Our next stop was a gardening center a few miles away. Tom and I went in while the others watched the vehicles. We bought a lot more seeds (both heirloom and hybrid), fertilizer, and plant treatment supplies like Sevin dust and bug spray. We also got a few more gardening tools, several garden hoses, two drip systems, a case of tomato stakes, and two greenhouse kits. Surprisingly for this time of year, the center had a display of seed potatoes, and we grabbed all of them. I read an article not too long ago about growing Irish potatoes in the winter, and that sounded like something worth trying. They also had onion sets, and I grabbed a box of them, too, figuring we could start them in the greenhouse (once we got the greenhouse set up). We got all of this loaded and found we were starting to run out of room in the trailers. That was our cue to head to the other side of town where the others were shopping. Frank and Bill went to a store that supplied law enforcement officers with tactical gear. They got a number of sets of body armor for the security team, including head gear. Frank reported later he was in heaven when he found a couple of pair of night vision goggles. They got a number of boxes of other things that Bill and Frank said would enhance security. Frank called them “force extenders.” Oh, mercy, I can’t even think of what they may be. Grenades, maybe? From there, they went to a sport store that specialized in reloading supplies. They were fortunate that they were able to get almost everything Chuck put on his list. Unfortunately, they were not as lucky with the list of ammunition. While they were able to get plenty of 9 mm and .45, there was almost no 7.65 to be had. Likewise, the store was completely out of .223 and .22 LR. Bill noticed a case of .308 hidden on a bottom shelf and was able to get that.
While Frank and Bill were in shooters’ heaven, Tom and Tim were at the Lowes’ warehouse nearby. They were able to fill the box truck with construction materials, roofing, pipes, PVC, nails, fasteners, fencing, barbed and razor wire, and all sorts of other things. They also stocked up on saw blades, hand tools, and boxes of razor blades. Tom remembered to get heavy duty locks for the conexes, and had extra keys made for each one. They also got a number of rolls of visqueen, two chain saws, a case or two of oil for the saws, a stack of heavy duty tarps, and a bunch of work gloves and goggles. He got a couple of cases of rope, too. Finally, they grabbed a couple of cases of camouflage-colored spray paint. When I asked why they had the paint, Tom grinned and said, “So we can camouflage stuff, of course!” Why did I even ask??
We had supplies loaded everywhere, and all four vehicles and trailers were full when we headed for home. On the way out of town, we passed a Barnes and Noble. I suggested we park behind the store and take turns going in to get a bunch of “how-to” books for things we will need to learn. It took almost two hours, but we all rotated through and wound up with about sixty books on skills like cheese making, herbal medicines, and farming. Finally, we left Asheville behind us. We waited until we were out of town to pull over and open the picnic lunch we brought. As we sat at the roadside table eating, we noticed a group of cars and motorcycles slowing down to look at us as they drove past.
“Chris, Jon, are those the same people we saw watching us in the Costco parking lot?” I whispered.
“Mom, they sure look like it. Frank, Bill, what should we do?”
I explained to Frank how uneasy we were that people were watching us shop, both in the store and in the parking lot, too. Samantha mentioned that she saw one of the cars idling outside the drug store when we came out. Frank went to his truck, pulled out the blue light he used at work, and put it on top of his truck. He then turned it on and watched the convoy of cars and motorcycles speed up and disappear over a hill.
“I suggest we turn around and take our alternate route home. We’ll need to be sure there is nobody following us. I’ll stay last with my lights going to hopefully discourage anyone else who may try to interfere with us. Keep your radios on and if anyone sees anything that makes them nervous, shout it out. Do not stop for anyone. If law enforcement tries to stop you, keep going and Bill and I will handle it. Keep your firearms on safe, but accessible. Let’s go.”
It took us three and a half hours to make it home, but we did not have anyone else get in our way. A couple of times, Frank thought he saw motorcycles behind us, but they never got close, and by the time we were within twenty miles of home, he stopped seeing them. We pulled up to the back conexes and quickly unloaded our purchases. I hate to think how much we put on our credit cards today – but I’d rather we spent it now than needed it later!
As we started unloading, Judy was right there documenting our purchases and which conex things were being put into. She enlisted Grace, and the two of them efficiently got everything we bought onto their inventory.
Once we were finished unloading, we decided to take the vehicles back into town without the trailers to refill our gas tanks. Imagine how shocked we were to see gas was now up to almost $6.75 per gallon! That was over a dollar a gallon increase since yesterday. On the way back, we passed the bank and noticed the electronic sign outside stated “Effective immediately, withdrawals limited to $300 per day”. That reminded me of the argument I had days ago with the banker when I was trying to get out the cash to buy the cows. I radioed the guys and we all pulled into the drive-through to try to take out more than $300 from our accounts. No matter how hard we tried, the bank would only let us have $300 each from our accounts. That was really discouraging, and I couldn’t wait to get home to see if there was anything about this on the news.
That evening I was not surprised to see a one-minute segment on the news that briefly mentioned some computer issues at the bank that temporarily limited customer withdrawals. No other information was given, but there was a much longer segment that talked about some of the financial issues currently being experienced in Europe. The European Union is now scheduled to meet next week. The United States was invited to attend, but, thankfully, our president declined. He said he thought it would just be another excuse for the United States to be put on the spot to provide more financial support to Europe. This, of course, unleashed a firestorm of criticism from the liberals who felt that it was our moral responsibility to help Europe (again). One of them even brought in “Oh, the children, we have to help the children.” I always thought that the old lines about saving the children was a Saturday Night Live skit, a joke, but in this case it was a supposedly viable argument.
With nothing else of real interest in the news, I went to bed and, for once, slept soundly without nightmares. I awoke surprisingly refreshed early Wednesday morning. The house was very quiet. I went downstairs and fixed myself a cup of tea. A few minutes later, Mandy came down without her mom. She is such a darling little girl. She is petite like her mother, with big brown eyes and a head full of dark brown curls. At the moment, those curls were standing up all over her head. She had on a pink one-piece pajama outfit with built-in footies, and was carrying her favorite stuffed dog, Banjo.
“Good morning, Aunt Denise. Can I sit with you?”
“Good morning, Mandy! Of course you can sit with me. Would you like some tea?” She solemnly nodded at me, so I fixed her a cup of tea with milk and sugar. My grandmother used to call this pink tea, and made it for me whenever I was sick or upset about something. Mandy seemed to be pretty focused on something, so I asked her if she was okay.
“I’m OK, but my mommy isn’t. She’s scared and says bad things are going to happen. I don’t know what we should do.” My heart hurt for this little girl who was torn from her home by violence and who did not understand all of the activity around her. I hurt for her mom, too. Grace was still pretty young, and I guess she did not really understand the current state of the world.
“Mandy, there is not anything for you or your mommy to be scared about. There are some bad people doing bad things right now, but you and your mommy and your grandma and grandpa are safe here on the farm. Do you like it here?” She smiled and nodded.
“I really like the chickens! What flavor chickens are they?”
; I stopped what I was doing, startled. Umm, flavor? Chickens come in flavors? “Mandy, what do you mean what flavor are they? “
“Well Mommy says chickens come in different flavors. Some flavors make eggs and some flavors make McNuggets. What kind are yours?”
“Well, I think mine are egg makers. But, Tom has a whole bunch of chickens he is bringing over, and maybe he has some different flavor ones! You’ll have to ask him!”
“OK, I’ll ask him. Do your chickens have names?” Darn, I never thought about naming the chickens! Was that something I should have done? Oh, my. “Nope, none of them have names yet. Why don’t you give them names?”
“Oh, that will be a lot of fun. Can my Mommy help me name them?”
“That’s a great idea, Mandy! Why don’t you finish your tea and get dressed and you can come help me wake up the chickens and start giving them names. And, you can help me get the eggs. Do you like pancakes?” Mandy gave me a huge grin. “Well, then, if we can finish with the chickens, we can make up a big bunch of pancakes for everyone’s breakfast!” With that, Mandy was gone in a hurry to go get dressed.
A half an hour later, I found myself in the chicken coop looking for eggs, and thinking about what to name my chickens. I couldn’t tell Mandy the names I was thinking – maybe Cacciatore, Southern Fried, Cordon Bleu, and Picatta? Mandy already named a few, but I’m sure I won’t remember! I don’t know a whole lot about chickens, other than they lay eggs and they need to be kept clean and fed. I do know that the chickens I have are called Rhode Island Reds, and the eggs seem to always have rich yolks. Sometimes, I get really lucky and get eggs with double yolks. Mandy’s attention to the chickens made me think I ought to learn more about them if these birds are going to continue to be a source of food for us. I had made the decision yesterday to keep a note pad in my pocket because I was afraid I was forgetting stuff. I pulled it out and made a note to get more information on the chickens. I’m sure Clark knows about them, but I need to learn, too.
While Mandy was having a conversation with her new chicken friends, I went over to milk the cows. Now that I had 12 cows instead of 3, I knew I needed more information from Clark. I milked the first three, but decided to wait for Clark before I did anything with the others. The pigs were squealing like crazy. It made me a little nervous, but I went over to check on them. Boy, they are big! I was starting to feel a little ignorant about my animals – of course, at least I knew enough to not try to milk the bull! Laughing to myself, I called Mandy, picked up the basket of eggs, and we headed into the kitchen.
After washing up, we got out the pancake makings, and I started trying to figure out who was there for breakfast. I called Chris and Jon on their cell phones. Chris had already left for work, but Jon, Gabby, and Stacy said they’d be right there. I didn’t see Frank’s car, and assumed he must have already left for work, too. Tom, Tim, Marty and Jose were already here working on the shelves in the conexes. I called them in to breakfast just as Grace and Marcie came downstairs. I finally gave up trying to get a count, and just started making pancakes. Pancakes without sausage didn’t fly in my house. I got out a big skillet and pulled some sausage out of the refrigerator. After a while, people started following their noses to the kitchen. I set up the stacks of pancakes, plates of sausages, a plate of butter, and some maple syrup on the counter and told folks to help themselves. While I was eating, I had another thought, and out came my notepad again. We need to get enough tables and chairs to put in the new pole barn to make community meals a little easier and less crowded instead of trying to cram people into my kitchen and dining room. We needed to be sure we put down some stone or gravel or something to make the short walk to the pole barn easier, especially for the crew carrying the meals. Maybe we needed to get some kind of cart to transport serving dishes.
As people were finishing breakfast, I started grabbing dishes and loading them into the dishwasher. I didn’t want to use any more of the disposables as long as I had power and water to use the dishwasher. If we ever had to rely on just solar, we’d either be using disposables or washing by hand. I wanted to take advantage of any modern conveniences while I could. While people were eating breakfast, there was a lot of conversation and laughter. As people finished and wandered back to their chores, the house got quiet. Soon, it was just Marcie and me at the table. It seemed strange to be just the two of us, but all of the other girls were working today. Stacy, Jon, and Gabby had gone back to Jon and Gabby’s wing after breakfast to continue unpacking stuff and turning it into a home. Tomorrow, Gabby and Jon would go to Chris and Stacy’s to do the same thing in their area.
“What else can you think of for us to do, Marcie? Tom and I keep trying to think of everything that needs to be done, but I feel so overwhelmed right now. What are we missing?”
Marcie answered, “You guys have done a great job of thinking of everything. Did the Berkeys you ordered ever come? And what about the canners?”
I told her that both orders came Saturday, although they were still boxed up out in the garage. Marcie suggested we get the Big Berkey water purifiers put together and make sure there was one in each wing and in the main house. We had a total of 5 – Tom and I each had one, and I had ordered three more. One would go to Jon and Gabby, one to Chris and Stacy, and the third would go to our new medical area. Tom’s would then be either the spare, or would get set up in the barn for hydration out there.
We headed out to the garage and found the boxes with the Berkeys. Unpacking them, we found there was not a lot to do to put them together, other than add the filters. The ones I ordered each had four filters and could produce seven gallons an hour of filtered water. I ran out behind the barn and got my little garden cart. We grabbed two of the Berkeys and eight filters and headed to Jon’s kitchen. We brought one inside, and I started to show Jon, Gabby, and Stacy how to put it together and how to filter water with it and then suggested that they clean it out really good, set it up, and find a home for it on the kitchen counter. That way, if something happened to the water, it would be there and ready to start filtering water right away. Jon ran out to the cart and grabbed the other Berkey and brought it to Chris’ kitchen while I finished showing Stacy and Gabby how to put in the filters.
As Marcie and I were taking the cart back to the garden shed, we heard a large vehicle pulling into the driveway. Maria pulled up in Tom’s RV and stopped next to us in the driveway.
“Where should I park?” she asked. I told her to pick out a place, and that I’d send Tom down to check the place she picked. I was really impressed that not only could Maria drive that great big RV, but that she didn’t seem at all intimidated about taking it off the road to find a place to set it up. I told her that when she was done getting settled, she should come up to the house and find us.
After we got all of the Berkeys situated, Marcie and I decided we would start cleaning the area that would become the people infirmary. We gathered a bunch of cleaning supplies and cut through the barn to the workshop. When Grandpa built the workshop, he planned to have one area be for woodworking and one area for metalworking. Unfortunately, he never got around to the metalworking side, and half of the large building was little more than storage. We pulled everything out of the unused side of the building and also out of the attached bathroom. It seemed that at least fifty years worth of dust covered everything. We started sweeping and scrubbing. Walls, floors, ceilings, all were thoroughly scrubbed. After a short while, Maria joined us and jumped right in helping us clean. By the time we were done, the large room and bathroom were both spotless. One of the things that had been stored in that area was an old desk. We cleaned that, too, and set it up in one corner to try to create a work area for James. I remembered my electric refrigerator was in the workshop, and Marcie and I manhandled it into the corner next to the desk. I thought the fridge would be a good place to keep medications cold, as long as the solar would be enough to keep it running. After that was in place, I looked around the cleaned area. I pulled out my note
pad, and made a note to figure out how to hang some privacy curtains once the treatment tables and beds were moved in. I did not want to start trying to set this area up, though – I’d leave that for Samantha and James to do so it was done the way they wanted it to be. Marcie went over to the garage and got the other Berkey and set it up on the desk in the infirmary.
It took us a little while to get cleaned up after all that scrubbing, and then it was time for lunch. Grace and Mandy had made a pile of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that they were taking around to everyone. Marcie, Maria, and I each grabbed a sandwich and a cold glass of water and ate a quick lunch. After, we headed back to the garage to unpack the canning gear.
“You know, I have a zillion canning jars, lids, and all of that kind of stuff. I now have all these canners, plus my big one inside, plus a couple of water bath canners, plus Tom also has one of each. I am wondering if we need to come up with a canning station. What if we had the guys extend the roof over the back porch and back deck? The propane grill is out there and maybe we could set up some counters. The extended roof would keep us out of the sun, but would still let a breeze in, since canning makes the kitchen so hot. The two new buildings on either side of the porch shelter it from most wind, so if we have to can in winter, we wouldn’t completely freeze. We could probably get some cabinets mounted on the wall to store some of the canning stuff. Since the back porch opens onto the kitchen, it would be pretty convenient. There is that coat closet near the back door, and we could empty that and fill it with more canning supplies. Of course, the majority of the jars and supplies would stay in the basement storage area, but it would make canning a lot more convenient to have its own station.” Marcie and Maria looked at the deck, the closet, and the location of the grill, and both agreed that a canning station would be a good thing.
Premonitions (Book 1): The Farm Page 10