by Pete Thorsen
Then there was all the stuff going on in the Middle East, of course stuff was always going on over there. But untold numbers of people had been killed in a very bloody civil war in Syria and were still being killed there. Iran was trying (or maybe already had) to build nuclear bombs. Israel said if they did not cease that Israel would stop them with massive force. Everyone knew that Israel did not bluff either.
Then over in Asia there was the new little runt of a ruler in North Korea that would rattle the sabers whenever he thought people started to forget him. He seemed to be just a blowhard but who really knows what he and his country are capable of. They did have nukes and everybody knows it. China and Japan were facing off over some islands. Japan just launched a pretty big new warship that they said was not a carrier but looked just like a carrier.
Russia was busy selling any armament to anybody if they had cash. India and China would shoot at each other over the border every once and a while. India and Pakistan would shoot at each other every now and then. Yes the whole world was in turmoil to say the least. And at the same time just about every country that had some kind of economy was in dire straits with their economy. They all had to be very careful not to rock the boat very much because everyone’s boat was close to tipping over.
Lee got a big surprise one Friday night when he came home and Meg showed him the Remington 20 gauge shotgun she had bought at a yard sale on the way to work that morning. It was an older model 1100 that still looked like new and she had given only $125 for it. She had got most of a box of shells with the gun and had only waited to shoot it until Lee got home.
She seemed to know a lot about it already (thank you internet videos) and with Lee following her she went out to their ‘range’. She expertly loaded it and had Lee throw up a tin can he had brought with. She missed the first two times but hit the can the next two. Lee saw she waited for the can to stop at the apex of the arc before it started to fall before she shot so he suggested he throw the can from the side so it was a passing shot. This proved more difficult for her and she stopped when there were only a couple shells left and Lee wanted to try a couple shots. He was very surprised at how little recoil this shotgun had compared to his 12 gauge pump. He decided that Meg had made a very shrewd buy. The next time they went to town shopping Meg made sure they bought many boxes of ammo for her new shotgun in various shot sizes.
Chapter Four
Spring was here (finally). Lee still was working and the company he was working for actually told him they had projects lined up at least through summer and into the fall so his job was secure for that long at least. Meg’s job kept going along smooth so she was not concerned at all about hers. They had no major expenditures needed or in mind so they were just putting the extra money in the bank. Many of their friends were not near so lucky and Meg decided to have a small party/BBQ so all their friends could relax for a day (and have a good solid meal) and as a thank you for all their help getting everything built at their place.
She set it up for the weekend before Memorial weekend so it would not interfere if some had plans for that long weekend. Meg watched the sales and bought a large bunch of pork chops when they were on sale along with a whole lot of other stuff. She baked several apple pies using her home canned apples that she still had left. All their invited friends showed up and even the weather cooperated for a change and everyone had a wonderful time.
It was a chance for all of them to forget their worries at least for a few hours and just enjoy the company of friends. Meg’s home cooking and Lee’s expertise with the grill (nothing came out looking like a lump of coal) was appreciated by all. There was friendly competition in several games of horse shoes. Beer was consumed but it ‘ran out’ in the afternoon and most stayed for a second meal in early evening so there were only sober people driving back to their own homes that night.
Out of the blue one day Meg suggested that they take the classes to each get a concealed carry pistol permit. Lee was no longer surprised by things Meg came up with and in this case he promptly agreed. They looked in the newspaper and online and after making a couple phone calls they signed up for a class that was in St.Cloud and was three evenings at an indoor range but they would only shoot the last night of class.
The class went well and upon completion they both applied for permits, which they received about a month later. Now they could legally carry if they chose to. They both had the Ruger SR-22 pistols and Lee had got a used Glock 19 over winter quite cheap plus a used Hi-Point 9mm but that thing was way too bulky though at $100 it had been impossible for Lee to turn down the purchase of it.
On their next trip to town Meg looked at several of the gun stores and found a Beretta Tomcat 32 auto that she really liked. But when Lee asked if they should buy it she just said maybe later, we have enough guns for right now. With the warm weather they did shoot off and on at their place and now they had several different guns to shoot. Both thought they should continue to buy any bargains that they found as they were sure that the guns would be a sound investment.
They watched the news both local and on the internet and things seemed to continue to get worse. Even locally at St.Cloud there was a lot of gang activity and shootings and stabbings were not uncommon. Meg put her little Ruger pistol with ammo in her GHB that she carried in the trunk of her car.
Lee thought that was a good idea and did the same with his GHB that he carried in the locked work box in his truck. The more bad stuff they read about the more concerned they became. They had enlarged their garden a little this year and had bought a couple more chickens. Lee had quite a bit of chicken feed in their new shed and they let the chickens free range during the day so they could eat a lot of the bugs and seeds they found around the place.
They did order some more LTS food and Lee said he would watch for another hand pitcher pump if he saw one cheap. He had one that he had used when putting down the two wells to pump out any sand or debris that might be in the well after pounding it down so as not to hurt the electric pump when it was hooked up.
He knew he could easily put the hand pump back on either well and have virtually unlimited water without any electricity. They both would look at yard sales for cheap candles and oil lamps and they did order a crank up radio that had a light on it for emergencies. They also ordered four crank up flashlights, one for each GHB and a couple for at home. It was dark a lot during the long Minnesota winters.
Thinking of winter Lee called their propane dealer and asked about getting a thousand gallon tank to replace the five hundred gallon they had right now that they leased from the gas company. The company said they did not buy enough gas to warrant the bigger tank so they would not replace it. Lee asked if they had any for sale and if so how much to buy one as one way or another they were getting a bigger tank.
This got the company’s attention because if Lee bought his own tank he could then buy propane from any company he wished. As long as he leased the tank he could only buy gas from them. After a short discussion the company said they would lease them a bigger tank but because of the low usage they would have to pay fifty dollars a year to lease it. That was agreeable and the deal was made with their existing tank being replaced with the larger tank within the next month.
Neither of them could really think of much else they could do to be more prepared, they already had a small generator that Lee used around the property sometimes and for the rare times the electric went off. It wasn’t big enough to run everything but they really needed very little. Mainly their freezer and refrigerator. After talking about it with Meg, Lee decided to check around for some inexpensive materials to build a covered area over their wood pile to keep the rain and snow off.
Three weeks later on Meg’s birthday Lee gave her a present which was a little different because they never exchanged gifts. Shortly after they had gotten married they decided to make decisions together about all expenditures. When she opened the gift she found the compact Beretta pistol that she had liked at the gun store.
Lee saw she was not too surprised and had to wonder if that had been her plan the whole time.
But it did not matter as she was happy and Lee would feel better if she started carrying the gun for protection. He had bought several boxes of ammo for the gun of course and Meg took it out right away to try it. They had by this time put up permanent target holders at different ranges and built a sturdy shooting bench. It only took a brief look at the owner’s manual because they were both pretty familiar with firearms at this point and soon Meg was shooting her new gun. And she liked it which pleased them both. It was not quite as accurate as she was with her Ruger 22 pistol but this one was smaller.
After shooting some more Meg said she thought she would start carrying her new little gun. They went back to the shop where Meg herself cleaned her new compact carry pistol. She said she would just carry it in her purse for now but she would check out holsters and maybe get one or two for different carry options.
Lee found out about an old pole building that someone was going to tear down so he went to look at it and talk to the owner. It was fairly old but a lot of it could be reused so Lee asked about tearing it down. The guy said he couldn’t pay Lee much to tear it down for him but Lee just shook his head saying he thought he was the one who would have to pay for the materials.
They both got a chuckle out of it and the guy said he certainly did not want anything for it and would indeed pay Lee some for the work it would save him. Lee asked if it would be OK if he just cut the poles off at ground level and not dig them up and the man assured him that would be perfectly fine. So Lee had a good project tearing down the old building and hauling it to his place. The tear down went smooth and pretty quickly so soon he was setting the poles at his place.
They were shorter now which was fine for what he was doing and there turned out to be plenty of metal sheeting that was still good enough to use to sheet up the roof and three sides. It now covered all of his wood and had some room left. The whole job cost him very little because he only had to buy a small amount of dimensional lumber to replace some that was too far gone from the old building.
A fairly strong storm went through the area and was a good test for the wood shed Lee had built. It weathered the storm fine and the next week Lee got a call from his tree trimming friends saying they had a bunch of wood for him if he wanted it, which of course he did. He got enough to finish filling the new shed and had to even start stacking it alongside the new building. He finally told his friends that he was full up for now. They actually had a lot more they would have given him from all the storm damaged trees in the area after that last storm had blown through the area.
A little more persuading on their part and soon Lee was agreeing to take some more of the free wood. That way it would not cost his friends anything for them to get rid of it. Lee decided if it was just too much he would just sell some after he had it cut up in stove lengths and split. Many people burned wood and it was fairly easy to sell it.
Chapter Five
Meg and Lee continued to keep a close eye on the news and none of it was ever good. Locally crime was up a fairly substantial amount and many were putting the blame on all the Somali Muslims in the St. Cloud area. But there were also several gangs in the same area. Whatever the cause the effect was a jump in crime and much of it was violent crime.
Meg now always carried her pistol and often never took it off even at home. The national scene was not any better. There had been a few mass shootings (at least that is what the media called them) and there was a big push for gun control both national in DC and at the state level in all states. A while back the President on his own had run a ‘little’ war in Libya and things were heating up now even more in Syria and talk was we were going to war over there.
Or maybe going to war with Iran because that was still a hot potato. The North Korea thing was on a back burner right now but that could flame up again at any time. The economy was still tanked and the Federal Reserve was still ‘printing’ about three billion dollars a day with no end in sight. At least they now had the new thousand gallon propane tank at their house and it was full.
The garden was drawing to a close and had produced a good amount for them and Meg had a lot of home canned veggies in their basement. Their apple trees had produced even more this year as the young trees were still not fully mature. So there were a lot of canned apples on hand also. This year for the first time they tried drying some of the sliced apples. They had bought a used dehydrator at a yard sale. The dried apple slices were great and Lee liked taking some in his lunches. When they had the chance to pick apples for free from one of the neighbors who had trees but never used the apples Lee and Meg jumped at the chance for more apples. All of these they cut and dried. They also bought and planted three more apple trees on their place for future use.
They had found four oil lamps at yard sales and had bought several gallons of lamp oil (they heard lamp oil had a very long shelf life). They had bought an old hand meat grinder with a couple extra blades in case they ever wanted to grind their own meat (Lee was still planning to shoot his first deer this year). When pheasant season opened both Meg and Lee got licenses and spent some time in the area hunting. They both enjoyed the hunting and both managed to shoot several pheasants which they found to be very good eating.
Soon it was November and Lee went deer hunting just a mile from home on a neighbor’s place. It was anti-climatic as he was only gone three hours and brought home a small buck deer (there were many deer in the area) and decided to buy a second doe/fawn tag which he filled the following weekend. He brought the deer in and had them processed at a local butcher shop that did a big business during deer season.
Never having eaten venison before the first time they both found the taste ‘different’. After eating it a couple more times they decided they liked it and after eating it regular for a couple months the beef they had tasted ‘different’ and they decided next year they both might go deer hunting.
Winter was here and Lee was still working and his company actually had a few projects lined up. They had even brought back a few workers they had laid off quite a while back. But many other businesses and companies were not doing so well and many were still out of work.
Winter seemed to be a good time to buy guns, because again Lee heard about several bargain deals and bought several more guns at crazy low prices from those who needed money bad. He kinda felt bad like he was robbing them but they set the price and their other option was the pawn shop and that would net them even less money.
By the end of winter the gun safe in the basement was getting pretty full. And not just with guns. After reading about the banks stealing money out of the savings accounts of regular people on the island of Cyprus, to prop up the government, Meg and Lee were not so sure their money was so safe here in the United States either.
So they had started to buy ‘junk’ silver US coins and those were put in the gun safe also. They left a fair sized emergency fund in the bank and both had IRA accounts that they fully funded each year (even though at this point they thought they would maybe never see that money). They had to slow their shooting as ammunition was getting almost impossible to buy now. The stores were always out of just about everything.
Not that Lee and Meg were out as they had a pretty good supply but they wanted more and both kept an eye out for ammo everywhere they thought might have some. When Meg found some reloading supplies at a yard sale she knew she wanted to buy it. She was surprised that it was still there because she was on her way home and the stuff had been for sale all day and she knew that ammo reloading stuff was hot right now and hard to find. So she asked how much (nothing was marked) as she pointed to a single stage press.
“I’m not selling any of it piecemeal. Its all or nothing and I want $300 for all of it cash.”
“What do I get?”
“What you see you get. The press, those five sets of dies, the powder scale and measure, and the case tumbler. There also might be a couple
odds and ends to add that I did not bring out yet.”
“I’ll take it all and I have the cash right here.”
The guy was quite surprised that he sold all the junk and especially to this little slip of a girl. But that was great for him because he did not shoot anymore and wanted to be rid of the stuff. His guns were already sold so this was nothing he wanted any longer.
He helped her carry it to her car and told her to wait while he looked because he thought he had a couple other things she might as well take with. Meg waited and looked at the rest of the things the man and his wife had for sale while chatting to the wife about this and that.
It was a good fifteen or twenty minutes before the guy came back with a big box that looked quite heavy. He headed directly to her car and seeing him struggle with the box she ran ahead and opened the trunk where he gratefully set the box down.
“I found a lot of stuff I didn’t know I had anymore. I’m glad you waited so I could get it all out of my basement.”
“Well thank you for all the extra stuff. Do I owe you any more? Cause that looks like quite a bunch of stuff that you brought out here.”
“Nope. We made a deal and I want you to take this with too. It’s only partial boxes and stuff mostly anyway. I’m happy to have the space now. I hope you can put it to good use.”
With that Meg bid him goodbye and went home. After supper she asked Lee to help her unload the trunk because she had bought some junk at a yard sale. Lee was surprised to see what the ‘junk’ turned out to be.
They had talked about getting into reloading but it was almost impossible to find either new or used and it was also expensive. They carried it all in and laid it out on the basement floor. They were both surprised at all the stuff she had bought.