The Journal: Cracked Earth (15 page)

* * *

JOURNAL ENTRY: December 10

It’s getting really cold outside. It’s now
down to twenty-eight degrees and will get lower overnight. How cold
it is right now reminds me about those in town without wood
heat.

* * *

“Anna, whatever came of those lists of folks
who have wood heat and are willing to take in others?” I asked,
sitting down across from her. “Weren’t you and Pastor Carolyn
working on that?”

“Funny that you should ask. We were going
over the lists just yesterday,” she replied. “For the most part,
it’s working out rather well. There have been a few issues
though.”

I raised my eyebrows, asking for more
details.

“Rather than those seeking shelter, it was
one or two offering that were the problem. Stanley was one. He took
in two older women and then expected them to do all of the work:
the cleaning, the laundry and cooking. He wanted to be waited on
for his ‘generosity’. They gave him an earful and walked out.” Anna
shook her head. “Then there are the successful arrangements like
Rosemarie and her ten-year old twins. Carolyn teamed them up with
old Alice. Alice has a woodstove and plenty of wood, but has a hard
time getting around. Those two kids can’t do enough for her and she
adores them. Rosemarie is happy and content to do any chores that
need doing in return for keeping her children warm. It’s a bonus
that Alice’s house is right across from the school.”

“It’s good to hear that things are working
out for some. Are there any that haven’t found a match?” It could
be a problem if somebody still didn’t have heat.

“Well, the problems are being matched to each
other, so someone has to learn give in,” Anna chuckled.

I felt weary when I woke this morning. My sleep was
filled with nightmares of Bill Harris barging his way into the
house. Every dream had a different ending, none of them good.

It’s been snowing since I woke and it’s
really starting to pile up. This looks to be an all-day snow. I
dressed early and filled up the spot for wood behind the stove. The
usual chores include feeding the chickens and taking them fresh,
warm water. With the cold as it is, I will keep them confined to
the coop and not let them out into their inner yard, conserving the
heat they generate. I’ve got lights and heat lamps for them,
however with no power and no lights, they will have to survive on
their own. The most that I can do for them is to add the extra bale
of straw that I stored, which will insulate the floor some. The
fresh eggs are an important part of my diet. I’m sure glad that I
kept the one rooster so I can hatch eggs in the spring. The meat
will be welcomed, and I really need to propagate the layers. I do
have a roll of metallic insulation that I could cover their window
with for extra protection. I’ll have to pull it out and see if
there’s enough. Only problem with that is it would block all the
light from their only light source, and chickens need the cycle for
laying eggs.

I shoveled the deck off around 1:00 P.M. I
have to keep that open for the grill and so I can get to the
generator and the coolers. The way the snow is falling, I bet I
will shovel again at least twice before calling it a night.

I pulled a small chuck roast out of a cooler
to thaw for dinner. I’m hoping to grill it like a steak, my
favorite way to have a roast, seasoned with olive oil,
Worcestershire, and my own blend of peppercorns, rosemary, and
powdered ginger, a touch of dried basil and sea salt, ground
together. I haven’t had much red meat in the past ten days, so I
bet that the doctor would be happy with my lower cholesterol level.
I’m trying to spread out the use of the few fresh root crops that
I’ve got left. In another month or two something fresh is going to
be non-existent. I still took two beets and slow roasted them in
the oven because they are so much easier to peel that way. Once
they are done, I’ll keep them in a small CorningWare dish to reheat
at dinner time.

I’ve started re-reading
Alas, Babylon
,
my all-time favorite disaster book. I thought about re-reading
One Second After
, but that might be a bit too close to home
right now. Then again, it might help me prepare for what could be
in store for us.

* * *

JOURNAL ENTRY: December 12

With the temperatures this cold, Lake Meade,
our local inland lake, now has a few inches of ice. Some of the
braver, or more desperate, have moved their ice shanties in place
to start fishing. I wish them a lot of luck. Personally, I’m
terrified of being on lake ice. I’ve seen too many break through
when they hit a thin spot. Still, it’s nice to see the townspeople
doing something normal. There were even a few ice-skaters out there
too. It’s interesting to see the transformation going on. There are
no lights for decorations, and still I am seeing garlands of all
colors going up, wreaths on doors, cedar boughs on railings and
people walking around instead of driving. It’s beginning to look
like a Currier and Ives Christmas card!

Thinking of breaking through the ice reminds
me of a story that I read years ago, called
At Home In The
Woods
, where the young wife ice-skated to town down the frozen
river. She would carry a long, cut tree sapling with her just in
case she fell through the ice. The pole would catch on the edges
and she wouldn’t sink. That gives me shivers up my spine thinking
about it.

* * *

Fishing must have been good yesterday, enough
that there is supposed to be a fish fry at the church tomorrow. It
will be a nice change from venison soup. I think I’ll make up a big
batch of sugar cookies to take. It doesn’t take much sugar and
flour to make them, and I think it will be a nice touch. I even
have some sugar sprinkles from last year to decorate. A couple
dozen will give every person a cookie or two, and I doubt that
anyone will mind the orange Halloween sprinkles. I must remember to
take that canister of salt with me and a bottle of ketchup.

I also found out that the ladies have formed
a knit and crochet club to do something positive and to keep busy.
They are making hats and mittens to give away as gifts at
Christmas. What’s even better is that they are giving lessons by
teaching the non-needle people how to knit or crochet by making
squares that will be stitched together to make lap blankets or
shawls. I wonder if someone can teach me how to knit socks? I will
have to bring my craft box into the house and see what I’ve got, if
I can find it out in the barn. It’s been so long since I’ve done
any of the hand crafts. This could even be fun, and it feels like
forever since I’ve had any fun.

There was a brief burial for Bill Harris.
Nobody asked who he attacked, nobody wanted to know. His wife
Marilyn was given to the keys to his truck and his shotgun.
Everyone understood. Whatever happened was his doing, not hers.

While in town, I went to see Jason and Jacob.
Jason hasn’t heard anything from Amanda and I didn’t tell him I
asked for it to be looked into on a more official level. There may
be good news, yet it might be bad at this point; the good news may
be no news. I brought him another case of noodles for Jacob, a
dozen eggs, and a loaf of homemade bread. I also brought him a
five-gallon container of gas for his car from my own storage, not
from the township. He needs to know that he has enough gas make it
to my house if he really needs to. I took his empty container back
with me. Despite the fact that the school is still open, Jason has
been home-schooling Jacob and enjoying it. He said that now with
the extra gas, he can take Jacob in once a week to interact with
the other kids.

Other than seeing my son and grandson, which
always brightens my day, it’s been dreary. The sky is a solid slate
gray, not even lighter where the winter sun is supposed to be. The
temps are hovering around a chilly thirty degrees, which could mean
snow or rain.

* * *

JOURNAL ENTRY: December 14

What a great time everyone had at the Friday
Fish Dinner! The guys all went fishing and then worked hard to
clean their catch in time for an early dinner. Ken brought his
wood-fired pig roaster to the church parking lot so the fish could
be cooked in large batches. There is no cooking oil for frying but
no one seemed to mind. It was delightful to see how polite everyone
was, even the children, about taking only one cookie and a small
squirt of ketchup to make sure everybody got some. There were six
cookies left, which were all broken in half, so the dozen kids
there could have an extra piece. I was amazed at how well the
cookies were received! Someone brought a huge can of beans, enough
for all to have a spoonful, and another brought two jars of olives.
Still another made a big bowl of macaroni, tossed with Italian
salad dressing. Rob and Cyndy brought their banjo and violin for
some music. Nick, another member of their small band, showed up
with his guitar. Music and some dancing, what a way to end the
evening! Seeing everyone pitch in and work together made me forget
my own worries, for a while anyway.

A few more inches of snow fell. If it weren’t
so hard to get around it would be very pretty.

* * *

This morning’s chores included cleaning the
woodstove. I took the top plates off and wire brushed the underside
and then swept all the accumulated soot off the oven box into the
firebox so it could fall into the ash pan below. I scraped the side
and bottom of the oven box and pulled out that ash through the
access door. I worked quickly. It was getting cold in here! In the
past when I did this I let the furnace run to keep the room warm
while the fire was out.

The furnace is one of the things that I miss
in the morning. I had the thermostat set to come on at 6:45A.M. to
raise the house temperature to sixty degrees. Even if it was only
sixty degrees in here when I got up at 7:30 A.M. to start the
woodstove, it was better than the fifty-five that it usually
dropped to. The other thing the furnace did for me was warm up my
sweatpants. I would lay them across the closed register in the
bedroom at night. When I got up, they would be warm instead of
freezing on my bare skin. Lately, I’ve been tucking the sweats
under the blankets with me when I go to bed. There are many
adjustments to make when the power goes out.

I sure wish I could get some news. Not
knowing what is going on in the country or even in the state is
very frustrating.

* * *

JOURNAL ENTRY: December 15

There was a break in the snow and wind this
morning. I took the opportunity to snow blow the driveway and my
paths. It seems that I do less and less of the driveway as the
years go by; just enough to get the car into the barn or out onto
the road. The second half of the horseshoe drive drifts horribly
and isn’t worth the effort to keep open. The wind was really fierce
yesterday and the drifts got pretty deep in some spots. It’s a good
machine and I had it tuned up in the fall. All of it, including the
paths to the woodshed and the small barn, took me only an hour.
After I shoveled the steps to the sliding door, I salted them down
out of habit. Then I shoveled the steps to the pantry entry and
cleaned up the edges of the walkways the snow-blower can’t get.

The sky over the Big Lake seems perpetually
black lately, heavy with lake-effect snow. Time to bring in more
wood. It’s a daily thing now, just to stay ahead of it. Going
through the pantry, with the double door system, helps keep the
cold air out and the warm air in, which is needed when it’s only
fifteen degrees out!

* * *

I was almost done bringing in the wood when I
slipped. I hadn’t salted down the back steps. There are only three
steps but I slipped on the second one going out, and landed hard.
I’m going to have one hell of a bruise on my hip tomorrow! I don’t
think that’s going to be the problem, because I ultimately landed
on my left ankle which is my weak one. I have overextended the
ligaments and tendons in that foot twice before, and each time it
was worse. Ligaments don’t heal quite like tendons do.

After I caught my breath, I scooted so I was
sitting with my legs stretched out in front and ran my hands down,
checking for breaks. I was already certain that wasn’t the case,
though wanted to be sure. I pulled myself upright and tested the
foot. It was sore, though not too bad. In hindsight, I should have
stopped right then, but I really had to finish. Stupid me. Two more
loads of wood and I was set for several days. After removing my
outer gear and hanging it to dry, I sat down in the kitchen to take
off my boots. I couldn’t get the left one off because the ankle had
swollen. I hobbled over to the junk drawer and got the shears. They
were old boots and I had to cut it off. When I set my foot across
my right knee to do so, I saw that the zipper wasn’t completely
down. Once fully unzipped, I managed to barely get my foot out. At
least I saved the boot!

The pantry where I keep Tufts’ litter box is
also my dry goods storage, plus bins filled with medical stuff. I
hobbled over and got the one marked “bandages”. After retrieving an
Ace bandage, I sat back down, took off my sock, surveyed the
bruising and wrapped the elastic bandage around semi-tightly. The
two gel packs I usually use for my wrists in the summer were still
in the freezer, and are now warm. I took them and two large baggies
and once again hobbled to the door. On the deck, I set the ice
packs on the hot tub cover, and then scooped snow into the baggies.
Back in the kitchen, I put one baggie into the fridge, and sat down
once more. Propping my foot up on a kitchen chair I draped the snow
filled baggie over the bandages. Tears of anger and frustration
were building while the ankle started to throb badly. This was a
stupid and preventable accident. Now what am I going to do?