Life Renewed Ch. 01

Next, he drove into his local town and ordered a quarter of a grain fed beef cut and wrapped, specifying that he only wanted the good steaks and roasts and brisket and stew meat, and that all hamburger should be at least 80/20 or preferably better. Anything else could be disposed of anyway the butcher would like. He also ordered 20 chickens cut and packaged in halves, the prime cuts of pork plus extra bacon and hams, lots of hickory or hardwood smoked bacon, thick sliced if it was available. The butcher talked him into having a large batch of smoked sausage and breakfast sausage made up, along with some beef jerky all of which the butcher was sort of famous for, at least locally. Some of the smoked sausage would be make from beef scraps for a different taste.

He also stopped at a package store and bought as many cases of Crown Royal they had in stock, which was not all that many, so he also bought several cases of VO Gold. He did like smooth Canadian blended whiskey. He also bought a mixed case of some of the finer American Bourbons they had, like Knob Creek, Pendleton, and Jim Beam Black. On a whim, he also bought a couple of cases of different brandies and liqueurs plus several cases of assorted wines based on recommendations of the store owner. He knew he would never drink that much, but it would not go bad if kept at an even temperature and that he had in his mine storage area. Besides, he had heard the old joke about "snow snakes" many times in his life.

That done, he headed back home and stowed everything away and then hooked up to a small trailer he had found in the barn and prepared to head south the next morning early to a different and larger town where the Sam's Club was located so he could buy large quantities of case lot foods at a much lower price than at a regular supermarket.

He then started to review his shopping list of everything he even thought he might need during a long winters isolation from the world. When he was finished, he went to bed early and awoke early for his trip. After he had completed his shopping at the Sam's Club and had everything loaded and secured under a tarp, he had the truck bed and the trailer both filled with cases of canned goods, flour, sugar, coffee and just about anything else you could imagine. He thought he could have opened his own store with what he had. Can you imagine what a 9-month supply of toilet tissue and paper towels looks like. Remembering eggs, he bought several dozen and a batch of frozen egg dishes for breakfast that he knew he would hate. He had also bought some "instant eggs" for baking during the winter, a necessity until he got his own chickens next year.

He did stop on the way out of town at a farm and ranch store and buy several sets of long underwear, caps and hats, comfortable work and driving gloves, and a ton more winter clothes. Roughing it alone did not mean freezing. While he was in the farm store getting riding and dress boots as well as winter and insulated rubber boots and such, he noticed a bulletin board with notices and ads on it. One of the ads caught his attention quickly as it was a photo of 3 young Golden Retriever puppies for sale. He looked at them and made a quick decision to call the owner, having forgotten about wanting a Yellow Lab and after doing so, drove to the house, and came away with a 3-month old bundle of licks and loves as the two had bonded immediately. So, it was back to the farm store for a 9-month supply of puppy feed as he could eat puppy food until he was between 12 and 18 months old.

James never thought about the need for puppies to have regular checkups and vaccinations. It would come to him soon though and he would deal with it at home. He stopped several times on the way back to the ranch to let the pup out on a leash to potty and to help prevent car sickness. By the time, they reached home, they had bonded and the pup was attached at the knee to James, causing him to laugh for one of the first times since the disaster. James knew he was going to have to come up with a name for the pup as he did not want to be like John Wayne was in a couple of his westerns where he had a dog simply named "Dog". The pup ran around and tried to play with James the whole time he was trying to unload the trailer and truck bed. That done, James took the pup inside and showed him where his bed was going to be, right beside James' bed unless the pup decided he liked it closer to the fireplace.

James had found a working log splitter and several chainsaws in the barn so he had taken the large truck and had gone up to the mountains and had cut whole truckloads of deadwood out and split it and then loaded it. James repeated this process again and again over a four-day period and still wondered if he had enough wood for a long winter. After getting all the firewood cut and split and stacked, he decided that one more trip would be needed to make sure that he had enough, especially since he now also had a large propane tank. After that load was split and stacked he had what looked to be about 10 or 12 cords of wood. He took enough inside to fill the inside wood rack as well as stacking about a rick of wood on the back porch under the roof and then went ahead and laid in a good start for a fire in the fireplace, just to be ready. It was getting colder every day it seemed and he knew it would only be a short time until he would be snowed it.

He took this time to go into town to get a haircut and check with the attorney, take care of any outstanding business and to pick up his packaged meat and take it home. All told, he had well over 200 pounds of meat. He did not think that he could ever eat that much meat, but it was still cheaper to get it that way than to buy it from a grocery store.