Chapter 21: Our village grows

The next morning we called a meeting of all members of the village. Since the population of the village has almost doubled overnight new strategies had to be set up.

Introductions were firstly in order, "This is Ine and his wife Fraewaru. The others as single unattached women there is Eorman, who most knew, Ethel, Hygd and Fritho. I have asked them to be members of our village, but all of you have to agree. I cannot make that decision, so do you want them as permanent residents. We must all share in looking after the four unattached women."

"Yes let them stay; maybe we can attract some single males to join us," Wiferth said. All the others agreed with Wiferth.

"Well Ine, Fraewaru, Eorman, Ethel, Hygd, Fritho you have been accepted as residents of Janesville. There are a number of rules we have which will be explained to you. Women have the same rights as men, everyone washes daily. These are a few to get on with."

It was decided among us that we would first build a home for Ine and Fraewaru, then a house for the single women. Also we would erect small attachments to all the homes as added rooms to be used for a nursery or spare room. The reason for this was both Sae and Eastorhyld thought they were pregnant.

The cabin then was going to be used as our community room. There was lighting in there and we would make a table and benches enough for everyone to sit. Also if a bunk bed was made the old bedroom could house visitors.

Since the ground was thawing out the water supply was going to be connected, and the trench dug for the pipes to be buried. A communal bathhouse was to be erected and a leach drain dug to take away the wastewater. These were the primary targets for our community in the coming days.

Eastorhyld will continue her task as horse minder, which she loves; most of the other women don't like the horses at all.

Northhelm was going to take Wiferth, Ine, Fraewaru and Ethel and get the timber cut to build the structures. Sae Eadburg and Hild were our foragers for vegetables. Eorman, Hygd and Fritho and myself had the job of fitting the water supply and digging the leach drain. Marjorie was going to do the hunting and be the soap maker.

We had our tasks and we set about them. The first task our group had to do was erect the water windmill. So we collected the windmill from the Semi whose load was slowly dwindling. The complete unit only weighed 143 pounds and unassembled was easily transported on two shoulders with the brass bump body carried in a carton, also all the fittings and screws and bolts were included.

Some tools and an axe plus the four spikes were all we needed for the present time.

By following the instructions the structure was erected in well under an hour. I didn't need the steel spikes, a notch was cut in the stumps and the guy ropes fitted into the notches. The guy was brought round on to itself and the cables clamped. Since we had no spirit level I had to use a piece of string with a bolt tied to the end to use as a plum line to get the main pole straight. Then the guys were tightened and thoroughly clamped. A length of Polyurethane pipe with filter was connected to the suction side and placed in the deep portion on the stream. The pump primed, the clutch engaged for the pump and then hi presto we had water gushing out of the three quarter-inch supply pipe and the windmill was only slowly turning in the light wind. All my female helpers were jumping with joy; they thought it was fantastic the way the water was gushing out.

It was obvious that I would have to create a small damming of the stream to be on the safe side, but a load of rocks will soon sort that problem. Anyway there was no rush for the present. I released the clutch and let the windmill turn freely.

The next task was to cut a trench and connect the pipes to the water-tower. It was better to follow the slight embankment and then make a left hand bend up to the tower but at the northerly side of the soak pit. This distance would take about five lengths of copper pipe I had twelve left. The connectors were no problem I have enough of those.

We started digging the trench and found that it wasn't going to be so difficult a task as first imagined and we went down a good thirty-six inches, which should be below the frost depth.

While I was having my break from digging I went back to our house and removed the fire embers. I didn't want to connect the water to the built in hot water tank while it was hot.

To connect the connectors was simplicity itself. The fist little bit though was tricky, as we had to leave a bit of the pipe exposed because of the large rock where the windmill was sitting. But it was just a matter of slipping on the nut first sliding on the clamp ring and then tightening it to the connector. The portion of pipe that was exposed to the elements, I used the jute packing I had for the range, cut it in strips and lagged the pipe nice and thick. I also wrapped it around the pump body itself.