Baby steps

My wife is a natural shot.

She felt terrible about it, and cried her eyes out, but she hits what she aims for. At first I wasn't sure she was even going to be able to pull the trigger, and after she bagged the first squirrel, I thought she was done for. But she calmed down, and proceeded to school me on how to shoot. I've been sport shooting for years, this is her first time actually firing a rifle. I love this woman.

Things are going well, considering our circumstances. David's family is getting on well with mom, though I think it will be a while before she gets used to having so many people in her house.

Now we're stocked up on meat for a long time. The only problem is keeping it from going bad. Pat proves to be an invaluable resource here: he knows how to dress a lot of varieties of animals, how to make jerky, and how to smoke meat. He has a list of skills longer than my arm, gained over his years of moving around the continent.

We are starting a house to house search for survivors. It doesn't look good for our road, which is almost certainly deserted except for us. I know for sure that the houses on either side of us are empty. We have plans for those...

As soon as we get done smoking and jerking our kills, we're going to go out and see what construction supplies we can find. My brother (also named David, we call him Dave) can build anything. He is going to make the trip from a few towns over to get us started on some projects. Frankfort was hit so hard and fast that I think it's a safe bet that the big stores will have some of the things we want, and what we can't find at the stores, we will scavenge from houses.

This place is going to be a fort when we get done. And big enough to house a lot more people. I think we can make it work, at least if we can get more people.

Back to my meat lessons with Patrick.