Chapter 13: Rebuilding Home

Saturday morning was spent showing Linda around Pop's ranch. At lunch, Pop told us what work he had been doing on the old house. Using a front-end loader they had stacked the remains of the house and set it on fire again. All that was left now was the foundation and metal. He had arranged for a large Dumpster to be delivered that we would fill it with remains of the house.

After lunch we put on work clothes and drove to my ranch. What had been a big four-bedroom country house was now a small pile of charred metal. I drove the front-end loader and dumped every thing into the Dumpster. This took about two hours. Next using the front-end loader to break up the sides of the foundation and pushing them into what had been the root cellar.

During dinner Linda asked why we had taken time to remove all the old metal and junk then break the foundation up to fill the root cellar. Pop said, "Leaving the root cellar exposed would allow water to gather and breed all sorts of pests. As far as leaving the rest of the junk there it could cause contamination at some other point in time and was just best to remove it now."

I went on to explain that as a kid we had a small ravine on the property that someone had been dumping their garbage into for several years. It seemed like several hundred snakes lived there most likely drawn by rats and field mice. It had taken us several weeks to clean it up and since then every time we plowed a field we dumped the rocks in that ravine. Pop said that ravine had been filled up five years ago and now that they were dropping the rocks in a ravine that started to form at the edge of his property to the south.

Sunday we surprised Pop by going to church with him. I had a great time meeting many old family friends and introducing Linda and Virginia. The main question asked was whether I was moving back or not. Virginia finally explained, "We are on vacation and while we planned to move back it would be only on a part time basis!" After this had been repeated five or six times then the word was out.

We passed the fire off at the old ranch house as being caused by a chimney fire. Several people had one of them throughout the years caused by either soot and pitch build up or because some animal had decided to build a nest in the chimney during the summertime while it was not in use.

The Keys', whose son had helped Pop get the equipment from the cabin, said they were happy that I was going to rebuild the old cabin. I told them they were welcome to use it any time they wanted and they thanked me. Later Virginia asked why I had given them permission to use it and explained they owned the land up to that property and we had to pass through it all the time. Beside they have only used it once and that was during their wedding trip according to my Ma.

On the way home Pop explained that the cabin had been a line shack for many years before a cowboy had retired up there and run a few head of cattle. Virginia asked what became of him and Pop said he had been working for the ranch most of his life and they had let him retire up there and one spring he had not shown up nor been heard of since. They figured he went out and had an accident then died.

Sunday evening we cooked steaks outside on the back yard grill under the trees. Pop said it had been a long time since he had used the cooker but now that he remembered he would have to use it more often. Later we discussed plans for the new house and talked about what needed to be done to the old one. Pop was for filling in the old septic tank since it had not been upgraded throughout the years and would most likely collapse some day under some unsuspecting soul. I agreed and said we should also have the rest of the root cellar filled in with good topsoil too. Pop said he would order that first thing Monday and he would also clear of the top of the septic tank so it could be collapsed easily. I told him not to go to that trouble I would call Mike Keys and have him drop a quarter stick of dynamite down the septic tank and when it collapsed we would just fill it in. Pop accused me of always doing things the easy way and I said, "Of course that's what they taught me to work at school; work smart not hard!" The girls chuckled and Pop had no comeback!

Monday we helped at the old place. Mike Keys showed up about 9AM and was ready to leave at 9:10 after he collapsed the septic tank with a small blast. Linda and Virginia were not impressed with the smell, not to say Pop or I liked it. We then moved items from the barn to Pop's ranch and stored them. After watching the two loads of dirt being dumped to fill the tank and old root cellar we walked up to the ridge where we wanted to build our house.

While up on the ridge Linda stated that since we were not going to be using the barn anymore maybe we should have it dismantled. Virginia asked why and Linda explained that it was the only structure in our view of the valley below. I had to agree with her and said for a while we may need it to store supplies until our house was completed but then I would discuss it with Pop and the neighbor who we leased the property to.

Tuesday morning I was up early and saddled the three horses we were taking. I put the pack rack on the mule and then went into the house for breakfast. After breakfast Pop and I loaded the animals into the trailer and stowed the rest of the baggage in the bed of the pickup truck. By 8:30 we were on our way to the drop off point.

Once at the point, it took Pop and I an hour to pack the mule so the load would not shift. Beings I was the only one who knew the trail from this direction I led the way with the pack mule with Linda following and Virginia bring up the rear. Two hours later we arrived at the cabin. Shortly we had the camp set up and we explored a little bit then ate a light lunch.

Virginia asked how long it would take us to clean out the cabin and I told her it would take most of a day for what was left. This time I cut the wood and Linda took a load to the fire. Once there she would watch the fire while Virginia got the next load. If I cut enough to get ahead of them I would carry some out too. We stopped working about 6 and fixed supper.

Virginia and Linda had stacked enough wood off to the side so we were able to have a small fire until late into the night. At one point we stopped talking and just communicated mentally. Virginia invited us into her memories and it was a very emotional time for us all but I think we even grew closer for it. That evening we zipped the two sleeping bags together and there cuddling which required changing positions several times. We finally ended up with Linda in the middle of us but it was me who woke up from a bad dream. At that point both women were concerned and we fell back to sleep a little before sunrise with me in the center.

Wednesday about 3 PM found us finishing up the cleaning of the dirt floor in the cabin. Virginia was shocked that it was a dirt floor and I laughed and asked her what did she think it was. Linda said, "Well I guess we can cover it with wood now!"

"No we can not do that because the floor would warp and rot too quickly but I would discuss it with Pop to see what he suggested."

"We need to add a room for a kitchen too!" declared Linda.

Before I could object Virginia agreed saying we could add it to the back using the backdoor as a way in. I decided that they did not have such a bad idea at that point. I could remember trying to cook my meals on the open flames of the fireplace and knew I did not want to cook that way unless necessary. I had used the cabin in the past as a retreat just after school let out and during hunting season usually by myself or once in a while with Dad or Pop.

Thursday morning I built a cache for the tools and covered them with the tarp before we left for the ride back to the ranch. We had called Pop and told him we were taking the scenic route back. We rode for an hour then would walk for a bit. Virginia said this is much easier than last time when we rode the whole way as fast as we could without a break!

This brought up a whole deal with the Lab and the people involved the last time we had been here. During the next rest break we connected and shared our memories of the incident with Linda. This time we did not hold anything back from Linda including the deaths of the two men. The funny thing was that while Virginia and I were both there what we remembered as important was different and interesting. I did find out that I was able to trigger Virginia's memories. Then she was able to give a very detailed description of the men involved down to what color socks they were wearing.

I guess now would be a good time to say that my wives had not let me just relax; at least once a day they would work with me to find the limits of my powers. I was now able to lift a good size car. To me, more importantly I could pick a person in a crowded group and hear his thoughts. I had yet not been able to download his memory with out feeling some ill affects each time. Downloading someone's mind like, say, an architect did not give me detailed information on how to be an architect but did allow me to converse and understand them on their own level. I just lacked the total background and creativity needed to be an architect.

Virginia summed it up best, "You are like a sponge you can absorb the knowledge from a person and store it as if you were an encyclopedia; but lack the experience to put it to work!" The main thing I had noticed of late was that I was starting to be able to assimilate this knowledge and use it when working on my own projects. Please understand this did not make me an expert, only gave me the knowledge to know if a plan was feasible or not and to make use of just basic idea; nothing too complex. An example of this would be to say I can draw the electrical circuits for the new house but I lacked the detail information to tell them what size wire or fuse should be used on any given circuit.

We arrived back at Pop's ranch about 4:30 according to my internal clock, By the time the tack and horses had been taken care of and we had showered it was just after 7 PM.

Pop had sprinkled fajita seasoning on the steaks before cooking them on the grill. When we sat down to dinner they were great. During dinner Virginia and Linda mentioned how much they loved the cabin. Pop stopped eating long enough to tell us that both his and my ranch had been bought at the same time and the cabin had been deeded with it.

This raised a lot of questions. I asked just how big the ranch had been at one time and he told me that the original had been the "Keys" including all their property, the ranch to our north and the two ranches one south and the other west of the "Keys". Next he explained that he had one son and two daughters and had split the ranch up equally. This ranch and the one to the north had been owned by one of the daughters while the one south and west of the Keys which was L-shaped was owned by the other daughter. The main homestead had gone to the son who was Mike Keys' father.

Pop could not explain why we had title to the cabin but suspected it was part of a wedding gift to the daughter. Linda was quick to tell Pop about our thoughts to rebuild the place and add another room to the back for a kitchen. Pop agreed that would be nice if anybody was going to spend any time up there at all.

Virginia stated, "I do not like the dirt floor and George said we needed to talk to you about how to fix that!"

"Well, at one time it had a rock floor that was uneven and every time it rained water would pool there. The funny thing was it did not come in the house through a door or window but seemed to come up through the floor along the back wall." explained Pop, then continued, "Since we only used it for staying overnight and hunting we filled it in with gravel then packed dirt in on top of it to keep things out of the water."

"If we dig a deeper foundation for the back room and pour concrete we should be able to prevent the leaking from taking place in the future. Then we could dig out the dirt and gravel. That will give us a nice stone floor," I said.

"Well that maybe true but that floor is anything but level that is one of the reasons we buried it!" stated Pop.

"We could dig it out then put in a wood floor to raising it back up to its present height." suggested Linda.

"How do you plan to get supplies up to it?" asked Pop.

"Before when I thought we would be just doing the roof I was thinking of having a helicopter airlift in the material." I stated.

"Well there used to be a wagon track that approached along the path you ride right now but over the years that last ravine has grown much larger. If you were to use the material from the floor and truck in a little more I think you could make a decent path that you could use those little four-wheelers to take your supplies in with. The Keys have several and used them to maintain their fence line and could offer advice to you on that. In the winter they use a snow mobile too." stated Pop.

"I don't want every Tom Dick and harry running their bikes and four-wheeler up there!" Virginia exclaimed.

"First off the Keys have posted their land as we do. So anybody who did take his or her bikes or four-wheeler up there would be trespassing. The other thing we can do is to place a gate across the base of the trail in the Key's fence line and keep a lock on it! I doubt that anyone would go to the trouble of using the trail then." Pop explained.

Next the discussion went to building material. We finally decided that we would haul rocks out of the stream bed and from the old slide area up to the cabin and use them to build the kitchen. I suggested that we use new metal roofing, which was met with general agreement.

Friday morning, Gary Watson, the architect showed up at the appointed time. First we sat in the ranch house and had a cup of coffee while we reviewed the plans. Pop was very curious about the number of bathrooms and bedrooms but didn't comment on that except to say, "Are you sure you need that many?"

Virginia was quick with an answer say, "Beings it's built into the earth it will be hard to add to later if the family grows!"

I could hear Pop think "Oh boy, kids!" I didn't want to mention that to the girls right now but it did get me to thinking about it. Getting back to the plans; Gary had brought two sets, one that I liked and had not given any thought to include a driveway and three garages that allowed us to pull through and would park half dozen vehicles. This was "L-shaped" with the garage sticking out providing a windbreak. Since the house would face east it would be on the north end, which caused everything to be reversed from the way we had laid it out for Gary.

The other plan was as we designed it with 4 garage doors on the west end of the house. Although it could hold at least 8 cars they would have to be backed in and out which left me a little uneasy. I asked if we could add one more garage to the "L-Shaped" garage and Gary said yes but it might stick out to far. Linda asked, "Can we build it more to the east and add a door further back that you can't just drive through?"

To me it was the perfect answer and I said, "That would work good since I want to put a small snow plow and some four-wheelers in it and do not see a reason to be able to pull all the way through." Gary made some notations and said "That will actually work better because we can pull the garages further back which will allow a bigger window in the kitchen."

Linda quickly looked at the plan and demanded, "I thought the kitchen sink was supposed to be in front of the window!"

"Yes, you requested that and on the other set it is. When I did this layout I couldn't figure out how to accomplish that and still having a functioning kitchen. With the garages pulled back that will not be a problem." explained Gary.

"The only problem I see with that setup is that you will not be able to see who is approaching the house!" stated Pop.

"We can still use the old driveway and come past the old place before turning back and up the hill to the new house. That way we will get a chance to see someone coming twice." I stated.

Pop looked at the plans and said, "Where do you plan to cook outside? I would suggest that you do not use such a sharp angle but make it more obtuse allowing for more room in front of the kitchen."

Gary and I looked at the plan and could see exactly what Pop was talking about. The front of the kitchen was actually the driveway. Gary said, "Let's go look where you want to build the house maybe we can come up with an entirely different idea."

We all piled into Gary's Suburban and drove off to the old home site. Pop had us stop just short of my property and opened a gate to the pasture and we drove the Suburban on up to the top of the ridge. I mentioned I had not know the gate was there because it was behind some trees and he said that he had installed it several years ago when he had grown hay in this field. Pop went on to explained that while the hay grew good, because it was on a hillside it made working the farm equipment a little risky when it was fully loaded and tended to be top heavy. So he used the lower pasture now for haying and ran cattle up here.