We’re rolling out in half an hour, so I’m going to get my shit together.
Man, I can’t wait for a venison steak.
Mmmm. McBambiiiiii.
September 10th, 2010
GRAVEYARD HUMOUR
Busy bees, dear reader. I’m bloody knackered. I’ve never done so much damn physical labour in my life and there seems to be something to do all the time of late. Being part of a community is pretty damn hard, especially when you’re one of its… leaders?
The thought of me leading anything is laughable as I’m just not built that way, but what I am is woman of action. I don’t sit about on my arse letting other people do the hard work and shit needs to get done. With Nate the only real shooter around here and me an advanced amateur at best (thanks to my intense training and on-the-job experience alongside Nate) the others look to the two of us when things need sorting out beyond the gate.
Hmm. I like that phrase for going outside. “Beyond the gate.” It has a nice poetic ring to it. Fuck it, I’m keeping it.
Between Freya, Maria, and Norah, the homestead is well cared for, both in terms of physical location and the people within. Norah is everyone’s caring grandma, Maria is a natural caregiver, and Freya—as I have repeatedly banged on about—is just so bloody lovely she puts everyone at ease. Well, everyone except Isaac. That poor guy is seriously intimidated by her, which is hilarious, because personality wise, there’s nothing intimidating about her. Isaac’s just a typical guy with a dash of social awkwardness and painful shyness getting flustered by the presence of a beautiful woman. Seriously Isaac, she’s a bloody person. Talk to her like one.
Mark is constantly busying himself around the place, which is great. He’s making sure everything is in working order, checking if Nate and I need to acquire anything on our trips beyond the gate (yes, this works, it’s in for definite now) and is currently helping Isaac set up the security cameras around the exterior of the lodge’s perimeter. Apparently, the cameras themselves are powered by solar cells, which is pretty funky, so they don’t need wiring, and transmit on their own wi-fi signal to a router, or hub, or something or other, in the lodge.
Mark is installing them around the place, while Isaac does all the techie setup nerd stuff. Both clever guys.
You know, on reflection, we got damn lucky with this bunch. The spread of skills fills so many gaps, and it burns me to say it, but Bancroft knew what he was doing with the people he held hostage. Granted, he was a spectacular arsehole in how he assembled them, but the diversity of skills and knowledge covered with this small group of people is fabulous.
We could really do with another team to function beyond the gate though. Nate and I have a constant “wish-list” from the group, whether it’s gardening or cooking supplies for Norah, medical supplies for Maria, engineering or techie stuff for the boys, etc.
Weirdly, one thing we really need to sort out is clothing. With the weather turning recently, I’m acutely aware that winter is coming, and we don’t have much in the way of warm clothing for everyone. I don’t know how well this place handles the cold with all these glass doors, though Mark says the place is super-insulated. However, the lodge probably wasn’t utilised for retreats in the winter so probably didn’t have to be heated. We could conceivably freeze to death in here if the power drains out trying to heat this big place, so Mark is turning his engineer brain into a solution for that.
One thing we do have is a plethora (still love that word) of woodland greenery around us. Cheshire is a green county with plenty of accessible firewood, so getting some wood burners in here seems like a sensible plan. Then we can save the electricity stores for things like hot showers (which I will fight to the death for) and important stuff like cooking.
Though cutting down trees and chopping wood sounds like back-breaking work and yet another bloody job that needs doing.
You know, I’m having a newfound respect for those who carved out a living from the land back before all this modern industry and convenience. There is a shitload of work to constantly be done, and we haven’t even got into the situation of farming yet. Survival is a consistent cycle of hard work and unity, so I tip my forelock to the men and women of the past who had to fight and scrape for every warm night and full belly.
For the moment, we’ve got healthy supplies of canned, dried, preserved food and the like, and with Norah’s magical ability to turn shitty off-the-shelf food into a gourmet meal, we don’t feel like we’re eating badly. Honestly, it’s like the woman has some magical pouch of pixie dust that transforms boring fare into lip-smacking goodness. We’re definitely past the shitty days of Nate and I eating cold beans from a can and sleeping in the truck, and I won’t miss those days at all.
Since Nate dropped his “proud” statement on me, the two of us have really bonded. I mean, we had already through our shared experiences and hardships, but there’s a definite change. Nate opening up a bit has relaxed him, and that trust he has in me is really starting to show.
He’s still always teaching in everything he does with me, and I lap those lessons up like I’m dying of thirst, but now he can see I’m really listening to him, he doesn’t have to try and ram them home. It’s made our sojourns (another great word) beyond the gate more relaxed, and I’m starting to see more of those little flashes of humour from him. He’s actually got a pretty dry sense of humour, being all calm and stoic as he is,
