“As The Middle East and Europe struggle with pandemics, chemical warfare and ruined cities there exists a new threat on the horizon. News has just come out from Northern Europe that the fallout and debris contains high amounts of cobalt 60. Scientists have confirmed with other pieces of evidence that at least one of the bombs dropped on Russia was a salted warhead. A sated warhead is designed solely to make an area uninhabitable for the next century and to make survival near impossible. We are still finding new information on this everyday so it’s important to stay tuned.. This is Tracy Grimsby of channel 49 news. Be safe and I hope you have a good evening.”
There was a word that summed up this entire situation elegantly for Charlotte. Yet she couldn’t think of what it was…. ah that’s right it was
“Fuck”
Turns out the situation could get worse. It was late March, it was raining and Charlotte had just learnt that someone decided to drop a doomsday bomb on Russia. Because as the show said a salted bomb wasn’t just any old nuclear bomb, it was a bomb designed for the sole purpose of producing as much radiation as possible.
Different to a dirty bomb that just spread spent nuclear waste everywhere using conventional explosives, a slated nuclear bomb exposed an isotope of a certain substance to vast amounts of neutrons created in an atomic bomb. This cause the material to gain another neutron and become radioactive. In this case it was cobalt 59 which became cobalt 60 on exposure to neutrons
Charlotte got up to go to her room. It was time to do a little science. Pulling out a sheet of paper she wrote down cobalt 60 and pulled up a periodic table.
“So it’s Cobalt 60. Cobalt has 27 protons so it will likely undergo beta decay as it has too many neutrons. Which would mean it would turn into… what’s next? Nickel. So it will turn into Nickel 60, which is … stable. Meaning it will release electrons which are ionizing along with anti neutrinos and gamma rays.”
This gave Charlotte an idea of what to expect
“Ok so looking at the stopping power needed to stop it. An electron would require a wall of any sufficient size to block out the ionising particles. So it will be stopped by my house so long as none of the Cobalt 60 is inside. Whilst the gamma rays emitted are capable of going through walls however they lose energy going through bigger walls or by going through heavy nuclei. That’s useful to know but I won’t be able to do anything in the case of gamma rays except to go underground”.
This meant that the best way to decrease radiation entering her greenhouse, was actually the way she had originally intended to block in the thermal radiation. Meaning that Charlotte just had to add a layer of dirt and mud to the outside walls to add material in its path. This would also act as a heat sink and would mean that the room would remain better insulated from the cold outside air and would better match the temperature of the ground itself.
So the final work on the outside of the greenhouse was done by heaping dirt on top of the hard plastic roof. Because of its slope the dirt rushed to the bottom, but eventually by finding some particularly clay rich earth, Charlotte was able to stick it to the walls. After pouring some river water onto it, the clay and dirt, now mud became sticky enough so that it would definitely remain stuck to the walls even when it dried.
The inside though was a whole other challenge. The first step was installing the lighting fixtures and the reflective foil. There would be no place where she could scavenge for alfoil so it was better in this case to get it wholesale online. 50 square meters for $25 wasn’t really that bad of a deal anyway and if there were any extras they could be used for cooking again later. And other additional pieces could go on the ground to create further reflective surfaces.
As for the lights the location of the plants would need to be known and the place needed to be hooked up to the house’s power. It was easy enough though to get an extension lead. It was plugged in to the nearest socket and led towards the greenhouse. To stop it from getting ripped out Charlotte then removed a layer of topsoil and buried it underneath. It was put through the plastic strips making the job incredibly easy. From there Charlotte plugged in a desk light to provide light to work.
The next step was to design it, The fun part! Which of course led to mad scientist ramblings, not to mention hours worth of looking up the nutritional information of… well everything. It was not uncommon to hear such phrases as “muhhahaha I have conquered you vitamin C,” or “ I’m the greatest botanist on this planet.” Some memorable highlights also include “watney made it look easy,” and “nooo not the bees! Why couldn’t we have bees!” Her neighbours wouldn’t be impressed, not that it mattered since her entire street had up and left.
So the new design was quite a bit more extensive than before. Instead of just focusing on greens like the original design called for Charlotte would diversify her diet and include other types of vegetables and root vegetables to provide a fulfilling meal. The inedible parts could then be composted by bacteria and mushrooms. Additionally any algae produced could be powdered up and turned into a fertiliser. This fertiliser could then be used to feed the hydroponically grown vegetables and tubers. So long as the right nutrients were added to the solutions and so long as there was light she would have herself a food source.
How she would build this though would be interesting though. She would have a shelved setup on one side for hydroponic crates and boxes which would contain all the major foods being produced. They would be stored in boxes on the shelves then there would be lights on every single shelf. Then along the sides of the shelves the alfoil would reflect the light back into the plants. Most of the crops here would be small and wouldn’t grow too high, as to reach the lights. A fan would be placed at the edge of the row to push more fresh air to the plants and to stop the crops from stifling due to the possible heat.
The middle of the room meanwhile would be home to the taller plants that could be grown hydroponically along with any possible future fruit crops. These would sit in a desk and would all draw from the ceiling light. Crops here could include tomatoes, chillies, strawberries and much more in order to add some “spice” to the meals.
The other side of the room would be dedicated to the algae farm and mushroom farm. The former of which would require a custom built container made from translucent plastic whilst the mushrooms could grow in a wooden container.
The back wall meanwhile would be home to an art project of sorts. It would be useless just to have a few shelves and a few other setups when it would all look so bland. This is where the vertical garden came in. Charlotte would start a system of small paint can garden beds that would slowly drain water through channels into others creating a slowly draining system that would take the whole day to drain out. The paint cans could be decorated and painted to provide a bit of colour to this otherwise boring room. Within those small garden beds would be herbs and spices, to add a little colour to her diet.
With that she had her plan set. Time for the collection stage, a few salvaged shelves from the suburbs, along with the remains of broken fish tanks and paint cans meant she had everything for the construction.
“All according to keikaku”
(translator's note: keikaku means plan.)It’s also the authors bad sense of humour shining through.
It was the end of March and it was time to build the actual farm. To start Charlotte disassembled the shelves and moved them into the room. Before reassembling them however she coated the entire left wall and roof with the reflective alfoil. The shelves were then both reassembled and layer two abreast. For the middle though Charlotte got some wood supports to support a desk. For the table top though she got creative and stole the roof off of a car in the scrapyard. The problem was the easiest car to get to and remove was an old MG3 with the union jack on its roof. It would stand as a monument to the people of London, a memorial of sorts. Now all she had to do was hammer it flat and flip it upside down so that she didn’t think of tea every time she entered the room. It was then secured to the supports giving her a temporary work desk, and future hydroponic table.
The algae terrarium of sorts would require a bit of work. First an aluminium bottom was carved out to fit it from various car exteriors. This was then screwed onto a large piece of wood. On the sides other pieces of wood were screwed on except for one long side. More metal plates were then attached which made a metal tank surrounded by wood except on one side. The remaining broken plastic aquariums were then cut up and layered into a single sheet. The sheet was then put together by applying a heat gun so that the thermoplastic melted shards melted together into one full sheet of plastic. A groove was cut into the wood so the plastic could slot in. There would still be a huge problem with leaks though in all the places where screws had been drilled and in the corners of the plates. As there was no actual sealant on hand the easiest way to fix this was to get some clay wet it, then place it over all the cracks to act as a primitive sealant. She could also apply heat on it for a while until it became a ceramic but it would take far too long and would likely break at some point making the process aggravating so the clay was left as is.
Next up was the mushroom growing box. It would be a long but rather shallow box and would be built of wood, so it was very easy to get together. There was however a divider in the middle of the box. This meant that the dirt and plant material could be taken in and out at different times to separate the times where one would be empty to make sure one was always producing food.
The paint cans were then cut in half and attached to thin wood boards. This made them easier to attach to the wall as from there they could just be glued to the wall. Holes were then drilled in the bottom and tops of these cans. The top was drilled to let water into the medium and the bottom to let it flow out into other cans. Plastic tubing from fridges was then attached to all of them to channel the water. For now it looked like… well paint cans glued to a wall but with a bit of work, a bit of clay and a bit of paint it could end up looking nice.
With that all that was left would be installing the lights and plants but that would be for another day. For today Charlotte wanted to take a picture, turn the lights off then head back into her room.
Dissonance
Miss C mistress of madness sent picture It’s finally done
Miss C mistress of madness) muhahaha. It is finally complete. My lab where I will grow my most potent culinary items yet. Kneel before me you masses.
Lily the fanatic) :eyes
Miss C mistress of madness) what? My grow room is finally complete.
Lily the fanatic) :eyes what did you say?
Queen of the US of A) she’s been making a greenhouse to grow food to offset the living costs. The Australian and New Zealand governments are still having trouble producing food despite them bonding together under am acting temporary government. Don’t worry she’s not growing anything illegal in her “grow room.” Why Charlotte seeks to call it a grow room though is a different matter entirelyz
Miss C mistress of madness) :smugbun I only say it like that because I want to cause as much mischief as possible.
Lily the fanatic) we have one mischievous cutie here, don’t we?
Miss C mistress of madness) cutie?
Queen of the US of A) yes cutie.
Miss C mistress of madness) am not. I am the mistress of madness. The mad scientist that plots and creates marvellous yet dangerous inventions. I am mad, not cute.
Lily the fanatic) the more you deny it the cuter you get.
Miss C mistress of madness) you haven’t even seen me, how would you know I’m cute.
Queen of the US of A) because you’re a cute girl Charlotte. Also you’re being reflected in the alfoil covering of the shelves.
Miss C mistress of madness) wait what! Oh shoot. ummm forget that was ever there, please?
Lily the fanatic) how could I just forget such a pretty girl like you?
Miss C mistress of madness) @Mamabear help I’m being bullied!
Mamabear) this is your own fault. Also great job with the greenhouse. How long did it take to build?
Miss C mistress of madness) ahh two and a half months… I’ve been doing it myself though since I don’t exactly have any neighbours to lend a hand.
Mamabear) wait all by yourself? And what do you mean you don’t have any neighbours?
Miss C mistress of madness) well right after the ash started falling a lot of the suburbs moved to the city as the giant apartment buildings had better air filtration systems, not to mention that that’s where the bomb shelters are. There’s still a handful of people in the suburbs but none on my street.
I’ve actually been thinking of buying up my neighbours old houses though since they said they’d be happy to sell it when they left. With that at least I’d have more room to grow food and to make stuff.
Queen of the US of A) stuff?
Miss C Mistress of madness) like an air collection And a filtration system. I also probably need to build myself a shelter from any particularly harsh fallout once we start getting it in droves.
Queen of the US of A) can’t you use your current greenhouse? It is underground from memory.
Miss C mistress of madness) yeah it is underground but it also doesn’t have that thick of a ceiling so a lot of high energy gamma waves could still get through. What I need is to make a completely submerged building with a copper or steel roof covered in concrete to truly block any radiation.
Mamabear) How are you going to make that?
Miss C mistress of madness) I’m not going to work on it for a while but I could rig together a small arc furnace and welder to make small pieces of sheet metal that I could slowly form into a larger shape.
Lily the fanatic) how do you Make an arc furnace at home. And are you sure that’s safe?
Miss C mistress of madness) if I told you I’d have to kill you cough cough battery anodes. As for if it’s safe, you’ll have to ask future me because I kinda feel like going to sleep.
Queen of US of A) good night Charlotte O/
Miss C mistress of madness) you too Rebecca
