Chapter 11

As I drove home I was considering the braking system for the wagon. It was just a simple lever that pressed a wooden brake shoe against the rear tires. I thought a hydraulic system would be better, but I would not have the repair parts, so I just decided to use the simple system that they used at Union Springs.

Aside: Union Springs Alabama is the home of the national field trials for pointing dogs, and many "yankee plantations" where they use mules and wagons to take the hunters around to shoot the quail.

When I got home, Momma and I talked about how she had been getting along. I asked how her garden had done this year. She told me that she had picked more peas and tomatoes than she could use, so she gave the extras to the neighbors. "Momma, are you lonesome by yourself?" I asked her.

"Sugar, the best times of the year are when you and the girls come to visit," she told me.

"Would you like to come and stay with us, some? Our place is very primitive, but we are happy there."

"Yes Ricky, I would love to come and stay with your family," she said.

"Okay, come with me and we will tell the girls," I said.

We found the girls resting and visiting and talking about me like I was something extra. I was embarrassed.

"Momma is coming to stay with us this winter," I told them.

They were very happy and excited; they started to pack up Momma's things. "We aren't leaving until my orders come in. We have until next week."

They packed up anyway. We had a really nice visit; I went and sold 5 more of my gold balls for $575.00 per ounce. Forty ounces for $575 is $23000.00.

I bought a good supply of hand tools. I looked and found some peaveys; tools for handling logs. I also bought some old mule logging equipment from an old man in town. It was used, but still in pretty good shape. He told me how to use everything. I asked him if he knew anything about a pit saw rig. He knew a little about it, and told me it would make you a man or kill you.

I went to the library and looked up pit sawing, and saw many drawings and diagrams. I made some copies.

I bought what I figured was a years supply of soap and shampoo, plus 6 months extra. I knew I would need a bigger truck this time.

I called and made arrangements with Marty and Janie to pay Momma's bills while she was visiting us. Her social security check automatically went into her checking account, so there would be enough money to pay the minimum bills. Marty and Janie were added to Momma's account as signatories.

Everything came in as ordered. I went and bought 2 cases of .22 long rifle ammunition (10,000 rounds), and rented a big truck.

We loaded the truck and went and told the neighbors that Momma was going to visit us for a year in Uzbekistan, and asked them to look after the house. We gave them Marty's phone number, and told them he knew how to get in touch with me in an emergency. We had Momma's mail forwarded to Marty and Janie. I left all the money I had with Marty and Janie, and left the five remaining gold balls also. "Use it like is was all yours. We love you," I said.

We took the truckload up to Marty's and went and bought big wheelbarrows and big garden carts and metal 55-gallon drums. We packed everything and made the pass just like we did before, except that Zepha and Momma went first, to make sure Momma didn't freak out then she saw what happened.

We went and moved everything out of the way. It went just like it was supposed to. Everyone else came through in the end. It was mid morning when we finished coming through. We rolled the carts and barrows up to camp, and went right back to get the rest.

When we got back with the second load, we introduced Momma to everyone.

My girls had a wonderful time giving gifts to their family. I gave Mac two of the .22 rifles and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. I kept one for my family and also kept the rest of the ammunition.

I gave Eldon his own rifle, and gave the other two to the family.

I gave a 9mm pistol to Zepha, and one to Momma. We rigged up a holster and belt for them and also gave each of them a knife to carry.

We opened the house up and started getting ready to eat. We had smoked fish and baked apples.

Momma got me off to the side and said, "Ricky, I don't know how I got here. Where is here?"

"I think we are somewhere in what is Uzbekistan in 2005. I don't know exactly what year this is. We came here through a displacement device. It is Mac's invention. Marty perfected it," I told her.

I didn't know how to tell her except to tell her the truth. "I am trying to bring as many more modern conveniences back to help us as we can. I have brought rip saws so we can make some lumber to improve our houses and ability to provide for ourselves," I said.

"Momma, we need you to help us with some of the things I have purchased. I know you know how to work some of them, and we don't," I said.

"I will help you any way I can. I love being here with your family, especially my grandbabies," she said.

Since it was winter time, we started off by logging some and setting up the pit for the sawing. It was all hand dug and built, I was amazed at how easy it was to make good lumber on that mill. I wasn't amazed at how much work it was.

With two saws we could saw for about three hours before we had to stop to sharpen. It seemed that every time we sawed I had to pull the saw up, but I was really getting into fighting trim, and making muscles like I never had before.

My wives loved the feel of my muscles, and would kiss me all over. Zepha told me that she had never known a man like me. I loved holding her and kissing my baby (kissing her stomach). I had gotten enough stamina to make love to all my wives at one time. I was amazed, but Lena said it was just that I had gotten to the place where I could do more than before because of practice, and because of my hard muscled body. I was no body builder, but I was strong and muscular.

When we got enough lumber cut, we set it to dry in stacks with sticks between the layers for airflow.

We put the wagon together, and set up the tack for two animals to pull it. We made the floor of green lumber, and screwed it onto the cross members. I rigged up the braking system and put two-foot sides and a tailgate on. Then I put a seat with a footrest on the front.

The best-matched pair of animals we had were Pet and Jenny. I hoped that one of the new animals would be able to replace Pet soon.

We really used the wagon. It made hauling everything easier. We were able to haul hay from a much greater distance so we cut and stacked it.

We were able to haul many pounds of grain at the time so it made a much larger area for fields available. I turned the ground on an area that was twice as large as what we had been using.

I figured that we would use about half of our extra from our bumper crop from last year for seed this year. Using the wagon I thought we could trade our excess grain at the spring trading time. I was hoping to trade for some more gold, so I planned to take some hand tools for trade. I thought we would take some lumber to trade at the fall trading time.