Our End Of The Lake: Surviving After The 2012 Solar Storm (Prepper Trilogy) (46 page)

It sort of restored my hopes in humanity to see everyone enjoying themselves and making future plans. I had no idea what the fate would deal us or how long it was going to be before civilization as we knew it could get rebooted and back to normal, but one thing was sure the reconstruction was on at this end of the lake. I shouldn’t even worry about trying to trade so much, regular barter would work for most things we would need in the short term, but the prepper in me said I must plan for the future still and if they did get the grid restarted I needed to try to build up some money of some sort so I could go back to the rat race of trying to survive the old way.

Roland and Bernie I guess had similar notions I imagine, it seems mans need for accumulating wealth to be more comfortable in someway never ceases. People all over the world measure wealth in different ways. Some people keep cattle or sheep etc. while others make the land produce more crops. I guess my tribe was rich in many things that others lacked and for that I was extremely grateful.

I walked back down the shoreline and looked over at Donnie’s house to see all was well there also. I really need to explore this side of the inlet more so I can figure out if all this security is totally necessary. I guess there is really no telling if or when we might ever have a problem. I never thought having neighbors like they did over on the other side of the lake had so many potential possibilities for community efforts but I still liked our little arrangement here.

I took the binoculars and scanned the inlet to see if anything was going on and except for the geese making their slow rounds swimming the shoreline it was all quite and peaceful.

I began to think back upon my trip from Atlanta and wondered what stories everyone I had encountered on the way home had and if they were safe or being able to find enough food. The old solar system sure put a whammy on the earth. Well not really the earth, if just gave mankind a big attitude adjustment.

I worried a bit that more people would be moving further and further out from the cities and might bother our little sanctuary here. No sense worrying about that now, we were here to stay and I couldn’t imagine having to pick up and go into the unknown somewhere else. I had some experience and knowledge but we were awful lucky to have the amount of supplies we had to give us this edge to transition into this new way of trying to get by.

What the hell is that noise? Someone is coming down that gravel road it sounds like and my dumb ass is out here sitting on the dock like I am on vacation. I hurried off the dock and went to the side of the girls’ house to peer around and see who it was.

Dummy, you left the radio sitting on the table on the pier I thought when I reached for it on my belt; too late now.

Horses, I hear horses, could it be? YES! It was, Roland was riding a horse and Bernie was driving the wagon with John and Sarah as well as another couple riding in it.

“HELLO! Good to see you.” I called as I rushed to greet them.

“HI David. Where’s the rest of your clan?” Bernie said climbing down from the wagon walking forward to greet me.

“Across the inlet, I will tell you all about what’s going on in a minute” As I greeted Roland, John and Sarah and got introduced to the other couple.

“David, this is Fred and Mary, they live just up the side of the slough back there” Bernie said gesturing.

“Oh the mystery sign people from the next point” I said and explained we had seen their sign and left the house unmolested to which they were most thankful.

“I explained to them you might have raided it a might, but I am glad you thought it through and didn’t mess with it. No sense starting out on the wrong foot if you can help it with new neighbors.” said Roland joining us after seeing to the horses.

“You come on a great day, we are having a party at the boat ramp” and I explained how we managed to put together our little impromptu Thanksgiving celebration and extentended an initiation.

“I better call over there on the radio and tell them to expect more guests” I said and proceeded to do so.

“Jack says he will be over in about an hour.” I said and invited everyone over to my house for a drink.

“Everything alright on the home front Roland?” I asked as we walked towards the house.

“We are doing well, Mary and Fred walked up from the interstate about two days ago and we had a nice visit before we brought them home. Maybe you can help them get resettled” he said knowing we would be happy to assist in anyway we could.

“We sure will, glad to have you for neighbors.” I declared to Mary and Fred and helped get everyone’s drink orders together.

“Hey Bernie, I need to give you the short version on a Bank me and Donnie are trying to create before you get to the party” I told him and proceeded to explain what a Bernie Buck was to the best of my capability.

“Ha, I like that, Bernie Bucks! You didn’t know you had the new Federal Reserve living with you, did you Roland.” Bernie said while Roland tried to get a better handle on what we might be proposing.

“We are sort of finding it too complicated to do it the way we originally thought but if you two horse traders could hang around a day or two I bet we can come up with a workable plan for everyone to agree on” I said and after getting their assent to give it deliberation we went back to casual conversation and explanations about what was on the menu across the inlet at the boat ramp before I left.

“Fred tells me things have started to get out of hand in Tallassee. The Sheriff there got a bit too uppity about martial law and got shot the second day after he declared it.’ Roland said giving Fred a chance to speak.

“Oh it’s horrible there, gunshots going off at all hours of the day and night and you don’t know why. The stores are all cleaned out and the few National Guard trucks that are bringing in a tiny bit of supplies always have a problem with the mobs. Me and Mary said the hell with it and packed what we could and took off one night with a wheelbarrow and what we could carry on our backs. I am glad it didn’t take us but a few days to get to Roland’s or I don’t know what might have happened.” he said patting his wife.

“I never walked so far in my life, I am not sure I could have gone much further” A still weary looking Mary said.

‘This end of the lake has been pretty quiet and you saw a little bit of what we are doing to try to get some crops in and try to get sustainable. We will bring that bobcat over and clear off some land for you in the next day or so, but we are a bit short on seeds at the moment.” I told them.

“Roland packaged us up a few different seeds but we got lots of corn and pumpkin seeds to spread around” Fred replied.

“ I traded for a bunch of pumpkin seed with a neighbor and you should have pumpkin seed from now on if you can get it grow” Roland said sipping his drink.

“Boudreaux is over at the party Roland, said he wanted to see you about getting his horses back” I told him.

“He can sure have them back but he has to help me with a beaver problem I am having first. Roland replied.

“Them Beavers are too smart for me David; I guess I just got lucky with the few I got at the pond off the interstate.” John confessed to me.

“They can be quite tricky and are super intelligent but I bet Boudreaux won’t have a problem. I am willing to rent a couple conibear 330 for the project if you care to barter Roland. I would just flat lend them to you but by giving you the use of them you are reducing my trap line potential and I love that sugar cure beef you got” I said smiling at him.

“What’s a conibear trap? It’s not an actual bear trap is it?” Sarah asked me forever a fan of the beavers.

“No it’s a humane trap that kills by body hold or neck hold. They come in all different sizes” I replied looking down at the bandage on John’s leg.

“John what did you do to your leg?” I asked

“I gouged it on a stick, I had been cutting saplings for making snares and I stupidly left a sharp stump up and backed into it. You got anything to put on it, or some herbal remedy?”

“I will give you some little packages of triple antibiotic but I prefer colloidal silver for most everything. I make it and bottle it, its going to be one of my barter items. I bet you can design me something that works a lot better than what I am using” I told him.

“We got some band aids that have silver in them over to the house but I don’t know what that colloidal silver is your talking about, is it the same?” Mary said.

“Silver has had some medicinal uses going back for centuries. In the early 1900s, people would put silver coins in milk bottles to prolong the milk's freshness. Wound dressings containing silver are increasing in importance due to the increase of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which has imposed clinical limits on the use of antibiotics. Those Band-Aid things could be several different types of silver products but the concept is the same. Colloidal Silver was in common use in America from the late 1800s until 1938. It was prescribed for a great variety of diseases and infections. There were none of today's antibiotics available then, and Colloidal Silver was used for just about everything. But Colloidal Silver was relatively expensive back then, just as today's man made antibiotics are expensive now. Colloidal silver is a suspension of microscopic particles of silver, usually in water. You can make it easily with a 9v battery” I informed my quests.

“Can you increase the voltage”? John asked

“Oh yes, most people use three 9v batteries to do it and it’s much quicker. You connect them in series to get a 27V battery.

John I am sure you already know this but for everyone else’s sake I will just touch on the difference between series and Parallel circuits.

When connecting your batteries in Series you are doubling the voltage while maintaining the same capacity rating (amp hours). Just use a jumper wire between the negative of the first battery and the positive of the second battery. Run your negative wire off of the open connector from the first battery and your positive off of the open connector on your second battery.

When connecting in Parallel you are doubling the capacity (amp hours) of the battery while maintaining the voltage of one of the individual batteries. Use a jumper wire between the positives of both batteries and another jumper wire between the negatives of both batteries. Connect your positive and negative wires to the same battery to run to your application.

“But you can just use one battery if that’s all you got. Pure silver wire 99.99 works best and be sure to use distilled water. If you want to do it quicker Connect 3 battery clips in series (positive to negative, connecting red wires to black). On the 2 unconnected wire ends, attach alligator clips

Once the wires are connected to power, watch for a whitish cloud to begin forming between them. First, bubbles will form on the wires or ingots if you have them and 5-10 minutes later, particles will be seen emitting from one ingot It is only necessary to run for an additional 10 minutes past this point to make it approximately 5ppm. To make it stronger, it may be necessary to disconnect power and pull the wires out to clean them every few minutes. Use a wet paper towel. Once they begin getting covered as soon as they are put back and connected to power, it is about as strong as it can be made with this method - 10ppm.

“I got some sterling silver earrings could you use those?” Sarah said looking very interested.

“If you had to you could, but they have a lot of impurities in them and really aren’t suitable. I tell you what; if you and I can work a little business deal I will give you two one ounce bars of 99.999 silver and you can manufacture for me. Once John figures a different way for me to get voltage like using an old charger or something, we can be making hundreds of gallons off that much silver. You pour colloid through several unbleached paper coffee filters. Pour into amber or brown bottles which have been cleaned and rinsed with distilled water. Store away from light and heat.