Detour to Otherwhen ©
by K Pelle
Chapter 13
I haven't really had much chance to add to this journal in the last little while, actually it's been seven days since we were time-shifted from the twenty-first century to the distant past. Everyone who came through the time-shift has moved to the valley now and our numbers have increased, but I'll get to that later. In fact I'll try to set things down on the computer in chronological order if I can, but there are times that will be impossible. With the increased size of our group, there are many times when several actions seem to take place simultaneously or nearly so. At any rate I'll make some attempt at a semblance of order and should at least be able to differentiate between days, so that's how I'll refer to the passage of time in these notes. I may make reference to past events or details as well, but that only be for clarification of one or more details which have changed due to circumstance.
Day Two (continuation):
As I wrote before, Tom and I started our morning by looking for connections to water and sewer for campers and trailers, then closely inspecting the condition of the huge, but unfinished log house. As far as plumbing was concerned, the log house had a large kitchen and three bathrooms, but while all the fixtures were there, nothing had been connected to either water or sewer as yet. What we found in those two places led us to believe that a very large septic system had already been installed on the property. (That was later confirmed by Wally Sam, who even showed us where the septic tank was buried and where the distribution field had been run.)
Outside, in the area near the old trailer there were four separate hookup areas, each of which was meant to be able to service either one or two camper or trailer units. In other words it was set up like a campground. I had a hard time believing that anyone would go to that much trouble in such an out of the way area, but Wally straightened me out on that score as well. It seemed that his son and his wife had been part of a country/western band and close friends with all the members of the group. The whole group had pitched in with both time and money, trying to build up a place where they could be comfortable yet isolated. The band had been popular so there were often times they wanted to hide away from both the press and over-enthusiastic fans. The whole venture had come to a sudden halt when Walt and his wife were killed, but what was already here certainly suited our present situation to a 'T' since it would allow us to set up temporary housing for everyone.
By the time Tom and I had completed our survey of the sewer and water situation and had rejoined the women for breakfast, I had modified my ideas about living arrangements. I knew we had at least four full-sized units and two small units we could use if we could hook them up to water and sewer, so six of the eight hookups were claimed. First there was the small, hail-damaged trailer that had originally been on the property, which was already connected to water and sewer. Second, there was the goose-neck trailer that Chuck and I had dragged down the hill, which Anna, Fran and I had slept in the night before. Third was Wally and Mattie's trailer and the fourth was the huge camper-RV belonging to the Lowdens. On top of that there was Anna's camper on the pickup, as well as Chuck and Maybelle's camper-RV.
Our group talked it over during breakfast and we agreed that we should park all of the trailers and campers near each other to utilize the existing connections. However since the grass around that area was more than a foot high and would be a pain in the butt to walk through, we felt it should be mowed. We knew there was a large garden tractor parked in the back of the quonset hut, but the gals had moved other items around it while they'd been sorting and shifting things. So we had to dig the darn thing out of the pile before Tom and I were able to see if we could get it running. Luckily whoever had last used the tractor had been smart and had drained the gas tank, then run the engine until it emptied the carburetor. In only moments we'd siphoned enough fuel out of the wrecked cop car to fill the gas tank and we'd connected the mower deck that had been stored near the tractor. After shoving the machine outside so I could boost the battery of the tractor from my Jeep, we soon had it running. As soon as Tom had tuned up the carburetor, I set off to mow the grass where the trailers would sit, while Anna and Fran grabbed rakes, clippers and an old fork to come help me clear the debris.
Meanwhile Tom went to work on Mimi and Ellen's pet project, checking out and repairing the old egg brooder so they could try hatching the eggs Anna had bought at the farmer's market. I didn't have much hope that the idea would work, but thought the gamble was worth a try.
I'd hardly made any progress at mowing that long grass when Ann shouted at me and pointed so I'd look to see what was coming down the road. Chuck was driving a tractor with a cutter-bar style mower mounted on the three-point hitch, the sort of setup meant to cut whole fields of standing hay. I backed off as he pulled in, but he paused long enough to grin at me sitting on the garden tractor, telling me that I was 'trying to do a ten-dollar job with two bit tools.' Then he set out to prove he was right, since he accomplished more in the next few minutes than I'd done in the previous half-hour.
I parked the mini-tractor, grabbed a fork and wheelbarrow out of the tool pile in the big shed and began to shift the cut grass down to the corral to feed it to the horses. I had just given the horses the second load of freshly cut grass and was heading back for a third one when Bruno barked loudly. He was looking up the road and when I turned to see what had drawn his attention, I saw a kid on a horse come riding toward us. I'd never seen the kid or the horse before, but he was dressed in the same sort of clothing as we were, so I knew he was another refuge from our time. The kid looked slightly leery of everyone until Tom came out of the quonset hut, then the kid seemed to calm down. I assumed it was because they knew each other, or at least the kid must have recognised Tom.
To make a long story short, the Jensen family lived a few miles to the west and south of us. They had been caught in the same time-shift mess as we had and had gone through many of the same sensations we'd seen and felt. Unlike us, they hadn't realized they were walled in by a strange barrier until shortly after awakening yesterday and had spent most of the day tracing their way along its edge. Unfortunately, they lived in a cove in the hills on near side of the river, so they were blocked in by steep terrain behind them, but the time-shift cut through the land on the other side of the river where their road ran. As a result it had cut off their access road as well as their electrical and phone lines. This morning his father had sent Roy and his brother, Alan out to see if they could find the farthest limits of the barrier, but after noticing activity in the valley as they rode along the top of the cliff, Roy had come down to see who we were. Meanwhile, Alan had ridden back to tell his father what they'd seen and warn him that there were strangers in the valley where Walt and Emma Sam used to live.
I explained to Roy what we had found the day before, mentioning the Sams, the Lawsons, and even the 'old time' natives I had talked to and what had happened when we'd met.
He nodded at that, "We saw some of them too, but they ran off shouting to each other in a strange language as soon as they seen us."
"When was that?" Anna asked instantly.
"Oh, it was when we were headed home yesterday, 'cause it was almost dark."
"That would be after you talked to them then, Joe. I'll bet they were calling out to warn each other about finding more shaman," she smiled.
Then she went on to explain to Roy that she was an anthropologist and archaeologist, but she also claimed that I was a linguist and that I could 'talk' to the local natives. I think our stock with the kid climbed a tremendous amount right then, but I'm not sure if it was from Anna's comments or from the fact that Ellen came outside to ask Tom a question about the incubator.
I noticed that Tom made a big deal out of introducing Ellen to Roy before going inside to check out the incubator. I couldn't help winking at Anna as Roy's gaze followed the pair as they walked away. Tom wasn't inside for long, and when he came back outside he headed straight for us, grinning and shaking his head as if he was amused, but slightly bewildered.
"The thermometer on the incubator reads in degrees Fahrenheit, but the gals are both accustomed to Celsius, so they thought they were cooking the eggs, not hatching them," he chuckled. "I had to explain the difference in the two temperature scales, but that's all straightened out for now. So, what can we do for you, Roy?"
"Well, Dad figures we're going to have to move again, but we don't even have a road to drive on any more. You know how our new place is set up in a dip in the edge of the hills?" Roy asked and Tom nodded. "Well, whatever happened yesterday morning chopped off the road a short distance beyond the bridge over the little river that runs past our place. Only now there's a forty or fifty-foot high cliff there instead of all our farm land. Right now the water is running past our place, then pouring down into some sort of gap in the ground and flashing into steam, but Dad says that gap is getting smaller all the time. When it closes up completely there's gonna be at least fifteen or twenty feet of water standing where our new trailers are now," the kid rattled off rapidly. "Dad used his surveying stuff and he says the gap is closing up very slowly, but inside of two or three weeks he figures our little cove in the hills is going to be at the bottom of a small lake."
"He was able to measure that gap?" I asked.
"Unh huh. Dad's been running an excavating outfit lately, but he worked as a surveyor for years before that and he kept all his surveying stuff. He set up two register points, one on our driveway and another just beyond the bridge over the river, then he triangulated those against a strange little mark on the hill. He says the cliff is rising up slowly and getting closer to us, so the gap has to be closing."
"Has your dad got any of his earth moving equipment at home?" Tom asked.
"Yeah, the little track-hoe and a small dozer, why?"
"Because we need to figure out how to salvage everything we can from your place and the more we salvage, the better off we're all going to be. We aren't going to be able to stop the water and from what Joe was saying we can't get over to the other side of that gap to cut a drainage channel. The only other option is moving your stuff out of that low spot to higher ground and that means cutting a road up the hill."
"Huh, you'll have to tell that to Dad, not me," Roy snapped. "Those hills are sandstone and grading a road up there will be murder. Besides, we just got everything moved onto the new place and set up handy last fall. Dad hated to have to do that much work just to move to where we were gonna build, so he'll have a fit over having to move again."
Chuck must have just finished his mowing, because he came driving up then and had to be introduced to young Roy, then he turned to me. "I'll get you to give me a ride over to Wally's, I guess. Then we'll start movin' trailers over here, now that we can see where to set 'em up."
"Let's hold off on that for now, since we seem to have another problem that just cropped up," I frowned. "Could you stay here for a while? I think Tom and I need to go talk to Roy's father and from the sounds of it we'll need to go on horseback."
"I'll run Chuck over to Wally's place, Joe. It's not as if there's any danger coming right at the moment, so the girls will be perfectly safe and don't need to have a man here to protect them, especially if you leave Bruno here with them," Anna frowned at me. "I think we need to get those trailers over here as soon as we can, then we can all get to work on the other things we need to do."
I thought about it for a second, but decided they should ask the others if they agreed with that idea, especially considering the fact that we'd have to move even more stuff in a hurry now. So on that note, we split up to go off our different ways. Tom and I caught a pair of horses and rode off with Roy to see what we could do to help the Jensen family. At the same time Chuck and Anna headed over to Wally's place to start moving things down to the lower ranch.
The ride over to the Jensen's farm took about an hour, but then we'd wasted some time looking for a decent route to haul things since there were no roads running in that direction. Actually Roy was sure his dad could bulldoze a trail across the upper plateau quite easily, except for one or two erosion gullies. It did take us a little time, but we even found and marked places on those gullies that could easily be graded into temporary crossings.
Unfortunately there was one other problem between the two places, the little river that ran through our valley followed a huge horseshoe bend after leaving the valley. It turned north, but eventually headed south again, so although the Jensens lived on east side of the river, it was actually on the other side of the river from the road down to the valley. Thankfully both banks of the river in that section sloped gradually and the river inself was running slowly across a solid, rocky bottom that could be forded. To my untrained eye it seemed that a day or two of work with a bulldozer could create a temporary road there as well. Roy was slightly more pessimistic than I was and thought it might take three or four days, but at least we both agreed it could be done. Unfortunately he didn't feel as optomistic about making a useable road out of the area where they lived because he said their present home was blocked in by steep, rocky grades on all sides.
As soon as we crested the hill above the Jensen property I was able to see what Roy had meant about being blocked in by steep grades on the nearer sides. It was obvious that they had recently moved to an oxbow cut in the hills that had been eroded back into the plateau, and yet they were quite close to the small river that flowed down from the valley where we were living now. Roy said they had faced an open area across the river before, but unfortunately when we'd gone through the time-shift, the ground levels hadn't matched up well. Now their home faced a sheer cliff on the far side of the river, a cliff that was about forty or fifty feet high, completely vertical and so smooth it looked as if it had been cut by a knife. That cliff extended as far as I could see in either direction but ran in a gentle curve that swung around a few farm buildings on the other side of the river. Of course the fact that I couldn't see the ends of the cliff didn't mean a lot since we were already riding down a steep grade and our line of sight was limited by the hills on our side of the river. Off to my left I noticed a large cloud of steam rising upward, quite obviously the result of the river water pouring into that strange gap between the time-shifted land we were on and the ancient land surrounding us. I stared at that cloud in fascination for a moment or two, then looked back at the Jensen's property and found myself frowning.
Their home was surrounded on 'our' side of the river by even higher cliffs, but the grade of the cliffs on the upstream end of their small cove in the hillside had been eroded into a steep slope. Since the rock on that slope was sloping far more than the other areas, I thought it might be 'rotten' sandstone and not the hard sort. If it was the softer kind it might be possible to cut a road along that grade, then we could easily move their trailers and small buildings to higher ground. There was definitely no way we could move anything up the slope we were on right then. Even the horses were having a relatively difficult time maintaining their footing, so we had to follow a zigzag path down the hill. The one advantage to following that twisting game trail was that I was able to look over the structures laid out below us, as well as those just across the river. Not only that, but I had time to ask Roy a few more questions about his family's situation.
They'd had a rough time of it since June of last year, when the heavy construction company Roy's dad worked for had folded. In lieu of wages still owed to him by the company, Andy Jensen had taken three pieces of construction related equipment, a small bulldozer, a small track-hoe and a goose-neck, low-bed tractor-trailer unit that was used to transport the other machines. Andy and his brother Alf had plans to start an excavation company with those machines, but planned to farm as well. It seemed they had owned the two sections of land adjacent to their present home, but most of the land was across the river from where their trailers were now.
Then shortly after Andy had lost his job, the century-old, wooden house their family had lived in near Medicine Hat had been struck by lightning. Luckily no one had been home at the time, so no one had been injured when the old house had burned to the ground. The property which the old house had sat on was extremely valuable though, so it made more sense for them to sell the land and rebuild on the present site. Unfortunately they needed a place to live while they were building new houses for their extended family. Andy and his wife had three children, while Roy's Uncle Alf and his wife had two children, but all of them had lived in the same old house, so housing was a major problem. Andy and Alf had approached 'Atco Industries' in Calgary to lease two of their bunkhouse trailers and a cookhouse/office trailer for two years. They had moved those to this site in late August of last year, then during the fall and winter they had built a machine shed. They'd also begun to amass most of the materials needed to build two houses, one for each brother's family. They had just excavated the first of the basements for one of their houses when we had all been time-shifted, unfortunately, that effort would be wasted now, because they were going to have to move once more.
Eventually we reached the lower area and I was introduced to the whole family. At the time I only paid much attention to Andy, Alf and Roy, since they were the only three who spoke to us or asked any questions. Tom and I tried our best to explain what had happened to us, but as far as the members of the Jensen family were concerned, the whole thing was a huge mystery. They had gone to sleep in one reality and had awoken to another. Overnight, the major part of their farm across the river had been replaced by a cliff. Now they had no phone, no electricity and no road, so they had no obvious route to use to salvage their possesions and property from the inevitable flood that they were certain was coming.
When we brought up the idea of them joining us in what they referred to as Walt and Emma's Valley, the simply stared at us in surprise. First off, they were astonished that Wally Sam had agreed to let us move to that valley, then they were even more surprised that he was moving down there to be with us. Both Tom and I tried to explain that the local natives were actually quite savage, so we were all moving to the valley for protection, but I don't think we were getting the idea across very well. Even so, the two brothers and their wives readily agreed to move to the valley where we were setting up our new ranch. I think it was Andy who came up with the idea that a 'new farming village' would be a better description of the place, since several families were going to be living there.
I'm not sure if the Jensens would have believed what we said about the natives at all, except that Roy noticed someone dressed in furs, surreptitiously watching us from the top of the cliff across the river. I'm sure he was a scout sent to check out the area, because he didn't want to be seen and was trying to hide behind bushes and trees, but wasn't doing a great job of it. He must have felt relatively safe at that distance though, but he was close enough that he could be seen quite clearly through a pair of binoculars. Still, he seemed to be astonished at what he saw. That was quite evident as he shifted from place to place, trying to get different views of the Jensen place. Nevertheless, I think after seeing him the two older Jensens began to believe there might be some truth in my depictions and descriptions of the natives I'd seen.
Personally I was somewhat puzzled by the man's appearance. From the gear he carried and the clothing he wore, I was relatively certain that he wasn't a member of the same group I'd seen at the Lawson farm. Both the clothing and weapons seemed to be 'sloppier' and less refined, but I couldn't be positive. Of course the two sightings were miles apart and I knew that many different tribes had used this area as a wintering ground, so it was possible that this man was part of a different tribe. If he was part of a different tribe that meant tribal groups must be either darn small, or else we just happened to land somewhere between two tribal hunting areas. I was going to have to talk to Anna about that, because if the tribes of this time were little more than family groups, it would bode well for our survival. However, if we lived on an area which was under contention by two large tribes, we could be in for major problems. I didn't think it would be wise to bring that up right then though. The Jensens had enough problems on their minds.
"That fellow could be an actor wearing a costume for all we know," Alf Jensen said quietly, almost as if he wanted to believe we were pulling his leg.
"Do you folks want proof that we've been shifted a long way into the past?" Tom grinned and winked at me, then motioned his head toward the track-hoe. "We're going to have to move you out of here anyway, so we need a road to haul your stuff up the hill. You've got the equipment to do the job right over there. Now, if that guy up on that ridge is an actor, he'll just shrug off the sight of those machines working, but if he's an old time savage, he'll be terrified to see one of your machines moving around."
"Well, I'm not too good at running the track-hoe, but I can a sure make it move, then we can see if he runs off or not," Andy growled, then strode off.
In moments we could hear the track-hoe's engine start, then see it moving in our direction, but for some reason it wasn't moving smoothly.
"Your dad looks like he's having trouble with that machine, Roy. Is there something wrong with the controls?" Tom asked.
"Nope, but Dad's more familiar with the dozer. We just took delivery of the track-hoe about two weeks ago and none of us are comfortable with running it yet. It's pretty darn touchy."
"I've had a couple of hundred hours operating a machine that was a bit bigger than that one, so I know the handling is touchier than a dozer and that there are a few tricks to it. Do you think your dad would be offended if I offered to teach him how to run it?" Tom asked Roy.
"Hell, no! Come on, Dad will think you were sent by the gods," Roy grinned at him as he and Tom headed off to intercept Andy.
Meanwhile, I had been watching the hill and had seen the native tearing off through the bush as if he was being chased by demons.
"Looks like I owe you an apology," Alf said quietly. "That guy looked like he'd just seen the devil."
"Aach, you don't owe me any apology at all. Hell, I'm having a hard time believing this crap and I was awake through the whole damn thing, so I can't blame you for wanting proof," I glanced around to check that neither of the women and none of the kids were close enough to hear me. "In all honesty I'm really worried that we might have a hard time protecting everyone. That's why I'd like everyone to be in an area we can protect from attack, at least to some extent."
"Well, I think we should all work together and protect each other then, because I sure as hell don't understand this business at all," Alf waved his hand in the direction of the river and the cliffs. "I simply can't come to grips with seeing cliffs over there where all our fields should be. All we have left of the farm on that side of the river is the barn, a few sheds and the barnyard, even the pasture land is gone. Then you can walk downstream half a mile and all the water from the river is just boiling away when it hits that slit in the ground. None of this stuff makes any sense at all."
All I could do was nod my head, because I couldn't explain what had happened or what was still happening either. After all Andy had said the cliff was either lifting or we were settling and that meant things were still changing. I did tell him that we'd help them to move and mentioned that I had a lot of work to do back at the valley, but I thought Tom should probably stay with them for the day, just to help run the equipment.
We talked for a moment or two longer, then Alf decided he'd better get the bulldozer started and join his brother, that way they could both work on the new road up the hill. Meanwhile, I got on my horse and headed back to the valley to help move trailers or anything else that needed to be done. Actually, I led my horse up the grade and didn't get into the saddle until we'd reached relatively level ground. Tom and I had been away from the valley for about three hours by then and I was about half way back when Chuck came riding up to meet me.
"What's up? Is something wrong?" I asked as soon as he came close.
"Doc Lowden is bein' a pain in the ass and tryin' to boss everybody around. He wants to build a damn surgery in that new log cabin and he wants to order everybody around like we was second class citizens or somethin' 'o the sort. Anna's threatenin' to shoot the stubborn son of a gun since he won't cooperate with nobody, no how. She sent me to get you, 'cause he's interferin' with everythin' and everyone, so she's hopin' you can talk some sense inta the dumb old quack."
We had a talk about the situation as we rode back to the valley, but Chuck simply didn't understand what motivated Doc Lowden's actions. When we did get back, I found myself in the midst of a group of very unhappy people who were milling around and not getting much done. Mark Lowden was sitting at a table and barking idiotic orders about building hospitals and clinics while annoying everyone, but no one wanted to do what he insisted they had to do. However, they weren't doing much of anything else either, in fact most of them were just standing there and arguing with him.
I walked up to him, leaned over until my face was inches from his and barked, "I've listened to your ideas for only a few minutes and I can tell you that they simply can't be done, because we don't have the supplies to do them. Besides, there's no need for a surgery here. If we waste our time trying to build a hospital like you want us to do, we won't have time to do anything else. If we spend all our time building a damn clinic, we won't have time to plant fields and grow drops, so we'll all starve to death this winter. Do you want to die and have everyone else die with you?"
"Of course I don't want anyone to die, you stupid dolt!" he screamed as he leaped to his feet. "But, everyone is doing everything wrong. We can't possibly live the way you plan. We aren't farmers and gardeners. We're civilized people. We need to build hospitals and clinics for the people in the neighbouring communities. We need to reestablish some form of civilization and elect a proper government. We need to build schools and universities to educate the natives and turn them into tax paying citizens. Besides, since I'm the most highly educated person here, I should be the leader of the group, not some trumped up, half breed, grease monkey like you."
"Okay, have it your way." I shrugged. "I notice your trailer hasn't been moved down here yet, so I guess you want to go off on your own and build a surgery back at your house, then you can be the leader of your own group. We'll just drag all your crap back to your place and let you restart your civilization there, but I'll bet the only people who come with you will be your wife, your daughter and your grand-kid. I'm pretty darn sure all the rest of us injuns and half breeds won't be joining you."
"I'm not moving back to live in that house, because it's not safe," Louise Lowden stated sharply. "I'm not letting Meredith and Madeline go back there either, Mark. If you want to be an ass and fight common sense, you're on your own."
"But I'm your only doctor! You need me!" Mark Lowden screamed.
"No, Doc, you're a brain surgeon, the epitome of specialization and although you've had the training to be a doctor, you are no longer familiar with normal medical procedures," I snapped as I turned back to face him. "In other words, you aren't a general practitioner, which is what we really need, but we do have a group here who can nearly make up for the education you've forgotten. Before Meredith went into labour, I heard you admit that you couldn't do the delivery because you weren't familiar with the procedure , but that turned out to be no problem. Matty took over and proved that she's an excellent midwife, which tells me that she knew just what to do. I know you were probably taught how to handle a birth, but that was years ago and you've forgotten. Of course that's no sin or anything, no one's memory is perfect. You just have to brush up on your old skills. However, if I fell off a horse todayd and broke my arm today, I'd ask Fran to help me, because she was trained as an EMT and has probably seen and set more broken bones than you have in the last while. Not only that, but she and Ellen both have training in native medicines, which we have growing around us. For instance, I don't see any Aspirin or Tylenol bottles growing on the willow trees, even though I know that the bark of the willow tree is where salicylates are found in their natural state. However, Fran and Ellen know how to distill salicylates from willow bark, which gives us at least one natural pain reliever to use once our drugstore versions run out. Now I'm not trying to put you down as a surgeon, but I'd trade ten brain surgeons for one GP who had practised in a small town with supply problems, or a practising herbalist who could work with the people we already have here."
"But I have far more education and medical training than anyone else here," he protested.
"Oh, bullshit!" Anna snapped back at him. "You've had years of instruction and study, but probably only a year or two of actual operating time in your whole life and even then none of that time is applicable to our present situation. Lets face it, brain surgery is not something we're going to have a huge need for and even if we did need it, we don't have the facilities or the equipment to handle it. We simply don't have the ability to establish a hygienically clean operating room because we don't have the means to build anything of that sort, or the disinfectants to keep it clean if we did build one. If you were to operate on someone in the present conditions, that person would almost certainly die from infection and we wouldn't be able to do anything to prevent it.
"You're accustomed to going into a surgical theatre and having your every whim or smallest order obeyed instantly, which is not how the normal world works. In the real world there are many people who are best at many different jobs and each of those people knows more about one particular job than anyone else. So in the real world a skilled organizer will consult with each of those specialists and orchestrate their skills in such a way that they compliment each other. That's the sort of person we need in our present situation, not an autocratic dictator who orders everyone to do whatever he designates them to do. Meanwhile, you have been giving us a near-perfect illustration of an autocratic dictator in action.
"In comparison Tom had spent his whole life doing things that are much more useful to us in our present situation, because he understands people and can run a crew efficiently. Not only that, but he's able to communicate in half a dozen languages and he's proven that he can use signs to get his meaning across to the natives of this era. Then too, he's spent years training as a hunter and has wilderness survival down pat, so if worse comes to worst, he can feed us and keep us alive. He can go out into the bush, stalk and kill a deer, butcher it properly, haul it home, preserve it and even cook the damn thing. As well as that he's spent months working on a construction crew, so he understands how a house is built from the ground up. He's also a competent mechanic and a skilled machinist who can tackle any sort of mechanical work, including running darn near any machine around. Overall, his practical knowledge is worth far more to our group's survival than your university education will ever be."
Ann paused then, looking like she wanted to clobber Lowden for being so stubborn, but Fran caught her by the arm and steered her out of the area. I guess that was the cue everyone else needed because they all wandered off as well. I was left to clean up a mess, but both Anna and I had chewed out the guy, so I looked at him closely, saw he was glaring at me and decided I'd let him stew in his frustrations for the time being. I know from experience that there isn't much sense in talking to a guy if he feels hurt and so angry that he's decided he has nothing to lose. So, I walked away before he lost his temper and said something that he wouldn't be willing to withdraw and I wouldn't be able to forget.
Meanwhile, everyone went back to work on the various jobs that they felt needed to be done. Fran and Ellen were devoting their time to sorting and inventory, while Louise was helping them. Anna and Maybelle were cleaning out the old hail-damaged trailer and refurbishing it as much as they could. Mimi was working around the barns and with the horses, while Matty, Meredith and the baby were still up at Wally and Matty's house. That left Wally, Chuck and me to do the heavier work of actually moving things. I took the time to explain the problem that the Jenkins family faced to the other guys, so we decided that moving them and rescuing their property was our most immediate problem. The two camper-RVs and the house trailer that were presently up at Wally's place were safe there for now and could easily be moved later. For the time being the three of us set about emptying Chuck's farrier rig and remove the plywood shack from the bed of his old two-ton truck, that would leave us with a flatbed unit we could use to haul large bulky loads.
In other words, everyone was busy and no one noticed Mark Lowden get into his minivan and quietly drive away. We didn't even miss him, at least not until Anna and Louise called us for lunch just after noon. Even then we weren't too worried, because Louise seemed to shrug off his disappearance as a temper tantrum.
"He's probably gone to see Meredith so he can cry on her shoulder about not getting his way," she shrugged her shoulders. "He's never been able to handle criticism well and in the last few years she's been the only outlet for his frustrations, because I've lost patience with him for bellyaching too often. It seems as if he fully believes nothing is ever his fault any more and he can't accept any form of disagreement without a period of pouting on someone's shoulder. I've simply reached the limit of my patience in the last while though, because it doesn't matter if things go well or if they go poorly, all he seems to do is complain. Last night he even had the nerve to complain that Meredith had a daughter, not a son."
I was going to comment, but thought better of it, and I'm glad I had that much forethought, but my silence didn't change anything. Others were willing to complain about various things Mark had said, but I managed to silence that bitch session by telling everyone about the plight the Jensens were in. That managed to divert the conversation for the time being and it also brought to light the fact that we were going to have one more trailer than our hookups were meant to handle. After some discussion we decided we'd have to try to connect both the hail-damaged trailer and Anna's camper to one hookup or perhaps try to use the toilet and sink on only one of the two. The women definitely wanted to be able to use that cookhouse trailer and they certainly had to be able to connect the sinks of that cookhouse trailer to the water and sewage lines.
Of course that brought to mind my thoughts about a grey water system which would handle the water from the various sinks and relieve pressure on the septic system. However I knew we were short the pipe necessary to do anything of that sort, but I still felt it was something that had to be brought up and discussed. I was explaining how a grease trap and simple disposal system would save stress on the septic system when I noticed a deep frown crease Wally's forehead.
"I think there is one of them grease trap things here already," he said quietly when I paused.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yep, I think so. I know the visitin' trailers had to have special drains hooked to their sinks and showers, but they couldn't use them in the freezin' weather. I think that's why Walt kept all those old fire hoses around 'cause I'm sure that's what them musicians used when they was here. I know there's a simple drain system of some kind runnin' out into that patch of alders on the far side of the area where we're gonna park the trailers."
"Why don't we go have a look after coffee?" I asked him. "If there's a way to hook those sink and shower drains up to that, it would relieve my worries about overloading the septic system and it just might save us some very smelly problems in the long run."
"Yeah, but even if we have sewers, we're still going to have to suffer with cold showers aren't we?" Fran asked.
"For now, unless we find some way to heat water in large quantities," I shrugged. "If you can come up with some sort of water heater that burns wood, we might be able to have hot showers. Otherwise I think we're going to have to wait until after we rescue that wind generator over on the Lawson farm."
"Or you could always heat a big pot of water over a wood fire and pour it into a tin tub, then have a bath," Wally grinned. "That's what Walt and Emma always did if they was out of propane."
"Damn!" Ellen sighed. "I hate the fact that we don't have electricity, but I think I miss having a hot shower even more."
"Just one more thing we're going to have to learn to do without," Anna sighed. "Even if we do get that generator working, it will eventually break down, then we'll be without electricity for the rest of our lives. I almost think we'd be better off to just do without electricity right from the get go."
That brought a series of moans, groans and minor complaints from the other women, so I took that as my cue to get to my feet and walk away from the table. Now that I knew there was a grey water system installed near the 'trailer park,' I was intent on finding and utilizing it. Actually once I knew where to look and what to look for, it wasn't all that hard to find. Now all we had to do was figure out a way to hook each trailer to the system, but since Chuck was a much better plumber than I was, I decided I'd pass the buck and let him figure it out.
As I was walking back to join Chuck and Wally at the farrier truck, my gaze wandered over the view around us and once more I wondered about the actual security of the valley. Actually, I'd never had a chance to explore the whole area and I wondered just how hard it would be for someone to climb down from the surrounding cliffs. So when I got back to the farrier truck, I asked Wally about the steepness of the walls and how many erosion gullies might cause us problems.
"You mean fer people climbin' down from up top?" he asked. "To be honest, I ain't never looked at it that way. Walt an' me was more worried 'bout keepin' cows from goin' uphill, not keepin' anybody from comin' down. We only had to fence off the main entrance and one other, the way the old Métis went up inta the hills what I tol' ya about, but we fenced both o' them pretty good. Why don't you take the time to go have a look? We really don't need ya here right now an' that's the sorta thing ya should really look at sinct yer the one that hasta plan fer attackers an' that kinda stuff."
I frowned at that idea, but knew he was probably right. Still, I thought I'd better go talk to Anna about the idea before I saddled a horse and rode out to look over the area.
"Good idea," Anna agreed. "Take someone with you though. Mimi is probably the one we can spare the most since she's working on the dividing fence in the pasture and that's not a real priority job."
Mimi didn't argue at all, in fact she seemed overjoyed to get away from the fencing job for a little while. So we saddled up the two young mares, who hadn't been ridden for days, then tossed a couple of water bottles and a snack into my saddle bags. At the last minute I made the decision to take a rifle along, just in case.
"What's the gun for?" Mimi asked.
"Oh, that's just in case we run into a problem along the way. Remember that mean old bull Wally was talking about?"
"Hmm, I think I'll along take a shotgun then," she frowned, digging through the weapons, then choosing the short pump shotgun and scabbard Fran had brought with her, and asking for permission to use it.
"Go ahead, and since you want to stop something that big, load it with slugs, but just remember that it's a short range weapon," Fran shrugged. "You have shot a twelve-gauge shotgun before, haven't ya?"
"Yeah, I used to go hunting ducks with my step-dad," Mimi grinned. "This thing is a lot easier to swing than the one he let me use though, 'cause it's a lot shorter, but I know that means it isn't accurate at long distance. Joe's got a rifle for that though."
It really didn't take long to mount up and leave the campsite or whatever it was now and we headed off past the trail that ran uphill through the erosion gully, but we didn't pause there. Instead I wanted to know if there was any way to gain easy access at other places further along the valley walls, but I also wanted to check the walls near the places where the stream flowed into and out of the valley.
As we rode along the valley floor, I paid close attention to the rock wall and was quite happy with the configuration we were seeing. The lower section of the cliff was made up of sandstone which varied in thickness from about eighty to a hundred feet. Erosion had cut that back until what was left was a steep slope and then an almost vertical wall, not smooth by any means, but not something that could be used for easy access. Just above the sandstone there was a protective layer of dark rock which looked like either slate or shale. That harder rock was anywhere from twenty to thirty feet thick and often overhung the sandstone by a few feet. Above that barrier there was a steeply sloping section formed by the erosion of the conglomerate which made up the majority of the exposed rock found in the Cypress Hills.
The erosion of the various types of rock had left us with a retreat that seemed as if it would be relatively easy to defend. The water of the former lake had worn away the sandstone, gradually undercutting the slate, but the conglomerate above the slate had decomposed slower than the lower levels of rock. I hoped that the combination of a steep upper slope, then a sheer drop to the valley floor would be an effective barrier to anyone who wasn't overly determined to gain access to the valley. The obvious difficulty of the climb back up would certainly make any chance visitor think twice about climbing down.
Of course the weak point in a barrier of that sort would be any areas which had been eroded by runoff, in other words, the ravines and gullies draining into the valley. Those were the points we looked over most thoroughly, but almost all of those ravines seemed to end in a sheer drop and deep undercut beneath that erosion resistant seam of slate.
Soon we found one erosion gully which reached all the way to the valley floor though and I assumed that it had to be the Métis trail since it had been fenced off to keep out any wandering cattle. It looked similar to the one we used as an access to the valley, but it was even wider and the walls of this one were steeper. Not only that, but there were several areas where the sandstone had been eroded until there were large overhangs of shale above parts of the gully, so it seemed dangerous. Still, Wally had said the gully the Métis had used as a trail was the only other one that reached the valley floor and that it was the only one which had been fully fenced. This gully had a fence and the fence even had a gate built into it, which matched his description, so we had to check it out. Only - there was no indication that this gully had ever been a trail. Initially the grades were gentle so we were able to ride the horses, but before long it became much steeper. Soon the grade was so steep that I doubt if a team of horses could have pulled a wagon or even a Métis cart up the grade. Rather than take a risk of hurting either ourselves or the horses on that slope we stopped and dismounted, tied the horses to some bushes and set off to walk the rest of the way.
It turned out we'd ridden them almost as far as we could go, since it wasn't long before we found there was no way we could either walk or climb all the way to the top of the slope. We had just rounded a corner when we were met by a sheer wall which towered at least forty or fifty feet above our heads. Wally was wrong - there was no way the Métis could have used this gully as a trail. Still, I was relieved, satisfied that the walls of the gully were so steep that only a skilled climber might be able to scale them. I was certain most people couldn't get up or down safely. After a brief rest, we turned back and headed down to the horses, then decided that the trail was too steep to ride safely while going downhill. Instead we led the horses and even walked on the uphill slope of the trail to avoid the danger of being hurt if one of them happened to lose its footing.
When we were back through the fence, and had closed the gate to keep the cattle out of danger, we climbed back into the saddle and continued our ride. All the walls of that part of the valley were similar to what we'd seen before, at least until we came to the area near the stream which ran through the valley. We couldn't ride right up to that though since there were too many birch trees and willow bushes growing near the water, so we hobbled the horses and left them to graze while we approached the sound of falling water on foot.
As we got closer what we saw was more of a small river than a stream and I couldn't help but wonder why it was still running and where all that water was coming from. I had seen the water being flashed into steam on the downstream end of that little river, so why wasn't it flashing into steam when it crossed the time-shift barrier on the upstream end of the river? I had to try to put that question out of my mind for now though, because I knew I didn't have the time needed to search for the answer right then. I had to be satisfied with the knowledge that the water was still flowing, since at the moment I was looking into the security of the valley, not the source of the river.
One glance at the cut where the river flowed into the valley was enough to convince me that no sane person would be swimming down that since it ended in a waterfall. The water poured through a very narrow, steep walled gap before dropping in a sheer fall that was at least fifty feet high. At the base of the falls, the water smashed onto broken stone at the edge of a churning pool. Then it flowed away through more rocks in a series of rivulets and rapids, racing away so violently that the flowing water looked as though it was boiling. Looking upstream, we couldn't see any more waterfalls from where we stood, but we could hear a steady roar coming from somewhere deep in the ravine. Since the rock walls above the stream were very steep and kept wet by the spray thrown up from the falling water, the idea of anyone using that ravine as an access seemed laughable. Anything surviving the roaring water in that narrow ravine would certainly have been smashed to bits on the jagged rocks that littered the base of the falls.
"I don't think anyone is coming into the valley over that," Mimi shouted, in order to be heard over the roar of the falls.
"Yeah, I agree," I nodded. "Now, things are going so well that we've got plenty of time left today, what do you say we check the other side of the valley and the outlet downstream?"
Mimi, just grinned and gave me a thumbs up, then turned to lead the way back to the horses.
I already knew from watching them through binoculars that the cattle in the valley liked to shelter in the trees during the day, then drift out into the open pasture during the evening and at night. Since it was late afternoon, we started seeing odd groups of four or five cattle on the edge of the trees as we rode along near the stream, but it wasn't long before we came close to a larger herd. Unfortunately, there was a huge Hereford bull with massive horns in amongst that larger group and he appeared to take an instant dislike to the fact that we were nearby. Thankfully though, he became distracted by three or four young bulls that were trying to infiltrate his harem of cows, calves and heifers, so we were able to ride past without being challenged.
I was quite happy about that, since I'd never fired a gun from the back of either of the young mares. Even if I had shot from them before, I was a bit leery about trying to shoot anything dangerous while on horseback. I'd done that sort of thing in the past and knew that you needed a steady horse under you to shoot well and right then I didn't have a lot of confidence in my horse. Let's face it, there was another reason for hoping I didn't have to shoot that darn bull right then though - I hadn't sighted in my rifle recently and after all the travelling we'd done I couldn't trust the my sights were accurate. As a result that first shot would have to be a darn good one, because to be certain that I was making a deadly shot I'd be too close to be safe. If that bull had charged just then I probably wouldn't have time to take a second shot. We were still keeping an eye on him as we rode away, but since Mimi still had her shotgun in her hands I mentioned the fact that our horses might be gun shy.
"Well, thanks a bunch for warning me," she snorted and if looks could kill, I'd have been a customer for the mortician.
"Sorry, but I really don't know one way or the other how these horse would react. I bought these two mares sight unseen on Chuck's recommendation and he trained them, not me, so I don't know if they've been trained for hunting from the saddle," I shrugged. "I was planning to remedy that oversight during the time we were on his ranch, but I was so busy that I never got around to it."
I think she forgave me for not warning her before, but she didn't talk much for the next while. I was trying to see through the trees to check for breaks in the canyon wall though, so I wasn't too worried about her silence, then she stood up in her stirrups and pointed ahead.
"Look, there's a ford across the creek. It's marked with poles and rock cairns, so it must have been well used at one time."
Actually, the ford over the stream was a wide stretch of very shallow water with a solid rock bottom. The downstream side of the ford was held back by th sloping shelf of rock, so the whole ford was natural. The roadway that ran down to the ford from each side wasn't natural though, and since it had been heavily used in the past, it piqued my curiosity.
"Why would anyone build a road here?" Mimi asked.
"Because there was a natural ford here, but someone wanted to cross, probably to get the logs to build the log cabin. Wally did say his son was cutting and drying logs for another building and the road leads into that stand of trees, so I suppose that's probably where Walt cut his timber. Other than trees that we could use for logs, I haven't any idea what else might be on that side of the river though," I shrugged. "I think we should cross over and try to get closer to that section of valley wall anyway. Even though I've checked out that cliff with binoculars and know it looks quite solid, a closer look certainly won't hurt. Besides, I'm curious about what Walt might have been doing over there, so let's see what we find."
The road did lead into the trees and after a couple of gradual curves, it opened out into a clearing that was definitely not natural. Still, the trees in the area had been cut years before, since the scrub brush and small trees had started to grow back. There must have been a hundred stumps visible amongst the scrub brush, along with a large stack of cured logs near the road. Then in the middle of the clearing there was a huge pile of dead branches, all too small to be worth cutting for firewood.
"From the looks of it, he was just planning to let the branches and tree tops rot away," Mimi commented.
"I don't think so, or he'd have left them scattered where they fell. I'd say he was waiting for a rainy stretch of weather to burn the pile, that way it wouldn't set fire to rest of his wood lot," I offered with a grin, pointing to several old car tires that had been almost buried by the pile of timber trimmings.
"Men and their damn fires!" she snorted, then pointed to a trail that led off toward the valley wall. "Do you think that might be what we're looking for? That trail should lead us closer to the cliffs."
"Well, since it's the only trail out of here, other than the one we came in on and we already know what's back there so I think we should check out what else we can see," I grinned. Besides, we've already come this far, we might find something interesting up ahead.
So we followed the trail as it cut through the tall pine trees, then broke into another clearing and a second trail. That meant we had a second chance to get even closer to the valley wall, so I turned that direction. After a few twists and turns we were facing the cliff, but we were looking at a surprise as well. There was a layer of shale running through the sandstone about ten feet above the valley floor and underneath that seam of rock I could see a recess with a trail leading right to it. When we checked it out, I saw that someone had found a seam of coal and had even done some mining, but couldn't have removed much more than a load or two. Still, whoever had opened that little coal mine had made it easy for us to be able to mine more.
"Oh yeah, I like the fact that we found this," I grinned as I got off the horse, then tossed a lump of coal to Mimi.
"Is this coal?" she asked.
"Yep, and if we can get that old cookstove in shape, it will make heating the big cabin a lot easier in the winter. Besides that this coal is going to make Chuck happy because he'll have some anthracite for his forge. That means he'll still be able to do some blacksmithing and he can shoe the horses when they need it."
"Neat!" she tossed the lump back at me. "And, it looks as if the cliff on this side of the valley is even steeper than the other one."
"Yeah, but I don't think we want to try to ride near the wall, since we'd have to ride through that heavy crud," I pointed toward the scrub brush that grew almost up to the valley wall.
"I agree, I don't think that would be a good idea at all," she snorted.
So we turned back, but we didn't follow the trail back through the logging operation. Instead we took the other leg of the trail which skirted the tallest pine trees and found that it led out to a second ford across the stream, only that ford had a sandy bottom and was near the head of a small lake. Once we crossed the stream and were riding on the far side of the lake we skirted a sizeable wetland, but still followed an obvious trail. The area was loaded with geese and ducks and of course the dog tried to chase them, but he couldn't even get close. Then after we rode around a swampy section, the trail turned away from the stream, but we tried to ride through a rough area where willows and birch grew. With that sort of growth in the area I assumed that the soil was damp, but not really wet, so I kept my eyes open for various plants that preferred those conditions, especially Labrador Tea plants. Unfortunately since we weren't wearing chaps our legs started to take a beating in that mess of scrub, so we turned back, then followed the trail we'd been on when we crossed the ford. Soon we were back into the area that had been cleared and seeded to grass, but we had to look over our shoulders to make out the roofs of the metal shed, and the old barn. Evidently we'd ridden around the edges of a lopsided oval and were well on our way toward the bottom end of the valley.
"So, should we check out the end of the valley and see what that's like, or are you getting hungry?" I asked Mimi.
"Well, I could eat, but I'm not starved," she answered. "To be honest though, since we've come this far, I'd like an idea of what the lower end of the valley is like. That would more or less complete the job we set out to do and I'd feel a lot better if I knew there wasn't an easy route for anyone to get in here."
"I won't argue with that," I nodded, so we turned the horses downstream again.
As we rode along, we left the wetlands behind, but we could still see glimpses of the lake or the stream through the trees. Eventually though, the alders and pine trees were interspersed with shorter bushes which grew thick enough that we had to hobble the horses and go on foot.
At that point we were working our way through really thick underbrush once more. Even with just a rifle, my belt knife and a hatchet, I felt weighed down and distinctly slow as we worked our way toward the end of the valley. Then suddenly we broke out of the trees and scrub brush. To our left and down a steep grade we could see the stream for a while, but the water disappeared from view because as we climbed the slope, the stream dropped into a deep cut. Eventually the slope grew steeper and not much further along we could see sheer sandstone cliffs. From there I could see that both sides of the ravine that the stream had cut through were extremely steep. The two sections of the slate layer above the sandstone overhung the gap by a wide margin, in fact from our present viewpoint it looked as if the ends almost touched. Not only that, but the nearby edges of that ravine looked unstable and I didn't want to take the chance of slipping down the steep grade and falling into the river. That would have been extremely dangerous since I could hear a resonant roar that I took as an indication that there was another waterfall further downstream. All points considered, I doubted that this was an easy route into the valley so I abandoned our climb.
"I'm almost too tired to continue, Joe, haven't you seen enough?" Mimi frowned at me as I paused.
"Yeah, I've had enough for now, but one day I want to see the other end of this cut. Only I think I might want to approach it from the other end, or else from above."
"Great, let's head back to camp. I'm definitely hungry and tired now."
I just grinned and nodded, then turned around. It seemed to take longer to go downhill than it had to clamber up the grade. First we had to be careful while working our way down that unstable slope, then forcing our way through that scrub brush was extremely tiring. I was certainly happy to get back in the saddle when we did reach the horses, but still had the strength to chuckle at the sound of Mimi's deep sigh as she relaxed on the back of the other mare.
Then as Mimi and I rode back out of the willows scrub that grew near the bottom end of the valley, we almost rode into the midst of a small herd of a dozen or more cattle. Most of the little herd were black and white cattle, except for one lone bull who looked to be a Hereford, at least he had a red hide and a white face. Right about the time we saw the cattle, the bull was acting very interested in a Holstein cow, sniffing her butt, so I imagine she was coming into season.
"Oh shit! We aren't really ready for these guys yet," I complained softly.
"What are you talking about? And why are most of these cows a different colour than all the other ones we saw?"
"Well, the three cattle with the black and white patches are Holstein milk cows. The black ones with white faces are all offspring of those three Holsteins, because they've been breeding with Hereford bulls, like that reddish-brown one with the white face. He's a beef animal, not a dairy animal."
"Well, what were you swearing about? Why did you say we aren't ready for them?"
"Well, we need milk cows, so we can use their milk for drinking and cooking in order to provide the calcium we need in our diets, especially you women. On top of that, if any of you happen to get pregnant, your kids are going to need calcium to develop strong bones and teeth. The reason I said we aren't ready yet, is that we haven't finished checking out the fence around the pasture or built pens and fixed up any stalls in the barn. We're going to need that pasture for both the milk cows and the horses, and we're going to have to rig up the barn to keep both kinds of animals in during bad weather. It would also be better to have a place to tie them up when we milk the dairy cows and I was hoping to have something ready for them before we added caring for cattle to our daily chores."
"Hey wait a minute! If we have milk cows, we could have butter and cheese, couldn't we?"
"Yeah, but it'd be a lot of work, of course it'll be just one more job amongst the many we're going to have to manage to do. Remember, we don't have any stores where we can buy supplies, so we'll have to grow all our own food, hunt our own meat, and provide our own shelter and clothing. None of it is going to be easy."
"Well, I know how to milk cows and I can churn butter and make cheese. All you have to do is show us how to build those pens and stalls in the barn, so let's catch some of these cows."
"You know how to milk cows?"
"Sure, my uncle had some dairy cows and I used to spend my summers there when I was about ten or twelve. My uncle's cows were smaller though, and they looked different. I think he called them Jerseys. Anyway, I helped with everything Aunt Marie and Uncle Gaston did, and I'll bet it's like riding a bicycle, you never forget."
"Humph, you just bought yourself a job, you know. You can be our dairymaid and be in charge of our dairy farm, how's that?"
"Okay, then let's see if we can herd my new dairy cattle up to the pasture. We've even got Bruno here to help us."
"We'd be a lot better off to ride back to the others so we can get some more help and better horses. If we were on Cayuse and Star, with Brindle along for a cattle dog, we'd probably have no trouble at all, but I don't know if these horses are trained for herding and Bruno isn't trained to herd cattle."
"A lot you know! Little Jo and I herded cattle with these two horses several times at Chuck's place. Bruno was along a couple of times, so was Curly. Both of the dogs were darn helpful."
"Well, we can try to herd them back, but we still don't know if the fence is solid or not."
"Well, the fence up near the corrals is in good shape, because I've already looked it over and only had to repair a couple of weak spots. I even know where the gate is, and I know it was left open because Chuck had us hobble all the horse we put out i the pasture. All we have to do is work the cattle up near the fence and then keep crowding them along right beside it. When they get to the gate, they'll all go in, because they'll think they're getting away from us."
"Okay. Let's give it a try then, but let's take it slow. If we get them running, we'll have problems."
The cattle were skittish and didn't like being herded, but Mimi was right. We soon had a dozen animals in the pasture and we managed it without very much trouble. Not only that, but although we kept our eyes open for breaks in the fence, we hadn't seen any. I did point out one bull calf, probably a yearling, that had a really bad limp. It looked to me as if he'd had a broken leg at one time and it had healed badly.
"We've got too many bull calves anyhow, so that one is veal on the hoof," I shrugged.
"Can you butcher a carcass?" she asked and when I nodded, she gave me a thumbs up sign. "Okay! We'll save the hide and tan it for buckskin, or maybe leave that hair on it, then make vests out of it. That black hair would be real showy for someone like you to wear."
"Why me, why not you?"
"Because that's my dairy herd now," she grinned. "If you can provide with me a herd of cattle, I can make you a vest in return, can't I? Besides, I think a black vest would look better on a guy than a woman."
"Maybe you should make that vest for Tom?" I teased.
"Oh, I think there's enough hide on that little bull to make two vests if I have to, besides, it looks like Ellen has some ideas along that line too," she laughed, but her laughter had a bit of an edge to it. "We have a distinct shortage of elligible guys around here, you know."
"Yes, that's been called to mind," I commented, just as we stopped by the corral gate and got off the horses.
"Anna said something to you, did she?"
"She didn't need to, but she did anyway. Of course I already knew that she had some strange ideas on that subject, as well as on many other subjects," I shook my head slowly. "I'm just happy that Tom showed up when he did and now there's a couple of Jensen boys too."
"Oh, you were worried about the odds, were you?" she giggled.
"Well, let's just say that I was a bit leery of being the only guy stuck out in the wilderness with several women. A guy can have too much of a good thing, you know."
"Well, just so you know, while you and Anna were out checking for the scum that had us surrounded the other night, Fran gave Ellen and I a talk about genetics. She made it quite plain that she's too closely related to Tom to be involved with him, but she suggested that both Ellen and I would be good genetic matches," she snorted then and looked at me with a strange grin while she rubbed down the horse she'd ridden. "I think she was hinting that she might be talked into being involved with you and Anna, but at the same time she seemed to be suggesting that Tom would be able to handle Ellen and me."
"Oh, boy!" I sighed.
"Well, as she said, it was the second best way to guarantee racial diversity and even then it would be best if our kids chose mates from outside of the resultant group. I imagine she'll have talked to Anna by now too. I thought I should warn you, since we're back near the others and eventually we have to face the music."
By that time we'd put the horses away and were walking toward the big shed, but I was wondering why no one had come outside to greet us yet. It turned out that they were all busy, still trying to sort and inventory all the things that had been stored in the shed. Chuck, Maybelle, Louise and Wally had already gone back to Wally's place for the night, but Tom wasn't back from helping the Jensens yet. When Anna and the others saw us though, all of them decided it was time to have something to eat and I expected that we'd have another talk.
While the others were rounding up a meal, Mimi and I grabbed a cup of coffee, then we wandered outside, found a seat and tried to relax from the riding and exploring we'd done. Mimi chose a chair, sat down and closed her eyes, which suited me fine since I wanted to put my thoughts in order and I welcomed the chance to concentrate. I'd been awake since early morning and I was bushed, utterly worn out, but I still thought I needed to get my head in order, although I don't know why I felt that was so important right then.
Perhaps that's when our situation really sank into my conscious mind and when I really accepted my role as the leader of the group. Maybe Anna's rant at Mark Lowden had been rattling around my head all day and her words had fnally sunk in. I suppose that was when I had accepted the fact that I was responsible for the lives and welfare of the whole group of people who had come through the time-shift. When I'd originally agreed to be the leader of the group there had only been six of us and at the time it hadn't seemed worth arguing over. Then we'd found that Chuck, Maybelle and their three kids had been shifted through time as well and along with them we'd been joined by Wally and Matty Sam. Only hours later we'd found Mark, Louise and Meredith Lowden, then Meredith had given birth to a baby, so within hours our group had swelled to seventeen people. Only that wasn't all, because this morning I'd met the Jensens and added another nine people to our group. Now there was a total of twenty-six individuals and I was the person who had the job of keeping everyone alive. That was an extremely humbling thought, but considering the personalities of our group, I had to admit that we were a relatively stable bunch and we had a lot of the skills we'd need to survive.
I was going to have to show a lot of resolve though, because I felt certain I was going to have to head off several personality problems. At least one of those problems had already cropped up and created a situation, because in a way Mark Lowden was right, he is certainly the most highly educated of our group. He is also probably the most intelligent of us, so if inteligence and education had been the best credentials of a leader, he'd have been a shoe-in. However, I knew he'd be a failure as a leader because he has no idea how to guide people without dictating orders while acting as if we should all be subservient to him. On top of all that he is prejudiced and almost everyone in the group has some native blood or had to deal with predjudice in some other way. Unfortunately he's also a surgeon, but even then he's a specialist, a brain surgeon for cripes sake and not someone who is accustomed to normal surgery, like taking out an appendix. Meanwhile what we really need is a general practitioner, someone who is familiar with normal medical procedures. We need to have someone who can treat a fever, put a bandage on a wound, or set a bone and put a cast on a broken arm.
Thankfully Fran has already shown that she'll be invaluable as an EMT or a nurse and she's familiar with native medicines, which is a bonus because we have few over-the-counter medications. In fact I'm sure we'll have to consider her to be our main doctor, but from what I've seen already, she'll grow into the job. However I'm going to have to make sure to emphasize the idea that any surgery that needs to be done will be Mark Lowden's job. Maybe that will be enough to satisfy him, otherwise I don't know what I can do to please the man. I'm certainly not going to step aside and let him try to lead our group. I'm positive that having him as a leader would be a disastor.
Luckily we have a broad scope of talents available, even just in our original group. Anna knows the historical and archeological facts concerning the area and she's really going to be my right hand if I have any organizational problems. As well as I plan to listen to her as an advisor when I have to make any tough decisions because she has a mind that cuts to the heart of things. Mimi loves animals, so I've already put her in charge of the barns and animal care, but she'd voluntarily made a good start on that anyway. Not only that, but Mimi is a talented fighter in hand to hand combat, so she can help to teach others how to protect themselves. Ellen is a natural to handle our garden and probably any native plants we might need to grow because she has a lot of knowledge and experience with horticulture. And Ellen was a champion shot with her shotgun, so she's not going to be hard to train to be a hunter if we need another one. Tom - well, Tom is a bit of an unknown yet. I knew he was a shade-tree mechanic, but as well as that he's been an RCMP officer, so in my mind he's a natural fit as our security chief. Tom had surprised me this morning when he proved to be a heavy equipment operator as well. I was going to have to have a chat with that lad. Me? Well, I'm a jack of all trades, a good labourer if nothing else and I probably know enough to be able to help out a bit with almost anything the others can do. As far as people are concerned, our basic group might not be perfect, but we could have had a lot worse combination of personalities and training, even in the initial group.
Then the additional people who've been shanghaied along with us all have beneficial talents as well. Chuck is a great horseman, a good rancher and a talented blacksmith. Maybelle is a typical rancher's wife, ready willing and able to tackle any job that comes to hand. Wally Sam is an old farmer and as such he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of what we might encounter in the way of problems and solutions. Wally's wife, Matty is an old-time farm wife and probably has a recipe for darn near anything edible, but even more than that she's already proved that she's an excellent midwife.
The next people we'd found were the Lowdens - and - well, I've already considered Dr. Mark Lowden. I'd have to guess that he's probably a great surgeon, but his idea that we should build a surgery just isn't practical. However, the idea of having a room set aside as a clinic makes sense. I'll give him credit for that and I'll have to say so to his face just as soon as I can, maybe that will reduce his annoyance with us for not doing other things his way. Still, as far as I can see he's a bossy old grouch and we'll just have to work around him - somehow! Louise Lowden is a different story, she'd been working with the women today and certainly hadn't caused any problems, at least none I knew about. I did recall her saying that she was a dental hygienist, but how that might be applicable to our situation is something of a mystery to me. Last of the Lowden clan is Meredith, and to be honest I don't know much about her, other than that she's just had a baby, but says she doesn't know who the daddy was. Now maybe there's a viable reason for her to say that, but somehow I don't feel that she's the sort to get pregnant without knowing a lot about the man who she was involved with. It doesn't fit with the way I'm certain she was raised, but if she wants us to believe that, it isn't my business to dig up any problems for her.
The last group we had met were the Jenkins family, all nine of them and I'd invited them to join us here in the valley because they were in trouble living where they were. I don't know much about them, but then I didn't know much about the Sams or the Lowdens either.
Well, I was learning that Mark Lowden was darn stubborn and I knew that Wally Sam was darn generous. Considering some of the people I've worked with or bossed on various crews, the whole group was no better and no worse than average. Personalities don't matter anyway since we're all stuck here, come hell or high water, so we're going to have to live with these people whether we like them or not.
As for the situation concerning where we've ended up living, we've had little choice in that, but it really isn't all that bad, at least for now. Being in a valley with extremely limited access has both good and bad points. The steep slopes above us provide some shelter from the sweeping winds that blow across the prairies, but because were in a valley, any cold air on the slopes above will flow down into the valley even in calm weather. That cold inflow of chilled air is going to mean cold nights and cool mornings, perhaps even early frosts in the fall and late frosts in the spring. More important for us though, the nearly vertical walls and overhangs of the valley are going to make access to the valley floor difficult if not impossible for any invaders. Unfortunately the two erosion gullies that reach the valley floor are weak points as far as our defence from any sort of invasion force is concerned. I know that a group of determined attackers could get at us if they tried hard enough, however right at the moment I'm not considering that to be a major worry.
Thanks to old Wally Sam and his son, we're extremely well off in what you might call physical assets. Since the valley floor is a former lake bottom, it has relatively rich soil and should grow decent crops, but from our present point of view, the valley has mixed attributes. In the first place, this valley has been set up as a ranch, meant for raising herds of beef. Almost half of the valley has been cleared and seeded to grass, so we have lots of grazing area for any animals we care to raise. We have a large corral area, a large pasture, a barn, a cattle shed and a constant water supply. We will be able to produce far more meat and milk than we'll ever be able to use.
However humans can't live on only meat and milk, we need carbohydrates, sugars, vitamins and minerals as well and most of those are supplied by fruits, vegetables and cereal grains. Now if we plan well, we can easily raise those as crops, but that's going to take a lot of preparation. In the first place we don't have a planting area that's inaccessable to cattle and horses, so we'll need fences and I'm certain there isn't a lot of fencing wire around. Secondly, I don't think we have much in the way of seed. I know Anna brought some organic wheat that she was planning to grind into flour and make into bread, but I doubt if there was any large amount. I also know Ellen was talking about saving seed from various vegetables and fruits, but I think her efforts will be almost useless for our present needs. Even before we think of planting though, we have to consider cultivation. For that we need a plow to start with and I don't even want to think about plowing a field with a horse drawn plow and a pair of pregnant mares. So hopefully we can get some land plowed before we run out of fuel for the tractors, however that's another set of questions I can't answer right now. Actually the questions about seed, eguipment and fuel won't be answered until our inventory is complete.
Considering inventory, there are all the things stored in the quonset hut that we might be able to use. I don't really know what all is stored in there yet, but what I have noticed has looked like it might be useful, or rather I hope it will be of some use. Once we've gone through and inventoried everything, we'll have a better idea what we have to work with. Then there are all the vehicles, tools and supplies that the Sams, the Lowdens and the Jensens have that are going to have to be included in our list of tools and supplies. I'm not going to worry about supplies right now though. It isn't going to be all that long before we'll run out of supplies anyway, and no matter how many things we start with, we don't have an inexhaustible supply of anything. We'll just have to live with that for now and teach ourselves to make do with what we can build after what we brought with us wears out or is used up.
Thinking of that, it looks as if we'll have some halfway decent places to live until we can build some houses, even if it will be in a mishmash of trailers and RVs. Heck, we have more permanent accommodation for animals than for people. Of course the corrals, the barn and cattle shed aren't the only buildings on the place. First there's a partially built log cabin and it is huge. All I know about it right now is that it has multiple bedroom and bathroom areas, as well as a huge kitchen area and a great room of some sort. The whole thing looks almost as if it was set up to be a hotel. Somehow I think that come winter, that log cabin may be packed to the rafters. Of course by then we may have more cabins built so people will be able to spread out somewhat, I certainly hope so, but who knows?
I paused the to have a sip of coffee and found it was cold, but that reminded me that we'd soon run out of coffee and even regular tea, but not that darn herbal tea. Crap, what was I going to do for my morning caffeine hit? Hopefully, we could grow Labrador Tea -- if we could find any of the plants growing in the area. I was going to have to talk to Ellen and Fran about that idea again. In fact I decided to do that quite soon, because by bringing up the idea now, I could be sure that everyone would keep their eyes open for any locally available food or medicinal plants.
I must have grunted or groaned then and I suppose I disturbed Mimi, because she sat up straight and frowned at me.
"Well, have you solved all of our problems, or have you come up with more problems than answers?" she asked with a wry grin.
"More solutions than problems, but really I was just considering all of the assets that we have and realizing that we're pretty well off for shipwrecked landlubbers on the sea of time," I said, then broke off with a yawn
"Oh, man, what an analogy! That was a reach. I thought Anna told me you were a writer, so I expected a better simile than that out of you," Mimi giggled.
"Actually I thought it was pretty good, at least for a guy working on an empty stomach and a lack of sleep," I grinned, then yawned again.
"Well, you'll be able to fill that stomach soon, because the meal is ready," Fran said as she approached with her hands full of eating utensils. "Now I'm curious. Did I see you two herding cattle into the pasture?"
"Yeah, we happened to find some Holstein cows and their offspring, so Mimi has agreed to be our dairy farmer. We'll have to build her a few stalls in the barn and add some more cattle pens, but she says she knows how to milk cows and even how to make butter and cheese. The problem might be the amount of time it will take for her to calm the cattle enough that they'll let her get close enough to them to do the milking," I grinned.
"Oh, having milk cows is wonderful, and I can help out with that job," Fran smiled as she carried a huge pot of stew over to the table. "I used to like milkin' cows when we lived on the farm, but we had to get 'em used to us again every year after we brought 'em in from pasture. Mostly it just took patience and some time settlin' 'em down."
"Great, I'll take all the help I can get," Mimi grinned at her.
I'll be honest, I know much more was said that evening, but I was simply too hungry and too tired to be able to keep up with the conversation going on around me. I do remember eating, probably gobbling my food as if I was starving, then I recall leaning on my elbows at the table. I don't remember falling asleep, nor do I recall having Tom and Anna wake me in order to get me to walk to the trailer, but I do remember getting undressed and rolling into bed.