Story Luck of The Irish

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ncsfsgm

Veteran Member
Luck Of the Irish​

Chapter One

Ryan O’Conner walked down the faint trail to an area where he could sit on the remains of a hickory log and look over his farm and all the way to Watts Bar Lake. He sat there and reflected on how he had gotten here to this point in life. He could still remember his grandmother’s voice the first time she told him he had the Luck of the Irish. Ryan despised what the world had become and wanted to find a place to get away from it all. He didn’t want to become dependent on a bank or the government to reach his goals, because they were as much parts of the problems in the world as anything.

Hammel’s Wood Products had opened 78 years ago by a veteran back from the war. They started out making barrel staves for some of the larger liquor distilleries in the State and branched out little by little from there. The cooperage was still a big part of the business. These days, their big money makers were pre-cut furniture frames for finishing and assembly in factories in North Carolina and a couple of other places.

The frames were still much in demand because the latest Hammel owner stuck with company policy and refused to turn out cheap products that lasted a couple of years then some piece broke, rendering it unusable without expensive repair. Only white and red oak were used. Furniture manufacturers paid well for the higher quality furniture frames. Ryan was proud to get a job there after returning from Afghanistan. Ryan’s enlistment had been up, and he was disgusted with how the war was being run. You couldn’t trust the officers. They seemed set to just gather as many medals and accolades as they could. His team learned the hard way that you couldn’t trust perfumed princes nor the CIA either. Their personal and political agendas had tainted them. The team members found themselves second guessing everything that was said. Ryan just wanted to find a quiet place to settle down and get away from the petty politics.

It had been easy enough for Ryan to get a job at HWP because his father had worked there for many years selecting the logs the loggers brought in to be cut into items with the least problems possible. But Ryan was a dreamer. He dreamed of one day of having enough money to buy land to build a house on and provide for his future. Things weren’t going so good in the country, and it might take a while, although he made a good salary.

On Fridays, Ryan’s normal schedule called for stopping by Jimmy’s and buying four gas station hotdogs, a six pack of Cherokee Red Ale and a lottery ticket. He would eat the hotdogs throughout the evening while he watched Blue Bloods or whatever new movie was on Netflix. On Saturdays, Ryan travelled up to Rockwood Municipal Airport to help with refueling planes or whatever details were given to him. In trade, He was paid a little and was marked up on his time for flight lessons. He was slowly working his way to a pilot’s license.

Ryan was a dreamer, but he had a realistic streak in him also. He studied up on what he had to do just in case he did win a big lottery ticket. He saw documentaries on TV of millionaire lottery winners who had completely blown it. In his dream, he was determined to dodge all of that. He knew if he did win a ticket, he must sign it immediately and not tell anyone he had won. Then he needed to hire a lawyer, an accountant, and a financial adviser to protect his winnings. There were more steps to take but first, he had to get professional help.

All his research on winning was out of curiosity because he had no chance in hell of ever winning. The odds were too astronomical, but it didn’t hurt to dream.

It was on a Friday evening when he made an extra stop after picking up his beer and lottery ticket and stopped by El Cantarito Mexican Restaurant to pick up a six pack of carne asada tortillas instead of having his usual hotdogs.

He watched the Yankees and the Mets play and stayed up a little longer to catch the local news. Part of the news segment was covering the multi-million dollar lottery drawing. As the numbers posted to the TV screen, Ryan glanced at his ticket and almost choked on a piece of tortilla when the Mega Ball came up 17. He picked up the ticket off the coffee table and was checking the numbers and the TV screen cut to something else. Ryan turned on his computer and had to search for the Tennessee Lottery website and checked the numbers carefully. They matched!

The winning numbers were 12, 18, 21, 32, 35, 38 and a gold mega ball of 17. He could end up being the recipient of the one of the biggest jackpots in Mega Millions history and could receive a lump sum of $683.3 million in cash.

Ryan’s heart was beating rapidly, and he was almost breaking into a sweat. He sat back down at the coffee table and got calmed down enough to remember the tips he had read about what to do if you won the lottery. SIGN THE BACK OF THE TICKET! was the first thing he should do. He found a pen, signed the ticket, then locked it in his desk safe.

Ryan got up from the stump and took a deep breath. His heart still raced when he thought back to that night. He headed back to the house and detoured to the woodshed to get more wood for the wood rack on the porch.

Ryan had checked his notes for the tips on what to do if he ever won the lottery and he had plenty of time to enact the tips. He needed to find the professional help recommended. The next morning, Ryan called Bill Allison, the lawyer his family always used and made an appointment. Bill wasn’t exactly the type of lawyer he needed but Ryan was sure he could steer him to the people he would need.

Bill Allison was an avid hunter and fisherman, and on the weekends during season, he liked to take his beagles out and get a few rabbits. He would eat his kill sometimes but mostly he would donate them to the residents of a small low-income development near Cedar Grove. Most were elderly residents. They were all grateful for the meat and if he could tag a couple of quail, he would give them those too. Ryan caught Bill early in the morning before he took off hunting and set it up to meet with Bill on Monday morning.

The rest of the morning, Ryan split firewood, building up a supply for marketing, one of the little things he had started over the last four years. There were a lot of gated communities around Watts Bar Lake that held homeowners that liked a nice wood fire. It had been a fight for them to obtain firewood until Ryan came up with his idea. He could coppice his own land for deadfalls and weather damaged trees, split them up and sell it to the homeowners. Because of the lake, it initially cost a lot in fuel to truck the firewood to each home, so Ryan studied the problem, had a boat ramp built at the end of his property where a neck of Watts Bar lake ran up what was once a wide gully. He would deliver the firewood by boat. Ryan ended up purchasing an aluminum landing craft with an inboard jet engine and a small rubber tracked forklift that would handle a pallet of firewood and not tear up someone’s yard. He soon had more orders than he could handle and ended up hiring a crew and purchased a Cord King M24-30 firewood processor. Hiring a crew took a little time because Ryan was very selective about who he hired. Only two of the men were Hispanic, but they were battle-scarred veterans and needed a helping hand. In fact, all of his employees had been hired through the VA Outreach Center. Only Chavez and Alejandro had families and Ryan made sure they all had good places to live in the surrounding communities. Sam Oakly, Veterans Affairs Officer in Knoxville, laughingly gave Ryan a certificate for the Shiner’s Hill Veteran’s Outreach Clinic, which Ryan proudly framed and hung in his equipment shop. Ryan decided to stick with vets because the Bible said in John’s, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his.” These men had served their country and put their lives forward not only for their family and friends, but for every citizen in the country. To be ignored by most in the country was a shame whose cloak Ryan was not willing to bear. But Ryan was adamant about not hiring criminals who had illegally entered the country, stealing jobs that had been earned by loyal Americans.

Ryan had met with Bill and Bill took a lot of notes. He didn’t have experience with clients who’d won a multi-million dollar drawing but had some ideas on Ryan’s professional money management team. He told Ryan he would get back with him by the end of the week at the latest, and to expect to have to travel to Knoxville to meet with them.

Ryan had begun prioritizing how he would spend his new-found gains. First, he wanted to pay off the loans for the boats, then he would look for and buy property to set up a homestead he, along with his younger brother, could develop. He had a favorite piece of property a couple of ridges from Meadowlake airfield he’d had his eye on for a while but had been well out of his price range. Now it wasn’t the case.

It had taken eight weeks for Ryan to see the first dollar, or check, as it was, and he had to travel with his professional team to Nashville to receive it. Anything over $600.00 had to be received in the State Office. After Ryan had signed for the $712,885,000.00 check, his accountant took the check and put it in his briefcase.

At the end of the next month, Ryan had his land. The 86-acre property had a long grassy pasture he could use for a runway, a two-bedroom cabin, and around 40 acres of timber on Shiner’s Hill next to the pasture. He had access to Watts Bar Lake at the northern end of his property. Ryan saw a lot of potential for his dreams.

After buying the land, Ryan moved into the cabin and continued his planning. He was even closer to the wood products plant, and it was an easy commute to and from work each day. When he wasn’t working, he explored his land and developed some ideas. He had thought about just quitting his job, but he needed to have something to keep him grounded. He lived off his paycheck which had a sizable deduction for his brother Jamie’s school taken out each week. When Jamie was small, he had been diagnosed with a mild case of Autism. You couldn’t tell anything was different from him than anyone else, but he did seem smarter than a lot of the people that lived around him, but he was different. He was different enough that Ryan’s mother and father realized they would have to find different schooling than what the state provided for special needs children.
 
Chapter Two

They found a non-profit school in Knoxville that fit their needs and entered him there. Basically, Jamie boarded there during the week and his father and mother drove up on Friday to pick him up and bring him home for the weekend. The school opened up Jamie like nothing before. Heaven forbid you said anything about the stars at night because Jamie could launch into a doctoral dissertation giving you the name of every constellation and even drawing out pictures of them. But Jamie was getting smarter all the time. Every weekend, it was something new he would rattle on about. After their parents died and Ryan had completed the liquidation of their property, Ryan was able to pay off the tuition at the school through the twelfth grade. He made sure Jamie had enough funds for his personal use and to have in his account at the school.

Ryan only got to see Jamie once a month and bring him back to the Kingston area. He was scheduled to pick him up on Friday. He would take Jamie to his favorite restaurant, Calhoun’s on the River, near the University of Tennessee. Jamie would start out with Rocky Top Potato Skins, then a slab of their Hickory Smoked Baby-back Ribs with Sweet Potato Fries, and washed down with about a gallon of Strawberry Lemonade. Ryan didn’t know where he put all that food. Ryan usually had the fish and chips with a Cherokee Red Ale.

On the weekends Ryan spent a lot of time on his laptop computer working on his plan. The first weekend Jamie was back, Ryan fixed breakfast then took Jamie on a walking tour of the farm. Jamie’s eyes lit up when he visualized Ryan's plans for the property. When they stood at the top of Shiner’s Hill, Jamie used his imagination and pointed out areas Ryan could put his house and the outbuildings.

It was Jamie who had made the observation that there were a lot of trees down in the forest and they should be cleaned up because of the danger of wildfires. He explained how the fires could start, and the forest debris would fuel the wildfires to a stage that would be difficult to contain. Ryan filed that information away in his mind for future use.

When they got back, Ryan made them grilled cheese sandwiches and vegetable soup for lunch. After lunch, Jamie laid down for a nap while Ryan did some more research.

Time passed quickly but Ryan was filling out his plan. He decided to build his home on Shiner’s Hill because the lower pasture was mostly in the 100-year floodplain and he would need to build a driveway to the top, but it had a great view. Keeping Jamie’s words about wildfires in mind, Ryan decided to build and maintain firebreaks on his property to facilitate fire control, coppicing and deadfall removal so the first piece of major equipment he purchased was a 1999 Caterpillar D3C XL Dozer. It was small but he could still remove stumps when needed. Other equipment to follow were heavy trailers for hauling wood, an antiquated 2.5-ton military truck, and a portable firewood processor. The gated communities along the lake were willing to pay a premium for firewood in the summer and fall. Once he had the acreage for his house and outbuildings cleared, he had dozens of cords of firewood stacked around the top of the hill curing. He had the freshly cut wood separated to cure for at least a year and the already dried deadfall in separate stacks. Now he had to come up with an economical way to deliver it. One Sunday afternoon while watching a movie about D-Day he wondered if there was a modern-day version of the Higgens boat. After much research, he found a company that did manufacture them and one size even better that could carry several cords of wood as well as a small forklift. He could palletize the wood and use the forklift to deliver the wood on shore. Fortunately, he found a new one in Port Clinton, Ohio. He flew up to check it out and made arrangements to have it shipped to Kingston. They could launch it on the Clinch river and drive it to his lake access point. The good thing about the boat was instead of having a propeller like the Higgens boat, it had a water jet drive, so it could handle the shallow water even better. Ryan also found a shallow water welded aluminum jet-drive fishing boat in the same marina in Port Clinton and bought it. He would have a dock and boathouse built next to his boat ramp on his property.

District Court Judge Roland Bixby. walked out of the courthouse only to be met by a custom .50 caliber round to the chest. His torso exploded in a mass of gore, basically severing his head from the rest of his extremities. The Judge had just presided over the trial of a local County elections clerk. She had been found guilty of several charges because she had copied the hard drive of a voting machine after she had been ordered to erase the information from the voting machine, which was illegal. She was clearly trying to protect what she believed were critical election records from election fraud, but the trumped-up charges were enough, and the judge had gone out of his way to ensure she was railroaded. According to Law Professor Alicia Crown, “The judge refused nearly all of her witnesses and excluded virtually all of her defenses.”

The system was working as the Marxists intended, but someone was trying to stop them.

Before the landing craft could get there, Ryan had already collected 30 cords of seasoned firewood banded up on pallets and stored under cover. He worked from the time he got home from work until dark every day and most of the day on Sundays. As soon as the ramp was in and the landing craft arrived, he would start looking for customers.

Ryan quit working at the airfield on Saturdays and paid full tuition for flight instruction. He could skip over much of the ground school, already showing his ability. He had only a few more hours before he could solo.
Ryan soon found another customer for his wood. A bowl maker over near Midway wanted maple rounds as large as he could get. Ryan had harvested two large Red Maples while cleaning off his home site on Shiner’s Hill and had been drying for about a month. He contacted the man and was told he wasn’t concerned the logs weren’t seasoned yet. He could turn the excess wood off and let the blanks dry from there. Ryan delivered twenty rounds, eighteen inches across and fourteen inches thick. He set the other log he had harvested up to dry better and had enough wood to keep the bowl maker in business for a while. It was a small profit, nevertheless, a profit.

Ryan had certain criteria for buying major equipment, although primarily it must have multi-purpose use. Ryan ended up purchasing, in the same month, a Caterpillar 326 Hydraulic Excavator, a digging bucket, a tilting ditch cleaning bucket, a grading bucket, a grapple, and an auger from a Cat dealer in West Knoxville. The same week, he added a used service truck, 300-gallon fuel trailer, and later an equipment trailer. The excavator grapple worked great for loading the deadfall into the truck and it was used later to assist the bulldozer in removing tree stumps while building firebreak trails through the property.

Ryan’s neighbors in the surrounding parcels caught on to what he was doing and gave him permission to clear deadfall off their properties, liking the idea of reducing the chance of wildfires. The fires out west were all over the news then and they were quickly on board. All they wanted in exchange was a little firewood. Ryan ended up hiring a crew to do the clearing. He had enough firewood accumulated to cover salaries for four months once the wood was sold. When he went around getting customers signed up, he took signs attached to stakes to put on the shore of the property so he could recognize where the wood would be delivered to. The dock and boat ramp were completed, and the boats should be there the next week.

When Jamie came home for the summer on break, he fell right into the work. He was fascinated with the excavator and learned everything he could about it. He could do the pre-operations inspection without even looking at the manual’s checklist. Ryan even let him practice picking up wood with it and moving it around before graduating him to placing it in the truck or trailer and cutting up limbs for kindling. Apparently, Jamie was spending time on the computer getting ideas on forest products and came up with the idea to use some of the debris and leaves that fell in the fall to build compost piles. If you added nitrogen, sugar, and fungi collected from dead trees to the ground up leaves and wood and kept it damp, it would make nutritious compost in a shorter time. Ryan purchased a large mulcher/grinder, and a used grain conveyor and Jamie became the official Director of Compost. Later a Mobile compost bagging machine was purchased. Ryan also bought a skid loader for Jamie to turn the compost piles every 40 days.

The wood deliveries worked like clockwork. Ryan took one helper with him to handle the forklift, and all Ryan had to do was drop the ramp on shore and his helper drove the forklift off and delivered the pallets of wood. Three pallets equaled one cord. It worked even better if the homeowner had a boat ramp. The only downside was Ryan could only transport three cords of wood at a time. Ryan considered Sunday deliveries but wouldn’t work his employees on Sunday. Jamie begged Ryan to let him try so Ryan had him practicing with the forklift until he was confident Jamie wouldn’t damage the landing craft. Soon, he was doing Saturday and Sunday deliveries, with some time taken off on Saturdays for Ryan to get his flight times in.
 
 
Chapter Three

The little two-bedroom cabin was comfortable, but Ryan was looking forward to sleeping in a bed in a larger house again, so he began making plans for building his house. He wanted to build it on top of Shiner’s Hill, so he and the crew had cleared the top of the hill of trees in the area marked off by Ryan and Jamie. Jamie removed the stumps with the excavator. Ryan selected Stonemill Builders in Knoxville to build him a log home. He checked through their plans and selected the Easterling model that had 2,250 sq. ft., 1 story, 3 bedrooms, Easterling.pngoffice, 2 baths, but with some changes. Ryan wanted a detached two-car garage connected to the house with a Porte-Cochère connecting the garage and house like they had in one of their brochures and the elevation mirrored. He also wanted a covered outside living area and build an outdoor kitchen with grill and smoker. He also wanted a basement. The exposure to extreme winds at the top of Shiner’s Hill was high, so Ryan looked up the building codes for Miami-Dade County, Florida and went by them for building for wind resistance and included adding storm shutters and twice as many hurricane straps as the code called for.

The soil where the house was to go seemed free of anything but some volleyball-sized and smaller greyish-blue stones. The 2,250 sq. ft., 1 story home would be plenty big enough for him and Jamie.

One day Ryan and Jamie were doing some clearing of an intended firebreak. Ryan was using a Brushcutter to clear the way while Jamie used a four-wheeler to tow a vacuum trailer that sucked up the fallen leaves and had an attachment Ryan could feed the brush into to chip the brush up. All this was added to Jamie’s compost piles.

Jamie had gone to dump his full trailer, and Ryan had sat down to take a break. Soon, a bluetick hound came trotting up followed by his neighbor, Mr. Henderson.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Henderson!” Ryan called out.

“Good afternoon. Whatcha up to?”

“Getting ready to put a firebreak through here. We clean up the dead leaves and brush to use as compost first before clearing the trees.” Ryan explained.

“I see you cleared the top of the hill off.” Mr. Henderson remarked.

“Yes, I’m putting a house there.” Ryan replied.

“Ya know, your house could be sitting on a gold mine. Old man Biggers almost sold the Hill one time to a mining company.”

“Gold?! Really?!”

“No, not gold…diamonds. The middle of that hill is a kimberlite pipe. You’ll probably run across some greyish-blue stone around up there. That’s kimberlite, and it carries diamonds. Some geologists did some drilling around and determined it wouldn’t be financially practical to mine them and anyway, old man Biggers didn’t want the place all dug up.”

“Well, that’s interesting.” Ryan replied.

“Yep. There are about three other pipes in east Tennessee. One is up at Sharp’s Chapel.”

“Indeed.” Ryan replied.

“What kind of house are you putting up?” Mr. Henderson asked.

“Just a one-story log home.” Ryan replied.

“You can’t go wrong with log. Good foundation and roof and they will last forever if built right."

“Well, I hope so. I plan to live here the rest of my life.” Ryan replied.

Ryan checked his Garmin GPSMAP 67i to check on Jamie’s location and it looked like he was headed back. Ryan said goodbye to Mr. Henderson, cranked his brush cutter and began trimming the brush in between the marked trees. Jamie parked the vacuum trailer where he had left off, cranked the 5-hp engine on the trailer and began vacuuming again. When they reached the intersection of the even numbered firebreak, Ryan tacked a plate on a tree for the firebreak they had just partially cleared. In this case it was FB 9. All firebreaks with a northwest to southeast orientation were odd numbers. Those with southwest to northeast orientation were even numbers. Ryan logged the Latitude and Longitude of the intersection, and they called it a day. They needed to debark eight oak logs for trusses to build bridges over Stamp Creek. One for firebreak #7 and one for the main driveway to the house site.

Ryan made his solo flight on a Saturday morning. When he took off, he flew his prepared flight plan which included a pass over his farm. He could see the rock foundation of his house on Shiner’s Hill and the masons looking like ants scurrying around. His next big purchase would be an airplane. He hadn’t quite worked out what he wanted but after watching the reality show, Flying Wild Alaska, was leaning toward some kind of bush plane that had Short Take-off and Landing capabilities. He was just going to keep a strip on the pasture mowed to use for an airstrip. He would talk to his instructor and see what his recommendations were.
Ryan called his flight instructor and when he explained what he was looking for, there was a moment of silence.

“What are you doing next weekend? I’m flying my J3 down to Brasstown to a STOL Fly-In. Why don’t you fly down with me? You’ll be able to see a lot of different STOL aircraft.”

“Well, yeah. I can make it. I appreciate it, Joe.” Ryan replied.

“Pack some light camping gear for a couple of days. There are no accommodations. I’ll give you a call Friday to firm everything up.” Joe replied.

Ryan packed his backpack with a jungle blanket, sleeping pad, a bivy tent, folding stove, solid fuel tabs, six Mountain House meals, although there was usually food around these events, and spare clothing. All he had left to do before leaving was fill his water containers.

The flight was only a little over fifty nautical miles from Kingston, so they were there in less than an hour. The grass airfield was busy, and Joe had to get into the pattern to land. There must have been fifty to seventy-five planes already parked in the grass next to the runway and a few dozen tents set up near the hangars. Joe greased his landing in and followed directions to where they could park. Ryan helped Joe tie the plane down before they went rubbernecking. Joe was greeted every so often by people calling out Joe’s name and shaking his hand. One man walked up and greeted Joe and Joe said, “Good to see you, Ray. This is my friend Ryan, and he is looking into buying a STOL plane. Did you fly your Zenith 750 in?”

Ray nodded. “Sure did. You wanna take a look at it? It’s right over there.” Ray sad pointing to an orange and white plane.

They did a walk-around and Ryan sat inside while Ray rattled off the specs. It was a nice plane and had up-to-date avionics. Joe and Ryan continued walking around and looking at several other aircraft.

Ryan was impressed with the Pilatus Porter when he watched it take off and land. It was for sale, but Ryan couldn’t see shelling out $1,795,000 for a weekend fun plane. Then he got to inspect and watch a SUPERSTOL XL, built by Just Aircraft in South Carolina. Ryan fell in love with it. The Operator of the airfield was also a dealer for Just Aircraft and agreed to take Ryan for a familiarization ride the next morning.

The next morning Gene talked Ryan through the pre-flight walk-around, which was standard to Ryan by that time. Using the printed checklist, the cabin checks were similar to what Ryan was used to, but the navigation and communications equipment were newer, therefore a little different. Gene had Ryan hold his stick lightly as he took off so Ryan could get a feel of what Gene was doing. Once they were airborne and away from the airfield, Gene let Ryan fly the plane before going back and executing a few touch-and-goes. Gene had Ryan land and come to a complete stop.

“Now, pull your throttle out and lightly tap your brakes to get the tail off the ground and let ‘er go!” Gene said.

Ryan followed his instructions and before he knew it the plane was off the ground and flying. When it came time to land. Gene told him to keep the nose high and let the tail wheel touch the ground gently before bringing the plane down. How far he rolled after the wheel touched the ground was dependent upon judicial application of brakes and throttle, which in this case was short. Gene talked him through a short take-off, and they were airborne again. This time, when he landed, Ryan was stopped within thirty feet. Now he was really hooked. Ryan ended up ordering a SuperSTOL XL and when he was shown the pricelist, saw the kit to build it with the options he wanted was around $75,000. Ryan told him he didn’t have time to build a plane, and Gene quoted him a price of a little over double and then some from what a kit cost for them to build him one, depending on the options that were selected. Ryan ordered the plane, and a grinning Joe shook his hand. Ryan was kind of disappointed it would take a few weeks to build the plane.

“That gives you time to build a hangar!” Joe reminded Ryan.

When they flew home, Joe let Ryan fly the Piper, confident Ryan had the skills.

When Ryan got home, Jamie was planted in front of his gaming computer, fixated on the screen. Empty cans, paper plates and napkins were overflowing from the trash can as Ryan had expected. Jamie had spent the weekend buried in his games. At least he had fed himself and stayed out of the beer. Ryan told Jamie to get a shower and get dressed, he was taking him to Calhoun’s on the River for a celebratory meal. That got Jamie moving quickly while Ryan cleaned up the trash and cleaned around the kitchen.
 
wonderful story Diamonds might be a interesting twist, he needs a shelter. big and deep.. will be lots of pretty diamond rock in that hole,

one request, please have him quit his job, mabye even invest some into the business.. him still working when he dont need to, is taking a job that a man and his famaily might need very badly
 
Chapter Four

On Monday, Ryan checked around and ended up contacting the same installers who had erected the last two hangars at Meadowlake. They were Quonset designs that would allow plenty of storage and a sheltered parking area for the SuperSTOL. He was going to put the hangar in an extension of the pasture that was about one hundred meters northeast of the cabin and well away from the flood plain. It would mean a larger area to mow but Jamie loved to use the large zero-turn mower so that shouldn’t be a problem. To kill two birds with one stone, Ryan bought another hut to be attached to the hangar at a right angle and have an interconnecting doorway to be used as equipment storage and workshop.

When they were excavating the basement, they kept digging up the greyish-blue boulders. Ryan separated those and made a pile nearby, washing a softball-sized one off with water from his canteen, Ryan could see the lighter areas of the stone that could be diamonds. Ryan kept the stone and put it in his truck. He would get it checked out. If they could recover enough stone, he could have the most expensive basement walls in Tennessee.

A neighbor to his northeast, Paul Gibson, came to see Ryan and asked that Ryan clean his land and build firebreaks, He would pay Ryan to gravel the firebreaks so he and his wife could ride around in their golf cart on their daily outings. His property was 237 acres and heavily wooded. This called for Ryan buying more equipment and hiring four more men and women. Yes, Ryan hired women, mostly to drive vehicles, because it only took one day of the arduous work with the men to convince them that they just couldn’t hang. If the military hired like Ryan did, there would be fewer females in Combat Arms and Combat Arms Support Units.
The concrete pads for the hangar and shop building were poured and were left to cure. Ryan decided to go off grid with his homestead and checked out a few solar and wind power dealerships. Ryan found he would end up paying comparable prices for electricity as what he was now paying the electrical co-op. He selected a dealership but when they tried to talk him into a grid-tie system, he turned them down. Selling electricity back to the co-op only meant they would end up jacking the price up and selling it to other customers and if Ryan made any money, it would be taxed. He wasn’t born to pay bills for a corrupt government. He had the money that was constantly losing value, so he was going to go it on his own.

Ryan went with SunPower because they owned and controlled their own manufacturing company. They also did wind power and had two 500 kWh ESS Energy Warehouse containers left over from a project at the University of Tennessee that Ryan could have at cost instead of building a separate battery bank. Normal installed retail cost was $285,000 each. Ryan figured, what the hell, in for a penny……

The house foundation footers were poured, and the masons contacted. Ryan was prepared to use quarry stone for the foundation, but the masons said they could use the kimberlite stones they had separated during the excavation but Ryan would have to apply waterproofing membrane to the outside walls and may have to paint the inside with a waterproofing paint. Kimberlight was porous as a sieve and the basement would always be wet without waterproofing. Ryan chuckled to himself. They could really have a million-dollar basement. Ryan had taken a stone to the geology department at the university, and they had verified that it was kimberlite, and it contained diamonds. Jamie and two workers used a pressure washer to clean the stones and separated them into piles by size.

When the shop was finished, Ryan went to Home Depot and bought two Milwaukee mobile workbenches/toolboxes and began filling them with tools. He ordered windsocks and wheel chocks and other aviation related equipment. They were just starting to erect the hangar, and he had SunPower come in and design a power system that would handle the hangar needs for now.

When it came time to return Jamie for his last year of school, Jamie hated leaving the farm, but Ryan promised to pick him up every Friday for the weekend. The masons had completed the basement walls, and a twelve-inch slab was poured over that at ground level with a further four-foot foundation wall that would be continued on the slab to form a crawl space. After that, it was another two weeks before they started on the log construction of the house. The firewood business was going well but Ryan wasn’t getting any richer. He had picked up two used military surplus M929A2 5 Ton 6x6 dump trucks with dump trailers to use in building the firebreaks on the Gibson tract. They put in two firebreaks first, then started building intersecting firebreaks and cleared between them. The forest had never been cleared and there was a lot of brush that had to be cut away. They didn’t clear it all and left patches under the recommendation of the local wildlife officer because the wildlife needed cover also, but they did cut enough to slow any fires that might spring up.

The house was soon dried in and as they were finishing the electrical and bathrooms, Ryan and Jamie went looking for furniture. Ryan was going to let Jamie pick out his own bedroom furniture, which would have to have a large desk for his gaming computer. Although Jamie still played his games, he was more and more using his computer to research his interest of the day.

The two main stores Jamie showed an interest in were Farmhouse Furniture over in Clinton and Amish Elegance in Knoxville. Jamie picked out most of the items for his bedroom from the Farmhouse store, but Ryan went with Amish Elegance. They had solid hardwood furniture, especially in oak and maple. Ryan liked the pieces he saw but had trouble matching colors. To him, John Deere green went well with Farmall red just fine, so he used the store’s in-house Interior Designer to help him get the colors right. It took them several trips before they had everything selected, measuring and making sure everything fit where it was supposed to fit. The masons were back making an accent wall in the dining area, covering it with one half-inch slices of the kimberlite that were polished to bring out the embedded diamonds that shined like a million little stars with the lighting in the room illuminating the wall.

The next thing Ryan focused on was the driveway. They had kept the driveway spread with gravel and with all the large truck traffic, had it packed down well. The log span bridge had held up well, but Ryan wanted to replace it with a longer lasting steel truss bridge. Ryan called on a company in the Chattanooga area to build the bridge and macadamize the driveway from Johnson Road to the house on Shiner Hill. Ryan contacted a nearby nursery to plant dwarf apple trees to line the driveway through the pasture, but not interfere with flight operations and establish trellises of Muscadine and Fox grapes near the house.

Finally, he got a call from Gene that his plane was ready. Ryan made plans to go down and spend a couple of days getting familiarization training with Gene and fly the plane back. Joe was taking him down. Ryan stocked Jamie up with frozen pizzas, chips, sodas, and other non-nutritional gut bombs and Joe flew Bryan down to Brasstown. Joe stayed long enough to admire the plane and flew back to Kingston, promising to check in on Jamie. Ryan was exhilarated on his first checkride. Gene watch as Ryan flew and had Ryan go through a few maneuvers before having Ryan making STOL landings and take offs. The landings and take offs were not extremely short, but short enough where Ryan could get past the rough spots in his pasture which Ryan had already marked with stakes along the grass runway. Sunday, before Gene wrote Ryan off on his checkride training, he gave Ryan an oral exam on emergency procedures and the plane’s specs. Ryan passed, called Jamie, and was soon heading northwest for home. Jamie was waiting for him alongside the taxiway, so Ryan took him for a ride down to Watts Bar dam and back. Jamie had a good time pointing out areas he recognized.

Ryan finally quit his job at Hammel’s, but not before training a competent assistant to take over. He knew the time would eventually come but he had plenty enough work at his farm to fill his time. When Spring rolled around, they would be busy dealing with the compost, and he still had not gotten a machine to bag the compost.

When they finally moved from the small cabin into the new house, it was like going from the locker room into the gymnasium. It took them a few days to get used to all the extra room they had.

The concrete supports for the bridge girder had been poured and were curing. The construction company was busy on the rest of the drive laying different sized stone, compacting it, and building the crown so the water would not collect on the roadway.

Because of the fluctuating economy, crime was going up in the area. After there was news of a few burglaries in the area, Ryan contacted a local ironworks company and ordered security fencing along the main street and a heavy gate. It wasn’t just only illegals, but there were also locals with a bent toward criminality that were being more active.

Ryan checked his Garmin GPSMAP 67i to check on Jamie’s location and it looked like he was headed back. Ryan said goodbye to Mr. Henderson, cranked his brush cutter and began trimming the brush in between the marked trees. Jamie parked the vacuum trailer where he had left off, cranked the 5-hp engine on the trailer and began vacuuming again. When they reached the intersection of the even numbered firebreak, Ryan tacked a plate on a tree for the firebreak they had just partially cleared. In this case it was FB #9. All firebreaks with a northwest to southeast orientation were odd numbers. Those with southwest to northeast orientation were even numbers. Ryan logged the Latitude and Longitude of the intersection, and they called it a day. They needed to debark eight oak logs for trusses to build bridges over a couple of gullies. One for firebreak #7 and one for the main driveway to the house site.
 
 
Chapter Five

Ryan was spending a lot of time in the outdoor living area. When it was cold, he would build a fire in the huge fireplace, have a pot of coffee hanging from the fireplace crane, and just sit and think.

One evening Jamie came out and sat down.

“I’m sorry Ryan.” Jamie said, sadly.

“For what?”

“I don’t tell you often enough how much I appreciate what you’ve done for me.” Jamie replied.

“That’s what family is for Jamie.”

“Yes, but you have gone above and beyond what I have seen other families have done. Since Mom and Dad died, you have had to play both my parents, and I don’t think I’ve said enough on how much I appreciate it.”

“You’re missing Mom, aren’t you?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah, I am.” Jamie said, tears filling his eyes.

“Yeah, I miss them both too, but what I do is make sure what I do each day would make them proud.” Ryan said.

“I try to do that but sometimes I get so excited I forget about why I should accomplish it.” Jamie said.

”I’m sure Mom is sitting there in Heaven. proud as ever of you.” Ryan said. “Just remember she is watching all the time and as long as you do your best; she will always be proud.”

“I wish she were here.” Jamie said, a tear rolling down his right cheek.

“Jamie, she will always be here in our hearts. Sometimes I sit out here and talk to her and Dad, and I can feel them watching over us.”

Jamie gave Ryan a tight hug and went back to his room.

A home close to the farm was burglarized so Ryan was careful to make sure the gate was shut and locked all the time. The employees each had their own access codes. That way, by looking at the security program he could tell the last person to go through the gate. If a person failed to secure the gate properly, they were fined $15.00. The men were extremely careful in securing the gate. Working for Ryan was the best job any of them could have, but they earned every penny they made.

Ryan was working in the shop one night when he heard a commotion out near the street. Working that far away from the house, Ryan had made it a habit to carry a pistol with him when he was working up there. He walked outside the shop, and he saw a heavy truck out near the gate. Ryan walked the 50-meters to the gate and saw someone was pulling the cable from the wrecker to the gate. Ryan pulled his Smith & Wesson 686 out and moved to the side of the gate.

“What are you doing?” He said to the young man holding the cable hook.

“The man dropped the hook and began running down the road. Ryan called 911 but he soon heard a door slam, and a vehicle started heading toward Laurel Bluff Road. The Sheriff’s Department was not long getting there, they had a nearby call to a burglary at an auto repair shop down the road, where they later realized, the abandoned wrecker had been stolen from earlier.

Ryan talked to the security company that had installed the fence and gate, and they quoted him an option to put in commercial Telescoping Bollards that would activate on signal or if the gate were opened without a proper code. This would keep anyone from driving a vehicle in or out. It would mean digging out and pouring a concrete apron at the gate, but Ryan went ahead and paid the expense. They also gave him a quote on motion sensors and lights.

Ryan had a 3’x4’ sign made and posted at the gate that said,

NO TRESPASSING

“This gate and fence are the boundaries of the owner’s property covered under Castle Doctrine law. Intruders can and will be shot if the owner or other residents believe their lives are in danger. If you enter here without authorization, please have identification on you so the coroner can notify your family.” ​

The sign was in red lettering over white porcelain with a full color state flag of Tennessee at the top. A solar light illuminated it at night.

It was partially B.S. because the law only covered deadly force in buildings, dwellings, and vehicles on the property.

Ryan went through with it anyway, since he figured it was just a bunch of teenagers with mischievous criminal intent that needed to be brought to heel. He would rather not shoot anyone, but he would not lose any sleep over it if he had to.

The next morning Ryan drove over to Frontier Firearms and signed up for their Tennessee Enhanced Handgun Carry Permit class and got a range membership. He wanted to construct a range on the farm but not right now. Anyway, it was their rainy period of the year, and Frontier had an indoor range. He wanted to switch to an autoload pistol to use magazines instead of dealing with speed loaders.

Ryan bought some range ammo and one hour’s time on the range and went back out to get his range bag out of the truck. Getting to his lane, Ryan opened the crane release, pushed out the cylinder, pushed the ejector, dumped the Hornady Critical Defense rounds into a Ziplock bag he kept for that and replaced them with FMJТС range ammo. Running a B27 target on the target trolley down to the 15-meter position, took up a Weaver stance and fired the cylinder out with sustained fire. Reloading, Ryan put a fresh B27 on the trolley and ran it out. Taking up an Isosceles stance, he again emptied the cylinder with sustained fire. He fired well in both stances but sort of favored the Weaver stance because less of his body surface faced an opposing shooter. Of course, the best defense was to get the first accurate round into the gizzard of your opponent. The rest of his range time was spent on failure-to-stop drills using both stances.

When Ryan returned to the farm, the construction workers had already dug out the drive for the bollards but had bridging ramps for vehicles to cross. He caught up with the firebreak crew and worked with them the rest of the day.

Friday, Ryan picked Jamie up at school and they as usual, went to Calhoun’s on the River for an early dinner. This time, Ryan had the baby-backs instead of the fish and chips, even though he knew after eating them and sucking down a couple of more Cherokee Reds at home, he would go into a coma and be done for the night. Jamie was raving about his science class going to a lapidarist and watching him polish gemstones he had found nearby and in North Carolina. Ryan knew the signs. This was going to be Jamie’s next area of extreme fascination. It was a couple of months before Jamie’s birthday so Ryan had time to research what machinery, tools, and such Jamie could use to feed his curiosity.

Jamie had also met a friend he was happy to talk about. Her name was Evelyn, but she wanted him to call her Ellie. He showed Ryan a selfie she and Jamie had taken together. She was a pretty girl, in a girl-next-door kind of way. She was at the school in the afternoons to work as one of the teacher’s assistants as some sort of program at a local high school. Ryann felt a wave of dread as he watched the sparkle in Jamie’s eyes as he talked about her.

Landscapers would not be in until Spring, so Ryan had a construction company building the outbuildings. They were just finishing the well house/storage building and would soon start on a separate vehicle shed to hold the four wheelers and sundry equipment they would use. There would be no grass to mow. The yard was going to be landscaped with beds of climate and area tolerant shrubs and flowering plants. The most maintenance he would have to do was a little raking, or that is what he planned. Saturday morning Jamie went with Ryan to make a firewood delivery over on Chapman Branch. They must be really burning the wood! This was the seventh cord he had delivered there since fall. They dressed warmly because there was a strong northwest wind blowing and Ryan swore he saw ice particles bouncing off the plexiglass windows of the small cabin. They both huddled in the small bridge cabin and Ryan turned the butane heater a little higher. On the way back, the larger sleet began falling, interspersed with flakes of snow. By the time they got back to the landing, it turned to all snow. They tarped the forklift and hurried back home on the utility vehicle to their warm house. It was snowing so hard Ryan could not see the hangar five hundred meters away and three hundred feet below them. He did not think that was too bad but when he got up Sunday morning, it looked like the Hill had gotten a lot more snow than down in the little valley. The temperature was hovering around 15º F, so Ryan hurried back inside. Ryan told the crew to stay at home the next couple of days and then the snow began melting. When the crew came in, they worked on running wood through the firewood processor.

After the snow had melted off the compost piles, Ryan attached the “compost forks” that Jamie had invented and ran them through the compost piles, lifting the forks and stirring the compost. The forks were triangular beams to separate the compost as it was lifted up. The bagger was due to arrive soon along with two thousand burlap bags. Potential customers that showed an interest in the compost were asked if they would rather have their compost in paper, plastic, or burlap sacks. All had requested burlap because it did not fall apart or tear open in their sheds and were reusable and biodegradable. Ryan had an open sided shed built to put the bagger in and store the palleted bags near the compost piles so they would be ready.

They bagged the two piles of compost that were ready and ended up with 250 bags of compost. Each bag held forty pounds, which made Ryan glad he had ordered that size bags. Any larger might have been too heavy for the homeowners to lift when the compost was damp. They stacked twenty-five bags on each pallet.
 
 
“Jamie had also met a friend he was happy to talk about. Her name was Evelyn, but she wanted him to call her Ellie. He showed Ryan a selfie she and Jamie had taken together. She was a pretty girl, in a girl-next-door kind of way. She was at the school in the afternoons to work as one of the teacher’s assistants as some sort of program at a local high school.”
When you are worth +$700 million *before taxes* so maybe $400 million actual. Sadly you need to consider that might be reason cute gals like you.
 
Chapter Six

Jamie was pawing at the ground wanting to go out with Ellie on a date. Ryan finally talked him into inviting her and her parents out for a cookout some Saturday afternoon when the weather was better. Jamie read the Farmer’s Almanac and kept his eyes and ears tuned to the long-range weather reports out of Knoxville. He finally picked a date and Ryan took him to the Hallmark store to pick out an invitation card. Jamie spoke with a lady in the store and told her what he needed, and she helped him pick out an appropriate card. Jamie carefully filled out the card and presented it Monday to Ellie to give to her parents. Ryan received a call from Mrs. Johnson, Ellie’s mother, returning the RSVP Tuesday evening. She asked questions about dress and Ryan explained it was a simple cookout. He did find out she and her husband drank wine and beer. Jamie was almost doing cartwheels; he was so happy. Ryan finally got Jamie calmed down enough to talk about the menu. Jamie wanted ribs because he said Ryan’s were better than Calhoun’s and Calhoun’s were great, plus, Ellie said she liked ribs. So, they settled on baby-backs, potato salad, baked beans, cucumber salad, and Texas toast. Jamie said he would make a strawberry trifle for dessert. 

Ryan went to the Butler & Bailey market in the Rocky Hill Section of Knoxville and ordered six racks of ribs with the membranes removed to be picked up on Friday afternoon. While he was out, he picked up the makings for the potato salad and baked beans, English cucumbers, and a loaf of Texas toast sliced bread. He went by Sam’s Club and bought large containers of chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, black pepper, sea salt, dried oregano, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, and cumin for his rib rub. Also, into his basket went a restaurant sized roll of plastic food wrap and one of aluminum foil, a two-pound container of strawberries, Cool Whip, Cream Cheese and an Angel Food Cake.

Ryan sprayed a 1:10 mixture of Jack Daniels and apple juice on the ribs to moisten them then dusted them liberally with the rib rub before wrapping them in plastic food wrap. These went into the pantry refrigerator to marinate overnight. Next, he peeled and sliced the cucumbers then poured a mixture of white vinegar, basil, brown sugar, and cayenne pepper over the slices to marinate overnight. Jamie came in and began making his Trifle, cubing up the cake.

Jamie was up Saturday morning ready to kick the tires and start the fires. Ryan fixed breakfast and took the ribs out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature. Jamie practically scoured the house dusting, cleaning, making sure fresh hand towels were out and beds were made perfectly. Ryan chuckled to himself. Jamie was acting like a teenager right before his high school prom, which he guessed the occasions may be similar, at least for Jamie. Ryan prepared the vertical smoker and sprayed the racks with PAM. He had a new 100-pound propane tank and the wood chips ready to add to the smoker boxes.

Jamie brought out a batch of cleaning towels and placed them in a cabinet of the outdoor kitchen and left a couple out for immediate use. The outdoor kitchen was as clean as a dentist’s office. Jamie checked everything. He checked the grill; the grate was clean. He checked the pizza oven; it was clean, and the ice maker was dropping cubes into the bin. The bar cart with galvanized ice tubs for beer and wine was sitting off to the side ready to be set up.

“Settle down Jamie. Everything is fine. We can clean as we go from here on out. Just calm down. The ribs are going to take six hours before they will be ready to come out just when they get here. Why don’t you go watch some TV or play a game.” Ryan said. “Can you bring that tray of ribs out?”

Jamie nodded and went inside, soon returning with the large cookie tray piled with the plastic-wrapped ribs.
Ryan unwrapped each rack of ribs, dropped the plastic into the trash can, and laid the ribs on the rack. When he was finished, Jamie pulled the trash bag out of the can and replaced it with a fresh one.
Ryan just shook his head and said, “Get out of here!”

Ryan didn’t open the smoker for two hours and then he spritzed the ribs with the apple juice solution, flipped them, and added wood chips to the smoker boxes. At three hours Jamie came out and helped Ryan remove and wrap the ribs in aluminum foil, spritzing and drizzling honey over each rib. Ryan placed them back into the smoker bone side up. They had to cook for another one and a half hours before unwrapping them. Jamie began bringing the plates and glasses out, filled the galvanized tubs on the bar cart with ice, beer, and wine. Ryan had to stop him when Jamie wanted to add charger plates to the table. Jamie had already dressed and looked good in his jeans and a collared shirt. Jamie left and took the UTV down to the gate to let the Johnsons in when they arrived. When the ribs were ready to come out of the foil, Ryan had to use a long pair of tongs to support the rib racks because they were so tender they would break in half. He unwrapped the ribs, brushed a little of his BBQ sauce on them, and laid them back inside the smoker to glaze for the last thirty minutes. Glazing wasn’t necessary for Ryan’s tastes, but Jamie liked it. The ribs would still be more or less dry.

Ryan emptied the trash and went to get dressed. He had just slipped on a pair of moccasins when he heard the vehicles return. Ryan went back out to the outdoor living area and opened a bottle of red wine when Jamie spoke up.

“Ryan, I’d like you to meet Mr. And Mrs. Johnson, and this is Ellie.” Jamie said proudly.

Ryan turned and quickly gave them the once over. His first impression was that Mrs. Johnson reminded him of Mrs. Drysdale from the Beverly Hillbillies.

“I’m pleased to meet you!” Ryan said, shaking Mr. Johnson’s hand. “May I offer you a glass of wine or a beer?”

“Please, I’m Bill, and this is my wife Helen,” Bill said.

“I’ll have a glass of wine, Thank you.” Helen said.

“And I’ll have one of those Reds.” Bill answered.

Ryan served them their drinks and Jamie seated them in the seating area.

Ryan checked the ribs and adjusted the temperature down on the smoker.

Jamie and Ellie went to the kitchen, toasted the toast, and brought out the sides.

Ryan excused himself and went to take the ribs out of the smoker.

“That smells delicious!” Bill said.

“Goodness! They are huge!” Helen said. “Maybe I’ll just start out with a half of a rack.”

The sides were passed around, family style and everyone added at least a spoonful of each on their plates.
“Golly! These are better than Calhoun’s!” Ellie exclaimed, a smear of glaze on her lips.

“They are delicious!” Bill echoed.

Helen held back comment because her mouth was full.

Ryan kept wine in Helen’s glass and Bill supplied with Cherokee Red. When everyone seemed like they’d had all they could eat, Jamie and Ellie went into the kitchen and came back with the bowl of Strawberry Trifle and serving dishes.

“Oh, good Lord! I don’t have room for that right now!” Bill exclaimed.

“Maybe we’ll wait and have some with coffee later,” Ryan told Jamie.

“Not me!” Ellie cried out. “This looks so delicious I’ve got to try some now!”

Jamie served her a small part and Ellie almost swooned when she tasted it.

“Oh, Momma, you have definitely got to try this!” Ellie exclaimed.

They all helped clear the table and while Jamie and Ellie rinsed and placed the dishes in the dishwasher, Ryan took Bill and Helen on a tour of the house.

Helen admired the accent wall in the dining room, and both were astounded when Ryan explained what it was composed of.

“That’s amazing!” Bill said.

“This land must be very valuable.” Helen commented.

“Not really.” Ryan replied. A mining company came in and did a survey and found it wasn’t really worth the trouble to mine the diamonds. At best, they are small, industrial diamonds and not enough of them to set up a mining operation for.”

“Too bad.” Bill said. “You could have been a millionaire.”

Ryan chuckled. “I'd rather get my money another way, preferably without tearing the land up."

“What do you do for work?” Bill asked.

“Sell firewood and compost. All gathered from the forests around us.” Ryan replied.

Bill has interests in several businesses in the Knoxville area to include Mountain Motorsports out in Kodak. Ryan had bought two Polaris side by sides from them.

They went back out to the outdoor living area and spent the rest of the afternoon talking. Jamie and Ellie had taken off in one of the Polaris UTVs to the dock. It began getting a little cool, so Ryan built a fire in the fireplace. Ryan made coffee and they each had a bowl of Trifle with their coffee. When Jamie and Ellie got back, they had coffee and trifle also. When they finished, Bill stretched and said they better be getting home. Jamie insisted Ellie take the rest of the Trifle with her, so they went into the kitchen to get a container for her to carry it home in.

“Evelyn and Jamie seem to get along well.” Helen commented.

“Yes, they do, but I’m keeping an eye on Jamie. I don’t want him hurt.” Ryan said.

”I’m sure Evelyn wouldn’t try to hurt him.” Helen said.

“I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t either.” Ryan replied. “Even though Jamie is near genius level in intelligence, he has slight Autism and views the world differently than the rest of us.”

Jamie was very pleased with how the afternoon turned out and thanked Ryan profusely. They held off cleaning up until the next morning and Jamie was like a whirling dervish cleaning up. He must have checked each room of the house a half dozen times to make sure nothing was out of place, even though no one had entered the rooms.
 
 
Chapter Seven

So, they successfully passed their experiment of interaction with outside society, although it was miniscule. But Ryan had lost a day and a half of work. There were other things coming up in the Spring that Ryan wanted to give his attention to and was running out of hours in the day. He wanted to start a large garden and in order to make the time to do that, he appointed one of the men on his crew, Harry Givens, foreman of the overall crew. Ryan gave permission for Harry to appoint someone to run the firebreak clearing crew. The last personnel problem he had to take care of was that Jamie was graduating in a couple of months and would be around pretty much all the time until he started college at UT in the fall. Ryan would really like some help taking care of the household when he couldn’t be around. Ryan started looking for a live-in housekeeper.

His search ended when one of his employee’s mothers applied for the position. Marsha Martin was the mother of Ed Martin, Foreman of his Firebreak crew. She had spent several years as a member of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department before retiring. Ryan interviewed her and had a background check run on her by a P.I. and she was clean as a whistle. She would start work as soon as she got her youngest son transitioned into her home located outside of Crossville on 225-acre Holiday Lake.

The idea of having a housekeeper when he built the house hadn’t crossed his mind, but he did have the floorplans changed to have a sort of a mother-in-law suite added. It had a bedroom, bath with Jacuzzi shower and tub; like the other bathrooms, and a small sitting room.

Three weeks later Marsha became the unofficial “Housemother” for the two bachelors. Jamie took to her quickly and both men took care to keep their bedrooms and areas they used cleaned to help her out.

Jamie got his driver’s license and Ryan was looking for the best vehicle for him. He didn’t want to get him a fancy car or something that was low on a carjacker’s list and safer than a car in a crash, so he did some research, even talking to Bill Johnson because he had his fingers in a couple of car dealerships. Ryan ended up buying him a GMC Sierra 1500 with a straight-six turbodiesel and Denali trim. It would be a good vehicle for Jamie and Ellie to take out on their occasional rockhound expeditions and for the drive into college every day. Ryan had a decked truck bed storage unit, and a fiberglass camper shell installed, painted to match the truck. The storage deck would give Jamie organization for his field rockhound equipment and camping gear. Not that Helen was willing to let the two go camping together yet, but at least it was available for the future. Ryan would give Jamie the truck for his graduation gift.

Jamie ploughed a huge garden near the cabin and ploughed plenty of compost into the soil. Marsha went with him to the nursery to pick out plants and seeds to plant. She insisted he get heirloom varieties so he wouldn’t have to buy new seeds the next year. They planted everything from sweet corn to watermelons. Ryan installed EcoBloc Modular Rainwater Collection and Storage System and ran waterlines from the blocks to the garden and greenhouse for irrigation. They laid drip irrigation lines and landscape cloth to hold weeds back to help with garden maintenance. A solar pump moved the water to 500-gallon holding tanks at the garden and greenhouse.

Jamie started building a 10’x10’ board and batten sided garden shed. With the help of some of his employees, they had it finished in one day. Both Jamie and Ryan were looking forward to Jamie’s graduation. One of Jamie’s counsellors had informed Ryan that Jamie would be the valedictorian of his class. Jamie was already working on his speech, writing a couple of paragraphs at a time then checking with Ryan and practicing with Ellie. The theme was about being a positive influence and making a difference in the world. Ryan’s heart swelled with pride as Jamie pieced together what he wanted to say. He literally went through a case of printer paper doing his revisions.

Ryan and Jamie attended Ellie’s graduation ceremony. It was a few days before Jamie's, so they both got dressed and attended. Jamie got a big bouquet to present to her.

The day of Jamie’s graduation, Jamie was up early, as Ryan suspected he would be, and was getting his clothing ready while Marsha fixed breakfast. The ceremony wouldn’t take place until 1300, so they had plenty of time. By 1100, they were headed out the door both dressed in their new Joseph Bank suits. They met Bill, Helen, and Ellie at the Bridgewater Place Event Center, where the ceremony was to take place with a luncheon afterward. Ryan anonymously arranged and paid for it but had Helen pick the menu. Helen and Ellie were dressed to the nines and Bill, like Ryan, wore a nice suit. When they took their seats, Ryan explained what he was doing, and they moved down to allow Ryan to have an empty seat on each side of him. Ryan wanted Jamie to envision his mother and father seated on each side of Ryan.

After each graduate had received their diplomas, Jamie got up and gave his speech. Ryan, although having heard it a dozen times, was almost moved to tears and Jamie’s speech was well received by the teachers, students, and attendees, according to the applause and whistles. As Jamie was moving away from the podium, a shot rang out. Ryan jumped over a seat into the aisle and located the shooter on the balcony, drew his pistol and put two rounds into the shooter’s chest and one toward the head. Ladies were screaming, men were shouting as Ryan quickly looked back to the stage with horror.

The shot had shattered the glass front of the podium, but he couldn’t see anyone wounded, but he also couldn’t see Jamie. As he holstered his pistol, he saw Jamie come out from the side of the stage with Ellie gripping his arm.

“Are you all right?!” Ryan gasped. His eyes scanning the balcony.

The police quickly arrived, and the school principal tried to get everyone calmed down and moved to the dining area. The police sorted people out that had a statement. One officer tried to arrest Ryan for having a weapon on school grounds, but his sergeant stopped him and said this wasn’t a school, but a public event center. They did take down the information from Ryan’s Enhanced Handgun Carry Permit, driver’s license, and bagged his gun.

While the police argued whether to take Ryan into custody for having a weapon at a school function, Ryan was going around making sure everyone was okay. Of course, he knew they weren’t. Some had been scared by the horror of what could have been. The first questions he heard from the news media flocking around the barricades outside was “Was the weapon used an AR-15?” Ryan didn’t find out until later that it was indeed an AR-15, or at least a smaller version, what they called the AR-15 pistol. The shooter, later identified as a female, was apparently a homosexual who had been thrown out of the special needs school several months ago for sexual harassment of a young female student and had apparently held a grudge. They all finally went to the dining area where like most everyone else, they picked at salads and drank cold water. Several people thanked Ryan, but most of the people avoided him like he had shat his pants.

Ryan couldn’t understand people nowadays. He had a creeping sense that society had turned upside-down. Healthy debate, common sense, and just following the published laws had been replaced by activist hysterics. He had monitored the nighttime news for the last months as speech had been declared violence; violence is excused as speech. Masculinity is condemned as “toxic,” while men in dresses are celebrated in the public square. It felt as if the country was in the midst of a society-wide mental breakdown.

Wherever Ryan looked, that creeping feeling set in: society was sick; institutions are out of balance; public life had been consumed by a cluster of disorders that appeal to people’s worst instincts and derange the most vital social functions.

As that guy Tucker Carlson from TV said, “Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world." For most of American history, significant personality disorders were treated as problems and their sufferers largely relegated to institutions and held at the fringes of society. But in the emerging society, narcissistic, borderline, histrionic, and antisocial psychological traits can now be found in those elevated to positions of power and celebrated by our institutions and left-leaning elected officials. The new status quo is an emerging leadership class that rules through emotional blackmail and uses the cover of various “victim” groups to impose its agenda on society. If citizens dissent, they are branded hateful bigots, accused of lacking empathy, and sometimes banished from public life.

While these strategies are contemptible, they are also extraordinarily effective in controlling what we think, what we say, and how we act. And they have slowly transformed our institutions into what psychologists were calling “pathocracy,” where the government was dominated with those with psychological dysfunctions. This had become our new social order. If thoughtful people took notice, they would see this hard left change in society everywhere pushed by powerful people in government. The Marxist strategies had been formalized and entrenched in human resource departments, government policies, cultural institutions, and civil rights laws. Our society was dominated by those with psychopathological disorders. It began when some such disordered individual emerges as a leader figure; soon, their personality amplifies it, filtering out those appalled by their brutality and irresponsibility but attracting others who see it as charisma and decisiveness. Soon, others with psychopathic traits attach themselves to this corrupt power hierarchy, while responsible and moral people leave or are ejected, and before long, the entire government is filled with people with a pathological lack of empathy and conscience. This psychopathy soon spreads beyond the government, through the population, through propaganda and polarizing ideology. People should think hard “WHY”, when they reach the consensus that politicians don’t seem to care about the “little people.”
 
 
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Chapter Eight

Bill nudged Ryan and tapped his watch. They had planned to meet at the Johnson house for their own little celebration after the festivities at the Center. Ryan had planned to present Jamie his truck there. It was already sitting in the Johnson’s garage. Ryan finally found the Police Sergeant and asked him if they could leave. The Sergeant said they still would like to talk to Ryan downtown, and it would be dependent on what the DA said on whether he could soon have his pistol back.

“Just give me a call when you want me to come in.” Ryan responded.

Jamie had already turned in his gown, so they all packed up and headed to the Johnson residence. Ellie rode with Jamie and Ryan. The Johnsons owned a home on the Tennessee River southwest of Knoxville. Bill had a nice boat and was a member of the University of Tennessee Volunteer Navy that ran the river on home game weekends to attend the UT games. He even had his own boat slip at the Volunteer Navy Docks. Ryan had never been to the Johnson residence but wasn’t surprised when they drove up. It looked like every other house in the neighborhood, freakin’ expensive! He doubted there was a house under $3.5 million within a half mile. As they entered the front door Ellie yelled out to her parents that Jamie and Ryan were there, and she and Jamie scooted off to somewhere. Bill came to the door of the family room and waved Ryan in, handing him a glass with three fingers of Midleton, a very rare single pot still Irish whiskey.

“Let’s go sit out on the pool deck. It’s nice this afternoon.” Bill said.

“This is a nice place you have here.” Ryan said.

“Thank you.” Bill replied. “It’s a little more than I really wanted but Helen likes it. The selling point for me was, it was on the river.“

Ellie and Jamie came running out of the house, heading for the boathouse where two watercraft were parked. Bill and Ryan watched as the two boarded the craft and took off out of the little bay out into the river.
“Jamie must have been wearing a swimsuit under his suit.” Ryan commented.

“More than likely, it’s one of the extras Helen keeps here for guests.” Bill replied. “Hey, come on down to the boathouse and I’ll show you my baby.”

They walked down and inside the building was what Ryan would call a yacht.

“This is a Sea Ray Sundancer. Forty-foot, powered with twin 300 hp diesels. I had it shipped up here from Miami. Sweetest driving boat for which you could wish.” Bill said.

“Have you cruised very far in it?” Ryan asked.

“Helen and I took a trip down to Paducah, Kentucky once, a little over 600 miles by river. We had such a good time we extended our stay in Paducah for another week.”

“Jamie was telling me you take your boat up to UT for the big games.” Ryan said.

“You bet your life. You’ve got to come with us sometime. The best tailgating vehicle you could have and when the after-game party is over, you don’t have to worry about driving home. We just sleep on the boat and cruise back the next day.”

“It sounds like a lot of fun.” Ryan said, grinning.

“You wouldn’t believe it. I’d tell you to get a slip, but there are none left. I was lucky to get in early. Hell, I bought the slip before I bought the boat!”

“Well, I’m not in the market right now because of the shape this country is in.” Ryan said.

“I hear you on that. Too many conspiracy theories of the Conservatives have come true while the Democrats only have conspiracies without the theories. It’s messed up and it’s going to affect the stock market one day.” Bill said. “I’ve been moving a lot of my investments into gold and silver for the long term. It’s hard to keep a handle on everything because the media is worse than useless on reporting true facts. I’ll give you a heads up if I hear anything we need to look out for.”

“I appreciate that, Bill. I’ll do the same for you.” Ryan replied.

Ellie and Jamie returned just as Helen brought a platter of finger foods. The two young people dug in, and Bill smiled. Playing in the water always made Ellie hungry. When they had eaten enough to stave off starvation, Bill said. “I think it’s time for us to go out front.”

Bill led everyone out the front door, all except Ryan, who ducked through the kitchen to the garage and got Jamie’s truck running. Helen pressed the garage door opener and Ryan drove the truck out onto the driveway. Jamie was perplexed until Ryan got out and handed him the keys.

“Congratulations Jamie. I’m proud of you.”

Jamie’s eyes got big and looked over at Ellie.

“Go ahead! Get in! You’re taking me for a ride.” Ellie said, grinning.

Jamie hurried around and got into the driver’s seat. He adjusted the steering wheel, mirrors and seat, then cranked the engine. Ellie got into the passenger seat and yelled to her mother, “We’ll be back in about thirty minutes!”

They drove off and Ryan’s phone rang. It was the police. They wanted him to come down and give his official statement.

“I’ve got to go to the police station. Would you tell Jamie I want him back home by 8:00 PM?"

“Sure, no problem.” Bill said. “You need me to go for your bail?”

Ryan chuckled. “No, I’ve got it covered.”

Ryan called his attorney who said he would send a criminal defense attorney from his firm down to the station to meet with Ryan.

Ryan headed for the PD and en route, he received a call from the attorney, who said he was only a couple of blocks away from the department and would meet Ryan in the parking lot.

When they walked into the police department, the officer who wanted to arrest Ryan before said, “All lawyered up already?”

“Just protecting his Constitutional rights.” Gary, the lawyer said.

They waited in an interrogation room for a few minutes before two detectives came in. Even though he had been previously read his rights, they did so again and informed him the interview would be recorded. Ryan and Gary nodded, and Ryan gave them his statement.

When he was finished, they had him write his statement down and sign it. Once the detective checked the statement over, he asked Ryan. “That was some pretty good shooting. How did you get so good?”

“I spent some time in the Army, and I shoot frequently at the range at Frontier Firearms.” Ryan replied.

“Your head shot was a little low. It hit her on the chin and blew her jaw apart.” The detective said.

“The target started sliding down behind the balcony wall, and I didn’t know if it had a protective vest or not and was just stunned, so I took the shot just in case.” Ryan said.

The detective nodded. “Still a good shot, and quick thinking. I don’t think we have anything else. You are cleared to go.”

“What about my pistol?” Ryan asked.

“The DA hasn’t given us anything yet on the disposition, but I think it will be returned to you in the next couple of days.”

Gary gave Ryan a business card with his contact information on it and told him to call if the police talked to him again and that he wanted to be present when Ryan received his pistol back.

When Ryan reached the front area of the police station, Bill was there waiting.

“Bill, there was no reason for you to come down!” Ryan said.

“You never know. There are some police departments that are so crooked they make the devil jealous.” Bill said, not so softly. The sergeant at the desk scowled at Bill.

Ryan grinned, patted Bill on the back and they went out the door.

“You want to stop somewhere for a beer and a bite to eat?” Bill asked.

“I better head back to the Hill. I’ll stop by the Catfish Kitchen and pick up a family pack.” Ryan replied.


Jamie had just finished making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when Ryan walked through the door. He quickly wrapped the sandwich for a snack later and set the table. Ryan set out the fried catfish filletes, French fries, Cole slaw, and fried okra on the table while Jamie poured iced tea. Marsha came in and ate with them.
Jamie was eating silently then stopped and asked, “Ryan, why would someone want to shoot people like that?”

“Jamie, some people have weak or damaged minds and are susceptible to strange ideas, some of which can harm others, and not only themselves. A preacher would probably call them just evil, but I think they are just sick and should have been in an institution, but some people are just too good-hearted and let them roam as free as nature allows, without thinking of future consequences.” Ryan replied.

“That has happened a lot, I mean people shooting others for just no good reason.” Jamie commented.

“Yes, it has,” Ryan said. “That’s why we must always be vigilant. There are people in this world who don’t care who they hurt.”

“Like the Democrats I’ve heard you talking about?” Jamie asked.

Ryan chuckled. “Yeah, like some of them too, grinning at a scowling Marsha.”


After supper, the day’s events were running through Ryan’s mind as he sat down at his computer. Jamie, his stomach full, but bolstered to awakeness by the caffeine in the iced tea, went to his room to play games on his computer.

Jamie’s words about bad things happening a lot rang a bell in Ryan’s mind which set all sorts of other little bells ringing. He didn’t know what to look for, so he just typed in “Preparing for Disaster” on the DuckDuckGo search engine and the first thing that popped up was the government sponsored Ready.gov website. Ryan didn’t trust the Federal Government all that much, but he did read through the site to see what ideas they had. They had an area on flooding, which Ryan wasn’t concerned too much with. They were well above any flooding on the Hill and besides, the flood control aspects of Watts Bar would keep it from rising too fast. Tornadoes, thunder and lightning, and winter weather were different things. Ryan pulled up his notepad program and began writing down things to do. First, he wanted to get weather alert radios. Portable ones, especially for Jamie when he was out on his rockhound expeditions, and one or two for the house. After all, it was a big house.
 
 
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Chapter Nine

He was covered from lightning damage. When he was designing the house, he realized they would be at the highest point around and would be magnets for lightning strikes so a call to Sunpower had brought him a referral to a company that installed lightning and surge protection systems. The company even claimed their systems could even protect you from EMP, which Ryan remembered a little from his classes in the military but found out there was also natural EMP from effects of the sun and of course, lightning strikes. He had the systems installed and even extended them to his newer vehicles. He needed to get Jamie’s truck protected as soon as possible. It was a few hours later, in the early morning, that sleep finally pulled Ryan away from the computer and he went to bed.

“Nothing is better than awakening to the smells of coffee and bacon,” Ryan thought as he turned over and looked at the antique Regulator German Wall Clock on the wall. Eight o’clock. He hoped Marsha was cooking pancakes this morning. She made her batter with a little buckwheat flour added and they were the best he had ever eaten. Ryan got up, wound the clock, and went into the bathroom the do his “SSS” routine.
When he was dressed, Ryan headed straight for the kitchen where Marsha flipped another pancake.

“Thank goodness!” Ryan said. “I was hoping you were making pancakes!”

“I started not to after that crack about Democrats you made last night!” Marsha retorted.

“Oh, come on Marsha! We all know you aren’t as evil as some, and we still love you anyway!” Ryan said, grinning.

“Yes! Especially your cooking!” Jamie said as he sat down in the breakfast nook.

“It’s just the Democrat Party has gone from the party of the working man to the party of the man who thinks he’s a woman.” Ryan continued.

Marsha placed platters of pancakes and bacon, along with a serving bowl of scrambled eggs on the table. Jamie said a blessing and asked God to look over Marsha. Marsha’s attitude softened as they all enjoyed their meal.

“What do you have planned today, Ryan?” Jamie asked.

“We’ve got wood to palletize, the garden needs a little work, and I need to work on your truck.” Ryan replied.

“My truck?! What’s wrong with my truck?” Jamie asked.

“Nothing. I just need to put an electrical surge protection module on it.” Ryan replied.

“Oh, okay.” Jamie said. “I can go do the garden right after breakfast.”

“Okay,” Ryan said. “I’ll get the guys started on the wood and I’ll put the module on.”

In one of the articles Ryan read, a word popped up that Ryan wasn’t exactly sure its exact meaning or connotations, so he did a DuckDuckGo search. He ran down through the list and stopped at “How to Start Prepping: A Beginners Step-By-Step Guide” and began reading.

Hours later, Ryan stopped and went to get a Cherokee Red and a sandwich. He had pages of notepad notes, and his imagination was running wild with “what ifs.” Ryan began looking at the near future. Water was no problem. Food, he would start stocking up. His main concern was Jamie and him being down at UT and trying to get home. If there was a disaster in downtown Knoxville, say an active shooter, how would Jamie get home? The police would probably cordon off a perimeter, possibly miles out for safety and security. With hundreds, possibly thousands of people trying to reach the area to retrieve friends and family, there was no way Ryan could get to Jamie himself. Jamie would have to make it on his own. Ryan went back to the part of the article addressing “Get Home Bags” (GHB) equipped with things that would help Jamie make it back home, or close, on his own.

Ryan used the recommended list of items and prepared to order them. He was sort of stumped when it came to weaponry and communications. He was not about to pack a pistol for Jamie to have in a no weapons zone but did settle for a 19” expandable stun baton that would give out 30 million volts of electricity. At least it was something. In case cell phone communications were disrupted, Ryan selected Garmin inReach Mini 2 satellite messaging devices. They would be restricted to text communications, but at least they would have comms.

Ryan explained to Jamie about the GHB and why he was building him one.

“Can we build one for Ellie too? After all, she would be stuck too.” Jamie asked.

Ryan quickly agreed and ordered double what he could. He would need Ellie’s boot size though to order hiking boots.

Jamie called Ellie, explained what they were doing and a few minutes later handed his cell phone to Ryan.
“Mr. Johnson wants to speak with you.”

“Hey Ryan, what is this about a “Get Home Bag?”

“Hey Bill. It is something I am putting together for Jamie just in case something happened that he could not get home directly.” Ryan explained.

“What sort of “somethings”?

“Severe weather, terrorists, active shooter situations, things like that.” Ryan replied.

“Sounds like a good Idea. I’d like to talk to you more about this. Helen asked if you and Jamie would like to come to dinner tomorrow night. It’s pot roast.”

“Sure, we’d like to.” Ryan replied.

“Good, be here around 6:00 and you and I can have a drink and talk.” Bill said.

“Looking forward to it.” Ryan replied.

“We’re having dinner with the Johnson’s tomorrow night.” Ryan said to Jamie.

“Great! It’s pot roast night and Miss Maggie, their cook, makes great pot roast.” Jamie replied.

Bill, Helen, and Ellie greeted Ryan and Jamie when they reached the door. Jamie and Ellie took off to other parts of the house while Bill and Ryan went into the study. “Irish?” Bill asked, holding up a bottle.

“Yes, thanks,” Ryan replied.

“So, what gave you the idea of the bag thing?” Bill asked.

“I try to keep an eye on political trends and things aren’t going very well.” Ryan began. “The shooting shook me and brought into focus what was going on in this country. We have a corrupt government bolstered by corrupt intelligence and judicial branches. I don’t know the reasons that girl decided to stage a shooting, but something pushed her. Anyway, I got to looking into preparing for situations like that and it led me into disaster preparedness and things we need to do to prepare our families for worst case scenarios. If your home is damaged by a storm, what is your plan? What if we have another pandemic? Are you stocked up for shortages like we went through then. You can get as deep as to what you are going to do if there is an invasion of the U.S.”

“Hell, we are already under an invasion across our borders.” Bill scoffed.

“That’s my point, what do you do if those illegal immigrants decide to riot because the government isn’t giving them all they think they deserve?” Ryan said. “But that is getting on out there. Right now, I want to make sure Jamie has some kind of protection and plan. If they have an active shooter at the college, the place will get locked down and the police will cordon off everything for miles around. How does he, and in your case, how does Ellie get home?”

“Yes, I see what you mean.” Bill said.

“I was studying the map Bill, and I believe the best way for Ellie and Jamie to safely get out of there is for you to meet them at your boat slip and you pick them up with your boat. I can make it to your place in my jet boat to pick Jamie up.” Ryan said.

“That sounds like a good idea.” Bill said. “I see what you are getting at. They can just call me to pick them up.”

“We must be prepared for the cell phone network to be down. I’ve ordered some Garmin satellite messaging devices so they can contact us with them using text messaging.”

“Okay, what else will they need?” Bill asked.

“We’ll set up Ellie’s bag, along with Jamie’s. All we needed was her shoe size for some good hiking boots in case they had to hoof it a ways.”

Ellie and Jamie came in to tell them that dinner was ready.

After they had finished eating, Bill, Helen, and Ryan retired to the family room. Jamie and Ellie offered to help Maggie clean up the kitchen.

“Ryan, now you’ve got me wondering what I can do in case we had a disaster here, except I don’t know what it would be.” Bill said.

“It wouldn’t have to be directly in your neighborhood. What would you do if you had a wide area power outage, to include the city?” Ryan asked.

“Well, I guess I could get one of those whole-house generators installed.” Bill said.

“There are a few problems with that. Number one, if the city’s power goes out, they quit pumping water and sewage. The sewage lines are going to back up pretty quickly and you still won’t have any water. If you run a generator then your neighbors will know and will wonder what else you’ve got besides electricity. People are going to get desperate after a few days, especially for food. We live in a society where our grocery stores are replenished around every three days. Anything that must be refrigerated will spoil. Shelves will empty quickly. I’ve read some accounts of what happened in Sarajevo, Bosnia during the civil war, and it wasn’t pleasant. People were soon shooting each other for food.”

“But we live in a gated community! Surely, we’ll be safe here until the authorities can get things under control!” Helen exclaimed.

“Remember what happened in New Orleans during and after hurricane Katrina?” Ryan asked.

“I’m going to send you some internet links for you two to read through so you get some idea of what you could face.” Ryan said.

“Oh, please do!” Helen said.

“I guess we need to start stocking up on food that doesn’t need refrigeration.” Bill said.

“Just read through the information I send you and you’ll get some ideas.” Ryan said.

“Well, I guess our plan right now is for us to pick the kids up and bring them here for you to pick Jamie up, or I could run him right on down to you and anchor in deeper water and you could come and get him.” Bill said.
 
 
Chapter Ten

“For now, let’s just plan on me coming here.” Ryan said. “Jamie will complete Ellie’s get home bag and give it to her.”

“I’ll take a look at it and build Helen and I bags too.” Bill said.

“I’ll go ahead and add two more Garmins to my order so you all can get used to using them.” Ryan said.

“Let me know the price and I’ll pay you for them." Bill replied.

“No problem.” Ryan replied.

Ryan didn’t see the Johnsons for a few days. They were busy processing and palletizing firewood from the trees they were felling while clearing lanes for firebreaks. Normally, they used the four or six-way splitter on the log sections, but with green wood, they changed to the eight-way head to split the wood into smaller pieces. This would allow the wood to season quicker. Compost had been selling well since early in the spring and they even had an order from a local garden center. They had been using long probe cooking thermometers purchased at Walmart to check the temperatures of the compost piles, but they didn’t reach all the way to the center of the bin, so Jamie found a company online that sold thermometers specifically for composting. They began turning the piles every three weeks, monitoring the moisture and heat in the center of the bin. They had built twenty-six bins with one on the ends to be empty 50% of the time. Instead of the forks, Jamie used the skid-steer to move the compost from the bin next to the empty bin into the empty and work his way down the bins until each bin had been emptied. This way, the compost was well aerated, allowing air to flow through, providing oxygen to the microbes that aid in decomposition and making the process faster. Normally, it took three months to decompose a pit, but they had got the time down to around 45 days with the fungi that was added. A lot of the fungi was collected when the firebreaks were cleared, but Jamie liked to roam the forests collecting fungi while riding the Rokon bike, especially if Ellie rode with him. Ryan made a basket out of two large plastic milk crates epoxied together and attached it to the extended rear cargo rack. Jamie later added a single basket to the universal accessory rail on the front of the bike. Even Ryan found it relaxing to ride around on the bike collecting fungi, but mostly, he had little time for relaxing. The Rokon was being used a lot, so Ryan ordered a Rokon For Preppers with the towing package and the single wheel trailer.

That Friday afternoon Ryan held a cookout for his employees and whatever family members could attend. It would be the last time they would have a chance to get together before Labor Day. Thursday, Ryan and Jamie would be harvesting the last of the sweet corn out of the garden. They had canned a good bit of the produce out of their garden over the summer. Because he had staggered the planting of the corn, they would have fresh corn up until Labor day. In fact, Ryan planned to have roasted ears of corn for the cookout. They had dozens of jars of corn in the basement along with green beans, garden peas, squash, pickled okra, bread and butter pickles, dill pickles, candied watermelon rind, butter beans, carrots, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato juice. They had dozens of quarts of blackberries, elderberries, and blueberries. Some they picked themselves, but Marsha got most of them from the farmer’s market. Potatoes, onions, winter squash, and garlic were kept in the basement cold room. They had already canned some apples, but Ryan wanted to go down to Pigeon Forge and pick some local apples at Mountain Mist Farms. Ryan was getting two beeves and two hogs killed and processed from a custom processor over near Sparta. He had both a chest and an upright freezer and he was going to fill them both. Ryan was building an extension on a storage building to store canned goods. They could keep it warm enough with heaters in the winter to keep the jars from freezing. Ryan was running out of space for shelves in the basement.

Ryan began researching at night on commodity shortages and when they had occurred. The latest he could look at was the pandemic of 2019 through 2020. Looking through that timeline, he could see how things had cascaded. Manufactured fear and government interference had caused most of the shortages and then a new administration came in and implemented restrictive policies that countered what had worked in the previous administration. Politics ran roughshod over the people of the country while the politicians scrambled to get or maintain power. That was the way government worked. They create problems and then come up with solutions that make more problems. The first commodity that was in short supply was medical supplies like PPE. Ryan never could figure out why the push on N95 masks. The people were told facemasks help reduce the likelihood of getting sick. The virus was so small that it could easily go through most masks people were wearing. A medical laboratory mask was much better. Of course, the government never told people that, backed by their mainstream media propaganda units. The best thing was just quarantining away from everyone. Eventually, that was what was done, but it was government mandated quarantines, which helped screw things up even more. The economy suffered for years after that. If you were stocked up on food and supplies and not have to go out among the population, there was less chance of getting sick. Ryan went ahead and ordered Full-Face Respirators for CBRN defense and began searching for a fuel distributor to install fuel tanks for vehicle fuels, propane, and aviation fuel.

All enjoyed the cookout. Ryan made sure there was plenty of food, beer, and non-alcoholic drinks. He had men that didn’t drink offer to be designated drivers to make sure everyone got home safely. Even Ellie, Helen, and Bill came. Ryan’s perception of Helen had changed over time. She didn’t seem to be the snooty, gated-community queen she once did, or maybe it was Ryan that had changed. Anyway, Helen and Ellie pitched in and helped Marsha wherever they could. Ryan wouldn’t let the two employee’s wives, or the few girlfriends help….the party was for them, but women always find a way to do things you don’t want them to do.

Ryan had scheduled the party from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM and he and Bill talked about prepping ideas nearly the entire time. Bill was getting into prepping and talked about what he had been reading up on with enthusiasm. He had come upon an article about foods to stockpile for the next food shortage, and they had discussed the subject at length.

“Ryan, I think I’m beginning to see things as they really are.” Bill said. “To me, it looks like the people we send to Washington to run things for us have become advocates for a political system in which the state has substantial centralized control over social and economic affairs. If I’m right, everything could shut down when the people get wise and the boiling point is reached.”

“Yeah, I have the same feeling. I’m upping my storage to five years’ worth. Things are likely to get so screwed up it might take that long or longer to get everything straightened out.” Ryan said.

That evening, when everything had been cleaned and trash bags ready to haul to the dumpster, Jamie and Ellie hit Bill, Helen, and Ryan with something that got them to thinking and talking. They wanted to go into western North Carolina to go rock hunting for three days. They had gone to Cooper’s Gem Mine in Blountsville, Tennessee and had come back with a couple of nice garnets but wanted to look for rubies and emeralds in western North Carolina. It was too far for a day trip and they wanted to camp overnight for a couple of nights. The grownups looked at each other and then Helen asked the two young adults to leave them for a while to talk and they would give them their answer.

Bill grumbled, but Ryan wasn’t bothered by the two young people camping.

“I don’t think they’ve been intimate yet, but Evelyn has been on the pill for about four years to regulate her periods.” Helen said.

“Yeah, but I don’t like the idea.” Bill said.

“Well, they are entering adulthood, and we’ve got to trust them to be responsible.” Ryan said. “Both are good kids and so far, have made good decisions. I say let them go.”

Finally, Ellie and Jamie were called back in and given permission. The two went to Jamie’s room to hash out their packing and making other plans.

Jamie and Ellie had been taking out their hiking boots from their GHBs and wearing them on practice walks at lunch to the marina, until they could have walked it blindfolded. This was to break the boots in, but Ryan made sure they wore them on walks in the forest also and carried their Garmin GPSMAP® 67i units to practice sending text messages also. It gave them a chance to use the location app on the unit to find each other in case they were separated for any reason. Finally, the three-day weekend came when they went on their rockhound expedition to the North Carolina mountains. They were going to go to a couple of established gem mines, but they were also going to search creek bottoms where they could. Ryan had given Bill and Helen their satellite messaging devices, but he cautioned Helen against continuously messaging Ellie, but to set up a realistic contact schedule. Bill later said he almost had to have her bite on a stick to keep her sane.
Jamie and Ellie had no problems on their trip and came back with some corundum, a stone that might polish out to be a one caret ruby and an emerald from Hiddenite.
 
 
Chapter Eleven

The more Ryan read, and the more he watched the news, he became convinced it was going to take a lot longer to fix what the politicians were breaking, if they ever did. It was Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana who said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It looked like no one from any political party had learned anything from past mistakes, so Ryan increased his storage plans. He was seeing he also needed to increase storage space and began looking at ideas on storage facilities that wouldn’t be affected by weather. It could get hotter than six shades of hell in the summer and colder than a cast iron toilet in the winter. Then he thought of underground and began researching for underground construction techniques. He contacted Atlas Survival in Texas and inquired about their 10’x50’ shelter with nothing but a floor and a hatch to be used for storage. They invited him down to talk and Ryan decided to use the trip for a long-range flight in his SuperSTOL.

It was a scene often seen over the war-torn oblasts of eastern Ukraine and western Russia; the drone flew low up the Potomac River to evade radar. When it reached Hatton Point, it changed direction slightly and flew up Swan Creek, on to Tantallon Marina. As it neared the marina, it slowed slightly to identify its target. When the operator located the target, the drone flew straight to the yacht, hovered momentarily below and behind the flying bridge and exploded. The bomb, constructed with a combination of high explosives and thermite, exploded with such an intensive white light, nearby observers at first believed the country was under nuclear attack. In the targeted yacht, the Secretary of State, Governor, and Attorney General of a northern state were meeting with a White House representative. The state officials were under investigation for threatening county election coordinators of their state if they didn’t certify the elections the way the governor and her staff wanted. It was a national coordinated plan to keep THAT MAN from regaining the Presidency. The explosion not only destroyed the targeted yacht, but six others around it also. Luckily, there were no other casualties except for the intended ones. Closet Marxist subversives were slowly, but surely, being weeded out. The war had begun.

Ryan and Jamie were working in the garden, pulling up old plants and clearing the rows of debris left over from their fall harvests. The potatoes were dug, and the vines and plants added to the trailer to be ground and added to the compost piles. Ryan estimated they had nearly four hundred pounds of russet potatoes and two hundred of sweet potatoes. They were laid out on tarps to let the dirt on them dry, then the dirt brushed off of them and bagged in 25-pound bags. Jamie kept looking at his watch, as he used a pitchfork to load the piles of dead vines and stalks to the trailer. Finally, he stuck the pitchfork in the ground and said, “Ryan, come with me, you need to see this!”

“What?” Ryan asked.

“Just come with me! We’ll take the Gator!” Jamie replied excitedly.

Ryan climbed into the passenger seat because Jamie had commandeered the driver’s place. They took off in a neck-jerking motion and headed for the boathouse. When they arrived at the boat ramp, Jamie stopped, and they got out.

“What is it?” Ryan asked.

“Just listen!” Jamie admonished him.

At first, Ryan only heard the breeze in the trees and the lapping of the water. Then he heard an increasing roar, which seemed to diminish as it came up the channel. All of a sudden a strange looking boat appeared and glided toward them and onto the ramp. The helmsman turned the boat around and had it pointed back toward the water. Bill, Helen, and Ellie appeared and climbed out.

“Well, you don’t have to come to the house to pick Jamie up now!” Bill said, grinning.

“Where in the world did you find a hovercraft?” Ryan asked.

“This is a Hovertechnics HT 2000, and they are built up in Michigan, but I bought this one from a dealer outside Chicago. We had no problem in the shallower water and if you stay on the windward side of the river the wind can’t move you too much.” Bill replied. “Come on, I’ll take you for a ride!”

They all got in and quickly were back out on the lake. Bill had it going all out at nearly 40 knots and put the hovercraft through its paces. They all wore communications headsets to drown out the roar of the engines and to be able to talk to each other. Bill made a 180º turn to go back to the boat ramp that if Ryan hadn’t been strapped in with seat and shoulder harness, he would have gone flying through the canopy.
When they got back to the ramp, Bill parked the hovercraft pointing toward the channel.

“Bill, you just might have come up with the answer to a question that’s been brewing in my mind,” Ryan said. “You might live in a gated community, but in the long run it might not be so safe. You’d be hemmed in until rioters finally gained enough strength to take on you and your family, and the community. I suggest at your soonest opportunity, you all high tail it down here and stay with us. You know we have enough room for everyone.”

“Ryan, we’ll agree if you let us bring all of our preps we have gathered and add them to yours. It’s only fair.” Bill said.

“Deal!” Ryan said. “We can move everything with the landing craft in one swoop to avoid curious neighbors.”

Ryan bought another heavy-duty trailer to deliver firewood with. A local BBQ restaurant that had its own pits ordered four cords of wood. They wanted a good bit of it not to be quite seasoned for the smoke it would give out. They were nowhere near the river or lake so it would have to be delivered by road.

The next week the restaurant called and ordered ten more cords of partially seasoned hickory wood. It was exactly what they needed.

Ryan began planning his flight to Texas. It was only 600 air miles, but he wouldn’t make it on one tank of fuel. The least amount of times he’d have to refuel was two, but he planned for three “just in case”. Of course, he could land on a road near a service station and fill it up with high octane gas in an emergency, but he’d rather stick with 100LL fuel if he could. His three-stop plan didn’t work out so he settled on carrying two five-gallon fuel cans in his cargo area, refuel in Memphis, then at Sheridan Municipal Airport in Arkansas before heading to Majors Airport outside of Greeneville, Texas where he could rent a vehicle and drive to the shelter plant.

The next big crisis was the selective elimination of what was being called the fifth column of criminal infiltrators. Many of those who had illegally entered the country were asking the government for help getting back home to their native countries. It wasn’t very pleasant there but at least they would be alive. Next on the elimination lists were the anti-Christian rabble rousers and influencers who put together the protests that were causing so much damage to the nation’s infrastructure. Blood was flowing in the streets and the government’s solution was to try to use anti-gun laws to quell violence.

Ryan’s flight was uneventful, and he finally landed in Greeneville with a stiff back and a sore butt. Rather than going straight on out to the plant, Ryan had reserved a hotel room along with the rental car and went to check in and get a bite to eat. He had a country fried steak dinner at Cracker Barrel and a couple of beers at a bar next to his hotel and went to bed.

The next morning Ryan was waiting at the Atlas office when they opened for business. He was given a tour of the plant, seeing a few shelter models under construction. He and the salesman retired to a conference room where Ryan was shown the catalog of models, even though all he wanted was something for storage. They spent up until lunch talking about the benefits of different models. When they broke for lunch, which the company paid for, Ryan believed the guy could sell ice water to Eskimos because he was beginning to lean toward getting an underground shelter. The salesman had explained how they could connect the two units so they would have access to the storage unit without having to go above ground. Radiological contamination could be a concern on the Hill because they were near the K-25 and Y-12 complexes of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), home of the original Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb and there was a nuclear power plant near the Watts Bar Dam. It was supposed to be safe, but again it was government run and governments lie…. often. And then again, Fukushima had shown us that nature and nuclear reactors didn’t always mix well. Ryan asked the salesman to let him think about his offer overnight and he would be back the next morning.

The rest of the afternoon Ryan shopped for souvenirs for Jamie. For some unearthly reason, the Dallas cowboys were one of Jamie’s favorite football teams, so Ryan bought him a Cowboys’ ball cap and a wooden map cut out of Texas with the Cowboy’s logo in the center of it. He bought himself a cookbook. The more he thought about it, the more he liked the shelter addition idea. He would want to have room for the Johnson family and master bedrooms for Bill and Helen, himself…he’d gotten used to sleeping on a queen-sized bed, and one for Jamie and Ellie, their budding romance having not gone unnoticed. The shelter models the salesman had shown him had room for a year or more food storage but with the separate storage unit, they could store many years’ worth of food and other items. Looking through the shelter spec sheets, Ryan called his SunPower contact and talked about the electric requirements of the shelter to make sure the ESS containers could handle the extra electrical requirements. They finally determined they could handle the load, and between the two containers, give him power for five days without being recharged, which was a relief to Ryan.
 
 
Chapter Twelve


That evening Ryan ate genuine Texas BBQ washed down with a few Live Oak Hefeweizen. He went straight back to his hotel and turned in for the night.

The next morning Ryan and the salesman sat down and worked out just what Ryan wanted. Ryan wasn’t disturbed as the dollar amounts increased on the computer monitor as options were added. One of the “Must Have” options was a vehicle entrance option for the storage unit. This would allow him to use a forklift to move supplies into the storage unit. This led to rethinking the shelter model and Ryan switched to a premiere unit that had a greenhouse, firing range and garage options. Ryan kept the greenhouse and garage options and had the salesman remove the firing range and declined the separate storage unit. What was intended to be the garage area of the new model had as much space as the storage unit. There were extra bedrooms and sleeping areas….enough for up to 25 people. At the end of their meeting, Ryan had signed a contract and made a substantial down payment but came away with a large packet of things Ryan had to do to prepare the land for the shelter components delivery, and an armload of t-shirts, ball caps and coffee mugs with the Atlas logo. Lighter in spirit and funds, Ryan returned to the hotel then went to a nearby office supply and bought boxes and packing tape to pack all the treasures he’d accumulated. He packed the boxes and had nothing to do the rest of the day, so he just rested up and went through the information packet the salesman had given him. He would have to hire someone to excavate the site and someone to install pre-formed pedestrian tunnel sections from the house basement to the shelter. There was a relatively flat area one hundred meters northeast of the house where he could place the shelter. First, he would have to dig a well, but that would be no problem. The well driller he’d used before told him they were sitting above the Valley and Ridge carbonate-rock aquifer. It had some of the best water Ryan had ever tasted. They had given him plans on where the well should go to make sure it was in the utility room of the shelter. Ryan was excited and anxious to get started.

Ryan had a good flight back and although he wanted to fly faster, he kept at his normal cruise speed and made it back just ahead of a major storm. The wind was whipping, and the rain had started as he drove into the garage.

He would get another surveyor’s transit and lay everything out. There wasn’t a lot of difference between a transit and an M2 aiming circle, plus the crews would have another transit.

Marsha must have traded recipes with Maggie because the pot roast they had that night tasted just like Maggie’s. Jamie came to the table with his Cowboy hat on and Marsha snatched it off his head and placed it on the sideboard.

“This isn’t the 1800’s cowboy, we’ve developed manners around here!” Marsha said.

Jamie blushed and said, “I’m sorry.”

The next morning Ryan contacted the well driller to dig another well. He and Jamie roughly measured out where the well needed to go while the wood crew began clearing the trees from the area.

Like around the house, Ryan had the men remove the trees three hundred feet away from the excavation area. If any vegetation needed to go back to conceal anything, he would have the landscape company come back.

It took four days to drill the well because of a thick layer of metamorphic rocks before they hit the limestone layer. Ryan insisted that at least thirty-five feet of casing be installed because the ground around the well would be excavated down to twenty feet below ground level.

Once the well was complete, the construction equipment arrived and began the excavation. Because of the timeline, two excavators were brought in along with four dump trucks. Dirt was stored temporarily away from the site. Ryan used his dump truck to haul the stumps away that they dug up. Neither Ryan nor Jamie hovered around the excavation. They were too busy grinding up the forest mulch debris the men had cleared from the site, refilling the empty compost bins. Shiner’s Hill compost had become one of the most sought-after garden products in the area. The one garden center they sold to quickly sold out no matter the time of year. People would just hoard it until they were ready to use it. Of course, because it was rare to find, the garden center put a hefty price on it. Ryan’s wood customers appreciated he sold the compost to them at a reduced price, bringing in a few more customers from the more affluent areas. Ryan didn’t want to expand the compost side of the business because of the time the compost had to cook. It was a pretty easy schedule they had now. His next idea was to sell firewood to convenience and grocery stores: just enough to have a romantic fire. Instead of shrink wrapping it, he would place it in mesh bags and add a handful of fatwood for kindling. Ryan paid Juan Alejandro’s son Jose to split the fatwood pieces the fire break crews occasionally found into quarter inch pieces along with a colorful matchbook type sleeve with 20 four-inch wooden matches inside. The customer would have a complete fire kit. His largest outlay of material expenses, so far, was for the 4”x6” timbers used to build the bins. He even started using rotting hay bales he’d spotted down in the Stamp Creek Valley hayfields to his southwest. The ground detritus made an excellent additive to the other ingredients of the piles. Firewood sales had been going through the roof. Ryan had even traded two cords to a man that had his own limestone mine for enough ground limestone to put on his garden this fall.

Ryan decided to hire someone on to help take orders and keep an eye on inventory and put ads in the Roane County News and the Knoxville Daily Sun. He had a few responders and set up interviews. Most were fairly young women looking for their first job and not having what Ryan considered the skills needed. He also based his judgement on how many times they picked up and looked at their phone. Finally, one of the last women he interviewed, struck him as having the “Right Stuff”. She had studied accounting at UT but had never worked at her major. She was originally from down around Soddy-Daisy, had gone to UT on scholarship, diverted to the music industry for a while and was back on the job market. It didn’t hurt that she, as Jamie put it, was “hot,” as in hotter than fish grease. Strangely, she seemed quite familiar, and Ryan soon remembered where he had seen her, or at least someone resembling her. It could not be the same person. His unit had been on a S.E.R.E. exercise. The scenario was that members of his unit had been captured infiltrating a hostile country and were being held in a village. The familiar looking girl, or someone who looked like her, was a village member, except then, she was dressed in eastern European clothing, her faced was smudged with dirt, and it had been in Nebraska. In reality, most of the people playing villagers were behavioral scientists observing the unit for any psychological problems. A plan was hatched and with the help of friendly partisans, they had escaped in small groups under the cover of smoke laid down with rockets and during darkness. Ryan couldn’t count the number of trees he had run face-first into that night. Ryan was pretty sure somewhere in Nebraska there were forests, but where they weren’t forested, and you encountered trees, you’d better slow the hell down and check cautiously. Where they were, trees grew along intermediate streams that had stream beds that were sometimes ten to fifteen feet deep, and at the time of year they were there, they were dry as a popcorn fart. Well, anyway, it wasn’t the same girl.

Ryan set up one of the more accessible bedrooms for her to use for an office and contacted Stonemill Builders for plans for an eight hundred square foot cabin to use as an office. Jamie picked out an office site near the woodyard and excavated a basement area. It never hurts to have more storage space. The basement would be walled with ICW and the structure would be made of recycled Polypropylene blocks that were fire and water resistant, was 90% less weight than a conventional concrete masonry unit and could be clad with wood log siding.

The place really got to cranking after that. The excavation for the shelter was completed and Atlas was shipping in the components. The 12” thick concrete pad was poured in the hole awaiting the 12’x50’ shelter components. A 3000 square foot garage and shop cladded in barn wood would be placed on top of the shelter. Since Ryan had an office going up he had to make a circular drive to handle the 18-wheelers. Trees along the driveway had to be cut back for the loads of shelter components. The sounds of heavy equipment drowned out normal conversation near the worksite.

The first Ellie got to see Ryan’s new secretary, bookkeeper/salesperson, she turned a pasty shade of white and turned to Ryan.

“You have Morgan James working for you?!” Ellie asked.

“Well…..that’s what she said her name was.” Ryan replied, confused.

“Don’t you know who she is?!” Ellie blurted out.

“She’s my new girl Friday.” Ryan replied.

“A couple of years ago, she was the hottest up-and-coming singer in Nashville!” Ellie said. “Her single, ‘I’ll Always Be Here For You’ was on the charts for weeks!”

“Well, she counts pallets for me now.” Ryan smirked.

Flustered, Ellie dragged Jamie off somewhere and Morgan walked in the door with a clipboard of inventory sheets.

“Morgan, you didn’t tell me you were famous. In your interview you said you’d just worked in the music industry for a short while.”

“Who ratted me out?” Morgan asked.

“A young woman who has the inside ticket of being my future sister-in-law.” Ryan replied.

“Well, I did have my fifteen minutes of fame, but I started seeing how dirty and cutthroat the industry was and decided not to waste my time.” Morgan said.

“Good enough. Jamie said he could put a computer system together to do some of the heavy work, if you want.” Ryan commented.

“It would be a big help with the inventory and number crunching.” Morgan replied.

Jamie and Ellie came back in, and Ryan introduced Morgan to them.

“Oh! Miss James, I am thrilled to meet you!” Ellie said.
 
 
Chapter Thirteen


“Okay, let me get this straight. Around here, I am Morgan. I need to get a handle on the product inventory to make things easier on Ryan. As I told Ryan, I had my fifteen minutes of fame but I’m not in that business anymore, I was basically a one hit wonder. Jamie, Ryan said you could put a computer system together for me?”

“Yes, and I know a startup software company in Knoxville that has a scalable inventory program they could easily customize for you.” Jamie said.

“Arrange everything for her and the quicker the better.” Ryan said.

“I’m on it!” Jamie said, pulling Ellie out of the room.

Jamie and Ellie returned three hours later. Jamie reported to Ryan what he had set up while Ellie slipped into Morgan’s office.

“Morgan, I want to apologize for how I acted earlier.” Ellie said meekly.

“Don’t worry about it, girl.” Morgan replied. "Let’s just say fame wasn't cut out for me as much as people think. The music industry is so laden with lies I’ll bet Satan is envious. Most of the agents I encountered required you to take off your clothes to get more songs. I decided I wasn’t going to whore myself out for a little fame and left. I’ve been a lot happier here than when I was in Nashville.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” Ellie said.

“Ellie, do you know what that white stuff in chicken shit is?” Morgan asked.

“No,” Ellie replied.

“It’s still chicken shit. All that glitters is not gold.” Morgan said, grinning.

Ellie giggled. “Thanks.”

Ellie left to find Jamie; Morgan followed her to the kitchen where Ellie found Jamie setting the table in the dining room.

“Whatever is cooking sure smells good!” Morgan said.

“Breaded pork chops, collards, mashed potatoes, carrots and cornbread.” Marsha called out.

“Jamie, we have another guest for supper.” Ryan said.

Jamie quickly set another plate and silverware next to Ryan’s seat at the head of the table.

“You don’t have to do that!” Morgan said.

“You’ve got some hard work ahead of you.” Ryan said. “I can’t have my employees foundering from starvation.”

The meal was delicious, and everyone’s eyes lit up when Marsha topped it off with fried apple pies topped off with a scoop of ice cream.

The office cabin went up quickly and the electricians were finishing up with their connections. Helen came and helped Morgan pick out furniture and decorate. Morgan had asked Ryan to include a screened in porch on the back side to act as a break area. The carpenter quickly added the feature and used composite decking for flooring and installed storm windows. All Morgan really needed was office furniture, which just had to be moved from the house, but Helen was there to make sure it didn’t clash with the décor of the one bedroom and other areas of the cabin. Ryan stayed out of it. Women were going to do what they wanted to anyway. He spent most of his time watching the shelter go in and helping the crew clearing firebreaks.

By the first snow of the year, which was early, everything was in place and running smoothly. With the computer inventory program, Morgan used the option to tell them about the possible growth in business they should see in the coming year, so Ryan had a goal for his men to work for. He had another wood shelter built and enclosed them both and used two used peanut dryers to circulate warm air in the buildings, drying the wood even faster. The amount of wood they would have available to sell more than offset the cost of the propane used in the drying process.

The first time it snowed, Morgan had problems getting up the hill slope. Ryan offered her the small cottage near the hangar to live in so she wouldn’t have to make the drive each day.

“Wouldn’t make any difference, I’d still have to make it up the hill.” Morgan said.

“Then move into the office cabin. It has a bedroom and everything you’d need.” Ryan said. “It would be rent-free.”

“Let me think about it.” Morgan replied.

Ryan grinned, looked up the number for a company in Knoxville for a company that did those bath remodels to do like those one day remodels as shown on TV, and arranged to have the office cabin bathroom remodeled with a jacuzzi tub and shower.

Apparently, she didn’t have to think very long. She started moving three days later; Jamie and Ellie helped her also when they got home from UT.

The shelter and pedestrian tunnel had been covered just before the snow. The contractor said they could begin filling in after the heating and cooling system, which was a closed loop 30% glycol mix, no requirement for make-up water. Ryan broadcast a cover crop of vetch and rye and spread compost on top of it to keep the rains from eroding the soil until the landscapers got in and did their thing. Bill and Helen came over and inspected the shelter, Helen with her eye on making the place more “homey”. Little by little, Ryan began moving his LTS supplies over to the shelter from the basement. He didn’t want to use the vehicle access tunnel yet because it was muddy around the entrance. When the soil dried, he would lay gravel. Marsha, Ellie, and Helen planted the shelter greenhouse beds with herbs and things to make salads. With the help of the grow lights, the plants were healthy and growing quickly. Cabbages and head lettuce grew like crazy down there.

On Thanksgiving, Ryan handed out boxes to his employees that held turkeys and all the ingredients that make a good Thanksgiving dinner. The Johnson and O’Conner families ate together on the hill. Morgan returned to Soddy-Daisy to spend the day with her parents. A heavy meal with an afternoon of football had everyone almost comatose, but it was a happy time. Even Marsha threw back a few beers watching the games. No one barely noticed when Morgan knocked on the door and walked in. She came in, got a beer, and sat down next to Ellie on the couch.

The peanut dryers were working out well. They could quickly dry wood down to a 15% moisture level. Their target level was between 15 and 20% for firewood. In the winter, when the sap wasn’t flowing in the trees, the moisture content was usually around 20% anyway, but they dried it to 15%.

During the fall, Ryan had started his Christmas shopping, hating shopping during Black Friday and the hectic shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. He picked out for Bill a bottle of Midleton Irish whiskey, Helen a bottle of Maison Francis perfume. He couldn’t even pronounce the whole name, but it smelled like roses. He gave Ellie a new notebook computer. Marsha and Morgan would receive their Christmas bonuses, as did all his employees plus he got Marsha a one-year range membership at Frontier Firearms. He was stumped on what else to give Morgan but ended up giving her a bottle of perfume also. It was expensive but all Ryan cared about was it smelled like honeysuckle in the summertime. He bought Jamie a slab saw to use in his lapidary hobby. Jamie had teamed up with a local woman who made jewelry and had a ring made for Ellie. No, not an engagement ring, but on the other hand it was beautiful enough to be. Jamie had cut and polished the stones himself, found on their rock hunting expeditions. The center stone was a one caret emerald Jamie had found in Hiddenite, which had slivers of clear quartz crystal radiating out from the emerald like sun rays. It looked very expensive at first glance but the price to Jamie would be what Ellie thought of it. So, while everyone dashed about in December looking for presents, Ryan contented himself with checking wood and compost moisture, turning compost, tending the outside wood boilers, and building raised planting beds in the greenhouse he’d purchased to place next to their large garden.

Jamie had come up with an idea for the compost pits. In the winter, the compost didn’t have much heat, therefore took longer to cook. They could install an outside wood-fired boiler and pipe hot water through PEX in the concrete slabs under the compost bins. It made sense to Ryan, and they rebuilt the bins, and the compost piles ended up having the same internal temperatures as they did in summer. And the Lord only knows they had plenty of firewood. Ryan also installed a wood-fired boiler at the greenhouse and had installed PEX in the bottom of the raised beds. The downside was it dried the potting soil out quickly, but they were using drip irrigation anyway, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. The heated beds, along with the hot water heat exchangers kept the greenhouse warm and was very pleasant to work in on those cold, blustery days.

For some reason, the onions and elephant garlic grew extremely well in the composted soil they used, the tomatoes too. Right up there with them were the radishes and lettuce. They ate so many salads with onion or garlic in them, hardly anyone ever got a cold that ate Marsha’s food.

Two weeks before Christmas, Ryan held a Christmas Party for his employees. Jamie and Ellie were in charge of rounding up gifts for the children and women and each male employee would receive a Victorinox Swiss Champ Swiss Army Knife Ryan had picked up from Smoky Mountain Knife Works down below Kodak. Marsha, with Helen’s help, would put together finger foods and sweet meats and Bill was going to play Santa Claus. Ryan told Morgan to invite her parents, but she was worried about putting them up in a hotel in Kingston. Ryan told her they could use the bedroom where her office had been, it was back as a bedroom, and they wouldn’t have to climb stairs and would have their own bathroom.

Everything worked out well and Morgan went down to Soddy-Daisey and picked up her parents the day before the party. Ryan and Marsha had Hot Mulled Cider waiting for them when they arrived and once their joints were loosened up from the car ride, they got them settled in. Harold and Millie were the salt of the earth and Ryan could understand how Morgan turned out the way she was, or that’s what Marsha had said first, and Ryan believed it too.
 
 
Chapter Fourteen

Millie was constantly getting up to see if she could help Marsha with supper and finally sat in the kitchen and talked. Harold asked Ryan about business, so he got a tour of the place in a heated Gator. Ryan even took him down and showed him the boat landing. Ryan also took him along some of the fire breaks and explained what they were doing. Harold liked Ryan’s idea of drying the wood with peanut driers, and said it was an interesting way to repurpose old equipment.

Marsha had asked Morgan what their favorite meal was and cooked fried liver and onions with mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and biscuits. This is where Millie demanded she make the biscuits.

Around 7:00 PM Morgan told the kids to be quiet, that she could hear sleigh bells. Santa must be on his way!
They all went out in the front yard and up the Hill came Santa driving a Concord Stagecoach, the coach and the horse’s harnesses and collars adorned with sleigh bells. Santa climbed down from the driver’s seat, opened the coach door, and took out his bag of gifts. Jamie held the door for everyone to go back inside.

The kids were dancing around; they were so excited. Millie sat in an armchair, her eyes glistening with tears to see all the happiness. When the children’s presents had been handed out, Santa handed out the bonus checks and gifts to the adults. There were even presents for Harold and Millie, secretly slipped into the bag by Morgan. Hot mulled cider and rum were made and finally the kids were tired out. Families slowly began going home until it was just the O’Conner, Johnsons and the James families left.

Millie got up and helped Ellie and Morgan gather up serving plates and cups. She walked over to Ryan and laid her hand on his shoulder. “Ryan O’Conner, you are a good man.”

Ryan blushed and Harold grinned at him.

Ryan tried to get Harold and Millie to stay through the weekend, but they had chickens to take care of. The did stay an extra day before Morgan drove them back to Soddy-Daisy.

“You’ve done it now!” Morgan said.

Ryan looked up from the computer screen. “What?”

“My momma thinks the sun and moon rise and set because of you.” Morgan said grinning.

“You better get her up to the UT Medical Center. Sounds like dementia setting in.” Ryan said, with false grimness.

“Well, I think you are a pretty good guy too and deserve a fresh cup of coffee.” Morgan said, taking his cup over to the coffee maker.

The phone rang and Morgan quickly answered it.

“Shiner’s Hill, how may I help you? Yes sir, a cord of hickory is $370, a cord of oak is $350 and a cord of mixed hardwood is $325 . Yes sir, we have kindling at $50.00 a bundle, which is a little over an eighth of a cord. Address? Thank you sir. Wood racks? Yes sir, we do. Okay, I’ll add that and one of our people can help you assemble it if you want. The firewood will be delivered this afternoon. The boat operator will call you as he nears your location.”

Morgan tapped Ryan’s shoulder and said, “You need to move. I need to get to my computer. We have a delivery at 233 Angler’s Cove Road, and boat accessible. I need to work out the coordinates.”

Morgan brought up the Garmin program so she could figure out the GPS coordinates and wrote the address, coordinates and the phone number down of the delivery location and handed the sticky note to Ryan.

“What’s the rush?” Ryan asked.

“We’re supposed to get snow by this weekend. A major cold front is moving its way south.” Morgan replied.

“Yes ma’am. I’m on it!” Ryan replied.

Ryan had the men load three cords of mixed hardwood onto a trailer and a bundle of kindling and move them down to the ramp. He went ahead in his truck to prepare the LC. He grabbed a tank of propane because he knew the forklift had less than a quarter of a tank.

Gary Ambrose brought the trailer down and was going with Ryan to run the forklift. Ryan programed the coordinates into the navigation system and as soon as Gary had the pallets loaded, Ryan backed the boat away from the ramp. The total distance was only around seven kilometers so the trip wasn’t that long. The shore they pulled up to had a belt of riprap that they had to negotiate with ramp extensions to keep the offloading as smooth as possible. The owner met them in the back yard and had Gary drop the pallets on the driveway in front of the garage. Ryan took the tool bag and took the disassembled wood rack on the porch, where the homeowner directed and began assembly. Ryan quickly assembled the rack and when Gary brought up the last three pallets, set them next to the porch so the homeowner didn’t have to carry the wood too far. The rack didn’t quite hold a cord of wood, so the customer had Gary move the remaining wood to the rear of the garage where he came out with a tarp and covered the pallets. As they headed back to Shiner’s Hill, Ryan let Gary practice driving the boat and using the navigation system.

There was a lot of storage space under the floors of the shelter, so Ryan ordered more freeze-dried food in cans to place there. He let Marsha help him select the foods from the websites. Breakfast-related and baking items would be stored closer to the kitchen area. Ryan made a map of the under-floor storage areas and labeled them so they would have a location to put in the inventory program.

Ryan contacted SunPower to see if he could get another ESS Container to handle the electricity load for the cottage, greenhouse, hangar, and workshop. He wanted to disconnect them from commercial power, taking the whole farm completely off grid.

The salesman said he could get another battery storage container, but it would cost him more because it would have to be ordered. Ryan told the salesman to order it. He should have done it to begin with, he would still have spent the same amount of money.

Although Ryan didn’t like to shop around Christmas, he did go to Bass Pro down in Kodak and filled out the kitchen collection of cast iron cookware, trivets, bakeware, and a cast iron grill basket for the grill. Also, he bought at an outlet store a set then several separate items of Corelle cookware and dishes that Marsha liked to use. She hated plastic storage containers to store food in the refrigerator and always complained there weren’t enough Ramekins to serve dessert sometimes. Ryan also bought a set of Anolon X cookware that was supposed to cook like cast iron but was much lighter.

He hid his purchases in the hangar until he could wrap them and bring them to the house.

Although the house was decorated with all types of holiday decorations, they weren’t going to trim the Christmas tree until Christmas Eve. The Johnsons were coming over and Ryan invited Millie and Harold James to spend Christmas with them. They were more than happy to accept. They had a really good time there at Thanksgiving. Ryan didn’t even tell Morgan he had invited them. She found out from Millie and confronted Ryan about not asking her first.

“Are you trying to steal my parents from me?” Morgan asked.

“No, but I’ll be happy to share them with you. Why?”

“I just talked to Momma, and she said you had invited them up for Christmas.” Morgan said.

“Well, if you don’t want them here I could always withdraw the invitation.” Ryan replied.

“DON’T YOU DARE! She would be so disappointed!” Morgan cried out. “I just wished you had talked to me first.”

“Okay, fair enough.” Ryan said. “I know I let you make a lot of decisions around here, but I will talk to you when it comes to anything concerning your family.”

Ryan swiped the “Buy now” section on the Amazon screen to complete his purchase, then stood up. Morgan moved closer and gave him a hug.

“I’m sorry if I was bitchy.” Morgan said. “I’m more than happy to share my parents with you.”

“No, you were well within your rights. I just like to see them happy, and they seemed to be when they were up here at Thanksgiving.” Ryan said.

The brightness of Morgan’s smile was like a sun that would never go down.

“Thank you. It really makes me feel good that you think of them that way.” Morgan said.

The morning before Christmas Eve Day Morgan was getting ready to leave to pick up her parents when Ryan stopped her. The weather had made a change and the temperature had dropped.

“Morgan, wait up! I don’t think you should drive down in that light-ass little car of yours. The weather is changing, and it looks like there might be ice on the roads before you get back.” Ryan said.

“Then how am I going to pick them up?” Morgan asked.

“You can take my Power Wagon, or I could drive you.” Ryan replied.

“You would drive me?”

“Sure, we’re not working, and we’d only be gone a little over two hours.”

“Well, let’s get going Mr. Driver. We’re wasting daylight.” Morgan said, grinning.

They made it to her parent’s house with no problem, loaded their bags and made it back to highway 68 before Ryan had to stop and slap the ice off the wipers. Ice was still accumulating when they got to highways 58 and then 72 on the last leg home. They were welcomed when they entered the house with the smells of beef stew and fresh baked yeast rolls. The meal made Harold’s day, especially when Marsha served fried apple pies fried in lard for dessert. Harold commandeered Ryan’s La-Z-Boy recliner for an early afternoon nap.

That evening, the Combined O’Conner, Johnson, and James families drank eggnog and decorated the tree. Ryan had bought a live tree that would be planted at the end of the outdoor living area. Next year, they would have two trees to decorate.

Christmas morning, Marsha and Millie made a real country breakfast with country ham and red-eye gravy. It wasn’t large because they would have a large dinner.

 
 
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