Chapter 33

We ended up with plenty of daylight left to feed everyone again, and even sit around with coffee to give them a head start on digestion. About forty-five minutes before sunset George and his woman stood up and headed home with all the ones that were going back following. Randy, Jr, and I started filling and tying trash bags so Sky and his guys fell in helping us out.

We all went to bed almost as soon as we were inside and a few minutes later, as I started licking Ginny's tasty twat, I heard Star Trek start on Jr's TV. It wouldn't be long before I taught him something better to spend his bed time doing.

The next morning, after breakfast, Randy took over the details, with Jr and I helping him move the triple-wides into place. He did most of the driving and loader manipulating while Jr, Sky, the other braves, and I did the grunt work. There was no backbreaking labor involved and damned if I didn't learn something.

I'd always wondered how they got those sections pushed together after they were lined up. I'd never seen it done and had been content to wonder. Randy knew exactly how and if I'd have had to figure out a way to do it I might have come up with something similar. Of course Randy had known how all along and he'd made sure we had the right equipment.

Said equipment consisted of several twelve-inch-wide, long channel-irons with wide rollers that used them for guides and jacks that rode on the rollers. The channel-irons were placed under the section that needed to be moved, perpendicular to its long axis. After that the rollers and jacks were put in place and the section was jacked up so the wheels could be removed.

With the wheels and axles off, we just pushed the section toward the other one and did serious adjustment as they came together - lining the two sections up to match each other and then leveling everything in sight. It was concrete blocks and fairly hard work after that but still nothing to get in a bind over. I was surprised at how well it worked.

Of course this was only the first iteration and we still had three more to go before the six sections were combined into two separate homes, but what the hell? It didn't even take all day, or not quite all day anyway.

Six days later the triple-wides were ready for occupancy. There'd been dozens of details to take care of after the frames of the houses were joined. Fixing the shingles was only the first, and it was followed by putting the carpet back like it was supposed to be, and on and on. We saved the worst part for last.

Screw in anchors and metal banding to keep the houses from blowing away in a storm were a pain in the butt, but necessary. This was still Texas after all, and even though tornadoes weren't as popular down here as they were where I'd come from, I still didn't want to take a ride on one if I could avoid it. The anchors wouldn't help much with a direct hit, but they could do a hell of a lot of good if it was only a close call.

That didn't even get started on the things we had to unpack from the trailers and bring into the houses. The giant stereo system I'd thought I had to have needed to be unpacked and I spent three late nights getting it all hooked up. I also found one hell of a bonus while I was at it.

I'd heard a little about projection TV back in my old life, but it wasn't like you could go to any store and buy one. I knew there was a company named Advent that made a model for home use, but I'd never even heard of any place that had them for sale. Apparently the guy that bought the giant stereo system had, since there was a brand new one still in its several boxes along with the stereo stuff.

It took Randy and I both to figure out how to get it up and playing but it was one hell of a TV after it was assembled. The big part was the screen of course, and then we had a time lining up the projection part to point in exactly the right direction on the screen so the picture would be just right. It would have been worth it if there were any TV stations. At least we had plenty of VHS movies.

Moving out of the single-wide homes into the triple-wides was next, and somehow it took four days. I couldn't figure out how we'd gathered so much stuff in the single-wides, but we had. Of course one whole day was spent digging stuff out of the storage trailers, things we had bought but hadn't bothered unpacking yet.

As soon as we had our new homes set up we helped our work crews move out of the camper trailers and into the single-wides. This didn't take nearly as long but it did take some time. I'm sure they appreciated it too, even if it did mean more floors for the men to vacuum. It also left us with two perfectly serviceable camper trailers that were vacant. Neither Randy, Marilyn, nor anyone else could come up with a good use for them right away.

We took nearly a week off from any major projects. Some time each day was spent going through the trailers looking for things we needed in our houses, but it wasn't really a big job. It did let Randy and I know we needed to get started on at least one of the metal buildings. We had a lot of tools and machinery that needed a good home, and none of it was doing us any good in those trailers.

Originally we'd planned on just putting them up with dirt floors, but both Randy and I had changed our minds. We had plenty of remix, mesh wire, rebar, and Portland for a concrete floor and plenty of equipment to dig out for a slab and pour it. Hell, it would take a little longer but it would just be better.

After we got started we discovered it would take more than a little bit longer, and Randy was partly at fault over that. He had taken me at my word on buying two large metal buildings. Hell, I'd thought the place that had obviously been left for one of them looked pretty big. It was, because it had to be. Randy had bought two 150 by 400 buildings. At least after they were up it would be a long time before we ran out of space.

It took three weeks to dig out for the foundation, lay and tie the rebar, and unroll the mesh wire, not to mention putting in the redwood expansion joint every twenty feet or so. During this process Randy and I both figured out that there was no way in hell we could teach our helpers how to pour and finish the concrete as we went. We also realized we'd need more helpers too.

The next morning it was time to discuss matters with Louise and the girls. She listened to our sad tale and came up with a wonderful suggestion right away.

"Ask George move tribe here with us. Build him log house to live in. Give woman a stove, bathtub, hot water," she said.

Of course she'd called George's woman by name, but I still didn't have any idea what it was. The idea was perfect though, and I was ready to hop in a pickup and go see if we could make a deal.

"No. Do fishing first. We go ask them come fishing tomorrow, early. We ask George while most women cleaning fish," Louise said, while Helen, Louise, and Ginny nodded their heads, and then Randy put in his two cents worth.

"It'll be great and I've got just the thing to help with the fishing. I brought two hand cranked telephone generators. We'll just give the fish a long distance call," he said, and it made me laugh.

"Sounds good Randy. Why don't you take the guys down to the river for a practice run while we go and talk to George," I said, and it was a done deal.

Jr, Louise, and I hopped into the red Silverado and headed for George's tribe while Randy, Marilyn, and all the others hitched one of the bass boats I'd bought and headed for the Neches. Louise spent most of the trip to George's explaining to Jr what we were up to. He was all for it.

Of course they heard us coming and George and his woman, along with most of the tribe were out to greet us. Jr was out first and he surprised me by introducing me to his mother, George's woman, right away. I figured that it was about time but though I'd heard her name called several time already I still had to make up one for her that I could pronounce. Ouida popped into my mind and when I tried it she saluted with a smile.

With the formalities out of the way I invited them down for a fishing get together. I explained that Randy had brought a new method with him and also that we had better boats now, leaving Louise to do her best with the translation.

Apparently George was a bigger fan of fish than I'd thought, since he started grinning about the proposal as soon as Louise sprang their word for fishing on him. We hung around talking and grinning for about an hour and then headed back. George said they'd be down fairly early in the morning.