“Of course, the temporary ‘lake,’ if that’s what you want to call it, will be only seven inches deep at its deepest point. And it’ll likely only be there a few days after each rainfall. But while it’s there it’ll become your primary source for irrigation water.”
“Our primary source?”
“Yes. Until now you’ve placed pots and pans and garbage cans… every one you had, outside every time it rained.
“The water runoff systems we’re installing on each of your roofs will collect water much more efficiently.
“You’ll have four fifty gallon rain barrels for each house.
“Normally they’ll have lids on them to prevent evaporation.
“But any time it starts to rain, you’ll go through and remove all the lids so the barrels can fill from the water running off the roofs.
“As soon as the rain stops you’ll start filtering and boiling water.”
“Filtering?”
“Yes. Water washed down from your roof to the barrel will contain tiny pieces of asphalt roofing, leaves and dirt, etcetera.
“You can filter all that out by putting three old fashioned cotton socks, one inside the other inside the other. Pour the water through the socks and then boil it.
“After the water boils for ten minutes let it cool while you’re boiling another batch.
“Keep that up until you refill every empty drinking water bottle you have. That’ll ensure you won’t run out of water to drink.
“Then replace the covers on the rain barrels.
“Now, as I said, the water collected in the street is only temporary. Some will seep into the concrete we’ll use to fill your storm drains.
“Some will evaporate after the rain goes away and the sun comes out again.
“But for several days you’ll have a shallow lake the kids can wade in and you can scoop water out of to water your plants.
“Once your little lake is gone you can go back to using the rest of the water in your barrels until the next rain comes.
“As long as it rains at least half an inch a month you should never run low on water.”
The woman grew silent and her eyes began to water.
The soldier was suddenly concerned that perhaps he’d said the wrong thing; had done something bad.
But he wasn’t so presumptuous he thought he could cure her ills.
The safe thing to do was just to apologize for whatever slight he committed.
“I’m sorry ma’am. Did I say something wrong?”
“No. Not at all. You and your fellow soldiers have done everything right.
“I was just wondering how many lives would have been saved… how many fewer people would have given up and committed suicide, if you and your men could have been here a year and a half ago.”
There was no good answer.
The soldier was on duty from the early days of the blackout. Was helping the desperate learn how to survive.
But he was at other cities doing so. There simply weren’t enough soldiers to go around.
-19-
Back at the entrance to Hein Road Sergeant Buckley and Big Juan were watching Loco Julio work atop Juan’s own house. The one which happened to be on the corner.
Julio was a small and sinewy man whose agility allowed him to climb trees as well as any twelve year old boy in Bexar County.
Lugging heavy buckets of river water to a ninth floor balcony and climbing up and down stairs every day kept him in great shape for a man in his seventies and he wasn’t one to shy away from hard work.
The other gutter crew working a bit farther down the street consisted of three people.
Julio insisted on working by himself, claiming others just got in his way and slowed him down.
And that he could finish a job faster by himself.
And that was largely true.
It didn’t hurt the others’ feelings at all that their assistance wasn’t wanted or needed.
For in addition to everything else Loco Julio was he was an awful grouch.
Julio had a system, first leaning the lumber he needed against the side of Juan’s house and then climbing up to install it.
Buckley was explaining to Big Juan what Julio was doing.
“It’s a simple concept really, but very effective.
“Up until now your method of collecting rainwater was just to line up every pot and pan and bucket you had beneath the eaves in the front and rear of the house, to try to catch as much of the runoff water as you could.
“And I know you caught a lot of water. Obviously enough to keep you alive.
“But there were lots of problems, too.
“Your containers were on the ground, eight feet below the eave. Too far to line up accurately and much of the rain fell on the ground beside the container instead of inside it.
“Plus, the farther water falls the faster it’s going. You lost a lot of water because it was going so fast when it hit your containers it splashed over the container’s sides.”
“Yes, that’s all true. Every word of it.”
“In the future you’ll be growing a lot more food than you’ve ever grown before. So you need a method that’s more efficient.
“We’re going to help you channel the flow.
“Julio is going to attach two long pieces of two-by fours to your roof, about a foot above the eave.
“One piece will go on the east side of the roof, and will be elevated slightly on the east end. That will force the water which hits it to roll towards the center of the roof.
“The other piece will be attached to the west side of the roof and will be elevated on the west end in the same manner.
“As a result the rain which falls on your roof will flow toward the center of the house before it comes rolling off of it.
“Between the two pieces of lumber will be a four foot gap.
“On the ground, directly beneath the gap, will be two large rain barrels.”
“My God, Bill. That’s simple but genius. Now I feel incredibly stupid because we didn’t think of it ourselves.”
“Don’t feel bad. I didn’t either, so I can’t take credit for it.
“One of the advantages of traveling from city to city is we get to see how the rest of the country has been doing it.
“In essence we’ve been helping people, and at the same time collecting the great ideas they’ve had to share with us.
“The Army calls it collecting best practices. As I recall, some block manager in Philadelphia modified the roofs of all their houses in this manner. It worked so well we’ve been helping to spread the practice all over the country.”
At that point Sgt Buckley took a brass cigarette case from his uniform pocket and took out a cigarette.
“Do you smoke, Amigo?”
“Shoot, not anymore. When all the cigarettes got stale I gave it up.”
Buckley took out a second one and said, “Here. Try this. It’s fresh.”
Buckley lit both cigarettes and watched the big man’s face closely.
Big Juan looked like he died and went to heaven. His eyelids fluttered and he smiled broadly.
It was a look Buckley never got tired of seeing.
“But how… I mean where on earth did you get fresh tobacco?”
Buckley looked over at Loco Julio, hammering away on the nearby roof.
“From Julio. Every day when he comes to work with us he brings some with him. Not a lot, because he normally grows it just for himself and doesn’t have a lot to share.
“But he was kind enough to give us a pretty good stock of tobacco seeds. We’ve been giving some to each block, and we’ll make sure you get some before we leave.”
“And it grows here?”
“Oh, yeah. The soil here is a lot like the soil in the Carolinas, where tobacco is king. It’s a little hotter here, and the crops have to be tended carefully, but Julio says once you get it going it grows like crazy.
“And I’ll make sure you get some raw coffee beans you can plant as w
ell.”
“Fresh coffee?” Man, I could kiss you!”
“Well, I’d rather you didn’t. If you want to kiss somebody, go kiss Julio. He’s supplying the coffee beans as well.”
“No, I think I’ll pass on kissing Julio. That little dude scares me.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
-20-
“How much longer are you guys gonna be here?”
“We should wrap everything up tomorrow. We’ve still got a lot of places to visit, and there are only fifteen crews in our unit. So we’re trying to spend no more than a week or so on each street.”
“One of your men told me yesterday you’re going to bring in a lot of trees.”
“Actually, that’s another crew. They’re down at Carlisle Park planting them right now. We’re not planting them on the residential streets for a couple of reasons.
“First of all because as they grow they put off a lot of shade. Most plants won’t grow well in the shade, so every tree you plant reduces your growing space to some degree.
“Second, the trees we’re planting are apple trees or citrus trees. Lemons, limes, oranges and tangerines. Oh, yeah… and grapefruit too.
“They’re trees that require a lot of water in their first years. Once they’re established and have wide root systems they’re okay. But for the first five years they need a steady supply of water.
“If you had several such trees on your block they would cut into your water supply pretty severely. You might find yourself having to choose between watering your vegetables or watering your trees.
“The best place to plant them is next to a water source. Your city engineers say the playa lake at Carlisle Park almost never dries up. It would take a two year drought to do that. So it’s a stable water source.
“The idea is to plant the trees close enough to the water’s edge so the roots can get the water they need from the lake. Roots do that. They sense where the water source is and crawl toward it.
“The trees will therefore be self-reliant almost from the beginning. They’ll get plenty of water and plenty of sunshine because, well because we’re in San Antonio.
“It won’t take them long to start bearing apples and citrus, which will belong to everybody. There will have to be a gentlemen’s agreement not to take more than one needs so everybody can share in the output.”
“Where do the trees come from?”
“The University of Texas at San Antonio. UTSA has an agricultural department which owns several large greenhouses. They used to use them to develop new and better strains of plants and herbicides and fertilizers and such.
“As soon as the lights went out they saw a more important need for their facilities. They took it upon themselves to plant trees. Thousands of them.
“And some of the saplings are now big enough to replant.”
“Wow. What a great idea.”
“Eventually every bit of the San Antonio River will be lined with fruit and pecan trees. So will every stable lake and stream in the area. There will eventually be all the fruit you can eat, and enough left over to can or jar for the winter months as well.”
“By the way, this wasn’t our idea. You can credit your mayor and city council for this initiative. We’ve just agreed to provide the labor.”
“I’m impressed. And I’ll never look down on college students as slackers and partiers again.
“But you mentioned pecans. I guess I never really looked upon them as food. I just considered them a snack.”
“Au contraire, my big friend. Actually pecans are one of the best foods you can eat.”
“Really? Because my uncle, he lives down the street at 4243. His lot is two acres and he’s got a dozen mature trees.”
“What’s his yield?”
“Shoot, I never asked. But I’ll bet he gets fifty bushels a year or more.”
“Does he collect them?”
“All the neighborhood kids and a lot of adults pick some up. He doesn’t mind. Most of them, though, just lay there.”
“Let me tell you something about pecans, my friend.
“They are almost the perfect food.”
“How so?”
“They’re almost pure protein. They’ve got enough calories to help sustain the human body, and plenty of vitamins and minerals as well. They lower cholesterol and have essential oils the body needs.
“Did you know you can survive for weeks on just water and a couple of handfuls of shelled pecans per day?”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. And if you don’t crack them until you need them, they’ll last for several years in their shells.
“And they require no upkeep. A mature tree requires absolutely no maintenance at all.”
“Wow. I’ll bet my uncle doesn’t know any of that. I know I sure didn’t.”
“Do him and yourself and everybody you know a big favor.”
“What’s that?”
“Tell him to start collecting them. The ones he doesn’t want he can take to the park on Saturday mornings and trade for something he or one of his neighbors can use.
“And you should have thirty or forty bushels of pecans in your emergency stores anyway.”
“Our what?”
“Your emergency stores. It’ll be part of our outbrief. On the day we leave we’ll call all of your people together to say goodbye and wish you well.
“We’ll also give you some tips on how to make your lives easier and safer.
“And things that could help save lives should the weather ever turn against you.”
At that moment the pair was interrupted by a rather large commotion going on half a block behind them.
They turned to see Daniel Castillo’s Saturn driving toward them, horn blaring, Castillo leaning out the window screaming like a banshee.
-21-
Big Juan said, “Well, I’ll be damned.”
Castillo pulled alongside them and squeaked to a stop.
Dave Willoughby reminded him, “Don’t kill the engine. We want it to run for awhile.”
He stepped out of the passenger seat and walked over to report to his sergeant.
“Looks like a keeper. We had to jump start it, but that’s not unusual.”
“Did the battery test good?”
“Yes. But just barely. We’re going to let it run for half an hour and build up a charge.”
“And we’ve got a new battery to give him if it won’t hold the charge?”
“Yes, sir.”
Castillo walked up and gave his new best friend Willoughby a high five.
Buckley told Big Juan, “It looks like you guys have a vehicle now to get everybody to and from the Saturday morning farmers market.”
Castillo beamed.
“You have no idea, Juan, how good it feels to roll again instead of walk.”
Buckley got serious and said to Castillo, “I’d strongly advise you to have somebody ride shotgun whenever you take it out of your compound.
“There aren’t a lot of rides out there, and they’re gonna be pretty valuable. Probably more so than gold or silver or whiskey. There may be people who try to take it away from you.”
“We’ll be careful.”
Willoughby said, “The brake light’s stuck on, but the fluid level’s okay. I’ll see if I can scare up a sensor. We also had a tire that was flat. We had to put air in it to check it out but it appears to be going down fast. We’ll switch it out with a new one.
“You guys can do that?”
“Oh, yeah. It’s very common with cars that have been sitting for two years. In the back of one of our trucks we carry several wheels for Saturns with brand new tires on them. It’s easier to just switch them out as we go than to take the old one off and try to figure out where it’s leaking.”
Big Juan turned back to Buckley and asked, “Now what were we talking about before these guys drove up? I was so shocked to see Castillo’s car working I totally forgot.”
“We were talking about th
e outbrief. How we’re going to leave you with certain survival tips we’ve picked up from other places.
“One of them is we’ll advise you to grow certain crops in amounts more than you need.
“For example, grow enough extra corn so you can dry some out and put it aside. Same for potatoes and wheat and pecans.”
“But why?”
“Because Mother Nature can be a brutal force to reckon with. Occasionally you might have a flood or a drought that destroys all your crops.
“You have to plan for that.
“One of the things we’re going to plan for is that you turn one of your vacant houses into a food storage facility.
“Grow more crops than what you need so you can put the extras in your food stores.”
“How much do we store?”
“What we’re recommending is about a hundred pounds for each adult and fifty pounds for each child.
“It sounds like a lot, and it might take you two or three years to accumulate it all. But once you have it it’ll give you an amazing peace of mind.
“For your street I’d set a goal of putting away about four hundred pounds each of wheat, dried corn, dehydrated potatoes, carrots and pecans. That way if the worst case scenario happened and you lost a whole year’s worth of crops you could survive until the next year’s harvest.”
“Well, how do we store them?”
“We’ll leave you twenty plastic tubs with snap-on lids. They’re vermin proof. Just make sure what you put in them is completely dry so it doesn’t spoil.
“Store it in an empty house and keep people away from it.
“And be sure you rotate it.
“Every year when you bring in your corn crop, put the new stuff in the storage house and eat the corn from the year before.”
“I sure wish you guys had come around sooner. You’d have saved a lot of lives.”
“Yeah. I hear that a lot. But you can help us move faster.”
“Really? How so?”
“One of the things we’ll talk about at the outbrief is our recruitment program.
“It’s not for everybody. But if you have any single people on the street who have no family ties here and are interested in going with us to the next city we’d love to have them.
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