Rainy Daze



CHAPTER 1

Saturday was finally here and our dream was about to become reality. Ron and I had just started a survival supply company, Rainy Daze Supplies. We were starting by setting up tables at a gun show and opening a internet site. After all the purchases for stock there wasn’t enough money yet to start the store we planned. Several of our friends were helping us out by going down to the show to help set up and hopefully sell to customers. Before the show we were all going camping at Lori’s family farm for a week to unwind, play some teotwawki and try out some of the products we weren‘t as familiar with.

Jeff and Lori had 5 girls age 10 to 17. Jeff had grown up in a family of 4 self sufficient homesteaders. They all had a lot of knowledge of making do, living off the land and farming. Jeff was also a retired sniper for the Coast Guard. I never even knew they had snipers until we met him. Lori’s family had owned the old farm from the first time it was settled. Their girls were very well behaved and loved shooting and camping, except for his oldest and she was just a typical teenager and thought it was gross. She was going to cook and stay around camp.

Bob and Karen had shot black powder and done mountain men re-enactments for several years. They were bringing their old style gear along with some newer gear they wanted to check out. We were all looking forward to trying out their black powder guns.

Big John and Amy had an allowance from a trust fund that paid for his own truck and trailer. He had a older Peterbilt tractor with a huge living area. It had been set up for a flat bed company with a 15 speed, with 5 under, so seldom got stuck, even in mud with a heavy trailer. The cab was set up with a generator and several batteries he could charge with his generator or solar panels he had mounted on the roof. Awesome rig, and totally self sufficient.

Ron’s folks had been camping for the winter in Florida and were going to meet up with us down at the property on Monday. They would call on the cell phone or CB when they got within range. We had sent them a directions but just in case we were going to show them the way in.

Ron hollered, “Katy you about done checking off everything on your list yet. Are you about ready to go?” I came up behind him, “Yeah, just this one last thing to be loaded then I’m ready to go.” I’m a list maker and can’t seem to remember everything without one or more lists. That week had been one long week of making lists and checking off everything one by one.

We had decided to use the weekend as SHTF exercise and with the show the next weekend it should give us ideas to talk about when selling the supplies. We had all sorts of food products including MRE’s, Mountain House Meals in packets and cans, dried foods including year supply of foods, and canned meat, butter, and cheese. We were going to try different oils, making bread from the wheat, and generally tasting different things. I had lots of how-to books, recipes, canners, radiation detection equipment, KI pills, camping supplies, water purification, and other things for survival. Plus I was taking the laptop, printer and paper along with all the disks of information I had downloaded off the internet. Even including some of the stories off of the Frugal Squirrel site. I wanted to try some of the ideas from the stories I had read there. In fact that is what got us to try to increase our retirement funds by setting up this business. We were also taking most of our guns so everyone could try them out. Lori said there was a place we could even take the Windrunner 50 BMH out and shoot. Great gun but we had never been able to sight it in or fire it.

Ron held the door since my arms were full of our cat. She was also going with us. As he got in the truck he asked again “You think we have everything? Is everything turned off? Anything before we take off?” I replied, “All ready to go. I’ve checked every list and made sure of everything. I we don’t have it now we’ll either do without or get another one. With a truck and camper full I can‘t think of anything we could have left and if I did we have no more room for anything else.”

We all met just south of Indianapolis at the Pilot truck stop on I 65. After everyone had made use of the facilities, we piled into our vehicles and headed down the road. We had all hooked up CB’s and were monitoring channel 28, (we had plenty of CB’s from the time we drove a truck, every time someone had one better Ron would have to get one like it too). We had planned another stop just on the other side of Louisville, Kentucky in case we got separated in traffic. We were all talking on channel 28 and Ron and I had one CB set up on channel 19 in case we heard of any problems we could let everyone know.

Jeff came over the radio “Did I ever tell you about Charlie, the caretaker for the farm? He’s really into gathering wild plants and living off the land. Also keeps some chickens and rabbits around for eggs and meat.” I answered “No but I sure am looking forward to meeting him. I’ve always wanted to learn more about wild plants and taking care of a farm.“ Jeff said “Charlie has lived all his life around there and when he gave up his own farm to his son, he moved into the old farmhouse to keep it safe and just putters around there. His son also keeps some livestock at the farm and Charlie feeds them every day but any heavy work his son takes care of. They only live 10 miles away.”

For the show I had made table covers out of sheets and bought some nice tablecloths that were made for the 8 foot tables like at the show. I also had some squares of fabric for special displays and had geared it all towards a red, white and blue theme. They were packed at the back of the load so they would be the first out. We had also planned to stair step the products so more could be seen, only problem is I was only 5’ tall and couldn’t even see over some of the displays. We had made some pegboard displays that I had also painted either red or white or blue with stars, I just like those colors and wanted to coordinate them, the guys all thought it wasn’t necessary but all us women thought it looked good. Karen had several quilts that she’d made that were the same theme and she was adding those to the tables to sell.

We made it through Louisville and decided to head on down and stop at the Flying J just this side of Lexington. Once we arrived, we saw on the TV’s and heard everyone talking about some fighting that had broken out on the border between China and Russia. Both countries were claiming land that had been part of Mongolia. Big John turned to Ron “Maybe this will be for real TEOTWAWKI instead of just a practice run.” We all grinned as we loaded up to leave, we didn’t know what we were in for soon.

Once we were on the road we joked back and forth about how the supplies in the trailer and what we had in our vehicles could be used to keep us all going. It was spring and along with the food we also had cans with heirloom seeds for growing vegetables. We took our exit, made our turn and as we passed an abandoned store, Lori said on the radio “This is where we will meet Ron’s parents when they get here.” and she pointed out a little parking area in front of a small boarded up store, after that I lost all sense of direction. I didn’t think the tractor trailer would make it onto some of the roads Lori had us on. Big John had driven many years and could really do some interesting moves in keeping that old Peterbilt moving. We had one little stretch where one side went straight down and the other went straight up, and trying to take that long truck and trailer meant one side was almost touching the up side and the other was almost falling off the down side. We were all praying he would make it but not as hard as Amy, she was on the down side. Once we were past that the most beautiful valley opened up. Lori announced, “Only about 30 more miles to the homestead. Just past those trees up ahead.” We were all extremely grateful to be off that road and I told Ron “Your gonna have to take someone else back to show your parents where we are.” I don’t think I want to leave until time to go and set up for the gun show.

Lori’s voice came over the radio, “We’re here. Follow us over to the parking area for the campers.” When we pulled up Charlie was outside and waiting for us. He had heated some of Anita‘s, Lori’s mother, home canned stew and along with some homemade bread Marion, his daughter-in-law, had made we had a fine feast laid before us. We all joined hands for the prayer, “Thank you Jesus for bringing us all together, Thank you Jesus for making it possible for us to have such wonderful food, Thank you Jesus for being our Savior, Amen”. John, his son, and Marion were there also and we made quite a group talking and introducing everyone. Since we already had a big John we started calling him Little John which was funny since he was over 6 foot just not as tall or large as Big John.

After we ate, Jeff pulled a huge camper out of one of the barns. Lori’s family had put in camping connections for family gatherings so we all had water, electricity and sewer. Lori was explaining, “My father and grandpa started setting up connections in the 70’s when my aunt and uncle started bringing their camper up in the summertime. As we could find them cheap we all ended up with one and even a few extra so when the whole family gathered we all have our own place to stay. My mom and dad use the house and we all gather for meals there.” We all got busy then leveling and getting everyone set up.

We had gathered wood for a fire and put it in the middle of the camp area. Jeff had Big John take the loaded trailer into the barn to be out of the way. When they were coming back Bob and Karen were setting up a big canvas tent, Bob hollered out “Come on over and help us get this thing set up, we also have a teepee I made out of canvas painted to look like rawhide. Jeff hollered back “Can’t you put up your own tent?“ Karen just laughed and got out of Jeff’s and Big John’s way. Big John started picking up a corner and grunted “You trying to give yourself a hernia or what, this thing is heavy.“ With all the men helping they made short work out of getting both set up. Our little camp area had a varied assortment or vehicles from a big 5th wheel travel trailer that had slides going out both sides, our modest 26 foot Prowler with 2 doors, the Peterbilt, with a large canvas miners type tent and a teepee, and when Ron’s parents got there we would have another 5th wheel.

Anita kept a big cellar full of food, replenished when they came in summer and canned everything fresh from the field, so they had plenty of home made food to keep everyone fed. All of us women went down into the cellar and were amazed at the amount and variety that was down there. They also had dried fruit and vegetables Anita had fixed. Marion said “All the women around here have the same, I would rather have my own than what can be bought in a store. Papa Charlie uses old fashioned ways of farming with mules and horses unless we manage fuel for the tractor and it doesn‘t break down.” We were back upstairs then and Little John said “That is one way we’ve all kept our farms. We’ve never used credit, also no one in the valley has grown anything for the drug trade. That happens a lot back in the hills, it’s how they make enough money to buy them fancy cars and houses and other things. “

Marion said, “The preacher’s going to be out in the middle of the week when he gets back from seeing to his other flocks. He travels to 3 other communities around here and holds church at a different location each week. He has his own place here and the women all contribute to his root cellar since he hasn’t married yet. Last year the preacher had a heart attack, and he was replaced by Matthew, he’s 28, and a very good preacher. All the young women are busy trying to outdo each other hoping on catching him as a husband. Needless to say he is not looking for a wife and has many uncomfortable moments while visiting his different congregations.” I was looking forward to meeting him and also looking forward to Ron meeting him. Ron was a good man, but nothing I could say made him feel worthy of redemption. He said he didn’t think he could live without doing something he shouldn’t. He had seen to many people that used salvation as a once a week fix and continued all their old behavior just expecting Jesus to forgive and forgive.

That evening as we sat around the fire we discussed what we had heard about the fighting overseas. Ron got our radio out of the trailer and cranked it up to hear if any new information was going on. Seems like China had tried to take over a section that Russia claimed as theirs and new fighting had started between China and India, and China and N Korea. Seems like the Chinese were taking territory from all their neighbors. So far it was just border skirmishes and we all hoped it would not escalate. The UN was trying to get the diplomats into negotiations but hadn’t had any luck.

Lori said “Hey we have caves around here we could use in case anything goes nuclear.” Big John wanted to know where and how big. Lori didn’t remember so we decided the next day we would try to find them. First we were going to church, dresses casual, then we can go look for the caves. We decided to get ready for bed and get a good nights sleep. Jeff took care of making sure the fire was out.

After Ron and I got our showers and got into bed, the cat joined us to be loved on then left to prowl around. We never really named our cat, just called her cat or kitty. She is such a scaredy-cat that she jumps when something moves, you have to be careful with the covers because any wrinkle or area where they get bunched up is a monster or something that is going to get her it took a while for us all to settle down. We had to make our way around everything I had loaded in there. Ron asked “How about we put up the big tent and store some of this stuff outside?” I replied “Sounds good to me, we have church then looking for the caves. Unless we get up early.“ He replied “May do that, we’ll see what happens in the morning. Ron got into bed and turned on the television. I pulled out a book to read till he went to sleep so I could turn off the television and get to sleep myself.