Chapter 13

The next day, Jake decided to take a look at the land he was buying. He took out his whittling knife from his pack, the knife that hung at his waist was a weapon not a tool, and the map that George had given him. His plan was to mark out the boundary, then have a good look at everything that lay within that area.

After breakfast, and while Sue was recovering the night's haul from her snare line, Jake cut a number of thin stakes from young saplings which had grown up around the cabin. He sharpened them to a point at one end and stripped them back to bare wood at the other.

Once Sue had finished with her catch, they made a start. Walking back to the trail, they walked to the left, pacing as they went and looking out for landmarks. The map mentioned a rock on the right of the trail 420 paces from the path to the cabin. That path itself was indistinct, so they kept their eyes open. Sure enough, at 418 on Jake's count they came across a medium-sized rock. This was obviously the one they wanted.

Jake drove a stake into the ground exactly opposite the rock, and then he and Sue turned sharp left and dove into the undergrowth. They needed to go a mile in to find the next mark.

A couple of hours later, the pair of them re-emerged onto the trail, this time about four hundred yards from the cabin in the other direction. They had marked out the property with a stake every few hundred yards around the border. They had cut a few extra stakes as they went, and the hammer that Jake had carried with him came in handy in the rockier places.

What they had found was an interesting variety of terrain. They had crossed the stream that ran behind the cabin a couple of times - it emerged from higher ground in the back left corner of the property, the north-west corner Jake estimated, ran down and then across behind the cabin, and then wound back disappearing again into the north east.

The land between the cabin and the trail was mostly flat but covered in bushes and small trees which hid the cabin. Behind, it rose for a while but then levelled off to a reasonably sized plateau which was mainly grass. More scrubland bordered it as it again sloped down to the east where the stream cut through it. To the west, the land rose again to a higher area and some more substantial trees grew in this area. The trees stretched back beyond their property, and they saw sign of deer in the area as well as smaller animals.

On the northern edge of the plateau were the remains of a fence, as though the property had once been fenced off to retain livestock. The barman had told Jake that there had been some small ranches in the area and here was a sign that this had been one of them. Beyond the fence, undulating ground with clumps of rough grass stretched away, broken up by clumps of trees and bushes. There was no sign of any large animals, but some had obviously been watering at the stream towards the eastern edge of their land before it disappeared into the rocky and broken ground beyond.

Returning to the cabin, they rested up for a while as Sue cooked the meat she had caught overnight so they could eat it cold while they were travelling to town in a couple of days. Then they made a start on cleaning out the cabin. Sue used Jake's new broom, still smiling to herself as she held on to the handle, while Jake used the nails he had bought to make a few repairs. He fastened the shelves back up, and using a strip of animal skin cut from one of Sue's captures, doubled over a couple of times, he made a hinge which he nailed to the door so it would open and shut. He also forced open the door at the back and did the same to that when he found those hinges had rotted as well.

The three windows had once had shutters fitted. He found a couple of them, partly decayed, lying in the undergrowth. Having exhausted his supply of hinge material, he could only nail them across the back widow space. The front window frames remained empty.

Sue had done a good job of cleaning up the floor. It was roughly boarded and, although it showed signs of decay in a few places, was generally sound.

Jake found a stub of pencil in his belongings, and a piece of paper that had once been something else. He made a few notes on the back of a list of things he would need when they were back in town. Twelve hinges for window shutters. Two good hinges for the door. Lumber for new shutters and to repair the floor. Different lengths of nails. He hadn't even looked at the roof yet, and the barn or horse shelter would need some major work.

Then they needed the tools that he and Sue had discussed yesterday, and some pots and pans and implements, and he was running out of paper. He gave up the exercise and went outside.

It was getting dark, and Sue had made another stew but including some of the beans that he had brought back. They sat round the fire after eating, just enjoying the evening. Sue started talking about going to town, and the fact that they couldn't take the ponies with them. What would they do? Jake indicated that he would build a corral by the stream, and they would leave them to their own devices for the four days they would be away. It wasn't ideal but there was nothing else they could do.

That conversation had taken some time, as even though they were getting better at miming and gesturing it still wasn't as quick as talking, so it was soon time for bed. Despite their cleaning efforts, they didn't really want to sleep inside tonight so Sue laid out the blankets by the fire.