[ENER] Fiction: Rioting in Arabia & the oil stops flowing

Ok, I am projecting our position a year from now, based on our current status, plans, habits, etc. Unlike "Handbasket" or my contributions to "Awakening," I'm assuming some things that I *plan* for the next year that we may not have *today* - so bear with me. Also, I've seen several different ideas as to how we stagger through the next year, so I'll just kinda wing that one...

Tuesday, June 14:

Blessed payday. Wife picked up my check since I was in the field and hit the bank. From there, it was the grocery store for fresh fruits and veggies. We buy a lot of dried/canned veggies in #10 cans from a local cannery (not Mormons, oddly enough), but some things you just need to have fresh. Since our 3 Nubian does are all in milk, we don't have to spend the king's ransom for dairy products. We got together at Captain D's for supper, our weekly treat, then headed home in our two-truck "convoy."

TB Chat tonight was talking about the Saudis shutting off their welfare system. I don't read every friggin piece of news that gets posted, but I buzzed this one. Once you get a population hooked on freebies, weaning them off is a disaster in the making. I sure hope the House of Saud knows wtf it is doing over there.

Wednesday, June 15:
Got up early enough to hit the board. Sure enough, civil unrest in Saudi. Sat down and reviewed finances with wife over home-grown eggs and deer sausage. Decided the electric bill could wait - I had some plans for the money. Called in to their automated service center and requested - and got - an extension on our bill. The gas-truck had delivered our monthly top-off two days ago, so we were in great shape there. Sure, it was only 200 gallons, but in June in the Deep South? 200 gallons of propane would last virtually forever.

Spent the day at work, making my list of "last-minute prep items" to blow my cash and available credit upon. LdyH was theoretically doing the same thing at home. Sure, things in Saudi might not affect us at all here, but I still carried the fear of "interdependant systems" from Y2K. So much of our oil came from Saudi that any sort of upheaval there was bound to make at least some ripples here - gas hanging at $2.75 a gallon was proof enough of that. Lots of time available today for thinking - watching a handful of sampling pumps doesn't require much brain-power nor time either one.

After work, I went by the cannery and grabbed a half-dozen buckets of hard white winter wheat. The total came out to about $75 - since the wheat was sealed in the late 90's, the owner didn't feel she could justify charging the normal price of $22 per 5-gal bucket. But it was nitro-packed...based on a friend's first-hand experience with dry-ice packing wheat at home in the 70's and then opening the buckets to fresh, flavorful wheat in the 90's, I knew 5 years was a virtual nothing to the grain. Went to Sam's and grabbed up three more gas-cans then filled them at the auto-pump out front. The gas, cans, and the jars of peanut butter all went onto the Sam's card. I was glad I had "renegotiated" my truck situation with my boss. When I hired on in '03, he let me have use of the company truck almost as a personal vehicle - he made the maintenance payments and I put the gas in it, as long as I didn't take it hunting, pull personal trailers, etc. Well, when gas hit $2/gallon back in the summer of '04, I told him I couldn't keep that up any more. Since we'd bought a truck for Dun Coille (our farm), all I needed the truck for was a way to work. The "office boss" and I managed to convince the owner-boss that the 55-mile round trip from my place to the office every day was a "reasonable business expense," especially since I went straight from home to a jobsite almost every friggin day. He caved in and allowed me to have the gas-card for the truck - but he also made me sign a statement that I wouldn't use the truck for any personal business at all. I worded it a little differently so that stopping at a store on the way home was ok - and we both signed it. What a jerk.

Thursday, June 16:

Ouch - Saudi is in flames. News reports are sketchy, but I personally bet some of the fires were started by govt forces trying to "burn out" the radicals. Some locals are apparently thinking ahead - gas-stations today were a little busier than normal "mid-week" would be. LdyH and I are still refining our "last-minute list" - she's supposed to be tying the two together into a single list. Filled up the truck on the way home with the company card.

Friday, June 17:
Gas prices had jumped 15 cents pretty much across town. Glad I got mine yesterday and the day before. Gerold called me while I was on my jobsite to tell me he'd heard someone on Moon Griffon's radio show talking about the US sending in the Marines to stabilize Saudi. Yeah, right. We talked preps for a bit, swapping ideas and plans - too bad he lives so far from us - a "natural mechanic" like he is would be an incredible asset. Now, Russell is a good mechanic, but Gerold spent years on offshore platforms as mechanic and can almost "wave a magic wand" and fix problems. I picked up three more plastic 55-gallon drums from a feed & hardware store downtown at lunch. Tomorrow is a trip to the feed-store.

Saturday, June 18th:
In addition to the normal month of feed, we decided to buy an extra two months' worth of feed. Roger asked if we'd expanded our farm and I told him I planned to keep to my normal monthly schedule, but I was mainly trying to be sure I had extra on hand in case something interrupted feed supplies again like the trucker strike of last year did. He allowed as to how he hadn't really thought about it like that. Since we were there when Roger unlocked the doors, we were able to get our bags easily. The three farmers who came in after us were looking grim - guess we weren't the only ones listening to the news and thinking ahead. Four more farm-trucks were pulling in as we left. Made me glad the feed-store was out in the country.

Got home started ordering supplies from the "LML." Hoegger's supplied a goat-pulled cultivator, another wagon and tack for two goats, 7% iodine, their "herbal wormer system," Probios and some other med supplies, and another "cheesemaker's pantry." While I was ordering from their website, LdyH was calling Custom Milling in Georgia to order four 50# bags of their "goat mineral blend." She took over the computer and hit Camden-Grey's website to load up on soap-making supplies and medicinal essential oils.

With all that done, I called a halt - the credit card was hosed in the one pass at Hoegger's and we needed to regroup and look at the bank account before doing much more. Good thing Tuesday is payday...

Sunday, June 19:
WalMart parking-lot was packed at 9:30 am...on a SUNDAY??? Got to church and several folks were wearing worried frowns. Seems the Sunday paper had run "Oil Crisis" as the headline - now lots of locals were starting to "Get It."

Police were out in two areas of the WM lot - one cluster at the Murphy station with an ambulance and another cluster at the food center entrance. Gas was up another 10 cents from yesterday - regular unleaded was now right at $3 a gallon.

Monday, June 20:
Back to work today - heading for the office for the first time in a couple of weeks. Definitely edgy on the drine in today - listening to talk-radio for once. US Embassy in Riyadh quietly asked for help and VC-22 Ospreys deposited a company of infantry to the compound. Seems like everyone else is leaving the country as fast as they can charter jets. Wonder how much gas will go up in the next couple of days?

Discussion in the office revolves frequently around the question of "How long will we keep operating?" The answer, boiled down, is basically "As long as the State govt holds together in its monitoring requirements and its payments and as long as private industries are more willing to pay for our services than they are to pay the fines for non-compliance." That's good to know - I do still have land and utilities payments to make, but not quite as many. That reminds me, I need to stop in and see the Trojan battery dealer tomorrow on the way home. Today, tho, I hit Sam's with the credit left on my card for more stashable food, like peanut butter. I wasn't the only one...

TB2K is, of course, going insane. Got quite a few PMs from folks saying various forms of SYOTOS before they bug out, half a dozen asking for directions to our place "just in case," and a couple more *giving* directions to theirs - again, "just in case." Lotta "OMG! Whadda we do FIRST?" posts from newbie preppers..."Start three months ago" is my flippant (and unposted) answer. Lots of help flowing, but a disgustingly large number of arrogant and disruptive posts. Guess the "Sponsored Trolls" are earning their pay...

Tuesday, June 21:
Seems like everyone is interested in discussing and speculating on the Saudi problems and how they'll affect us. Trojan man said he was getting calls from people interested in putting together alt-energy systems, "just in case." Hearing that a lot this week, it seems!

Another payday. A few more items from the "LML" find their way home, including another six buckets of wheat and a good number of #10 cans of veggies.

Wednesday, June 22:
That tears it - Saudi oil facilities are pretty much all in flames and the tankers in port barely made it out. The embassy there made its final evacuation of personnel and the flag. Saw a clip of a Marine in full combat gear - no Dress Blues for them now! - hauling down the flag with a crowd of Saudis pressing up against the gates in the background. He flinched once as a short burst of automatic-weapons fire sounded, but finished lowering the flag. Lots of "celebration" shots after that - Arabs dancing in the streets and firing their AKs up in the air. Idiots. News reports our Marines didn't have to fire into the crowds - which is a good thing! That would have been ugly fast, because I saw the tiny image of a pair of Cobras orbiting the embassy during the flag-lowering. They would have lost people, but the USA would have lost respect.

Thursday, June 23:
Newest splash in the reality-TV market - "Last boat out." No, that isn't quite what they are calling it, but the newsstations are tracking the last oil tankers to leave Saudi. The good part of that is they'll be so well protected no pirates would dare touch them. Gas is going up 2 to 3 cents a day, now. But as long as the company is getting paid - and paying its gas bill - I have a job.

Friday, June 24:
Gas stations have almost constant lines, even with gas edging closer to $3.50 a gallon than to $3. Temps are consistently in the upper 80's with lower 90's not at all uncommon. Glad we managed to get most of the improvements made to the trailer-house over the past year - shouldn't need *too* much juice to cool it off...

tanked up

glitter gulch gossip:

11/5

Missy,

Larkspur is a wreck, so is the brookside bridge, mainly the eastbound lane. Jungle cat watched a mudpuppie video of the desecration and were pleased at how it stood up.

Then sent Goofy to fix it 8-P

that ought to finish it off permanetly.

I did not get to glitter gulch yet, 1st Hammer went in my stead, to interrogate the council, yes I took away his cat o' 9 tails (and gave it back to Jungle cat, now Jungle Jim is looking for me 8-0 )

Yes we had two 'tank battles' you had heard about, twits swiped a Bradley and mocked up another 'tank' to raid a grocery wharehouse and hijack a convoy.

Larkspur was about 6 klicks south of Brookside when the mudpuppies hollered 'tank', they got off two rounds, first went through the 'tank' hit the engine and detonated about 3' below the westbound lane. It took out 1/2 the support pillars on the westbound side and sheared off a foot or so of the north pillars on the eastbound side.

Larkspur was driven 140 odd feet south, and a dozen or so down, yup it was a submarine for what Zak called 19 really long seconds. Only the barrels and the conn were above water.

The mudpuppies were hollering ceasefire after the first round but they were a bit busy on the Larkspur at that point the message didn't get relayed to the gun crew for 30 or so seconds.

The second round was HEP with a .9sec delay fuse.

It anniliatied the tank and the dozen or so thugs on the bridge.

The Bradly was re taken with out further incident.

The Larkspur is in the basin in about 4 major pieces, when we drained the tanks it broke up, only the pedestals (fore and aft) and the port engine room were intact.

Next project is Larkspur II with a 3" pair and a large (unspecified) recoilless rifle

Yes Chant has me sedated and on antidepressants

Find out who has the gas cartel and get me their monkey business manager.

rat

Dear Brother,
I’m writing you this letter and will put it on disk, hoping that someone will be going to the mainland, or maybe even the Lower 48 and will be able to send an email to you. With your preps and genset, I know that you will have internet access longer than most anyone…so here goes. The physical mail only comes once a month or so now…diesel for the boats is so expensive and scarce…

Your first question probably is: why do I have electric way out here? The island is mostly on hydro generation, so we have been able to keep power on several hours a day. They had to shut down the Borough diesel generators early on, when they realized that no more diesel fuel would be on its way, and also that no more of the lubricating oil would be coming- that is what they are trying to conserve now, in order to keep the hydro turbines turning. So, with several hours of power, we can still keep freezers going, and have the lights on once in a while. Being as it’s summer and light 20 hours a day right now, we are mainly using power to run the pump to fill up water storage and water the garden, to wash clothes, and run power tools. Also we recharge the various batteries for drills and the marine band radio, and suchlike. We no longer have long distance phone service due to the earthquake (they think movement of an ocean fault severed the cable) plus of course the satellites are so “iffy,” if at all. That’s why I can’t call.

So, we are all doing fairly well, although lack of gas has greatly curtailed travel. We are all healthy- DH and I have lost a bunch of pounds from walking, bicycling, and gardening. (My blood pressure is getting better and better, too.) I am so glad DH got his teeth fixed Before, and I promptly got my gall bladder out Before once we figured out what was wrong- not much high-tech medical, or dental, either, any more.

DS is still living with us, although he works on a fishing boat during the salmon runs and is gone for days. But, he comes back with lots and lots of fish! Thank goodness the freezer is working regularly, but I can cases of it, and we have been taking some to the neighbors who have a smoke shed down the road. All those garage sale canning jars are worth their weight in trade for you-name-it nowadays.

We cut a lot of dead spruces down last year, and fortunately cut it all into rounds with the chain saw when we had plentiful gas, so it looks like we will be getting a whole lot more exercise splitting as we move into fall and winter. I would love to be able to afford the gas splitter one can rent from town, but you have to spend the gas to go into town and back twice, plus trade for the rental…another thing I should have done Before. At least we can heat the whole house with wood, and even do much of the cooking on wood. No more hot water, though, unless it is heated on the wood stove, because we are conserving our remaining propane for essential cooking like canning. (thank goodness for two big tanks since we always ran the demand hot water heater off it.)

My job, of course, is kaput- who cares about taking tests at the College when we have to catch or grow enough food for the year this summer- But, I have a new job teaching gardening, which is not an easy art given our poor soil, very cool temperatures, and lots of slugs and digger birds…and forget any hot weather crops like tomatoes, squash, eggplant, cukes, etc. unless you have a very sunny heated greenhouse all summer. For two years before The Problems I grew a guerilla garden at the college with lots of perennial edibles, so now I have stock propagated to divide, trade, or sell. Of course, some has been stolen, but most people didn’t recognize a lot of my plants as edible, and just left them there. Hope they planted what they stole!

What hit us hardest of course was the cutoff of supplies and transportation. It only took a few days for people to start deserting the island- Coast Guard families leaving for the States, older folks going to be with family elsewhere, and so forth. The Coast Guard had the fuel to bring in several big ships to take their people and families back to West Coast ports, and they also took people who were ill, hardship cases, old folks, etc. The ferry was booked solid outbound every trip, so that they had to limit the size of rigs people could bring on. A lot of people ended up leaving a lot of stuff here.

A lot of people with setnet fishing sites moved their whole families out to the sites or back to their villages where subsistence living is still common. They sure cleaned out the stores on the way, though, since who knows when a boat with supplies will get to the distant areas? So, the whole town is a lot quieter. Of the 14,000 people who used to live here and on Base, there are probably only about 6-7 thousand left in town. I have been advocating digging up all those empty and unmowed yards for planting, and I actually have done so with a couple of houses in my neighborhood. Can you believe that people actually wasted so much good sunny land for lawns when food could have been grown on them?

My Coastie neighbors with the horse went back to Florida, where they were from, but the CG wouldn’t take the horse. I traded them a bunch of old jewelry for the horse- which I regard as invaluable, since it produces manure, essential for making good soil here. We got together with all the remaining neighbors and explained how important it is to guard the mare- now in foal- from those who might shortsightedly look for easy meat. With no oil, horsepower is going to be literally that. We just have to get through the hungry times this winter – I hope! Lawns not converted to food production are now grazing and hay fields. The horse is never unattended; she is too valuable. The job of herder for animals – geese, chicken, and ducks, especially, here, has come back. Losing an animal is a big no-no- and there are still feral dogs, foxes, and an occasional bear to be defended against.

My neighbor down the road has been raising rabbits for years, and has managed to breed a good number already this year. We have traded for some breeding stock from the other end of town to keep the bloodlines outbred, but they are prolific, and should add good eating and good manure. Making cages for them is one of the projects we have going, as do many others along the road. Good thing we had some plywood and screening stashed in the woodshed, not to mention nails. It has gotten to the point that we are saving nails from anything we take apart.

The neighborhood has started a local market up on the corner with the main road. Fish, live animals, flea market stuff, a bit of produce, and my edible transplants for gardens. A couple of people bake, and one person carts up a treadle sewing machine for doing repairs if it is not raining.
Church is 7 miles away, so we try to carpool together, staying in for a couple of nights every two weeks and also socializing, working together, and trading. Since my secret garden is nearby, we harvest, divide, trade and share various plants from it there. I’m back to “tithing mint and rue” like it says in the Bible, except it’s ‘mint and chives.’ Not much ready money to support our church any more, so it has to be ‘in kind.’

Even with the distances involved, church has become much more central to everyone’s lives. Church strengthens and forms people to live together in bad times, and everyone has seen some of the signs in the heavens like the bright star and the comets…and of course, ‘war and rumors of war.’ Alaska is the kind of place where everyone has guns and most hunt…so when a few bad apples decided to prey upon the helpless, those “who lived by the sword, died by the sword.” Summary justice.

The schools have announced that there will be no busing this fall- one of the empty houses with a woodstove is going to be the school for our section of three roads. Fortunately several teachers live out this way. I’m not sure how we will pay them, but am figuring on canning extra fish and jelly, and taking a wheelbarrow of wood down road now that we aren’t exactly paying taxes. My garden will become a teaching tool for the school, since we’ve developed some interesting methods and plant material stock.

Oddly enough, one of the biggest problem we’ve all had is trash, since money for gas to haul it is not to be found… at first people just overflowed the dumpsters, but that brought back scavengers, including bears. No one wants to dispute the ownership of the dumpster with a 12-foot bear! Fortunately, everyone is looking a lot more closely at all the stuff they throw away, since more is not to be replaced easily, but it was a smelly interlude at first. I can’t imagine what it must have been like in the hot cities down south. (Rats, ugghh.)

The other problem is that people get mighty grouchy without hot showers, and there doesn’t seem to be an easy solution.

Later –
Just heard that the ferry has radioed that it will be in tomorrow. I am going to take one copy of the disk with this letter up to the corner and see if anyone will go in to town for the unloading- love to you, and your family. Hope things aren’t as bad as they sound on some of the shortwave broadcasts. (Here’s to my y2k era Baygen radio!) love, your sister.

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.....Alan.

look what the cat drug in too

glitter gulch gossip:

Thanks for ?
12/4

Missy,

an insolent feline invaded my nest and dropped a big box of things

thing 1

not much fun to have this one, The Constable called from Los Ebanos,
again, apparently losing 1200 or so ineffectives in an illtimed,

ilplanned op in Aug/Sept leads some nitwit in Norte Mex to attempt

making Thanksgiving a Mex nat'l holiday

If you aren't at defcon1 get there, renegades come in all shapes and

sizes.

that means hourly cq daylight, every 15min after dark

go there fast

oops cq is quarters check(milspeak yahoo in charge of calling every one

to verify they are on call Charge Quarters), count noses every hour

daylight, every 15 min after dark,

The Past as Prologue: (in case it wasn't covered in your schools up

north)

in 1845/6 Mex tried to swipe the wildhorse before the US annexed TX,

Here they thougth to use the mess in DC as excuse to swipe it back

again.

there is some smoke and some steam here about annex all the north mex

states that border us here.

not good.

trade a nasty scrape for a bleeding wound that would never heal. The

Mexicans have to get their house in order and quit blaming

Norteamericanos (Gringos Yanki bandits, etc) for their problems.

Thing Two,

The short blonde with the 12ga is Ms Horn, I've known her about 20 or

30 years off and on, the raft of kids she aquired like we got Genghis

and the horde.

The effete snob in silk is Hannover, a legal beagle that may be of use

to you somehow.

Thing three, yup the box was really big and did have much fun for me...

Hannover should have two letters from BC and what's left of your firm

up north.

I was able to set up a repatration run from US west to what ever

provinces have running gov't (no reply yet from the maritimes?) trip to

start one week from the date you rec this message.

Hannover and his teamsters should have 20,000gal (4x that for liters)
of assorted distilates (I speculated on main req its heavy in diesel)

the nice guy at FEMA's left lung made a nice decor additon to the

outhouse door and he 'released' some fuels to org gov't entities per

req of the fleet. I now have some 'offical' requistion forms Hannover

has a set for you as well.

If I was there I'd be able to grovel better, I know you were down here

to start due diligence on a distribution company and convert their bs

to ANSI so I could understand the nuances, I know you have a place up

north and all the rest but I would prefer that you at least winter over

here and I'll fly you directly back to BC when you get ready to head

north. Please stay.

reply via Hannover's phone, its relatively secure.

grovelling rat signing off

01 Feb 06
We lost four houses on the block over the winter. The poor families were just trying to stay warm and didn't have any water or sand around when the fires got out of control.Of the 13 people involved only six died; three in the fires, two from burns died afterwards and one had a heart attack when everyting he owned burned before his eyes.

It didn't get that cold but most Texans think it is freezing at 50F. Having lived up North for many years I am still out in shirts at 50F and sweaters at 35F. I am glad that I had the steel fireplace insert installed back in the summer of 04. It is big and ugly and my girlfriend hated it until we lost electricity and gas for all those months. I've been able to cook on it and keep the house warm without having an open flames except the oil lamps in the house. When it is warm we cooked outside on the grill. After this winter wood is getting scarce locally and we have to watch our trees for people cutting branches. I'd hate to lose the fruit tress to someone's bonfire. I hope that the power is restored soon. We have the fuel from the West Texas fields pumping now. The oilmen are saying it should be at max by April or May so we may even have power for AC this summer.

10 Feb 06
I am eternally grateful to CTCStrela who back in early 04 wrote on TB2K about the little Jialing Motorcycle. I bought two of them and since gasoline has become available again in trickles, I can get around more easily than on the pedal powered bike. My girlfriend and I rode over to my parent's in under 45 minutes which is a lot better than the normal several hours it took by bedal power. We will still use the pedal bikes for all local trips and save the Jialing's and their gas for longer trips.

Spent the weekend over at my parent's house. We shelled about 50# of pecans. Their trees produced another bumper crop last fall and we still have another 100 or so pounds left. Since everyone and their cousin has pecan trees around here they wind up being food for ourselves and the beast rather than useful trade goods. If only there was a way to get them back to VA where my brother and sister still live. We could trade them there as an exotic food rather than a walking hazard they are when we don't get them all. It's a good thing I like pecans.

14 Feb 06
Dad passed away last night. We've been expecting it. His meds ran out and we were never able to get a reliable source since trucking became so erratic. He had a strake several years ago and was on a bucket of pills daily. Mom is beside herself. She would have been married to him for 53 years next month. She may move in with my sister after she has time to adjust to dad's passing. It will be a noghtmare moving her stuff the eight miles from her house to my sister's but it'll be easier than the 15 to mine. Plus sis's house is larger and she has the spare room since her son enlisted in the Texas guard and got stationed on the Rio Grande.

15 Feb 06
Buried dad today. Not in the mood to write.

20 Feb 06
Damn it! Bad things happen in bunches. Mom died this morning. She went down hill after dad's death. We went over to her house this weekend and just as we were about to leave she said that she felt really bad and sat down on the floor. Before I could even move she gasped and feel over. That was the last she breathed.

21 Feb 06
We buried mom today, right next to dad. Don't feel like writing today.

02 Mar 06
Finally heard from my brother in Northern VA. We linked up thanks to a ham operator who happened to live near them. I told him about our parents passing. He told me the news of his family and our sister's. He and his family moved out to near Bluemont where our brother-in-law and sister have two farms that they had used as hunting properties until the oil went dry. So all of my family has moved out of Fairfax County and are living on farms.

14 Apr 06
Beware the ides of March is the new Mexican national motto. Troops from all states in the Southern Confederation and the Northwest Alliance made their move to seize the oil fields and lots of real estate down there. They had been planning this and moving troops covertly since before xmas 05. Lack of instant communications actually was a good thing for a change. New flags are flying over the Gulf platforms and Mexico now ends everal hundred miles further south. The people there have an choice; swear alliegence to the Confederation or be moved south to the new Mexican border. Most have taken option one after they learned that they would be allowed to keep their property and be full citizens after the first of Jan 07. The push is on to take the land al of the way to Mexico City and then negotiate a surrender once we are in cannon shot of the city. I wil write about the details as soon as the news filters out from the front.

Well, we've been closed off from the rest of northern California for quite a while now once the new people and growers left. It's shut down from Willits north into Oregon.

It looks like a sort of new state/country is happening that includes Gold Beach in OR and, maybe, Cave Junction and the Shasta area.

The Feds are so bogged down trying to control the cities that we are left totally alone. It would be naive to belive that we aren't on someone's list but by the time they do anything it will be too late.

The Feds thought that they could control the area by blasting the main roads without realiizing that there are umpteen miles of skid trails and former "roads". In fact, they helped - he, he!

We've been stealing rail from an old railroad line to build our own. A guy in town is nuts about steam engines and has one. We're building a line to the coast. It's only 24 miles so it isn't a big deal by following the road. But this will allow a lot of people access to fishing there.

The best thing that ever happened was for the new people to leave. They headed for the camps and their free food. Our population has dropped from, maybe, 3,000 spread over 600 square miles to about 500.

The big deal now is "harvesting" stuff from empty houses and the equipment the people left behind. As time has gone on, I hope it just all falls apart so we can get on with life.

Life isn't easy but it is fulfilling.

Todd

What's happening in Oklahoma City

October 1, 2005

The fall garden was looking great. 2 kinds of mustard, 3 kinds of chard, turnips, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkins, winter squash, blackeyed peas, purple hulled peas, trail of tears beans. I was standing in my neighbors yard, looking at his fall garden. It was hard to believe that in July it had been flat grass.

Then he got spooked. And so it seems did almost everybody else around here. The Oklahoman (formerly the Daily, now the Thrice Weekly) says that half the population of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area has left. Meanwhile, the population of rural towns and counties has doubled and tripled. It appears that as it became obvious in late summer that the Troubles were not temporary, many people went home. We almost left, my cousins in Frederick were calling me by mid August asking questions and telling me I should pack up and head home.

But OKC hadn't had much in the way of urban unrest. Generally anybody who got out of line was killed by people standing around or neighbors. And we had just finished our superinsulation project and added on a sunspace on the south side of the house. We had a wood burning stove, a lot of wood, and R 40 insulation in the walls and R75 in the attic. I wasn't worried about being cold. In fact, we figured we'd be better off where we were than going to Frederick, which as far as I knew had not one single superinsulated house in it.

Grocery stores still have some basic staples, at high prices, but no meat or fresh vegetables. If you want that, you go either to an Oklahoma Food Cooperative depot or to one of the 65 farmer's markets that have opened up around the city.

Today is important for one thing. The television news says that the last Wal Mart in Oklahoma City closed the day before. The city was already filing condemnation papers to take the property. THe council had decided to do that once the out of state owned bidnesses started shutting down. A lot of them are being simply dismantled, with the parts being stored in warehouses or used for building projects.

My superinsulated house has been featured on every news program in town, the Oklahoman has done several stores about it. They even interviewed -- did a whole series in fact -- the guy from Bergey Wind Power who had developed a way to make his own wet-blown cellulose insulation. He dipped sheets of newsprint in diluted boric acid, and then used a lawn shredder to grind them up. A beer keg tap and a few other miscellaneous items and he built himself a sprayer. Everybody is scrounging 2 x 4s these days to build new interior frames around their outside walls and the city is buying all the used newsprint it can and shipping it in by railroad. You can go down to the storage yards and get all you want for free. You have to find your own tap, however.

We're lucky to be where we are. Oklahoma still produces oil and natural gas, and of course the price is sky high. Local royalty owners -- and in Oklahoma, that is a lot of people -- are getting paid royalties in gold and silver, and workers in the industry are getting top wages and also being paid in real money. So there's still somewhat of an economy going. Most of that gas and oil is going elsewhere, but a good amount of the money stays here.

We're also lucky that there's so much agriculture in this state. After the declaration of emergency in late August, the governor used the National Guard to move wheat from rural areas to the big flour mills at OKC and Shawnee, and then used the railroads to distribute milled flour and cracked wheat to the big cities and county seats. Unless we were invaded, there was enough flour for everybody to have a loaf of bread every day until the next harvest.

The state government also sequestered all of the cotton seed harvest, the biodiesel they will make from the oil is to be used for harvesting the wheat next spring. Fortunately there was enough fuel already in rural Oklahoma to plant the winter wheat crop, and equally fortunately, we had good rains so the wheat sprouted and grew.

We have power four hours every day, it rotates as to when. If we had it 8 AM to noon, the next day it would be noon to 4 pm.

We're all looking forward -- if you can believe this -- to the first hard freeze. I got a pig from one of our Co-op farmers, and we are going to learn how to butcher a pig. I come from generations of people who butchered their own pigs, I'm sure I can manage it, there's probably a genetic memory in there somewhere. We got one neighbor who has worked as a butcher, so he's going to be our expert. I have read all the stuff I have about making hams, sausage, smoking meat for preservation, rendering lard, etc. My grandmother used to say, "We used all that pig except for the squeal." When we put the sunspace on the south side of the house, we also put a basement underneath. It was loaded with canned fruit, jams, jellies, plus we had beer and wine aging. Most of the fruit had actually been put up before things got scary, the fruit trees and berry bushes I started planting six years ago really produced this year. We gobbled a lot of it fresh (if I had realized we were so close to the precipice, we would probably have eaten less fresh and stored more), but even so we had 100 quarts of fruits, and were adding jars of green beans and greens as the fall progressed. We would store the pumpkins and squash whole. We were still able to keep the freezer going, with the four hours/day of electricity plus the piled of insulation we heaped around it when the power was off. And then there were the 10 chickens in the sunspace, and woe to the cat or dog who even looked at the door to that space.

Yea, I know, this area isn't zoned for pigs or chickens, but all the code enforcement people were laid off in August. Most people wish they had friends who were farmers who would set them up the way we were. It pays to make friends with farmers BEFORE there's trouble. I used the last of my gasoline to get the pig and the chickens from out by Okemah to town. The truck ran out of gasoline the next day as I was running it to charge a battery.

Most people weren't in as good a shape as we were, but nobody was starving and probably nobody would starve this winter. Acting under the emergency powers, the state had cobbled together a rail line of sorts, three times/week between Tulsa, OKC, Enid, McAlester, Muskogee, and Lawton, once a week to each county seat. So people and more importantly, food were getting around. There weren't hardly any passenger cars, of course, but space in a box car wasn't hard to arrange.

The Oklahoma Food Cooperative had a waiting list of people who wanted to join. New producers could join any time, but we had to limit customer members to the number that could be supplied by our producers. Going into the summer we had 15,000 members, with depots in all the major towns, plus six in Tulsa and 8 in the OKC area. Now we have 55,000 members, but I don't think we'll be able to add any new customer members until next summer, assuming the railroad keeps running. We've divided the state up into regions, and are trying to supply each depot from its region as much as possible, in order to keep from having to move stuff around., We can move beef from the Panhandle down into Little Dixie if we need to. We'd prefer not to, though.

Here in town people walk or ride bicycles. You see a few horses, but often they belong to people from rural areas coming to town for one reason or another. There's more mobility, or so I hear, in rural areas, where it appears that every back yard tinkerer has concocted something to make some kind of fuel. Alcohol, biodiesel, wood gas, I will not be surprised if I see somebody coming up the street on a steam tractor. I hear that the museum in Pawnee where they have the steam tractor show each year is actually developing plans to manufacture threshers. If they are going to do that, I hope somebody saved the plans for horse drawn reapers. (I need to write my cousins about that.)

The county extension office is just about the most important local government function, next to the police, fire, railway, and hospitals, I guess. Everybody is learning how to garden, the governor gave a speech in August saying that if people didn't convert their lawns into gardens, they might end up hungry during the winter. Four rent houses across the street were empty, I made a deal with the landowner to lease all four. We moved a number of elderly people into them (folks we watched out for but who lived in other parts of town), and planted their front and back yards with carrots, turnips, and potatoes.

There are a lot of soup kitchens, although they are more like community kitchens than the traditional "charity for the homeless". most churches have organized them, people bring what they have and voila, soup. My parish hasn't been able to pay me since August, but I told the priest I would show up on Sundays for the masses and Wednesday for choir practice. At my urging, the parish planted its entire lawn with garden for the fall, and the archbishop ordered all the parishes statewide to do the same. Too bad he didn't get the vision four years ago and order everyone to plant fruit and nut trees. Oh well, better late than never.

The city amended the zoning ordinances to allow conversion of single family houses into duplexes or triplexes, and a lot of that has been going on. Foreclosures have mushroomed, and a lot of people are moving in with friends and family and thus instead of 3 families losing their home, one house is saved -- which is then turned into a triplex -- and everybody learns how to get along with a bit less room. One guy at church was telling me he was dividing up his 4500 square ft home, and this would leave them with only 1500 square feet. There were only two of them. I told them we did fine with 1200 sq ft for 3 people, he was amazed. I thought, "He'll learn." At least he didn't waste any gasoline going downtown to protest allowing this in formerly "single family only" zoning areas. The mayor actually laughed at them when they said, "this will drive down our property values."

I'm looking forward to Halloween this year. Hallloween is always a big holiday in this neighborhood, and we are going to have a huge party at the Gatewood school. We'll use a big smoker to do a whole steer (which I arranged through the coop, in exchange for a lot of hours of work from neighborhood residents). We have a neighborhood orchestra these days, so there'll be dancing, from waltzes to square dancing.

So that's how things are in Okie City. Could be worse considering what i hear is going on elsewhere.

rmwj!! Y'all are just writing off Kingfisher and other points west on the rail-lines??? Love hearing from you - I was born in Muskogee - and until *just* recently my g'ma lived in OKC, just off May Ave by Lake Hefner - and have lived in Edmond, Moore, OKC, Ardmore, & Crescent.

Living space??? 2 people in 4500sf??? Holy crap - we have 6 people living in a 16x80 trailer - if WE can live in that, I'm SURE they could handle downsizing into 1200sf!

ROBERT!!! KOOL!!!

Could you PLEASE make sure that you include links to your Hand-outs? And Identify them as such??


chuck

A.T. ----- start writing.

Don't make me post again.

Oklahoma Railways to the Rescue

October 15, 2005

John,

Glad to get your email. Internet access has not been a big problem as long as the power is on. My ISP is just a few blocks from here, so when our power is on, so is his.

You should come here. If you can get to eastern Oklahoma, you can catch a train to Oklahoma City. One of the advantages Oklahoma has is that we still have a railroad network that connects most parts of the state. Much of the track is actually owned by the state, as they were abandoned by private owners, the state took them over.

If this situation had to happen, at least it happened before those damn fools at the Oklahoma Dept of Transportation were able to carry through their damn fool plan of relocating the I-40 crosstown freeway in such a way that Union station's rail links were cut. Thus, when the governor realized what was going on, and changed the ODOT management, all they had to do at Union Station was clean off the passenger platforms, and remove all the storage in the passenger tunnels under the tracks, and it was in bidness. You could get on a train in Guymon and end up in Oklahoma City. Or in Durant.

Where did we get the equipment? Farmrail was a state railway that had its own rolling stock and box cars, serving farming communities on a north south line in western Oklahoma. There is also a business in Clinton that refurbished rolling stock. We have some short haul railroads, and they had rolling stock. Anyway, there was enough equipment laying around that goods and people could be transported by rail around the state.

That's how the Oklahoma Food Cooperative generally moves things around. Christian Cheese in Kingfisher sends his cheese to the Clinton depot by rail. Some of it stays there, but some of it continues on to Oklahoma City by rail. My cousin's wheat got to Shawnee Mills that way, plus we got some of it directly to our neighborhood.

The locomotives are generally diesel, and the state has managed to keep them supplied, but they're also making a big push for planting oil crops.

I am really not kidding when I talk about the lack of urban unrest. I know you lived in New York City most of your life and may find this hard to believe, but everybody in the state of Oklahoma is armed. And most people have more than one gun. An Oklahoma Pacifist is legally defined here as someone who only owns one gun. And no goobermint in Oklahoma has ever had a problem with people lawfully defending themselves. We hear the news from elsewhere, though, and it sends a chill wind down my back. It's a thin line between civilization and not-civilization.

Anyway, we aren't hungry. Our dogs aren't hungry. Better get going while the getting's good, I say. We got room for you. You gotta work though. Print this email and take it with you, just in case things continue to deteriorate and they start some kind of Oklahoma border patrol. "Oklahoma Food Cooperative" is a name to conjure with in Oklahoma these days.

Your friend,

Robert Waldrop

my websites:

www.bettertimesinfo.org
www.energyconservationinfo.org
www.oklahomafood.org
www.oklahomacityrail.org
printable flyers: www. justpeace.org/printflyers.htm

Sixty Days, Next Year - Florida

Looks like yesterday's database flush took my last story post with it.

No matter, gives me a chance to polish it a bit more.

============================================

<b>October 4th, 2005 – Tuesday</b>

Looks like it’s been about four days or so since I last wrote. Haven’t had the time, energy, or inclination over the last few days to bother.

Ophelia dropped some of her forward speed and wind velocity as she came ashore last Friday. I think the radio said she was about 120 mph at Cedar Key and our sustained winds here were probably about ninety. As near as we can tell the tornado touched down fifty or sixty yards off the southeastern corner of the property. It blew a tree down on the southeastern corner of the workshop about the time we heard the locomotive sound. As soon as I realized what it was I grabbed the baby and yelled for everyone to run to the safe room. As we were laying on the floor a can of juice fell off the shelf and hit Cathy on the head giving her a pressure cut which bled like scalp wounds do. This scared her pretty bad, but the cut wasn’t very serious and once we managed to get the bleeding stopped Vicky carefully shaved the hair around the cut and steri-stipped it closed. No other injuries.

A limb from the sycamore tree east of the house took out the kitchen window. Not sure how it managed to come under the porch roof like it did, but tornadoes do all sorts of odd things. It took out nearly a hundred yards of my eastern fence line, wrapping it around the wreckage of the dock and a number of trees. Laid quite a bit of the corn and the garden down, but I think much of it will recover. Wiped out a fair number of trees on the eastern side of the property which will improve the sun exposure for the garden and corn patch. Once it transited our property it made a direct hit on Ed Keen’s house, my neighbor to the north. Neighbor next door found him, dead, in his house. Roof gone, he was apparently uninjured. Local doctor filling out death certificates think it was a heart attack. His daughter’s car was at the house, but we could not find any sign of her. She’s on the missing list until she turns up one way or the other. I didn’t know him very well so don’t know if his daughter was in the habit of leaving her car at his place or not. Either she’ll turn up soon or she will not. The tornado went another couple of hundred yards, tearing up two more fence lines as it went then disappeared. Typical tornado for Florida and I’m thankful we took no more damage than we did. Ed’s house was concrete block. The twister would have leveled our frame house. For all of our prepping that tornado could have made an end to us all had it come down just a hundred yards further west.

By the time it got light enough outside that we could see anything the worst of the hurricane had passed though it was still blowing maybe thirty five or so. We were outside examining the workshop to see how bad the damage was when Marsha came running up the driveway. We thought maybe she was having an emergency but when she got to the workshop she said the sheriff’s office had been trying to reach me (the twister took our power and phone lines with it) to tell me to go to O’Hannon’s place straight away as his neighbor’s were saying he was being attacked by a large group of men. With the storm and all, every deputy and emergency management worker would be scattered all over the county so the dispatch was trying to contact the posse’ members in the relative near area to O’Hannon. We made sure the women were properly armed then left them to clean up inside the house. Bruce met us at the gate to say he’d heard the news and was going with us and jumped into the back of the truck. Took some time to get there for the trees down in the road and we could hear gun fire before we arrived.

Much of what comes next we had to reconstruct after the fact and I still don’t know if it’s all correct or not. May never know, for sure, I guess. I knew something was bad wrong as soon as we topped the hill because I could see what looked to be a half-dozen cattle haulers down at the chutes. Henry hadn’t been planning on selling any big number of cattle that I knew of, most especially not his best breeding stock which is what we’d put into those pastures. There were two pick up trucks I didn’t recognize in Henry’s yard. Couldn’t tell how many in all there were, but I could see a half-dozen men and five more laying on the ground.

There’s a low hill between the chutes and O’Hannon’s house so there’s no direct line of sight between them. The road in front passes between that hill and another across the road as it goes on past his place, past those chutes and the associated pastures, and then on down eventually to c.r. 337. Prudence dictated we not rush straight in so we decided in favor of trying to take them in a cross-fire until more help arrived. We left the truck in a stand of scrub oak and trotted through the brush up onto the low hill across the road. Found a place behind a big stand of rosemary where we could get line of sight on the chutes and Henry’s house. We all four got good positions and opened our fire as one, one man falling right off, another on the second round, and a third as he ran for a different position. It became clear this was a large operation and that if we didn’t get more help quick they’d be able to keep the house bottled up and then maybe flank us. We spread out a bit to make it more difficult for them to get across the road, then settled in. With only four of us and a wide open space to cross the road to either the house or the chutes which would make it chancy to get across we opted to make sure they couldn’t get away until reinforcements came. Had no idea how long this would take with the storm and all – the sheriff’s office and posse’ would be scattered hither and yon trying to rescue people and cope with the damage. Wind was still blowing hard enough to play hell with trying to adjust for it so there was a lot of shooting and not a lot of hitting.

Didn’t take the hijackers long to adjust to the situation so soon we were all reduced to the occasional shot when someone would reveal himself. There were five bodies in front of the house from which I reckoned they’d tried to rush the place and found it well defended. We couldn’t rush them for too much open ground and being outnumbered while they couldn’t finish their rustling operation nor could they get away. One of the cattle haulers tried that and came under fire from us, and several rifles from across the road which we later found were some of Henry’s neighbors. It managed about fifty yards before it went out of control and into the road ditch.

I’m not sure how much longer it took, ten minutes maybe, but new fire opened up from the tree line back of the house. Turned out the crew from the Blackhorse ranch back of O’Hannon had come through the woods. It had taken them some time to get a sizable crew together. Maybe a minute later more trucks came down the road and soon the hijackers were taking fire from three directions. Another ten, fifteen minutes or so and it was over. Only three of the twenty five hijackers that we know of were taken into custody by the Sheriff. By the time it was over there must have been sixty or seventy armed local men that had come in by foot, horse, or vehicle. The O’Hannons have been in the area since just after the Earth cooled and news travels fast.

The two of us regular posse’ members who could get there and the rest of the men went down the highway to deal with the bushcamp where one of the surviving hijackers said they had staged from. We found only women and children. The rest had either fled before we got there or never got away from the ranch. The investigators are still collecting the details, but it looks like some outfit out of South Florida had infiltrated the camp and taken over with the idea of wholesale rustling starting with O’Hannon and branching out from there. They apparently murdered O’Keefe and anyone else who looked to give them trouble.

With the way things are now cattle are highly valuable, most especially prime breeding stock such as they were trying to get, so if Tucker, or whoever he really was, had managed to fill those six haulers he’d have had a fortune if he could get away with them. We’re still not sure if what went down had been his original plan, or if the storm forced his hand and he had to act prematurely, or if he’d gotten wind that O’Hannon had decided to run him and his men off, which Miz Marie tells me he’d decided to do the night before.

Whatever the reason for it may have been it seems as soon as the wind had died down enough that you could walk upright against it Henry, Sam Battles, and Stevie, O’Hannon’s twelve year old grandson, had gone over the hill to check on the herd and saw the trucks loading. With more bravado than brains Henry and Sam went down to confront them and Tucker shot O’Hannon. Henry managed to put a load of buckshot into him with that old Model 97 Winchester of his before he went down. Sam Battles got one of his lieutenants before he died. At that point Stevie took off running from where they had left him on the hill top. Several men took off after him, but he was wearing the little Ruger .22 his granddaddy had given him for his birthday so gave them pause about trying to run him down on foot.

Stevie made the house and told Miz Marie what he’d seen and she sent him right out the backdoor to run through the woods to the Blackhorse as the rest of her older grandchildren, one of her sons, and a daughter, loaded the household rifles. Old Pedro Vasquez was with them too, leg in a cast from when the brindle bull had gotten him, but with a well worn Marlin .30-30 in his hands. Maybe a minute after Stevie had made the treeline out back the two pickups came into the yard and a dozen armed men jumped out to rush the house. Five of them were laying in the yard when we got there.

It seems Tucker was a big man in the South Florida black market so I guess coming up with the six cattle haulers, fuel, and man power wasn’t any particular problem for him. We think he brought the trucks in at the height of the storm which took a certain amount of balls, I’ll have to give him that. They’d already gotten three trucks loaded when Henry, Sam, and Stevie came over the hill. After the initial gun play Tucker’s other lieutenant, Ricky Wiggins his name was and hired the same day as Tucker, decided to take what they had loaded and run..

What he didn’t count on was the way these country families hang together. Old Hank Johnson lives about three or four hundred yards from the chutes and can’t see them from his house even if it had been light, but he also chanced to be downwind so when the initial gun fire happened he heard the shots. He sent his son out to see what was the matter and when he reported what he’d seen started alerting the neighbors. They were the ones who were firing from across the road with us.

There were at least twenty five of the hijackers but they were divided into two groups. Eleven or twelve or so at the O’Hannon house, the rest at the chutes loading the cattle. When Hank and the rest of the neighbors opened up they couldn’t get through the gate for their fire and that’s how we found them. The one that did try to make a break for it went through the fence.

I sent Geoff and Josh back home to repair what damage they could while I stayed at the ranch. Richard, O’Hannon’s son, wants me to stay on at least until they can get the ranch back on an even keel. He’s an accountant, not a rancher, so he’s going to need help. Fortunately, he’s got old Pedro there who has forgotten more about cattle than I’ll ever know, but he’s not going to be walking for a while to come. Elliott Carter, owner of the Blackhorse, is loaning us some hands since losing Henry, Sam, Tucker, and his gang has left us mighty short. Miz Marie made it plain that until Pedro can get on his feet again that I’m to be the boss and Richard didn’t buck her. Fortunately, the Blackhorse men know what they’re doing so they’re humoring me. That, or they don’t want to cross that old woman any more than I do. She’s a force of Nature that even Henry didn’t stir up if he didn’t have to.

What with the excitement at O’Hannon’s and all it was some time before I had a chance to find out how bad a hit the county had taken from the storm. Over to Levy county it flooded inland all the way to U.S. 19 just like it had back in 1950. Both the Suwannee and Withlacoochee are way out of their banks so it’s going to be weeks most likely before anyone will be able to get into some of those little settlements without needing a boat. All in all though, we seem to have escaped with few deaths. Cedar Key was nearly smashed to rubble, even worse than what Hurricane Elena did back in the eighties. FEMA finally made their first appearance this morning going on five days after the storm hit. Didn’t have much with them either, but they seem to be doing the best they can with what they have. Local FEMA and state emergency management are mad as hops about the delays on getting the aid shipments down here. National office says they’re stretched nearly to the breaking point across the country. May be some truth to that.

While we were dealing with the storm there were a couple of young wars brewing elsewhere. Feds tried to shut down sales of firearms and ammunition in New Hampshire and the governor told them to shove it. Haven’t had time to keep up with it, but sounds to me like New Hampshire and parts of Vermont, Maine, and maybe western Massachusetts are on the verge of open rebellion. These last two months Washington seems to act like they’re on another plane of reality.

The Southwestern situation is going up in flames too. Mexican government claims they can’t get control of the border bandits so the border states are starting to send their own across the border to run them down. President Kerry has ordered the border states not to provoke an international incident for which the governors of Texas and Arizona gave him the collective finger. President Fox of Mexico says if President Kerry can’t control them he’ll have to seen Mexican troops to do it. Getting out of hand there. I’m willing to bet though, that when it’s finally all over we’ll have control of the Mexican oil fields.

Russia and China are having another border fracas, but details are sketchy since both sides ran out all foreign media from the hot spots. Russia’s complaining that China is encouraging illegal immigration from China into Russian Siberia and is threatening to send troops to stop them. China claims they are only landless peasants seeking jobs. Russia claims the illegal Chinese population in Russian Siberia now tops ten million with hundreds of thousands more pouring in every year. One of the commercial satellite companies claims they have photos showing several Chinese divisions moving towards the border which China has denied. Russia has her own satellites so I suppose she knows well enough what’s going on.

With Middle East petroleum steadily going offline China has to have oil and there’s only one large supply of it left to her. With the global economy going into the tank I’d have thought she wouldn’t feel such a need for the stuff, but maybe she does. Or maybe it’s something else. Russia and China have had border skirmishes involving thousands of troops before. So long as it doesn’t go nuclear I guess it’s only a news story here. More important matters closer to hand to worry about.

It took three days but we repaired the workshop. Salvaged some tin from one of Ed Keen’s outbuildings the tornado blew up plus took some out of the side of the shop where we wanted to put in windows so now the roof is tight again. Glad I had spare lumber in the rafters. Had to do it with hand tools since we haven’t gotten power back yet. Lake filled up with a couple of feet of water. Have to wait and see if it stays or not, but I suspect it will since there’s not so much water being pumped out of the ground as once there was. Can’t get window glass to repair the kitchen window so we had to board it over. Makes the kitchen darker. Scrounged up and hung some mirrors which helped somewhat, but it’s still kinda dark in there. We’re piecing the fence together as best we can. D.J. and Geoff went back to work yesterday.

Okay, at the request of a few folks, I have removed MOST of the "comments". I left those that either guide the storyline or have real-world information that ties in directly. I'm home today (taking care of DW after surgery) so I will try to read this story and actively contribute again.

Again, there is a COMMENTS thread started about the story. Please take your comments to that thread, in order to assure the continuity of the story...

<b>Commentary thread</b>

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=99419

With the search function off I don't want this to get too far back as I'll have another piece ready tomorrow sometime.

How about the rest of you folks?

.....Alan.

Keep it coming (clever post to bump it) - I would have worked on my installment today during down-time at work, but turns out my laptop didn't have my stuff on it.

btt

I'm scribbling as fast as I can.

r

Sixty Days, Next Year - Florida

<b>October 5th, 2005 - Wednesday</b>

With all the excitement of the last five days I never did get around to checking on Cicely Jean like Marsha wanted me to until this morning. Went over with Josh and Bill. The dog was still in the yard, looking mighty poor to me as if he hadn’t eaten in a while. We baited him in with some meat to get him in a catch loop and succeeded only to find out it was like lassoing an alligator. Finally ended up having to shoot the poor thing when it got out of the loop and came at Bill. Four rounds of full-house .357 magnum 158 gr jhp to kill it and I thought it was going to take five. Really hated to do that as the dog was only trying to do its job, but Marsha was certain something was seriously wrong with Cicely Jean.

Well, she was right. I knew what we’d find before we opened the door because I could smell it. Poor Josh puked and wretched until he was about turned inside out. She’d shot herself in the house and had lain there for I don’t know how many days. Bill and I had to pour gasoline on rags and tie them around our faces to get in there to get the body out. The fumes gave me a headache that I thought I was going to die of but it beat projectile vomiting. Sacrificed an entire bottle of bleach by pouring it full-strength on the… fluids… that had pooled on the floor. We’ll see about maybe cleaning it up tomorrow. County came by to collect the body. Her husband died the year before last and if she had any family in the area no one knows of them. Marsha said she’d been in financial straits since her husband passed away and was a very private person. I’d have to say that matches my experience of her as she’d seldom even look at us when we drove by. Maybe she just didn’t have any more reason to live, I don’t know. Too many people wanting to live that are dying now, I can’t get much upset about the folks who want to check out.

Josh figured a way to adapt one of the windows we got from the University to replace the kitchen window. Bill has a glass cutter that we borrowed and we managed to cut two good panes without wasting any. Josh is making frames for them now.

<b>October 6th, 2005 – Thursday.</b>

Angela, Josh’s wife helped Marsha clean up the mess in Cicely Jean’s house. She said the bleach had cleared the smell up enough that it was possible to get inside and work without gagging too much. Had a family council tonight about it and am going to broach an idea with Marsha, Bill and Bruce this weekend.

We’re building several cold frames out of the windows D.J. got for us. Ought to keep us in greens through the winter and maybe more. Think I’ve got a design for a green house we can build out of the rest if I can come up with the lumber. Rebuilding the workshop and fixing our other damage used up a fair part of what I had.

Brought home a nice piece of beef. Had to put down a cow today and Miz Marie said we shouldn’t let the meat go to waste. Made sure the neighbors across the road from the ranch all got a good bit of it for their efforts. Hired a local boy as a hand. Pedro said he thought he’d be OK once the new wore off. Considering my long career in the cattle industry I took his word for it. I think Vicky is pregnant. She’s got that… aura… about her, but as she hasn’t said anything about it I’ll not say anything either. Wonder if Geoff has twigged to it yet?

<b>October 7th, 2005 – Friday</b>

D.J’s home tonight. Brought fifty pounds of peanuts with her that came out of one of the university plots. I figure we’ll dry them down good and store them. Roast them as needed and turn them into peanut butter. Also brought home a rooster one of her coworkers brought in and wants us to send them one. Not a bad idea. Don’t want the gene pool to stagnate. She says her coworker has some turkeys she’ll trade us if we’re interested which I definitely am. I told her to find out what she may be interested in trading for.

<b>October 8th, 2005 – Saturday</b>

More wrangling between the Feds and the States about border security. Lots of troops coming back from overseas, but they’re not being sent to the border which is causing considerable friction with the southwestern states and isn’t sitting too well with the southeastern states either. Definitely looking like the nation is drifting towards fragmentation. Madness, just plain madness, but it’s taking on an inevitability like a glacier flowing down a mountainside. Starting to see a little more fuel coming in, but we’re told it may not last. Fella in Williston has built two wood gas generators and converted some old pickup trucks. He’s been touring around in them to build interest. Richard said he’s going to build one.

Had a neighborhood meeting tonight where I broached the idea of Josh and Angela moving into Cicely Jean’s house. To my surprise neither Bruce, Bill or Marsha objected. I think they realized it wasn’t in any of our best interests for the house to remain empty. If a relative or someone with legal standing to the estate shows up I guess they’ll have to move out again, but tomorrow we’ll start moving them in. Glad we still had all of Geoff and Vicky’s furniture as most of Cicely Jean’s is going to have to go. No way to get that terrible smell out of the upholstery. Did find a fair bit of old lumber in the rafters of her workshop. We may be able to get the greenhouse project underway.

Homeland security came through today and swept up a number of Mexicans and a few from the university that I guess they missed the first time. Not a lot of agricultural work here at the moment and what little there is we’re beginning to see Americans wanting to have it. The legal Mexicans got pretty uptight about this until the sheriff came out and said he’d make sure that DHS only picked up the undocumented ones. Not sure if he can back that promise up or not. Reckon we’ll see.

Garden coming back from the hurricane pretty well.

<b>October 9th, 2005 – Sunday</b>

Been quiet today. Front came through early this morning so it’s been cloudy, gray, and raining across the state. Spent the day helping Josh and Angela get squared away and processing persimmons back to the house. Pasture looking very nice now. Bruce wants to graze his horses on it. Don’t have any grazing stock of my own and he lets me us borrow his horses when we need them so I agreed. Richard called and said he had the mower ready. Bruce and I went by and picked it up. Some minor adjustments had to be made before Bruce said it was good enough. We spent some time talking with Richard then came on home. Probably take a week or so to get the mower field ready then we’ll do some cutting. Two pregnant females in the house and their pheromones are killing me. If Angela turns up pregnant too I think it will run us all crazy.

<b>October 10th, 2005 – Monday</b>

The Jersey Giant hen hatched out ten of the twelve she’d been setting which is a very good hatch. Cathy has named her Big Mama and the Ugli Hen is now Little Mama. I swear both hens and their chicks follow her all over the yard. I think she’s been feeding them crumbs.

More legislative bellicosity coming out of Tallahassee. They’re pretty upset that we’re not getting more aid from Washington to clean up and rebuild from the hurricane. County started a new camp in East Gainesville which was badly needed. More people on the roads every day, many of them coming up out of South Florida. Sugar harvest gearing up in the ‘Glades and for the first time in decades it’s all going to be done with domestic labor. Government won’t let the Dominicans in this year. Sugar growers screaming, but the governor said we had too many unemployed Floridians to be letting foreign workers in. Damn glad that’s not us having to do that kind of work.

Russia announced new petroleum deal with the EU. Natural, I suppose. It’s pretty much the only thing she’s got to sell and with the Middle East steadily going offline Europe has to have oil and gas from somewhere. Maybe Putin is thinking he can stave off China for a little longer. Supposed to be a new pipeline come out of it. Mitsubishi corporation announced today it is bankrupt and will be executing its remaining assets. Couldn’t swing their reorganization from six months ago from the sounds of it. Tens of thousands laid off world-wide but with so many out of work already I’m not sure we’d notice. Japanese government seems to have had some sort of epiphany and is shutting down bankrupt banks and other corporations then nationalizing their assets in some sort of attempt at damage control. Lots of enraged stockholders but the working class seems to be supporting them since their main efforts seems to be toward keeping their manufacturing base alive. Maybe it’ll catch on here. Gotta do something to get this mess under control.



<b><i>Sixty Days, Next Year</i> commentary thread</b>
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=99419

bttt

Gorry, it's been close to a week since the last update! Perhaps instead of waiting with bated breath, we should be waiting with baited breath ('ceptin' that I can't imagine what to use for bait).

Tullamore.

bump

30 Apr 06

I have spent every free hour of the last few days glued to the short-wave receiver. The coalition troops in Mexico are going at it hammer and tongs with the Mexicans. Several reporters are embedded with our troops and have ham gear to report back. It seems that our good friends in Venezuela have reinforced the Mexican army and brought along troops from our other good friends in Cuba. Perez, Castro’s replacement after his stroke, has been issuing denials for days. He claims that if there are any Cubans in Mexico, they are tourists. We saw pictures of these tourists in Cuban uniforms, carrying Cuban issue weapons. Things just get more and more interesting.

4 May 06

Our neighbors to the West in the PRK have decided to get in on the action and insure their share of the spoils. They are sending several thousand troops into Mexico to join us. They expect to be on the front by the day after tomorrow. Our troops say if they aren’t there by Sunday, we may have to pull back on one part of the front. I am wondering if having embedded reporters is a good idea. A lot of tactical information is coming out in their reports. Still, I like knowing what is happening.

7 May 06

Today brings mixed news. A group of Mexican (Cuban) Special Forces have struck at our rear supply base and killed hundreds of our troops. They used some sort of gas in the attack. Thanks to a change in the wind most of our guys and gals were spared and a retaliation strike was launched almost immediately. They think that all of the attackers were killed. Plans and detailed inside info was found on some of the Mexicans. It looks like we have spies or moles in our midst.

In other news, a reporter was shot today for deliberately broadcasting troop locations and strengths. He had been the worst of the lot for “accidentally” spilling too much all along.

8 May 06

Back on the home front. My early crop of melons and some squash id about ready for harvest. After the really good pruning I gave my fruit trees, they are responding with more fruit than I have seen since I moved in here in 01.

One of my neighbor’s girls (Bessy) showed up here this morning and begged us to protect her. Her father wants to kill her because she is pregnant. She says he did it to her and didn’t want anyone to know. It looks like the posse may have to ride again. I have called for the sheriff to come take care of this mess. Bessy is going to stay here until matters are handled. Her dad is as afraid on my girlfriend as he is of me ever since he saw her shoot four feral dogs with her carbine.

12 May 06

Bessy’s dad was hanged this morning. His wife left for her mother’s house across town. She has abandoned her girl and everything in the house. Young Tommy Hernandez came over this afternoon and said that he wants to marry her for the baby’s sake. I think the world of that young man. He was always sweet on Bessy and I am glad that he isn’t holding her father’s sins against her. We will have a June wedding. The women are already working on a bridal gown for Bessy.

20 May 06

We are at a stalemate in Mexico. Hopefully the PNA will send in more troops. We can’t spare anymore right now as we are garrisoning captured areas and protecting our own oil fields. So far there have been no replays of WMD use. President Perry told the Cubans that they will definitely not enjoy the day after the next usage. He also told him that we still have nukes in our toolbox if they allow it to ever happen again. “Tourists” or not, they had better control their people.

01 June 06

Double good news. Today Bessy and Tommy got married. My girlfriend was elbowing me in the ribs the whole ceremony. I guess it is time to ask her to be my wife. I don’t understand it. She has everything of mine already. Is my name so important? I will never understand women.

The other news is that my cousin and her husband want us to move out to their ranch. They have located a really nice prefab locally and will have it put up for us. He really needs the help and we have always been close. It was hay and other things from their ranch that helped us all make it through the really tough times as well as we did. He gave us enough to help our neighbors too.

I am looking forward to the move. He has a big solar still to make ethanol for fuel (it sounds better to call it ethanol rather than ‘shine.) Most of my spoiled fruit went into his still last year. I will make sure that I take along what I can when we leave. I have to find someone to pass the house to. Three of the neighbors have extended family living with them. They can use the room. I need to find a good lawyer to make the transfer. If the mortgage companies ever regroup and figure out how to come after their debtors, I want to make sure that I won’t be the one they come after. I doubt that mine will as their main office and computers were smoked when El Paso got hit last year. I am hoping that they didn’t keep off-site records.

30 June 06

Turned 51 today! Damn, were did the time go? We have packed everything and my cousin will be here tomorrow with a truck to take it all to the ranch. The neighbor’s brother and family will be moving in after we move. All the legal papers have been done, signed and filed downtown. He has agreed to let me come back in the winter and take some cuttings from the fig trees. That is one of the few locally grown fruts that are not on the ranch. I also picked some of the peaches today. I want to take them with me for old times sake.

1 July 06

Moving day! Good bye neighbors and friends. I wish you all well.

This is the end of Libertarian’s tale of surviving the end of cheap gasoline from the Great Northwest Estates in San Antonio, TX. (perhaps there will be more from the ranch.)

1 Jan 2007

Our first Christmas on the ranch. What a year we've seen.

Nostalgic bump...