by Ron Foster
“Must be the light but you will air it up and stabilize that trailer before everyone arrives I am sure. Cletus my friend I need to pick your brain for a bit if you got time to talk.” David said relived he didn’t have to shake after all as Cletus excused himself from doing so and wiped his hand off on the cuff of his trousers.
“ Sure I got time, I got even more time if LowBuck wants to share any of that Kickapoo Joy juice I am sure he has in that mason jar he is toting with him.” Cletus said pointing at LowBuck coming in their direction with a drink in one hand and the jar in the other.
“Might be hand cleaner if he has any sense.” David thought. Hell that stuff was paint remover anyway so it could be also used as disinfectant.
“Well buddy you are right on time! Cletus here is going to give us the lowdown on the gossip at the landing if we grease his jaw muscles a might.’ David said chuckling and stepping in front of LowBuck so he didn’t have to do the handshake ritual just yet or at all if he could help it.
“Great minds think alike.’ Low buck said before instructing Jamie to break out the shot glasses. That damn luggable Lou had everything but he and LowBuck both looked carefully at the glasses for sanitary conditions before accepting them.
“They clean. My Ma boiled them out yesterday.” Jamie said looking like he was going to pout.
“Oh know, wasn’t looking at them being dirty, was admiring that you had some fine crystal ones.” David said glancing at LowBuck
“Yea man. Nothing but the best for your clients eh? I might be willing to trade you something if you would let a set go.” Lowbuck said reassured he was going to come out ahead on a deal.
“Oh no sirs we couldn’t let them go. That’s fine Waterford crystal that came out of a grand old house.” Cletus said beaming at the compliments.
“Oh I didn’t know they were that fine, I wouldn’t have anything to trade for them, unless… maybe a set of good solid glass ones I found in a bar filled to the brim with some of my fine sipping vodka might adjust their price a bit.” LowBuck said speculatively stroking his beard.
“Now you might have a point there LowBuck. My clients don’t need no fancy do dah cut glass to drown their miseries out of. Could be I would be willing to take two mason jars of that ambrosia you make and the set of worn bar jiggers you offered and we call it square.” Cletus said expectantly.
“I dunno, might be too fancy for my old biker butt to be seen sipping out of these on a regular basis , what do you think David.” LowBuck said smirking at the way the deal was going.
“Well the ladies sure would like them, but they ain`t as good as a mason jar with a handle on it for mixing a drink in. How often do we do shot glasses over a stout tall mixed drink?” David said trying to help his buddy slant the deal in his direction.
“I can’t remember the last time we did unless it was when we got low in the supply line and had to conserve. How’s about we trade 1 quart of shine the glasses even and you give me say 40 of the “works” bathroom passes to seal the deal.” Lowbuck said extending his hand to seal the deal before realizing the ramifications of such a gesture.
Cletus had him then as he firmly took his handshake and held on as he furthered the negotiation. Dead to rights and no escape LowBuck looked down at the grungy hand that had a death grip on him now.
“You asking a lot LowBuck but we close to entertaining your deal, I give you 20 passes, that’s 10 each for you and your wife.” Cleatus said smiling his one tooth grin.
“Ah, up, burble.” Was all Lowbuck managed to say in incomprehensible agreement before he got his hand back.
“Its agreed upon then, no back sliding! Gimme that quart and when you needing the facilities I shall make sure you get the premium toilet paper and all the amenities.
LowBuck managed to spill a little of that industrial strength gizzard degreaser on his hand by “ accident” and wiped it on his pants.
“I will see you later Cleatus, LowBuck and I have to go check on our “Sous Vide” cooker.” David said hurrying towards the outdoor cook shack.
The sous-vide method of cooking is where food is heated for an extended period at relatively low temperatures. Unlike using a slow cooker or Crock pot, the sous-vide process uses airtight plastic bags placed in hot water well below boiling point (usually around 140 Fahrenheit). The idea is to maintain the integrity and flavor of the food without overcooking it (but while still killing any bacteria that may be present).
LowBuck and Jack had been tinkering on and off with the idea of using David’s portable solar hot water heater panels to make a commercial size cooker for big events like this or a smaller size one just so they didn’t have to burn so much wood for the cook fires. This method of cooking was particularly interesting during summer when you didn’t want to heat up the kitchen or have to maintain a wood fire to heat water.
LowBuck normally used his wood fired rocket stove to heat up his water kettle and cooked meat and fish in a beer cooler.
Here's how it works: A beer cooler was designed to keep things cool. It can also keep things out. It accomplishes this temperature control with a two-walled plastic chamber with an air space in between. This airspace acts as your insulator, preventing thermal energy (a.k.a. heat) from the outside from reaching the cold food on the inside. Of course as we mentioned insulators can and do work both ways. Once you realize that a beer cooler is just as good at keeping hot things hot as it is for keeping your cold things cold, then the rest is easy: Just go and fill up your beer cooler with water just a couple degrees higher than the temperature you'd like to cook your food at (to account for temperature loss when you add cold food to it), seal up your food in a plastic Ziplock bag*, drop it in, and close your beer cooler until your food is cooked. It's as simple as that.
*FYI: The air in a plastic bag can be removed by slowly dipping the open bag with your food in it into the water, sealing it just before the water starts to pour inside. It's not as air-free an environment as a vacuum-sealed bag, but it's enough to keep the food submerged, and in contact with the water, which is all that's really important.
Now then, keep in mind most regular sealer bags will leach chemicals out when heated. Vacuum seal bags are what you want or you could use like Reynolds cooking bags.
David had really been very pro actively forward thinking by prepping the particular type of solar hot water heater. The unit he had chosen after much research on solar hot water heaters was superior cutting edge technology manufactured by ingenious Heliatos Solar of Southern California.
The Solar Hot Water Heating Panels were sturdy, efficient, easy to install, lightweight and best of all made right here in America. What sets Heliatos Solar ahead of everyone else is that the system is portable! How cool is that when you want to take your panels with you if you move!
The biggest deciding factor was ease of installation. This unit was the only one he had ever seen that allowed you to just your existing water heater and required no soldering at all. They offered a truly unique package that included all the parts needed to install a complete hot water heater system and was simple to install.
Figure 2 Heliatos.com
Another thing David was so impressed with was the customer service. These people were the friendliest; most work with you folks he had ever had the pleasure of dealing with.
When David had gone to the website to size his system he noted the suggested size was one panel for every 6 gallon capacity of his existing water tank. All though pricing of complete systems was more than reasonable, matter of fact it was the cheapest ready made solution he had ever seen, at first he was a little dismayed at the number of panels he would need for his 45 gallon tank.
David had asked the knowledgeable owners of Heliatos Solar what happens if you use less than the number of recommended panels to start with on an installation. (This unit is modular and you can add or take away panels at will.
The answer he got back was very satisfying as well as enlightening. Mr Aki had said
; “If the number of panels is smaller the water will potentially get just as hot, but to get there you can't use as much. The ultimate temperature of the water depends on a number of factors. The most important being the usage and number of panels. The size of the tank mostly determines how much the temperature fluctuates and how long it takes to heat the water. A couple of examples: If you have a giant tank (100 gallons) and never use any water and have 2 panels, the water will get hotter and hotter, probably peak at about 140 degrees after a week. It will stay there day and night until you use some. When you use it the temperature will slowly decrease, but also come back up again slowly. Now the opposite: If you have a tiny tank (10 gallons) and many panels, the water will get super hot in 20 minutes, peak somewhere around 180 degrees. If you use some it will quickly cool down, because the cold water entering the tank represents a large fraction of the volume. Also it will pretty much get cold overnight because the smaller tank has a pretty unfavorable surface area to volume ratio. I'll discuss tomorrow what size we should be sending to you. We can always send you more if it isn't hot enough. Most people in that area can turn off the conventional source to the water heater completely for 8 months out of the year and still have very hot water. I had one guy from Mobile write to me in August that his water was consistently over 170 degrees with 3 panels and a 25 gallon tank. He wanted to know if he could disconnect one of the panels to make it not so hot, because at that time of the year I guess we all are looking for ways to cool down rather than have hot water.”
Based on the principles David had learned from this statement David had created himself a hybrid system. He already had his hot water heater hooked to a light switch and would turn on and off his hot water heater when he left the house for extended periods of time and had found out the savings equaled approximately half his electricity bill. His neighbor upon hearing of this cost efficiency went one step further and put his water heater on a timer and got similar amazing utility savings.
David who always had to watch his pennies figured out he could go with a small 3 panel system and watch his hot water use or simply flick the switch to change over to electricity if there was a higher demand for hot water.
He had seen a one panel system hooked to a RV that gave the owners all the hot water they ever needed so he felt more than satisfied with his system.
Figure 3 Heliatos.com
The Company also made a EZ-Connect system which is especially designed for multi-panel hybrid solar water heater installations
Heliatos Solar “Go Green The Easy way” solar hot water EZ-Connect and Classic systems are featured as a valued contributor to unique off grid solutions.
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12
Technology Challenged
David was overwhelmed by what a little bit of technology might mean for their current way of life. If gas or diesel powered vehicles were back on the roads coming and going taking care of government business then it wouldn’t be long until everyone was somehow snapped back to the 20th century. Vehicles meant communication and with them that meant 10 to one they were bringing in emergency cell phone towers for communications.
How were those kids going to act when confronted with their first working cell phone or payphone? Hell internet, video games etc. would all come barreling back let alone the research and email communication stuff that such technology could provide. Being self sufficient just took on a whole new meaning with this game changer of a technology influx.
Self-sufficiency requires either a very large skill set or a very large circle of acquaintances with a broad range of skills - plus some skills of your own that you can use in exchange.
One of the reasons that people tend to live in towns and cities is so we live in close proximity to people who will give us the benefit of their skills while we make an exchange with our particular skills.
The older generation of the lake community would have an advantage over the younger generation in this type of society as they were already familiar with the many types of technology advances that were being reintroduced.
The kids that were raised at government sites and military bases through out this disaster were probably the most benefited by 10 yrs worth of technological improvements as well as hands on practice with computers, phones etc. for years. That generation was who most likely the new crop of first responder managers were taken from or who were most qualified for a variety of jobs.
The kids in David’s community were not dumb by any means but would be rather ignorant of many things because of their reclusive upbringing and lack of technological know-how.
“Just how long would it be before people started returning or coming to the lake because roads reopened or gasoline became more plentiful? How was ownership of real estate being determined these days? Hell for 10 yrs now if a house was empty you moved in or took what you wanted from it. This wasn’t looked at as theft then, it was called just plain survival. So was shooting some would be nasty folks endangering you to protect ones own. There were roving bands of out and out criminals still to this day. Rapists, murders, father murders, hell some of them were probably rotten enough to be all three, father rapist murders. Damn, he couldn’t even recall how many skirmishes his community had been forced into that had ended up in gunpowder and bloodshed. I wonder if anyone in law enforcement is holding anyone responsible for what must have been many massacres and heinous crimes committed after the solar tsunami.” David pondered as he drove the creaking old crank start FEMA gasifier tractor down the road.
Figure 4 This is actually a Vulcan gasifier you see here.
All this speculating was driving David nuts. He had decided to pull off the road and declare lunch so they could better prepare for the entry to town and discuss what might occur when they got there.
“Stewart are you going to ask those census folks about going back to England?” David asked already knowing the answer.
Stewart stared blankly at him for a moment considering even the possibility of being able to go home before instantly telling him he would not.
“I got my family here David, I could never leave.” Stewart said wistfully.
“Well if they are doing citizen registrations you got to declare yourself some nationality or the other. I wonder what the US declares an illegal alien these days and what they do with them.” David said speculatively.
“Dang mate, I see your point there. No sense running up the old British Union Jack until I find out whose friend or foe in these trying times. Do you think the government has problems with non citizens? I mean do they put them in some sort of special camps or something?” Stewart said fearfully.
“The U.S. lost at least 75% of its citizens from what the solar storm did to this countries infrastructure. I doubt we got any kind of immigrant quota anymore but you can never tell which way the winds blowing politically. Now if we had hoards of South Americans coming into the U.S. from Mexico that were ransacking resources on this side of the border trying to survive or flee something then that might be a huge problem. I am sure that has probably already happened and Texas is probably having a repeat of the Alamo and who knows how it will end up this time. I know they had special camps for that sort of threat envisioned but who knows what happened to them or if they even still exist. I say they exist in some form or fashion though because those Hispanic street gangs like MS 13 etc. can’t be allowed to exist and it’s either eradicate or deport. I will ask around when we get to town while you try not to talk with that accent of yours very much.” David concluded.
“Hell fire, I been living on the lake now on 25 years.” Stewart said in a bad interpretation of Boudreaux’s Cajun accent.
“Ha! Like I said try not to talk much.” David said chuckling.
“Dump, try to keep HeDo away from the census folks too. I know he is just a Asian legal and all but I need to get some info first.” David said thinking about the welfare of his United Nations of a survival community.
> “I will pretend and tell them he is my son if they get too damn nosy.” Dump said fiercely.
“Now Truck, we need a low profile here, don’t be getting too far out there if you know what I mean.” David said loosely trying to keep the big man calm.
“Ill behave, I just don’t like worrying about a bunch of stupid rules or laws some idiot might come up with.’ Dump Truck said looking over at the beloved boy he seen grow up nervously.
“It will be alright or we take flight. I doubt anyone is checking immigration cards if someone wants to stay and is being civil.’ David said walking over to the trailer where Melody rode uncomfortably on a mattress on her way to hopefully get some better medical care than we could offer.
“David your driving hasn’t got any better.” Melanie said teasing him and wincing from a twinge in her hips.
“Sorry about the ride but the road ain`t got any better either. You holding up ok?’” David said with a affectionate squeeze of her hand.
“I will be alright, it just hurts so bad David.” Melanie said wincing from the sharp pains in lower her back.
“I know sweetie but all I got to offer other than Aspirin for pain is white liquor. Those folks at the government medical aid station should have some better pain relievers. I wish I had that recipe for how to make opium out of lettuce but we don’t even have the lettuce.’ David said at wits end to relive her suffering.