Percy always remembered the death toll in the town and surrounding area. There were forty-one deaths from the cold. The same number as the negative thermometer reading.
At least the bees had quit dying off. When Percy had checked the hives in the bee barn that night there were only the normal number of bee carcasses outside the hives. The fanners at the entrance of one of the hives looked like very young bees. Percy breathed a sigh of relieve. Bees were very important to a farm.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“Okay, honey,” Sara said, “I’m up. What is so important today?” Sara was standing and stretching beside their bed.
From the bathroom Percy said, “We’ve got to get a load into town today. It’s your first trip driving one of the Unimogs with the snow blower on the highway. I want you to practice on the driveways before we get out on the highway.”
“Oh, Percy! I’ll do fine. You know you can have one of the others drive it if you don’t trust me.” The last was added chidingly.
Percy looked around the doorframe. He still had shaving cream on his face and the straight razor in his hand. Unlike most of the men, he still shaved every day. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s just… I worry about you. I finally have you in my life and I don’t want anything to happen to you. Since the road became so bad, using the snow blower is tricky and dangerous. Especially at the stream crossing. It’s really narrow there across the culvert we put in after the bridge went down.”
“Oh, Percy,” Sara said with a smile. She stepped up to him, put her arms around him and kissed him on the lips, shaving cream and all. “I love you when you worry. I love you a tiny bit more when you don’t, but it’s not that much different.”
Percy wiped his wife’s face clear of shaving cream with the towel from the vanity. “I love you too, all the time. No matter what. Now get your shower and get dressed. We are going to clean the driveways on the estate before we leave, whether its practice or just getting the job done.”
When they went downstairs for breakfast, Andy was fussing in the kitchen, banging things with the cumbersome splint on his left leg. “Dadgum it,” he half cursed. “I hate this thing.”
“He won’t sit down and let us do it,” Amy said. Her sister nodded.
Susie came into the kitchen and put her hand on Andy’s arm. “Come and sit down. Let them do their job. I keep telling you not to try to do things with that leg. Jock said you need to keep off it. That splint isn’t quite as effective as a regular cast, but the one that will fit you is on Howard.”
Andy frowned at his wife, but took a seat, out of the way. The sisters went on with the breakfast preparations. Mattie was sick in bed with a bad cold. “I wish I could go with you,” he groused. It’s my job to be doing things like this. Not you and Mrs. Jackson.”
“Not when you’re hurt, Andrew,” Percy said, pouring them both cups of tea. The coffee that was left was kept for special occasions. There were four coffee plants in one of the greenhouses, but Percy wasn’t sure they’d produce. Even if they did, they wouldn’t provide much coffee. But some. Eventually.
“You’ve worked hard enough, and will again. You can monitor the radios, just as you’ve been doing. Each person has to do what he or she is capable of doing. You can do the radios and keep things on an even keel around here. And keep an eye on the other Dr. Bluhm. Dr. Bluhm has been saying she’s doing too much, too.”
“When are you going to start calling us Jock and Melissa?” Melissa asked. She elbowed Jock just a little. “What have you been telling them? I just realized that everyone has been trying all of a sudden to get me to take it easy.”
“Well, it’s your first child, and you’ve had some problems already.”
“I’ve got the second best doctor in the state attending me. I’m fine and I will be fine, if Junior here ever decides to take a break from trying to kick my insides to the outside.” Melissa’s hands cupped her belly. It was February and she was almost eight months along. She was short and slender. Jock was tall and rangy. Apparently the baby was going to take after its father.
After a quick breakfast Sara, Susie, Jock, and Percy headed for the equipment barn through the tunnels. The additional berms had all been removed before the worst of the freezing weather had hit. Suzie fired up the Bobcat 5600T Utility Vehicle. She ran it over and connected the snow blower for it. Percy and Jock were raising the barn door to get out the vehicles.
Susie used the Bobcat to clear the accumulation of snow near the doors and headed toward the animal barn doors. Percy and Sara climbed into their respective Unimogs. The snow blowers for them were already attached. The box beds were installed the night before. The plows had been on for days. The two headed out of the barn, one blowing snow one way, the other, the other way.
It took only a few minutes to get the three feet of accumulation cleared from the area between the various barns. The rest of the crew would work on moving the fifteen foot high windrows of blown snow that resulted from the multiple snow blower passes away from the barns later. Right now they wanted to get the day’s delivery to town. They were only making two runs a week now and people were waiting on the food.
Henry pulled the shuttle bus out of the equipment barn and followed the two Unimogs, now clearing the driveway toward the open gates. Percy took the lead and Sara dropped behind him, offset to clear an almost doublewide road. They turned toward Doc’s first, and cleared the road to his place and his drive while Henry waited in the shuttle bus for them to return.
It didn’t take long. Doc would be able to get out now if he needed to in Andy’s Jimmy he’d started using when his old Dodge Power Wagon blew an engine. The engine was being replaced, but it would be spring before it was done.
The piles on either side of the road stood close to twenty feet high. The actual snow depth was over ten, but each of the last few trips to town the road had needed clearing. Not much of the snow blown to the sides of the road had melted.
Percy slowed appreciably when they came to the stream. The bridge, damaged some during the quakes, had become detached at one end and half fallen into the stream. Percy had moved a large culvert from the county maintenance shed and installed it in the stream. They filled over it and packed the fill down using the Unimogs and the Bobcats. A layer of compacted gravel completed the roadbed. The culvert was big enough around, but it was only twelve feet long. Not much margin of error when crossing the stream.
Percy eased onto the new stretch of road and cleared the single lane. He pulled back onto the highway on the other side, stepped out of the truck, and watched Sara cross the culvert. She did it easily and waved to him. She passed him and took up the lead position. Henry followed sedately behind, his passengers napping. Another crew would be coming back with him to work the labor hours with which they bought food, fuel, and firewood. Not a one begrudged Percy the work.
Reports coming in on the radio indicated that, as they had been at Christmas, their little community was thriving in comparison to others in the state. Down south it was better, but there was no guarantee it would continue to be so. Even the areas that weren’t under the waters of the new, much larger Gulf of Mexico.
Much of the crowd at the school didn’t really think it was so great. With the heavy snow accumulation, Steven’s store had been abandoned, as had the hardware store. Everything centered on the school.
The main entrance of the school had been cleared with shovels, and there were the signs of a couple of paths leading somewhere. Percy and Sara cleared the same large area cleared on the last trip.
People were waiting for the food delivery. Those scheduled to work the next few days eagerly helped unload the food and take it to the kitchen. Steven would distribute it from there. He, like several others that had remained fairly independent, had moved his family to the school when it became difficult to maintain heat in their own homes.