Chapter 10

We all missed Sandra and Little Willie. I was really glad that I had Carla and Maria; they kept me from missing my visiting family too much. Elaine kept her promise to Sandra and kept me loved up along with Amy and Carla.

Amy was feeling good and showing her pregnant state. She went through the I am getting fat and I am not pretty phase until I convinced her that she was more beautiful now than ever before. Amy was not a demanding person, and I really loved her. She was truly happy that she was carrying our child.

We finished up our fall garden, and put in the wheat so it would have time to put down roots over the winter.

Ernie killed a wild hog, and we had pork for Thanksgiving. We were truly blessed here, and everyone knew it.

We all put together a scavenging expedition to go to a big town a hundred or so miles away to procure fertilizer and some horse drawn farming equipment. We all knew that our high tech equipment would eventually die out on us.

On the trip over we saw a flock of turkeys. I commented that I thought that was a good sign.

Earnest said, "We need to make a wider sweep to find more people and possibly trade some of our livestock with them to enlarge the gene pool."

I thought about that a good bit over the rest of the trip and during the next months.

We were able to get a couple of trucks full of fertilizer, and seed. We were also fortunate enough to find a store that had horse operated farming equipment and got a couple of plows, a cultivator and a mower, as well as the tack to make it operable. I was glad that we had Joseph with us as he had some previous exposure to these implements.

The morning after we got back Elaine was up with morning sickness. "Why didn't you tell me about this?" I asked her.

"I wasn't sure until today," she said with a big smile.

We all hugged her and told her we were glad. She told everyone the news. I asked Carla to keep an eye on Elaine to make sure she was taking care of herself.

Carla kissed me and told me she would take care of our wife.

By the second week of December I couldn't stand missing Sandra anymore. I fueled up the piper, since it was the fastest plane we had, and took off to get Sandra and Little Willie.

The piper was a bigger plane and had better range, but I stopped at our regular stops anyway. I fle2w over the Smith's ranch and when Sandra came outside I dropped a note asking them to pick me up at the airport.

I landed and refueled while I was waiting for Sandra and Little Willie. When they drove up I picked up Sandra in one arm and Little Willie in the other one and hugged and kissed them both.