The Free Republic of Texas 2015 (5 page)

That led to a few hours of how, why, etc of the things we thought, believed, to follow the event whatever it was, she asked questions and offered some pretty clear assessments of the global situation as she saw it, to say she was a sharp lady was an understatement, as the evening came to an end Ellen asked if she was still in the running, Jody said no, the running is over, the job is already yours if you want it.

Ellen thought a bit, looked at each of us and said well ok I accept with a few conditions, Jody made the come on motion with his hand, She said, ok I want to pick my nursing staff, and I want a PA, also one thing I think your missing out on , that will be most needed is a small pharmacy, which of course will allow you to stock pile a lot of things you couldn’t get any other way, this one caught us all off guard, we had not even thought of it.

She smiled at our expressions and said, ya kno, I’m not just a pretty face!! Then she said now, for me I want a ¾ ton Suburban diesel  with the back set up as a rolling emergency trauma unit, filled with emergency equipment, if the weather is bad I’d like a driver and if the “political” scene sucks maybe an armed guard?

And last but not least, I want to undergo whatever weapons training the rest of the people get and my truck should be set up with weapons racks with locking ability. Also extra fuel tanks and a winch wouldn’t hurt, oh!!

And communications equipment matched with the ranch, and I’d like the clinic to be built like the green houses, bullet proof and able to survive a Tornado and a fairly far away bomb blast , and hardened against that EMP stuff you talked about..

Jody sat back a bit more and smiling asked if there was more, Ellen smiled and said, well yes, I'd like another beer!

Ellen talked about her back ground which we didn’t tell her we already knew. She had always wanted to be a Doc and in high school had taken advanced courses that would help her down the road, she also took courses at the local JR collage, getting some of the basics out of the way, her mind set was that she  would have to work her way thru collage so therefore anything she could get out of the way right now would leave more time for a part time job while at the State collage.

When she got to State she took a very full class load on the rest of the basics thinking that since she was just out of high school she was still in a study / homework mode and had no intentions of partying away her freshman year which she paid for with scholarships and money she had saved just for this reason, she had asked nothing from her parents who while willing to pay her way thru school also were willing to let their headstrong daughter do it her way.

In her sophomore year her class load eased enough that with her preplanning and extra class’s she  was able to test for and get an EMT license , and a job working an ambulance, she felt that having this kind of experience prior to med school would be worth the lost sleep and it’s weight in gold.

She was very right in that area, the next three years she saw and handled everything from delivering a baby in a speeding ambulance to sealing a sucking chest wound on a gun shot victim and everything in between.

All of which did in fact make med school easier and the extra money helped pay the bills while she studied harder then ever in her life, all in all she was a very extraordinary woman, one who knew her ability’s and her short comings which was one of her reasons for wanting to be more of a country doc, slower pace, better contact with the people around her and most of all a feeling of being a part of the community instead of commuting out of the city as fast as possible to get away from it all.

Her request for a PA was explained when she said she was young, and untested in the real world, and wanted to work with somebody older who had experience and could help her ease into the job, she added that the only thing worse then a bad doctor was one who was not only bad but believed they knew it all.

She also explained that while growing up, her best friends family were members of the LDS church which was rare in the Southern Bible belt, but she learned about preparing for hard times from them, their food storage program was outstanding and while they never spoke of it much outside their own church group, they welcomed Ellen as a second daughter.

Ellen said there was no doom or gloom in that house, but instead a sense of well being due to knowing that whatever might come they could at least feed themselves and some others who might have small children to care for, She was very impressed by this and helped convince her own family that having plenty in the pantry was not only smart but might mean the difference in living or dying.

We sat and listened to her story and all three of us were so very impressed by this young woman who was wise beyond her years, We could see she would be a very important asset to the community and surrounding area, she did ask if things started going really bad would she be allowed to bring her family into the ranch, I looked at Jody and waited to see how the Chairman would handle this, he looked at Sing and I and we were already nodding so his smile told Ellen all was well but his words made it better.

He said, Ellen, we are building a family here , your family is a part of our family, “IF” they chose to be, and if they wish to move down here then I’m sure whatever skills they have can be put to use here. We already knew her parents would fit beautifully .

Her Dad was an Electrician and her mother was a master gardener who grew the most beautiful gardens and while she wasn’t  much into canning, but did feed a lot of people with gifts from her garden , both were talents we would be needing , IF they decided to make a move, Ellen would be talking to them when she left here to get her life ready for the move.

It was late when Ellen left for her room, The three of us sat back with big smiles on our faces and felt we had really hit the jack pot, when I asked Sing how she had made the selections we would interview she laughed and said the very first one she settled on was Ellen and after really straining her thru the net with her brothers PC skills she knew this was the one, so she picked two total butt heads to interview against Ellen, this had Jody and I rolling on the floor, we had been had so bad that it was laugh or cry. Either way had the tears rolling, at this we all said good night and headed for bed, it had been a very interesting day.

We decamped the Hotel right after breakfast in the dining room, Ellen joined us, She was planning to be at the ranch in a couple of weeks to help plan out the clinic and to get to know the area and some of the people.

After she left we loaded up and headed for the ranch, on the way I brought up something that had been in my mind since our after dinner BS session with the four of us, My thought was that we should look at maybe building a kind of a homey strip mall sort of place right at the entrance to the ranch .

With the clinic and the vets area and the small Pharmacy why not add a small grocery store which Dog Trot had not had since the old one burned down 15 years before, the idea being to have the ability to buy wholesale for our own storage and also to sell to our town folks at a better price then driving the 25 miles to the city ( which wasn’t really a city, just a big town) Jody jumped in with an idea of also having fuel pumps with a small cashiers booth, this way we could have fuel at cheaper prices and the storage for it handy to the trucks that bring it in, our goal was to keep the general public as much in the dark about the ranch plan as possible while passing on savings to our local people.

All these things while not really for making a big profit would be able to pay for themselves while also be a much needed source of jobs for the locals who need one.

We all liked the idea of the “Mall” as we were already calling it, and as the land was owned by the ranch we didn‘t have to contend with anybody else opening a business right in the middle of our prepping plans.

We also thought about offering the Jonas brothers a shop building with everything to keep the fleet of ranch vehicles running while making a living with the garage and it would be bigger and more modern then their old shade tree shop with all the goodies to prefab just about anything that we might need down the road.

All these things would take money to start up but would also bring a return down the road which while not our main goal but would fit nicely with the plan overall.

We arrived home and decided to have lunch at Miss Ellie’s, it was a late lunch and she wasn’t too busy to join us and hear all we had gotten done, she was thrilled with the idea of having a doctor in town, even a young one, we told her about the Mall idea and she was all for it as long as we didn’t put in a café, which was good for a laugh because anybody trying to make it in a café here in this town would starve because Miss Ellie had the place locked down tight.

She got on the phone and called the garage and asked the brothers to come over for a cup of coffee and some pie, I swear the phone wasn’t down 2 seconds when those ol boys tore the screen door off the hinges storming in.

Now when both them boys was in the same room it got real small real fast, both were well over 6 ft and both weighed in at about 270 with not enough fat between them to fry an egg, and both were as black as the inside of a black dog as they liked to put it . after they got settled down Miss Ellie brought out a pie, notice I said “a “ pie, not “some” pie, each got a half and while we talked , they ate, it was like watching two big ol hungry wolves going after a sheep, not a nice picture but a true picture.

Miss Ellie had just about raised them boys while their daddy worked, their mother had took off one day 20 odd years before and never come back, but Miss Ellie sure made it up with her love, those two were like her own flesh and she would have fought anything that come at them, not that anybody but a bear might want to try them, one thing for sure they could sure eat pie! Sing just stared with open unabashed admiration at the way them boys handled that pie.

After they were done and settled back with fresh cups of coffee and the last customer had left Ellie sat with us and she explained what we had in mind for them if they chose to make the move to the big new garage, both sat and listened with no interruptions until she was done.

Their names were Peter and Paul being as their daddy was a devout member of the nearby Southern Baptist church, most folks had trouble telling them apart so both were called Jonas, that worked just fine

They never even talked about it both just glanced at the other and then back to Jody and me and nodded yes, the only questions after that were about the shop and what they would have to work with, both were first rate mechanics who could make a better living in the city but were happy to be right here away from the problems of city life.

Jody told them to figure out what they would have if they were building their dream shop, tools, equipment, the works, they said they would get back to us in a couple of days and shaking hands all around they left much more quietly then they had arrived.

I couldn’t believe how fast we were going at this operation and the changes that would be coming that only a few knew about, but with Miss Ellie and the brothers Jonas on board we knew that base was covered.

It was now time to get moving on the building project, this was going to require some expert help in designing just what we wanted so we gave Sing the job of looking for just the right firm to handle the drawings and the work when ready, we wanted small firms who would be grateful for the work and less prone to talk too much as they were coming from a goodly ways away.

Two days later the Brothers came out to the ranch and we sat on the porch with iced tea and they showed us their list, it covered every possible thing that two really good hands on fabricator / mechanics could need or want to build almost anything.

Both looked a bit stressed about the size of the list but we put them at ease by asking if they were sure this was all they needed and what had they left off because of money worries, they fooled us by bringing out a second list which they called the dream list, one thing for sure, this shop would handle everything we could ask of it.

The Garage should have the ability to pay the brothers a better living then they had now, plus the expenses of the business, any profit would be banked for leaner times, but if the lean times ate up more then there was then the ranch would float it until it got back on line.

In the mean time we would have a sound fleet of vehicles that even an EMP couldn’t mess with. Not to mention all the other perks of having your own shop.

Sing had found three firms happy to bid on the entire job after seeing what we wanted. I asked her if one already had the job and the other two were just window dressing which got me a wonderful smile and a glass of water over the head! The girl was fun for sure!

The three of us now had to decide on just what else we needed to look at, vehicles of course, we wanted older rigs that had no or very few computer chips in them, all should be diesel and 4 wheel drive heavy duty crew cab trucks 3/4 ton or bigger, rigged to go anyplace and do whatever needed done to get there.

As we saw it we needed tuff trucks, no citified chick chasers for us. What make we left up to the brothers who said to stick with Fords as the Ford trucks were the biggest sellers therefore  more parts available plus more in the wrecking yards that could be gone thru if the SHTF.

This was being left to the brothers, they would check with us when it was time to start after the building was done.

The next step while we waited for the contractors was to lay out the building projects around the ranch house area, Green houses, bigger barns, and all the out buildings we would need to survive and to keep the live stock alive. It was going to be a big job, and a long one, but fun too in a way!