Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (14 page)

Jason had the idea to tak
e the shelving. He told Mick we can use it to organize everything in the basement along with whatever else we bring in. They spent most of the day taking apart shelving and loading it on the flatbed trailer. That's what took them so long. It takes quite a bit of time to take apart shelving and save all the screws and bolts to put it back together.

The last thing they did was "go shopping" in the clothing section. I had no idea the TSC has women's
clothes. You learn something new every day, I guess.

We all got a new pair of boots and Carisa got two pair! Mick and Jason chose work boots and
picked out the same for Jeremy and Pop. They brought home every pair of work boots they could find, regardless of size. We all got new socks. Pop and Mick got a new cowboy hat each, and Jason picked up several baseball caps.

Ea
ch of us got several pair of blue jeans. Jeremy can finally take off those sweatpants that are getting get a little ripe.

They got several John Deere t-shirts along with several long sleeved t-shirts that have hunting and farming
logos. The shirts are in all different sizes, and we'll let everyone go through them and pick out what they need. Mick got several pairs of overalls for himself and Pop along with a bunch of button up and snap up western shirts for all the men.

Caleb and Amber have new jeans, t-shirts, and cowboy boots. It feels like Christmas all over again!

They threw four rolls of 6' fencing on top of the shelves, tied everything down with about a gazillion bungee cords, and came home starving. Nana took care of their tummies with grilled cheese sandwiches and warm tomato soup.

We've
been taking bird baths out of the sink with water heated on the motorhome stove and the propane grill. We don't stink yet, but I’d do just about anything for a nice, hot, bubble bath. If I don't get laundry done tomorrow or the next day we'll be stinkin' to high heaven by next week.

Pop still says we can't use the propane for hot showers in the motorhome. It'd be a waste of both propane, and water.

9:00 PM...

Nothing else happened today. Mick wants to start hitting food places, but he's too tired for trip planning. I want to hit more pharmacies and look for more of the medications we need.

We've turned the generator off tonight. It's colder outside than it is in the freezer
, so I'm sure the food we have left will be fine.

The kids are already in bed. Carisa told Amber and Caleb to sleep with Jason and Marisa tonight. I guess Marisa won't be "checking that shoulder wound" after all (snort).

Mick and Jason got the flatbed unloaded, and we had spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread for supper.

I didn't ask Mick to dig the fire pit 'cause he is wore slap out. I mentioned my idea to him and he says there
’s a few of those big metal water troughs at the TSC. He'll get them in the next couple of days. I took down the antique washboard I had on the wall and pulled off the fake flowers and ribbons that someone hot glued to the top.

Mick says he has a "water idea" for one of those big
, above-ground swimming pools, some 6" PVC pipe, and the little stream in the woods to the right of our property. He fell asleep before he could explain it to me. We'd better come up with something soon. We've used over a quarter of the water I had stored.

I'm about to lay myself down, try to get warm, and wait for whatever tomorrow brings.

Bye for now.

Saturday, January 11

Good Morning fellow campers!

I slept pretty good last night. We had three blankets and a comforter on the bed. I snuggled up
against my warm hubby and felt safe.

We're up.
We had coffee and muffins at the table with Pop and Nana. Jeremy has come around and is eating like a horse. It's time to get some pay back for those groceries he's been packing away. He'll be put to work today to see if he can handle it yet. He gets to put together shelving. Yay for him!

Mick just blew my laundry idea out the window. He mentioned that I won't be able to use the washboard in the trough 'cause I'd get burned
standing that close to the fire. He said he'd get some boat paddles out of Pop's barn to stir the clothes in the troughs. He needs to take Pop over there to get the canned food and other things they didn't have room for when they left. Pop wants to bring his F350 back with him.

Hey, I can wash cold water stuff with the washboard, or I can scrub the hot water stuff before stirring it into
the laundry soup. It'll go into cold rinse water anyway.

Wait a minute! I can dip out buckets of hot water and move it to a smaller tub to scrub, so there! We can dip out hot water and put it in a trough for a nice warm bath!

I hope Mick has time to get those troughs today.

I told
him about my conversation with Carisa and he said I could take her along to loot Mr. Peterson's house after breakfast, as long as we take Jason, Mr. Winchester, and Sam Colt.

Carisa's very familiar with Mr. Winchester, but I think we'll leave him in Jason's hands today
. Mick told me to bring back the screens off the windows. I wonder what he has in mind for those.

Jeremy just headed downstairs, with a toolbox and a little hop in his step, to
put together shelving. I wonder if he'll have that hop when he comes back up.

Pop
says the time has come to outfit us with new weapons. Mick has the Benelli, an AR-15, Mr. Winchester, and Sam Colt. He's all set, but the rest of us could use a new weapon or two. I want the AR-15 to go along with my Glock and Ka-Bar knife, but Mick says "not a chance." We'll work on that after lunch.

Pop's thinking about heading out in a few days, and taking Jeremy with him, to look for my sister and her family. I'll highly discourage that idea. I love my sister, well, like a sister, but I love my Daddy too and I'm afraid to send him out there in all this mess, especially since the
National Guard would rip Jeremy away from him at the first roadblock. I hope he thinks this over thoroughly.

Well, time to go lootin’ at Mr. Peterson’s house. See ya later.

10:45 AM...

THERE'S A WOOD COOKSTOVE IN MR. PETERSON'S SHED!

It's a "Kitchen Queen" brand. I'm unfamiliar with that brand but I don't know squat about
cook stoves.

I want it, and by go
lly Mick better get it for me. Jason thinks it'll take all of us to lift it, including Amber and Caleb. Yeah, right. It can't be that heavy. Mick and Jason better figure out a way to get it up here and to its new home in my kitchen.

We broke the lock on Mr. Peterson's front door. I felt guilty and didn't want to go in, but I did anyway. Carisa ran right in and straight to the kitchen.

The refrigerator and freezer doors were standing open. Someone has cleaned them out. I assume it was his niece who cleaned them after his burial. We found a total of five cans of food in that house. The cans were pushed way back in the cabinet and were hard to reach.

We wandered around the house and took all the personal hygiene stuff. I took the toilet paper left on the roller. Half a roll is better than no roll at all, right?

There wasn't much else there to take.

I took a couple pieces of cast iron cookware, a tea kettle a
speckle ware water bath canner, and all the silverware that was left.

We t
ook several quilts and blankets along with a couple of sheet sets and every pillowcase we could find. Pillowcases are good for carrying loot, especially the king sized variety.

Jason went around the entire house and took all the screens
from the windows. The windows were boarded up on the inside, so the screens were easy to get.

We loaded the loot into the S10 and went to check the outbuildings.

I could see where they buried Mr. Peterson. I thought about the coffin they had to make to bury him in, so I headed over to the wood shop. There's a lot of wood in that little wood shop. Jason and Marisa will be able to use some of it to board up windows at Caleb's house. I looked around for a minute and then headed to the enclosed shed.

It's
a pretty good sized shed and I had guilty daydreams about what I might find as I stepped through the door. Then, I saw it. In the front left corner was the cook stove peeking out from under one those furniture moving blankets. It's dusty, and will need a good cleaning inside and out, but it's beautiful and in perfect condition! I did a little dance right there.

I told Jason and Carisa that it was time to go, and they finished loading up the
things they had in their hands.

I ran back in the house
and grabbed the flower arrangement off the dining table. I also grabbed a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Peterson when they were younger. I ran out the back door, placed the flowers on Mr. Peterson's grave, and told him "Thank You." I climbed in the truck with the photo in my hand and we headed back up the hill to home and family. I'll hang the photo on our wall. I sure do miss Mr. Peterson and I sure do thank him for that cook stove.

Mick didn't make it to TSC today but says he'll head there
first thing in the morning. He felt a little under the weather today, and spent most of this afternoon in his recliner with a notepad and pen.

We have a few sets of clean clothes left only because of the TSC run. I fully expect the dirty pile to be up to my neck soon. It's a woman's worst nightmare.

Nana's says she has lots of clothes in the closet back at their house, but she's short. Carisa's the only one who’d be able to wear them. Nana's pants would be serious high-waters on me and Marisa, and maybe a little on Carisa too.

Jason has split
a lot of wood in preparation for the fire pit and cook stove. He's dirty, sweaty, and wore out. I hope he doesn't get sick from getting sweaty in the cold air.

3:00 PM...

Lunch was a fruit salad with every piece of fruit we had left in the house. I had a couple blocks of cheddar cheese and some club crackers. I also had a gift set with summer sausage
inside. I planned to give it to Carisa's piano teacher if she'd come for that lesson, but she didn't. We opened that puppy to go with lunch.

I have a new
weapon to learn about. I have a Marlin 1894 .44 magnum rifle. I'm gonna name it "Marley" for short. It kicks a little, but not too bad.

I have a lot to learn about
Marley but I hit a pretty good percentage in practice this afternoon. I need a lot more practice and I'm looking forward to it. Mick grinned and said I could "probably get lots of practice" if I took it down to Super Walmart and climbed up on the roof. I have no plans to try that,
yet
.

Pop said it was okay for me to keep my Glock since I'm familiar with it and it'll do the job. I get to keep my
Ka-Bar knife as well.

Jason gets to keep Mr. Winchester. Mick said he didn't need it since he has the AR and the Benelli. Jason seemed happy about that. He also got a Smith & Wesson 1911 and he was happy about that as well. He got a nice machete and the scabbard to go with it. He's all puffed up and feeling 10 feet tall.

Marisa got her own Glock 17. She wouldn't take a rifle because she said she gets too wobbly from her MS to be able to aim and shoot accurately. She'll get a lot of practice with her Glock, and if this afternoon was any indication, she's going to be a crack shot. She also got to keep her Ka-Bar knife. She can be my "pistol totin' momma" partner. Maybe someday we'll get a Glock tattoo together on our tushies. Nah, don't see that happening.

Carisa now has a .22 LR of her very own. Mick and Pop
said she’s not ready for a pistol yet, but she doesn't care. She's excited about the .22. She practiced for an hour this afternoon and was surprised that it's so much lighter than Mr. Winchester. She's a natural.

Mick's
gonna put some sort of gun holder thingies above the door in her bedroom so she can keep it loaded and handy. Amber and Caleb won't be able to reach it.

I think Carisa now feels like she is part of the "protector" gang. She also got a Kissing Crane
, Sodbuster knife. It's a folding knife and it's pretty darn cute. It was good to see her smiling.

Jeremy will get outfitted if there's no one left at his home and he decides to stay here. We'll let him gather whatever he wants and come back to share a room in the house with Marisa, Jason, and the kids.

Pop has a lot of ammo stored, but we'll need to loot any gun shops we can find. I think Sam Colt and Jason's S&W use the same caliber, but don't quote me on that.

Nana says her weapons are a spatula and a cast iron skillet. I know fo
r a fact that she has a little Derringer somewhere around. I wonder if she carries it on her.

9:30 PM...

I warmed up some of my
home canned chili over the fire for supper tonight. We ate some of the pastries Mick and Jason got on their first trip to the gas station for dessert. We were all craving something sweet after the chili.