Wednesday, October 5, 6:00 PM. Brewer.

We all spent the day out together. We went back over to the old house. It was a little hard to see it again. Afterward Amy said that it still feels more like home, in a way, than the farm does.

It was sad to see it dark and dusty, with grass overgrown and leaves on the driveway and roof. I think we were all expecting a cheerful return. Instead it felt like stepping into a faded photograph.

Claire seemed especially glum. I think she half-expected to find Louis Armstrong there. She still looks just a little frail after her sickness.

Amy has been going over alone or with Trevor to tend the garden. We went to harvest the beans mainly. The tomatoes should be ready in a few weeks.

After that we went to Home Depot. I grabbed some parts and tools I’ve been missing. We took home all the seeds they had on display. We’ve realized we need to store every seed we can find.

That in turn made us realize we ought to grab plants and seeds from all the crops that are still standing in the fields. We don’t really need cotton (we have all the textiles we’ll need for centuries, depending on how many people are still around) but we grabbed some cotton plants from fields along the road. We took some sorghum likewise. To be honest I’ve never been sure what it’s good for but I know the Almanac has an article about it. We took some corn and tried eating some but it was hard and unpleasant. We kept it anyway. It must be the kind they use for feed and ethanol and popcorn. I’ll go out soon and harvest as much as I can, just in case.