Chapter 6

The three of us loaded everything into the truck along with some more tools and headed out the drive. Our drive was long with an outgoing curve to the right. When you came to our drive from the road with our drive on the right, you would turn right into our drive or continue on and the road would curve to the left away from our property. We put a sensor and camera set about thirty feet in from the road before the curve started but into the tree line where it couldn’t be seen. I had wished for an infrared camera but we would make do for now. We mounted the sensor and aimed the camera a little further up the road toward the house so a moving vehicle could be seen.

“Shirl, I have an idea. Why don’t we put a little gate across the drive right about here? You could see it from the road like it was intentional but it would be far enough in so we could set the sensor and carefully aim the camera to see who is at or opening the gate. Then we can set another sensor and camera pair to track anyone who comes in.”

“I like it. What if we put an intercom here so guests could announce themselves?”

“It would work but would be a bit much even if we do have to get out to open the gate manually. I don’t want to make it hard to get in. I just want to know when someone comes in so we can be prepared. I still want to think that there are few enough people around that looting well off the main roads isn’t going to be a problem any time soon. As time goes on, we will have to be more careful about visitors coming in unannounced. Right now, the pickings are too easy to have to hunt for things.”

“Jack, that’s okay for now. Hmm! I have another thought. What if we set a sensor with a radio signal to catch us if we are followed?”

“What do you mean?” Janice asked.

“As we go down the road about a quarter mile from here in each direction, we could have a sensor. Each would sound a signal on our radios or a special radio in the trucks. If it went off later, we would know we are being followed and could make our preparations accordingly. That would be better than having to go through what happened with Sylvia and Michelle. It worked but wasn’t fun.”

We got our minimal set up installed and tested for now.

We had tested our sensor and camera by having the girls there with the receiving unit while I went up and down the drive with the truck. Shirley said that we could aim the camera a little better. I parked the truck just beyond the camera and took a HT and re-aimed the camera as she watched. We didn’t think to do that with a vehicle before.

A couple of days later, Ollie, his daughter, and her son drove in. We had plenty of time as we guided them in over two meters. Tom came in with his son, Matthew about twenty minutes later. We had all the radio people there and my parents who had come by for lunch and stayed. Both Mom and Dad were complimentary of the things we had done to the house. Dad liked my idea on the computers. He grasped the issue immediately and said that he would start downloading reference items himself.

We had prepared for a great party and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We had picked a house for each Ollie and Tom and cleaned them up. Ollie and Anne liked theirs, which was close to ours, but Tom wanted something a bit closer to Ted, Robert, and Charlie. He and Matthew were very agreeable to using it as a temporary abode. That evening, on the net, Michael and his family announced that they would leave the next morning.

Our community was slowly collecting people.

We collected some earth moving equipment and my dad and Ted helped me put up the foundation for our dam and I started on the wheelhouse. I finished that after Michael and family arrived and got settled in. They would be our next-door neighbors behind us with Ollie on the other side. Tom and Matthew found a house close to Ted and moved in after some renovations.

With the wheelhouse finished, Ted and Dad helped me again to complete the dam including building a sluiceway. We did a little bit of contour work below the dam to make sure that a dam break would not wipe out the house or outbuildings.

That never became an issue for us but we did see some other dams break over the years and the damage that those breaks caused. The water wheel was turning freely now that the pond had filled. It was time to set the generator in place and hook it to the water wheel. I tested the shut off to stop the water wheel a few times to be sure it worked and had a fail-safe built in. We hooked up the generator and put a small load on it. Things were going fine.

Shirley and I were very happy and we both enjoyed having Janice living with us. She seemed to feel better about herself and began to kid us about our shows of affection. She and Mary were still close so it was no surprise that she announced to us one evening that Mary wanted to marry Robert and move in with him. Sylvia had told her that she thought Charlie might be about to “pop the question.” Janice told us she would say, “Yes.” Shirley’s statement was that now we wouldn’t be the newlyweds anymore. I just grinned.

“What about Matthew?” I asked Janice.

“He’s okay but I like Oliver better.” She replied.

That surprised me a bit as Oliver was quiet and studious almost to the point of being over cautious. “Okay,” I replied, “what’s his charm?”

“He’s smart. I think he’s smarter than me. You and Shirley are the first people I have met and been around where I have to press to keep up with you mentally. Oliver is that way and he’s not so quiet when we’re alone.”

“Oh!” Shirley said, “Does that mean that we need to chaperon you, now?” She grinned as she said it to be sure there was no sting just a bit of fun.

“No, or, at least, not yet. We are just getting to hand holding and it’s not going beyond that for a long time. Jack, I’ve been reading the Bible that I found in my room.”

“Oh?” I responded. Shirley looked up.

“It talks about being without sin and I don’t fit that.”

“Well, let’s look at the Roman ladder.”

“What’s that?” She asked. Shirley looked interested, too.

“Let me get my Bible. I have it written down in it.” I got up and went into the bedroom and retrieved my Bible. Shirley followed me and got hers along with a pen and paper. Janice got the one from her bedroom.

“I was taught the Roman Ladder in Sunday School by my dad. He said that he found it somewhere but that it was the clearest path to salvation that he knew. It is made up of a series of verses, in order, from Romans. It goes like this.

“It starts with Romans, chapter 3, verse 10 which is ‘There is no one who is righteous, not even one.’ and continues in Romans 3:23, ‘since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ Then is the third rung which is Romans 5:8, ‘God proves His love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.’ The fourth step, Romans 6:23 is well known, ‘for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.’ The fifth step gives you the solution, Romans 10:9, ‘if you confess with your lips and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.’ The sixth step is Romans 10:13, which is this, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’