So, You Want to Live Past Next Tuesday

by Billy Bob Richardson

  “What about the ones that have writing just below the names? Some say RIPW, what is that?”

  “It stands for Rest in Peace Warrior. In most cases those are our people whose bodies could not be found or retrieved from the battle.”

  “I see that each stone also shows where they fought like WWII or VN, Viet Nam, I am assuming?”

  “Exactly, Al.”

  “A few have what looks like some sort of cloak with a sword through it, what’s that about?”

  “It isn’t a sword, it’s a dagger.”

  “Cloak and Dagger?”

  “Those are for the family members that died while working in one of the secret agencies our government loves so much. It might not be the best idea to place CIA on their stones.”

  “There are so many. I never understood how big your family must have been. It seems like every four or five stones there is one that denotes a former military person; why so many?”

  “Our family has always taken the stand that freedom is never free, you have to fight for it.”

  “Like you and your cousins volunteering for active duty, knowing you would go to war in a foreign land?”

  “At the start of our training we always knew we would sign up. We were trained before we went to give us the best chance to live through what would come.”

  “I have seen some of the younger guys training, that what you and the others did?”

  “Yes, we enjoyed it a great deal. Little boys not only getting to play war, but having adults join in and play with us, what could make a boy happier, Al?”

  “When will this newest batch be ready to enlist?”

  “They will be through with all their training in about three months, but they won’t be enlisting. Maybe one or two, but not a whole group like we did.”

  “No, why is that?”

  “The country that our grandfathers and those before them swore to protect no longer exists. When our fathers joined things had changed, but the habit of service was strong, so they enlisted. When it came our turn, the council didn’t think we should go, but they didn’t discourage us either. We had trained for eleven years in one form or another, so it seemed a waste to not use what we had learned. Still, we were split as to what to do. What finally pushed us into enlisting was 20% idealism, wanting to serve what is left of our country. 80% was we wanted real life experience. You can train all you want, but there is no substitute for someone shooting at you and trying to kill you to make you learn and understand what war truly is.

  “Something you should know Al, before you toss your lot in with us. Popa, Roy and most of the members of the family council believe that if we survive a world changing event, the family can emerge and help revamp the old political systems. Make them workable. Use it to bring back what they believe our country once was. The men you met at Popa’s and myself believe that the ideals the founders of our country put forward are worthwhile. We also believe that no amount of trying to revamp the broken political machines in our country will make them viable. We will have to find a different way to follow in the footsteps of the founders.”

  That was something Al could see he needed to think on for a while. Better to get on with the day and let this new information percolate for a while.

  “When Rose was worried about my meeting your Popa, you mentioned ‘Riders’. Are those the men I met that night?”

  It seemed almost reluctantly Madd said, “Yes, they are part of what we call the Riders. No reason you shouldn’t know, I suppose. When I was about 14 and going through the training you heard about, it seemed every time we had a field exercise it would rain or storm on us. It happened so often it became a running joke that we would be riding in the rain every time we went out. On one of our free weekends when we were going hunting in the hills it was supposed to storm. We went anyway. We figured if we could work and train in the rain, a little rain wasn’t going to stop our fun. When we rode back to the farm, it had been storming for two days straight. There were parents and relatives on hand watching us ride in all wet with the rain lashing down, and lightning striking behind us. As a joke about how sorry we looked, one of the older men started singing the song Riders in the Sky by a man named Vaughn Monroe. Only he changed it to Riders in the Storm, thought it sounded funnier. Everyone got a good laugh, including us. As we began to form as a group of younger men, we decided we needed to call ourselves something. Calling ourselves The Junior Council seemed kind of ridiculous and over-important. So, when we heard that singing we finally had a name that sounded right to us. We became The Riders in the Storm.”

  “Sounds very colorful.”

  Al had to chuckle at the name; it seemed a tad melodramatic. He would learn later, that melodramatic or not, his future would be tied to the Riders in ways he couldn’t yet understand.

  “What’s that at the far end, just the other side of the three headstones at the other end, some type of monument?”

  “What you are looking at are three polished black granite stones, the 1 in the middle is 10’ high x 4’ wide. The side ones are 8’ high x 4’ wide.” They kept walking toward the monument.

  “That’s a tree carved into the center stone. White marble was inset to form the tree and the words.”

  “It’s beautiful Madd, what are the red pieces set around the lower part of the tree. Tear drops?”

  “Those are red marble, they represent spilled blood, Al.”

  “I take it from the large white letter across the top saying Liberty, this is a representation of the liberty tree? And the red drops are there because of the quote running across and around the tree saying, ‘ The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants’?”

  “Exactly so. Our family has always taken that saying very seriously. We still do, but the country our founding fathers envisioned has been lost somewhere along the way. The other sayings you see in smaller script on the flanking stones are much newer of course, but we felt they had merit so they have been added over the years. They guys and I feel that the one by Winston Churchill, ‘ We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us,’ defines us rather well.”

  “I’ve seen you guys in action, I would agree, your cousins and you are exactly the type of rough men he was thinking about.

  “My job has allowed me to visit many foreign lands. I have traveled and seen churches and holy places around the world. The monument and setting that was created for your family and fallen heroes, is one of the most beautiful, awe-inspiring sights I have ever seen. No chapel decorated by history’s greatest artists can outshine this setting.”

  “Thank you Al, I really appreciate that. I hate to rush, but there are some things I want you to see and our time is running short. Let’s get the horses and head over to the stream that flows not too far away. There is something there I want you to see and the horses could use a drink.”

  It was hard to leave. Hard to take his eyes off the scene before him. It wasn’t easy for Al to leave this hallowed ground. The blood these men had shed, the bodies of heroes who died in countless conflicts. In one split second he understood something about these men. They hadn’t worried about how they died. They were more concerned with how they lived.

  As they proceeded, they passed an adobe building, looking more like something risen from the very earth, more than a building placed there by man.

  “Madd, what is this building?”

  “Remember me mentioning that the original home place was too remote for some of the family when modern conveniences were invented? Well, this is it. Back in the day when things were popping around here that was a bunkhouse with a cook shed semi-attached at the other end. It was used for ranch hands and miners.

  “When someone passes away and wants to be buried here, we have a ceremony in town, and let the town folks think that member was buried in town. Actually we bring them up here for burial. We drive the trucks up as far as we can then park them. We bring along
wagons and horses then we complete the journey up here by wagon. That will have to change soon. We are going to run a small road all the way up here to facilitate building on this land. Some of the immediate family, especially the girls and Itsy, make the trip about every other month to keep things in shape. Clear the underbrush and keep the cemetery tidy.

  “That building might not look like much from outside but inside it is in good shape and makes a great place to stay for those doing work up here. It has stood there since the 1800s and as long as the roof is maintained will be standing long after I am gone and buried in the cemetery.

  “You see all the even rows of trees running off behind the old bunkhouse?”

  “Sure I see them, they are obviously planted in formation. Nice straight rows. There certainly are a lot of them.”

  “Those are the fruit trees I was telling you about.”

  “You mentioned miners, too?”

  “Yep, back in the old days when the gold rush was going on the land was searched for gold. They never found any to amount to much, but they did start some mines back up behind us in those low hills you can see right that way. And another pretty big excavation on that flat spot I told you I wanted to build a lodge on. While they never got much gold they did find coal and a couple other things. It was mostly all done by hand and since we were so remote it wasn’t profitable to mine coal. Gold would have made it worth it but nothing else was valuable enough. If you look around carefully you can see a few of the fence posts still standing. Use your imagination, connect them; you will get a feeling for where the corrals and pastures were. Course you might have to squint a little.”

  “I might not have noticed the posts if you hadn’t mentioned them but I can see where fields must have been fenced off, now.”

  Al pointed back up the rise to some thick trees and asked, “Where those trees are is where the old ranch house stood?”

  “Yep. If you were up there you would get a heck of a view from there.”

  “Place must have been exceptionally large for the time.”

  “It was, and could be a really nice ranch/farm again. Now with solar power and modern knowledge about newer methods this place could really be something else.”

  “I can see that, an off the grid ranch. Fields of grain, pastures full of cattle. Looks like it could be a huge operation.”

  “Al there are many things I would like to try up here, if I could get the money, that would really make this place come alive.”

  “Like what?”

  Al could feel himself starting to be infected by this country. He was beginning to see why Madd was so interested in establishing the family here.

  “For one, drilling a gas well. There are tons of gas and oil wells all around Colorado. Thousands of acres of land in Colorado have pipelines, roads, compressor stations, transmission lines, waste water containment ponds and well pads. I don’t want a commercial operation, just something small, but big enough to run a large farm/ranch operation with. I have family that work on drilling crews and they think that we could hit gas not that far down and when it was finished we could have more gas than we could ever use. We would have to pick our spot carefully and make sure that we could contain the mess and then clean up what was necessary.

  “Once that is done, all we would have is a small well head and a pressure valve to reduce the pressure down to what we would need. Think of it Al, houses and barns heated with gas. Generators and vehicles run on gas, giving us all the electricity and fuel we would need.”

  “I have to admit Madd, that really sounds good. Gas is a pretty clean way to do all that. I am finally seeing what you tried to explain to me about money. Every time we discuss something for prepping or survival, it takes money. You said that you had all kinds of ideas and plans, all you lack is money. Is the gas drilling one of those?”

  “Yes it is. Not only do we have all the plans for the ranch, a preliminary evaluation for a place to drill the gas well was made and a site for the drilling figured out. We have tons of contacts that have been made over the years and family members that can get it done for us. Unfortunately even great and willing connections don’t do much good without money. We can source lots of things and get things easily that others might have trouble getting. And you are right; every turn, every plan, runs us up against the money issue. You asked about the family financial situation. I gave you a short insight into what a small time rancher runs into, but we are not completely broke. We do have money put aside, and some ongoing income, just nothing like what we need. Even if we could collect all the money owed to the family there wouldn’t be enough.”

  “Someone owes the family a lot of money?”

  “Actually, a number of somebodies. The family has always believed in education. Over the years as people decided to go on to college the family invested in them. The family paid tuitions and support when we had the money. At one time it was a practical way of gaining doctors, dentists, vets and a host of other needed professions. Unfortunately in the last 8 years or so that hasn’t been the case. Even those whose career choices have little or no value in creating a safe haven for the family have been subsidized. Money that should have gone for preps has been allocated to some questionable career choices. If it hadn’t been for one of our earlier council members, a lawyer, we would be totally out of luck as far as getting repaid. As it is we have only been able to collect about 18% of the money loaned. In modern times when the loans were believed to be a good idea, no one was going to ask for a written contract or schedule of repayment from a family member.

  “The lawyer put his foot down and drew up contracts and made people sign up to repay the family. That was all well and good, but the family has always been reluctant to pressure family to repay. As it stands now, there are people out there making extremely good livings, who have never paid back one cent.”

  “I can see that doesn’t set too well with you, Madd. Any way to get them to pay up?”

  “We are working on it and having some limited success. I am having a meeting with some of my cousins and the council. I hope to find out where we stand on the loans. I have been away for a little over a year so I am not as up to date on the situation as I would like. Right now we are where I wanted to show you something.”

  “Would you call that a stream or small river?”

  Laughing, Madd responded with, “It’s probably a little too small to be a river and too big to be a stream, so how about strimer?”

  That got a laugh out of Al.

  “Just like everything you have shown me around here, it’s beautiful, but there obviously is something here besides a pretty body of water.”

  “Let the horses drink and we’ll hike up to that little ridge.”

  “Nice view, but now that we are above a pretty body of water, what am I missing?”

  “Right below us to the right, that dry stream-bed is where the river used to flow. The ridge on the other side running along the riverbank collapsed in the past and diverted the river. That two hundred foot or so changed the course. If that two hundred foot were removed and the overhanging bank on the other side where the river now runs was collapsed into that narrow part of the river just downstream, what would happen?”

  Taking his time and looking it over, he could see what Madd was getting at.

  “If you did that the river would then flow down this old bed. Matter of fact, it would be a much easier shot for the river to come this way than the way it now flows. It looks like it would then flow back the way we just came.”

  “Very good, without any hints, too. Something you should know. Water rights are a hotly debated subject in the West. As are mineral rights. One can buy property that has little or no water rights. A stream might flow along the edge of a person’s property but they might not legally be allowed to use any of it. The same with mineral rights. A company can own the rights under your property and when they want to remove them, there is nothing you can do. They have the right to access the property and do pretty muc
h what they want to your land to get to the minerals.”

  “That seems insane, Madd.”

  “It does but that is the way it is, Al. Now when this original homestead was created our ancestors were pretty smart men. They secured the mineral rights as well as the water rights.”

  “How did they get all this? I never heard you say that they were particularly rich.”

  “They weren’t but with the free Homestead Act, they managed.

  “On May 20, 1862, the free Homestead Act was passed and signed by then President Abraham Lincoln. The law took effect on January 1, 1863.

  “Under this law any man or woman twenty-one years old or the head of a family could have 160 acres of undeveloped land by living on it five years and paying eighteen dollars in fees. They were also required to build a home, make improvements and farm the land before they could own it outright. Alternatively, the homesteader could purchase the land for $1.25 per acre after having lived on the land for six months.

  “Settlers from all walks of life, including newly arrived immigrants, farmers without land of their own from the East, single women and former slaves came to meet the requirements.

  “People interested in Homesteading first had to file their intentions at the nearest Land Office and after checking for any ownership claims, the prospector paid a filing fee of $10 to claim the land temporarily, as well as a $2 commission to the land agent. When all requirements had been completed and the homesteader was ready to take legal possession, the homesteader found two neighbors or friends willing to vouch for the truth of his or her statements regarding land improvement and sign the ‘proof’ document.

  “After successful completion of this final form and payment of a $6 fee, the homesteader received the patent for the land, signed with the name of the current President of the United States.

  “As the Frontier moved west onto the arid Great Plains, the amount of land a homesteader was allowed to claim was increased to 640 acres.