Sinagua Rising: A story of survival after a worldwide catastrophe

by R. G. Andersen-Wyckoff

  “Well, I wanted to protect our village and if I hadn’t said we’d be back they would have questioned why. You know, if it had just been Jonas and Cindy and a couple of others, I probably would have asked you to let them join us. But we can’t afford to double our village size. Our food supplies would run out in the winter with that many mouths to feed and I just couldn’t risk our community for theirs, at least not now. It wasn’t an easy thing to lie to my friend.”

  “Okay, I buy that Bish. I’m just glad you were with us. They caught us totally off guard.”

  “Well, not totally; I did have my gun stuck in my back waistband and I heard and saw them trying to sneak up on us. I knew we could win a fight between a handgun and a rifle and my personal skills don’t work very well at long range, so I let them come on up.”

  “Well, it scared me,” Philip interjected. “I’ll be glad to get back home, to the village I mean.”

  “Before we head back,” Jack said, “let’s stop at the golf cart storage area under the pro shop and get the batteries and distilled water they have there. We don’t know when we might get the chance again.”

  When they arrived back at Duwa they moved the water trailer into position and unloaded the batteries and distilled water into the storage tent. They had made quite a haul and Jack was pleased with the large supply of storage batteries they now had for the future, not to mention the dozen large bags of fertilizer they had also found and would come in handy for growing food.

  At lunch, Jack and Philip regaled the others with the story of their encounter. Bishop sat quietly in thought. Carly sensed he was thinking about leaving Jonas and Cindy behind.

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  That afternoon there seemed to be renewed energy as everyone went about their tasks. Maybe it was the confrontation at the well pump that got everyone thinking about how fortunate they were to have the village of Duwa; maybe it was knowing that they had been cheating the odds of getting their village ready for the monsoon rains; or, maybe they just enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment they felt as their village took shape but, whatever it was, everyone attacked their tasks with enthusiasm.

  Carly, Celeste, Tara, and Ellen took charge of moving the book shelving into the back end of the Meeting Hall and, with the help of the children, began moving the books there, as well. Carly loved books and reading and, by choice, became their defacto librarian. Sticking out from the side of the tent like so many tines on a garden rake, the shelves were each six feet long, six feet high, double-wide and made of wood. Books could be stored on either side of the shelves and left plenty of room for the school and activity area. The children thought it was great fun to carry books from the storage tent to the Meeting Hall to help set up the library and their classroom.

  After filling the backhoe with diesel from Bud’s truck, Matt went back to digging with the backhoe and Jack and Philip went with Bishop to fill all the gasoline jerry cans, after first refilling all the generators. The truck headed down the hill with the empty jerry cans and propane tanks rattling in the back.

  They filled the propane tanks first using the quick-connect hose Jack had brought and then went back into the maintenance yard to fill up with gasoline and diesel. The entire process took them about two hours. They locked the gate, pulled the big truck across the opening in the fence, and then pulled the fencing back into place before heading back to Duwa.

  Jason and Kathleen had volunteered to act as lookouts again and, using the short cut trail they could now get to their post at the edge of the mesa easily. Bishop knew their volunteering was as much about having time together as it was about keeping a lookout, but he knew he could count on Jason to give adequate time to the latter. They were at their post when Bishop drove by in the truck heading down the hill and were still there when he returned. He told them everything was locked up and they should head back to the village.

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  Colby and Travis finished the work on the walkway, enclosing both ends against the wind and securing the upright supports with rope guylines attached to rebar pounded into the ground. They had even placed six of the 24 water collection barrels they had brought from their homes at the four corners of the restroom trailer and then at the two corners of the awning. Travis took two more of the barrels and placed them at the lowest corners of the greenhouse. Travis set aside three more to be used later for the aquaponics system and the remaining 13 barrels, without their lids on, were lined up along the top edge of the wall. “Might as well catch as much rain water as we can,” Travis said to Colby. “Never know when it might come in handy.”

  They stepped back and admired their work and then a thought hit Colby. “Come on,” he said, “help me carry the finishing touches over here from the storage tent. When everyone returned to the village that afternoon they were pleased not only to see the completed covered walkway, but that it was lined with the solar-powered walkway lights they had taken from Bishop and Jack’s front yards.

  “High, dry, and lighted,” commented Jenny. “What more could we ask?”

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  Tanner and Tate had spent the afternoon working on the trail down to the creek. Some of the others had seen them going to and from the ruins carrying pieces of rebar and a roll of chicken wire, but no one knew what they were up to. It wasn’t until they all began to make their way to their daily swim in the creek that it became evident.

  The stairways were now stone steps made by putting stones and dirt behind chicken wire and held in place by rebar hammered into the ground. Each step was only six to 8 inches high so, where there had been only one long step before there were now two or three steps, and each step was capped with flat stones. The switchback corners were a work of art; wonderful pie-shaped steps, pivoting around the central inside point of the switchback, which made walking the trail easier, in both directions. Of course, there’s nothing easy about walking a trail down or uphill with over a 700 foot elevation change but, to the extent that secure footing made it easier—it was easier.

  All the walking that everyone was doing was definitely improving their physical conditioning and they found the newly cleaned trail and steps much easier to navigate. The children skipped down the trail and jumped from one step to another with little or no exertion. Even Kiera, with little Javi in tow, made a game of jumping from step to step on both feet, like jumping in a puddle.

  The swimming and bathing seemed even more relaxing that afternoon and they were all in such a good mood they determined they would have another campfire that night after dinner.

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  Dinner consisted of a chicken enchilada MRE with rice and beans and appropriately seasoned from their ample storeroom by Michael. It was accompanied by warm sun tea and fruit cocktail.

  Following dinner they built a small fire in the fire pit, sang some songs, and generally just relaxed, enjoying each other’s company. Maria surprised everyone by bringing out two popcorn popping baskets that had been brought to the village along with other miscellaneous items from her kitchen; like a corn grinder and meat grinder. She showed the children how to put the corn kernels in the basket, hold the baskets at just the right height above the flames, and shake them until the kernels popped into fluffy white popcorn. The children thought this was pretty exciting and, after several failed attempts and much laughter, they popped enough popcorn to share with everyone. They had no butter but did sprinkle some powdered cheese and salt on it for those that wanted it that way.

  Talk migrated to another recounting of the confrontation at the water well and quickly changed to the water system Jack was building. There was concern that their new system be operational before they had to go back to the well for more water. Jack assured them the new water system would be operational within the next two days; and Bishop assured them that if they had to go back for more well water a confrontation with the people from the condos was highly unlikely.

  They determined that all available manpower would be put
on the water system project, except for Colby, Bud, Tate, and Jaime, who would continue work on the footings for the greenhouse, and those who would keep the children busy. Colby suggested that continuing to clean the debris out of the pueblos would be a great project for the children, under adult supervision.

  Jason suggested that he and Kathleen continue to keep lookout. Jason had earned the respect of the adults and they trusted that he would actually keep a look out and not let Kathleen become a distraction. Better she be with him than he start daydreaming about being with her, was the opinion Bishop offered.

  As the fire burned down to bright coals that fell to the bottom of the fire pit, comments were heard as to how beautiful the sky was that evening. The aurora was gone, as were the build-up of clouds they had seen earlier in the day, and the Milky Way looked close enough to touch. The moon hung like a saucer in the sky. All thought of the events of the past 11 days and what their future might hold were forgotten as they viewed the majesty of the heavens. They slowly drifted back to their tents and a well-earned night’s rest. Philip and Jessie, and Jason and Kathleen were again the last to depart; not wanting to break the spell.◘

  Chapter 27

  The Water System

  Like the Sinagua, the Indians of the Four Corners were master builders, the best known of which were the Anasazi, who built the famous pueblo development in southern Colorado named Mesa Verde by archaeologists. They built on the mesa tops, like Tuwalanki; cliff dwellings in cavernous rock alcoves, like Mesa Verde, Kiet Siel, and Montezuma Castle; and, communities on the desert plains, like Chaco Canyon, Wupatki, and Homolovi, just to name a few.

  They studied the stars, knew the constellations, and tracked the seasons. They were master engineers, evidenced by the perfect alignments of their pueblos to cardinal orientation along the north/south axis. And, they designed massive irrigation systems of dams and canals, like those of the Hohokam, the contemporaries of the Sinagua and Anasazi, along the Salt River in Phoenix, the Valley of the Sun; all the more impressive because they had only their hands, wood, and stone as tools.

  But they would have been astonished by the water delivery system Jack had designed, even though it used some of the same principles known to the Sinagua.

  The Sinagua of Tuwalanki had used a cistern to collect water from the rains that fell on Horse Mesa, and from the cistern used gravity flow to move the water in irrigation ditches down the saddle, now called Duwa Valley, to water their crops. When there was no water they were known as dry farmers; in fact, their name, Sinagua, means “without water,” and they had to carry it in pottery jars or waterproofed baskets from the creek below the mesa to meet their personal and agricultural needs. These people had faced a 90-year drought, which archaeologists believe was the primary reason for their disappearance from Tuwalanki and many parts of the Four Corners, around 1300AD, after having successfully adapted to their environment for over 600 years. The prolonged drought not only deprived them of water for their own needs, but the game fled the area in search of the life giving liquid, as well. After 700 years the only signs of their existence were the ruins of their villages and the myriad petroglyphs found throughout the region.

  But now, Jack and the Duwanians had a readily available water resource in the spring and run-off fed pools upstream from their village, at least for as long as another prolonged drought did not occur. And, Jack had a windmill to raise the water from the pools, large polyethylene tanks to store it in, and PVC piping to move the water from one end of the mesa to the other, using gravity flow. Whereas, the Sinagua had to store the water in vessels drawn from the cistern or the creek, Jack’s system simply required the turning of a valve.

  Planning the system was the easy part, for Jack had the knowledge. Getting all the supplies necessary to build it had already occurred, thanks to the warehouse of Matt’s employer at Casey’s Corner Farm Supply. No, the difficulty was in the implementation.

  Jack and his crew already had three days’ work invested in the project and he estimated the moment of truth—will it work or not?—would occur within the next few days.

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  It took all of the men, including Philip, along with the assistance of the forklift, to push, pull, lift, and otherwise cajole the two green poly tanks up onto the promontory and then onto the pads that Jack, Matt, and Philip had prepared at the northeast corner of the promontory, the highest point in the village. It wasn’t that the tanks were heavy, they were just awkward because of their eight-foot diameter. Both tanks were capable of holding 2,500-gallons of water and each stood six and a half feet tall.

  The men were all dressed the same, as if someone had sent a dress code memo around. They wore khaki shorts, hiking boots and socks, and a broad-brimmed hat. They were shirtless and their torsos revealed darkening golden tans reminiscent of the previous inhabitants of this village on the mesa. The selected diet they were on gave them energy but little fat and they were beginning to show leanness and muscle definition that heretofore had been hidden by excess fat. This new reality was indeed good for their health.

  The pads that Jack, Matt, and Philip had prepared had been backbreaking work. There was no way to get the backhoe up on the promontory, relegating the task to picks, shovels and rakes. But the tanks sat level on them with only minor shimming. The lower tank was about a foot below the upper tank and it, in turn was about two feet below the tank level at the pools. Once the tanks were in place and Jack again checked his elevation readings with the transit, he thanked Bud and Colby and suggested they could now go back to working on the greenhouse footings. The remaining six men would go to the pump site to finish the installation there.

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  Bishop, Tanner, and Travis were amazed at the work Jack, Philip, and Matt had achieved at the pump site. They had walked alongside the trench from the promontory to the tank that now sat above the deep water pools on a five-foot high bench of rock and dirt, insuring the gravity flow to the tanks on the promontory. The trench was a testament to Matt’s skill with a backhoe, as the trench was straight and varied between 12 to 18 inches deep, depending on the roll of the ground through which it had been cut. The pipe would be safe from freezing in the trench and gravity would carry the water unceasingly downward to the promontory tanks.

  Philip had laid out the sections of PVC alongside the trench, as well as couplings at either end of the sections, all ready to be glued together and laid in the trench. At two evenly spaced intervals between the pool tank and the promontory, shut-off valves lay beside the trench where they would be installed later to provide a means of stopping the flow of water in any given portion of the line should a leak occur. Jack had thought of everything.

  At the base of the tank, Jack had installed a clean-out valve, as he had on the other two tanks, so the tanks could be drained to remove any silt build up. Above the clean-out valves another valve sat ready to be connected to the water line. When the installation was complete, Jack would wrap the exposed pipe and valves in insulation to guard against freezing, as he would on all the exposed pipe on the promontory.

  Probably the most interesting to Bishop, Tanner, and Travis was the platform Jack had designed to place the windmill over the pool. Using shovels and picks, two small trenches had been dug extending to the very edge of the mesa overlooking the pool. In these trenches they had placed two of the 15-foot sections of the telephone poles so that eight feet of the poles rested in the trench and the remaining seven feet cantilevered over the edge. The poles had only half their diameter in the trenches, packing them tightly into place, and the upper portions, about six feet apart, had been covered with 2x6 planking and bolted into place leaving a 2-inch gap between the planks, as if building a deck or boardwalk. The back end of the deck was weighted with the largest boulders the backhoe could move, much like the concrete ballast mounted on large construction cranes. Once the ballast was in place the planks were extended out over the pool, leaving a hole for the pump cylinder to extend do
wn into the pool below.

  The men had already bolted the legs and cross supports into place for the four sides of the windmill structure and now needed the help of the others to bolt the four sides of the frame together. With five of them to hold the sides in place, Matt, using a ratchet wrench, quickly bolted the sides together. They then carried the structure to the deck and placed it on the deck with the foot of the structure toward the pool and the top resting on the top of the boulders. With the top angled up like that they were able to install and firmly bolt the gear box and windmill blades into place. Fortunately, they didn’t need to add the leg or pump cylinder extensions onto the structure, which would have made the final erection of the windmill far more difficult.

  They moved the entire structure along the deck until the back legs rested against two wood stops Jack had placed to keep the entire structure from sliding off the end of the deck into the pool below. While Travis and Tanner held the upper end of the structure at their head level to keep the blades and gear box well above the deck, the others attached ropes to the top of the structure, two of which were thrown across the pool to the mesa and two retained at the back of the deck. Bishop and Matt retrieved the ropes on the far side and began pulling the structure upright as Tanner and Travis slowly walked the structure up. Once the far ropes were holding the weight of the windmill, Tanner and Travis took hold of the trailing ropes to make sure that the windmill did not get pulled over into the pool. When the structure was perfectly upright, Philip and Jack began putting in the large lag bolts to hold the feet of the windmill in place on the deck. Miraculously, all went smoothly and the measurements Jack had made proved to be accurate. While the men on the ropes could now relax their grips, Jack still had them hold on just in case, except for Tanner who assisted Jack in carrying the pump cylinder to the structure and slowly put it through the hole in the deck. Jack and Tanner had their arms wrapped around the cylinder to hold it in place as Philip climbed up the platform. The cylinder was not exceptionally heavy but was awkward as it swung down through the deck and into the pool. When Philip reached the pump rod connector extending down from the gear box, Jack and Tanner pushed the cylinder up to Philip who quickly bolted the two together. The pump now extended ten to fifteen feet into the pool below giving them good clean water unless some major drought or other catastrophe stopped the water flow into the pools.