Disclaimer:You know the drill...Only my own characters.
Timeline Layout:Bombs+61-63? days. Set the day after the episode Blackjack.
Series Layout:This is set in the Chinook Series. It focus's around the Stout family 15 miles from a small town Called Chinook. Chinook is roughly 65 miles North of Jericho and 135 Miles south of Blackjack trading post.
Thanks to SherryG for the patient proof-reading of my work :D
Chapter Layout: Trying to outline mainly a NORMAL day...Remember...Real life isn't constant action and drama like portrayed on TV.
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Waking up, Grant looked at his watch. 3:30 AM. A little earlier than usual, but understandable. The previous day's trip to Blackjack had given him a mild adrenline rush, forcing him to sleep sounder than normal. This had been the first night in almost two months that he hadn't spent half the night tossing and turning. Just thinking about everything around them.
He got out of bed and put on his outside clothes. Anymore, no one on this place changed out of their clothes to sleep. The low heat levels in the rooms, combined with the need to be able to respond quickly to anything, simply outweighed any slight comfort factor.
Although he picked up his carbine, and strapped on his handgun he left the armored vest. It was bulky and today would be spent working so he didn't bother putting it on.
Walking down the trailer's hallway, he paused outside of Sharon's door and quietly eased it open. Grant peeked inside and found her still sleeping. which was a good idea. He doubted she had slept much during her stay at Blackjack and she would need the rest. He shut the door and continued out of the trailer.
He finished his rounds of the fuel tanks and grain bins before continuing on to the main buildings. It was a short walk, only about half a mile, so the walk passed quickly.
Crossing the large earth levee surrounding the buildings he walked towards the barn and corrals. Every morning before breakfast he had some chores to do. Everyone did something and one of his jobs was to feed the animals they had.
Coming to the barn he laid his carbine inside and grabbed a pitchfork off the wall. Walking to feed the milkcows he passed the horse pen. It's two occupants trotted up to the fence and knickered at him. He knew they were playing him, but he still went over to the pair.
"Here," he said, holding out a pellet in each hand. They took them and began nosing his coat looking for more, "You'll get your hay later. Don't eat it so fast next time," Grant forked over their hay ration and turned to go, but was stopped short by his coattails. He turned quickly but the responsible horse had already turned his head away and was the perfect image of a well behaving horse. "Knock it off Roy. One of these times you grab my coat there's gonna be flesh there." The horse flicked an ear and seemed to grin at him.
Sighing, he walked off to feed the rest of the animals. What was left didn't take long. The 4 milkcows and half dozen goats all slept and ate together. And the chickens and geese only took a bucket of grain.
He returned to the barn and hung up his pitchfork. Retrieving his carbine, he stepped outside and closed the door.
Now he only had one chore left to do before he could go to the house for breakfast. Walking to the wellhouse, he went inside and picked up a gascan. Pouring a half hours worth of fuel into the generator he punched the button and the old machine roared to action, bringing the pump to life.
At this, the entire corral came alive with activity. All the pens the livestock was in had waterers in them, even the chickenhouse had plumbing going inside. Every creature in the pens had it figured out that there was only the space of a half hour in the morning there was water and none the rest of the day. As long as they drank at that time, the absence of water the rest of the day had no effect on them. The generators loud rattling was enough to alert the animals and rarely did they miss it.
The Stout's corral was built close to the river, and running a generator shouldn't have been neccesary, but it simply wasn't feasible to try and water everything there. And a half hours gas wasn't missed even with todays economy considering the amount of fuel they had.
His chores finished, he walked to the main ranch house. That was the place all the cooking was done in order to lessen the number of stoves working and burning energy. They started the generators for a hour in early morning during breakfast, at noon for dinner and again in the evening for supper. During that time they were able to run the cooking stoves and had enough power left to recharge their radios, appliance batteries and the rest of their rechargable items.
Grant shut the door behind him and stripped off his outer work clothes and set his carbine and magazine pouch alongside the door. Walking into the dining room he sat down in a chair alongside his father. Glancing around the table he noticed that the Caflans were absent. Royal Lunden was there, his wife, Betty, had just sat down and Grant's mother, Deb, set the last platter of food on the table and sat down as well.
"Hey Dad, Where are the Caflans at? he asked.
John looked up from the notebook spread out in front of him and replied, "Oh. They got that old woodstove in working order. With four of them they decided to use that from now on. Deb told them it didn't matter, but they said they don't want to impose on us. Plus Dale isn't up to coming over and Lori doesn't want to leave him alone."
Grant nodded and looked at the paper John was studying, "What's that?"
"Plans to a ethanol still. Got it off the internet about a week before we lost it. Mildly curious at that time, I figured I should look at it harder."
Taking some of the food and putting it on his plate, Grant asked him another question, "What can we do with it? We looked into that. We KNOW ethanol lowers milage, and it is tough on engines that aren't built for it. Thats important right now, who knows when new vehicles are gonna be made."
John had a full mouth so Royal replied, "We don't. If we blend the ethanol with regular diesel fuel, people would still accept it. Right now a lot of people want fuel, ANY fuel. This stuff can be blended and then we can use it for trading. Save the pure diesel and gas for our own use."
John nodded, "Thats right. But right now we are busy. TOO busy. What we are planning on doing is giving these plans to Claton," he said, reffering to one of their neighbors, "He will build it, tend and operate it and in exchange he will keep half the output for himself. Thats fair considering he doesn't have any grain left. In exchange for us supplying him with grain for it and seed in the spring we get half. We figure what we will get trade wise from the ethanol will be more than selling the grain outright for food."
Grant shrugged, "Sounds pretty decent. You been thinking on it awhile it looks like."
"Yeah. Basically since the power went off. Claton agreed to it about a week ago."
Deb interrupted after this, "Sorry to interrupt shop talk guys," a small smile betraying the fact she wasn't, "Grant. Sharon is sleeping in?"
He nodded, "Yeah. I figured I would let her. Been a long stay for her."
Deb shook her head sympathetically, "Yeah it was. I will put together something for her before you leave," there was a pause," Okay go ahead on what you were talking on."
Turning to Grant, John asked him, "You gonna insulate her room today?"
"I was planning on it. I was going to take the pickup and haul the stuff out there. Gonna be a pretty heavy load, what with the insulation strips, the heater and batteries, and the other stuff."
"Okay. I am going to run those plans up to Claton. When I get back, me and Royal are going to start digging on the extra root cellar. With as much food items as we got we better get them into a tight bunker rather than just sitting out in that shed where coons, mice or something else can get into them," John pushed back his chair and stood up to leave.
Grant polished off his plate and stood up as well, "You're going to use the backhoe?" he asked.
"Yeah. No way we are going to move that much dirt by hand. Even so, after your done insulating Sharon's room, I want you to come back and help us."
"Okay will do," Grant put his coat back on,grabbed the food basket his mother had prepared and started the walk back to his trailer.