Conflicted Home (The Survivalist Book 9) by A American (learn to read books TXT) 📕

I ran through the twenty-four bottles I needed for the first lens. Once they were all ready, I had to prepare the caps before I could install them. I needed to cut the top off the caps. The caps, once open on the end, would be used to hold the bottles in place. I looked at the tools trying to find something that would be both easy and fast. I looked at the Sawzall, then the hacksaw. While both of these would get the job done, it wouldn’t be clean or easy.

Then I saw the belt sander. I had an eighty-grit belt on it and decided to give it a shot. Laying it upside down on the bench, I pulled the trigger and held a bottle, cap down, against the belt. It ground the cap off quickly, and in no time, I had all twenty-four bottles ready to mount. This whole process was going faster and smoother than I had thought it would.

With all the caps now ready, I mounted the bottles into the lens. When it was done, it looked like some kind of a middle-school science fair project. But it would work. I carried it to the house and removed the screen from a window and put the lens in and lowered the window until it rested on top of it, holding it in place with the bottles pointed outside.

Having the process down, I got to work making more. I spent the rest of the afternoon making them until I ran out of bottles. That was definitely going to be the issue. But, I figured the world was awash in old bottles; I’d just have to find more. At least, I had enough to make nine sets.

I’d lost track of time and it wasn’t until Taylor came into the shop to tell me it was almost dinner time, that I looked at my watch. “Wow, where’d the day go?”

“The time flew by today,” she replied.

I dusted ground plastic off my shirt and replied, “Yeah, it definitely helps the day move along when you’re working.”

“I’m starving and can’t wait to eat.”

“Well, let’s go get us a seat,” I replied as I grabbed two of the lenses to carry over to Danny’s.

“What are those?” She asked.

Stepping out the door I replied, “Come on and I’ll show you.”

We walked together over to Danny’s, where the front porch was crowded with people. Mike was lying on the porch with a leg hanging off, and he said, “Hey look, it’s Bill Nye the Science Guy.”

“What in the world is that Rube Goldberg-looking contraption?” Sarge asked.

“I’m hoping it will help cool the house a little.”

“How in the hell is that going to cool the house?”

I stepped up on the porch. There was a light breeze blowing, which was relief in its own right. I went over to one of the windows and removed the screen, then went inside with the lens. Inside, I put the lens in and lowered the window to hold it in place like I had done at my house. With it in place, I held my hand in front of the small opening. There was airflow coming through it and it was noticeably cooler.

Mel walked over and asked, “What are you doing?”

I took her hand and held it in front of the lens. “Hey, that’s really cool! Literally! It’s a lot cooler than the air. How does it work?”

Sarge and a couple others came in from the porch when they heard Mel. Each of them held their hand in front of the lens and all agreed it was cooler.

“How does that work?” Sarge asked.

“The air being compressed to go through the neck speeds it up and that cools it. That’s all there is to it. Simple.”

Everyone came over to check it out. While they were discussing it, I went and put another one in. Dalton was standing behind me and said, “This is interesting.”

I straightened up and replied, “Yeah. It’s pretty neat. These can actually reduce the inside temp by ten degrees. But this place is pretty big, so it probably won’t reduce the temp that much in here.”

He nodded, “But it will help. Ten degrees would be impressive.”

The statement made me laugh. “Yeah, ten degrees. Kind of funny getting excited over ten degrees. Not much of a difference with the level of heat we have here in central Florida; but it will definitely help.”

“It’s the difference between ninety and eighty.”

With mock surprise, I replied, “No shit? Wow, did you do that math in your head?”

“Bite me.”

Since Miss Kay had been busy all day sorting the food and other supplies for distribution, Bobbie had prepared supper. And with the addition of some of the food stuffs, it was amazing. She made a stew with beef from the cow and large pot of rice. We all gathered on the back porch of Danny’s house and feasted like we hadn’t in a long time. It was a perfect example of feast or famine.

We’d spent so long, going with so little, that having both the garden come in and the relief aid at the same time made for a true bounty. And knowing that tomorrow we would be passing much needed food and other items out to the people of North Lake County, only made the evening better.

We were sitting around after eating, talking about the task for the next day. Sarge was relaxing with a cup of coffee. The old man sat reclined in a chair with his feet up on a bucket. He’d actually unsnapped his pants he was so full. I smiled when I looked at him and said, “You should take your boots off too.”

“Hard to run barefoot,” he replied.

“Hard to run with your pants around your ankles too.” I replied with a smile.

“I don’t plan on running.” He replied. All I could do was shake my head.

“Are we taking that tank with us tomorrow?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah. I figure it’ll keep folks from getting out of hand.