“I believe we will be able to give a report on the status of our food supplies by tomorrow,” she said. “We have an awful lot more than I thought we would, and it looks like we are okay for the time being.”
Janet jumped in and said, “I’m working on putting together menus to be sure everyone gets the appropriate number of calories and nutrients. That will probably take me a while, because I am also interviewing everyone to see what they like and dislike. The dislikes list is pretty short, and most of the things on it are not things we will be routinely serving anyway. I’ve borrowed a couple of your books on nutrition and also on processing dairy products. With the extra cows, we should be able to make butter and cheese, but I need to learn how.”
I told Janet that I would look up in the attic, because I think that is where I put my grandmother’s butter churn. We can use a stand mixer now, but if we lost power or had only limited power, we would need to use the churn. I was excited at the thought of making cheese, but I wasn’t sure if we had the things we needed to make anything but the basics. Even being able to make mozzarella, one of the easiest cheeses, would mean we could have pizza!
I did not want to interrupt these ladies any more, so I headed back upstairs to get ready for our security perimeter patrol. I caught up to Frank in the barn as he and a few of the guys were getting ready. Last night, I gave him a plat map of the farm so he would know where the boundaries were. I also had a topographical map to show land contours and a hand-drawn map done by my grandfather that showed things like creeks, pastures, and wooded areas. Frank surprised me a bit – he had printed Google Earth photographs of the farm, blown up pretty large which made the details obvious. With the maps, drawing, and images, we all now had a pretty good idea of exactly what areas would need a lot of attention from a security perspective. I’m glad Frank thought of that while we still had internet!
Clark was saddling the horses as the rest of the security team arrived. Samantha and James were both riding with us today, and each one had a large backpack with first-aid supplies. One of Clark’s donkeys was going along to pack some fencing materials because we wanted to repair the damaged areas while we are out that way. Bill (who looked totally different in jeans and a cowboy hat than he did in his police uniform!) also had a backpack with tools and fasteners. Marty was the last to arrive and strapped a couple of rakes and shovels onto his horse.
Frank had a bag of security cameras he wanted to put up to give us a visual on our perimeters. These cameras transmitted over a cell signal and we could watch them from the house on the laptop. Frank said he would get them all wired just in case cell service failed. If that happened, we could still get images from the hard wiring. I was about to ask about wire when Frank said they bought hundreds of miles of wire and, while tedious, it would not be hard for them to wire everything in to the house. I asked Frank how the cameras would work if we had an EMP, and he said they wouldn’t, but he had about thirty more cameras in protective storage, and would save them in case these got fried. I asked him where in the world he was able to get so many security cameras. He gave an impish grin and said, “These are the force extenders we got in Asheville!”
Frank reminded all of us that we should bring a rifle as well as our side arm. I ran back to the house and grabbed my 9mm HiPoint carbine. I know people like to rag on HiPoint, calling it a cheap rifle, but I love mine. I am bulls-eye accurate with it out to about 75 yards and love the way it fires without a lot of recoil. I have a number of other rifles, including several AR variants, an AK-47, and (my most expensive rifle) a Barrett M98B sniper rifle, but other than the Barrett, I don’t enjoy them nearly as much as my HiPoint. Of course, for what we were doing today, the Barrett would be extreme overkill!
When I got back with my rifle, Frank made sure we all had water, and we headed out. Emmaline, Frick, and Frack decided to follow along with us. I was glad, because my pups were pretty good guard dogs, even though they were not trained as such. Frank’s dogs, Zeus and Hera, who were both trained police dogs (as well as family pets), also came with us.
Most of the perimeter fences were in great shape, and were topped with barbed wire that Grandpa installed about five years ago. Frank put a security camera up from time to time in places that looked likely for someone to try to cross the fence. We did not see any evidence that people had trespassed until we got to the area I saw the other day. The fence was completely down there. We all dismounted and repaired it. We also added more barbed wire to the fence, and Frank put up two security cameras to completely cover the area. Bill poked around at the two campfires that were found. He said that based on the debris left in the fire ring and the trash he found, one looked like it was kids having an adventure. The other campfire, though, he felt was adults, as there were empty liquor bottles, cigarette butts, and other adult-type trash. We raked out both fire sites, as well as the ATV tire marks and buried the trash. Hopefully, that will make the area hard to find again.
We continued to ride the perimeter and fortunately did not see any other problems. Frank and Bill marked the maps anywhere the fence looked even the least bit easy to cross. The plan was the guys would come back with razor wire and would string that, as well as set up some traps to catch anyone trying to sneak onto the farm.
We were almost back to the barn when Emmaline began to growl. We stopped, and suddenly three deer jumped the fence and ran off into a field. Those are the kind of trespassers we want, especially when we start needing more meat and variety in our diet.
When we got back to the barn, we brushed down the horses and donkey, fed them, and put them in their stalls. I suggested to Frank that he may want to set up a camera station in my basement and we could station someone to watch the feeds from the game cameras around the clock. Frank liked that idea and said he would take care of setting it all up in just a little while. He also said we needed to build some hidden places around the farm where we could put security people to watch for trespassers. I told him I thought that we ought to have an LP/OP (that is, listening post/observation post) at any area that would be a viable invasion point. Frank just looked at me and then grinned. I could tell he forgot I was ex-military and was thinking he was talking to “just” a girl! He then showed me on the map where he thought those LP/OPs ought to go. I told him that I thought one of the outbuildings had some of grandpa’s deer stands, and that maybe he could use them for some on the LP/OPs.
Frank mentioned that the dogs did well on our trip this time, and he thought it might be a good idea to start training all of the dogs to help supplement security. I told him I thought that would be great for the big dogs like Frick, Frack, and Emmaline, but I wasn’t sure that Coco, Samantha’s Yorkie, would be much of a security dog. Clark had a dog, too, but Chester was very elderly, almost completely blind, and also probably not suitable for training. “I guess it will be just these three for your training. Good luck with that!”
Suddenly, I heard a loud clanging. I ran from the barn to see Janet on the porch ringing a big brass bell. “Dinner time,” she was calling. “Everyone come get washed up so we can eat!” Once I stopped being startled by the noise, I walked over to check out the bell. It was a pretty nice bell, about eight inches tall, and was mounted on the porch railing.
“Do you like the bell?” she asked. “Marty bought me this for our garden a few years ago, and we thought it would be something good to bring with us!” I told her I thought it was a great idea, and we could also use it as a warning if there were problems.
Dinner was chicken and dumplings with fresh pumpkin pie from the garden and was delicious! The kitchen crew made enough for everyone to have a healthy portion without a lot of left-overs. I filled a plate and sat down next to Stacy and Chris. I was worried about Stacy, as she only had a few weeks until her baby was due. We were very lucky to have a doctor and so many nurses around, but there was still a lot of risk, especially since I was pretty sure we would not be going to the hospital to deliver.
Stacy told me that she had
been in one of the conexes most of the day going through the bags of extra clothing people brought. She said we had quite a few totes of socks, underwear, and tee shirts. There were also a lot of shoes and coats. We could use more pairs of jeans, but there were a bunch of jeans that were in need of patches and repair. She had Chris bring them back to the house so she could start working on them. I told her not to push herself too hard, as she had to stay healthy for the baby! She smiled and gave me a hug and thanked me for worrying about her. She then told me she was headed to bed. It was so sweet and very touching to see Chris hovering over her, holding her by the arm and “helping” her walk back to their wing.
After dinner, Frank and Bill asked if we could meet in my office for a few minutes. They had a schedule for guard duty, and they wanted my feedback. I looked at the list, and the only thing I noticed was that I was not on it. I reminded them that I could handle a guard shift, and they both said I was too busy right now getting everything organized, but they would add me later on. I suggested they find a white board somewhere and use that in order to post the schedule somewhere very visible – maybe on my front porch? That way, everyone would be able to see who was scheduled to go where.
I knew that Frank had a few days off, but I was surprised that Bill had not needed to go in to work, so I asked him about it. He said that his hours had been cut, but that he did need to go in to work tomorrow. He said while he was at work, he would see if he could buy a big whiteboard somewhere. After a few more minutes of conversation, both men left. I decided to go watch the news and then hopefully head to bed. As usual, the “fake news” did not tell us anything new, other than Frank’s neighbor who was shot by the gas thief died from his injuries and they caught the man who shot him. Enough. I headed off to bed.
Chapter 10
The following few days passed fairly quietly. We continued to get organized and started to develop daily routines. One of the things on my To Do list was figuring out what to do with trash. I decided that we would have to reuse as much as we could, so I set up a couple of recycle bins. Paper that could go into the composter went in one bin. Metal scraps- tin foil, metal cans, etc., all went into another bin. We had a third bin for plastic and glass, and a fourth bin for things that had to be buried. I hoped that there would be very little in the fourth bin, as we really needed to be very careful with what we just tossed away.
Once I got the bin situation handled and let everyone know what they were supposed to do with trash, I decided to spend time in the barn learning more about the animals and getting to know Sarah, Zoe, and Phoebe. I was really impressed with these intelligent, interesting young ladies. At 18, Zoe was the oldest sister, and really looked a lot like her father and, I would imagine, her Japanese grandmother. She was the shortest of the girls with shoulder-length dark hair, dark almond-shaped eyes, and delicate features. She also had the most training working with the animals. Although current events had interrupted her studies, she continued to learn everything she could from her father. He turned over the care of the pregnant cows and pigs to her, and she could hardly wait until they were ready to deliver. She spent a lot of time with one of the goats who was cut pretty badly on a nail sticking out of the barn wall. Zoe cleaned and sutured the cut, and then watched the goat carefully for signs of infection. She was also teaching the younger kids how to care for animals. Mandy was still too little to do anything much other than collect eggs and help feed the chickens and rabbits, but all four boys were learning to milk the cows and ride the horses.
Phoebe looked much more like her mother than her father. She was tall and slender, with long light brown hair and bright blue eyes. She was really good with the animals, but she spent a lot of her spare time with Samantha and James. She really wanted to be a nurse like her mother, and so she was helping with the medical exams and interviews of everyone on the farm. She was really shy, unless you could get her talking about nursing. Then, it was hard to get her to stop talking! I noticed that she read voraciously and seemed to remember everything she read. I reminded her that I had a lot of nursing textbooks in my office and that she should help herself to them. You’d think I just offered her a million dollars, she was so excited! She’ll be a wonderful nurse one of these days, and I realized that if the economy and society went splat, it would be up to nurses like her mother and me to teach the next generation of nurses. That was a sobering thought.
Sarah is the youngest daughter, and although she is only 15 and a year younger than Phoebe, the two girls could easily pass for twins. Sarah is the horsewoman in the family. She has no fear of horses, and can get all the horses to do amazing things. Last year she took courses in dressage, and she was teaching the boys how to train the horses to move smoothly and how to give the horses subtle directions. She knew they would not be actually riding dressage, but the techniques of getting the horses to move fluidly with little direction from the rider would come in handy as the boys rode as part of the security patrols.
I really enjoyed my time spent with these sweet girls, and it was nice to see them developing friendships with both the adults and the other teens on the farm. I made a point to compliment Clark and Maureen on how well their girls were raised.
Bill went in to work on Monday and brought home a classroom sized whiteboard which got mounted next to my front door. It was safe from the weather because of the porch, and it was the perfect tool to post all of the farm duties, not just security. We also posted meal times and menus and left notes and reminders for each other. Bill had many stories to tell about his time working in town. He said gas was almost impossible to get, and when it was available, it was over $12 per gallon. He said the grocery stores were a mess – shelves pretty bare, not getting resupplied on any regular basis, and a lot of looting and shoplifting going on. The number of criminal events was going up astronomically, with break-ins and assaults becoming almost normal behavior. With so many people out of work, most of the schools were closed and businesses were failing at a crazy rate. There were not that many policemen on duty at any given time, and response times were very slow. Petty crimes sometimes were not even being addressed for several days. Police also were being targeted, and several officers were hurt by mobs throwing rocks and bottles. Last night, when Bill finished his shift, he told his supervisor he would not be back, as he felt like it was more important for him to take care of his family than to try to make it to work every day and deal with the never-ending crime. He did not let his supervisor know his family was no longer in town – he didn’t think anyone needed to know that. He said he got the whiteboard and the two cases of dry-erase markers from the high school, since it was closed and he doubted it would re-open any time soon. Frank also quit the sheriff’s department when his hours were cut to two paid shifts per week with the expectation he would still work five shifts. He said that would not even pay for the gas to get there, so he was now full time on the farm. Chris and Chuck also received pink slips over the last few days. Both chose to take their final paycheck in merchandise rather than cash, which I thought was a good idea.
With three reasonably routine days, I found myself on edge. My nightmares had come back, and I was waking each morning with the thought in my head to get ready because here it comes. I had no idea what it was, but I felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. In nursing, we never say “quiet” (we call that the Q word) because as soon as you call a shift quiet, all hell breaks loose. I felt like we were in that time right after someone said quiet and immediately before holy hell let loose.
◆◆◆
I guess I spoke too soon. Thursday afternoon, Marcie was taking her turn watching the security cameras and watched as four men cut through the fence where we repaired it and drove two ATVs onto the property. She called Frank on the radio, and he, Bill, Marty, Chris, Chuck, and I quickly rode to the area. The men had parked the ATVs and were just snooping around the fence line when we caught up to them. We were still in the tree line, and Frank and Bill signaled us to stay behind a bit w
hile they moved up closer to the men. Apparently, the men did not see Frank or Bill until the last minute. When they did, they came to a rapid stop. The four men looked to be around mid-twenties and did not look very wholesome or clean-cut. They did not appear to be armed, at least with rifles or obvious handguns, thank goodness.
“You boys can just turn around and go back where you came from,” Bill called out. The men walked closer to Bill and Frank. Bill must have recognized one of them, because he then yelled, “Stop right there, Dudley, unless you want me to arrest you again. You are trespassing on our property.”
Dudley was not particularly happy to be recognized, and he turned around to leave. Of course, his friends did not seem to be in the least bit fazed by Bill’s comments, and they kept walking almost to the horses. The apparent leader called out to Bill and Frank. “Go away, old man. We’ll go where we want to go, and you are not going to stop us.”
I saw Frank grab his rifle a bit tighter, and he called out to the men, “Unless you want us to drop you here and leave your mangy carcasses for the dogs, I would suggest you turn around, get on your ATVs, and beat it. NOW.” He brought his rifle up and so did Bill. The rest of us also brought our rifles into firing position and stepped out of the trees, aiming at the men. The leader tried to stare Frank down, but couldn’t. He finally told Frank this was not over, went back to the ATVs, and slowly drove away, flipping us all off in the process.
We stayed there for a few minutes, and I saw Frank checking his smart phone. “Are you expecting a call, Frank?”
“No, actually I was reviewing the video from my body cam. I got good clear pictures of those four guys. I’ll print them out when we get back to the house.”
Premonitions (Book 1): The Farm Page 13