The Savage Awakening (A preppers Perspective) (2 page)

“Close them if you want to, I don’t know why you like a dark house. Probably to hide the last time you dusted and that looks like it has been awhile since you bothered too.” She said looking at the light coating of dust that appeared on the bookshelves and knick knacks she was standing next to.

“I said we could have them open today. Sit down mom and let’s talk a minute. Things are not what they used to be and we need to change our habits some. You want some coffee?” Dennis said walking towards the kitchen alcove.

“What are you going to make it on; I thought you said we need to conserve the propane?” She said walking towards the doorway.

“An induction cook top, it uses magnetism to heat the pot. Induction cooking uses induction heating to directly heat a cooking vessel, as opposed to using heat transfer from electrical coils or burning gas as with a traditional cooking stove. By the way mid range on this uses 600 watts, don’t stick it on high. I will explain why to you later. For right now just think of it as using up the battery too quick.” Dennis told her.

“You got it plugged into that SUNRNR generator?’ His mom asked looking at the extension cord poking out of cabinet.

“No, I got it running on two marine batteries I got hooked up separate to an inverter under the counter. Now remember, never put that thing on high because I only have a 900 watt inverter on it and that thing sucks 1300 watts on high.” Dennis instructed and decided there was plenty of time to teach her the ins and outs of solar electricity later.

While the kettle warmed up very quickly, Dennis explained the need for light suppression at night and the need for increased privacy during the day regarding the curtain issue.

“Nobody should be coming over except Charles and Monica don’t you think? “ Dennis’s mom Mary said eying the windows with the shades pulled fully back.

“Oh Lord, she isn’t quite getting the need for secrecy and security here!” Dennis thought to himself as he watched her peer out the window while standing directly in front of it.

“No, no one should be coming by but we need to talk about if they do. Some of these neighbors I know and some I don’t. James who has those ponds up the street might, which reminds me I need to talk to him in the next few days. I generally don’t talk to anyone else except him and Charles and Monica on this street. I don’t know anyone at all on the end of this street Look; I don’t plan on going anywhere for awhile so I will be here on the property with you
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If anyone other than those three come by I will talk to them and you act sick in the background. Cough and hack like you got the flu or something. Hopefully they will keep their distance a bit more that way.” Dennis concluded.

“I get it! How is this.” she said mischievously and commenced a mock coughing attack.

“There you go! Don’t die on me now.” Dennis said laughing and turned to pour them some coffee.

“I am going to start picking out some cans of what we are separating for ourselves while we chat.” Dennis said sipping his coffee and placing an empty box on the counter.

“Where are you going to put it at when Monica comes over?” His mom asked as she began to search through the boxes of food they had brought from her house.

“Under your bed for now I guess.” Dennis replied to his mom.

“What time did you tell them to come down?” She asked.

“I told them I was going to walk up to their house about 9 or 10. I won’t be long and I can see our driveway entrances from there, plus I have a hand held radio you can call me on if you need anything.” Dennis assured her, glad he had remembered to charge the batteries on the Midland hand sets by hooking the charger to a Sears Die Hard jump starter.

“He would have to remember to charge the jump starter back up later. That’s something else he needed to sort out was his conglomeration of solar lighting, battery chargers, extra solar panels etc.’ Dennis reminded himself.

Dennis had everything stored where he could find it but setting it up and making sense out of it all might take him a day or two. He ran a small number of solar lights on a regular basis but now he had to get his full setup up and running. Dennis has been slowly accumulating what he needed to make his house run full solar on a small scale but kept a lot of equipment put back in case of a solar flare or something. Now he had to buckle down and get everything fully functional and coordinated.

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You think I should just pack up Charles and Monica some cans of food for now and sort the rest of this out later?” his mom asked.

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Uh, that’s not a bad idea but let’s let Monica do her own packing. I got a few reasons for doing it that way. How does this sound, we finish putting up what we don’t want to be seen by anyone at the moment and then you two separate out what’s left in these cabinets. My stuff is older than yours so we use it up first. We will give them two weeks of canned goods to start with and I will give them a month of dehydrated number 10 cans. This just looks like a whole lot of food. Its not, do this with Monica. Let me have those two empty boxes and I will show you what I mean.” Dennis said and waited on his mom to bring them in the kitchen.

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Ok I am going to do a day apiece of rations for their household and ours.” Dennis said separating the two boxes on the countertop.

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This ours and this one is theirs. Ok, a can of corn, a can of green beans and a can of Spam. That’s one meal for one day for two. I will give them a big can of oatmeal out of dehydrated stores so they get breakfast and dinner or lunch and dinner that’s it. Do the same for us and you see the cabinet is emptying pretty fast? I want her to see how fast that cabinet empties because we are forced to share with them. It not only shows our generosity but what dire straits we are all in. I only have a few cases of spam so technically speaking as far they are concerned its gone in weeks. A can of cream of chicken soup and some rice, that’s a meal. I will be making bread once a week so add a can of tuna fish and that’s a second or third meal if they decide they wanted to eat oatmeal that day also. A can of chili, a can of potatoes etc. you see how quick everything well be gone out of this cupboard?” Dennis said letting what he was saying sink in and seeing the cabinet’s contents disappearing so fast with just separating those meager meals out.

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Should we set more back for ourselves, you think?” his mom squeaked, horrified that it looked like they would be totally out in a month.

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No, I have a small pantry in the utility room also as well as all that dehydrated and freeze dried stuff in the prep shed. As far as regular can goods go let her think this is it for now.” Dennis said putting the cans back on the shelf and then starting to carry the goods he had already selected to stash under the bed back to his moms room.

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So they wont be eating with us here then? “ Mom said a bit confused but somewhat relived.

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Oh we are going to share some communal type meals off and on. Tonight for example Charles cooked up all that meat I had in the freezer and has it on ice. I figure the next week or so we will both be working on our places and gardens some so we will not see much of each other. Today’s Monday so we feast and talk about organization, Thursday we invite them over to our place for community chow down again and I will make a big pot of something for all of us.” Dennis said speculating.

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Any idea what you are going to make for dinner Thursday?’ His mom asked mystified as to what storage food was all about or what Dennis had stored.

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We are going to have to wean ourselves off the great American diet in order to keep our spirits and our bodies up to par. We have some good eats put back and we have the dull crap iron rations of wheat, rice and beans for which by the way you can start studying those cook books I got for it. I have a lot of TVP also to make it more interesting and nutritious so we won’t be hard timing it that much for awhile. I need to go out to my prep shed and put them together at least a month of dehydrated and freeze dried meals on my own, I don’t want to show all those food stores at once. You need to follow along so you understand what we have and then we need to decide how we are going to put some in a few different locations. That’s another reason I want to give them a bit more than a months worth, it doesn’t do to have all your eggs in one basket. Or for that matter, pardon my pun, all them cans of powdered eggs I have either.” Dennis said chuckling and starting to head to his backdoor with his mom and show her the portable building he used as his prep shed.

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Don’t powdered eggs taste nasty? I remember your father complained about them serving them to him in the military.” His mom said good naturedly and excited to see what Dennis had stored and had managed to somehow conceal from her for sometime.

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They are a lot better now than they were; you always preferred breakfast food so you might enjoy all the pancakes and cereals we will be having. By the way I have to introduce to canned bacon. Don’t turn your nose up its good and pre cooked. “Dennis said smiling and turning the key on his prep sheds lock.

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Wa la! Welcome to prepperdom. Sorry the floor looks like a grenade went off , I was searching for a few things the other day as well as haven’t had the opportunity to properly arrange my stuff yet. Watch out for those solar panels, they go on the SUNRNR solar generator (Coupon code Prepper1) I will mount them on the roof this week sometime, I have been just attaching them every couple months in portable mode until I decided to do a permanent installation. Now then, this is about 2 yrs worth of food for 1 or in our case maybe one year worth for 4 and those 5 gallon buckets are about a year and a half for one person of what I call the basics. So what that means Mom is the Lord willing and the creek don’t rise we are all set for about 2 years or longer and that don’t count my garden or hunting and trapping..” Dennis said proudly with a crookedly grin that betrayed he wasn’t sure he liked being proved right about prepping so much but he was damn proud to show her he had.

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Dennis, I take back all those arguments and everything I ever said about you getting in debt on this stuff.” His Mom began.

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No Mom you were right, we are just lucky the “roll of the dice “are in our favor this time. I cut my buying out big time and was working on my bills as a basic ideal of being responsible and self sufficient. That’s a realization and a true prepper notion that was lost on me for a long time and I more than suffered from it. Still do if they figure out how to do bill collecting these days. Having treasure that is susceptible to rot, shelf life etc. as well as incurring massive amounts of debt with school loans has bedeviled me and my thinking for years. Right now, lets forget about all that and let me teach you a bit about this crap and you dream up some recipes how to use it.” Dennis said humbly remembering the bill collectors and financial juggling he had had to do to keep his head above water and still keep everyone’s respect.

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Dennis, you have always worked for yourself and been on the fringe of normal society. I could never tell you what to do but you always made me proud. You worried the hell out of me when you were younger but you matured and calmed down as you got older and more responsible. I forget who said it but I have watched you become many men.

"A man who works with his hands is a laborer,
A man who works with his hands and brain is a craftsman,
A man who works with his hands, and his brain, and his heart is an artist."

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The Prepper craze was something I didn’t understand but you pointed out it was a world wide phenomenon and you became artful in it and for that I am glad. Your old mom is not telling you how to live your life so you don’t have regrets when you are old. I have already done that and you chose paths that put a lot, a hell of a lot of grey hair on the both of us. Thing is Dennis. I trust you and you my boy so I love you. I always said you were smart as hell in spite of yourself and for some reason you foresaw all this, I wish you would consider God might have nudged you a bit and give thanks to him but you and I don’t talk much about
that because you are not a church going man. You thought about how you were going to handle disasters, got academic degrees in it, served time in the military dealing with them and I am dependant on you now son to take care of me so use that mind of yours to do your best.” She said hesitantly looking teary eyed at him.