Chapter 20

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."R. Frost

After the goodbyes had been said I counted the newcomers. We had 13 new women and 12 children ranging for one to eleven. Most all of the older children were female. In fact only 2 of the babies were boys. Shamona and Shanana were organizing them and filling them in on their living arrangements and their space in the cave. I knew better than to stick my nose in where it didn't belong.

Shortly Abo, Jaklow and Hamlin arrived with their new wives, and the timbers. I had them stack the wood in an area that was flat and looked to be a good place for a workshop. There was a shade tree there and a natural stone table. Just what the doctor ordered. I told Abo to make sure Jake was given some grain and then hobbled in the grass to eat. "Don't leave him out too long. I don't want him to become cat food" Of course I was referring to saber tooth. He smiled and nodded. Following him were his two adoring wives. They thought even more of him since the encounter with the wanderers. They would reach out and touch him as they walked. One stopped to kiss him and the other had to get one in too. I noticed he was sporting a boner after that. I'm sure he planned to stay out and watch Jake. (And if you believe he was watching Jake, I've got some dry swampland in Florida you'd just love!) His wives were cute, a blonde and a red haired beauty. Both had mature boobs on their chests and I'm sure they were fun to play with.

I pulled one of the logs from the pile and hefted it on to the table. I examined it and found it to be just right. I retrieved the hand sledge and splitting wedge Billy had packed. After all, it was necessary to have a good supply of split wood when camping. I was fortunate Billy packed for me. I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached. One thing I wished for and knew I wouldn't have is an adze. I could make boards if I had one of those and a plane to boot.

I started splitting the tree with my sledge and wedge. I worked all afternoon. I hit my hand a couple of times and let out a string of profanity that would curl a nun's toes. The women in camp just ignored me. They went about their business. I noticed as I worked that the newcomers were fitting in just fine. Not conflict and everyone helping each other. Some of the women had taken the children in the cave and when they came out, they were clean too. Nothing improves their looks like a little shampoo. I had to figure out a way to make more in the near future and added that note to the Ipod. Fortunately for me one of the apps was a bookshelf and I had purchased an entire encyclopedia. I could find out just about anything with it. I just had to remember to plug it in to the solar charger.

By the time I was ready to quit I had split over half the logs into boards. Sure they were rough, splinters and all, but I had boards about the same width. I looked through the rocks beside the cave and found a couple that were hand sized and had a flat surface. I tried out my idea and found that they would work to smooth out the boards. I gathered more stones and set everyone not doing something else on the task. By the time dinner was ready, the boards were also. The family, even the children had pitched in to sand them semi smooth. If we had a plane we'd be all set. I just wish we had more nails than we did. Billy had sent along 2 sets of shoes for each animal and enough nails. The hammer was a farrier's hammer and would not very useful pounding nails in wood. So it was up to me to get lashing. I'd been an Eagle Scout thanks to my mom and granddad. Plus I knew a little more thanks to my Cherokee grandfather.

I didn't want to use all my good rope on the door so I checked with Shanana. She was the organizer of supplies for our family. I asked if we had any rawhide. She just looked at me with a blank look. I explained what rawhide was and she grinned, kissed me with a bit of tongue added and trotted off into the cave. Moments later she returned with a large stack of hide. Looking at it I approved. I asked her to have someone make strips for lashing. I showed her what I wanted from my saddle. She said it would be a short time, and that she would get someone on it. While I waited, I laid out the planks to form the door. With that finished I selected two long, stout poles and a shorter one to make up the doorframe. Using the camp saw, I cut everything to length so I could bury a good amount of log into the ground. I set Jaklow and Abo to the task of digging which I really, really hate doing. They were lucky. The digging was easy and soon they had narrow 4-foot deep holes dug. I sent them down to the river after describing what I wanted them to get. They took the small travois and soon came back with it loaded full of river clay. Off to the east about half a mile I'd found a deposit of limestone. I had Hamlin and Miya go collect some earlier in the day and had them dump it in the fire pit. Someone had kept the fire burning all day and by now it was ready.

I removed the stones from the fire pit. Letting them cool for a bit, I broke them up into small pieces. I then set the boys to pulverizing the rest. I then had them ready to mix together with the clay. I notched the doorsill and we muscled the frame into place. We wedged it into the rock so it roughly framed in the entryway. We mixed the clay and slaked lime (that's what we made in the firepit) and filled both pole pits. The boys tamped the clay/lime mixture down so that about two feet of the poles were covered. I got them out and had them run and wash off the remainder. I didn't want them to get lime burn. I filled in the rest of the hole with what was removed. I told the children to jump up and down on the piles of earth. That was better than any mechanical tamper! The frame was finished. At almost the same time one of the new unmated girls, Tewnia brought me rawhide strips. Her arms were filled. I told her to tell whoever was making them that we had enough. She blushed brightly and said she was the one who was making them. I kissed her cheek as a reward and she squealed and ran off.