Chapter 16: Visiting

William

We spent the next thirty minutes hooking up the first set of trailers. Shannon was showing Angela how to drive the van. Shannon would tow the one with the baby chicks in it. Sandi had one of the travel trailers, as did Nancy. Susan and I hooked up the forty-five foot trailers that were reefer units. The fifth wheel travel trailers were painted in a green and brown cammo pattern, and I noticed they would blend into the forest line. The remaining eight trailers, we would come back for as well as the six twenty four foot flatbed trailers. One was holding what looked like a portable sawmill that I had looked at on the net at the house. I was going to add it to next year's requisition, but I gather the girls were thinking ahead. Another pair of trailers had snowmobiles and jet skis on them.

We formed up into a column with Angela right behind me and headed for home. We passed through the area where we first arrived and the mastodons were wandering away eating. The girls were chatting on the CBs that were installed in all the trucks, and with the base camp. I listened as we drove and I could hear the shock in Sandi and Nancy's voices as they talked about me. By the time we were in sight of the door, I knew I was blushing as bright a red as a tomato. We parked the trucks, and went inside. The girls who had stayed had lunch ready for us and I watched as Nancy and Sandi went ballistic petting Traveler. He was happy to see his old friends and then the others came out and they were petting them as well.

We had a quick lunch of shredded BBQ beef on rolls and then I went out and unhitched all the trailers after backing them into the garage. The rest we would have to store outside because there wasn't enough room for all of them. By six pm we had all the trailers back at the cave and I watched as the girls started unloading them. The first one was the tubs of chicks and I knew I needed to build a chicken coup first. I was looking at plans on the computer and found one where I could turn a trailer into one. It was going to be some work, but I knew it could be done. The hard part was a door; I didn't want it so they would have to open the main door. I contacted Soria and asked if she knew how I could put a door through the wall into the pen I was going to build. She told me she would handle it so going out to the trailers, I examined all them and decided on the big fifty-five foot dry goods one that the girls had brought.

The next morning we unloaded everything from the trailer and I couldn't believe they had bought kilns with them, or all the pottery stuff. It was stacked inside against the far wall to be set up later. I positioned the trailer against the cliff wall and I dug out the chain link poles and started digging the holes with the posthole diggers. Over the next three days I made a two hundred by two hundred foot pen. The outer wall was eight-foot tall chain link with chicken wire on the inside. Around the bottom of the pen, I put a hot wire that should deter any animal from trying to go under. Across the top; I put some of the barbed wire the girls brought with them.

With the chicken pen finished, I turned to laying out the fort we were going to build for Sarla's people. It took a day to lay out the guidelines, and I then used the backhoe part of the tractor the girls brought to dig out the wall posts. I planned on two sections of poles, and the inner part filled with dirt so I made the trench four feet across and five feet deep. Susan, Sandi and Nancy took over the backhoe and continued the digging while I took several of the other girls, two of the dodge rams and big trailers to the pine forest.

We spent the days cutting down fourteen-inch thick, twenty-four foot long pine trees and stripping them of their branches. As we cut the trees down, we used the winch on the Hummer, to drag the trees trunks out to the trailers where we left them beside them. When we had eighty trees cut down, I tossed the tools in the back of the truck, and said, "Sarla, let's go get your people. I need the men in your former camp to help load the trailers, and then stand the poles up."

"No. We need to get one section of the wall up. So let's get these trees loaded," Sarla replied.

"What? Why?" I asked.

"Because if we don't have one section done, we won't get them working on the rest like we want. So you hook up the trailer, and then we load the logs," she replied.

Grumbling, I went to the Hummer and hooked up the trailer. I looked at the logs, and had an idea. Backing the trailer up with the back end towards the logs, I pulled the two by eights off the back and made a ramp. We then rolled ten of the logs up onto the back so they straddled the six-foot wide trailer base. Then using the tie downs, I strapped the logs down so they wouldn't roll. We then did the same to the other two trailers. When finished, we had thirty of the logs on the trailers and the metal frames weren't even bending. Why it wasn't bending, I didn't know, and I wasn't going to ask. So, with the trailers loaded, we headed back to the camp.

The six-mile trip, passed quickly and we pulled up to the camp, and found the girls were working on the first of the corner towers. It was going to be hexagon shaped, with three floors and about forty feet tall. The top floor was going to be fighting positions, while the second would be storage and the bottom will be sleeping areas for the guards.

They had also dug an inner trench that was four feet from the main wall. Why it was there, I had no idea. Climbing out, we walked over and knelt and examined the trench as Susan, and Sandi joined us. Nancy was still using the backhoe and working on the tower base.

"What's with the hole?" I asked.

"That's for the inner platform; it will be three feet lower than the upper platform. It's basically the fighting perch. You don't want to stand on the top of the wall and fight, you can be hurt to easily, with the short drop, they have some protection," Susan replied.

"Oh, good idea," I said as I stood up.

"Thanks. Nadil wants to see you," she said and pointed where she was sitting in one of the camp chairs working. Kili was sitting next to her, helping her.

"Ok, thanks," I replied and walked over to them. Kissing each of them, I said, "You wanted to see me, love?"

Nadil smiled at me as I broke the kiss and showed me the rope she was making using some of the vines from the forest, and asked, "Will this work?"

Examining the rope, I tugged on it and found it was quite strong. With a smile, I replied, "That will work great. Do you have any ready?"

She smiled up at me, pointed at the coils of rope behind her and went back to her work.

I picked up four of the heavy coils of vines and carried them to the Hummer. The girls joined me and watched as I made a slip loop and wrapped the rope about three feet up the base of the first log. The second rope went around the top part, and then we started rolling the logs together and tying them together. Two hours after we started, we had the first ten logs tied together.

When we were finished tying the logs together, I said, "Now we need the tar."

"I will get it," Susan replied and ran to Nancy.

I watched as they drove to the fire pit where the big fifty-five gallon drum was sitting on a fire pit. Using the backhoe, they pulled the side of the fire pit away, and Susan stepped up to the drum, and dunked two five gallon buckets into the hot tar. Placing each on the teeth of the backhoe, she picked up four of the straw brooms that we had made.

Carrying the tar back to us, she passed out the brooms, and we started coating the bottom part of the new wall and soon had the fifteen-foot section of the wall finished. Using the backhoe, we pushed the wall section off the wall, and watched it slide into the first hole. With all of us pushing, we had the wall standing up straight against the inner wall and braced with four by fours.

We did the same with the last two trailers, and had the second wall in front of the first section of the wall. Using smaller four by fours, we had the wall separated by three feet. This area was going to be filled with rock and dirt. Looking at the wall section, I frowned and walked over to the truck. Grabbing the chainsaw, and a chalk line, I walked back to the walls. Using a ladder, I climbed up the side and had Susan set up the second ladder. With the line stretched, I marked the logs on the inner wall three feet lower and snapped it. As Sandi snaked the line back in, I took the chain saw and started lopping the top three feet of the wall and pushing them into the wall section to be used as fill. An hour later, I had the whole section finished and started on the inner wall section, which I lopped off six feet.

"Why are you doing that?" Susan asked as she pointed at the uneven level of the wall.

"I figure the extra three feet is more protection if anyone is up on the top. I also plan on laying clay bricks along the top so they can walk on it. Eventually, I would like to put a two-foot thick brick wall on the outside as well. Now let's get the inner wall coated with the tar, and then once its dried, we can fill it," I replied.

"No, we need three more logs for the end cap, so go get them while we work on the wall," Susan ordered.

"Your command is my wish, my lady," I said and Sarla and I drove back to the logs.

We quickly loaded up thirty-three more logs, and drove them back to the camp where we unloaded the first three and tied them together. With Nancy driving the backhoe, we had it in place and filling the end so the dirt and rock would stay inside. I was using a process I found online with the web searching, called pozzolana, also known as pozzolanic ash. It took some searching, but we found a deposit of the fine, sandy volcanic ash, about four miles from the camp to the east. The ash sand was dull gray. Using the pit sand and lime, we mixed it with small rocks and poured it into the bottom of the wall to keep the poles in place.

"I wish we had more, I would fill the inner wall with this roman cement so we would have a stronger wall," I said.

"This will be fine, besides, mixing that much slurry by hand would be a bitch, not counting the transporting of the lime and pit sand," Nancy replied as we used the hand mixers to mix the cement.

"I know, but it would be nice," I replied.

"I know, but for now, wood and a little cement is better than plain dirt," Susan added as she scooped some pit sand into the electric mixer.

Two days later, we had a foot thick base inside the wall and it was drying nicely as we put an end cap inside the other wall, and started on it. Using the backhoe, Nancy started filling in the center part of the lower wall while I built some ladders that could be used to climb up to the top. By the tenth day after the girls arrived, I called a halt and looked at our small wall.

I said as I looked at the wall, "Girls, it's time to go to Sarla's old camp and see if they would like to join us."

"I agree, we have one section of the wall done and with their help, we can finish the rest, if they want to move here," Sarla said.

"Good, then tomorrow we will go over to their camp and ask," I replied.

We gathered up the tools, and put them in the shed that the girls had brought with them. Then we headed home and cleaned up in the large shower. We all helped with the children, and had them cleaned up, fed and in bed before we started on our own dinner. Susan and her daughters made a chicken cacciatore that was to die for, and along with fresh homemade bread for dinner. For desert, Sandi and Nancy had made a peach cobbler, with vanilla ice cream.

That night, I made love to each of my wives until midnight, and then we crashed for the rest of the night. The next morning, we were up before dawn. I had set up the trucks and Hummer to tow trailers the night before, and we had loaded them with the supplies we wanted to take. I pulled the vehicles outdoors while the girls readied the kids and made breakfast. We had waffles, eggs, bacon and toast chased down with milk or coffee.

After we finished (I made a pig of myself with six waffles), we gathered the kids up, and loaded up the vehicles. We headed out to Sarla and Sinara's former camp. I had Sarla, Sinara, Lilia and Walian in the Hummer with me. The rest of the girls and kids were scattered in the three Dodge Rams, and the van. Each vehicle was towing a trailer to hopefully carry the camp back to our home. Sandi was towing one of the travel trailers that could sleep all of us. Along the way, we passed several herds of buffalo.

I stopped the vehicles about three miles from our destination, pulled out the .444 Marlin, and took aim at several buffalo. With quick shots, I brought two of them down and we drove over to them. We winched them up onto my trailer and headed for the village. We drove over the hill and down into the village. The natives stood there watching as I stepped out of the Hummer.