The Slow Road Read Online Free PDF Page A

yet, but they fully intended to get one at some point and wanted plenty of seasoned wood for it. The wood was stacked on a metal rack Jasper had built and covered with scraps of tarps that he’d salvaged.
    The following Saturday Alvin’s relatives showed up and he called Jasper early Saturday morning to ask him to help with the barn. Jasper and Millie packed lunches and headed for Alvin’s. They were a bit amused at the confusion of the group and Alvin’s exasperation with them. Alvin took Jasper and Millie aside and quietly apologized.
    “There is no need, Alvin,” Jasper said. “We’ll do what we can to help. If we can’t get finished, I’ll come next Saturday and help you finish up. Millie works next Saturday.”
    “I feel like I owe you for coming out into this mess.”
    “Oh, no,” Millie replied. “You’ve been good to us. We owe you a great deal and want to help here. We’ll be doing some construction ourselves one day and need the experience.”
    “Well, that’s a switch. Half my family thinks I should just hire this done. But I really want my family to learn to work together. There are some bad times ahead of us and I don’t know if my family will be able to live through them without my help. I need them to be able to help themselves as much as possible.”
    Jasper had never heard Alvin speak about bad times ahead. He seemed to have plenty going for himself and his immediate family. Alvin and his wife both had good jobs. They had the place in the country where they kept the horses for the girls and a very loud motorcycle for their son.
    Millie and Jasper exchanged glances when Alvin wasn’t looking. Was Alvin a closet prepper?
    One of Alvin’s relatives came over and Alvin turned to Jasper and Millie again. “If you’re still willing to help, I guess the rest are ready now.”
    It took the rest of the morning and all afternoon and evening before the new horse barn framework was up and secured, and the roof and external sheathing applied. There had been a break for lunch, but it had been a short one. But Alvin did take everyone that helped out to dinner.
    Tired, but full of good food, Millie and Jasper went home, wondering if they might have not only a friend in Alvin, but a fellow prepper that might be an ally in the future if the future brought some of the things Millie and Jasper thought it might.
    That winter Jasper was finally able to conclude a deal he had been working on for several months. A small factory near the outskirts of town had been shut down for years and ownership of the property had been in dispute ever since. Jasper had no intention of trying to start the factory back up. What he wanted were the materials that made up the building.
    The ownership had been established and the owner wanted the property, without the old building. Jasper got the salvage rights and eight months to clear anything he wanted from the building before it was destroyed and the remains taken to a landfill.
    Every spare moment Jasper had for those eight months was spent stripping the building of copper wire and copper plumbing to pay for the laborers he hired to carefully dismantle a portion of the structure itself. He took truck load after load of masonry block and brick to the property. He had to hire a high lift, long reach forklift to get some of the structural steel from the roof system.
    A self-contained high lift work platform, also rented for a couple of weeks, allowed Jasper’s workers to take out almost all of the metal framed glazed windows that went around the building just below the eaves.
    The only breaks he took during that time, other than observing the Sabbath and Christmas, were three hunting trips with Alvin, each one a quick one. Alvin would have loaned Jasper a rifle and a shotgun for the trips, but Jasper and Millie decided it was time to arm themselves for future hunting trips they would do on their own.
    Jasper researched defensive guns as well as hunting guns on the internet. He