Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (55 page)

They decided to look for roof access, and all four of us would go
to the roof to take out as many HDI's between the back door and the Jeep as we could. We had no idea how many were out there because the line of HDI’s at the windows was blocking our view.

The roof access was in the hallway above the defunct
Pac-man machine. Ian climbed up on the machine to throw open the door and discovered a padlock. The men searched the restaurant for something strong enough to beat that padlock to death. They were banging it and smacking it with long metal posts and chair legs.

Rick and Ian were cursing up a storm when Jeremy came out the restaurant with a
Philips head screwdriver. It took about two minutes for Rick to get the screws off the hinges. “To hell with the lock” he yelled, and threw open the roof hatch. We all used the Pac-man machine to climb up on the roof.

We walked to the
edge of the roof and saw what we were facing. There were at least 40 HDI's between the Jeep and the back door, and several more were headed in from the field. We began shooting the ones between the Jeep and the back door.

Ian didn't
go back inside the restaurant. He hung from the edge of the roof, dropped to the ground, and ran to the Jeep. He threw three boxes of bullets up to Rick, and rifle practice began.

Ian was shooting any HDI's that made it within a few yards of the Jeep, and Rick was
taking out those coming from the field.

It took about 20 minutes before
all the walking HDI's were lying on the ground. Several were still moving around and Ian was methodically taking them out, one by one.

I laid myself down on the hot roof and thanked everyone in heaven that I could think of.

Rick said we needed to get loaded up and out of there fast, so we scrambled down the access door and back to the restaurant.

We loaded the trailer and Jeep as fast as we could and got outa there.

I don't wanna be on “fuel getting duty” unless I have no choice. Actually, I would prefer to never see that truck stop again. I'm pretty sure that restaurant is cursed.

We headed home
, and when we got to the top of the driveway I saw three deer hanging from a large tree out back. The sight of that made me feel a little better.

Mick said the refrigeration trailer is fueled up and running
. It’s parked beside Pop and Nan's motorhome. There's two metal barrels full of diesel fuel sitting beside it. I didn't ask how they got that trailer positioned in there, but I'm guessing that Dane did it.

Marisa and Merry had macaroni and cheese with ground beef mixed in ready for us when we got back. We gobbled it down. I guess winning a battle makes ravenous victors.

See ya later.

10:00 PM...

Mick and Jason went back to the milling company and found the pig feed still there. They loaded the entire pallet into the goat trailer and bed of the truck and headed home.

After they dropped off the goat trailer
, they went to the truck-stop and filled the gasoline tanker. It took three hours and six water hoses to get it filled. They saw no HDI's while they were there and thanked us for it. Lucky dogs.

Kevin, Dane, Luke, Larson, and Deuce got 16 feet of wooden fence up today.
Its 12 feet tall and concreted in. They'll fill around it after the entire length of fence is finished across the back.

Dane said it's going a lot faster than he anticipated because of the logs, the drill bit, and the large amount of bolts they got from the electric company. There's barbed wire woven between and around the logs.

Deuce told Mick we need more logs, so I guess Dane will head to the lumber yard tomorrow. Ian and Rick offered to go along but they asked if they could get two of the wooden buildings unloaded before they go. Dane agreed.

Nana, Rona, Valerie, and Marisa got all the laundry done. Bless them!

Rebecca spent the entire afternoon in bed. She's not feeling well.

Hisa said that J
osie’s doing better and able to move around a little today. She ate most of her meals and actually wanted more but Hisa said she could try a regular breakfast in the morning and see how it goes.

Josie is mortified that someone other than herself has to dump her potty bucket. She tried to t
alk Hisa into letting her try. Hisa told her she wasn't ready yet and there was “no way.”

Hisa asked Mick to build an outhouse
near Clinic Diane and he said he would, after the fence is up. Geez!

Mick was practically snoring before he fell in bed tonight. He's had a long, tiring day.

I'm headed there myself.

Bye for now.

Friday, March 21

Good Lord! When I looked at the calendar a few minutes ago I realized that I'd forgotten to mention our three month anniversa
ry. Three months. Is that all? It feels like it's been a lot longer.

We stopped processing meat long enough to eat breakfa
st this morning. Nana made biscuits in the motorhome stove. The men slathered theirs with butter and jam and headed out the door.

The women ate
breakfast on the back porch, then went back to processing meat.

The refrigeration trailer is working well and we're putting a lot of venison inside. We may finish processing
all three deer by late tonight. I'm gonna love the refrigeration trailer. It has switches on the outside and you can set it at the temperature you want.

Dane, Mick, Ian, Rick, So
o, and Kevin are unloading the buildings and getting them in place. They started before breakfast and have one in place, and they’re close to finishing the second.

Dane wants to get to the lumberyard for a load of logs and Mick wants to get the other two buildings unloaded. He plans to put them together and put in doors leading from one to the other so that the occupants won't have to go outside t
o visit one another. He wants to get it done for Shawna and Lisa, then go back for more.

Soo is at the Stang house
, putting down tile and boarding up windows. He took a clue from Rick and Ian and went to get wood from the cdk's shed to finish the windows.

He's tired of sleeping in Clinic Diane with patients who need care through the night. We need to find someone who is interested in medicine and
train them to be an assistant. If anything happened to Hisa, we'd be in trouble in the medical category.

I better get back out there and help with the meat.

See ya later.

2:30 PM...

I don't have long.

There's venison roast in the crockpot, so supper will be easy.

Lunch was “eat what you can find.” Most people ate spaghetti noodles with butter and pesto sauce that Nana made on the motorhome stove. She threw in some Italian seasoning,
butter, parsley flakes, ground pepper, and salt.

We're still processing meat and it's hot in the kitchen. The temperature gauge on the back porch says eighty-four degrees. Here comes the dreaded summer heat. It's gonna get a lot worse.

We're down to our last 50 canning jars, so the rest of the meat will go in the refrigeration trailer. We must find canning jars before the garden starts producing.

I better get going before they get mad at me for slacking off.
See ya later.

11:50 PM...

I'm dead on my feet, but all the meat has been processed and put away. Forgive me if this is a very short entry. I don't know if I can even remember what everyone
did today.

The pile of meat looks tiny in that huge refrigeration trailer.

Ian and Rick have their own little buildings and they're sleeping in them.

Lisa and Shawna also have their own little buildings and Mick cut two doors and built a little “hallway/enclosure” between them so the girls can go back and forth without going outside.

Shawna said they’ll make a bedroom in one of the buildings and a living room in the other. They need beds, and Jeremy plans to take them to the Masterson house tomorrow to get furniture.

Soo finished laying the tile and boarding up all the windows at the Stang house. He's prepared to move in and plan
s to start gathering furniture. They're anxious to have Merry back where she belongs and live like a family.

Pop and Mr. Hobbs planted a lot of seeds and seedlings in the big garden. They have plastic ready to cover them if we get a cold spell. They also planted a lot of seeds in the small garden near the trailer fence.

Kevin got the trench dug across the entire back of the property and the men got 25 more feet of fence up and concreted in. They already have two sections ready to put up tomorrow.

Deuce and Buttercup moved a lot of logs with the aid of Mr. Hobbs and the Kubota late this afternoon.
.

I have no cooking duty tomorrow, thank goodness.

I'm nodding off in this chair.

Bye for now.

Saturday, March 22

Everyone’
s draggin' their feet except Rick and Ian. They're accustomed to this kind of physical labor. They plan to dig and build an outhouse between their little houses today, unless they're needed for something else. I'm sure Dane will let them know.

We're all tired and I could have slept another three hours.

I sent Marisa to sit with Josie while Hisa makes breakfast with Merry. It's Hisa's turn. She wasn't able to help with all the canning work yesterday 'cause she was caring for Josie. She's the only one of us with enough energy to cook this morning. I thought I heard her say that we're having some sort of rice pudding for breakfast. That's okay with me as long as it fills our tummies.

All of the men except Pop and Mr. Hobbs are lounging around in the living room, waiting for breakfast. Pop and Mr. Hobbs are in the garden, of course.

The men are discussing plans for looting one of the stashes Josie told us about. They have the map from the motorhome and they're passing back and forth, trying to agree on a location to start with. There are six stash locations marked in red on the map. The closest one to us is 25 miles east. The second closest is 30 miles west. I don't know which one they'll choose to hit first.

They’
re also discussing leaving all the women at home. If I get to lay in a horse trough full of hot water with a nice smelling bar of soap and a couple of mixed drinks, I'll be happy to stay home.

Shawna and Lisa are chomping at the bit because they wanna go along, Shawna challenged any man here to a wrestling match. The men had the audacity to laugh at her. Ian actually said he'd take that challenge in a couple of days. I can't
wait 'til she pins him on the ground and makes him holler “uncle.”

I saw her doing back flips the other day and went outside to watch. She was practicing her martial arts skills. She's limber, fast, and dangerous. Me thinks you don't mess with Shawna.

She was embarrassed and stared at the ground when I clapped for her. She looked up at me and smiled, and I was relieved because I was afraid that I'd hurt her feelings or bothered her in some way.

The food is ready and I'm headed out to try my first rice pudding breakfast.
See ya later.

1:00 PM...

The rice pudding was delicious and sweet. I'm absolutely positive that it's fattening. We all had our fill and Hisa made enough rice to serve with pinto beans from the restaurant haul for lunch.

Months ago, when I thought I'd gone overboard on storing beans and rice, I was wrong. I wish I'd stored a thousand pounds of each. Remind me to do that in my next life.

The men decided to hit the stash location 25 miles to the east on Wednesday. That's the day after tomorrow! I immediately felt nervous when they told us.

Jason and Soo will stay behind to protect the women, children, and our home in case anything happens to the rest of the men. Mr. Hobbs and Pop are staying as well.

The stash crew is Mick, Dane, Jeremy, Ian, Rick, and Kevin.

They are taking the Jeep and the delivery truck they used to haul concrete from Lowe's. Dane says the big rigs are too loud and clumsy. If something happens, all six men can fit in the Jeep and leave the delivery truck behind.

They'll work on the fence and other projects today.

Tomorrow they'll be cleaning weapons, sharpening knives, checking and re-checking gear, packing backpacks, changing fluids in both vehicles, and preparing to head out before dawn on
Monday. With Ian and Rick's help, each man will pack his own proper emergency backpack.

Ian and Rick have been taking turns
, listening to the radio they set up on their first visit here.

We are terrible people. We should have been monitoring the radio this entire time. If we had, we might have known about the attack on Josie's unit.

Mick wants the radio building attached to the house right outside the kitchen window. He'll cut a window in the wooden building and build a tight wooden structure, like the one he built around the doorways for Shawna and Lisa, attaching the kitchen window and the shed window. I have no idea what to call it. He just says he'll “attach and enclose it.”

When
no one is in the shed, the window will be up and anyone in the house can hear the radio. When someone is in the shed on monitoring duty, we can pass food to them through the kitchen window. Ian and Rick thought it was a great idea.

They
said that the radio building needs to be turned into a Faraday cage. Yes, I know what that is, but I'll leave it in their hands.

Mick and Soo are at the Masterson house right now. Shawna and Lisa are with them. They're getting furniture and beds for Shawna and Lisa as well as the Stang house. Deuce said there is a “bunch of junk” in the attic, so they'll check that out as well.

Mick plans to move a gas oven up to the kitchen and get it hooked up to a propane tank. Thank goodness! It's already too hot in the house for the cook stove.

Hisa says it's hot in Clinic Diane and Josie is uncomfortable
, but doesn't complain. Hisa has the windows wide open and asked for our old generator to run a fan.

I didn't even think about keeping the Clinic cool. I asked Mick what we
should do about it. Hisa says that patients need to be comfortable while healing. I almost asked her how they did it in the good old days, but she was on a rant and I kept my mouth shut.