Second

So, Jack says I should talk about my day on this post.

Since he's 'grading' these I guess I will. I get up every morning with the sun, get dressed, pick up my rifle, and head into the livingroom/kitchen. Usually by the time I'm up Jack already has breakfast on, usually some eggs and flatbread toast. We don't have much yeast usually, but one of the neighbors has been growing grain as his trade, so we get flower from him in return for meats and milk, usually.

Our 'house' if you could call it that, is a squat little hut, that was originally built out of brick. Its only four rooms. A central livingroom/kitchen area, with the hearth in the center, made out of rock and mortar. The rooms are built off it to the North, East and West. They're all about the same size, and include a personal closet. They stay cool in the summer and reasonably warm in the winter, though the central room is better. I have the East Room, Jack keeps the West Room, and the North Room is a storeroom and leads into the addition.

While I was still pretty young, Jack added on to his little brick house using Sod. From the outside it looks like our place is built into a hill. It ain't, the hill was built up around it, but apparently those first few years were pretty cold, and the brick wasn't insulated well enough. Like the old days, in the history book Jack has, he used Sod, because it was the most plentiful resource availible. Anyway, I don't know how he managed it alone, but our little hut has two extra rooms now, one is the armoury, the other is cold storage for meats and milk and such. In the Winter we make a trek to the Mouse river and pull out big blocks of ice. Bout six of them, that we shave and fit into places in the wall that Jack made. They do a good job of keeping the place cold all summer, but it does tend to get a bit damp at the end.

In the spring and summer most of my time is split between working our garden plot - which Jack says is just a little bigger then an Acre square - and looking after our livestock. All I know is its big. We have a garden tractor for this - but we only use it in the spring and fall to til. Gas is hard to come by and doesn't last long.

We have a small herd of goats, about ten strong with one billy and nine nannies. We usually trade off the kids, or slaughter them for meat. Every few years we roate a new billy and nannie in with the offspring, and slaughter the old. They keep the grass down, but boy are they ornery things.

We have one old milk cow that Jack affectionately calls Steaksupper. He's a little twisted. She provides a fair amount of cream that we mostly barter to a family down the road that makes butter from it. We collect her fecese after they've dryed and use them for extra fuel in the winter. Its not great smelling, but its better then freezing.

Beyond that we have a number of freerange chickens, gather eggs from them for consumption and occasional barter - and of course, their also useful for meat. Our Garden is mostly corn, peas, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, and two types of sqash, and carrots. We have an area of what Jack calls Volunteer potatoes that come up almost every year, and a few heads of onions, which Jack won't eat, but will cook with, and I will eat like an apple when they're young.

In the winter, I take the goats out of their shelter that they share with the cow and the chickens to forage. Steaksupper gets grain and hay that we've traded for in the winter. The chickens get feed that a mixture of extra corn and some of the cow's feed. Jack handles our wood supply, but I occasionally am called in to spell him in splitting. We do most of that in the fall, but not all of it gets split before winter. Its good exercise I guess.

We don't travel much. Go to town about four or five times a year. When we do we usually use space in one of the neighbors wagons. Jack's considered getting a horse and cart, but thats just extra output for little extra input in his mind. When we go, we trade our goods for things we need like preserve supplies, cartridge components, gas, and such.

One of our side 'businesses' is reloading ammunition. I guess for a few years, Jack made good with this - but with the threat of undead mostly died off around here, ammo isn't in as big of a need, and primers are getting scarce. We have a nice little nest egg though, should trouble flair up again - and we do good business with hunters.

Like most people, we carry at least a rifle everywhere we go. Mine is an old AR-15 that I guess belonged to my dad. Its good for killing most of what we run into out here - the occasional hungry Cyote or fox. Headshots will work against your average zombie - though I haven't had to shoot at one of those in years - and it does just fine against your occasional bandit. I missed most of that, but I ain't stupid - a rifle is a good friend to have out here. And I'm a pretty decent shot.

Anyway - I gots to get going. Chores.