169. Self Sufficient

Cora

I walked outside leaving Jax. I was smirking, I loved our flitting it was cute, well at least I thought so. I was in my own little world and when I finally looked up, I saw everyone staring at me and blushed. “Oh yeah, I know you are wondering. Yes, this happens all the time. Luna and Alpha have their own thing going and be forewarned if either of them wants the other, you will be removed so they can have their time.” John said and I shot him a look telling him he needed to shut up. He shrugged “You know it is true.”

“Anyways I can show you the houses I built, and you can pick one out, the one next to ours though is for John and Anne.” I had put more time into their home and wanted to make it more special for them, seeing as they had both stuck by us. My feet were on the stone road I constructed. I rarely wore shoes anymore only when I didn’t want them wet, or when I left our property, but right now they were bare touching the smooth stone.

I raised my hands facing the forest calling some already chopped down branches. They all came floating over. I had them stripped in seconds then began to have the earth open to stake them in the ground. Then I lit the tops of the wooden poles on fire. I had started them so when we were done, I would put them out. I turned around to look at the witches faces, and they all looked impressed, nervous but impressed. “Grant that is how I channel.” I said smugly. We walked down the long road I made the houses where all spread out. Jeanie said to me “Cora I don’t think I need a house so big.” Lia said the same thing. “Okay well are you guys cool being neighbors?” I asked. Lia looked at Jeanie and nodded and Jeanie said it was fine. “Okay well do you guys have a house you liked?” I asked.

Both of them said in unison. “I liked the one that looked like a massive triangle.” I smiled I knew the one. I had made one large A frame house thinking it was cool looking. I nodded. That house was closer back to ours. “Garrett and Grant were you guys living together?” I asked and they said in unison they would. “Anyone you like?” Grant spoke first. “Cora they are all stunning, you are an artist if I may say so.” I nodded at the compliment. Garrett added “Yeah I like them all too, just tell us where you want us.”

“You guys can pick obvious the A frame is taken the one next to my house is taken but there is 43 left.” The guys went and looked around. They decided on a large house. I had made a few that were bigger than the others I wondered why they chose it, but I didn’t want to pry. Maybe it was because the two of them planned to have families some day and wanted to remain living in the same house, maybe it was because they wanted separate workrooms, or maybe it was because they had never had room. Whatever the case they had what they wanted. They went and looked in the houses even John and Anne.

Anne came up to me and said, “You made ours special, didn’t you?” I nodded. “Seriously anything you and John want tell me and I will make it happen.” Anne hugged me again. “There are no walls or anything, they are unfinished?” Grant asked.

“Yeah so, I was hoping the four of you would help me with the interiors. I have gotten up to date on electricity and plumbing but don’t know if I should be doing it. I was hoping you all knew more about it than I do, or I figured I could hire someone to do that stuff. I can do the walls, or you can if I have a layout but everything else, I really don’t know if you all want me doing. Before walls go up, I have to have an inspection done so the homes are all up to code. The exterior and what I did in the interior I know will pass inspection already.” Grant Nodded.

Garrett said “Grant and I have done some housing projects, we can’t do what you did here, but we know pluming pretty well, laying pipes and all that. We worked construction for a while back in our late teens.” I nodded that was good. John spoke up. “I do know an electrician in Ashville, but it is just one guy, he wouldn’t be fast the homes would be without home for a while.” I sighed. “I guess I will be absorbing electrical work.” I couldn’t wait weeks to have these homes with power. John said, “I know that look, we will have electricity soon, won’t we?” I nodded.

Grant spoke up. “We could help with this.” I looked at him. “That is actually what Garrett, and I do, we build generators and such, we have a website and stuff, it is why we are always running. We are out there you know; we teach people to be self-sustaining. So, if what you want is all self-staining homes we can help with that, I don’t know if you would prefer that considering you told us you wanted to have a township. The state is not really in favor of city's that don’t need them.” I bit my lip. “I like that idea, but I need to see what Jax thinks. Is there any way to make the plumbing self-sustain too?” I asked. Grant smiled.

“Yes, there is so many systems cheapest when it comes to waste is an outhouse but those can be nasty in the winter months going outside, but there are things. They tend to be expensive but in the long run they save money since you don’t have to pay for water, plumbing, electricity.” I bit my lip. “Let me talk to Jax see what he thinks I can tell you in the morning.” I said and he nodded. Garrett added. “Cora, we have wanted to do something like this for a long time. It just never was possible with the constant running.” I nodded at them understanding where they were coming from. We began to walk back toward our house, and I stopped at the A frame house.

I opened my hand and began to disassemble everything I had done. I formed two new homes and assembled them. Jeanie said, “My god woman you could take over the world with all that power.” I finished and looked at her. “Only if I wanted to, and quite honestly, I have no real desire to.” I smiled and turned. I knew Jeanie and Lia were going to go look in them. “When you are all done exploring come on back to the house.” I turned and left. John and Anne went to look around some more and I walked back in. Jax was sitting on the couch. “That was fast” he said.

“I broke the A-frame into two smaller homes so now we have 46, well 47 if you included ours.” He looked amused. “Did they say they would help finish the construction?” I nodded and told him. “Garrett and Grant do self-sustaining things. They said they could help with plumbing and electricity but had some ideas to make itself sustaining instead of traditional things. If we did go the more traditional route they could only help with the pluming. If we made everything self-sufficient, we probably won’t be able to form our own town. I told them we had to talk about it.”

“I like the idea of not needing anyone to run things out here, reminds me of my family when they were settlers and made everything themselves.” I could understand that. “I also know that the government is not big on people being able to do things on their own without getting a cut, so you are right we couldn’t form a town if we made it so everyone could sustain themselves.” “We would be viewed as a commune which is not how Hemmings is viewed.” I spoke.

“Yeah, but Hemmings has humans living there too, it is not just all werewolves. They are intermingled and the pack is just a side portion of the population.” He spoke. “Compounds are viewed as cults, and we don’t need that kind of heat.” I told him. Jax smiled “Or maybe we do?” I didn’t get what he meant. “If people, as in the world think we are all freaks they know that big brother would be keeping an eye on us. They would be less likely to attack us. That point could actually be a safety net, if you think about it.”