Free The Slow Road by Jerry D. Young Page B

cash, but they managed, due to the production of their little homestead and their stored preps.
    It took some time before they were again able to add to the preps, though they were able to maintain the existing level.  They sold everything they could produce that they didn’t eat themselves for the cash to keep up on the payments for the house and utilities.
    But slowly things improved again for them, if not the world situation. About the time the Midwest recovered significantly from the earthquake, so did the Willingham family, financially. The children were old enough to do a little in the garden, and help with the animals, and occupy themselves when Jasper and Millie needed to be busy with the constant chores the homestead required.
    Back on their feet with some disposable income, and needing new tires for both vehicles and trailers, which all used the same rim and tire, Jasper worked another of his horse trades, working at a local tire place on Saturdays, taking tires and several extra rims in lieu of pay.
    He replaced all the tires on both vehicles and trailers, with two spares each for the Suburban and the pickup, and one spare each for the trailers. Then he did the same thing again, twice, getting one complete duplicate set of mounted tires for the vehicles and a set of tires, alone, without the extra rims.
    And he kept the tires he took off. They would be good for a few thousand miles if things went on for a long time, the way Jasper thought it might, or would be a good item for trade since they were a standard size, though larger than standard equipment on most trucks.
    The threats of possible war with China that Jasper and Millie had been seeing on the forums for all those years were becoming apparent to many more people now. Not only did the government begin to prepare for a real shooting war with China, many individuals and families began to do so, too. Not like the old time preppers, or even like Jasper and Millie.
    Millie and Jasper became expert dry canners, putting up #10 can after #10 can of staples they bought at the buyers club, always using oxygen absorbers to preserve the life of the product. Seeing the writing on the wall, they used every other penny of disposable income to buy the critical items in Super Pails from commercial processing plants.
    It soon became almost impossible to find canned tuna and canned chicken in the regular grocery stores. When a new shipment came in, it was usually gone in two days. So were bottled water, coffee and toilet paper. Shortages became the standard and rationing by the stores began to become common. The practice was struck down almost immediately by the courts. “People had a right to buy what they wanted,” the decision said. “One individual could not limit another individual.”
    The federal government immediately instituted rationing for most of the same items the stores had done on their own. It stopped the family’s purchases of Super Pails. Any one purchase of a pail was more than their allotment of that good for a month. The sale of #10 cans of LTS food skyrocketed, and so did the prices. Millie and Jasper quit buying in bulk and concentrated on getting all of their allotment and canning what they didn’t use immediately.
    One of the things that came under rationing was tires. Jasper sweated out the situation for several weeks after the announcement, but no one came calling to insist Jasper turn in everything but the old set of tires. He was set for the duration for tires.
    Jasper and Millie’s attempt to increase their gasoline supply didn’t go as well. They were able to get a second tank, but supplies were scarce enough and prices high enough, that all they were able to get in the second tank was an additional two hundred gallons. Their ration of gas held them at the five-hundred-gallon level in the one tank, a little over a hundred and forty gallons in each vehicle plus trailer combination, and the two hundred gallons in the second storage tank.