Chapter 3

September 5, 1845 thru September 10, 1845

Putting up the gables was the hardest part. For one thing they were higher up. For another, each course had to be shorter than the previous one. We built a couple of ladders so we could work on them more comfortably, but still it was hard work.

Timmy and the girls finished digging the footer for the fireplace long before we finished with the gables. When we'd get tired of working with the logs, John and I started building the foundation for the fireplace. We used clay mixed with some dried grass we'd chopped up for cementing the foundation stones together.

September 11, 1845

We had been ready for the boards Ab was bringing us for a couple of days before he showed up. Pris was becoming a little worried about him.

We'd even managed to cut a respectable number of shingles for the roof, and they were drying in stacks. John and I had sawed the cedar log into two-foot sections. We made sure none of the sections had knots, and we hauled them back to camp in the wagon.

Timmy watched as I used a fro and a short handled sledgehammer to split out the first few shingles.

Then he said, "Jase, I can do that."

"Give it a try," I said as I handed him the fro and the hammer.

He made a mess of the first one, but then he got the hang of it and I think he was faster at it than I was. For the next few days we'd hear the sound of the hammer hitting the fro almost without stopping. The girls stacked the shingles, with twigs between each shingle, so that they would dry quickly.

Ab came pulling in just after noon. Pris went wild and Timmy was nearly as bad. After he had exchanged hugs and kisses with his family, John and I went over and shook his hand. "How was your trip?" I asked.

"Tolerable," he said. "I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you though. The Reverend Green, along with the Cranks and the Provinces are not more than two days' ride from here. Green said he wanted to set up a mission to minister to the savages. The others joined him."

"That doesn't make sense," I said. "As much as they all hate Indians, why would they want to minister to them?"

"It didn't make sense to me neither. I asked him about it, and he said that God had called on him to do it. They were busily building a mission as I came back through. Jase, there are several different tribes in the area. Most of them tolerate the white man, at best. If he makes the wrong one mad, they could all end up dead."

"You know, Ab, it wouldn't bother me too much if that happened to the adults. They're old enough... they've made their own choice. It's the kids I worry about. There must be nine or ten of them."

"Yeah, I know. There's not a lot we can do about it, though. Anyway, I got you a fair amount of lumber, and although you didn't mention it, I got you a couple of kegs of nails as well. I hope it works out for you."

"It couldn't have come at a better time, Ab. We're ready to start putting the roof on." Timmy had been standing beside us while we talked, so I laid a hand on his shoulder as I spoke.

"You wouldn't believe what all this young man and his sisters have done. I'll let him tell you about it, but let me just say that they have saved John and me at least a couple or three weeks of work. He don't know it, but we're going to pay them for it."

"No, Jase, you don't have to pay us," Timmy said.

"I know we don't have to, Timmy, but we're going to anyway. You guys have done a man's work and you deserve a man's pay."

Ab was beaming as I praised Timmy. He was proud of the turn around in the boy.

"Could you use a few days help from me?" Ab asked.

"Sure," I said. "Pap used to say, 'many hands make light work'. Would you rather work on the roof or would you rather start on the door and the shutters for the windows?"

"I think you or John should do the door and the shutters. I'll help the other one with the roof."

Timmy decided he was going to help Ab and John on the roof, so I watched them get started while I thought about how I wanted to do the door and the shutters. We didn't have any iron hinges, so I knew we'd have to use leather ones, at least for the first winter.

As I was standing there thinking, I noticed Wanda hanging around close. I looked up at her and smiled, so she came closer. "Could I help you, Jase," she asked.

"I'm sure I could use the help, Honey," I said. "It may be just carrying boards for me or something though."

Her smile would have lighted Kentucky as she said, "That's okay. What are you going to do first?"

"Let's take a look at the lumber first, so we'll know what we have to work with."

We walked over to the wagon and looked over the wood. All of it was in twelve-foot lengths and the majority was approximately six inches wide. There were quite a few boards that were twelve inches wide as well. Ab had done a good job of selecting it.

"We'll start with the door first," I said. "I want to nail boards to the log ends in the door opening first. We'll start out by nailing wide boards all the way around, then we'll nail narrower boards to them so the door has something to close against."

Wanda helped me get some of the wider boards out and she held them as I cut them to length and width. She held them in place for me as I nailed them to the logs. I wanted the door to be two inches thick and I wanted it to open outward, so we cut and nailed six-inch wide boards onto the wider ones.

I cut several wide boards to just under the length of the door opening and one narrower board to the same length. The flattest surface around was the floor of the cabin, so we carried all of the boards I'd cut inside.

I laid one of the wide boards down and then laid the narrower board on top of it. I lined them up and nailed the narrower board to the wider one. I took another wide board and butted it up against the narrow board and with Wanda holding it in place I nailed it on. We flipped them over and I nailed on another wide board.

We kept repeating this until the door was as wide as we wanted it to be. I ended up having to plane it down to get it to fit easily into the opening. The door weighed a ton when we finished with it, but I knew it would withstand any battering anyone or anything could give it.

As we worked together, I noticed that every time our hands touched, Wanda would blush prettily. She is such a sweet girl. I didn't want hurt her, but I didn't want to encourage her either. For the most part, I just ignored our contacts and her blushing as well.

We had bought a buffalo hide that had been tanned without the hair at a trading post on the way out. and we used that to make the hinges. The hide had to be a quarter of an inch thick. I made the hinges six inches wide and used four of them to hold the heavy door. By the end of the day our cabin had a door. Now, I had six windows to make shutters for.

We had placed two windows in front, two in back, and one on each end. This arrangement would give us good ventilation in the summer and it would also allow us to see out in all directions if we had to defend the cabin.

When we had the door in place, I thanked Wanda for her help. She blushed again and asked if she could help with the shutters tomorrow. "I would love to have your help, Wanda. We seem to work well together," I said.

She was beaming as she ran off to tell her mother what all we had accomplished. I climbed a ladder so I could check on what John and Ab had gotten done. They were doing quite well. They were using the narrower boards and were laying them about six inches apart. They had all of the boards on the front side of the roof nailed in place and were working on the back.

They were almost finished with the backside when the women called us to dinner. The women were so happy that Ab was back that they turned supper into a party. They even made apple cobbler for dessert. Ab and Pris retired early and left the kids with us.

September 12, 1845

Wanda and I started out working on window shutters in the morning and John, Ab, and Timmy started putting on shingles. Neither job was particularly hard, but both were time consuming. The first thing I did was to prepare all six window openings just as I had prepared the door opening.

I decided I wanted double thick window shutters as well as a double thick door. It was well after our nooning, when I was able to start building the first shutter. I built the first one up the same way I had built the door, then fitted it in place and installed the hinges before I started the next one.

I got one window done that afternoon and was almost finished with a second one when we were called to supper. After we had eaten, Ab said they were going to help us for one more day, then they were going to get their place ready for winter. Wanda and Timmy protested that they'd like to stay and help more, but Pris told them there was enough and plenty for them to do at home.

September 13, 1845

John, Ab and Timmy started back in on the shingles while Wanda and I started putting together and installing window shutters. By late afternoon, we had all of the shutters built and in place. All I had left to do for them was to install latches so they would stay closed.

By the time they quit for the day more than three quarters of the roof shingles were in place. It looked like John could finish the roof tomorrow and we could move in the next day. We built a small fire in the fireplace today and it seemed to draw nicely. Ab suggested we cook outside for the next week and just have a small fire in the fireplace so it could adjust to the heat gradually. Millie and the other women agreed to that.

September 14, 1845

We got everything we were going to move, moved into the cabin today. The women even found the time to hang blankets around our beds to give us a little privacy. We kept a small fire burning in our fireplace all day and it seemed to be doing well. The women were excited that in a few days, they'd be able to cook in a fireplace, rather than over a campfire.

We still had the grate we'd bought on the way out that we could use to set pans or a Dutch oven on over the fire. In addition, the fireplace had two hooks for hanging pots over the flames. When we got around to building our permanent house, Millie wanted a real oven built.

I think every last one of us was feeling good, because we knew we were secure for the winter. We hadn't paid much attention to the cattle or the horses during the time we were building the cabin, so we thought it was time we went out and took a look at them.

We found all of the cattle together about a mile from the cabin. We did a count and found that all of them were accounted for. They were grazing contentedly. Some of them had lost a lot of weight during the trek west, but now they seemed to be filling out again. One of the things we had liked about our valley was the fact that grass and water were abundant.

It was now the middle of September and Ab said it would be the end of October before the weather started getting bad. I rode over beside John and Tess and asked, "John, according to Ab, we've got about a month and a half before bad weather. What do you think we should be doing between now and then?"

"Well, I've been giving that some thought," he said. "We won't be setting any traps until cold weather, so I guess we could start preparing for building the main house. We could at least cut the logs so they could be drying."

"That sounds reasonable," I said. "I've had some thoughts about how to lay a house out. Maybe we could all talk them over this evening."

"I'm at a loss on that," John said. "It's gonna need to be big. We've got Abby and four women that are gonna be producing babies. I'd say we're gonna need at least four bedrooms."

"That's what I'm thinking," I said. "We'll want a big kitchen and a big living room as well. I've got an idea of how to do it. I'll sketch it out for you this evening and see what you think. It'll be a lot of work, but I think it'll be worth it."

Millie had ridden over while we were talking. "Before we do anything else," she said, "we are all going to go over and see how pap is doing with his house. We're also going to go to Ab's and see if they need any help."