Sinagua Rising: A story of survival after a worldwide catastrophe

by R. G. Andersen-Wyckoff

  Along the upper portion of the south-facing roof Colby provided for the solar panels that Jack would use to provide electricity for the greenhouse. It was determined, with Jack’s input, that the future restroom and kitchen building would have its own solar panels, as would the living units. The panels on the greenhouse would run the lights, pumps, heaters, and fans in the greenhouse only. He also provided for an exhaust fan at the peak of the roof to vent the hot air during the summer.

  Below the solar panels the roof would be primarily glass, except for the portions needed to give it stability. The roof would slope to the supports at the south end that were eight feet above the ground and that side would be lined with sliding glass doors and fixed glass panels. The north-facing roof sloped down to eight feet, as well, but the north wall would be solid except for an access door. The east and west facing walls had some lower windows and access doors but otherwise were also solid. The walls on all four sides were set back from the kiva a minimum of five feet and the available space between the walls and the kiva grew proportionately as the round kiva was enclosed in the 40 foot square building, leaving areas of at least 200 square feet in each corner for planting. The northern two corners would get the least light and be used for plants that did not require great amounts of sunlight.

  With the design in hand, Colby could now calculate the length of each telephone pole he would need to support the roof, whether it was on the ground level or in the kiva on the pedestals or ground. Colby had calculated the maximum height in his design so that only six of the total 19 support poles were over 15 feet high.

  They had previously cut half of the 30 foot telephone poles in half in order to move them from the maintenance yard to the village. Now those 15 foot lengths would be trimmed down again or they would have to splice some poles together to accommodate the required roof heights. They worked on this in the equipment tent during the rains, moving the precut and finished poles in and out of the tent as needed. They would do the splicing as each pole was needed, just in case a miscalculation was made. Everyone knew that had the cache of telephone poles not been found in the maintenance yard this structure would not have been able to be built.

  ◘ ◘ ◘ ◘ ◘

  Tanner had deepened and widened the trenches around the perimeter of the tents and he helped roll the protected sides of the tents up about two feet to allow the fresh air in. They decided they would leave it that way rather than have to do it daily. He then worked on the stairway down to the creek, diverting any erosion channels away from the path and repairing the areas where the rain had already done some damage. He decided that when the rain stopped and things dried out a bit, they should build a handrail on the downhill side all the way from the cave at the top to the creek below and put in some permanent drains to protect the trail and stairs from erosion. And, he thought, it’s time to install one of the permanent circular staircases Colby had salvaged from his jobsite, in the cave, and do away with having to climb the ladder. He was sure that would please the women. He checked the stairs daily, even though he got soaked at times, to make sure the erosion didn’t get ahead of him.

  ◘ ◘ ◘ ◘ ◘

  Every day, Travis, Jason and Tate would go up to the greenhouse after breakfast to check on the facility and to water the plants. Travis taught them how to mix the liquid fertilizer in the proper proportions and not to overwater the plants. They transplanted some of the fruit trees Travis had been growing into five-gallon buckets and gently nurtured the seedlings for the Single-leaf Pinyon he had been experimenting with prior to the CME. He knew that hundreds of years ago pinyon had covered this mesa and was prized by the Sinagua for its tasty nuts, but now could not be found until you traveled several miles northward toward Flagstaff. His experiment now took on more importance because of the nutritional and high caloric value of the nuts. “Unfortunately,” he informed Tate and Jason, “it will take up to 25 years to grow to nut-producing size so it’s important we take good care of these seedlings. I have more seeds we can plant as soon as we have more room and in the future we’ll try to grow and replant a forest of these pines here on the mesa. When you’re grown you’ll have access to these highly nutritional seeds and the people of Duwa will have y’all to thank.

  “I also have these cuttings,” he pointed out, “of bamboo. It grows like lightening so we’ll keep separating the root bundles until we have as many plantings as we can handle. I want to plant these all along the north end of the saddle, excuse me, Duwa Valley, to build a natural windbreak against those winter north winds. We can probably start planting them next spring.”

  He also had several varieties of decorative deciduous trees that had proven to survive well in the yards in the Village growing in various sizes of containers. He thought these might be welcome as shade trees once the village was completed. Some of them were already six feet tall and in five-gallon buckets, so he knew he’d probably need to replant them the next spring.

  Travis had brought several soaker hoses from his home greenhouse to this new location and, now that they had a ready water supply available from the new water system, he and the boys began strategically placing the hoses in the planter beds. “Later,” he said, “I think I’ll build a misting system by drilling some really small holes in some PVC and hanging them over all the plants. That should really help protect the plants against the August and September heat.”

  Although Jason was really interested in the greenhouse and plants, Jack could see that he was distracted. When asked what he had on his mind, Jason replied, “Well, I’m kind of the security guard for the village and I should really be making a circuit out on the mesa a couple of times a day just to see if there’s any activity on the roads or trails and I haven’t been out there since the rain started ten days ago.”

  “Well,” responded Travis, “that’s not a problem. Why don’t you do what you need to do and, when you’re not working on security you can join Tate and me working with the plants. This is not an all-day project right now anyway.” Travis knew that helping him was a voluntary thing and, if Jason was to become a good farmer in the future, he would have to come to the calling on his own time and in his own way.

  Jason thanked Travis for his understanding and immediately left for his tent in the valley where he put on his poncho and Tilley hat, both in the camouflage colors he used when he went hunting with his dad and grandfather. His hiking boots, which he already had on, were also camouflaged. With his rifle tucked under his arm and wrapped in the excess of the poncho, he made his circuit through the juniper forest on his own small trail.

  He looked like a humpback as he walked because of the “camel” water pack he carried on his back, a gift from Tanner. When standing in the trees he was almost invisible and could drink from the “camel” without having to move anything but his head. He regularly checked the roadways using his binoculars and checked the trail leading up from Woods Canyon. He also walked along the western edge of the mesa to a point overlooking the waterfall that plummeted 90 feet off the mesa to a pool below and then flowed down to Jack’s Canyon. During the dry season there was no water running to the falls but now, with the rains, the water rushed down the small creek and over the falls sending a mist cloud back up from the bottom. As he followed the creek out into the Canyon with his binoculars he noticed several plumes of smoke from the residential area known as Pine Valley. Whereas they had only seen one plume when they had first moved up on the mesa, there now were at least a half dozen, indicating there was more human activity down there then they might have originally thought.

  When he returned to the village, backtracking the way he had come in order to check the accesses again, he found Bishop checking out the food storage tent and told him what he had seen. Bishop indicated they might have to check out Jack’s Canyon and Pine Valley in the future, but as long as they didn’t see anyone moving on or toward the mesa he figured they weren’t an immediate problem; the village can’t be seen from the mesa unless someone was just above the
saddle. Jason told him he’d make sure he kept an eye on the Jack’s Canyon side of the mesa when he made his rounds. Three weeks ago I wouldn’t have thought Jason’s transition possible, Bishop thought, but it appears this little adventure has brought out the latent best in him.

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  Jason went to the greenhouse to see what Travis was doing, and Bishop went to the Meeting Hall. Michael was cleaning up the field kitchen so he stopped to compliment him on how well organized the food storage area was.

  “Thanks, Bish,” he said, “I appreciate your comments. Did you notice we even had a section devoted to baby care?” he asked.

  “Well, not really,” Bishop admitted.

  “Well, you know we have a baby due in November and I figured we might as well be ready for it. So we set aside one shelving area for the Similac and powered milk, diapers, pampers, baby power, baby food, and all the other stuff the ladies collected at Weber’s and the Hilton with the baby in mind. Mel also put some clean sheets and blankets there to use on the crib when the time comes. The crib is in the storage area of our tent,” he said with a noticeable trace of pride in his voice. “We’re as ready for the baby as we’ll ever be,” he concluded.

  “Good thinking,” Bishop responded. “At least we won’t have to be scurrying around looking for those supplies when the big day comes.”

  When Bishop entered the Meeting Hall he found Carly and Tara engrossed in preparing lesson plans for the children’s schooling. It’s interesting what some people adopt as their priorities he thought to himself, but if that’s what they’ve set their minds to I’m certainly going to keep my mouth shut. He stopped behind Carly and gave her a gentle neck massage and then gave Tara a kiss on the cheek. “It looks like the Westin women are hard at it,” he said.

  “We thought we might as well use this rainy day time to begin putting our ideas for the children’s education down on paper,” Tara offered. “We may be stuck in the wilderness but that doesn’t mean the children shouldn’t learn to read, write, and do math,” she added, “and some of the children will need extra assistance with the English language.”

  “You’re right, of course,” Bishop responded, “and it’s great they’re going to have such a dedicated pair of teachers.”

  “Tara’s the teacher,” Carly quickly said, “and I’m just her support staff. And I’ll handle the library.”

  “Mom will make sure they read the proper books,” Tara replied, “and Kristen has offered to help me with the teaching. It will be just like homeschooling our own children. But, right now, Kristen’s a little busy,” she said, pointing to an area under a window where Kristen had Manny sitting on a couple of pillows on one of the folding chairs, cutting his hair.

  “Well,” said Bishop, “I didn’t know you were a barber.”

  “At one time I attended beauty school with the intention of becoming a hair stylist, but the twins kind of got in the way of my plans. I’ve always cut their hair and Matt’s as well, so I guess I can finally put my beauty school training to good use. Do you want a haircut and beard trim, Bish?” she asked.

  “Sure, when you have time, Kris, but why don’t you take care of the children first,” he responded. By dinner time that evening all the children had had haircuts. Even little Javi was proudly showing off his new cut to everyone. It was the first true haircut he had ever had, according to Tess.

  “I used to cut his hair using scissors and a bowl,” giggled Tess, “and it really looked chopped up. Maybe Kristen can teach me how to cut hair and I can be her assistant.” “I think that would be great,” Kristen had replied.

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  The creek was still running high and it was too cool and muddy for a late afternoon swim anyway, so everyone gathered at the Meeting Hall for some social time before dinner. When Travis learned that Kristen was providing haircuts and beard trims, he immediately volunteered to avail himself of her services the next day. “What did you do with the hair clippings?” he inquired.

  “I swept them up and put them in that bucket over there,” she responded, pointing to a white plastic five-gallon bucket in one corner of the tent. “It was too muddy for me to take them to the garbage pit.”

  “Good,” Travis said. “I’d appreciate it if you’d save all the hair trimmings for me. They make good fertilizer when mixed in with the soil,” he explained. “So, for however long we live here I’d like to lay claim to all non-growing hair,” he chuckled. And so did the others.

  They all chatted amicably until Maria announced “Dinner is served.” The evening’s fare was cheese and broccoli casserole, fruit cocktail, Tang, and cornbread. “We wanted to try one of the dehydrated casserole dishes,” she said, “just to see how they taste. Michael has, of course, added a few spices of his own choosing just to add some zip to it. Let us know how you like it.”

  Everyone was too busy eating to say much more than a mumbled “hmmm.”

  After dinner they paid their respects to the chef and the baker and indicated it would be a great dish when the cold weather sets in—in fact, they added, it was pretty darn good right now.

  Michael said, “We have about a dozen or so different entrees to choose from between the dehydrated food and MREs, so we’ll try to spread them out, but we’ll be repeating meals every couple of weeks. So far they all seem to be pretty good but it might get pretty boring after a year of the same dishes.”

  “I don’t think you’ll hear us complaining, Michael,” Bishop responded. “I think we all know how lucky we are to have this food and to have some chefs who know how to prepare it.”

  Everyone applauded.◘

  Chapter 30

  Big Bear

  Unlike the previous ten days, when it rained more than it cleared, the next ten days were gray or sunny with only periodic periods of light rain, mostly at night. The Duwanians took advantage of the improved weather with the intent of making as much progress on their projects as they could before the cold weather set in, normally around Halloween.

  Colby gave Tate the job of painting all the exposed wood surfaces: the entries to the tents, the passages between tents, and the exposed portions of the alleyway cover. By the time Tate completed the job three days later, he was not a fast painter, he had forest green paint imbedded under his fingernails and blotches of paint staining his skin and clothes as if he were wearing camouflage. When he finished painting he joined Travis working in the greenhouse.

  Jason made his twice daily rounds of the mesa and, after each round he too joined Travis. Jason had taken to wearing his camouflage poncho so he would be less likely to be seen by anyone who might be looking at the mesa through binoculars.

  Jack and Philip went to work setting up solar panels to supply electricity to the restroom and field kitchen. It took them the better part of a week, but when they finished, the motion sensor light switches and lights, hot water heater, and exhaust fans in the restrooms were operational and met with great exuberance by the women.

  They rigged the same kind of power generation for the field kitchen but, unlike the restrooms where they mounted the solar panel on the roof, they had to build a small platform on the top of the promontory wall for the solar panels. They were worried about putting any weight on the cover over the alley or field kitchen.

  Bishop had watched with curiosity and admiration as Jack and Philip had gone about their work. Finally, when they had finished he said, “Okay, Jack, tell me how this works; I see what you’ve done but don’t know WHAT you’ve done.”

  “It’s actually quite simple,” responded Jack, with a wink to Philip. “The solar panels are wired directly to the inverter/controller, that box you see mounted on the side of the restroom trailer and another on the stand we built on the wall. The purpose of the inverter/controller is to convert the DC, direct current, from the panels to AC, alternating current, which can be used to operate our lights, appliances, and etcetera, and the controller sends the overage of DC current to the batteries for storage.�
��

  “Okay, I follow you so far,” Bishop said.

  “Philip, why don’t you tell Bish what happens next,” Jack suggested.

  “Well,” said Philip, “we put the inverter/controllers as close to the solar panels as possible because DC current loses amperage faster than AC does and we want to keep our amperage up to provide our needed electricity. So we keep the inverter/controllers close to the panels and then run our wires, which are now AC, from the inverter to our electrical box or appliances.”

  “I think I’m following that, Philip, keep going.”

  “The restroom trailer and the field kitchen were both manufactured with their own electric panels to feed power to the appliances in each, so it was easy for us to wire directly to those panels.”

  “Also,” added Jack, “we’ve used the field kitchen solar operation to power the shortwave radio and the charger, for the laptops and two-way radios.”

  “What about when the suns not shining?” Bishop asked.

  “Good question,” responded Jack. “We also ran separate wires from the controllers to batteries we’ve linked in series in storage cabinets in the two trailers, so energy not required to operate those facilities is sent to the batteries for storage. And, when the sun is not shining, the controller then pulls the energy back from the batteries to the inverter which then sends it to our appliances. Of course, if we have a prolonged period without sun we’d have to resort to using the generators to run the battery charger or just going dark.”

  “Well, I’m glad you didn’t have to wait for me to figure all of this out or we’d be cooking and reading by firelight for a very long time,” Bishop chuckled. “Great job!”

  The women took turns entertaining the children and for short periods each day did some schooling. They encouraged the children to read the books they had brought from the school, overseen by Carly and Ellen, while Tara and Jessie worked with the Amado children to improve their English language skills. The women also continued washing clothes and bedding, when they could hang the wash outside to dry, and arranged and rearranged the small amount of furniture in their respective tents. As Carly had put it, “our goal is to make things as comfortable and homey as possible so we create a feeling of permanence to our homes. In that way, the children and, in fact, all of us will more easily adapt to our new normal.”