One of the deals he’d made when he’d gone into the city so many months before when he’d first become uneasy with the world situation and the weather patterns was the purchase of firewood from several establishments that sold it in the city. He’d bought a total of a hundred full cords and it had all been delivered, except the last two cords, by the time the war started.
He’d made quite a few deals since then, to obtain wood from others. A few people cut it and sold it to him. Percy wouldn’t clear cut, so many people allowed him to send a wood cutting crew in to harvest selected trees for firewood. He took the entire tree, including branches. The good stove wood he began stockpiling at the hardware store. He’d found someone to manage it for him. They began selling the firewood, along with the remaining stock of items that Percy hadn’t taken out to the estate.
After Percy had moved what he wanted there was plenty of room to stack firewood inside the store. There had been three house fires in the time since the war. There simply wasn’t water available to fight them, nor equipment with which to do it. The town had a small pumper truck, but with only the two-hundred-fifty gallons of water it would hold, and no working hydrants to pump from, each of the three fires had been lost causes. Percy bought the houses, demolished them and stored the good lumber for later use. Wood not useable as lumber was added to the firewood piles, including furniture that wasn’t exceedingly useful.
Many people were grateful for the source of wood. No one said much when the winter worsened and people began to tear down abandoned houses for the wood they contained. Tom and the city council finally just condemned several of the houses, demolished them and used the wood and furniture from them in stoves that Randy built to heat the rooms in the school for people to use as shelter when they couldn’t heat their own homes adequately.
An opening was made in the outside wall of a room adjacent to the school’s kitchen. A large water tank was moved in and a pump with a pressure tank connected to it. A generator was run twice a day to pressure up the water system and provide electricity for several purposes. Part of the diesel they bought from Percy was used to run the genset. A horse drawn wagon with a water tank in it kept the tank in the school supplied. A limited amount of hot water was obtained by circulating water through the radiator of the engine of the generator.
Percy wasn’t able to make quite enough biodiesel to prevent using the stocks of the commercial fuel, but the use was vastly minimized. One of the things he paid a premium for were the chemicals needed to produce the biodiesel. The alcohol production was going well. Several vehicles had their engines converted to run straight alcohol, based on information obtained from books that Percy had in his library.
Gasoline was scarce. Percy had set up a buying program for gasoline the day he’d made so many other deals in town. He was buying gasoline from people that had cars that wouldn’t run, but still had fuel in them. He got over a thousand gallons that way. Most of it he accumulated in a tank in town and sold in cans out of the hardware store. He also sold some biodiesel there, as well.
Plans were made to convert a couple of trucks with gasoline engines to run on wood gas. It was a project for the next year, when better plans for providing firewood would be made.
Percy kept the generators going at the estate on a limited basis. They ran only when needed, then were shut down to conserve fuel. The heaviest use was for supplemental grow lights in the greenhouses. Some of the plants began to show signs of distress when the weather stayed cloudy for days on end. The regular rains kept the panels clear, and there was increased UV, but the lights were needed in three of the greenhouses that had plants needing more light than nature was providing.
With what people were doing on their own, in town and on other area farms, people were able to have enough to eat, though many lost considerable weight. Many had it to lose. A few didn’t.
Since it was easy to keep warm, one of the cottages was declared the new clinic. The equipment was moved from the clinic that had been built. Henry made regular runs into town and back to deliver small quantities of food, and shuttle people back and forth that needed a doctor or were paying off their labor barters to Percy.
Percy made it a point to feed everyone well when anyone worked for him. Many of them considered the hours of labor they’d already received some good, product, or service for, as a gift from heaven. They often got the equivalent again of what they originally purchased, as Percy provided everything, including their transportation.
Percy even insisted they see the doctor while they were at the estate and had an arrangement with the Doctors Bluhm to cover the cost so anyone working more than four hours for Percy had at least one comprehensive doctor’s visit. They didn’t have a real dentist, but Jock studied up, again in Percy’s library, and began to do the work.
There’d been a dentist in town at one time. He’d left in a hurry with the IRS after him two years previously. He’d left all his equipment behind. It was one of the properties that the city council had declared town property. Percy bought the equipment and moved it to the cottage for Jock to use.
It was an austere Christmas for everyone, but most that were Christian were able to celebrate to some degree. Percy hosted a Christmas Eve party in the school auditorium and almost everyone in the area attended.
One of the reasons for the party, besides the Christmas aspect of it was to have half a dozen marriage ceremonies performed. It was easier for the one surviving minister to perform them. It was also easier on the couples. The reception was taken care of, and all the guests were pretty much guaranteed to be there.
Four of the couples were townspeople. One couple was Andy and Susie. The sixth was Percy and Sara. He’d asked her after their Thanksgiving dinner at the estate and she’d agreed. Mattie had helped her move her things from the gold bedroom to Percy’s that weekend. Percy had the idea for the Christmas party and wedding when he’d asked her.
Percy provided all the food and drink for the party. It strained the production of the greenhouses, and put a noticeable hole in Percy’s reserves, but he felt it worth it. Things were going well. The townspeople provided the decorations, except the tree. Percy provided it and contributed it to the firewood pile after New Years. Everyone brought an ornament. The tree decorating was the start of the party as everyone hung an ornament.
It was the best meal many of the people had all winter, except those that worked at the estate from time to time. Percy hadn’t skimped. It was only partly due to the fact that not all the animals would survive the winter, though that was a factor. Two steers, four hogs, and thirty-six chickens fed the nearly three hundred and fifty people that attended. It was nearly the entire remaining population of the town and surrounding farms.
Even Sara’s boss made it down to attend. He was down to consult with Sara on her progress evaluating the area’s population and progress. He stayed for the party and left Christmas day to go back to the capital. There were many places, he said, that weren’t celebrating. Of all the counties he dealt with, this one was doing the best, by far, of any of them.
There was no celebration for the New Year. The weather had been cold and snowy for Christmas. It was downright bitter the week after and got worse after New Year’s Day. New Year’s Eve night the low at the estate was forty-one below zero. There was four and a half feet of snow on the ground. The snow was dirty, mixed with the ash that continued to fall from time to time.
Those at the estate did fine. It took very little to heat the earth-sheltered structures to a comfortable temperature. The animal barn didn’t need any heat. The animals kept it more than warm enough.