by Geo Dell
There were three large metal barns within sight, constructed from the steel buildings they had bought in with them. There were two smaller steel structures, one that housed the school, the other their small power plant.
That building sat next to the stream, further down the valley, and held the power generator they had bought, and two large diesel engines from two of the flatbed trucks.
It had taken three days to get the trucks down there. Using a winch on the pickup and the third stake bed as an anchor, but, they had done it. The two diesels were soon to be hooked into the main power supply line so that when the wind power was not enough they could run the diesels for supplementary power. The stream itself generated power, but the current was not fast enough, or strong enough to fill their needs. Coupled with the wind power it was more than enough. Backed by the two diesels to turn the generators, they would be fine year round
They intended to add solar panels eventually to provide on demand power and to take the load off the water turbine on sunny days. The power that wasn't used could be stored in a bank of batteries. Another item that was needed. Items, Mike corrected himself. Plus wire, lots and lots of wire. Because, although the power plant was working, there were only a few lights here and there and only very close to the plant, most of the other dwellings, and the cave, were without power.
The other dwellings were made of stone. Like the power plant, they had Tim’s remarkable mind to thank for the stone and concrete walls. He had read about the power plant and put it together. He had read and understood the formula for cement and made it.
The first few batches were not the best, but they worked well enough, and after that he had shown Ronnie, Patty, David and Mike how to mix the batches. The stone buildings had gone up fast after that.
It took the longest to build the roofs, they were nearly all wood and they had not thought to bring a sawmill, although Bob was sure there had been a fairly large portable one at the farm equipment store.
They had remembered chain saws and oil, and Tim had used an illustration in a project book to build a small Sawmill using one of the larger chain saws. It worked well enough, but ate into their gas supply, which was very low. Even so it had allowed them to build dwellings, another barn, milk house, slaughterhouse.
The concrete had allowed them to build a long stone wall that sat at the edge of the ledge that fronted the cave and the sheer drop off to the valley below. They had built a chimney for the smoke hole, as well as another wall at the front of the cave to close it off and protect it from the rain and snow they expected. Rain for sure, they had already seen that. They would know more about the snow in just a few months. Mike hoped to be back by then.
He pulled a small notebook from his pocket and wrote... "Base type radios." He then tucked the notebook away. The notebook was the only way to do it, otherwise he would forget too many things and...
“Hey, babe,” Candace said. She and Patty walked side by side down the pathway from the top. They were both showing, at nearly six months along, and that was the main reason that he and Ronnie would be going along with Nell, Molly, Tim and Annie on the re-supply trip, and Candace and Patty would be staying behind. He stood quickly so she would not try to bend to kiss him. Candace was even larger than Patty and already uncomfortable. He kissed her and held it for a moment.
“Any more of that coffee,” she asked.
“At home,” he smiled. “All you want... Patty?” He offered.
“Nope,” she stood smiling. “I'm going home to my man. With you two leaving tomorrow I have forbidden him to go anywhere else today or tomorrow. I don't want him to forget me,” she said. She smiled but couldn't quite hide the worry in her eyes.
“I had the same idea,” Candace said. “Believe me,” she said, kissing Mike again. “He's not going to forget about me.”
Patty laughed, “You guys,” she said. The three of them continued down the path to the valley floor, past the pool and on down the flagged pathway to the stone houses.
~
They left Patty with Ronnie, and headed to the next house in line. The inside was still only sparsely furnished and smelled of the fresh cut pine that had been used to build the roof and wall studding. They had to make everything they owned, and it took time. Another thing they had not thought of, furniture. A few simple chairs or beds. They would remember this time though; they were on the list.
Candace stayed on the front porch while Mike went in and started the coffee. The flowers in her little garden were in bloom and the fragrance was strong on the morning air. Mike came back out to find her sitting on the long porch swing he had built for her, fashioned from heavy rough cut planks and sanded smooth with sandstone, watching the sun continue to rise.
He handed her, her coffee, and then carefully sat down beside her so she wouldn't spill it. She was quiet.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Mike said.
“You don't have a penny,” she said smiling.
“Well, you know, if I did,” Mike said.
“I've been thinking about you leaving. I wish I was going, but I’m also glad to be pregnant with our baby, still I'm going to worry about you while you're gone,” she took his hand and held it.
“A month, month and a half tops, and we'll be back. I wish you were going too, but to be honest I'm glad you're not. Bouncing around those trucks, you and Patty both? No, not at all. Sandy was right to say no. So, I'm gonna miss you, but we'll be back with a bunch of stuff to keep you busy through the winter and probably the next few years.”
“Oh yeah,” she said. “Which reminds me, computers.”
“Computers,” he asked.
“Yeah, it would be so helpful to have a few. For the farm, school, teaching the kids. The power project, but also for my music. You did that right... Computers? Used to program them,” she asked.
“Yeah, and I didn't think I'd see them again, but you're right they would be useful,” Mike agreed.
“Can you program,” she asked. “You said so, right? Can you write a program like Tim wants for the powerhouse?”
“Well, I'm okay with HTML, C, Java, but not so hot with C++. But, I don't have to be, Janet is,” Mike told her.
“Janet,” she asked.
“Yeah, she worked as a data processor. But she wrote several data base programs to do specific work. Not like macros or scripts you write for databases, but real programs,” he said.
“Babe, I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but will you get them?” Candace smiled.
Mike smiled and pulled out a notebook. “How many were you thinking,” he asked.
“A few dozen. A little more maybe and the stuff to hook them together?” She said.
He wrote it down and then re-pocketed the notebook. “You got it, Babe. And I'm sorry for the tech-speak,” he smiled and kissed her. “Now, didn't you say something about spending time with me, before I left?”
She leaned over and closed his mouth with her own. "Come with me," she said softly, pulling him from the porch swing and into the house...
~
There was no head of what they had named 'The New Nation' and then immediately abbreviated to just 'The Nation,' instead they had chosen nine members from among themselves and formed a representative panel. There were also no formal meetings, but when something needed to be decided or discussed the nine of them got together and hashed it out.
They would be down to six, losing Mike, Ronnie and Nellie to the expedition, but they decided there was no real reason to appoint someone to take their places while they were gone. It was so rare for them to even meet that there should be little reason for that to occur while they were gone. “And if it did?” Patty had asked.
“Well,” Bob had said. “Six could decide every bit as well as nine could.” And that had been the end of it.
Instead of remaining in the dark ages as some had been concerned about, Bob and Janet had been all for nearly any and every modern convenience they could find. Bob had balked at teleph
ones though when Tim mentioned how easily it could be done.
“We have radios. I for one don't want to have to answer the phone so young Tim here can sell me a subscription to the local paper,” he had joked. But the point had been made, even with Tim, and he had immediately turned his attention to radios. Base radios. More power. No Batteries. Radios, Phones, they were the same thing to Tim's mind. A cell phone could fit in your pocket. The clunky radios they carried now could not. Bob would come around once he saw how much easier a cell phone would work. They were nothing more than a glorified radio anyway. Tim decided not to mention his argument to Bob though. Maybe later.
One of the first decisions the panel had made was to use the cave for a meeting place, clinic, and storage. There were several dry, cold storage areas. The passages went on forever it seemed. The ridge that lead away into the distance, and formed a natural border for the valley, was honeycombed with caves. Most of them connected to the main cave. At least the ones they had explored. Probably, Mike had opinioned, they all did. It was just a matter of exploring them and mapping them out.
There were also underground rivers, steep narrow passages that went deep into the ground. They had blocked off anything truly dangerous within the first few months.
Sandy and Susan had decided to build their own home into the stone overhang. It only made sense, Sandy had said. The clinic was in the cave. The herb racks. The medicines. They were both working their way through several books to learn as much as they could about herbs and the natural healing properties of the trees and plants around them.
Tim and Annie had chosen to live in the cave too. Tim needed the space for the projects he had going. He moved from one thing to the next. He couldn't wait to get his hands on a few computers, and he was sure he could easily learn whatever Mike and Janet were willing to teach him.
Sharon was learning to nurse from Sandy. She was also finding her background as a veterinarian's assistant in demand. She was fascinated with plant and herb medicines and was as eager as Sandy and Susan to learn it.
Cindy had stayed in the cave because of Sharon. She was like a mother to her. Whatever had needed to click had. Cindy was impressed with the veterinarian skills Sharon had, and eager to learn from her.
Cindy's other hero was Molly, who could do just about anything to a motor or any other mechanical thing. She was learning mechanics from Molly and animal husbandry from Sharon. It filled her days up. Made her feel useful. And she rarely thought of her old life any longer.
The large main room in the cave was used as a gathering place by all of them when ever they wanted to get together. It was this space that had been closed in with stone, and a heavy, solid plank door protected the interior from the elements.
Down in the valley, two of the barns held most of the animals, several head of cattle and bison grazed in the valley. They were still fed grain to keep them dependent and close by. The others, mothers who were through nursing their calves, were moved to a separate part of the barn and joined the milking team. They now had twenty-four milkers, and a steady supply of milk, cheese and butter.
The other half of the barn held chickens and rabbits. They had separate areas in the same space, and both reproduced very quickly so they had a constant supply of fresh meat. Some weeks more than they could use. But It was easy to use the far, colder reaches of the caves to keep the meat cold. The cold storage was not enough to keep the meat frozen during the summer but it did keep it cold enough to keep the meat fresh a few weeks at a time. A permanent smoke house existed farther down the valley and took all the excess meat and turned it into dried meat. Highly concentrated protein that could be stored for months. They were working on pemmican so that it could be stored indefinitely, as long as it was kept dry.
The egg supply was also constant with fresh layers coming along all the time. The beef cows were free to graze the valley floor. A short section of stone wall had been erected to close off the exit at the far end of the valley where a second, longer valley ran for several miles, eventually opening into untold miles of grazing lands past the mountain range.
That closed in several miles of the main valley. The sides of the valley climbed to ridges that were far too steep for any animal besides a mountain goat to climb. The area that held the houses and the ledges that led up to the caves was fenced off.
The horses shared the valley. They tended to prefer the closer proximity of people. Several horses were stabled in the second barn along with oxen teams. Some of those horses were used for field work along with the oxen, but there were about a dozen horses that were used for riding and herding the beef cows.
Spread out in the valley there was a small herd of moose and another of deer. Both by-products of the cow chow they had used to lure the cows and horses. An even smaller herd of Bison had stayed in the valley. The question in everyone’s mind at first was whether any of them were cross mate-able. Because the moose bulls were constantly chasing after the cows when they came into heat. They took the questions to Sharon.
“Moose and Cow, No,” Sharon said. “Cow and Bison, yes.” She had laughed it off. But soon after that they were blessed with the first Beefalo calf, and more, she suspected, were on the way.
The third and fourth barns in the valley were used for storing grain and hay they would need to get through the coming winter.
Angel was pregnant, but not by The Dog. The Dog had no fear when it came to chasing off the Wolves and Coy dogs that came down into the valley on occasion. Even the occasional mountain lion. They usually came for the deer, the cows were too large for them. But the calves were not. And they had lost five calves to them. The Dog may have had no fear but at fifty pounds he had been no match for the wolves.. The smallest coy dogs were close to eighty pounds, the smaller wolves closer to a hundred, and the larger ones bigger by far. Most often The Dog ended up on the bad end of things. Torn up, but still game for the next fight. The problem, as Sharon saw it, was that they needed a much bigger dog.
Angel was also a mix, but a much bigger dog. Some sort of Saint Bernard mixed in, Sharon thought, and then crossed with either a Malamute or a wolf. Malamutes were close to wolves in size, some even bigger. They had been bred as freight dogs in Alaska back in the early 1950's, and had actually come from breeding domestic dog breeds back to wolves.
Sharon had not come up with the solution, Cindy had.
They had both been present when one of the larger male wolves had tried to take down one of the nearly full grown calves they had bought into the valley with them. They were nowhere near as big as a full grown cow, but they were very nearly.
The wolf had been no match for the calf or the calf's mother who had been nearby. The mother had hit the wolf from the side and broken its spine. She had also delivered a few well placed kicks before herding the calf off. They had checked the calf over and used some antiseptic cream on it's belly where the wolf had tried to rip it open, and then let it return to its anxious mother. That was when Cindy had noticed that the wolf was still breathing. Very shallowly, probably not for much longer, but it was alive.
They had, had Angel tied up to keep her away from The Dog who was making a general pest of himself because she was in heat.
“Too bad,” Cindy had said, “We didn't get him to mate with Angel first.”
Sharon had smiled. “Cindy, you're a frickin' genius!”
“How so,” Cindy asked.
“Well. He's not dead. Everything is working... We can make it work.” Sharon had said.
Cindy looked down at the wolf. “Hold him up?” She was trying to imagine how it might work.
Sharon laughed. “Okay. I take it back. You're not a genius... How did I show you to do it with the bulls?”
“Oh...” Cindy smiled as it came to her. “You think it will work,” she asked.
Sharon shrugged her shoulders, but continued to smile. “Go get the gloves. Let's find out.”
“Eww,” Cindy said. “I'm not too good with that part.”
“Time to get better, my dear,” Sharon laughed.
As it turned out it did work, an unconscious wolf or not. A little help from a turkey baster and a few weeks later Angel was pregnant.
The lions were another problem. Sharon had no doubt that a few more crossbreedings would produce dogs big enough to keep the wolves at bay, but they would be no match for the mountain lion, or lions, whichever it turned out to be. Bob had done some tracking and he was convinced it was at least three different lions they were dealing with.
And the problem with that was the children.. The lions seemed only to come around at night, but that didn't mean it couldn't come around during the day. So they had set a trap, leaving the fresh remains of a beef cow, and Candace along with Tim had sat up most of two nights in a row. The second night had been the payoff.
Two of the big cats had come down to feed on the cow's carcass. The cats had been nervous and so they had let them both settle in for a few minutes before they had brought both of them down. They had had no other trouble since then. The furs along with all the other game they shot went up to the cave to be cleaned, stretched and turned into usable leather and fur.
Janet had both Tom and David learning how to prepare and tan the hides. She herself had only ever done it on a small scale, so it was somewhat of a learning process for her too. But there were already some wearing leather vests, pants. Janet herself wore nothing but leather now. Tom and Lilly both had begun to wear only leather, and that had convinced Annie, who was very close to Lilly to try it too. Arlene had already been wearing leather and Janet opinioned that in a few years they would all probably be wearing leather.
Candace and Patty were hoping to build a loom or a spinning wheel long before that. Or have someone build it for them if they couldn't do it themselves. But both of them had already begun wearing leather. In all truth, Candace told Patty, she liked the way the leather felt on her. It was completely different from cotton, and she wasn't so sure that Janet was not right. Patty had laughed, but a few days later she had been wearing a leather shirt top that Janet had made for her, and extolling the virtues of leather herself.