by Ron Foster
“What were you doing besides watching Jack?” I said either going to have some fun with him or tighten up his response tactics if need be.
“Well the dog surprised me too, and that growl sounded like a werewolf but I had Donnie covered, if that dog had of even acted like he was fixing to make a go for us I would have dropped him. When that round Donnie fired hit about 8ft from that beast, that dogs back legs tried to out distance his front legs and it hauled ass out of there with its tail between its legs trying to catch up” Jack said telling the story with some hilarious hand gestures.
When we got done laughing and joking about Jacks encounter the conversation took on a more serious note.
“You see anyone or have a feel for how many teenagers probably partied in that house Jack?” I said searching for some answers as to who might be moving in our direction.
“I did not do the CSI TV show investigation on the place but the mud next to the shoreline said if they were kids they pretty good sized ones and no I don’t know all those tracker questions forming in your mind David. I just noticed they had on tennis shoes and big feet.” Jack said looking around like he was sniffing the wind to see where supper might be cooking at.
Sherry picked up on the old ham burglars look and told him we waited until he got back to decide about dinner.
“I thought you might have had a shot at a deer and we might be having venison tonight” I told Jack just to mess with him a bit.
“I am not ready to eat dog yet, but that would have been what you had if Donnie had been a better shot” Jack said looking seriously at everyone and reinforcing what I had said about the necessity of stretching our food supplies and getting over our aversions to certain meals.
Sherry made everyone laugh by telling me I could have open season on the geese before we were reduced to eating dog, but the somber realization of our plight made everyone a bit gloomier.
“You are going out with him again tomorrow Jack?” I said still weighing the information concerning the party house that had been vandalized.
“Yes, we agreed to go in the morning at 8. What’s on your mind buddy” he said searching my face for some indication of my concerns.
“I am half assed thinking we might want to lend him a long arm but we are stretched thin enough as it is” I said considering what was available and how best to utilize our small armory.
“Why don’t we take stock and figure out if we have any flexibility” Sherry offered to address our concerns and began ticking off parts of my arsenal.
“I lent my Mossberg Maverick 12 gauge to Sandra, I am content for now with that old single action full choke turkey gun 20 gauge, its pretty light to tote around and gives me distance advantage as well as being able to shoot it one handed and my Kel tec .380 is always with me in a pocket and I normally strap on my ruger 22 target pistol for snakes and such.
You always leave that camo Mossberg 500 with Louise so the home front has some bang to it.
You have your mom checked out pretty good on that Marlin 10/22.
Betsy likes that weird sling rigged Mossberg 500 persuader you taught her to clear rooms or an alleyway with.
You always got a .380 on you somewhere plus, that .357 Ruger Blackhawk hog leg single action and nowadays that Smith and Wesson AR around with full web gear sometimes.
Christ David, you have been prepping for so long you managed to have outfitted all of us and still forgot what you might have to rock the world with as you used to say,
You have that fold up Kel Tec 9mm carbine I gave you when you got your degree in Emergency Management Administration and Planning in your bug out bag. Don’t you remember you gave me your old highpoint 9mm carbine when I gave that gift to you when we were dating and upgraded it with a laser and the cheek piece magi holder with three magazines of 10 rounds each?. That’s two long arms right there.” Sherry said listing most everything before I interjected.
“Ok, Ok each one of those has a purpose but for know I guess you can lend him your HighPoint if you would Sherry. That’s a loan only, so be sure to make that point real clear to Donnie.” I said looking at Jack and Sherry.
“Ammo I got for all the 9mm feeders, but we got none to waste. Tell Donnie he can fire off three rounds to familiarize himself with it. Do it about 8.30 so we know it’s him doing the shooting and no one will get worried.” I told Jack before moving on to another subject.
“Keep your eyes peeled for any lumber, as well as any firewood on your trips. If you thought three days of being cooped up in your own house was bad, you are really going to hate it if we all have to move into one house to conserve firewood this winter.” I mentioned and everyone groaned at that possibility.
“There is a 5 bedroom over by Donnie, but I hate to even consider that a possibility, unless it’s absolutely necessary.” Jack stated to the group.
“I haven’t found me a chainsaw yet and I can not even imagine getting at least 3 cords of wood together the old way using an ax and a bow saw.” I said starting to sweat even more just by thinking of that notion.
“I picked up an old one man crosscut saw yesterday that someone had mounted on their wall, but it is probably duller than hell. Those things are supposed to be hard to sharpen aren’t they, David?” Jack said while picking up the binoculars and starting to spy around the lake.
“I have never sharpened one, except just touching up one with a file. The teeth sometimes need to be set to the proper rake, but I would probably royal screw it up, if I had to try my hand at doing that.” I said searching my memory for anything I had ever heard about how to do it.
“Doesn’t one of those Foxfire books you got tell you how to sharpen crosscut saws?” Sherry asked.
“I am not sure; I bet one of them might. Thanks for the reminder.” I said to Sherry and tried to see what Jack was studying.
“You’re looking at that family across the Lake, Jack?” I said and motioned to Betsy to hand me the other pair of binoculars.
“Yeah, the father has him one of those ‘just in case’ Mossberg 500 shotguns that he is loading. I saw him pull it out of one of those bright orange tubes just a minute ago. The older boy has a pellet rifle or a 22, I can’t tell for sure from here.” He said lowering the binoculars and continuing to look in their direction.
“It’s a pellet gun; I can see it’s a break action single shot kind.” I said handing him the stronger pair of binoculars.
“You’re right, I can see it now. I don’t see Mamma or the other kid though at the moment.” He said handing me back my binoculars.
“Lois, the girls’ house has a telescope in it. When we’re out scavenging, go over there and watch those folks every once in a while. I am wondering why they are just now getting around to getting armed as if for trouble. It may be they’re feeling threatened or simply thinking on going hunting for dinner. Either way, keep an eye on them and check on us now and then, too.” I told her.
“Will do, they probably looked over here like we are watching them and it scared the bejesus out of them, what with all the firepower everyone is toting around.” Lois said grousing about my insistence that we maintain an armed camp. Lois did not like guns; just like my Mom didn’t; but both did agree to their necessity. What she really didn’t like was when I had on full web gear and my black rifle AR if I was going out on a scout alone.
“You do look a bit over the top David.” my mother chided me.
“I am not going to argue with you about why I consider it a necessity, its what I know and how I have been trained. At least I am wearing the old style H harness and not that desert storm crap they wear nowadays with a vest full of stuff. I am surprised they don’t wear more of the old style, it’s got to be a thousand percent cooler than putting a loaded vest over a bullet resistant vest.” I said patting my web belt that hung down off the back of my chair by its suspenders.
“All I got on here is my canteen, two mag pouches and my knife.” I said, still not understanding why it always freaked Lois and my mom
out.
“It just looks so military, and makes me wonder why you carry that huge bowie knife.” Lois said referring to my Cold Steel Trail Master.
“You think that is big, wait until Jack and I find the need to start wearing those Kukri machetes, those things look like short swords.” I advised her.
“What are they for anyway?” Lois inquired, while hoping it wasn’t for anything gory or scary.
“They are the perfect solution for brush clearing or chopping down small saplings.” I explained and left out any reference to something I would like to have on me if the dog pack problem got out of hand, as I expected it would eventually.
“Are we ever going over to go visit that family across the lake?” Sherry asked me, unsure if it was the proper thing to do or not in these times of uncertainty.
“I was sort of hoping we would catch each other looking at the other through binoculars and seeing if my wave and smile was returned on a friendly basis or not.” I said hoping to gauge the personalities and welcome or unwelcome responses I might be able to interpret.
“I guess that’s sort of a good idea, if we could get somewhat familiar with each other before actually meeting.” Sherry said considering my plan and continuing with, “Why don’t we go sailing for an hour or two tomorrow and see if you could get your plan working that way. It will also give us a chance to recon what’s in our area better.” Sherry said hopeful of an activity that was less stressful and not as strenuous as today’s activities.
“That sounds like a great plan; everyone notices any activity on the water. Someone can watch their reactions through the telescope, when we are not bothering to watch them. Sandra and Betsy can fish for awhile and Mom or Lois can make some bread. I got that 120 watt fold up solar panel ready to hook to those four marine batteries we brought with us; it will take me just a minute to hook that 3000 watt inverter to it and then we can plug in those two bread machines and have fresh bread in an hour.” I said excited at the moral boosting effect of the proposed day’s activities.
“I want to make the bread, but I am still a bit scared of the way you’re producing electricity. It won’t blow up or anything will it David?” My mom commented looking at me anxiously.
“No, Mom; it’s totally safe. The inverter has a fan to cool itself and all its doing is converting 12v dc to 110Ac. It’s the same as plugging in something to the outlet back home, when we had regular power. The panels have overcharge protection built into them so the batteries only get juice from the panel if they need it. It is basically a fool proof system.” I reassured her.
“Ok then, I will give it a try.” She said looking happy to be doing something so useful and mundane.
“The only thing I want you to do any different than making a batch the regular way is to not just plug both the machines in at the same time. The inverter can handle the surge power to do it, but we are running off batteries so we do it a bit different to be smarter. Bread machines do the mix thing, and then pause for letting the dough rise etc. Mixing and heating up the elements uses the most power. So when the first machine stops mixing, wait a couple minutes and then get the other one going. We will save about 50% drain on the batteries that way, by altering the load cycles.” I explained to my mom and said I would write it down. I also told the group to look for more bread maker machines when we were out scavenging and to particularly be on the lookout for the Oster brand ones I was familiar with and because they only pulled 600 watts. I could easily run four, if we were careful to cycle them. If the sunlight was available for about 6 hours a day, I figured we could make enough bread twice a week to supply our camps needs and still have enough power to run some low wattage lights.
I had a xantrex power station with us, which I had not checked out yet; but hoped it was still functional, since it was stored inside Sherry’s house on a wood floor and hadn’t been plugged into the charger when the solar flare hit. Boy, did I have a surprise for everyone if it did, or even if it didn’t. I had a portable Ice machine that would produce about 20lbs of ice a day and only needed 100 watts to run, so it might just be possible to rejoin the age of some form of refrigeration.
When things settled down a bit and day to day survival was not so important, Jack and I had a whole batch of alternative energy ideas we wanted to try out, that we had been studying the theories for years about, but had not got around to actually trying to implement in our day to day lives.
There is so much work to do around here its astounding, but its good work, back to the land stuff Jack and I had fancied for years, but jobs and time had not allowed us until now to even consider getting serious about.
One of these outbuildings can become me and Jack’s official “Skunk Works.” It’s a name we had borrowed for our proposed experimental laboratory from the original one run by Lockheed Aircraft for the CIA. The term "Skunk Works" according to Wikapedia came from Al Capp's satirical, hillbilly comic strip Li’l Abner, which was immensely popular in the 1940s and '50s. The “Skonk Works" was a dilapidated factory located on the remote outskirts of Dogpatch, in the backwoods of Kentucky. According to the strip, scores of locals were done in yearly by the toxic fumes of the concentrated "skonk oil", which was brewed and barreled daily by "Big Barnsmell" (known as the lonely "inside man" at the Skonk Works). The oil was made by grinding dead skunks and worn shoes into a smoldering still, all for some mysterious, never specified purpose.
It looked like old Jack and I were destined to be able to fulfill our dreams of becoming mad scientists in the realm of alternative energy or other dreamed up but not yet tinkered on inventions.
“Jack, just have Donnie cycle the carbine tomorrow, instead of firing it off. Those neighbors are a bit jumpy already and sense we haven’t indiscriminately fired any caps off or even taken a shot at anything, so let’s keep the good impressions of us being civil, but careful folk.” I proposed to him.
“Darn, David you are right, but I was going to tell you to let me and Donnie at least fire a full mag, its been quite a while sense I even pulled a trigger on anything and like you pointed out in the past, the reason your old farm never had break in problems was probably due to the amount of lead they could hear you putting down range on a regular basis when you practiced,” a disappointed Jack said. Jack was drawn to firework stands like a kid to a candy store. I have never seen anyone like things that go boom so much, or somebody who liked to play with fire as much as him. I offered him a consolation prize to get his mind off overriding my requests about shooting off the carbine, and asked him if he had seen any treadmills over in the rich section of town, as I referred to Donnie’s side of the lake.
“Donnie has one, and the house that was trashed by them kids does” He said looking at me quizzically and trying to figure out what they were good for.
“They make great windmill motors by removing the engine and adding some blades for generating electricity, but I bet me and you can devise something to play ring up the fish.” I said grinning and referring to the old hand crank radios we had in the military. that if hooked to a telephone wire that had a loop consisting of about 10ft of insulation stripped off wire, could be used to electrocute and stun a fish long enough to scoop them up in a net.
“Oh hell yeah! That shit would be allowed now. Too bad you don’t have any grenades David.” he said getting a devilish look in his eyes.
“Damn you old arsonist don’t go there, be content to play Ma Bell!” I said chuckling at his pleasure in the notion of having some interesting Jack oriented fun.
“Find me some loose steel or lead pipe or some big monkey wrenches too, while you are out carousing with Donnie tomorrow. Don’t forget I brought that kit that uses a marine alternator for a windmill that I bought off of eBay a while back and added to my stores.” I said contemplating building a mast for my already complete power generating windmill.
“There is an old Chris Craft boat, one of those mahogany specials from the 60s in a boat house near the party house, but it’s slung up in the air
by an electric boat lift. Maybe we could probably get another alternator like yours off of it.” Jack offered speculating on our power needs.
“The hell with that, I bet we can get that old boat running. How high up is it?” I said beyond myself with excitement at his find.
“They got that thing at least 6ft up and over the water. We could cut the canvas slings, maybe if we were careful, but it’s going to do a hell of a belly flop from that height.” Jack said. “I’m sure if we put our heads together and keep our eyes peeled on our “Borrowing” forays for pulleys, rope and maybe a come-along, that we’ll figure some way to get that beauty down safely.
3
SET SAIL!
The morning is beautiful with a nice light wind blowing, just perfect for Sherry’s and my start of the day for a sailing excursion. We had our morning Coffee and I got ready to dive in the lake and swim out to the buoy where our sailing craft was moored.
This particular point of the lake was somewhat shallow, so it necessitated having to tie up the boat about 25 ft out from the dock, so she did not get buffeted by the waves of the motor boats or get grounded by drifting into too shallow of water. I hand towed the line by swimming it over to the dock and passing it up Sherry, so she could board and then swung myself up and got in the boats cockpit to get ready to make sail. This sailboat was small, only about 25 ft, but I couldn’t even think about dropping the center board, until we were at least 50 ft out in the channel, for fear of running aground.
I could have carried a long gun with me, but I did not want to bother with the task of waterproofing such a weapon I did not expect to need, especially with the home front keeping tabs on us. The cockpit of the fiberglass boat needed bailing and I planned on doing it the automated way as we were under sail by opening the little drain cock as she heeled over in the wind and just letting the water get drained out that way.