(Psst: The FTC wants me to remind you that this website contains affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase from a link you click on, I might receive a small commission. This does not increase the price you’ll pay for that item nor does it decrease the awesomeness of the item. ~ Daisy)
By the Author of Dear Diary: It’s Me, Jessica
Dear Diary,
It’s me, Jessica.
Our living room and kitchen have been taken over by plant pots!
Mom is determined to go even bigger this year with the gardens and has used nearly every single pot, container, bucket, canning jar, and even a few mixing bowls and casserole dishes from the kitchen for starting seedlings. We are still about a month out of our last frost date, but she is determined to get a jump start on it all. She let some of last year’s vegetables seed out, but she wants more this year for trade. Most of the store-bought seeds we had have been used. She still has herbs growing in several plant pots next to windows. A few of them have seeded out, and she planted them too. I am lucky I still have a place to sit near the fireplace to write that has not been taken up by a planting pot, bucket, canning jar, or mixing bowl!
School has been going very well. My students have been learning by leaps and bounds, and we have had a lot of fun. Dad’s engineering class is planning on building another outdoor oven at the Miller’s farm later this spring, with some new modifications Dad thought up. They took a “field” trip to Four Corners and met with Nate to help design the water mill. Nate and Dad had a great time working with the students, presenting them with problems for them to solve. Dad said Nate was a natural at teaching, and later, they discussed the possibility of him teaching his own engineering class at the school Four Corners was still planning on starting. Mom’s math class was doing well. She and Dad would make lesson plans she would teach that would cross over to Dad’s engineering class. Joan was rehearsing students for the play “Greater Tuna” and “Shrek” the musical. Billy had taken up coming once a week to teach an animal husbandry class. It is good to see him more.
The weather was too cold for most outdoor sports. Jack’s card club had grown larger with adults showing up and people of all ages began playing different games a few times a week.
Jack held militia training almost no matter what the weather was like. We had to dress “accordingly,” as he put it, and still train even if it was raining or snowing. The only time he would cancel is if it was polar-vortex cold or the windchill was high.
Diary, I cannot decide which is worse, training in the heat of the summer or the cold of the winter. One thing, I can dress for the cold of winter. There is no dressing for the heat of summer. Not with the power out. All we could do was sit in the shade and drink lots of water.
HAM Guy reported City HAM Guy’s girlfriend and child were doing well after two weeks. City HAM Guy does not even mind cleaning the diapers anymore. City HAM Guy talked with Jamal, and Jamal was eager to set up a radio meeting to discuss Jack’s idea of trade and food for supplies. Jack talked with some of the farmers and Sean at Four Corners. There were supplies they were interested in and were willing to trade with Jamal and his militia for. City HAM Guy and our HAM Guy set up a radio meeting for Jamal and Jack to talk and make a deal. They would meet at about the half way point between the city and Four Corners for the trade. Jack said Jamal sounded relieved. Jack felt he had the upper hand but did not think it was right to take advantage of them. They needed food. Jack wanted a fair trade agreement. But he would take a squad of the militia with him to do the trade.
He said, “We will go armed. They will, too. Trust, but verify.”
Jack wanted to be at the meeting place a day before the trade to set up the squad in concealment emplacements to control the situation if the deal went sideways. He wanted me there too. He said Jamal had seen me, knows me to be a known face. I was to be smiling, friendly, but “at the ready.”
The militia escorted Mr. Miller and Billy with the Percherons pulling a flatbed loaded with vegetables, dried fruit, cheese, caged rabbits, chickens, and several dozen eggs. It was two days on the road and one day at the halfway point preparing for the trade.
Diary, it did not feel right about setting up the militia for a possible ambush, but at the same time, if things went sideways, it made sense. Jack said once we had established trust, he would only take a few people.
Mr. Miller and Billy sat on the flatbed bench while Jack, the dogs, and I stood in front of them in the middle of the road at noon on the appointed day. The rest of the squad was hidden in the surrounding woodlands.
Shortly afterward, Jamal, with a few of his militia and a dozen others pulling carts, small garden wagons, or pushing grocery carts with supplies, arrived. They were armed as Jack thought they would be.
Jamal walked up, rifle slung over his shoulder, offered his hand to Jack, and said, “I am surrounded again.”
It was a statement. Not a question.
“Yes, you are,” Jack answered as he shook Jamal’s hand.
“You’re good.”
“I didn’t stay alive this long being dumb. The dumb do not live long in a firefight.”
“Right,” Jamal chuckled. He then looked at me with my rifle at the patrol carry, offered his hand to me, and said, “Good to see you again, Rambo.”
Diary, who is this “Rambo” person?
Entry two
A few days after the trade, the flu overcame both our community and Four Corners. It was not good. Both Mom and Dad got it, but for some strange reason, I did not. Rae, Allison, Kathy, and Joan did, but Jack did not. Nor did anyone at the Millers, but some did at the outer-lying farms. It did not make any sense. Daniel and Savannah did what they could at Four Corners. A young boy had a very high fever and Daniel and Savannah had to put him in a cold water bath to bring down his temperature. It worked but the boy is still sick. Some in the community and Four Corners blamed our trade deal with Jamal and his militia group for the infection. Both Jack and Sean did their best to stop those rumors. Daniel and Savannah, with what they had, could not provide any evidence of infection from anyone. Privately to Jack and I, Daniel theorized one of us at the trade was a carrier, asymptomatic but still contagious.
It just was what it was.
Those who got sick stayed home and rested. School had to be canceled as most were sick anyway. I took care of Mom and Dad. Tended to the seedlings in the living room and kitchen. Mom and Dad did not have much of an appetite, so I cooked for myself. I would also check in on Rae, Allison, Kathy, Joan, and other neighbors. They were in the same shape as Mom and Dad: Sick. Jack was doing the same, making rounds with the dogs. HAM Guy brought over Mom’s laptop after he charged it up off his solar array. City HAM Guy reported one of Jamal’s militia guys got sick on their way back to the city. Two days later, a few others came down with the flu. So far, Jamal has not gotten sick, but knock on wood.
It was a nice sunny day. The kitchen thermometer read fifty-five degrees. I decided that rather than listen to Dad snore on the couch or Mom’s occasional cough, I’d sit on the front porch and watch nature. Overhead I heard and saw a formation of geese heading North. Some Red Wing Blackbirds were gathered in a pine tree, chirping their distinctive chirp. The cat, Oreo, in a slow cat-like fashion, walked up to me. I picked her up and scratched the back of her ears while she purred in my lap.
Diary, it was funny to think, here I was sitting outside while the flu was running rampant. Back during the COVID lockdowns, I would not have been allowed to sit outside like this.
Entry three
After three days, Mom has fully recovered. Dad says he is mostly there. Others are somewhere in between where Mom and Dad are now. Mom’s appetite reappeared with a vengeance. She made a big ham, onion, and spinach quiche and ate half of it in one sitting! I was almost afraid to get to close to cut a piece for myself. Might lose a finger as she practically inhaled it!
Jack made a trip to Four Corners and said they, too, were recovering. The little boy had bounced back and was running around like nothing happened.
Some of the seedlings had sprouted in their pots and were looking promising.
The days were warmer and sunny. The nights were not as cold, but we still needed a fire. Mom thought we would have an early spring.
Diary, going to the city to help deliver City HAM Guy and his girlfriend’s baby, making the trade with the city folks, the birds, the seedlings, things felt like they had taken a turn. More normal. Well, as normal as it can be. I’ll call it “new normal.”
