Alpha Farm: The Beginning (Prepper Chick Series Book 1)

by Annie Berdel

  Tommy parked the ‘Stang and made his way to his wife. Hopping up on the first step, he turned and wrapped his arms around her and drew her close. The familiar smell of her perfume made his knees buckle a bit.

  “Wow, you’ve gotten taller since you’ve been away! What’s in the water in town?” Emma giggled

  “It’s always been a misconception of yours, my dear, that you are taller than me. It’s simply taken you this long to realize that you were wrong all these years” quipped Tommy

  “Oh really? I must have been wrong about a bunch of things all these years then” Emma returned

  “Yes, you were. Why you allowed me into your life long ago, I will never understand” said Tommy and he kissed her gently on the forehead. When Emma squeezed him even tighter, he knew she made the right decision. It made him proud to know that his just being here could make her so happy.

  Hand in hand they walked into the kitchen. Tommy made his way to the sink to wash the vegetables and handed them to Emma. Emma in turn, began to assemble two plates of fresh vegetables and some cheese. Working in sync with not a word spoken, dinner was ready in no time at all. Emma carried the plates to the table while Tommy grabbed some forks and retrieved beverages from the refrigerator for the both of them. They sat as they had since the time they were dating, with legs wrapped around each other under the table.

  “Anything new in town” Emma asked

  “Not really new, everything just seems to be escalating. I’m not sure how people are surviving who weren’t prepared for the mess this country is in besides just out and out stealing. Or worse,” Tommy replied

  Raising an eyebrow, Emma thought about the years she had been telling people to get ready. Whether it was for a natural disaster, an economic crash or WWIII, she knew in her heart of hearts that something was going to happen. It was just a matter of time.

  “No need to fret Mama,” he said. “Our family is close…all of our kids have moved home. We have everything we need and then some at the farm. People are waking up, just sometimes not as fast as I would like”

  “Oh, believe me. I know,” replied Emma.

  “I know you do, Doll” he said as he grabbed her hand and gave her a squeeze. “If it hadn’t been for the information you have put out over the years, a lot more people would be in worse circumstances than they are now, trust me. Any interesting news today?”

  “Same ole same ole,” she responded. “More upticks in earthquakes and volcanoes. I have been watching HAARP and scalar squares on the weather maps and we are in for a couple nasty days in the Midwest. There is nothing anyone can do at this point to fix the economy and panic is setting in at a fast pace on Wall Street and Washington DC. Most of Europe has been taken over by Muslim countries and they are in just complete chaos. OH! And our mama bunny had her babies today!”

  “Well, I am glad to hear some good news in that mess!” Tommy said

  Like synchronized swimmers, they cleaned up the table and strolled out to check on the new babies. The grandkids will get such a kick out of seeing the kits Tommy thought. It had taken him some time to get onto the same page as his wife, but it was hard to deny the obvious after a while. Being prepared, being self-sufficient, as hard as it was in this day and age had allowed them to enjoy a comfortable retirement. While others were fighting daily just to scrape by, Emma and Tommy not only were able to support themselves but also their children and grandkids. It was nice to be surrounded by family each and every day. Each child lived on the 300 acres that the Grands, as the kids called them, purchased…close enough to help yet far enough away for privacy if they needed it. Each family, in turn, had their own gardens and farm animals.

  A litter of Great Pyrenees roamed the property and kept a close eye on everyone. Well, every GP except Dixon. Dixon was Emma’s dog and stayed close to her at all times. If she left the property, he would sit on the hill and patiently wait for her to return. He was lovingly named after a favorite comic book character of Emma’s, A redneck with a compound bow who wore a poncho and road a motorcycle…roaming around killing zombies, a complete rebel. Dixon, there could not have been a better name for someone who guarded her life more than his own.

  3

  The next morning Tommy and Emma took a walk out back of their property. The farmhouse happened to be part of the Underground Railroad system and had tunnels that ran the length of the property. When they first bought the property, Emma had excavators come in and reclaim most of the tunnels to working condition. Underground tunnels now linked all of the families on the property and a few of the newly built cabins that were scattered throughout the woods.

  “Check this out” Tommy said as he pointed to a patch of morels

  “Wow, I’m impressed!” Emma exclaimed. Not bad for a city boy, Emma thought.

  Tomás Montalvo, Tom… her Tommy had left Brooklyn, New York over 30 years ago to move to Ohio. What he must have been thinking, she wondered. What an adventure they’d had together. What adjustments they had to make so they didn’t kill each other. Theirs was a turbulent affair. They spent the first years of their marriage swinging from one emotional pitfall to another until they finally settled into a nice, warm friendship. They had earned their war wounds and looked forward to tenderly attending to the bruises left from trying to fit Tommy’s square dramatic upbringing into Emma’s round laidback country lifestyle.

  They picked a couple handfuls of mushrooms for dinner tomorrow and continued along the dirt path. Foraging was one important skill that Emma liked to teach at her survival classes and she was quite happy that her husband paid attention for the most part. While Tommy was invaluable with his knowledge of firearms, Emma knew that survival in a down grid situation consisted of a lot more information than just about guns. She had seen the signs coming whether it was economic, environmental, weather patterns, war or over-population, and made it a mission to not only teach herself and her family how to survive off the land, but anyone who would listen.

  In 2011 Prepper Chicks was born, a website that people could come to and find valuable knowledge. While Emma understood the importance of obtaining tangible assets such as food and weapons, she knew knowledge was the most important prep a person could have. In 2013, she saw Moore, Oklahoma hit with two tornadoes within a week of each other that destroyed people’s homes, and along with their homes any kind of preparedness assets that they had collected. It took all of 16 minutes to be over. 16 minutes for lives to be changed.

  Tommy and Emma continued along the path until they came to a clearing. They needed to get a move on if they were going to get done before the storm hit. Emma had been watching the weather predictions for about a week now and this storm had the makings of a full-out Derecho. Sad how people still didn’t prepare for these storms, Emma thought, even though the last one took power out for over 2 weeks in some locations and multiple lives were lost. Emma needed to post some more warnings on her Prepper Chicks webpage when she got back, but right now she needed to tend to her own family.

  Sticking close to the tree line, Tommy and Emma walked around the edge of the clearing to a barely seen path that led up the hillside through the trees. Once they got to the top of the hill, they quickly got to work.

  Communications with the outside world was a tricky game to be played. While a Prepper understands the need for OPSEC, or Operational Security, a Prepper also understands the importance of outside information. Emma shielded her eyes as she tilted her head back and looked up at the 80’ tower. This was Big Bertha, as Emma affectionately referred to her. And what a pain in the ass Big Bertha had been from the start. Emma knew the benefits of having a global communications system far outweighed the hassle it had been to get Big Bertha up and running, but dang if she also hadn’t had multiple conversations with her Maker along the way, mostly repenting of quite a few foul words that had made it past her lips.

  Here she stood, in all of her glory. 80’ of painstakingly manipulated steel and wires. Bertha could transmit to Scotland and back an
d, as a matter of fact, quite a few evenings were enjoyed with the family afterwards trying to imitate the particular Scottish accent reached out over the airwaves. Bertha also was an important part of a network of Off-Grid communications between hundreds of Preppers throughout the United States. She had been put to use on a number of occasions when, mostly due to bad weather, the telephone service and even the 911 service were inoperable.

  Tommy and Emma needed to make sure she was up to handling the expected 90 mph winds that were being forecast with the storm coming in and so began the task of checking to make sure all wire connections were secure along with checking for any branches that might interfere or cause damage if they rubbed up against Bertha. Big Bertha had a home nestled in a grove of mature maple trees which shielded her from prying eyes both from horizontal view but also from vertical view. Emma had Bertha painted to match the natural landscape and she was nearly invisible to the human eye. Even anyone flying overhead would have a hard time spotting her as her antenna was built to mimic the foliage of nearby trees.

  Once they had checked on each of their children and their families, Tommy and Emma settled in for the night ahead. Emma went down through her list of preps she wanted to check before she relaxed a bit.

  *Flashlights and extra batteries, especially her Black Diamond Spot headlamp

  *Oil lamps topped off

  *Two liters filled with water and placed in the freezer to be used if the power went out. Being sure not to fill them too full, Emma only filled them to where the dent in the neck began to allow for expansion, they could be used for a plethora of reasons. Normally she used them in the rabbit cages in the summer to help offset heat stroke, but they could also be used in the refrigerator to keep food colder if the power went down.

  *Weather radio ready to go

  *Gas cans filled and all vehicles full in case they needed to either run the generator for any length of time or needed to leave their location. Like many farms in the area, theirs had an underground tank to store fuel for the farm equipment.

  *B.O.B.s packed and placed in a handy location

  *Anything outside that could be blown around by the expected high winds was secured.

  *Firearms with extra magazines ready to go

  To learn more about Being Prepared ~ Visit our website at www.PrepperChicks.org

  Once Emma was comfortable with the last-minute preparedness plans, she settled into the big comfy chair Tommy had bought her for her birthday 5 years ago. She pulled her quilt over her shoulders as she turned her computer on and started to check all of the weather radars.

  This storm was predicted to originate in Iowa…continue through into Michigan and then hit northern Indiana, is where the birth of the Derecho would happen. Along the way, tornadoes…heavy rain…strong winds and even hail would wreak havoc before the Derecho was even formed. To even be classified as a Derecho, this storm had to be 280 miles wide with winds in excess of 80 mph.

  Taking a deep breath, Emma knew this would cover most of the state of Ohio. Once it made its turn in northern Indiana, it would travel southeast until it swiped through Ohio. Her home state felt the brunt of the Derecho that passed through two years previous, taking with it 26 lives, millions of dollars in damage and power outages in some areas for as long as two weeks.

  Fucking bastards, Emma muttered under her breath. Doing some research years previous, Emma had ended up down a rabbit trail that had landed in the lap of weather modification. It was a harsh reality to learn that several governments were involved in a silent war using the weather to cause misery on the citizens of another country. These unseen agents were using the weather not only to create disasters to harm humans but also to destroy crops… and surprisingly enough, these disasters had become a traded commodity on the stock market. Someone once said never let a disaster go to waste, so why not create the disaster to get guaranteed profit, right?

  The problem had since arisen with these idiots trying to play God that things had spiraled out of control to where even THEY couldn’t control the aftereffects anymore. What was once a poke and a little laugh has now created within nature unforeseen mega storms that even the demigods could not predict. In 2012, weather modification was used by the Chinese government to ensure that the weather was pleasant for all those visiting for the Olympics. In 1992, the Japanese government created multiple snow storms that ensured that the winter season was profitable for the businesses. In 2012, a freak outbreak of tornadoes in already economically unstable Italy caused the final domino to fall and the country was now bankrupt. And so, the games continued to be played until most of Europe had been centralized under EU control.

  Emma leaned back and stretched her back. She needed a break from glaring at the computer screen and decided she was going to surprise Tommy for lunch tomorrow with his favorite cookies because of all the work he had helped her with today. She got up and meandered into her pantry and as always said a prayer of thanks for not only herself having a well-stocked home store but also all of her kids. Growing up on a farm, canning and food storage was always a way of life. But not everyone had the benefit of living on a farm. And not everyone has realized how fragile the food system is in the US. Most people take for granted that the grocery stores always have food, after all, this IS the land of plenty. Unfortunately, that is not reality. Reality is that grocery stores only carry enough stock for 3 to 5 days’ worth of sales and then have to be replenished. To be replenished, the stores rely upon semi-trucks to deliver the goods. The infrastructure designed to make all of this happen without the consumer being aware of it is vastly corroding. Not only the sensitive nature of the country’s supply chain, but Emma has seen the rush for food staples before a big storm is expected. People wipe most stores clean within hours, let alone the 3 to 5 days of stocked items. In a down-grid situation, this already fragile system would turn into one of the fastest hostile environments imaginable as people fought over what little inventory was left.

  Grabbing a Mason jar of chocolate chips and the flour, Emma walked out into the kitchen and sat them on the counter. Turning, she turned the oven on to pre-heat. Unsealing the Mason jar, she measured out the desired amount of chips and then resealed the jar with her vacuum sealer. Better than leaving them in the bag for long-term storage, vacuum sealing the chocolate chips gave the normal 3-year shelf life another 10 years.

  Popping a couple chocolate chips in her mouth, Emma decided that for everyone’s benefit, it was best to get these cookies made as soon as possible. Chocolate and cookie dough were a weakness to nibbling. Add them together and there was no way Emma was going to make it out of this baking session unscathed!

  Adding a cup of her homemade butter into a large bowl, she added almost a cup of both white sugar and brown sugar. Emma gave a snicker as she added the brown sugar to the bowl. How many people had to throw out their cookie recipes because they realized too late that they had run out of brown sugar? Most people didn’t like to store brown sugar because of its clumping abilities. One cup of cane sugar and a tablespoon of molasses and BAM! You have made brown sugar! And as a bonus, you can make the brown sugar as dark and flavorful as you like by controlling the amount of molasses.

  Cracking a couple eggs into a measuring cup, Emma realized she hadn’t closed up the chicken coop for the night. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but with the storm coming in, she didn’t want the girls getting out and not being able to return to the coop with the high winds. Emma hurriedly mixed the rest of the ingredients together and put the bowl into the refrigerator to chill overnight. She would get to the clean-up in a bit, but right now her chickens needed tended to.

  4

  Emma sat down to put her muck boots on and instantly Dixon was alert and wagging his tail before her. It was an unspoken sign that adventure was ahead for him when the boots went on. She gave him a quick pat on the head. “Yes Dixon, we need to go check on the girls,” Emma said. She bent down to tie her boots at the same time Dixon turned towards the door, giving he
r a face full of tail fur. “Love that dog,” she muttered under her breath.

  Tucking a couple dog treats into her coat pocket, she headed towards the door. Dixon had lost some of his hyper behavior as he grew older but he still liked to be nosey when he shouldn’t be sometimes. And sometimes his nosey behavior has gotten him into a few scrapes with the local wildlife. He could take care of himself, but it was best to leave well enough alone. Treats seem to help keep him focused as now he knew to check with Emma occasionally when they were out. She always had something tasty to give him.

  Emma opened the door and the spoiled puppy bounded out before her. Catching a breath of cold air, she realized the temperature had dropped fast. Grabbing her shotgun, or Mossy as she referred to it, Emma stepped out into the night. The wind had picked up considerably. Stepping off the porch, she looked up and saw the clouds racing by above. “This is not going to be a nice storm” Emma thought. She pushed her hands deep into her pockets and headed out.

  Night time takes on a whole different charm on the homestead that a lot of people don’t appreciate. It’s a time of slumbering dreams and yet a time for a false sense of security. The darkness will envelop you, wrap you in its comforting arms and make you forget that dangers are on the prowl.

  Emma walked the path to the coop, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness around her. With the moon playing trippy through the clouds, shadows on the ground were dancing all around her making Emma a little on edge. The winds were masking the normal comforting night sounds, the soft mooing of the mama cows to their young, the owls and their enchanted cooing. The very stillness itself was being disturbed tonight. You can never hear the stillness during the day; it is reserved only for night. It’s not a quiet. Far from it. It’s peacefulness in perfect balance without the added chaos of the light.