Sinagua Rising: A story of survival after a worldwide catastrophe

by R. G. Andersen-Wyckoff

  New Year’s 2017 had come and gone. The villagers celebrated the coming of the New Year with Tang and mixed nuts and sang songs. They even danced to some of Travis’ CDs, which the children found quite amusing. And, when the children laughed and made fun of the adults, the adults too began to laugh. It was contagious. Soon the children mimicked the adults and tried their hand at dancing—or a reasonable, or unreasonable, facsimile of same. Little Javi and Kiera were the center of attention as Kiera, with authority, taught Javi the moves. Jason and Kathleen, and Philip and Jessie, made use of the dim, colored lighting and the slow dances to enjoy the closeness that they otherwise had to steal in the waning hours of the night, under the stars.

  It appeared that the relationships between the two young couples were growing more and more serious as the winter wore on and many conversations were held by the adults, in their absence, to discuss how they would handle romance and marriage in their new reality. It was decided that no one in their group could or would become the “love police” and they would just let things take their natural course. If, and when, the inevitable happened to any couple, they would deal with it on an individual basis. No one at the moment objected to the developing romance of these two couples and no others were as yet on the horizon.

  Kathleen’s baby, Storm, was healthy and growing daily. As in Native American cultures, she had many “Aunts” and never lacked for attention. This allowed Kathleen some freedom, too, and she grew more mature daily, as well. Jason was constantly at her side and could be seen holding and cooing Storm whenever his time allowed.

  An informal community council was formed to deal with village issues so that all decisions didn’t need to be discussed by the entire community. They elected Bishop, Jack, Travis, Carly, Mel, and Michael to the council, although, as a practical matter most items had been discussed with the entire village before the Council voted on it. One of the first items they considered was reducing the amount of food being prepared for each meal, slowly, so they could conserve their inventory. Michael would also prepare more bulk foods, like spaghetti, mashed potatoes, and other pastas because it was filling and warm, and they would serve hot cereals for breakfast. Michael was so good at adding just the right spices to his meals that no one objected to the changes they were discussing.

  Their one concession was to agree to use the remaining venison, though sparingly, and to hunt more deer when the current supply was running out. Venison stew with pasta and fresh vegetables from Travis’ garden became one of their favorite meals.

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  They only left the mesa twice during the winter, both times simply to refill their propane canisters and gasoline jerry cans. The light dusting of snow that remained on the asphalt of the Ranger Station most of the winter showed signs only of cats, raccoons, and dogs. The dog tracks were clustered in large groups and Jack figured the dogs were now running in packs. He felt the cats and dogs were feral, having been separated from their owners during the repercussions of the CME and were now forced to survive on their own. “The raccoons are always around,” he said, “but we don’t normally know it until we see their tracks in the snow or mud. We need to be wary of the dog packs because they may find their way up the mesa at some point and could become quite dangerous under the right conditions—like starvation.” The very positive sign was—there were no human footprints.

  Jason, accompanied by Jaime Escalante, who indicated an interest in working in village security, regularly walked rounds through the juniper forest to the overlook of the Hot Loop Trail, then over to the overlook of Jack’s Canyon and the waterfall, and then followed the rim line of the mesa northward to a point just above Pine Valley. They made it a point to stay behind the cover of juniper as they walked that end of the mesa. Both of them always wore camouflage ponchos. On their rounds they spotted lots of coyote tracks and scat in the snow—and mountain lion tracks, mostly in the area of the mesa where the deer offal had been thrown over the side. And, of course, there were more deer tracks than one could easily count; a very good sign for the future. There was also lots of smoke from apparent campfires in Pine Valley, throughout the winter. When Jason reported his findings to Bishop at the end of each security round, Bishop simply thanked him and said, “Just keep doing the good work you’re doing. We definitely want to keep an eye on the happenings in Pine Valley and to be aware if the coyote and mountain lion tracks move much closer to the village.”◘

  Chapter 35

  Sparkle Aplenty

  As winter continued its inexorable march toward spring, life in Duwa began to take on new sparkle as several important events took place.

  In addition to the electric heater that kept the temporary greenhouse warm, and the drip irrigation that kept the plants and trees moist so they could germinate and grow, the winter, so far, had been quite mild, with lots of sunshine for the trees and plants. As a result, Travis had his first harvest in February. There wasn’t enough yield to feed the whole village, but Michael was able to use the carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers, and berries to supplement the food stores, so everyone got some of the fresh produce. In addition, the lemon trees were producing nicely, as were the mandarin orange and apple trees. Michael made sure the children got the fresh apples and he used the lemons and mandarins as flavoring in his entrees. As quickly as vegetables were removed from the greenhouse, Travis and Tate planted new seeds to take their place. In addition, lettuce, cabbage, and celery were already growing and would soon be ready to harvest. The early success with the temporary greenhouse, yielding fruit and vegetables in the winter, raised their expectations for the continuous growing season the new aquaponics greenhouse would provide for these and other fruits and vegetables.

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  Colby shot another deer at the Horse Mesa tank and he, Tanner, and Jorge skinned it. As Jorge butchered the deer, Tanner, following the procedure Colby had showed him the last time, began cleaning and processing the hide. The carcass was thrown into the same place the previous one had been thrown, after saving some choice bones for the dogs.

  Jackson and Belle gnawed on the bones all afternoon and, that night, during dinner, Jackson was lying under the table at Kiera’s feet. Suddenly, Kiera held her nose and said, “Ooh,” and began waving her hand like a fan.

  “What’s going on?” Tara asked Kiera.

  “Jackson made a whizzpopper,” she replied, still holding her nose.

  Almost everyone started laughing, knowing what had happened, but Jack, who had no children, innocently asked, “What’s a whizzpopper?”

  Tara explained that “whizzpopper” was a term from a children’s book titled, “The BFG: the Big, Friendly, Giant,” that she had read to Kiera several times, and it referred to flatulation.

  Jack’s face turned a little red and said, “Oh, I see.” That made the laughter grow. Kiera loved being the center of attention, again. Jackson, on the other hand, showed no sign that he understood any of what was going and—and could care less.

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  Jason and Jaime continued making regular rounds on the mesa keeping an eye out for coyote and mountain lion tracks as well as keeping an eye on Pine Valley. On one particular trip, Jason radioed Bishop that there was a lot of activity just outside the Pine Valley community. Bishop joined them on the mesa and with his binoculars surveyed the activity. Sure enough, there were a number of people working in a field immediately outside the wall that demarked the little community. It appeared they were working with shovels, rakes, and hoes—building a large garden. One man seemed to be in charge and directing their activity. That’s a good thing, Bishop thought to himself, if they grow their own vegetables it’s less likely they’ll be scavenging for food and make a trip our way. There are plenty of deer on their end of the mesa, so they won’t come our way because it would be too far to have to haul it.

  “Good job, Jason,” Bishop said. “I don’t think they’ll be a problem but you and Jaime can check on them w
hen you make your rounds. Good work, boys.”

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  Travis showed Jason and Tate how to plant the bamboo stalks he had been growing in the temporary greenhouse. Before long, a staggered row of small clusters of bamboo had been planted the full width of the mouth of Duwa Valley between the parking lot and the cistern. Travis told them that bamboo grows very fast so, by staggering the plantings as they had, one day they would all grow into each other, making a really good windbreak for the valley. Each day, they would run a hose from the water trailer to put water on the new bamboo, and the trailer was replenished by the line from the big storage tanks.

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  Tanner and Matt worked together to build a more permanent retaining wall for the cistern, replacing the earth berm Matt had constructed, using the overlapping concrete blocks originally brought up from Colby’s construction site. The new wall was fitted with PVC outlet pipes with valves that would allow the retained water to be used for irrigating the Duwa Valley. In addition, Jack and Philip ran a water line from the storage tanks to the cistern, thereby insuring the water supply for irrigation, even in the dry months.

  Tanner and Matt also constructed a heavy door frame and door for the lower level of the tower used to access the creek below. They equipped it with strong sliding dead bolts inside the tower so it could be securely locked, if necessary. At least, this way they could be sure that no one could sneak up on them from the creek side. Once the pueblo was reconstructed, they would do the same for the Duwa Valley tower and remove the earthen steps Bud had constructed. It was still too cold to use the creek for bathing, but everyone gathered to see their handiwork, just the same. All that remained to do with the towers was to rebuild the stonework and observation deck in the upper story of each tower, which they planned to do in the spring when the concrete mortar would set properly.

  So far, the water system worked the way Jack had anticipated and he and Philip regularly checked the various valves for leaks. They also took water samples from the valves at the bottom of the tanks to check for any buildup of sand and found very little. They would flush the tanks at least once a year following the spring runoff, when turbulence was the greatest.

  With Jason along as a guard, Jack and Philip made trips down to the Ranger Station to refill their propane tanks. It appeared they had more than enough to continue operating the heating units for some time to come.

  Despite the dramatic change in lifestyle, no one had more than a cold during the winter—and Mel hoped it would stay that way. Michael made sure they had plenty of hot soup for lunch each day and the children had Tang (for the vitamin C) with every meal. But the most significant “sparkle” were the greenhouses—old and new.

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  Following the construction drawings and schematics in the draft Aquaponics Manual Travis had garnered from the interupted USDA meeting, and the guidance provided by Travis, Cole, Bud, and Jorge, along with help from many of the others, they had the new greenhouse finished, except for the plantings and fish, by Valentine’s Day. Cole proudly gave the entire village a tour of the nearly completed facility.

  They had constructed a raised floor four feet above the top of the original kiva, anchored to the telephone pole columns and supported by joists between the columns. Four planting beds were arranged in a north-south orientation to gain maximum exposure to the sun coming through the large glass panels on the roof. Below the floor, in the kiva, three large fish tanks were ready for fish and three smaller tanks, made from some of the 55-gallon rainwater collection barrels, were used for filtration tanks.

  All the wood surfaces had been painted with green paint. Access sliding glass doors were located in the east and west walls and several glass panels and sliding glass doors stretched almost the entire length of the south wall, allowing the maximum of light exposure. Fans were hung from the ceiling to keep the air circulating and to remove the hot air in the summer through vents in the roof. In the winter, the fans were reversed to keep the warm air moving downward.

  The north and south ends of the roof had gutters, thanks to the project Bud had been building before the CME, and downspouts carried the water into four of the rain barrels

  “Okay, guys,” Bishop said, “this all looks pretty impressive, but how does it work?” Everyone deferred to Travis.

  “I thought you’d never ask,” Travis responded. “To simplify the process, let me put it this way. Once we have the fish, and I plan on using trout since that’s the only type of fish available to us, they’ll occupy the three tanks in the kiva. We’ll feed the fish, using worms from our worm farm, and fly larvae we’ll collect from a compost container I’ll build, and chopped cucumber, peas, and corn from our garden. I’ll also grind up some meat waste, as well. But, I digress,” he added with a smile.

  “Once we’ve fed the fish they’ll poop in the water and…”

  Kiera began laughing. “He said fish poop,” she said laughingly. “That’s funny.” And that got a laugh from everyone else.”

  “As I was saying,” continued Travis, “before I was so humorously interrupted by someone,” to which Kiera giggled, “through a series of conversion processes, using those three smaller filtration tanks, the fish effluent, which is high in ammonia, is converted to nitrate in the water. That water is then pumped to the growing beds where the plants consume the nitrate as food. The now cleaned water is returned to the fish tanks, so the process can begin all over again. We’re using solar and wind energy, thanks to Jack, to power the water and aeration pumps throughout the process. The solids from the fish effluent will be removed regularly from the settling tanks and used to fertilize our other gardens and fruit trees. As you can see,” he summed up, “all the nutrients the plants need are delivered in the water, kind of like natural fertilizer, and there’s no soil in the growing beds that would have to be replaced regularly. We’ll start our seedlings in beds in the back corners of the greenhouse, using the fish effluent I mentioned, and as soon as they begin to leaf we’ll transplant them into the growing beds. We’ll have year-round fresh vegetables. Because the fish tanks are four feet below the ground level, we should be able to maintain a fairly constant water temperature for the fish, keeping them healthy and breeding. Oh,” he added, ”and we’ll be able to harvest the fish from time to time to supplement our menus. ”

  Bishop, normally, not at a loss for words, found it hard to express the admiration and congratulations of the entire village to Travis, Colby, Bud, and Jorge for the major facility they had constructed. “I still don’t totally understand the process,” he said, “but I do look forward to all those fresh vegetables.”

  Travis was beside himself with praise. “This greenhouse is far better than I ever imagined. All that remains to be done now is to place the planting gravel, that we’ll collect from Dry Beaver Creek, in the growing beds and to stock the fish tanks. We’ll soon have an ongoing, dependable supply of fresh fruits and vegetables for many years to come. Thanks, guys—and, after a slight pause, “—and gals, for all your hard work.”

  “I couldn’t have said it better myself,” said Bishop. “But, now, where are we getting the fish?”◘

  Chapter 36

  The Fishing Trip

  As if Mother Nature had flipped some invisible switch, an early spring descended on the village of Duwa. It was only mid-March but it seemed the wild flowers, trees, and shrubs had simply been awaiting the switch to be thrown and they began to burst forward with new growth and color. Even the song birds seemed to celebrate the event with a new brightness to their songs. And, the Duwanians sensed a new chapter was beginning in their lives—such was the power of spring.

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  As soon as the fresh air of spring could be felt, the women rolled up the side flaps on the tents and began washing and airing out the bedding. They also washed a backlog of clothing. Though they had washed necessities, like underwear and socks, during the winter and hung them from space dividers
in the tents, they had refrained from doing so with heavier clothing. Now was the time to catch up and get that fresh spring smell back into their clothing. People were going in and out of the tents all day carrying clothing and bedding to the hot water tubs Michael had prepared, and then to the clothes lines. It took several days for all the families to do their wash and hang it to dry.

  One evening, as Carly was sitting on her cot writing in her journal, she noticed that Chloe wasn’t there, but thought nothing of it as Chloe liked to stay with Kiera much of the time. At bedtime, however, Carly decided to check to see that Chloe was with Kiera—she wasn’t. A search ensued with Kiera, Tara, Carly and the others calling to her and searching everywhere. The search became frantic when she didn’t appear. Kiera was crying and hard for Tara to console. Carly reluctantly arrived at the conclusion that with all the comings and goings someone had left the screen door open and Chloe had simply wandered out. She could only hope that she would return when she got hungry. Chloe’s disappearance dampened the exuberance that spring had engendered, and Kiera wandered around every day looking for Chloe. All they could do was wait and hope.

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  The fish tanks in the new greenhouse had been filled and the pumps and aerator were running, moving water through the three settling tanks. Travis opened the valves and allowed some water to flow through the gravel of the planting beds and, as the unused water transited the beds and flowed back into the fish tanks, Travis determined it was time to answer Bishop’s question, “Where are we getting the fish?”

  Travis briefed them all about the Trout Farm in Oak Creek Canyon, only about ten miles from Duwa and just two miles up from Old Town Sedona. He indicated that he would like Bishop, Jason, and Tate to accompany him. They would take Cole’s truck and pull one of the utility trailers. That night, they put ten of the rain barrels into the trailer, taking one of the barrels from the temporary greenhouse to add to the nine barrels that were still lined up along the wall above the tent village, and strapping five on each side. It was a perfect fit and left a two-foot space down the center of the trailer so they could access each barrel from inside. He put a roll of duct tape and a hacksaw in the equipment locker of the truck and told everyone they’d leave in the morning after breakfast. Though they would be out of radio range, they would radio as soon as they got back in range on their return. Jason would take his rifle—just in case, while the others wore their handguns.