Chapter 4

In the morning, the haunch and the ribs which I have done nothing with are gone from the top of the pod. There's half of a paw print, but not enough to tell if it is a fox or another type varmint. Leftover stew for breakfast is most excellent!

Well, I'd best get started on my house. I need to be within bow shoot of the chicken coop. Now, this part of the hill looks good. Yeah, it's about 20 feet away, so if that coop smells too much, I'll just have to muck out the straw more often.

Once again I begin to dig into the hill, about a foot above grade. There is a pick in the pod — how'd I forget about that before? — which makes it easier to dig out. The excess dirt I leave in front like a stoop, so that it naturally is above flood and rain. The height is just a little above my head, and the depth about seven feet, pretty much straight in.

As I dig the hole, I wedge in a few temporary beams here and there to try to keep it from caving in. When the hole is entirely dug out, pack the earth down in front as best I can. In reviewing the plans in my mind, this will be a small tight home that will be easy to heat.

I start the frame in basically the same manner as for the chicken coop. For this frame, I leave the back wall open and put on a good roof cover that sticks out about two feet from the hill.

After boarding the sides, I attach a thick piece of polyvinyl tarp to the top with roofing nails. I work this partial assembly back into the hole by pushing, shoving, and prying with my shovels and picks. I remove the temporary beams as I move the frame into the hill.

I build the back wall from the inside. I build the front much like the chicken coop, but this time I set strap hinges along one side of a frame around the door. The resulting door is about 24 inches wide, and I will have to duck and step over a sill to enter, but it will be strong and tight in winter.

I leave a six-inch hole in the front near the right side. Fortunately, I have ordered a portable stove similar to the Four Dog Stove, and the exhaust pipe will fit through this hole. Back home it would have been made from welded steel parts, but mine is a sheet metal reproduction, probably titanium, thanks to Kemon. This one comes with a frame to attach the sides, bottom, top, front, and back with bolts.

On one side of this stove is a two gallon tank to keep hot water, and on the other side is a tilt up platform to rest things on. The stove itself is about 24 inches both wide and tall, and about 30 inches deep. In the back on the left corner is the stove pipe attachment point. In front is a door for putting the wood in. It can run eight to twelve hours on a load of hardwood depending on size and number of pieces when it's choked down. It has removable legs which I will leave on.

The stovepipe comes up from the stove, angles ninety degrees out through the wall, and angles up to vertical again, with a small dome hat on top to keep the weather out. A collar is nailed to the wall to close off any drafts, yet keep the bulk of the heat from bothering the wall. This stove is the most important concession to my comfort and health in my load.

Now, for sleeping, I build a platform about 30 inches wide and long enough for me to sleep on. It has legs to keep it off the ground. The flat sides of my split boards are fastened across, facing up for comfort sake. It is not great, but with enough straw on top of the wood, and also my sleeping bag on top, this is just fine.

I also build a small table about twenty four inches square and 30 inches high as my "everything table." This is for eating, preparing food, working, etc. A mirror mounted on the wall right above it serves as a little decoration and is useful for combing my hair.

I build a simple chair to have a place to sit. Civilized men don't squat or sit in the dirt. This is not any type of false pride; there are germs and miniature critters in the dirt that would like to use me as a host.

I also add a few shelves around the walls. It takes almost four days to build the house. It's not finished yet, but what a start! This is a reasonably secure place now.

With the inside done, the outside is next. I pile dirt on top of the roof portion sticking out of the hill. I ramp the dirt back toward the hill and lay sod on top so it will blend in with the hill better. The last foot of the roof is bare to allow rain to run off without taking sod with it.

It's time for a day off. After so many days' work, some serious R and R is in order. I carry my chair down near the creek, and also take my bow and fishing rod. The bow is for safety and the fishing rod is for fun. The better part of the day is spent drowning that rubber worm. No matter how many times I throw it in, it still wiggles. I keep a couple smaller fish for dinner and throw the bigger ones back. The bigger fish are the mommies and daddies. The creek will stay stocked better if I just eat the teenagers and let the more mature fish continue to breed.

I fry some fish to celebrate my new house and cook on my stove for the first time that night. I light a candle when it gets dark. With the door closed, it is pretty dark by the little bit of moonlight coming through the front wall. A small titanium bucket — imagine who give me that? - with warm water allows me to wash up after supper and wash my frying pan and eating utensils. I get one last bucket of water to pour into the stove's tank before turning in.

I get up a couple times during the night worrying about the stove. It is doing fine. I quickly learn to close the damper down on the front about twenty five percent so it will burn slower. More dampening than that and it get smoky in the room. Less than that and the stove heats up too much and requires more wood again too often.

It is much too warm so around midnight I open the front door of the house. It is a good thing; I now know for certain that it will keep me warm in winter. I plan to spend the next few days experimenting with the stove during quiet spells. I need to get intimately acquainted with this most important implement. I must learn to keep a low fire going so I have hot water and can cook, without letting the house get too warm. A large log put in at bedtime keeps the stove going slowly and steadily all night, and still provides enough heat to cook in morning.

After a quick wash and some breakfast, I call up the computer so I can let Kemon know I am ready for the critters. I rarely use this; I want this experiment to work, and I don't want to rely on high tech stuff too much. Our chat is very short. He tells me he is very happy with my progress, and he soon sends me the animals and feed.

While creating a small window next to the door, I hear chickens. Upon further inspection, I find ten chickens in the coop. I hear dogs yapping, and find two puppies about three months old in my new home. Closing the door quickly to keep them from running loose, I go to my pod to dig out the chicken feeder and waterer. The chicken feed is a mix of grains, mostly corn and is packaged in large barrels made of - you guessed it - titanium. I deliver these with some food and water to the chicken coop. With the chickens settling in for now, I go back inside my home to get acquainted with the dogs.

I can tell my size bothers the dogs, so I get down with them on the floor with some jerky pieces and coax them over to me. They must be hungry because they snatch anything I give them. I give them each several strips of jerky until I feel they have enough. Since of jerky is a condensed version of meat, I limit their intake of it so that it doesn't swell in their stomachs from taking on water. The last thing I need is sick puppies.

To keep them busy, I let them gnaw on a few leg bones from the deer. This keeps them busy while I finish my window hole and shutter. I make a frame and attach it to the wall. I use a keyhole saw to start the hole within the frame, and a regular handsaw to finish removing the wood. The shutter swings down, and hinges at the bottom with a couple strips of leather. A 12 inch stick held to the wall with a dowel provides a simple locking mechanism. I can close the window by lifting it up into place and turning the stick 90 degrees to latch it in place.

At this point the puppies are about 15 or 20 pounds each. The bones are more than they can handle, but they give it their all with their sharp little puppy teeth. I spend the rest of the day working with the dogs. I tease them with the bones a little and spend much of the day on the floor letting them get used to me.

I get some tea brewing now that I have a stove going. I can just pour hot water from the tank into a tin cup and drop a tea bag in it. When the water tank is cold or empty, I put a small saucepan on with a little water in it to make my tea.

After a sponge bath and quick breakfast of fried jerky and fried canned apples, I take my shovel to the garden area. I start by breaking up the clods of dirt. My simple hand plow consists of a pair of handles connected to a tang with a small blade angled at thirty degrees to turn the dirt. It is mounted in a frame with two wheels. It is easiest to use where the dirt is already broken up. This means spending most of the day with the round nosed shovel breaking up the dirt.

In late afternoon I have done enough. I strip down and take my soap, washcloth, and towel to my bathing area. After drying off, I go back inside and gather up my dirty clothes and washboard to go to the creek for laundry. A washboard is typically a corrugated piece of galvanized metal held in a wooden framework. Mine looks like it is made of a thick piece of glass. I'm almost surprised it's not made of titanium.

I wet my clothes, run the bar of soap up and down on them to generate suds, and scrub the clothes against the washboard. This is so much easier to do when naked; it's such a messy way to wash clothes. When I'm done, I rinse the clothes out well and lay them out on bushes to dry. After a quick rinse and dry of my body, heh heh, I go inside to put on clean blue jeans and a shirt. The dogs are happy to see me. I really wish I had a real floor because it is a hassle dealing with socks and shoes on a dirt floor. The only advantage of a dirt floor, which I can think of, is that cleaning up after the puppies will be fairly simple; just shovel the mess on out of here!

For a change, I open a meal pack for supper and a make cup of tea to finish off my evening. I make up a temporary bed for the dogs by dragging in the deerskin and laying it over six inches of straw. Of course the puppies have to be constantly scolded not to eat their bedding, but I am not about to give up a nice shirt or pants for them to sleep on.

My clothes are still damp because of the dew. Drat! I must remember to wash clothes in the morning. I check over the garden.