Our End Of The Lake: Surviving After The 2012 Solar Storm (Prepper Trilogy) (47 page)

“I been collecting those kind of bottles for years, can I get in on this? I got a big collection of old apothecary bottles that we could use.” Mary said looking at Sarah and me.

“Sure, remind me to tell you about an Englishman I know named Stewart, he had some good ideas on renting containers. Why don’t you run over to your house and see that everything is intact. I check on it every few days and we haven’t noticed anyone but us scavenging around in this cove.” I said to Fred and Mary.

“I been dying too, Sarah you want to come along?” Mary asked her.

“Oh yes, David can you add herbals to colloidal silver?” Sarah asked while rising to accompany our new neighbors.

“Yes you can, there are few things that might not be so great to add to it but I explain that later, run along you don’t want to be too late for all that good food over at the boat ramp” I told them and went back to chatting with my other quests.

“I will take you in the wagon so you can drop off the stuff you brought with you and then unhitch the team when we get back.” Roland said rising and picking up his rifle.

“Take your time, Jack is probably trying to get one more bite in before he leaves anyway” I advised them and settled back in my chair to talk to John and Bernie.

“Bernie I got your fishing light rigged to work now, want to check it out?” I said pointing over to the xantrec unit before he asked me how I managed to power it up.

“Yea, I would like to see that, you going to run it tonight?” Bernie inquired.

“Yes, it will be our night light for whenever I get you back this evening, it makes it easier to get into the dock too” I said rolling the portable power unit down to the dock and demonstrating it.

“That is neat, you going to use that windmill to charge it?” John said looking at our partially completed project. When I get some more Marine batteries I will, I use the solar panel to charge the xantrec with. That windmill is going to be up to 1500 watts and I wouldn’t trust the charge regulator I have at the moment to not try to overcharge that unit. I said as John did a little inspection of my connections.

“I might have a suggestion or two for you later if you want, Roland will be real interested in you using a boat alternator. You could power one of these little houses with that if you were careful what you run. Are you finding any more of these types of alternators? “He inquired like I probably already had some on hand.

“Not yet, gotta find me something with an inboard engine and I haven’t seen any except the one in the boat we are using at the moment. But I will be on the hunt seriously for them now. I want to power up everyone’s house on this inlet if I could. Finding the heavy gauge wire to run them is going to be harder than finding the alternators though I think.

“I like how you are using that PVC for windmill blades; you just cut down some big pipe and shaped it a little I see. I think Roland and I might be able to come up with the wiring. We been out a bit doing our own scavenging and picked up some welding machine cable already” He said while following me back to my house.

“You got 200ft of No 2 and 135 ft of No 4 to be exact. By the way, I got a hell of a need for 12 gauge shells David to trade with”. Bernie said as manager of everyone’s little engineering and trading enterprises.

“I got some extra ammo which you are aware of, but it depends on the trade. I haven’t found any at all on my borrowing trips, not even any 22 shells. Ammunition is pretty much irreplaceable now as you know.” I told him not wanting to really give any of it up yet unless it was for some seriously good reason.

“I might just have one, that little store next to that Glass Company on the turn off road to come up here is pretty well gutted but no one bothered the glass company next door. We could use the store for a trading post and the folks that own the glass company are willing to build those solar window box heaters and ovens that were in that Rural Ranger book you lent to John for us and John has some ideas to make them more efficient. They live within walking distance to it but got all their guns and ammo stolen and we found them a couple 12 gauges they using for protection but only got 20 shells between them that came out of Roland’s stash you traded with him.” Bernie informed me as he was about to put the squeeze on me and dent my ammo cans pretty good.

I looked at John for an opinion and he said “Don’t look at me, I am still carrying that 6ft hog sticker of a Mosin Nagant you lent me, but I must say it’s accurate as hell.”

“I don’t know Bernie, you need a south facing window for those heaters to work so not everyone will be able to use them, I agree we need to figure a way to protect the resource but I hate just giving up ammo to do it.” I said weighing the values involved.

The basic idea here is that the cooler room air is drawn into the lower chamber and warmed as it passes over the black heat collector. As the air warms it rises and enters back into the room through the upper chamber.

“They got the folks to protect the trade post too, well at least guard it anyway for now, they willing to let you teach them some of that military know how you got to in order to improve their chances if they did get attacked.” He said trying to reel me in with an offer to play Drill Sergeant and create my own little response team.

“We talking about OUR trading post or a trading post Bernie?” I said knowing I didn’t have the full story yet.

‘I am willing to negotiate, the building is not ours, it belongs to some of their kin that seem to not be coming back, and they live in Birmingham. Most of the Folks that used to run it are all still around though if we help on the transportation end to get them to work if we can create something that generates some commerce.” He said looking hopeful I was bending a bit.

“That place is in a good location if you have transport, like in the days of cars, I don’t think its so great to get too if you are stuck on this lake.” I said trying to envision distances by foot or bicycle.

“Actually it is if you running a ferry boat service, there is an old historic ferry boat landing a mile away from it and it has some community that are still hanging on around it. I haven’t had a chance to show you yet but John figured out a way to mount a Briggs and Stratton rope pull engine on a shaft like one of those boats you see on the Amazon or in Asia that is strong enough to push a pontoon party barge. If you get Boudreaux to show you the way you can get to it from here in about 40 minutes by motorboat or a couple hours sail.” Bernie the forever entrepreneur with the connections and knowledge informed me with a half smirk to let me know he was going to win this hagglers Rodeo, or so he thought.

“I tell you what; I am only willing to offer two canvas bandoliers of 12 gauge shells, half slugs, half whatever Buckshot the operators choose” I said pausing for effect and watching him squirm and formulate objections.

“You know that ain’t enough! One little firefight or a couple instances of having to hunt or defend would deplete them to almost nothing to put up any kind of serious defense of our goods or themselves!” Bernie said turning red in the face and even though he was a little man considering getting in my face.

“You didn’t let me finish you old dollar skinner, there is more to the offer” I said watching him fume with himself to calm down.

“That place is in a reasonable position to defend from, but it can’t be defended with a pair of shotguns, hell I could just hold off a hundred yards and shoot at whoever was inside it with a rifle until I finally got them. You need at least one long gun and preferably something with some fire power. I got a fold up Kel-Tec 9mm carbine that is supposedly sighted in at a 100 yards from the factory with four 30rd clips and one 10 rounder they might need to at least make the odds more even. I don’t particularly like the sights on that thing for short range I think they are off but I got very limited range time with it; some people do just fine with it though right out of the box. I might consider throwing the carbine and those especially loaded Double Tap Gold Dot 124 grain hollow point bullets I put in the magazines (The mags are made for a Glock pistol by the way) and two boxes of NATO spec hardball ammo in, if, just if mind you, if you find a way this deal could get a bit sweeter.” I said fishing around for what else might be had out of this deal.

“I see your point, you the military man after all David, I never seen no fold up carbine you got it handy for me to see?” Bernie said while plotting and scheming his next approach and needing a break to figure out an angle.

“ John, reach in that pack behind the bar and pull out that lap top looking case if you would” I asked him not willing to let Bernie out from under my gaze that was pressuring him to think without me eying him for reactions.

“I found it; you all want another drink while I am back here”? John asked to a simultaneous YES from both Bernie and I.

Bernie was still trying to find some leverage in this deal for himself and I knew exactly what he would do upon opening the case which John was polite enough not to peek into. I glanced at John and nodded by head imperceptibly towards Bernie and John poured the drinks and handed Bernie the Lap top looking case I got off of Cheaperthandirt.com as well as his drink at the same time confusing Bernie further.

John went back to the bar with a wink and a nod towards me behind Bernie’s back and got mine and his libatations.

Bernie in the meantime immediately set his drink down and unzipped the case and looked at the interesting weapon and its magazines stuck in elastic mounted on the cases inside.

“Well its wicked looking” he said as he fumbled with it trying to figure out how it unfolded and worked.

“Give it here, I will show you how it works” I said reaching for it and then after taking it from him popping it open and getting it ready to fire in about 4 seconds including simulating putting a clip in and pulling back the charging handle.

“That thing looks like something out of a James Bond movie” John said appreciating the simple but effective engineering.

“I can hold this one handed against my shoulder, even loaded” Bernie said after inserting a real clip but leaving the charging handle alone for safety’s sake.

“That’s a bad mamma jamma as we say in the South Bernie. I am sure you already noticed that Kel-Tec small 9mm in that extra clip slot.” I said reeling him in and watching him look up with undisguised interest to where I was heading in my negotiations as John feigned not listening closely to our little ping pong game of tit for tat.

“What are you wanting David?” Bernie asked scrutinizing me and the guns.

“I want both of them back as soon as something else to arm our people can be traded for before they get out the door. That carbine was the only gift I ever got for graduating anything and it has a special meaning to me for that reason. I said honestly.

“Damn. I sort of wanted it for myself, but you can have it back, considering you not donating it to make a deal how much you asking for it as a loan?” Bernie said realizing I just turned over a whole bunch of tables on him he had not considered.

“Nobody can even think about running a trading post without at least one concealed sidearm and that one is one of the best there is for the purpose. Its parkerized by the way also so sweating on it won’t rust it near as bad as a regular one. I want concessions, lots and lots of concessions. You know I cut a deal once helping a Casino get funded and the only thing I wanted out of it was to have the permanent bottled water concession that sold to the customers. The Casino could have their cut of profits but I was the only one allowed to sell water there and I also finagled later for paper goods like napkins and toilet paper and such. I didn’t charge a commission for finding the money, I cut a fair deal that did not cost them anything because they were going to buy it from somebody anyway and so why not me? I got me an exclusive agreement so I had something to pass on to my heirs as a business. It would be like me doing a real estate deal and getting free rent on the news stand in a nice location for making a deal go through. I use my business acumen well to get positions of mutual need and respect; I think we have those same goals between us. I already have the seed franchise out here; this is my region for sales based on my previous donations remember? I want a piece of that ferry landing and something to do with the colloidal silver and other medicines going in the trading post” There I said it, let the chips start falling where they may.

Seeing that what I was asking for cost him basically nothing as long as we had mutual agreements on quality of goods and services Bernie was good about the details and terms of our arrangements and I got concessions on most everything I wanted and a few that I hadn’t even considered. John even used his executive privileges to put the first pontoon boat under my charge to service our area after I said we would be a force to be reckoned with if notified the ferry boat landing needed our help I could put 7 armed and well trained people on the spot within 35 minutes with me leading the charge if need be if we could figure out the notification aspects.