Chapter 33

I went with Teague to the smoker and showed him what changes I wanted and showed him the measuring rope. Saying I wanted the shelves that far apart. I pulled down on the front pole and it flexed quite a bit. I told him we would need some bracing for the poles. I drew a forked stick on the floor and said we would need one on each side of the fire pit at the front pole and again at the other shelves. I showed him how to stager the braces and shelf poles to make sure the shelves could hold about 50 to 60 lbs of meat each. The braces would also help keep the poles from ripping out the waddle on the walls. He said that he understood and that he would make it happen.

I then went into the garage and grabbed axes, and my two bow saws and a couple hatchets as well. I grabbed the 36 inch chain saw and put it all in the pick-up bed. I then drove out and picked up our loggers and headed over to the tree area. I picked out the three trees I wanted felled and cut the first notches for the fall cut. Then I had everyone stay out of the way as I cut the three trees with the chain saw. Once all three were down, I let Tovar and his crew finish up with the de-limbing. I took the chain saw and several small branches for Keryon back with me.

Once back, I dropped the branches off to Keryon and her helpers. I then loaded up the truck with men and we headed over to the fence and gate. Using the hoist, I raised the gate and slid the hinge pins in place. I then tied the cable in the eye on the tree and adjusted the turnbuckle to make the gate swing easily. I then pounded a couple stakes into the ground using the post hammer to keep the gate steady. I had Merthar and his men come around and I showed him how to dig a hole with the post-hole digger just past the end of the gate. Once they had the hole about 2 feet down I drug the gate post over to the hole. I used the hoist again to hold up the 14’ post and I lowered it into the hole. Once it was straight I climbed into the bed and put the post hammer on the post. I then proceeded to pound the sharpened end into the ground about another foot at least. I then had the men fill in the hole and pack it down tight with a sledge hammer and the top of the post hammer. I showed Merthar how the rest of the fence was built and the rails and pointed posts I had already cut. There should be plenty for them to finish the fence. They probably wouldn’t be finished today, but in a couple days they should.

By then Fretail and Harlou had brought quite a stack of poles over so I then showed Merthar and his crew how to weave the poles into the fence. I had made a three rail fence so I had the men put the pole inside the top rail and then outside the middle rail and then back inside the bottom rail until the pole was at the ground level. I then tapped the pole a little into the ground and grabbed the next pole doing the same thing and then tapping it with a hammer so it was next to the first pole before tapping it into the ground. The third pole broke. Well what to do now. I know, “Merthar I think we will want to soak the poles in water first before we go any further. That way the poles will be easier to bend the way we want them to.” He agreed and had three men grab a bunch of poles and drag them off to the stream. I told him I would tell Harlou and Fretail to drop the poles off at the stream so they could soak a while. We had some spectators at the cave entrance so I drove back up to the cave and brought a few more down to the fence line and had them load all the poles left into the truck and I dropped them off at the stream. And picked up some soaked poles and took them back to the fence line. I showed the newcomers how to weave the poles, and they went right to work. It went very well. By supper time we had the gate, 20 feet of fence on each side of the gate and we had about 20’ of the fence with the poles set in place, over all a good day on the fence.

I went and picked up our loggers; Harlou, Fretail, and I dragged back all three trees and a lot of branches, both thick and thin back to camp. Some of them could be used on the fence and a lot could be used by our weavers. We had 8 huts down in the meadow surrounding a nice fire pit and ring of rocks. This was our new visitor center. We ended up with 8 huts instead of the 6 I originally called for, but these 8 didn’t have the right size poles for either the fence of for weaving.