Copyright, Longbow Entertainment a Division of Upland Hills
The early morning mist had not dissipated and it was very still outside as several of us were talking about todays activities. “Mommy fox and her babies are out back”, said one of the younger kids from the open second floor window. At first none of us took notice, we had bigger issues to talk about. “Mommy fox has a chicken in her mouth” said another as a shot from the rear OP hit the fox square in the shoulder. The fox fell over dead and the chicken fell free. Lucky for us, the chicken was just playing dead. It ran back quickly to the hen house fence wanting to get back inside to safety.
Within the hour, the fox was skinned and the meat and bones were being prepared for a dog food treats. The adults were instructing the 4 kids on how to skin, gut and butcher it. A few comments about how disgusting it was, and the smells made us laugh, but they were troopers. We showed them that nothing can be wasted when new sources of food come our way. If food was in short supply, we’d all be having fox stew, but we missed out on a that culinary treat.
Around noon we are expecting our neighbors to the Northwest to meet with some of our group at the old school bus that is halfway between our two camps. Up till now, we have been communicating by notes. They have shared with us they are a two family group with 9 members, and are for the most part self-sufficient. We were surprised that they had scouted us out almost 6 months before we knew someone was out that way. After watching us for just a few days, they knew we were not a threat. Clearing out the brush confirmed with them that we were practical and not dangerous. Contact between our two groups would eventually happen. Our regular shooting, they warned us, is telling everyone within miles that we are here. Noise was something they wanted to control, and year back they had purchase several suppressors to keep the use of guns low key. Only the largest hunting guns don’t have them and those were the ones we heard.
Younger members from our group will be meeting with them. They needed to take up some of the responsibility, and this was the perfect way to start. It also allowed us old farts some more time to recover from the Robinson Illinois disaster.
Two of the spouses asked that we share what really happened with the Robinson trip. “Robinson was a ghost town. Two farming families were on the west edge of town, but no other signs of humans were around. They waved at us as the helicopters circled the town. The refinery was a total loss , but we decided to land and see how bad it was. The control room, main processing areas and storage tanks were damaged beyond any hope of repair. It looks like they tried to modify the plant to make heating oil or propane, but it exploded and burned. 90 minutes later we were departing, and left all the supplies for the two farming families to use. I think they were slightly offended we didn’t shake hands or remove our 100 masks. They knew we didn’t want to spread illness and where happy for the food and other supplies. An hour later we were back on the ground and the two helicopters were heading back to Dayton with nothing to show for the effort. We all knew, that the recovery would be slower and much more difficult than any of us anticipated”.
The failure at Robinson changed our ideas on how to go about rebuilding. It forced us to stay close and salvage and protect what we could with expending finite resources. A grid system was drawn for our area and our excursions have been able to secure more items than we thought were in the area. The older farms and small manufacturers had gear and supplies that would be useful for rebuilding. The number of lathes, milling machines and sheet metal tools secured since that failure was much higher than we planned. Obtaining reliable and continuous power again has become our main priority. With electrical power, we will jump forward to at least 1930’s’s technology to make and repair items we need.
Salvage and preservation of equipment is difficult, but grow our own food is exhausting. Our garden plots are small and no one has found working farming equipment. One multi-row planter will make our efforts much easier. The day will come, when we locate a working unit, but until then, we are planting by hand.
The grid search also discovered a few homes that we didn’t know about. Three of these homes had almost no damage and will be ready for occupancy. They were never used during the deep freeze and what happened to the owners of the homes remains a mystery.
Discovering the undamaged homes is a blessing for the group. Tension between the families has been building as the weather conditions have improved. Four of the families in the group are stressed with the close living conditions. Things have been stable with very few outsiders and the move to the new homes only makes sense. The defense of the area will be easier with everyone spread out. The chance of the entire group being wiped out in a single attack will be reduced and our warning times will increase.
The early morning mist had not dissipated and it was very still outside as several of us were talking about todays activities. “Mommy fox and her babies are out back”, said one of the younger kids from the open second floor window. At first none of us took notice, we had bigger issues to talk about. “Mommy fox has a chicken in her mouth” said another as a shot from the rear OP hit the fox square in the shoulder. The fox fell over dead and the chicken fell free. Lucky for us, the chicken was just playing dead. It ran back quickly to the hen house fence wanting to get back inside to safety.
Within the hour, the fox was skinned and the meat and bones were being prepared for a dog food treats. The adults were instructing the 4 kids on how to skin, gut and butcher it. A few comments about how disgusting it was, and the smells made us laugh, but they were troopers. We showed them that nothing can be wasted when new sources of food come our way. If food was in short supply, we’d all be having fox stew, but we missed out on a that culinary treat.
Around noon we are expecting our neighbors to the Northwest to meet with some of our group at the old school bus that is halfway between our two camps. Up till now, we have been communicating by notes. They have shared with us they are a two family group with 9 members, and are for the most part self-sufficient. We were surprised that they had scouted us out almost 6 months before we knew someone was out that way. After watching us for just a few days, they knew we were not a threat. Clearing out the brush confirmed with them that we were practical and not dangerous. Contact between our two groups would eventually happen. Our regular shooting, they warned us, is telling everyone within miles that we are here. Noise was something they wanted to control, and year back they had purchase several suppressors to keep the use of guns low key. Only the largest hunting guns don’t have them and those were the ones we heard.
Younger members from our group will be meeting with them. They needed to take up some of the responsibility, and this was the perfect way to start. It also allowed us old farts some more time to recover from the Robinson Illinois disaster.
Two of the spouses asked that we share what really happened with the Robinson trip. “Robinson was a ghost town. Two farming families were on the west edge of town, but no other signs of humans were around. They waved at us as the helicopters circled the town. The refinery was a total loss , but we decided to land and see how bad it was. The control room, main processing areas and storage tanks were damaged beyond any hope of repair. It looks like they tried to modify the plant to make heating oil or propane, but it exploded and burned. 90 minutes later we were departing, and left all the supplies for the two farming families to use. I think they were slightly offended we didn’t shake hands or remove our 100 masks. They knew we didn’t want to spread illness and where happy for the food and other supplies. An hour later we were back on the ground and the two helicopters were heading back to Dayton with nothing to show for the effort. We all knew, that the recovery would be slower and much more difficult than any of us anticipated”.
The failure at Robinson changed our ideas on how to go about rebuilding. It forced us to stay close and salvage and protect what we could with expending finite resources. A grid system was drawn for our area and our excursions have been able to secure more items than we thought were in the area. The older farms and small manufacturers had gear and supplies that would be useful for rebuilding. The number of lathes, milling machines and sheet metal tools secured since that failure was much higher than we planned. Obtaining reliable and continuous power again has become our main priority. With electrical power, we will jump forward to at least 1930’s’s technology to make and repair items we need.
Salvage and preservation of equipment is difficult, but grow our own food is exhausting. Our garden plots are small and no one has found working farming equipment. One multi-row planter will make our efforts much easier. The day will come, when we locate a working unit, but until then, we are planting by hand.
The grid search also discovered a few homes that we didn’t know about. Three of these homes had almost no damage and will be ready for occupancy. They were never used during the deep freeze and what happened to the owners of the homes remains a mystery.
Discovering the undamaged homes is a blessing for the group. Tension between the families has been building as the weather conditions have improved. Four of the families in the group are stressed with the close living conditions. Things have been stable with very few outsiders and the move to the new homes only makes sense. The defense of the area will be easier with everyone spread out. The chance of the entire group being wiped out in a single attack will be reduced and our warning times will increase.
