Chapter 32

I've heard people bitching about leftovers most of my life. All I can say is that they must just be slow learners. I couldn't think of one thing I'd rather have for lunch today than leftover brisket, hickory smoked ham, and beans. That didn't even bring up the fresh potato salad and deviled eggs Marilyn had somehow found time to teach the others to make this morning.

"Picnic Table," Randy said, just as he sat down to empty his plate.

"It would be a big help, and several of them wouldn't hurt a thing. We've probably got plenty of lumber, we'll just have to dig it out of a trailer," I said.

"Don't even have to do that. I made some angle iron frames and bought some two-by-twelves specially for six of 'em. I'd just let 'em slip my mind," he said.

"Maybe we can cobble a couple up after we have the stock secured," I said, and then went back to eating.

"Move new houses first please," Louise said, and then Marilyn echoed her request.

"I guess that's the next thing on the agenda then, Randy."

"Sounds like orders from above to me too," he said.

We gathered up the noon meals for Charley and Roscoe and then all the men, and Jr, found a place to sit in or on the dually. I drove slowly to keep from spilling any food or coffee but it still only took a couple of minutes to get there.

Charley and Roscoe were happy about the delivery and they sat on their asses to eat while the rest of us looked around. Randy and I both wanted to just jump to the triple-wide houses but that would have been dumb. We could probably get one of the standard fourteen by eighty mobile homes set up this afternoon, especially since we noticed this time that the plumbing stub-outs were already in place.

Poking around our already ready plumbing let us find that our electrical hookup was in place too, for underground service no less. The next question was where it was coming from, and Randy found that.

The service lines originated from a small concrete slab that had come via magic I guess. There was no generating facility there, but a little looking let us know that anchor bolts were here for the generators I'd bought. We decided that was the logical first step.

Back at the get off point we found the trailer with the generator sets inside and Randy grabbed it with the yard mule and took off while I drove the loader with forks on it to the new home site. We both rode back in the mule and parked it.

It always seems like things will go smoothly but they almost never do. We didn't have any real trouble, but we did have to make half-a-dozen trips back and forth for tools and equipment, and then four more to move one of the big propane tanks into place.

Finally, just before dark, we were able to fire up both generators and make power. Of course we didn't even have one damned light bulb to use it on, but that was for tomorrow. We'd stayed so late that we had to use the truck's headlights on the way back.

When we got back we could see that it didn't matter. All the women were gathered around a cooker and a big campfire and the food was ready. Things seemed more pleasant tonight to, since all the braves had their own women to take care of them.

Like every other Caddo Indian I'd met here so far, our new bedmate had a name I couldn't hope to pronounce. It sounded close to Ginny to me, so Ginny she became. Helen, Nancy, Louise, and even Ginny thought it was a grand notion, so they took me to our outdoor bed to celebrate.

For a few minutes I worried about the stock in their new pens, but I gave it up as nonsense. Charley, Roscoe, and their women had walked down there after supper to spend the night. If something came up that they couldn't handle I was sure they'd let us know.

The sun was barely up by the time I woke the next morning, and I wasn't the first. I could see Randy in his pickup going for the night watch crew to bring them back for breakfast. I scrambled out of our bedding and started dragging on clothes, and my mates were right behind me.

They joined Marilyn and the other women near the big fire someone had rejuvenated this morning, and the outdoor cooking was on. Breakfast was nearly ready by the time Randy got back with our watchmen and watchwomen. I gulped down my eggs and sausage and gulped my coffee so fast that Louise gave me a dirty look.

Hell, I was ready to get those damned mobile homes in place so we could quit sleeping on the ground. By now I had faith in the dogs to keep an eye on things during the night and I wanted to be sleeping closer to the stock. Not to mention the fact that I wanted a hot shower, and I didn't want another one in that overgrown phone booth my camper trailer had for the process.

Three hours later we had the single-wides in place and that's when Randy really started showing his worth. He'd done this before and he went directly to work leveling the trailers and putting blocks under them for a stable foundation. I took care of hooking up the plumbing and electric service and by three o'clock they were both ready to be used. We burned up the last of the daylight bringing the camping trailers back and moving things from our small homes into our medium sized homes.

After we had our things out of the campers we turned them over to the Indian helpers. Of course we gave Jr and his girls the biggest extra bedroom in our trailer. I couldn't tell exactly how he felt about it, but I knew his mates-to-be were thrilled.

I needn't have worried about Jr though. After Louise showed him how to work the TV and video tape deck in his new bedroom, he was spellbound. We had to call he and his mates twice for supper, and I was afraid I'd have to start enforcing a Lights Out bedtime.

Louise, Ginny, and Jr's two girls cooked our breakfast the next morning while Helen and Nancy went to a camper each to show the brave's women how to work the appliances. It was only later that I learned there'd been a fix in on the braves.

Louise, Helen, and Nancy had decided to start a new custom among the Caddo. It seems it was well known among my people that the men always took care of the floor cleaning and trash carry out in a house such as the braves were living in now.

I laughed at them when they asked me for backing on this, but I was glad to, and I found out Randy had thought it was funny too. That first day I made sure they saw me coming out of the house with a full trash bag.

To me it was only poetic justice. It always irked me to see the women doing most of the carrying. I know it was a sensible thing when there was likely to be danger about. The men needed their hands free to fight. That knowledge still didn't make it go down all that well with me; after all, there wasn't going to be much fighting inside the campers.

It took us most of the day today to get the triple-wides in place to even think about putting them together. It was a job that had to be done, but it was still a pain. Randy saved my ass again here, since he knew how to do this. It was still tedious to get them close enough to use the things he'd brought for getting them together. We decided to let that slide for a day or two, or more.

We settled into a sort of routine for about two weeks then. Mostly it was moving trailers with the mule, figuring out the best place to put them, and putting concrete pads down for their dolly bar's pads to rest on. Nothing is more of a bother than a loaded trailer whose dolly feet have sunk into soft ground, and I was determined not to enjoy it even once.

We decided that another Bar-B-Que was in order after we finished the last job of moving to our new location. That was moving the small security building and storage building to the back with us. We'd already moved all the reefers, vans, lowboys, and flatbeds and the two small portable buildings were the last thing to go.

We'd saved them for last too, but not because they were going to be trouble, in fact we moved them both in less than an hour one morning. The rest of the day was spent assembling the picnic tables and we were done with that before noon. After lunch was over, Jr, Louise, and I hopped into my truck and headed for George's place.

We drove right up to it as if we owned the place, and I guess that Jr did in a way. George and his woman came forward shortly after we'd unassed the pickup and Jr started in with their lingo right away. I didn't have any damned idea what he was telling George and his mother but they both started smiling about it nearly at once.

Everyone in camp was smiling later when Louise told them to come down a little before noon tomorrow for another Bar-B-Que. The way she said it sounded a little funny to me, but hell, I still couldn't speak Caddoan.

We left after about an hour and went home. I decided that late was better than never and took the afternoon to teach Jr how to hang onto a horse.

I'd been telling him about it some every night, but had never let him aboard one. In fact, telling him was a job, since it involved Louise, Nancy, or Helen to help translate and to teach him some English along the way.

I'd been taking an hour or two every day to try out different horses and had located the one I wanted Jr to start on. It was an older gelding, one that had been relieved of any parts of spirited. It was even a little cold mouthed, but before I let Jr climb on, I gave it about a thirty minute warm up.

First things first, I unsaddled the horse and then helped Jr figure out how that went. Helen did the translating and the lesson ran a little longer than I thought it should have, so I had him unsaddle it and we spent some time for him to learn how to put the bridle on correctly.

We'd been over it in explanations around the kitchen table before, with one of the girls translating and me drawing pictures. Still it was different when you were actually doing it. Thankfully Jr seemed to do better with this part.

After he had the bridle on in good shape, I had him saddle the gelding again, with no hints or pointers from Helen or I this time. Damned if he didn't do better without us bothering him while he was at it.

I caught up a gelding for myself then and made Jr watch me saddle mine. Then we were off. We spent an hour just walking, and I could tell after the first little bit that Jr wanted to go faster. I didn't let him though, because he still had plenty to learn about the walk.

The hardest thing about training a rider is to put gentle hands on them. If you saw on the bit you're going to cause the horse pain and discomfort. If you ever need to depend on it for something important that kind of thing will bite you in the ass right away.

If you are hurting a horse and end up taking a quick exit off its back, you are going to have hell getting hold of the reins again, at the very least. It's always the best policy to make the horse's experience as comfortable as you reasonably can. That doesn't mean that you can let them do what they want, but it does mean that it is unadvised to make things painful for them.

Jr seemed to be a natural at it. He didn't do any yanking or hard pulling and he didn't keep a death grip on the reins. He gave the gelding slow and gentle cues with the reins and his feet and we got along well.

Trotting was next, and though Jr was anxious, and had at least heard what it was going to be like, he still wasn't prepared for the jarring, even though he knew it was coming.

Western riders do not post a trot; they have to learn to ride it. I'm sure posting looks impressive while fox hunting or prancing around in a show ring, but it can end up earning you a long walk in a real life situation.

Riding a trot on a western trained horse gives you a more stable seat and keeps your ass and the saddle in constant contact. You don't put your weight on your feet and bounce your way along. You bounce all right, but you bounce with the horse.

To ride a trot you take most of your weight off the stirrups and grip with your thighs. It's almost as if you are trying to put more of your weight into the saddle. You don't want to clear the seat on the up bounce because you need your ass on the leather. Western horses don't always make slow and gentle moves, sometimes they need to change directions without giving you any warning; believe me, you want your butt against the saddle if they do.

Yes, this is harder on the rider, and yes, when you're learning to do it your legs, especially the inner thighs, get sore as hell. Nobody said being a cowboy, or an Indian, was a walk in the park. Sore thigh muscles beat a broken leg any damned day of the week.