by Pete Thorsen
The roof was metal that should last for many years (supposedly a fifty-year warranty). The plan was spend a little extra during the build so it would be maintenance free and last a long time. They had insulated very well in the walls and double insulated in the attic. Before being backfilled the in ground walls had been coated to prevent any leakage but being on a small hill they did not see that as ever being a problem, better to be safe than sorry though.
Windows were a pretty standard aluminum double pane but the front door was a massive three and a half inch thick one that Lee made himself. He was quite pleased with the front door and even better, Meg liked it too. The exposed hinges were also massive and had been hand made by a good friend of theirs who was an amateur blacksmith.
When building the house Lee had driven a new well in the basement so it was inside and they would never have to worry about it freezing. Though they seldom used it they had a smaller wood stove in the basement that used the same chimney as the upstairs one.
Both Lee and Meg were very pleased with their house so far. And with it done they could put their spare money and labor into other projects on their little ‘farm’. The first well that Lee had pounded down was still there and they used that for watering their garden and other outdoor uses. They had placed their garden very close to this well to make things easier.
Lee’s next small project was building a chicken coop. This was a very low cost project because he had saved scrap wood from every job site he worked on and needed to buy almost nothing for the chicken coop project mainly only the door hardware and chicken wire for the outside enclosure. He had finished that small project in just two weekends.
Chapter Two
The economy was not improving any despite all the promises made by the newly elected President. Oh they said it was ‘slowly improving’ and maybe it was for them. The ones saying that were always those that had steady well paying jobs (often paid for by taxpayers). Luckily Lee and Meg still had their jobs though Lee’s company had trimmed down quite a bit. Lee was not afraid of losing his job or the company folding (like many companies in all fields had already) because they were still getting some work both residential and commercial.
Many of their friends were hurting though, especially Lee’s friends in the construction business. Even at Meg’s job they had cut back a little, not much though. House prices had fallen very low and not gone back up. Foreclosures were everywhere. But things at home were still going fine and Lee ordered a metal thirty by forty pole building.
He thought that would be their last big expenditure (it was around ten thousand dollars). They had bought a few chickens and now enjoyed their own eggs. They also lost a chicken every now and then because when you live in the sticks there are always plenty of critters around. And everything liked to eat chickens or sometimes just kill chickens.
Raccoons were a problem and Lee trapped many of them. They killed chickens and got in their garden. And there were a lot of coons and opossums. The opossums were something ‘new’ in Minnesota because when growing up Lee and Meg had never even heard tell of any and certainly never had seen one. Now they were everywhere and in direct competition with all the raccoons. Of course they also still had coyotes, fox, owls, hawks, eagles, weasels, mink, skunks, cats (house cats and bobcats), dogs; the list of things that killed chickens was very long and Minnesota had plenty of most of them.
Lee and Meg had married right out of high school. Everyone had told them not to get married. Everyone said it would never last. Everyone said they were too young. But everyone did not know something that Lee and Meg did, that they were made for each other. Neither of them had a single doubt and after six years of marriage they still had no doubts and were happy.
Many had thought they had to get married but after six years and still no kids that proved untrue. Not that they did not want kids, it was just that they had not been blessed with any. And while that sure helped their financial situation sometimes Meg was sad about not being a mother yet. Lee told her if she wanted they could go to a doctor and see if there was a problem that could be fixed but neither really wanted to do that. They would have kids when they came and not before. For some couples this might have been a rift that would gradually have torn them apart but if anything it brought these two even closer together. They both had each other and both had faith and that was enough.
Even though they were doing fine both were concerned about the sad state of their country and the world. They were both appalled at the total lack of ethics and morals in the whole political scene. Lying and cheating and stealing were just accepted as the norm. It was rare indeed for any to resign or get fired even after bad deeds came out in the light of day. And the politicians would vote just the opposite as their constituents wanted and then they would get re-elected by these same constituents. It made no sense what so ever.
And things would pass through Congress and be signed into law by the President that seemed to be bad for the country and that people did not want but it would pass anyway and no stink was ever made of it. The President seemed to be getting friendly with our enemies and pulling away from our allies. Nothing in Washington DC made any sense at all. And all the politicians would talk about the economy but do nothing at all to try to make it better. In fact they would do things that purposely hurt the economy and no one seemed to care about it.
And though the USA had two major political parties in the bright light it was almost impossible to tell them apart. Meg and Lee did not have any answers to the country’s problems but could see that things were not getting any better only worse. They actually started thinking about possible outcomes if things went really down hill.
They were sure happy that they had no debt, only the standard monthly bills like phone and electric. Their car and their truck were both far from new but both were still dependable. Many of their friends were surprised that they did not have satellite TV like everyone else. The two would ask them why pay for something you can get for free? They could watch TV that came from their antennae not a satellite dish that cost fifty dollars a month.
But they were still concerned about the future and started looking at different things on the internet. They found many other people from all walks of life who were concerned about the future too. Some sites on the net made it seem that total doom was unavoidable and was just around the corner. Some sites were more realistic and basically said while bad things could happen and would likely happen to some of the population same as always (like hurricanes and blizzards and such) it sure did not hurt to prepare a little just in case.
The one site they both liked was called simply ‘preparedsociety.com’. This seemed to be a group of people like them, not wacko but concerned. And the atmosphere was refreshingly family–like and friendly. Some were really into the survival thing and others thought it would be a good idea to have a week or so of food in the cupboard but both respected the other and seemed to genuinely want to help others. Many on the site were trying the homesteading route and doing what they could to be self-sufficient.
Lee and Meg were somewhere in between in their thinking. Everyone in rural Minnesota had extra food in the cupboard because they all knew they could get snowed in anytime between October and May and the power could be down for long stretches due to ice storms or a tornado. But Lee and Meg thought a little extra food and other supplies to fall back on in any time of need just seemed like a good idea.
One thing would lead to another and soon there was a GHB (get home bag) in each vehicle. And while neither of them had ever been camping they bought some camping gear and camped out on a couple three day weekends and found out they both rather liked it. They thought it was great to get away for a couple days and leave any worries behind. Of course they both knew they were getting some possibly valuable experience also.
They also started buying some LTS (Long Term Storage) food. They did not buy a whole lot but did buy some and got a couple of food grade five gallon buckets and filled them both with whi
te rice. Before putting the rice in the buckets they put it in their freezer for a couple days because they had read somewhere that the freeze killed any bugs that might be in the rice. While they had no idea if it killed the bugs or not or even if the rice had bugs in it, they figured what could it hurt to freeze it.
They also bought (when on sale) much more of the regular things that they always ate and that would keep awhile. This part really cost them nothing and likely saved them some money by buying just when on sale and they would have bought it anyway at some point. Now they just had extra on hand.
They also learned about shelf stable milk that comes in a carton and does not need to be kept in the refrigerator until it is opened. Neither of them could believe that you could buy a carton of milk and just set it in the cupboard for a year and open it and drink regular milk. They bought some and tried it and neither could taste anything different about it which was not too surprising as the only difference was that it was pasteurized at a higher temperature than standard milk. It made them wonder why all milk is not done this way. They kept some of this milk on hand for the times they ran out of the standard milk (it was a little more expensive or they would have only bought the shelf stable milk all the time).
Chapter Three
Lee had his new pole shed delivered and set up. At first he was going to just buy the building and put it up himself but Meg talked him into having the work done this one time. Lee did put the cement floor in himself, well he had couple friends over to help and it only cost him some beer and brats after they were done. They had bought a couple kinds of apple trees and planted them when they first got the place and now they were producing and this year Meg tried canning them for the first time. It actually went quite smooth as she had canned many things from their garden already.
They did try a few with the new re-usable canning lids this year and they worked the same as regular lids. They had a few different kinds of wild berries on their place and many more in the surrounding area. Meg made a few different kinds of jellies using those. Their garden produced very well and by fall they had many jars of home canned food in their basement storage room. They also had a very large pile of potatoes in the way back corner where it stayed the coolest.
Lee was going hunting for the first time this fall. Many of his friends were hunters and often asked him to go with them. So Lee signed up and took a firearms safety class at a local school and was surprised when Meg joined him in the class. She said she did not want to go hunting but wanted to learn.
Neither had grown up with families that hunted or had guns so it was a new experience for both of them. Part of the class included firing 22 rifles and both thought that was fun. When the class was over they asked one of the volunteer instructors about what guns he thought they might want to buy as both had found they liked shooting. He said it was a personal preference type thing but that the Ruger 10/22 was a very popular and durable rimfire rifle. He said Ruger made a 22 pistol called the SR-22 that they might enjoy shooting also.
The next Saturday they drove to the nearby city of St. Cloud and went to three large sporting goods stores there. When they asked about the Ruger 22 rifle every single clerk told them it would be an excellent choice. When asked about the Ruger 22 pistol the clerks were split between the SR-22 and the Ruger Mark 3 style pistols.
Meg and Lee handled the rifle and both tried each kind of pistol before buying two of the rifles and both also bought the SR-22 pistols. They also picked up three cartons of ammo and a cleaning kit. When they got home Lee found a spot on their property where they could shoot and use the hillside for a back stop. He made a simple portable target holder out of scrap wood and stapled some cardboard to it.
They had forgot to buy targets but Lee just gave the cardboard a couple quick shots of spray paint and they were ready to try their new guns. Over lunch they read the owner’s manuals and after lunch they walked out and started practicing with the rifles first. They had fun and had a little competition with the rifles then switched to the pistols.
Right away they saw they would have to be closer to the targets with the pistols at least until they were better with them. They shot for quite awhile and had a lot of fun with their new guns. They went in the garage and both cleaned their own guns so they would both learn how but it turned out pretty easy. From the firearms class Lee found out that if he wanted to hunt deer near his place he would have to buy a shotgun because this area was shotgun with slugs only.
Lee thought the Ruger rifles and pistols seemed to work well so he went on line to see what kind of shotguns Ruger also made. But though they had once made a shotgun now it was only rifles and pistols. While on the site he looked at all the different guns they had to offer and was kinda interested in looking at a couple of them. Maybe he was turning into a gun nut he thought.
One thing he thought they should have bought was holsters for the pistols and two gun cases for the rifles. Maybe he should build a gun cabinet he thought, though for right now they could just keep them in the boxes. He continued his search for a shotgun and found the Remington 870 pump and the Mossberg 500 pump were the two most popular shotguns from what he was reading.
It seemed that both had been made for around fifty years with very minor changes only and still were very popular to buy. It seemed that many people bought used guns to save money and that guns were something that lasted a very long time. He decided to keep an eye out in the paper for used guns and ask his friends to let him know if they knew of any for sale. In the mean time he had a lot of work to do to the new pole shed he had because he wanted to close off a section of it and sheet it up and insulate it so that section could be heated.
Lee did not get a chance to go deer hunting that year but said next year he would make sure he made the time to do so. He had not bought a shotgun and even though he knew he could have borrowed one he did not have the time. He wanted to get that work done on the new shed before it got real cold and he found a used wood stove on Craigslist that he installed in the now enclosed workshop area of the new shed.
The new workshop was turning out great and he moved most of the equipment he had in the garage to the new shop. This really opened up the garage that was down to just Meg’s car barely fitting in to it. Now they could both park in the garage. Lee had passed the word he was looking for a shotgun to a few of his friends and it wasn’t long until a friend of a friend needed money bad and wanted to sell his 12 gauge 870.
Lee had looked online to see what they were going for and when the guy said a hundred bucks Lee did not even think about it but paid him on the spot and now owned a nice 12 gauge. Over the long winter as was often the case many people ran short on money and Lee’s friends often told him about guns that came up for sale due to someone needing money for heat or food or rent (or beer).
By spring Lee had bought six more guns and had turned down some that he was not interested in. He and Meg now had eleven guns in their house when last year they had none. Some of the guns came with ammo and every time Lee had asked about ammo or holsters or anything else the party might want to throw in to make the deal.
He knew he did not need any more guns but he thought any he could get cheap would likely be a good investment. He also scoured the internet looking for ammo deals and ordered a bunch of it from on line. By this time his friends knew he had turned into a gun nut and turned him on to any deals on guns or ammo that they heard about.
Lee bided his time and sure enough in the spring he got a real deal on a heavy gun safe whose owner was down on his luck and was in dire need of some cash. The guy had already sold all his guns and was having trouble finding anyone interested in the gun safe. So Lee bought it for less than a quarter of the price of a new one.
The winter was a long one and many more people were hitting on hard times. The unemployment rate was supposedly going down but neither Lee nor Meg believed that for a second. Many people they knew or heard about were losing their jobs and new jobs were sparse indeed. When unemployment
benefits ran out many were forced to get low paying part-time jobs.
In no way could they make a living on so little money. So they ended up working and getting food stamps and often welfare help also. But still the news and the politicians were saying the nation was recovering and unemployment was going down with the economy improving more every day. Who were they trying to fool and why try? They often pointed to the stock market when talking about the economy saying how the DOW was way up or the S&P was setting new record highs. How were those bigger stock prices helping the little guy?
Lee couldn’t believe all the new money the Federal Reserve was “printing”. The USA was buying its own debt. How could that be anything but bad? Lee and Meg were interested and learning as much as they could about the economy both here and abroad. And all about the financial health of our country and others. Things were not good and things were not improving. It seemed that the USA was not the only one printing money as fast as they could; many other countries were doing that too.
The Federal Reserve was printing about three billion new dollars per day! And that was just what we were hearing about. It seems the Federal Reserve was rather cloaked in some secrecy and did not have to disclose everything they did. Things like massive currency exchanges with other countries for one.
You just had to wonder where all that new money was going. It was obvious that much of it was feeding the rise in the stock market. Meg and Lee were both very concerned about all that new money printing. It seemed to be a very bad idea to begin with and now if they stopped it could easily cause even worse problems. So the Fed couldn’t keep it up but they couldn’t stop either. The Fed and the whole USA was between a rock and a hard place.