Chapter 6

We were up early the next morning but there'd been a change in cooking arrangements since our trip. The cooking was being done inside now. I didn't mind a bit and apparently the women thought it was the right thing to do.

Now that we were using the big oak-grate for safety it was necessary to take it down before anyone could go outside to take care of early morning business. Since it was so heavy, Chatako and I did the honors. After we had it out of the way we went out first to make sure things outside were safe. I didn't really like the thought of taking the door down with no good way to put it back up quickly, but it was what we could do now and it would take work to change things.

Everything went fine today though and I wasn't sure how to bring it up. I let it pass since breakfast was ready by now and I was hungry. The women cured that problem soon enough and for the rest of the morning Chatako and I mostly set on our asses trying to recover from the ground we'd covered lately.

The cumbersome arrangements for the front door bothered me for the rest of the day. We had emergency methods for a bathroom if we couldn't get out for a while, but they required nearly immediate emptying after the danger was past, and they smelled bad for obvious reasons and were fairly messy too boot. I spent about an hour just before supper studying the front entrance hoping I'd think of something to make things simpler.

Having the door inside was much more secure since no one could disturb its attachments. It also let us brace it more soundly since we could wedge the props in tight and they could only be compromised from outside by someone reaching through. This would be practically impossible since we could shoot arrows into their asses or burn them with sticks from the fire while they tried it.

Overall it was an elegant solution, but it wasn't good enough for practical reasons. It was too damned hard to open and close, and since we had no useable way to go to the bathroom with the grate in place. We needed something better. After the presleep celebration I slept on it.

The solution didn't come to me in a dream, but it was there when I woke. We took care of the normal door duties this morning with me thinking it would be the last time, or nearly the last time for this method.

After breakfast Chatako and I faced the bitter cold outside for materials. Luckily there wasn't much snow on the ground. We'd only had a few light snowfalls so far and we had no trouble cutting four small but tall oaks for what we needed to build. The trees this time were a little over three inches in diameter.

While we were at it the women were working hard putting together the main improvement for the new door hardware. They were plaiting rawhide ropes for the doors new works. When we came back with the oaks we dragged them completely inside so we could cut them up in warmer surroundings.

Yesterday, while I examined the opening that was our entrance I'd noticed a couple of wide cracks above it. This gave us a place to drive in stout braces and I was able to build a sort of very stout hinge/hanger to swing the door from. I also found a good place to secure a sort of pulley for using the rope they were plaiting.

The rope was for raising the door to open it. By the time I was done, the new lighter door/grate could be raised by hoisting it with the ropes. It swung up on its new wood and rope hinges. When the rope was released it would slam down and be held in place immediately by two slanted stops at the bottom.

This wasn't secure enough for extended safety, but we could easily brace it more securely from inside without exposing ourselves to attack from outside. The smaller crosspieces made it easier to lift and handle and they also allowed more room for shooting out through them. After one day's use we cut off a prop pole to hold it open and the door could be slammed easily by pulling the prop out.

The new door made it much easier to get outside for bathroom business and made us all feel more secure about being rapidly able to shut and secure it.

Thankfully we didn't end up needing the new door for protection right away. Things went on normally with no real bother during the winter. We were basically cooped up in the cave after the first heavy snow, since it was the mother of all blizzards as far as I was concerned and little boosters came along every week to ten days.

It did give us time for our projects though. Choto made casting spears, bows, and slings for Bally and Bala and we were able to put up backstops and targets for inside practice for all of us. The large cave made this possible and it was a real advantage.

Choto worked on our weapons religiously. Having them seemed to change his attitude of life. Before I'd come along to clue them in, Choto had merely gone through the motions of existence. With the long-range weapons he felt useful again.

His compromised mobility wasn't such a disadvantage any longer. He became an expert with all the new weapons and he was looking forward to being able to hunt next spring. Chasing the game to death wasn't necessary any longer and he could once again do his part even though he still had the hitch in his getalong.

The poorly mended leg was a hardship for Choto, but I thought of it as a blessing for the rest of us, though it was something I never mentioned. It had made Choto work hard with his hands and at making tools to help. He was easily the best flint knapper any of us knew and he seemed to be able to work miracles. He would also think about and tinker with the combinations of the variations available for our weapons.

He made special larger bows for us to use while hunting bison. They were much larger and the arrows he made for them were larger also. They had considerably more wallop though and their range was farther.

The women could do wonders plaiting now too. All the ropes we had for raising and lowering the front door were plaited and winter had given them time to make long lariats for all of us. We practiced with them too and I was sure it would be a big surprise if our neighbors came around again. A lariat also had a lot more range than a jabbing spear.

Horses stayed in the back of my mind. I was anxious for spring and fresh meat for a change, but hunting horses for meat wasn't what I had in mind. Like any Texan I thought walking was a poor way to travel. I intended to be mounted before summer arrived and I planned on catching and training a horse for everyone.

Another of the big benefits of winter was plenty of time for fucking, and I did all of it I could get by with. Even though I was somehow young again since my arrival here I could still remember my last life and being too old to cut the mustard. I was going to have a lot more pussy to remember when I got too old this time.

The bitter cold and deep snows of what I thought must be January finally abated and gave way to merely miserable cold and moderate snow. After a few mild days Chatako and I decided it was time to poke our noses our.

We dressed for warmth but without our bison robe long coats, put on our fat treated outer moccasins, took our smaller deer size bows and a big quiver, and headed out just after breakfast one morning to take a look around. We even took a coiled lariat with us hoping to get a chance to try roping something.

I wasn't fooling the others. I'd talked about catching horses all winter and they knew that's what I hoped to catch. It was, but I doubted I'd be able to get the job done.

Our nasty neighbors were always on our mind so we headed toward their camp first. We didn't intend to let them see us, but we wanted to get a look at them.

We were easily able to get close enough for a good look without revealing ourselves. The camp wasn't as well tended as I'd have expected, but then again they didn't have the luxury of being warm and secure during the winter. I'm sure going out in the cold to tidy up wasn't a high priority.

Most of them seemed to be out and about this morning though and it struck me right away they didn't seem so well fed. They weren't starving or anything, but almost all of them were thinner than the three we'd had to kill last summer.

The apparent oldest male had plenty of flesh on his bones, but even he wasn't carrying any extra. He was showing an attitude though and his tone of voice wasn't pleasant, especially with his mate who was trying to cook.