK! So few kids & young adults can do that anymore. Ours here have certainly learned that – if not before The Outbreak, then certainly afterwards. I frequently hear them trying to analyze what happened, what went so terribly wrong in the world to bring this upon us. I certainly don’t have answers for them but very much enjoy the discussions & debates. Morgan is having a wonderful time with his “homework” finding it much more enjoyable than Mark does. I suspect that’s because Morgan appreciates it more right now. At his age school is all he’s known.

We certainly won’t find winter boring as a great deal of work must wait until we complete farm operations. Most schooling will go on over the winter months. House repairs & improvements will also be done then as well as planning for next year. The kids will continue to grow & clothing will have to be altered & perhaps even made. We’ll still have normal chores relating to the animals, clearing away snow, fetching water & firewood. As hard as that work seemed when we began, to my mind now it seems like a light load. Drew’s right, you DO get used to this pace of work. You may not like it, but you get used to it.

And Thanksgiving – the whole concept, not the holiday. How thankful we will be when that date rolls around this year. That is, we’ll be fervently thankful if we harvest much of what we’ve planted & get it safely stored away. We’ll be grateful for our continued good health, new babies, meat in the freezer & canned & any other blessing God sees fit to grant us. We’ve been plenty blessed so far in spite of our tremendous losses. We’re together & have a viable plan & the people with which to carry it out. All the families agreed on that subject when we spoke. Oh we can’t & don’t downplay the tremendous challenges ahead of us but we DO have lots to work with. I hate to think of those with very little or nothing to work with.

Lordie, I wanted to write so much more, but it is getting late & all the good food, company & relaxation has left me in the state of tired I prefer – pleasantly tired as opposed to exhausted. Anne is checking MT & Leslie, who are both doing very well & I’ll join her in bed once I tidy this stuff up. Tomorrow, I’ll update the journal on how each individual is doing.