I was shocked. These cut-backs, coming so quickly after the cuts I heard about last Friday, were downright frightening, and made me all the more determined to get everyone together tonight. I asked Janet if she could make a few calls for me in order to get everyone in the group together.
After I hung up with Janet, I called Tom. I told him about Janet and Marty and the other hospital layoffs and shared the plans for tonight. He assured me that he, Jose, Maria, Tim, and Judy would be there, and that he would try to get Father Dan to come, too. I then called the rest of the girls. Samantha said she had a date, and didn’t think she would be able to come. The others all agreed to be there. I was surprised that both Chris and Jon agreed that there is trouble on the horizon, and they both promised to be there early to help.
As soon as I knew who was coming, I headed back to Costco to get meat, buns, veggies, and dessert for tonight’s cook out. I decided we would have hamburgers and hot dogs, with chips, potato salad, and cole slaw, with cookies for dessert. While in Costco, since my trailer was still hooked up from the night before, I decided to get as many paper products as I could- plates, napkins, disposable cups, silverware, paper towels, and, of course, toilet paper and diapers. (Can’t forget about that little one coming!) I also went through their pharmacy section to get vitamins, personal care products, and over-the-counter medications. They had half-gallon hand sanitizer on sale, and I bought three cases of that! Enough. Time to go home and start getting organized for tonight.
When I got back to the house, I saw Tom’s crew busy working on the side of Jon’s wing. I stopped to say hi, and they showed me the new generator shed they built. They said they built four so far, one for each area, and one for the workshop. Both thanked me for inviting them tonight, and said they were looking forward to our meeting. Tim also mentioned that Tom was up by the barn and was looking for me. I drove on up to the house, parked the car, and started to unload the car and trailer. Tom quickly came from around the barn and started helping me.
“Uh, Denise, I don’t mean to be poking into your business, but you’ve spent a lot of money the last few days. Are you sure you can afford all this?”
“Well, now’s a fine time to ask about that!” I laughed. “Not to worry, though. My grandparents were very wise people who managed this farm really well. In addition to the trust from my parents, Grandma and Grandpa put away a considerable amount of money for me to be able to live without working. I work because I love nursing, not because I have to have the income. I also have my benefits from John, my military retirement pay, and money I’ve saved over the years. In addition, I’ve been thinking all day of cashing in one of my 401K accounts. After all, it won’t do me any good if the economy crashes, and it will help get a lot more of what we need here. I have been converting a big chunk of my paycheck every week to precious metals. At least if the economy fails, I’ll have that. In any case, I don’t want you to worry at all about us getting the things on our lists,” I told him.
Once we had all of the supplies put away, I pointed out to Tom that I was afraid we were going to run out of storage space if everyone came on board. “What do you think about getting a few conex boxes to use for materials storage and to give each family some storage space? We could line them up side by side with all the doors facing the barn, and it would create a nice defensive wall to protect the animals from anyone trying to poach them, and would still be close enough to be convenient. Let’s call them and see how many we can get. I’m thinking six or eight of the twenty-footers at least.” Tom just nodded agreement with me.
I could see Tom was deep in thought, so I just waited. After a minute or two, he said, “Even better than that, let’s consider putting them end to end and putting dirt over and around them to make a berm, with the door area protected to give us access into the conexes. We can build some quick plywood walls and ceiling around the door areas with dirt over it. That way, they can help form a protective barrier from the road and from the fields around the barn and the house, and the berm will also hide the fact we’re storing stuff.” I told Tom that was a great idea and to go for it.
“We’re really going to need Judy to get busy with inventory and organization of everything sooner rather than later, I suspect!” Tom said. I agreed with him, as organizing inventory was not one of my stronger skills. As soon as we get the conexes in place, we could start inventory.
“One other thing I thought of. We’re going to have to have tight security and that is going to mean an armory. We’ll have weapons to store away from kids, and hopefully both ammunition and reloading supplies- which means we’ll need a place to maintain weapons and reload. What if we got a forty foot conex and surrounded it with a cement casing to make it safer? We could then hook it into the solar for lights and some ventilation, and would then have a safe place to store that stuff.”
“How do you think of these things, Denise? That is a great idea. I’ll go call the conex place right now, and see what we can do. I would think we could get it placed and a cement wall up in no time. And – don’t worry about this. I’ve got my resources, too!”
At 3:30, Janet, Marty, and their two boys arrived. I put them to work setting up folding tables and chairs in the yard. Marty got my big old grill started, and the boys filled a couple of coolers with ice and drinks. Janet had made two cakes to add for dessert – they looked wonderful, and I had no idea she could bake! She told me later she likes to cook when she is stressed, and today she was stressed two cakes’ worth!
Finally, time rolled around and everyone arrived. Even Samantha showed up with her date – one of the new general surgeons that I had not yet met. Tom and Marty had a blast manning the grill, and everyone had plenty to eat. It was great to see so many people interacting and getting to know each other. When everyone had finished all of their seconds and dessert, I called the meeting to order. I asked the youngest kids to go play with some coloring books I'd found and gathered everyone else together.
“I know some of you are wondering if I am losing my mind, and others are wondering what is going on. I would like to start this meeting by asking that all of you promise that what you hear discussed here tonight stays here, and that you will not discuss it with any person not present without talking to me first. If you cannot comfortably do that, then I’d suggest this would be a good time to say goodnight and move on.” I looked at the very serious faces of my friends and family in front of me. Even Samantha’s doctor friend had a very serious look on his face, but did not get up to leave.
“Okay, I think all of you know that both Tom and I are news junkies. We follow both mainstream media as well as alternative news sites to try to get the very best information on what is going on in the world. Over the last two weeks or so, both of us have become very concerned at the signs we are seeing around us. On one hand, the media tells us that our economy could not be better, and that business is booming. However, if we look beyond the record-breaking levels of the stock market, we can see that such rapid and high growth is not self-sustaining. In large part, our economy is supported by the treasury department printers printing more paper money every time we need it. In addition, our national debt is so high there is no hope we could ever pay it all down. I doubt that we will ever be able to even pay the interest. The national debt is now at twenty-one trillion dollars, and just the interest on that is over 300 million dollars a year. Add to that how many nations like China hold our debt. It would not take much for them to demand payment – and I don’t think they would accept fiat money. I think they would want gold. Now, in addition to what I’ve said thus far, let me add a few other factors: The European economy, which we have been propping up for ages, is also failing. Greece has been failing for years, and it is now at the point it is about to go under completely. Germany is the only strong economy in Europe right now, and even they are struggling with huge layoffs and unemployment. Here in this country, we are seeing less products on the shelves, but those products are costing more. We have all personally e
xperienced lay-offs and cutbacks at work. Gas prices keep rising and rising, and before long it will cost too much to drive to work! The final straw to all of this is the instability, the fragility, of our grid. It would not take much for someone, some dedicated terrorist or hacker to bring down our grid. Destruction of a few plants would do it; an EMP courtesy of Little Rocket Man or the Ayatollah of Iran would also do it. Collapse of our economy with no money to pay workers to maintain the grid would also do it. Our belief is that if the grid fails, our society will also fail. Some of us are prepared to live without electricity, but most people are not. What happens when debit cards don’t work, banks are closed, EBT cards don’t work – when there are no lights, running water, sewer service, or phone service? No radios or television, no deliveries to grocery stores, no medicine, no power to run hospitals. What will all those people do? Will they survive? How? A lot of the research I've read estimates that in a grid-down situation, upwards of 75% of the population will die. Some will die from loss of life-supporting medical equipment; some will starve; sickness will kill some; weather will get another large group; and violence from a collapsing society will get the rest. We do not choose to be in that 75% and have taken active steps to make sure we are not. Think back to what we’ve seen just in Riverdale the last couple of weeks. Layoffs, higher gas prices, stores closing, decreased products on shelves, unemployment leading to increased crime – that’s not the sign of a healthy economy. Our economy is already in critical condition. It won’t take much to pass beyond the point of no return.
“On that note, we have a proposition for you, and I’d like you all to hear me out before you say anything. Right now, we are all sitting on 737 acres of excellent farming land. We have water, fertile ground, and shelter. Tom and I both follow a life-style known as prepping. That means we both focus on events surrounding us and try to prepare ahead of time in the event things go bad. In the event of a worst case scenario, I would like to offer you the opportunity to come here. We can become our own little self-sufficient village and make sure that life – a reasonably happy, normal life – goes on for us and especially for our children and grandchildren. Tom and I have been very busy the last few days trying to identify the things we will need to not only survive, but to thrive if this happens.
“You would not be coming to be serfs at my castle. I invite each of you as my beloved friends and family. It won’t be easy, and everyone, even the kids, will have chores to fulfill to help the group. Each of you has special skills, and we want to use those skills to form a core, or a basis for life to go on. We would have people responsible for security, cooking, hunting, foraging, maintenance, care of the animals, etc. Everyone would bring what they could to the table. Some may have more to bring than others, but that doesn’t matter, because I see us sharing as a family. I’m not talking about communism or socialism here. We will all still own what is ours, and nobody will take that away. But, those things that are vital for our survival – food, ammo, medicine – those are the things we can share and use as a group.
“I would ask that all of think about the things you have at home that you would want to have here in the event our economy crashes. You would need to bring all of your food, but you’d also need to think about things like pillows and blankets, clothes, shoes, and things like that. We are also planning to set up some secure storage to give you a place to put the valuables that you would not want to leave in your houses unattended.”
I looked around at all of the solemn faces. I hope I didn’t just scare the beejeebers out of everyone, but then, maybe we needed to be scared into making decisions that could save our lives. “Before I ask for a show of hands of who is interested, what questions do you have?”
Marcie stood up. “Denise, you and Tom have thought this out really well. My only question is what kind of time frame do we have, do you think, if this is going to happen?”
“That is really hard to say. It could happen tomorrow, next week, next month, or never. I firmly believe that it will happen soon. I would like to have everything in place within the next two weeks so we are ready.”
Clark was next to raise his hand. “Are we permanently limited to the people here? What if there is someone who would be a good fit and could bring skills to this community?”
Tom answered, “I would think we would probably have to vote on bringing in someone, but if the person benefited the community, why wouldn’t we want to bring that person in? It would be a balance – can we feed and shelter that person versus what can that person bring to the community.”
Samantha stood and asked, “would we have power so my curling iron would work?” All the girls started laughing, and Samantha sat down, grinning.
Janet raised her hand and asked, “What about work? If we were here, how would we work?”
“If the grid fails, how long do you think a hospital can stay open taking care of patients when there is no heat, water, oxygen, lights, medications, or safety? If this happens, we will all be unemployed except for whatever work we have here in this community, and I guarantee there will be more than enough of that! I can’t promise anyone that life will be easy here, but at least you will be alive – and I can guarantee it will be interesting!”
Jeremiah raised his hand. “What about us kids? Would we still have to go to school?”
“That is a great question, and I don’t know the answer. If the economy were to collapse, there would not be any school. We would have to figure out how to continue school here – homeschooling or something. For sure, though, you kids would have chores just like the adults in addition to any studying you would do.”
There were no more questions at that point, and I asked for a show of hands of who was willing to consider joining our community. I was moved beyond words when every single person stood and raised his or her hand. It took me a few minutes to get control of my emotions before I could speak.
“My friends, we have a lot of work to do on an uncertain time line. Here is what I need from you right now. We need to get some information from all of you. I’ve printed out these forms. Please grab one and a pen and put your name at the top. Kids, this includes you, too! As you can see, the form asks some general questions. The first question asks you about skills you have – not just professional, but if you are good at running, enjoy sewing, speak a foreign language, have any kind of special training, military service, anything like that, we need to know. We especially need to know skills that will help feed, shelter, or protect us.
“The second section asks about how many animals you would be bringing and if you have food you could bring for the animals. I don’t need details yet, but I need to get an idea of how much space we’ll need.”
Marcie’s granddaughter Mandy looked up from her coloring book and raised her hand. “Can I bring Sharkie, my pet goldfish, with me? I have a bottle of fish food for him!”
Once I stopped giggling, I told Mandy that of course Sharkie was welcome, as were all other family pets and livestock.
“The third section asks about special needs- major allergies, medical equipment you might need like CPAP machines, things like that. Finally, the fourth section asks about any distant family members you may have that you might want to eventually come here. Over the next several days, Tom and I will be working on setting up storage facilities and looking to see what we will need in the way of supplies. If the Zombie Apocalypse happens, we’ll ask that you bring as much as you can in terms of food, clothes, linens, blankets, paper products, medicines, etc. We’re setting up some areas where you can have secure storage to preposition some items. That will make getting here after the crisis occurs a lot easier.
“I wonder if we can meet again on Saturday to start making our plan more specific? Maybe 1:00? At that time, we can start talking about the various roles we will need and I can give you all a better tour of the farm.”
Patty raised her hand. “I know my son is far away right now, and the only family he has other than Bill and me are the men in his
little unit. If they were to be in the States when this happened, would you consider letting Mark and maybe some of his team come in?”
“Patty, if your son and his team can get here, we would be honored to have them stay if that is what they wanted.” Patty took a deep breath and let it out.
“Thank you very much. I am so worried about him.”
“If there are no other questions, Father Dan, could you close our meeting with a prayer, please? I have a feeling that we will need all the divine intervention we can get if our premonitions are true” We all bowed our heads as Father Dan then offered a short but heartfelt prayer for the safety and success of the group, and many “amens” followed.
After our meeting, everyone pitched in and helped clean up after dinner. I stopped Marty, and asked him if he had to work out a notice period or if he was completely laid off. Unfortunately, today was his last day of work. I asked him if he would be interested in doing some work for me, as we had a lot of setting up to do around here. I told him I would be happy to pay him a fair hourly wage for working, and that I did not expect him to work for free. I thought the man would cry, he seemed so surprised and then thankful. We decided that he would be here at nine tomorrow morning. Janet said that since she was off work, she would come too to start learning about the chickens.
I was really surprised that Samantha came to the meeting, and that she and her surgeon friend (who I learned to be Dr. James Werther) stayed. She came over to me after the meeting and hugged me. She told me that when she mentioned to James about this meeting, he felt it was really important for her to be there. She also said she would even be willing to learn how to shoot Lisa’s AK if it meant we would all be together, but that I would have to figure out how to get her electric rollers and makeup mirrors to work after the apocalypse. It was the right amount of silliness and really lifted my spirits. I was really surprised when James (yes, like Samantha, he did not like nicknames) offered to help get any medical supplies we might need to stock a good medical area. I asked him if he would be willing on Saturday to give us some advice on what kind of space we would need, and to look at whatever areas we thought would be an appropriate location, and was delighted when he agreed to do that. We chatted for a few minutes and I came away with three impressions. First, there was more going on between Samantha and him than a casual date, and second, I believe this man knew a thing or two about prepping. The third impression happened when he reached into his pocket for his car keys and I saw the outline of a holster. Yep, a prepper for sure.
Premonitions (Book 1): The Farm Page 6