Chapter 528

... Morales had been standing with his back to the plains as they were talking, the thick evergreen they were standing under having shielded them when the light snow began. As Jasmine again looked toward the plains, she realized what was happening, “Uh, looks like we have another complication,” she said as she motioned behind her husband. “It’s beginning to snow again.”

Morales turned to look. “Shit, I suppose I picked the wrong day.” Walking closer to the plains so he could see the sky better, he stood thinking for a moment. “We can go ahead and kill a buffalo, then wait for the herd to move – if they move. From this distance, they might not even associate the sound of the shot with what killed their buddy. They barely noticed when I killed that one with my crossbow. Once it’s down, we’ll have to wait for them to graze out the area and slowly move away. That could take hours – hours we don’t have.”

“But...” she began just as he turned to her, motioning for them to walk deeper into the forest cover.

“Jas, we need to be smart about this and face reality. I picked a bad day for a hunt. It hasn’t cleared up like I expected, so the first thing is to accept the fact that we’re going to have to stay the night out here. The buffalo probably won’t move far in this snow, so I think our first order of business is to build something that we can survive the night in, and ... that’s going to take some time to do, not to mention more time to gather firewood. Chances are, it will take a minimum of two hours, and likely more, to build a decent shelter and gather enough wood to keep us reasonably warm throughout the night. Better to spend that time now – in good light – rather than a desperate attempt with night biting at our asses. Who knows how much it will snow? But the clouds are beginning to look thicker practically by the minute. With a good shelter built and ample firewood, we should be safe from the weather. Even then, I doubt we’ll be as warm as we would like, but the wolves will warn us if something bad comes visiting, and ... we have our rifles.”

Jasmine cast another glance at the buffalo, barely seen through the trees, before giving up on today’s hunt with a sigh. “What do you want me to do, Lover?”

He leaned to kiss her for a second. “Don’t play innocent with me,” he said with a grin. “You probably know more about this than I do, but I suggest that we find a place and shovel it reasonably clear of snow before we even start on our shelter. Right?”

“Sounds good, Baby,” she said with a smile. Turning, she pointed through the trees. “Isn’t that a big rock face on the slope way over there? It might even have a bit of an overhang. Probably a fire in front of a shelter there would reflect some heat back from the rock, and it should also give us some shelter from the wind, at least coming from that direction.”

“Let’s go take a closer look.”

Morales turned to Jasmine once they were standing and looking up at the rock face. “Jas, all I know about building a shelter is what I’ve read in the winter survival article the General sent with Robinson and me. Like I told you, the one time I’ve had to stay outside at night, I climbed one of those humongous trees. Even so, a damn tiger almost got up there with us. If you’ve done this before...”

Jasmine shook her had. “No. Sorry. As I’ve told you, I did have to take a survival class before going off-planet the first time, and it had a short section about winter survival in the field. They showed various ways of making a shelter, but I think the most appropriate thing to do here is to use the rock face as the back wall, then build a basic structure from poles. When that’s done, we can cover the whole thing in evergreen boughs, stuff leaves into them, and maybe even pack snow on them to further help stop the wind.”

Morales grinned. “Baby, the article I read described something similar. And remember, I brought the plastic we planned to use on the outhouse before Jeff gave us the roofing material. We can use that to help stop the wind, too.”

The new bride stood looking at the proposed campsite for a few seconds. “We’ll need a ridgepole going down the center, then poles large enough to hold it up. We can cut smaller ones to go along each side to lean against the center pole, cover everything in plastic and add more evergreen boughs to hold it in place. We’ll have a long triangular shelter with the front left open enough to build a big fire not too far outside the structure. But it’s going to take a lot of poles...”

“I remember seeing a stand of saplings back about a hundred yards,” he said, pointing. “If you want to start clearing out a place for our camp, I’ll get started cutting. My axe is sharp, and you have your camp axe, both of which will come in handy.”

“All the side pieces need to be only strong enough to hold up the evergreen boughs and a thick layer of snow, so they should be easy to cut,” she offered.

Morales turned to her. “I’ll get the ridgepole and its supports. We can’t see far in these woods,” he continued while looking around, “so keep that rifle on your shoulder and ready to go,” he cautioned needlessly. Then turning to Lila, “Stay and help Jasmine,” he instructed.

The wolf whined, but went over to stand by the young woman.

“Come on, Lobo. We need to get some poles.”

After choosing a sapling about three inches in diameter, Morales had cut the ridgepole roughly eight feet long, then cut the supports, notching one end of each for the ridgepole to rest on. A few minutes later, he had the ridgepole and its supports back at the campsite. Everything was on a slight slope, and there were numerous bushes between the two areas, but he planned to cut some of the undergrowth out of the way while returning for the saplings.

By the time he and Lobo had gotten back, Jasmine and Lila were almost finished clearing an area for the lean-to. As they came into sight, Morales stopped to stare. Jasmine was industriously working with the snow shovel, while Lila was beside her digging frantically, the snow arching out behind her as if the wolf had a snowblower between her legs.

I told Lila to stay and help Jasmine. What I really meant was for Lila to stay and protect her, but I suppose Lila took it literally. Even with those big feet, though, I never expected her to be able to move snow like that.

As they neared, Lobo whined and went on ahead to Lick a panting Lila.

When Morales had dropped the ridgepole and its supports, Jasmine stood to rest her back. “Wow. You two really moved some snow while I was gone,” he complimented.

Jasmine reached to put her hand on Lila’s head. “I had some excellent help,” she returned with a smile. “Think what we’ve cleared is big enough for our shelter? We’re going to clear an area in front for the fire, next.”

“It looks great. I didn’t expect you to have that much done yet. Here,” he said, reaching for the shovel, “you take a break and I’ll clear a place for our fire.”

“Unh uh, Big Guy. Lila and I can clear a place just fine. Big Chief can bring the other poles. Us squaws will clear the snow out of the way,” she finished with a giggle.

She was so damn pretty with her cheeks and nose red; he just had to kiss her.

“Go,” she said, pushing him back after a few seconds. “We have a lot to do, yet.”

When Morales had brought the supporting poles, he started working on the structure, but digging in the frozen ground with a snow shovel would have been impossible, so he didn’t bother to try. He wound up bracing the two supporting poles with rocks stacked around their bases.

With Jasmine helping, Morales laid the top pole in the “V” notch on the supporting poles. The ridgepole was wobbly, so he strengthened the structure by using sections of paracord to lash the supporting poles to the ridgepole. The structure still wasn’t sturdy enough overall, and worrying that the wind would increase significantly during the night, he attached several sections of paracord to the ridgepole and tied them to nearby trees or bushes. He assumed that the structure would become still stronger once all the side poles and evergreen boughs were in place, and snow was added to weigh everything down.

Stepping back, he told his mate, “Now we need a bazillion smaller poles for the sides.”

“I’ll help bring them as soon as we have an area clear for the fire. How big a place will we need?” she wondered aloud.

Morales stood thinking for a moment. “The article I read suggested two logs, each about six feet long. A foot thick and from a hardwood like oak, they’re supposed to last all night. If I can find a dead tree that isn’t rotten yet, and dry enough, that is.”

“Okay. Six feet, plus a working space around the fire, then.”

When Morales began cutting the side poles, their size ranging from an inch to two inches, Jasmine, now finished with the shoveling, gathered an armload of poles and started carrying them back to the campsite while winding her way between the trees and brush.

Lila grabbed one of the poles in her mouth and began to follow, but was stopped shortly as the thin pole caught on bushes. She tried again, but the pole soon hit a tree. Frustrated, she grabbed the end of the pole, and backing up, dragged it toward camp.

“Well?” Morales said as he grinned at Lobo.

The big wolf, not to be outdone, grabbed the end of one of the narrow poles/sticks, then managed to get the end of another into his big mouth at the same time. Hurrying backward, he dragged the poles to the campsite.

I know the wolves are smart as hell, but they continue to amaze me over and over. If they had hands, no telling what they could do.

Lobo beat Jasmine back for more poles as a chuckling Morales kept swinging the axe to cut six-foot sections. When he had caught up on the cutting, he began helping the others bring the side poles to the campsite. Jasmine, protected by Lila, soon remained at the campsite as she positioned one end of the poles on the ground and leaned the top end against the ridgepole. If the pole happened to have a fork near one end, she would use the fork to brace against the ridgepole to give the structure more strength. Morales had left the small limbs on the poles in the hopes that they would help support the plastic and the other brush, leaves and eventually, the snow that they would pack against the sides.

When he thought they had enough side poles cut and at the campsite, he cut and brought in a large pile of evergreen boughs.

The once-light snowfall continued, now beginning to come down harder, making both the humans glad they had decided to give up the hunt for the day to work on a shelter.

Halfway expecting to be unable to accomplish their goal in one day, Morales had clipped his biggest handsaw to the side of the case where they carried many of their tools, including his axe, Jasmine’s short axe/hammer, and his rolls of paracord, etc. While Jasmine and Lila were finishing clearing an area in the front of the structure, Morales went looking for dry logs to burn for the night. Finally finding a standing tree about a foot in diameter, part of its bark already peeled away, he stood looking up at it while noting the burn and splitting where he assumed it had sustained the lightning strike that had killed the tree.

Well, he thought, from the dead leaves left on some of the limbs and what’s left of the bark, this seems to be a red oak, or this planet’s equivalent. I’ve burned this type many times in the cave fire, and it burns hot. Now, if I can get it cut down and a couple of sections back to the camp, we’re in business. None too soon, either, ‘cause my hands are damn near frozen.

Downing the tree was no problem with the saw – just a little work. He hadn’t brought his wedges, but the tree was leaning slightly downhill, so it fell where he wanted it to go. After cutting two sections, each about six feet long, he put the teeth protector back on the saw and hung it over his shoulder on its strap. On the hill, downside of the first cut section of log, he managed to stand it on its end, then, with a grunt, leaned it over onto his shoulder, glad of the padding that his coat provided.

As he straightened up under the weight, Hmmm, he thought, this seems lighter than I expected. I hope it isn’t rotten. It never occurred to him that the two hundred odd pounds just felt lighter now that the enhancement had begun to take hold.

Back at the campsite, he dropped the log in the now-cleared space in front of the lean-to before returning for the second log.

He didn’t realize how intently Jasmine was watching and lusting after him as she realized how seemingly effortlessly he handled the logs.

Once back with the other log, he used Jasmine’s short axe to cut into the first log every few inches, creating a number of gashes crossways on the log. Then with the axe held nearly level, he skimmed the resulting chips off. My woman really knows how to sharpen an axe, he thought. Within a few short minutes, he had created a flat side on each of the logs. After putting the chips aside for kindling, he cut two pieces of green hardwood a couple of inches in diameter and a foot or so long to use for spacers between the logs. Next, he again used the axe to cut into the flat section of the log almost as he had before, but this time, he didn’t skim the pieces off, but just twisted the axe a little to buck the pieces up some without taking them completely off the log.

After finishing the first log, he did the same thing to the other one. This would allow the logs to catch fire more quickly. Having to have a fire to keep warm in the cave, he had learned several things about burning logs. After placing a thick layer of chips and some dry leaves on the bottom log, he maneuvered the second log into place, flat side downward atop the bottom log, but resting on the green, separator pieces near the ends and crossways to the logs. That done, he worked a handful of tinder into the wood chips. Worrying that the top log might roll off as it burned, he brought two big flat rocks to brace against the logs.

Jasmine had finished putting poles along the sides of the lean-to by then. “Ready, Baby?” he asked as he took out one of his precious lighters.

“I’m impressed,” she said with a chuckle as she inspected the two logs, one sitting atop the other. “That looks better than the example they showed us at the survival lecture.”

“The article the General sent called it an all-night fire. I’ve never done it just like this before, but with the top log sitting on the bottom one and with the fire between them, the heat is supposed to be directed downward and to the sides instead of going mostly upward.”

Morales had a fire starter kit with him, and another one – Robinson’s – at the cave, but he also had a number of the lighters he had found in the resupply case in the stream. He cupped his hand against the wind, and with a flick, the tinder was shortly burning. Within a couple of minutes, the wood chips, sticks and grass he had wedged between the logs began to burn as well. Ten minutes later, the logs had caught and small flames were occasionally arcing around the sides of the top log.

“According to the article, the end spacers will eventually catch and burn, but by then, the logs will have burned down enough that there will be a natural burn space between them, anyway. Too bad we don’t have any marshmallows,” he told his mate.

Jasmine giggled as she dug into her pack. “Diana brought us some. We even have graham crackers at home, and could have made smores, but I didn’t think to bring the grahams.”