Posted: 8/31/2008 12:32:30 AM EDT
[Last Edit: scrachline1][Edited]
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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 structure 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 non-prepared people 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 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 US representatives were helicoptered from their DC offices out to their secure locations. The terroists 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 hospital and home care patients died from lack of food and or power to keep the systems up and running. Back to our main character Clark. |
| yep that is the dude i got in arugement with on GD forum - figger he is 12 to 14 yr old - i loved the arguement - i just tooted my horn about the fiction section and this story and i was amazed at the number of people that did not know there was a fiction section - even swindle 84 the guy that took 2 yrs to write a story jumped in in a sort of negative way - great arguement - loved every minute of it.... anyways the stories i am writing are readable - if me the dummie can readem after i wrote em anybody can read it. plus it is a survival story with all kindsa neat survival stuff in it. thanks everybody for readin - |
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You can't be afraid of the wind. Learn to trust it.
I think the pain is preventing me from enjoying the irony.
I think the pain is preventing me from enjoying the irony.
| before u ask - i will give u a hint - i do not kill off the main players and i write feel good simple stories - i hate endings where the good guys are killed - if u are lookin for that kinda story look elsewhere and do not read my stories - they are simple and straight forward - no plots within plots - i aint got to doin that kinda stuff yet - if u like my stories say so and if u dont - say so too - if u find i have made stupid mistakes be constructive in ure criticism - i aint got an editor - it is just me - an old man typin out stories with 2 fingers. hope u enjoy the stuff i wrote.....if u can do better i will read ure stuff and tell u whether i like it or not - if u cannot write a short or long story - be constructive - not destructive - there are always people who complain but i do not see any FREE stories slung out for the readers from the bad comment people................. |
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You can't be afraid of the wind. Learn to trust it.
I think the pain is preventing me from enjoying the irony.
I think the pain is preventing me from enjoying the irony.
| doublfeed - i thank you for the great constructive citicism - i can fix most of em - but i used the word phreakin instead of fukken because i was at a religious site when i wrote the story and i always used that word to keep me out of trouble - maybe i shud change the spelling? i will work on what you pointed out - in a few days i will fix it - it will take some time though since i wrote this sory last year and it aint fresh in me mind - i will fix it though - i wuv it when smebody tells me sumthing great like u just did. makes me feel like i did sumthin good. thanks a bunch |
You are not telling your story. You are telling your character's story. The reader should be unaware that there is a "you". |
You can't be afraid of the wind. Learn to trust it.
I think the pain is preventing me from enjoying the irony.
I think the pain is preventing me from enjoying the irony.
| heron163 - you got that right - i am glad there are critiquers here - instead of just roll along readers who just want sumthin to read free like a hog eatin lol - when I wrote the book length novel here last year i did not get nuttin but applause - this guy is sharp and on top of english - maybe i will learn sumthin...Even if i did not understand what he was tellin me in his last 4 sentences - i am a good researcher and i will figger it out - anyways thanks again doublefeed...... |
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Part 2 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. |
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Part 3 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. |
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You can't be afraid of the wind. Learn to trust it.
I think the pain is preventing me from enjoying the irony.
I think the pain is preventing me from enjoying the irony.
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Part 4 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. |
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Part 5 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. |
don't get discouraged - keep working on it... remember - there is no such thing as good writing, only good editing  BTW - your story "the trip" is one of the finest of it's type I have ever read - contains a wealth of information  plus a great, engaging story about a period in american history now forgotten. Our ancestors were some tough SOB's
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Part 6 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. |
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Part 6A 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 everyone else alive. |
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Part 7 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 50 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. |
I like it.  As for those with criticisms - no it is not a perfect story. I would like to see some of you post anything worth anything on here. As another poster said in this forum, it takes balls to post your own stuff here to get ripped apart. sratchline1 obviously needs multiple dump trucks to haul those balls around! 
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Part 8 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. |
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Part 9 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. |
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Part 10 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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This is WAY to rushed - SLOW DOWN. Reread it because there are a LOT of words missing to make the complete sentences readable. What I don't get is this supposed to be in a diary format or what because a few sentences thrown together isn't considered a chapter or even a part. Or is this a rough draft outline for something more cohesive to come later and you're just looking for feedback. Remember, complete sentences and paragraphs are your friend. Multiple paragraphs make chapters. People really like chapters not rants. But hey, what do I know... it's not like I post anything decent here. |
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Tonto-Ohio Doing the best I can with the time and writing skills I have – Please point out where words are missing and I’ll fix it – I broke this story up into chunks/parts – When they are all put together it may make sense. Yes it is a rough draft and that’s as far as it will ever go – I just write these survival stories for fun and throw them out for free reading. Maybe someone will like it and maybe someone will find something they can use that will help them in a SHTF – thanks for commenting… |
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Part 11 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. |
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Part 12 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. |
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Part 13 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 5 foot he had buried the posts and the 5 inch bolts he had put near the bottom of the pole through a drilled hole 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. |
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Part 14 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. |
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Part 15 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. |
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Part 16 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. |
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Part 17 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. |
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Part 18 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. |
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Part 19 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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Part 20 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. |
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Part 21 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. |
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Part 22 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. |
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Part 23 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. |
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Part 24 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. |
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Part 25 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. |