Many of the people, who came today, are those who were with us when we found our farm. They are just as excited today as they were then, only this time they know we can make this run down farm a home just like ours. The evening is spent outlining the plan to fix these homes up to be lived in. We want to open up this project to those who really want to do it. We feel that it will take a mixture of people who have gone through the experience of starting a group, and new people, so they can learn what is needed. The biggest problem with becoming as large as our group is now; we can no longer meet in any one building on any farm. That is why the council is going from group to group this evening, explaining what we want to do and see if anyone is particularly interested.
We already have some great leadership in the group that will be settling these farms. Billy and Ramona, along with Frank and his wife, and Tom, Dayna’s dad, with Roberta, who is Billy’s mom, all want to be part of this project. One of the houses has very high ceilings, and like eight foot doorways, so it will be perfect for Billy, who is over seven feet tall. There are three other couples in our group that really want to be part of this project. They are newer young people, who have gotten married since joining us a little over a year ago. Jessica and Jenny, along with Samantha, want to go along so that they can help them get started in the chicken business. Rachel and her sisters have agreed to continue taking care of our chicken coops.
The other groups are as excited as we thought they would be. Most of the newer people want to help, but they really have no idea what to do yet. We assure them that they will learn the same way we did, by doing. They will have a slight advantage over us, because we had to read how to do many of the things that we now know well, so we can save them a lot of time, along with trial and error, until they get it right. By the time we get back to the house tonight we have enough people to fill the first eight houses, that’s the five right at the farm, and the three that are approximately a quarter mile away. Isaac, Jake, Adam, Ben, and Hank, along with their wives asked if they could take the three houses that set apart from the others. They feel that they may be better able to take care of themselves if attacked before everything is in place.
The plan is for them to move in as soon as the houses are cleaned and the electricity is hooked up. There are still plenty of new furniture and appliances in town. We are going to hit the new farm in groups tomorrow to take care of everything we can, in as little time as we can. Frank and his team of field hands, who are our experts in plowing, planting, and taking care of the crops that we count on so heavily, are already checking out the fields. They are in just as rough shape as ours were when we came here, but with a little hard work, we can make them usable again. The first order of business is to get the remains of the families, who lived here out of the houses and barns where they fell, and bury them appropriately. All the homes on this farm are large two story homes with large attics. They all seem snug enough to make excellent living space. The young people in our groups agree with that assessment. They are always looking for places where they can live together, young women, with young women and young men, with young men.
I am not going to tell you that everyone in our community is totally righteous, but we discourage the young people from living together, until they can get married. The weather this time of year can be very unpredictable, but we have a great day to start this very important project. All the houses get cleaned out completely, and all but two have new furniture and appliances in them. The other two will be completed tomorrow. As with our houses, the people who lived here used windmills for electricity, and did an excellent job building them and controlling the number of homes using the same power supply. Mike and Morgan know quite a bit about windmills, so they are more than content to work with Sara, Gary, Ken, and Ryan getting the windmills set up and working properly.
James and Jenna are still overwhelmed by the shape of the buildings after such an extended period with no one taking care of them. They are keeping notes in case they ever get back, or if they ever meet someone that comes over as we did. They have a theory that the vegetation even stopped growing for a period of time, otherwise they say we could expect all these fields to be overrun by the woods. There is some of that, but nowhere near as much as even we expected. Today they found a very large above ground tank that they surmise was used for catching rain water, and was used to water the backyard gardens during the summer months. The way it is situated, with the proper piping, it could have caught the runoff from at least two of the houses and possibly three.
We also found an above ground gasoline tank that they obviously used to fill up their farm vehicles, of which there is a great assortment that made Frank, Eric, and Tom act like kids at Christmas in all the barns. Those of us with mechanical experience are being pulled several directions at once. It makes us feel good, because just about all of our newer people want to learn all they can. We have found at least one reason why Morgan and Mike are here. What those two don’t know about windmills and electricity is not worth knowing. The windmills we find here were built in the late 1960’s. Since then there has been a tremendous amount of research into the shape of the vanes and other things that I am not sure what they said, but Sara, Gary, Ryan, and Ken are excited about it, so I guess it was right on.
Teddy, Tim, and I are busy getting the farm machinery going, so that Frank, Eric, and Tom will get off our backs. Since we are taking so long, they decide to go and borrow a thrasher from Ryan and Carol’s group to cut the tall grass in the fields. We may as well bail it for bedding, plus in a pinch it will do for food for the dairy cows we keep. They will be doing the same thing here, if the ladies that are planning to live here have their say. The young men are clearing paths through the brush and woods to get to the fields, which seem to run the extent of the area in between the road that runs around it. They no sooner get the road cut through the brush, when Frank and Tom get back and drive right thru it. The amount of game they kick up is astounding. Wild turkeys, pheasants, and all manner of game birds fly up in front of and around the thrashers. Frank and Tom are careful to watch so that they don’t run any animals down.
We all take a few minutes from our tasks to watch the cutting of the tall grass. Trevor sees a large buck standing not fifty yards from us, watching the thrashers go across the field. He starts to go to the truck to get a rifle, but Teddy asks him if he would hold off shooting the game this close to the house. It may or may not scare the game, but if they feel comfortable this close to the buildings, they will stay around and we never know when we may need a supply of meat close by. Teddy, Andrew, Dan, and Don volunteer to take Bob, Trevor, and Blake deer hunting the first chance they get. They tell them that they always use a bow and arrows for hunting, unless it is a large steer or one of the huge hogs that roam these woods. Those three have tasted the pork, but have never seen one of the hogs that we get it from, so they think the boys are teasing them about the hogs being huge.
We all return to work, but as luck would have it, we are surprised to hear several of the young ladies in the group screaming and yelling, as they run into the barn we are working in. In this case it is my daughters Kathy, Karen, Lisa, and Christy. They were helping Jessica, Jenny, and Samantha round up chickens for the coops in the barns. Apparently, a particularly large hog, decided he doesn’t want the young ladies in what he considers his woods. Tim, Teddy, and I grab our rifles and go out the back door of the barn, where the girls just came in. Bob, Trevor, and Blake, along with many of the others, heard the girls screaming and came running to find out what the problem is. They see us looking toward the woods and turn that way just as the biggest hog we have ever seen comes walking toward us from about fifty yards away. Blake mumbles that it looks as big as their jeep. Tim tells Blake if he would like to ride it, we will help him put a saddle on it.
The hog has not stopped coming toward us, but he is walking slowly. There is no fear in this animal at all. He has survived in these woods for several years, and that’s not an easy thin
g to do. Bob asks me how we usually kill something that big. My answer, “as quickly as possible”, doesn’t make him feel any better. Tim tells Trevor to run across the field, and draw the hog that way, so we can get a side shot at him. The hog is only about thirty yards away now. Teddy has been walking to the right, as we have been talking. I am doing the same, to the left. We both raise our .307 rifles at the same time and take aim. The angle we have is not enough for a side shot, but at least we are not shooting straight head on. Tim fires at the head just above the eyes, and the bullet hits the very thick skull bone and glances off cutting a furrow in the thick skin, but not even slowing him down.
He is mad now, and is speeding up coming directly at us as Teddy and I both fire, hitting him just in front of the ear trying to hit his brain and stop him cold. It has always worked in the past and does this time. Just about everyone has backed up to the barn, but the huge animal drops about twenty feet short of the closest person. Blake and Trevor start to go toward him, when we tell them to hold back for a few minutes. Just as we say it, the huge legs kick out in the animal’s death throes. A kick from one of those could break any bone in our bodies. Dan, Don, and Andrew ask Bob, Trevor, and Blake if they feel up to field dressing that tank. They are willing; they agree to at least help. Dan and Don go back to our farm to get the flatbed truck with the hoist. By the time they get back Andrew, Teddy, and their three students have the beast field dressed, and just about ready to be loaded.
Normally the young men would just take the pig home, quarter it, and put the meat in the freezer in the big barn to butcher later. Since Bob, Trevor, and Blake are so curious, Dan and Don take them with them to take care of that little task. This incident reminds us of another very important project. Tim and Rod go looking for which barn has the butchering, and the big freezer. It is in the back of the second barn in the group. Just like at our farm, the ground falls away behind the barn, so the room used for butchering is actually below ground level at the front of the barn. It is much like ours in that you can drive a backhoe or even back a wagon into the room through a very solid double door. The tables in the butchering section are very large stainless steel tables, and the room is well stocked for its intended use. Tim and Rod are able to check the freezer, because the electricity is already on to the first two houses and barns.
The day flies by, but we have completed a tremendous amount of work. Everyone is pleased with all that has been accomplished today. Billy and Ramona are planning to spend the night in their new home, as well as those who will be living with them. The evening is finished off with a triple wedding with Bob, Trevor, and Blake marrying the young ladies that I told you about earlier. The first two houses each have five or six bedrooms, depending on how they wish to use one of the rooms. The guys and their wives are only going to stay in the second house until one of the three houses down the road is ready. The way things are going, we figure by the end of the week. In the morning we start all over again, only this time we have slightly different jobs. All five houses in this group have been cleaned, and according to our electrical staff, will have power by lunch time.
They are setting up the windmills as they are, but Mike has promised that as soon as we can show him to a couple of manufacturing facilities where he can find the sheet metal and the equipment that he needs, he and Morgan will show us how to improve the efficiency of all our windmills. This morning we move to the group of three houses, and do the same thing we did with the other five. We thought we were being very efficient when we first came here, and cleaned up our homes and made them livable again. With the crews we have now, we can get a house livable in less than a day. Of course they are going to need some minor work on the outside, and definitely painting of the inside and outside, but they are livable and can be done as we go along, just like we did. Some of the rooms are already getting painted as we go, especially the first house in this group. This is the one that Bob and the others are going to share. Their new wives noticed that we have lots of paint left over, and asked if they can use some to paint the rooms, before they move in. It’s a good thing it is too cold to paint the outsides, or I know what I would be doing.
By the end of day two, all five houses have power, and all three in the second group are ready to be moved into. There is no shortage of people to move into them, and it is reassuring to see that there are no arguments about who will get which house. The committee is ready to help settle all disputes, but there simply are none. With the new groups, we do not need so many of the pre-fabricated homes, at least not yet anyway. When Bob and the guys decided to settle down and get married, we thought that they had changed their minds about continuing to look for people to join our community. On the contrary, their new wives are excited about the prospects of traveling, to find those who may wish to join us. The house they moved into is quite large, and has six bedrooms, so they are sharing it with more of the people who came here from the Minneapolis trip.
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We found that from the corner that group of homes is on, is less than a mile from Ryan and Carols group, but we have to cut a road through the woods to connect the roads. The road we cut is not a direct route, but we try to take the path that will allow us to leave many of the very large beautiful hardwood trees that abound in this area. We only cut it wide enough to accommodate one large vehicle at a time, but we put some places where we can pull to the side, if two vehicles happen to pass on the road. We paved the road with gravel from the piles we found at the public works buildings in town. We are building this, as the rest of the houses in the group are being made ready for habitation. Isaac, Jake, Adam, Ben, and Hank, along with their wives, are waiting for the last group of homes to be ready. That group will be the farthest away, and the guys all feel that it could need a strong group living there. None of us can see any flaws in their logic.
We are getting on close to Thanksgiving, and we all wish that we could find or build a group meeting house that is large enough to hold everybody. We did okay until the last few groups, now we have more than four hundred people in our community. Since these great farms were sitting here hidden from sight for the past two years, we have decided to check out the surrounding area, to see if we are missing any more great places to settle. Our hunters are more than happy to check out every dirt road and path in the area. On the Friday before Thanksgiving, Dayna, Melissa, Robin, and Becky are saying what a shame it is that we can’t all celebrate the holiday together. They are even more disappointed that we will not be able to celebrate Christmas all together. Everyone seems to feel the same way, because I have heard the same concerns in all the groups. We are trying to figure a way to at least get everyone together for a prayer, when Teddy, Jerry, and Steve come home from a day of hunting and exploring the area.
They are all smiling and talking, until they get into the kitchen where we are all sitting, then they get very quiet. I am relatively new at parenting, but even I know when to start worrying, and when teenage boys are being quiet, there is definitely something to worry about. They all head to the refrigerator first thing, so that part is normal. Teddy takes out the milk and pours a big glass for him and the other two. Something’s wrong, the boys usually get their own, and leave the milk for the others to get theirs. Kathy and Lisa come in from the living room, where they were reading, and ask their brother if he will pour them a glass of milk as well. He agrees and even smiles, when he tells them it will be his pleasure. When Jerry and Steve offer theirs to their sisters, this is more than the women can take. They ask the boys what they have been up to this afternoon. Robin tells them if she finds out they were in the barracks with their girlfriends this afternoon, they will be grounded for a month.
Teddy smiles and pats his mom on the head, she hates it when he does that, and smacks his behind with the towel she is drying her hands on. He apologizes, and then asks us if we would like to see our new meeting house. That surprises all of us, as you can imagine. Teddy, Steve, and Jerry all start explaining about the meeting house at once
and nothing makes sense, so I tell them we can only handle one conversation at a time. They tell us to grab our coats and they will show us, after all one picture is worth a thousand words. We call the other leaders on the radio and tell them what the boys just told us. They are excited to say the least, and by the time we start for where the boys want to take us, we have about fifty people going. We had to find out which direction we are going, because Billy and many of the people in that group, and Ryan and Carol along with many from their family are interested too.
It is a brisk fall afternoon, and we still have about an hour and a half until the sun goes down, so we decide to walk to where the boys are taking us. We only go about three quarters of a mile toward the new group, when the boys turn into what looks like a game trail in the woods, on the side of the road. We go back into the woods about a hundred feet, where there is a large clearing, and what was once a very nice brick church building. There is no cross on the building, but it even says it is a church in the name written on the outside. We are communicating by radio with the others, and within a few minutes they join us. The doors to the church are closed, but not locked, for which we are grateful. We find out why when we go into what is obviously the chapel area. The pews are about half full of what was probably the congregation. It looks like they were having some sort of service when the bombs hit.
It is difficult to see the families that perished here, and not think how we would feel if that had been us. We leave the chapel behind, and explore the rest of the building. This is one of the most unique churches any of us have ever seen. Most of us, who are familiar with churches, are used to the large cathedral type. This is more what I would describe as a meeting house. It is very practical, and seems to be set up for use, more than just to worship on Sundays. There are many smaller rooms that look like classrooms, and behind the chapel, separated by large folding doors, is a larger section that looks like a gym. There are even basketball hoops and nets at each end of the room. There is even a stage at the end of this large room with storage compartments under it. Upon further investigation, we find that the compartments are full of stacked chairs and folding tables.
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