June
5, 2017
It's
been a hard few days. There's just no way to get everyone here
comfortably settled in the space we've got. Fernando led our group on
a run to the closest RV and trailer sales lot and we took all six
trucks. We cleared the lot and sales building, set up sentries and
set about choosing the six trailers to tow back. Then, we went
through the RV's. Some of them were already showing their lack of
care, so we ended up with 12 working RV's to take back with us. That
gives us 21 more rooms, but ones with no power, no water and only a
little propane for heating but cooking is still done by Consuela and
her crew. Each one sleeps several people, so we'll be looking at
getting a couple of the families into them that have been stuck in a
small bedroom or enclosed back porch. At least with one of the RV's
or trailers, there is a little more space and more beds.
We
took in the 17 surviving members of the school band and we were
already cramped when we did, so the added space is needed. With all
the family members and now the band kids, we've got close to 80
people here now. Plus, we've been talking about getting some space
for a school room for the kids. We've got to think about the future
for the children and for us. We need to get things like the school
going, get the kids back onto a schedule and get them learning the
basics. We'll have to teach them some non traditional stuff too, like
how to defend themselves and how to use a gun. But basic subjects
like math, reading and writing are still important.
We
have several family members that are elderly and have health
problems, and then there are also injuries that happen. With us
always working on our defenses and repairing the buildings and
building new stuff like the corral to hold the livestock we've found
so far, people get hurt and Rosita, our cousin who studied to be a
Nurse Practitioner, needs a place to see patients. She was two days
away from walking in her graduation ceremony and had already been
given the job she wanted at the local medical center, when the dead
started rising. Guess she got really lucky, if it had been a couple
of days later, she would have been in the middle of the biggest
outbreak in our area and might not have made it to the Ranch.
Luckily,
with all the old farmers, we've gotten a good crop of corn going and
are going to try sowing oats next. Our vegetable garden looks like
Martha Stewart had a hand in it and we're really lucky to have the
room to grow as much as we have. We've got four types of tomatoes,
cucumbers, lettuces (several kinds), radishes, carrots, beets, bell
peppers, jalapeno's, squash, zucchini, herbs, strawberries, blue
berries, raspberries, blackberries, watermelons, cantaloupe and
honeydew. We have large patches of each, enough to supplement the
food we find that's still good. We'd been lucky enough to find a
couple of freezers that had been attached to solar power and had been
able to bring the meat and the solar systems back to the Ranch.
Some
of the cousins had been out looking for livestock to bring back. We
had a small herd of milk cows, sheep, goats, and five horses. We'd
had to make a couple of trips to feed stores to stock up on feed,
hopefully, next year our crop will supply this for us. So far, we've
just been milking the cows and feeding the rest, but they would be
food when we needed them to be. Again, having a large family can come
in handy, since Victor and Mario had both been butchers before the
pandemic.
We're
in a really good place right now and I really hope it continues. We
have people that aren't related to us in our group now. Shiela and
Darren have been spending a lot of time together and I've been
spending time with Marianne, she plays the clarinet. Life is good, or
as good as it can be in this time.
As a writer and artist, I appreciate
any readers and their comments. Thank you for taking the time to read
this blog. Please, come read the other blog I write for our artisan
collective, Raven's Castle Creations, on our website at
www.ravencastlecreations.com. It includes posts on art, the mythology
of symbols we use in our art, history and more! Also, come see the
art we produce in our Etsy store at
etsy.com/shop/RavenCastleCreations. Follow us on Twitter at
@ravencastleart and on Facebook at @ravencastlecreations.
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