Universal Mass

by Coleinger, Ronnie

  When the guys arrived at the Mountain House, they began unloading the engine in the barn. They would spend the next few days setting cedar posts for the pole barn that they would build over the engines once they were set in place. Then they would build the electrical room and run power cables into the Mountain House. They would keep the generator power completely separate from the existing utility power so they could use either or both whenever they needed. They would simply wire outlets wherever they needed to plug in the grow lights or where they needed outlets for special equipment like the radio and pumps for the hydroponics. They would also wire in a couple lights around the animal pens in the barn and a couple in the mineshaft. Having some emergency lighting in the mineshaft would be great.

  By the time the guys had closed up the barn, the snow began to fall again. Earlier in the week, the snow had come down light and fluffy, but the warm southerly winds of this storm brought with it heavy wet snow. By the time the sun had set, they had accumulated another six inches of wet snow. Having the underground tunnel between the barn and the house made life in the winter much easier. Not only did the barn provide a safe and warm home for the animals, it also provided a place for humans to get away from the other clan members when they needed some time alone. The married couples used the barn as a romantic getaway whenever they were in need.

  The following morning, the snow had let up and the skies cleared. The air temperature hovered just a bit above freezing. The guys decided they had best get the holes dug for the concrete footings before the ground froze too deep to dig. The power auger that mounted on the tractor would make short work of digging the twelve-inch diameter holes, but frozen ground would quickly destroy the auger. They used the tractor to plow a flat area on the south side of the barn. They hoped that the barn would help block some of the noise that the steam engine would produce whenever it was running. Placing the electrical room over one hundred feet away from the house would make the wires feeding power to the house quite long, but it was the best solution. Ground vibration from the engines was also a concern.

  The guys mounted the posthole digger on the tractor and tested it behind the barn. They wanted to bury some broken concrete blocks anyway, so they used the test hole for that purpose. Then they measured out the location of the building and staked it out with wooden stakes. They decided where they wanted the roof support columns and dug the holes with the auger. Within an hour, they had enough holes for the entire building, including the electrical room. They hauled the cedar posts from the barn with the tractor and began setting them in place. The ground was already wet, so they simply poured two bags of concrete mix into each hole and poured in a little water. By suppertime, they had all the posts set and level. With the posts set, they could concentrate their efforts at getting the underground conduits run between the new pole barn and the house. They planned to run two four-inch diameter PVC conduits for the cabling. Getting the conduits installed before the ground froze was imperative. The backhoe could dig a little frozen earth, but a solid freeze would force them to lay the conduits on the surface of the ground until the ground thawed in the spring.

  As the guys walked into the house for supper, Timothy met them at the door. He was all excited and stood there shuffling from one foot to the other. Randy kneeled down and pulled his son into his arms, hoping to discover the reason for the boy’s excitement. Randy finally asked him why he was so excited. Timothy said, “It is a secret. I cannot tell you or Britney will get mad.” Randy released his grip on the boy and watched him scamper back into the mineshaft.

  Once the guys took off their boots and hung up their coats, they walked into the mineshaft. They could tell that something was going on with the girls, but none of them caught on to the true reason. Randy walked over to his bed and pulled out his day planner. He turned to the last page where he had written down everyone’s birthday. He soon discovered that it was not a birthday. He turned the page to the anniversary list and discovered what he was looking for. Today was Robert and Kathy’s anniversary. Randy walked out into the kitchen area and pulled Robert out to the living area where the girls could not hear. Then he explained to Robert that it was his anniversary. Robert laughed and said, “I already know that. Did you think I forgot Kathy’s anniversary?” Randy laughed and said, “Actually, I did think that. Forgetting special occasions is something I often do.”

  When the guys walked back into the kitchen, Britney walked up to them and asked, “Did you two figure out the special occasion we are celebrating today?” Robert laughed and said, “I remembered. I have a present for my wife hidden in my bedroom closet.” Britney hugged Robert and said, “Perfect.”

  As they sat down at the table, Kathy slid over so she was sitting beside her husband. He leaned over and kissed her hard on the lips. She giggled and said, “For that, you are sleeping in the barn tonight.” The sound of giggling from the boys spread to the others and soon everyone was laughing. Britney asked Timothy what was so funny. He smiled and said, “Robert has to sleep in the barn because he was kissing.” That comment made everyone laugh even harder.

  When the evening meal was over and everyone began picking up the dishes, Britney slipped off to the food storage area and returned with a beautifully decorated cake. On the top, she had written the words, Kathy and Robert. True Love.

  Randy and Rodney were digging the trench for the underground conduit before daylight. By the time Robert joined them, the sun had been up for two hours. As Robert got to work, Bonnie, Britney and Kathy joined them. They were carrying shovels and had on their work clothes and gloves. As Randy and Rodney talked to them, Britney said, “You guys worked much too hard yesterday and this conduit must be installed and covered before dark tonight. The only way that is going to happen is if you have help. We are here to insure that the last shovel of dirt is in the trench before the ground freezes.”

  As they worked, the black clouds began to move in over the mountains and the temperature began to drop. Britney said, “The weatherman said that the storm would be here by dark tonight and he is predicting two feet of snow and temperatures down into the teens by morning.” We should be able to finish this project with little difficulty.”

  By the time they packed the last shovel full of dirt down into the trench with the wheels of the tractor, the snow was flying and the wind chill factor was down around zero. When the crew closed the barn door and began walking down the tunnel towards the house, Randy said, “I want to thank you girls for helping us today. Without your help, we would not have finished. In fact, we would have a frozen mess by morning. Thank you all.”

  When they stepped into the living area, they found the boys looking into the ends of the PVC conduits they had stubbed up through the floor. They heard Timothy yell into one pipe and then little Donald would put his ear to the other pipe to listen for an echo. Since Robert had put plastic buckets over the ends of the pipes out at the new building, they probably were in fact hearing an echo.

  ***

  As the mineshaft got quiet and everyone was almost asleep, the sound of an airplane buzzing the top of the Mountain House brought the entire clan to their feet. They all went to the front windows in the living area to try to see the airplane. It circled the top of the mountain three times before heading south towards Hillsburg. They could see the flashing lights, but could not make out the actual plane.

  Britney ran back into the kitchen and turned on the radio. She tried to keep the volume as low as possible so as not to wake the boys. After listening to some jibber jabber for a few minutes, the announcer said, “Our telephone lines are lighting up with phone calls about an airplane circling the city. We cannot hear the plane here in the studio, but people say it is a small single engine plane. We will keep you informed when we get some more information.” As the radio station returned to its normal evening programming, the clan decided the show was over and headed back to bed.

  As they all lay awake, thinking about the airplane that buzzed the mountain, they realized
that they had not seen or heard an airplane in over four years. Bonnie said, “The sound of a propeller airplane souring across the sky causes the same smile to appear on ones face as does a freight train rumbling through the mountains.”

  The weather remained bitter cold. The guys had nailed down the last of the metal roofing over the new generator shelter. They wanted to start the first of the two steam engines in the morning. After they finished running the engine, they would have to drain down the boiler and the three steam lines before they had time to freeze. They had rigged up drain valves to insure every drop of water drained. One cup of water left inside a lines would quickly freeze and expand with enough force to split even the heaviest steel pipe. Even with the freezing being an issue, running the steam engines instead of burning gasoline to run their generators or paying for electricity from the power company was a no brainer. With the steam engines, they would have emergency power on demand for many years to come.

  The steam engines required sixty gallons of water in the boiler before the guys could light a fire in the firebox. Providing that amount of water and then providing a continuous resupply of water to make up for any loss, was at first difficult. The guys had buried a 1000-gallon resin drum in the ground where they hoped to capture rainwater and snow off the roof of the new shelter. They had installed metal gutters around the entire building to catch rainwater and send it to the drum buried in the ground. The drum was not likely to freeze even in the coldest months, but the gutters and downspouts would. The guys built four small woodstoves under the metal room to melt snow and to help heat the uninsulated metal roof. If the steam engines were running, there was no chance of freezing the water lines, but keeping the four stoves working during wet winter weather could prove difficult. They soon realized that the four stoves provided enough heat to melt the snow off the roof. They could also melt any ice buildup in the gutters and downspouts within a couple hours’ time. They also soon realized that keeping the buried drum full of rainwater was not difficult during the winter. However, during the summer, they would have to rely on the rains.

  As the guys sat at the kitchen table eating supper, Timothy asked, “Why not just fill the underground tank with water from the river or the flowing well in the mineshaft.” Robert said, “Remember that the boiler can build up mineral deposits from any water that has touched the ground. The mineral deposits reduce heat transfer and are very hard to remove. Rainwater or snow has only very minute trace amounts of minerals and provides a reasonable mineral free water supply.”

  It was a Friday morning when the guys lit a fire in the firebox of the first steam engine. It took the better part of an hour before the firebox produced enough steam to begin sending steam to the valve and piston. Once the flywheel started turning, the generator began to output voltage. Once the centrifugal governor that Randy and Jenna had built began to bypass a portion of the steam entering the turbine, Robert measured the voltage coming from the electric generator with a multi-meter. The voltage was only 142 volts. Randy fully opened a bypass valve and waited until no more steam entered the valve and piston assembly and the flywheel stopped turning. They made an adjustment on the centrifugal governor and then closed the bypass valve. When the steam engine was up to speed again, they measured the voltage from the generator and found it still too low. After an hour or so of adjusting on the governor, they soon got the voltage up to 240 volts where they wanted it. When Randy measured the voltage to the neutral, he had exactly 120 volts.

  By late in the afternoon, the wind picked up and everyone quickly got cold. Even though the steam engine was very hot, the wind sucked the heat from their bodies’ right through their clothing. They decided to give up the project for the night. It would be dark and extremely cold in another thirty minutes. They had already planned the work schedule for tomorrow. Weather permitting; they would get the second steam engine and generator running. Once they had both generators properly adjusted, they would power up the new outlets they installed in the main living area and test the generators under full load.

  As they sat down to the kitchen table to eat supper, Britney asked if anyone minded if she left the radio on for a few more minutes. She explained that there would be a broadcast in a few minutes about commercial air travel.

  As they ate, the broadcast began. Everyone listened intently to the information. The man explained that small private airplanes were once again flying; however, commercial airlines remain grounded in fear of another resizing event. He went on to explain that ground transportation was on a steady increase. Small sized busses and passenger cars were now being mass-produced and becoming all the rage in the larger cities of the world. Passenger trains with an improved automatic shutdown system to prevent any further runaway scenarios were now providing cross-country transportation. Large-scale indoor greenhouses were showing up all around the world. Fresh vegetables and fruit were once again showing up on supper tables in many of the world’s larger cities.

  The broadcast also explained that petroleum products were in short supply around the world and rationing was becoming the norm. The clan already knew that to be true. The gas stations in Hillsburg had begun rationing many weeks earlier. The guys had taken some of the cash from the safe and used it to fill up the gas tanks on the trucks and the gasoline cans. Hoarding was already becoming prevalent with gasoline along with some food items such as meat and fresh vegetables.

  When the clan began work on the second steam engine the following morning, they all discussed what they needed to do before Mother Nature launched her winter assault on the mountains. They had a good supply of preserved meat and their vegetables now thrived under the artificial lights. With the new steam engines and generators, they could have electricity to keep the light on even if the power company was unable to supply them with power.

  The planet had never fully recovered from the fast spinning black hole, but the seasons did get somewhat longer. The rotational speed of planet Earth had leveled out and had remained constant over the last six months. Presently, the Earth made one complete revolution around the sun every 202 days and the length of a day remained at approximately seventeen hours. The length of a day had changed drastically over the last fourteen months, but now seemed stable.

  Some animals that escaped the resizing and remained full size did appear from time to time around the world, but the scientists could not discover a genetic reason for the phenomenon. Even if our scientists were to discover a genetic method to resize the world’s population, they could not and would not do so. Small is now the normal on planet Earth. The smaller sized animals now living on this planet were more efficient and used less of the planet’s resources. A good thing if we wished to continue our existence on this third planet from the sun.

  Clothing manufactures begin mass-producing clothing for the resized humans. Leather boots were in high demand, but the business owners around the world pledged to their customers to keep the costs as low as possible. As the clothing and footwear began appearing in the stores, everyone discovered, to their surprise, that the large corporations were true to their word and kept the prices extremely low. Manufacturing plants quickly sprang up in all of the major cities and jobs, once again, became available to the masses.

  Chapter 19 – The Beginning of a New Ice Age

  A teacher from the school district paid the clan a visit and offered to help them home school Timothy. The teacher ran a state approved home school program and set them up with the required books and materials, and then provided the state with the proper paperwork to prove compliance with state laws. Randy and Jenna would have to make monthly trips into Hillsburg to deliver and pick up homework. The teacher explained that she would make periodic trips to the Mountain House to spend some one on one time with the clan to see how they were progressing. She had explained that when the weather was bad or the roads to treacherous to travel, they would simply discuss Timothy’s work and progress over the telephones.

  The phone system around Hillsburg was now
mostly reliable. Since the satellites that once allowed for cell phone service were no longer in orbit, having reliable landline phone service was essential. If the power company shut down the electrical service to Hillsburg, the phone system could rely on their own generators to recharge their batteries. As long as the phone company could afford the fuel to keep the generators running, they could provide telephone service.

  As the clan watched the weather become more and more inhospitable, they began to wonder if the animals that they relied upon for food would survive the deep snow and bitter cold weather. There were places in the mountains where twenty or more feet of snow covered the forests. The guys had discovered the river valley below the Mountain House practically covered over in drifted snow. If the inclement weather and deep snow did not kill off the animals that lived in the mountains, the spring snowmelt and run off surely would. They made the decision to try to hike into the forest to the north of the Mountain House and see if they could trap or shoot game, especially any animals that would surely starve to death. The weatherman had predicted sunny skies for the next three days and they hoped to take advantage of the sunshine. If the sun did shine, the animals would be out in force, foraging and hunting for their own subsistence.

  During breakfast, the day before their scheduled trapping and hunting trip, the clan discussed building a new structure on the property. They were considering digging a twelve-foot deep pit in the center of the old barn so they could create an underground area to house the animals. They would have to build the underground structure from cedar timbers harvested from the forest. Once the structure was complete, they would then cover it over with the dirt they dug from the ground. They would also connect the new underground building to the tunnel so they could access it from the barn or the Mountain House. Having the underground structure would give them a safe area for the animals in case a meteorite happened to catch the barn on fire or the heavy snow collapsed the roof. If they constructed the building properly, it would last for many years. The ground under the barn was quite light and sandy and would not be difficult to dig. Their only concern would be not to weaken the existing supporting structure of the barn. The original contractors drilled down to bedrock and poured tons of concrete to create the column supports before they raised the barn and they would most likely never move, but great caution would be required to insure they did nothing to damage the supports.