Chapter 7

I wake up and see Jake sniffing at the door. "Jake, do you need to go outside?" I ask as I open the door for him. Of course, both dogs bound outside. I toss a couple logs into the stove and stir the wood up to catch the new logs. I go outside and water my own area. With two of us, I guess I will need to make an outhouse soon.

The dogs are over sniffing the scents along the creek. Probably a wild animal that came down to drink last night. I grab my toothbrush and brush my teeth outside.

I go in and pour some hot water from the tank into a large bowl to wash my face. Sarbun is watching me. "Do you want to wash this morning?" I ask. She gets up and shakes her head -- she must have changed her womanly mind -- but comes over to watch me carefully. After I wash, I dump the water outside and hang the bowl to dry on a nail on the wall.

"C'mon," I beckon to her, "Let's see if there are more eggs." We go out to gather some more eggs. When we get back inside, I add them to the other eggs in the bowl. It looks like we will have a good supply of eggs for about six months or so.

She's a little groggy this morning, but perks right up when I lead her over to the stove.

"Let me tell you about this stove. The first thing to remember about a stove is that it is always hot everywhere when there is a fire in it." I open the fire door so she can see the fire, and latch it closed again. "Even when you cannot see the fire, it is still hot, and you can get burned if you touch it. Watch." I dip a finger into some water and let it drop onto the stove. The water sizzles and dances and is quickly gone.

"Let me show you how to cook breakfast, food for in the morning." I show her how to put water in the small pot, and we put some jerky in the water. I show her how to lean over the stove to place the small pot on a warm spot without getting burned by the stove.

"This here's a frying pan." I pull it off the wall, too. "Now, we pour just a little bit of oil," I have to show her how to open the bottle, "into the frying pan, and set the pan on the front of the stove. When the jerky is a little softer, we put it in the frying pan. The oil will prevent the jerky from sticking to the pan. I guess you don't know what I'm talking about, do you? After we put the jerky in the frying pan, we put it closer to the middle of the stove. The stove is hottest in the middle." I show her how to use the spatula to turn the jerky over.

I pour the water from the small pot into one of the the dog bowls to cool. Having got their interest now, Jake shadows Sarbun, with Misty right behind him, and they almost knock her over in their excitement. "Jake! Misty!" I command, "Go lie down!" They tuck tail and run for their corner.

I show her how to use a fork to put the jerky on two plates, and she puts them where I show her, on the extension. I retrieve six eggs from the bowl, and show her how to crack open the eggs into a medium sized bowl. One of her eggs breaks, so we spend a minute picking out the shell. She watches me whip the eggs with a fork. "This is how to make scrambled eggs. It's something simple to make."

"Now you pour the eggs into the frying pan. The juices form the oil and jerky will add a little flavor to the eggs," I explain. "Stir with the spatula," which I hold up, "to keep the eggs loose for a little while. Then you can use the spatula to turn the eggs over, like you did for the jerky." I drop a big spoonful of scrambled eggs into the second dog bowl, and that disappears almost instantly. Then I show her how to serve the remainder of the scrambled eggs onto the plates.

I draw two cups of water from the tank, and dip tea bags in. "OK, this is salt and this is pepper, it also will make the eggs taste better." I show her how to shake a little of the spices on the eggs.

I scoot the little table close to the bed and the chair — these really are close quarters - and we set the food on the table. One of 'those' looks to the dogs keeps them away, a few minutes at a time. I find her squatting on the floor, and I insist she sits on the chair while I sit on the bed to eat. She starts to eat with her fingers, but tries to imitate me when she sees me eating with a fork.

After we eat and the frying pan is cool, I place it on the floor, and Jake and Misty make quick work of cleaning it off. Sarbun gives the dog bowl of jerky water to them, too. I show Sarbun how to clean the pans with hot water, a squirt of dish detergent, and a small kitchen cloth. I add water to the water tank.

She takes off her T-shirt — I should say she tries to. She seems trapped in the stretchy garment. After a quick Montessori lesson (arms crossed, grab the hem), she gets the T-shirt off and puts her own tunic on.

While I put on long pants and shoes, I think about the furniture. A bigger bed, another chair. That will really fill the room; we couldn't both turn around at the same time. Bunk beds would conserve space, but would not be good for our marital life. Hmm, gotta think about that.

Sarbun follows me up the hill to find some small oak trees. We have to go beyond the area that I picked over for the house and chicken coop. She watches while I harvest the trees and dress the limbs. She seems to understand what I'm doing, and offers to help me drag the trees down one at a time. She knows that these are green trees and that I'm having to work very hard to split them. She seems proud that I have the strength to do this.

Well, how about a second bed like the first, and make it like a folding bed. Sarbun helps me pull the original bed outside, and I start by creating frame pieces by matching the size. I hold limbs up to it and mark them with the hatchet for cutting. The saw makes quick work of the cross cuts, so I start building the bed one stick at a time with my drill and dowels.

We take both beds back inside. With my tough, synthetic twine, I lash them together along the abutting edges. I show her how we can pull off the bedding, tilt her bed up and flip it over onto mine, and place the bedding on top. This looks somewhat like a folding sofa bed, and doesn't hog the room during the day. Her sleeping furs make a great cushion, and my summer sleeping bag makes a perfect coverlet when unzipped.