by Tj Reeder
Harry’s foreman showed up with the hoe and we watched him move it into the area with not a ripple, after deciding how big we needed it he set to work, from the house back porch we could hardly hear the machine working which was another plus.
When the ladies saw the size of the hole they couldn’t believe we needed anything that big but they hadn’t seen the weapons orders! Also Jody wanted a place big enough for the entire clan to evac to if needed.
Harry showed up a few days later with a big grin on his face, he had found a small mom and pop company who wanted to retire and had two trucks plus a remote batch plant for out of town jobs, the price was right and after looking some more he had found other work for the equipment to help close the gaps in his business, We offered to help front the purchase but Harry said no thanks he had it all done! We love it when a plan comes together.
Harry brought in just one more man to help straw boss the job and the ranch crew pitched in learning as they went, in only two weeks from first dig they had poured the footings and slab all in one pour, the slab looked thick enough to hold up a fleet of tanks! In another week the walls were formed and were ready to pour, Harry had hauled in all the rock and mix needed and the pour was started, the entire ranch came to watch it, the people of the clan were there but most were out of sight if you didn’t know where and how to look, wonderful people and not somebody to trifle with.
As a side note I mentioned to Jody one day that our forest friends seemed to be growing in numbers far beyond any birth rate increases, Jody laughed and said he had been waiting to see if anybody would notice or comment, I told him that I hadn’t until the wedding when the strange beauty walked through the room stopping John in mid denial of wanting a woman in his life, seems the word was out to the rest of the clans in our area that maybe it was time to join together on the ranch as the bad times were coming …..Again.
I asked how many new ones had come in and Jody said he had no idea but Jade said close to a hundred! That made my jaw drop, how could we gain that many people and not know it, Jade laughed and ask me how many of the clan did I see day to day, I had to think a bit and said well, the ones who chose to work out in public and live in the dorms for the most part… She said well then why would you notice more unless there was a gathering? Jody and Ellen’s wedding took place at night by moon and fire light as had all clan weddings for god knows how long ,so that was why I had not noticed the extra people, but building a house under the earth was just too much for the clan so they all came to watch.
Then it was time to pour the roof on the bunker and that took a lot of work just getting the support beams set and the steel laid in over the plywood which was covered with diesel to make it easier to remove from inside when the roof was set up.
That pour was a big one and took all day and a few hours of night, but It was done and would in a few weeks of curing be ready to be covered over, the main entry door was thru a tunnel from the nearest building and another that opened in the Shamans hut and hidden under the dirt floor but removing a couple of feet of earth and there it was.
About 2 weeks after the pour Harry and his crew started covering the roof slab, using a small dozer they very gently pushed the dirt and used compactors to beat it down tight, with a constant check on the inside it was soon done and the dozer ran back and forth it to further compact it, then the top soil was re-laid and the next day the clan ladies decided it was a great garden spot and soon there would be corn and other things growing over the bunker.
Now we waited for the supplies that would be stored there.
In the mean time the new County Government was working hard to make this a wonderful place to live, with friendly words of advice large community gardens were being planted on vacant lots in the towns and cared for by all who wished to help, the equipment was provided by the county as was the operators, the thought being that all our taxes paid for the stuff so why not let all the people benefit from it, it was truly amazing to see the people of the county come together on the projects being built. Thanks to the money recovered from the hidden accounts of the former crooks there was money for plenty of projects, and with a tiny bit of help from donations for some things, like our donation of all the seeds for the gardens, heirloom of course and several people had been informed about saving seeds, there seemed to be a lot more peppers then we had thought in the area and it wasn’t hard to get them up to speed on sharing their ideas with others.
We also ordered a Simi full of jars and lids for canning, along with a large number of large All American canners, these were sold at cost to those who wanted their own, the rest were to be used in the community canning centers that the prepper ladies were opening up all over the county, folks that had never gardened for whatever reason were coming out in droves to learn, We were really blown away with it all, but so very happy with it.
One project we helped push thru with the county was the need for community “Storm shelters” ( it helps when you have open minds on the commission ) so those projects were in the works, some folks wondered why they were so big and why they had bathrooms and water to them, but were told that by getting civil defense money ( which we didn't touch!! keeping that camel's nose out of the tent) it was required, and when they were built each was going to have large storage rooms to be opened by only a few very trusted people, all members of Jim’s SO dept. and most were going to be built to house about 100 people without being crushed, only a small trusted few knew that later, by the light of the moon the supplies for those sheltering would be placed in the inner vaults and that there would be weapons and ammo as well as a small medical area in the vault room… we knew we couldn’t protect everybody from a nuke, but from MZBG’s? Or an out of control central government? We hoped so…
It has been hard to plan for the future of the folks here in our little corner of the world without spilling the whole sack of beans, a lot of them would most likely have screamed to the heavens at the idea of it all but we were of the mind set that should have been used on the enviroterrorist, “shut up and sit down, were they going to be required to head for the shelters? Were they going to be required to fight the MZBG’s in the trenches? Nope they can just be Zombie food.
One of the biggest helps we had was dear ol Miss Ellie, she was known by folks from all the surrounding towns and counties and she spread the prepping idea like it was the holy word. And her many friends knew her well enough to know if she was worried they best be and those old gals really got on the butts of their grown kids and grand kids, it seemed every school that had a home ec classes now had even boys signing up. There was a very not so quiet revival going on in not just this county but parts of the surrounding counties as well.
Jody said that one day we would have to come out of the shadows a tiny bit and start talking some about what we saw coming but he wasn’t sure how to do it without drawing too much attention from Washington and the State house that was the last thing we wanted or needed.
But in the mean time we just kept doing what we could and putting open minded people out there to talk up the whole prepping idea. Jim’s entire dept. was involved in the movement, they talked to their friends and advised them that it might be wise to maybe forgo the newest toy of the moment in favor of a new generator or a spare set of new tires for their vehicles, and why buy a new truck when the old one was paid for, common sense being spread like peanut butter, smooth…..
We did avoid trying to get many teachers involved unless they were already of a mind set, too many today were to the left of center and we didn’t need that fight.
But the head of the school board was involved thru the reserve dept and he set about a way to give extra credits for things that were above the usual home ec classes, things like working in a school garden project with the food going to the needy and elderly in the area, the same with raising a calf or rabbits to be made into food for these folks.
It was kinda like a small working peace corps thing with no government involvement, and it was wor
king smooth as glass, the LEO’s all noticed a drop in youth problems, also there was a very popular Police cadet program where the high school students could ride along a few times then decide if they wanted to join the cadets which was a training program that helped a lot of kids find a place to hang out with their peers instead of on the streets, extra credits were given for that also.
We at the ranch could not believe the changes in such a short time, and a lot of it was brought on by Jim’s midnight visit to us which got the ball rolling.
Most of this wasn’t even in our plan, it happened because when the people had the chance to pull control of their local government from the hands of the crooks they really went to work with it, to bad it couldn’t be done on a national or even State level, but we were just glad it happened here because we now had a much better chance of rebuilding when the time came.
At the ranch things were slowing down to a nice pace, we had come so far in a short time, Jody and Ellen took time for their honeymoon, Jade and I spent a lot of time walking the whole place and even camped out a few nights, also we did a lot of shooting, she had really taken to it like she does everything else, full bore..
She wanted to pick out her own hand guns (yes with an “S”) and picked a Colt commander in 45 acp for her main gun and a Ruger LCP for her carry gun, the long heavy trigger on the little LCP bothered her a bit but she came to grips with it just as she did with the Commander grip, John did put thinner grip panels on for her and that helped, she was getting better and better with it.
It was a nice quiet week but we were happy to see the newly weds roll in, Ellen had fit in like an extra pea in a pod; she was very good for Jody too.
Toward the middle of fall we got a call from Miss Ellie asking Jody and I to come to the café after the usual coffee clutchers were gone, we arrived at 10:00 to find the place empty except for Miss Ellie and an old gentleman I had never seen before, He stood up kind of slowly but stood straight and his hand shake was firm, Ellie introduced him to us as Ely Stone, who it turned out owned about 300 acres next to our place, After we were settled and had our coffee and some pie , Ely got right to it, saying he wanted to sell us his place ! He said he was 90 years old and was born on the place and had never left except for the War years, his wife was dead as was all his kin folks, and they had never had any kids so it was time to do something before the state got involved. He was aware of what we were doing in the area and had even seen some of the clan hunters in the forest near his property line but they never came on his land and waved when they saw him, nice folks he said, bit strange and wild looking but nice and polite.
We had thought about that place in the past few months but didn’t have a clue it might be for sale or even who owned it and after 10 years in the town I should have known.., Jody said well I think Sam will agree with me that we want your place so you name your price and if we can afford it we will close the deal with a shake how’s that?
Ely smiled and said well sir I think that’s a good way to do business, as to the price, well I want you to take me into your plans and let me and Ellie have a place in your fort when the time comes.
He then explained that he had been asking Ellie to marry him for 25 years since after his wife died, Ely had gone off to the same war Ellie’s intended had got killed in and they were best of friends, so when he came home and married his sweetheart the three of them had stayed life long friends,
Ellie spoke up and said as yawl know I never married after Ben didn’t make it home and I think it’s time to share my life with somebody and Ely is my best and oldest friend, so we intend to get hitched and live here in the café till things go to hell as yawl seem to think it will.
Ely spoke up again and said, boys I have nobody to leave the place to and in truth the old house is gonna fall down one day, but the hay fields are prime and the woods have a lot of game, and there’s still a bunch of cattle in there, wild as can be but they are still good to eat! So yawl take care of us when we get too old to do for ourselves and it’s yours, I have the deed and we can head to the county to sign it over.
Jody smiled and shook his head and said well Ely, you drive a hard bargain but I guess we can handle it.
Hands were shook, hugs for Miss Ellie and they agreed to head over to get the paper work done right then and get back in time to meet the girls for lunch because when they heard the wedding news it was gonna be a wild time!
When they got to the County offices they were surprised to find that Jim had moved his office to the Court house. When asked, he said he felt that folks would be more apt to stop in a visit there then in the “cop shop” he had an older lady as a secretary and “Guardian of the gate” to keep the traffic down, Jim said it was working real well because folks were stopping by with information. Some of which was very useful and was helping resolve several ongoing cases, nothing big but the small stuff that kept the Sheriffs Dept busy.
We didn’t stay long with him as we had to get the land business done and get Ely home; he said he didn’t want to miss the 4:00 farm report.
After the deed transfer was done we did have lunch with Jim and headed home, Ely talking about all the changes he had seen in his long life and Jody filled him in on the Ranch things that Miss Ellie hadn’t told him about.
He surprised both men by saying he wanted to do some handgun shooting as he used to be real good, and also that he’d love to work in the gun store to be around the young guns as he called them, we thought that was a wonderful idea, he would be busy and feel useful and god knows he had more information about farming and related issues in his head then any of us.
We stopped by the “Gun Shop” as the sign informed the world and introduced Ely to John who was delighted to have him, and when John learned of the up and coming wedding he was really happy for the two oldest members of our extended families.
John said he needed to speak with us later so we returned Ely to the care of his bride to be and headed back to the shop, John said he had been thinking about the idea of having the Jonas brothers look at rebuilding a few heavy duty diesel trucks and “up armor” them for “later” as he put it, his idea was to make them like patrol rigs that could take hits from most anything that would be in the hands of BG’s.
It sounded like a good idea to me and Jody so the three of us went to see the brothers who were really happy in their new garage which they had designed as their dream place, they had several high school boys working as apprentices which was really going well as all of them were also in Auto Shop class in school and were getting extra credits for their work here plus earning wages and as a added bonus were allowed to use the shop to work on their own vehicles on the weekends.
It was decided to buy some older Ford diesel one ton trucks with dual wheels and then rebuild them from the ground up John drew out a sketch of what he had in mind which looked more like a military patrol rig which got us to thinking about military surplus, which led to the internet which led to Government auctions, where we discovered just what we needed could be bid on, the biggest problem was finding a small lot of what we wanted to work with, John said he would handle the research on that end, in the mean time we decided to go ahead with the Ford project as it was being called because we felt having a fleet of big work trucks that wouldn’t be effected by an EMP would be very smart and we could use them every day on the place because they wouldn’t look like military rigs, but would still be lightly armored in understated ways.
After acquiring Ely’s land we had a meeting with the Clan leaders and told them they could now spread out into that area and the new comers could have room to expand their living areas, the hunters were delighted with the addition although most had been on the land already in their own patrols but none had hunted it and the game was getting thin on the ranch, this made everybody happy and we left them working on their new found wealth…
I told Jody that things were coming together way to easy and fast and the other shoe had to drop sooner or later but he just smiled th
at Jody smile and said Sam, everything is moving into place in it’s own time and way, all we do is provide the path and get out of the way.
I had to admit that was true, in truth he and I had nothing to do but make new ideas and needs a reality.
We had a very unexpected but much welcome visitor this week, Song dropped in out of the blue surprising even Jody, after all the hand shaking and back slapping and the girls off planning a feast for the whole ranch we guys settled down on the porch with ice tea and some conversation.
Song said things were getting even worse then last report and he decided to take some time off and come see us in person to report on it.
He said the Dollar was getting ready to take a major hit due to a under the table deal cooked up between the Chinese and OPEC, their plan was to switch to the Euro and dump their dollars before they did also they would sell the treasury bills they were holding taking a loss didn’t bother them at all, mostly it was a plan designed to cripple the dollar and cause as much damage to the US as possible, Songs advice was to convert all our dollars to gold and silver and real metals not paper certificates .
After talking it over Jody and I agreed that we could convert most of our assets but would need to keep a goodly bit of cash in accounts to handle the expenses we would have on a day to day basis, but then we decided to convert that cash to gold certificates which were growing at a good rate with the value of metals moving as it was.
