“Is this your boyfriend now?” Sofie asked, with a definite tease in her voice.
“Why yes, yes he is,” Sarah Mae replied quickly, winking at me. I gulped, the chuckle stopped dead in my throat!
“Sofie! You mind your manners,” her mamma scolded.
Out the door Sofie scooted, singing; “Sarah’s got a boyfriend. Sarah’s got a boyfriend,” giggling all the way.
Sunny offered us some hot tea. Sarah Mae said we’d love some, that that’s something we didn’t have at the homestead. She went out on the porch and lit her stove. She had propane!
“Where do you get your propane tank filled Sunny,” I asked.
“The Island,” she said. “The pick-up boat brings me supplies I order each week. If they have what I want, I get it the next week. If not, it might take a couple of weeks or more.”
“Can you get me some tea please?” Sarah Mae asked.
“Honey, you can take this box with you. I have another, and yes, I’ll order more,” she said, with a smile.
“Where do they get stuff?” I asked.
“Mostly from Chokoloskee, but sometimes from Everglades City,” she answered. “I don’t have a boat, so they bring it to me, as a perk of doing business with them.”
“I see. Hey, can you drive there by roads?”
“Sure you can, except not from here. My place is water access only, to keep me from being raided. Then there’s the little fact that I don’t have a car either,” she said.
“Do you know how to drive though?” I asked.
“Sure.”
“We have a van, but none of us know how to drive,” I told her. “Can you drive a van?”
“Yep, I sure can.”
“Cool! Will you drive us to Everglades City to buy some supplies someday, if we come get you two in a boat?” I asked. “We have our own money.”
“Hell yeah! I’d be happy to,” she said. “I haven’t been there in a long time! You know though, there’s a Walsanto store over by Naples that has everything. That’d be a lot cheaper, and it’s only about 40 miles away, straight west on the Tamiami Trail.”
~
This arrangement made life a lot easier for us in the beginning. Looking back at it now, I have to say that Sunny providing us with that bit of information, at just the right time, then actually following through and driving us there on our first supply run made a huge difference in securing our safety and comfort that first winter. She walked us through making a list of wants, then prioritizing it. None of us were shopping savvy. It allowed us to get some things that I knew how to use, like Tattler reusable jar lids and new rings that we desperately needed for food preservation. The other kids didn’t have a clue about it. Lamp oil came in gallon jugs, and was crazy expensive, but it kept us in light until we learned how to make our own later.
Having a large supply of stick matches and butane lighters was cheap. Toilet paper was a luxury that we had already learned to appreciate. Toothpaste, tooth brushes and bar soap were another thing I’m glad we didn’t have to do without. Tea and coffee made the girls very happy. A case of .410 shot shells, 10 cartons of pellets with 1,200 in each assured us that Maya could provide us with fresh poultry on a regular basis.
Sara Mae convinced us to buy, and taught us to use large fish hooks and wire for hanging strips of meat and fish up to smoke. Donald remembered that we needed batteries for the walkie talkies that he and his dad had had. That allowed us to establish a schedule with Sunny to check-in back and forth, by sending one home with her.
I felt sure that now we could fill our pantry with the most important foods for our needs, just exactly as Mom had taught me to do back in Michigan. We canned alligator white meat alone, and made meaty broth with the dark. We made and canned meaty bird broth (from anything with feathers, basically). We smoked our extra fish, and stored it in jars that we vacuum sealed by heating on the grill.
We got so far ahead that it was no worry when we added members to our tribe; but that’s for the next time we get together. At least now you know how we got our start.
A note from Boyd:
Thanks for reading ADRIAN.
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Adrian (Genetic Apocalypse Book 2) Page 7