Chapter 49: Slow - Rough Road Ahead

The day of the housewarming party for the new houses up on the plateau was finally set for the second Sunday evening in July, which happened to be Matt and John’s weekend off. That gave them some extra time to attend to details around their new house, but it didn’t place undue pressure on me either. Sure, I had the chores to do, but other than that I was only planning to do some running around and attending to details to make sure I had all my ducks in a row for the next week or two. We were going to redo the road that came down the gorge in those two weeks and I was hoping that the good weather we’d had the last two or three weeks would hold. Actually even a light rain wouldn’t hurt, but if we had a lot of subsoil material loosened, but ungraded, then got hit by a gully washing rainstorm things could get darn messy in a hurry.

So I was up early on the day before the party, sitting in the kitchen, having my coffee before doing the chores and I’d turned on the radio to hear the weather forecast. That mornings weather forecast sounded good, the weatherman was predicting a dry weekend and more fine weather to come during the week. I suppose I sighed loudly at the relief I felt at that forecast.

“Wow, I haven’t heard you sigh like that for a long time,” Sandy commented as she came into the kitchen. “Problems?”

“No, actually that was a sigh of relief,” I chuckled. “The weather forecast for next week sounds pretty good. If we’re lucky, we just might get away with our gamble and get the toughest part of the road in before the weather turns bad on us.”

“Oh, gotcha,” she came over and collected a hug, then took a sip from my coffee. “Gaachhh, how do you drink your coffee black and strong like that? It’s so bitter.”

“Well, for one thing that means you won’t steal much of my coffee,” I grinned as I drained the last of the cup. “Now, I’d better go do the chores. Oh, if you want to go to town today, I have to go get some fuel, then I’m going to drop around Charlie Engels’ place to get some practice and learn some tricks about using his old backhoe. I’ll be renting it for the next couple of weeks,”

“Okay, I’ll get your breakfast ready when you come in and I think I will come along to town so I can pick up some groceries,” Sandy nodded. “Hey before you go out, have you any idea what to get for housewarming gifts?”

“Nope, I was hoping you did. Maybe we can think of something on the way to town.”

My morning started out being smooth and easy. The chores were no problem. Sandy had breakfast ready by the time I had come inside and cleaned up to go to town. The trip to town went quickly and we decided to buy a potted rose bush for each housewarming gift, so those were the first things we bought when we got to town. Then I dropped Sandy off to shop for groceries while I went to Frank’s service station to get a few barrels of diesel fuel and gasoline just so we’d have enough for our upcoming road work. That’s when things started to get complicated. I dropped by to say ‘Hi’ to Frank and found he wanted me to run Car 54 that weekend. That’s when I reminded him about the housewarming parties and that it was my weekend to stay home to do the chores anyway.

“Oops, I think I’ve got my weeks mixed up,” he sighed, looking at the calendar. “Clarence Walker will be at the housewarming too, won’t he?”

“Unh huh. Since he and his crew built them, I’d think he’d want to be there if only to show off his hard work as well as support his two best workmen.”

“Oh, that’s not so bad then. You do know that the two of you are running neck and neck in driver popularity poles at the track, don’t you?” he broke into a big grin at my grimace.

“You know darn well I’m not out there for a popularity contest,” I snorted. “I just race because I like the competition. Will you be at the party tomorrow night? Maybe we can talk then, but right now I’ve got to get some fuel and then I need to be out at Charlie Engels’ place in a little while.”

“Okay, but why don’t you just leave your empty fuel drums with me. I’ll get the refills loaded on a truck and bring them out to you tomorrow, that way you’re not hauling a heavy load on your pickup while you do your running around.”

That sounded good to me, but I was wondering what his wife would say about driving out to the ranch in his old fuel truck. I was smart enough not to ask him that though. Instead I left Frank a note of what fuel I wanted and quickly unloaded the barrels from my pickup, then drove out to Charlie Engels. I got there just as he drove into his yard. Charlie actually apologized for not being able to do my road work because he had a prior job underway, but as I told him, he should be happy that he was so busy that he couldn’t do the job himself. Since he was renting the backhoe, he was making even more money than he would if he was just doing the one job and I assured him if I broke something on the machine I’d pay for its repair. After we filled out the rental agreement, he took me out to his ‘backup’ backhoe and showed me how to operate it, even letting me dig a couple of holes and then backfill them, just to prove that I knew how to run it.

The rest of my day followed in almost the same pattern. I ran back to town from Charlie’s place, picked up Sandy and her load of groceries, then took her to the Chinese cafeteria for lunch. After lunch we drove to the hospital to talk to Grampa Bender. Then we were off to Jason Campbell’s, since he lived on our way home and I helped him load his D6 Cat on his lowboy trailer. I was leasing the D6 for the next month as well, needing it for the roadway work as well as a couple of grading jobs I wanted to do on the trails around the ranch. Once the Cat was loaded, he followed me home and we unloaded it right at the crest of the grade I’d be working on come Monday. I started it up, then backed it into the bush to get it out of sight of anyone driving past on the road. Once that was done, I got back in the pickup and drove down to the cabin, then helped Sandy carry the groceries inside. We had a quick cup of coffee, but we thought it was time for a ride around the ranch to check over the cattle to see if they were all okay. I saddled a pair of horses so Sandy could ride with me, then even though they were scattered all over, we managed to find a full count of cows and calves, but we didn’t notice any problems. That ride took a while though, so after we were back at the corrals and the horses were put away, it was time to do the chores. Once I was finished the few chores that needed doing I went inside, cleaned up, ate supper, then flopped in my favourite chair with a cup of coffee. It seemed to me that I hadn’t really done much that day, but run around. Still, I was bushed. Sandy and I talked for a while, made a few phone calls, then decided we were just too tired to stay up, but after we were in bed it seemed to take a long time to get to sleep.

Sunday morning I was awakened very early by the squawking of chickens and barking of the dogs, so I rolled out of bed, raced downstairs and rushed outside. I couldn’t believe my eyes, there was a cougar lying on the top of the chicken coop roof, calmly chomping away on one of our hens. The dogs weren’t getting close to the chicken coop, but they were barking up a storm. Meanwhile the chickens were making almost as much racket by flapping and squawking as they dashed around the chicken run.

“Damn!” I swore loudly and turned to go back inside to get my rifle, almost knocking over Sandy, coming the other way.

“Oops, What wrong, Chris?” Sandy asked.

“There’s a bloody cougar after the chickens.”

“What? A cougar? Here?” she squawked in surprise.

“Yeah, a friggin’ cougar,” I snapped, grabbing my 30-30 off the wall by the kitchen door and loading a round. “I hate the idea of killing it, but since it’s made a kill already, I’ll have to shoot the darn cat. I’m glad all it killed was a chicken though, and not a calf or a colt.”

“Do you really have to shoot it?” Sandy frowned at the rifle.

“Yes, I do,” I sighed as I stepped outside again. “You know I try to leave the wild animals alone, but when one starts killing my livestock I have to take care of the problem. I’m probably going to regret it though, since I’ll have to report the damn thing to the game warden.”

I had been planning to have a quiet day, but the bloody cougar certainly ruined that pipe dream. Shooting it was the simplest part of the whole fiasco. I’ve hunted a fair amount, so I knew enough to go for a heart and lung shot, hitting the cougar just behind the shoulder, then when it fell off the roof I put another round into it’s head. After that though, I had to keep the dogs from ripping the cat to pieces by locking them in the barn, then I had to call both the RCMP and the District Game Warden. Luckily, I was smart enough to leave the cougar where it had fallen as it slid off the chicken coop, but I had to wait around for the Game Warden to check it out. Still, I had oodles of time to do my chores and have breakfast long before anyone arrived. Sandy and I had been planning to drive down and have lunch with my family, but the RCMP Constable and the Game Warden must have taken their time. Of course it was Sunday, so I suppose they were either feeling a bit reluctant to hurry, or else they were overworked, who knows? Sandy must have called down to my folks and invited them up to the ranch for lunch, because Mom and Dad arrived just before the RCMP Constable and the Game Warden did. Still, I felt as if I’d wasted half of my day, just waiting for them to arrive and get on with their job.

When the offical inspection came, it only lasted about ten minutes. Deacon Marshal, the Game Warden rolled the cat over, pointed to the mangled front paw on its left side and swore a blue streak.

“Look at that! God Damned leghold traps! They’re illegal as hell, but some pissant bastard is still using the fucking things. If I ever catch the son-of-a-bitch, I’ll snap one on his fucking balls,” he barked loudly. “This is a young cougar, but look at the poor little bastard. He’s scrawny, almost starving to death. He’s probably unable to move fast enough to catch his normal prey since he’s got that buggered up paw, which is why he went after farm animals. This is probably the same damn animal that killed a calf up at Jason Dumfries’ ranch last week.

“Well, I didn’t want to shoot him, but...”

“Yeah, I know, you had to do it,” he sighed. “Actually, it was probably a mercy, since from the swelling I think there’s probably an infection in that front leg. We’ll have to take the carcass with us and do some tests for toxins, diseases and other crap. I can see right now that he’s flea infested and mangey, poor little bugger.”

They borrowed a couple of garbage bags and some duct tape to wrap the cat so they wouldn’t get fleas in the cop car and tossed it in the trunk, then left without saying much more. In fact the young RCMP Officer, Constable Franks, had hardly said anything the whole time they were at the ranch, but then he was young and new to the area, so he was still getting his feet wet.

Once they were gone, Dad and I let the dogs out again, then went inside to find that Sandy and Mom had our lunch ready. When I mentioned that we were going to be working on the road the next morning, Dad was off on his favourite hobby horse, his idea of having a trail cut into the cliff that separated the upper and lower ranches. Now I’m not sure why Dad was so adamant that there should be a trail down that cliff, but for once I was happy about hearing his familiar arguments because it got us off the topic of that dang cougar.

Once we’d eaten, Mom and Dad wanted to discuss all the recent work and improvements that we’d done around the ranch. Then both of them absolutely had to go for a walk along with me so they could see the proposed new grade we planned to cut into the side of the gully leading up to the upper plateau. All I could really show them right then were the scale drawings and the layout stakes that the surveyor had left us, but I think Mom approved of the whole idea. Dad had a hard time accepting the idea that a combination of carragana windbreaks and new grading on the roadway would solve the worst of our drifted snow problems, after all he’d seen how much snow could drift into that gully during a blizzard. Personally all I could do was hope that the surveyor was right and Dad was wrong, otherwise our upcoming work was going to be a waste of money. That new roadway wasn’t going to be cheap though, not with the rental of a backhoe and a D6 Cat, as well as hiring a blaster, not to mention the wages for at least four people who’d probably be on that job for nearly two weeks. Still, I’m not sure why Dad was being so obstinant in his condemnation of the surveyor’s plan, but I knew that if we were badly snowed in next winter, I’d certainly get the ‘I told you so’ treatment in spades.

Mom and Dad had to leave around two-thirty in order to be done the work around their farm before going to the housewarming party, and they must have met Frank Dolens and his wife on the road home. I’m sure of that, because Frank and Jennifer came driving into the yard only moments after Mom and Dad had left. The Dolens were riding in a brand new one-ton pickup truck with dual wheels and a hydraulic barrel-lift mounted on the box. Of course Frank had wanted to show it off to someone before he turned it over to his fuel crew and his wife thought the idea of riding in a fuel truck to go to the housewarming party was hilarious. Besides that, although Frank had visited the ranch a few times, Jennifer had never been there before. Of course that was an opportunity for Sandy to show off her garden and the house, so we ended up having coffee and talking until it was time to do the chores. Frank even walked around with me while I chased the chickens inside, then fed the riding horses, the pigs and the dogs. The Dolens even sat on the front porch and waited for Sandy and I as we dressed and got ready to head up the hill to the party. Actually we followed Frank and Jennifer up the hill in my car, but we got separated before we went into the McAdam’s house, which was our first place to visit that evening.

Matt and his brothers had built a log cabin and so had Carissa and Jackie, but the similarity in their houses ended with the log walls. The guy’s house was a sprawling single story affair that took up a huge amount of space and sat about a hundred yards from the municipal road, but almost equally distant from the road to the ranch. Meanwhile, the gal’s house was a two story affair, that looked as if it had been lifted out of a turn of the century novel. It sat further back from the municipal road, but less distant from our road. As well as that, while the guys had yet to build any outbuildings, other than the pumphouse for the well, the gals had also built a two car garage and had a horse barn nearing completion.

Actually, the party started about five o’clock on a Sunday afternoon in early July and we planned to spend a few hours at each cabin. We all met at the guy’s huge log house first, because they had built a big patio and barbecue in their backyard so they were going to feed us. Then after we’d eaten and looked around their place, we all planned to wander over to the girl’s house later in the evening.

Luke met us on the front step as we arrived at the guy’s house, waving us through with a quiet; “Welcome to our new house. Just make yourself at home,” then he was turning back to meet the next guests to arrive.

Sandy and I entered through an enclosed front porch, passed through the front door, and found we could move into either the galley style kitchen area on our right, or the living room area on our left. Really the only separation between the two areas, was an island set up as a countertop, with a few stools where the guys could sit for a cup of tea or a quick meal. Actually, the kitchen looked almost like an afterthought since it took up the least room in the whole space, but it was a complete kitchen, even if it was small and simple. Of course Sandy wanted to see the kitchen right away, but Matt met us and soon convinced us to look at the rest of the house first, explaining that Mark should be there to give Sandy a tour of ‘his’ kitchen. Unfortunately Mark happened to be out at the barbecue, playing chef, so Matt was the one who showed us their new home.

In between the galley kitchen on one end and a fireplace on the other, the guys had a collection of old couches, chairs, a television and a small pool table. They had set up the pool table so it doubled as their dining room table when they had guests; all they had to do was slide a wooden cover on top of it, then pull up some stacking chairs for seating. In other words the place was set up as a bachelor pad.

Matt explained that each of his brothers wanted a bedroom of his own, plus there was a fifth bedroom if they ever had visitors, so the bedrooms and bathrooms were laid out around three sides of the living room/kitchen area. Each of the guy’s bedrooms was on one corner of the house and to prevent jealousy each bedroom was the same size as the next and all of the rooms were entered from that central core. Matt’s bedroom was the closest to the front door and the roadway leading to the ranch, lying to the left of the front entrance. Moving clockwise, Luke’s bedroom was on the same side, but at the rear of the house and separated from Matt’s bedroom by their shared bathroom and the bedroom closets. As you moved clockwise around the main room of the house, the next doorway lead to an office, which was on the rear wall of the living room area. Beside the office was a hallway that lead outside, but on the way there was another bathroom near the back door. On the other side of the hallway the guys had installed folding doors, the first set hiding a chest type freezer, and the next set hid their washer and drier. Back in the living room, but further along the back wall came the doorway into the spare bedroom. Then on the kitchen end of the living room was a doorway into John’s bedroom and another into Mark’s, those bedrooms also had shared a bathroom and closets. That took you around the outer circle of bedrooms and back to the front of the house.

Of course by the time we got to that point, Sandy just had to look over the kitchen, even if it was just a quick glance. The kitchen sink was on a short counter on the front wall of the house, with a window which faced the municipal road right above it. For appliances, they had a refigerator, an electric stove, and a dishwasher near the sink, all spaced along the shortest wall of the main room and sharing a wall with Mark’s bedroom. According to Matt they had put it there because Mark enjoyed cooking, so if anyone was in the kitchen, it’d probably be him and he wouldn’t disturb anyone else if he was working there early in the morning.

I’ll be honest, the kitchen wasn’t of much interest to me at first, however they had one appliance which I’d never seen before, something called a ‘radar range’ or ‘microwave oven.’ I didn’t pay much attention to it at first, not until after we’d eaten and Mark came inside to demonstrate it to Sandy and all the other women. They all seemed fascinated by how fast that thing would boil water or cook an omlette. Soon there were so many women clustered near Mark that I wandered away, then George’s dad, Bob, bent my ear and explained the technology of microwave ovens to me.

“Chris, I think that microwave oven thing is a great idea, but I’m not sure how reliable it is since it’s newly on the market. I’ve read about them, but I never saw one before,” Bob grinned at me. “That darn thing cooks food by using radio waves, well actually microwaves. There’s a unit called a magnetron in the oven enclosure which puts out high frequency radio waves. Those radio waves cause vibrations in the water moleules inside the food, virtually shaking the molecules back and forth so fast that they cause friction, then get hot and boil. That’s what cooks the food, just plain old friction, and it virtually cooks the food from the inside, not the outside, so there’s no energy wasted on heating up a pot or the air around it.”

“Wait a minute, weren’t some of the men who worked on the DEW line made sterile by working while they were in the beam of microwaves from the radar installations?” I frowned at his smile. “Is that thing safe to have in a house? I sure as heck wouldn’t want to be sterilized by a damn machine. I still might want to have a kid or two one day.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. What you heard was just an old wives tale,” he chuckled. “The way that machine is built, it won’t even turn on until that door is closed and then the microwaves can’t get out. That’s why the whole thing is made of metal, except for the window on the front door, and that has a grounded metal screen imbedded inside the glass. Those microwaves have been tamed, and on top of that they’re being kept in a cage to keep people safe from harm.”

Even I had to grin at the idea of equating microwaves and zoo animals, but by then I’d made up my mind that after all the women had seen enough entertainment, I was going to have a good look at the machine. Only I didn’t get a chance to even mention that to Bob before Sandy was grabbing my arm to drag me back to the kitchen area and the semicircle of women around Mark.

“Chris, you’ve got to see this thing. It’s wonderful. Mark put an ice cube in there on a little plate and you could see it melt, right before your eyes. Just think of how much time that could save if we had to defrost something for a meal and we were in a hurry. I think we should have one for down at the ranch. I know it’s expensive, but it would be so handy to be able to do the things it can do,” she prattled on, her mouth going a mile a minute as she dragged me over to see Mark’s continuing demonstration.

I wasn’t surprised when Bob followed along, but I was surprised when he began to ask leading questions of Mark, then I thought about it and felt he had to have a reason for them, so I sat back and listened without comment.

“Excuse me Mark, but what happens if you use a metal pan to cook the food in that thing?” Bob asked, feigning innocence.

“Oh, you don’t want to do that,” Mark answered instantly. “This oven is called a ‘radar range’ for a reason; it uses very short radio waves to cook the food. If you put a piece of metal in the cooking section, it attracts the radio waves and causes sparks. It might even cause an overload and burn out parts in the oven. You shouldn’t even use things like aluminum foil or stirring spoons in it, because it will do the same thing.”

“Well just what kind of dishes can you cook in? Are they special in any way? Say I wanted to heat up a can of soup, what would I need to put it in? Could I just use an ordinary soup bowl?”

“That depends on the soup bowl,” Mark smiled at Bob. “Some soup bowls and other dishes use a glaze with metal in it. If you put a dish with a metallic glaze in this oven, the dish will get hot before the soup even warms up, that might explode the dish. Some china dishes are completely safe and others aren’t. It’s the same with plastics, some are perfectly safe, while others will just melt. If you want to be really safe, you can buy special dishes that are meant just for this sort of thing. That’s what I use.”

Since Sandy had released my hand and seemed fascinated by the conversation Mark and Bob were having, I pulled back and stepped away. What the two of them were doing sounded almost like a midway barker and a shill, and I wanted nothing to do with it. It wasn’t that I suspected either one of them of doing anything like that though. Instead I was certain that Mark was the proud owner of a new toy, while Bob was someone who had read thoroughly about a new gadget. I was positive that Bob wanted to be certain that any problems and pitfalls the machine had were mentioned, just to counter all the glowing accolades that Mark was using.