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Part 4
News of the cows being stolen was spread throughout the Group. To date, the area had seen no violence, looting, etc. This was the first report of anything of the like. Being a couple hours from a metropolitan area of any size and an hour from even a town of more than 10,000 certainly helped that.
The news had a positive effect of sharpening everyone's senses. People who had previously acted as if they were just being inconvenienced by being there, were suddenly aware of the fact that bad things could happen even this far out in the boonies. Mostly this was the dependents. In previous "bug out weekends" Jim's crew had practiced activation of the retreat for 2-3 days at a time. Guards were put out, noise and light discipline were in effect, patrols were done, power and water were taken off grid, etc. On one long remembered weekend, Jim arranged for 6 mock aggressors to attack the retreat. Using blanks, several possible attacks were thrown at the retreat during night and day. Afterward, everything was critiqued as a Group, improvements were made in tactics, defenses, etc. They trained constantly. When they weren't training they were working on or upgrading the communal parts of the retreat- the team garden and orchard, defenses, House 2, etc. They had fun with it though, to be sure.
The area for the meeting was cleared late the night before the meeting. Since they had more than enough people, Jim sent 2 people to sweep the meeting area and to remain until the morning for security at the meeting.
The only danger lied in Debbie's truck being followed to the meeting area, since Debbie and Mr. Hansen both had no idea even where the meeting was to be held. Vehicles were less and less of a problem due to short supplies of fuel. Jim wondered where Debbie got her fuel from. "Probably traded dope for it." Jim thought. Debbie had previously been the area's largest dope seller. Pot, wouldn't sell crack or any "hard" drugs, in her words. "It doodn't hurt nobody Jimmy" she had told him. Debbie probably got the first indication that Jim was crazy when he pulled her aside after her heard about her side business and told her that if he ever found her selling drugs to his son or nephews that she would beg for death for 2 days. She smiled and started to laugh, then noticed the slightly off look in Jim's eye. Now Jim wasn't crazy, he was a very sane, responsible person, but the look was real and unmistakable. It wasn't a vain threat.
The security team put out TRC3A wireless seismic detectors near the roadway coming from either direction to the meeting area. The meeting area was to be a small pull off near the woods on a dirt road approximately 1/2 mile from the retreat. The detectors would alert the security team when any people, vehicles, even animals, came within 30 yards of the probes. Essentially, the team was using them as warning of Debbie's truck and as way to detect any vehicles that might trail her. The area was swept, detectors put out, trails investigated and a cover position found within an hour of arriving at the site. The two men went on "50%", which meant one would sleep while the other would guard. Once light broke, they would both awake and move to separate positions than what they held at night.
_____________________________________________
Rusty and Todd arrived back without incident. Jim talked to them about what happened during the patrol.
"Obviously no problems. Any sign of tracks, activity?" Jim asked.
They both looked back and forth at each other.
"Dude, we got some problems. We followed a whole mess of tracks, I mean dozens of them. At first I was like "Holey frickin crap, there's a damn platoon down here."
"Yeah, but I showed him closer, they were cow tracks!" Rusty laughed.
"No doubt, I was thinking we were going to have to haul butt out of there when we found those fifty guys, but it was cow tracks." Todd said.
"Cow tracks?" You sure? Jim asked.
"You know any other animals that has hoofs like this Hoss?" Rusty asked, showing a drawing of a track.
Jim laughed, "I'll be damned, I think we got some info we can use here. Where did the tracks go and were their any other tracks?"
"Yeah, their were two sets of human tracks. From where they crossed the road, we tracked them about 300 yards further into the woods. Then we found a bunch of dead and hacked up cows." Todd said.
"Hacked up? Like satan worshipers or something?" Jim asked.
"No, looked more like a couple of dumbbutts trying to butcher. We also found the remains of a fire, although it didn't seem like it was big enough to cook any of the meat." Rusty said.
"Did you follow the human tracks?" Jim asked.
"They went back to the road and then they must have walked along the road for a while cause we lost them. Checked the embankments for about a half mile, did the lost spoor procedure, all of that." Todd said.
"Any other sign around where they cooked?"
"Yes, we found 3 empty 7.62x54 casings, I'm guessing from where they shot the cows." Rusty said.
"Can I see them?" Jim asked.
Looking over the cartridges, it was evident they did not come out of an autoloading weapon and that the rounds were in bad condition. Two of the shells had split cases.
"Two people but only sign of one weapon?" Jim asked.
"Looks that way, probably used the less important weapon to kill the cows. I'd used a .22 if I had one to save ammo." Rusty said.
"That's true. Listen, we are meeting with the guy that owns the cows later today. I want you guys to get some rest and later come with me to meet him." Jim said.
"Why are we meeting with him?" Todd asked.
"Well, if we can help him find these guys and deal with them, it helps us too, right? Besides, it might solve some other problems as well." Jim said.
"Always the frickin riddles. ." Todd said.
"I guess I'll diagram the sentence for you... what I'm saying is, we are going to offer to protect this guy's cows in trade for some meat from him. Of course, if you guys would rather have rice and lentils than a nice juicy steak, well..."
"I get it dude, hell yeah!" Todd said.
"It's a "win-win" situation for us and him. We will probably just have to get a smokehouse put together, but we should come out pretty good. Plus, this will give us an opportunity to take some of the other guys out on live patrols with us and test their skills. Everyone wins." Jim said. Being a salesman by trade, he was often able to "sell" ideas like this. Course, it was beneficial to all involved.
_____________________________________
The Group had no large animals. All the stock was considered "small stock." The Pygmy goats being the largest. Jim had some pasture, but not enough for a large herd nor did Jim have the time to play rancher before everything fell apart. However it was clear that if the group was going to make it o.k. with the large number of people now residing at the retreat, more had to be put into food production. Jim's uncle had plenty of pasture and especially at this point in time, would not complain about having cows grazing there. In return his uncle would be kept well fed.
Cows also meant manure. Manure meant better yields in the garden areas and in the orchards. Jim had already been letting his goat herd into the garden areas after the major harvests were over to browse on the residual plants and weeds. The goats cleaned up the mess and pooped right where it was needed. Jim could never understand people that kept animals goat size or larger in small pens and then busted their butt cleaning out manure and hauling it to their gardens. Why not just let the animals drop it where it was needed?
The Group would trade security labor for stock animals. Over time it was hoped that a small herd would be acquired and eventually the security labor could be given up as they become more self sufficient.
News of the cows being stolen was spread throughout the Group. To date, the area had seen no violence, looting, etc. This was the first report of anything of the like. Being a couple hours from a metropolitan area of any size and an hour from even a town of more than 10,000 certainly helped that.
The news had a positive effect of sharpening everyone's senses. People who had previously acted as if they were just being inconvenienced by being there, were suddenly aware of the fact that bad things could happen even this far out in the boonies. Mostly this was the dependents. In previous "bug out weekends" Jim's crew had practiced activation of the retreat for 2-3 days at a time. Guards were put out, noise and light discipline were in effect, patrols were done, power and water were taken off grid, etc. On one long remembered weekend, Jim arranged for 6 mock aggressors to attack the retreat. Using blanks, several possible attacks were thrown at the retreat during night and day. Afterward, everything was critiqued as a Group, improvements were made in tactics, defenses, etc. They trained constantly. When they weren't training they were working on or upgrading the communal parts of the retreat- the team garden and orchard, defenses, House 2, etc. They had fun with it though, to be sure.
The area for the meeting was cleared late the night before the meeting. Since they had more than enough people, Jim sent 2 people to sweep the meeting area and to remain until the morning for security at the meeting.
The only danger lied in Debbie's truck being followed to the meeting area, since Debbie and Mr. Hansen both had no idea even where the meeting was to be held. Vehicles were less and less of a problem due to short supplies of fuel. Jim wondered where Debbie got her fuel from. "Probably traded dope for it." Jim thought. Debbie had previously been the area's largest dope seller. Pot, wouldn't sell crack or any "hard" drugs, in her words. "It doodn't hurt nobody Jimmy" she had told him. Debbie probably got the first indication that Jim was crazy when he pulled her aside after her heard about her side business and told her that if he ever found her selling drugs to his son or nephews that she would beg for death for 2 days. She smiled and started to laugh, then noticed the slightly off look in Jim's eye. Now Jim wasn't crazy, he was a very sane, responsible person, but the look was real and unmistakable. It wasn't a vain threat.
The security team put out TRC3A wireless seismic detectors near the roadway coming from either direction to the meeting area. The meeting area was to be a small pull off near the woods on a dirt road approximately 1/2 mile from the retreat. The detectors would alert the security team when any people, vehicles, even animals, came within 30 yards of the probes. Essentially, the team was using them as warning of Debbie's truck and as way to detect any vehicles that might trail her. The area was swept, detectors put out, trails investigated and a cover position found within an hour of arriving at the site. The two men went on "50%", which meant one would sleep while the other would guard. Once light broke, they would both awake and move to separate positions than what they held at night.
_____________________________________________
Rusty and Todd arrived back without incident. Jim talked to them about what happened during the patrol.
"Obviously no problems. Any sign of tracks, activity?" Jim asked.
They both looked back and forth at each other.
"Dude, we got some problems. We followed a whole mess of tracks, I mean dozens of them. At first I was like "Holey frickin crap, there's a damn platoon down here."
"Yeah, but I showed him closer, they were cow tracks!" Rusty laughed.
"No doubt, I was thinking we were going to have to haul butt out of there when we found those fifty guys, but it was cow tracks." Todd said.
"Cow tracks?" You sure? Jim asked.
"You know any other animals that has hoofs like this Hoss?" Rusty asked, showing a drawing of a track.
Jim laughed, "I'll be damned, I think we got some info we can use here. Where did the tracks go and were their any other tracks?"
"Yeah, their were two sets of human tracks. From where they crossed the road, we tracked them about 300 yards further into the woods. Then we found a bunch of dead and hacked up cows." Todd said.
"Hacked up? Like satan worshipers or something?" Jim asked.
"No, looked more like a couple of dumbbutts trying to butcher. We also found the remains of a fire, although it didn't seem like it was big enough to cook any of the meat." Rusty said.
"Did you follow the human tracks?" Jim asked.
"They went back to the road and then they must have walked along the road for a while cause we lost them. Checked the embankments for about a half mile, did the lost spoor procedure, all of that." Todd said.
"Any other sign around where they cooked?"
"Yes, we found 3 empty 7.62x54 casings, I'm guessing from where they shot the cows." Rusty said.
"Can I see them?" Jim asked.
Looking over the cartridges, it was evident they did not come out of an autoloading weapon and that the rounds were in bad condition. Two of the shells had split cases.
"Two people but only sign of one weapon?" Jim asked.
"Looks that way, probably used the less important weapon to kill the cows. I'd used a .22 if I had one to save ammo." Rusty said.
"That's true. Listen, we are meeting with the guy that owns the cows later today. I want you guys to get some rest and later come with me to meet him." Jim said.
"Why are we meeting with him?" Todd asked.
"Well, if we can help him find these guys and deal with them, it helps us too, right? Besides, it might solve some other problems as well." Jim said.
"Always the frickin riddles. ." Todd said.
"I guess I'll diagram the sentence for you... what I'm saying is, we are going to offer to protect this guy's cows in trade for some meat from him. Of course, if you guys would rather have rice and lentils than a nice juicy steak, well..."
"I get it dude, hell yeah!" Todd said.
"It's a "win-win" situation for us and him. We will probably just have to get a smokehouse put together, but we should come out pretty good. Plus, this will give us an opportunity to take some of the other guys out on live patrols with us and test their skills. Everyone wins." Jim said. Being a salesman by trade, he was often able to "sell" ideas like this. Course, it was beneficial to all involved.
_____________________________________
The Group had no large animals. All the stock was considered "small stock." The Pygmy goats being the largest. Jim had some pasture, but not enough for a large herd nor did Jim have the time to play rancher before everything fell apart. However it was clear that if the group was going to make it o.k. with the large number of people now residing at the retreat, more had to be put into food production. Jim's uncle had plenty of pasture and especially at this point in time, would not complain about having cows grazing there. In return his uncle would be kept well fed.
Cows also meant manure. Manure meant better yields in the garden areas and in the orchards. Jim had already been letting his goat herd into the garden areas after the major harvests were over to browse on the residual plants and weeds. The goats cleaned up the mess and pooped right where it was needed. Jim could never understand people that kept animals goat size or larger in small pens and then busted their butt cleaning out manure and hauling it to their gardens. Why not just let the animals drop it where it was needed?
The Group would trade security labor for stock animals. Over time it was hoped that a small herd would be acquired and eventually the security labor could be given up as they become more self sufficient.
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