Chapter 18: We have visitors

I drew out the 9mm I was wearing and approached the cabin slowly. I saw that the wood of the woodpile had dwindled slightly. So someone had been living in the cabin for some time now.

I tried the door but it was secured on the inside. I was going to block the chimney, but then it would have stank the cabin out, so I pounded on the door and shouted to open the door. I then heard two voices, then the bar being removed from behind the door, it slowly open. There stood Wiferth with Eastorhyld behind him.

"Oh Chally! We had no idea where you had gone, so we waited for you, come in out of the cold," Wiferth said.

We entered and gathered round the fire. I saw that the pair of them had pulled the cot I had made closer to the fire. They had been sleeping there. The hygiene in the cabin left a lot to be desired. Instead of putting out the rubbish they had thrown it in the corner by the door.

"We came to visit you two moons ago and got caught in a blizzard, so we stayed hoping for your return. We saw that something must have happened here when we saw all the damage. We just waited here in the cabin. I hunted rabbits and lived on the little vegetables we could find, mostly onions and turnips that grow wild here. Only yesterday I managed to kill a wild pig," Wiferth told us.

Of course they hadn't bothered to look in the overturned and crushed van as there were still 'Compo' rations packed in there. Maybe they had but didn't know what they were.

The fire was barely burning, and the reason was the ashes had not been removed. I scraped out all the old ashes (The flat piece of sheet metal I had for this was still there) and this done, loaded more logs on to the small embers that were alight.

I went outside and put the ashes in the midden (Household refuse dump).

I then went over to the overturned van, crawled inside, and to my surprise it was still quite dry. I managed to pull two full 7 men ration packs out from the heap and push them to the rear, then wiggled myself out.

When I returned I saw the fire had picked up, and it was significantly warmer already.

"Would you mind cleaning up and put all that rubbish on the midden," I asked Wiferth and Easterhyld, pointing to the pile of rubbish in the corner.

They had no sooner gone out the door than they both dashed back in again. With utter amazement on their faces, they had seen the huge semi's in the clearing.

"There are large houses on wheels in the clearing," Wiferth declared.

Of course he hadn't seen vehicles standing on their wheels all the vehicles in the clearing had either been wrecked or were lying on their sides.

"We went and got more supplies and these are our means of carrying our goods," I told him.

Hild wasn't feeling at all good and I put her to bed. The excitement of coming back home was just too much for her. So Marjorie and I got stuck in getting the place tidied up and things washed. Before we had a meal, we had put all the pots on the fire filled with water.

We were going to wash everything before we used them again. While the water was boiling, and the other two were clearing up the mess they had made, Marjorie and I sat at the table. Using the cups on the vacuum flasks had a cup of warm coffee from the 21st Century.

"When are we going to start unloading," Marjorie asked.

"Just as soon as I get things tidied up and have something inside me. Maybe though it would be better to just leave the things on the trays and take them off as we want them," I said to her.

"Yes, at least it would keep everything in one place until we needed it," Marjorie agreed.

"Did you see how short the shimmering lasted this time?" I enquired. "It only lasted about one minute! Does it mean that the warp is closing for good?"

"I never paid much attention, but so what, we got here in one piece," she laughingly said.

The change that has come over Marjorie is very noticeable; she is a different person here, more pleasant and lovable. I noticed that when we were at her home she was as I first described her, and didn't appear to be the warm-hearted person I knew she was. So I just lent over the table and gave her a big kiss, and said "Welcome home, Daaaarlinngggg?" She leaned over and gave me a slight slap.

"Don't mimic my friends, they can't help it. It is the way they are brought up," She jokingly replied.

The cabin now was a lot warmer. We set about washing up and got the floor all swept. The old bedding fur we used as a rug shaken out, and replaced on the floor. Previously you couldn't distinguish it from the floor before we did this. Ancient Celts aren't the tidiest of people we have found out.

Then we prepared a quick breakfast for the five of us.

I brought the two trucks nearer the cabin so it would be closer for us to work on when we eventually get down to unloading.

When I stripped back the tarpaulin on truck two I expected to see the buggy sitting there. What the packers had done was remove the wheels and the buggy was indistinguishable as things were packed in and around it.

I spotted the solid fuel range cooker, which I had dismantled myself and wrapped in jute bags. This one item weighed over 400 pounds and no way would I have been able to move it unless it had been dismantled. Lengths of copper pipe were bundled and lying on the tray I could see the open ends of them. The fittings we had got were the type that were fitted with a lock ring and then tightened, no need to weld. I had purchased a whole heap of the joints, T joints angle joints, and tap mounting connectors. This time I was going to have a gravity feed water system both hot and cold.

What I was looking for was the multipurchase block and tackle that I had spliced from the length of rope I got at the auctions. Also a five-feet metal spiked rod and a sledge-hammer. I am going to pull the van back on its wheels.

Wiferth aided me in driving the metal spike into the frozen ground at about forty-five degrees. I then hooked the fixed end of the 3-sheave block. The other I used a 'D' shackle through a ring on the top of the van and the other 3 sheave block. We pulled the rope, firstly the frame pulled to its original shape then the van bumped on to its wheels. I would never have been able to do it without the blocks and the help of another.

I managed to get the left rear door shut and locked into position, the vertical lock bars went into its slots. This helped the van returning to its box shape. We now had our storage shed back in service. All we had to do was tidy up the inside.

While we were righting the van I spoke to Wiferth.

"Wiferth, I am looking for a horse or two. Do you know where I can get them?"

"I know a horse trader, who trades forest ponies. I am sure he would trade with you."

"What would you say was a good trade?"

"A red deer is more than acceptable for two horses."

"Once the weather clears, seek the trader out and say I will meet his trade."

The next task was to try to right the truck with the winches. A large limb of an oak tree had penetrated the passenger window and was now protruding through the roof. This was propping the truck up at an angle of 40 degrees.

I had brought a chain-saw in the load. I had also included only two forty-four gallon drums of 2-stroke mixture and a tin of chain oil. I knew the mixture wouldn't last too long and I would only use the saw in emergency.

In the auctions I had purchased four old tree felling two handled saws, two about 6 feet long and the others shorter. Not only had they been sharpened, but I had also been shown how to do it myself. This was the golden opportunity to try them out.

Wiferth and I using the block and tackle attached one end to the raised side of the trucks tray, the other high on a nearby tree trunk to hold the weight.

Then one of us either side of the shortest saw, cut the limb, which was penetrating the trucks cab. It was difficult at first to get a rhythm going, for we found at times we were both either trying to push, or pull at the same time. When we got used to just pulling and then letting the other pull, we went through the limb like a warm knife through butter.

Wiferth was amazed at how the saw cut through the hard wood, he wasn't the only one I can assure you. It was so easy once you got into it. I could see great potential with these tools. The other good thing was I was now lovely and warm.

The truck was gently lowered back on its wheels, and we managed to pull the remainder of the limb from the cab.

While we still had the saw out, we decided to cut the limb up for firewood. Even in this cold I stripped off my padded coat and pullover. And with only jeans and thick shirt was quite warm, as we tackled the cutting. When completed, I wiped the saw with an oily rag that I had brought along, and stored the saw in the van.

The truck had had no windscreen previously now the passenger side window was smashed and the gun mount turret above the passenger's seat had been torn off. The driver's side was untouched. I tried the engine and it wouldn't start. Then I remembered what I had been told. In cold conditions to turn on the preheat on a diesel engine for a short while before trying to start, this we did, and then when I gave it another go at starting, it sprung into life. Wiferth was stunned by the noise of this truck. It was far noisier than the semi's. It seemed to growl.

After the explosion I hadn't bothered looking for the spare diesel drums as I thought we would no longer need them. Now that I had the truck going it was essential, to see if they could be recovered.

Since the door on the passenger's side was jammed and twisted I took the sledge-hammer and set about knocking it out. It took some effort to get that door off, but eventually we had easy access to the passenger's side-seat.

Wiferth jumped in and we drove over to the side of the clearing where the vehicles had been parked. As I said the snow wasn't that deep here and we started foraging around for anything that could be salvaged, which had been spread over about fifty yards.

We managed to rescue several sink units, a bath unit and the drums of diesel but they were a bit heavy to lift on the truck. So we stood them up on end, after rolling them to one spot. These were big items and I am sure there will be other items to be found once the snow melts off the ground.

The one thing that I want to erect is the Ferguson windmill, to pump the water from the stream to the water tank. This was one item we had ordered after we were told it was one of the best, and is made in New Zealand. It is a single pole structure held upright by stays and has a six-foot diameter, six blade fan that is meant to pump 500 gallons a day in a light breeze. It was stated it would lift water to a vertical height of 175 feet from a depth of 25 feet and only needed to be stood on a concrete slab. Since this last requirement is out here, I was looking for a nice rock outcrop that I could use as a base and then drive four of the steel pegs into the ground to hold it.