As they headed out into the forest to try hunting and trapping they discussed the new underground structure they intended to build. Robert said, “I almost hate to speak these words aloud in front of the man who originally built the barn, but we could tear down the old barn and use the materials to add on to the first underground structure. I would like to see the old timbers from the barn last for many more years, not be burned up in a fire created by a fireball from the heavens.” As Randy thought about Robert’s words, he said, “I would also hate to see that barn burn. I agree that we should use the barn timbers for enlarging our new addition. We could eventually provide access to the underground structure from a metal fireproof door that we could place at the south end. I bet we could have the underground structure completed within three months. If our plans work as we envision them, we would be fully self-sustaining before spring. The larger underground area would allow us to raise enough meat to feed the clan. One day we could even begin farming our own fish.”
During the hunting trip, the guys eventually killed two large bucks and placed them on the sleds to haul them back to the Mountain House. As they walked, Randy showed the guys the old growth cedar forest where he hoped to harvest enough timber to build the underground structure. As they looked around, they decided to begin cutting lumber first thing tomorrow. Once they managed to cut the timber and sled it out of the forest, they could turn their attention to digging the pit so they could begin building. The fresh snow would make sledding the large logs an easy task. They could use the tractor to help if needed.
As the guys hung the two deer in the barn and began to skin them, the girls came out to help. Rodney said, “There are too many hands working here with sharp knives. I am going to begin servicing the chain saws so they are ready when we need them. Robert said, “I will get the sleds loaded with chains and ropes.” Jenna turned and watched the two men walk away. She asked, “Was it something I said, or are they just antisocial today?” Randy laughed and said, “They know when they are bested. You three women can butcher deer faster and better than we males can. It is sometimes best if we step aside and let you work.” Jenna returned to her task while Randy placed what meat the girls had cut into a plastic tote and headed out to the smokehouse. Within two hours, all of the meat except for what they left out for supper was hanging in the smokehouse. Randy had a nice fire built and then added some green hickory to the coals to create a thick smoke. Once the girls were out of the building, he opened the louver and allowed the smoke to fill the smokehouse.
Randy closed and locked the eight-foot high chain link fence that surrounded the smoke house as the clan headed into the house for supper. They would return to stoke the fire again after they cared for the animals later tonight.
As they sat down to the table, Bonnie giggled and asked, “Can I go with you guys tomorrow to help cut timber?” Timothy managed to answer Bonnie’s question without laughing. He said, “Bonnie, we would have to pull you back to the house on the sled instead of the logs.” Bonnie turned to the boy and said, “Are you saying I am fat?” The boy began to giggle and said, “I did not mean that you were fat, you are just pregnant.” Bonnie rubbed Timothy’s head and said, “Then I forgive you for your comment.”
The following morning, Bonnie and Kathy agreed to remain at the Mountain House. Randy asked Timothy if he wanted to cut timber or stay behind and tend to the animals. Timothy thought a moment and then said, “Father, I will remain behind today. I have a book report due in a couple of day and I have only read half of the book. Maybe I can go with you tomorrow if I can get my homework done and the barn cleaned out.” Kathy stepped up beside Timothy and said, “I cannot read your book for you, but I can help you clean the barn so you can join your father tomorrow.” Timothy looked up at Kathy and smiled over her offer. He quickly sat down at the kitchen table and began reading his book. Jenna looked into Kathy’s eyes and said, “Thank you for helping Timothy. I will stay behind tomorrow so you can join the others in the forest if you wish. I know you love being outdoors in the winter.” Kathy walked over and hugged Jenna. When she stepped back, she said, “I have started my period and should remain close to home for a few days, but I thank you for the offer.”
***
When the guys had the last of the rubber roofing in place, Robert began the tedious task of covering the roof with a six-inch deep layer of pea gravel. They had built the roof supports sturdy enough to support all of the gravel and dirt they needed to cover the roof and support the weight of the four-wheeler and blade. Within one day, he had the roof completely covered and leveled out. When he finished and moved the four-wheeler into the garage, the clan all headed down into the newly created underground structure. Randy lit a lantern and hung it from a nail. As they looked around, they discussed how they would build the animal pens and how they would get the animals down into their new quarters. They soon agreed to dig down beside the south wall and build a wooden ramp so the animals could simply walk down into the new underground barn. Kathy volunteered to begin building the pens and coops the following morning. Robert volunteered to begin digging for the ramp. With any luck, they might have the animals housed in their new home within two or three days. Then they would have to get the hay down from the loft and find a way to keep it dry until they finished taking down the barn. Once they finished the second underground structure, they would move the hay and animal feed down below ground.
They worked in the new structure by lantern light until late on the fourth day. Rodney had worked hard running PVC conduit from the electrical panel in the Mountain House, through the tunnel and into the new structure. He set a small electrical panel and pulled wires through the conduit to feed the panel. Once he had power to the panel, he installed a light switch at each end of the tunnel and wired the light fixtures he had installed every ten feet along the tunnel wall. By the time he wired plugs and lights in the ceiling of the new structure, the girls took turns kissing him on the cheek. Bonnie stepped up as close as her bulging belly would allow and kissed her husband hard on the lips. She whispered something in Rodney’s ear that made him blush. Britney giggled and said, “Looks like the tool shed is off limits to the rest of us tonight. Bonnie is planning a surprise party for the man who gave us lights.”
Once the ramp into the underground structure was complete and they had finished building the pens, they carried as much straw and hay as they could down into the isles between the pens. For the next few weeks, they would have to work around the stuff in the isles. Things would improve once they tore down the old barn and built the second underground structure. When they had moved all they could manage below ground, they pulled the remaining hay and straw from the loft and piled it so it would be out of the way for the next dig. They covered everything with canvas tarps and weighed the tarps down with logs they had cut from the forest.
It took them almost two weeks to get the barn torn down and the wood piled out of the way so they could begin digging. They had been fortunate up until now and the bitter cold weather had given them some reprieve. As they began digging the second pit, the weather changed. The guys had to work late into the second night to get the pit dug before the ground began to freeze. For the next week, the girls helped to get the logs installed and the roof in place. They took turns working in the cold and sleeping. They needed to get the roof completed and covered up quickly before the dirt they had dug out froze solid.
As they finally leveled out the last of the dirt and boarded up the opening they had built in the south end, the heavy mountain snows returned. The guys spent the next two days getting the ramp installed and the heavy wooden door hung. They would use this door to move animals in and out, along with bags of feed and hay and straw down into the second underground structure. That area would mainly be for storage.
The clan took the next two days to begin moving the hay, straw and bags of feed they had stacked outdoors, down below ground. With the heavy snow falling, they took great care to insure no one slipped as they wa
lked up and down the wooden ramp. Once they finished that task, they carefully secured the wooden door. They had hung the door so it swung into the barn so that snow and ice would not build up and prevent them from opening the door in an emergency. They built metal hangers and dropped heavy timbers into the hangers to insure a bear or other intruder could not force the door open, yet they insured they could easily escape the underground structures in case of a fire. They would have to keep any snow that accumulated in front of the door shoveled away.
With the underground structures mostly complete, the clan took some time to relax. There was a baby due to enter their lives within a few days and they took time to insure everything was ready for its arrival. Britney was more than a little concerned over her mother’s pregnancy and spoke often to Randy about Bonnie’s age. Britney thought that forty-five was quite old to have a baby, yet, neither Randy nor Bonnie seemed concerned in the slightest. Bonnie reminded her daughter that women had been having babies at her age for thousands of years and seldom did they have any complications. The guys had kept the new plow truck full of gas and stored in the garage just in case they needed to make an emergency run to the clinic in the city, but everyone was quite comfortable that they could deliver this child in the Mountain House without any difficulties.
As the snow continued to fall and pile up, the clan soon began to appreciate the new underground barn. The animals were quite comfortable and warm, yet they did have to open the south door to ventilate the animal odors. They had installed a small wood stove on the south end of the building before the heavy snow began to fall and had vented it with heavy welded seam steel pipe. To date they had never lit a fire in the stove. They realized that the animals provided adequate heat to keep the barn around sixty degrees Fahrenheit. Britney had discovered, quite by accident, that there was cool air traveling down the flue and into the underground barn. She tried opening the door on the stove and allowed the outdoor air to flow into the barn. With the wood stoves in the upper level living area and the mineshaft burning, a steady draft flowed along the tunnel and out the upper level stove flues. After a few days, no one seemed to notice the slight aroma of the barn flowing through the living areas.
Randy had begun using a rake to remove the animal feces from the straw and then burning the soiled straw in the wood stoves. They dissolved the fecal matter in a tank and then used the liquid for fertilizing the vegetable plants. A small screen prevented any remaining straw or other foreign matter from plugging up the pumping system.
Forty-two inches of snow blanked the mountains on October 5. The guys had worked hard to keep the Mountain House driveway and road out to the main highway cleared of snow. The county had done an incredible job keeping the main highway down to the city cleared of heavy snow. They plowed every third day or so, unless they had a heavy snowstorm and then they plowed as quickly as the weather would allow. Bonnie went into labor during the night of October 6. They guys had checked the highway to insure they could travel to the clinic in Hillsburg if that should be necessary, but Bonnie delivered her child before daylight that morning. Robert and Kathy had taken the boys down to the barn and made up beds for them in the hay. There was no reason for the boys to endure the sounds of a woman bearing a child at their tender age. Besides, the boys were ecstatic over their temporary sleeping arrangements and wanted to sleep there every night.
When the boys headed into the mineshaft for breakfast, Rodney took them to Bonnie’s bed and introduced them to the newest member of the clan. The boys had feared that Bonnie would have a girl, but they soon realized that the child was a boy. Rodney and Bonnie had name the child, Phillip.
By late in the afternoon, Bonnie was up and caring for her baby. Jenna, Britney and Kathy stayed close by and insured that Bonnie was comfortable and well fed. Bonnie had given up coffee, but she intended to enjoy her first cup within a couple days. Bonnie seemed unable to produce enough milk to feed her child. The clan decided to try supplementing her breast milk with milk from their goats. Humans have been feeding raw goats’ milk to infants for thousands of years and found it is quite healthy. Goats’ milk digests in less time than cows’ milk and produces less stomach upsets. When Randy checked with a doctor in the city, the doctor explained that the goats’ milk had every vitamin and nutrient that a newborn child required. The only difference between feeding goats’ milk and mother’s milk is the transfer of the mother’s immunities to her child.
The heavy snowstorm lifted two days later. The guys arranged with the Department of Natural Resources to pick up a hundred or so, three-inch long trout to stock the new fish tank they installed in the underground structure before they had laid the roof in place. The tank could support a large number of fish and the clan should be able to raise enough fresh fish to support their needs through the winter months. They would harvest the larger fish after the young ones were born. Once the county employees plowed the main highway, the guys loaded up two large coolers onto the new plow truck and headed into Hillsburg. When they arrived at the DNR field operations center, one of the officers had them drive the truck into the building where it was warm. After they filled the coolers with water from their fish tanks and placed the small fish into the coolers, they filled out the paperwork. The officers explained that the trout were a protected species and that selling them or giving them away to others was illegal. Randy signed the paperwork and then paid the officer in cash. Once they were ready to travel, they used nylon straps to fasten the lids on the coolers to insure they did not pop open during the trip back up the mountain. The guys needed to hurry along and get the fish into their own tank before the water froze in the coolers. The officers had warned that freezing the trout was not a good idea. The fish grew up at a constant water temperature during their short lifespan and might not survive the drastic water temperature change if allowed to freeze.
As the guys carried buckets of fish and water down to the new tank, the lights went out. Randy checked the green lights on the top of the main electrical panel in the Mountain House and discovered that the power company had turned off the electricity. He had no idea if the power outage was temporary or permanent. Since it was already getting dark outside, they lit some lanterns and finished moving the fish. They were quite certain that the temperature in the underground structures would not get overly cold, but the Mountain House itself would quickly chill down. They could not allow the temperature to drop to drastically or they might chill some of the vegetables that were ready for harvest. When Rodney went inside to check on the girls, he found that they had lit the woodstoves and they were all quite comfortable. The guys decided to wait a couple days before starting one of the steam engines to provide emergency power for the grow lights and hydroponic pumps. There was the possibility that the utility power might come back online. If it did not, they would begin using their own power generators instead of relying on the power company. Besides, once they started the steam engines, they might as well use them all the time instead of paying the utility bill every month.
***
Last year, on February 19, Britney recorded that the crocus flowers were in bloom along the front porch. This year, winter was still raging on and the snow was still falling. March, April and May proved to be no better. The meteorologist at the local radio station had recently commented that the scientists were predicting the beginning of another ice age, something the people of planet Earth certainly did not want to hear. The planet’s population had already suffered enough after the resizing, but to have the planet enter a period of continuous winter was beyond human comprehension.
Food was already in short supply, even with the hundreds of greenhouses that sprouted up in the cities. Everyone that could raise an indoor crop was doing so and finding seeds to plant was next to impossible. Very few people understood how to dry and care for the seeds they did harvest. Genetic use restriction technology and hybrid seeds also caused havoc with small growers who tried to dry their seeds and use them in later plantings. Many of these seeds
would grow but would not yield a crop.
With the heavy snows covering the forests, hunting and fishing expended more calories than one could gain from killing a rabbit or other small animal. The livestock that once roamed the farmlands had long since been harvested, killed off by hungry predators, or died off from disease. The population of planet Earth was about to suffer another mass die off if the cold winters did not subside in the very near future.
The clan had prepared their farm carefully in order to survive when their neighbors could not. Everyone wanted to help those in need, but the clan knew that if they shared their bounty, they would soon starve along with the rest. Now the clan feared that those around them would begin to prey on whoever had food or shelter; the starving would kill if necessary to provide for their own needs and the needs of their families. That was the way of all living creatures and the members of the clan understood that they would eventually become the prey.
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