Calamity in America

by Pete Thorsen

  Most of the items in the house could be salvaged but the house itself could not. Another could not be built because we just did have the building materials even if we all chipped in. The family of five now had no home. All of us were trying hard to think of a solution. Many of us could take in one or two of the family members but breaking up the family just was not an option and none of us could take in all five of them.

  Then a man stood up and said loudly, “The Johnson farm!”

  We all just looked at him for a minute not knowing what he was talking about.

  “The Johnson farm is only a couple miles from here. Remember they moved out and the place was up for sale? They can move in there. We can all help them move and maybe help take care of the garden here and they can plant a small garden at their new place with some of the faster growing plants.”

  Everyone looked at everyone else. It was the perfect solution to this devastating situation. Then Justin’s father, Ralph spoke.

  “We can’t just take someone else’s house!”

  “Yes you can and you have to. Times are different now. You have to think of your family. We all have to use every resource that is available to us just to stay alive. That farm is sitting there vacant and you need a place to stay. Those are the facts.”

  Everyone was nodding their heads in agreement. Ralph looked over at his wife, Jeannie and she was drying her eyes and then nodded her head. A cheer went up in the crowd. Instantly there were smiles. We as a group had faced an untenable situation and had worked together and together we found a viable solution.

  While it was sad day when they had lost their home at least they now would have a ‘new’ home and they still would have most of their possessions. They also had the support of all of their neighbors from near and far.

  Over the next couple weeks we all worked together to help them get moved in to their new home. Food, clothes, all worthwhile equipment were all moved to the new location. Most of the neighbors donated food and other items besides supplying all the manpower. No one could help every day because we all had to take care of our own places but every day some helpers were on hand.

  When all was said and done the family was settled in. They now even had a few chickens that someone or maybe more than one had donated. All of us knew that the same situation could happen to any of us at any time. That fact made us all want to lend a hand as much as we could.

  The family received help tending their big garden at their old place and a new garden plot was worked up at the new place. Some plants were planted in the new garden. Things like lettuce that would grow rapidly and could produce some before fall came. Never did anyone help that they did not receive a heart felt thank you each time.

  I think the group effort brought us all together and gave everyone hope for our futures. We all knew now that we were not left all alone to face this crisis. We had friends and neighbors who would be there to help any of us who needed a hand up. That simple fact brightened everyone’s outlook for the maybe bad times ahead.

  Another benefit of this catastrophe is that many of the neighbors met for the first time. Many found they had things in common with their newly met neighbors. Also there was more trading going on between these new partners. Seems we all had skills or equipment, or items that others did not and needed. There was never any kind of money that ever changed hands only barter. Sometimes these deals would entail a future promise. A calf next spring, help with firewood gathering this fall or winter, a half a beef when it got cold enough so it would not spoil, and many other things that were really just promises.

  For Beth and me we ended up helping others build food dryers and I built three more which I traded off. Beth and I did trade our knowledge of local edible and medicinal plants but mostly this knowledge of ours was given away freely.

  Chapter 17

  The summer moved on and gradually started the change to fall. Some of the garden produce we dried and some we canned. When the produce would just start to ripen we would take some of the first early ones and dry them then cook them to see how it worked out. Some worked fine and some we decided to only can instead of drying.

  When the fruit trees started to produce ripe fruit we dried those like we had in the past. This is where the drying method was really the best. The dried fruit was excellent! It could be eaten in the dry state or re-hydrated and used in cooking. The dry fruit could be easily carried with you and used as a snack. Or used for a snack or dessert anytime.

  I almost liked the dried fruit better than the fresh sometimes. We spent the fall picking fruit from all the trees that we knew about in the area. I even built another dryer we had so much. We had all three dryers full of fruit every day.

  We stored the dried fruit and vegetables in zip-lock bags, canning jars, or re-sealable plastic containers. We also spread the word with all of our neighbors to seek out fruit trees and dry the fruit now for use over the long winter ahead.

  With the fall meant searching out and harvesting the local wild plant produce also. Like summer, fall was a very busy time. With the coming of fall I sought out the neighbor we had gotten our chickens from to see about his plan to acquire food for the birds over winter.

  He asked if my truck still worked and if I had enough fuel to go several miles with it. When I replied yes he told me to bring it over and we would hook on a couple of his grain hauling trailers and go visit the huge grain bins near the railroad lines. So that is what we did. And we found bins with varying amounts of grain, mostly corn, there that we could load into the truck and wagons. Without power it was a lot of work to load but we spent all day and loaded everything full before heading slowly back home with the very heavy load.

  We stopped at a couple neighbor’s places on the way and gave out some of the grain and told them where we got what we had. Two still had running tractors and volunteered to grind the grain for a modest percentage of the grain. Some of the other neighbors had hand grain mills for the making of flour and soon everyone in the area had a supply of chicken feed and fresh flour and corn meal for their own use. Some seed was also saved for planting in the spring.

  One of the neighbors had always been a bee keeper and had traded not just honey but also a few hives with others so our loose knit community had multiple sources of honey to use in place of the sugar that we were all either running out of or had used the last of some time back.

  Over the summer months several neighbors had worked together help to dig wells on each other’s properties so most everyone now had a source of reasonably clean drinking water without the need to boil it or carry it a long distance.

  At this point we were all used to living our lives without electricity. Though we might not like living without electricity and often we really missed not having the electric power, we could now all get by without it and had done so for about three quarters of a year now.

  It was fall and we were set up pretty well for the winter ahead. We had plenty of food and soon I would again go deer hunting for additional meat. We had what we thought was plenty of chicken feed to keep our flock over winter. I had done a little more work on the chicken coop so we could button it up tight on the cold winter days. The chickens would have to supply their own heat.

  Now we had a little free time and we went visiting our neighbors, including some of the more distant ones. One day we left again on the bikes but this time headed into the city one more time. We were somewhat cautious but we expected no trouble. We hoped to find more people and see how they were getting by and if they were prepared for the long winter ahead.

  All the roads looked un-traveled now with occasional weeds going up through cracks in the pavement. All the houses looked much different with grass and weeds growing high in the yards and driveways. When we got to the highway leading into town we were surprised to see what appeared to be tracks from road traffic. We had maybe hoped but never expected to see any sign of vehicle travel.

  While we were happy to see the tracks we both decided to use a little more
caution until we knew what was what. We still had the leather scabbards attached to our bikes and they both contained loaded rifles. We also had our everyday wear revolvers too of course though both of us sure hoped not to need any of the armament.

  We rode slower now and watched all around but especially way ahead of us on the street. At the first sign of movement way ahead we stopped and got way off to the side of the street. Then we dismounted and walked the bikes off the street but continued to advance slowly toward the source of the movement we saw in the distance pushing our bikes silently and cautiously.

  Finally we were close enough to see what had caught our eye so far back. It was a pair of military Humvees. One must have had some kind of mechanical malfunction because the one that we could hear running was backed up to the other and a trooper appeared busy hooking a chain from one to the other in obvious preparation of towing it. We were now fairly close but I thought we were well hidden behind some hedges in between us and the street. But when the trooper had the chain attached to both trucks he straightened up and leveled his military rifle at the two of us.

  “Come out where I can see you, slowly.”

  Beth and I looked at each other and then we complied with the trooper’s command, walking out onto the street pushing our bikes with us. By this time two other troopers had walked over and were standing near the one who had ordered us out from behind our cover. All of them were armed with the same kind of rifles.

  “Why were you sneaking up on us?”

  I spoke for both of us.

  “We haven’t seen anyone besides our neighbors for very long time. We thought caution was advisable.”

  “I see you both have rifles and handguns. Were you hoping to catch one of us out alone?”

  “Like I said we had no idea that anyone was even living in this city anymore. The last time we rode in here we did not see a single person. We are only armed for our protection.”

  “You look like you are not starving. How can that be?”

  “We own a very small farm and we help our neighbors and trade stuff back and forth between us so everyone has enough to eat. It is a lot of work but not all that much different than before everything went bad. As long as the weather cooperates we can grow a lot of our own food.”

  “If you are getting by OK at home in the country, why are you here in town?”

  “We really miss having any news and someone different to talk to.”

  His rifle was not really pointed at us anymore and was steadily drooping as we were talking. I don’t think he ever thought we were a threat to him and his friends. He turned to them now and they spoke quietly to each other so we could not here what they were saying. When done the same trooper spoke to us again.

  “We tend to believe you. We are part of a small company that is traveling around the nearby cities offering what limited help we can to those still alive. We have a small amount of food that we can pass out and we have a good doctor if anyone needs medical attention.”

  “We don’t need either of those things but we would like to know whatever you can tell us about what is happening in this country and even the world.”

  “Several parts of the United States are without power though more and more are getting electric power back up everyday. Our big priority was getting power up in the few larger cities that had lost power for a time. Many rural areas, especially in the northern areas are still powerless but we are working on it gradually. What happened here?”

  “We had a big ice storm in January that took out all the power.”

  “That is what some of the guys guessed. We saw all the broken tree limbs and such. So you have had no electric power for a long time. How are you getting water?”

  “We had a working windmill on our farm. And many of our neighbors helped each other dig wells on their properties. There is a lot of surface water around here and most had to use that until they got a well dug. We had it the easiest at our place.”

  “Most who lost power did not have it as nice as you and your neighbors did. Many people died. Many also died over last winter and seeing your guns I guess you know many died violently at the hands of other too.”

  “We had some trouble early on but not for a long time now. Our friends and neighbors have always helped each other out and that did not change when everything went bad. It actually made everyone pull together even more. I take it we at least still have a working government.”

  “Yes and no. Things are way different now. Many in the military deserted to go home and try to keep their families alive. Some came back with horror stories of what they found by the time they got home. The military now is more or less volunteers. We don’t really know if we will be getting paid again or not. But we are getting fed for now. Those of us left are just trying to help out where we can. There is a whole chain of command but the government itself is not really a functioning unit right now.

  Many government workers and elected officials died along with everyone else. We can’t have elections to vote in the vacancies so they are just doing what they can with as many as they got. The whole nation is in shambles. Heck the whole world is in shambles. But our nation is trying to get back up and running. But it will be a slow process.”

  Beth spoke for the first time.

  “How can we help?”

  All the troopers looked at her then.

  “We don’t hear those words very often. Matter of fact this might be the first time. I guess for right now just keep doing what you are doing. Helping your neighbors.”

  “We are both strong and we want to help others.”

  “I appreciate that ma’am but for right now I just don’t know what the two of you could do.”

  “There is a lot of food even here in the city. Near the railroad tracks there are big grain bins that have a lot of grain in them, mostly corn and wheat.”

  “We have run across that before but most people can’t use the raw grains. But we are keeping a record of the grain we find and we hope to get a method set up to grind it up for folks to use, maybe on a schedule going from town to town. So far that is just a thought. We are very limited in what we can do. Actually we are lucky to just keep fuel in the rigs and keep all of us fed with the way things are now. But we all have hope and are working to bring things back.”

  We talked with the three troopers for awhile longer and then bid them good bye and rode back to home. Over the next week or so we made a point of visiting all our neighbors to spread the word that the military was doing what they could to start the rebuilding process. That news did lift everyone’s spirits.

  Epilogue

  Beth and I put up more firewood during the cool fall weather but all my gas was going bad. When we were done with the chainsaw I drained out what gas I could and then ran the motor until it died from lack of fuel. I had no idea when I would ever get fresh gas again but it would not be anytime soon I was sure so that’s why I emptied the saw out.

  I again shot a couple deer but waited until I could shoot only bucks. I was not after the antlers but I just did not want to deplete the deer population too much. Leaving the does to have fawns in the spring would help keep the deer population up.

  In the past I had heard that if bad times ever came the wild game population would be quickly decimated but that did not seem to be the case now. Of course there were no more deer being hit by cars anymore and with the severely reduced human population there were still plenty of deer around. The pheasant population might be slightly less but likely due to no crops being planted but it was too hard to tell just yet. I’ll just wait to see how many there are around next fall.

  When winter came we were all ready for it. At our place we had plenty of food and plenty of firewood. I had to shut down the water feed to the house to keep it from freezing so we had to carry water from the windmill again. But that’s OK. We had done it before.

  This fall had been a good one for the acorn crop and Beth and I had picked way more than last year. We ground some and roasted
some. We also gave some to our neighbors so they could see if they liked them and it was one more food source for everyone. The acorns, like all nuts, contained fat and many nutrients that we all needed.

  The winter passed slowly and we got more snow this winter than we usually did. Enough snow to put a stop to much of our travel to the neighbor’s places. I thought about making some snowshoes but I never did get around to it. We had again made our own soap from the deer fat and tallow. We traded with a neighbor that had some hogs and got some pig fat which we rendered down to make some lard.

  Everything was being done just like in the old days. Through it all we all had hope for our future and the future of our once great nation. We were all sure that it would be rebuilt. Maybe not just like it was before but it still would be rebuilt.

  I think everyone left alive had changed now and would be very cautious about going back and doing things exactly like we used to. Everyone now would be more responsible and hard working. They would not put so much trust in everyone else to provide everything for them. But only time would tell though I guess.

  I know I had everything I needed each time I looked over at my lovely wife. Looking at her me realize that being snowed in is not so bad after all.

  The End

  After

  The Second Great

  Depression

  Pete Thorsen

  Originally Released

  on Kindle February 2016

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