Chapter 7: Windshift: Pole Hunting

Wikipedia says:

Pinus contorta subsp. latifolia (Lodgepole Pine; syn. P. contorta var. latifolia) – Rocky Mountains, Yukon to Colorado, Saskatchewan and the Black Hills. found in Aspen parkland and boreal forest.

They didn't have Pinus contorta subsp. latifolia (Lodgepole Pine; syn. P. contorta var. latifolia) but they did have Aspen like parkland and boreal forest in the mountains. There, they found the tall thin trees they used as the foundation framework for their homes. It wasn't exactly lodgepole pine but it was close enough.

Supposing you were hunting the elusive lodgepole, you would need to, first: go to it's habitat. Second, know what they look like. Third, understand what is needed, cut them, peel them and move them to where you need.

Habitat: Lodgepole pine is found on the seasonal flat parklands found in rocky mountains. It is generally found at medium altitudes between six and seven thousand feet.

Higher than that the wind tends to remove the branches on the windward side and the trees resemble bushes.

In the colleges and universities of the Earth, the bushes are referred to as krumholtz. Not all krumholtz are lodgepole pine. The ones that are lodgrpole, are identical in biological makeup to the lodgepole; their physical properties are nowhere near the same.

Second: Description. The perfect lodgepole is barren of foliage from base to six to 12 feet from the tip. Even then the needles are sparse to the tip.

As far as diameter goes ... four or five inches at the base is a good size. More important is the diameter where the stack is to be tied ... one and a half to two inches is ideal.

A general rule is beer can size at chest height. Grasp the trunk at chest height, Interlace your fingers tightly, if your thumbnails meet at the knuckles, such a tree is 30 to 35 feet tall.

Third: Procurement, The best poles are found in tightly packed clusters of 25 to 200 trees. They are in fierce competition for sunlight.

They grow fast and tall after a forest fire. Their seeds are shed during such fires.

The best way is to force your way into the middle of a cluster, looking up to locate the straight ones. Cutting down a live tree with a stone axe is a bitch but it can be done. Luckily, Five Lions had a steel axe. A camp saw would have been better ... but much harder to explain.

Downed trees abound in the forest. There are plenty of failures in the drive for survival. But dead trees are hard to peel. The bark 'sticks' like it was epoxied on.

Freshly cut live trees, on the other hand, have a bark you can almost slide off. The longer they lie around the harder it is to get the bark off. Your writer has peeled an entire pole with his fingers but the 'vellum, ' the inner bark turns brown and sticky. The vellum needs to come off too. A peeled wet pole weighs about 10 to 12 pounds.

Getting the bark and the 'nubbins' off is important. Since the covering is thin and the wind blows constantly, the cover is always working on the poles ... a nubbin will tear a cover and once a tear starts a good stiff wind can split a cover from 'ass to brisket' in about a second.

In about a minute a tear can turn a cover into a collection of seams with thongs hanging from it. Again, experience is a harsh teacher. Having had to buy two covers in a month is expensive.

Five Lions, the widow ... and the horses ... took the trip to the mountains, cut thirty eight 30 to 35 foot long poles, trimmed the branches, peeled them and were back the day before the wedding.

While the pole hunt and kill was happening, the brides to be were sewing their little fingers off.

For convention and convenience, the prairie grazers shall be called buffalo, as they resemble Big, really big, North American Great Plains Bison.

A raw American bison hide of 50 to 75 square feet is not unusual. On this planet, 100 square feet was considered a medium size. 3500 to 5000 pounds 'on the hoof' with the upper end being a herd bull, while the lower end was a 'maiden' cow.

There is an enormous amount of work involved in turning an 'on the hoof' animal into clothes on the back and food in the belly. Because nearly everything of use began as live animal, there was generally a good store of both raw hide and tanned leather.

Barter and 'goodwill' produced about 30 full hides for the new family. Before he had left for poles, Five Lions had driven a stake in the ground, outside the camp. Taking a rawhide rope he drew an arc from the stake out to a distance of a little under 20 feet.

"That big ... make it that big." He left them to it ... the only difference in construction was the size. 20 feet compared to the average 12 foot lodge the tribe family usually lived in signaled the difference horses were going to make in the lives of the tribe.

When a buffalo hide is staked down to remove the fat and small meat left over from field butchery, there is a ridge of hide on the outside of the stakes that doesn't get scraped ... why bother, the holes from the stakes are going to be cut off to use the hide ... in the case of lodge construction those holes a perfect for staking the cover to the ground ... the unscraped hide makes a ledge of thicker hide that stops tearing.

After the fat and meat is gone, the hide is turned over and the hair is removed ... including the follicles ... the little black dots that denote hair side from flesh side.

Properly done the hide is thin and translucent. A lodge is light and airy ... not cave dark. The hide is hide, not leather. Leather is tanned.

Starting with the outside of the arc, the hides were sewn to fit the pattern. Holes were filled and the cover was finished. It weighed about one hundred thirty pounds as compared to the normal lodge weight of 50. This thing was going to be big! Pity the wife who had to carry it. Thank the Shaman for horses.

As Five Lions had asked, they sewed two covers. "Paint this one with ochre mixed with melted beeswax. Red to about here," and he pointed about 8 feet down. "Paint the flaps too."

Five Lions had made another 'new' thing. Two poles tied so as to fit over a horses head, with a strap to keep the poles off the throat and a second strap to keep the poles from falling to the ground. The tips were allowed to splay out behind the horse, the butts dragging on the ground. By turning the poles the tips sharpened into points. A good thing when setting up the lodge.

With 6 poles to each horse and and two riders there were still plenty of extra horses to 'scout.' So that no one horse did all the work, Lion Killer changed travois horses every noon.

The last day, a small buffalo herd of maybe 1000 crossed their path. Horses freely roam with buffalo. Five Lions killed two medium sized cows with his bow ... the rest of the herd never even noticed.

The horse herd stopped, the buffalo kept moving. Five Lions immediately bled the cows, skinned them, loaded the hide wrapped guts on a travois improved with a pair of spreader bars and cut the cows in quarters.

Loading the two freshly killed buffalo on four improved travois was a trick, but thanks to the horses and a stout rode, they managed.

A triumphant party of two bearing gifts was very welcome. The butchering was done outside of camp by the women while the men 'protected' their wives, gambling, smoking and generally creating a disturbance constitutes protecting. No predator was foolish enough to attack.

The cook appreciated having the whole buffalo. The organ meat had healing properties ... the 'run of the mill' hunters left the organs on the prairie. "A gift for the predators," they explained. Laziness was the reason.

During the trip back to the camp, the poles lost two to three pounds each. They were drying. A good dry desert can easily dry 10 pound poles to 4 pound poles in a week.

Back on earth, before he 'joined the force, ' so to speak, Five Lions had had tipis. They may have had a tiny little bit to do with his first wife divorcing him. Living in a tipi from the first of March to the end of November isn't everyone's idea of a good time, Northern Wyoming is still in winter during half of that time.

Five Lions set up the frame of his lodge so the poles could continue drying. The structure towered over the camp. 38 poles are enough to build two lodge frames ... and have a couple three poles left over. The few days drying as travois did help.