Chapter 5

I put my arm around Wanda and hugged her. I didn't know what to say, so I just held her. After a while, she looked at me.

"I've been trying what Millie said to do to make myself feel good. It does feel good, but it isn't anything like I felt when you kissed me the other morning."

"I'm glad it's helping, Honey."

I was saved from further discussion by us finding a stand of birch trees. I knew birch was a hardwood, so I didn't see why it couldn't be used for a fence. We stopped the wagon and got off to look at them. There seemed to be a great number of them that were between two and three inches in diameter. This was just what I needed.

I figured I needed about twenty posts around seven feet long, and sixteen rails around twelve feet long. Most of the trees I started cutting, would give me one post and one rail. I ended up only having to cut eighteen trees for the rails and posts. I cut two more for the long rails that would go across the creek. I also needed nine pieces that were the largest in diameter, and were four feet long and I need nine more that were only about a foot long.

I was still cutting trees when Emma found us. She had brought us a nice lunch and a bucket of water. She sat and talked with us as we ate.

It wasn't long after we had eaten lunch, that I finished with the cutting. Wanda had loaded all of the posts and most of the rails onto the wagon by the time I was through. I loaded the rest onto the wagon, and we headed back to where we were going to build the fence. I stopped at the cabin on the way, and picked up a hammer and some of the long nails Ab had gotten us.

I dug my first posthole as close to the rock face as I could. I dug down two feet. I had Wanda help me assemble what I called 'a post sandwich'. I laid two posts on the ground, and used an adze to square off one side. Then I squared off two opposite sides of the four foot pieces and the shorter pieces. I nailed one of the four foot pieces to one of the posts on the end that was going into the ground. I nailed the shorter piece to the post so that the top of the short piece was about two feet above the four-foot piece.

I nailed another post to the shorter pieces. Now, I had a sandwich with holes where I could lay the rails. I wanted to get the first one in place to see what it would look like, so I had Wanda hold it straight up and down while I filled in around it. I stomped and tamped the dirt around it until it was standing firm, then I backed off to take a look at our handy work.

"How's this going to work?" Wanda asked.

"When we have the posts up, we lay a rail on top of the four foot post between the other two. Then we lay another rail on top of the short piece."

Wanda smiled really big and said, "Oh, I get it. This is a great idea, Jase."

We worked putting posts together until I figured it was getting close to suppertime. Then we loaded all of the tools back in the wagon, and went home. By the time I had the team unhitched, Millie had called us in to eat.

We couldn't eat at our new table yet, but John and Tess were making good progress on it. They had opted for the double layer construction that I had used on the door, and were building a trestle table with benches for either side of it. They had assembled the top first. While John was building the legs, Tess was sanding the top smooth.

They said they thought they'd have the table at least, done by tomorrow. Then they would be working on the benches. That sure did sound like it'd be an improvement over sitting on the floor to eat.

September 23, 1845

It was nearing October, and we could feel that the end of summer was near. The temperatures were definitely lower than they had been a month ago. It still hadn't gotten down to freezing at night, yet. Ab said there would be at least a few nights in October, when water left in a bucket would freeze on top.

John and I agreed that we'd spend two more days on the furniture and the fence. Then we'd start getting in a winter wood supply. Wanda and I took off to work on the fence, right after breakfast. We worked well together, and we finished by noon. I felt better about the cattle, now; knowing they weren't going to run off during bad weather.

When we got back to the cabin, we unloaded the wagon, then started helping John and Tess with the furniture. I really only had one problem with Wanda helping me. Every time she smiled that shy little smile of hers, I wanted to grab her and hug her. My wives were obviously aware of that, and they made sure Wanda was helping me with whatever I did.

The main problem I could see with making more furniture, was that we were running short of boards. John and I talked it over and decided to start using split logs. John said a good place to start using logs was on the benches that would be used at the table.

We decided the wood to use would be red cedar, the same as we were using for roofing. Cedar splits well, and is long lasting. We knew we would want the log to be ten to twelve inches through, and at least eight feet long. We hitched up a yoke of oxen to pull it back to the house.

We found a suitable tree in the grove we had been harvesting, and cut it down. We cut it into eight foot lengths, and pulled the first one back to the cabin. This took us most of the rest of the day.

September 24, 1845

We used the froe and a sledgehammer, to get a start in splitting the log. Then we drove in the two steel wedges we had. The log was long enough that it still didn't start splitting on its own, so we cut a couple of wooden wedges and drove them in as well.

When the log finally split all the way, we had to smooth it down with a drawing knife and planes. After we got it as smooth as we could that way, we used creek sand and a couple of flat stones to finish it off.

We did manage to get the seats for our two benches ready that day. John started talking about splitting our own boards, so I reminded him what we had just been through to get the seats. It seemed like a long day's work with little return, to me.

My wives and I had settled in to bed. I was cuddled between Millie and Lettie when we heard some loud whispering coming from the girl's bed. This was just on the other side of a blanket from us.

I was thinking of telling them to quiet down when I distinctly heard Lelah say, "I wonder if they're going to do it."

"They do it almost every night," Abby said. "Sometimes more than once. Just give them time. They're waiting for us to go to sleep."

"Yeah, that's the way Mom and Ab are too. They'll wait until they think we are asleep, then sometimes they go at it for hours," Lelah said. "Wanda and I stay awake so we can listen to them."

"Do you ever sneak in and watch them?" Abby asked.

"No, Wanda says it ain't right. She says that's something special between people who love each other and that other people shouldn't watch."

"Wanda's a stick in the mud," Abby giggled.

"No, I'm not," Wanda said indignantly. "People in love should have their privacy. Would you want someone watching you if you were making love to your husband?"

"Jase and Millie and Lettie and Emma all do it in front of each other," Abby said.

"That's different. They're all married to each other," Wanda said.

Millie had been listening to them too, now she placed her lips near my ear and whispered, "Why don't we ask Wanda to sleep in here with us tonight?"

"As a reward?" I whispered back.

"Well, yeah... and it will be a little bit of a punishment to the other two."

"Wanda," I said in my regular speaking voice.

"Yes, Jase?"

"Could you come in here a minute please?"

I heard Lelah and Abby giggling. Wanda stepped around our blankets, and stood looking at us. There was enough moonlight coming in our open window to see clearly.

Millie pulled our blanket down to where Wanda could see that we were naked.

She asked, "Would you like to sleep in here with us tonight?"

Wanda's eyes got big, then a smile broke out on her pretty face. Millie moved over, leaving a space between her and me, and motioned to Wanda to fill it. Wanda pulled her flannel gown over her head, and stood there in the moonlight for a few seconds before she snuggled in between Millie and me.

Millie and I made a Wanda sandwich. We didn't make it a sexual embrace, at least we didn't intend to. I will admit that my very hard cock was pressing into Wanda's hip, as I finally drifted off to sleep.

September 25, 1845

I awoke with Wanda's head on my shoulder. Her eyes were open. and she had been watching me sleep.

"Good morning, Love," I whispered.

"Good morning," she grinned, then she stretched against me. "You know I love you, don't you?"

"I love you too, Honey."

I put both arms around her, and held her close as we waited for the rest of our family to wake up.

"So... What do you say we go and check on the cattle before we get started, today?" I asked my little love.

She gave me a smile that almost stopped my heart. "I'd love to," she said.

"Can I go along?" Millie asked.

"Of course you can. I love you with all of my heart, Millie. I'd like to have you with me every minute of every day."

Since Wanda was still between Millie and me, we made another Wanda sandwich as Millie and I hugged. When the rest of my wives started to stir, we all got up and got ready for our day.

After breakfast, Millie, Wanda and I rode out to check the cattle. John said he was going to get started clearing out some brush so we could get to an area that had a lot of dead trees. I agreed to help him as soon as we got back.

At first, I thought everything was okay with the herd. But when we did a count, I came up one cow short. All three of us counted them again and we all came up with the same number.

"Let's scout around a little and see if we can find her," I said. We were about a quarter of a mile from the rest of the herd when we found her, or what was left of her. She was lying in a side canyon, and she looked like several critters had been at her.

I dismounted and looked for tracks around the carcass. She was on a grassy area, so I couldn't find any good tracks close, but there was a bare area around twenty feet away and in it were the tracks of several wolves.

"Ladies, we have a problem," I said. "These are wolf tracks. If there is a pack of wolves in the area, they'll eventually kill off every cow we have, unless we do something about them."

"What can we do?" Wanda asked.

"We'll have to hunt them, and try to trap them. Either way, it's going to take a lot of time and effort on mine and John's parts."

"Do they hunt at night, or in the daylight?" Millie asked.

"It just depends. Wolves usually attack as a group. They'll try to cut out a weak animal, or a young one, and run it down."

"Are they dangerous to people?" Wanda asked.

"They can be, Honey. These wolves have never been around people, so to them we are just another animal. After we've killed a few of them, they'll become wary and avoid us."

"So, what are we going to do about them?" Millie asked.

"Well, first off, we're going to go back and talk with John. I've never been around wolves that much, so I want to see if he knows any more about them than I do. If not, we'll have to make a trip and see what Caleb knows. We should warn him and Ab, anyway."

John had some ideas I thought we should try, for killing wolves. We talked about that as we started cutting dead trees to use as firewood.

About the middle of the afternoon, John said he was going off to prepare for some wolf hunting. A while later, he and Tess rode off. Tess returned a while after that riding one horse and leading John's.