Free Alone by T. R. Sullivan

that reminded him of Mandy and the boys and he had spent a lot of the time in tears.
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    He hauled the generator to the house and hooked it up to the breaker panel and was finally able to take a hot shower. He stood beneath the hot spray until he had emptied the hot water tank. He stocked the pantry with food and used the smaller bedroom to store even more. He built shelves out of two by tens and cinderblocks and then crammed them full of food.
    On one of his scouting trips, he had discovered several pigs at a dilapidated farm house. He had been going by each day to bring them scraps of food. He decided to try and take them to the farm, but when he arrived, he discovered that one of the pigs had been killed and the others were missing. It looked like the dogs or something had killed one of the smaller pigs and the others had escaped. He vowed to keep a close look out for the dog pack and to try to stay out of their way. He knew the pigs would survive and would prove to be a source of game in the future. He was afraid that a showdown with the dogs was inevitable and he hated the thoughts of killing them, but he would do what was necessary to survive.
    He settled into the new house and began to relax and think of ways to make life a little easier. It was now late summer. Most of the crops had been harvested from the small garden. He had a large supply of seed for next year’s garden. He decided to put up a green house so that he could have fresh vegetables during the winter months. He read all he could find about greenhouses and then rummaged through the lumber yards looking for kits. Finally, he used the plans he found in one of the library books and built his own. He hauled wood from the lumber yard on a large flatbed trailer he found. He had entered the parking lot of the local lumber company and there it was. It was hitched to the back of a small truck and looked as if it was in the process of being loaded. He removed the material on the flatbed and unhitched it. He rolled it back and then swung his truck around and hitched the flatbed to his truck. He then loaded up all the lumber he thought he would need. What he didn’t use, he could store in the barn loft.
    He visited the local glass company and secured several sheets of glass and various windows. He laid mattresses on the flat bed and then laid the glass on the mattresses. He started down the road and broke several pieces before he got home. He made another trip and this time loaded the glass onto the truck the glass company used. He was able to get all of the glass safely home. He quickly found that he was unable to handle the large pieces of glass alone, so he was forced to make another trip to the glass company. This time he loaded up smaller pieces and as many replacement windows as he found. He worked steadily for 10 days until the green house was finally finished. He had placed several casement windows in the roof and these he could open by a handmade crank. The walls consisted mainly of replacement windows. This would allow him to ventilate the greenhouse. The finished greenhouse was 10 feet by 20 feet. The walls and roof were framed with two by sixes and glass panes filled in the gaps between the windows. He had caulked every pane and the greenhouse was as sealed as he could get it. He spread gravel several inches thick on the floor to act as a heat sink. The sunlight through the glass would heat the gravel and then at night the heat would radiate back into the building. He made a potting table using flagstones he had found. This would also heat up thru the day and keep the soil warm. He used picnic tables and potting trays and filled the greenhouse with them. He hauled all of the sacks of potting soil he could find to the barn and filled every potting tray with soil. He already had a steady supply of horse manure that was stored behind the barn. He was as ready as he could be. He cleaned out the gardening center and brought all of the seed