The Cedar Cart Journey

By Grady J. Bosheers

The book should provoke thought about how you and those you care about would survive a worldwide catastrophic power failure driven by the likelihood of a powerful mega solar flare that will crash all electronics, which operate and sustain everything we need to stay alive on this planet. Imagine no food, water, communications, or many other things we need and take for granted. Consider what effect we suffer now during storms where we lose power for just hours or days. Losing it for decades would eliminate most of the planets population in the first few months.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: May 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781489704450

Grady J. Bosheers

Grady J. Bosheers was born in Baltimore in 1954, and he loved being on family farms. As an adult, he was employed in the ship-building and repair industries until retirement in 2014, when he moved to Leoma, Tennessee, with family.

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Copyright © 2015 Grady Bosheers.

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ISBN: 978-1-4897-0444-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-0445-0 (e)

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 5/7/2015

W e’ve traveled on foot about40 miles in 4 days, rain hampered our head way as has the often difficult terrain, fording hills, swollen and normal flowing creeks, dense forested areas while trying to avoid contact with any other beings short of animal. We avoid the open roads as often as possible albeit they may be preferable given their far easier traveling benefits in obvious ways. Often our emotions are overwhelming because of what happened and the shame of it all is, I somehow saw it coming, as if a terrible dream and could do nothing to stop it or avoid it. In some way my entire life has been in preparation for this and now that it has come to pass, my confidence in actually surviving a new beginning with family and friends in tow often sways prepared or not. There are the expected and obvious moments of shock, fear, doubt, sorrow, courage and at any given moment, an uplifting sense of hope, all the while knowing we have no choice except to press on to our destination, no matter how difficult or painful it will surely be. It would be prudent at this point to explain why we are afoot with bare essentials, heading south, from our homes, careful and very much willing and able to fight if we have to in completing this surprising and dreadful journey. My name is Gabriel 56, my wife’s name is Jessie 57 and my sons name is Evan 35. We, with my Brother in law Travis 55 and Mother in law Pearl 81, are a small group of beyond middle aged travelers facing odds we recognize as unlikely and this is our s tory.

So many reasons come to mind for the potential demise of life as we know it. Considering the birth of this great nation, prosperity, advancement, richness and greed has controlled all we do at any cost including our future as a dominant breed and at great cost to the Planet itself. The majority of Americans were content with working and generating a decent life with husbands, wives, children, a couple dogs, cats and about any manner of pet form creature we could capture or control. There were those who at any cost, set out to get rich, powerful and in control of everything. Americans in earlier years were somewhat blind to what it would take from us and what it would cost us all in the end, those who did know, didn’t care, focusing only on their task of being selfishly rich and powerful. Clearly in the early years of this nation, Politicians were for the most part, honest and attempting to actually perform on behalf of the American people, now, not so obviously much as greed, power and mismanagement has cost us all dearly. Depression, recession, recession again and years later depression again has dismembered the nation and its population in spirit. As if battling aggressive terrorism from outside and inside our nation weren’t enough. Our environment and infrastructure has increasingly suffered because of our ignorance or lack of concern and extreme weather changes has been leveling difficulties and sorrow with storms, hurricanes, tornados, tidal waves, droughts and rain fall to the extreme in areas normally not accustomed to it. The earlier assumed reason for our quest was driven by the previously mentioned long lasting never ending economical slide deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit we all hoped would never come but, did!!

Many years ago, as a young boy growing up in Elkridge Maryland and visiting Loretto Tennessee yearly, my Fathers Family farm lands, I learned to live comfortably in open lands, forests and wilderness areas and grow to love the wilds of America, including each and every bird, bug and animal living with us on this most beautiful planet, which needed to be untouched beyond harsh language as it may have harassed or tormented us in some way or rendered to a meal maintaining human life. During my youth, I camped, hunted, fished and explored miles and miles of back woods and water ways learning more than attending school offered in the word of nature satisfying what drove my deepest desires. Often, as a child, I would have dreams or visions of being a mountain man surviving peacefully amongst earth’s natural resources and never once needing to be a rich man or an ass in becoming one. It became clear to me, to become wealthy, one had to be extremely driven, selfish and poses the ability to be cold, cruel and in many cases non-caring having to abandon or release those who did not support in body and soul, their goals of wealth.

Although my comments may seem somewhat harsh or smack of jealousy, I assure you I hold no man nor woman to task for having their own goals or dreams no matter what may fulfill them, after all, we are all very different in every way as it was meant to be and that road to wealth or power holds no pleasure for me. The living I made did not leave me, my wife or children wanting as I made a pleasant wage in the Ship building and repair industry for over 30 years. We were comfortable and I admit enjoying being part of such a difficult industry which did indeed have an impact on our environment more stressful than most. There weren’t many days that went by that I didn’t consider that negative note and thought it ironic as I loved all things natural so deeply. More than once I gave consideration to pursuing a more noble, earth friendly profession and sadly ignored that gut feeling, choosing to complete my career to it’s end and retiring comfortably on our own little piece of farm land in Tennessee growing vegetables and perhaps training draft mules to work with pulling and plowing.

Several years ago, as terrorists started attacking us within our own borders, wars started and rightfully so as I do agree we should fight hard for our free way of life, the economy went south and our own Government gave enormous sums of tax payers money to the very people, banks, auto makers and damn cold hearted rich who started destroying us in the first place, as a bail out which did not bail us out, serving only to make us struggle more. Another gut feeling came over me which for some reason I could not ignore as if a higher power was telling me to prepare. It was so potent and clear, with defined details that flowed through me like a constant train of passionate thought. I am a God fearing man albeit I may not visit churches and never have I attempted to press my beliefs upon another and I respect and understand all people no matter what they may believe or not believe, finding everyone interesting and a joy to observe, never passing judgment or providing my opinion about their actions or tastes except in the interest of telling this story. It matters not to me who they are or what they do short of stealing, lying, cheating, bullying or murdering another. God as I understand and know does not want us to force another to be like me just because I do not like what they may be. To this point, my gut feeling felt more like guidance than a passing thought or perhaps a dream like desire, it was clear to me that it is one of or part of my purpose for being on earth, I wondered if Noah heard his directions to build the Arch in this way!

Using all I understand and know about surviving and living naturally or what people now call organically, my task was to build a cart to use as a transport for carrying survival gear, because our way of life as we know it, comfortable and bountiful was about to change. The cart will be our world, our center piece and is to assist us in reaching our journeys end. I did sense it coming and admit at first, considered what was to me, direction, to be just anger or frustration, driven by, what was obviously selfish lacking concern for the big picture by leaders, all leaders, not excluding us as individuals. The cart is to be the size of the bed of my pickup truck and be able to carry specific stores for a very long journey, pulled by human hands or animal as was done when pioneers crossed this nation in the beginning. It was to be made of cedar, light enough to be handled and durable enough to last a very long trek on any surface, resistant to dampness or rain and a repellent to insects protecting food stores and supplies stored within. I began building the cart as I imagined it’s design and used bike wheels (beach cruiser type) able to carry loads, durable and easy to repair anywhere if proper supplies are carried, situated and stowed. These proper supplies do not include any item that requires gas or electricity. The only power available will be human or if available, animal. I first gathered the equipment and supplies required for at least five people to last about three months sparingly and spread the supplies all out on the lawn and calculated the weight and space that would be needed to handle the amount. The supplies being placed in the cedar cart were listed but not limited to the following:

Shelter items-

Tarps, plastic, rope, twine, blankets easy to carry, light and perfect as shelter in any location.

Food Stores –

Several bags of Flour, canned foods, pancake mixes, trail mix’s, nuts, oils, lard, salt, pepper, tea bags, coffee, sugar, powdered creamers, dehydrated mix’s, rice, and a book of wild edible plants, a five gallon water container,

Cooking and eating items –

Pots, pans, metal plates, cups, knives, forks, spoons 1 each for each member. They can carry their own in their back packs maintaining them themselves.

Medical items –

First aid kits with surgical equipment of all types, creams, ointments, tea tree oil, iodine, peroxides, bandages, tape, pain pills, and narcotics accumulated in advance and stored, insect repellents (deet if possible).

Weapons–

Ammo (for hunting weapons we already own), bow & arrows, spools of fishing line, hooks, axe, hatchet, pellet gun, sling shots.

Personal items -

soap, rags, minimum clothing, toilet paper, machete, leather kit, seeds for all type of vegetables for future planting needs etc.

As my work on the cart progressed, our economy kept falling, crimes increased, more and more became unemployed, while marketing people, who I consider to be the most dangerous people on earth, worked very hard selling the population anything and everything as if there was no problem at all, fuel shortages expanded and became more expensive, food prices are getting higher, drugs control at least 1 in every family, drug dealers control cities and towns, tornados, hurricanes laid waste, levies broke, torrential rains fell and the earth shook the east coast like never before, bees that pollinate plants disappeared and frogs vanished because of pollution that poisoned the earth, all meaning one thing, our time was rapidly coming to an end. However; none of the above destructive human actions actually ended our way of life when the end came, it was a massive solar flare that took out the planets electric and electronic power around the world. Scientists have been warning for years of the potential event and it happened. We can not relax and get along for a few days without power during a storm, now; we face a life long event transforming us all to the so called Stone Age. There was little or no time to prepare before it struck.

It is time to gather the family and head south 800 miles. My prearranged plan is to load the cart in the back of the truck supplied and drive as far as the truck would take us before running out of fuel. The event generated a fuel supply shortage not being able to pump fuel. Our military needs fuel far more than we do to protect us from outside invaders who stand poised for this type of opportunity albeit they too have no means to invade anyone, the Military’s purpose will likely be internal policing and infrastructure support maintaining our Governmental process’s and functions while trying to regain control of a country about to become in broiled in kayos. Before leaving our home abandoned to the mercy of vandals, we decided to torch it along with what remained behind including shed, garage, motorcycle and anything else we cannot take and there was indeed a lot we could not take, too much to count and living with a broken heavy heart starts now. Things will become much worse, much, much worse from this moment on.

With calculations in hand, we should be able to drive about 250 miles before running out of fuel and having to abandon the truck. During the construction of