Poem: "Windswept"
Feb. 1st, 2018 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is spillover from the December 5, 2017 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from acelightning. It also fills the "tree" square in my 7-1-17 card for the Winter Fest in July Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Calliope thread of the Polychrome Heroics series, directly following "A Tornado of Thought."
"Windswept"
The morning after the tornado chase,
Calliope woke up in the quiet room of
the Omaha weather station on a couch
with two supervillains and a weatherman
piled up beside her, snoring quietly.
When she sat up, the others stirred too.
Calliope looked around at the square nest
formed by two foam couches pushed together.
"How exactly did we wind up in this situation?"
she said. "I distinctly remember falling asleep
on my own couch, over there." She pointed.
"Well, Vagary kept rolling off his toward you,"
Kong Vault said, "so we just, you know --"
He mimed pushing his hands together.
"-- to keep him from hurting himself."
"Sorry, sorry," Vagary mumbled,
dragging himself away from her.
Kong Vault bailed off the couch too.
"Where's the nearest bathroom?"
"Past the communications desk,
there's a sign in the hall," Calliope said.
She followed him, but turned the other way
to use the dottie beside the women's room.
Fortunately it was stocked with supplies
for overnight situations such as this.
Calliope brushed her teeth, took a shower,
and felt much more presentable when
she came back to the quiet room.
She dragged the couches back into
their proper places and folded the blankets
that someone had thrown over the sleepers.
It could have been a lot worse, really.
Back in college, Calvin had had a girlfriend
who seemed to think that men always
wanted to get some. Sleeping with her
had been like sleeping with an octopus.
At least this time, the other folks had
kept their hands to themselves.
After all the help that Vagary and
Kong Vault had given her yesterday,
it would be rude to blame them for
the situation with the couches.
"Who wants breakfast?" she said
when they returned to the quiet room.
"I'll treat you to Bobby's Bacon Bonanza."
"Oh, is that as good as they say?"
Vagary asked, perking up. "I've
heard people talking about it."
"It's great," Calliope said. "Not cheap,
but worth every penny. It's one of
the few nice restaurants that serves
real food instead of the fancy crap.
Their call-ahead menu actually
has suckling pig on it for feasts."
"I'll take a piece of that action,"
Vagary said, then turned to
Kong Vault. "Say yes."
"You buy, I fly," he agreed.
"Everybody grab hold."
They landed in the parking lot
with a graceful swoop that was
much easier than yesterday's ride.
"Okay, here's the deal," Calliope said.
"I'm buying. I recommend the buffet, it's
all-you-can-eat. I will tip accordingly.
This place makes amazing things with
bacon -- it's edible art. There will be
other things, too, but the best goodies
usually have bacon in them somewhere."
Vagary, who was stubborn, picked up
a menu on the way in, but when he saw
the buffet, he said, "You were right."
It only took a minute to get a table,
agree that they all wanted the buffet
which was exuding soft clouds of
mouthwatering steam, order that,
and stampede in its general direction.
Calliope loaded her plate with
bacon egg cups and BLT bites, while
Vagary went for the scrambled eggs
and a big pile of bacon pancakes.
Slices of cantaloupe smiled at them,
and they both took some of those too.
Kong Vault looked at the swineapple
that had just come out of the kitchen.
"Can I have a whole one?" he asked,
and when the server hesitated, he
added, "I am a teleporter, and I need
about three thousand calories after
all of the work I did yesterday."
"Of course, sir," the server said.
"Here, just take this platter."
Kong Vault glanced down at
the plate in his hand, already
half full of melon slices along with
a bowl of cranberry-almond oatmeal.
"I got this," Vagary said, boosting
the plate out of his hand. "You
just take the swineapple there."
Calliope left them to it and went
back to their table, where she
applied herself to the egg cups.
That helped fill the gnawing hole in
her belly. The BLT bites were juicy
and delicious, as was the melon.
Vagary had somehow gotten his arms
around an entire cobb salad in addition
to his plate and Kong Vault's plate.
Kong Vault just devoted all of
his attention to wrapping himself
around the swineapple as fast as
possible, which was fun to watch.
They actually went back for seconds,
because everyone had burned off
a mountain of calories yesterday.
The pastry table caught their eye,
buried under flaky delights. There
were all kinds of croissants -- plain
and apricot and chocolate hazelnut.
Then Vagary found the bacon donuts,
so of course they all had to try one.
Calliope wasn't as fond of sweet bacon
compared to the savory recipes, but oh,
the chocolate was downright decadent.
By the time even the supervillains
couldn't look at the buffet tables,
Calliope figured that she had made
a decent start cleaning up the muddle
of storm-tossed cape mayhem that
was her relationship with Vagary,
and apparently now his friends.
When she tried to pay for breakfast,
though, the manager looked at her
over his glasses and asked, "Aren't
you three the ones who broke up
all those tornadoes yesterday?"
"Yes ...?" Calliope said,
wondering what it was about.
"Then your money's no good here
today," the older man said firmly.
"What, why --" Vagary sputtered.
"We have trees and power lines
down all over town, we're lucky that
the restaurant is serviceable -- I can't
imagine how much worse it would be if
you hadn't saved us," the manager said.
"Breakfast is on the house, with my thanks."
The two supervillains looked stunned, but
Calliope just said, "Thank you. We burned
a lot of calories yesterday, and this really helped."
As they walked out, Kong Vault said, "I hate
to break up the party, but I need to get home.
After all that jumping around, I won't be
good for very much until tomorrow."
Calliope let him go, but now she
was viewing the leaf-littered parking lot
with a practiced eye, wondering what
the rest of her town looked like.
Even without a tornado, that storm
had apparently packed a punch.
"Do you know where I could get
a spare chainsaw?" Vagary said.
"I hang out here a lot, seems like
I should pitch in for the cleanup."
"First response crews will have some
to share with anyone who's got a card
for chainsaw safety," Calliope said.
Vagary pulled out a leather organizer
and picked at the corner of a card
until he managed to get it out. "Here."
"See, that's why I like the fan kind,"
Calliope said. An expert flick of her wrist
expanded her organizer into a half-circle
from which she picked out her chainsaw card.
"Yeah, but now I know that your CPR card
is about to expire," Vagary said with a smirk.
"What?" Calliope said, leafing back to look
at it. "Shit. Now I need to wedge that
into my schedule. Somehow."
Vagary shrugged. "That's why
I prefer my kind of card organizer,"
he said. "Nobody can see anything
they shouldn't, only what I choose
to show them. It's more secure."
He maybe had a point about that,
although it probably mattered more
to supervillains than superheras.
Just then, a citizen response truck
came up the road, so Calliope
flagged it down and rattled off
what the two of them could do.
The driver nodded and invited
them to join the volunteers.
As they rode to the nearest
cleanup zone, Calliope watched
the town roll by and noted damage.
The streets were littered with leaves
and twigs. Branches and a few small trees
had fallen. In some places, mature trees
lost larger branches. Several buildings
had gutters down or shingles missing.
Nothing was smashed open or leveled,
though, and Calliope suspected that
most of the damage had affected
points of hidden weakness.
Cleaning up after a thunderstorm
was a lot easier than cleaning up after
a tornado, and they had plenty of help.
Then the citizen response truck pulled into
a modest subdivision called Willow Ridge,
festooned with the splintered remains of
red and silver maple, mulberry, and
several different species of willow.
Lombardy poplars had formed
a tall border along the road, and
Bradford pears once adorned
the median of the boulevard.
"Whose idiotic idea was this?"
Calliope said, staring at the ruins.
"Jonas Campbell," several folks chorused.
Calliope was willing to bet that Mr. Campbell
wouldn't be getting any more of his projects
approved for development in Stillwater.
Once offloaded, the volunteers were met
by the Incident Commander, a tall woman
wearing a green safety vest. "Okay, folks,
untrained volunteers go to Logistics and
take a yellow vest. Anyone with training
relevant to current needs, go to Operations,
have your certs out, and get an orange vest."
The supervisors of Logistics and Operations
raised their hands so everyone could see them.
"Basic and intermediate chainsaw," Calliope said
as she indicated first Vagary and then herself.
"We have some experience working together,
albeit in circumstances other than cleanup."
They put on their orange vests and went
as directed to the place where a mulberry had
collapsed over the yard of a large corner house.
"Hi, I'm Dalton Boggs," said the young man
in the Bio Waste Management vest. "This is
an old farmhouse folded into the subdivision
for historic interest, so the damn thing still has
a septic tank, now probably punctured. Also
there's a car under the tree somewhere."
"Oh, joy," Vagary drawled. Calliope
couldn't help chuckling in response.
The neighborhood really was a mess.
"I hear you, bro," said Dalton. "So I'm
on bio safety while the fire crew will cut
the tree loose. Our brawny dudes will then
move the sections to the staging area, where
chainsaw teams will cut them down to size."
He pointed. "Free firewood pileup is there, for
anyone with the space to stack and dry it."
So Calliope went to work cutting apart
small trees or parts of larger ones
into their individual branches.
Vagary came along behind her
and sliced those into sections
short enough to fit in a fireplace.
Other volunteers collected
the branches smaller than
wrist size and dragged them
down to the chipper crew where
a sign proclaimed, Free Mulch!
After all, the more firewood
and mulch that local neighbors
claimed, the less would remain
to haul to the municipal lot.
It took work, but Calliope liked
rebuilding after a disaster, and
teamwork was one of the things
that made a place feel like home.
When she looked up, she could see
neighbors helping each other uncover
swingsets and sandboxes. Amazingly,
the car was no more than scratched, as
large branches had jammed above it.
Soon they had a path cleared for
Dalton to get in and announce that,
yes, the septic tank had ruptured.
He put his own crew on cleaning up
that part of the mess, then came over
to talk with the chainsaw team as well.
"I don't think any of the contaminated tree
got passed over here, but better safe
than sorry," Dalton said. "We have
set up a handwashing station with
disinfecting soap just in case."
The soap reeked, but less so
than the whiff of septic tank
now coating the brisk breeze.
As they dried their hands,
Vagary got a thoughtful look.
Then he walked over to the line
of short logs he had been making.
"Rainfall's kind of low here, yeah?"
Calliope snorted. "Sure it is," she said.
"We get droughts periodically. We also
get the occasional deluge followed by
flash floods. Oklahoma, gotta love it."
"I think we're wasted on chainsaws,"
Vagary said, rolling a log with his toe.
"Could you unpack that?" Calliope said.
"Ever hear of hugelkultur?" Vagary said.
"You bury logs, or even whole trees, and
it makes a sponge under the ground."
"Like a rotten log staying wet even in
summer, okay, I get it," Calliope said. "So?"
"I get hired to sink logs sometimes because
I can Phase," said Vagary. "Everything
is mostly space anyway, they just push
right into the earth and stay there.
I could show you how to do it."
"I've done something similar
to keep biodegradable waste
from attracting pests," she said.
"Okay, let's see what happens."
She put up her arm, and shortly
the Operations supervisor came over.
"What do you need?" the older woman said.
"Vagary thinks we'd be more use burying
logs than cutting them up," Calliope said, and
then Vagary picked up the thread to explain
about hugelkultur and superpowers.
"All right, let me call around to
the parks and see if anyone's
interested," the supervisor said.
They wound up going out to
Rocky Fellows Park, where they
were met by a ranger who kept
rubbing his hands together in glee.
He had a hacksaw, a pruning saw,
a long thin case that probably held
a broken-down pole saw, as well
as a pouch slung over his shoulder.
"Hi, I'm Richard Elliot," he said.
"I've been out trimming up a bit,
but there's not much damage here."
Calliope looked around the far end
of the park. He was right. Aside from
a few loose branches and a stand of
tall flowers flattened by the rain,
the park looked pretty good.
Willow Ridge had been close to
the Tranquility Counseling Center --
perhaps right under the nascent tornado
that Calliope had torn apart earlier.
Rocky Fellows was out on the edge
of town, and much better maintained.
Most of it consisted of open space, but
there were scattered trees inside and
more wrapping around the edges.
"Come on into the meadow and
I'll show you the exciting stuff,"
Richard said, beckoning to them.
The meadow boasted a variety of
wildflowers that bloomed in all seasons,
mixed with native grasses, through which
the staff mowed a meandering path
that changed course every year.
"It's beautiful," Vagary said.
"We come here a lot, and
the view never gets old."
"Why thank you," Richard said.
"Now this is our soggy spot, which
gets some runoff from paved areas
in the neighboring subdivision. This
part is landscaped as wet prairie."
Wet it was -- currently under
a quarter acre of calf-deep water.
"Over here is a project we've been
working on recently, developing
a band of mesic prairie around
the wet spot," Richard went on.
"There are several pits we filled
with brush from the park trees."
That wasn't underwater, but
the ground still squeeshed
each time Calliope took a step.
Vagary did not hesitate to kneel
and stick his arm into the ground,
swishing it around as if trying to find
something in a tub of muddy water.
"Oh yeah, there's one," he said.
"I can feel the change in density.
The little stuff is rotting down
real good now; the big branches
still have a long way to go."
Richard was frankly staring,
but then he shook himself
and said, "Then you know
what we're after. Start with
the stuff we're getting from
minor losses in the subdivision."
He pointed to a pile of short logs.
Most of them were arm thickness,
a few thigh-like, and there were
also several sections of trunk.
"Okay," Calliope said. "Is there
anything else we need before
we get started on this project?"
"Oh yeah," Richard said.
He rummaged in a vest pouch,
then offered each of them a pair of
patches that said Citizen Responder
and Enhanced. "Here, put these on."
Calliope did so, but Vagary hesitated.
He put on the Enhanced one but
just kept staring at the other.
Then he sighed and said,
"I, uh, play for the other team."
"Well today, you're offering
to sink trees in my park, so that
makes you a citizen responder. I
don't want anyone stealing you for
some random job that any volunteer
could do," the ranger said. "Put it on."
Vagary put it on.
"That's better," Richard said.
He picked up a bundle of branches
and with swift strokes of his ranger knife
began sharpening them into stakes.
"Now we want a random pattern of
log pits, so just follow along and
put those where I stick these."
He thrust the first stake into
the rain-softened soil, then
walked on around the curve.
They quickly fell into a pattern.
Calliope preferred to pick up
small logs and push them
underground with her arm.
Vagary got a kick out of
standing on trunk sections
and slowly sinking to knee depth.
Calliope found that she didn't mind
Vagary quite so much when he was
being helpful instead of horrible, and
she liked pitching in to make the park
suitable for more kinds of wildflowers.
A few lost trees weren't too bad
for a thunderstorm that had tried
to spawn tornadoes, and they
could put those to good use.
Given what she had heard
from the other volunteers earlier,
not many power lines were down.
Looking up, she could see the roofs of
the nearby houses, and they seemed
to be pretty much intact as well.
They ran out of the logs before
they ran out of energy, and when
they returned to the starting point,
quacking ducks startled into flight
from the surface of the puddle.
A lanky man in a blue plaid shirt
leaned against the park truck.
"You like beef?" he asked.
"... what?" Calliope said.
"I'm Dane Cabela," he said.
"I live on the other end of the park,
and I had a tree come down. I heard
you were pushing logs underground,
somehow, so I figured I'd ask if you
would do the same for my yard."
"What's that got to do with beef?"
Calliope said, more confused than ever.
"My sister and I run a little ranch
of organic beef just outside of town,"
Dane said. "Some of our damnfool cows
tried to shelter under a tree and got hurt.
Vet's all tied up taking care of pet horses,
so I just took the cows to slaughter early."
"Save what you can, I guess," Vagary said.
"I can't sell salvage beef from hurt cows,
but I can give it away," Dane explained.
"You sink my tree, and I can pay you
for it in whole hanging carcasses."
Calliope thought a moment, then said,
"Sure, I'll take one. Whatever I can't fit into
my chest freezer, I can share with friends."
"I'll take whatever's on offer," Vagary said.
"I got friends who are always hungry."
"How about one for her and two for you,
then that leaves me one cow to donate
for the volunteer crews," Dane said.
"Works for me," Calliope said,
and Vagary nodded agreement.
Richard offered to drive them all
down to Dane's house, which had
a small pear tree torn in three pieces.
"At least it missed your house,"
Calliope said. "I don't know
why people even plant these."
Dane rubbed a hand over
the back of his neck. "My wife
thought it was pretty," he said.
Richard chuckled. "Well, it needs
replacing anyway," he said. "You
might not want another tree so close
to the house. Perhaps a nice viburnum?
Those grow into medium to large shrubs.
Several species have white flowers and
reddish-purple fall foliage similar to pears."
"Thanks for the suggestion," Dane said.
He pulled notebook from his pocket and
jotted down the name of the shrubs.
Meanwhile Calliope and Vagary
had been examining the pear tree.
"One section fell clean off," she said,
pointing to where it lay by the birdbath.
"If we cut loose the other two, then we can
drag them into different parts of the yard."
"Good idea, but we need to lose the leaves,"
Vagary said. "They're like tiny sails, they
want to catch and snag on everything."
"Sure, we can trim those and pile them
by the curb for the chipper crews
to pick up later," Dane agreed.
"I'll help trim the twigs, I got
my tools here," Richard said.
It didn't take long before they had
the tree reduced to a pile of twigs
and leaves by the street, and
several nice bare branches.
Calliope tried Vagary's trick
of standing on one to push it
down, but it didn't want to go.
"Now what?" she said, looking at him.
"Well, these pieces are bigger than
what we did earlier, and we're both
more tired now," he pointed out.
"Remember yesterday, though?"
"Sure, why not," Calliope said,
and held out a hand to him.
The moment their fingers touched,
the tree sank right in, pulling both
of them down to their waists.
Laughing, they floundered off it
and moved to the next section,
towing that one farther away
before pushing it under the sod.
They tucked the last piece
perpendicular to the others,
then looked at the stump.
"What do you think, can we
just push this straight down?"
Vagary said, poking at the top.
"Yeah, maybe," Calliope said,
and then her stomach growled.
"Finish that bit if you've got
the energy, and then we can
all go eat," Richard said.
"Pattie Pan's pulling up
to the park with free lunch
for all volunteers today."
"Fantastic!" Vagary said.
He and Calliope put their hands
on the broken end and then carefully
pressed the trunk into the earth.
"Thank you," Dane said. "Now I
just need your contact information
so I can call you when your hung beef
is ready -- oh, and I know a butcher who
can cut it for a decent fee, if you want."
Calliope and Vagary gave him that,
and then they all piled into the truck.
The rich scent of cooking squash
buttered the breeze, tantalizing
their appetites as they approached.
There was already a line, so
they got onto the end of it.
Vagary looked over the menu
and when he got the front he said,
"Can we just get whatever you
have a whole pan of?"
"Patty pan stuffed with beef
and quinoa," said the cook.
Calliope was happy with that,
and far too hungry to care about
sharing food with Vagary. So they
split that with Richard while Dane
ordered a bowl of lemon chicken stew.
The squash was creamy and
the beef savory, so tender that
they melted in her mouth.
Good food and ... somewhat ...
good company went a long way
toward making her feel better
after all the work she'd done.
They had dealt with the fallen trees,
and at this rate, the town would be
pretty much picked up by tomorrow,
except for a few ongoing repairs.
Calliope didn't care about
the ever-present threat of storms,
not when it was so simple to fix.
That was just part of what made
Stillwater feel like home to her,
windswept and beautiful,
a little bit dangerous.
Dane sat down with not only
his bowl of soup, but a jug of
pickled squash to pass around.
The spicy, tangy flavor of
pickles made a perfect contrast to
the mellower stuffed squash.
"Split the last one?" Vagary said,
motioning to the almost-empty pan.
"Sure," Calliope said, and smiled.
Despite the awkward awakening,
it had turned into a good day after all.
* * *
Notes:
Dalton Boggs -- He has fair skin, brown eyes, and short brown hair. He is tall and strong. Dalton lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He works in biological waste management for Water & Wastewater Services. Among his responsibilties is surveying storm damage to identify any sewage leaks or other contamination that needs a team assigned for cleanup and repair. As a hobby, Dalton enjoys gardening. He also volunteers in activities around the community, so he knows a lot of people -- especially first responders that he often sees while cleaning up after a storm.
Qualities: Good (+2) Bio Waste Manager, Good (+2) Community Spirit, Good (+2) Gardener, Good (+2) Organized, Good (+2) Strength
Poor (-2) No Sense of Smell
Richard Elliot -- He has fair skin and brown eyes. His short hair is still dark, but his full beard and mustache have gone gray. He wears glasses. He is wiry and tough. Richard lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma where he works at Rocky Fellows Park. He oversees the natural landscaping in the prairie and forest areas. He also teaches people about habitat restoration and how to care for the trees and flowers. As a hobby, he enjoys woodcarving.
Qualities: Master (+6) City Park Ranger, Expert (+4) Habitat Restoration, Expert (+4) Naturalistic Intelligence, Good (+2) Leadership, Good (+2) Tough, Good (+2) Woodcarving
Poor (-2) Can't Swim
Dane Cabela -- He has fair skin, dark blue eyes, and wavy brown hair with a short mustache and beard. He is tall and wiry. Dane lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He and his sister June own a cattle ranch just outside of town that they inherited from their parents. They raise organic beef. June handles the farm end of the business, while Dane handles the town end such as taking cows to slaughter and distributing meat to stores or private buyers. Dane is married with one son. Although he is happy with his little family, he can be abrupt with strangers, and often doesn't even realize it.
Qualities: Good (+2) Farm Manager, Good (+2) Gardener, Good (+2) Naturalistic Intelligence, Good (+2) Small Happy Family, Good (+2) Tall
Poor (-2) Abrupt
* * *
The dottie in the Omaha Weather Station has a medicine cabinet, sink, toilet, and shower. It is stocked with guest supplies because people often wind up spending the night at the station.
Bobby's Bacon Bonanza is a Terramagne-Stillwater restaurant that specializes in cured pork products. They do an all-you-can-eat buffet for brunch and a different one for supper. Not cheap, but worth every penny. It's one of the rare restaurants that is widely considered a nice place to take people that doesn't serve artsy-fartsy food. It is art, though -- edible art made with delicious bacon.
Suckling Pig is a young pig roasted whole. Bacon Egg Cups are easily made in a muffin tin. BLT Bites are tiny stuffed tomatoes. Bacon Pancakes can be made in various ways; this recipe pours batter over whole bacon strips. Swineapple is a decadent dish that involves stuffing barbecued rib meat into the hollow core of a whole peeled pineapple. Cranberry-Almond Oatmeal is a healthy, high-calorie breakfast. A cobb salad has many toppings on a bed of lettuce, often arranged in stripes. Bacon Donuts come in several styles, this one using maple.
Banana Nut Bread is another high-calorie item, especially in recipes like this. Croissants come in numerous flavors, stuffed or plain; you can make them at home. Apricot Croissants have a fruit filling. Chocolate Hazelnut Croissants are nutty and sweet.
Because T-America offers so much more training, some people like to collect certifications, and it's not rare for folks to carry those in a separate card organizer. Vagary uses a style popular with supervillains and other people who prefer to keep their cards private except the one they're taking out; only the short edge of each card shows. This card organizer holds 30 cards. Calliope favors the fan style, which is more convenient because you can see the whole card and they move apart easily, but it's less private. Hers holds about 20 cards. Card organizers may have an adjustible post like a scrapbook, so that inserts can be added or subtracted.
Chainsaw safety and use comes in various levels of complexity. Here is a good introduction aimed at forestry workers. Calliope had Level 1 Basic certification prior to manifesting superpowers just due to being a good citizen living in Tornado Alley. Once she realized that her powers would put her with active storms more often, she upgraded to Level 2 Intermediate and then Level 3 Intermediate. She needs more field time before taking the Advanced class, but this project will put her very close to the 30-hour target. Vagary has the Basic card, partly because he just likes collecting certs and partly because a supervillain never knows what skills he'll need so more is definitely better. This kind of certification makes it easy for an incident commander or other supervisor to sort through a mass of volunteers and put them on suitable assignments. So the firefighters are doing the expert work of separating trees from houses or powerlines, strong untrained volunteers clear sections out of the way and haul them to staging areas, experienced volunteers like Calliope dismember the branches, and basic volunteers like Vagary cut individual branches into usable or at least disposable pieces.
Safety matters during storm cleanup. While unskilled folks can do the simple tasks, some projects really benefit from expert attention.
Even average storms often bring down a few tree limbs, and bad ones can do much worse. The Beaufort Wind Scale shows a wide range of wind effects. Severe thunderstorms can do a lot of damage. They often spawn tornadoes, which also come in different levels of intensity.
Trees with soft, fragile wood are often planted due to their fast growth, interesting form, attractive flowers or foliage. They're also among the cheapest to buy, especially in bulk. Red and silver maple, Bradford pear, and willow have all been popular landscaping trees at some point. Although not mentioned as such in the article, both mulberry and poplar also have brittle wood highly prone to wind damage. However, people in Tornado Alley have learned (somewhat locally, more in Terramagne) to avoid these in favor of more durable species. So have folks in hurricane territory. That doesn't stop some folks from taking the quick cheap route, but it is likely to draw disapproval -- especially from those who have to clean up the mess.
The idea of street hierarchy is to minimize traffic in residential areas. The main roads in a subdivision may be residential boulevards, in which the wide median provides green space for activities while separating traffic directions for safety.
Incident planning vests help to organize responsibilities at the scene of an emergency. Color codes vary, but are widely used. In this case, volunteer vests are matched to supervisor vests. Yellow vests go to untrained volunteers who can do logistical support tasks. Orange vests go to trained volunteers who can do more practical tasks under the operations supervisor.
This is a ranger vest with lots of pockets.
In T-America, the term "Enhanced" for first responders has come to indicate superpowers. This type of insignia is available as permanent patches, temporary patches, arm bands, and so on. The temporary ones usually have velcro meant to go on MOLLE gear, but if not, can be stuck to almost anything with tacky glue.
A portable handwashing station such as this double model provides sanitation at work sites.
Oklahoma doesn't get a great deal of precipitation, and is prone to drought. To add insult to injury, storms can drop a deluge, making it also prone to floods.
Hugelkultur is a method of composting that can use twigs, small logs, or even entire trees. Once it gets going, the biomass holds a tremendous amount of water and nutrients which can support a thriving colony of plants just above it. Browse some different styles.
Rotten logs form their own microhabitat. Among other things, they retain water from the environment and they host fungi which secrete water. This makes them especially valuable in dry areas.
See a map of Oklahoma showing Stillwater.
Oklahoma Ecoregions
Oklahoma holds an exceptional diversity of ecoregions. The area around Stillwater is a jumble of post oak-blackjack forest and tallgrass prairie. Grasslands can be subdivided into such categories as wet, mesic, and dry prairies. Often a soggy spot will have a ring of mesic plants around it, making for nice diversity in an otherwise dry landscape.
Rocky Fellows Park lies on the outskirts of Stillwater, nestled against a quiet suburb. The playground area consists of local stone built into a naturescape, and lies at the end closest to the houses. A large grassy field extends toward nearby farmland. The houses visible from this playground are small single-family ones, mostly 2-3 bedrooms. A large section of the park consists of prairie with native grasses and wildflowers. Meandering paths are mowed through this area in a different configuration each year. Another large part of the park consists of lawn for unstructured play. A bluebird trail runs all around the open areas of Rocky Fellows park in hopes of attracting primarily Eastern Bluebirds. The birdhouses adjacent to the prairie patch have the highest occupancy, but others get some attention too. Local Activity Scouts monitor the trail and remove nests which belong to invasive species such as sparrows. Nests of other native songbirds such as titmice or chickadees are permitted.
A small sturdy branch can be turned into such useful things as a spear, tent stake, or tomato stake. Survey stakes are more often made from slats, but for personal use, sticks work just fine. I often use sticks to mark where I want holes dug for planting. Of course, someone with Phasing can simply push the stakes into the ground after use, where they will add organic material to the soil.
A ranger knife such as this Moccasin is a medium-sized fixed-blade knife sturdy enough for wilderness use.
Local-America has had variable rules regarding animals too sick or injured to stand in the slaughterhouse. T-America is more stringent about safety but also about not wanting to waste food. Therefore, sick animals cannot be used for human food, although they can be ground up for agricultural amendments. Recently healthy injured animals can be slaughtered as salvage meat, which cannot be sold for human consumption but can be given away as such, or sold for use in pet food.
Fruitless pears are notoriously vulnerable to wind damage, especially the Bradford. Fruiting pears fare a bit better, but they are still far from durable. What happened to Dane's pear is a good example of the splitting failure mode. They can also just blow over due to a shallow root system.
Viburnum is a group of flowering shrub. They bear white blossoms and their leaves turn reddish-purple in autumn, similar to a pear tree, but smaller and more durable in the face of strong winds. Most species attract wildlife, and several are native to Oklahoma.
Patty pan is a type of flat summer squash used in many recipes. They are often stuffed with vegetables or meat such as beef or sausage, but can also be sauteed, braised, roasted, or pickled. They make good soup and stew too.
acelightning. It also fills the "tree" square in my 7-1-17 card for the Winter Fest in July Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Calliope thread of the Polychrome Heroics series, directly following "A Tornado of Thought.""Windswept"
The morning after the tornado chase,
Calliope woke up in the quiet room of
the Omaha weather station on a couch
with two supervillains and a weatherman
piled up beside her, snoring quietly.
When she sat up, the others stirred too.
Calliope looked around at the square nest
formed by two foam couches pushed together.
"How exactly did we wind up in this situation?"
she said. "I distinctly remember falling asleep
on my own couch, over there." She pointed.
"Well, Vagary kept rolling off his toward you,"
Kong Vault said, "so we just, you know --"
He mimed pushing his hands together.
"-- to keep him from hurting himself."
"Sorry, sorry," Vagary mumbled,
dragging himself away from her.
Kong Vault bailed off the couch too.
"Where's the nearest bathroom?"
"Past the communications desk,
there's a sign in the hall," Calliope said.
She followed him, but turned the other way
to use the dottie beside the women's room.
Fortunately it was stocked with supplies
for overnight situations such as this.
Calliope brushed her teeth, took a shower,
and felt much more presentable when
she came back to the quiet room.
She dragged the couches back into
their proper places and folded the blankets
that someone had thrown over the sleepers.
It could have been a lot worse, really.
Back in college, Calvin had had a girlfriend
who seemed to think that men always
wanted to get some. Sleeping with her
had been like sleeping with an octopus.
At least this time, the other folks had
kept their hands to themselves.
After all the help that Vagary and
Kong Vault had given her yesterday,
it would be rude to blame them for
the situation with the couches.
"Who wants breakfast?" she said
when they returned to the quiet room.
"I'll treat you to Bobby's Bacon Bonanza."
"Oh, is that as good as they say?"
Vagary asked, perking up. "I've
heard people talking about it."
"It's great," Calliope said. "Not cheap,
but worth every penny. It's one of
the few nice restaurants that serves
real food instead of the fancy crap.
Their call-ahead menu actually
has suckling pig on it for feasts."
"I'll take a piece of that action,"
Vagary said, then turned to
Kong Vault. "Say yes."
"You buy, I fly," he agreed.
"Everybody grab hold."
They landed in the parking lot
with a graceful swoop that was
much easier than yesterday's ride.
"Okay, here's the deal," Calliope said.
"I'm buying. I recommend the buffet, it's
all-you-can-eat. I will tip accordingly.
This place makes amazing things with
bacon -- it's edible art. There will be
other things, too, but the best goodies
usually have bacon in them somewhere."
Vagary, who was stubborn, picked up
a menu on the way in, but when he saw
the buffet, he said, "You were right."
It only took a minute to get a table,
agree that they all wanted the buffet
which was exuding soft clouds of
mouthwatering steam, order that,
and stampede in its general direction.
Calliope loaded her plate with
bacon egg cups and BLT bites, while
Vagary went for the scrambled eggs
and a big pile of bacon pancakes.
Slices of cantaloupe smiled at them,
and they both took some of those too.
Kong Vault looked at the swineapple
that had just come out of the kitchen.
"Can I have a whole one?" he asked,
and when the server hesitated, he
added, "I am a teleporter, and I need
about three thousand calories after
all of the work I did yesterday."
"Of course, sir," the server said.
"Here, just take this platter."
Kong Vault glanced down at
the plate in his hand, already
half full of melon slices along with
a bowl of cranberry-almond oatmeal.
"I got this," Vagary said, boosting
the plate out of his hand. "You
just take the swineapple there."
Calliope left them to it and went
back to their table, where she
applied herself to the egg cups.
That helped fill the gnawing hole in
her belly. The BLT bites were juicy
and delicious, as was the melon.
Vagary had somehow gotten his arms
around an entire cobb salad in addition
to his plate and Kong Vault's plate.
Kong Vault just devoted all of
his attention to wrapping himself
around the swineapple as fast as
possible, which was fun to watch.
They actually went back for seconds,
because everyone had burned off
a mountain of calories yesterday.
The pastry table caught their eye,
buried under flaky delights. There
were all kinds of croissants -- plain
and apricot and chocolate hazelnut.
Then Vagary found the bacon donuts,
so of course they all had to try one.
Calliope wasn't as fond of sweet bacon
compared to the savory recipes, but oh,
the chocolate was downright decadent.
By the time even the supervillains
couldn't look at the buffet tables,
Calliope figured that she had made
a decent start cleaning up the muddle
of storm-tossed cape mayhem that
was her relationship with Vagary,
and apparently now his friends.
When she tried to pay for breakfast,
though, the manager looked at her
over his glasses and asked, "Aren't
you three the ones who broke up
all those tornadoes yesterday?"
"Yes ...?" Calliope said,
wondering what it was about.
"Then your money's no good here
today," the older man said firmly.
"What, why --" Vagary sputtered.
"We have trees and power lines
down all over town, we're lucky that
the restaurant is serviceable -- I can't
imagine how much worse it would be if
you hadn't saved us," the manager said.
"Breakfast is on the house, with my thanks."
The two supervillains looked stunned, but
Calliope just said, "Thank you. We burned
a lot of calories yesterday, and this really helped."
As they walked out, Kong Vault said, "I hate
to break up the party, but I need to get home.
After all that jumping around, I won't be
good for very much until tomorrow."
Calliope let him go, but now she
was viewing the leaf-littered parking lot
with a practiced eye, wondering what
the rest of her town looked like.
Even without a tornado, that storm
had apparently packed a punch.
"Do you know where I could get
a spare chainsaw?" Vagary said.
"I hang out here a lot, seems like
I should pitch in for the cleanup."
"First response crews will have some
to share with anyone who's got a card
for chainsaw safety," Calliope said.
Vagary pulled out a leather organizer
and picked at the corner of a card
until he managed to get it out. "Here."
"See, that's why I like the fan kind,"
Calliope said. An expert flick of her wrist
expanded her organizer into a half-circle
from which she picked out her chainsaw card.
"Yeah, but now I know that your CPR card
is about to expire," Vagary said with a smirk.
"What?" Calliope said, leafing back to look
at it. "Shit. Now I need to wedge that
into my schedule. Somehow."
Vagary shrugged. "That's why
I prefer my kind of card organizer,"
he said. "Nobody can see anything
they shouldn't, only what I choose
to show them. It's more secure."
He maybe had a point about that,
although it probably mattered more
to supervillains than superheras.
Just then, a citizen response truck
came up the road, so Calliope
flagged it down and rattled off
what the two of them could do.
The driver nodded and invited
them to join the volunteers.
As they rode to the nearest
cleanup zone, Calliope watched
the town roll by and noted damage.
The streets were littered with leaves
and twigs. Branches and a few small trees
had fallen. In some places, mature trees
lost larger branches. Several buildings
had gutters down or shingles missing.
Nothing was smashed open or leveled,
though, and Calliope suspected that
most of the damage had affected
points of hidden weakness.
Cleaning up after a thunderstorm
was a lot easier than cleaning up after
a tornado, and they had plenty of help.
Then the citizen response truck pulled into
a modest subdivision called Willow Ridge,
festooned with the splintered remains of
red and silver maple, mulberry, and
several different species of willow.
Lombardy poplars had formed
a tall border along the road, and
Bradford pears once adorned
the median of the boulevard.
"Whose idiotic idea was this?"
Calliope said, staring at the ruins.
"Jonas Campbell," several folks chorused.
Calliope was willing to bet that Mr. Campbell
wouldn't be getting any more of his projects
approved for development in Stillwater.
Once offloaded, the volunteers were met
by the Incident Commander, a tall woman
wearing a green safety vest. "Okay, folks,
untrained volunteers go to Logistics and
take a yellow vest. Anyone with training
relevant to current needs, go to Operations,
have your certs out, and get an orange vest."
The supervisors of Logistics and Operations
raised their hands so everyone could see them.
"Basic and intermediate chainsaw," Calliope said
as she indicated first Vagary and then herself.
"We have some experience working together,
albeit in circumstances other than cleanup."
They put on their orange vests and went
as directed to the place where a mulberry had
collapsed over the yard of a large corner house.
"Hi, I'm Dalton Boggs," said the young man
in the Bio Waste Management vest. "This is
an old farmhouse folded into the subdivision
for historic interest, so the damn thing still has
a septic tank, now probably punctured. Also
there's a car under the tree somewhere."
"Oh, joy," Vagary drawled. Calliope
couldn't help chuckling in response.
The neighborhood really was a mess.
"I hear you, bro," said Dalton. "So I'm
on bio safety while the fire crew will cut
the tree loose. Our brawny dudes will then
move the sections to the staging area, where
chainsaw teams will cut them down to size."
He pointed. "Free firewood pileup is there, for
anyone with the space to stack and dry it."
So Calliope went to work cutting apart
small trees or parts of larger ones
into their individual branches.
Vagary came along behind her
and sliced those into sections
short enough to fit in a fireplace.
Other volunteers collected
the branches smaller than
wrist size and dragged them
down to the chipper crew where
a sign proclaimed, Free Mulch!
After all, the more firewood
and mulch that local neighbors
claimed, the less would remain
to haul to the municipal lot.
It took work, but Calliope liked
rebuilding after a disaster, and
teamwork was one of the things
that made a place feel like home.
When she looked up, she could see
neighbors helping each other uncover
swingsets and sandboxes. Amazingly,
the car was no more than scratched, as
large branches had jammed above it.
Soon they had a path cleared for
Dalton to get in and announce that,
yes, the septic tank had ruptured.
He put his own crew on cleaning up
that part of the mess, then came over
to talk with the chainsaw team as well.
"I don't think any of the contaminated tree
got passed over here, but better safe
than sorry," Dalton said. "We have
set up a handwashing station with
disinfecting soap just in case."
The soap reeked, but less so
than the whiff of septic tank
now coating the brisk breeze.
As they dried their hands,
Vagary got a thoughtful look.
Then he walked over to the line
of short logs he had been making.
"Rainfall's kind of low here, yeah?"
Calliope snorted. "Sure it is," she said.
"We get droughts periodically. We also
get the occasional deluge followed by
flash floods. Oklahoma, gotta love it."
"I think we're wasted on chainsaws,"
Vagary said, rolling a log with his toe.
"Could you unpack that?" Calliope said.
"Ever hear of hugelkultur?" Vagary said.
"You bury logs, or even whole trees, and
it makes a sponge under the ground."
"Like a rotten log staying wet even in
summer, okay, I get it," Calliope said. "So?"
"I get hired to sink logs sometimes because
I can Phase," said Vagary. "Everything
is mostly space anyway, they just push
right into the earth and stay there.
I could show you how to do it."
"I've done something similar
to keep biodegradable waste
from attracting pests," she said.
"Okay, let's see what happens."
She put up her arm, and shortly
the Operations supervisor came over.
"What do you need?" the older woman said.
"Vagary thinks we'd be more use burying
logs than cutting them up," Calliope said, and
then Vagary picked up the thread to explain
about hugelkultur and superpowers.
"All right, let me call around to
the parks and see if anyone's
interested," the supervisor said.
They wound up going out to
Rocky Fellows Park, where they
were met by a ranger who kept
rubbing his hands together in glee.
He had a hacksaw, a pruning saw,
a long thin case that probably held
a broken-down pole saw, as well
as a pouch slung over his shoulder.
"Hi, I'm Richard Elliot," he said.
"I've been out trimming up a bit,
but there's not much damage here."
Calliope looked around the far end
of the park. He was right. Aside from
a few loose branches and a stand of
tall flowers flattened by the rain,
the park looked pretty good.
Willow Ridge had been close to
the Tranquility Counseling Center --
perhaps right under the nascent tornado
that Calliope had torn apart earlier.
Rocky Fellows was out on the edge
of town, and much better maintained.
Most of it consisted of open space, but
there were scattered trees inside and
more wrapping around the edges.
"Come on into the meadow and
I'll show you the exciting stuff,"
Richard said, beckoning to them.
The meadow boasted a variety of
wildflowers that bloomed in all seasons,
mixed with native grasses, through which
the staff mowed a meandering path
that changed course every year.
"It's beautiful," Vagary said.
"We come here a lot, and
the view never gets old."
"Why thank you," Richard said.
"Now this is our soggy spot, which
gets some runoff from paved areas
in the neighboring subdivision. This
part is landscaped as wet prairie."
Wet it was -- currently under
a quarter acre of calf-deep water.
"Over here is a project we've been
working on recently, developing
a band of mesic prairie around
the wet spot," Richard went on.
"There are several pits we filled
with brush from the park trees."
That wasn't underwater, but
the ground still squeeshed
each time Calliope took a step.
Vagary did not hesitate to kneel
and stick his arm into the ground,
swishing it around as if trying to find
something in a tub of muddy water.
"Oh yeah, there's one," he said.
"I can feel the change in density.
The little stuff is rotting down
real good now; the big branches
still have a long way to go."
Richard was frankly staring,
but then he shook himself
and said, "Then you know
what we're after. Start with
the stuff we're getting from
minor losses in the subdivision."
He pointed to a pile of short logs.
Most of them were arm thickness,
a few thigh-like, and there were
also several sections of trunk.
"Okay," Calliope said. "Is there
anything else we need before
we get started on this project?"
"Oh yeah," Richard said.
He rummaged in a vest pouch,
then offered each of them a pair of
patches that said Citizen Responder
and Enhanced. "Here, put these on."
Calliope did so, but Vagary hesitated.
He put on the Enhanced one but
just kept staring at the other.
Then he sighed and said,
"I, uh, play for the other team."
"Well today, you're offering
to sink trees in my park, so that
makes you a citizen responder. I
don't want anyone stealing you for
some random job that any volunteer
could do," the ranger said. "Put it on."
Vagary put it on.
"That's better," Richard said.
He picked up a bundle of branches
and with swift strokes of his ranger knife
began sharpening them into stakes.
"Now we want a random pattern of
log pits, so just follow along and
put those where I stick these."
He thrust the first stake into
the rain-softened soil, then
walked on around the curve.
They quickly fell into a pattern.
Calliope preferred to pick up
small logs and push them
underground with her arm.
Vagary got a kick out of
standing on trunk sections
and slowly sinking to knee depth.
Calliope found that she didn't mind
Vagary quite so much when he was
being helpful instead of horrible, and
she liked pitching in to make the park
suitable for more kinds of wildflowers.
A few lost trees weren't too bad
for a thunderstorm that had tried
to spawn tornadoes, and they
could put those to good use.
Given what she had heard
from the other volunteers earlier,
not many power lines were down.
Looking up, she could see the roofs of
the nearby houses, and they seemed
to be pretty much intact as well.
They ran out of the logs before
they ran out of energy, and when
they returned to the starting point,
quacking ducks startled into flight
from the surface of the puddle.
A lanky man in a blue plaid shirt
leaned against the park truck.
"You like beef?" he asked.
"... what?" Calliope said.
"I'm Dane Cabela," he said.
"I live on the other end of the park,
and I had a tree come down. I heard
you were pushing logs underground,
somehow, so I figured I'd ask if you
would do the same for my yard."
"What's that got to do with beef?"
Calliope said, more confused than ever.
"My sister and I run a little ranch
of organic beef just outside of town,"
Dane said. "Some of our damnfool cows
tried to shelter under a tree and got hurt.
Vet's all tied up taking care of pet horses,
so I just took the cows to slaughter early."
"Save what you can, I guess," Vagary said.
"I can't sell salvage beef from hurt cows,
but I can give it away," Dane explained.
"You sink my tree, and I can pay you
for it in whole hanging carcasses."
Calliope thought a moment, then said,
"Sure, I'll take one. Whatever I can't fit into
my chest freezer, I can share with friends."
"I'll take whatever's on offer," Vagary said.
"I got friends who are always hungry."
"How about one for her and two for you,
then that leaves me one cow to donate
for the volunteer crews," Dane said.
"Works for me," Calliope said,
and Vagary nodded agreement.
Richard offered to drive them all
down to Dane's house, which had
a small pear tree torn in three pieces.
"At least it missed your house,"
Calliope said. "I don't know
why people even plant these."
Dane rubbed a hand over
the back of his neck. "My wife
thought it was pretty," he said.
Richard chuckled. "Well, it needs
replacing anyway," he said. "You
might not want another tree so close
to the house. Perhaps a nice viburnum?
Those grow into medium to large shrubs.
Several species have white flowers and
reddish-purple fall foliage similar to pears."
"Thanks for the suggestion," Dane said.
He pulled notebook from his pocket and
jotted down the name of the shrubs.
Meanwhile Calliope and Vagary
had been examining the pear tree.
"One section fell clean off," she said,
pointing to where it lay by the birdbath.
"If we cut loose the other two, then we can
drag them into different parts of the yard."
"Good idea, but we need to lose the leaves,"
Vagary said. "They're like tiny sails, they
want to catch and snag on everything."
"Sure, we can trim those and pile them
by the curb for the chipper crews
to pick up later," Dane agreed.
"I'll help trim the twigs, I got
my tools here," Richard said.
It didn't take long before they had
the tree reduced to a pile of twigs
and leaves by the street, and
several nice bare branches.
Calliope tried Vagary's trick
of standing on one to push it
down, but it didn't want to go.
"Now what?" she said, looking at him.
"Well, these pieces are bigger than
what we did earlier, and we're both
more tired now," he pointed out.
"Remember yesterday, though?"
"Sure, why not," Calliope said,
and held out a hand to him.
The moment their fingers touched,
the tree sank right in, pulling both
of them down to their waists.
Laughing, they floundered off it
and moved to the next section,
towing that one farther away
before pushing it under the sod.
They tucked the last piece
perpendicular to the others,
then looked at the stump.
"What do you think, can we
just push this straight down?"
Vagary said, poking at the top.
"Yeah, maybe," Calliope said,
and then her stomach growled.
"Finish that bit if you've got
the energy, and then we can
all go eat," Richard said.
"Pattie Pan's pulling up
to the park with free lunch
for all volunteers today."
"Fantastic!" Vagary said.
He and Calliope put their hands
on the broken end and then carefully
pressed the trunk into the earth.
"Thank you," Dane said. "Now I
just need your contact information
so I can call you when your hung beef
is ready -- oh, and I know a butcher who
can cut it for a decent fee, if you want."
Calliope and Vagary gave him that,
and then they all piled into the truck.
The rich scent of cooking squash
buttered the breeze, tantalizing
their appetites as they approached.
There was already a line, so
they got onto the end of it.
Vagary looked over the menu
and when he got the front he said,
"Can we just get whatever you
have a whole pan of?"
"Patty pan stuffed with beef
and quinoa," said the cook.
Calliope was happy with that,
and far too hungry to care about
sharing food with Vagary. So they
split that with Richard while Dane
ordered a bowl of lemon chicken stew.
The squash was creamy and
the beef savory, so tender that
they melted in her mouth.
Good food and ... somewhat ...
good company went a long way
toward making her feel better
after all the work she'd done.
They had dealt with the fallen trees,
and at this rate, the town would be
pretty much picked up by tomorrow,
except for a few ongoing repairs.
Calliope didn't care about
the ever-present threat of storms,
not when it was so simple to fix.
That was just part of what made
Stillwater feel like home to her,
windswept and beautiful,
a little bit dangerous.
Dane sat down with not only
his bowl of soup, but a jug of
pickled squash to pass around.
The spicy, tangy flavor of
pickles made a perfect contrast to
the mellower stuffed squash.
"Split the last one?" Vagary said,
motioning to the almost-empty pan.
"Sure," Calliope said, and smiled.
Despite the awkward awakening,
it had turned into a good day after all.
* * *
Notes:
Dalton Boggs -- He has fair skin, brown eyes, and short brown hair. He is tall and strong. Dalton lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He works in biological waste management for Water & Wastewater Services. Among his responsibilties is surveying storm damage to identify any sewage leaks or other contamination that needs a team assigned for cleanup and repair. As a hobby, Dalton enjoys gardening. He also volunteers in activities around the community, so he knows a lot of people -- especially first responders that he often sees while cleaning up after a storm.
Qualities: Good (+2) Bio Waste Manager, Good (+2) Community Spirit, Good (+2) Gardener, Good (+2) Organized, Good (+2) Strength
Poor (-2) No Sense of Smell
Richard Elliot -- He has fair skin and brown eyes. His short hair is still dark, but his full beard and mustache have gone gray. He wears glasses. He is wiry and tough. Richard lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma where he works at Rocky Fellows Park. He oversees the natural landscaping in the prairie and forest areas. He also teaches people about habitat restoration and how to care for the trees and flowers. As a hobby, he enjoys woodcarving.
Qualities: Master (+6) City Park Ranger, Expert (+4) Habitat Restoration, Expert (+4) Naturalistic Intelligence, Good (+2) Leadership, Good (+2) Tough, Good (+2) Woodcarving
Poor (-2) Can't Swim
Dane Cabela -- He has fair skin, dark blue eyes, and wavy brown hair with a short mustache and beard. He is tall and wiry. Dane lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He and his sister June own a cattle ranch just outside of town that they inherited from their parents. They raise organic beef. June handles the farm end of the business, while Dane handles the town end such as taking cows to slaughter and distributing meat to stores or private buyers. Dane is married with one son. Although he is happy with his little family, he can be abrupt with strangers, and often doesn't even realize it.
Qualities: Good (+2) Farm Manager, Good (+2) Gardener, Good (+2) Naturalistic Intelligence, Good (+2) Small Happy Family, Good (+2) Tall
Poor (-2) Abrupt
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The dottie in the Omaha Weather Station has a medicine cabinet, sink, toilet, and shower. It is stocked with guest supplies because people often wind up spending the night at the station.
Bobby's Bacon Bonanza is a Terramagne-Stillwater restaurant that specializes in cured pork products. They do an all-you-can-eat buffet for brunch and a different one for supper. Not cheap, but worth every penny. It's one of the rare restaurants that is widely considered a nice place to take people that doesn't serve artsy-fartsy food. It is art, though -- edible art made with delicious bacon.
Suckling Pig is a young pig roasted whole. Bacon Egg Cups are easily made in a muffin tin. BLT Bites are tiny stuffed tomatoes. Bacon Pancakes can be made in various ways; this recipe pours batter over whole bacon strips. Swineapple is a decadent dish that involves stuffing barbecued rib meat into the hollow core of a whole peeled pineapple. Cranberry-Almond Oatmeal is a healthy, high-calorie breakfast. A cobb salad has many toppings on a bed of lettuce, often arranged in stripes. Bacon Donuts come in several styles, this one using maple.
Banana Nut Bread is another high-calorie item, especially in recipes like this. Croissants come in numerous flavors, stuffed or plain; you can make them at home. Apricot Croissants have a fruit filling. Chocolate Hazelnut Croissants are nutty and sweet.
Because T-America offers so much more training, some people like to collect certifications, and it's not rare for folks to carry those in a separate card organizer. Vagary uses a style popular with supervillains and other people who prefer to keep their cards private except the one they're taking out; only the short edge of each card shows. This card organizer holds 30 cards. Calliope favors the fan style, which is more convenient because you can see the whole card and they move apart easily, but it's less private. Hers holds about 20 cards. Card organizers may have an adjustible post like a scrapbook, so that inserts can be added or subtracted.
Chainsaw safety and use comes in various levels of complexity. Here is a good introduction aimed at forestry workers. Calliope had Level 1 Basic certification prior to manifesting superpowers just due to being a good citizen living in Tornado Alley. Once she realized that her powers would put her with active storms more often, she upgraded to Level 2 Intermediate and then Level 3 Intermediate. She needs more field time before taking the Advanced class, but this project will put her very close to the 30-hour target. Vagary has the Basic card, partly because he just likes collecting certs and partly because a supervillain never knows what skills he'll need so more is definitely better. This kind of certification makes it easy for an incident commander or other supervisor to sort through a mass of volunteers and put them on suitable assignments. So the firefighters are doing the expert work of separating trees from houses or powerlines, strong untrained volunteers clear sections out of the way and haul them to staging areas, experienced volunteers like Calliope dismember the branches, and basic volunteers like Vagary cut individual branches into usable or at least disposable pieces.
Safety matters during storm cleanup. While unskilled folks can do the simple tasks, some projects really benefit from expert attention.
Even average storms often bring down a few tree limbs, and bad ones can do much worse. The Beaufort Wind Scale shows a wide range of wind effects. Severe thunderstorms can do a lot of damage. They often spawn tornadoes, which also come in different levels of intensity.
Trees with soft, fragile wood are often planted due to their fast growth, interesting form, attractive flowers or foliage. They're also among the cheapest to buy, especially in bulk. Red and silver maple, Bradford pear, and willow have all been popular landscaping trees at some point. Although not mentioned as such in the article, both mulberry and poplar also have brittle wood highly prone to wind damage. However, people in Tornado Alley have learned (somewhat locally, more in Terramagne) to avoid these in favor of more durable species. So have folks in hurricane territory. That doesn't stop some folks from taking the quick cheap route, but it is likely to draw disapproval -- especially from those who have to clean up the mess.
The idea of street hierarchy is to minimize traffic in residential areas. The main roads in a subdivision may be residential boulevards, in which the wide median provides green space for activities while separating traffic directions for safety.
Incident planning vests help to organize responsibilities at the scene of an emergency. Color codes vary, but are widely used. In this case, volunteer vests are matched to supervisor vests. Yellow vests go to untrained volunteers who can do logistical support tasks. Orange vests go to trained volunteers who can do more practical tasks under the operations supervisor.
This is a ranger vest with lots of pockets.
In T-America, the term "Enhanced" for first responders has come to indicate superpowers. This type of insignia is available as permanent patches, temporary patches, arm bands, and so on. The temporary ones usually have velcro meant to go on MOLLE gear, but if not, can be stuck to almost anything with tacky glue.
A portable handwashing station such as this double model provides sanitation at work sites.
Oklahoma doesn't get a great deal of precipitation, and is prone to drought. To add insult to injury, storms can drop a deluge, making it also prone to floods.
Hugelkultur is a method of composting that can use twigs, small logs, or even entire trees. Once it gets going, the biomass holds a tremendous amount of water and nutrients which can support a thriving colony of plants just above it. Browse some different styles.
Rotten logs form their own microhabitat. Among other things, they retain water from the environment and they host fungi which secrete water. This makes them especially valuable in dry areas.
See a map of Oklahoma showing Stillwater.
Oklahoma Ecoregions
Oklahoma holds an exceptional diversity of ecoregions. The area around Stillwater is a jumble of post oak-blackjack forest and tallgrass prairie. Grasslands can be subdivided into such categories as wet, mesic, and dry prairies. Often a soggy spot will have a ring of mesic plants around it, making for nice diversity in an otherwise dry landscape.
Rocky Fellows Park lies on the outskirts of Stillwater, nestled against a quiet suburb. The playground area consists of local stone built into a naturescape, and lies at the end closest to the houses. A large grassy field extends toward nearby farmland. The houses visible from this playground are small single-family ones, mostly 2-3 bedrooms. A large section of the park consists of prairie with native grasses and wildflowers. Meandering paths are mowed through this area in a different configuration each year. Another large part of the park consists of lawn for unstructured play. A bluebird trail runs all around the open areas of Rocky Fellows park in hopes of attracting primarily Eastern Bluebirds. The birdhouses adjacent to the prairie patch have the highest occupancy, but others get some attention too. Local Activity Scouts monitor the trail and remove nests which belong to invasive species such as sparrows. Nests of other native songbirds such as titmice or chickadees are permitted.
A small sturdy branch can be turned into such useful things as a spear, tent stake, or tomato stake. Survey stakes are more often made from slats, but for personal use, sticks work just fine. I often use sticks to mark where I want holes dug for planting. Of course, someone with Phasing can simply push the stakes into the ground after use, where they will add organic material to the soil.
A ranger knife such as this Moccasin is a medium-sized fixed-blade knife sturdy enough for wilderness use.
Local-America has had variable rules regarding animals too sick or injured to stand in the slaughterhouse. T-America is more stringent about safety but also about not wanting to waste food. Therefore, sick animals cannot be used for human food, although they can be ground up for agricultural amendments. Recently healthy injured animals can be slaughtered as salvage meat, which cannot be sold for human consumption but can be given away as such, or sold for use in pet food.
Fruitless pears are notoriously vulnerable to wind damage, especially the Bradford. Fruiting pears fare a bit better, but they are still far from durable. What happened to Dane's pear is a good example of the splitting failure mode. They can also just blow over due to a shallow root system.
Viburnum is a group of flowering shrub. They bear white blossoms and their leaves turn reddish-purple in autumn, similar to a pear tree, but smaller and more durable in the face of strong winds. Most species attract wildlife, and several are native to Oklahoma.
Patty pan is a type of flat summer squash used in many recipes. They are often stuffed with vegetables or meat such as beef or sausage, but can also be sauteed, braised, roasted, or pickled. They make good soup and stew too.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-02 07:18 am (UTC)There's a place in L-America, in Georgia just south of the Carolina line on US-23 called Dillard House. They don't serve a buffet; they serve family style. Breakfast is fried eggs, breakfast potatoes, biscuits, country fried steak, gravy, and any kind of breakfasty pig meat you can imagine, including (the piece de resistance) marinated pork tenderloin. That's what you reminded me of. :)
I worked the aftermath of the 2007 Dunwoody tornado; we found this older couple who'd had a couple of poplar trees go over. They cut'em up, and me and the ex hauled'em down to the street in her pickup to be collected by the county. I know *exactly* what that looks like. Scared me the fuck out the South, it did.
Aaaah, cape politics. *gets a peculiar look on his face*
I remember the uproar in 2001 when in Amazing Spider-Man #36 (the one with the black cover) the supervillans piled in to clean up the mess from the Twin Towers... Most days in NYC you're a Shark or you're a Jet, a Blood or a Crip, but if somebody from *outside* comes to mess with the Big Apple? they're ALL New Yorkers. Something like "You touch-a my City I break-a you FACE. Capeesh?" It was the non-New-Yorkers who complained. They weren't THERE, man. They don't KNOW. I don't grok it... but I get it. I'm married to one of the stories. She told me. I know.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-02 12:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-02 06:16 pm (UTC)Chicago. Now, Chicago's got some fight. And Boston. Boston's actually got some *history* of causing trouble, even by English standards. That Unpleasantness a couple hundred years back? Started in Boston.
And I know damn well Britain will fight. Hell, y'all are likely to show up actually shooting fireballs. China will fight. Japan is legendary for it, though I hope they haven't forgot their skills. All of Africa will fight... very differently... and g-d help'em if they get into a land war in Asia. (It's one of the classic blunders.)
O_O
Date: 2018-02-02 06:20 pm (UTC)Have you been to Detroit recently? There are neighborhoods the cops are afraid to go to. And it's not just the people: the city is full of bush-demons from several continents, nesting in empty lots full of rusting cars. Some fool alien would park their spaceship in a bad neighborhood and come back to find nothing but a pile of scraps. With a seedling tree already growing through it.
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Date: 2018-02-02 08:12 pm (UTC)And god help the aliens if they land during hockey season in Canada, nothing gets away with interrupting their hockey.
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Date: 2018-02-03 01:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-02 09:48 am (UTC)Another side effect is that in a hot springtime, Bradford pear flowers make the whole street smell like a vulva desperately in need of washing.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-02 12:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-02 12:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-02 09:57 am (UTC)Random bits of connectedness:
(no subject)
Date: 2018-02-02 06:32 pm (UTC)Me, anything cyclonic, I wanna watch on radar and webcams from safely in the Pacific NorthWet. And I probably don't wanna watch *much*.
When moving anything large, you can do it one of two ways. You can strap a couple of big damn rockets to it and light'em. That approach tends to get people killed, as we well know. Or, you can create a sturdy fulcrum close to the object and find yourself a big damn lever, equally sturdy. Then you will find that your own weight is sufficient to move it. If you happen to have some friends, you can put several people on the end, and move the thing farther, faster. Or if everybody else is busy, you can put a bucket, a wheelbarrow, whatever, on the end of the lever, and fill that with dirt, rocks, whatever might be to hand.
There's a fine line between magick and physics and a definite tendency for some odd folks to dance on it... ;)
I don't *think* Starfleet is gonna get shirty with me for that....
Thoughts
Date: 2018-02-02 06:50 pm (UTC)With weather, there are additional options.
By far the easiest is that if you touch a tornado, it goes flying off in another direction, like touching a top. If all you want to do is prevent it from hitting YOU and you've got enough power to make the touch, this works great.
Calliope, being a superhera, needs to dismantle the funnel. It's not necessary to break up the whole thing -- it's a pattern, so if you disrupt part of it, the rest unravels naturally. Think of it like waving your hands through smoke. But you need big "hands" to do that. She has enough power personally, but it is notably easier with Vagary in the loop.
The really hard part is pushing air and water around the sky. This is difficult because they are HEAVY. It can be done, but it's best done with a knowledge of physics. To clear a cloudy sky, look for small breaks and make them bigger. A storm can be split simply by making a wedge of energy with your yard wards -- and that'll show up on radar as the storm cleaves around you. Trying to push away or pull in a thunderhead is possible, to manipulate rainfall; but it's easier to manipulate probability if you can do that, and just make one form in your area. Pushing on a large, solid mass of weather is largely an exercise in futility, which is why even Easy City SPOON can only buffer hurricanes, not stop them cold.
>>I don't *think* Starfleet is gonna get shirty with me for that....<<
Why do you think they pull so many engineers from cultures with a high percentage of Sighted people? ;)
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Date: 2018-02-02 06:55 pm (UTC)Re: Thoughts
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Date: 2018-02-02 08:38 pm (UTC)Yes ...
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Date: 2018-02-03 12:26 pm (UTC)I have deflected storms, although nothing strong enough to form a mesocyclone, with the help of other people. A good example is one time when two of my covensibs were getting handfasted at an outdoor site, in July in NYC. There were thunderstorms boiling up all around. As we were starting to get into our positions for the Circle, it started to pour. We quickly took shelter under a pavilion - there must have been 50 or more people. The guy with the guitar got everyone singing "Here comes the Sun..." while I went up into the storm. There was already someone else there, with much more brute strength than I have, but he and I basically steered while everyone else pushed, and in ten minutes or so, the rain stopped and the Sun came out. We quickly set up and performed the ritual. Just as we were closing the Circle, rain started to fall again. We dashed back under cover and had the reception feast :-)
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From:storm-herding
Date: 2018-02-02 07:01 pm (UTC)If (BIG "if") you catch it early enough - say 50 to 100 miles/an hour to an hour and a half before it actually reaches the point at which early rotation spins up to actual tornado, it doesn't take a lot of brute force. Shift winds from each side of the direct path just a bit to form a shape something like a sharp ship's prow, and hold a little force behind that to keep the shape for a bit. Doesn't take long; if it's far enough out, 5 minutes can be enough, though 10 is better. It breaks the vortex enough that it doesn't reform strongly enough to cause near the damage. Of course if it decides to start spinning up when it's 20 minutes away, then it's a whole 'nother story. I've done that - I draw from the winds in the first place, which gives me an advantage, and I was much younger - but it laid me out flat for the next 3 days and scared my partner witless. I don't think I could even begin to now.
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Date: 2018-02-02 08:46 pm (UTC)Re: storm-herding
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Date: 2018-02-02 08:56 pm (UTC)"Eli, Eli" was a favorite song for me long before I was told about its author and origin.
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Date: 2018-02-03 12:30 pm (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2018-02-02 11:13 pm (UTC)Yay!
>>However, I'm still learning my way around your world; what did I suggest, and where? <<
Your prompt:
Rebuilding one's home when it's been devastated by a natural disaster. (This includes trying to recover as many random things-that-make-a-place-HOME as possible.)
>> I love bacon - in fact, I had bacon and eggs for dinner a few hours ago. I'd love to go to a restaurant that makes edible bacon sculptures, so I can figure out how to make them myself! <<
Generally, you want to work the bacon while it's raw and soft, then cook it to set the shape. There are instructions for many things online. Click the recipe links under the poems for examples featured here.
>>About 30 years ago, a windstorm (not even a microburst) knocked down a large hickory tree next to the house where I was living. It landed on the carport, completely enveloping it in its branches. My husband took a chainsaw to it, and kept removing pieces until the carport was visible. The carport was destroyed, but the car itself was untouched.<<
Thanks for the reference!
>> The house had a fireplace, so we kept most of the wood, which took about two years to dry.<<
Yeah, hickory makes fantastic firewood.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2018-02-03 12:40 pm (UTC)I know how to make bacon cups, and bacon "weaves", and bacon roses, and bacon pancakes/waffles (as well as wrapping various other items - scallops, water chestnuts, chicken livers, etc. - in bacon and baking them) - but, as with cake decorating, I'm always interested in learning new ways to create edible art!
This hickory was very wet, even after two years. It gave off a vinegar-like odor before it was burned.
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Date: 2018-02-02 04:57 pm (UTC)--Jessica
Thank you!
Date: 2018-02-02 05:21 pm (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2018-02-03 08:14 am (UTC)--Jessica
Re: Thank you!
From:Agricultural Amendments
Date: 2018-02-02 07:06 pm (UTC)Soil Amendments: any material added to the soil to improve its physical or chemical properties
Presumably agricultural amendments are soil amendments specific to agriculture.