A LEGACY

May 10, 2035. I just finished reading my grandfather's blog posts from the late aughts, basically from 2007 to 2009. It must have been a real hectic time back then. He speaks of crooked bankers and crooked central banks and crooked politicians and globalism and nuclear threats and so many things that were dangerous and hazardous. Today we have a much simpler life. We just raise what we need and keep our seed and live our lives as we see fit. There is not money to speak of. We pretty much barter for what we want extra from our crops. My grandfather writes of living off of social security and people not believing the havoc that was about to embrace them. But grandfather believed in it. He became what was known as a prepper back in those days. He stashed back lots of food and non-hybrid seed and medicine and guns and ammo and some other things, like tools, that he could afford. They, that is the preppers, had a thing they watched for called SHTF. It was a descriptive phrase to describe very bad things happening to the people of the land. Even some of my grandfather's children were left out of survival because of their ignorance. He just shut his mouth and went on about helping those he could. He always said it was a waste of time to help someone who did not want to be helped. Grandfather always talked about the United States of America and some poor leaders they had. He called them Clinton, Dubya, and Obama. I don't remember much about the old USA. Our Kinglet is part of the Central Confederacy. We are autonomous but we have the Confederacy in case of a major attack by anyone. We make our living off of gardening and farming. Grandfather started a food business back in 2010 and developed quite a customer base. Then we had the collapse and then nuclear war and then the rebuild. The rebuild was tough because there were so many people trying to rip us off. I was born in 2005 and cannot remember the political conditions back there but I can pretty much trust what my grandfather wrote to be accurate. I can remember the rebuild. I was young then but not so young that I can't remember the men and women working so hard to get us back into production.

Grandfather was a follower of a man named Daniel Wright. My grandfather would have fought to the death for that man. Any time! And he adhered to Daniel's philosophy all his life. I was raised up under some of that philosophy. My father was grandfather's only son and thus he was kind of spoiled. And my father was always loyal to grandfather. They really admired each other. Grandfather was tall but my father was even taller. I am tall also. And I have the same high forehead as they do. Grandfather died in 2014, at the age of 70 years old. He said he was ready and I believe him. But his idea of raising food stayed behind and we support ourselves from it. We use much the same techniques as his wife, the Handmaiden, to preserve our food. We sell in much the same quantities as she did. Packaging is almost non-existent anymore but we still get our products out to market in a form that people can buy and carry home. My father is ruler here at our Kinglet. There are about 250 people here and everyone, including my father, works in the business. Ruling our Kinglet is not a big deal. Everyone knows the rules and pretty much follows them. There is no place for old fashioned royal behavior in our world. Leadership is a job, not a privilege. And people vote with their feet in this day and age. You come down too hard and folks will leave you so fast you won't know what happened.

My father got us a thousand acres of pretty good farm land for our agricultural business. Not too far from the land of our birth but a lot better for farming. The owners of the property had been killed off in the war and there was no one to use the land so father sort of got it by default. He just started paying the little bit of land taxes that was owed and it was declared belonging to us. And then we went to work. Father had tons of non-hybrid seed he had gotten from my grandfather and we got it in the ground that first Spring. Father traded vegetables for beef and pigs and goats and chickens and sheep that Fall and we were on our way to making a living. We learned to make wool for clothing. We learned to tan hides. We sold eggs and meat and vegetables to other folks in the area until we could get our own store built and stocked. We have a primitive sawmill for our own construction needs. Most of our buildings are made of stone. Father admires fireproof buildings. Our lives are pretty good and we don't have many troubles. We seek the leading of God and let him take care of the path we are to follow. I am sure my grandfather would approve of our life. He was a prepper and a man of God and he always said Stay Alive. It was a priority to him.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net