April 7, 2015: Love is in the Air

We have the third small cabin nearly complete.  We dug the foundation and poured the concrete on the fourth.  While the cement cured, we framed up the four walls and built the roof trusses.  All that went into place yesterday.  Today we sided and insulated the place with materials gleaned from the house on the eastern part of our property.  We also installed the roof.  We haven’t rigged up a PV system for the house yet and we still need to put some finishing touches on the interior, but we made a lot of progress.

Terry and his family made a trek back to his place to check on the house.  Amazingly, there were no squatters and the house was pretty much as they left it.  There was some rodent and varmint damage but that’s to be expected in an unoccupied house in the winter – new normal or not.

Based on that discovery, Terry, Laura, Mike, Jenny and their kids are planning to move to Terry’s place.  It’s several miles away, but we’ll be able to communicate with the short-wave radios and both Terry and Mike are pretty handy with firearms so they won’t be entirely without defenses.  If they were attacked, we could probably be there in less than fifteen minutes.

I think they’ll be OK … I hope they’ll be OK.  I’m not particularly comfortable with them being that far away.  Furthermore, they have little beyond their shooting skills in place in terms of defenses.  Ultimately, it’s their choice but I’ve let Terry know how I feel.

Ariela and Mandy seem to be getting along very well.  They’ve both lost a lot as a result of the crash, in different ways, but they seem to find comfort in one another, nonetheless.  They are nearly inseparable and work very well as a team.  I spotted Ariela working with Mandy on some basic firearms safety and use yesterday evening.  Based on what I’ve been able to pick up from Mike, Mandy was anti-gun in the old normal, but after five months or so of exposure to the new normal, she has decided to embrace the way of the gun.  Ariela’s a perfect teacher for Mandy.  She’s female, so there’s no macho intimidation going on, and, after hearing about her training and combat experience, she’s definitely well-qualified to teach.

As far as I’m concerned, the more people we have who can safely and effectively handle weapons, the better.

Speaking of Mandy, I’ve noticed Sam giving her lots of attention too.  In my opinion, it’s way too soon after the death of her husband to be putting the moves on her, but she’s an adult.  I’m sure she’ll let Sam know if he steps over the line.

I think Levi might have a bit of a thing for Ariela.  Her crushed skull and eye patch don’t seem to be impediments to her allure.  The woman has a definite magnetism.  As much as he appears to be drawn to her, Levi also seems intimidated by her.  That’s understandable.  She’s strong (and getting stronger every day from what I’ve seen) and tough and probably the most military-minded of any of us.  That girl is hard core.  There are no two ways about it.  All I can say is, “watch out, Levi”.

Finally, in the love-is-in-bloom front, Heather is pregnant.  She and Joseph announced it just yesterday.  Talk about faith and hope … I’m not sure I would want to bring a child into this world the way it is now.  Maybe in this case, faith and hope overrode reason.  Of course, it could have also been all those cold winter nights.

On the not-so-lovely front …

The short-wave has been filled with chatter about the U.N. troops massing at Offutt.  There are a few rumors flying about, but no one seems to have ascertained their exact mission.  It’s definitely troubling to have that many troops so close.  When we started working to build up our farm as our “bug-out location”, it seemed to be the perfect blend of not too far and not too close.  Had we continued to live in the city, we would have been only about 100 miles away from the farm.  Having decided to make the move to the farm, I now wish it was several hundred miles away from the nearest city and, especially, the closest military base.

And, down to the very practical … we have three full rolls and four partial rolls of toilet paper left.

Nothing’s perfect … not even love.

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