Chapter 96

Pike was digging the first posthole a few feet behind the corner marker of the property and they were wondering why Moses had him put it there. They soon found out when Moses stopped him and set the post in the hole.

“Now, I’m going to show you how to set a fence post in the ground and make it sturdy. The stouter a post is when it’s set, the stouter it will be five years from now. You have to start packing the dirt around the post from the bottom of the hole,” he talked as he worked with the long round, heavy wooden handle with no tool on either end.

When he kicked dirt in around the post, he would hold the post plumb, then take the handle and tamp the dirt down hard around the post until it was packed solid. Moses would kick more dirt in the hole, stopping again to pack once more, until he had the dirt piled high above ground around the post, then he packed it solid with his foot as he walked around the post.

When he was through, he shook the post, and it stood firm and solid.

“This post is only to line up with. When we get through, we’ll take it up. But for now, I want one of you to take this spool of twine and walk straight down toward toward that other line marker in the distance. Count your steps as you walk and step off thirty steps. That’s about as far as you can stretch this twine and not break it or have it sag. It will have to be stretched tight so you can line all your fence posts up with the string.”

Pike took the spool and started walking north from the property line marker, reeling off twine as he walked. The next line marker was in the distance at least two hundred yards.

“One of you take a posthole digger and go with him. I’ll line him up with this post and the other line marker up there. When we have it straight, I’ll line you up with your posthole digger and you can dig the hole to set another post to tie the twine to.”

“So, the next time we move down, we’ll line up with this marker and go on toward the line marker in the distance, keeping the string straight with this first part?” Belinda asked as they all watched.

“That’s it, Belinda. When we get going, the men can dig the holes, set the posts, and tamp the dirt back in. You girls can bring the posts from the wagon and put them in the hole, or at least lay the post beside the hole. We’ll put the posts ten feet apart, so we need something we can cut exactly ten feet long to lay on the ground and mark the next hole.”

“There’s a green sapling over there by the railroad, I’ll go cut it and we can measure it to use as a marker for ten feet,” Micah told him and hurried over with his hatchet in his hand.

“So, we just lay that sapling on the ground next to the last hole, then mark the next hole at the end of it. But we’ll need to make sure it’s in line with the twine, right?” Cecily asked.

“That’s it. If you do this right, when you get through, you can look down this fence row and see nothing but a straight line of posts all the way to the other end.”

“Then that’s what we want. We want a good fence that looks good,” Lane told him.

“When we get lined out here, three of you can dig holes as fast as one can mark off ten feet. Just make sure you line the top of handles up with the string when you start the hole. I’ll show you on the first one or two, then one of you can dig them. You’ll need to keep your gloves on and swap up on those posthole diggers. You’re still gonna get lots of blisters and lots of sore hands before you’re through.”

Moses had Micah lay the sapling from the corner marker down the line. He took his posthole digger and made a mark with the blades where he wanted the post. Then he started digging. When he had the hole started, he left his posthole digger standing and pointed to Jere Joe.

“Jere Joe, you men wanted to do this and you’re going to put in a good days work on them handles, so grip them tight and keep the sides of the hole straight all the way to the bottom. I’ve already put a mark on all the handles at two and a half foot deep. Make each one the same depth and your posts will all be the same height as well as in a straight line.”

“We can do this,” he told Moses as he began to dig.

When he had started, Moses showed them how to mark the next hole while that one was still being dug. He laid the sapling on the ground with the end at the edge of the hole, then when Caleb had his mark at the other end, he picked the sapling up so Jere Joe and Caleb could both start digging their holes.

Moses moved on to the next one and helped them line it up as Eli grabbed a set of posthole diggers and started that hole. There were now three of them digging holes at the same time.

The red dirt was hard and dry on the surface, but once they broke through the crust of the topsoil, the digging was easier. They quickly had three holes dug and the girls had a post standing inside each of them, ready to be set and tamped in place.

As the fencing crew worked together, with Moses telling them how to make it easier and simpler, they began to run a row of fence posts along their west property line from south to north. Now and then, one of them would step over and sight back down the line of posts, then turn to grin at the others with a nod of approval.

Martinez rode up with Stefani, and seven of the new girls. Behind them rode the four new vaqueros. They knew these were the cousins from Mexico.

“Martinez, I see you have us some more help. Do any of them speak English?” Eli asked as Martinez walked over to sight down the line of fence posts. They now had twenty posts set and three more being dug.

“Si, Eli. They have all had some schooling in America and have had lots of work on the rancho. They wanted to come here already and help with the fencing. They told me they have fenced many, many miles at Laredo.”

“Get some gloves out of the first wagon with the posts in it. We have a dozen posthole diggers and Moses said when we learn to do this right, we’ll split into three crews,” Eli told them, pointing to the wagon Suh was driving.

As the Crow girls and the Blasingame girls brought more posts, the Mexican girls followed Stefani to take the cedar posts out of the wagon and stand them in the holes as they were dug.

When they had dug the postholes for the first thirty steps, they knew what to do and how to line the string up with the marker in the distance. Eli was looking down the long line of posts already set, as he pointed left or right, to the direction they needed to move to line up with their posts. When he’d lined them up just perfect, he waved both arms up and down.

“We need to set two of these crossties, five feet apart, every hundred and fifty feet. We’ll need to set them in the ground a good four feet, at five foot apart and make sure the tops are tied together solid, so when we set them, we can stretch the bob-wire from those two big posts down to the next double set of crossties. Then when we stretch the wire tight, we’ll nail the five strands of wire to each fence post between the big posts.”

“We do that so we won’t pull our smaller posts over when we stretch the wire, right?” Abigail said. She had seen her dad and uncle fence before and knew how it was done.

“Yep, you Texas girls have seen this done before then?” Moses said.

“Yes and we have helped just like we are now. We drove the fencing wagons and put the posts in the holes so they wouldn’t have to.”

Lilly Beth and Lee Yu were driving two of the wagons, one loaded with wire and the other with cross ties. They were behind Suh as she made sure her wagon, loaded with fence posts was near where the holes were being dug. The other wagons were left behind after the harnesses were taken off the mules and they were staked out to graze.

As they worked and learned about setting posts and how to keep the new fence row straight, they talked to Stefani and the three new girls. They had now met six of the new girls and the four new vaqueros.

“Stefani, where are the other cousins that came up from Laredo?” Kia asked as they stood by the wagons.

“They are cooking back at the camp. They will be here soon with our food.”

“That’s great, we can keep working this way, just stopping long enough to eat. Tell us the names of these new girls. They are very pretty and they look so young too.”

Stefani called the six Mexican girls over to meet the Blasingames, and the Crow girls.

“This is Belèn, she is fourteen and she is my oldest sister’s daughter. This is Neva, she is fifteen and she is Belèn’s sister. Over here is Conchita, and we call her, Chita. She is the oldest at seventeen. She is my sister and I am so happy to have her here. She was there in Laredo to attend school and she was being taken to the whorehouse too, before Miguel rescued them. Then over here is my sister’s baby girl, Ynez. She will soon be fourteen but she looks much older with her big tetas!

“Over here is Benito, she is sixteen and she is my other sister’s daughter. This is Benito’s sister, Carmela who is fifteen and this is Tonia, my brother’s daughter, who is sixteen. This is Jimena, who is seventeen and she is a friend of Carmela’s who was living with my sister. She has no parents and she wanted to come with us to America.”

As they learned the new girls’ names they greeted each of them and introduced themselves. The Mexican girls began pulling the posts from the open end of the wagon and setting them in the postholes. The vaqueros had already taken posthole diggers from the wagon and were right in line as they now had seven men digging holes.

When the other girls arrived, Stefani’s sister, Perla was with them. They rode in the wagon from Pecan Ridge, and had their food in wooden bowls with enough tin plates and forks to serve them. Martinez’ four vaqueros and their wives were with them to help, as were the other two cousins, Sancha and Alicia.

When they had eaten the tasty, greasy, spicy food, Moses split them into three crews and took three wagons with the second crew back over to the east property line to start northward, from the railroad with that property line fence. Martinez, his four vaqueros and their wives made up this second crew.

Moses took the other crew to start at the southwest corner where they had first started, so they could fence across the south end of the property, leaving a twenty foot wide gap in the middle, straight out from the railroad trestle. This was to be their main entrance gate when they had the fence completed. The four new vaqueros and six of the new girls made up this crew.

Two of the new girls were going to tend the sheep and send Lupe and Alba over to help this crew.

When sundown came that first day, the fencing crews were already headed north toward camp, leaving the wagons at the fencing site, taking the mules and horses with them. By the time they arrived at camp, the girls tending the sheep were there already.

“Eli, how far did y’all get down the west side?” Moses asked as they sat around drinking coffee and eating more of the greasy Mexican food with plates of beans.

“Pike said we already have three hundred and fifty posts set, not counting the crossties.”

“That’s about two thirds of a mile, which is a good first day, since we got here late and took some time to get lined out. We’ll have a better day tomorrow. We should be able to set posts on close to three miles a day, with three crews.”

“We’ll be out of posts in ten days like that,” Pike said.

“If we run out, we’ll turn around and go back to the south corners, build our corner sections out of crossties and start stretching five strands of wire down one side at a time. They’re supposed to deliver the rest of the posts and all the bob-wire in ten days from when this part of the order left Kansas City.”

Eight days later, they were down to one wagon with a hundred posts on it, the remaining crossties, and a few rolls of barbed wire. They parked all the empty wagons near the railroad, hoping the train would deliver their remaining posts, wire, and crossties the next day.