by Mark Church
“I’m pretty sure that rangers used it to spot smoke created by wildfires,” answers Jake.
“So the wind turbine was an after-the-fact kind of thing?” asks Kate.
“That’d be my guess,” Jake nods. “To operate efficiently, turbines need to be mounted quite a bit higher than anything else around them.”
“Even higher than the tower,” adds John.
“That explains the extension pole”, says Kate.
“I’ve got to get close to it to see if I can fix it,” says Jake. “That’s going to be tricky.”
“These windows open and raise inward on hinges. Here, give me a hand.” John begins to push on the frames to no avail.
Working together, John and Jake manage to free the window from its lower sill. During the process they realize that the glass is actually Plexiglas. “Well, that explains why none of the windowpanes are broken,” says John.
Working from the bottom edge, the two men swing the window on its top hinges towards the ceiling where a small chain and hook is in place to secure it. The opening gives them access to the extension pole holding the turbine.
The pole is two inches in diameter and held by heavy gauge steel brackets that are bolted to the tower’s metal frame. Upon closer inspection, they see that the three brackets are each designed for a large bolt to pass through one side of the bracket, then through the pole before exiting the other side of the bracket. Cotter pins on the end of the bolt hold it securely in place. If they can remove the bolts, they should be able to lower the pole by sliding it down and through the brackets until the turbine reaches their level.
After removing the cotter pins, John works to loosen the bolts. Fortunately, they are made of stainless steel and not frozen by rust. After removing two of the three bolts, John, unsure what to expect, asks the others to help him hold onto the pole.
When the final bolts are removed, they feel the full weight of the pole and attached turbine. It’s heavy but can easily be handled by two people. Cole and Kate step back while Jake and John slowly slide the pole through the brackets; they have to be careful not to pinch the turbine’s main wire that likely feeds the battery bank in the garage.
Moments later, the turbine reaches the window before clanging to a stop. The pole is designed with a welded brake that forces the turbine to come to rest at window height. The men cautiously ease their grip on the pole to make sure that the brackets will continue to bear its weight. As their grip lessens, the turbine sits solidly in position. Comfortable that it’s secure, they slowly release it.
The group expresses relief that no high-risk balancing acts will be required to get to the turbine.
“How perfect is that,” Kate exclaims.
“No doubt,” John agrees. “Kudos to the person who came up with the design.”
“I’ll second that,” says Jake. “The last thing that I wanted to do was get out on that roof.”
Jake and John begin to inspect the turbine. The intact blade is about three feet long and a half-foot wide and it’s attached to the hub, which is about twice the size and shape of a football.
Other than the two broken blades, the visual inspection reveals no further external issues. Moving on to the turbine’s internals, they spin the hub as they listen for any unnecessary grinding or clicking. The hub spins freely and quietly.
“Other than fixing the blades,” Jake notes, “we may have a functional turbine. And the wire heading to the ground, at least what I can see of it, looks intact.”
“Let’s hope,” adds John, “That would be a real blessing.”
“Can we leave it where it is until we get back to it?” asks Kate.
“I think so,” John nods. “The brackets seem to be designed for that.”
To be sure, Jake gently shakes the turbine before saying, “It feels solid. I think we’re okay.”
Confident that it’s safe to leave the turbine in its current position, they turn their attention to the wooded expanse on the horizon.
They take a few moments to enjoy the view before heading back to ground level. There will be no more sightseeing today, there’s plenty of work to get done and daylight is burning.
The antenna is inspected next. Other than the wild grapevines growing on the first twenty-five of its fifty-foot length, they find it to be in relatively good condition. Cole volunteers to take on the job of removing the vines while the rest of the group continues on.
Next on the list is the deep well. The water in the well is likely four or five hundred feet down and not accessible by a hand pump. Wiring coming from the well indicates the presence of a well pump residing in its depths. All they can do is hope that it still works when they get the electricity up and running again.
Other than the outhouse, which John describes as functional, Jake has seen pretty much everything.
Jake looks towards the antenna where Cole is laboring away before saying to John and Kate, “After a little work, and hopefully a little luck, this place will make a great outpost.”
Kate and John nod in agreement.
“Let’s unload the horses,” says Jake. “We have a lot to do and little time to do it.”
When they finish, Kate walks the horses to the pond for a drink of water. The saying, ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink’ doesn’t apply in this case, the horses are thirsty and need no coaxing.
Jake is evaluating the turbine blades they brought with them. They are quite a bit different. He takes measurements and then grabs some tools. “I’m going to get to work on that turbine,” says Jake. “Do you mind giving the batteries and related equipment a closer look?”
“No problem.” John heads off to check the condition of the batteries.
On his way to the tower, Jake encounters Kate.
“How can I be the most productive?” asks Kate.
“Check for damage to the power cables. Most of it is underground but we can at least make sure that all the exposed sections are intact.”
“I’m on it.”
Jake is just beginning his climb to the crow’s nest when he hears John yell his name. Looking in the direction of the garage, he sees John coming towards him carrying what appear to be turbine blades.
“Look what I found in the garage.”
Pleasantly surprised, Jake asks, “Could we be so lucky?”
“Luck seems to be with us today, maybe it’ll hold.”
“How many are there?”
“I’ve got two here and there’s a half a dozen more.”
John hands Jake the two blades. “They look right.”
“Only one way to tell,” Jake turns to continue his climb. “I’ll know for sure in a few minutes.”
John heads back to the garage while Jake resumes his ascent to the crow’s nest, hauling the additional turbine blades with him. The climb isn’t as difficult this time, probably because he’s pacing himself and not chasing someone half his age.
Reaching the top a little less winded, Jake anxiously compares one of the replacement blades with the only good blades still attached to the turbine. They seem to be a match. Cautiously optimistic, Jake immediately gets to work removing the broken blades from the hub. The blades are held on to the hub by six large screws. Plenty of elbow grease and torque are required to break them free but, in the end, he’s able to remove them all before dropping the damaged blades to the ground below.
Jake uses the old screws to attach the replacement blades; they are a perfect fit. So far, his luck is holding. He tests the hub by spinning it. The blades turn freely. The lack of vibration leads him to believe that the blades are in balance.
Now all he needs to do is raise the turbine back into its original position. He knows that he’ll need help for this part.
Looking down, he sees Kate inspecting the power lines running into the main building.
“Hey, Kate,” shouts Jake.
Kate puts a hand over her brows to shield her eyes as she looks up at the crow’s nest.
“Yeah?�
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“Can you give me a hand up here?”
“Sure, be right there.”
Jake waits patiently while Kate makes her way up the stairs.
When she arrives, Kate asks, “How can I help?”
“I need you to help me raise this turbine back into place,” says Jake. “Once we raise it into place, I think I can hold it while you insert the bolts through the brackets.”
“Let’s do it.”
With both of them gripping the pole, Jake says, “On three.”
On the count of three, Jake and Kate begin sliding the pole upwards through the brackets until it reaches its full extension.
Kate asks, “You got it?”
“I’ve got it, just hurry and get one of the bolts in.”
Kate has to help Jake spin the pole a little bit to line up the holes before she can insert the bolt. After the first one is in, Jake relaxes a bit.
The second one goes in easily but the third one takes a little work. When Kate finally gets the last bolt in place, she finishes up by inserting the cotter pins, “Okay, you can let go now.”
After Jake lets the pole go, he steps back to admire their handiwork. He’s relieved that the equipment has been repaired and put back into position with no injuries or further damage to the turbine.
“Okay,” Jake smiles. “That’s step one of the electricity restoration project.”
“The wiring below looked mostly fine,” Kate assures him. “I did have to splice the line running into the main house. It looks like mice may have gotten to it. It was an easy fix and shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Perfect. Let’s go see how John is coming along.”
When they reach the ground, they see Cole walking towards them.
“I got all the vines off the antenna, now what?”
“We need to clear out all this brush.” Jake points to all the bushes and saplings that have overrun the property.
“I’ll give Cole a hand,” Kate offers, “I won’t be of much help in the garage.”
Kate and Cole retrieve the saws and pruners they brought from the farm while Jake joins John in the garage.
“How’s it going?” asks Jake.
“Well,” replies John. “Out of ten batteries, only one was visually damaged, and four were spares that weren’t even hooked up. I removed the damaged battery and replaced it with one of the spares.”
“Do you think that they’re gonna’ work?”
“No way to know until the turbine has a chance to do its thing.”
“I can tell you that the power light on the controller turned on a few minutes ago”
“That was about the time that I raised the turbine back into place.”
“That’s a good sign,” agrees John. “The controller definitely senses the turbine and the turbine is spinning enough to at least send sufficient power to light the LED power switch.”
“And it means we don’t have any breaks in the line,” adds Jake.
“There’s not much more we can do until the batteries have had time to charge and without much wind out there, that won’t be today.”
Jake asks, “Where did you get your experience with power generation?”
“In the military,” John replies, “our entire base ran on solar and wind power.”
“Aaaahhh,” Jake nods. “That’s why you know your way around alternative power sources.”
“Let me show you something else,” John offers. “See how this controller and inverter are located in this aluminum housing?”
“Yeah”
“Well, that’s called a Faraday cage. It protects electronic equipment during electromagnetic power surges such as solar flares or atmospheric EMP bomb detonation.”
“I wonder why the last occupants thought to protect their equipment to that extent.”
“That one I can’t answer, but I’m glad they did.”
Having gone as far as they can with their work, the two men join Kate and Cole and begin helping them clear brush.
They are making good progress when they hear Cole yell from the other side of the property, “Hey, look what I found!”
The others arrive where Cole is working just as he’s is dragging a fallen tree branch away from mounded dirt. The displaced limb reveals a metal door mounted to a forty-five-degree angled concrete frame. The area surrounding the doorframe is nothing but dirt and grass.
“What do we have here?” asks Jake as he approaches.
“It looks like a storm shelter,” replies Cole. “Kind of like the one that we had on our farm.”
“That’s exactly what it is.” Jake agrees, now close enough to see. “Except bigger and better concealed.”
“Why would they need a storm shelter up here?” Kate wonders.
“Missouri gets some pretty severe weather,” replies Jake. “Tornados are very common.”
“And dangerous,” adds Cole.
“We’ve seen a lot of them on the plains of northern Missouri,” says Jake. “They’re definitely not to be taken lightly.”
Jake grabs the door handle, turns and lifts. The door is heavy but gives way with a creak. He swings the door on its hinges until it is open fully. The opening allows light to penetrate the shelter, illuminating its interior.
Jake and Cole stretch their bodies and crane their necks as they try to see inside. Hoping that it’s safe to enter, Jake steps through the open doorway, carefully testing each wooden step as he goes. The others file in one after the other behind him.
When their eyes adjust to the dim light, they see that the interior is roughly fifteen by twenty feet with an eight-foot high ceiling. Far from being empty, the room contains rows of shelves filled with boxes marked ‘Freeze Dried Food’, ‘Medical Supplies’, ‘Candles’ and ‘Bleach’.
“Wow!” exclaims Cole. ‘Look at all of this stuff.”
“This is the proverbial cherry on top of the cake,” laughs John. “I didn’t think that the day could get any better.”
As they open the boxes, they find the most prized items of all, antibiotics. They haven’t had access to those in years. There are boxes of them packed in airtight and moisture proof containers that are designed to preserve them indefinitely.
Jake can’t help but think back to Kay and how these simple little pills could have saved her life. Shaking off his momentary bout of sadness, he says, “Kate, would you mind inventorying the items in here while the rest of us get back to work outside.”
“No problem.”
“We have about three hours before we need to head back.” Jake assess the quality of the daylight. “Hopefully we can finish clearing the area outside by then.”
Jake heads for the stairs with Cole in tow.
John pauses until they are out of sight before taking Kate in his arms and kissing her hard on the lips, “I’ve been wanting to do that all day.”
“What a coincidence,” Kate snuggles in smiling. “I’ve been wanting you to do that all day.”
John runs his hands through Kate’s long auburn hair. He trails them down her back before cupping her behind and pulling her pelvis into his.
“Excuse me, sir,” teases Kate, “but what kind of girl do you think that I am?”
“Hopefully the kind that can’t say no,” answers John.
Kate giggles, “You know me too well.”
John’s hands begin to roam.
“Easy there mister. You heard Jake, we have a lot to get done and a short time to do it.”
Repeating a well-used inside joke between them, John says, “We only need seven and half minutes.”
“How about you hold that thought for later tonight, and then we’ll make it a full ten?” says Kate slyly.
John feigns disappointment, “Okay, but don’t blame me if I’m too tired.”
“You – too tired?” Kate questions. “That’ll be the day!”
“I guess you know me pretty well, too,” says John laughing. “Can I at least stay here long enough for my ‘enthusiasm’ to becom
e less apparent?”
John’s tousled blond hair, muscular build, and current state-of-arousal are too much for Kate to resist.
“Maybe I can give you a hand with that.” Kate pulls John deep into the recesses of the shelter.
Minutes later, John and Kate emerge from the shadows.
Kate says, “Will that hold you over?”
“Yeah, but only until tonight.”
“I’m counting on it,” says Kate smiling.
John returns her smile and turns to leave. Before he’s out of arm’s reach, Kate smacks him on his rear, “You better bring your ‘A’ game.”
“You can count on that,” John yells behind him as he disappears out the door.
4 Canines and secrets
Amy and Kayla are having a successful harvest. They have been scouring the valley floor for most of the day. The sunny fields are dense with dandelions, and while their broad, leafy tops aren’t nearly as robust in the winter, their roots continue to be long and thick. Cactus, on the other hand, is more difficult to find and harvesting them is time consuming. Once the fruit are plucked from the tips of the pads, they turn their attention to the broad fleshy members themselves. Avoiding their sharp spines when cutting them is difficult enough but removing the spines for safe transportation is an even bigger challenge. The process is tedious and slow and, too often, painful.
Luke and Emily have been tasked with finding the dandelion and cactus plants while Amy and Kayla do the digging. Amy had promised them both something sweet if they do a good job; the extra motivation has prompted them to find plants faster than Amy and Kayla can harvest them.
“Our bags are almost full.” Kayla straightens up from the stooped position required to successfully harvest dandelions.
“Good,” says Amy. “I’m tired and we have a long walk back.”
Luke and Emily are shouting distance away near the tree line.
“Amy, Kayla!” yell the kids excitedly. “We found more cactus!”
Finished prepping the previous batch of cactus, Amy and Kayla begin walking toward the two children. They are dancing around and acting silly which lightens Amy’s heart. It’s refreshing to see them so happy and carefree.
Amy reminisces about Kayla’s early years, before her innocence was stolen. A time when she was unencumbered by the harsh realities of life, before the war, and before her father was murdered right in front of her. She was forced to grow up way too fast and way too painfully. She has matured beyond her years, which has been both a blessing and a curse. It’s not as if they had a choice in the matter, circumstances dictated it.