The Guardians (3 page)

It was now fall once again and they had just completed the last of harvesting from the garden.  Processing the harvest, including dry storage and canning, was an all-hands-on-deck
affair.  Even the younger children were involved breaking beans and recovering seeds.  During the previous winter, the large number of people living in the home had put a much larger dent in Evan and Molly's long-term food storage than was expected.  This made production and storage of new food even more critical, as another winter rapidly approached.

Their harvest was based on vegetables grown with non-hybrid heirloom seeds that Evan and Molly had previously obtained during their initial preps.  Just as many other American's that were beginning to get concerned about the state of things before the collapse, Evan and Molly had done a lot of research on how to maintain a sustainable garden.  Non-hybrid heirloom seeds are critical in the self-sustainability of one's garden.  Hybrid seeds, or GMO's (genetically mutated organisms), are genetically modified to obtain certain characteristics and traits that aid in large-scale industrial farming, such as disease and pest resistance, survivability of mechanical picking, long range commercial shipments, color, etc.  Although to a commercial farm this may be of benefit, to the small-scale gardener or self-sufficient homesteader there are many drawbacks.  First of all, hybrid seeds do not grow true to the parent.  In other words, if you harvested hybrid super tomatoes, and then replanted their seeds, they would not grow into another batch of super tomatoes the next year.  They may or may not follow characteristics of the parent plant, and therefore you cannot maintain a consistent crop yield from year to year using your own recovered seeds.  This means when using hybrid seeds, you must commercially purchase new seeds each year, and if the supply chain for seeds were to fail, so would your garden.  In addition, as they are bred for commercial reasons, many hybrid plants and GMO's do not provide the same nutritional value as a non-hybrid plant.  When you are surviving on the food that you produce and the yield of your crops are not guaranteed, the maximum available nutritional value must be taken into account.  So in order to grow consistent crops year after year with the highest possible nutritional value, the Baird's, like countless other like-minded Americans, properly planned for the use of and acquired non-hybrid seeds for their sustainable garden.

This first year’s garden was productive, but they had a few lessons learned that they hoped not to repeat in the years to come. They viewed them as valuable lessons and teaching moments for the whole group, rather than failures and setbacks.  Taking a positive attitude during a survival situation such as this will go a long way towards ensuring your success.

One of their lessons learned was not to assume too much.  They planted several seeds, such as tomatoes, together in each hole assuming they would not get one hundred percent germination.  They did this to ensure there was not any unused space in the garden that would be yielding weeds rather than vegetables.  Fortunately, or rather unfortunately depending on how you look at it, they got what seemed to be one hundred percent germination from their tomatoes. This resulted in a crowded and tangled mess in the garden, rather than having things nicely spaced and easy to work.  This caused extra work when weeding and harvesting.  It was difficult to get to all of the tomatoes, or even notice all of the ones that were ripe. This caused some of the difficult to see or reach tomatoes to go unnoticed and die on the vine.

Another lesson learned was that peppers do not germinate all that easily in the ground.  Their pepper production was almost a complete failure.  They had planted banana peppers, bell peppers, and cayenne peppers, and their overall germination rate was about thirty percent at best.  This gave them just enough to recover the seeds for next year's crop; however, next year they would be starting the seeds in a greenhouse for later transplantation to the garden.  Although the intent of the peppers was more for spice and variety than for nutrition, little things like that go a long way in terms of morale in a situation where you have limited food choices for extended periods of time.

One of the more substantial lessons learned was that it is best to grow melons vertically, or to at least give them a wide berth, as they will branch out and take over other parts of the garden as they grow.  This of course was not a catastrophic mistake, but it did like in the case of the tomatoes, increase the workload required to maintain the garden as well as causing some production loss.

Although they had a few setbacks and learning moments, they felt these lessons learned would help them to better plan and coordinate their gardening/farming for future seasons at the Homefront.

In addition to their gardening, they had focused hard on their livestock as well.  Although they had lost several of their chickens during the raid, of which they all jokingly reminded Jason on a regular basis, Molly shifted her chicken focus from mostly egg production to a balanced mix of egg production and breeding.  Luckily, their four roosters had survived the destruction of the chicken coop.  One of the roosters had been acquired accidentally by purchasing a straight run bantam chick that later turned out to be a rooster.  She had originally purchased her three Bantams just for the hobby of it, as they are small and are not ideal for egg and meat production.  Given the situation however, she reluctantly decided to add them to food supply.  This gave her Bantam, Black star, Leghorn and Rhode Island Red's for her flock.

The rabbits were also doing well and producing a steady supply of protein for the group.  Sarah had volunteered to be their keeper since she and Jason had already been successful with their own rabbits back in Ohio.  This not only helped take some of the workload off of Evan and Molly, it also gave her something to help her feel as if she was earning her keep. 

Evan, Jason, and Griff had discussed hunting the deer and other game animals on the property, but they decided not to thin the herds out too quickly.  They knew that others in the area, who had not been as prepared as they were, would be resorting to hunting right away.  With this in mind, they felt that it would be prudent to keep the deer on the Homefront as a reserve food supply, and to let their herd stay at abundantly healthy numbers.  Keeping the property a low stress area for the deer may also eventually lead to deer from pressured areas migrating towards them and onto their property.  Their routine security patrols and watches would help them ensure that others were not venturing onto the Homefront to poach any of their deer.

Another important addition to the Homefront was milk cows.  After the attacks, Molly had regretted not having already acquired a milk cow.  What was once seen as good judgment in holding off on buying a cow until they felt they were ready, had turned out to be a regrettable error.  Molly joked that waiting to complete your preps until you felt you were ready was like waiting to have a baby until you are ready.  "Sometimes you just need to jump in and do it before it's too late," she would say.  Luckily, they had found a way to solve that problem.

After the dust had settled, Evan, Jason, and Griff ventured out into the surrounding county to reach out to their adjoining neighbors.  Evan and Molly had not been able to get to know everyone prior to the collapse, as it was a very rural area with most homes being secluded onto tracts of land similar in size to the Homefront.  At this point however, they felt that all of the surrounding neighbors would mutually benefit from some sort of alliance, or at least a mutual understanding and cooperative existence.

During these outings, they had gotten most of the surrounding neighbors on board with a plan to set up an informal barter system. They took a list of each of the goods or services that each of the neighbors felt they could offer as payment for the other goods and services that the other neighbors offered for barter or trade. There were twelve of the fourteen nearby properties that had agreed to be a part of this voluntary cooperative. 

The first deal Evan made with a neighbor was with Oliver Thomas.  Oliver was an eighty-six year old Korean War veteran who lived on one hundred and fifty acres with his wife Mildred.  They had raised three children, but they had long since moved away and had not been heard from since the collapse began.  Ollie, as he preferred to be called, raised cattle as a retirement hobby that had now turned into a life-sustaining endeavor for him and Mildred.  He offered Evan the use of two milk cows to be rotated back into the herd and replaced with other milk-producing cows whenever necessary.  This would ensure a constant supply of milk at the Homefront.  In exchange, all he asked was that Evan, Jason, and Griff act as his security if he ran into trouble with outsiders, or if they needed medical assistance since Molly was a registered nurse. 

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Chapter 3: Texas A&M

Six o'clock had finally arrived and Nate met Mark Tucker as was previously planned.  The van that the Texas State Guard was using for their around-town shuttle service was a Ford E450.  It appeared to have previously been used as a hotel shuttle service van, as it still retained its hotel paint scheme, yet had the addition of expanded metal screening over all of the windows and the radiator grill. The two men boarded the van and Mark explained to the driver who Nate was and that he was his authorized escort.  The van driver welcomed Nate aboard and left right on time for its scheduled route through town.

"What stop is the university today?" asked Mark.

"Fourth," responded the driver.

"We leave at a scheduled time every day," Mark said to Nate.  "That helps simplify planning and logistics with limited comms, but our driver randomly mixes up the route each run, not telling anyone else until they are on the van.  That makes it more difficult for anyone to ambush us along the way."

"You have a problem being ambushed here?" questioned Nate.

"From time to time," he answered.  "The cartels are chipping away at us bit by bit. Just as the insurgents used to do in Iraq and Afghanistan, they hit our personnel in order to discourage more people from joining us and help us hold them off at the border.  They see the Southern U.S. as ripe for the taking without a Federal Government and U.S. Border Patrol," Mark explained.

"What happened to the Border Patrol?" asked Nate.

"I used to be Border Patrol," the van driver interrupted.  "When it all started, the administration immediately dropped the U.S. border as a priority.  They ordered us all to Washington D.C. and other political locations of interest to keep them and their families safe.  A few who either had nothing else going on, or who were political loyalists, stayed and went; most of us however, said to hell with that and bailed.  I joined the CBP to protect my country, not to be a political bodyguard.  Besides, we've got families to protect as well.  So when the CBP basically dissolved overnight, the cartels instantly filled the power vacuum on the border.  We'd be Mexico right now if not for the Texas State Guard and the Texas Citizen's Guard."

For the rest of the trip across town, Nate just gazed out the window, looking through the expanded metal screen just taking it all in.  He had seen and gone through a lot over the past year, almost none of it being positive.  Having groups like the Texas State Guard and the Texas Citizen's Guard was the first sign of hope he had seen.  Hopefully, there were people out there in other parts of the country that were doing the same, serving as guardians of their own homes and towns, rather than depending on the rule of others to do so.  If we were ever to have a hope of piecing the country back together, it would need to start out like this, as the Federal Government, at least in its current form, was more of an enemy occupying force than a legitimate government.

As they approached the university, Mark said, "Well Nate, here we are.  Once we get inside I'll take you over to the administration folks.  Hopefully, if your brother decided to stay on, they will have a record of him.  They run a pretty tight ship here personnel wise.  They have to for security reasons."

Nate could feel his stomach twisting into knots as he realized that after his yearlong journey he may be about to find out if it was all for nothing.  If there were no records or sign of his brother, would he press on to the East Coast alone to try to find his parents?  This possible reality was just now entering his head.  Hell, maybe I'll just stay on with these guys he thought.  He had always envisioned making the rest of the journey with his brother, but deep down inside he knew things might not work out that way.

Mark and Nate stepped out of the van; they thanked the driver, and then proceeded to the front gate where an armed checkpoint was in place.  "They don't let the van pull onto the grounds, just in case the van was hijacked by the cartels along the way.  We don't want them to get a Trojan horse inside," said Mark.

"Makes sense," replied Nate.

They walked to over to the security checkpoint at the entrance of the facilities.  Mark explained to the sentry standing guard who Nate was, and gave them a discreet password in order to be allowed inside.  He whispered it off to the side so that only he and the sentry could hear it.  Nate after all, was just a guest and did not warrant access on his own accord.  The sentry waved the two men inside and Mark said, "The administration folks are just a few buildings over.  They are set up in one of the dorms where we house the folks assigned to the university.  What's your plan if you can't find your brother?"

"I haven't thought things that far out," he replied.  "The only thing that I have had to keep me going inside all of this time has been finding my brother.  I've played every scenario out in my head countless times, but never without him."