Chapter 40

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."R. Frost

Week 1 Day 5 Friday

The first of my deliveries were due today. UPS and FedEx were punctual. DHL made a swing by the ranch also. I got a call from the Custom's agent around 11 informing me the containers had arrived. All the paperwork was in order and since the cars were 1976 models, even though some were brand spanking new, they were allowed into the country without the usual safety bullshit. Each one was fueled with 99% alcohol. And the tanks were full. Customs didn't say a word. What they didn't know was it was pure ethanol, not denatured. We could have emptied the tanks and bottled the stuff. It is the same as Everclear! But I planned on using it as fuel. I asked Billy to get a couple of 500 gallon propane tanks filled and a couple empty ones to convert to brewing vats for the beer we'd need to make to get the alcohol. As an after thought I told him to get a 250 gallon tank also plus some expanded metal. He knew I was going to make a barbeque pit out of that one. He was on it on the den phone. I called Bruce and asked him to send some drivers to the customs to pick up the containers. He sent 5 drivers out 30 minutes after hanging up. He also had asked if he could start delivering the rest of my order and I gave him the go ahead. We'd worry about logistics later. Two in the afternoon I heard the blast of the air horn on a Freightliner. Out in the yard were 5-9000 gallon tank trailers. Billy was directing them to the big barn. One at a time they were placed in the barn and dropped. I just waved to the drivers as they headed on out. When they were finished, one-fourth of the ground floor was used by the fuel tankers. As I said it's a BIG barn. In my minds eye I planned the layout for the other things that would be coming. There'd be plenty of room for the flatbeds from Lowes, as well as the tracters and equipment from Bruce. We would store much of the stuff from Sams in the loft with the alfalfa. There was still 30 feet of headroom up there.

I got an idea while looking around. I took out my phone and hit speed dial 7. Jimmy K picked up on the third ring.

"Well you old coyote, what's got a burr under your saddle now. Only time you call is when it's an 'I gotta have it yesterday' thing." he said.

"Hello to you too. You still chasing that underaged tail? No, don't tell me, I don't want to know." I was asking about his wife Jill, who was 25 years younger than he. "I need a favor. I want twenty of those 40 foot containers that you have delivered to my place. I'm paying with plastic." I responded. "I want them here by Monday at the latest."

"No problem, you'll have them Monday morning, first light." His promise was good so I gave him the card number and told him goodbye.

I went in the house and gave the word to the up timers that I had the units coming and that we could start packing the stuff we get in them. I wanted the containers inventoried with manifests for each. I had the idea we could stack them in the new cave and have access with the fork lift, or build walkways to access them. I was thinking of putting the car containers on the bottom of the stack and work my way up. Some of the insides could be modified to house cottage industries. We'll just see what we decide.

I went into the den with Billy. I asked what I was forgetting. He sat and thought for awhile. Seeds! We called the co-op and set up delivery of fifty barrels each of wheat, seed corn, rye, alfalfa, plus 500 pounds of potato sets. Farrier supplies. We're going to have to shoe the horses and mule. I came up with one better. We need a complete forge setup. We fired up the computer and started surfing the net. After an hour we found what we wanted. The company was in Vermont but they had the most complete setup for small foundry and forge. It took $150,000 but they said it would ship tomorrow and we'd have it by Tuesday. I thanked them and sat back satisfied.

"OK, smart ass" I quipped, "now you gotta learn to use that shit!"

We broke up laughing. I heard a knock and called out to have them enter. Suzie and Maria came in with plates of Hoagie's and chips and Sprites. Maria brought the plate to me, then thrust her tits in my face and shimmied her shoulders. At that moment I knew she wasn't wearing a bra. It brought Junior to attention. I looked up and saw that Suzie had handed the plate to Billy and she had done the exact same thing. Her tits were whacking Billy as she moved her shoulders side to side. They both jumped back as we reached for them and scampered from the room.

"What the hell was that about?" he asked.

"Well, that is famous cross between a rhinoceros and an elephant. " (pregnant pause)

"Elephino!" I said. He was just taking a sip of the Sprite and I got him. He snorted Sprite out his nose as he broke down laughing. I guess he hadn't heard that one before.

We munched down on the sandwiches and chips. We discussed the workshops and how we wanted to set them up. There were a lot of logistics to handle which Billy was better at. But he hadn't seen the 'lay of the land' yet and it made planning difficult at best. I could only describe things so much. Then it came to me. I told him to wait a minute; I needed to think a bit on it.

HAL, can you put Billy to sleep and then give him a dream that shows the cave area, including inside and out and the new area, too. Panoramic views of the whole area within 1 mile of the cave? As a matter of fact, give me that same dream and have me showing Billy around.

That can be arranged. Give me a couple minutes to prepare

I commented to Billy I was a bit sleepy and he admitted the same. I suggested a short siesta and he thought that was an excellent idea. We moved over to the plush recliners and leaned back. We were asleep in no time.

Billy and I have a dream ... Billy and I were floating above the scene of my settlement downtime at the cave. We watched the people as they went about their daily work. We watched the children play. We entered the cave and I showed him around. He was interested in the water / basin system. I explained it provided all the water for the camp and it was as good as the artesian water well I had back in the 80's in Leagueville in East Texas. He remembered visiting and agreed that it was the sweetest water he'd ever had.

We then were floating high above the camp. We could survey the entire area. We talked about the defenses and weaknesses of our location. The small mountain that held the cave was very defendable. It had sheer sides that would be difficult for an enemy to climb. We found the other cave entrance hidden about a half mile around the perimeter of the mount. We could see it from the air, but could also see why it was not visible from the ground. If we were going to use the entrance/exit, we had a lot of work to do. We explored the area around the fields and the wood. We swung out further in our exploration and came across a couple of camps of people. They hadn't been there before or I'd missed them on my treks. I made mental note of these locations for further investigation. Things started to swirl and abruptly the dream ended. Shira was shaking my arm. I was a bit groggy and slow to wake up. Billy was about the same and Lisa was there waking him.