On the way to the neighborhood Home Depot for the obligatory weekend project as well as a load of flowers and potting soil, I started musing on my hitch as a “yard ape” for a company called Knox Lumber. We, too were busy this time of year, and it was a familiar feel whenever I went to one of these stores. Knox was one of the original “Do It Yourself” (aka DIY) stores, a precursor to today’s Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot. Eventually bought out by Payless Cashways the rumor in the store was that you could build an entire house by waiting patiently for a year while EVERYTHING went on sale…Rolling down the driveway, I suddenly had a thought and snickered. When my wife asked, “What?” I shook my head. “No, what?” I reiterated the train of thought above, then added, “I was wondering if it would be possible to build a colony on the Moon using just what you could buy at Knox? We pondered it for a few moments, then suddenly said in unison, “Yes! Inspired by Matt Weir’s writing of THE MARTIAN as a series of blog entries, the result of MY online storytelling continues below.
The last story entry was a LONG time ago, so, I’ll give a paragraph and continue from there (If you want to start again, Start here, click on the JAX LUNAR LUMBER tag, then skip Chapter 14 and pick up the story right after these events…)
Sturdlan Vilbix – known to our entire family by a disrespectful nickname as Turdman -- was the personal manager of Roza Rymbayeva Golovkina, a famous Kazakh singer and song-writer. She was a very-distant descendant of the last Human to walk on the Moon in the 20th Century – Eugene Andrew Cernan. He’d been the Last Lunar Walker, and his descendant, under the tutelage of Turdman who’d capitalized an otherwise mediocre career as her manager and his relentless mentioning of her five-times-great-grandfather’s fame.
He’d also had the great misfortune to alienate the Gang of Four, my grandchildren, Noah, Natalie, Ronan and Lennon.
On this fine day and their arrival on the original SPACE STATION COURAGE, Turdman had tried to hurry me into some dark corner thinking he could make me disappear so he could take over our business and add it to his empire. Turdman grabbed me by the bicep and squeezed. It HURT! He had muscles trained under the full gravity of the world that had nurtured Humanity into intelligence.
Now, here he was steering me further into Jax Lunar Lumber’s first jump station to our holdings on the Moon, using gestures to station dozens of drones in the ceiling, on the floor, on desks, in trees, and anywhere their cameras – I was pretty sure the glittering light twirling around the back and belly of each one was a camera designed to record, broadcast, and recreate every scene, every motion, and every nuance of the Six-Times-Great-Granddaughter-Of-The-Last-Lunar-Walker – or “Six-T-Granddaughter-OT Last Lunar Walker”. That quickly morphed to Antichrist, or 6T for short.
He’d dismissed The Gang of Four (with their current Accomplice Zachary). I smiled as the Gang pushed him aside as they surrounded us. The faceplate of his spacesuit had abruptly malfunctioned – Lennon raised her eyebrows at me, baring her teeth like fangs – as Turdman’s voice cut off.
She grabbed my hand as the Women made off with the World-Famous And Very Important Ms. Golovkina, the famous Kazakh singer. The young men picked up Turdman, slapped a highly-alcohol-dosed suit patch on his absurd stage outfit, adding a small injection of cheap beer to his water bottle – which he’d been slurping since he’d come aboard the Station, and hurried him away to destination Empty-Air-Lock. His protests were oddly slurred.
Natalie and Lennon sandwiched Antichrist between them, carrying her away, disappearing smoothly through a holographic DO NOT ENTER: DECOMPRESSION ZONE BEYOND wall. Ms. Golovkina screamed. Or tried to. Natalie offered her a popular, expensive bonbon named after her.
“Get that freaking disgusting thing away from me!” she shouted, spitting it out.
Lennon leaned in and said, “I thought they were your favorites?”
“They’re The Idiots favorite.” She paused, “Think you guys could make this kidnapping permanent?”
The Girls said together, “Really, Lady Golovkina?”
Just before the hologram reappeared, she said, “I’d give you the passwords to The Idiot’s Private Money Stashes if you make me disappear for good.” The hologram flicked back on and they were gone, Noah, Ronan, and Zack staring after them, still holding the cussing and crying Turdman between them. They looked at each other, all popping evil grins, and shoved the squirming Turdman ahead of them.
Resources: The Moon Trees, https://www.urbanforestdweller.com/we-almost-forgot-about-the-moon-trees/ ; https://www.space.com/moon-colonists-lunar-lava-tubes.html; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payless_Cashways
A couple years ago, I related to my wife that, when I was working for the now-defunct Knox Lumber Company, I was told that if someone were patient, they could buy ALL of the supplies necessary to build a house ON SALE from the store. Knowing the company strictly from the perspective of a “yard ape” (aka Outside Lumberyard Attendant), and having moved zillions of tons (or watched it moved by the truly massive forklift that only a few people were allowed to drive) of building materials – from bags of sand to prefabricated trusses…I believed it. After a moment, I said, “Do you think you could buy the supplies necessary to build a Lunar colony from Knox?” We laughed and I said, “That’s ridiculous!” However, as I thought about it, it occurred to me that it might JUST be possible.
That speculation led to the first “Jax Lunar Lumber” little blurb. It wasn’t even a piece of flash fiction. But lately, after discovering that there are actually things called Moon Trees, and that scientists have just grown rock cress seeds in Lunar soil, I suddenly realize that there might be stories I can harvest from this subject…um…so to speak…
So, we’ve got Lunar Trees scattered around the US and a couple other places on earth: “…the Command Module Pilot on the Apollo 14 mission, to bring a small canister containing about 500 seeds aboard the module in 1971. Seeds for the experiment were chosen from five species of tree: loblolly pine, sycamore, sweetgum, redwood, and Douglas fir. In 2022, NASA announced it would be reviving the moon tree program by carrying 1,000 seeds aboard an Artemis Mission.
“After the flight, the seeds were sent to the southern Forest Service station in Gulfport, Mississippi, and to the western station in Placerville, California, with the intent to germinate them. Nearly all the seeds germinated successfully, and after a few years, the Forest Service had about 420 seedlings. Some of these were planted alongside their Earth-bound counterparts, which were specifically set aside as controls. After more than 40 years, there was no discernible difference between the two classes of trees.”
That’s the story. But whatever happened to the other 580? “Nearly all the seeds germinated successfully, and after a few years, the Forest Service had about 420 seedlings.” Did they “unsuccessfully” germinate? What might THAT mean? How about the kids from the class? Did seeing the Moon Tree affect any of them? I mean…for me? I could imagine a slightly different future (though I live in a state that did NOT get a Moon Tree (we’re too far north…). The nearest one for me to see is in Des Moines, IA. My son and grandkids saw one of the three trees in North Carolina.
“Most of the ‘Moon trees’ were given away in 1975 and 1976 to state forestry organizations, in order to be planted as part of the nation's bicentennial celebration. Since the trees were all of southern or western species, not all states received trees. A Loblolly Pine was planted at the White House, and trees were planted in Brazil, Switzerland, and presented to Emperor Hirohito, among others."
So, my senior year in high school, the trees were sent out to their new homes (the complete list of where they went are in the Wikipedia article linked below.
But I’m a writer. Some of the possibilities for story here: the tree that was given to the Emperor of Japan, Hirohito – the man who initiated and led the War in the Pacific – including the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. What??? Why would the US Government give HIM a tree that had gone into space? There’s a story there, I’m sure.
One of the trees was sent to Santa Rosa, Brazil to the “Soybean Fairgrounds, Parque Municipal de Exposições”. Ironically, this Brazilian State was settled by… “European immigrants in 1915, mainly Italians, Germans and Russians. The German dialect traditionally spoken in the region is Riograndenser Hunsrückisch.” Two of the groups were members of the Axis Powers along with Japan; the third a people who would become the second-greatest Communist empire on Earth…
Is this significant? *laugh* Probably not at all; but MAN it would lend all sorts of stuff to a STORY! Maybe throw these “gift Moon Trees” in with fact that “Nearly all the seeds germinated successfully, and after a few years, the Forest Service had about 420 seedlings.” The fact that the trees were handed out accounts for of them; as well, some 47 of the trees later died…though not one of the Redwoods… Based on a count from Wiki and under the assumption that only ONE tree was granted to each recipient (unless otherwise noted), that only accounts for 112 of the 420…so…what if 308 of them were planted on a remote mountain preserve or a place all of the species might flourish: Redwood, sycamore, Douglas fir, Loblolly pine, and sweet gum. They grew, and…(cue eerie music) what happened? What about the trees in Brazil? Planted in the Amazon Rain Forest??? There are even a few whose status is unknown. Why is that? You’d THINK something like that would make a splash; then again, NASA and the world forgot about the trees for a while – did they have something to HIDE?
While none of these trees is precisely "little", all of them share the legacy of having been to the Moon and back. And the fact is that: "Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were the first of 12 human beings to walk on the Moon. Four of America's moonwalkers are still alive: Aldrin (Apollo 11), David Scott (Apollo 15), Charles Duke (Apollo 16), and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17)" -- four men left who walked. How many people flew to the Moon and back? In addition to the 24 Apollo astronauts, four others are slated to follow them for the first time in 50 years in November of 2024...WHICH, BTW, NEVER HAPPENED. CURRENT PLAN: "Artemis 2, the first crewed mission of NASA's Artemis program, is currently targeted to launch no earlier than April 1, 2026, to fly four astronauts around the Moon. The mission is designed to test the Orion capsule systems and will last roughly 10 days."
This is going to be FUN!
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_tree, https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_tree.html, https://www.astronomy.com/space-exploration/when-will-artemis-2-launch-and-what-will-the-mission-do/
Image: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/moon-trees-that-traveled-to-space-now-live-on-earth-where-are-they-now
On the way to the neighborhood Home Depot for the obligatory weekend project as well as a load of flowers and potting soil, I started musing on my hitch as a “yard ape” for a company called Knox Lumber. We, too were busy this time of year, and it was a familiar feel whenever I went to one of these stored. Know was one of the original “Do It Yourself” (aka DIY) stores, a precursor to today’s Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot. Eventually bought out by Payless Cashways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payless_Cashways
The rumor in the store was that you could build an entire house by waiting patiently for a year while EVERYTHING went on sale…Rolling down the driveway, I suddenly had a thought and snickered. When my wife asked, “What?” I shook my head. “No, what?” I reiterated the train of thought above, then added, “I was wondering if it would be possible to build a colony on the Moon using just what you could buy at Knox?” We pondered it for a few moments, then suddenly said in unison, “Yes!”
Inspired by Matt Weir, the result of my musings continues below.
It just turned into 2026 three days ago, so I went back to Chapter 3 and copied the following:
"Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were the first of 12 human beings to walk on the Moon. Four of America's moonwalkers are still alive: Aldrin (Apollo 11), David Scott (Apollo 15), Charles Duke (Apollo 16), and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17)" -- four men left who walked. How many people flew to the Moon and back? In addition to the 24 Apollo astronauts, four others are slated to follow them for the first time in 50 years in November of 2024...”
Couple things, NASA just announced Artemis WON’T be going to the Moon until 2027…so that’s changed. “In all, 24 American astronauts made the trip from Earth to the Moon between 1968 and 1972. Three astronauts made the journey from Earth to the Moon twice: James Lovell (Apollo 8 and Apollo 13), John Young (Apollo 10 and Apollo 16), and Gene Cernan (Apollo 10 and Apollo 17).”
Nextly, “Four of America's moonwalkers are still alive: Aldrin (Apollo 11), David Scott (Apollo 15), Charles Duke (Apollo 16), and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17).” (https://science.nasa.gov/moon/moon-walkers/)
Charles Duke is 90. Harrison Schmitt is 90. Edwin “Buzz Aldrin” is 95. David Scott is 93. I’m thinking that in another 10 years, all of the “First Men On The Moon” will be gone.
All of that to say, I think I’m going to play around with writing pieces of SnapFix (aka as flash fiction to normal folks!) in this world I’ve managed to create! Pieces LESS than 1500 words. I’m also not going to NECESSIARILY finish them on the blog on the off chance they might be “good enough” to submit.. I AM going to follow my “rules” for writing SnapFix. You can see my Reels on the subject here: https://www.instagram.com/guy_stewart75/
Select Your Genre
Choose An Overarching Theme
Use One Or Two Key Characters
Make Every Sentence Count And Don’t Rush
Prompt Visualization
Start In The Middle
Use Descriptive, Concise Language
Deal With A Single Conflict
Create Surprise And Provide A Twist
Present A Memorable Last Line
Write A Powerful Title
DRAFT!DRAFT!
DRAFT!
