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A quote: “Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.” ~~ George S. Patton
I’ll start with a story …
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We gathered here because Jimmy had the working still.
Old coots in retirement out in the sticks. Yet, over the last several years many of our kids had steadily joined us, grandkids in tow, finally understanding our years of pessimistic predictions weren’t just some senior crabbiness.
Electricity disappeared yesterday and here we are today. We need a variety of essential skills … from carpenters to farmers to medics.
“Don’t forget us,” Grace piped up, “Y’all need seamstresses, knitters, bakers and midwives.”
Midwives? We stared at each other. Yep, we had been thinking trebuchets instead of toddlers.
It just got real.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license
GWB says: This goes with a story out of Israel. Heh.
I had been asked how long the range at my property was. “Guaranteed to be as long as you need” had been my initial answer. The group I had known as “shooters” wanted to come out and do some “long range work.” I have some targets out at 1,000 yards, and one or two way out at 2,000. That’s about a mile and a quarter or so, and should be sufficient, even if your nickname is White Feather.
Then these goobers show up with a dadgum semi flatbed loaded with timber. And rope. And some really big rocks. No, they had NOT asked if the range was accessible to a semi. So, we had to offload everything and drag it up there behind pickups. Wow was that a lot of work. And I’ve actually cut timber on my property before.
But, they got this thing assembled. Then they got it cranked up and throwing cinder block and one or two of those stones. Then the celebratory drinking started. That was when they cranked this thing to the point I thought for sure the arm would snap and I’d have to call in the LifeFlight guys. But it held. And they put one of the “medium” boulders on it. I am going to have to let Jim know I will pay for his fence – not something you normally concern yourself with when it’s a 1/4 mile past the edge of MY property AND half a mile past that last rifle target.
I stopped them when they wanted to catapult the empty coolers. We went back up to my place and sat around for a while more, shaking our heads and bragging about telling our grandkids about this day.
Naturally, the semi had left after delivering his load, and nobody wanted to to do the hard disassembly work, anyway. So, that thing sits out there at my range, hoping for another day to do some real long range “shooting.” I have good friends.
(Yeah, a lot more than 100 words. Sorry. 🙂 )
Cameron says: The Chicoms thought that they had all contingencies planned out for the invasion. They figured that we would fold pretty easily which happened in certain parts of the country. Beijing thought if they maintained a grip on the coasts, we’d lose soon enough.
You remember that quote attributed to Yamomoto about “rifle behind every blade of grass”? That was one reason we didn’t fall. But they also learned about “a trebuchet in every county.”
The video of one being used in the final battle gave us a real quote from a Chinese General. “Holy shit! They’re throwing Volkswagens at us?!”
GWB says: They’re throwing Volkswagens at us?!
Nah. Flaming EVs. 😉
We got to work as soon as the news came through about the first landings. How they’d gotten past the high orbitals, I don’t know, but we were going to be ready for them. So what if this was supposed to be a planet of exile, right now this was our home.
It would’ve been easier if we could’ve laid hands on the Kitties’ fancy energy weapons, or even some good old-fashioned M-1’s like Grandpappy carried back in World War II. But right then the Kitties didn’t trust us with weapons, so we had to build our own out of scrap wood and spring steel.
We did our first test shot with one of those little flier things the Kitties use instead of helicopters. Its engine might be beyond a good old boy’s ability to fix with spit and bailing wire, but that day it sure flew clear across the valley. By the time the Lobsters’ troops started coming over the rise, we were getting pretty good at hitting them in their enviro-pods.
We’d pretty well cleared out the junkyard by the time the Fleet showed up and sent the Lobsters scuttling before they became salad. I still remember the astonishment of the admiral when he came to deliver our commendation for having provided some of the stiffest resistance on the ground. For a change, there were no jokes about monkeys throwing poop. That old tomcat actually looked impressed.
GWB says: Nice. 🙂
Navig8r says: “Looks like you really mean business on that punkin chunkin. But how’re you gonna get it to the fairgrounds?”
“You’re half right. It’s business, not punkins. I made a deal with the recycling company to use the vacant field next to their facility as the impact area. You’d be surprised how much extra folks will pay to see their problem appliance hurled into oblivion.”
“Maybe not. There’s our office copier-”
“Most frequent flier after printers.”
“You do anything bigger?”
“Yeah. But for things like refrigerators and deep freezers, we check for bodies first.”
“Live ones or dead?”
“Some of both.”
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