Chapter 3

Being from a farm, Marty was in the habit of rising early. He was up, dressed and ready to go by shortly after 6 AM the morning after the briefing. He left his tent and wandered over to the mess tent to see if he could at least scare up a cup of coffee. To his pleasant surprise he found not only could he get coffee—really GREAT coffee at that—but they had breakfast to order already. He sat and enjoyed a cup of coffee but the wonderful breakfast smells pulled him to the serving line when he went after his second cup. The line was still short and he got into it behind a few single individuals and an obvious family group. He ordered two eggs over easy, ham and breakfast potatoes with fresh biscuits. His plate was almost running over when he made his way back to a table to eat. He sat at a longer table with the family on one end and a couple of single men on the end near him.

The men seemed to be friends and talked between themselves, ignoring everyone else around. Marty found himself exchanging greetings with the man and his wife then being drawn into conversation with them. They were a farm family that lived close to his old home before being selected for this new adventure.

James and Dottie Carter, their 21-year-old daughter Callie and 17-year-old son Timothy had operated a small hog and beef farm. They owned 20 acres but actually farmed and ranched almost 800 acres, most on a year to year lease from the property owners. He raised about 500 acres of wheat, corn and soy beans. The rest was dedicated to his hog and beef operation in one way or another. China’s cessation of U.S. grain imports hurt them like it did Marty. They were also in trouble because they only had minimal crop insurance on the crop and flooded out the year before. They had only insured the cost of seed, not the full yield on the fields. Their pork and beef operation wasn’t large enough to fully support the family so everyone had been looking for outside work to make ends meet when they found the advertisement from the Pioneer Corporation.

After they finished breakfast, Marty said, “Well, I’m going to start my research before everyone else gets around to it. Hope to see you folks again soon. Good luck.

Marty got another cup of coffee to take with him and headed for the church’s back door. When he entered the church, he saw he wasn’t the only one who wanted to start early. About half the workstations and tables were already filled. He was somewhat surprised also at the equipment available. Marty didn’t know how they did it and frankly, he didn’t care but there were computers and books available to facilitate research on the available work, land and other opportunities. There were even CD’s available with detailed information on areas and history if he wanted to view them.

Marty chose an open table near the back of the room beside a window and began to see what was available to help him with his decisions. He found huge files of data on the level of knowledge here, on laws (there were very few and they more or less followed the ten commandments) and on procedures for selecting land or buildings to purchase or homestead. He was even able to view maps with a program much like google maps and could even use a “street view” program to see finer detail.

He really didn’t want to work as hard as a farmer did in these times nor did he want to become a blacksmith or carpenter although all of those occupations used knowledge he carried from earth. He supposed he had enough knowledge to teach several subjects but teaching wasn’t too interesting to him either, especially considering the little it paid. This reality was much like earth in that aspect, teachers did not earn but a pittance, especially when their impact on society was considered.

He had only been working about 30 minutes when the Carters came into the building. Marty didn’t see them enter and was somewhat surprised when Callie came up and asked if she could use the same table he was. Marty smiled and said, “Sure. I think it’s a free country. At least I hope it is. Anyway, I don’t need all this space for myself and its obvious, since there are two computers here, that the table was meant for more than one person to use.” Timothy moved off to sit with some boys about his age. They did a lot of talking and laughing and very little research from what Marty could see.

On the other hand, Jim and Dottie settled in at a table next to Marty and Callie and immediately began working. Dottie operated the computer and she and Jim began making notes on a tablet as they worked and discussed things. Callie worked on a computer beside Marty and made a few notes too. Soon, she pushed her chair back and sat with her arms crossed beneath her breasts with a sour look on her face. She let out a large puff of air and glared at the computer.

Marty turned his head toward her and asked, “What’s got you all huffy?”

“Can you believe these people? I can’t find a darn thing I can do here unless I want to be a teacher or store clerk and there isn’t much need for them. It’s like they expect women to be housewives and nothing else. Oh, yeah, I can be a whore. It looks like more women work as whores than anything else.”

“Well, I really hadn’t looked at that or even thought about it but Jones did say this culture was reminiscent of the U.S. in the 1870’s. That’s what women did in those times. Maybe you’re going about it in the wrong way. Instead of looking for a place to work, look for a niche you are educated to fill and fill it. Make your own job.”

“I sort of thought about that but it’s pretty clear that banks won’t loan money to a woman here and few men will work for one. I have completed a little over two years of college so should be able to contribute a lot but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. This is almost totally a male dominated society.”

Marty became worried by what he was hearing and asked, “Don’t tell me you’re one of those militant feminists?”

“No, I’m not. I just want what every woman wants. I want a man to love me and to work with. I want to be an equal partner with him and be able to contribute more than a pussy and strong back. I want to build a life for myself and him and raise a family but I have to support myself until I find him.”

“Why? Aren’t you here with your family? Why can’t you help them with whatever they decide to do until you find a husband?”

“OH, YOU...”. Callie took a deep breath and clenched her jaws. She started to get up and storm away. Marty reached out and grabbed her arm. She glared at him again and looked down at his hand holding her back.

Marty said, “Hey. I didn’t mean to piss you off. I didn’t mean that like it sounded either. I meant this is a labor-intensive time period. Admittedly it is better than it was years ago but not nearly as good as it was where we come from. Whatever your parents decide to do they will need help. I’m sure they can use the help you can provide them and they would be willing and appreciative to have you help them. Maybe you can find something to do that fits in with their plans. I didn’t mean to imply you should just live off them.”

About that time Jim Carter came over to the table and asked, “Hey, things are getting crowded in here. Would you mind if Dottie and I used the machines on the other side of the table so someone can use those we were tying up? That way maybe we can keep an eye on our little spitfire here.”

“Sure, that’s fine Jim, said Marty.

Jim turned toward Callie and said, “What put the burr under your saddle honey?”

“Marty and I were talking about the limited opportunities for a woman here and I thought he said I should forget about supporting myself and mooch off you and mom. I guess I took what he said wrong. You know I’ve been working ever since I was a sophomore in high school and as near full time since I graduated as college would allow. I guess I just felt like ... Oh, I don’t know. There’s just nothing here I can do.”

Jim said, “Well Honey, he does sort of have a point there. Anything we do here will take a lot more man or woman hours to accomplish. There are very few labor-saving devices here. I don’t know what Tim is going to do but I was sort of hoping we could all settle together until things work out. I’m afraid with his attitude, unless it changes here, that he will be more trouble than he’s worth.” Jim laughed and continued, “At least we don’t have to worry about him doing drugs here. I just hope he stays away from the alcohol.

“I know Daddy but I want to help earn us some money. I really want to earn my own money like I was doing back home.”

“I’m sure you will but we could really use you if we farm again like I plan. That’s all your momma and I know even if it is from, basically, the future. We’re farmers and you’re a farm girl. Didn’t you tell me you wanted to live on a farm when you got married? Now let’s get back to work. We’re going to have to move away from the machines soon so someone else can use them. You know we’re limited to either morning or afternoon unless there is an open machine out of our time period.”

The four returned to their research and things got quiet again. Callie looked over at Marty’s computer shortly after 10 AM and saw him using the “google earth” feature. She scooted closer to his chair and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I’ve about decided what I’m going to do here and now I’m looking for a place to do it. I would like to find a nice valley with a good-sized fast running stream or two through it somewhere fairly close to a town or what passes for a city here. I brought five registered cows and a bull and two nice riding horses as well as all the tools and metal I could stuff into my trailer. I’m going to build up my herd and until I do that, I want to be able to work as a carpenter or blacksmith. I need land for pasture, to cut hay and grow a large garden and some crops to feed the livestock with.”

Jim heard Marty and Callie talking and said, “Sounds almost exactly like what Dottie and I want. Have you found anything yet?”

“Yeah, I think so. Now I have to see if it is claimed by anyone. The map says the valley is about three thousand acres from side to side and end to end. I want to cut out the prime section to homestead. The four of you could get the other 2400 acres and we would have the whole valley if it’s available.”

Callie spoke up, saying, “No we can’t. I did look up the Homestead laws after I found out how limited opportunities were for women. You have to be 21 or head of a household to file so Tim isn’t eligible. There was a note on the disk though that the laws here differ from those in our past. In our time stream you had to live on the land for five years and work it before you could get final ownership. You also could only file on 160 acres initially, then it was raised to 320 acres before finally, in the early 1900’s becoming a full section (640 Acres). Here we can file on a full section if we meet all the age, building and work requirements.”

Jim sort of slumped when he heard that then asked, “Where is this valley?”

Marty said, “Why don’t you and Dottie come over here and look it over on my machine since I already have it pulled up?”

Dottie and Jim came over and Marty scooted his chair back. He zoomed out and showed them the large view then slowly zoomed in to show them the valley in its entirety. It was slightly less than 100 miles from their current location and was only about 40 miles from what passed for a large city here. Jim looked at Dottie and said, “Wow. That’s just about perfect. Do we need to look any farther honey? Look, we could file and build our house here and...”. He turned to Marty and said, “I guess I should wait a minute here. You found this little slice of heaven. You should get first choice of the land.”

Marty grinned and said, “That’s fine. I was thinking I wanted to build here on this high ground where this smaller stream joins the larger one. I wanted the flat bottom land for crops and some hillside for pasture. That stream looks like it could turn a waterwheel so I can have electricity and I can build below that bluff with the waterfall. I brought several generators and a lot of electrical equipment. Unless our employers have thrown it away or converted it to things similar from this time stream, I should be able to do that. You and yours can file on the rest of the better areas and we’ll have the valley mostly sewed up. There will be room for three or four more families. Maybe we can find some compatible families to file on the other tracts.”

“Great, let’s see if we can get it done.”

Callie said, “Daddy! What if I don’t want to file on that land? What if I want something else?”

Jim looked shocked for a moment then said, “That’s fine honey. I’m not saying you have to do it but it would help us all out. Look here, you could file for this piece between Marty and us. Then after you prove up on it if you want to move on or marry someone with land you can either sell it to one of us or someone else if your husband doesn’t want it.”

“What about Tim? I’m not sure he wants to farm. I know he wasn’t too interested back home and it will be harder work here.”

“I don’t know honey. I was counting on him filing but I guess that’s out. I suppose he’ll have to work with us for now and then, if he still doesn’t like it here, he can go back home at the end of the first two years.”

Marty looked at the family and said, “Are we agreed then? I’ll leave it to you to get Tim on board. I’ve marked this land as tentatively taken on the computers. Now we need to get to the land office and file legal like before someone jumps in ahead of us. I don’t know most of the people with us. I would like to think they won’t jump in ahead of us but I would rather be safe than sorry. It’s almost lunch time. Let’s find Jones and see where and how we file then eat. I need to check on my animals too, then I have to see how many draft animals I’m supposed to get, decide what I want and pick them out also.”

“Sounds good. Mind if we tag along? We need to get our draft animals as well.”

“No, that’s fine. Besides we’re going to be neighbors and we’re all going the same place so it makes sense to stick together from here on out if that suits you all.”

“You’re thinking just like I am. Shake.” The two men shook hands and they headed off to do their tasks.

Callie smiled and when they left, she walked beside Marty. Their first stop was Jones’ office while Jim and Dottie went to talk to Tim. Jones informed the two that he had nothing to do with filing for land. They had to go to the land office with authority over the area in which they wished to settle. Marty showed him the valley they were interested in and got the location of the land office. It was in the large city nearest their valley.

After verifying the information Marty asked, “If we leave now to look over the valley and file, if it is what we want, will our belongings be safe here or will we need to take them with us? We can make much better time if we don’t have to take everything when we go.”

“Your belongings will be safe here with us for the whole two weeks. After that we are leaving and I can’t guarantee anything. I would bet someone will take them within hours of us departing if you are not here to safeguard them at that time.”

“Damn. Do you have the information here about selecting our draft animals? We need to decide what to use and get them selected too. Then we need to decide whether to go slower and take everything or make a quick trip and hope we return before you leave.”

“Yes, I have the allocations. Of course, the final number of animals you receive depends on the type you choose as some of them can pull more weight than other breeds. Do you know what you want now?”

“No, we’ll decide today. Can we mix the selection? Get some of each variety if we want?”

“Yes, that’s permissible.”

As they were leaving the office three arrogant young men pushed between Marty and Callie heading for the door. Marty said, “Hey, watch where you’re going. You don’t have to be so rude. You almost knocked Callie down.”

“Oh, fuck off asshole. Keep the hell outta our way and you won’t get pushed around. Now you want to make something out of it?” Marty shook his head no to raucous laughter from the three. The one who spoke before said, “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

Marty and Callie turned away and headed for lunch while the three stomped into the office laughing and making rude comments.

Marty, Callie, and her family had just sat down to eat when the three young men they had encountered earlier came into the mess tent. When they saw Marty, they walked up to the table and said, “Hey asshole. We hear you’re trying to horn in on our valley. You need to find somewhere else to squat. That there valley’s been in our family now for years back home and we intend to make it ours here also. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll find someplace else to park your ass.”

Dottie looked at Marty and asked, “What did he mean by that? I thought you said no one owned that valley Marty?”

“I did. According to Jones latest information on this reality, no one has filed on the valley. It’s open and available for homesteading. According to the gentleman that just left he said they ‘planned’ to make it their home because their family owned it in our prior reality. As far as I’m concerned if we beat them to the land office it’s ours.”

Jim looked worried and said, “Well, I don’t know. I sure don’t want any trouble. Maybe we should just find somewhere else. We saw a lot of places that would work for us.”

Callie said, “Daddy! How can you say that? That isn’t those assholes valley. They’re just trying to bully us and take it. If they beat us there fair and square, fine but (she looked at Marty and continued) I think we need to keep on with our plans. I’ll do whatever the rest of you decide though.”