Next Seth moved to the waterwheel. He opened the diversion and watched as the water fell on the wheel. It began to turn and the generator turned with it. Revolutions built up, there was a slight hum. The lights in the office flickered to a dim orange glow. Seth smiled and yelled pumping his fist in the air. He had power. He rapidly moved to the office and picked up an ancient volt meter to test the voltage he had. Seth hissed yes once again when the meter showed about 113 volts. He was in business. Seth plugged his refrigerator in and let it begin cooling down. He sat and rested for a moment then moved to the shop and his next project—the dozer.
He opened the large door into the shop and looked around. There were a few electric outlets and a half dozen lights. Seth began checking the wiring in preparation for connecting the shop to the generator. That took a couple of hours but about noon he had power to part of the shop and the lights came on. Now he could work on his dozer.
Seth checked the oil and fuel. The dozer was dry. There was no fuel and no oil in the engine. Whoever had parked it in the building had stored it correctly. The battery had been disconnected also. He drove his truck up to the door and got out his jumper cables. He wanted to see if the engine would turn over before he spent any money on batteries, fuel, oil or parts. Of course since his truck was diesel he could always use the fuel in it.
Seth tried to turn the engine by hand. He thought it moved slightly but he wasn’t sure. He hooked up the cables and climbed onto the dozer. He hit the switch. Nothing. He got off and looked around. He found a couple of wires mice or rats had chewed in half. He patched them and inspected the dozer once more. He could see nothing else. He climbed up once more and hit the switch. The engine groaned and cycled. He let the key go and smiled. It wasn’t frozen. He began making a list of things he needed from town—parts, lubricants, fuel, groceries and so forth. Tomorrow he would go spend some money.
The rest of the day Seth wandered around his little mine exploring and relaxing. He did a few odd jobs but generally speaking he just enjoyed the beautiful spring day. It was early in the season so nights were still cold. Of course this high in the mountains the nights were pretty cool all summer long. Seth went to bed early and rose early. Already he was feeling better physically. He worked long and hard daily and enjoyed the crisp clean mountain air. All he missed was human companionship.
Early the next morning Seth rose and jumped in his truck for the trip to town. He didn’t bother eating breakfast. In fact, food was pretty scarce after the long time he had spent in the mountains already. He decided he would have to go hunting and fishing in a day or two. He knew it wasn’t hunting season but he would take his chances. It was either that or cut way back on meat and he was a carnivore at heart.
The drive to Telluride was not long in distance but it was long in time. He once again had to drive slowly to get off his property to the poorly maintained dirt road. From there the drive was slow but easier until he got to a better road that took him to Telluride. The town was small but being a tourist town there were stores for most of what he needed. The most trouble he had was finding the batteries and other parts he needed to repair some of the equipment on his place. By the time his shopping trip was completed Seth had spent $457 and change of his meager cash stash.
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