Forsaken World:Coming of Age

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Book: Read Forsaken World:Coming of Age for Free Online
Authors: Thomas A Watson
water.”
    “My mud pies were the best,” Jennifer giggled.
    “Let’s get to work on the buggy,” Lance said, heading back down the rise.
    Jennifer skipped after him, glad to be included again. When Lance opened the shop, Jennifer looked around again, still amazed that hidden behind the back wall was an area almost twice the size of the bunker. “Guys, I’ve noticed there aren’t that many tools here that run on gas,” she said, pointing at an electric chainsaw.
    “Because there aren’t,” Ian said, pointing behind her. “That’s an electric auger. Dad said electricity was the cheapest form of power once you had a secure source.”
    Lance grabbed her and turned Jennifer to the end of the shop. “That’s an electric saw mill to make lumber. I never understood why they bought so much electric stuff until I found out what this place really is,” he said. “Fuel will turn bad, and you can only make so much bio fuel, and it has to come from what you can eat. We have a secure form of electricity with hydro, so we can use tools without fuel.”
    “What were those big white tanks near the pump house, water storage?” Jennifer asked, looking around as Ian opened the hidden door to the rest of the shop.
    “Yes, they are water tanks, but no, not for storage,” Ian said, sliding the door open. “We were told they bought those to make a kind of water tower, but looking over the plans for the greenhouse, we found those are for the water storage for the hydroponics.”
    Moving around the stacks and pallets of stuff, Ian and Lance grabbed what they needed and walked back out, sliding the door closed. “Hydroponics? Isn’t that what you did your science project on last year, Ian?” Jennifer asked.
    “Yep, underground hydroponic rice production. Dad and Uncle Doug asked me to do it,” he said, walking out. “After reading the layout of the greenhouse, I realized they used my research.”
    “Whoa,” Jennifer said as Lance opened the ATV shed and backed the hybrid buggy out.
    Glancing over at her, Ian grinned. “If I would’ve known that’s why they wanted me to research it, I would’ve put more time in.”
    “Ian, you got like third in the state,” Jennifer said. “Did they do that on any of Lance’s projects?”
    “Yep.” Ian grinned as Lance jumped out of the buggy. “They picked our science projects out the last three years. Those are Lance’s Pelton-Wheel turbines in the powerhouse.”
    As they spread a camouflage net over the buggy, they used zip ties to secure it, and Jennifer spray painted splotches on the tires and wheel well. “So when are we starting on the greenhouse?” she asked, moving to the other side.
    “If we go by Doug’s outline, it’s soon, but we won’t be done with it for months, but I’m betting a year,” Lance said as he evened out the netting.
    “So let’s not do hydroponics,” Jennifer said, looking up.
    “You get a thousand percent increase in yield with an enclosed hydroponic system,” Ian said. “It’s labor-intensive upfront, but the biggest cost factor is electricity, and I guess you know we don’t have to worry about that.”
    “Okay, so what’s the problem?” she asked, getting up as Ian ripped a piece of duct tape off and covered the taillights.
    He pointed. “See that slope past the rec room?” he asked, and she nodded. “We have to dig back fifty feet, removing all that earth, then build it and cover it up like the rec room and shop.”
    “By hand!” Jennifer shouted.
    “Yeah,” Ian said, ripping another piece of tape off. “You see our hesitation now.”
    Looking at the slope and just guessing where fifty feet went to, she moaned, “Using shovels would take forever.”
    “If we had our dads, Uncle Doug, Jason, and Ms. Penny’s daughter’s kids, it could be done in the two months they had planned on taking to build it,” Lance said. “With just me, you, and Ian, I’m thinking close to a year. That is a shit load of

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