Story Luck of The Irish

Chapter Fifteen

That afternoon, the women were finishing up in the kitchen while Ryan sat in the breakfast nook finishing up the last of the coffee from the pot before they opened presents. There was a knock at the door and Ryan got up to answer it. When he opened the front door, he was confronted by two big men standing in front of a young lady. Ryan grinned. “Well, well, Cinderella. Did your carriage turn into a pumpkin?”

Ryan opened the door wider and waved them in. Harold snorted and woke up while the women came out from the kitchen.

“Everyone, may I present to you Crown Princess Leonor de Asturias, daughter of El Rey Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia, the King of Spain. Leonor, these are my family and friends.”

Leonor smiled at everyone and looked back at Ryan. “Father asked me to stop by and make sure you were doing well.”

“Well, as you can see I’m vertical and above ground.” Ryan said, grinning.

“Ryan, how do you know a princess?” Ellie asked.

“We can get to that later, first, let’s get our guests some refreshment.”

Marsha opened a bottle of wine that Ryan got out for her, brought it out with glasses and they all took seats in the spacious den. Morgan started another pot of coffee. Princess Leonor just asked for some water.

“So, what’s the story?” Ellie asked.

“My mother, the Queen, and I were delivering supplies to a girl’s school in Afghanistan,” began the princess. “Ryan’s unit had supervised and provided protection for the workers when it was built. While we were there, insurgents attacked, and Ryan pulled my mother and I to protection as rockets landed. My father is deeply in debt to Ryan and offered him a prestigious position, but all Ryan wanted to do was go home. Since I was going to be in America, he suggested I stop by and make sure he was doing well.”

“Well, you can report to His Majesty I’m quite well and happy.” Ryan said.

“This is a beautiful home you have built here. You said you wanted a quiet home in the countryside.” Leonor commented. “May I see the rest of it?”

“Yes, of course! Morgan, Marsha. would you two do the honors?" Ryan asked.

As soon as the women left the room, one of the bodyguards got up and looking strained, whispered to Ryan, “Disculpe comandante pero ¿podríamos usar el baño?” ("Excuse me Commander, but could we use the lavatory?")

"Sí, por supuesto, por favor sígueme." Ryan said. ("Yes, of course, please follow me.")

Ryan led them to the bathroom that serviced Millie’s and Harold’s bedroom and left them to their business.

When he got back to the den, Harold said, “Damn boy, you get around!”

Ryan shrugged. “You meet strange people in strange places.”

In another wing of the house, the women had reached Ryan’s bedroom and Leonor caught Morgan staring at her intently. Leonor recognized the look.

“You are Morgan, correct?” Leonor asked.

Morgan nodded and said “Yes”.

“I don’t want you to be distressed, so let me tell you I don’t have any designs on your Ryan. My heart belongs to someone else.”

Morgan’s eyes widened. “But I don’t…..”

Marsha chuckled. “Why did he call you Cinderella?”

“That’s just Ryan pulling my pigtails,” Leonor said. “I think that’s how you say it.”

When they had all returned to the den, Leonor apologized and said they had to leave for the airport; their plane was awaiting them. Marsha asked her to wait a moment. She would box some cookies to take with her. Marsha quickly boxed a ton of cookies, and squares of cakes. When Marsha handed one of the men the two boxes, Leonor remarked, “You have a wonderfully appointed kitchen. You could host one of those cooking shows in it!”

They all walked out to the Escalades the entourage had arrived in. The group stood around, watching them leave. Leonor kissed Ryan on the cheek and Ryan told her to give her parents his best wishes. As they watched them disappear down the drive, Morgan said, “If you had played your cards right, you could have lived like a prince.”

“I already am, except I guess I need to get started on my harem.” He yelped as Morgan pinched his side.

“Ryan?” Jamie asked, “How did they get the gate code?”

Ryan knew the King’s Centro Nacional de Inteligencia was good and could even have traded for the information with a U.S. intelligence service. He decided right then to change the gate codes more frequently.

They all went back into the den and Ryan stoked the fireplace while Ellie and Jamie began sorting through and handing out presents. Jamie made sure Ellie got her ring first and she cried out when she opened the box.

“Is that an engagement ring?” Helen asked, looking on hopefully.

“No Momma! We still have to finish college!” Ellie replied.

“No, when I ask her to marry me, it will be with a diamond. Since I don’t think I’ll ever find a diamond she’s worthy of searching through rocks, I’ll have to buy her one.” Jamie said.

When all the presents were handed out, there were three heavy packages left.

“These don’t have nametags!” Ellie announced. “And they look like they were wrapped by an amateur.”

“Why don’t you let Marsha open those.” Ryan said.

Marsha was pleased with the Corelle cookware but scoffed at the Anolon X cookware. “I’ll put these away until I get so feeble I can’t handle cast iron.”


The day after Christmas, Morgan asked Ryan to drive her to the Honda Dealership. She was buying a new car, and it was ready for pickup. She had selected a Honda Pilot Black Edition SUV that was loaded. Ryan wouldn’t have to worry about her out driving in bad weather with her light Accord. When they returned, Morgan took Ellie for a drive while Ryan went back into the house. Harold had the TV on watching a news program.

“What’s going on?” Ryan asked.

“The usual,” Harold answered. “The Democrats: Trashing the past, ruining the present, stealing our future.”

Ryan shook his head and went to get them Cherokee Reds.

“America used to be a trust society.” Ryan said. “We trusted our elected representatives would work in our interests. We trusted the police would honestly and apolitically enforce the law. We trusted criminals would be prosecuted and if convicted, would receive sentences commensurate with their offenses. We trusted our currency would retain its value, and contracts and property rights would be enforced. We trusted we’d be able to go about our daily business without risking injury or death. We trusted our borders would be protected, and our national security secured. When Democrats are in power, that trust is always broken. They don’t get any pushback from the Republicans because they have no spines or balls to fight the Democrats like they should be fought. The RINOs hated Trump because he was brash enough to dish out to the Democrats the same crap they had dished out to Republicans for the past twenty-five years. RINOs have a rubber backbone and want to treat politics with kid gloves. You can’t play that way. If they knock out one of your teeth, then you have to knock their whole jaw off. Democrats didn’t like the push-back and raised the ante to using the courts to file bogus charges. Someone’s blood will flow, and someone will probably be assassinated before things get straightened out. Republicans need to devolve to a “3S” society: shoot, shovel, and shut up.”

On December 30, SunPower arrived and installed the ESS container and solar panels at the cottage. Because there was always a steady breeze blowing up the valley, they also installed two vortex generator poles to take advantage of the extra power output. The generators worked well on the hilly terrain and kept Ryan from having to put in a backup generator, at least for now.

“Morgan, I promised you I would talk to you before I implemented another of my wild ideas.” Ryan said, sipping from his coffee mug.

“Yes? Go on…..” Morgan replied, raising an eyebrow.

“What do you think of your parents moving up here and living in the garden cottage?"

“I think they would love it!” Morgan said. “They’ve sold off everything but the quarter of an acre the old house sits on. I think they would love to be here near all of us, plus Momma would love to have a go in the greenhouse. She loves to garden.”

Ryan didn’t even have to press the point that the James house was just about in shambles. There were a lot of repairs that needed to be done and would soon need a new roof. They had refused to let Morgan pay for the repairs.

Morgan waited until all the orders were caught up and went down to Soddy-Daisy to talk to Millie and Harold. When Morgan returned, she was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

“Momma is going to start marking heirloom furniture to bring up.” Morgan said.

“Well, I’ll need to know what they are bringing so I can clean out the cottage to make room for it.” Ryan said.

“She’s going to give me a list of what she is bringing. I know for certain she is bringing their complete bedroom suite. It’s all red cedar.” Morgan replied.

By Thursday, Millie had her list complete, and Friday Ryan, Jamie, and Morgan cleared out what they needed to from the cottage. Ryan and Jamie picked up a box truck from Lowe’s up on Lee Highway and carried everything to the Salvation Army. Morgan was going down to Soddy-Daisy on Saturday to help Millie pack up all their clothes. Later, Morgan told Ryan that Millie had clothes and Harold had suits from back in the 50’s, but there were actually people who bought vintage clothing. Ryan and Jamie were taking the truck down on Sunday morning to haul their furniture back.

Once Millie had her things in the cottage, it was if she were at home. Marsha and Morgan made sure every piece of furniture was cleaned and polished before it went into the cottage. For the first time in her life, Millie had a dishwasher and when she got a little bored, would go to the greenhouse and work a while.
 
 
Chapter Sixteen

Morgan made the statement one day she wished there were some sort of wireless communications they could set up between the cottage and the Hill and Jamie began researching communications devices. Actually, he found caregiver intercoms on Amazon that had an extended range and coupled with range extenders on top of that, would work. Looking through the Pros and Cons of each device offered, Jamie ordered four and was going to have the frequencies adjusted by a friend of his but kept within government regulations. It seemed as though without the modification they would bleed over into baby monitors within a certain range. Once he had them in place and showed that they worked, Ryan had Jamie order enough to have in the bedrooms, kitchen, and greenhouse at the cottage, in the hangar and shop. two for Morgan’s office cottage, and in the bedrooms, kitchen, and den of the main house. One of the ten channels could connect with the gate intercom.

Ellie had adopted Millie and Harold as grandparents and gave Millie fresh or potted flowers whenever she went to the Hill. At first, Harold mainly hung around the cottage, but then began venturing out in his old pickup truck to watch the clearing crews on the firebreaks or when they were processing firewood or grinding debris for compost. Finally, Ryan had a two-bay garage shed built next to the cottage and placed two refurbished John Deere Gators he had bought used from the University of Tennessee Police Department. They had been used for patrolling, and well, they had been used. Ryan had them completely refurbished and had installed communications and GPS tracking on them. Harold was pleased and Millie was thrilled. Millie hadn’t driven since the 60’s when they’d owned a 1954 Pontiac Chieftain. Soon, she was visiting Morgan in her office for tea or coffee. Harold started going out in the mornings, checking the boat ramp, then visiting the clearing crew, even during the last snowstorm they had in late January. The snowstorm at the end of January was the worst the area had experienced in years. Ryan was prepared for it, having bought a V-blade snowplow for his truck and 600 pounds of Ice Melt late in the summer. Their area of the state it didn’t snow as much as in some areas. The county had plenty of trucks to haul salt and sand but not enough snow blades for the trucks. Ten inches of snow was a lot for the area but not nearly as much as the areas of the country to their north and east. Blocked by a slow-moving high-pressure system, the storm just kept dumping snow on everyone.

The temperatures slowly began climbing in February, enough that with the fireplace going, augmented by two patio heaters, the outdoor living area was a pleasant place to spend afternoons. Ryan and Harold spent a lot of time out there drinking coffee from a pot hanging from one of the fireplace cranes and talking about the world situation. Ryan would have a coffee pot just for hot water also in case the ladies came out and wanted tea.

Thank goodness the lake didn’t freeze over in the winter. After the snowstorm, orders for firewood went up quickly. Some of it had to be delivered by road but the majority was delivered by landing craft.

As Spring slowly approached, Millie began pushing Ryan to build more raised beds in the greenhouse, treating him like the de facto son-in-law he was. She wanted to get plants started for the garden. Ellie laughed about that and began leaving little bridal bouquets around for Morgan to find. Ryan spotted one, one morning on Morgan’s desk.

“What is this?”

“It’s Ellie, she thinks we should get married.” Morgan said, sheepishly.

“What do you think about that?” Ryan asked.

“Well…..I wouldn’t be adverse to it.” Morgan replied.

“I see…..”

Ryan began secretly shopping for an engagement ring. Ellie was no help. To her, any ring would do, but she did keep Ryan’s secret, except from Jamie. Ryan built more raised beds and hung more grow lights. Millie treated her plants like grandchildren since Morgan hadn’t given her any yet.

Finally, the temperature climbed to almost 58ºF and Ryan, Harold and Millie were sitting in the outdoor living area when Ryan asked Harold and Millie permission to ask Morgan for her hand in marriage. Harold looked over at Millie, who had tears flooding her eyes and said, “Of course you have it! I don’t know what you two were waiting for. Except for not sleeping in the same bed, you two act like a married couple anyway!”

The next Friday night, Ryan took Morgan to Altruda's Italian Restaurant and during their wine before the meal, he got down on one knee and presented her with a two-caret diamond mounted in white gold. She happily accepted during the applause around them. The manager brought over a split of champagne and toasted them to a long and happy marriage. Ryan had demi bottles delivered to the other tables in the restaurant to help them celebrate.

Since Jamie and Ellie knew what was going on, they finally clued Marsha in, and they planned an engagement party for the happy couple for Saturday evening. They invited everyone they could think of, and of course all the employees and their wives or girlfriends, but not both. Jamie had the food catered to take the pressure off of Marsha. At first, she wanted to feel offended but went along with the plan, realizing it would be an awful lot of work. Ellie was the ringmaster of the event and made sure Morgan and Ryan were out of the house Saturday afternoon.

Ellie had got Ryan to the side a few days before and told him they were planning a surprise engagement party and he had to get Morgan out of the house Saturday so they could set up. Since he planned to take Morgan to Sandals Grande on St Lucian, Bahamas for their honeymoon, she needed to buy clothes, and for him to take her shopping for the whole day. Ryan wasn’t very enthusiastic about that but would like to surprise Morgan. When they returned with their armloads of bags and dress hangers, Morgan was surprised at all the cars parked near the house.

“What’s going on?” Morgan asked.

“It’s a surprise from Jamie and Ellie and I guess, everyone else.” Ryan replied.

Ellie and Jamie came out and helped bring everything in and to give Ryan and Morgan time to get dressed.
Millie was already a little tipsy from the Mimosas with Harold standing close to her to make sure she didn’t stumble.

The night was filled with “congratulations” from the men and “ooos” and “aaaaahs” from the ladies when they got a look at Morgan’s ring.

The servers and bartenders were Jamie and Ellie’s fellow students from the university. Everything went smoothly and finally Harold got Millie into a chair where she presided over the festivities. Jamie thought she was a hoot and Ellie watched over her carefully, doling out the Mimosas a little less frequently and with diminishing strength.

The party ended in the early hours of the morning. The college students helped clean up while Marsha and some of the girls hastily boxed all the leftover food into containers Marsha had purchased at Party City. Each student would have some of the food on top of their $20 per hour salary to take back to their dorms.

There was a lot of sleeping in the next morning. Even Helen and Bill had spent the night. Nothing was said about Ellie and Jamie sleeping in the same room and Ryan and Morgan spent the night in the office cottage. Marsha had gotten up early and made iced tea for the late risers when they gathered at noon. Ryan drank three glasses before he sat down.

“Well, that was some party!” Bill said.

Millie groaned as Ellie giggled and ran a hairbrush through Millie’s hair.

“My hair hurts!” Millie exclaimed.

Everyone grinned as Harold just shook his head.

Ryan got up and went out to build a fire in the outdoor fireplace.

Harold and Ryan were watching the evening news before supper when a scene was shown of another group of migrants across the border, waiting to force themselves across.

“There’s your diversity the Democrats are trying to force down our throats.” Ryan commented.

“I’m wondering when those knuckleheads in Washington will finally realize we can’t afford to take every tick and louse that wants to enter the country.” Harold said.

“They don’t care.” Ryan replied. They just need the warm bodies to pack Democratic controlled states and get more Democrat Congressmen into office. It doesn’t matter if the migrants can’t vote. They will canvas cemeteries until they come up with enough votes to overwhelm the opposition.

A UPS delivery arrived with a bunch of food Ryan and Marsha had ordered. A lot of it was pasta. Marsha kept 2-gallon buckets with gamma lids in the pantry with spaghetti, penne, elbow macaroni, and egg noodles. She already kept 2-gallon buckets of flour, rolled oats, sugar, and salt with them. Empty buckets were refilled from the 5-gallon buckets. The rest were stored in the shelter storage in 5-gallon buckets with the noodles sealed in mylar bags in the buckets. Included in the shipment were cases of quart canning jars, lids, and rims. They were planning on taking the meat out of the freezers they hadn’t used the winter before and make stews, chili, and Sloppy Joes to can.

Ryan sat in the outdoor living area reading through the financial report his accountant had given him. It was almost depressing. Here he was a millionaire and was making money faster than he could spend it. Of course, his income wasn’t only from firewood and compost. He had set aside 20% of his lottery winnings for investment, much of it on selective commercial real estate projects and commodities. Another 20% had gone into precious metals, some held in nearby banks and quite a bit here on the farm. What bothered him about this was he was what some considered rich. Suze Orman said you should have 10x of your income saved for retirement by age 67. Well, he had certainly exceeded that goal, but he was wondering how the average guy, working for a salary based on a reasonable value, could reach that goal. He paid his men and women well, much above any other comparable job, gave them health benefits, and it would take them a lifetime to reach such a goal, and they were all level-headed. Yes, they made good money, but you also didn’t see them going out and buying new vehicles every year and eating out every night. They didn’t stop on the way into work and bought $6.00 cups of coffee. They were frugal. Ryan was thinking of setting up a subsidized buyer’s club for them to be able to buy food in bulk at reduced prices. The goal was for them to have one year’s food stockpiled in case of an economic downturn, as if it hadn’t gone down far enough already.

Morgan decided she wanted to get married on April 22nd to coincide with her birthday. She didn’t want an elaborate ceremony, but Ryan still paid for a wedding planner to take the planning pressure off the women. Ryan just wished they had selected a married planner. She had the young men on the crew strutting around like game cockerels. Gary moved the men out early each day to clear fire breaks before any time she was due to arrive.
 
 
Chapter Seventeen

Millie was in hog heaven, it was hard work, but she was in her element canning and working in the garden greenhouse. Harold didn’t let a chair seat pin him down either. As a future member of Ryan’s family, he became an ex officio of the wood lot and handed the hardened tablet to Morgan each day of all the palletized wood that was on hand to ship out, taking away one of her outside jobs. All she had to do was plug the tablet in to the computer and download the information. Aaron, who supervised that part of the operation, figured out what was going on and tolerated him hanging around. With his responsibilities, you could almost see the age being washed from Harold’s face. It also helped that Millie and Harold were enrolled on their health plan and along with Medicare, got intensive health coverage with frequent checkups.

Some of the parcel owners began complaining about kids riding dirt bikes and quads on their new fire breaks and Ryan offered to install pipe gates at cost at the accessible points. Each gate was adorned with a reflective Safety Red Triangle and no trespassing signs. When there were signs of the riders going around the gates, game cameras were set up and the video and pictures were turned over to the Sheriff’s Department for possible prosecution. The problem was the bikes were tearing up the surface of the trails and causing them to erode. Ryan hired another ex-soldier, LeahAnn Ryder, to ride the trails to look for incursions. She had only one foot but could ride a Rokon with no problem and she knew how to use the Beretta 92 she wore in a shoulder holster.

Weapons were something Ryan had been slow to accumulate, but after reading a few post-apocalyptic stories, realized weapons with standardized calibers would be necessary in a dystopian scenario. A few weapons he obtained through Frontier Firearms and others from private owners that needed the funds. Bud’s Gun Shop provided a few. He ordered the majority of ammo from on-line sellers. Gary suggested he reload most of his ammo and suggested progressive reloaders that would turn out hundreds of rounds a day, so Ryan added a progressive reloading machine with dies, powders, bullets, primers, and cases to his “must purchase” list.

In late March, Ryan and Harold plowed under thirty bags of compost into the garden. They would start planting in a couple of weeks. Millie had plenty of plants started and she had staggered the planting of the starter plants like they would plant the garden. They would plant more carrot seeds this year in the garden. They had run out of carrots before winter was over. Butternut squash….they ended up with more than enough. Ryan wasn’t a big fan of any squash, but he let the others make the call on what to plant of that. He was more of a beef, potatoes, and carrots kind of guy anyway. Corn….everyone liked the sweet corn, so they were planting six more rows this year. The first ears to come off the stalks would give Ryan a reason to throw a cookout and have roasted corn with the baby-back ribs. Marsha and Millie had been ordering their canning supplies and were still accumulating them. Although they had a large amount of jars from last year that had been emptied and washed, they ordered more cases of quart jars and a few dozen of the half-gallon jars. Marsha had extended her knowledge of preserving food and mentioned to Ryan they could freeze dry some of their garden bounty, so Ryan added a freeze dryer to his list, to which Marsha added mylar bags, oxygen absorbers, bag sealers, and several things to Ryan’s list that would help them safely preserve the food.

Previously, Ryan just left the wood on the pallets in the dryer buildings until it was sold. Once the wood had reached its 15% moisture content, it was left in the drying shed for storage, but once it was taken out, the moisture content crept back up to close to 20% because of humidity. So, Ryan built another wood shelter in their wood lot to hold the dried pallets to be held until sold. The landscape and garden center between the farm and Kingston bought a few cords of wood they would break down into bundles and shrink wrap for sale. They were also their prime customer for compost. With the increase in sales, Ryan increased the employees’ salaries.

But Ryan’s accountant had told him he needed to donate to charity and to spend money on equipment or he would be paying a lot of taxes that year. Ryan sent a hefty check to Tunnels 2 Towers and bought a 5-ton truck fitted with a boom crane. On a lot of their overland deliveries, they were told to just place the pallets of wood or compost on the driveway.

Helen Johnson was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She was quickly operated on and began chemotherapy. Bill and Ellie were beside themselves but maintained a strong façade in front of Helen. Ryan and Morgan went to the hospital to visit her and on the way, Ryan stopped at Cruze Farm Ice Cream and bought her a pint of Peach ice cream….her favorite. He stopped by the nurse’s station on her floor and asked if they could give it to Helen.

The head nurse looked at Ryan and said, “Absolutely not, not that much anyway! I’ll bring her in some in a little while.”

Helen looked worn out and frustrated. She wanted out but they were keeping her for at least two more days. The nurse arrived with the ice cream and Helen brightened a little.

“Did you two bring this?” She asked.

“Ryan thought you might enjoy it.” Morgan answered.

“You are too good to me!” Helen replied, tears forming in her eyes.

Morgan took her hand. “Helen, whether we are here with you in this room or not, remember we are always holding your hand.”

The chemotherapy kept Helen a little weak, but Marsha kept up a steady stream of food, via Ellie, to their house. They had a cook, but Helen loved Marsha’s cooking. She finally got strong enough to take a Sunday cruise on the yacht down the river. Ryan, Morgan, and Jamie joined them.

Helen might have been sick, but she still kept close to the wedding planning. She had offered up her backyard, facing the river as a venue for the wedding. After the wedding planner had shown Morgan some graphics of what it could look like, Morgan agreed. Initially, there were only 100 people on the guest list, which was constantly being revised. In all, there ended up being 150 guests invited. Ryan didn’t say anything. It was Morgan’s day. All he did was keep his mouth shut and shelled out the cash. Ellie was going to be the Maid of Honor and Jamie the Best Man. Millie said it was for practice.

Three days before the wedding, Morgan asked Ryan to take her for a ride in the plane. They went to the hangar and Ryan did his walk-around and pulled the plane out of the hangar. He got Morgan seated and belted in and finished up his pre-flight checklist seated in the plane while the engine warmed up. Ryan smiled at Morgan’s excited face as he advanced the throttle and taxied down the taxiway. He turned upwind, which was toward the lake, and advanced the throttle to full, and watched the airspeed indicator. He pulled back on the stick when it read 40 knots, and climbed until he was at 500 feet AGL, then turned toward the middle of Watts Bar Lake and cruise climbed to 2,000 feet. He flew down the center of the winding lake so Morgan could see both sides of the lake all the way to Watts Bar Dam where he banked to the right and picked up a wing of the lake just north of Wolf’s Creek and flew back up the lake.

As they flew back down Swamp Creek, Ryan noticed a slight cross-breeze as they crossed the trees at the boat ramp, so when he set up to land, turned slightly into the breeze so he wouldn't be blown off course. Ryan adjusted his air speed to 32 mph. With the wing slats and the Fowler flaps extended, he floated down like a feather, made a perfect landing, and taxied up to the hangar.

“We’ve got to do that more!” Morgan said, grinning.

Ellie was dreamy-eyed the way the wedding was set up. She wanted her wedding someday to mirror this one. The men were all dressed in tuxedos and the bridesmaids in pastel dresses. Reverend Jonathan Price, on of Ryan’s customers, officiated. The male guests were stoic and the females, dabbed at their eyes with tissues. Society page reporters encouraged Morgan and Helen to let them cover the wedding, but Morgan put her foot down, and Helen backed her to the hilt. Morgan wanted a simple wedding and nothing more. Yes, they had gone a little overboard with the guest list but that was to keep friends from being hurt by the lack of an invitation. Still, Morgan allowed a photographer and a reporter to attend the wedding as long as their story was mostly about Janie, their wedding planner. It would be a big boost for the young woman’s business.
The limousine whisked Morgan and Ryan, along with Jamie and Ellie from the reception early so the newlyweds could catch their flight to Miami. Ryan quickly changed into traveling clothes and he and Jamie loaded their bags while Ellie helped Morgan get changed. Helen promised to freeze a layer of the wedding cake for Morgan and Ryan.

On their flight to Miami, they got settled in first class and were served a quarter bottle of champagne by one of the flight attendants. Morgan was floating on a cloud but kept her mind clear enough to go through what she needed to shop for during their two days in Miami. Ryan had scheduled her shopping time so she could buy warm weather clothes and swim attire for the islands. Knoxville hadn’t even started showing their spring collections yet.

During the two shopping days, Ryan followed Morgan around and carried her shopping bags. He would have to buy a couple of extra pieces of luggage, but he would wait until she had finished her shopping to figure out whether two bags would be enough. Morgan’s shopping for swimwear was his favorite time. Lugging around a lot of shopping bags was worth it to see her model swimsuits. Finally, Ryan bought two more large Samsonite suitcases and thankfully Morgan was able to pack everything in them.

The flight to Nassau was mercifully short and they were met by a vehicle from Sandals Royal Bahamian Resort. Ryan was glad they had shopped for lighter clothes in Miami because he was beginning to perspire. It was definitely warmer than East Tennessee. There was champagne on ice waiting for them in their suite, but they didn’t drink any. They had skipped breakfast to wait and eat at the resort since it was already paid for and they didn’t want to drink on empty stomachs.
 
Chapter Eighteen

There were ten specialty restaurants in the resort complex. Ryan didn’t eat fish bait (sushi) so they skipped that one and selected the Caribbean style restaurant and ordered the Bahamian Cracked Chicken which was nothing more than a flattened piece of fried chicken with a funny tasting ketchup for a dipping sauce and a decent potato salad. Ryan asked the waiter and was told he could get a steak at Butch’s Chop House at dinner.

After lunch, they went to their room and changed clothes for a walk along the beach.

Ryan changed into board shorts and t-shirt while Morgan dressed in a very attractive two-piece swimsuit with an aqua coverup. They put sun block on before they went out and walked about a half mile down the beach before returning to sit by the pool.

They met another couple from Tennessee there. They lived on the east side of Knoxville on the Holston River, Eileen worked at the Holston Health And Rehabilitation Center, and Dave ran a Data Center. Ryan and Morgan ate lunch with the couple and spent a good bit of the rest of the afternoon with them.

Ryan and Morgan tried to take advantage of all the amenities of the resort they could but there were just so many. By their last day there, they were tired and ready to go home. That evening, they had dinner with the Bronsons and made plans to get together when they returned to Tennessee.

The glow of the honeymoon was still with them when they landed at McGee Tyson, but they were happy to be back home. Jamie and Ellie were there to pick them up and Ellie and Morgan chatted like magpies all the way back to the Hill.

Harry had kept the crews running smoothly, as Ryan had known he would, so Ryan had no surprises when they got back. Morgan had sent out a notice before the wedding that they wouldn’t be taking orders over a given period of dates but the day after they got back, orders for compost came pouring in. The orders were split about 60-40 between orders that had to be delivered by truck and those by the landing craft. They used the new truck with the boom crane to deliver the truck orders and the truck worked out fine, although the driver almost forgot to run out the outriggers before using the crane.

Mr. Henderson began visiting Ryan often with Queenie, his blue tick hound. He especially liked it when he found Ryan in the outdoor living area and there was a coffee pot hanging from a fireplace crane or iced tea available, plus, Morgan or Marsha usually had him some type of sweet treat to offer him and kept a three-gallon reproduction milk can of dog biscuits for Queenie in the outdoor living area. Mr. Henderson would take a seat in an antique Windsor chair Morgan had found in an antique store, take out his pipe and a calfskin tobacco pouch he filled daily with Prince Albert, fill the bowl, and puff as he enjoyed his drink. The outdoor living area was the only area of the house in which he would smoke. Ryan had never smoked but it was sorta comforting to smell the pipe tobacco. Some of Ryan’s work was curtailed because Mr. Henderson liked to talk. It didn’t take Ryan long to find out that the Hendersons had been in the county since right after the Revolutionary War. Distant relatives had been given land grants for war services rendered, and most had been here ever since.

“My great granddaddy was killed in Washington D.C. by Hoover’s goons in ’32 when he was part of the Bonus Army.” Mr. Henderson said, puffing on his pipe.

“I’m not familiar with that.” Ryan said.

“What?! The Bonus Army?” Replied Mr. Henderson, waving the pipe stem around. “They were a group of World War I vets that had been promised bonuses after the war. The problem was the politicians set it up so they couldn’t draw their money for twenty years. They were just starting to go through the Great Depression and the men could have used that money to feed their families, so they marched on Washington to demand what had been promised to them. Hoover sicced the military on them. Some were killed, and some were burned horrendously when they burned their tents down, but still no one got paid for another four years. Some believe that is why Hoover didn’t win re-election. Anyways, Washington is an evil place.”

“It certainly seems that way,” Ryan agreed.

“Look at what they are doing nowadays!” Mr. Henderson continued. “Politicians who are eager to replace their own citizens with foreign nationals do not care if you are the next casualty of illegal immigration. Governments care about only two things: One, what you can give them today, and Two, what you can give them tomorrow. Monarchy, dictatorship, oligarchy, democracy…..the form of government does not matter. In every political organization, the unquenchable thirst for wealth and power stays the same. We are in such a slow spiral into totalitarianism, people don’t recognize what is happening. They are willingly stepping into the traces of social and economic slavery.

The country’s descent into totalitarianism makes perfect sense though. Our government does not care about free speech, free markets, self-government, or world peace. Why would they? Such high ideals only detract from their power and authority. On the other hand, censorship, regulation, bureaucracy, and constant war provide the State with everything it needs to rule in perpetuity. With friends like that in Washington, who needs enemies?”

The landscapers came out to begin their work. On her preliminary visit, the company’s chief designer had asked that several stumps she had marked be left in place. Ryan was puzzled but had done what she asked. They quickly formed beds and lined them with kimberlite stones. Inside the bed borders, they planted a mixture of wildflowers and hybrid varieties, different hollies, and used the stumps in one way or another. One had been wet down and wild moss and mushroom spores rubbed into the wood to grow. Another was adorned with the top of a bird bath bowl. They even hollowed out another to make a planter. The roots of a couple of trees had been damaged during construction and the trees had died. They cut the trees back to around six feet and one of the men used a chainsaw and carved wood spirits in the sides of the trees. Jamie marveled at the transformation of the yard. During the landscaping project, Ryan found another money maker in the tree stumps they had piled up in a corner of the wood lot to dry, awaiting to be chipped up for mulch. The landscape designer said they would buy selected ones to use as yard decorations. They would pressure wash the bark off of them, let the wood bleach and turn them upside down in beds. She had one she set up in one of the flower beds. Morgan loved it. Any erosion was prevented with the Dirt Locker system. Other erosion prevention included TRUE GRID permeable pavers laid on the driveway to hold the gravel or grass if they decided to plant grass seed.

Millie and Harold had begun planting the garden, Morgan, and Ryan worked with them for the next few weeks in the stagger planting and to string a solar powered electric fence to help discourage four legged looters.. Millie was really in her element. She planted the borders of the garden with flowers that naturally repelled insect pests away from the garden.

Marsha would cook, on average, one meal a week using long-term storage foods she had ordered or had on hand for everyone to try and built a large list of menu items. The last meal was tacos. She made her own tortilla shells with cornmeal, the salsa made from the tomatoes were from what they had canned, the ground beef was freeze-dried, the lettuce, parsley, peppers, and cilantro came out of the greenhouse, and the sour cream had been reconstituted from powder. They were as good as any Ryan had eaten and Jamie, who loved tacos, praised them to the roof. Marsha always had someone edit her recipes, so she was sure someone else could pull the card out of the box and mix the ingredients the same way every time.

Ryan made sure they planted lots of sweet watermelon varieties. He liked watermelon but also watermelon rind pickles and wanted to try making watermelon wine. He’d heard songs about it, had read about it, had tasted it once, and decided to make his own. He began accumulating the carboys and other fermenting tools he would need. He might try making beer also.

The compost sales increased, and Ryan had to order more burlap bags and portable bag closures to sew the bags shut. He even sent the bags out to have them printed with a “Shiner’s Hill” logo that had been designed by one of Ellie’s friends.

One day Mr. Henderson showed up when Ryan had gone into Knoxville to talk to his accountant. Jamie met him outside and he and Morgan gave Mr. Henderson a tour of the landscaped yard. After the tour, he asked Jamie to go with him back down to his place. Jamie drove him and Queenie down to the Henderson place and soon returned alone, but had two three-legged, twenty-gallon rendering kettles on the back of the Gator. Jamie called Morgan out and said, “Mr. Henderson said you could have these. He said some ladies like to put them in their flower gardens to plant flowers in and that they were kind of a belated wedding gift.”

Morgan was touched and decided she needed to cook some tea cakes for Mr. Henderson.

When Ryan returned home, Morgan showed him Mr. Henderson’s gift and asked him if he would paint them black. She wanted to place them in the corners of the outdoor living area and plant flowering houseplants.
“I’ll have to burn the seasoning off of them.” Ryan said. “They look like they’ve been used to make lard. It will take a couple of days, but I’ll get it done.”

Ryan took the cast iron pots to the edge of the yard, stacked wood around and over them, then started a fire. In a few hours, all the grease had been cooked off of them. He dragged them out of the ashes and let them cool. The next day, Ryan hand sanded the pots and sprayed them with a coat of Rustoleum primer, then a couple of coats of semi-gloss enamel. Ryan told Morgan to add water beads to the potting soil and not to water too much because he hadn’t drilled a hole in the bottom of the pots for drainage.
 
 
Chapter Nineteen

Jamie bought a cheap classic bent tobacco pipe and began working with several different pieces of kimberlite to carve a pipe for Mr. Henderson. He had a hard time at first because when he tried to drill the stem hole, the bit would hit a larger piece of diamond and would throw the bit off and crack the rock. He finally found a bit that would work and began carving out the bowl. It took him a month, but he finally had a beautifully polished pipe bowl. He ordered some long bent pipe stems off of Etsy and fit them to the pipe bowl and had extras in case one broke. Ryan made a nice little pipe stand out of maple, but Jamie went to a local tobacco store and came back with the idea of a white quartz base with an ashtray at the front end with a cork pipe knocker in the center, a slot for pipe screens, a slot for kitchen matches, and a slot for a horseshoe nail pipe scraper. The upright back of the stand had a hole to hold the long pipe cleaners used to clean the long pipe stem. The pipe was displayed prominently in the center. They set the pipe stand on the occasional table at the end of the couch to present to Mr. Henderson the next time he came over. With more time, Jamie later carved out a tobacco humidor, also of white quartz, filled with Prince Albert tobacco to sit beside the stand.

The next time Mr. Henderson stopped by, which was on a Sunday afternoon, he was speechless when he saw the pipe. When Morgan told him it was his, his eyes soften and said, “This is the nicest thing anyone has ever given me!”

When he picked the pipe up and examined it, he exclaimed, “This is kimberlite! Look at all the little sparkles!”

Ryan told him to go ahead and smoke it if he liked and Mr. Henderson meticulously placed a pipe screen in the bottom of the bowl, filled the bowl with tobacco, tamped it down, then lit the tobacco with one of the kitchen matches, flicking the match head with his thumbnail. He took a heavy puff and inhaled.

“That’s a good pipe!” Mr. Henderson declared. “You been watching the news shows lately?”

“No, I try not to look past my pasture fence most days. It’s too depressing.” Ryan replied.

“Well, looks like more and more people who had been indoctrinated to believe government was a force only for good, have begun facing the unvarnished truth: the government is not your friend! Big Brother does not care about your safety or security. Espionage agencies do not care if their shadowy schemes lead to your untimely death. Gangsters running the central bank do not care if you lose all your savings in one of their financial bubbles. Pharmaceutical companies making money hand over fist do not care if you get injured from one of their experimental ‘vaccines.’ (After all, politicians on the Hill bought their stocks and gave them legal immunity!) Defense industry executives selling weapons to both sides of every conflict do not care if the weapons were to filter back into the United States and you ended up as collateral damage. If people get their act together, this country might make it yet.”

“Yeah, and congress will just do what it does best, talk the problem to death and nothing gets done.” Ryan said.

“Then we vote the bastards out and tell ‘em that while they are supposedly talking the problem over. That’s what the system was designed for.” Mr. Henderson replied.

Bill and Helen stopped by, and they all had a pleasant afternoon. It was even better when Marsha served dishes of strawberry shortcake with lots of whipped cream. Mr. Henderson was “forced” to eat two dishes by Marsha. He lit another bowl while he was there and then disassembled the pipe and carefully cleaned the stem and bowl.

“That’s just too purdy to even take home. Do you mind if I leave it here to smoke while I’m ah visiting?” Mr. Henderson asked.

“We’ll be more than happy to display it for you Mr. Henderson,” Ryan said.

Sadly, Mr. Henderson never got to smoke the pipe again. On Thursday of the next week, Mr. Henderson was talking to Horace Cooper at the ACE hardware store in Kingston when he suddenly dropped to the ground. The Paramedics did everything they could to revive him but, Mr. Henderson had already passed over the Jordan.

Marsha polished up Mr. Henderson’s pipe stand and humidor and displayed them on the fireplace mantel.
With the imbedded heating pipes in the compost pile slabs and the warm weather they had been having through the spring and summer, they were bagging more compost than they had the year before, plus ground up stumps for mulch. They had quit heating the pads after the last frost but they weather had cooperated and kept the cooking temperatures up. Jamie could tell when a pile was ready just by sifting it through his fingers. There was room enough in the composting area for four more compost bins, so they poured the slabs, and Ryan had Harry keeping an eye out for more usable logs to make 6”x8” logs to build the bins. Once they had the walls of the bins built, Morgan liked to burn the wood with a propane weed burner torch to preserve the wood. Ryan believed there was a little pyromania in her, but she said it relaxed her. Shou sugi ban is a Japanese technique for preserving wood by lightly burning it. First the wood was lightly charred, then brushed down to remove any ash, then sprayed with linseed oil to further protect the wood from decaying. The previously treated bins were holding up fine, but they occasionally would wash down the bins with a pressure washer when they were empty, let them dry and spray another coat of linseed oil on them, usually in the summer. Ryan bought raw flax seed oil by the 55-gallon drum from a distributor in Alberta, Canada.

They were setting logs on the last two bins when Ryan received a call from a Randle Cummings who said he was John Hendersons probate lawyer and asked if he could meet him at Courtney's Diner at 0730 the next morning. Ryan agreed and told Morgan the two of them would be eating breakfast at Courtney’s the next morning and to let Marsha know. After the wood had cooled and Ryan checked for hot spots, he sprayed the oil on the timbers, with Morgan coming in behind him with a brush to brush out any runs.

Ryan and Morgan got to Courtney’s the next morning around 0715. The place was small, but they managed to snag a booth and ordered coffee and then ham and cheese omelets. Ryan didn’t know Mr. Cummings or what he even looked like, but he guessed Mr. Cummings knew him, because a smartly dressed man walked right up to their booth and introduced himself as Randle Cummings.

The waitress brought him a coffee cup and a carafe of coffee for the table.

“I know you two are probably busy, so I’ll get right to the reason for this meeting. I was, or am, John Henderson’s probate lawyer. It’s my duty to guide the executor or beneficiaries through the probate process, which includes tasks like identifying assets, paying debts, distributing assets, and ensuring legal requirements are met.”

“And that means what to me? Did Mr. Henderson name me executor of his estate?” Ryan asked.

“No,” Mr. Cummings replied. “You are his sole beneficiary of his estate, which is extensive. We’ll need to meet in my office on Kingston Pike so we can go over everything in his file. The total value is estimated to be in excess of $850,000, and that was in real estate and didn’t include his bank accounts.

“Is it okay if I bring my accountant with me?” Ryan asked.

“Of course, and I’d advise it.” Mr. Cummings said.

Mr. Cummings gave Ryan one of his business cards and they set up a meeting for the coming Wednesday.
Once Mr. Cummings left, Morgan elbowed Ryan and said, “Wow! My husband is a money magnet!”

“I’d give it all back and then some to have Mr. Henderson back,” Ryan said morosely.

“I know what you mean.” Morgan said. “You don’t even need the money. Your accountant is probably going to tell you to donate a big wad to somewhere. Do you have any Ideas?”

“Yes, I think Jamie’s old school for the gifted could use some funds.” Ryan replied.

They finished their coffee and when Ryan pulled out his wallet to pay for the check, Morgan took a twenty dollar bill out of it, rolled it up and slipped it into the waitress’s apron pocket.

“I already gave her a tip on the card!” Ryan said.

“Yes, but did you notice the wedding band she had on?” Morgan asked. “She and her husband could probably use the extra cash.”

Fuel prices had fallen a little so Ryan ordered another 1000-gallon fuel tank for the dock and landing area to fuel the diesel inboard engines of the landing craft and fishing boat. He really didn’t have any gasoline engines; just the UTVs, the chain saws, the mower, and the plane which he used 100 octane low lead fuel in. For now, Ryan had three 1000-gallon diesel tanks on the Hill and one 1000-gallon and one 500-gallon tanks at the landing. Ryan needed to plan a future fuel farm somewhere on the property away from the flood plain.

The meeting with Mr. Cummings on Wednesday was eye opening. Mr. Henderson had accumulated $768,875.38 in his checking and savings accounts, and had several CDs that he had habitually let roll over every year. Two months prior, he had rolled everything into traditional IRAs. Real estate holdings included the 231 acres adjoining Ryan’s property, high value tracts of land along Kingston Pike in Eaton and Farragut, and a house full of antiques that had to be appraised for tax purposes.

Mr. Henderson must have had Ryan in mind for a while because he had changed his traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs and Ryan’s accountant said he wouldn’t have to pay taxes on his inheritance of the IRAs because of that move.
 
ncsfsgm said:
Chapter Nineteen

Jamie bought a cheap classic bent tobacco pipe and began working with several different pieces of kimberlite to carve a pipe for Mr. Henderson. He had a hard time at first because when he tried to drill the stem hole, the bit would hit a larger piece of diamond and would throw the bit off and crack the rock. He finally found a bit that would work and began carving out the bowl. It took him a month, but he finally had a beautifully polished pipe bowl. He ordered some long bent pipe stems off of Etsy and fit them to the pipe bowl and had extras in case one broke. Ryan made a nice little pipe stand out of maple, but Jamie went to a local tobacco store and came back with the idea of a white quartz base with an ashtray at the front end with a cork pipe knocker in the center, a slot for pipe screens, a slot for kitchen matches, and a slot for a horseshoe nail pipe scraper. The upright back of the stand had a hole to hold the long pipe cleaners used to clean the long pipe stem. The pipe was displayed prominently in the center. They set the pipe stand on the occasional table at the end of the couch to present to Mr. Henderson the next time he came over. With more time, Jamie later carved out a tobacco humidor, also of white quartz, filled with Prince Albert tobacco to sit beside the stand.

The next time Mr. Henderson stopped by, which was on a Sunday afternoon, he was speechless when he saw the pipe. When Morgan told him it was his, his eyes soften and said, “This is the nicest thing anyone has ever given me!”

When he picked the pipe up and examined it, he exclaimed, “This is kimberlite! Look at all the little sparkles!”

Ryan told him to go ahead and smoke it if he liked and Mr. Henderson meticulously placed a pipe screen in the bottom of the bowl, filled the bowl with tobacco, tamped it down, then lit the tobacco with one of the kitchen matches, flicking the match head with his thumbnail. He took a heavy puff and inhaled.

“That’s a good pipe!” Mr. Henderson declared. “You been watching the news shows lately?”

“No, I try not to look past my pasture fence most days. It’s too depressing.” Ryan replied.

“Well, looks like more and more people who had been indoctrinated to believe government was a force only for good, have begun facing the unvarnished truth: the government is not your friend! Big Brother does not care about your safety or security. Espionage agencies do not care if their shadowy schemes lead to your untimely death. Gangsters running the central bank do not care if you lose all your savings in one of their financial bubbles. Pharmaceutical companies making money hand over fist do not care if you get injured from one of their experimental ‘vaccines.’ (After all, politicians on the Hill bought their stocks and gave them legal immunity!) Defense industry executives selling weapons to both sides of every conflict do not care if the weapons were to filter back into the United States and you ended up as collateral damage. If people get their act together, this country might make it yet.”

“Yeah, and congress will just do what it does best, talk the problem to death and nothing gets done.” Ryan said.

“Then we vote the bastards out and tell ‘em that while they are supposedly talking the problem over. That’s what the system was designed for.” Mr. Henderson replied.

Bill and Helen stopped by, and they all had a pleasant afternoon. It was even better when Marsha served dishes of strawberry shortcake with lots of whipped cream. Mr. Henderson was “forced” to eat two dishes by Marsha. He lit another bowl while he was there and then disassembled the pipe and carefully cleaned the stem and bowl.

“That’s just too purdy to even take home. Do you mind if I leave it here to smoke while I’m ah visiting?” Mr. Henderson asked.

“We’ll be more than happy to display it for you Mr. Henderson,” Ryan said.

Sadly, Mr. Henderson never got to smoke the pipe again. On Thursday of the next week, Mr. Henderson was talking to Horace Cooper at the ACE hardware store in Kingston when he suddenly dropped to the ground. The Paramedics did everything they could to revive him but, Mr. Henderson had already passed over the Jordan.

Marsha polished up Mr. Henderson’s pipe stand and humidor and displayed them on the fireplace mantel.
With the imbedded heating pipes in the compost pile slabs and the warm weather they had been having through the spring and summer, they were bagging more compost than they had the year before, plus ground up stumps for mulch. They had quit heating the pads after the last frost but they weather had cooperated and kept the cooking temperatures up. Jamie could tell when a pile was ready just by sifting it through his fingers. There was room enough in the composting area for four more compost bins, so they poured the slabs, and Ryan had Harry keeping an eye out for more usable logs to make 6”x8” logs to build the bins. Once they had the walls of the bins built, Morgan liked to burn the wood with a propane weed burner torch to preserve the wood. Ryan believed there was a little pyromania in her, but she said it relaxed her. Shou sugi ban is a Japanese technique for preserving wood by lightly burning it. First the wood was lightly charred, then brushed down to remove any ash, then sprayed with linseed oil to further protect the wood from decaying. The previously treated bins were holding up fine, but they occasionally would wash down the bins with a pressure washer when they were empty, let them dry and spray another coat of linseed oil on them, usually in the summer. Ryan bought raw flax seed oil by the 55-gallon drum from a distributor in Alberta, Canada.

They were setting logs on the last two bins when Ryan received a call from a Randle Cummings who said he was John Hendersons probate lawyer and asked if he could meet him at Courtney's Diner at 0730 the next morning. Ryan agreed and told Morgan the two of them would be eating breakfast at Courtney’s the next morning and to let Marsha know. After the wood had cooled and Ryan checked for hot spots, he sprayed the oil on the timbers, with Morgan coming in behind him with a brush to brush out any runs.

Ryan and Morgan got to Courtney’s the next morning around 0715. The place was small, but they managed to snag a booth and ordered coffee and then ham and cheese omelets. Ryan didn’t know Mr. Cummings or what he even looked like, but he guessed Mr. Cummings knew him, because a smartly dressed man walked right up to their booth and introduced himself as Randle Cummings.

The waitress brought him a coffee cup and a carafe of coffee for the table.

“I know you two are probably busy, so I’ll get right to the reason for this meeting. I was, or am, John Henderson’s probate lawyer. It’s my duty to guide the executor or beneficiaries through the probate process, which includes tasks like identifying assets, paying debts, distributing assets, and ensuring legal requirements are met.”

“And that means what to me? Did Mr. Henderson name me executor of his estate?” Ryan asked.

“No,” Mr. Cummings replied. “You are his sole beneficiary of his estate, which is extensive. We’ll need to meet in my office on Kingston Pike so we can go over everything in his file. The total value is estimated to be in excess of $850,000, and that was in real estate and didn’t include his bank accounts.

“Is it okay if I bring my accountant with me?” Ryan asked.

“Of course, and I’d advise it.” Mr. Cummings said.

Mr. Cummings gave Ryan one of his business cards and they set up a meeting for the coming Wednesday.
Once Mr. Cummings left, Morgan elbowed Ryan and said, “Wow! My husband is a money magnet!”

“I’d give it all back and then some to have Mr. Henderson back,” Ryan said morosely.

“I know what you mean.” Morgan said. “You don’t even need the money. Your accountant is probably going to tell you to donate a big wad to somewhere. Do you have any Ideas?”

“Yes, I think Jamie’s old school for the gifted could use some funds.” Ryan replied.

They finished their coffee and when Ryan pulled out his wallet to pay for the check, Morgan took a twenty dollar bill out of it, rolled it up and slipped it into the waitress’s apron pocket.

“I already gave her a tip on the card!” Ryan said.

“Yes, but did you notice the wedding band she had on?” Morgan asked. “She and her husband could probably use the extra cash.”

Fuel prices had fallen a little so Ryan ordered another 1000-gallon fuel tank for the dock and landing area to fuel the diesel inboard engines of the landing craft and fishing boat. He really didn’t have any gasoline engines; just the UTVs, the chain saws, the mower, and the plane which he used 100 octane low lead fuel in. For now, Ryan had three 1000-gallon diesel tanks on the Hill and one 1000-gallon and one 500-gallon tanks at the landing. Ryan needed to plan a future fuel farm somewhere on the property away from the flood plain.

The meeting with Mr. Cummings on Wednesday was eye opening. Mr. Henderson had accumulated $768,875.38 in his checking and savings accounts, and had several CDs that he had habitually let roll over every year. Two months prior, he had rolled everything into traditional IRAs. Real estate holdings included the 231 acres adjoining Ryan’s property, high value tracts of land along Kingston Pike in Eaton and Farragut, and a house full of antiques that had to be appraised for tax purposes.

Mr. Henderson must have had Ryan in mind for a while because he had changed his traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs and Ryan’s accountant said he wouldn’t have to pay taxes on his inheritance of the IRAs because of that move.
Click to expand...
Just as an aside, if you know anyone producing such a pipe knocker product, I'd appreciate a link . . . .
 
Chapter Twenty

Mr. Cummings also had a thick envelope Mr. Henderson had left for Ryan, which was taped shut and Mr. Henderson's signature had been signed along the tape as a tamper-resistant seal. Mr. Cummings said the envelope contained instructions for Ryan from Mr. Henderson and keys to different locks in the house and outbuildings. Ryan set it aside to read later and listened as Mr. Cummings briefed Ryan’s accountant.

After Mr. Cummings had answered all the questions Ryan and his accountant had and had given them duplicate copies of most of the paperwork in the Henderson file, Ryan’s accountant said he would contact him the first of the next week and they could talk over a financial strategy for Ryan. Ryan was comfortable with the accountant, who had told him he could live off the interest of his accounts for the rest of his life, and never touch the principal.

Ryan and Morgan went down to look through Mr. Henderson’s house and it appeared in good condition. The stone clad house just needed some trim painting to spruce it up. Inside, It was surprisingly neat considering he had been a widower for several years. Although his wife had passed ten years before, you could still find the woman’s touches she had put in the home. The pantry and some basement shelves were filled with store-bought foods. Mr. Henderson had a little prepper in his blood!

There was a round floor safe hidden behind the furnace service panel that Ryan was itching to open. The combination to it and the two gun safes had been in the paperwork Mr. Cummings had given him. When Ryan began emptying the floor safe, there was bank envelope upon bank envelope, each containing, they realized later, $5,000 each. At the very bottom of the safe were pouches of gold and silver bullion coins. He didn’t bother to empty them out to count them all.

The gun safes held a hodgepodge of vintage firearms of the 19th and early twentieth centuries. He recognized a few but he would have to go through his weapons books to identify many of them. There were even a couple of M1921 Chicago typewriters with a drum magazine and six stick magazines each. There were a few more modern pistols, revolvers, and long guns and shotguns in the second safe. Ryan locked up the gun safes and planned with Morgan to come back down with Marsha and remove the food that was getting close to being out of date back to their place.

Boone Davis was at his best with a chainsaw in his hands. The man could drive a golf tee when he fell a tree. Boone had come to him through the VA Outreach Center with a lot of problems, but he had slowly worked them out. If you marked out a fire break for him he wouldn’t stop felling trees until the whole firebreak was done. It was hard sometimes for the rest of the crew to keep up with him. He worked fast, but he was also safety conscious. Boone had started dating Sarah Leah Pritchard a few months after he started on the crew. They attended Union Chapel Missionary Baptist Church together.

Boone never said much about Sarah Leah except saying that she gave his heart a smile. Not one to wait around to get things done, Boone asked Sarah Leah to marry him. They had a September wedding planned.

Ryan had been down to the Henderson farmhouse several times looking around and removed what he wanted. He had the house repainted and put new gutters up. Ryan wanted it in livable condition because if you leave a house empty, it will go to decay in no time.

“What are you going to do with the Henderson house?” Morgan had asked.

“I’m going to offer it with four acres to Boone and Sarah Leah to rent, with a possible option to buy, if they want.” Ryan replied. “I can get it renovated however they like, within reason.”

“Well! Aren’t you brilliant! I was thinking the same thing!” Morgan exclaimed.

“Let’s do a cookout Saturday and invite them. We can offer it to them then and take them down and show it. I thought it would be perfect because everything is already there. They don’t have to buy much of anything except food.” Ryan said.

“I’ll get with Marsha and get a menu going.” Morgan replied.

During their dinner of breaded pork chops with mustard greens and boulangère potatoes, Morgan announced they would have rib eye steaks with baked potatoes and salad for the cookout Saturday and fresh strawberry shortcake. Millie was picking strawberries off of the towers daily.

After a nice meal in the outdoor living area Saturday afternoon, Ryan and Morgan drove Boone and Sarah Leah down to the Henderson place to show them around. Sarah looked closely at everything with an intense look on her face. She worked as a designer for her family’s construction business and renovation plans were flowing through her brain. Ryan sat them down at a picnic table under the large oak in the yard behind the Henderson house and explained why he had moved to the area, what he expected to see happen in the future, and what he was doing to do to prepare for that future. Sarah Leah immediately said she wanted to rent with the option to buy in the future. As they were walking around the property, Boone had broken off a piece of broomsedge and chewed on it. He kind of let Sarah Leah make the decision on the property. The place was beautiful, and the four acres were an added bonus for growing some of their own food and a place for their future kids to play. Ryan and Boone shook hands and Sarah Leah and Morgan hugged when they accepted the offer. For now, Boone and Sarah Leah would live in the rental they were in now until the renovations could be completed.

“What do you think Boone?” Ryan asked.

“My grandpa once told me that retirement was supposed to be the accumulation of your life’s work, but he had never seen it work out for anyone he knew. They tax you from the first day you start to work for the privilege to even being alive and spend it however THEY want to and when you retire they keep figuring out ways on how to steal what you might have left and tried to save for your family. I listen to what you say once in a while about the things that are happening, and I believe this area is as good as any to start digging my fighting position.” Boone said.

While Boone worked his normal job, Sarah Leah and her family swarmed the homestead like a flock of Starlings. Apparently, every branch of Sarah Leah’s family was in home construction of some aspect and knew exactly what they were doing. Within a week the house was completely gutted and interior framing begun. The contents of the house had been removed and stored in a big garage that was on the property.

A week after the potato plants died back, Ryan used the Terrain 3 Point Potato Digger to dig them up. After digging, washing, drying and bagging the potatoes, Ryan guesstimated they had around six hundred pounds of Russet, Red Pontiac, and German Butterball potatoes in 25-pound bags. They didn’t eat that many sweet potatoes so those were grown in towers in the greenhouse. After bagging the potatoes, they began on the garlic and onions. The potato digger worked well for these and carrots also. They ended up with around 150 pounds of Early Yellow Globe and Southport White Globe onions and about 75 pounds of Transylvania and Vietnamese Purple garlic. The last thing that had to be done was shell the popcorn. The ears were too small to go through the corn sheller he had, so he sat over a #10 tub and hand shelled the ears while wearing mule hide gloves. After that, Ryan and Bill took a couple of days off and spent them at the range burning some gunpowder.

Fall was when they had their busiest firewood sales and deliveries, and orders were definitely pouring in this year. Although prices for natural gas and propane had more or less remained steady, only creeping up a few pennies every couple of months, more and more people were finding it was cheaper to heat with wood. A couple of new fireplace and wood stove stores pushing stoves with catalytic combustion chambers had opened up in the area and Ryan worked with the stores to give a discount on the first two cords of wood their customers bought from Shiner’s Hill. At quitting time each day, the next day’s loads for delivery were already loaded on the landing craft and trucks for delivery. When Ryan saw the winter weather reports in the latest Farmer’s Almanac, he encouraged the stove stores to stock and display the booklets and push the forecasts. They weren’t predicting temperatures of the last glacial maximum but were expecting more polar vortexes which caused people to burn wood at irregular rates instead of trying to keep a constant regular temperature and throwing on another sweater. Ryan had Morgan order complete sets of high visibility Polarforce work clothing from Refrigiwear for the men to work in that winter. Ryan couldn’t wear the parkas, they made him sweat, so he stuck with the hoodies and at most, a set of Polarforce bibbed overalls.

Ryan paid for all of the men and women on the crews to get their Tennessee Boater’s education certificate and were licensed to drive the landing craft. This would save him some long cold trips and most of the people enjoyed operating the craft and had no problems making Saturday deliveries.

When the crews all volunteered to give Boone and Sarah Leah a hand moving into their new house, Ryan gave everyone the day off and cooked a pig on the pit smoker trailer. The wives and girlfriends helped organize the house under Sarah Leah’s supervision and helped Marsha put the sides together for the meal. With all the company vehicles available for moving, it only took a few hours to get everything moved and in place without a lot of effort by anyone. Ryan and Morgan worked as hard as anyone, having to flip the pig every hour.
 
Chapter Twenty-One


Marsha was refilling the sugar cube bowl from the jar she kept in the pantry. She liked to use the cubes to sweeten drinks and to drop into oatmeal in the morning, the brown sugar cubes, I mean. Once a month she would put damp sugars into the molds and make her own cubes. It was criminal how much they charged for pre-made cubes.

This morning, she was cleaning up the wood cook stove for winter use. It was turning cold enough to use now. The stove, sitting across the kitchen from the gas stove, didn’t need much cleaning. She wiped down the oven good and applied a touch of stove polish to the outside of the stove. Using the stove for the first time after polishing it brought back fond memories from when she was a little girl at her grandma’s house.

When she finished her cleaning, Marsha lay and lit a fire in the firebox before proofing dough for bread. Morgan wanted a couple of loaves of white sandwich bread and one loaf of German farmer’s bread (Bauernbrot). Marsha used to make the Bauernbrot for her husband and Ryan liked to make sandwiches with it when she made pot roast. He would make hot sandwiches with the leftovers., and she would make pot roast in a Dutch oven as soon as the stove warmed up. Once the white bread was into its first proofing, she began the dough for the Bauernbrot.

Morgan came into the kitchen and laid her clipboard on the counter. She had been checking inventory and decided she needed a cup of tea. She could easily make it in her office, but it was comforting to sit and have it with Marsha, plus the smell of the proofing bread yeast added something. As she filled and set the kettle on the wood cookstove, they could hear the THUMP, THUMP, THUMP of Ryan refilling the firewood rack on the porch.

“Busy this morning?” Marsha asked.

“Not really,” Morgan replied. “Just doing a manual check of inventory. With the weather coming this weekend, I suspect I’ll start getting orders after lunch.”

“Yes, I noticed it was getting nippy, so I switched to the wood stove today to bake the bread.” Marsha said.

“I smell the anise! It makes the house smell so homey when it is baking!” Morgan said.

“Yes, I have a pot roast on too.” Marsha said.

“Ryan’s going to love you for that!” Morgan said, grinning.

The kettle was whistling when Ryan came in. He pulled off his gloves, then his hat, and poured a cup of coffee. Sipping his coffee, he noticed the flames through the glass of the fire door of the stove and said, “I’ll fill the wood box before I go back to the shed.”

“Thank you,” Marsha said.

“Did I hear the well drillers leaving?” Morgan asked.

“Yes, They left about 1030. I’m going to install a deep well pump for now and Adam and I are going to build a temporary well house.” Ryan replied.

“I should be getting orders for wood this afternoon if anyone is paying attention. The weatherman is calling for snow on Sunday.” Morgan said.

“I’ll check the wood in the drying sheds. It should be about ready, but we should have enough to fill any orders.” Ryan said.

“We do, I just finished a physical inventory.” Morgan replied.

“Good! Well, back to work!” Ryan said, putting on his hat and slipping on his gloves. He was soon back with the wheeled log carrier and filled the kitchen wood box.

The weather was going to throw off the schedule for Tom’s house foundation. The masons didn’t like to work in frigid temperatures because the mortar could freeze and later become crumbly. Ryan gathered up a couple of fire barrels made from water tanks cut in half and carried them in the front-end bucket on the tractor up to the building site. After placing the barrels, Ryan looked around to see if they had forgotten anything. He had made sure the big trucks had room to maneuver when bring in the logs for the house and a couple of good spots had been cleared for the crane that would be used. Ryan met up with Adam at the shop and loaded up the components for the well house and the deep well hand pump and they began assembling everything at the house site.

Tom and Miriam did one last inspection of the house with the new owner and handed him the keys.

“Well Mr. Blackmore, It’s all yours!” Tom said. “I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we have.”

“Thank you. This is a fine house. This is going to be a surprise for my wife. She loves the beach and I’m hoping she’ll feel safe enough to spend the whole summer here.” Mr. Blackmore said.

“I wonder what Mr. Blackmore is going to be doing while his wife is down here.” Miriam said as they drove back to the extended stay hotel.

“Better yet, I wonder what she’s going to be doing while he’s back in Atlanta.” Tom replied.

“I don’t really care. His check cleared and we’ve got our new home to put together.” Miriam said.

They would be leaving the next day for Tennessee. Tom would drive the RV, towing the Grand Cherokee while Miriam would drive her Toyota FT-AC she had traded her three-year-old Corolla and a substantial check for the new vehicle. They would stop about halfway and stay overnight at the Hilton Garden Inn in Peachtree City.

Sure enough, Morgan received orders for nine cords of wood. Two BBQ restaurants ordered three cords of hickory each for truck delivery and three cords of mixed hardwood were lake deliveries. Sam Tedesco helped Ryan deliver the lake deliveries the next day before it got too cold. On Thursday, they made the truck deliveries in the morning.

Jamie, Ellie, and a couple of their college friends were designing a computer network for the shelter. Ryan wanted to have the food and supplies database on hand within the shelter with easy access. It was easy enough to do, apparently, because every time the group met at the house, they often played music and video games and ate up the snacks. Finally, Jamie collected the components, installed a server, and connected industrial computers to the wireless network. Industrial may sound like a heavy name but the computers were wall-hung Panasonic ToughBooks used in the pallet mode. Any time anything was pulled from food storage or storage area for use, the inventory could be adjusted via a nearby computer. Also, Marsha put in a recipe and a “How To” database for future reference. Jamie even put a movie database on the server that could stream movies to the bedrooms or the living area. Ellie had the job of copying hundreds of movies to terabyte drives.

Bill found Ryan listening to the radio by the fireplace in the outdoor living area munching on Hot Banana Peppers and eating a pot roast sandwich.

The big news of the day was out of China. The Three Gorges Dam had failed compounding the problem of massive crop failures. The water once used to irrigate fields was now headed to the ocean. Signs of starvation were beginning to show and some of the more militant politicians were talking about taking food from other countries, by force, if necessary.

“Great! We not only have to worry about our own government, we have to also worry about the Chinese invading to steal our food.” Bill said.

“This country was destined to end up ruled by tyranny when the people became so corrupted and indifferent to what their politicians were doing they would need a despotic government to rule them.” Ryan said. “Benjamin Franklin's basic philosophy was that no people can remain free if they become wicked and immoral. We don’t need to worry about the Chinese or any other foreign power invading us. Right now, this country is self-destructing from within.”

“It’s sad, but you may be right.” Bill agreed. “I just stopped by to tell you I’m moving the hovercraft to the boathouse tomorrow.”

“Are you about ready to move in?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah, but I’m waiting until this storm is done before starting. No telling what is going to happen with that. The forecasters are calling for up to four inches of snow and sleet but with the weather the way it has been, no telling how much we will get. Helen would pitch a fit if her floors got muddied up.”

“If I were you, I’d head to the hardware store and stock up on floor protection film. it comes in 24 inches by 200-foot lengths.” Ryan recommended.

“I’ll head there now and get a couple of rolls.” Bill said. “Do you need anything?”

“No, I’m good.” Ryan said.

Ryan closed the pepper jar and tossed the wadded-up paper towel the sandwich had been wrapped in into the fire. Draining his iced tea glass, he headed to the kitchen.

Morgan was opening a bag of shredded coconut as he rinsed his glass and put it into the dishwasher.

“What are you making?” Ryan asked.

“A Blizzard Cake with cherries.” Morgan replied.

Ryan sighed and went to check the wood in the wood rack.

Sunday morning, Ryan’s eyes snapped open at dawn. It was quiet except for the occasional gust of wind. He got out of the bed and looked through the bay window to see phosphorescent ice pellets beginning to cover the ground. By the time he had showered and dressed, the snow had changed to large, fluffy flakes drifting down at an angle, driven by the gusts of wind. Ryan headed to the kitchen and built up a fire from the coals in the cookstove and filled the percolator with water and the basket with coffee grounds. Walking out into the outdoor living area, Ryan dropped the side panels to keep the snow from drifting in. The yard was lit by the brilliance of the white snow, tree limbs jewel studded with ice. He stood there for a moment taking in the beauty of the morning before a chill hit him. Going back into the kitchen, he was prepared to start breakfast when Marsha came in wearing her flannel robe.

“Seems like the right morning for some buckwheat pancakes!” Marsha said, placing the large cast iron frying pan on the stovetop to heat up.

“Sounds good to me!” Ryan said as he poured a mug of coffee.

Morgan soon joined them, pouring a mug of coffee, adding three large spoons of creamer to her mug. Ryan made the first pot of coffee a little strong in the mornings.

The smell of the pancakes soon drew Jamie into the kitchen. He poured a mug of coffee and stared out the window of the breakfast nook.

“I wish we had a snow mobile!” Jamie said.

“We don’t get enough snow to justify the expense.” Ryan mumbled. “Put chains on a 4x4 and have fun.”
At that time, the gate alarm sounded, causing Ryan to glance at the security monitor. He saw Ellie’s Jeep pulling through the gate.

“Jamie, I’m about to question the intelligence of your girlfriend.” Ryan said. “Marsha, it seems we’ll be having another plate at the table this morning.”

Jamie ran to get dressed and they soon heard the Jeep pull into the parking area. Ellie came into the house filled with the delicious smell of bacon frying.

“Good morning everyone!” Ellie said, slipping out of her coat and wool hat.

“How are the roads?” Ryan asked.

“They are good, not slippery at all.” Ellie replied. “I didn’t even have to put on chains.”

“Does Helen know where you are?” Morgan asked.

“Not really, I’ll call her in a minute.” Ellie replied.

“Call her right now. She’ll have a fit if she wakes up and finds you are gone.

Ryan went back out to the outdoor living area and built a fire in the fireplace. Once he got a good blaze going, he flipped the wall switch on for the heat-a-lator to start blowing air through the pipes to heat the area. He held his hand over the stone vents and could feel the heat rushing out. This would heat the area and melt the snow on the roof. His only chore would be breaking off the icicles from the roof edges.
 
Chapter Twenty-Two

It wasn’t until they were in the vicinity of Chickamauga, Georgia that Tom and Miriam begin experiencing any winter weather on their way north. They initially experienced small icy graupel then gradually the shadowy skies gave way to swirling flakes of snow that intensified the farther they drove up I-75. Tom called Miriam and they decided to pull over at the next truck stop and refuel. Tom called Ryan once he had fueled up the big bus and pulled away from the pumps into an empty parking space.

“Where are you?” Ryan asked.

“We’re at the Love’s Truck Plaza outside of Charleston.” Tom replied.

“Good, you’re only around 50 miles away. How are the roads?”

“The roads are fine. The snow is light enough it is blowing off and not sticking to the roads, but then there isn’t a lot of traffic either.”

“Well, come on in. I’ll go check the hill on the driveway and if I think the RV may not make it up, we can park it in the shop until everything clears or we can clear it off. You can just bring up enough clothes to do you for a couple of days. As I am looking out the window right now, it looks like we’ve got about six inches of snow here.”

“Okay, we’ll be there in an hour or so then.” Tom said.

Tom and Miriam went into the restaurant and got fresh cups of coffee and when they pulled out, Miriam was in front. After getting on I-75, the wind was now hitting from the side, taking away Miriam’s advantage of using the RV as a windbreak.

Ryan put on his parka and wool hat with ear flaps and got in a Gator and headed down the driveway. As he was afraid of, the snow would pack on the hill and would be too icy for the RV to travel up. He went on to the shop and made sure the tractor wasn’t in the way to park the RV. Ryan suddenly switched gears and cranked the tractor, dropped the loader bucket, and put the blade on. First, he cleared the area in front of the shop, then changed the angle of the blade and began clearing the snow from the driveway all the way down to the macadam. Once he had cleared the snow from the hill, he believed the RV might make it up the hill. Once he could get the hill cleared, he could use the fertilizer spreader to put snow melt pellets on the hill to keep the snow from sticking.

Tom turned off I-75 in Alta Vista and onto highway 30 to highway 58 at Decatur. The snow had accumulated a little more on highway 58 so Tom slowed to a crawl in some areas. The valley they were in was relatively flat, so they had no problems. But when they turned onto the last leg onto highway 72, the RV wanted to fishtail a little coming down through Bacon Gap. Ther road was clearer to Laural Bluff Road, and they were on the home stretch. Miriam buzzed the gate, and it quickly opened. The driveway had been cleared and Ryan was headed for them on a tractor.

Ryan waved Miriam on to the house and pulled up to talk to Tom.

“I think you can make it up the hill. I plowed and spread ice melt. I’ll head out in front of you.” Ryan said.

Tom let Ryan get a little ahead of him because the ice melt was still coming out of the spreader. When they got to the hill, Tom dropped the bus down into Low and crawled up the hill with no problems. Tom took a deep breath once he topped the hill, not realizing he had been holding it. Another snow squall came through as he parked the RV where Ryan directed.

Ryan and Tom got the bags out of the RV while Morgan ushered Miriam into the house. Jamie and Ellie came riding up on a 4x4 from riding the fire breaks. Marsha had hot cocoa ready for everyone and everyone rested in the warm outdoor living area. Jamie threw more wood on the fireplace and soon had a big blaze going.
Tom and Miriam drank their cocoa and warmed themselves by the fire. Soon, Marsha and Ellie came out with a tureen of venison stew, bowls, and fresh yeast rolls. Jamie came out with coffee cups and two carafes of coffee.

There was very little talking as Marsha ladled out stew into bowls on a plate and bread and butter next to the bowl. When the tureen was emptied, Ellie went back into the kitchen to fill it again, with Jamie going with her to bring back more rolls and butter. Marsha’s addition of a dash of cayenne pepper gave the stew just enough spicy heat to leave you with a glow, making it the perfect meal for a snowy day.

Tom finally found the time to sit down and talk with Ryan.

“How is the work going on the house site?” Tom asked.

“The foundation isn’t quite completed yet. We built tunnels with visqueen and used heaters for the most part to keep the temperature around the foundation walls around 40ºF, but the masons stopped a couple of days ago when the weather turned colder. The septic is in and the well has been dug.” Ryan explained.

“Well, not a real problem. We knew there would be delays during winter construction.” Tom said.

It snowed off and on the next two days. Ryan tuned into the weather channel on the radio, and they found out a high system was keeping the storm front from moving further east. When it finally quit snowing, they ended up getting 10.75 inches of snow, a record for the area, but it didn’t get warmer and melt the snow. Traffic crashes mounted across the county, roads were closed, shoppers emptied grocery store shelves and people filled warming centers past their capacity. Shiner’s Hill sold a lot more wood also. Bill and Helen were sort of isolated for a few days because of the extended storm but they and the Shiner’s Hill people didn’t have to make trips to the grocery stores to feed their families. Ryan decided to extend his wine collection in the future when he could because it took the snippiness out of the women. Boone laughingly said Ryan wasn’t cutting his switches long enough until Sarah Leah punched him in the kidneys.

Finally, the sun came out and the snow and ice were rapidly melting. By the end of January, store shelves were still being rapidly emptied because the people had momentary desires to keep a stockage of food, but it didn’t last long. It never did. As soon as she could, Marsha bought more lasagna noodles and a couple of cases of chickens from Sam’s. Everyone loved her lasagna, and she had made it anytime someone asked. She talked to Ryan and made up several pans for quick meals and stored them in the freezer. The chickens….she integrated into several meals, the most requested for….chicken and dumplings.

When the weather warmed back up a little, the masons resumed work and completed the basement and foundation walls on Tom’s house. Tom coordinated with Stonemill Builders to get the logs delivered and the crane and operator to be onsite.

Like Ryan, Tom enjoyed the choreography of the builders as they erected the log walls. In no time they had the walls up and were placing the log trusses and purlins on. They quickly had the metal roofing on and began putting windows and doors in so they could heat the inside for the finish work. It was like watching an ant hive as the builders raised the walls and trusses while the masons built the chimney at the same time.
Tom had researched the area well before he came up with a design for the house they wanted to build. Their house in Florida had been built well beyond code and had been round….well, sort of. There were exactly 22 sides of the house, so it was kind of round. It was designed to withstand winds of up to 190 miles per hour and Tom didn’t think a storm in the last 1000 years could take it down. He was just as diligent when building their current house. They weren’t going to face hurricanes there in Tennessee, but high winds and earthquakes were a possibility. The log home would flex during an earthquake but wouldn’t break apart, and techniques were used to keep it moderately free from damage from tornadoes and other high windstorms. The windows were also custom….Three pane, gas-filled windows with the outer pane of impact resistant glass.

Until the 15th of February, Helen, Miriam, Morgan, and Millie visited every antique and secondhand store in the four-county area looking for furniture and accent pieces for Miriam to fill her home with. On the 15th of February, their second snowstorm of the year arrived.
 
Chapter Twenty-Three

Ryan and Tom had been aware of the movement of the Jet stream since the middle of January, so they were well aware when it looped down, drawing the frigid air out of Canada into the lower 48 states. They watched as the winds at altitude snaked down through Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and briefly into New Mexico. Like a wave, they saw the cold weather rolling toward them and prepared for several days of frigid weather. Ryan and Tom made a couple of trips to Sam’s and COSTCO to update their inventories. Apparently, others in the area were paying attention to the weather pattern also because all of a sudden, they began getting orders for firewood as the Jet Stream dipped into Oklahoma and Kansas. Before the news station forecasters started reporting anything, store shelves were soon emptied again and sandwich bread, milk, and eggs were hard to find. Even Marsha bought six plastic gallon jugs of milk, poured some out of each into an empty container and put them all into the freezer. Ryan slacked off the crews to let them prepare for the coming weather and he and Tom spent time at the range firing their pistols. But first, they had to buy at least a case of wine from either a commercial outlet or local winery. That was their penance for killing time at the range. At least they did until the storm hit. After that, they pretty much stayed at home and kept the fires lit. It had turned bitterly cold, and Millie had a hard time keeping the plants in the greenhouse from being killed. Ryan had pre-staged extra pallets of wood at the outdoor furnace and kept a path clear for her between the furnace and greenhouse. Jamie, Ryan, and Tom took turns going down and stoking the furnace twice a day.

Tom was paying a bonus to the general contractor for quick completion and the finish carpentry was coming rapidly to an end. As soon as the storm blew through, another record snowfall, they quickly cleared the area around the P.O.D. containers that held the appliances and other items needed to finish the house. The ground was muddy, so Tom and Ryan went down to Home Depot on Kingston Pike and purchased cheap sheets of plywood to build a pathway from the PODs to the house. Home Depot was also a gathering area for Day Laborers to gather. Even as bitter as the temperature was, there was a demonstration against illegal immigrants who made up most of the laborers. They had to park toward the back of the parking lot and make their way into the store to buy the plywood. Ryan stayed with the truck and trailer and was to bring them forward to the loading area when Tom called. Tom threaded his way through the demonstrators and news people and was almost at the doors of the store when a news lady thrust a microphone in his face.

“SIR, WHAT IS YOUR IMPRESSION OF THE DEMONSTRATION HERE TODAY?”

Tom tugged his hat lower over his eyes and said, “Look, I understand these people are just looking for work to better their lives, at least do better than where they came from. But they shouldn’t even be here. They are already criminals by breaking our laws when they illegally crossed the border and as usual, they won’t even try to assimilate. There's a big difference between wanting to be in America and wanting to be an American. But it is despicable that our morally challenged politicians are using these people as pawns for their twisted political agendas. It doesn’t matter whether the illegals use legal or criminal means to gain a better life than they had. Look first at the people who enabled this tragedy. I hear people here that are advocating the illegals to be lined up against the wall. They should first start the line in Washington, D.C. That’s where you will find the people who started and enabled this tragedy that has also allowed the passage through our once secure borders, drugs that are killing 100 to 300 people a day. It is a failure of morals at all levels. And look at the good people of this town who are helping the criminal immigrants. It is the moral thing they do in helping their fellow man, but they are also willing pawns in this fiasco. The politicians use the natural goodness of their constituents they are supposed to be representing to further their shady plans. When the election comes, my vote is for those candidates with backbone and the morals to begin the process of putting an end to this criminal enterprise.”

It was long-winded, but Tom said what he felt. He moved into the store, made his purchases and called Ryan to move to the loading area.

Tom’s impromptu speech went viral on social media and the basis for a rallying cry. Thankfully, he was never identified and he tried to keep a low profile after that. 

Bill and Helen got moved in with the usual help of Ryan’s crew. Helen made sure she had plenty of food for them. Their new house had a mother-in-law suite so their cook/housekeeper came with them. The trees started budding, the apple trees were blooming, and Ryan began getting more calls from the landscapers for tree removals. The return of warm weather brought with it a surge in their customer base. Mulches and composts for spring planting were in high demand, partially because more people were returning to buying locally. With the increase in business, Ryan decided to increase his crew size and hire two more men, or women, especially if they had families they had to support. Although Ryan refused to hire anyone who had entered the country illegally, no matter their family status, he wasn’t against hiring immigrants that had been vetted. Ryan loved an immigrant success story. His two immigrant workers, Jose and Juan were of the same mindset. They recognized the benefits of immigrating legally and achieving the American Dream and hated line jumpers. Many of the immigrants in the area, they found, were there to just make money and send it back to their home countries and took no, nor intended to take, any serious effort in establishing roots. Ryan gave Jose and Juan the mission of finding vetted workers. They would be able to sniff out good ones.

Ryan went and inspected the north field across the road to see what it would take to put more housing there. The one mobile home sitting there was a 16 foot by 76-foot home with three bedrooms. He would hire Juan’s wife to give it a good cleaning and have the carpets done; It would be good for a small family. If a larger family came in, he would get a manufactured home to put in also. The well on the hill would handle two families.

Both dwellings would be in an open field, so he would need to think of storm shelters for each. Sizes would depend on the size of the families. He was also looking to build root cellars for each lot.

Ryan went back to the Hill and to the sawmill. A few days before, the landscaping company called to have a tree removed and Ryan sent four guys to do it. The tree, or rather two trees turned out to be black walnuts sitting at the edge of the homeowner’s yard. He didn’t like dealing with the nuts falling into his yard every year. As soon as he saw what he was dealing with, Harry made sure to salvage as much wood as possible. Not only were the logs valuable, especially for live edge planks, but the bigger parts of the limbs could also be sold to craft stores for wood carvers. He would have Morgan and Harold call around to look for buyers for the four sixteen-foot logs.

Ryan would have headed to Tom’s place, but he and Miriam had gone to Franklin to look for Miriam’s antiques. She had developed a habit of changing out antiques like people change socks. With nothing else to do, he decided to head over to Midway and visit the crews building firebreaks along Laural ridge.

Tom trailed Miriam through the fourth store they had visited, his mind on other things besides old wood. He and Ryan had talked about what was happening to East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, and still happening. They hoped the next administration could fix FEMA (“When seconds count, we’re weeks away!"). They both bought several generators and went in together and bought a 43-foot trailer of non-perishable food and donated to the cause. Ryan was looking for ways to keep his employees from ever having to go through something like that. The land between the Johnsons and Bransons auto repair shop might be coming up for sale and Ryan was evaluating the land for a small housing development for his employees, One third of the land was in hay fields and he would leave the fields alone, except for maybe gardens. There was a lot to do and think about and the idea was pulled to the front burner. Ryan didn’t want to build a “Company Town” in the sense of those in the past, He just wanted to take care of the loyal employees who had become almost like family.

Ryan gave LeahAnn the job of keeping an eye on the employees when she wasn’t doing security rides. She was the little sister of all the male employees and close with the wives. If she saw a problem developing within a family or one of the single employees, she did what she could to correct it before going to Ryan.

Miriam finally said she had her house the way she wanted it but Morgan could see little changes every time she went over. Women can do that, you know. Miriam still changed out an item here and there and hovered around antique shops. Ryan considered himself lucky, in a way. One of the few antiques Morgan had was a pen and inkwell stand she kept on her desk. It had a couple of turkey feathers and the original penknife in the stand too. It must have been forged from what passed as surgical steel at the time because it quickly honed to razor sharpness when Ryan sharpened it.
 
 
Chapter Twenty-Four

Ryan kept his eye on the real estate situation in the area and pounced on the Thornton property next to the auto repair shop. He also got his nose under the tent with the Branson Brother’s Auto Repair next door. They were fined by the county for the junk cars they had around on the property. All the useable parts had been removed and they were worth less in scrap then the fines they owed the county. Ryan stepped in and signed a contract for them to keep regular services and maintenance on his vehicles. The contract was large enough for them to clear the derelicts from the yard, install a fence to hide cars as per county code, and expanded their business as a “pull your own” parts business.

The house on the Thornton property was beyond repair. Termites and carpenter ants had taken their toll. The garage building was in better repair than the house, but it needed roof repairs. So, Ryan decided to tear the house down and start with a clean slate. The crews kept up the regular services and Forest Service contracts but also began rotating over to the Thornton place and continue demolitions.

Ryan worked with his builder and an architectural firm to design a small housing development with the centerpiece, a community center with an open floor plan. That had been Helen’s and Morgan’s idea. It would give them a space to hold children’s birthday parties, gatherings, and any other function that may pop up.
Morgan, and her part-time HR manager, LeahAnn Ryder, worked up the number of families and single personnel who would be first on the list for housing, mainly because they were already renting. When word slowly leaked out what Ryan was doing, the men got together and voted that LeahAnn should get the first house. They were a little uneasy as she drove in from Wartburg every day and should be given the opportunity to live closer. That changed Ryan’s plans only a little and he added a 1,096 sq. ft., 1 Story, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths cabin to his plans. Nevertheless, the Community Center was going up first.

Ryan was including single family homes and duplexes for unmarried people included in the development plan. The planning turned out to be a family affair with Helen, Morgan, and Miriam having a huge input to make sure Ryan didn’t forget anything. Some of their ideas were laughable at first, and he nixed them quickly. For now, the community would have to forget about a swimming pool and continue to use the lake.

Jamie and Ellie were already designing a solid wood entrance sign carved from three-inch oak to place at the drive. Ryan let them run with it. Everyone wanted to get their thumbprint on the development.

The weed and Chablis crowd continued to drift into the area, or was a spillover from the college, but the world still turned and life around Shiner’s Hill continued. Ryan kept a weather eye on the political situation locally and nationally. As they say, “politics begin at home.” Ryan donated to conservative candidates in local elections but stayed away from national politics as much as he could. He had learned his lesson. Every time he donated to a single national candidate, his mailbox was inundated with letters from political candidates from all over the country asking for money. If you donated twice, you were on their lifetime list. Ryan had just so many fires to start in his lifetime to get rid of the junk mail.

The women planned a big meal for the christening of the community center, so everyone could see the amenities. There was a kitchen and preparation area, a grand hall, and male and female bathrooms large enough not to have to wait in line. Someone had thoughtfully added Nancy Pelosi targets to the urinals.
Jamie and Ellie had finished the carved sign and it was beautiful. Jamie had consulted with a veteran sign painter on the paints used to highlight the lettering and they really made the sign stand out. There was a comic depiction of a moonshine still and “Shiner’s Hill Community Center” Carved in raised relief on the sign. The ends of the sign were tenoned into the posts and the last pin to secure the sign was left out for everyone to take a whack to drive it in. The food was a mixture of many different cultures and the desserts mouth-watering.

Other than the employees and their families and friends of Shiner’s Hill LLC, Ryan also invited the Roane County Sheriff and the two deputies who usually patrolled the area. The LEO had left the dinner with full bellies after meeting every member of the tight-knit community.

Ryan didn’t know how it slipped the rumor mill in this era of leaking secrets, but LeahAnn hadn’t a clue about the cottage. After it was dried in, Miriam and Helen went to work and took care of the interior. When LeahAnn’s cottage was ready, the community held another dinner, or cookout, at the Community Center. The men were going to BBQ on the back patio and cook chicken, hotdogs and hamburgers. When everyone had eaten, Ryan got up and stood at the front of the hall.

“I could call this just a crowd of people gathered here for fellowship, but it is more than that, it is more of a gathering of family. LeahAnn, all of the people gathered here cherish your friendship and want only the best for you. In your honor as their friend, fellow employee, and adopted little sister, they have decided you should be the first to live in the Still Waters development.” Up on the wall behind Ryan was projected a view of the cottage, which then gave the gathering a video walk-through tour of the dwelling.

Wide eyed, LeahAnn looked around the room then two of the men and Morgan escorted her to a side door and into a Gator to be transported to her new home. Everyone else followed on foot. When the pack of friends arrived at the cottage, LeahAnn came out, wiping her eyes with tissues.

“I don’t know what to say! I’ve haven’t felt this welcomed since I was in the service….” She broke down again and the women gathered around her and went into the cottage to plan the move to her new home. The men looked at each other with satisfied smiles.

“We’ve got equipment to prepare for the coming weather.” Harry said. “Weather lady says it’s going to be a humdinger.” 

Ryan sat going over his financials and doing some estimating how much his next future endeavor was going to cost him. He was considering on buying out Drake’s Landscaping Service next door. It would mean picking up another 30+ employees but along with it, Landscape and Snow and Ice Management services. The downside was a lot of the equipment was dated and needed to be replaced. He had yet to look at their books and needed to do that in order to get a complete picture.

Ryan’s ear caught the conversation on TV of announcers complaining about right-wing disinformation crushing democracy.

Ryan shook his head slowly as he transcribed information to his notepad. Disinformation wasn’t the problem, government coverups and censorship were the problems.

Ryan tried not to let the idiots get to him and most of what they did didn’t faze him. However, While playing their petty B.S. games, the politicians were taking their eye off the ball and the economy was suffering. As a businessman, the economy concerned him. His mind drifted and he wondered if there would be a market for pre-built gallows kits that could be assembled on demand. They could be a form of relief for the sane people of the country. It wasn’t hard to miss the signs of the political, social, and economic diseases that first sapped and finally destroyed Rome encroaching on the country.

“Have you seen this?” Morgan asked.

Ryan got up and went over to where she was working on her computer.

“It’s an article in Business Insider about a company in Texas that is selling prime freeze-dried beef.” Morgan said.

“Well, if you think it is worth a look, order sample cases and let’s try it out. It wouldn’t hurt to have on hand in case we can’t raise cows for a while.”

FBI agents have arrested a Florida man in connection with an alleged plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, according to charging documents unsealed on Wednesday.

South Florida resident Harun Abdul-Malik Yener was charged with attempted use of an explosive to damage or destroy a building used in interstate commerce, according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida. The FBI began investigating Yener in February after receiving a tip he was storing bomb-making schematics in an unlocked storage unit in Coral Springs, Florida. Agents obtained a search warrant and found numerous watches with timers, electronic circuit boards, and other electronics in the unit, according to court documents.

Morgan ordered several sample packs of the beef and they all turned out well after rehydration. You could dump them straight into soups and stews but had to remember to use extra water. The meat was expensive, but when Morgan made her order, she only ordered a 6-month supply. It would be an emergency protein source.

After several negotiation meetings, Ryan bought Drake’s Landscaping Service. He hired a long-term employee there to run the place on a trial basis. He wanted to expand the client base and see what other services they could offer.

After looking through the nursery records, he doubled the order for flowering trees and shrubs that people requested during the spring. He also ordered several different varieties of dwarf fruit trees. Marsha gave him the idea of offering pre-built strawberry towers so Ryan and the guys were using slabs to construct the towers and used plastic boxes to hold the soil in the boxes. They put together kits for stand-alone towers and towers that could be put up against a fence or building. They also decided to build a tomato tower, except the plant boxes were larger, for people in the urban areas who didn’t have space to garden. Most types of vegetables could be planted in them.
 
 
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