Detour to Otherwhen ©

by K Pelle

Chapter 12

Well, it's sometime in the early morning hours and I'm going to call this Day Two of our time in this valley, although Day One seemed to be mighty long.  Truthfully, I really don't know what time it is, because we haven't quite managed to synchronize our watches to the sun yet.  Supposedly I'm on guard duty, but except for nocturnal animals, Anna and I are probably the only beings awake within miles of here.  As I suspected, it gets quite chilly at night in this valley, so I have a small fire burning and I'm sitting beside it with a blanket over my legs and my laptop on my knees, making notes about our situation.  Actually I've been writing up all of the last few days' happenings - including as much as I can remember of my conversations with everyone, doing my best to get everything recorded the way it happened.

Last night I expected to sleep for an hour, but Fran talked to Anna about my recent sleep pattern, and they didn't think I'd had enough sleep lately, so she let me sleep for at least ten hours.  Fran woke me about two hours ago with a cup of coffee, some soup and a sandwich, then she crawled into my warm bed and passed out.  Mimi was awake when I got up, saying she had gone to bed when I did and claiming she got a few hours sleep, but I don't think she can have slept much.  She looked and acted wasted, so at my insistence she finally gave in and went back to bed a few moments ago.  Before she went to sleep though, she woke Anna, who has gone to make coffee, since she says she's barely awake and needs the caffeine.

Oh boy, does that bring up a touchy subject!  The idea of rationing coffee is something I'm going to have to talk over with everyone and that's going to be a tough idea to sell.  Actually, even if we use coffee at our regular rate, we'll have enough ground coffee and coffee beans to last for over a month, so if we stretch it a little, we should be able to make it last for two, I hope!  Anna has even started to save and dry all the used coffee grounds and plans to try using them a second time, just in case.  Mimi thinks she saw some Labrador Tea plants when we were riding over to Wally's, but until we know that it's easily available, I want to ration the coffee.  You can call me a pessimist if you want, but I'm not counting on Mimi's supposed Labrador Tea plants - not until I see the plants for myself.  Talking of coffee, here comes Anna with two mugs in her hands and a smile on her face.  I'm not sure which is more welcome right now -- the coffee, or the smile.

"Oh, that's a gorgeous sight to see, and you're just as welcome to my eyes as that mug of coffee," I said quietly.

"Smart ass!" Anna grinned at me, but kissed me on the cheek.  "What have you been up to while everyone else has been sleeping?"

"Oh, just writing in my journal and bitching to myself that I don't know what time it really is, but since I'm not even certain what season it is, why should a few hours bother me so much.  Hell, we don't even know what century this is."

"Well, since we don't have an astronomer along to check out star positions, we'll probably never know what century it is, at least not with a reference to the Christian calendar.  In fact I'm certain we've gone far enough into the past that no history of this time period was ever written, at least not on this continent.  I know from the erosion of the hills we're in the epoch that came after the last ice age, but by the same reasoning I'm certain we're now several thousand years prior to any attempt at recorded history.  I mean written history that we could validate, not verbal history or unaccredited history of any sort," Anna spoke calmly.  "As I said just after we arrived though, there are some additional geological signs that I can check to give us a rough idea of which millennia we've landed in.  For instance there was an eruption of a volcano in Oregon, called Mount Mazama, which spread a huge amount of volcanic ash across this part of Canada.  That happened at least seven thousand years ago . . . no wait, it was that long ago when we lived in back in Victoria . . . before this time shift thing happened.  But, no matter . . . between five and six thousand years BC, Mount Mazama was blown apart so violently that the whole mountain was shattered into dust and ash.  That ash formed a very distinctive layer in the soil of this area and if we can find signs of it, we can be certain that we're in a later time period.  Conversely, if there are no signs of that ash then we can assume that we landed at an earlier time."

"Are you saying that we might have been thrown more than seven thousand years into the past, not five like you said before?"

"Perhaps, but I can't really do more than estimate that we've been shifted anywhere from five to ten thousand years, not until we can investigate more thoroughly," she shrugged as if it wasn't important.  "It might be anywhere in that period, but just by looking at the erosion of the hills and just the fact that the hills around here are even eroded to the shape they are, we can tell some things.  We definitely haven't gone back more than ten or twelve thousand years, and that's simply because the major hills are in their present configuration."

"Do me a favour and run over the reasons again," I frowned at her.  "I'm recording this live, so it will be written down later."

"Well, okay," she waved her hand toward the higher hills behind us.  "Those hills were eroded into their general shape long after the Rocky mountains were formed, but that only narrows things down to within a few million years.  All of the sandstone at the base of the nearest cliff and even the shale layer that shows up part way up the cliff was deposited on the bottom of a shallow sea, long before the Rocky Mountains were much more than hills.  Then continental drift caused the tectonic plate under North America and the one under the Pacific Ocean to ram together with greater force.  The Rocky Mountains are the result of that collision.

"Over the next few million years those newly exposed mountains were rapidly eroded by the weather.  All the upper portion of the Cypress Hills is made up of conglomerates from the rocks, gravels and silts that were deposited in this area and compacted to become those upper layers.  At one point there was probably a plain of conglomerates all across this section of the prairies, but over millions of years further erosion destroyed most of that plain, leaving this one small area high and dry.  So essentially the Cypress Hills were very close to their present form long before the last ice age, perhaps earlier, even as much as fifty or a sixty thousand years ago.  However, the effects of the glacial ice sheets put the icing on the cake, in fact from this very valley's position I'd suspect that it was first gouged out by runoff from a small glacial toe during one of the last ice ages.  Common thought is that the last glaciers began to retreat from this area about fifteen or sixteen thousand years BC.  While they were still nearby though, the dry winds blowing off the ice deposited a layer of finely ground rock dust over everything.  That deposit is called loess, and you can actually see the layer of soil that the loess formed, if you know where to look for it.  It's virtually the upper layer of subsoil on the very tops of the conglomerate hills.  We are now living in a much later period, because there has been time enough for all the trees around us to migrate into the area and establish themselves here."

She sighed, then continued before I could say anything.  "Now considering the present temperature and the obvious season of the year, I'm sure that the glacial front must have retreated a long way to the north.  If you consider the signs of wind and water erosion on those hills, along with the amount of reforestation of the lowlands, which has to have happened since the ice sheet retreated, we're definitely several centuries later."

"So you're still positive that we've gone back several thousands of years though?"

"Oh yes, this period is definitely thousands of years before our white ancestors came to this continent.  Considering all the factors, I'm going to say that we can't be more than eight and ten thousandyears in our former past though.  However, knowing just how devastating the Mount Mazama event must have been, I hope we aren't that far back.  Only in order to make a better approximation I'd need to get to the top of the plateau and dig down to see if there was a layer of ash from Mount Mazama on top of the glacial loess.

"As well as that I could do a much better estimation of the time frame by observing a camp of the local people, since the type of tools and weapons they used is relatively well documented.  One common archeological theory places our earliest ancestors on this continent and probably in this general area somewhere between fifteen and sixteen-thousand years ago.  Personally, I estimate that it happened in the earlier time frame, because we're certain it was actually during the latter part of the last ice age, but while the ice bridge to Asia still existed.  We're almost positive those early ancestors used Clovis points on their weapons, but there is some belief that a continent-wide tragedy happened about thirteen thousand years BC.  The basis for that belief is the fact that the Clovis hunters seem to have disappeared then.  Later groups used other types of points as they improved their weapons and their methods of hunting.  So observing a campsite would be extremely useful to me for dating purposes."

"Are you trying to make me believe that the idea of actually observing a stone age camp of hunter-gatherers up close and personal isn't a turn on for you?" I grinned.

"Yes, and no," she sighed softly.  "I'll be thrilled to observe the daily life of a camp of early hunter-gatherers, but I'll be extremely annoyed by the fact that I'll be unable to pass that knowledge on to my former compatriots."

"Hmm, I never thought of that.  I supposed it'd be like running a mile in record time, but doing it without any witnesses, or bringing down a bull moose with one shot when you're miles from anyone else.  If no one else knows what you've done, it's an empty victory."

"Exactly!" she leaned over and kissed my cheek.

"Well, I think you may have come up with a winner for homing in on a more precise date, but with something you mentioned earlier."

"I did, when was that?"

"When you mentioned having an astronomer check out star positions.  You knew I used to write science fiction stories, didn't you?"

"Yes, but you never showed them to me."

"They weren't all that good, but I'm a detail nut when I write and I was writing a story about time travel so I asked one of the astronomers at the University about how astronomical dating worked.  The simplest method has to do with the way the earth precesses around the sun.  You see the earth has a very slow wobble in its rotation, so the sky view follows a definite pattern over the millennia as the earth circles the sun.  However, that pattern or cycle repeats itself over a period of approximately twenty-five-thousand-years.  Since the sun remains in the same relative position in relation to the stars, while Earth's orbit in relation to the sun changes, we see changes in the position of the stars in our night sky.  Unfortunately that made it difficult to work into my story, because the hero travelled further than twenty-five-thousand-years through time, but . . ."

"Excuse me, but what does that have to do with us?" she interrupted.

"Oh, right!  Well, Don, my astronomer friend, sent me an e-mail about precession and it included two or three illustrations of the changes in the star patterns and also in the seasons as the centuries passed.  I copied those graphics to my hard drive, so all I have to do is figure out where they are and compare the star patterns to the present pattern, because I know approximately where our north is now.  The star we used to call our north star certainly doesn't sit in a northerly direction for us any longer though.  If you follow the direction of my pointing finger,  that's the Little Dipper, or Ursa Minor, over there, and according to my compass, that's more south- west than north.  So, let's see if I can find those graphics, because our present north seems to be somewhere closer to the constellation of Hercules." I picked up my computer.  "It's getting so close to morning though, I'd better be quick, or we'll lose the stars before I find that graphic."

It really didn't take all that long, since my computer was set up for easy access and I knew those graphics would be in a specific directory.

"Ahha, here we go.  I don't know where Don got these j-pegs, but from what I can recall of them, they might be just what we want and . . .  There we go . . .  Damn, according to my first guess, we've landed somewhere between six and seven thousand years BC - that's what?  Oh, about eight or nine-thousand years before we were born."

"Oh Crap, that means we've landed here before Mount Mazama blew," Anna sighed heavily.  "Not only that, but it's going to erupt far enough in the future that you and I will be dead long before it happens.  So, just how the hell are we going to warn people, since some of them might be our great-great-grandkids?"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll work out some way to warn them," I grinned at her, then sobered as I opened another j-peg and my mood changed.  "Damn, that's not good news!"

"Now what have you found?"

"Well, Earth's precession also affects the length of the seasons and it looks to me like we can expect to have a very long winter.  You see despite Earth's precession it still follows along the same orbit around the sun, which is a lopsided oval, and the period between the various equinoxes and solstices varies because of that.  In 2003 we had short fall and winter seasons, but long springs and summers.  If this chart is right, we can look forward to a long spring, short summer, short fall and a very long winter now, which isn't really good news for us.  As a result our peak growing season will be reduced, which is going to affect food production," I sighed heavily.

"Oh, you're just full of good news," Anna gave a matching sigh.

"Oh that isn't all.  After looking at the precession graphic, I'm sure the calendar program I was planning to use to work out our present seasons will be much less accurate than I'd hoped.  The only periods when the time of day that will be relatively accurate is at or near one of the two solstices or the two equinoxes.  Other than that the length of each day and the number of days between solstices and equinoxes will vary widely from my old calendar.  Still, considering the foliage on the local vegetation, and taking into account the number of daylight hours we had yesterday, I'm guessing that we must be close to spring equinox," I shrugged.  "What that means in the long run though is that the gals are going to get their wish, and we'll end up with a major calendar reform.  Of course by doing a good job on calendar reform, combined with a lot of celestial observation, we should be able to pinpoint the date to within four or five-hundred-years.  In fact after a few decades of observation and a lot of calculations we could probably come down to an estimation within a century or two.  Even if we aren't dead on with our observations, we'll still know the date within a lot closer time frame than we do now.  That would tell you much closer just  how far back we travelled through time."

"So, are you saying you think we need to spend some time on that too?"

"Unfortunately, I suppose it is quite important.  We need to know the solar phases, just so we have an idea of how to plan our year."

I paused and held up a hand, then looked around slowly, noticing that the sky was starting to brighten slightly on the eastern horizon.  To me the sky seemed to look almost the same way it had appeared when we'd arrived the day before, but only because I couldn't really make out any of the stars used for celestial navigation.

I glanced at my watch and noted that it said 9:56 P.M.  I remembered that Fran had said 9:58 P.M. the day before, which meant I was making note of the sky changes within a few minutes of the same time of day.  I could have been out a minute or two with my observation since I had no instruments, so labelling the time as false dawn was a judgement call.  I had been watching as the brighter stars faded out of sight though, and I had seen that the sky was brightening slightly every second.  I really couldn't have misjudged false dawn by very long.

"Anna, do you know where Ellen wrote down the times yesterday, when she noted the time of the sunrise and all that?"

"Yes, I do, did you want it?  Oh, and I forgot to tell you, but she took that job seriously," Anna grinned, then pointed.  "She and Fran drove a long stick in the ground over on that level patch by the fire pit and they used stakes to estimate the time when its shadow was shortest.  Ellen said she was quite sure they got a very close time for noon and she insisted on staying up to catch the sun setting on that same hill you looked at when you told her it was sunrise yesterday.  I'll get her record for you."

She was back in a moment with a flap from a cardboard box with Ellen's handwriting on it.

I read it, and grinned as I noticed how close to twelve hours daylight had lasted, then added the start of Day Two to her record.

DAY ONE in the valley (O-T: Old Time)

False Dawn - 9:58 P.M. (O-T)

Sunrise (on the hill) - 11:07 P.M. (O-T)

Noon (by shadow) - 5:00:15 A.M. (O-T) (15 sec. out on the hour! - is that realistic?)

Sunset (on the hill) - 11:34 A.M. (O-T)

False Dusk (Fran's guess) - 12:43 P.M. (O-T)

                       

DAY TWO

False Dawn - 9:56 P.M. (O-T)

Then I opened up my 'Sun Timer' program on my laptop, quickly flipping through the months, checking the times on various days.  I was looking for a day that was about twelve hours and twenty-seven minutes long, then assumed that the difference in time between the first and second day would be about three minutes.

"Holy Shit!" I stared at the closest result I found in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Anna leaned over my shoulder and looked at the screen, then snorted as she too was surprised.  "Well, that seems too close to be a coincidence, doesn't it?"

"You mean the fact that it looks like we landed so close to the vernal equinox?  I suppose that would be as good a target as any, but from what I saw of that old quack who sent us here, I'd have expected him to aim for the autumnal equinox.  If we'd have landed here in early winter, we might have frozen, or starved to death.  Of course I don't think he planned to send us into the past at all, instead I think he meant to send us into the future.  Besides that, if the times we've measured are correct, we're a few days past the first day of spring, but if this is right, we're very lucky," I shrugged.  "We need to keep track for a few more days, even though the sunrise and sunset times might be out a bit.  Of course that could be because we're in a valley and the times we're measuring are taken for the time the sun hits the top of a hill, so their accuracy will be questionable.  When I chose that hilltop I was just hoping it was about the same height as the plateaus to the east and west of us.  I guess we'll just have to see if the measurements are consistent, and if they are, we've landed earlier in the year than I would have expected, at least considering the growth we see in the plants.  Of course that also means that the seasons are a lot warmer than they could be, because we're right near the change from winter to spring."

"Say, I just noticed, you were using the 2003 calendar, which is the year we came from - won't that make some difference?"

"I'm sure I should play dumb and say, how would I know?" I grinned and chuckled at the idea.  "Somehow I don't think anyone has had to try to work out this sort of time problem before, but if you have a better idea, I'll go along with it.  As you said though, if you consider geological time we've just gone back by the blink of an eye, so how much difference could there be in Earth's distance from the sun.  The only other modifier that might make a difference would be if Earth changed its period of rotation, and although the tides are slowing us, I don't think it's happening all that fast."

"Okay, smart ass, go ahead and throw my own words back at me," she smiled and leaned forward to hug me over my shoulder.  "I still can't understand why the times for the year 2003 would be so close to the figures for several thousand years earlier though."

""That's simple, calendars are accurate because the earth follows a regular orbit around the sun and moves at relatively a constant rate.  However if we'd worked our way back on a day by day basis, the calendar would be way out.  In other words I'm jumping to conclusions using the seasons as a guide, and made a guess that worked for me because the seasons follow in a regular progression.  This calendar I'm using is a measure of that progression, but it disregards precession and several other minor factors.  During a particular decade the only years that will show a slightly different time will be in leap years, at least in a simplified event calendar running on a small computer like this one.

"This program isn't geared for the precise timing that an astronomer would require, instead it's meant for use by Mr. Normal, who just wants to know what time to set his alarm to go fishing at dawn.  That's the only reason I have the darn program occupying space on my hard drive.  Besides the fact that it's small in size, it was cheap and it does the job I needed it to do.  For our initial purposes we don't need any more than that anyway.  I just guessed that we were near the equinox from the development of the leaves on the distant trees and the length of daylight shown by Ellen's measurements, then used that hoping that she was somewhere near right.  Actually, all we really need to know is the season anyway.  In other words just how long we have from the time we seed our crops until we have to be sure that they're harvested, anything more than that will be a bonus."

"I suppose you're right, but it feels as if we're only doing half a job, and it seems to be too easy.  What about your idea of using the hours in each day to work out a new calendar?"

"Oh we'll have to do that eventually, but I don't think investing a lot of our time on that project is worth wasting a lot of effort on right at the moment.  We simply have too many other essential tasks which need to be taken care of before we'll have the time to spend on that."

"But if we do the job precisely now, won't that be an advantage to everyone?"

I had to chuckle at that and we had a long discussion concerning time and how it was used.  My view was that time was going to be a simple way to decide when to plant and harvest our crops, but because she wanted to nail down the date, Anna wanted more accuracy than that.  We did have a lively discussion, but it never grew heated.  We both knew that we were really only passing the time to alleviate our boredom while being on guard duty and not being busy with anything constructive.  Since there was a bit of coffee left in the pot and we didn't want it to go to waste, we shared the last half cup, but Anna didn't make more right then.  Of course we had a chat about that too, but mostly we were just chatting to keep each other awake and occupied.

Since it was growing lighter, I was hearing birds and other morning sounds, but at the same time Anna was complaining about the lack of precise dating methods for archaeological finds.  The sun wasn't on the hill we'd chosen as a marker yet, but I didn't dare concentrate on anything else or I might miss it, since it was nearing the time when I expected the sun to rise.  I don't think Anna had even noticed, because she was prattling on about how she wished there was a program that would let her know what year it was right then.  Since I was not only keeping my eye on the hill, but also trying to act attentive to Anna, I might have been a few seconds late when I notice that the peak of the hill was lit by the sun.  When I did notice it, I held up my hand abruptly, causing Anna to pause her complaint, but I was busy as I checked my watch, then checked it against the figures on the computer.

"Ahha, 11:04, that's about right, but it could be because I was looking at the hilltop just at the right time.  Any difference could definitely be a matter of the height of the hill above the surrounding landscape.  Which means we know roughly what season of the year it is and I'd say we know approximately what time of day it is," I grinned at her.  "However, I'm going to let Ellen work out the details, then I'll check her work.  As far as I'm concerned though I'll change my watch to the new time, that is if her shadow figures check out at noon."

"What are you going to say to her about the height of the hill, or how that will affect her figures?"

"Oh, I think she'll work that out all by herself.  She's a smart kid," I chuckled as I added the time of that day's sunrise to Ellen's chart.

"Ah, you're doing that to encourage her, good idea!" Anna smiled at me.  "You should remember though, that she's not the only smart one here, I'm sure Mimi and Fran are equally as intelligent."

The discussion might have carried on further, but just then I heard a sound behind me and turned to see Tom, who was not only up on his feet, but dressed.  He waved a hand at Anna and me, then moving slowly, he walked around the corner of the building, so I winked at Anna.

"You see, I'm not the only guy who needs to have some relief right away in the morning."

"Oh you ass, most people do," she grinned at me. "The reason I give you rough time is because you throw the covers off the bed so energetically that you wake me up."

I'm not sure what I'd have said then, but Tom came over and looked somewhat enviously at our empty coffee cups.

"Is there more coffee ready by chance?  Or are we already rationing it?" he asked quietly.  "If we are, I'll wait, then have mine later."

"Just wait here, while I'll make more," Anna gave me a hard look as if warning me not to argue, then walked off toward the camper.

"Well, are you feeling better, and what is more important, should you be up and around?"

"I'm fine," he almost snapped, then sighed.  "I'm not saying that I don't have any bumps and bruises, or that I'm not a bit sore, but I wasn't badly hurt.  Mostly I was just worn out from too many hours of work and not enough sleep."

"Good, especially since you slept around the clock, if that means anything to you."

"Well, as far as I'm concerned it means I'm fit to go to work and do something useful," he chuckled.  "Say, before I forget, did you get the trunk of the squad car open yet?  There's a pair of pistols, a rifle, a couple of shotguns and about a quarter ton of ammunition in there, and from what Fran and Anna told me, we might need the protection.  Which reminds me, have we really been shifted several thousand years into the past?"

"Well, I didn't open the trunk of the car.  I spent most of yesterday with others, because the folks in our original group aren't the only people who came along.  So far we've found five more people, well six, if you count a newborn baby.  Anyway, when I got back here yesterday, I was wasted and planned to have an hour's rest, but the gals didn't wake me when I asked them to, so I slept for ten or more hours.  When Fran did wake me to take my turn on guard duty, everyone else was asleep, so I didn't want to make a bunch of noise trying to open the trunk of your car."

"Ah, well, I think the perp we caught was planning to have a war and his paranoia may be to our advantage."

" I suppose it's nice to have guns, but right now I'd trade them for the same weight of coffee beans," I grinned at him.

"Well, Labrador Tea grows naturally in many parts of the Cypress Hills.  We'll just have to find a few patches and transplant them to similar areas in the valley, anywhere near water-willow bushes should do.  I know it can be done, because my mother transplanted some near our house when we lived on the reserve."

"Yeah, but Labrador Tea isn't coffee.  I've prepared it and drunk it too, so I know what it looks like and what it tastes like.  Still, I'll admit it's better than nothing and I've seen it growing in other parts of the prairies, so I was already looking for it."

"Hmm,  if I remember right, Walt and Emma had a herb garden planted around here somewhere and they might even have some Labrador Tea planted somewhere.  Since Emma spent some time in New Orleans before she met Walt, I'm betting she planted chicory in that herb garden too and it's a tough plant, so it mighta survived.  We'll want to keep an eye out for a plant with blue flowers, flat leaves and a really thick root."

"Yeah, but chicory only looks like coffee when your grind and perk it.  It doesn't taste like coffee, in fact it tastes bitter and it doesn't have any caffeine to give you a wake up kick either."

"That's true, but it is better than nothing," he grinned.  "It's not much better than nothing, but it does fool the eye and that's some consolation.  If we could add some Chicory to the Labrador tea, then find something else that adds a decent flavour to the result, we'll be in great shape."

Just then Bruno decided he should say good morning, but instead of coming to greet me first, he walked up behind Tom and sniffed his bare arm.  Now a cold, wet dog's nose touching your arm when you're not expecting it can be surprising at any time.  In Tom's case though, I don't think he'd ever seen Bruno before and Bruno does resemble an oversized wolf.  Tom let out a loud squawk and leaped away, probably scaring Bruno just as much as Bruno had scared him.  Suddenly I was trying to tell Tom that Bruno wouldn't hurt him, but at the same time I was trying not to laugh at the two of them - let me tell you that wasn't easy.  I was still trying to calm Tom down by telling him the story of how I'd ended up owning Bruno when Anna came back carrying three mugs of coffee.  Of course when Tom told her what happened, she laughed even more than I had, but at least now Tom had a mug of coffee at hand to settle his nerves and ease his embarrassment.

We were discussing ideas of how to make the valley more secure a few minutes later when Ellen and the other two women came wandering out of the big shed, asking who was shouting and what was wrong.  So Tom told them about being introduced to Bruno the hard way and had enough of a sense of the ridiculous to make it sound worse than it really was.

"Some brave cop you are!" Ellen teased, laughing loudly.  "Scared by a helpless little puppy dog."

"Helpless little puppy dog, my foot.  That animal could kill your horse and eat it for breakfast.  Of course when you needed a replacement for the horse afterward, you could just ride the pup."

I think it was about then, as I caught the gist of his sense of humour that I started to like Tom.

"This is the gal you should tell about the herb garden, Tom.  Ellen worked for an organic gardening business which is so big it might as well be called a farm, so I think she'll be involved with planting and harvesting anything we plan to grow."

"Well, there should be a plow and a roto-tiller around and there should be a little tractor hidden away somewhere, unless old Wally moved it away.  Of course after sitting for a few years, the gas in the tank and in the carburetor will be turned to varnish, but we can clean those up.  For now, there's close to a full tank of gas in the squad car, so if we can get the tractor started, we'd have enough gas to cultivate a decent sized field."

"So you're a mechanic?" I asked.

"Sorta, at least I've twisted a few wrenches," he shrugged and grinned.  "I'm not the best mechanic in the world, but I could probably get that wrecked squad car going, only I'd rather use pieces of it to make other things work."

"Good, my job used to be working as a machinist, but during the last few years I mostly ran the shop and only did the toughest or fussiest jobs, the ones that my guys couldn't do.  My dad was a mechanic, so I can do some of that as well, but honestly, I'd rather do other things.  If you wanted to hang a title on me, it would have to be jack-of-all-trades, because I've done a lot of different things in my life."

"And you look like a bloody cowboy," he laughed.

"Oh, I can masquerade as one of those too," I grinned.

"Okay, Joe quit bragging and ask the man what else he knew about the folks that lived here." Anna teased, but the tease had a bite to it.

So for the next while Tom told us about Walt and Emma Sam.  They'd been in their early thirties and Walt had been one of those men who could trade off a ginger-snap cookie and a week later he'd end up having a whole kitchen, including a full pantry.  He had dreamed of living in the valley from the time he was a kid and he'd worked toward that end all of his life.  Tom thought they were within a year of moving to the valley on a permanent basis when they were killed in a train accident.

When he started mentioning the various old machines that Walt and Emma had lying around the yard, most which had been left behind by his uncle and grandfather, I wondered where they could be hidden.

Tom just grinned, "Emma wasn't a farm gal, so she didn't like all those old machines sitting out in the open.  Tom told me that they cleared out about an acre of ground in the middle of a clump of aspen for a place to store them, probably that big clump over there.  They used the poles they cut down to rebuild the fences and corrals for the cattle and horses.  If you wander back in there, I think you'll find machines meant to be pulled by horses, not tractors, but Walt used to brag that he stripped off the tender parts and stored them away in a shed.  I expected to see the inside of that big shed packed full of machinery parts, but all I could see in there was mostly piles of hand tools and building materials."

"Maybe there's another shed in the clearing with all the machines?" Ellen suggested, then she turned to me.  "By the way, Joe, did you write down the time that the sun came up this morning?"

"I sure did," I grinned.  "Anna, where did that list go?"

"It's lying on the table right in front of you.  I slid it under your laptop, so it wouldn't blow away."

"Great, do you suppose I could use that program of yours too?" Ellen asked as she flipped over the cardboard with the list written on it and saw the results.  "Hey, these times are really close to yesterday's results.  That's good, isn't it?"

"Actually, it's great!" I grinned, opening the laptop, then opening the program she wanted.  "All you need to do is try to match up the times as close as possible and that will give you a rough idea of the date or at least something near the time of the year."

"Umm, this program doesn't have 'False Dawn' on it," she complained.

"No, the full name for that is something like 'Mariner's False Dawn' or something like that."

"Would that be 'Nautical Dawn?"

"That'd be it.  That's just a term for the time of day when the sailors could no longer make out the positions of the brightest stars in the sky, which meant they'd lost their celestial navigation points."

"Ah, that makes sense," she nodded enthusiastically and was quickly skimming through dates.  "Darn, the program only goes back five-hundred years."

"Actually if you're not worried about the days of the week, you can use any year, except a leap year, and since we're just looking for a rough guess I'd suggest just using 2003.  For now, all we need to know is what season we have to look forward to, right?"

"Oh, right.  We'd need to use a solstice or an equinox to get the exact date, won't we?"  then she frowned deeply.  "Damn, I can get either two of the four end figures to work out right, but not all four and . . .  Wait a minute, we're in a valley and we've been taking the sunrise and sunset times from when the sun hits the top of a hill, so that could be out a few minutes.  I'd guess that means we landed here on about, uh . . . March 25th?  Darn, that's just two days after the Vernal Equinox."

"Right, and our time is?"

"It's . . . unh, let's see . . . our watches are about fifteen hours and a few minutes out of whack, so . . . it would be a bit after 8:15 A.M., March 26th, 5000+ BC?" she grinned as she adjusted her watch.  "Just wait until I tell Fran!"

"What are you going to tell me?" I heard from right behind me as Fran put her hand on my shoulder to warn me she was there.

"We figured out an approximate date and the time, at least I think we did, didn't we, Joe?"

"I think so," I nodded.  "However, I think we should check that hilltop for a few days and see if the sunrise and sunset times work out and everything else follows along on the same page."

"Yeah, I wish we were coming up on the equinox though, then we could get noon right on the money," Ellen complained.

"Actually, we can work out a relatively accurate time for 12:00 noon on any sunny day, and we can use those measurements to give us the cardinal poles of the compass as well.  We don't need a lot of tools to do it either.  A shovel, a ten or fifteen-foot long pole with one end sharpened to a point, a carpenter's level, a tape measure and a level patch of ground, as well as a couple of dozen small stakes will give us the time at noon.  Add a magnetic compass and we can get the magnetic compass variation for the area at the same time.  Once we have that we can work out the date much closer by taking some stellar observations."

"Explain, closely please?" Ellen smiled.  "You might not be around at noon, so we should know what to do.  Besides, everyone is here now and at some point we may all have to be involved in the job in one way or another."

"The full explanation could take a while, but it's just a bit more detailed than what I told you before," I frowned.

"That's okay, we're all here, we all have a cup of coffee and I think we all need the basics, because as Ellen said, everyone could be involved in this project eventually!" Anna said firmly.

"Well to work out noon quite accurately, we take a long pole with a point on the top end and drop it in a hole, tamping it in firmly so wind and weather don't shift it.  The taller the pole the better actually, because it casts a longer shadow, but at the same time you want it to be tamped into the ground solidly so it doesn't shift, which would screw up your readings.  It would help if it stood true vertical to start with, but a carpenter's level will help you to do that easily enough.  The touchy part is making sure the shadow cast by the tip of the pole falls on level ground, both to the north as well as in an arc to the east and west of that point.  You can use the carpenter's level and a long straight board to measure that and correct any bumps or dips in the ground.

"Now, since we already know roughly when noon falls, we start at what we guess to be ten minutes before noon and we mark where the shadow of the pole's sharp point hits with a small stake.  That first timing stake should be set in the ground quite solidly.  Then every minute that passes after that, we put in another stake to mark the shadow's length.  We'll need to make note of our guesstimate of the time as we place each stake, because once we get close to our estimation of twelve o'clock, say within two minutes, we'll start putting in stakes every thirty seconds.  Or if we want to be even more accurate, we could do it every fifteen seconds.  We reverse that procedure after the shortest shadow has appeared, in other words we make measurements at fifteen second intervals, then thirty seconds and so on.  We carry on staking and noting the time as we drive in the stakes until we have a matching number of stakes on the opposite side of the shortest shadow.  Once all the stakes are in, the measurement starts.

"There'll be an arc of timing stakes and the one which is the shortest distance from the base of our main pole is a relatively accurate measurement for noon.  From what we already know, I'm certain that will be out by no more than a few seconds.  So, using your measurements from yesterday, you can correct the time on your watch in order to take more accurate measurements at roughly the right time of day.

"Now, since that central stake will actually be the shortest distance from the pole that cast the shadow, we can use the first, central and last stakes to give us the cardinal directions of the compass.  A line drawn between the base of our pole and the stake marking the shortest shadow will run north and south.  At the same time, a line drawn to intersect the furthest two stakes we set before and after noon will be running east and west, at least it will if we started and finished at equal times from our central point.  Even if our timing was off and there were an odd number of stakes on either side of the 'noon' mark, we can still find true east and west by using the 3/4/5 rule, and using the north/south line as a baseline. What's that formula called again, the Pythagorus theorem, I think it was called?  Anyway, the 3/4/5 rule works to find ninety degrees from any other line, no matter what measurement system you use."

"I'm not going to remember all that, since I'm not wide awake yet, but it sounded simple enough and I typed out what you said in any case," Ellen nodded at me.  "So are we going to do that today?"

"You can do that if you want, but I'm almost satisfied with what we've learned from the computer program for now, rough estimate or not.  Of course all I was looking for was a rough idea of the time and the approximate season, but you may want to be more accurate.  For instance I made the mistake of telling Anna about precession, which is a method of telling seasonal time over thousands of years, and I think she'd love to work that out too.  Now I think there are a lot of other things that we need right now which are more important than an extremely accurate measurement of the time or even finding a close estimate of the date.  From now on I think we need to run on farmers' time," I paused and grinned, before continuing.  "If you don't know what farmer's time is, that's a day which runs from 'can see' in the morning until 'can't see' at night and is completely dependant on the light of the sun.  Which means that for now, I'm afraid our daily schedules are going to be set by the seasons, not by the clock, and we'll all need to work long hours at this season of the year."

"Well, I'm up and around today, so even though I'll be a bit stiff, I can still work," Tom suggested.  "What jobs do you think are most important?"

"Okay, one job that has to be done is to finish the sorting of supplies and then I think we should get all the vehicles out of the steel shed.  That steel building is our safest storage area right now and we need to use it for that purpose, after all we have two more families moving down here with a lot of stuff to store.  As well as that I want to shift the camper off the truck, because we're going to need the empty truck and my old trailer for hauling supplies and materials that we'll be salvaging and bringing back here."

"Joe, before you take the camper off the pickup, maybe you should empty the waste tank? That way you can dump it some distance from here and the smell won't be so noticeable," Anna mentioned.

"Oh man, I can see how those crappers are going to become a real pain," I frowned.  "Having a flush toilet in each camper and trailer is just going to be another problem and we've already got too many of them, so I . . ."

"Wait a minute!  We can't just dump our effluent on the surface of the ground," Fran interrupted me quite loudly.  "Anytime we take a dump it absolutely has to be buried.  Although we've grown resistant to the pathogens and diseases we carry in our bodies, the native people and the animals here don't have any resistance to those diseases.  To make it worse, we might be in nearly the same condition, because there are lots of diseases which existed at one time or another that we aren't immune to."

"Fran, calm down," Tom reached out and touched her arm.  "Both Joe and I know about that, since we've both gone hunting and the elders in any tribe make sure that every first time hunter is taught to bury his shit.  Mostly that's so the scent won't scare off the game, but it's also so you don't pass on any diseases.  What Joe meant is that we're going to have to dig a hole every time we have to empty that tank and that's a pain in the butt, as well as a waste of time.  There isn't much more that we can do about it though and I'm not sure how much good burying it will do anyway.  The soil here is so sandy that no matter where we bury it, the watery part is going to spread underground and the closest plants will use it as fertilizer. Then I suppose the plant will be contaminated."

"Well what did the people who were living here before do?" Ellen asked.  "Joe was saying they had a trailer around here somewhere and if they had a trailer they must have spent some time here, which means they had to take a dump somewhere.  Did they have an outhouse or did they have something else, like maybe a septic tank?"

"You know, that's a darn good question, and if everyone would slow down and quit interrupting me, I could finish what I started to say," I grinned and winked at her.  "Yesterday we found a large level area over near their old trailer and not far away we found a box dug into the ground that looked like it had pipes for a sewer and water hookup.  You seem to know something about the people who lived here, Tom,  so what do you say?  Do you know anything about their septic system?  For instance, how big was the system and was that hookup that we found for trailers and if so was it for more than one trailer?"

"Actually, yes, I do remember something, now that I think about it.  I recall Emma telling my mom about it, only the main connection to it might not be there, it might be over where Walt and Emma were building their house," Tom laughed.  "Emma said they ran in the underground piping for water and septic before they built the foundations."

"Then shouldn't our first job be looking over that log building?  I haven't even looked at it yet, but it might be an idea if we set up the tent and camper near that building and then used whatever connections are available," Anna asked.

"Well actually, I think they had their trailer hooked up to water and septic as well.  So first of all I think we should have a look over there," Tom frowned.  "I heard their little trailer was pretty well wrecked, but we might be able to use the water and sewer connections to that for the camper.  Not only that, but Walt had some friends who used to bring their trailers here when they came to help out.  I think the idea was to have a private campground or something, so I think they actually ran in some sort of trailer hookups for water and sewer.  That means what you found might have been a hookup.  There should have been more than one though, because they used to have several friends who kept trailers here and I suppose that means the drainage field would have been quite large."

"That's the first positive thing I've heard on the subject, because that might mean we won't have to shift trailers around every time we want to empty the dump tanks," I grinned.  "We should check that out before we offload that camper."

"Hey, before you two run off to do that, I think we should have some breakfast, but before we make breakfast I think we need to know about that incubator in the shed.  Will it work on diesel fuel or not and if it will work, should we try hatching the eggs we have, or should we eat them?" Ellen asked.  "I know Mimi said that Matty has chickens, but I imagine the eggs we have are unrelated to her hens, and I'd like to see a broader genetic base if possible."

"Well, I think it would be worth the effort to try to hatch the eggs and Mimi said she helped her granny hatch eggs in an incubator like the one we have.  Besides, there are instructions right on the side of the incubator about using it," Anna said flatly.  "The only thing I want to know is, can we use diesel fuel instead of coal oil?  What do you think, Joe?"

"I'm not sure if it will work or not, but I think we could give it a try.  The only thing is it's kinda dangerous since you'll be burning it as an open flame while inside a building, so you have to be careful.  I really don't know much about the difference between diesel fuel and coal oil other than the fact that diesel stinks a lot more, so I suppose it burns slightly hotter.  Tom, what do you think about the idea?"

"Oh, you can burn diesel in something like that," he shrugged.  "Coal oil is usually called kerosine and it's quite close to diesel, but you're wrong about the heat, Joe, kerosene burns slightly hotter than diesel fuel.  All that means is you might need a bit more flame to get the same heat out of an old style pot or wick burner, which is what an old-fashioned incubator would use.  I think it would work fine, but since that incubator must be darn old, you might want to check it over carefully to be sure there are no leaks in the piping and that the control valves still work."

"Well, it looks like you just got your first mechanical job, Tom," I grinned at him.  "First off you can show me around the log house and the area around that old trailer though, then you can check out the incubator for Ellen.  If you can fix it for her, then she and Mimi can try to hatch some chick.  If you plan to fire it up inside the steel shed though, you might want to have a fire extinguisher handy.  Oh, and you had better roll those fuel and oil barrels out of the shed before you light the fire in your burner."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about those," Ellen's eyes opened wide.  "It would be a disaster if those caught on fire, but where should we put them?"

"I think we should just move the drums outside and into the shade for now.  Then once we've got the camper off of the big pickup, it might be a good idea to store them down in one of the old sheds.  We don't want to leave them sitting in the hot sun for long," I spoke firmly, thinking as I talked.  "I'd say we need to take stock and do essential work today.  In the first place we need to know is where we stand for supplies and essential materials, but don't forget we've got all the stuff from our neighbours to move down here too.  The Jeep and my trailer are full of what we salvaged from the Lawson place now, and there's going to be a lot more where that came from.  Then there's going to be stuff coming from Wally and Matty's place, because they were saying they wanted to move down here where it might be safer.  I think we're going to need that whole steel building and perhaps some of the other buildings, just for storage.

"Then there's all the animals from Wally's place and I think there might be a few animals running around up at the Lawson's place, but I'm not sure of that.  We're going to be moving stuff for days.  Besides that we need to consider what jobs are absolutely essential for us to do right away, so we don't go off on a tangent."

"You know my opinion, we need to sort what we have, but while we're at it, we need to set aside as many seeds as we can possibly use to grow as crops," Ellen volunteered.  "I've made a good start on that already, but a lot more needs to be done.  As well as that Fran and I need to look around for both medicinal and food plants that we can transplant into handy beds so we can care for them and have them handy when we need them.  We'll need tools -- hoes and shovels, things like that too and we should start thinking about composting manure and plant materials so we have some form of fertilizer for anything we grow."

"If we're going to grow any crops we need to have machines to plow and till the soil," Tom added.  "As well as that we need to have a decent place to live.  The steel building is a great shelter for now, but it will be colder than the hubs of Hades in there come winter.  We'll have to start finishing that log house fairly soon if we want it weather proof and comfortable by the winter."

"We need to think about food too, because we want to stretch what supplies we have as much as we can.  At the same time we need to maintain a balanced diet so we remain healthy and I need to stock and preserve some of the natural medicinal plants during the right seasons," Fran suggested.

"Yeah, each of us needs to make a list of items that we feel are absolutely essential needs, but don't forget that there are just as many more people up the hill as are there are here, Fran.  One of the things you need to consider is that Mark and Louise Lowden have a large store of dried and preserved foods, so you'll want to talk to them about that," I smiled.  "Anna, how would you like to be the person in charge of making up lists of essential tasks and jobs that we each need to do?  You can talk to everyone and once we have a list of essentials we can go over the list as a group to set priorities.  Now let's not load the list down with individual wants.  I'm talking about taking care of essential items first.  To me that means food, shelter and protection, anything else is possible, but we don't want to waste time on nonessential items before the essentials are taken care of.  However if we can easily provide a perk while taking care of one or more essentials, without investing a lot of time or material I can't see why we shouldn't do that though, okay?"

"I can get a good start on that list right away," Anna agreed.

I glanced around the others and saw a series of nods and smiles, so I turned to Tom.  "Tom, I think the first thing we need to do is find those septic tank connections and shift the camper and the new trailer over there, because we need the trucks for several of the other jobs we have to do.  Once we know where to set it, Anna and I can offload the camper while you help Ellen to check out that incubator.  Fran, perhaps we can talk you and Anna into starting breakfast while Tom and I go for a short walk to find where we're going to set up the camper and Lawson's trailer."

"Well, Walt and Emma's old trailer is over there in those poplar trees," he gestured to some trees on the far side of a small knoll.  "If you look close, you can just make out the shape of the trailer through the bush, and I don't see an outhouse, so I'm sure the sewer connections were finished."

"Okay, checking the trailer and that area is the first job on our list of things we'll do today.  Say, while we're talking about housing space, just how big is that log house they were building?  It looks bloody huge from here."

"Well, we can have a look at it on the way over to the old trailer," Tom gestured in the same direction as before.  "While we're talking about jobs though, what sort of tasks should go on that list of jobs you mentioned."

So, realizing that he'd been sleeping - or at least resting and recuperating, when I'd originally spoken to the others about the jobs I felt were essential - I explained what I felt we needed to do.  I even took the time to explain why I felt some jobs should be tackled earlier than others, but he frowned once in a while as I talked, still he waited until I was done before he commented.

"I notice you seem to be placing a lot of emphasis on protecting the horses.  Is there a reason for that?" he asked when I was done explaining.

"Yeah, there is," Anna spoke up even before I could.  "If I have the time-line right for our arrival here, those few horses are the only ones on this continent.  In our time, it was common knowledge that the Spanish were the first to bring horses and donkeys to use in their explorations of the territory they eventually conquered."

"But there were wild horses running around in the mountains, weren't there?" he protested.  "I remember hearing about herds of them in the foothills of Alberta when I was a kid."

"Yes there were, but in the last few years the DNA of several of those horses was tested and each one they tested could be traced back to those original Spanish horses," Anna answered him.  "Either the history we've been taught is wrong, or the few horses we have here are the only ones in North America and they could be our most valuable asset."

"Actually I hope to beat heck that the history is wrong," I sighed.  "You see genetically, we have only one stallion and although he's a great horse, he's bound to be genetically deficient in one way or another.  With seven mares and only one stud, inside of two generations all of our horses are going to be inbred and that isn't good."

"Wait a minute, Joe," Mimi interrupted.  "None of your mares were bred by your stallion and neither were the work team.  Lil Jo was telling me about it and she said I wasn't to tell you about it then, so I kept quiet.  Now though, things have changed and you should know that your stallion broke out of the pen last fall and ran free until just a couple of months ago.  He wasn't even on Chuck's ranch when those mares were bred.  Every one of the mares was bred to a different line, but for some reason Chuck didn't really want to tell you about it until the foal's were born, even though it cost him dearly for the breeding fees."

"Chuck paid to have the mares bred?" I frowned at her.

"Un huh!" she nodded emphatically.  "I guess he was going to explain what happened after you saw the foals, but he was hoping you wouldn't be too angry.  After all if he hadn't bred the mares to other stallions you'd have lost a lot of time in your breeding program.  Lil Jo said he picked the best stallions out of three herds, one of his stallions, two of his dad's and two from his father-in-law's herd.  The Percheron mares weren't bred to your stud either, but like all of the other mares, they're in foal."

"Wow, that's the best news you could have given me."

"You mean you aren't upset about it at all?"

"Well, if we were back home, I might have been, but not now.  That's darn good news for the future of our herd, because it gives us a broader genetic base."

"Oh, it's broad all right," she grinned.  "Two of your mares are bred to Thoroughbreds, two to Appaloosas and one to a Quarter Horse.  Supposedly all of the studs had fancy pedigrees, but although Lil Jo bragged about them, I can't even remember which one was bred to which mare."

"Well, from now on we'll have to do a better job of keeping track of breeding and we'd better hope that at least a couple of the mares have stud colts."

"Okay, but for right now I'd say Tom and Joe need to find a sewer hookup, then we should all have breakfast and get going on a full day's work," Anna broke in.  "You two can talk horses later, preferably when we're taking a break and after we get some of the work done around here."

As I walked toward the old trailer with Tom I was reflecting on the way people were behaving because I found their reactions somewhat unbelievable.  First of all I was surprised that everyone seemed so calm about our situation.  Of course I was expecting someone to lose their cool eventually, since I knew homesickness was inevitable, but I was hoping to postpone that problem by keeping everyone too busy to fall apart.  I mentioned my worries to Tom and he sighed softly.

"I don't know how bad it's going to be?" he said quietly. "I know I'm feeling a bit out of my depth right now, but I have Fran here with me and she's family.  I'll be honest though,  I'm probably going to be leaning on you a bit and both of us are going to be very busy, so I don't think I'll be too homesick.  On top of that, this is a relief for me, because I'm out of that silliness back in town.  I wasn't all that happy about the official stance of protecting the archaeological dig since my personal belief is the bones of our ancestors were being desecrated.  I had to go against my personal beliefs to do my job and that was difficult.  I've always done my best to be a good cop, but it was hard to do my duty at times in the last week or two."

"Yeah, that must have been tough," I agreed.

"It was the shits, but at the same time those young bucks were breaking the law!  If they had limited themselves to protests, I think I'd have had a harder time doing my job, but you know how young bucks are.  They got carried away and started to sneak in and damage things whenever they could get away with it.  Of course there were a lot of outsiders who got involved too, which made my life a lot harder.  You saw part of the problem the other night.  Those three punks that Mimi tangled with at the station were from out of town and not involved with the local reserve in any way.  In fact I think they came from the city.  Then the guy who had the accident during the car chase, the one with all the weapons and drugs in his car, was from Montana, for cripes sake!  I figger he was just out to stir up shit, then flog drugs and weapons with the idea of making money on the squabble.  Actually if it hadn't been for those three old shaman and a few other outsiders I think the whole business would have been a lot easier to handle," he snorted softly then.  "I'm just as glad to be out of the whole damn mess.  I got into the RCMP to help my people, not to hassle them, and it sure didn't feel much like I was helping anyone over the last few days."

"Well, you certainly helped us."

"You helped yourselves more than anything else.  All I really did was follow orders and I don't know if you were aware of it, but we were told you guys were to be protected as much as possible," he chuckled, then grinned at me.  "My name is probably mud back home, since we've all disappeared and you were my responsibility."

"Well, things are sure going to be different here.  I think both of us are going to have to be fairly resilient, but since the others have sort of made me their leader, that makes you my responsibility now."

"That suits me fine, but I hope you're better at making quick decisions than I am.  I'm pretty good at following orders, but I'm not so hot at making decisions in a hurry or giving orders to anyone."

"I suppose I do okay at being a foreman, after all I've had to do it before," I sighed.  "I got an order from Anna yesterday that kinda set me back on my heels though."

"Oh, what was that?"

"I got told quite bluntly that I needed to be prepared to take care of the needs of two of the women who are here in camp.  The implication was that you'd be handling the other two," I sighed.

Tom almost skidded as he stopped walking and turned toward me. "You mean - like polygamy?"

I just nodded and he simply stared at me in astonishment, his eyes and mouth gaping wide open.

"Oh shit!" he whispered after a few seconds.  "That's what Anna and Fran were on about last night when they were talking about the local men being stone age savages and how they would treat women and kids.  They were preparing me for the news, so I would understand why they'd want me to be willing to accept their idea."

"Yep!" I nodded when he fell silent.  "You got it in one."

He just shook his head and sighed heavily.  He fell silent then and I thought he needed time to think, so I didn't say much.  As a result we were both quite quiet as we searched the flat ground near the old trailer, but we found a total of four of those covered 'wells' spaced across the area, each of them capable of hooking up two units.  I was left shaking my head and Tom wasn't much less puzzled.

"They had set this up to connect eight different trailers?"  he frowned as he stared at me.  "That means they must have one humdinger of a septic system, doesn't it?"

"Either that or they didn't expect anyone to use the trailers for extended periods," I snorted.  "I think we'll have to ask old Wally about it.  If the system is big enough that'll be great though, because along with that trailer we brought down here yesterday, the Lawsons have an even bigger camper-RV thing.  Then Wally and Matty have a trailer of some sort and Chuck has another camper-RV, so that's four big units, as well as that small camper of Anna's and the trailer that's already here."

"Are you saying that everyone is planning on moving down here in the valley?"

"Yeah, it sounds like it." I sighed.  "Everyone seems to think this area is easiest to defend if we were to be attacked and to be honest, so do I.  The only easy way into the valley is down the roadway, and we can defend that quite easily."

Then I went on to tell him about what we had seen over at the Lawson place the day before, including a relatively detailed description of the men we had seen on the other side of the barrier.  I was still describing those men and their actions when we were called to breakfast.

                       

(Author's Note; much of the above was transcribed from an audio recording and very little from memory, so conversational details are quite accurate.)

Chapter 13