Chapter 32

Catla and the girls showed they had the buttered biscuit deal well in hand the next morning and they had plenty of them cooked and a slice of ham to go into each one. We had plenty of scrambled eggs too, and it reminded me I hadn't shown them how to put a fried egg in a sort of sandwich yet.

Zakkon and Mendal headed out with Daro and Rayta as overwatch again this morning, and I hoped they'd be done with their business by the end of the day. Meanwhile I stayed behind to help the women and made sure I knocked off an early piece from Delia, Bunta, Morta, and Theba. They weren't staying for the winter after all, and I figured I'd better fuck 'em while the fucking was good. It didn't seem to distress them at all.

My biggest surprise over the matter was it didn't seem to slow them down with their primary tasks either. They finished up their sixth saddle before lunch and they had twelve lariats, plenty of hobbles, and several nice bridles done. While they'd been here they'd made more than enough tack to get them home on their newly trained mounts.

If Zakkon and Mendal thought they had the new mounts ready for a trial run by the time they made it home this evening we were going to give them a real test tomorrow.

Thankfully they were sure of themselves when they made it back for the night. We did a little packing after supper was over and woke for a lot more the next morning. We were headed back down to the river level for another guinea gathering. While Zakkon, Mendal, and I went to fetch the newly trained mounts and a few of the old standbys, Catla and the others finished the packing.

When we had everything ready we headed down the path with two travois full of traps, food, and enough bedding for a night or two out under the stars. The river was lower this time of year so we only used the Zodiac to haul freight while we rode downstream with it tethered to my saddle. After we were in shape to get back on dry land we deflated the Zodiac and put it back onto one of the travois with everything else.

No matter how you slice it, a travois isn't worth a shit for taking freight across water. In fact they're a pain in the ass to get up or downstream even if they're not loaded. We got it done this time, butt I vowed never to try it again. We'd be leaving any travois at the water's edge from now on. It was easier and safer to build replacements than it was to try navigating them over water.

Of course we were presented with infinite opportunities for fresh meat when we were feet dry. We didn't do any hunting today though. We'd brought a few meals worth of meat and today setting out the traps was more important. Catla and the others had wised up and built carry cages from small saplings this time so we wouldn't have to stop when we ran out of room for keeping captured guineas corralled.

We knew we'd lost a few of the guineas we moved after our last trip, but there were still plenty of them apparent any time we wandered around outside. We were hoping to gather a real showing this trip. Our egg production up on our shelf hadn't been spectacular, but we were managing to get a few. My only real worry was what would become of the birds during the winter. If things looked too bad we had room to keep them in the cave if it came to it. It would not help the smell inside, but it would help breakfast one hell of a lot.

We splurged with supper and dispensed with most of the meat we'd brought with us. A large bison herd was within a mile of where we were camped and mounted we should have an easy time taking a small one for camp meat. It suited me fine since younger bison should be tender and fat by now. They were well fed by this time of year and I was actually looking forward to the fresh meat. Zakkon and Mendal rode out early the next morning with me and we were back with a kill in less than an hour.

The women made quick work of taking care of it and they had even dug an in-ground cooking pit. They wrapped one haunch from the bison in layer upon layer of large leaves from some sort of weird bush they knew about, then covered the in a thin layer of dirt and but one hell of a fire over it. Shayta claimed it would be cooked to perfection by time for supper.

We checked the traps around noon and had done well. We moved twelve guineas to the capture cages and then Daro, Rayta, Zakkon, Mendal, and I headed out to harvest some of the wild oats nearby. We fed part of them to the caged birds, saved some for tomorrow, and shook a few of the seed heads out around the traps.

Just before sunset, while the women were retrieving the pit roast some of us checked the traps again. We only had eight more birds, but progress was progress. Rayta and Daro had brought some of the moss filled baskets and they picked up two dozen eggs while we were at it.

Of course we had fresh eggs with breakfast the next morning. It made me think of something else I'd brought with me and had never used. It was a #10 heavy-duty hand turned meat grinder. With it we could make sausage and even normal ground meat. Maybe we'd get more used out of it after the weather turned cooler. After the first hard frost was the natural time for hog killing, and I was looking forward to it.

Here and now though we were gathering eggs and guineas. Since we had more help and more room in the cages we were doing better this time. We stayed three days and then headed back with sixty guineas and twenty dozen eggs, plus some of the fresh young bison we hadn't eaten in camp. We left the travois we'd brought on the shore and when we were back at the base of the path up, Zakkon and I climbed to the shelf and brought two travois down. We didn't release the guineas today though. We'd do it tomorrow before we headed back to Goondoe's camp.

Most of the rest of the day we rearranged the inside of our cave. There was easily enough room for all of Goondoe's people to sleep as long as they brought all their bedding along. To accommodate the trip we were taking most of our trained horses with us to haul the freight. The next morning we saddled up, packed up, and headed back to Goondoe's camp.