The Siege of New Hampshire

Susan and her group avoid a lightly guarded checkpoint at the Vermont border. She has them follow a power line cut that she hopes leads to the small hydroelectric dam at the town of Vernon. Charon suggested that she might be able to use the top of the dam as a bridge. Susan finds her ad hoc leadership increasingly difficult. Then, an unexpected stranger arrives. To show your support for the Siege...

Susan reluctantly agreed to let Heather and her children follow her up into Vermont, even though none of them know exactly where they are going. Susan helps them make hemlock snowshoes for themselves and get ready for traveling at night. Progress is slow. The family not only slows Susan down, they become an emotional drain as well.   Read preview chapters of book six (and other bonus material) by...

Susan discovers a remote, and apparently abandoned, cabin on a hilltop near her overnight camp. She cautiously explores it on the prospect of finding some useful salvage. The place looks like it had been trashed and abandoned but not as thoroughly ransacked as looters typically do. Finding a few hidden rounds to the dead hunter's rifle, she assumes it was his Bug Out Location. She finds a few usef...

Susan has to face the fact that Charon pressed on to Ohio, abandoning her. She is alone in a woods, far from anywhere she knows. To stay ahead of any pursing soldiers, she heads north. Her vague plan is to travel up into Vermont where she hopes the troops guarding the river crossings will be less vigilant. En route, she encounters the body of a man who died alone in the woods. Consider showing you...

Susan and Charon, having escaped the guardsmen searching for them -- for now -- make camp for the night. They will need the rest, and daylight, to resume their escape. Someone is bound to find their trail eventually. Charon paints a dark picture of what life will be like back in New Hampshire. The trucks of food will only buy them a month or two. Despite the gloomy outlook, Susan still wants to go...

National Guard troops arrive to interrupt Operation Longbow just as Susan was about to cross the bridge and return to Cheshire. Amid gunfire, she is forced back to the west side of the river. Susan and Charon run through the snow of the wooded hills, pursued by several Guardsmen.   Your support helps make this podcast possible. Give Mic a 'thumbs up' in form of a cup of coffee at -- BuyMeACoffee.c...

Susan succeeded in getting a truck dedicated to supplying Cheshire and got to customize its load. Just one more thing to complete her list: a pallet of dry beans that won't arrive until midnight. With Malcolm driving, her truck leaves the staging area next to last in line. Many trucks get across the bridge. As her truck approaches the bridge trouble begins to erupt. Supporting this podcast is as e...

The trucks began arriving at the staging area. They would cross the bridge the next day. The time had come for Susan to leave the camp, hopefully forever, and help load area. In a farewell, Justine worries that Susan being deliberately blind to what awaits her...or doesn't, in Cheshire. Susan overcomes her claustrophobia to help customize a truckload of supplies for Cheshire.   To show your suppor...

Susan resolves to teach herself how to hunt with a throwing stick, like Owen did. After a great deal of trial and error, she develops some skill. As darkness approaches, she must confront her fears of enclosed spaces in order to tell the others of her intentions to help load the trucks due to arrive tomorrow. In order to load a truck and ride in it back to Cheshire, she will need to master her fea...

Susan begins to experience uncontrolled anxiety as a result of her being assaulted and shooting the two soldiers. Others at the camp try to console her but she would rather forget than cope. While seeking some quiet time on a hilltop, perhaps to seek God's help, she watches Owen hunting crows with this throwing stick.   Thanks for your support in 2022. If you like what you're hearing, you can supp...

Susan and Owen flee through the woods but cannot escape. The two soldiers capture them and take them to an abandoned house where they each plan to "interrogate" Susan. She is certain that it will be her last day alive but she is determined not to betray the camp or their work. This becomes a pivotal moment in Susan's life that haunts her and alters her.

Susan awakens to the bustle of camp members getting ready to salvage three large gravel conveyors for trusses with which to repair the bridge. Embarrassed at not having a way to contribute, Susan talks her way into any sort of task in order to help out. At the distant gravel yard, she finagles a lookout post at what was supposed to be an empty sector. It wasn't empty.   Support this podcast. Check...

After helping the volunteers get set up to work on the bridge, Hal, Charon, and Susan set out to look for the lost road again. Relying more on her memories than what can be seen, she identifies the spot where the true road forked off but had become overgrown. Susan and Charon follow the ghost of a road all the way to the dairy farm staging area. Their return to camp takes too long. The evening dro...

Susan assists Byron in the skinning and cleaning of a raccoon. It is more than she ever wanted to know. Afterward, she gets settled into her temporary lodgings -- the earthen basement of the camp's Girls' Cabin. Susan and her new room mate Justine get to know each other. At supper, Susan is gifted with the best cut of the raccoon meat -- at treat would prefer to avoid. To support this podcast, che...

A ragtag crew of volunteers work on the old bridge, in hopes that it will carry the big trucks of Operation Longbow. Susan, Hal, and Charon explore the forest across the river, looking for the logging road that Susan remembered from her childhood. All they found, however was a dead end at a swamp. Was the road gone now? Back at the lodge, Susan gets tapped to help Byron dress out a raccoon -- her...

Susan and team evade drones as they cross the border into Massachusetts. They arrive at the (apparently) abandoned summer camp only to find that the community of 'rebels' live underground beneath the camp buildings. At her first exploration across the river, it appears the road she remembered no longer exists.

Book 4 starts with when, in Book 3, Martin and the others dropped Susan off near the Mass border. She is being escorted through the closed and guarded border by Charon, one of the Coalition's tactical operatives.   While Susan is determined to help Operation Longbow succeed in getting food to New Hampshire, she battles doubts about herself and the wisdom of her choices. Now that we're starting ano...

Bonus Episode -- Horsepower After a collapse, the use of horses for transportation and work could see a revival. What would it be like to farm with horses? Mic interviews Jonathan, a man who currently farms with horses. We get a glimpse of what it's like, and what it could be like. Photos of Jonathan farming with horses at Buy Me A Coffee / microland / gallery Resources from Jonathan: SmalllFarmer...

A few author's thoughts about Book 3. The Ending That Wasn't. (it turns out) What do you do with the poor? After a collapse, there will be hundreds of thousands of the Suddenly Poor. The Rule of Law vs mob rule. What do people do when the usual legal processes are no longer available?

The conclusion of Chapter 20, the last chapter in Book 3: Hunger Season. Martin leaves the barn of the Town Farm after helping subdue their captors. His goal is to find Margaret, hopefully in the orchard's small store. While he's making his way through deep snow, a battle rages up the hill. Raiders from the criminals' camp in Nutfield have traveled north, attacking their way toward the center of t...

Martin gets work that a group of men have started to raid homes on the south side of town. They are moving north, toward the center of town. They will pass Town Farm, where Margaret and Dustin were holed up during the blizzard. Martin missed riding with the other defenders, so had to trek to Town Farm by snowshoes. Trevor comes along. Passing the dairy, Adam is one of the attackers. He recognizes...

Judy frets over the lack of contact with the Town Farm, where Dustin and Margaret were when a strong and sudden blizzard engulfs Cheshire. Martin helps search in near-zero visibility for his neighbor's son who started home from town but never made it. Thugs and hunger were trouble enough. Now, they have to contend with the power of winter. A blizzard tale is a great time for a nice hot cup of coff...

With Candice now in custody, implicated in helping Quinn foment trouble in Cheshire, the problem becomes what to do with her. Martin decides to take Trevor to the Simmons' home, freeing up room in the Town Farm's ad hoc jail cell for Candice. While getting Trevor settled in, a powerful snow storm descends quickly, with bitter cold and white-out conditions.   If you're enjoying the story, please co...

Candice is confronted about her conspiring with FEMA honcho Quinn to foment trouble in town. (the dairy fire, the gang attack, the Altman murders,) She runs, chased by a very angry mob. Martin and others prevent the mob from killing her but what to do with her now? A plan is hatched to tell Quinn that they'll exchange Candice for the corn FEMA stole.  The plan does not go as expected.   This is pa...

A group of Cheshire men accompany the police chief, attempting to bring in the shopping cart gang from their hidden camp. One of the gang is suspected of the Altman murders. A shootout ensues. Martin coaxes one of the survivors into telling her tale as a refugee from grid-down Manchester, taken in (captive) by the gang. She becomes Martin's "start witness" in the trial of the accused neighbor. Tha...