Diary Of A Kudzu Salesman: Survival And Recovery After The Electrical Grid Collapse (Prepper Reconstruction Book 2) Read online

  Diary Of A Kudzu Salesman

  Diary Of A Kudzu Salesman

  Midpoint

  Diary Of A Kudzu Salesman

  Ron Foster

  Alabama, USA

  © 2013 by Ron Foster

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13:

  978-1490592619

  ISBN-10:

  149059261X

  Printed in the United States of America.

  Acknowledgements

  Silver Fire Rocket Stoves

  Survival Still

  Noah’s Pantry

  Hot Pot Solar Oven

  http://www.sunbdcorp.com/products_hotpot.php

  Taylor Brand Knives

  Aqua Pail

  When Kudzu Was King

  The term “Kudzu salesman” in the south is usually accompanied by several statements of disdain for the former profession...“ About as useless or as dishonest as a “Kudzu salesman” are normally terms reserved in the south for one of the worst government used car salesman jobs that was ever created. The Kudzu project of 1930`s exemplifies everything wrong with big government and bureaucracy interfering in peoples lives and sensible farming practices. Both southerners and non-southerners alike identify with kudzu as a symbol and incorporate the plant into our daily cultural expression, mostly including the language used to characterize and understand social and environmental change.

  The voracious plant itself has been called “ mile a minute vine” foot-a-night Vine, Miracle Vine, The Vine that Ate the South, Porch Vine, Telephone Vine, that damn stuff etc.

  In Georgia the legend says you must close your windows at night to keep it out of the house. Folks say if you leave your car parked too long in one place in some parts of Alabama you might not be able to find it.

  As bad as the vine is hated the people that got everyone to grow it are hated worst.

  Kudzu’s history in the US began in 1876 at the Japanese Pavilion of the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. The Pavilion was covered in part with a vigorous vine bearing fragrant violet-purple flowers. Many who saw this newly introduced Asian native admired its beauty. Since it was not hardy in areas with extremely cold winters, Kudzu became popular only in the South, where people first planted it around porches. The quick growing vine provided screening and pleasant–scented blooms. By the early 20th century, botanists were noting the potential invasiveness of the species, but few took heed. Kudzu was seen as a soil-saving plant in the South, where much of the land was historically devastated by the over-cultivation of cotton and tobacco.

  Soil conservation was becoming a concern, and by the 1930’s the US Soil Conservation Service was a strong advocate of Kudzu. Their research had determined that the species could control erosion, improve soil quality because of its nitrogen-fixing capabilities, and even be harvested as cattle feed. The government paid Depression-poor farmers $8.00 an acre to plant it and the Civilian Conservation Corps planted 73 million Kudzu seedlings along roadways and other disturbed sites.

  By the 1940’s Kudzu Clubs formed to honor what was becoming known as the Miracle Vine. Memberships in the South exceeded 20,000, and 3 million acres of farmland were planted with Kudzu by 1946.

  As Kudzu began to proliferate, the federal government realized that it may have created a problem (amazing) and took action. In the 1950’s Kudzu was removed from the government’s list of recommended cover crops. In the 1960’s research began to focus on how to eradicate the species. In 1970 Kudzu was officially declared a “weed”, and in 1997 its status was upgraded to “noxious weed”. Kudzu continues to spread. In 2000 it was discovered growing wild in Oregon, the first infestation of Kudzu west of Texas. It remains to be seen how far it will range.

  In NJ the cold climate kills the vines down to the ground most winters, slowing its progression. The thick woody roots survive, however, and the plants re-sprout in the spring. In Summit, NJ a patch of Kudzu thrives on a hillside at Reeves-Reed Arboretum, and has been there for at least several decades. No one seems to know how it got started but it is said some southerner must of done it as a terrorist act to get even with the Yankees for the civil war. Too bad that there isn’t some good ol boy gardening at the White House. HA! Wasn’t it in the movie Logans Run that had a picture of the White House covered in Kudzu? Or was Earnest Borgnine just hanging out ion the Library of Congress? But I digress.

  Somber Recollections

  Reflecting on memories to himself about his own little world after technology failed, David soon began to think about all those that had made it the first year after the grid went down soon passed on to another realm the second and third years. Death was an every day occurrence it seemed for the survivors and, well, it was more than just a dreaded fact of life.

  Death in a macabre way became their opportunity; it provided the means of survival and securing goods for them all. David had estimated that at least 75% of the population had died that first terrible year after the solar storm took down the electrical grid.

  At that time there was approximately a population of 300 million people living in the United States. That statistic meant over 225 million people had perished from starvation, disease and violence from other desperate poor souls fighting over the limited resources.

  Knowing that all kinds of people were searching endlessly and warily through abandoned houses while foraging for any scrap or vestige of food, was both a survival skill as well as a diplomacy issue.

  Someone might just be out digging around because they needed a tool or something else to help with daily survival such as insecticide, tape, needle and thread, more toilet paper etc. Most folks if they were able to, eventually organized into 6-10 people foraging parties or grouped into smaller and larger “ war bands” depending on how you looked on it.

  How you as an individual or as a group viewed a situation was a direct correlation to your lifetime street smarts experience and post-apocalyptic expectations and survival.

  Make friends with the wrong other group or individual and there was the probability or chance of treachery. Attack or warn off incorrectly what might very well be the right group to ally with could be suicidal, because now it’s become a feud over territory and sworn enemies, or at best, a misunderstood confrontation which will forever leave enough mistrust in the air that reconciliation becomes an improbability and a suspicious uneasy truce will occur waiting for whoever fires the first shot.

  Roving furtive groups were common place encounter. People usually just popped up and ran away quickly if you were rummaging about and seen in the same neighborhood scavenging. But there was more than one unfortunate encounter that occurred where two different types of groups met and both tried to stand their ground.

  One never ever really got used to visiting these mausoleums that could be either desolate and abandoned homes or sometimes dangerously occupied houses.

  They were all haunted and dangerous places to visit that gave you a lump in your throat every time you turned a door knob or broke in a window to gain access.

  In the very early months of adapting following this gargantuan national disaster, the smell of death permeated everywhere and it was a world without rule of law.

  David`s “Our End of the Lake” clan had been spared much of the horror of the big cities or small country towns and had been reasonably safe bugged out at their compound on the lake.

  The occasional skeletal and starving lone wandering survivor that found their way to their community at the lake h
ad told vivid heart rending stories of what was forever referred to as the burning times.

  That is, if, a big if as so many tribulations they still had their sanity about them and had not been driven mad or turned into something dark and animalistic in nature and intent while ever searching for food and water.

  The raggedy men or women that had somehow found their way to our compound had described scenes of chaos and misery that would break the hearts of even the most hardened and calloused of all the death weary and famished struggling survivors in David’s loosely assembled group.

  A few of the more rancid and troublemaking evil individual types that appeared on the communities shores were known to have themselves gotten turned away at gun point with many a not so subdued shouted threat.

  These types of people were driven away without hesitation, a few of the more civil and respectable folks with an appreciation for kindness got a hot meal, a fire starter or some other useful survival tool and were given kind advice how to carry on to their family support group or destination a great distance ahead.

  However, on more than one occasion somebody just fell out from exhaustion on their doorsteps or pleaded with them so bad to stay they were somehow deemed useful enough that a place was made for them.

  The group couldn’t take everyone in because it meant that they must cut their already meager rations in order to nurse the lost soul back to usefulness and health.

  David called their community “Our End of the Lake” and it was often referred to by its tribal members as the United Nations of the Causeway because of its diverse ethnic make-up and location.

  David however was quietly amused and lightly offended by that title. The only two ethnicities allowed were American or Southern and if you chose American over being Southern, whatever you used originally to describe yourself was now only allowed to be described as just the singular word American.

  On that point of personal and community identification he told anyone joining his group he was standing his ground and would not back down you could only be a Southern whatever or just a plain American, no hyphens.

  At first, there was mass confusion in the world as to what had actually happened to society. Peoples collective worlds had been shattered in just a millisecond and time was set back to the 1800`s.

  It was a come as you are disaster for most folks, some people were caught up in it were driving to the grocery store or filling up their cars with gas when all the sudden the car stopped or the pump shut down from lack of electricity.

  For others it was the astonished disbelief that the power didn’t come back on days after it had shut down. Many people in the prepper community or those that closely followed the news figured it out for themselves that some sort of EMP event occurred, but for the uneducated or unaware it was a complete mystery or portent of Armageddon.

  Many people couldn’t or wouldn’t handle the change and basically mentally shutdown and simply did nothing and died in misery, others thought it was time to burn and loot as societal breakdown soon took its course.

  Masses of people were cut off from their support groups because possibly vacation or business had left them stranded in a nightmare apocalyptic world.

  The commuters who were at work 30-60 miles away from their homes trudged wearily for days with little or no food and water, that is’ if they were able to walk this distance because of no physical infirmity.

  A death march of millions struggled onwards just to reach their homes and families, only to find their safe haven or goal contained little or no sustenance for their bedraggled bodies.

  Heart attacks, heat exhaustion, dehydration and a plethora of other causes of premature death littered the highways and byways with corpses as a portent of deaths roll call on the unprepared modern society took its toll.

  People wrung their hands in anguish and disbelief as they watched what little food they had in their house disappear.

  Hunters formed groups to attempt to find game within walking distance from their homes. Gangs, lawless folks and the desperate began to prey on neighborhoods and neighbors as the hunting parties became a migration out of the cities and started to prey on the country folk who were already ready to receive them with suspicion and loaded weapons.

  Countless days had passed of road weary refugees coming to their doors begging food and water and this cold hard fact had removed any charity from their hearts and strengthened their resolve to protect and defend their family’s as well as what meager resources they still had left.

  People who have always lived in the cities tend to have a universally unrealistic view of what the countryside is all about. They think everyone has fields of crops and keeps chickens etc. for some lame reason, when actually quite the opposite fact is true.

  Most people in the country don’t even raise a garden anymore and without chemical fertilizers, diesel or gas, the commercial farms are in serious trouble day one.

  The unfounded notion of modern day man is often believed to be that if he is a fisherman or hunter that they can somehow live off the land if necessary.

  These types of people will out of desperation or a sense of entrapment attempt to “bug out” on some kind of suicidal camping trip with their families and friends. They are not necessarily blind fools or totally unrealistic but all their fates remain destined the same as they find Mother Nature doesn’t believe the same thing about providing for them.

  A lot of preppers have the same plan of a bug out and will share the same fate, but they will for a time at least last a bit longer if they can avoid confrontations with country folk, city hunters and clueless city dwellers.

  The few survivors David had seen over the years were those that had bugged in and had let God sort out those that had not. But eventually all supplies run out and bug out ideas raise their ugly head and people began down desperate trails seeking food, any kind of food.

  “I wonder how many preppers with their “get home bags” actually made it more than a week without some outside help?

  For that matter, the preppera were the most dangerous kind of survivor in some ways. Well-armed, ever resourceful and personalty driven for survival at all costs, they were not immune to the psychology of desperate times mean desperate actions.

  David had figured out awhile back that a too well fed survivor was either a cannibal or a robber and murderer and objectionably considered shooting such folks on sight.

  Cannibalism is a specter of vileness and horror to the normally well fed, thoughts of it in starvation studies show that in a few weeks it crosses the minds of 50% of the studies participants and in short order 75-80% actually consider doing the dastardly deed and picking who they might make a meal out of.

  It’s bad enough to worry about your neighbors stealing your supplies but when the same folks statistically think about you as “what’s for dinner” then its real game changer.” David mused sickened at the thought.

  David knew from studying war chronicles that in such a situation that first all the pets disappear as they get hunted for food. Numerous criminal cases have also been recorded in rural Russia which show many young kids starting to disappear and quite often by their own parents hands.

  The human psyche is an evil and malevolent thing when true hardcore starvation sets in. People do not give up the need for survival and quietly lay down and die to support their morals or humanity.

  No, the body produces hormones and a dementia of sorts that induces the worst in the human animal to keep its body functioning.

  People have seen the old movies of where someone gets the paranoia of “gold fever” when wealth is involved, but when someone thinks your “meat on the hoof” man’s inhumanity to man gets down right out of control and twisted.

  When David did his occasional foraging amongst abandoned houses on the outskirts of the city he already knew that the house probably contained a skeleton or two inside.

  Some of the remains were touching in appearance and left a story of the occupants last moment
s, others were scenes of depravity and violence he could not even shudder to imagine.