A Savage Awakening

- A Savage Awakening

- Midpoint

The Savage Awakening

Ron Foster

USA

© 2012 by Ron Foster

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-1481906838

ISBN-10: 1481906836

Printed in the United States of America.

Acknowledgements

Scott Hunt

Practical Preppers Crank-A-Watt

The book begins with Chapter 5 because its part of a series

A Day of Realization

It was day seven of the great societal unraveling when Dennis woke up this morning. He lay in his bed but for a moment contemplating staying there a bit longer.

“No there was too much to do today. What time was it anyway? The sun was up but either its overcast or it’s early in the day to be getting up. Ah, 5 am., oh lord” Dennis groaned to himself as he looked for a shirt to wear today. He wasn’t much of a morning person but he always got up and got moving when he was required too.

He stood bleary eyed in front of a cabinet he used for his closet and began looking for a shirt to wear today. Ordinarily he would have just grabbed one of what he called his “Florida shirts” which were a casual button up type of dress shirt that featured some kind of nautical theme like saltwater fish prints or palm trees.

Today was different though in many ways and he opted to start wearing a different style of everyday wear. The world was a different place now, it wasn’t just that the climate was getting cooler that made him ponder wearing some different clothes; it was time for him to adopt a new fashion.

The fashion of the apocalypse he said to himself with a slight grin. Well he certainly had the clothes for it. He probably had every kind of military surplus camouflage shirt there was, as well a couple civilian camo pattern ones. He also had a pretty good selection of what he called his city neutral clothes which were dark shades and earth tones like coyote brown. He had a faded olive drab vest which had a hidden pocket to conceal his full size 9mm as well as a bunch of pockets for survival gear and extra mags that didn’t really stand out any more than a fishing vest would in the country, but he wasn’t going there yet.

He chose instead to wear a long sleeve blue-green shirt from some foreign military and put on a belly band holster underneath it to hold his 17 shot 9mm Astra; he picked his small 9mm keltec 6 shot up off the night stand and put it in the front pocket of his blue jeans. A quick check in the mirror to see if either of the pistols was “printing” too much and he went to check on his mom.

She was already up and had the coffee on by using a Coleman propane stove he had shown her how to use last night.

“Good! Looks like she had gotten over her fears of that stove.” He thought as he greeted her and said good morning.

“Morning Dennis, did I wake you?” She asked.

“No, I was getting up already. Thanks for making the coffee. See that thing isn’t as bad you thought. ” Dennis said going to pour him a cup.

“It really isn’t hard to use at all but I have never been around one before.” His mom said settling in a chair at the dining room table.

“Good coffee. Did you sleep ok?” Dennis said sitting down across from her.

“Not really, I got to get used to that bed. That mattress is so soft! I can’t believe that’s the same mattress and springs you inherited from your grandmother and never replaced them.” She said fussily.

“Time and money mom, when I had the money I didn’t have the time and vice versa. Besides I like the feel of that bed, it’s still pretty comfortable to me.” Dennis said reminding her he had given up his own bed to her and now he was forced to sleep on a daybed in the second bedroom which was about the size of a big walk in closet.

“I might try that daybed of yours later and give you back your room.” His mom began before Dennis interrupted.

“You can try it, but I sort of like our arrangement of rooms so don’t say you like it if you don’t.” Dennis said thinking that for security purposes he liked being that close to the back and front doors and unless you knew the lay of the house, it was hard to pinpoint that bedroom from the outside.

“Wouldn’t that room be warmer in winter being closer to the wood stove?” She asked.

“You would think so, but it’s not, that utility room it connects too doesn’t have much insulation and it leaks cold into the house. That’s the reason I put that thermoelectric Eco fan on top of the stove pointing at it at night otherwise it doesn’t get that warm.” Dennis concluded.

“Well, we will sort out sleeping arrangements later. What projects are you going to be working on today?” His mom asked and then looked out the front window surveying the scenery.

“Good question. I think that I am going to try to burn off the raised beds in the garden today if they are dried out enough, if not, then I am going to till up a couple beds and put in some buckwheat and chick pea. That crop can be used as green manure and tilled in or we might be eating it if need be. I need to try to build me some cold frames out of those old trailer windows I got so we can grow something this season. Sometime today also I need to get up with Charles and Monica and sort out what we are doing. Now Mom, you got to look at Charlie and Monica as new members of our tribe now because that is exactly what they are. We are going to have to put away some prior notions of ‘just because I bought all these food preps” that we won’t be sharing somewhat equally with them because that is the only way it will work out for all of us.” Dennis explained as a lead in to what he wanted to bring up next.

“I know they are your friends Dennis, but you are not really that close of friends are you? I mean you have got thousands of dollars invested in your preps from what I see and I don’t understand you wanting to just give a bunch of them away like that. I still have not figured out how you managed to put so much food together with you having very little money coming in. ‘his mom quizzed him about where he got the funds to do so much preparedness.

‘It took me over 6 years to accumulate all that stuff a little bit at a time and I was back in school when I started on the project. I also moved back home with you for a while to help out while you were sick and I was in school so it was easier to accumulate extra food for storage with you buying most of the daily groceries for us. So all in all, it worked out well and we are lucky to have all these supplies on hand. Charles and Monica have food stored themselves for a couple weeks until they have to switch over to the couple months’ worth of beans and rice they got. We are going to augment the monotony of that and Charles and I will be hunting and trapping together and sharing game. This spring we both will have gardens so you see it’s not that big of an imposition and I really need their help for security, firewood cutting and a host of other things...” Dennis said wandering over to the kitchen cabinets and opening them up to survey the contents.

“I just have assorted cans of food stuffed in those cabinets and I didn’t put them in any particular kind of order, you want to try organizing them for us? I got plenty of room in my prep shed for whatever doesn’t fit in the cabinets.” Dennis said surveying all the boxes of food they had brought from his moms house in the city and knowing there was very little room left in the jumbled mess of his kitchen cabinets.

“Okay, that sounds like a good project for me. Move those boxes of cans closer to the kitchen before you go out please. Dennis, do you think I should try to get Monica to help me sort all these boxes out if we are going to be sharing some of this food with them?” Dennis’s mom Mary asked with a cautious look appearing on her face.

“Now that is a good question Mom. They know I have a lot of food stored but they don’t know how much or exactly what I have. Let me think on that a second.” Dennis replied and went back to his cabinets for a quick survey of their contents.

“I said I would share with them if the SHTF, but that doesn’t mean I have to share and share alike on everything. Let’s do some high grading before we show everything we have got. I have lots of treats in here as well as some staples we are going to reserve just for us or maybe just share with others on a holiday or something. First off I want all the B&M canned bread, the cans of crab, oysters, most of the corn beef. Hang on a second; I need a couple empty boxes. I will be back in a minute; I have some in my prep shed.” Dennis advised and then went out to retrieve them.

“Geez! I have to do the same organizing and high grading in here!” Dennis murmured to himself as he eyed a large storage shelf unit that consisted of about 6 shelves filled three deep with expensive dehydrated canned food.

“I got to figure out a weekly menu and try to stick to it. No. 10 size cans don’t keep well once they are opened regardless if you put a plastic lid on it.” Dennis said pausing to look around the room and remembering he had had almost a full can of cornmeal go bad in 6 weeks after he had opened it and relied on the plastic lid to keep it fresh. Damn! I got 5 gallon buckets of rice and beans out the wazoo stored along that far wall. I guess we start eating some of that type of food a couple times a week to stretch the good stuff. Which reminds me, I have just a few cans of Mountain House seafood chowder and sweet and sour pork etc. that isn’t going into the communal larder just yet.” Dennis thought pulling the tarp back from the shelf and surveying row after row of what could be considered cans of riches these days.

“I ain`t believing I actually referred to anything called a community larder. I don’t know what to call what I plan on doing but it certainly is not that. This is my crap to give to folks or not give to them as I please and that best be remembered”. Dennis thought angrily as he stooped to pick up several empty boxes then locked his prep shed door and returned to his house.

His mom he noticed had opened every curtain in the house to “let some light in” as it was one of her morning habits in her own home and it didn’t sit well with Dennis today.

“Mom, the curtains can stay open today but we need to talk about when it is or is not appropriate to do so.” Dennis began before his mom angrily cut him off.

“Close them if you want to, I don’t know why you like a dark house. Probably to hide the last time you dusted and that looks like it has been awhile since you bothered too.” She said looking at the light coating of dust that appeared on the bookshelves and knick knacks she was standing next to.

“I said we could have them open today. Sit down mom and let’s talk a minute. Things are not what they used to be and we need to change our habits some. You want some coffee?” Dennis said walking towards the kitchen alcove.

“What are you going to make it on; I thought you said we need to conserve the propane?” She said walking towards the doorway.

“An induction cook top, it uses magnetism to heat the pot. Induction cooking uses induction heating to directly heat a cooking vessel, as opposed to using heat transfer from electrical coils or burning gas as with a traditional cooking stove. By the way mid range on this uses 600 watts, don’t stick it on high. I will explain why to you later. For right now just think of it as using up the battery too quick.” Dennis told her.

“You got it plugged into that SUNRNR generator?’ His mom asked looking at the extension cord poking out of cabinet.

“No, I got it running on two marine batteries I got hooked up separate to an inverter under the counter. Now remember, never put that thing on high because I only have a 900 watt inverter on it and that thing sucks 1300 watts on high.” Dennis instructed and decided there was plenty of time to teach her the ins and outs of solar electricity later.

While the kettle warmed up very quickly, Dennis explained the need for light suppression at night and the need for increased privacy during the day regarding the curtain issue.

“Nobody should be coming over except Charles and Monica don’t you think? “ Dennis’s mom Mary said eying the windows with the shades pulled fully back.

“Oh Lord, she isn’t quite getting the need for secrecy and security here!” Dennis thought to himself as he watched her peer out the window while standing directly in front of it.

“No, no one should be coming by but we need to talk about if they do. Some of these neighbors I know and some I don’t. James who has those ponds up the street might, which reminds me I need to talk to him in the next few days. I generally don’t talk to anyone else except him and Charles and Monica on this street. I don’t know anyone at all on the end of this street Look; I don’t plan on going anywhere for awhile so I will be here on the property with you. If anyone other than those three come by I will talk to them and you act sick in the background. Cough and hack like you got the flu or something. Hopefully they will keep their distance a bit more that way.” Dennis concluded.

“I get it! How is this.” she said mischievously and commenced a mock coughing attack.

“There you go! Don’t die on me now.” Dennis said laughing and turned to pour them some coffee.

“I am going to start picking out some cans of what we are separating for ourselves while we chat.” Dennis said sipping his coffee and placing an empty box on the counter.

“Where are you going to put it at when Monica comes over?” His mom asked as she began to search through the boxes of food they had brought from her house.

“Under your bed for now I guess.” Dennis replied to his mom.

“What time did you tell them to come down?” She asked.

“I told them I was going to walk up to their house about 9 or 10. I won’t be long and I can see our driveway entrances from there, plus I have a hand held radio you can call me on if you need anything.” Dennis assured her, glad he had remembered to charge the batteries on the Midland hand sets by hooking the charger to a Sears Die Hard jump starter.

“He would have to remember to charge the jump starter back up later. That’s something else he needed to sort out was his conglomeration of solar lighting, battery chargers, extra solar panels etc.’ Dennis reminded himself.

Dennis had everything stored where he could find it but setting it up and making sense out of it all might take him a day or two. He ran a small number of solar lights on a regular basis but now he had to get his full setup up and running. Dennis has been slowly accumulating what he needed to make his house run full solar on a small scale but kept a lot of equipment put back in case of a solar flare or something. Now he had to buckle down and get everything fully functional and coordinated.

“You think I should just pack up Charles and Monica some cans of food for now and sort the rest of this out later?” his mom asked.

“Uh, that’s not a bad idea but let’s let Monica do her own packing. I got a few reasons for doing it that way. How does this sound, we finish putting up what we don’t want to be seen by anyone at the moment and then you two separate out what’s left in these cabinets. My stuff is older than yours so we use it up first. We will give them two weeks of canned goods to start with and I will give them a month of dehydrated number 10 cans. This just looks like a whole lot of food. Its not, do this with Monica. Let me have those two empty boxes and I will show you what I mean.” Dennis said and waited on his mom to bring them in the kitchen.

“Ok I am going to do a day apiece of rations for their household and ours.” Dennis said separating the two boxes on the countertop.

“This ours and this one is theirs. Ok, a can of corn, a can of green beans and a can of Spam. That’s one meal for one day for two. I will give them a big can of oatmeal out of dehydrated stores so they get breakfast and dinner or lunch and dinner that’s it. Do the same for us and you see the cabinet is emptying pretty fast? I want her to see how fast that cabinet empties because we are forced to share with them. It not only shows our generosity but what dire straits we are all in. I only have a few cases of spam so technically speaking as far they are concerned its gone in weeks. A can of cream of chicken soup and some rice, that’s a meal. I will be making bread once a week so add a can of tuna fish and that’s a second or third meal if they decide they wanted to eat oatmeal that day also. A can of chili, a can of potatoes etc. you see how quick everything well be gone out of this cupboard?” Dennis said letting what he was saying sink in and seeing the cabinet’s contents disappearing so fast with just separating those meager meals out.

“Should we set more back for ourselves, you think?” his mom squeaked, horrified that it looked like they would be totally out in a month.

“No, I have a small pantry in the utility room also as well as all that dehydrated and freeze dried stuff in the prep shed. As far as regular can goods go let her think this is it for now.” Dennis said putting the cans back on the shelf and then starting to carry the goods he had already selected to stash under the bed back to his moms room.

“So they wont be eating with us here then? “ Mom said a bit confused but somewhat relived.

“Oh we are going to share some communal type meals off and on. Tonight for example Charles cooked up all that meat I had in the freezer and has it on ice. I figure the next week or so we will both be working on our places and gardens some so we will not see much of each other. Today’s Monday so we feast and talk about organization, Thursday we invite them over to our place for community chow down again and I will make a big pot of something for all of us.” Dennis said speculating.

“Any idea what you are going to make for dinner Thursday?’ His mom asked mystified as to what storage food was all about or what Dennis had stored.

“We are going to have to wean ourselves off the great American diet in order to keep our spirits and our bodies up to par. We have some good eats put back and we have the dull crap iron rations of wheat, rice and beans for which by the way you can start studying those cook books I got for it. I have a lot of TVP also to make it more interesting and nutritious so we won’t be hard timing it that much for awhile. I need to go out to my prep shed and put them together at least a month of dehydrated and freeze dried meals on my own, I don’t want to show all those food stores at once. You need to follow along so you understand what we have and then we need to decide how we are going to put some in a few different locations. That’s another reason I want to give them a bit more than a months worth, it doesn’t do to have all your eggs in one basket. Or for that matter, pardon my pun, all them cans of powdered eggs I have either.” Dennis said chuckling and starting to head to his backdoor with his mom and show her the portable building he used as his prep shed.

“Don’t powdered eggs taste nasty? I remember your father complained about them serving them to him in the military.” His mom said good naturedly and excited to see what Dennis had stored and had managed to somehow conceal from her for sometime.

“They are a lot better now than they were; you always preferred breakfast food so you might enjoy all the pancakes and cereals we will be having. By the way I have to introduce to canned bacon. Don’t turn your nose up its good and pre cooked. “Dennis said smiling and turning the key on his prep sheds lock.

“Wa la! Welcome to prepperdom. Sorry the floor looks like a grenade went off , I was searching for a few things the other day as well as haven’t had the opportunity to properly arrange my stuff yet. Watch out for those solar panels, they go on the SUNRNR solar generator (Coupon code Prepper1) I will mount them on the roof this week sometime, I have been just attaching them every couple months in portable mode until I decided to do a permanent installation. Now then, this is about 2 yrs worth of food for 1 or in our case maybe one year worth for 4 and those 5 gallon buckets are about a year and a half for one person of what I call the basics. So what that means Mom is the Lord willing and the creek don’t rise we are all set for about 2 years or longer and that don’t count my garden or hunting and trapping..” Dennis said proudly with a crookedly grin that betrayed he wasn’t sure he liked being proved right about prepping so much but he was damn proud to show her he had.

“Dennis, I take back all those arguments and everything I ever said about you getting in debt on this stuff.” His Mom began.

“No Mom you were right, we are just lucky the “roll of the dice “are in our favor this time. I cut my buying out big time and was working on my bills as a basic ideal of being responsible and self sufficient. That’s a realization and a true prepper notion that was lost on me for a long time and I more than suffered from it. Still do if they figure out how to do bill collecting these days. Having treasure that is susceptible to rot, shelf life etc. as well as incurring massive amounts of debt with school loans has bedeviled me and my thinking for years. Right now, lets forget about all that and let me teach you a bit about this crap and you dream up some recipes how to use it.” Dennis said humbly remembering the bill collectors and financial juggling he had had to do to keep his head above water and still keep everyone’s respect.

“Dennis, you have always worked for yourself and been on the fringe of normal society. I could never tell you what to do but you always made me proud. You worried the hell out of me when you were younger but you matured and calmed down as you got older and more responsible. I forget who said it but I have watched you become many men.

"A man who works with his hands is a laborer,

A man who works with his hands and brain is a craftsman,

A man who works with his hands, and his brain, and his heart is an artist."

“The Prepper craze was something I didn’t understand but you pointed out it was a world wide phenomenon and you became artful in it and for that I am glad. Your old mom is not telling you how to live your life so you don’t have regrets when you are old. I have already done that and you chose paths that put a lot, a hell of a lot of grey hair on the both of us. Thing is Dennis. I trust you and you my boy so I love you. I always said you were smart as hell in spite of yourself and for some reason you foresaw all this, I wish you would consider God might have nudged you a bit and give thanks to him but you and I don’t talk much about that because you are not a church going man. You thought about how you were going to handle disasters, got academic degrees in it, served time in the military dealing with them and I am dependant on you now son to take care of me so use that mind of yours to do your best.” She said hesitantly looking teary eyed at him.

“Mom we are both going to be just fine, and thanks for understanding and all the help you gave me along the way.” Dennis said giving her a long hug of reassurance and watery eyed commitment.

The parent and child looked but a moment at each other in recognition and then formally straightened their outlooks and emotions to the tasks at hand.

Dennis explained to her that the disarray she might have first thought of his prep shed had method to its non-apparent madness. Fuel, water, packs and tools had there own places. Long term storage food, electricity capabilities, medical stores, as well as repair parts had another. Things look jumbled but Dennis knew where everything was at as well as animal traps, snares, baits, lures, fishing equipment, other sources of alternative energy and cooking or food production etc. Every item had its story and more than one practical use. It was a Dennis’s gold in more ways than one and he loved to explain why he had two food dehydrators or two bread makers to operate from several types of energy without getting technical. He wanted to reassure his mom but not overwhelm her in his little prepper Mecca he had created.

“You need to hurry up Dennis, you said you were going to visit Charles and Monica before 10 o’clock today.” Mom aka Mary to the rest of the world said snapping him back in reality.

“Your right, ok the most overlooked prep is drink mixes. This is the most essential calorie and vitamin augmentation we have. A 150 calories plus 100% vitamin C and some other vital vitamins means this is your juice with the meal in the morning.” Dennis said removing a can of orange flavored and a cab of apple flavored drink mix from the shelves. Follow me on this mom or it won’t make sense the way I designed these stores. This Mountain House 30 yr storage food is great stuff but it lacks calories, it lacks a lot of calories if you are doing anything more than sitting in a bunker waiting to be able to go out and see the sunshine someday.

Read the labels and nutritional facts later but in meantime listen to me how I plan to over come this. You see this can of crackers? They call this pilot bread, really they are just big crackers Commercially available pilot bread is a significant source of food energy in a small, durable package. A store-bought 24-gram cracker can contain 100 calories (20 percent from fat), 2 grams of protein and practically no fiber. This Mountain House stuff is 50 calories. So a couple crackers with a meal and some of this flavored drink mix which contains 150 calories average ( orange, apple, tropical etc.) and you get 250 calories. Have that a couple times a day along with whatever else I have to spread on those crackers and you can damn near live on just that if you had too. Took me awhile to figure that drink mix that is high in vitamin c and minerals also contained significant calories and was a very significant part of my preps.

“Don’t consider pilot bread as snack crackers either, look at them as iron rations. In the civil defense era they had barrels of survival biscuits and that and water was all you got for the two weeks they estimated you would be in the shelter. The ration was only 800 calories per person per day and during that time period the US had its national reserve of food like wheat and corn to feed everybody in America for two years, now we have no fallout shelters and maybe a week in reserve of food for only part of the expanded population of the Nation. I was wondering what China was up to last year when they tripled there imports of rice, them suckers were probably getting ready for something like this to happen. Damn come to think of it we were exporting the hell out grains to a lot of countries last year also, I wonder how much some of the countries of the world knew about some kind of a attack coming? Oh well enough about that, hell don’t get me going on conspiracy theories, I could talk about that all day.” Dennis said and started putting together a couple boxes of goods together for Monica and Charles who were now part of his “prepper tribe”.

“Monica and Charles were a detriment to his preps but a huge asset to his survivability.” Dennis knew and didn’t begrudge sharing with them at all, matter of fact he was glad he could share with someone. They all needed every bit of friendship and support they could get now. Monica and Charles didn’t have much money to prep and just had a meager collection of supplies put back, mainly in the form of beans and rice. This augmentation by Dennis would carry them a extra month and break up the monotony of their meals.

“Hey Mom, on that shelf in back of you is a couple of cast iron tortilla presses. Yea the things there on the right that look like big pancake makers. I bought an extra one of those just for this occasion. One of them is for Monica and the other is ours. Shoot I only have one roll of wax paper to keep those things from sticking! Oh well we worry about that later. Add one case of tortilla mix I have extra. I have the kind of tortilla flour that has lots of preservatives to keep the tortillas fresh when you sell them in stores. We are going to be eating so many different kinds of tortillas over the coming months you are going to think I am running a Mexican restaurant.” Dennis said chuckling.

“I like the way you make tortillas, that won’t be so bad.” His mom said looking at the shelf where she had gotten the tortilla press from.

“What’s that grinder looking thing?” She asked pointing at a galvanized iron contraption.

“That’s a wheat grinder. I wish I had bought another one. It’s just a cheap functional one they sell on eBay. I have it to grind all that wheat I have stored. It will be course flour but the design of that thing has been around for a century so it should be sufficient for our needs and shouldn’t wear out.

“Sounds like a whole lot of work, I doubt that I could be of much help to you.” His elderly mother said wistfully.

“I don’t need you grinding wheat, Ha! I have Monica and Charles for that. Hey that’s a fair deal, I provide the wheat and grinder, and they provide the labor to turn it into flour. Most likely I will be the only bread maker around here unless they figure out campfire Dutch oven baking. I might just teach that to them, but for now I have a electric bread maker I can run off my battery bank, a Coleman box stove and a propane Camp Chef oven. I also have a ton of boxes of bread mixes and a bunch of cans of refined self rise baking flour. I will bake bread once, maybe twice a week and then sandwiches will be back on the menu.” Dennis said eying the large stash of goods he would load on his truck and take up the street to Charles.

“Sort of a waste of gas for such a short trip, but good OPSEC to do it that way he thought. The neighbors didn’t need to see him pushing a wheelbarrow up the road or him and Charles carrying boxes between houses.” Dennis thought to himself.

“Ok Mom, I am going to head over there and be back in 20 minutes or so. I will bring Monica back with me and you all can do your project. Buzz me on the radio if you need anything.” Dennis said and made ready to leave

Dutch Oven Distillery

Dennis pulled up the hill into Charles’s driveway and saw him tending his big smoker grill over by his woodpile and called out.

“What’s up Old Man? Are you still cooking that meat I gave you?” Dennis said walking down the path towards him.

“Yes, I have been smoking it all last night and part of this morning. Should be coming off soon, what’s up with you?” Charles said as he opened the grill and cut Dennis a piece to try out his cooking

.

“Damn, that’s good. Maybe we have breakfast instead of lunch?” Dennis said smiling and after taking a bite he examined the beautiful perfect purple smoke ring on the cut meat.

“Hey I got bread!” Charles said looking at him slyly.

“Where did you get bread from?” Dennis said playing along.

“Well, I had one loaf in the freezer and the one we had before the power went out and I took a little road trip yesterday. The cops are standing guard allowing limited buying at the grocery stores which are damn near empty by the way, but I happened to stop by the day old bread store and hit pay dirt! It just so happens I know the manager of that store and I got a truckload of over a week-old bread!” Charles said smirking.

“Good deal! What are you going to use it for? Dog food?” Dennis asked confused. Charles didn’t have any chickens or hogs so he guessed that must be the purpose in getting that much bread.

“Well I fed some of it to them, but I have a better use for it. You slipping Dennis, what do you make shine out of?’ Charles said looking gleeful.

“Hell yea, that will work! I never used bread before but why not. It will take some experimenting though before I get it right.” Dennis said scratching his head on how best to do it.

“No need for a recipe, my buddy gave me one! Looks like we got competition in the moonshine business now, well short term anyway. He was feeding the surplus from the store off to his hogs and making an occasional batch of whiskey all this time and I didn’t even know it. Check out the recipe.” Charles said handing him a piece of folded up paper.

Bread whiskey

Ever wanted what productive use you could get from old left-over bread? - Convert it something drinkable - off-course!

We're not sure what to call this very interesting recipe. As the source is basically carbohydrates from grain, technically it will form bread beer when fermented and bread whiskey when distilled. Hence or bread whiskey recipe!

To make 20 litre mash.

Start collecting your old left over bread and dry it in an oven until it becomes dry and crisp (but do not toast it) until you have about 2.5kg dried bread.

Using white bread is easier as brown or whole wheat bread. If using whole wheat bread, then make sure to also crush the whole grains to allow easy conversion.

Ingredients:

- 2.5kg dried bread

- water

- Whiskey yeast

- 20-100ml of caramel

- 100g salt (NON-IODISED)

Fermentation method:

- Add 10 litres of water in pot and bring to boil.

- Crush bread as fine as possible and add to boiling water

- Boil for at least 10 minutes

- Pour mash into 25 litre fermenting bucket

- Fill bucket with cold water and let it cool to room temperature

- Aerate mash with an egg beater (at least 5 minutes)

- Spinkle the whiskey yeast on the surface of the mash.

- Wait 15 minutes (Not less than 13 minutes or more than 17 minutes)

- Mix yeast into mash to distribute it evenly

- Close lid or fermenting bucket after 24 hours.

- Allow to ferment dry (i.e. SG close to, or below 1.000)

- Strain "bread beer" through cotton cloth and squeeze all liquid through cloth.

- Let stand to settle for 24 hours and rack (decant into pot still).

Distilling method:

- Add salt to pot still, stir to dissolve and let stand for 15 minutes (to assist with clear fractions).

- Distil SLOWLY in a single run (to assist with clear fractions).

- Discard heads

- Collect heart

- Collect tails in small bottles (i.e. 150ml) and mix back selected fractions into heart.

Post processing:

- Bottle and infuse with oak chips for 2-8 weeks.

- Add caramel to required color

Pour a dram and enjoy

“That’s cool as hell! Pot still huh? Well we don’t have one but our table top is better anyway. You didn’t tell him about it did you?” Dennis inquired.

“Hell no, I said I was making beer but he knows I know some other moonshiners in the county so us showing up with some whiskey to trade for some hog meat wont look suspicious to him later on. He is going to run a huge batch of bread whiskey himself and he said but for us to be on the lookout for sugar and such for him.” Charles replied.

“ The hell with him, you find any sugar or grain it goes in our stockpile first. How many hogs does he have?” Dennis asked.

“He said he has around 40 but he is short on feed for them, course hogs can be put out in the woods also if he had to so they can forage. Getting back to the whiskey for a minute though, Monica knew that girl that owned the cake decorating place so we went by her house and got her to sell us some sugar and cake flour. I traded her 5 gallons of gas for it. She is getting ready to go to her Uncles house until this shit blows over or the city burns down by the way. I got a hell of a deal on 200 lbs of sugar and 150 lbs of flour because she didn’t have room to take it with her in her car. What can you make out of that kind of flour besides cakes anyway?” Charles asked.

“I don’t know, whiskey if nothing else I guess.” Dennis said grinning.

“Hello there Dennis!” Monica said walking towards them carrying a big washtub looking pan to collect the meat in for further processing.

“Hey Monica! Charles just told me you counted coup on some sugar! Good find, you going to bake us a cake?” Dennis said chuckling

“Actually I thought we could give it a try. You have a Dutch oven right? “Monica said smiling and getting ready for a little prepper lore. If there was one thing Dennis loved to do was talk about prepping.

“ Yes I do, actually I have several different sizes but not for the reasons you might think. I like to do what is called “Stack cooking” in them .

When cooking several different dishes at the same time, stack the pots to save space and briquettes. Stacking works best if you put the food to be baked at the bottom of the stack and add Dutch ovens with shorter cooking times on top. Food to be sautéed is in the smallest oven at the top of the stack. Always stack the largest Dutch oven at the bottom and decrease in size as you stack. Add three briquettes to the number of inches of each pot and put that many briquettes on each lid.

"Stacking" your Dutch ovens is a convenient way to save space and share heat. Stacking is best done when ovens need the same amount of heat on top and bottom. (I.E. - Do not mix and match ovens that require different amounts of heat on top and bottom. Placing an oven with a cake, pie, or rolls in it, on top of an oven loaded with coals on the lid is not a very good idea

Paul Kautz the “Dutch Oven Dude” shared some tips with us.

Temperature Control

On my dutch oven, there's no dial, nothing to tell me how hot the oven is. Since cooking food at a fairly consistent and known temperature is important for success, there are 3 ways I know of for estimating temperature. Depending on your skill level and how you'll be cooking, one of them should work for you.

Also keep in mind that there are many environmental factors that will influence your oven temperature. Wind might blow heat away; colder air temperature, higher humidity and higher elevation reduce heat generated by coals; direct sunlight makes a black oven a bit hotter. You might consider making an aluminum foil wind shield to place around your oven, but if it is that windy, I would recommend you not have an open fire.

Nearly all dutch oven cooking will come out ok if your dutch oven is about 350 degrees. Some things should be cooked hotter and some cooler, but that's the temperature for all recipes that fail to include a temperature suggestion.

Hand Test

Use your hand to feel the heat. Of course, every person has a different sensitivity to heat but this works well for me. Just remove the lid from the dutch oven and place your hand just above or just inside the oven. Count how many seconds you can keep your hand there before it gets too hot. It is about 50 degrees per second counting down from 550, so I just count - "550, and 500, and 450, and 400, and 350, and 300, ...".

Seconds

Temperature

1

500+

2

500

3

450

4

400

5

350

6

300

7

250

8

200

This is my preferred method. It is consistent and detects temperature instead of estimating the amount of fuel. You do release heat so you need to do the check as quickly as you can.

Counting Charcoal

Lots of dutch oven cookbooks tell you how many charcoal briquettes to put under and on top of the oven. This is the easiest way to cook since every coal is similar and consistent. If you are like me and use real wood for your outdoor camp cooking coals, it doesn't help much. Also, different brands of charcoal give off different amounts of heat. But, let's say you are going to use charcoal...

The normal formula is to use twice the number of briquettes as the diameter of the oven. For a 12 inch oven, you would use 24 briquettes. Depending on the type of cooking you are doing, you need to make the heat come more from the top or bottom of the oven. For example, too much heat on the bottom will burn bread.

To do this, you place more or less of the briquettes on the lid.

Here is a simple chart:

Baking

More heat from top so bottom does not burn.

Place 3/4 coals on top and 1/4 underneath.

Roasting

Heat comes equally from top and bottom.

Place 1/2 coals on top and 1/2 underneath.

Stewing, Simmering

Most heat from bottom.

Place 1/4 coals on top and 3/4 underneath.

Frying, Boiling

All head from bottom.

Place all coals underneath.

Most baking recipes require a temperature setting of 325ºF. An easy method to get a temperature of 325ºFahrenheit within your Dutch oven is to subtract or add the number 3 to the size of your Dutch oven to determine the number of charcoal briquettes to use underneath and on top. Find the size of the Dutch oven you use (see chart below) to know the correct number of briquettes.

Dutch Oven 325° Temperature — Briquette Quantities

Size of Oven Top Bottom

8-inch 11 5

10-inch 13 7

12-inch 15 9

14-inch 17 11

16-inch 19 13

The following example uses the formula for a 12-inch Dutch oven.

* Subtract 3 from 12, which equals 9 — the number of briquettes to place beneath the oven.

* Take the number 12 and add 3, which equals 15 — the number of briquettes to place on the lid of the oven.

With this formula, 9 briquettes go underneath and 15 briquettes are placed on the top of the lid of a 12-inch Dutch oven to cook at 325ºF. One-third of the heat will be underneath the Dutch oven, and two-thirds of the heat will be on top. Heat rises, so you do not need as many coals on the bottom of the oven.

Arrange briquettes so they are evenly spaced under the Dutch oven and on its lid. Also, you always need to rotate your Dutch oven a quarter turn every 15 minutes to avoid hot spots. Replace briquettes with new coals as they burn out.

Temperature control is determined by charcoal briquette placement

Rule of 3

This is a real simple estimate of briquettes. Take the dutch oven diameter and add 3 briquettes on top. Subtract 3 briquettes underneath. So, a 12 inch oven would have 12+3=15 on top and 12-3=9 underneath. This works for any size dutch oven. Then you need to adjust briquette placement depending on the type of cooking.

Rings of Coals

As it turns out, the sizes of briquettes work out so that the recommended briquettes count above can be estimated easily. As an experiment, you can take a 12 inch dutch oven and 24 briquettes. On the lid, make a ring of briquettes all the way around the outer edge. How many did you use? I bet it was 15 or 16!

Now, see how many it takes to make a ring just under the oven. There should be 3 or 4 briquettes between each leg for a total of 9 to 12.

That is pretty close to the recommendation for a 350 degree roasting set up, isn't it? It works pretty well for any size dutch oven and any size briquettes - smaller briquettes means you need more of them, but its about the same amount of burning mass to make a ring!

A ring around the top and the bottom is about 325 to 350 degrees.

Remove every other briquette underneath to make 300 degrees.

Add a second ring to the top to make 375 degrees.

If your camp cooking calls for stewing or frying, you'll want to drop most of those top coals down and shove them under the oven. If you're baking breads, then maybe move a couple from underneath up to the top.

Just remember that a ring around the top and a ring around the bottom is your base starting point and tweak it from there.

Oh, I forgot to mention that this is exactly how I do it with real wood coals. Since coals are irregular and you can't count them, I put a ring of coals around the top and bottom and it works out practically perfect. I'm lazy and like the simplest way to do something. :-)

Maintaining Even Heat

No matter how evenly you distribute your coals above and below your dutch oven, there will be some spots that get hotter than others due to wind, quality of fuel, and phase of the moon. To prevent burned and raw portions of your meal, you should just rotate your oven occasionally, maybe every 10 minutes. You can do it however you like, but I've got an easy way - remember, I'm lazy.

- Lift the whole oven off the campfire cookin coals by the wire bail.

- Turn the oven clockwise 1/3 of a revolution.

- Set the oven back down on the coals - with three legs on your oven, it should sit in the exact same spot it started in with coals between the legs.

- With a lid lifter or pliers, grasp the lid handle.

- Twist the lid counter-clockwise 1/3 turn - the logo on the lid should be in the same position it started at.

I like this way because both the top and bottom heat moves in relation to the food inside and there's nothing for me to remember except that the lid logo always looks the same.

Taking a quick look inside at this time will give you an idea if the coals are cooking too fast or slow. Just be careful to not drop ash in or let heat out.

Maintaining Long Heat

Your first batch of coals will probably keep the oven hot for 30 to 45 minutes. That's long enough to cook most things, but you sure don't want to let the oven go out for those 1 hour or longer meals.

Just make sure you check your oven every 20 or 30 minutes to see that the coals are ok. Where you see spaces with just white ash, fill in with a few more coals. Or, you can just brush all the ash and coals away and put on a new batch all at once. If we're just sitting around the campfire cooking s'mores, talking, or playing cribbage, I tend to do the former but if the fish are biting I do the latter so I don't need to keep checking on it.

Stacking Heat

When you really get going and have 3 or 4 dutch ovens outdoors cooking, there is a lot of ground space chewed up and a large part of the heat from the coals is heating the surrounding countryside instead of the ovens. I recommend that the first dutch oven you buy is a 12 inch model and then your second purchase is a 10 inch model. This allows you to stack the ovens.

Stacking your dutch ovens is a great way to save ground space, fuel, and time - besides, it looks really cool to have 3 ovens making a tower.

The coals on the lid of one oven serve as the 'underneath' coals for the oven stacked on top. And, the oven on top helps trap heat for the oven underneath. All this makes heat estimating more difficult so you should only tackle this after you've got some experience and are willing to practice on a few meals.

The most important thing to remember is that items needing more heat should be on top. Your bread or dessert should be the bottom-most oven since it wants very little heat underneath. Then, your meat to roast in the middle and a stew on the top. It takes some planning, but an entire meal can be fixed this way so it all gets done at the same time.

Rotating stacked dutch ovens takes a bit more work. Take off the top ones, rotate the bottom one, and then work your way back up the stack. Move as fast as you can without spilling so you keep the ovens hot.

Temperature Tips

Finally, just a few tips to tuck away for later:

- You can cook food, but you can't unburn food. Use less heat and cook longer rather than overheating.

- Preheat your dutch oven for frying or searing meat. Otherwise, put the food in cold and let it all heat up together.

- Keep adding wood to your campfire to ensure you have a supply of camp cooking coals available. If your fire burns too low, it may take extra time to finish your cooking while you make coals.

- Some briquette users just set new briquettes next to burning ones around the dutch oven so they light and continue providing heat as the first batch burns out.

“ Damn Dennis you expect me to remember all that?” Monica fumed while chiding Dennis for being so long winded about a simple question.

“Nope I don’t expect you to remember, that’s why it’s written down in one of my books at home for you!” Dennis said with a grin.

“Which reminds me, I cant stay to long and mom asked if you would help her sort out my kitchen cabinets.” Dennis said and proceeded to get the couple to help him unload his truck of the dehydrated food he was giving them and advising Monica she was getting some can goods also for helping his mom out.

“You don’t have to give us any can goods Dennis, I would be happy to help your mom out.” Monica objected.

“I know you would! I am sorry, I just termed it wrong. What I meant was you could help her sort out the first batch we are sharing and get things inventoried so we can figure out the next.” Dennis said diplomatically.

“You sure guy? We got enough food to last us awhile and I never expected all that dehydrated food you just gave us.” Charles asked as if it all was too generous.

“No problem my friend, you and I made a pact long before this day to help each other if the SHTF, it has so plan A is in full effect.” Dennis said reassuring him and then he thanked him again for being there for him and supporting all his efforts.

“Meats done Dennis, you want to go fetch your mom and eat here or you want to eat over at your house?” Monica asked.

“Well any other time I would say I would bring her over to get acquainted with your place and the dogs but she is waiting on you Monica so we better go down their pretty soon. What is yours and Charles schedule? You want to stay here awhile or comeback with me?” Dennis asked.

“I want to come back with you, Dennis and help your mom after we eat breakfast over there. Charles are you coming or do you have something you have to finish here?” Monica asked as she covered up the meat container with foil.

“I got about a bazillion things to do here starting with all that bread but I have time for breakfast and can walk back up, that is if you don’t have something more pressing to help you with Dennis?” Charles said while closing all the vents on the grill and its attached smoker to shut down his fire.

“ I was going to start getting my garden beds ready today and start on a few other things but you have me intrigued about a few of the stores being open in town.” Dennis said debating if he should of already left to go check them out.

“Like I said there isn’t hardly anything left on the grocery shelves? Wal-Mart’s is open but I didn’t go there and I am not sure they would be selling anyone ammunition anyway. I can probably assure you they don’t have any propane or kerosene left. The grocery store had a limit of one basket or $100 of goods. I got a cart and paid cash and Monica used up her food stamps so we managed to get some stuff. We got a weird conglomeration of stuff by the way. There were limits on everything you could buy if they still had it and you can’t buy pet food on food stamps so I bought mostly pet food and Monica fought with folks over the remaining cans of Chef Boyardee and anything else she could get. I am glad we had those discussions about what to grab on small money that might be available after a run on a grocery store in a situation like this or we would have been lost. I did get some cooking oil, Crisco, salt and flour though. We went to the grocery store first before I got all that bread and flour.” Charles said sheepishly.

“I started to get some sugar but Charles said you had plenty which worked out for the best.” Monica added

“I did get some corn meal, I debated on some canning jars but they were expensive. I got a bag of hard candy, carnation instant breakfast, there wasn’t any peanut butter left on the shelves but they had that Nutella stuff, I guess because most folks are not familiar with it. Anyway, I wouldn’t suggest you go down there, most everything is gone and folks are getting bitchy.” Monica advised and suggested they just bring the whole pan of BBq meat down to Dennis’s and separate it there and get some more ice for the coolers from him.

With everyone in agreement they loaded up in Dennis’s GMC and headed to his house.

I Got Friends In Few Places

“Hey Mom, I am back and we got company.” Dennis announced as he unlocked and opened the front door.

His Mom, Mary had already been told that Charles and Monica were basically great neighbors and if she envisioned a old biker and his girlfriend that was the way they would look when Dennis brought them over.

His mom greeted them warmly and began to happily chatter at Monica, glad to have another woman to talk to as Charles and Dennis brought the meat in and began pulling out plates and silverware for a meal.

“Dennis, are you going to cook up some baked beans or something to go with that?” Mary said briefly separating herself from her conversation Monica.

“Yea Mom, We are going to go outside and fire up the stovetec first. We will be back in a bit.” Dennis told her as he guided Charles towards the back door and what was serving as his outdoor kitchen.

“Women are such a joy to behold when they first meet another, they somehow have a 100 things to talk about graciously as they send non spoken signals to each other” Dennis told Charles as they went to the back deck Charles had helped him build last summer.

“That’s a fact!” Charles said grinning while watching Dennis point to a couple of cases of hot beer he hadn’t stored in his prep shed yet.

“A barbecue is one of those unwritten rules or restrictions about drinking a beer before 5 that both sexes have agreed upon to sometimes make excuses for.” Dennis chuckled.

Dennis wished he knew why the weather had been steadily overcast or rainy for days after the great grid calamity occurred. The effect of a nuke blown in the atmosphere might have caused some of this bad weather but he had no idea if it did or not. His problem now was that a lot of his batteries were not fully charged before the grid went down and even hooking up all his solar panels wasn’t going to change that until he had a few days of good sunny weather. Luckily he had a backup to his backups. In his preps he had a PRACTICAL PREPPERS™ CRANK-A-WATT™ generator. Crank-a-Watt™ is touted to be the World's only portable "Human Powered Generator" for any emergency or survival situation.

He liked its portability and was always figuring out new ways too use its versatility. It so it was quite useful to Charge cell phones, lap top computers, rechargeable flashlights, tv's, ham radios, Ipads, boat batteries, power drills, walkie-talkies etc.

It had built in 400 watt inverter so he could run small appliances like a blender, a mixer, electric can opener, food processor etc.

Dennis favorite use for it was to Charge rechargeable batteries with a rechargeable battery charger hooked to it.

“ Hey Charles you remember when you sat out on this deck and played organ grinder with that crank up radio of mine?” Dennis said remembering when they were partying and drinking a few beers and had the batteries on the radio run down. Dennis had had a blast comically cranking the radio to the music while it was playing to keep the charge up.

“Yea man that was sure a fun day we had. Have You run your radio batteries down again?” Charles asked.

“Not yet, I still have some rechargeable AA batteries for back up but I need to charge the batteries in that second set of hand held communication radios that I am lending you and Monica.” Dennis said as he got his rocket stove fired up.

“How are you planning on doing that as overcast as it is? You got enough power in your battery bank?’ Charles asked.

“Not and continue to run that ice maker, I got something way cool to do the job with though. Hang on a second.” Dennis said and walked over to his prep shed and unlocked his door and retrieved his CRANK-A-WATT™.

“Wow! Let me check that out. No isn’t that the neatest thing. So you just crank it huh?” Charles said trying the easy turn handle and studying the interface.

“Cool, it has a inverter and what’s this a lawn tractor battery?” Dennis asked figuring out the little marvel.

“Yea it’s a lawn mower battery, no need to purchase expensive deep cycle batteries with this. The engineers who designed it have specified the Interstate Brand (or equal), lead acid tractor-lawn-utility battery. Although they are not considered deep cycle batteries, they are very robust and good quality products. They operate in an excellent temperature range and are typically 145 cold cranking amps @ 12 volts, which is quite suitable for my Crank-a-Watt(TM) generator.” Dennis stated while watching Charles heft it to test its weight.

“Dang! This thing is a lot lighter than I would of imagined” Charles said putting it back down on the table.

“The Crank-A-Watt™ was designed to be portable, it weighs around 14 pounds so you can pick it up and go. It is also designed to sit on the edge of a table or counter around waist or chest high. This makes it easier to crank the handle. We could carry it down to your house or Tommy’s and charge up your cell phones etc. no problem. By the way are you getting any signal on your phones?” Dennis inquired stopping what he was doing so he could better assess the world’s current state of affairs.

“Monica got through earlier so they have some cell towers still functioning, no internet though. How about you? You getting any signal?” Charles asked still inspecting the Crank-A-Watt.

“I have one of those cheap cell phones that can’t get a signal back in these woods most days and my internet was satellite so the sun probably cooked it. I wonder if DSL is working in the cities. It might be seeing its on phone lines.’ Dennis said speculating.

“Then you got to run your computer and your router etc.” Charles began.

“Hey my Lap top works and that crank a watt can recharge the battery in it.” Dennis said grinning.

“Neat, I will ask Monica if she knows anyone in town running DSL and maybe we can go try it out. I know you are dying to talk to your prepper buddies on the internet.” Charles commented.

“That would almost be too good to be true, but if the internet is running I know a ton of preppers that have alternative energy methods to get on it.” Dennis said itching to try it.

“Hell you can be a one man internet and phone charging café with that thing, or would you wear the charger out if you used it too much?” Charles asked.

“Oh I doubt it would hurt it any because it's made with permanent magnets, the manufacturer includes a lifetime warranty on this generator. It will work just as well 100 years from now as it does today. Permanent magnets are made from Rare Earth Minerals that never wear out.” Dennis said proudly of his technologically advanced unit.

“I assume you can crank it while your running something off the battery is that right? I mean that would extend the charge in the battery and give you more working time right.”? Dennis asked pondering possibilities.

“Smart question, actually the key to using the Crank-A-Watt™ is to always try to keep the battery or batteries topped off. It has a gauge you can watch and also the ac inverter supplied with the unit will sound an alarm when the battery is too low to operate efficiently. Cranking while using it will help keep the battery from getting too low. Basically you can look at it this way. Here is a list of tests they performed with a small battery and a big 12v battery. You can do both but for now we look at the small one. The test showed that a 13 w energy saver light bulb in lamp: without cranking on full battery (tester was on 12.8v Full charge and went down to 11.8v) light stayed on for (7 HOURS 2 min).” Dennis said before he told Dennis he was going to check on the ladies before he put the baked beans on to heat up and for him to watch the fire in the Stovetec while he was gone.

Dennis went in the backdoor and headed for the living room and kitchen. Monica and his mom were happily chatting recipes back and forth as they arranged the kitchen cabinets and filled boxes with pre designed meals they were agreeing on.

“Looks like you two are making lots of progress in here.” Dennis said as he entered the room.

“Yes, we unloaded the cabinets and wiped them out and are sorting out weekly meal boxes as we go. Sort of one can of corn in our box, one in Monica’s and one in the cabinet. Then we do the same thing with green beans and spam etc. After we separate a couple weeks worth for each of us we will put whatever’s left in the bottom cabinet. “Mary said.

“Yea we have been doing it one for me and one for you and one for the pantry.” Monica said in a sing song voice smiling.

“That sounds like a plan. We have a bit more than I thought or are these boxes ones you haven’t gone through yet?” Dennis asked.

“ No those are weekly boxes, we figured we may as well do it all and see where we stand. Monica is doing the inventory and weird one of the kind things like a box hamburger helper or whatever is being set to the side as community day meals or something. How are you all doing?” Mary asked.

“Well that’s why I came in, Charles and I got side tracked for a minute playing with my crank-a-watt and I had an idea about all that meat. If you don’t mind I need to look at that FoodSaver vacuum sealer for a minute.” Dennis said waiting for them to exit the small kitchen which all though had full size appliance it always reminded him of a ships galley in size.

“Let’s see here” Dennis thought as he picked up the FoodSaver and looked at the manufacturer’s specification plate. Damn! Nobody ever lists watts on things, ok it says 1 .1 amps so that times 120 volts gives me about 120 watts. Cool I thought it would pull a lot more power than that. Crank-A-Watt time!” Dennis thought with a small smile.

“Ladies I have a suggestion, let’s just eat some sandwiches for breakfast instead of a big meal. I just thought of a few projects that need doing and if we glut ourselves we are not going to want to do much more than nap. Charles and I have some technology tweaking to do, but we can use that FoodSaver to vacuum seal up that meat so it lasts longer. I am also going to freeze some of it today believe it or not.” Dennis said grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“How are you going to do that?” Monica and his mother began, before both of them waved him off before they got a long diatribe about Dennis’s latest prepper alternative energy scheme. They knew he would get whatever it was he was so impressed with himself about done and they just soon be spared the details at the moment.

“You want me to fix you and Charles a sandwich or you coming in?”” Mary asked.

“I will see what Charles wants to do and then be back. Charles knows a bit more about electricity than I do and I might need his help.” Dennis said heading for the backdoor.

Dennis went outside and saw Charles getting himself another hot beer and told him to get him one too. Monica would probably be pissed off that they got to have a few beverages while she was stuck inside with his mom but she would probably sneak out later.

“Damn, this beer could be iced down if he wasn’t worried about his mom nagging at him.” Dennis thought and then dismissed the idea. It was to early in the new living arrangements to show his penchant for a good party no matter what. Besides, there was no chance he was going to let himself or Charles get snozzled today.

“ Hey Charles,I got a great idea I need some help with.” Dennis said sitting down on his old tractor seat stool.

“What’s that buddy?” Charles said taking his seat on a deck bench.

“Look that Crank-A-Watt™ can run on a bicycle and get better RPM. I need you to put my bike on a stand I haven’t assembled yet while I tweak on a few ideas here. The ladies said we could just do sandwiches for breakfast if that’s ok with you and we don’t have to dink with the rocket stove for side dishes unless you really hungry.” Dennis advised while trying to picture in his mind how to get the full use out of his alternative energy gizmos.

“That’s fine by me Dennis, to be honest with you; I have been sampling that meat I cooked off and on so long now I am still pretty full. By the way, a lot of that meat has to go back on the smoker. I never tried to make beef jerky and cut it too thick and was sort of waiting on you to give your 2 cents on timing and methods.” Charles said looking laid back and without a care with a beer in his hand.

Dennis didn’t blame him; he had probably been out there since 4 this morning trying to maintain perfect heat with firewood on his smoker grill.

“Well I have the bike and the stand in the mechanical shed; I will go get it in a minute. You can put that together while we BS and have a beer and I can try to make sense of what wattage I need for what to start my projects.” Dennis declared very excitedly.

“What are you looking like the Kool Aid pitcher man for? You up to something, spill it!” Charles said looking at the huge engraved smile Dennis was wearing.

“New house rules, they are not terrible but practical..” Dennis said eying the “what is he up to now” look from Charles hearing the nasty word “rules”.

“Look, I have gizmos and batteries to charge out the wazzo around here. New rule is if you come to my house and partake of my off grid advantages you got to take a turn on the crank-a-watt if solar is not functioning or I need it.” Dennis declared in a “simple as pie fashion eying Charles for compliance.

“That sounds fair, what is it you are planning on running and how much labor are you asking for?” Charles said hoping Dennis didn’t have visions of him and Monica running on a treadmill or a hamster wheel.

“Not a whole lot. You or anyone else that comes over should get them some exercise and ride the bike while we B.S. Everyone take a turn or leave a little energy for those that cant spend the physical exertion is appreciated if you are enjoying my lights and fans and hospitality etc. “ Dennis said reasonably.

‘I am game, don’t get me wrong. I will crank or pedal that booger for days but I also understand wattage and human power is not as compatible in efficiency as I would like so I want to know what kind of devices you are talking about powering.” Charles asked wondering what luxuries Dennis had come up with to run they all could agree on.

Yes he thought it was pretty cool that “the Crank-A-Watt™ could run a electric can opener but if you were supposed to be trying to be “sipping juice” as Dennis tried to profess why would you? I mean get the manual one out and expend less energy for the same result?” Charles questioned himself.

“I have a master coup in mind we will talk about here shortly, but let us just look at what keeps my old mom happy. She is fixated on that blood pressure cuff of hers, it runs off a battery and she has a heart condition we all are aware of. She rode her exercise bike or walked to improve her heart before this crap hit right? So now she could do the same but it’s to power that battery. Ok, today for example, I might get her to ride the bike to help store food if we use a vacuum sealer, ride the bike for her cell phone as a charger which I haven’t tried yet, its one of those large text old folks non technical emergency phones. The Crank-A-Watt will run a mixer, your old lady don’t know how to make cake icing from scratch and mine does for all that weird flour you recently got. Ok. How about this? I need to talk about all that stale bread you got lucky with. I was going to suggest to you we have a bread tearing and mushing party by hand, nut you know what? We haven’t thought it through far enough. You got what? Maybe a few hundred loaves, I havent seen your stores yet.

One 80 plus year old lady with a electric knife and a Crank-A-Watt™ to power it can out work the shit out of three of us to cut up that bread in cubes to make whiskey or stuffing. Every Christmas and Thanksgiving we get two pounds of bread to make the world’s best dressing to go with our turkey dinner, it’s a family tradition. I come in the kitchen and see a big stock pot of trimmed and cubed bread I know its time to volunteer to cut the onions and celery. She leaves the bread in that big pot for a couple days and just circulates with a big spoon so it gets uniformly stale before the cook magic and tasting happens.” Dennis stated just getting geared up on all the use he had for his device.

“You have the directions handy for hooking the crank-a-watt to a bike?” Charles asked

“Yes have them right here, very simple.” Denis said and handed him the directions.

Bicycle Pedaling

1- Remove the drive belt from the pulleys. Caution: Don't pinch your fingers!

2- Align the 3" generator pulley to the bicycle tire. Using an Allen wrench, loosen the Allen fitting on the pulley. IMPORTANT This is the Allen fitting nearest to you, not the one nearest to the generator! Turn the adjustable pulley in or out, until the desired width is achieved for the bicycle tire.

3- Restrain the generator case so it doesn't move. A rubber bungee strap can be useful!

4- Pedal at will!

“Well that’s certainly simple enough, now what is this master use you thought of for it?” Charles asked.

“We leave it hand crank and put it next to the toilet?” Dennis said grinning.

“Do what? What for?” Charles asked confused before it dawned on him Dennis was going to use it to power a 12v pump to fill the toilet tank from a rain barrel he had outside the window.

“You get done with your business, you flush and hit the fill switch and give it a few cranks. Shazzam Instant indoor plumbing.” Dennis said smiling.

“Ha! Poo Power!” Charles said chuckling.

“Damn I wish, I bet Engineer775 from YouTube could figure out how to hook it to a methane digester but that’s application is beyond me. I got that Crank-A-Watt™ from his practicalprepper.com website by the way. He is the alternative energy guru for all the preppers and I wish I had him around to ask some questions from right now.” Dennis said thinking back on all the knowledge he had gained from watching the mans videos or looking over his website.

“What kind of questions would you ask him?” Charles asked.

“Well the one that really intrigues me is running a big 12v battery charger off of the Crank-A-Watt’s inverter. Probably be a trickle charger but run that to a battery bank with another trickle charger running back to the Crank-A-Watt in sort of a loop. I know you can’t get more power out than you put in but if you’re stepping up the juice it seems like a lot less cranking to get more out. By the way I can put a solar panel on that Crank-A-Watt also. As much sun as we get around here normally I probably wouldn’t have to hardly ever crank it. I can also hook it to more or bigger batteries as a standalone system. There are all kinds of things I guess we could experiment with given a bit more insight.” Dennis concluded.

“Hell we could probably make some money that generator just setting up to recharge peoples phones and things.” Charles speculated.

“I thought about that but its also ideal for first responders to keep police and fire fighters radios charged and ready. I would be scared they might commander it or something.” Dennis stated.

“I see your point; hey we could build a fire under that 55 gallon drum and pump water in for a bath.” Charles said.

“I already thought of that, I got it set up high enough on cinder blocks that I can shove a Stovetec under it. Using it keeps me from worrying about burning down the house because it’s a contained fire. “Dennis replied

“I am going to go get the radio so we can listen for some news while we are out here” Charles said

THE END OF BOOK TWO, A PREPPERS PERSPECTIVE

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The Light in The Lake

Book three of the Prepper Trilogy finds our band of refugees from a solar storm safely moved into a several lake cabins and trying to work on their short term and long term survival. The lake is a beautiful place for a survival retreat, but is it safe with roving groups of lake residents all looking for what meager food resources remain after a EMP event has shut down society as we know it. Can society be recreated and restarted here, or will starvation and anarchy take over? Can a simple light in the lake be the solution to survival and the reconstruction of society, or is it merely a symbol of what has been and might be yet again?

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Table of Contents

A Savage Awakening

Midpoint