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as instructed by the concrete workers for the time needed for the concrete to cure.
    They did without most of the simple pleasures they permitted themselves that cost money that summer. By early fall the concrete was ready for Jasper to start laying the blocks for the two parallel walls that enclosed the shelter. After each lift had time to cure, Jasper shoveled in the dirt, sand, and gravel mixture he’d been accumulating and tamped it down after wetting it.
    It went slowly, and Jasper had to stop during the winter. It was another bad one and they had to scrimp again to buy propane, though there was nothing like the blizzard and ice storm of the winter before. There was more snow than usual, though it had come intermittently and hadn’t caused much problem. But the snow melt had the ground saturated when the spring rains started.
    Once again Jasper put in more than his share of time helping out church members and the county deputies take care of people that couldn’t take care of themselves during the floods. They weren’t bad and didn’t affect Millie and Jasper’s place at all, but Jasper had to rest up for two weeks, doing only the watchman job and taking care of the garden. He finally was able to start working on the shelter again. It still went slowly, but it went steadily.
    The thick, earth filled walls were at the correct height, which was a couple of layers of block higher than the original design. The shelter was small and Jasper wanted it as high inside as he could reasonably make it to cut down on the claustrophobic feel. That was also the reason he painted it white inside when it was finished.
    He had to rent the high lift, long reach forklift again to set the structural steel in place that would support the earth covered concrete roof of the shelter. That done, they had to wait to come up with the money for the concrete for the roof. But they had plenty to keep them busy.
    Millie helped Jasper place and lightly tamp brick floors for the greenhouse they were going to build against the south facing side of the shelter. Jasper had picked up two medium sized polymer stock watering tanks from TSC and buried them down with the top edges just above the floor level, back against the wall of the shelter.
    When the floor was in place, Jasper began building a wooden framework with the salvaged lumber. As the structure took shape, the salvaged metal framed glazed windows were installed.
    The windows were in pretty good shape considering their age and going through the recovery process. Jasper had to replace a few broken panes of glass and re-glaze a few more as he installed them.
    The garden was producing well, as were the two strawberry towers. There was still no fruit on the trees, but they were healthy and doing well. The next year would tell the tale for them and the grapes. The nut trees still had a few years to go, except for the original paper shell pecan that was at one edge of the front yard. It produced a few nuts every year, but not as many as it should. Jasper was studying up on why.
    Though there was no roof on the shelter yet, just the decking to support the concrete when it was poured, Millie began stacking the cases of glass jar canned foods she was producing on shelves that Jasper had built for her with some of the salvaged lumber. They kept another of the old salvaged tarps over the shelves in case of rain leaking through the forms of the roof.
    Jasper had made sure to get his hunting license and migratory waterfowl tags again and went hunting with Alvin several times that year. Millie found the help she needed on line to learn how to can meats. Most of what Jasper brought in went into pint jars that were added to the vegetables in the shelter.
    The green house was finished by winter time, but Millie and Jasper didn’t try to start a winter garden that year. Jasper still needed to make the growing tables and install a wood burning heater.
    They got a break that winter. As usual every few winters