Our End Of The Lake: Surviving After The 2012 Solar Storm (Prepper Trilogy)

by Ron Foster

  “We did good. I am counting 6 or 7. Looks like the party is on! “I said thumping Donnie on the back and watching Jack bob up and down at a respectful distance to look through the spaces between the poles at our captured feast.

  “I figure 6, but it’s sort of hard to see with them moving around in there.” Jack said grinning at our success.

  “So what do we do now?” Donnie asked skeptically eying the birds.

  “We go call a meeting with Frank and find out if everyone on his side of the inlet wants to have a little shindig or not” I said dropping a pole down in the entrance to our Turkey cabin.

  “What’s that for? I thought you said they wouldn’t get out.” Jack asked me.

  “They won’t, but I don’t want any others to get in, this is plenty and I want to find out if anyone on the other side of the lake knows how to clean one so I can get some help. I hate plucking and preparing the damn things and if I can get out of that task I will somehow.” I advised my trapping partners and they agreed that sounded like a good idea especially if it didn’t involve me having to teach them.

  We loaded back up and went back to the compound and I told Sherry about our success and asked if she was ready to go visit Frank and Nancy.

  She was very happy to get out of helping the others with the laundry and had been looking forward to our return trip anyway and so Sherry and I took the motor boat over for a visit to our neighbors.

  Frank and Nancy either saw or heard us coming and were wandering down to their dock.

  “Nice boat David, I saw you wrestling it down off the boat lift yesterday. That belonged to Mr. Mullins who no one’s seen much around here in years. He is an older guy that lives in Atlanta, so I doubt you will be hearing him complain about your using it.” Frank said with a twinkle in his eye.

  “I am sure thankful that Mr. Mullins kept it in such fine shape. It feels strange to just up and take things, but it would be just dumb not to put things to use, that people might not ever get a chance to see again.” I said and wandered up to the Deck with him.

  Sherry and Nancy were already up there and having an animated talk so I guessed that Sherry had told her about my proposed party.

  “Frank, Sherry says her group wants to have a Thanksgiving party with us. Doesn’t that sound like a great idea?” Nancy said beaming at her husband.

  Sherry and I talked to them about an hour and we tentatively picked tomorrow for it if all the lake residents agreed to it. I told Frank how I wanted to cook the turkeys but said we only had found 3 metal trash cans and did he know where any were at. He said the boat ramp around the bend had some and a little park with tables so it would be the perfect meet up place to hold our little get together.

  Frank sent his two kids off on their bicycles to ask the other residents around him if they wanted to attend and we waited for the kids to give us RSVP back from them.

  “Frank, do you or anyone that might be coming to our party know how to clean a turkey?” I tentatively broached the subject.

  “Well I can, I used to turkey hunt and I am pretty sure Lamar knows how. He deer and hog hunts so it’s entirely possible. How did you get so many? I haven’t heard you all doing a bunch of shooting so you must have been back on the lake a ways cheating and hunting from the boat” he said interested as any avid hunter would be.

  “He trapped them” Sherry chimed in happily before catching herself and looking perplexed that she had let my little secret out and wasn’t supposed to.

  “Yea, I trapped them, but it’s my little secret how I did it for now” I said not wishing to have any competition in that arena.

  “This little Thanksgiving celebration is on us, but in the future I might want to barter with you on this side of the lake if your hunting skills don’t match my trapping skills, you might want to trade me some cans of food or something for the opportunity to have one of my birds when I have a surplus.” I told him.

  “You find a farm or something with turkeys on it?” He asked me directly and studied me while I gave my answer.

  “No these are wild; you will see them with their feathers on to confirm that when I bring them over tomorrow morning so you and Lamar was it can help to clean them. I got six of them. So anybody else that’s up to task would be welcome too. I will be head cook and I caught them so I think I shouldn’t have to do any of the plucking and cleaning. Does that sound fair?” I said and sipped some hot Kool-Aid that actually didn’t taste too bad.

  “OK, I think that sounds reasonable to me. It’s not a job I much like either but seeing how much trouble you are already going too sounds like a fair deal to me. The procedure is simple but takes a bit of time. The easiest way is to skin the whole bird after gutting it. However, this is not the best way to treat a bird for cooking. For the best flavor, you need to leave the skin on. The steps for cleaning the bird and leaving the skin on is as follows:

  1. Remove the head.

  2. Make an incision about 4 inches long in the bird’s underside just in front of his tail.

  3. Pull out the guts but reserve the crop (gizzard), the heart and the liver. The rest goes into the gut pile.

  4. Heat a bucket of water to boiling. Hold the bird by its feet and plunge it into the boiling water for a few seconds. This loosens the feathers and enables you to remove them.

  5. Pull off the feathers. This is the hard part and may require re-dipping the bird to loosen all the feathers.

  6. Once you have the feathers off, you will still have a few small feathers left on the bird. These can be singed off by holding the bird over the burner of a gas stove, camp fire or whatever; keeping the bird moving over the flame, you only want to singe off the tiny feathers, not cook the bird.

  7. Thoroughly wash the bird inside and out with fresh cold water.

  8. Remove the feet and either cook the bird or freeze it for later use.

  “I just soon skin them. If I was going to fry one I would leave the skin on, but baking them like I am going to do, I don’t think it makes a huge difference. They will have been dead less than an hour time I bring them over, so you can do it however you like” I said to Frank and looked out to see if the kids were returning yet or not.

  “You must have netted trade secret, I won’t try to get it out of you just yet but Lucas will. He looks like Rambo when he goes hunting and even puts those birds on the roost or something. I know on camouflage paint under his camouflage veil. He is going to worry you to death trying to find out a new hunting trick be legal or illegal. Hell it’s the illegal things that work best don’t they David?’ Frank said with a smile.

  “Yeah you might say that.” I allowed, but was not giving up my little turkey fort trick.

  “You need to ride across the Lake and meet a man named Boudreaux, now that guy can catch most anything. He even goes out for alligators around here.” Nancy said to Sherry.

  “Alligators? This lake has gators? She said in surprise.

  “She meant Alligator as in Gar fish, but I wouldn’t put it past a gator to be way back in one of these sloughs somewhere in the swampy area of the lake. None around here though.” Frank said to a relived Sherry.

  After about 20 minutes the Kids came wheeling back and said everyone was up for what they referred to as a picnic and for us to expect an additional nine people.

  “You sure it’s 9 Josh? He asked his eldest.

  “Yes Sir, the Stokes family has a guest” he said

  “I wonder who that might be.” Nancy said looking at Frank.

  “Don’t know guess we find out tomorrow, wonder if who ever it is can clean turkeys” Frank said and then laughed.

  “You need a ride over to the Boat ramp or is it pretty close?” I asked Frank

  “Oh we can walk over, but I want to bring some extra fixings for that meal if you don’t mind picking up a few things from the end of my pier as you come by would make it easier on me.” Frank replied and I said I would check the ends of piers on the way by if anyone else wanted to do the same thing
as him.

  “Anyone going to have a problem with open carry firearms” I said tentatively and wondering how my question would be received.

  “A few people might be carrying the same way as you prefer too, just keep it toned down if you would, after all it’s a party” Frank responded and I told him we would not be coming armed for bear, just keeping them handy and attended.

  Sherry and I said our good byes and boated back to our dock to inform everyone that the Thanksgiving Day picnic was officially on for tomorrow.

  Everyone started talking about what to bring besides the turkeys and I told them to just throw some canned vegetables into a bag and we would carry our two Dutch ovens and some rice. That’s it, nothing fancy and definitely no Mountain House freeze dried stuff or any other long term storage food we had. The other side of the lake would probably pitch in too and we would just dump all the vegetables in one pot and call it garden medley. There was a bit of grumbling about not being able to prepare any special dishes but everyone pretty much understood the importance of just showing what could be scavenged on the Lake.

  Jack and I got out a big water cooler like the ones they carry on utility trucks and I mixed up about 4 gallons of purified water with orange drink mix and a half gallon of rum to take along.

  The girls made up several quarts of apple drink mix and then we settled in for the evening.

  The next day Donnie and Jack escorted me back to the turkey trap and after I had dispatched them we loaded the feathered carcasses into the lawn tractors trailer and Jack drove them back to camp while Donnie and I walked back on foot.

  “I can’t believe the size of the Tom you got, he must weigh at least 30lbs “Jack said congratulating me on a big old bearded gobbler we had taken.

  “Yea he is a big old boy, be sure to hand him to someone called Lucas so we can give him a dose of turkey envy” I said looking forward to showing off our prizes.’

  “You are going to take one or both boats David? Donnie asked as we hiked along and I stopped to point out a blackberry patch we needed to bring the girls out to show sometime.

  “We will bring both, Jack and I have to figure out how we are going to alternate guarding our compound while the other is at the party. I will probably go over first do the meet and greet then get the turkeys started cooking and come back and relieve him. Sherry can sail good enough I think if she takes it slow but I might let her use the motor boat. I haven’t decided what’s best yet.

  “I could help you all stand guard.” Donnie offered.

  “No we got it, but thanks anyway. You need to be trying to talk up bartering and maybe mention a little something about our bank.” I replied and although that was a good reason to keep him over there. I did not want him having access to our whole camp and seeing what we had stashed around it, after all he was still new to us.

  “Shush, there’s deer” I said to Donnie seeing a Buck and a few does come out of the woods and start to go across the road. A .223 round is not an ideal deer round but I was loaded with hollow points just for such occasion and I took my shot. Blam! I hit the deer just under the shoulder and he staggered and then ran about 50 yards into the woods on the other side of the road and died. We waited about 5 minutes or so and went to look for the body in case he hadn’t bleed out and was still traveling but in this case it was unnecessary.

  “Good shot David! I thought to try for a Doe but I didn’t think we needed it too and I was a bit concerned about trying it with a 9mm” Donnie said looking down at a nice 6 pointer.

  I am glad he didn’t shoot too, no telling where that bullet would have gone I thought. To be fair Donnie had not any range time so I was only going off of what Jack had said previously. I think I will warn the folks at the party today that we were going to have a little firing practice tomorrow so they didn’t think we were fighting a range war or something.

  “Help me get his head pointing downhill and I will cut his throat and let him bleed and let the carcass cool down” I said grabbing the deer’s back legs while Donnie maneuvered the front.

  “You think Jack will be back to investigate the shot” Donnie asked leaning against a tree in the shade.

  “He probably will, he knows we took a shot at something and will most likely figure out we might have bagged some game” I said listening for the roar of the engine.

  “I think I hear him coming, come on we will wave him down.” I said and hurried through the woods to get back to the road.

  Upon seeing me and Donnie emerge from the wood line Jack looked around left and right while slowing to meet us and stopping the Lawn mower.

  “You get a shot at something?” Jack said inquiringly

  “Yea we got a Deer, he is off in the bushes about 50 yards from here.” I said smiling

  “Way to go! I had just dumped those turkeys down by the Dock when I heard the shot and decided to see what it was about” Jack said dismounting the tractor and following us back through the brush where the deer lay.

  “Even has a bit of a rack on him, you know any weird survival tricks for using the Horns David” Jack said half serious.

  “No, just the usual stuff like making simple tools but we not stone age bush crafting out here” I replied smiling at my buddy.

  “I can carry him up to the trailer” Donnie said starting to fireman carry the deer up to the trailer over his shoulder.

  “You might want to wait a bit on that, Donnie. The carcass has not really cooled yet and all the fleas, ticks and mites will jump off him and onto you if you don’t wait a bit.” I advised.

  “Oh yea, that makes sense” Donnie said

  “Jack when we get back grab one of those extra poles we got and we can tie the deer’s legs together and it will be easier to tote him around.” I said and he agreed.

  When we got back to camp I saw that the girls already had the boats loaded and ready to go. They had a wet sheet covering the turkeys in the bottom of the sail boat and the rest of the gear in the motor boat.

  “I am taking the sailboat right David?” Sherry said matter of factly and pointed out how well she had stowed the turkeys and commented on how heavy they were.

  “They didn’t help you carry them?” I said indicating the girls.

  “Well Sandra did, but nobody else would touch them. They are kind of messy missing their heads an all, but I told them they could have just grabbed them by the wings or feet but they just made faces and excuses.” Sherry responded looking like she was the proud hunter of this quarry too.

  “I guess we put the deer in with them, too.” I suggested eying what space was left

  “Can you prop him up on the bow someway like a figure head? That would look so cool. Sherry said thinking of the great entrance she was going to make sailing in a boat load of wild game all by herself to the party.

  “Yeah, I can rig him lying on his belly, but you can’t have him looking like he will butt something, because his neck will flop around too much. Jack give me a hand with this deer.” I said and wrestled it onto the boat and tied it down securely. I got to admit it did look quite impressive sprawled out with a leg on each side and its head secured to look forward by a cleat.

  “Behold the mighty huntress and her sailboat.” I said displaying my creation.

  “Tell Lois to give you that camo shotgun and wear your olive drab boonie hat and the picture will be complete” I said grinning at her while watching jack help my mom onto the Chris Craft.

  “Hang on a minute; I want to get my hat.” Sherry said running to get it and wanting to go all out to my amusement.

  “Jack you just hold down the fort here and I will be back in about 4 hours max to get you fed and takeover. I might even bring a nibble you can have on your way if everything goes to plan. I will do a commo check with you on the two way radio when we get there, but if we lack commo because of the range of those things just fire off three quick shots and we will come a running if you need us.” I said shook his hand.

  “No worries, take care of Lois
and save me lots of turkey” he said smiling as a frantic Sherry ran past him with her hat hanging down by its chin strap on her back and climbing into the sailboat to start getting ready to get under way.

  “Sherry, now hold on a minute. I got a few things to go over with you. I have too pick up a few things off Franks dock and the others if anything’s there. You need to be just slowly tacking and zig zagging towards the boat ramp while I am doing that. I don’t want you to come into the boat ramp before I do. Now listen to me this is very important. I don’t know how deep that water is in front of that ramp. Get about 200 feet out from it and put the nose of your boat in the wind and calm the sail. Then crank that center board up at least halfway. There is no indicator to tell you when halfway is but you can sort of feel it and the way the boat handles. That centerboard is about 5 or 6ft long and will be tough to get it started at first from the locked down position, then come about and just barely sail in. Do NOT ram my Chris craft or drag bottom with that centerboard. Also remember, if you have to do another approach to the dock and turn around that the boat tips easy if you don’t have that board down to steady you.” I told her and reminded her to do exactly what I said and that I would signal her to swing out when I made my approach to the dock. “I might want to drive by it first, I won’t know until I see the gathering.”

  “Ok David, I got it. I am going to raise the main sail and head out now and then when I get part way out I put the center board down and go for it right?” She said anxious to be off.

  “And no playing in my wake, I told her remembering she had not had the experience of cresting the waves that boats throw out’ and not wanting her to start experimenting with the loaded sailboat for a new thrill even going slow.