Chapter 61

I left the new office and returned to the dining area. Catla told me the meal for my two cuties was read do I fetched them from the play furs area, got them situated in their dual high chair and got to my main job. Once Chiqa had her bottle I started filling up Kita with bites of food off the plate Catla had provided.

As usual the girls had tried to keep the two small ones playing before the evening meal and by the time they were fed they were on their way to sleepy time. After giving them a minor cleaning, Nanita turned them over to me again and I took them back to their sleeping area and I put them down, hopefully for the night.

Supper was ready when I made it back, and even though I tucked into the meal I ate slowly enough to tell them what I'd seen at Cartallow's camp.

"Did all their hay burn then?" Talila asked.

"It wasn't all gone when I came out to look, but all the stacks were burning and I don't see how they could have stopped them from burning completely. Once a haystack is burning it is almost impossible to put it out."

"We need to help them," Rose said, "but how can we. Isn't the snow too deep to travel there now?"

"If it isn't it won't be far from it. I'm sure the skidder can make it up there and maybe my pickup could with the skidder's help. We could probably take a trailer load of hay with us to feed the horses for a day or two. I don't see any way they can make it without moving here though."

"They can't, at least they can't and keep their horses. I'm sure they have enough food for themselves, but with the hay for the horses gone they'll have to move them here at least, or turn them out and hope they make it through the winter," Rose said.

"We have to ask ourselves whether we want them to come here to live too. It would be well and good to say they could come stay for the winter, but after they see how easy we have it you know they'll want to stay," I said.

"Did Cartallow seem like he could get along with someone else running the camp where he lived?" Rose asked.

"I didn't really consider it while I was with them. We stayed several days and had no problems, but I just couldn't say about a full time arrangement. I do think we should at least make the offer though, if we can get up there."

"Might not be so hard to go if go now. After first hard snow it usually waits a few weeks until snowed in for winter," Catla said.

"All we can do is try and see if we can make it. At the very least I could take the skidder up there and talk with him," I said.

"You can't go with the skidder only. Someone will have to take the skidder and you will have to follow them in the pickup. Make sure you don't get them both stuck at the same time too. That way you can come back in one if the other gets stuck so bad you can't get it out," Rose said.

"When you're right your right. We'll take the horse trailer too and a couple of horses. If it all goes to shit we could ride the horses back here."

We talked about it a little more and then I went over to George's area and gave him the story. We talked over tentative plans for taking a little ride farther north in the morning and finally came to the same conclusions I had with my girls.

I went back to my women then and we went to bed early. It would be early to rise and all that shit tomorrow morning and I needed my beauty sleep.

I was the last one out of bed the next morning and it was by the women's design. They had slipped out of bed without waking me.

Layta, Lieta, and Keeta came back into the bedroom to rouse me then they gave me a good showering, dried me, and put me in a bathrobe and slippers.

"No need get dressed in warmest clothes yet," Keeta said.

When I made it to the table I was happy to see Kita and Chiqa in their highchair and waiting on service. I spent the time between bites explaining to Kita why I would be gone for a day or so. She gave me her permission for the trip, but reluctantly. Once I had them full I carried them to their play furs and settled them down for a short nap.

I concentrated on my own food then. George and his crew were eating with us this morning. Apparently Zeeta was going with him and I learned Layta and Lieta were going with me. What the hell, it would be stupid for us to take off with just the two of us.

Traveling alone back in these times, in the dead of winter would be Dumb with a capital D. If everything went to our liking it wouldn't be so bad, but then again things were not likely to all go to our liking. I could think of a million things which might go wrong and extra hands along to help out might save a life or two before it was all over. I liked it better this way since the life might very well be mine.

After breakfast I put on some long underwear and then dressed in jeans. George and I went out, hooked the horse trailer to the pickup and started the skidder and let it idle to get it warm. It's a hell of a lot harder to get a diesel warmed up in really cold weather and George even decided to put a wind covering over the radiator to help keep it warm.

Once we had the horses and tack loaded, and were basically ready to go, we went back inside and then to the office. We spent a good deal of time looking over the views from the cameras Sigfried had left us and I felt a lot better about the trip after we had.

The snow up on the plateau didn't look as deep as on the lower level - probably the wind up there accounted for it. I didn't have any really worries about places we'd get stuck up there anyway. There was no boggy ground and no streams to cross up top.

We found our best route and it was about as I'd imagined. We would go out of the north end, up onto the plateau and come down off it near Goondoe's old camp. Our only real worry was where we'd have to cross the river, but I remembered a shallow ford near Goondoe's camp and the river was low this time of year anyway. I didn't think we'd have trouble.

At the last I remembered to check closely for a place to stop the skidder and truck, unload the horses, and saddle up so we could ride into Cartallow's camp. He hadn't seen any of Sigfried's bounty yet and we'd have a hard enough time explaining why we were there without having to go over the skidder, pickup, and horse trailer right off the bat.