2nd Earth 2: Emplacement by Edward Vought Read Free Book Online Page B

they have all discussed the fact that we are becoming too spread out to defend each other. We decide it is worth telling the others to see what they think. We do that and they agree that it would be a good idea to at least start to do something like that. While we are talking Gary sketches the house I describe. It looks just like it did in my dream. We discuss what the dimensions of the houses should be, at least approximately. Tim who worked as a mason’s helper a couple summers when he was younger calculates how many cinderblocks it will take to build each house. It will take a lot of cinderblocks to accomplish what we want to do. Billy says that he remembers seeing a very large yard full of blocks, just like the ones on the truck we brought back. A couple of us go into town and sure enough there are dozens of pallets of blocks. We can only guess that we didn’t notice them before because we weren’t planning to build anything.
    We decide to put up a building for the mill first. We get the base dug and poured. The instructions we have, explain in detail how to prepare the area for the stone to be set in place. We also found enough insulation and other building materials to finish off the dorms the young men built in the barns. They work on that while we older guys work on the mill. We make it large enough to accommodate at least two of the sets of stones. When we get to the point where we need the stones, we make a trip over to the city to get them. It takes us a couple of days and several pinched fingers and hands to get them dismantled. We mark everything with a number and mark corresponding pieces of the puzzle to make putting it together back home at least possible. Since we can’t all work on this project at the same time, a couple of us load the large flatbed truck we got from here with building materials, and make runs back to the farm with them.
    Our family has a very simple rule about doing our jobs or chores. Once someone has been asked to do something, or has volunteered to take on a project, the rest of us leave them alone as far as telling them how to do it, unless of course we are asked for our input. Sara, Ken, and Gary have volunteered to do this project, so the rest of us are letting them handle the technical aspects of this move. Naturally we are all supporting them in any way we can. We prepared the building that will house the mill, based on the prints that we found. Ken and Gary drew the plans for a paddle wheel to drive the grindstone and using the tools in the barns we have been able to build a pretty fair paddle wheel. The group that has been at home working on this end has done a remarkable job as far as I’m concerned. They set the wheel in place and it turns perfectly so far. Of course there are no grind stones in yet, but we are certain it will work fine. The big day is finally here to set the bottom stone and then install the grinding stone.
    We use a big fork truck, that we brought from the city closer to us, to carry the big base stone into place. It slides in perfectly and looks just like it did in the mill where we found it. The top moving stone will not be quite as easy. Our team is more than up to the challenge though. They have every detail worked out, even though there are some minor surprises along the way. It takes them a couple of days to get everything hooked up and installed, but when we release the paddle wheel the stone turns perfectly to grind our wheat. The wheel is even adjustable so that they can vary the coarseness of the flour. When everything is in place, we finish off the end of the building that we left open to make moving the large items in easier. We put a two car garage door and a walk in door so that we still have access for large items and can open the door in the summer when it will probably get too hot in here.
    Our new friends are proving to be more than willing to do their share of the work. It has been warm for this time of year. They have painted all six of