Avalon: The Retreat (24 page)

Several people had brought Christmas music on CD’s to the retreat and there was enough music to keep the party going for days. Chad and Linda made taffy and some other treats that sat around in bowls or plates for anyone who was inclined to help themselves. The food was all sugar-free; they used natural honey from their bee colony to sweeten the delicacies.

The fireplace in the lounge blazed, creating a warming and cheery atmosphere. Many of the people at Avalon went there to read or converse. Today there was a beautiful baby fir tucked off to one side that was decorated with trinkets, ribbons, and all sorts of ornaments.

The only thing missing were the lights, and if one didn’t know it, they would never guess the rest of the world was in collapse and crawling in slime just to get by. Ice formed outside on the building and around the edges of all the windows. It was about eighteen degrees Fahrenheit outside, but the residents of Avalon were warm and comfortable.

They slept under sheets in real beds at night and there was an ample supply of anything they needed. That stocking up of supplies that had gone on for many years was paying off with interest. If they needed to use the bathroom they could use the outside services but there were bathrooms in every corner of the retreat.

The toilet paper went away quickly however, and they were down to a wet cloth to wipe with and another cloth to dry off. People were seen carrying their small bucket with fresh water and two cloths once in awhile or they used the facilities in their cabins, which was more private. If not having toilet paper was the worst of their inconveniences, it was nothing at all in the grand scope of things.

The activities in the kitchen were frantic, as usual, but the two Chefs were so organized they had one system on top of another that made the processes go as smoothly as cold cream on a doorknob. There were always several people who turned out to help.

Chad and Linda had developed a routine that had one of them working while the other was off, and the following day they reversed the routine. It worked out well and gave them ample free time to do what they needed to do for themselves. On the weekends others filled in and Chad and Linda were off.

The duo cooked foodstuffs ahead of time and put them in one of the walk-ins. If something went awry with both of them, almost anyone could get a few meals prepared and organized on their own. The stoves were permanently burning so if someone was hungry, all they had to do was pull the pot out and set it on the stove to warm up their food.

Many people commented that the food was sometimes better that way because the spices and herbs had ample time to sit in the food and permeate it appreciably. There was always food available for the watch standers once they were relieved.

Roger was being trained as backup medical doctor under the tutelage of Dan and Caroline, who was moving beyond the requirements of a nurse; she was becoming a medical doctor in her own right.

Likewise, Mike was training several people in his arts just in case something happened to him. Backups of all critical trades and occupations were essential in making the retreat more than just a home. It was in fact, under the surface, a domesticated tranquil veneer. In reality it was an armed military camp of trained soldiers.

Everyone was developing fighting forms, which allowed them to stay in good physical shape and learn how to do the jobs normally performed by someone else. It was not only interesting for the people being trained, but it was a vital necessity for all of them.

The theory of everyone being trained in all jobs came from the U.S. Navy’s system of cross training each crew member of a submarine to know and understand not only their own job, but those of their buddy on the left and on the right. Time moved forward, the training became a way of life, and people couldn’t get bored because there was no time for boredom. There never came a day when someone would hear, “I don’t know how to do that,” or “That isn’t my job.”

If they didn’t know, they learned… and that was the end of it.

The flat-bottom wagon was hitched to a team of draft horses for a trip to the coal outcropping located out beyond the back meadow where a small access was carved out of the giant fir trees a few years past. They burned coal in the main boiler that supplied steam to all the radiators in the cabins and in the main building itself.

The barn had a few radiators to keep the cows content, the stables had several, and the old bunk house had some as well. The small house that Sam and Crystal were remodeling had a couple of stoves, and a cooking stove and heating stove were both in the parlor. It was winter, so all the stoves were fired up and burning twenty-four hours a day. Two teenage boys were designated as the “Fire Box Tenders.”

The big consumer of the coal supply was the main boiler, which had taken a considerable amount of time to completely overhaul and get in working order. It needed constant monitoring and attention to be on the safe side. Not only did it have multiple relief valves incorporated on it, it also had a firebox dump under the firebox grates operated from a large handle that could be engaged by a single person.

Once the coals were dumped into a large steel box, the red hot nuggets could be extracted from below the boiler, stopping the heat from continuing to heat the water. The dump box was mounted on wheels and could be pulled out from under the fire pit inside the stove by one person, to shut the system down in a matter of minutes, long before it could get hot enough to blow up. No fire, no danger.

The main boiler was huge… about fifteen feet high and eight feet across… and it had a stack that towered another twenty feet above that. It was round and had massive rivets that held the plates together. It was a major chore to get the parts and materials to the retreat when it was overhauled but was well worth it in the end.

A few of the men worked on it until they had incorporated a flushing system that washed down the stack internally and diverted the sludge to a holding pond that had another and then another so when one filled, the next would take on the debris and then overflow into the next. This caused the smoke coming out of the smoke stack to look no more ominous than steam emanating from it. That same clean up system was adopted for the kitchen smoke stacks as well.

The large vent hoods over the cooking areas were fitted to a similar devise later and had a water spray system that, when activated, cleaned the stacks and the filters with hot water, thus removing any buildup of grease and creosote. The kitchen also had a spray system that could flood a particular area if there was a galley fire. A large tank made from wood and lined with plastic, looking much like a large laundry cart, was rolled over to the stove area, pushed under the hoods, and then used to rinse one vent at a time of any grease. Once cleaned, the stacks were serviceable for a couple of months and the process was repeated, all without electricity.

The large main boiler had a label fastened to the door of the firebox that read, Hudson Boiler Works, Chicago, Ill, 1901. Pat. 14608 U.S. Pat off. It also had a gear network that, when engaged, turned a shaft and drove several other pulleys and geared works. The shaft had horsehide belts that were twelve inches wide, and some of them were forty feet long when doubled in the middle.

From this series of drives, they were able to rig a system to drive and power anything in the small machine shop such as drill presses or grinders. The main job was to supply pressure to the water pump to keep the water circulating throughout the compound.

The water entered the large water tank located behind the main building first and then another pump drove the pressure to keep the water at an even demand wherever it was needed. That was crucial for the convenience of a pressurized water supply. They had showers, toilets that flushed, and radiators that re-circulated constantly when in use.

The other most critical task performed by the boiler was to power a belt that ran a compressor pump to cool the big walk-in refrigerators and freezers. A mechanical timer was set near the boiler each time it was turned on for twenty minutes. The pump was disengaged and then activated in another hour by repeating this process. It kept the temperatures in the reefers constant. The main boiler needed water added to it regularly.

A group came up for a four-day camp out several years ago and dug up the huge septic tanks. Guided by the expertise of Bobby Larson, they found three tanks in line. It took some doing to find them but once they did, they cleaned them out; it was a terrible and disagreeable job. They emptied the dried out muck that was inside, did some patching here and there, and fixed a few of the broken leeching pipes that were crushed and non-functional.

The septic system that was in place would now last many years before the nasty job would have to be done again. Perhaps, it would be a job for the next generation that was growing in the wombs of some of the women.

They cleaned out the water tank, also a nasty job, and the residents were now enjoying the fruits of that labor and more importantly, were enjoying them in a trouble-free environment. Everyone liked having a pressurized water system because the pump was reliable and they could rebuild it an unlimited number of times.

What they didn’t have in replacement parts could be made from scratch in the machine shop and Dayna was reading about how to cast for later use. One of the best components they had was coal, which they could use to cast or weld.

The Christmas party was a work of art. People started coming to the main building singularly, in pairs, and in larger groups to eat the food and goodies laid out buffet-style on the tables. Plates, silverware, glasses, bowls, cups and saucers, and a paper tag with each of their names sat at the end of the table.

The decorations were aglow and music emanated throughout the lounge and the dining area, delighting both children and adults alike. They each deposited their name tags in a large basket for later.

It was a time to be grateful.

They were at the retreat and not out in the terrible, suffering world, perhaps starving, without access to real medical care, and enduring insufferable deprivations. A prayer was offered and the music was turned off. People bowed their heads, and every single one of them was sincere as they thanked the Lord for all they had and all they were.

They thanked Dan and Mike for having met them and for having had the foresight to buy into what was, for some, an incredibly expensive venture based on nothing more than faith. There were many people over the last twenty years running all over the world making vast fortunes selling the gloom and doom of “The End of the World” type stories to anyone who would buy into it. Mike and Dan did not do that.

If anything, they were very selective who they offered the “carrot” of Avalon to. As it turned out, the choice made by all of them was the correct choice for them; they were living, breathing proof of that. The “Amen” was then offered by all, given in the justifiable humility of the moment.

The gathering lifted the spirits of everyone and broke up the routine of classwork. If you weren’t studying this or studying that you were working out in a martial arts class or you were working at your assigned job. The work at Avalon was never-ending, but it was worthwhile, because everyone benefited from every improvement, and the skills that were being developed made the confidence level in everyone soar like an arrow shot up into the air.

They ate the food, danced, and sang carols; some of the adults played games with the children and the children were delighted from both the attention and the games. Different people gathered in small groups of two or three and one was composed of six. The drinks flowed and some of them were getting a little tipsy. Mike offered up his own prayer to himself.

“Please God; don’t let anything bad happen tonight.”

The basket was brought out on a large cart after everyone had finished eating and dancing, and the name tags were drawn from the basket one at a time. The cart was loaded with presents wrapped in butcher paper from the kitchen that they normally used to wrap meat. Most of the paper was decorated with drawings of Santa Claus, reindeer pulling a sled, stars, snowflakes, and snowmen, each with a hand-written name tag.