Granny B jumped into the conversation. “Bill is right on target. Our thirty-plus years of prepping only gets us through the first year. What we do now, locks us into continuously improving our lot in life or places us in a spiral downward of barely living and despair.”
Tom took charge. “After morning chores are done, I want everyone but the guards back here to plan our next month, next year, and next five years. We have to stop muddling through and get on track to living and not just surviving.”
Tom and Kate were up early and took a tour of the ranch on horseback. Tom was keen to see if they were leaving too many trails back to the ranch from the pastures or other cabins. “Look! Bill and Jack have done a great job of pushing the cattle and horses around the area. There aren’t any clear trails heading to the ranch. He even ran them around the barn and what’s left of our home.”
Tom came back through the small orchard on the way back for the meeting. Kate plucked an apple from a branch. “These are tart but sweet. Shouldn’t we be picking them?”
“June has had most of the ladies over here picking apples and pears. We also have hazelnuts and walnuts out the wazoo that need to be gathered. That apple is a Honeycrisp and my favorite of all apples.”
Kate grabbed another apple and fed it to her horse. “How do we find and store enough grain and hay to feed the cattle and horses over the winter?”
“We only stock enough reserve to feed the horses through a couple of snowstorms. The cattle will graze in the woods north of the ranch and are on their own. Some won’t make it.”
Tom ate another piece of jerky and headed back to the ranch.
*
Chapter 17
Southeast of Ashland, Oregon
The old farm truck followed Tom’s pickup when it turned off Emigrant Creek Road to the clearing under the power lines. Tom drove cautiously down the steep hillside in the path under the transmission lines, quickly becoming overgrown with small saplings. Driving without lights was always dangerous, but traveling downhill cross-country was challenging. Tom went over the little trees without much effort, even though he knew the tracks could be seen for a long time. The pickup made the hill's bottom and now only had a couple of fences and a shallow ditch to negotiate.
Rick’s wire cutters made short work of the two fences, and the pickup and Jerry’s farm truck quickly crossed the ditch. Jerry shifted the transmission down into granny low gear, and the truck ate the ditch up and spat it out. A few hours before, the men had removed the sideboards and tailgate to enable the large truck to become a car hauler. Tom’s goal was to find and snatch two older tractors his scouts had identified at the abandoned farm.
Tom stopped the pickup next to the old 1972 Ford 3000 diesel tractor and quickly checked it out with Jerry’s help. Tom knew a little about tractors, but Jerry had helped his boss rebuild and restore old tractors. Jerry cranked the engine over and gave Tom the thumbs up. “This one will do. I rebuilt the engine about three years ago for old man Martin. Tell Rick to load it up while we check out the Allis Chalmers.”
While Rick, Bill, and James loaded the Ford, Jerry and Tom inspected the Allis Chalmers 185 Tractor. “This baby is a 1972 Allis Chalmers 185 with a six-cylinder diesel. More horsepower means more plow heads, which means faster plowing,” Jerry said.
Tom thought the tractor looked brand new. “Was this one recently rebuilt?”
“Yes, I rebuilt it for my boss, and he sold it to old man Martin about five years ago. It’s a keeper. Let’s load it up.”
“We need to hurry. It’s about one o’clock, and we need to search the place for any other useable items. I want to be home before sunrise.”
The barn contained mechanics tools and attachments for the tractors. The attachments were heavy, so Jerry fired up the Ford, which had a bucket on the front. He used the hydraulic bucket to lift the plow, box blade, hay rake, and hay baler onto the farm truck. He loaded the bush hog onto Tom’s truck. The others checked the home and freestanding garage.
Tom smiled when he walked into the garage. There was a shortwave radio, microphones, and other assorted equipment on a desk in a corner. A bookcase was full of books on shortwave radios and different types of radios. Another shelf to the left of the bench had numerous books on drones, but Tom didn’t see any drones in the garage. Tom asked the others to help him load the radio gear and books into his truck. Tom didn’t know much about shortwave setups, but knew the fancy microphones would impress Granny.
Tom noticed a small cargo trailer on the far side of the garage and opened the side door. He flicked his flashlight on and was confronted by a wall of shelves and brackets holding half a dozen large drones. There was a small desk in front of the trailer with documents and brochures. The brochures had the company name Rogue State Aero. They stated – Your Premier Drone Surveillance, Inspection, and Surveying Partner in business.
All of the large drones had cameras and something that looked like a GPS unit attached to their bottoms. Each drone had a control unit stored below, along with a bin for spare parts and attachments. Tom found
