Debbie was immediately designated Chief
Agricultural Minister and with her assigned team immediately set to work
producing the fresh produce required to feed the new and growing population of
Border City. Debbie pretty much had the
county to herself. To interfere would
have been a big mistake. The land
outside the city limits was ideal for farming - flat, rich and available. There were several properties to choose from,
but in the end, Debbie chose a large farm in the county that had a huge house,
several out-buildings and up-to-date machinery.
The team stayed at the house throughout the week, but all members were
given town leaves on a rotating basis. Debbie ran her farm like the military.
The first summer and fall, the farm yielded a fair amount of
produce, produce that made most of the population happy, except for the fact that
there was a limited supply. However, it was not good enough to meet Debbie’s
high standards. The soil had to be
enriched and the planting needed to begin earlier. Farms in the area were scoured for natural
fertilizer.
Although Debbie had brought her personal supply of hens, she also
sent out a crew of two individuals to search out domestic animals that could
also be included in the farm project.
The crew was gone for about a month, and Debbie was getting concerned
for their wellbeing, but just about the time she was going to send someone to
search for them, a large truck pulled up to the farm. Inside were cattle, hogs, sheep and several
hens and a couple of roosters. It was
reported that Debbie greeted her search team happily, saying, “Well done
fellows. Now we have a farm.”
None of the animals could be used for meat. They needed to be bred to create larger herds
and flocks. Debbie needed more members
on her team and another site to house the stock. Fortunately, one was located on a corner property
that bordered a small stream and was not too distant from gardens. Stock also meant grains would be needed. There was adequate seed available on several
farms to suffice for the present, but corn, wheat and soy beans would have to
be planted.
By the third year, there were enough birds for an egg supply and also
meat. Pork took a little longer. There was a limited
supply of meat from that source in the second through the fourth years, as
boars were not needed in large numbers.
By the end of the fifth season, lack of pork was no longer a problem. Debbie was not yet able to raise enough dairy
cattle to provide much milk for the residents, nor was beef in abundance. When the large ships were completed however, that problem would be
rectified. Scouts had flown south and
found large herds of cattle roaming freely over the countryside.
Besides her work on the farm, Debbie encouraged the citizens of
Border City to cultivate their own gardens to take some of the burden off her
farm. She even visited would be
gardeners giving tips on how to raise this or that. With the original city council long ago
defunct, bylaws were meaningless. It was
not uncommon for folk to keep a bird or two in their yards for eggs, again
encouraged by Debbie. Occasionally the odd animal roamed freely about the
town. I had picked a winner in
Debbie. She was everything we had hoped
for. To think that she had almost
decided to live as a hermit with her two children.
***
Without a large fleet of ships daily
emptying the lakes of fish, the marine animal populations gradually began to
return to normal. It was amazing to see
residents fishing off the banks of the river catching enormous and plentiful
supplies. But it occurred to me that we
needed to reinstate a fisheries department, not to interfere with our local
fishermen, but to bring in a larger supply so that fish too, could be part of
the food source, especially for those who were working and had no time to spend
by the river. A few English speaking
survivors from Japan who had some expertise in this area volunteered for this
work. There were boats built especially
for this purpose docked in a nearby community, so it was just a matter of
arranging to get the volunteers to the boats.
When they caught fish in abundance, we would have them haul their catch
to the city in a large truck.
Our two new recruits did a fine job, but
needed to work on the lake infrequently as they never came in empty
handed. It was the best fishing they had
ever done. Because the meat wouldn't keep, for we didn't have suitable cold storage, they began to dry and
salt most of it. Fatty fish like trout,
they smoked. Many of those who enjoyed
eating fish were used to it this way to begin with. I remembered stories of the cod caught off
the coast of Newfoundland told by sailors from England. From their tales, you would think that the
fish just jumped into their dories. But
the fact remained that at that time, there were cod in abundance. With a moratorium on cod fishing over the
past few years, I wondered if that population had come back at all. In spite of my musing, we were nowhere near
the ocean and we were not about to send our local fishermen into the dangerous
Atlantic to have a look see, let
alone spend time there. At least for
now, our smaller world would just have to satisfy itself with fresh water fish
and since no one was asking, I wasn't
going to suggest it.
***
With all the jobs assigned to various
individuals and the work at the plants, it seemed that someday, we'd have to reinstate some kind of
currency. For surely everyone was not
going to work for nothing forever. Yet,
it was encouraging to see people volunteer their services, knowing that there
would always be a roof over their head and food on their table. Driving down one seldom used route one
afternoon, I had to slow down to miss a mother and her young children who were
in the middle of the street with brooms.
I slowed as I passed with my window open and asked the mother the
obvious question. “What are you doing?”
Her answer was telling. “We're
cleaning the street. It's dirty.”
And she wasn't just cleaning the
portion in front of her house; she and the kids were sweeping the entire
block. I thanked her for her service
before continuing on and thought about the wonderful people we had in Border
City, people who seemed satisfied to live a simple life. It seems that sometimes in life, tragedy can
bring rewards. The N’davalites had
thought to destroy us, reduce us to ashes so to speak. But we rose up from the ashes to become one
people. When people are united in mind
and body, there is no telling what they can accomplish. The greatest thing the N’davalites gave us
was a common purpose and the camaraderie that we now shared. There was no time to focus on differences in
color, culture, politics or anything else that just a few years earlier had
divided us. Humans can be so selfish,
but it seemed that even selfishness had been put on a back burner. Some would have called us true communists,
for we shared everything and worked for the good of the whole. It reminded me of the early Christians who
held everything in common. Maybe it was
money that had divided us. If I were
lucky, I wouldn't have to be here to see
our happy little society return to the days of the past.
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