Read Online Alone: Book 1: Facing Armageddon by Darrell Maloney - Free Book Online
Authors: Darrell Maloney
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haven’t a clue.”
“You know the girls aren’t going to let you kill their pets, don’t you?”
“I wasn’t planning on it, sweetheart. When we buy their rabbits, we’ll buy collars for all four of them. When the blackout hits and we let them get together to breed, I’ll promise the girls that their pets are not for eating. They’re just for making babies. We’ll let them live out their lives and die of natural causes. Then we’ll bury them in the back yard and have funerals for them, just like we did for Max and Toby.
“And we’ll tell the girls constantly not to let themselves get attached to the baby bunnies. Because they’ll all be eaten eventually.”
-15-
On the weekend after they’d decided to get rabbits, Dave had gone to Home Depot and brought back four large rolls of heavy duty chicken wire.
Sarah saw him unloading it and carrying it into the back yard.
“I thought you said you wanted rabbits. You know we’re not zoned for chickens. The city will confiscate them and fine us.”
“Relax,” he’d said. “I’m not going to build chicken coops. I’m going to bury this.”
She looked at him like he was nuts.
But he was serious. And over the next seven weekends, he dug around the fence line to a depth of about a foot, three feet out from the fence. And he unrolled the three foot high fence along the hole before burying it again.
Now, with all four rabbits set free, he expected them to do two things. He expected them to dig, and he expected them to mate. He wasn’t disappointed to see Thumper mount one of the females almost immediately.
As for the digging, he didn’t car e if they dug any burrows in the middle of the yard. He just didn’t want them to do it close to the fence, where they might get out. His logic was that if they tried to dig a hole within three feet of the fence, they’d only be able to go down a foot before the heavy chicken wire stopped them dead in their furry little tracks. If that happened often enough, they might get the hint and just give up. If they didn’t give up, then at least their holes would be in the center of the yard.
He took Max’s old water bowl from a shelf on the back of the deck and placed it onto the deck floor. He’d keep it filled with water, so that the rabbits had a ready water source in his back yard. Another measure to discourage them from digging their way out. It would pain him to some degree to share the precious water with the rabbits. But it was an acceptable tradeoff. They would provide him with nourishment and strength for the foreseeable future. Fair is fair, after all.
The rabbits wouldn’t be able to get into the Hansen yard because of the six foot privacy fence that separated the two yards. Dave, however, would need to go over there on a daily basis in the spring, to water and care for his crops. He’d need ready access in the summer, to gather fruit and nuts from their trees. And he’d need access in the fall and winter, to gather firewood from inside the Hansen house.
To solve this problem, Dave took a keyhole saw , went to the back fence and cut through the top horizontal stringer, between two of the vertical pickets.
The stringers were nothing more than two by fours that ran between the fence posts, on which the pickets were fastened.
After he cut through the top stringer, he installed a hinge to reconnect the two.
Then he did the same thing to the center and bottom stringers.
Lastly, he cut the stringers in a similar fashion four slats over, and had himself a crude gate.
After trimming the stringers a bit so they wouldn’t drag, the gate swung freely and was just wide enough for Dave to squeeze through.
He put sliding bolt locks on each side of
“You know the girls aren’t going to let you kill their pets, don’t you?”
“I wasn’t planning on it, sweetheart. When we buy their rabbits, we’ll buy collars for all four of them. When the blackout hits and we let them get together to breed, I’ll promise the girls that their pets are not for eating. They’re just for making babies. We’ll let them live out their lives and die of natural causes. Then we’ll bury them in the back yard and have funerals for them, just like we did for Max and Toby.
“And we’ll tell the girls constantly not to let themselves get attached to the baby bunnies. Because they’ll all be eaten eventually.”
-15-
On the weekend after they’d decided to get rabbits, Dave had gone to Home Depot and brought back four large rolls of heavy duty chicken wire.
Sarah saw him unloading it and carrying it into the back yard.
“I thought you said you wanted rabbits. You know we’re not zoned for chickens. The city will confiscate them and fine us.”
“Relax,” he’d said. “I’m not going to build chicken coops. I’m going to bury this.”
She looked at him like he was nuts.
But he was serious. And over the next seven weekends, he dug around the fence line to a depth of about a foot, three feet out from the fence. And he unrolled the three foot high fence along the hole before burying it again.
Now, with all four rabbits set free, he expected them to do two things. He expected them to dig, and he expected them to mate. He wasn’t disappointed to see Thumper mount one of the females almost immediately.
As for the digging, he didn’t car e if they dug any burrows in the middle of the yard. He just didn’t want them to do it close to the fence, where they might get out. His logic was that if they tried to dig a hole within three feet of the fence, they’d only be able to go down a foot before the heavy chicken wire stopped them dead in their furry little tracks. If that happened often enough, they might get the hint and just give up. If they didn’t give up, then at least their holes would be in the center of the yard.
He took Max’s old water bowl from a shelf on the back of the deck and placed it onto the deck floor. He’d keep it filled with water, so that the rabbits had a ready water source in his back yard. Another measure to discourage them from digging their way out. It would pain him to some degree to share the precious water with the rabbits. But it was an acceptable tradeoff. They would provide him with nourishment and strength for the foreseeable future. Fair is fair, after all.
The rabbits wouldn’t be able to get into the Hansen yard because of the six foot privacy fence that separated the two yards. Dave, however, would need to go over there on a daily basis in the spring, to water and care for his crops. He’d need ready access in the summer, to gather fruit and nuts from their trees. And he’d need access in the fall and winter, to gather firewood from inside the Hansen house.
To solve this problem, Dave took a keyhole saw , went to the back fence and cut through the top horizontal stringer, between two of the vertical pickets.
The stringers were nothing more than two by fours that ran between the fence posts, on which the pickets were fastened.
After he cut through the top stringer, he installed a hinge to reconnect the two.
Then he did the same thing to the center and bottom stringers.
Lastly, he cut the stringers in a similar fashion four slats over, and had himself a crude gate.
After trimming the stringers a bit so they wouldn’t drag, the gate swung freely and was just wide enough for Dave to squeeze through.
He put sliding bolt locks on each side of
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