A Long Lonely Road (12 page)

Sandy saw what I was doing and just went to work, this girl just takes a second to process then engage. No matter what it is, working loving or shooting.

So far she had saved my bacon twice when I was whipsawed and never blinked. He dad must have been one hell of a man and a great father! She and I are both lucky with that.

After setting up a comfy camp and gathering plenty of fire wood we took our rifles and did a patrol which we should have done first thing. I was getting too relaxed for our good.

We did a big perimeter patrol and saw nothing to worry about. We did see some deer. We decided this was the place to hunt and make jerky. Before we headed into more dangerous country where we might not have the time or safety to have a fire going all the time.

We gathered plenty of dry wood for the meat drying and I was wishing for some good Hickory which grows all over the area in Texas. That would be awesome! But we don’t so it ain’t.

Later that evening Sandy asked if I had ever seen one of those beehive ovens like they use in rural countries. I said nope but I seen a picture and I think I could build one why?

So after a nice comfy night with her sleeping next to me we are building her an “ Earth Oven”. So far it’s going pretty good. We found a nice flat stone of good size for the base.

The only problem was moving it the 2oo yards to the camp site. Finely we simply hooked a rope to it and Buck just dragged it for us after being promised a treat by the softy.

After placing the stone where she wanted it we gathered small flat rocks for the walls. We didn’t have the usual sand to build the shape to cover with clay so we just used mud and green grass as clay and used it to hold the stones in place.

Getting the round dome part was killing us until Sandy said screw it lets just find a flat stone to place on top. Nobody says it’s gotta be a round dome. it can be a flat dome.

Now I was pretty sure a dome is in fact rounded but since I never built one and besides who cares? So we looked for and found a smaller flat rock to lay on top of the rounded walls and used the same mud, grass combo as before we plastered the outside then the inside.

When it was done we built a small fire in it to bake the mud which I had doubts about but it seemed to hold ok. We then made a bigger fire and let it get so hot the outside was too hot to touch.

In the meantime Sandy had been busy with the corn meal and other stuff and soon filled the cast iron skillet with batter. After raking the coals out she placed the skillet in the oven and leaned another flat stone against the opening.

After about a half hour she opened the door and took out the skillet which had some beautiful corn bread in it. we were laughing like kids and opened a can of butter and a jar of Strawberry Jam and just pigged out.

I sat looking at this simple thing and realized it was used all over the world by people who lived daily in what to us was a SHTF life. But for them it was just their every day life.

We are a nation of soft wuss’s who have allowed our children to become couch potatoes. Give the kid a video game player and some trashy games and they don’t bother you. Well, not anymore.

I guess what one man thinks of as a SHTF day another would classify it as a pretty good day compared to the day before. It’s all in ones perceptions I guess.

As a nation we went from being a subservient group of scattered villages to the mightiest nation in all of history.  Now here we are thrilled that we could duplicate the oldest oven in history with rocks and mud. It was both sad and uplifting. I can’t explain it.

I know this trip was opening my eyes to so much that we allowed to go wrong and what was worse was that so many of us saw it happening and did nothing to stop it.

But could we? Have stopped it I mean? how? I think it truly would have taken a full blown civil war to root out the bastards we allowed to destroy our country. 

I mean the fat cat self important Senators and House members. And the people who bought and paid for them. What was the choice ? Charge the ramparts and drag them out kicking and screaming?

Take them to the nearest lamp poles and hang them for being traitors to their Oath of office? For stealing the trust of the people?

Samuel Clements supposedly said “ While hanging it’s Lawyers and politicians might not help the country as a whole, it would be a great deal of fun and would do no harm to Decent folks” 

I think he was right. Look at the crap Nancy Pelosi pulled, flying back and forth on a huge Air Force plane to Californication every week end. Costing us tax payers hundreds of millions just so her fat ass could be comfortable and not be sharing a seat with the “lower classes”.

I’ll get that rope.!!!

No in a lot of ways things are going to get better but so many will have to die before it does. As long as some son of a bitch don’t shoot off a few nukes we still have a chance.

Sandy and I decided we would stay here for a few days to rest the animals and our butts. Not to mention get some fresh meat which was on the agenda around day break.

We also spent a lot of time teaching her to draw her pistol working with the holster location until just could draw from damn near any position. Now practice , practice and then practice some more until it becomes second nature.

We spent another long time soaking and playing and slept like babies. My last thought before sleep came was I hoped Molly wasn’t sleeping to sound.

And I guess not or nothing came around because we both woke up just before day break, took a quick soak and headed out on foot.

I had the can on my 308 and Sandy had the 10-22 with the can on it. (and her AK across her back). This gal takes being prepared to heart!

We headed down stream far enough that the water was cooling enough to drink, not cold but not warm. But didn’t taste all that wonderful

We found a place with a game trail crossing the stream and settled down in some brush. And within 20 minutes two does came to the water. Both had last springs fawns with them but they were well past nursing.

I had told Sandy to put her bullet tight behind the ear and to try for 2 shots rapid fire, I sighted in on the biggest doe and whispered on 3 and counted it out 1, 2 ,3 …pop pop POP .

The 308 does good enough with super sonic rounds and even better with subsonic ammo but was still louder then the 22.

We had 2 deer down and the rest scattering a bit but then they stopped and looked back so I took one of the yearlings, that was our fresh meat. the others were jerky.

While I dressed the deer Sandy headed back to camp for one of the Mules to pack the deer back. By the time I was done she was back and we loaded the deer over the cross bow and lashed them on.

We were back in camp within 2 hours of the first shots, deer hung away from camp in the shade and I was skinning the first one when Sandy started in on one of the others.

I told her I’d do it but she just smiled and said “ John I was a Daddy’s girl, this ain’t my first rodeo“. So we worked side by side and I refrained from checking her work.

When I looked over she was further along then I was and I complimented her on her abilities, she struck a pose with her butt sticking out and her

shoulders thrown back and said “ I think you like all my abilities right”?

I had to agree with that assessment because so far I haven’t seen one place where she is lacking in abilities. She’s just the perfect one to have with me on this adventure.

Cutting the deer meat into jerky thin strips and getting the willow racks built took all morning and half the afternoon.

We dug around in the supplies looking for anything that could be used to season the meat which was mostly salt pepper and brown sugar mixed with water.

Sandy suggested we open a couple of the big tins of peaches and drain the juice into the mix so we did that. And then we sat in the shade and enjoyed some of the peaches then she added a couple of ounces of JW to the mix. Guess we would find out if it was a good thing or not.

With all the meat drying over a low Smokey fire we built a fire in the earth oven and Sandy got another batch of corn bread going after the thing was hot. She had seasoned a back strap and rolled it in some foil I had brought for some reason and placed it in with the cornbread.

We then stripped and hit the hot pool and scrubbed the sweat and deer blood off and just relaxed and enjoyed the quiet.

After we dried off and dressed in our camp sweats we had pan fried back straps, hot corn bread with butter and crushed up peaches. The roasted loin we saved for breakfast.

We made a pot of coffee and doctored it with some JW and then Sandy asked me about the family and home in Texas. I told her about the underground small home I’d built with the help of our neighbor and his clan. Who were just the best damn folks you could want as friends and neighbors.

I told her how I came to be there and how Mom came to live there also. And  about the strangers who became more family then my blood kin.

She got quiet for a bit so I asked her to spill it. She said she didn’t know anything really about me and what to expect when we got to TX. She beat around the bush a bit and finely asked if I was married! I busted out laughing and said well shit girl you’re a bit slow asking that ain’t ya???

But I told her no I wasn’t. That I had been, more then once.

I told her about my Lady who shared the name Sandy. who had died from a nasty cancer but thank god had gone fast. I guessed I just never found one who could put up with me for long.

She smiled and said “ Hell John, your easy to keep up with” and busted out laughing. It took me a moment to realize what she said and then I grabbed her. Carried her to the pool and dropped her in. Cloths and all!

She came up coughing so hard I just knew she was choking on water in her lungs so I grabbed her and pulled her to me. At which time the little witch dug her feet in and launched backward dragging me in …cloths and all.

After trying to drown each other we stripped off the wet sweats and just enjoyed the moment. Making love in hot water can cause ones heart rate to speed up. But it’s worth it!

On the morning of the 5
day we were loaded and moving at first light, we both looked back at the place that would remain in our hearts forever. It had become a home to us and the last thing Sandy did was to lay a fire in the Earth Oven and put some matches in a Band-Aid box with a note with the date and our first names. We both hoped some weary traveler might find the clearing with the pool and make use of the oven.

We both knew we would one day come back here if we lived thru this mess.

It would be a wonderful way to live after the scum bags all die of stupidity ! God knows we have been doing our share to make them an endangered species.

One thing we had worked on was Sandy’s draw with her pistol. We worked her from every angle and position I could think of. We made a game of me suddenly with no warning “ Draw” and she would draw her gun, no matter what she was doing or holding.

After she dropped her first cup of coffee one morning I agreed under threat of loss of some very important benefits to not do it when it meant dropping important things.

Once when we were making love I whispered DRAW!! And she just smiled and said “NOT now John, I’m busy” lol..

She had gotten very good and from under her coat or shirt she was damn fast, She had none of the “Tells” most folks develop such as dropping the gun shoulder a bit just as they start to make their move.

She flickered her hand and the gun was in it. After training with her Glock and my 1911 she said she wanted a 1911 but not a double stack. I asked why and she said the trigger on the single action was so much better and the double stack was just too big for her hand. Both of which were true.

So far I hadn’t encountered anybody with a 1911 since I was at the ranch and took one of a dead guy and gave it to Bob. But I promised her I’d work on it. She laughed and said well at the rate we’ve been killing the assholes we’re bound to find one sooner or later.

One thing I had was 45 ammo and 9mm was in short supply, not that there was much pistol fighting going on but when it comes it comes fast.

Sandy had asked me about my shooting abilities and I had to laugh and told her that among my friends I shot matches with I was the slow old man but among the people we had been running into so far I was a bit better.

I also told her that gun fighting is just like fist fighting. Most of us are or were civilized people and were reluctant to throw the first punch. Whereas the folks who were bad before the event were not held back by that.

And the guy I had shot in Squirrel just didn’t know that there are some people who have trained for those moments all their lives. And when it comes their muscle memory takes over. He figured he was the bad ass of the town and thought I would start trying to talk my way out of trouble.

When his hand made that little pre-commitment to drawing his gun my training just took over and from there on my muscle memory did what it was trained to do. I had not made a conscious decision to draw. It just happened.

She was thinking real hard about it and after a bit she said she understood now how it happened. I had trained all my life for that moment and he hadn’t. case closed.