Chapter 11: Farming

Day 46:

William

"Who was that ... creature and where did it take my mother?" Susan asked.

"Susan, I assume he took her up to his ship, as he said he was going to do. His name is Kalib and he says he is in charge of this experiment," I replied as I sat on the bed.

"What is this experiment you two keep talking about?" Angela asked.

"I am supposed to help the natives become civilized and advance them into a technology based society," I replied, and then I looked up at them and asked, "Are you two hungry?"

"Starved," Susan replied.

"Me too," Angela added.

"Well let's go see what we can wrestle up for breakfast," I said and stood up.

The girls followed me out to the kitchen where my mates were poking into thing, trying to figure out what everything was. Opening the cabinet, I pulled out two of the large electric skillet pans and plugged them in. "Susan, grab some bacon and there are some boxes of egg mix in the fridge. They should be thawed by now. Angela, in the breadbox, are two loaves of bread, I made the other day. Get them out and start toasting..."

"I got it," Angela replied as Susan opened the fridge and grabbed several packages of bacon and three boxes of eggbeaters.

"Eggbeaters ... ewww, don't you have any real eggs?" Susan asked as she looked at the boxes of egg mix.

"Nope, ran out about twenty days ago," I replied as I took the boxes and opened them into a bowl. With the large skillet pan heating on the stove, I walked over to the milk cow machine with a two cup measuring cup and filled it with milk. Pouring some of the milk into the bowl with the eggs, I mixed them up. Adding salt and pepper to the mix, I checked the pan and then poured the eggs into the pan to start them cooking as Susan started the bacon.

I watched as Angela tried to cut the bread, and I reached under the counter and pulled out a bread guide. Sliding the plastic container over to her, she looked at it and set the loaf inside the slot. Using the guides she started slicing the bread into slices to toast.

"There is homemade butter in the fridge. You can get that and there is some jelly or jam, whichever you prefer," I said as I stirred the eggs.

"William, what are you making?" Sarla asked as she came over to the counter.

"We are going to have eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast. I'm cooking the eggs, Susan is watching the bacon, and Angela is making the toast," I replied as I pointed out each item. She shoved me to the side, and took the wooden spoon I was stirring the eggs with.

"Woman's work, go sit," she said as she started stirring the eggs.

"I know how to cook..."

"No! Sit, we make," she snapped at me with the spoon in her hand.

"I..."

"Sit now or go do something," Sarla snapped.

Susan was watching the argument and offered a solution, "William, go feed your dogs. We will call you when it's ready."

"Ok, I will be back," I said and walked out of the room.

Going into the living room, I looked at the dogs sleeping on the floor. "Come on guys and girls, let's get your breakfast." I led the dogs into the garage, and opened the garbage can of dog food. Scooping some out, I started filling each of their bowls and then rinsed out the large water bucket in the sink. Refilling it, I set it under the drip faucet and turned the water back on. I washed my hands at the sink, and watched the dogs eat. When they were finished eating, I opened the door flap for them, and they shot outside to go potty.

While the dogs had been eating, I pulled the Barrett out of the Hummer. I carried it to the shop and started cleaning it. I was halfway done when Angela came and found me.

"Food is ready," she said as she stood in the doorway.

"Thank you," I replied as I finished putting the gun back together. Setting it in the gun rack, I walked out with her, and we went into the house. I made a quick stop to wash my hands and went into the dining room where the girls had set the table. We sat down, and I had Walian on one side and Sinara on the other. The rest of the ladies were scattered on each side of the table.

"I see you used real plates, I usually use the paper ones," I said as I started filling my plate with food. There were even fresh biscuits and gravy to eat as well, and I piled that on to a separate plate. I started eating and I was in heaven from the fluffy biscuits, so I looked up and asked, "Who made the biscuits?"

"I did," Susan replied as she scooped gravy onto her biscuits.

"Then I make you the official biscuit maker in the house. These are fantastic," I said as I lathered butter onto another one.

"Thank you, my grandmother taught me how to make them. Her's were a little larger than mine. As you can see mine are only an inch and a half high, hers were like two to three inches, but they melted in your mouth. I just could never get it right, but I keep trying," Susan replied as she started eating.

We finished eating, and I was ushered out of the room once more as Susan and Angela started teaching the girls how to use all the machinery in the kitchen. I went out to the garage again, and started unloading the trailer. I set everything to the side and then backed the trailer out to the slaughter stand that I had built. Hanging the two cats from their hind legs, I left them there for the girls to clean since they wanted them. I was standing there looking out at the plains when I saw a head pop up and look around.

Pulling the Marlin rifle out of the back, I took aim at the antelope and fired just as she moved her head. The round hit the deer like creature in the neck, and it went down. I shouldered my rifle and started walking towards the kill, I was watching all around me for any danger. Arriving at the antelope I saw it was still alive and paralyzed. I knelt by the wounded animal, laid my rifle on the ground and pulled my knife out.

"Sorry girl, I tried for a clean hit, but you moved your head," I said softly as I slit the creature's throat. Wiping the blade off in the grass, I hefted the hundred pound antelope up onto my shoulders, picked up my rifle and walked back to the skinning rack. I strung up the antelope, went in and grabbed a clean knife and walked back out to the rack and started skinning the deer.

"What are you doing?" Sarla asked as she walked out.

"Skinning my kill," I replied as I started to slit the corpse.

"Whatever you are doing, it's not skinning. Give me that knife," she said as she held her hand out.

"I have you know I have been skinning my kills for forty days, and I'm quite good at it," I replied.

Sarla started laughing and I looked at her trying to figure out what she was laughing about. Before I could ask she wiped her eyes, took a deep breath and laid into me with her tongue.

"Well, forty days is nothing. When you have twelve summers of doing it, then you can say you know how. Now give me the knife, you go over to your chair and sit down," she replied.

"But ... Damn it! Can't I do anything around my house anymore?" I asked as I handed her the knife.

"Yes, go sit over there and be like a man," Sarla replied and took the knife.

I walked over to my chair, sat down and watched Sarla skin the antelope. Before she finished Lisel, Sinara and Walian came out and started on the tigers. They set the skins aside and Susan and Angela watched beside me and were turning a little green when Sarla went into the garage and came out with a one gallon empty bucket. They then dumped the animal's brains in them and peed in the container. I knew they were getting ready to start cleaning the skins and preparing them for use when I heard retching behind me.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw Angela getting sick. "Are you ok?" I asked.

"That is fucking gross ... oh god, she put her hand in it. What is..."

Angela didn't get a chance to finish as she turned and hurled her breakfast at the base of the wall.

"Angela, are you ok?" I asked as I pulled my handkerchief out and offered it to her.

Angela turned around wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve. She looked at the cloth in my hand and took it. She wiped her sleeve off and then her mouth again.

Handing it back to me, she said, "Don't ever fucking ask me to do that! That is fucking gross!"

"You may not fix skins now. You will one day, and you will have to do this," Sarla said as she pulled her bloody hand from the bucket.

I was looking at Angela when she turned green once more, and I quickly turned her around and pushed her towards the house. "Come on, let's get you inside before you get sick again," I said as I led her into the cool garage.

Sitting her down on one of the extra chairs, I opened the small fridge I had plugged into the wall outlet and grabbed a bottle of cold water and opened it.

"Drink this to settle your stomach," I ordered as I pushed the bottle in to her hand.

"Thank you," Angela replied as she took a drink of the water.

After she had drunk half the bottle, I asked, "Are you feeling better?"

"Yes I am, but that is still gross. There is no way I am doing that. I'll do the cooking. I'll clean the bathrooms. I'll even wash your underwear, but I'm not doing that," she stated as she finished off the bottle and then set the empty down.

"Ok, but maybe one day you can help them out with it. You should learn how to skin the animals at least, because once the food I brought with me is gone, it's down to hunting and gathering."

"Can I put a garden in? I used to have one back home. I love growing vegetables and fruit," Angela asked.

"Yes you can, follow me," I said.

I led her back to one of the storage rooms. Opening the door, I let her go inside the well-stocked room.

"Wow!" she said as she looked at all the gardening supplies.

"Over in that stack of storage crates are seeds, you can see the shovels and the rototillers. I will go cut some timber to make you a bed frame for your garden, and we will turn the soil and then rototiller the bags of manure into them. Ok?" I asked.

"Yes! Thank you William. Do you have canning stuff?" she asked as she checked the shelves.

"Yes I do, tons of it in another storage room. Just wish we had some fruit trees. I love peaches and pears," I said wistfully.

"We will find some. There has to be some around here," she said.

"Yes, there has to be. We will have to look for them," I replied as we walked out of the room and back outside.

We walked over to the girls that were working on scraping the skins when Sarla looked up at us as we came out and stood up. Clutched in her left hand was her knife. She flipped the knife around and handed it hilt first.

"Scrape!" she said.

"Sarla, she doesn't have too. She wants to do something else to help the household," I replied.

She looked at me and then at Angela and nodded her head. "If she wants to learn it, I will teach her. What is she going to do?" she asked as she picked up a piece of cloth and wiped the blade off.

"She wants to work in the garden," I replied as I hugged the thirteen year old.

"What is garden?" she asked.

"A garden is where I am going to grow our vegetables. William will have to put a fence up and a box frame that will protect them from ground animals. But once he is done, we will have tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and other things to eat," Angela said.