Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (33 page)

Mick, Dane, Soo, and Jason are heading to the propane company tomorrow morning. They're taking the RAM and Pop's F350 because they are both have full tanks. They have nine
, full, five-gallon gas cans as well as full tanks in both vehicles.

I have lunch duty tomorrow and Carisa is my sidekick. I haven't decided what we'll make but I'm pretty sure it'll have something to do with rice. We
need to finish up laundry as well. There's always something unpleasant to do around here.

Bye for now.

Thursday
, February 20

I've decided that we're having black-eyed peas, turnip greens,
and cornbread for lunch today. I'll also make a couple of peach cobblers. I want to make enough so that there's plenty left over for supper. It'll be a nice surprise for Nana and Marisa, who have supper duty. We all need a surprise now and then. I hope I'll be throwing "surprise luck" out to Dane so his plans work out.

Everyone has a bounce in their step this morning. We're all anxious to see if the men can get a hoist truck and bring home big propane tanks. There will be a long line at Pop's motorhome shower tonight if everything goes well.

Rebecca Masterson knocked at the front door this morning and asked if Jeremy could split more wood for them. I told her I didn't know and hollered for Jeremy to come in. He said he could go right away and grabbed the chainsaw, ax, and little gas can. They headed back, walking slowly and talking as they went.

Mick said we'll to need to build an outhouse soon. The toilets aren't flushing as well as they used to and he's afraid the septic tank is getting full with all these people donating to it regularly. I dread having to use an outhouse but we'll have no choice.

He told me the men have been "going" in the woods whenever they're working on the fence. I was mortified.

He said they'd been digging "cat holes" for brown potty
, and nature has provided plenty of toilet paper. I'm still mortified.

Valerie's coming back to us a little faster than she had been. She'll actually carry on a conversation with you. She talks mostly about her little brother and sister. She doesn't know where they are or if they're still alive. Her parents were at work and never came home when the world fell apart. She cared for her siblings three days before "some bad men" with shotguns and knives broke into the house.

The bad men took food, valuables, guns, jewelry, and Valerie. She doesn't talk about what happened after that. Maybe she'll tell us one day. She and Hisa have breakfast duty this morning and they're serving cold cereal.

Hisa says she's out of practice for cooking and needs to roam around the storage shelves for ideas. That's fine with me. I like those sweet, fattening cereals. I love Sugar Pops. Yep, I think I'll have a big bowl of Sugar Pops for breakfast.

I'm headed out to eat my cereal and anticipate the men coming home with propane happiness.

See ya later.

2:00 PM...

The men came home about 11:00 AM. They were driving Pop's F350 and a hoist truck with a big propane tank loaded up. We were all shocked. We thought it would be afternoon before they could get the hoist truc
k fueled up, go find a tank, and bring it home.

The hoist truck was there, and so was a large tanker truck with a mostly full tank of propane. I call it the "delivery truck."

Mick and Dane broke into the gas company while Soo and Jason were pouring fuel in the hoist truck. Dane grabbed all sorts of equipment.

He shoved a bunch of manuals into Mick's hands and told him to put 'em in Pop's truck to bring home. He also found several sets of keys and managed to figure out which one went to the delivery truck. He let it warm up for a few minutes and then
, drove it over to the line of empty tanks sitting on the ground.

He" filled
one of the tanks with propane and went back for the hoist truck. He messed around inside the hoist truck, loaded and secured the full propane tank, and headed home.

It was slow going, getting the hoist truck up the hill and situated around back to be able to place the large propane tank near Pop and Nana's motorhome. We're having hot showers tonight baby!

They finished hooking up the tank to Dane's satisfaction and came in for lunch. After they ate, they headed back to get another tank filled and home for Clinic Diane. I expect them home pretty soon. They plan to leave the hoist truck at Jason and Marisa's place since its way back in the woods and there aren't a lot of other vehicles parked there.

My new favorite vehi
cle is a propane hoist truck.

Mick says there's one empty tank left after they get the one for Clinic Diane. Dane says there's enough fuel left in the hoist truck to bring the last one back and place it near Marisa's kitchen so he can hook up her gas oven.

We'll have to siphon diesel from the other trucks there before we can go out hunting for more tanks.

The RAM was left at the propane company and has only a couple gallons left in the tank. Mick said he was tempted to replace the S10 with the RAM because it is pretty awesome, but the S10
uses gasoline and we have a good bit of that. It also gets a lot better gas mileage than the RAM.

Dane says the tanks we got today should last
through the remainder of winter. Pop is thrilled that he gets to sleep in his motorhome bed and be warm. He asked Dane if he could rig up heaters for the greenhouses. There's only a couple of months left before we put the seedlings in the ground, so one tank of propane should heat the greenhouses through next winter as well.

Elaine thinks Dane is the most incredible man in the world because he got propane for us. I'm pretty sure something is developing between Dane and Elaine.

All I can think about is a hot shower.

See ya later.

10:00 PM...

I am clean! I mean really clean!

I got the third hot shower. Dane got the first, and Mick got the second, and they earned it!

It takes a while in between showers for the water to heat back up, and we'll have to fill the motorhome's water tank a couple of times so everyone can take showers.

Pop kicked everyone out about thirty minutes ago and said he and Nana would be having the next hot showers and then going to bed. Everyone who was still dirty ran to Clinic Diane and I don't know who's showering there.

It was euphoric, even if it was in a teeny little motorhome bathroom. For the first time in weeks I feel like I'm really clean. I know we have to be careful and
we can't use up the propane and the water getting hot showers every night, but it was wonderful and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Jeremy didn't come back from the Masterson place 'til supper time. He said they ate some kind of "Mountain House spaghetti" for l
unch. "It tasted okay" he said. Then, he scarfed down his supper like he hadn't eaten all day.

Mick says they'll go back to working on the fence tomorrow and Dane promised to help.

Yay! Pop and Clinic Diane have propane.

We stay pretty warm in the house with the fireplace and the
cook stove going. I don't think we really need a propane heater but I'd like to get a propane oven.

Now
, we have to worry about staying cool when it’s blazing hot in July and August.

Bye for now.

Friday, February 21

Glorious cleanliness and pancakes for breakfast. Who'd complain?

Jeremy and Jesse missed out on showers last night and say they'll wait 'til tonight to get one since they'll be doing dirty fence work today. Jeremy asked if we could invite Rebecca and her family for hot showers and I said no. We have to really be careful with our water because spring planting is just around the corner and our garden will need to be watered. He looked a little sad, but says he understands. I told him to head over there with a half-gallon of goat milk, and that turned his frown upside down.

Valerie, Carisa and Merry have underwear laundry duty today. It'll be a hoot to watch them hold everyone's underwear with just their thumbs and forefinger. It won't surprise me if they pick everything up with long sticks, but they'll still have to run them through the wringer. It's too bad
that YouTube is no longer around.

I have no cooking duties today, so I don't know what to do with myself. Pop said he wants me to sit down with him and plan out our vegetable rows.

Every man on the place, except Jesse and Pop, is working on the fence. Pop’s in the greenhouse and Jesse is mucking out the barn. He thinks our doe is in early labor, so we may have more babies today!

Maris
a and Elaine are standing watch and Elaine is knitting at the same time. I do believe she's knitting a scarf for Dane. Marisa saw Elaine and Dane standing close and talking on the back porch last night while all the shower crazed people were waiting around for their turn. I hope they fall madly in love and we get to keep Dane forever.

I'm outa here to help Pop
. See ya later.

3:00 PM...

Dane is back at Clinic Diane and Elaine is there, fussing over him and driving Hisa crazy.

He was working on the fence after lunch when he suddenly became dizzy and w
eak. He told Mick he needed to lay down, so Mick and Jason took him to Clinic Diane. Hisa says he's been working too hard, too soon, after his bout with hypothermia. Mick said they got twice as much done. He says that Dane is a "moose" and "strong like ox," and the hardest worker he's ever seen.

Dane
has been ordered to bed for three days and has to eat small meals several times a day.

Elaine insisted that she take him back to the Hobbs place so she could care for
him and Hisa actually plans to let her do it. Elaine promised to keep him on the couch, in front of the fireplace.

I'm worried that we took advantage of Dane so soon after his illness. I'll be one of those who insists that he follow Hisa's orders.

Elaine will come here to prepare food and take it back to him. I doubt we'll see her, otherwise.

Our doe delivered quads this afternoon. I thought babies were never going to stop coming out! She gave us two doelings and two
buckling’s. Everyone looks great, and her udder is huge. Yay for more milk!

10:15 PM...

We have a horse. She came right up to Jason while they were working on the fence before supper. I wonder where she came from.

I had no idea what to do with her so I told Jason to use our seventy-foot rope and tie her to a tree on the edge of the field behind his tractor shed. She seems very happy back there and kept her nose to the ground, grazing the wild weeds and grass. Jason says she can reach a little stream that angles across the corner of the property, so she'll be fine for water.

The kids are calling her "Buttercup." She's as gentle as a lamb, and I guess the name "Buttercup" kinda suits her. We found out that she can eat a serious amount of hay, so we'll have to get started
on lootin' barns to keep her fed.

Elaine says Dane is resting and isn't feeling dizzy anymore, but he's still weak. She's taki
ng good care of him, I'll bet.

Mick thinks they'll finish the right side of the fence within three days. He says the back won't take as long because it's a lot shorter than the sides. I guess that means we'll be sending someone out for fencing tomorrow or the next day.

We've decided on one hot shower per week. The rest of the time we'll take bird baths, as usual. If the pool is less than three-quarters full we'll have to cancel showers for that week. Thank goodness for deodorant from the coupon queen totes.

Bye for now.

Saturday, February 22

Jeremy was on watch when a large motorhome stoppe
d at the foot of the driveway. We heard a horn blast about the same time Jeremy sounded the alarm.

The motorhome looked like it was riding about six inches off the pavement and had several metal b
arrels strapped along the side.

Mick, Jason, and Soo headed down the driveway with their rifles leading the way and their pistols on their hips. Someone was st
anding beside the motorhome, waiting for them to walk down.

The rest of us watched from the front porch as Mick, Jason, and Soo
talked with the stranger at the foot of the driveway. After fifteen minutes or so, our guys turned and headed back up the hill and the motorhome slowly headed on down the road. Mick was walking with his shoulders slumped and his head down. I knew something was very wrong.

When Jason got about half-way down the driveway he recognized the man who saved his life in the city. It was Adam,
and he was bringing a warning.

He said there’
s a large horde of HDI's between forty and forty-five hours away. They are walking in a consistent pattern directly west, mostly following the highways and small roads, and destroying everything in their path. There are somewhere between 500 and 700 HDI's in all colors, shapes and sizes.