mommato3boys

Roof over our heads - check Green house - check Barn - check Outhouse - check Smoke house - check Root cellar - check Ok so we have all the basic buildings in place thank goodness for the cold cave I would have hated to have to dig a root cellar up here on the mountain. But that leads to the next problem we may face…water in the winter. We are concerned that since our springs are feed by a water source on up the mountain if they will freeze up this winter. We are even concerned about the cold spring in the cave. So this morning SF and I left the children in Beth and Abby’s care and rode up the mountain and then on foot until we reached the top. We rode the donkeys since they seem to have more sure footing on the loose stones than the horses. What we saw was breath taking and down right scary. When we got to the top we looked back over the valley and it was beautiful and breath taking. We had our field glasses so we could see for miles. I thought the view from my “ledge” was beautiful this was awesome. The valley looks like thumb print in the middle of a cookie. The river that runs through the valley comes out on the backside of our mountain in a waterfall. If the looks of it from here it is a steep drop off so whatever or whoever gets stuck in the river and we don’t get them out well it looks like they will go over the fall. Looking around we really didn’t see anything other than a few bison grazing below. It was eerie quite. I don’t know if it was because we were so far up and couldn’t hear or just no one is around. We followed the rim of the mountain as far we could and we got close to R&V place. The back side of their mountain was greener I guess because the rain doesn’t always make it over the mountain. But still no signs of life. We did find the source of our stream, it is a natural stream and we found out why it is so cold. There is a big chunk of ice still up there. Sf said he was afraid of that, he said it will probably freeze this winter and we will be without water. We did not find the water source for the cave so I am hoping it is a natural stream inside the mountain and it doesn’t freeze. On the way back down the mountain we discussed what we would do for water this winter not only for us but for the animals. SF only solution was to store it. He said he doubted we would be able to dig a well since he is pretty sure 3 ft down we would his stone. On the ride back down I was thinking we would have to store a lot of water and I did not have a sufficient means of storing water. He said he would talk to R and Ray when we got back and see if they had any ideas. They will face the same problem we will face. I suggested that we fence in the area around the pond for the animals this winter. We can always bust the ice so they can have water. Sf agreed that might work since the pond is fed by and natural under ground spring. I asked what are the chances of us building something like a water tower like they used back when the trains ran on steam. He looked at me like I was crazy but said nothing. As we were just about home he said it may work. I said what may work SF said you idea for the water tower. He asked if any of the books I brought had anything on water towers. I told him I wasn’t sure but if I didn’t have something I was pretty sure the library did and if they didn’t we could send a letter to the Rocks. He said he was going to have to send a letter to the Mr. Rock anyway, we would need metal bands to hold it all together. SF said we needed to ride into the lodge tomorrow. So we needed to hurry home and get things ready. It was just about dusk when we rode back into the yard. You would have thought we had been gone weeks by the way we were greeted. The girls were upset with us because we left them and the guys were starving. Beth said they didn’t like what they cooked. I asked what did they cook and she said mac&cheese and vegetables. Connor whispered after Beth walked away that the noodles were still crunchy. Sf chuckled but a swift poke in the ribs form my elbow stopped it. I told them well since we missed supper and we were starving we would have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I actually think Abby looked relieved. Abby and Beth went about gathering everything up while we washed up and Connor and Aidan took the mules to the barn to settle them in for the evening. Once everyone was back we told them what we had seen and about the water. The information went over Aidan and the twins head but Connor caught on that we were worried about the water source. Abby and Beth asked about the cave water and we told them we didn’t find the source for it that we are hoping it is a natural feed spring like the pond. We told them that we would be fencing in the pond for the cattle this winter and if it froze we could just break the ice. Connor asked what we were going to do about water. SF told him right now we would have to store water. We sent them all off to bed Abby and Beth stayed behind to help get food ready to go to the lodge tomorrow. SF sent them off to bed quickly though he told them that we would leave early in the morning. As we crawled in to bed I told SF I wanted to go back up the mountain this next week I saw a lot of plants that I recognized from my plant book and I want to take it with me and if it was really the plant I needed to harves some. He said ok he told check with Q and V and see if they wanted to go also.

Seven weeks now that P&N have been on the trail. I will be so glad when they are back in the valley. I am worried about them on this trip. After so much happened with the last group coming in I am just deeply concerned for their safety. They should be here in a couple of weeks. If I guess correctly they will be here around the 15th give or take a week. Hopefully the weather will hold and they will travel from sun up to sun down. I was deep into my pity party mourning P&N not being with us and working with the squash and zucchini when everyone returned for lunch. SF had gone fishing yesterday evening caught enough for lunch today. So we are having gilled fish and veggies today. I wasn’t expecting any extras for lunch today so when Mr. S rode in to the yard with SF I was a little surprised. I was pleased to see him it is not often we get visitors. Actually I was hoping he had news of the wagon train but he said he hadn’t heard anything. He expected then around the middle of the month. He said if they had not arrived by the 15th then he would send some men to look for them. He had ridden out to check on Beth and Abby…they are still Elizabeth and Abigail to him but to us and the children they are Beth and Abby. He got a funny look on his face when Sophie called Abigail Abby at lunch. It was funny in a way. After lunch Beth and Abby took Emma and Sophie and got them cleaned up for their afternoon naps. Beth and Abby have started taking turns reading to them while they “rest” in the hammock. Mr. S was speechless as to how the young ladies had matured and grown. He asked how they were doing and SF told him that he had been thinking about adding another addition on the cottage for them. We all chuckled over that. I told him they had been very helpful and had been taking notes. As a matter of fact Beth is the one that prepared lunch today. Mr. S seemed pleased that they had been willing to learn and were learning rather quickly. Mr. S noticed the deer skin that we had been tanning and said the second part of his visit was to check the wild life at this end of the valley. He wanted to know the quantity of wild life we had here. SF and I both started listing animals we had seen like elk, deer, pheasant, squirrel, rabbits, moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, plus the streams and river were full of trout, bluegill, and bass. We had also seen dove, quail, grouse and turkeys. I told him we had wild strawberries, blackberries, grapes, and raspberries. I explained that I was not that familiar with the wild plant life as I was just learning but I knew we had lots of lambs quarter and thimbleberries. There was what I thought was elderberries and chokecherries but since I had never used those before I wanted someone with more experience to verify that that’s what they really where. Mr. S also asked about our live stock and if we had planned on using any for bartering. SF told him that we had some pigs we had planned on bartering with and maybe even some chickens. Our goat and sheep herd was still small and we would need to build them up before we started slaughtering them. We also had geese and ducks but again they were few and would need at least another year or so before we even thought about slaughtering any of those. We were using them for eggs right now. SF gave me a strange look then flat out asked Mr. S was there some that were not prepared for winter. Mr. S assured us that everyone was working as hard as they could but with the last two wagon trains coming in he was concerned especially since this was our first winter here. He was also concerned with the gardens going in late if they would produce enough to get everyone through the winter. He said they did have some food stored at the lodge but he had hoped that it would not be depleted the first year. SF and I felt sorry for him. He looked like he had the weight of the world (ok so the weight of the valley) on his shoulders. I told him that the gardens really didn’t go in too late for this hardiness zone. Since we were in zone 5 May started our planting season. Not only that but we were still having really cool nights the first of May. I told him that I was pretty sure that there would be enough wild life to provide meat and with what we could produce in the gardens could be supplemented by the wild fruit and greens we could find. SF told him not to worry about us or anyone at this end of the valley we would not starve this winter. That we may be eating dried beans that we had brought with us but we would not starve. SF also told him that R&V parents had taken extra precautions and had sent them well prepared for the winter. He told him that Buster and Nellie knew R&V and their family would arrive too late to really get a garden going so they had sent them well stocked on dried and canned food. Plus we had planted extra when we learned that they were joining us here in the valley. I told Mr. S that I also had the green house up and going and had planted quite a bit already. I still had collards and turnip greens to plant but those would go in the ground in the next few weeks. SF even told him not to worry about the Q’s and their group that we would make sure that they would get through the winter. Especially now that Jerry was here he would take care of his parents and new siblings. Mr. S was concerned since we were the farthest away from the lodge that when winter set in we would probably be cut off. SF motioned Mr. S to follow us as he took my hand and led Mr. S to my ledge. Mr. S just smiled when looked around. He had a clear view of W&A’s place as well as N’s and P’s place. SF told him with field glasses he could R&V and their family across the river and the chimney smoke from the lodge. I pointed out that we could see smoke from the Q’s and knew about what it looked like on a daily basis so if we didn’t see smoke or saw too much we knew to go and check on them. Mr. S surprised to see the bridge that was being constructed at our end of the valley. He asked how it going. SF told slowly, that we were hoping that my brother had been able to secure some cement for us. Mr. S said if he could to let me know that he might have a solution. We looked at him funny and said ok. Mr. S asked when we planned to work on it again. SF told him after the boys got back and we knew about the cement. Right now we were cutting logs and gathering rocks. It was sort of an on going project. Our goal was to have it finished before winter set in so that we would not have cross in the ice cold water. Mr. S just nodded and said he would get with SF after the last wagon train was in and he would see about getting help down here to get the bridge built. He said he was glad to see that we had allowed for flooding and had built back up on dry land a good ways. SF said yeah that we remembered what happen with the bridge at the lodge when we first arrived. Mr. S left us and went to speak to Abby and Beth but stopped and come back. He had this impish look on his face and asked since when did the girls go by Abby and Beth. I smiled and said ever since they have been here the twins have called them Abby and Beth. He just hooted with laughter. I asked why, he said well they have never allowed their names to be shortened before even when they were little they would correct any that tried to shorten their name and say that is not my name my name is Abigail or Elizabeth. I just shrugged my shoulders and told him That Emma and Sophie have a magic about them. He turned to leave chuckling while he walked across the yard. SF went back to work in the field he was cutting more hay today. I headed back to work with the squash and zucchini I had asked SF to send any V’s group up that I had a bag of squash and zucchini to go across the river. He said that B would be back and he would make sure he rode up before going home. I know V and the girls were gathering more berries today and setting them to dry. We will need to pick the strawberries again tomorrow. I really need to go visit Q and get her to confirm if these are elderberries or not.

Journal Entry July 28 Three more days in July and panic is setting in...the gardens are taking FOREVER!!! to come in, about the only thing we are getting are the early crops. Back home we would be planting round two of the summer garden here well we are hoping round one is able to be harvested before the first snow fall. So this has gotten me to thinking - what happens if we have a hard freeze and we loose everything. I have been so focused on getting the garden planted and harvested that I really haven’t made a plan “b” so today is plan “b” It gave me something to think about while I was bent over pulling weeds. The nagging question is “How can I adjust our diet to be less dependent on a massive garden that may or may not produce?” I have slowly been unpacking the boxes that we brought with us that had cook books, magazines, and a few other books. I ran across a Paleo cookbook and thought you know people didn’t always plant gardens but they still survived. So I thought if we focused more on the hunter/gatherer life style of the native Indians then we could supplement it with what food we able produce in the garden. This means detailed list of what was planted this year, what produced, how long it took to produce, what did not produce because it did not adapt to the climate here. Oh and earliest possible plant date as well as the first frost date in the fall. With that in mind after lunch I went in search for my herb and wild plant books. I have been slowing trying to learn how to use herbs for food and medicine. (IRL I just discovered the weed that has taken over our yard is Lambs quarter) I know along the trail here Mother and some of the others picked “weeds” and ate them. So I need to figure out which of these “weeds” I can feed my family. I kept hearing lambs quarter talked about so I looked it up and OMG it is all over the mountain. According to my herb book the plants can grow to about four feet in height (4ft tall? they are taller than the twins-check) with multiple branches forming off of a main squarish looking central stem. (square stem-check with multiple branches-check) Lambs quarter leaves often have a white, pollen-like substance coating their undersides. (white substance on the underside-check) Now to figure out what to do with this “weed” According to the book it can be eaten steamed, or the young tender leaves can be eating raw in a salad. Ok so add lambs quarters to the list what else can we eat off the land? There are nuts - well that is if we can beat the squirrels to them. Berries, we have been blessed with berries but are still waiting on some to come in. It looks like I am going to have to adjust our time line from living off the garden from June or July to August. It looks we will only have 90-110 max for garden growth instead of the 150-180 that I am used to, I want my zone 7 back! Thank goodness I will have the green house but it will still need the sunlight. I wonder about the length of days this winter. We are on the southern mountain range so we will have just a tad but more light than parts of the valley since we are up the face of the mountain some but once the sun cross the mountain ridge the light out goes fast. Any way back to changing our diet for long term survival. What is around us that we can survive off of…I have seen thimbleberries – the book says thimbleberries are delicious, raw or cooked. They look like little strawberries. They make excellent jams and preserves, it can also be dried for later use, they are very seedy, and rich in vitamin C (vitamin C that is good.) Young shoots can be peeled and eaten cooked or raw. The shoots are harvested as they emerge in the spring, and while they are still young and tender. They can be cooked like asparagus and are rich in vitamin C too. The flowers are edible raw. Of courses there is wild garlic, onion, daisies, grape leaves, evening primrose and more. Like I said this slow producing garden has made me realize that our days of growing food will be very limited and we have to have a back up plan not just for us but for the domesticated animals also. I personally would like for it to be a change now while there is some food scenario instead of OMG the garden failed however will we feed the children scenario. So we are going to start by limiting grains. We should be able to keep enough fiber in our diets with vegetables and wild greens and fruits. Next we will need to introduce a variety of protein in our diets without unbalancing the eco system here in the valley. Instead of just pheasant, deer and a mountain goat every once in a while we will have to introduce moose and elk into our diets. Well maybe not the moose that come to water at the stream below our cottage in the mornings and entertain me but other moose and elk. I have never had either of these so hopefully they will fairly easy to incorporate into our diet. We will need to learn to use nut flour instead of just wheat flour. I have to broaden my horizon on the use of different herbs and move away from salt and pepper for seasoning foods. Salt is going to be hard to replace once it is gone. We don’t use a lot of it (even IRL a box of salt will last me at least a year) so it won’t be like that is a great sacrifice or anything. Oh man so much to think about…back to the drawing board.

Peeking in on P&N You know something N. Yeah I know a lot Yep N you a real know-it-all. LOL P what you like to know I thought dad had the talk with you a long time ago especially with you being the oldest and all. All right you keep that up and you will be walking back to the valley. Hummmm…well P it might just be a bit faster than this wagon train. Why does it seem like this one is slower? I don’t know N but like you I feel like I have been on the trail for a year now. Yeah I guess it does seem that way. Mom started packing us up and gathering stuff up before Christmas of last year. We have been in WT mode for a while now. Like you I will be glad when this trip is over with. Yep the Rocks will be the last one coming in and most of their stuff is already there and waiting on them. Mr. Rock told me they expect to pull out any day now. I know most of the ranch hands that are still there wish they would go ahead and go. Yeah they are P but Mrs. Rock said they are trying to wait out the harvest. They don’t want to leave it behind. I suspect they will be there by Thanksgiving. I glad Uncle T is headed north. I know mom will be glad she was worried about him. P you think he will make it. Yeah he is pretty sure he will make it; he is meeting up with another group and headed that way. I know he was disappointed he couldn’t get the stuff mom wanted. Hey N what do you think are in those crates back there that he got for her. Oh he told me, they are whiskey. Whiskey, all 3 crates? Nope only one case is whiskey the other two are bourbon and rum. What is in the barrels? Let’s see he said one had fishing poles, line, hooks, and sinkers and there is also a reloader in there. Along with some casings and some fishing weights and molds, he said mom would know what to do with them. No gun powder? (N looks innocently at P and grins) Well P it is like this I wouldn’t bounce too hard if I was you. You are sitting on about 10 pounds. What? Sit down P you are going to fall out of the wagon. N what in the h*** do you mean I am sitting on it. You see those boxes under the seat? Yeah there are two here that look like the wooden boxes that mom and dad gave us one Christmas. Yep that’s the ones I am talking about. N you mean to tell me they have gun powder in them? Yep that is exactly what I am saying five pounds in each. T and I split what little powder he had. I gave him half of my shot gun shells and he gave me powder. So that is why you went flying back to your place the night before we left. Yeah I couldn’t let mom or dad know or she would have had a fit and P you can’t tell her. Mom is not to know about this trade. Why not? Well you know she still does not trust T. That is true N she doesn’t but why wouldn’t she like the trade. It is not that she won’t like it; well she won’t at first until she realizes we have a reloader and the necessary materials to make more rifle shells. N something tells me you are not telling me the whole story. Dang P you are as bad as mom. No it is not the whole story. I traded T my shot 30-06 and the 726 for bows and arrows. WHAT?!?!?! Are you crazy two guns for bows and arrows? Kid mom is going to have your hide when she finds out. P that is why I said she couldn’t find out, plus she had no say in the matter I bought and paid for those two myself. *sigh* N if you believe that then I know the sun has baked your brain these past 10 weeks. All right N how many bows and how many arrows? Are you going to keep your trap shut? Well N that depends on how many bows and arrows you got. Fine three compound and 2 recurve and 1 gross of arrows but an additional 2 gross of arrow shafts and 1 additional gross of arrow heads plus some mag lights and a case of batteries and a couple of dozen knives. Well N not a bad trade but you are right mom is not going to like the loss of two long guns. What is in the second barrel? I don’t know T said that one was for mom. He was upset that he couldn’t get all of her stuff. I think the only thing he was able to get was more yeast, baking soda, and baking powder. There two 25# bags back there one is soda and one is powder. There are some seeds, and 100# of charcoal. But that was all he was able to get food wise. Supply wise well other than the fishing equipment and the bows he didn’t have anything else. The booze was payment from a guy. And the bull? Well he said don’t ask about the bull he would tell me no lies. Great I hope it doesn’t have a tracking device. LOL What is so funny N? Well T said to tell mom not to worry about the chip that they took care of it. So what are these other packages of hers? That is stuff she ordered. Mrs. Rock seems to think a couple of them are seedlings since they are from a nursery and a couple of them are fabric. There is thread and needles also. How do you know all of this? Well P while you were helping Mt.Rider’s family load their wagons Mrs. Rock and tried to pack stuff in our wagon as tight as we could so I opened a couple of the packages and wrapped them in brown paper and left the boxes behind. I am curious though. About what? Well P there is that box back there with a lock on it. T didn’t give me a key to it. P you know something don’t you. Well T sent mom a key last trip and told her she would know what to do with it when she got the package. What do you think is in it? Which one the one wrapped up like Ft. Knox? Yep that one. Have no clue but T said we were to deliver that one to mom and no one else. Well all I know it is not heavy probably weighs about 5-10 pounds. P I am so glad that this is the last trip. I wish Abigail and Elizabeth had been on this trip. What have you lost your mind? Now I know your brain is baked N. No it is not think about it they at least made the time pass faster. Well that is true between them and the kids the day sure went by faster. I wonder how Conner and Aidan are doing. No P the better question to ask is how mom is doing with two little girls. N was you as surprised as I was when mom refused to let them be split up? You mean you were surprised? P you don’t know our mother very well do you. I see your point N, no matter what we went through mom always made sure we were together no matter what. I guess I really wasn’t surprised after all. However, you may just have a point there. Mom never knew what to do with little girls. I wonder what she is doing their hair. OMG P you don’t think she cut their hair do you. I don’t know N I guess we will find out when we get there. P you gonna visit Elizabeth when you get back. Haven’t thought about it N I suspect we will see her and Abigail when we get back. They are staying with Mr. S at the lodge so we will see them when ever we make it down to the lodge. How do you think they are taking to their new life N? Well seeing as Chef is cooking for them and Mr. S is handling everything else they probably are handling the washing ok. You know N Abigail is not bad looking a man sure could wake up looking at that face every morning. What is your point P? Well I was just saying you two make a fine looking couple. What about you and Elizabeth? Haven’t given it any thought N. Sure you haven’t you have been too busy planning my future with Abigail. P if you know what is good for you, you will stay out of my love life. Oh so you have a love life now huh do tell. P you know a gentleman never kisses and tells. N you are no gentleman. P I am telling mom you said that. Well ok I concede that point; she did try to turn us in to gentlemen didn’t she? Yep at least we know which fork to use and we know not to wear flip flops to meet the president. LOL I will never forget that girl’s basket ball team wearing flip flops to the white house. I though our mother would have a cow right there in front of the TV. For weeks she ranted on that. You realize that winter will come early this year. P do you wish we had stayed behind to help? Yeah in a way I feel bad about leaving them all behind to deal with the crops and all while we were gone. At least the payment for these two trips will be worth it all. N did you tell dad what our payment was? No I thought you did. Nope I didn’t. Well the extra land will be worth it. Well P I am going to ride on up ahead and see how much longer before we stop for the night. It is getting late and I know Mr. H doesn’t want to travel at night. We should be getting pretty close to that stream. Hey N...yeah…tomorrow you drive the wagon. Why? Well I don’t like setting on a powder keg. You will be ok P it is well packed for shipping. Well if it packed so go then you can ride sitting on it. Fine P I will drive the wagon tomorrow. Good I had rather be on the back of the horse anyway. Ahhhh so the truth comes out. Oh shut up and go find out how much longer before we stop for the night.

Sorry I haven't posted lately but real life has stolen my unreal life. I will try to post something this week. We are in the last 4 weeks of the semester at work so things are getting crazy, so much to do so little time and we are right in the middle of registration.

Well it was our turn for a smoke house. R&V have theirs built and W&A have theirs built. R built K one at the same time as he built theirs. Ray also built him one. So that left us and P&N. The building will be 8 foot wide by 4 foot deep by 6 foot tall building and will be divided in half. One side will be nothing but hanging meats like sausage hams etc. It will have rods attached to the walls to hang sausage over and then hooks from the ceiling to hang large pieces of meat from. For the other side I will use the grill racks that we brought with us as shelves. The shelf side with the racks will be for fish, roast and chickens. The house is being constructed out of adobe bricks and will have a tin roof. There will be 3 screened vent holes one on each side and one in back to allow the smoke to escape. The doors will be wood to also allow circulation. SF has the older children making the bricks he showed them this morning how to make them and left Connor in charge. This will be a two day project for them and should be quite interesting. When I was in the lower garden this morning I could hear them arguing. Connor has helped make bricks before but Megan hasn’t and she didn’t want to do it his way. Can’t wait until after lunch when all her bricks crumble and the boys’ bricks hold together. Megan has issues with following instructions she has to do it her way. She will cow tail to W&A but does it with a lot of sassing. However if one of the other kids suggest something heaven help them. Connor has learned to let her do her own thing and then she will have egg on her face. I pulled SF aside when I went back up the mountain and told him what was going on. He said that if her bricks crumble she will have to redo them under Connor’s supervision since Connor was the one in charge and she didn’t do what he said, we both laughed because we can see it now. Like I said this should be quite interesting. Today’s lunch was fresh veggies. The few days of picking I got enough field peas for a meal, they are just now starting to come in; we also have okra, squash and potatoes (little new red potatoes.) I am making corn bread to go along with all these veggies. Oh and mac & cheese the kids wanted back and cheese. SF surprised me with a red tomato. For the past few days we have had grape tomatoes but all the large tomatoes were still green. This one was on the last plant in the row and got the most sun. It looks yummy can’t wait to slice into it. This has been a busy week for the garden. All of the early summer vegetables are in and ready to harvest. We have been gathering squash, cucumbers, zucchini, sugar peas, broccoli, radishes, and cauliflower. We dried, cold stored and canned just about everything. We have gathered berries until our fingers are pin cushions from all the thorns; they have been dried or turned into jams and preserves. The field corn is looking good. Which we are most thankful for since that and the oats will be the main food source for the animals. SF and the guys started cutting come of the oats today. They were trying to get it before it all opened and we had a high % of field loss (that is where you leave the grain in the field until it is ripe and then gather it. You loose a lot that way because the seeds fall on the ground.) We will lay them on drying racks in the sun. The stalks will be cut, baled and used as hay for the animals also. They guys had a big pow-wow this morning and decided they would try another planting of oats. If they can get it in the ground by the end of the month then we would be able to harvest it around the first of October before it freezes. The guys are trying to ensure that we have enough food for the amount of animals we have. They figure we will have more goats, and pigs by then plus the chickens will need food. It is just overwhelming. I am hoping that T can find metal garbage cans. We brought 6 with us we used them to store grain in for the animals and us on the way. But that is no where near enough to store a years worth of grain. We need a good many of them. I ordered barrels before we left and they were supposed to be delivered to the ranch but only two arrived. So I am hoping the rest are there waiting on P&N. We have put an order in with the ones making them here in the valley but we are way down the list so no telling when we will get ours. We have plastic totes also to store food in but we are hoping to save those for the cold cave. I have made several more baskets and we are in need of more of them. I have started a winter to do list and making baskets is on top of the list. P will be pleased when he gets back his rice is doing well. It should be ready to harvest the first of October. If I remember correctly the stalks will turn yellow when it is ready to harvest. However, he will be disappointed to see that his water oats pretty much washed away. There are some still there but only about half of what he planted. Good thing not many of us are rice eaters. 100 pounds of rice last us a year so with what we have and what he will be able to harvest we should be okay for rice. Things are slowly coming together. Mr. S has been out a couple of times checking on Abby and Beth. He has brought them rifles, shotguns and hand guns. He seems pleased with they have learned so far. SF has been working with them on using the hand gun. Beth is better with the guns than Abby only because Beth is not intimated by them. Abby is skittish when it comes to firing the shotguns but she is getting better. Around 3:00 I rode down with SF to check the bricks and to see how many they got done. Just as we suspected the guys’ bricks turned out rather well. They followed directions and did what they were told to do. Megan however, had egg on her face when SF picked up the first brick and it fell about in his hand. He picked up every one of the bricks she made and the same thing happened with all of them. Afterwards he was none too gentle with her he called her on the carpet big time. But then again he has a way of knocking a kid down and building them back up. After he got through chewing her out because she did not follow instructions he walked her through the process again making bricks right along beside her. I think was killed her the most was when SF mounted his horse he told Megan she had to remake all of her bricks she had made and told Conner to watch and make sure she did it correctly. She said something obviously it was a smart remark (I couldn’t hear her she was on the side of SF and she was mumbling) and SF just looked at her and told her if she had followed instructions the first this would not have happened. He explained to her that our survival this winter rest on everyone’s shoulders even hers. We did not have time to waste remaking stuff that someone did not make correctly the first time because they refused to follow directions. She stomped off in a huff but I noticed she made sure that she did exactly what SF showed her to do. Teddy her younger brother started making fun of her but SF called him down and told him that he had better watch it because his bricks would be inspected also. We rode over to talk to W&A for a few minutes. SF wanted to stay and watch to see how Megan handled Conner being in charge. I had never been more proud of Conner, after the first few bricks (making sure she did them correctly) he pitched in and helped her remake her bricks. At first she snubbed him but then as the sun moved it ways across the sky she seemed thankful that he was helping. It is a hard adjustment time for these children. And time is not something we have to give them right now. Everyone is expected to pull their weight and pitch it. From what W&A have been able to gather Megan has always been the leader and things were done her way. But here she is out of her element and has to follow other peoples lead. So not only is she dealing with loosing her family, she is no longer queen of the hill. I know we had some problems with Conner at first because he was used to running the show but he has seemed to be relieved that there are adults now that are shouldering most of the responsibility.

Journal Entry for Sunday, July 18 After the ordeal with the coyote Ray came to stay at our place while Paul and I rode to the lodge. Kyle stayed While W&A went and B stayed while R, V, K&E all went. Next week we will rotate and someone else will stay behind. I am not all together today so we are going to the prayer service and picking up our packages, getting books and headed home. Everyone else is on their own today. The early wake up of Ray killing the other coyote has thrown me all out of kilter. I should have just stayed up but I hadn’t been asleep long. I couldn’t sleep while SF was on watch. The animals are all in the lower pasture today so the ones that stayed behind could take turns. At the library Aidan and I were using sign language and there was the one lady that kept staring at us. Come to find out she was with Mother’s group and doesn’t speak. Mother mentioned she was learning sign language. I told her I had a beginner signing book back at the cottage I would get to her. It was for every day use so she would enjoy it. She was very shy but seemed real nice. I will have to make a point to visit mother and spend some time with her. SF found me and we headed to the lodge. There was a message there from the boys. It seems they passed the mule train along the way and sent a message from my brother. It seems T has had enough he has one more delivery out our way so he is dropping of surprise for me then he is headed for Canada. He has some friends up there that own a hunting lodge and they want him to come up there. I am glad to know he will no longer be on the road. I just hope he can get there. We had some packages that had finally arrived. It I have no idea what I have ordered and what I have received. I still have some packages I have not ordered that I need to open. I hope one of these has yeast in it. We had letters also. It was time for church service and the girls were restless so Emma was the first one to fall asleep, she was in SF lap and Sophie was in my lap. Bother of them were sleep before the singing was over. Zoe was being an angel she was just cooing and blowing bubbles. K and Zoe had bonded so well. I hope and pray T will make it here soon. I don’t know who was more surprised to learn that Beth and Abby wanted to stay another week Mr. S, or myself. I figured after the grueling week they had they would want to come and sit under Chef and learn to cook. Mr. S asked if we minded and we told him know they had been a blessing and the kids love them. It was late after noon when we finally pulled back into the yard. The animals were still in the lower pasture and Kyle was watching over them. We noticed B and Ray were napping under a tree down there. Kyle waved as we started pass and jogged over to where we were. He said thing had been quiet and every couple of hours they would split up and ride up to the homesteads and check things out at 4 different homesteads. So far no signs for anymore coyotes. SF old him that we needed to send word to the Qs also about the coyotes. He said we didn’t see them at the lodge but that doesn’t mean they weren't there; we left them a note. Kyle said Ray was going to go as soon as everyone was back. He just didn’t want to go and leave us short handed. SF said that was fine. Kyle asked if we were going to post guards again tonight SF said it might not be a bad idea but he was going to take a nap first. Beth and Abby said they would stay and help get the animals up the mountain. Connor and Aidan hopped out of the wagon also. We told them we would see them at the top. Dinner was going to be light, I had already planned on having chicken Caesar salad the lettuce was already gathered, chicken was cooked it just needed to be put together. Then it would be an early night for all of us. Journal Entry for Monday, July 19 Since the root cellars were finished the men folk started on smoke houses. They want to get them up and going so that we could smoke some fish. We started drying vegetables today and storing them in bins in the cold cave. I showed the girls how we were going to dry the beans, I gave them each a needle and thread and showed them how to put them on the string. I left them stringing up beans. I headed back to the garden to gather more squash. I sent word to V and her girls that they needed to check the lower garden. I saw A was out in the garden and had baskets of stuff picked already. We have baseball size tomatoes but they are still green. The yellow sweet corn will be ready to harvest by weekend. At lunch everyone meet at our place to discuss what we were going to can and what would get dried. While everyone was finishing up their lunch I started reading the letters we got. There was also the reply from mother in there concerning the fire wood. 10-15 cords? I almost fell out when I ready she was going to put up 10-15 cords of wood. Oh man my calculations are way off. I was thinking 6-8 cords. SF asked me what was wrong and read him Mother’s reply. We were all speechless except for Ray he just nodded and said that sounds about right. SF asked him if he had ever used wood before he said no but his grandmother had and could remember his dad and uncles (there were 4 total) each taking two pick up trucks full of wood to their mother’s house each summer. They always gather her fire wood in the spring and summer so that it would be dry by winter. He said she had a fire place and a cook stove that she used to heat her house and then she had a summer kitchen like this one. Ray said she always had a couple of rows left when summer rolled around but since it was just her she used the cook stove more than the fire place. We asked where his grandmother lived. He said when she was alive she lived in Kentucky. Ray looked so said we didn’t ask any more questions but went back to planning the collection of wood. SF said we should start with dead wood and see how much we get from there. Ray said that with 4 homesteads it shouldn’t take long. I reminded him that P&N would be back then and we would have 6 homesteads that would need wood. Ray blushed and said he had forgotten about them. I went back to reading as talk turned to wood. My sister had gotten a letter through and said they had arrived safely. At the last minute mother refused to go and went to stay with her sister. She said Aunt L made the suggestion. So they traded Aunt L got mother and Aunt L’s kids went with E to their safe zone. E said she has mixed fillings about it but there was no talking mother out of the idea. She said in a way it was go because mother would have never made the trip. She said the last 15 miles was horse back and pack mules. She was right mother never would have made that trip. She told me that she had heard from T and he was headed for Canada some time in August and he was going to try and deliver this letter to the ranch or a post office closer to the ranch in hopes that I would get it. She sent her love and pictures of her family. I was heart breaking to know I may never see them again. The next letter was from a seed company I had ordered from they had been able to replace the trees that I had ordered and were shipping them out again. Trees? Oh geez what trees did I order. I need to find that information and see what all I have ordered and what I have received. One of the packages had baking soda another had baking powder there was also some cocoa in the package as well as some bark and chips. I finally got my order of brown sugar and powder sugar but it was only half of what I had ordered. None of our plumbing materials arrived nor the tools that were ordered. Maybe they are at the ranch waiting. There were more seeds and a couple grape vines and blueberry seedlings that looked pitiful. I will have to put them in posts and transplant them next year or the year after right now they are too small to put out. My strawberry plants were bigger than these blueberry bushes. Well at least I got them. Some of the larger packages were fabric. Yes there is a bolt of heavy twill for pants for the guys. There were packages for the children that Mrs. Rock had ordered. She had ordered them shoes which I was so thankful for I had sent a list with P&N they had passed it own to T hopefully he will be able to find some of the stuff. Mostly it is shoes and coats for all the kids. Oh goodie this package is wool yarn oh my stars I ordered this before we ever left. I am so glad it found its way here. Needless to say it will make some good sweaters. It was like Christmas after lunch. I still had packages in the cottage I needed to open but I would get to those sooner or later. Right now I am going back to reading the letters. Some of these have been in transit for months.

Saturday July 17 Strawberry Day…next year we need to have a strawberry festival in the valley. I will have to suggest that to Chef and Mr. S. V and her girls were here early this morning. I had just wrung one of the rooster necks when they arrived. He was a mean ol cuss. He would chase the other chickens and you if you would let him. Well after he tried to attack me I decided he would make good dumplings tonight. SF told me to go on and work on the strawberries he would just skinned the chicken feathers and all and set it in the cold cave. I told him if he would clean it I would get everything ready and just put it in the coals and let it cook while we did the preserves and jam today. As soon as he was finished he headed down the mountain. The guys were on weed control duty again. The women folk got busy and made jam, preserves, and syrup. K and Abby picked more of the strawberries this morning. They are ripening faster than we can get them put up. (IRL V has more strawberries than she can handle she has a contacted the little mom and pops local grocery store and they have agreed to buy any extra she has it is funny in a way because she thought she had lost them all to the snow and deep freeze they had earlier this month) Between the wild strawberries and the ones we planted we have been able to put everyone 12 jars each of strawberry preserves and jam and 3 jars of syrup. We did the syrup first we started out with 8 cups of crushed strawberries, 2 cups water and 4 cups sugar. We brought that to a boil and then lowered the heat and simmered for 10 minutes. We poured the mixture through sever layers of cheesecloth pressing pulp with a spoon. (save the pulp for preserves) Measured juice back into sauce pan adding 1 cup sugar for each cup of juice, then you bring it to a boil and stir until sugar is dissolved. Boil for 2 minutes then skim off foam. (IRL I have always stop right here just poured this in sterilized jars and store in the refrigerator because it does not last at my house; however since we are in the middle of no where and I am posting my grandmother’s recipe and she always canned hers…) add 2 tablespoons lemon juice and stir pour in to sterilized jars and water bath for 10 minutes. Next is strawberry Preserves. For each cup of fruit we used 1 cup of sugar and for every 4 cups of fruit we used 1 tablespoon cider vinegar. We diced the fruit and added the pulp from that was left from the syrup. We brought fruit and vinegar to a boil and boiled for 2 minutes then added the sugar and boiled for 10 more minutes. Added to jars and water bath for 10 minutes. By now we were sick of looking at strawberries but we still have jam to make and we are going to use honey in this batch and use the same jam recipe that we used for the blackberries. By late afternoon everyone was headed home. I was so thankful that A had handled lunch for the guys today. She even kept the twins and Zoe. I don’t know who had a harder day her or us. I know when I dropped off her preserves and jams she looked beat. She said she only had the younger ones and the oldest girl (she had stayed to help with the little ones) but like she said they were all out of routine and wanted to do their own thing. I noticed the girls were dragging when they climbed on the back of the buckboard. I swing by where the guys were working SF handed me a mess of corn. He said it is starting to come in. The field corn looks good but the white corn we planted is not doing as well as the yellow corn he said he would be surprised if we got 20 bushel off of the field. My heart sank We had planted 5 acres of white corn and he said we may only get 20 bushel not good not good at all. On average you get about 100 bushels per acre oh…..that is going to make us short on corn meal and hominy The white corn was supposed to be for cornmeal, hominy and canned corn. The guys love it when I stir fry corn. Hummmm. Hopefully this last rain will help. SF said we needed a week of good rain. Rain in July yeah right. It is getting late the sun is touching the west mountain and we still have animals in the lower pasture. As we all started back towards home we could hear the dogs going crazy. SF and the older men road off to see what was happening. Connor was a little miffed that he couldn’t go but SF told him and Aidan he needed him to see me and the girls safely home. I handed Connor my rifle and Connor handed Aidan his 22 so they could escort us home. One was on each side of the wagon. As we got to the base of the mountain we heard gun fire but we could tell it wasn’t any of the guys they were still riding hard to go up the mountain. Connor told the girls to lay down and hang on. Thank goodness I had used horses today instead of oxen. As we pulled into the yard I noticed Beth was leaning over Abby. I was frozen in fear for only a minute then I leaped from the wagon and was in a all out run. Connor and Aidan took the wagon and the keep the girls there. R grabbed in mid-flight and said she was okay she just fainted after she shot the coyote. Fear still had a hold of me all I was focused on was Abby, Beth and SF. R still had a hold one me and wouldn’t let me go. He finally got me to focus and it started sinking in coyote shot…fainted…she is ok. I thought I was going to faint then. Abby started coming around and SF picked her up and headed to the cottage with her. Beth handed Ray the rifles and went to fetch water. I looked at the animal and said that is no coyote that is a dang wolf. It was as bigger than boss and he is a black lab weighing in at 120 pounds. Ray looked at it and said no it was a coyote the snout was longer and thinner than a wolf’s. R agreed and said that means there is more coyote’s travel in packs. After Abby had come around and both her and Beth had calmed down they said they heard the chickens acting up and the goats crying. So they went to check on them and saw a couple of coyotes trying to get chasing the baby goats and they shot in the air to chase the coyotes away because they didn’t want to hit the goats but then they went after the chickens again that is when Abby shot the coyote. Ray said he would stay over here and run night guard. SF told him to go ahead and bed down in the loft and he would wake him later that he would take the first watch. B told W he would take the first watch on the animals down there and R said they would just move what animals they had in to the cave they are turning into a barn and he and V&E would keep watch over there. Ray said he would bed down as soon as he took care of the coyote. It was decided that they would burn it since we didn’t know if it had rabies or not. I noticed that Connor and Aidan had gotten the twins in the house and unhitched the wagon. I told them to go with SF and get the animals up we needed to get them in the barn before it got to dark. Everyone scattered and headed to take care of business. Dinner…what was going to be dinner. Oh crap I total forgot about dumplings and it is too late now. Well we will just have chicken Cesar salad. I headed to the garden and gathered a huge bowl of lettuce. I pulled out the bread and made croutons, we had left from lunch yesterday and headed to find cheese and dressing. I shredded half of the chicken, I will save the other half for dumplings tomorrow. Dinner was quite everyone was worn out and some of us were still shaken up a bit. I suggested the girls sleep in the front room of the cottage but they said with SF and Ray on watch they would stay in their tent. Later I told SF I was surprised that the coyotes came out in broad daylight he said he was afraid something like this would happen they are getting braver and are not as afraid of us anymore. I asked him what were we going to do we couldn’t all go to the lodge tomorrow. He told me to take Connor, Aidan and the girls and go. He knew we had packages there and mail so we needed to pick them up. I told him we need to notify the Q’s he said he would ride over and tell them first thing in the morning and if I saw them tat the lodge I was to tell them. Since we were not all going tomorrow we would just take sandwiches with us and I would make dumplings when I got back. I don’t when I actually fell asleep but gunshots woke me early this morning. It seemed Ray had gotten the other coyote. That still didn’t make me feel any better. This one was a female and we could tell she had pups but that she was drying up so that means they were 8-10 weeks old. I headed back to bed to try and get more sleep before heading to the lodge later.

Oops sorry forgot to post yesterday Friday, July 16 The girls were up and at the chores early. They have gotten more comfortable with milking and herding the animals, even gathering eggs. They don’t let the animals intimidate them any more. During breakfast we got to talking about the mule train that was coming and if P&N would be coming in SF said no that the mule train is just that mules. I said then why do they need wagons. SF they don’t Mr. S wanted my help unloading the mule train and then our wagons when the wagon train come in. I said oh well yesterday you had me all confused. He laughed and said that is not hard to do. I just looked at him and reminded him his roots were blond not mine. He chuckled. After breakfast SF took the boys down to the fields to cut hay for mulch for the gardens. The weeds are trying to take over and we need to mulch SF said they would do the corn fields and wheat fields. He said he was sending Connor over to see if those on the other side of the river could help. I just looked at him, he said don’t worry Connor can handle crossing the river and riding over there. He has his rifle and whistle. Plus he got his brother and sisters to the ranch remember. SF reminded me I can not coddle them out here. I have to let them take on responsibilities early. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know but it is still not right they need a childhood. After the kitchen I headed to the garden to see how much lettuce there was. And was surprised it looked like every strawberry had turned red over night. So I got Abby and Beth to help me pick strawberries. I told them tomorrow we would make strawberry preserves and canned some pie filling; today we would start some to drying. OMG I can’t believe I planted this many plants. Those hundred plants didn’t look like so many going in the ground. Plus the wild ones around here and the 50 more I have to go in the green house. I am going to have strawberries out the yin yang. That is if I can keep the twins from eating them all. They pick one and they eat one. They are so cute they have strawberry all over their face. SF sent Connor up to say cook extra for dinner that there were going to an extra 6 people for dinner. Good thing it is pizza day. I will just make a few extra cheese pizzas, and a bigger salad. I have a pound cake in the oven so we will have strawberry shortcake. Supper will left overs I like left over day. Mr. S rode in with SF and the others at lunch he had come to check on the girls and let them know they had packages at the lodge. It seemed the mule train had arrived. Mr. S said Q’s son Jerry had brought it in. The girls were excited to see him and were talking his ears off already. They started talking about what all they had done since they have been here. They talked about canning and making blackberry jam and tomorrow (Saturday) we were making strawberry preserves. They had helped cut and stack hay. They had cleaned fish. Mr. S seemed impressed that they girls had tried so much. Mr. S thanked me for taking the girls under my wing so to speak. I told him I had been very impressed with them. I was expecting whiners but they had not whined they had been real troopers. I told him that SF had to speak to them one time but after that they had been angels. I said they had even stayed in their tent the other night when it rained instead of sleeping in the main room of the cottage. Mr. S told me he had worried about taking them in had he not promised their father that he would see that they were cared for if anything happen to him and his wife then he would not have brought them out here. He said their father had always dreamed of moving but it wasn’t to be. I told him that they would get used to this life. I went on to tell him they were worried because they realize just how unprepared they are. They realize they do not have the basics like cast iron cookware, a cook stove, dishes, quilts or the means to make them. Mr. S just nodded I could tell there was something he wasn’t saying but I wasn’t going to press him especially with everyone gathering around in the kitchen to eat. During lunch SF told me that they had a system going few were cutting and the rest were spreading the hay out in the fields. Abby said she would go down after lunch and help Beth said count her in too. I thought Mr. S was going to choke on his pizza, I just smiled at SF and he grinned. I told SF about the ton of strawberries we picked this morning and there were twice that many still out there but were still green. I looked at E and told her to tell her mom and K to come over the first of next week and pick strawberries. She said she would but they were picking wild berries today. I laughed and told E that we were going to have more strawberries than anything. The girls ran and got Mr. S a jar of blackberry jam. They told him they had help make it. During lunch it was decided that we would pick out packages up Sunday when we went to the lodge. Mr. S suggested that we bring some of those berries to the trading post that he was sure they would find good homes. He also suggested that I jar up some of that honey and trade it for empty jars. I told him I would think about it. After lunch Mr. S left and he said something about stopping in and seeing the Q’s and Jerry but he also wanted to make the rounds and check on everyone also. Everyone but the twins and me headed back down to mulch more. They have plans to finish the vegetables gardens today and then work on the corn fields and wheat fields. I went back to hulling strawberries and slicing them to dry. I told the girls they could sleep in the hammock again so they ran to get their pillows and bears they sleep with. I think they were asleep before the hammock stopped moving. I had two trays of strawberries drying and was working on hulling the ones for tomorrow. Oh shoot I just realized that with Jerry in the Q’s will need tomorrow as family time and time for Jerry to get settled. Humm oh well maybe next weekend. Sure wish P&N had been with the mule train. They have been gone forever. I will be so glad when they are back here. Let’s see they have been gone almost 2 weeks. I wonder if they have been able to shave some time off since they were traveling empty and the days are long. I sure hope so. I know it takes 3 weeks to travel to the ranch. I am hoping and praying they are back here quickly we will need them in a few weeks to help harvest.

Another day on the mountain... The rider was here early this morning he had a note from Mr. S wanting to know if we could bring our oxen and all the wagons we have to help bring stuff over the pass when the next mule train arrives. Of course SF sent a reply back saying just name the date and time and we would be there. The rider also carried my letter to Mother concerning the wood. Sf left right after breakfast and headed over to the Q's to invite them to Saturday dinner or a picnic down by the lake. Since it was still a drizzling rain I finished up the horses hooves today and worked on the floor pillows for the kids. When SF got back he took Aidan, Connor and the girls out shooting the twins and I stayed behind and worked on dinner. Earlier I had gathered sugar snaps, some more baby carrots and a few new red potatoes that were about the size of a golf ball. I put an elk roast in the dutch oven with wild garlic, wild onions and rosemary. Then added the potatoes and carrots later. We still had rolls from the day before. This after noon SF and the boys worked on a wood shed. We are thinking we would will used about 4-5 cords of wood so SF wanted something big enough to keep thqat much dry. More later it has been a busy day and there is so much more I want to write but I am running out of steam

Ok in today's post I make reference to a cord of wood. I just thought I would post for those that don't use wood that a cord of wood is 4 feet high by 4 feet wide by 8 feet long and that is packed tight. Usually full size pickup truck with a standard bed is only a half of cord of wood. I had to call my brother to find out if I was correct, before I hung up he said why didn't you just google a cord of wood. Well smarty pants it was nice hearing your voice but next time I will google it. He just laughed. Men

On the mountain today we are focused on animals. It is time to trim hooves and band the baby pigs. We do not want to keep intact male pigs and goats around if we do not have to. All the sheep born were female so we have no problems there. So today is barn yard day. We were not too sure if the girls were up to this but like SF said they had to learn. This is a two person job and if they plan on surviving here they have to take the good with the bad. So since one of the other sows delivered Monday we need to be quick and get the castration done. Especially since we are banding, the piglets need to be banded before they are five (5) days old. We use the banding technique because it is easier for me to handle. I am not brave enough to cut on a live animal. We gathered our supplies and head to the barn. Connor and Aidan wanted to go too. The twins were still asleep thank goodness. We explained the first thing was to separate the momma and the babies. SF assured everyone that you DO NOT want the sow any where near you when you start hurting her babies. She will go crazy. So the sows and other pigs were sent to the lowest pasture. She wasn’t too happy to leave her babies behind be she went. Sf went on to explain that elastrator castration happens to a young male animal that is only a few days old. He showed them how to place rubber band around the four points and squeeze the handle to open up rubber band. He could not stress enough that you will need two people for this task, one to operate the devise and the other to firmly secure the animal. SF picked up one of the piglets place rubber band around the scrotum and testicles and released the tool allowing the band to close around. The poor little fella squealed and showed signs of distress the first 10-20 minutes but then started moving slowly around. SF said that it would take about 2 weeks for the scrotum to dry up and fall off. SF explained that benefits of the elastrator are that it is a bloodless method of castration. And since there is no laceration or open wound it will decrease the chance of the animal obtaining an infection. Now SF had not been watching his audience while he was doing the banding he had been just talking. But when he looked up and the boys were doubled over and the girls were wide eyed he looked at me and said maybe he should’ve explained things a little better before the show and tell huh. I giggled and said I think they will get over it however I don’t think the boys will be walking straight for a while. Connor gave me a dirty look and said that poor pig you hurt him. SF then had to explain why he needed to castrate the males on the farm. First it settles them down so they do not fight among themselves. Aidan signed that he did not understand and SF had to explain that males will fight to the death to be the top dog and the animals are too important to our survival to let them kill each other. Not only that but when the testosterone levels are not high in animals they are easier to handle. Aidan and Connor just nodded. We moved on to castrating the 7 males. The girls even tried their hand at holding the pigs and putting the band on the stretcher but they could not bring themselves to use it on the piglets. After the castration lesson we moved on to hoof trimming. That was a little easier for them to handle. The hoof trimming was my area. Told them there still needs to be two people in the barn when you trim hooves. You must tie the horse securely; most horses try to move around some when being trimmed. I picked up the hoof pick and shoed them how to use it to remove all the dirt and rocks out of the hoof. I explained that the hoof has to be flat on bottom so I used my hoof knife to scrape the flat surface of the bottom of the hoof. This removed the last bit of dirt and made the bottom of the hoof flat. Now this is where I get a little jumpy. I am always so afraid that I will trim the hoof too short so I am always careful when I use the nippers to trim the toe. I just trim a little at a time until I get it the desired length. Next you trim the hoof starting on one side moving around the edge of the hoof to the other side making the hoof the same length as the toe. Then you wan to rasp (or file) the hoof around the edges to smooth any jagged edges. I told them I could not stress enough that all four hooves had to be the same length and flat. The best way to do this is to put them on a hard surface and get them to stand on all four. If the lift on left slap that hunch so that they will put it back down, if the horse will not then you know that it is not flat or there is something still in the hoof. Look at it again. Remember too long is better than too short. After the first horse SF said he and the boys needed to head back to haying and asked if I would be ok. I told him yes that since Abby and Beth were here I could finish the other horses through out the day. Since it was getting hotter during the day it was decided that we would not work in the heat of the day in the direct sun light. We could not afford heat stroke. So the guys will do the haying in the early morning and late afternoon. During the heat of the day we will with the animals and or gather fire wood. Today SF has plans to work on a sled to pull behind a horse to haul fire wood out of the woods. He really wants a cart something about the size of Mt. Rider’s donkey cart. But the wheels are a challenge. So for now it will have to be a sled. Right now I see the twins standing in the door so they will want their breakfast. SF walked over to the twins giving them hugs and kisses before leaving and praising them for staying put. We are working with them to stay in the doorway if they see us around the animals. Last week they ran out to the barn while I was checking over one of the horses and they startled him. It was a dangerous situation and we had to remedy that real quick. They have now learned they are never to walk up behind the animals especially the large animals and they are never ever to go in the pen with the animals. They are little and they are learning. While the twins ate breakfast we discussed lunch since we had longer for lunch we decided to make it the large meal of the day. We would grill elk steaks, make a salad, and baked potatoes, I made yeast rolls. Beth and Abby grabbed their notebooks and were ready to take notes. I did something I don’t normally do I pulled out all my tiny little bowls and we measured everything out and then mixed it. The rolls called for 2 1/2 cups warm milk; 4 teaspoons active dry yeast; 1/3 cup honey; 2 eggs; 1/2 cup butter, softened; 2 teaspoons salt; 7 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed; 1/2 cup melted butter. I explained that make rolls was a long drawn out process and you could not rush it. So if you wanted to make rolls you had to work it around what you were doing. I told them to pour milk into a large mixing bowl, and sprinkle yeast over the surface. Allow to rest for 5 minutes. White the milk and yeast are doing their thing you beat the sugar, eggs, 1/2 cup butter, and salt; blend thoroughly then gradually stir in the flour to make a soft dough. Then you cover bowl, and set in a warm place until dough doubles in size, about 1 hour. While the dough was in the first rising state Beth and Abby went to do their laundry and I went to the herb garden to weed. Once they finished their laundry we went back to the rolls. I had them punch down the dough and cover the bowl again. Then we were back in the garden weeding. After another hour it was back to the dough. This time the dough was punched down and broke off into 1inch size pieces of dough then rolled lightly into round shape. Then 3 balls were placed in muffin tins we will have clover leaf rolls for dinner. Then we covered them again and let them double in size. We heated the adobe oven while the rolls were sitting for their last rising. I got tickled at Abby she said learning to cook would have been a lot easier back home. There she would have just had to turn the oven on. Here not only do they have to make everything from scratch but they have to build a fire too. She wasn’t whining she was just overwhelmed. It made me stop and think how many others in the valley were overwhelmed. How many of the new comers had run for their lives not realizing what they were getting into. I know there are days it is all I do to cook and do laundry forget about doing the rest of the stuff. After building the fire in the oven we set the elk steaks to marinating and then went to gather lettuce and stuff for salads. We had some tiny green onions so I picked a few of those. SF and the boys were surprised when they came back to a huge dinner. I told them supper would be bread and water. Connor said he would save half his lunch for supper then. SF laughed and said you don’t have to do that that is just her way of saying we will be having a light supper. Connor still wasn’t sure about bread and water for supper. We all ate to our fill. It was too hot in the house for the girls to take a nap so SF took them over to the hammock and read a book to them. By the time we got the kitchen cleaned both SF and the twins were sound asleep. I told Connor and Aidan they could bring a quilt out and sit under the trees. Beth and Abby went to check on their laundry and found it dry so they folded it and put it away. They too went to sit under the trees until the sun was over a little more. I don’t know about the north end of the valley but it sure is hot here at the south end and dry. We need rain. I looked the barometer early and noticed that the pressure was slowly dropping maybe it will rain tonight. I looked over and noticed SF was no longer in the hammock I didn’t see where he had gone. Something caught my attention and I looked to the front of the cottage and he was there motioning me over. As I walked over I noticed he had cut off jeans on he said lets go down the stream everyone is a sleep I looked around and sure enough everyone was asleep. So I changed clothes and down to the stream we went. The water was cool and felt good. We floated around and splashed for a while then headed back up to the cottage. Abby and Beth were awake but the kids were still asleep so SF and I hurried and changed. Then he went and woke the boys. He said they needed to get the hay up the mountain before the rain set in. I looked and sure enough the barometer was dropping. We noticed clouds were starting to come over the mountain. I motioned for Abby and Beth to help me get stuff from the cold cave for dinner. I told them I was afraid we were in for some heavy rain and didn’t want to have to be running back and forth. So we are having beans and cornbread for dinner. I told them I would show them how to cook beans in hurry especially if they forgot to put them on to soak the way I did. I had saved the ham bone just for this. SF came over and said he was sending Connor down to W to get help loading the hay. I told him to send him across the river to get R, B and Ray also. He said he would do that. He said they may just load the wagon and drive it in to W’s barn tonight. I told him to be careful and we would see them at dinner. So now for the quickie way of cooking beans especially if you don’t have a pressure cooker, wash and clean your beans put them in a pot covered with water and bring to a boil. Cover them and remove them from the heat. Let them set one hour then rinse and return to the pot with fresh water. Return to the heat and let cook for several hours keeping watch on the water level. You do not want them to cook down dry. Do not add salt until the last 30 minutes of cooking. I always wait until the last 30-45 minutes of cooking before adding any seasoning at all even neck bones etc. While beans soaked the females moved the animals up. It was funny watching the twins with their sticks shooing the goats up the hill. After the animals were back at the top we moved them all into the corral and the upper pasture for now. It was still too early to feed them but we didn’t want to have to move them in the rain. We could hear the thunder off in the distance so Abby and Beth rode down to help gather hay and get it in the barn. I headed to put the beans on to cook then I pulled out the baskets I had started and needed to get them finished. I couldn’t work to long on the baskets because it kills my fingers. By sundown the rain had arrived all the cut hay was on wagons and in W’s barn and our animals were tucked in everyone was back in safe and sound. While I got corn bread cooked SF sent Aidan and Connor to shower then he showered. Abby and Beth had taken buckets of water to their tent to wash up. The girls had already been bathed. We were eating in the house tonight because the rain had blown into the summer kitchen and everything was soaking wet and it was still raining. I had pulled out the camp stove and was cooking the cornbread in the camp oven. The beans were on the camp stove cooking they were just about done thank goodness. Everyone was tired so there wasn’t much talk. SF told Beth and Abby they could move their bedrolls in the house tonight if they did not want to stay in the tent. They their tent was still dry and the way their tent was set the rocks that jutted out was protecting them from much of the rain. If it got worse they would sleep in the main room. Everyone went to bed on their own tonight. The twins had fallen asleep one in my lap and one in SF’s lap and the boys had eaten then went to bed. It was all they could do to hold their eyes open during dinner. Abby and Beth had gone back to their tent. SF and I were sitting in the main room with the door and windows open watching the rain. I told him I never got around to finishing the horses today. He said if it keeps raining like this it will be too wet to get in the fields tomorrow so he could finish the hooves. I just nodded. He asked what was bugging me and I told him nothing really I was just tired, the weeds were getting ahead of me and I could not keep up. SF said if need be we could put down hay in the fields as mulch it would help keep the weeds down. I told him I hated to do that but that we had to do something or the weeds would take over. He said he would walk through tomorrow and see how bad the weeds were and make a decision. I told him I would also write Mother this week and ask them about how much wood they use to using the rider should be coming back around soon. SF said go ahead and get them ready tonight just in case. Dear Mother, Would you please send me a guessament of how much wood you have used during the winter in the past? SF and I have only used it for the fire place and never to cook with so we are struggling with how much we should store for the winter and we are at a loss. Waiting for your reply M23B SF said that would work and hopefully we would hear from her next week.

OMG this sounds wonderful. Since we are big fans of Tex-Mex (years spent living in Houston, TX will do that to ya) this sounds like something that will be added to the recipe book.

I had a pm about the 54321 sauce. I was given this recipe by my former boss from NOLA she was born in mainland China and this is one my favorite of her dishes. I am saying parts in this because you can make as much or as little as you want. When I make it I usually use a 1/4 cup. My family loves this sauce. 5 parts soy sauce 4 parts water 3 parts sugar (you can use honey) 2 parts vinegar 1 part red wine (for the vinegar and red wine I have used red wine vinegar and used just 2 parts and 1 extra part water the guys didn't complain and there were no left overs) Usually mix all of this together and pour over chicken and bake it or over a roast in the crock pot. Then I serve the juice over rice. Hubby loves to eat just rice and the juice.

Tonight after everyone was quite SF was still tossing and turning. I asked him what was wrong he said the swinging motion had worked some muscles he wasn't use to working so I went and got the liniment and rubbed his sore muscles. He said that felt good but he wanted to know what I was pouting about. I told him I was not pouting. I curled up beside and and he said sure your not pouting, I can walk to China on that bottom lip. I giggled (irl that is something we did to the boys when they were little and were whining we would tell them we could walk to China on the lips and use our fingers like the yellow pages add and walk across their lip) I fine if you must know I was lonely. If his shock wasn't bad enough him almost yelling was LONELY? how in the heck can you be lonely you have people around you 24-7. I said sshhh you will wake everyone up. I told him that was just it I had people around but they all wanted something from me I wanted someone just to talk to. I lay there a few minutes and said you will be back down in the fields tomorrow cutting hay right. He nodded and said uh-huh I said would you ride over and invite The Q's to lunch Saturday. You know I would go there but it would be rude to leave Abby and Beth behind and I didn't want to drag everyone over there and invade Mrs. Q plus you still have me grounded to the yard remember. He chuckled and said honey they are like us up to their eyeballs in work getting ready for the winter. I know but they have to eat. He said fine he would go and invite them but for me not to get my hopes up if they turn us down. I said thank you and snuggled closer..ewww honey you smell bad. He laughed and said well you are the one that rubbed that stuff on me. I smiled and said you will thank me tomorrow when you can move. Pulling me closer he said then I guess you will just have to suffer with the smell tonight huh. Ok so the smell wasn't that bad. Talk turned to hay and fire wood. SF said he planned to use some of the seed that we brought with us over seed the pastures with winter grass for the animals which would help but he was concerned about fire wood. Since we had only ever used wood for a fire place and to cook when camping we were really not sure just how much we would need. I told him I would start keeping track of how much we use to cook with then we probably would need to double if not triple that. He said double at least since we kept the fire in the kitchen buring all day. Especially now since we are starting to can jelly and such. He said he would ask around see who had used wood before and how much they used. We both agreed we were at a disadvantage this year because we were in a new house and did not know how it would heat. Being made of rock it should hold the heat longer we will see.

Chores went a little more smoothly this morning. Abby tackled milking the cows and she realized that she was not hurting them she caught on rather quickly and did a fine job. I thought she was going to milk the poor creatures dry. I got tickled at breakfast SF was telling us about the new technique she had come up with to keep the kittens away. It seems the kittens were in the barn; yes I finally got Emma and Sophie to leave them outside. But any the kittens were rubbing against Abby’s legs while she was trying to milk the cow and she looked down to see what rubbing on her she shot the kitten with milk well it ran off and the others started licking it so as the kittens would start back towards her she would point the udder at the kittens and squirt them with milk. SF told her she was spoiling them. While Abby worked with the guys on the chores I talked Beth through making biscuits. She couldn’t believe what all was involved. Yes I was bad I didn’t grind wheat berries for this morning so we did everything from ground zero. She ground the wheat, shifted the baking powder, salt and flour together then I showed her how to mix in the lard. She tried using a spoon I told her honey you are just going to have to use your hands. She wrinkled her nose but dug in and worked the lard in using her hand. We then added some soured milk and mixed them together. I told her the best thing about kneading dough is she could work her frustration out on the dough. After a few minutes she laughed and said you know you are right this would be a good way to beat up something. We had a good chuckle over her beating up the dough. The biscuits turned out pretty good. Everyone ate them without much complaining. Although Connor did blurt out what happen to the biscuits they look like balls instead of biscuits. I think SF kicked him under the table because he stammered and then said oh well they are still good. After breakfast Beth asked what was wrong with the biscuits and I told her nothing they were just fluffier than what I make. I told her she could try flattening them a little more with the back of her when she puts them in the pan. After breakfast we started on the green house. We got asparagus transplanted, along with some lettuce. We also planted greens in there and transplanted herbs by lunch time it was looking more and more like a green house. Abby was shocked to see my 5 dwarf citrus trees. She asked if they would grow here. I told her I didn’t know but I could not bear to leave them behind. They had been a gift from SF and my boys and I had babied them and moved them with us where ever we went. There are two orange, two lemons and one lime tree and they were full of blooms. I am hoping by keeping them in the green house near the hot spring they will not freeze during the winter. I told them last year I got about a dozen fruit off of each tree. After lunch of burritos and chips and salsa it was light and quick. The girls were amazed that you could grind dry means up and cook them fast. We had some of the blackberries that we picked yesterday with cream. While the beans were cooking I showed the girls how to make a quick cobbler. You melt a cup of butter in the pan then mix together a cup of sugar or honey, a cup of flour, one egg and cup of milk. You pour that in the melted butter then you mix a cup of sugar honey and the fruit of your choice in this case we are using blackberries and then spoon that over the flour mixture. Bake at 350 degrees 45-55 minutes or until brown and bubbly. We will have that tonight for dessert. After lunch we worked on making a compost pile. We stacked some rocks and made a little enclosure and then added the dirty straw from the barn and shoveled dung and added it. The girls were green around the gills so I took pity on them. I soak a couple of bandanas in lavender water and told them to tie these around their nose and mouth. This only took a couple of hours but it was good to have the compost pile up and going. We then moved on to the garden. We weeded some and picked vegetables for dinner. The zucchini is very prolific along with the summer squash. When V arrives after while to get her jam I will make sure she takes some vegetables back with her. The snow peas and sugar snaps are loaded with tiny pods. The egg plants have golf ball size fruit. We could use another good rain. Hopefully we will get one this week. The strawberries are starting to turn so we got them covered with netting to keep the birds and other animals form eating them. After all of the dirty work was done the girls washed up then we tackled the elk that Connor took down. SF had gutted it and hung it in the cold spring cave but we needed to do something with it. So we skinned it and set about cutting it up. We cut roast, steaks, ribs, we even ground some. Tonight we would be having elk burgers. We cleaned the intestines and saved them for sausage. I will be glad when all the root cellars are dug so the men can move on the smoke houses. SF, Connor and Aidan were back from cutting hay the buckboard was over flowing when they rode. Connor said they had dropped off a wagon with just as much at W’s place. Sf had all the boys, Sean, Connor Aidan, Teddy and Jacob with him today. Aidan, Jacob and Sean were in charge of tying the hay in to bundles while SF, Connor and Teddy cut. All I know there were some might tired fellas dragging to the dinner table. After everyone was sitting and served I left and went and filled the tub with hot water for SF. I knew he would need a nice long hot soak tonight. Aidan and Connor were young they could by with a hot shower. I got back to the table just as SF finished and I told him his tub was waiting him. It was an early night for all of us.

Today we were up early and headed to the berry patch just as the sun was coming over the mountain. Connor had laughed this morning until I thought he was going to split his sides. Abby went with Connor and Aidan to milk the cows and the goats and she had never milked. But SF took pity on her and showed both her and Beth how to milk goats. They were too scared of the cow to attempt milking it. Gathering eggs was also interesting. Beth was intimidated by the chickens. We didn’t even attempt the ducks or geese. At breakfast I couldn’t help but think what had I gotten myself into. They really panicked when we strapped hand guns. SF finally sat them down and talked to them I do not know what he said but they seemed to pull themselves together. Since SF was working in the green house today finishing the beds said that he would keep the kids with him. So Abby, Beth and I headed out to pick berries. We looked pretty silly. We had on long sleeves and our pants were tucked into our socks, anything to keep the chiggers at bay. We had picked just about every ripe blackberry we could reach. We left twice as many we picked because we could not reach them. As it was we picked five – five gallon on buckets. When we got back V and her daughters were there and they had five – buckets. She said they had left 3 buckets back at their place to dry. V said there were still more to pick. SF and Connor had wood chopped and stacked outside the summer kitchen when we got back. Connor said they didn’t know how much we would need but he and Pa could get more. Aidan not to be left out said he stacked as they chopped. We all gushed over them and thanked them for their help. Aidan said he liked jam so he wanted to help. I told him to keep the wood stacked because it will take a lot to keep the fire hot enough to boil water. He just smiled and nodded. SF saw the amount we had and said he would deal with lunch if we settle for grilled cheese and ham sandwiches. I told him that sounded wonderful. So the 6 women sat about picking and cleaning the berries. I had a total of 4 drying racks and we filled all 4 full of berries to dry. That still left us 2 buckets plus V’s 5 buckets to make jelly with. Well actually we are making jam. Both our families prefer jam to jelly. V took Abby and showed her how to wash and sterilize the jars. K unpacked the jars and got them ready to wash. Beth, E and I set about crushing berries we are only doing one recipe at a time so we crushed 6 cups of berries and got them to cooking. I had brought as much pectin I could find, I had order some only half of the order had made it so far and V brought a couple of cases. But I have my grandmother’s boiled jam recipe so we are going to make both recipes today. For the blackberry jam with pectin we crushed the berries and stirred in pectin. I had Beth stand and stir this constantly until it came to a full boil. Then we added the sugar (1 cup sugar for each cup of crushed berries) and she continued to stir until it came to a bubbling boil. We timed it and let it boil for one minute. The removed from the heat and skimmed it. We then filled the jars and sealed them and processed them in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. We did half the berries this way. Then we started on the harder recipe one that my grandmother had used (IRL she never used pectin). It still called for 6 cups crushed berries and 6 cups of sugar but it added 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. I had babied a jar of lemon juice all the way here because SF’s favorite dessert calls for lemon juice so I broke out the bottle. We also needed a jelly/candy thermometer. We washed the berries crushed them the same way cooked them until they were starting to boil then added the sugar and lemon juice. Then we had to wait until the mixture reached 212 degrees on the thermometer. We all thought it would take forever! But we finally were able to put it in jars and water bath canned them for 10 minutes. By the end of the day we had half jam we thought we would need. We are going to wait a week for the berries to ripen more. That will also give us time to let the jam without the pectin set and make sure it is thick enough. I remember my grandmother’s jam and it was always thick and this was her recipe. So we will see. V said she didn’t want to move the jars while they were hot so she said she would be back tomorrow to get hers. After V and her daughters left I sat and talked with Abby and Beth for a while to see if they had any questions. Both had their notebooks taking notes. They asked if everything got canned the way we did today. I told them no only jams/jellies and tomatoes. Everything else would be canned using a pressure canner. Their faces fell; Abby spoke very quietly and said we don’t have a pressure canner. Beth said we don’t even have a water bath canner. I smiled and said Mr. S had a couple at the lodge. Both just looked at each other and nodded. I explained that we would be drying a lot of peas instead of canning them and we would also be making leather britches with the green beans. Horror struck, Abby said, we are going to wear green beans. I couldn’t help it I really didn’t mean to laugh. I promise and I felt so bad when I did. I explained that is what the Native American Indians called dry green beans. They would string using needles and thread and then hang them to dry. The relief on their face was funny but I didn’t laugh again. I am going to have to remember these girls do not have a clue and think before I speak. We sat about making dinner. While we were working on jam and the twins napped SF took the boys fishing so we have fish dinner. SF showed them how to clean and filet fish. He cut the head off and gutted the fish then he showed them how to run the filet know right down the spine of the fish and then flip the fish and do the same thing…he said see no bones. At first they thought the fish were slimy but they got over that real quick. They turned a little green when they cut the guts out but they were real troopers. After dinner as we washed dished and cleaned the kitchen I saw Abby look at her hands when she didn’t think I was looking. Like my hands hers were stained with blackberry juice. When the dishes were done they asked what was on the schedule for tomorrow. I told I had planned on starting a compost pile (that will be interesting them handling dung) and work in the green house. SF said he was going to start working on haying tomorrow. The girls said haying? SF said yes we have to cut the hay and let it dry so we can store it for the winter so the animals will have something to eat. They seemed to overwhelmed enough tonight. I told them we will take one step at a time. They asked if there was some where they could bathe and I showed them the outdoor shower and where to get warm water. They had never seen a hot spring so they were thrilled not to have to wait on the water to heat. While SF and I were talking he asked how the day went. I said well they were not whiners like I expected. They were just totally clueless to what it took to survive. I told him I really didn’t think they had been in a kitchen a day in their life. He smiled and said according to Mr. S they hadn’t. As they walked back to Beth stopped by and asked if I could teach her to make biscuits. She blushed and said that she noticed P liked biscuits but she had no clue as to how to cook them. I told her we would have biscuits for breakfast and I would talk her though making them. She smiled and said thank you then ran off to her tent. SF after she left SF leaned over and said but I wanted pancakes. I just shook my head and told him tough. I said you need to slice bacon tonight, he said why me I said because you do such a better job than me at least your slices are somewhat even. He laughed and I said hush next to running water and the privy I miss my meat slicer ok. He said ok I will slice the bacon but I want sausage. I said I could handle the sausage.

The lodge was a busy place today. It was good to see all the old faces and the new faces. We introduced R&V and their family around. Chef was in rare form today. The prayer service was good and lunch afterwards reminded me of dinner on the grounds at homecoming. Tables had been set up outside to accommodate everyone. There was and abundance of food. It seems everyone’s gardens were beginning to produce. Mr. S introduced us to Becky and Abby. They didn’t look like the same young ladies that arrived a week ago. Me thinks they have had a reality check. As the girls walk away SF asked Mr. S how it was going. He said it could be better then again it could be worse. He said they are trying but they are totally lost and have no clue as to what this life is like. SF looked at me and I knew where he was going I shook my head and he nodded. I rolled my eyes and said Mr. S if you would like for the girls to ride over and spend a couple of days with us to see how we do things I am sure that V, A and myself could give them some pointers. The relief on his face was priceless. I told him they could stay at P’s place since K&E had moved into their cave this past week. He said he would speak to them this evening. I said that he may also want to speak so some others and see if the girls could visit them and see how they do things. Mr. S said he would see how it went with us first then see if they would like to visit others. Afterwards we all headed back to our place so we could discuss what still needed to be done. We have sort of adopted Ray so he joined us. SF nudged me when he and E walked up holding hands. R just shook his head. V said I guess we need to add a wedding to that. I laughed said looks that way. With the children playing in the yard the adults sat discussing still needed to be done. W,P&N needed a root cellar. We all needed firewood. When Sf mentioned that Ray needed a roof over his head Ray spoke up and said that he thinks he may have found a cave that would serve his needs but he would like a second opinion and looked E, she blushed and looked away. Young love. K asked how much food would we need to put up. I looked at her and said we will have to put everything we don’t eat now. K was so used to feeding just her and Ty and they ate out a lot. So I said well if we have green beans once a week we will need 52 quarts of beans. She said quarts? I said yes I will be feeding 2 adults and 4 children two of which are pre-teen boys that have hollow legs. A will need about as many. But the rest of you could get away with pints and half pints. K was in a state of shock. She said I never thought about putting food up for a year and it being so much. She sat that and said so we would need 52 jars of corn, peas, carrots, potatoes etc. I nodded and said we will can some of that but we will also dry some and that is the reason for the root cellars we can store carrots, potatoes, turnips, squash etc in the root cellar and it will be good for 5-6 months. While K absorb the bit of information I moved on. I looked at V and asked if she was where she could stop and help make jelly and she said everything else could wait till winter. I said good we need to get the berries picked before they are all gone. I have some dried but I haven’t started making jelly. She said there were a bunch of berries on her side of the river and she would make sure that her and the girls them gathered this week. She asked how many jars of jelly would we need. I said I have some small jelly jars they are half pints and I figure a jar a week per family. She said that sounds about right. I said we also need to gather wild herbs and roots for medicine this winter. I told her that Q was teaching me about herbs and I have some notes. SF said we need to get some green houses up and going. I nodded I said we need to finish ours and we need to get P&N one build. A said hers need work but it was usable. I looked at V and she said that had not crossed her mind. R said he would break ground tomorrow for fall gardens. V asked if I thought she had time to plant squash and beans. I told her if she goes with the 75 day beans then she could do cold frames for them if we had a frost. She said she would do that. Ray said he would work with B &W on the root cellars. We were deep in discussion when the alarms went off. SF called the dogs back and went to see who was headed up the mountain. Mr. S arrived followed by Abby and Becky in the wagon. He said that girls had decided that if they were going to survive this cruel land (Mr. S snorted and the girls hung the heads blushing) that they needed to learn the basics. I told him I was glad decided to join us. That we were going to work in jellies. This next week. Mr. S nodded and said he would see that supplies were delivered for the girls to use or to replace what they used. I started to say something and he raised his hand to stop me. He said it was the least he could. He went on to say that they had opted to stay in their wagon instead of P’s place they were still not used to this land so they had rather be close to others. SF said that was fine. He motion Ray to help him get the wagon moved over to a spot on the other side of the stream between the house and the barn. Mr. S noticed the cottage and said it turned out nice. I offered to show him around and he said another time he wanted to get back before dark since he had to cross the river. He walked over and spoke to the girls and then rode out leaving us all in an awkward silence. I said well where were we. I introduced Abby and Beth to V and her family. They remembered each other from trip. I motioned for them join us at the table and I explained to them that we were making plans as to how much we were going to have to can and store in order to get us through the year. K said yeah she was still reeling over the 52 jars of beans. Abby’s mouth formed and “O” and Becky said excuse me. I explained that if we were to put up a years worth of green beans and we only ate them once a week we would need 52 jars of beans, so would need quarts like me since I would be feeding 6 but V could get by on a pints since she would be feeding just 3 people. Abby finally asked if we had that much planted. V and I smiled and said we hoped so but we were also going to start green houses and have them producing during the winter to help supply food. Becky sat there wither her eyes bugging out and said she didn’t realize that much food would be needed. V asked them did they bring paper and pencil to take notes. Both girls nodded. I said ok well tomorrow after chores we are picking berries. I hope you have long sleeves and jeans. Still speechless they just looked at me and nodded. The guys were smirking and coughing trying to cover laughs. I stood and said well I have children to feed who else am I feeding. R&V said they needed to go they had chores and they needed to find the supplies to make jelly. So one by one everyone but E& Ray left they stayed to help get Beth and Abby settled. They helped them get their tent up and draw water for the next day. We had leftovers from lunch and last nights dinner. The children were excited that we had company so it took them a while to settle down. After all was said and done and everyone was in bed SF and I sat on the ridge for a while unwinding. As he sat down with his coffee and said well…I looked at him and said well what. He grinned and said do you think they will make it. I said once the shock wears off. I told him about their look when I explained about the 52 jars. I chuckled and said you thought K’s face was priceless you should have seen theirs. He said they have a lot to learn I said I know and they are going have to learn as they go there is just not enough time to teach them. He sighed and said he was afraid we would be learning as we go. I agreed.

SF left the morning chores until after breakfast and then we had a family meeting. He divided up the chores for the children. Aidan is now in charge of milking the goats and Connor was to milk the cows. I was worried about having too much milk with the goats and cows but since that is all the children drank we seem to be using up rather quickly especially when I make butter, yogurt and cheese. I was concerned about what SF would have the girls do but told them they were responible for making their beds and making sure the dirty clothes were sorted in the baskets like I showed. They also had to fold the socks and wash clohtes once they were washed. He said when they get a little old he will have them to feed the chickens, ducks and geese until then that was my job. I asked him what was his job, he smiled and said to make everyone else did their job. I poked him in ribs and headed to gather eggs while he watched the boys do their chores. While I was feeding the ducks and geese R&V arrived with our "stuff" that Nellie and Buster sent. I asked R what is all of this and he said Buster and Nellie sent you stuff too. I said the pressure canner and water bath canner was more than enough well that and the jars. V laughed and R cleared his throat and said that is not the half of it. He pointed to the animals and said these are all yours and the back of the wagon was tack for the horses, as well as more tools. There were quilts and blankets as well as totes of material and yarn. I was standing there in shock when R hugged me. He said don't you realize that you are the daughter momma never had. The only reason we are here and not in WV with them is they trusted you to make sure we made it through the winter. V hugged me also and said Nellie has never forgiven R for marrying me instead of you. She told him that he would have been better off with the country girl instead of the city girl. I laughed and said but you have learned you can at least grow veggies now and you know how to freeze stuff and you can tomatoes too. She laughed and said yes Nellie and I have grown closer but she knew my heart was not in the farm business and you would breeze in during canning season and make everything look so easy. I felt so bad then, I said I never meant to cause problems for you and Nellie. V looked at me and said on honey you didn't Nellie realized that I learned more from you than I ever did from her and you would have the patience with me that she didn't. V said I didn't mean to make you feel bad. I just wanted you to realize that Nellie loves you and your family and that you are family to her. R handed me the dish pan then and the dam broke. I was standing there holding the blue speckled dish pan that I always used when I was there and shelled peas and bawling like a baby. I noticed B was there and they were unloading something that was big and carried into the cottage. V said I am leaving before you unwrap that if this is the way you react over a dishpan. I just looked at her and said she didn't. V smiled and nodded. I told her to load it back up that it should go to her or one of her girls. She laughed and said we all have one ourselves. R come out and SF had this really strange look on his face. R was headed for the wagon and I stopped him he looked at V and said you were not supposed to tell her. V shrugged and said she guessed. I told R to load the hosier cabinet up and take it with him. He said no momma said it was yours. V has one so does E&K and she didn't want the either of other two dil to get it. R said momma didn't think they would appreciate it like you would. You have drooled over that think since you were a kid. I told him I know but it was his grandmothers. He said no it was his great aunts and it really had no meaning to him. I could see I had lost this battle. R just hugged me and said just say thank you. I looked at him and said Thank (hiccup) you. R said ok then we will see you later today. Sf walked over and we watched them ride off and cross the river. He said there is a letter attached to the hosier and it is addressed to you. I told him I would read it later. He looked at me and asked if I was ok. I told him no. That hosier cabinet made everything so final. I told him that Nellie was there when my own mother wasn’t. She taught me everything I know about canning and sewing. Her and Buster instilled the love for gardening in me. My own mother could have cared less if I learned how to cook or not. I remember Nellie teaching me how to make biscuits on that hosier. He just smiled and said maybe that is why she wants you to have it so bad. I just nodded but couldn’t help the empty feeling in my soul. To this moment I guess I had always dreamed that the outside world would right itself and we could all move back and go on about our happy lives like nothing had really happen but that blasted hosier made me realize that was all just a pipe dream. This was our new life and it was up to us if we made it or not. I looked around the yard at the children, the girls were in the sand box, Aidan was playing with the baby goats and Connor was talking to Waffles. She had come over to the fence and was letting Connor pet her. Tink was watching him but so far she was letting him near Waffles. I realized that not only had their life been turned upside down but ours had also. Although we chose to move here but then what would we have or were would we be now if we had not moved here. I looked around at the garden and the animals and was more determined than ever to make it through the winter with more than enough food. And I was going to make sure these children and my extended family (friends) made it through the winter also. I told SF he needed to go hunting. He said ok it would be a good time to take Connor and get him used to hunting. I told him I needed a deer, a couple of turkeys and some quail or doves. Small game too if he could find it. He said they would ride over the top of the mountain and see what they could find. He hollered at Connor to pick out a donkey that they were going hunting. While he and Connor went hunting I went to gather food for lunch, dinner and the meal tomorrow. To night would be ham, peas and greens with cornbread. There were about a half of dozen small okra pods and I gathered them and would lay them across the top of the peas to cook later. SF loved okra cooked that way. For lunch we would fix sandwiches and Connor and SF could take them with them. I let the other 3 play while I read the letter from Nellie. After I had a good cry I folded and put it away in my bible. I probably would never read it again but I couldn’t bring myself to put it away out of sight just yet. Connor and SF had been gone for a while I hope that they are able to find small game at least and a turkey or two. While the girls and Aidan ate their sandwiches I got the peas on to cook and I started making a list of things we would need to do to survive the winter. When SF and I rode over to I would talk to V about having a family meeting after P&N got back so that we could all put our heads together and come up with all that we would need. SF and Connor rode up just as I was sending the girls inside to take naps. I noticed Connor was riding double with SF at first I thought something was wrong then I noticed he looked pleased with himself. As they came in to view I noticed the Elk across the donkey along with a couple of turkeys. When they rode up to the summer kitchen Connor was on the ground before Mister had come to a complete stand still. I was so afraid that Mister would kick Connor but the look Mister was giving him was funny. He just snorted and pawed the ground as if to say I am here. Connor was in animated mode he was signing and talking do fast. I couldn’t read his signing and listen to him too. Finally Aidan grabbed his hands and signed to slow down. That frustrated Connor but he did slow down enough to tell us that he shot the two turkeys and 5 squirrels. SF was smiling as he untied the elk and headed to the cave with it. Connor was still going 90 to nothing when SF got back and Aidan sat there in amazement. SF said he was proud of him he listened and stayed still and let the animals come to him. SF ruffled Connors hair and said that he would make a good hunter. Aidan asked if he could go hunting too. SF if told him when he got a little older he would take him hunting also. I shooed them out of the kitchen to clean up and I took the girls and put them down for their naps. When I got back Sf had the squirrels skinned and asked if I would mind if he just skinned the turkeys instead of plucking them I told him no I wouldn’t mind that I had planned on making turkey and dressing with them. He made a short work of the turkeys and I had everything ready to wrap them and put them in the pit. I told him the squirrels would be dinner. I told him not to unsaddle mister but to saddle another horse so we could ride over to R&V’s he said he would saddle to fresh horses that mister stumbled while they were out and he didn’t want to ride him any more today. I looked at his leg there didn’t seem to be any swelling but SF rubbed it down with liniment just in case. I had never ridden either of the horses that Buster had sent us. I really don’t remember them being in his stables but then again Buster had quite a few horses (IRL too up until this year he would ride horses in the fields) However the saddle that R delivered earlier was my favorite saddle. It was very comfortable and I noticed it had had some work done on it like straps replaced. I loved the tool work on it, it is a beautiful saddle. SF told Connor he was in charge he pulled out the radios and they still worked and left on with Connor. He told him to make sure they stayed in the yard and if there was trouble fire off the rifle 3 time real fast. We headed out and rode by W&A’s place and told them to listen for 3 quick shots that Connor was in charge and that was his distress signal and that we had radios. W ran in and pulled out his radio and it still worked so we knew that if nothing else Connor could get W that the radios worked between the two places. I told A to start planning menus for the winter so we could know how much we would need to put up. And that when P&N got back we needed to have a family meeting to discuss what needed to be done before winter got here both of them nodded. A said she was getting squash and stuff now. W said they were going to start digging the root cellar next week. SF asked if Kyle had decided what he was going to do and A shook her head, she said he was going to stay and help them get through the winter then next spring he would looked for him a place. As we road off I told SF that would mean there were 8 in that family plus our 6 and P&N made 2 then R&V’s 8. He looked at me funny he said where are you getting the other 3. I reminded him of Zoe he said that is one, then Ray and Ty if he made it here. He just nodded I said that is 24 people that will need to be fed this winter. As we crossed the river SF said that R&V had enough dry food that if they got nothing else they could survive on that and wild game. I said ok that still leaves 16 to feed plus a whole bunch of animals. We were still discussing this when we road into R&V’s yard. The cave was bigger than I expected and the ceilings were higher than our little cave. She said everything was dry when it rained the other day so they were pretty sure they would be comfortable here through the winter. V said K didn’t have a water source inside her cave and it was really dry. She said we would ride over in a few minutes and look at it. Right now they needed our help to unload the cook stove and potbelly heater. She said the only draw back to the cave was the cook stove had to go in the front room so it could be vented. She said she had wanted it back further in the cave so the whole cave could heat but she was sure they would be ok. V had the cave feeling homey she had even figured out a way to hang pictures and needle work on the walls. She had scatter rugs on the floor and their bed stood in the corner in the next little cave. The part of the cave with water had a door up already. She said that took the longest because they had to basically had to build this huge door then cut it to fit. She laughed and said she was to the point where she was just ready to hang a quilt over it but Ray got the door to fit. She said that the spring was their water source it would also serve as root cellar. There was also a tiny little hole that she could store dry goods in and they would stay dry. She said B would not even go in this side first of all it was barely 6ft tall and the boy was 6’6 and it was only 4 feet deep. It made a perfect pantry. R said he would build shelves later after all the crates were empty and use that wood for shelves. V said she liked what I had done with the crates using them as cabinets. We rode of to K’s place and it was coming together. She was in the process of unpacking. Her and E had gotten the bedrooms set up but there were still boxes and crates sitting around that needed unpacking. We helped her stove and heater off the wagon and into the cave. Ray was there helping also he and E were getting along rather well. V noticed the way Ray was watching E and sighed. On the way back R&V’s place she said Ray is all that E talks about. She said it is Ray this or Ray that. I laughed, she just looked at me. I told her that we were both married at E age. She said she knows that its just well it is E. I said I know it is your baby girl. Wait to B gets older and start courting. She laughed and said she was going to hide him. I said you will need to carry a big stick if you don’t. I mean 6’6 those sky blue eyes and blond curly hair you don’t have a prayer. She sighed again and said I know. I told her look at it this way at least the girls he meets now will have some type of homemaking skills. She laughed and said yeah I guess you are right. While we were still at K place I told her and V what was weighing heavy on my mind and asked them to start making menus for the winter so we could have a count of about how much each family would need. They agreed, V said that she would sit down with R and B and come up with an idea of how much grain we would need for the animals. B walked in and heard what we were discussing and said we really needed to start cutting hay too. He said that Ray, Kyle, and the older kids could work on cutting hay next week. E said she could help also. K said she would help too if V would watch Zoe. B asked if Connor could help and I said I didn’t see why not but I would like for him to clear it with SF first so he headed off to talk to SF. As we headed back outside I noticed that SF was talking to Connor on the radio. It seemed the radios reached all the way here. R said that was good to know that they had some radios just like that, he said he would give us time to get home and would try his to see if they worked. That way next week the ones cutting hay would have some way to contact those that stay behind in case of an emergency. SF nodded and then looked at me and said we needed to be heading back that the girls were up and were upset because we were not there. We said our good byes and as we started to ride away I remember the lunch tomorrow and turned back to tell V about it and she said they would be there. She looked at SF and asked if he would up to stuffed shells he said he would love some. We rode in silence on the way home both of us deep in thought on what still had to be done. So much to do and so little time.

SF joined me on my ledge. He told me he was going to have to build me a gazebo out here and put a little fireplace in it so I could come out here during the winter months. I told him that would only work if he got up before I did and come out and started the fire. He thought for a minute and said well maybe he wouldn’t and then I wouldn’t be leaving his bed so early in the morning. I laughed and said honey that is what happens when a morning person marries a night owl. All I got was a hummmph out of him. A penny for you thoughts…I said you would be in for a pound then. He asked what was weighing so heavy on my mind so early this morning. I told him the holidays and birthdays. Ahhh I see. I turned to look at him and said do you really see? The girls turn three next month and A’s birthday is in August also. Aidan turns 10 in September W’s birthday is in October, yours is in November then half of us have birthdays in December Connor’s Birthday is in March along with Teddy’s the only reason I know that is there are St. Paddy babies. Megan’s is in April and Becky’s is in February. He wrapped his arm around me and said PMS huh. I wanted to punch him. I said no, not PMS just overwhelmed; not enough hours in the day and well I wasn’t expecting small children for the holidays I am not prepared for them. He smiled and said don’t worry we will get through it. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer and whispered you realize you are borrowing trouble from tomorrow. I laid my head on his shoulder and said I don’t think so. You know I don’t wait to the last minute to do stuff. He just smiled and said well we will still do the holidays just like before…the Advent wreath up to Christmas Eve and then Christmas Eve we will put up a Christmas tree and leave it for 12 days. I said there will be no lights for the tree he said that will be ok. Do we have ornaments? I said some but not enough for a big tree. He said that would be the children’s job then. I told him I would find the dough recipe and have it ready after Thanksgiving. You know I think we can come up with come material to make some bows and arrows and slingshots for the boys. He looked at me and said what about dolls for the girls; you think you can make rag dolls for them? I said for the little ones. Megan will be different she will be is a young lady and will not want dolls. He suggested hair bows and then he went quite. I looked up at him and he was miles away. I said you are scaring me. He looked at me and said we could make her jewelry. I smiled and said that would be wonderful. He said leave that to me. I told him I had my craft box in there and there was some jewelry wire in it. He said he would look into it later. A few minutes later he asked did I feel better and I told him a little that I was still worried about putting up enough food to get us through the winter. I was scared I would not put up enough and the kids would starve. He laughed and said that is why we have the greenhouse and he said if nothing else we have moose burgers. I looked down towards the stream and said no not moose burgers he asked why not you have Bambi burgers. I said yeah but I don’t watch Bambi every morning. We let the children sleep this morning and tended to the morning chores ourselves. SF moved the animals down and I milked the goats and cows and gathered eggs. The ducks and geese have started laying again. I wonder what the chances of them hatching some out are, probably not too good. I need write Mt. Rider a note and ask her to share her information on ducks. I have never raised ducks before. SF left right after the chores and headed over to R&V’s to help over there. He said he would be back at lunch and then we would play this afternoon. The children started stirring around 7:30-8:00. Connor was a little miffed that he didn’t get to move the animals. He said that was he job. I told him that he could move them up this evening that SF let them all sleep in since they are still getting used to farm life. He grinned and said it is a lot of hard work isn’t. I said yes it is and it will take all us of working to get through the winter. He thought a few minutes and asked if I thought we would be ok. I told him yes I was pretty sure we would all survive but I couldn’t tell him how hard it was going to be since this would be my first winter here also. He was quite for a while longer and said we have to gather fire wood. I told him that as soon as R&V and their family were settled then we would start gathering fire wood for the winter. We still need needed to build a woodshed so that the wood would stay dry. Connor said there was a little cave that we could use. I told him he needed to discuss that with SF. Connor was quite through breakfast and I could tell something was weighing on his mind. After breakfast I got the children dressed and showed them the swings that SF put up this morning. Aidan and the girls were in hog heaven. Connor was still sitting by himself so I walked over and sat down beside him. I knew he was hurting and the laundry could wait. When I sat down beside him he gave me his silly little grin but it didn’t reach his eyes. I said so wha’ca thinking about. He hung his head and said his momma. I just nodded. He said she would have liked it here, that she loved the outdoors. Every year she would take us to the petting zoo and the berry farm to pick berries. I let him talk and remember the good times when his parents were alive and he didn’t have a worry in the world. After a few minutes he looked at me with tears rolling down his face and said why did they have to kill daddy and momma? I wrapped my arms around him and cried with him. I told him I don’t know why people are so mean. I knew his dad had been the manager of the local bank and when the bank failed people went crazy and stormed the bank. The manager and several other employees were killed. Then they had stormed the bank manager’s house killing his wife and taking any and everything of value. She had hid the children in the storm shelter out back. Thank goodness the sheriff got to the children before the crazies did. All I could do for him was hold him and reassure him that no matter what he and his brother and sisters were safe here. After the tears stopped flowing we sat in silence watching the other 3 play in the sand. He had his head lying in my lap when he asked what are we to call you and SF. I thought for a minute and said what would you like to call us. He said not momma and daddy I said of course not. He thought for a while longer and said what about ma and pa. I smiled and said what ever you and you brother and sister want to call us I am sure that will be fine. He just nodded and said Ma and Pa. I said ok. He was up then and running off to play with his siblings like weight of the world had been lifted from his little shoulders. It might have been just a small thing but to 4 precious children it was important to them. They couldn’t bring back their parents so they had to hold on to their memories some how and that meant not calling anyone momma and daddy. I wondered how I was going to keep their parents memory alive especially for Sophie and Emma. I am sure they barely remember their mother now as it is what about 5 years from now. I noticed the bread had risen enough to go in the adobe oven so I put both loaves in. SF and I had planned on taking the children down to the pond and have a picnic this afternoon. So since they had a late breakfast I will give them a snack later and let them take a nap then we will have a late lunch. I to gather some vegetables that we could take on our picnic and realized the carrots needed thinning. So I thinned them out and got a bunch of baby carrots. I also gathered squash and zucchini, cucumber and radishes. There were some green onions ready also. I can’t wait for the tomatoes to start coming in. The plants have blooms but nothing else it would probably by the end of July before we would have tomatoes. I noticed that there were little watermelons and muskmelons about the size of golf balls, the honeydew had golf balls too. I stopped at the spring on my way back and washed off the veggies so they would be clean and dry before I put them in the picnic basket. That is one thing about being at this end of the valley we get sun for a long period of time during the day almost too long for some of the plants. We had quite a few eggs so I fixed eggs for the children for snack put them to bed. They wanted to argue but I told them if they wanted their surprise this afternoon they had to take their naps now. Even Connor lay on his bed reading. I went to the pantry where I stored everything and dug through my material and craft stuff. I found some plain unbleached muslin and some smaller pieces to make doll clothes. I then found yarn for hair and buttons for eyes. I drew out my pattern and had two dolls cut out and sewn up waiting to be stuffed. I had one doll dress done and was working on the 2nd one when SF rode up. He asked where the children were I told him I had put them down for naps so that they would not be cranky this afternoon. I asked how where things across the river and he said they had lights in the cave but that the batteries had to charge for a few days before they could really use them, one wagon was unloaded and beds were up. He said by sundown tomorrow V should have everything in place. I asked about K’s place and he said that B, and Ray had finished the front wall just before he left and W&R had already wired the solar panels and wind turbine before he left. Other than beds SF said that E&K had not moved anything that they were helping V get moved and set up and then K&E were going to move. I asked about barns and SF said that they really were not that far from W, about as far as we were but they had to cross the river. So until P&N were back they were only moving the chickens, ducks and geese oh and the milk animals up to a lean-to that Ray and B had constructed but it was no where big enough for all the animals so they left most of the animals at W’s place. SF asked what could he do to help get the picnic ready and I told him we needed the ham and mustard. So he headed to the spring cave. I couldn’t figure out what was taking so long I had already put away my sewing and had sliced the bread waiting when he came back. Then I noticed the sugar, peanut butter and egg. I grinned because I knew that meant he wanted peanut butter cookies. I left him making sandwiches while I quickly mix the cookie dough and put a pan of cookies in adobe oven. I had never cooked them in the adobe before so I stood watch over the first batch the 2nd and 3rd pans went in together. I planned on leaving them on the cooling racks while we were gone. I sent SF, Aidan and Connor to put on shorts. They could not figure out why they were wearing shorts until we started down to the stream and they saw the rope. It was all SF could do to hold them back until everyone was down there. Aidan and Connor could both swim like fish. The girls could swim to but they were not strong swimmers. Connor said they had been swimming since before they could walk. He said their dad made sure they could all swim because they had a pool back home. SF asked him if he had ever swung on a rope and jumped into a pond or river and he said no. So SF grabbed the rope and swung out over the stream and jumped in. They all wanted to try so Connor went first. He got on the rope and I pulled him back so he would swing out almost to SF and I told him when he got close to SF to let go and jump in. I asked if he was ready and all he could was nod. I let go just as he got close to SF I heard him yell “Pa catch me” oops I forgot to warn SF about the Ma and Pa thing and the look on his face was priceless. Thank goodness he had enough sense about him to catch Connor because he was headed straight for him. After the big splash SF made sure he was ok dunked just for good measure and looked at me and winked. Next was Aidan’s turn. I was worried about him but he was a real trooper. I walked in front of him pushing him back so he could see me signing and then I let go. I didn’t think he would jump but he did and his little hands were just a flying when he come up. SF was laughing so I knew he was having fun. SF deemed the girls to small to use the rope so I picked them up and tossed them to him. We were a hole 2 feet apart. But they thought we were throwing them across the stream the way they were screaming and carrying on. I told SF at lunch maybe we should have warned the Q’s before hand that we would have the kids at the stream. They probably think we were killing the girls. SF laughed and said no that they had already had their kids in the water. He heard them yesterday. I said oh. Then he realized that I hadn’t heard them and he had been with me all day. He just wrapped him arms around me. I couldn’t help but wonder how much longer I would have my hearing at all in that ear. I had been wearing my hearing aid especially with the children being here now but it didn’t help much. We had finished eating and the children were laying blankets resting when W&A and their gang joined up. They had eaten at home. Connor had to show off the rope and everyone took turns. Emma and Sophie had fallen asleep again but woke when the other kids started hooping and hollering. W&A were in the stream with the kids so SF and I cleaned up from the picnic. The rider had come around while we were playing in the stream and SF ran up the hill to get my letter for mother. He also brought a couple of letters from the outside world. A had gotten a letter from her mother and her and the boys were upset. W said he was bad news so he took them home and said he would talk to us later. We stayed for a while longer and let the kids play in the water until the sun touched the mountain and we knew it was time to head back up the hill. SF and the boys headed over to get the animals and me and the girls headed to the cottage to get dry clothes on. We finished the sandwiches that were left from lunch along with had cookies and milk. The girls fell asleep eating so SF and I checked their mouths to make sure there was not food and carried them in and tucked them in bed. When we returned Connor had just caught Aidan he had fell asleep and fell out of his chair but he didn’t wake up. SF picked him up and took and put him in his bed. Connor said he wasn’t tired but by the time he had gotten his pjs on he was yawning. I think he was sleep before we were out of the door good. I fixed SF coffee to go with his cookies and we carried our lounge chairs back out to the ridge and watched the sun set. We were enjoying the peace and quite and I was almost asleep when SF said Pa huh? I laughed and explained mine and Connor’s chat earlier and he just nodded. He stood up and took my hand and said well come on Ma you are about to fall asleep. It was an early night on the mountain and we looked forward to a peaceful nights sleep. Well that was until the coyotes started howling outside our window and woke everyone up.

Dear Mother, I know this may sound silly but I have never had to deal with little girl's hair and well I am at a loss. No matter what I do with it still smells sour not only that but there are tangles.. I have tried using baking soda in it that seems to help but I do not want to use all my baking soda on the girls hair and SF has refused to allow me to cut it. Boys are so much easier...buzz cuts and a soapy wash cloth not only is it clean but it doesn't smell. I do not wash their hair at night we wash it in the morning so that it will dry during the day. I don't want to put them to bed with wet heads. Do you or your granddaughters have any suggestions for me.

We woke this morning to the smell of wet and fresh. You know the smell right after a summer rain. As I sat out on the ledge and drank my tea the valley was so green. The streams and river was running swiftly but nothing was flooded. The birds were chirping, the moose were the stream and the mountain goats were climbing all over the face of the mountain across the river. The geese and ducks were splashing down at the pond. It looked like it was a beautiful day... Last night SF decided he was going to stay here and start working with our boys on some things. Number one on the list is how to handle a gun. Well Megan and Teddy were determined they were not going to be left out. So SF set up targets for Megan, Teddy, Connor and Aidan. I was worried about Aidan since he was only 9 but SF said he needed to learn he also reminded me by the age of 6 our boys had advanced to pellet guns. I asked if he was going to teach Sean he said when he matured some he would. By lunch time SF was pleased that the 4 older children not only did they know how to handle a rifle safely but they usually hit the target 8 out 10 times. Connor wanted to learn to use a hand gun but SF told him that he needed to work on the rifle and shotgun then once he had those mastered he would teach him how to use the hand gun. Connor asked when he would get his own rifle. SF told him he didn't know he had to provide he was responsible first. The girls were in rare form today. By midmorning my beautiful peaceful morning was but forgotten and I was ready to find the duct tape and Velcro for Emma. She was not a happy camper today and she was making everyone miserable. We had done the time out, the standing in the corner, the talking too. However, when she threw sand in Becky's face because Becky would not give her the toy she was playing with SF took over. I can count on one hand the number of times that he raised his voice with our boys and I don't recall him ever spanking them. But when he took Emma and put her to bed my heart broke. When he came back I told him I hope he didn't use his hand he said no he had a switch. I said oh honey no not a switch. He said don't worry I didn't even use it. I said by the way it sounded you were killing her. He grinned and said that is because I wouldn't hold her I made her go to bed. He said she was asleep in 10 minutes. At lunch the other children were in rare form and SF told them if they didn't want what Emma got they had better cut it out. That lasted all of 30 minutes. After lunch he lined them all up sent them through the outhouse and to wash their hands and then put them all to bed. He let Megan, Teddy Connor and Aidan stay up but the other 4 went down. Sean started to argue and Sf just looked at him and reached for his switch. Sean was asleep in a matter of minutes also. Sophie had fallen asleep in my lap during lunch and he carried her to bed. When he came back out I looked at him and said meanie. He shook his switch at me and told I had better watch or I would be going to bed. I asked if I could and he told me nope I had to cook dinner. V said PB&J sandwiches sounded pretty good to her. We all laughed. The older children had books and were scattered around the yard in lawn chairs reading. The adults were sitting in the summer kitchen. We started discussing the discipline problems we would be facing now. We didn't know how the children had been disciplined before much less what had been expected of them. W said so far Jacob seemed to be settling down since he and A had gotten ideas from us as to how we dealt with W when he was that age (to this day IRL W still has to have a written to do list if I give him several verbal to dos it overwhelms him and he gets distracted even at the ripe ol’ age of 22) A said it seems to help when Jacob only has 2 or 3 choices any thing over 3 and he short circuits. She has limited he access to the toys that they brought. She said they also watch his diet very carefully. He is limited on his carbs because they turn to sugar. She said he only gets carbs in the morning and at lunch but no carbs for dinner also no carbs on days that he is stuck in the house. He is allowed two toys out at a time but he has to put them up before he can have anything else. A is working wonders with Jacob. But they both said Megan's mouth gets her trouble. The 4 parents laughed and said welcome to teenage years. The kids all said they were not that bad. V and I just looked at each and said OH NO you were worse. We discussed how to handle mouthy attitudes. Especially in Connor and Megan, both of them were used to be in charge and taking care of the younger ones. So it was a little difficult for them to be kids again. We discussed emotional problems that the children were facing and the effects of those like bed wetting, nail biting, thumb sucking and withdrawal. Not only have these children lost their parents and their homes but they have lost away of life. We all started talking about how it was getting us down to have left behind what we had all worked so long and hard for only to start over. We all knew we would make it no matter what but these children didn't understand and they needed security and sense of belonging. A couple of hours later R&V said they were headed down to N's to get their wagon and head over to their new place and start unloading. They had finished the walls up this morning and she was ready to get unpacked. B, Ray and Kyle were headed back to finish up K's front wall. Tomorrow SF, W and R would wire the wind turbines and the solar panels. K and E took Zoe and went back to P's cabin to start packing up their stuff to move. Next week V said she would start planting fall veggies, maybe even some squash and bush beans. But she was going to have to get a green house going soon. She said that she also had to get some herbs started. E was going to look at the library for books on winter gardening of root veggies. Ray said he wanted to get the garden terraces broke up at his place because he was going to do winter wheat. That is about all he could do this year. E told him she would look for information on winter wheat while she was in the library. Everyone decided that there would be no community meal tonight that they would feed their own tonight to give me a break. E had even invited Ray to dinner so I was only cooking for 6 tonight. Becky, Jacob and Sean were awake and were getting loud when W called them down and told them to get in the wagon that they were headed home. Megan and Teddy folded their blankets and helped the younger ones in the wagon. Becky came and hugged our necks and said bye Poppy and Gammy we will see you tomorrow. As they rode off SF asked where she came up with Poppy and Gammy I told him no idea but he looked like a Poppy. He shook his switch at me again and I just laughed. Aidan had fallen asleep but Connor was a wake so SF told him to get his rifle and they would go hunting for dinner. Sf asked what would I like for dinner and I told him shrimp and lobster. He just shook his head I said okay how about quail I could do the 5,4,3,2,1 sauce. You would have thought I just offered him a million dollars. He loves 54321 sauce so he and Connor went on the search for quail. I went and picked up Aidan…man he was heavier than he looked, and put him in his bed. Then I went to finish unpacking the pantry. It didn't take long since I had worked on it last night. The children were up from their nap so I fixed Emma a sandwich and sat her down with a class of milk. The other two wanted a sandwich also so I left them in the kitchen eating. I would be able to see them from the garden so I wasn't too worried. I grabbed a basket and headed to the garden. I hoped to find enough sugar snaps to make a mess for dinner. Not only did I find sugar snaps but I noticed everything was starting to produce. There were baby eggplants, brussel sprouts, little heads of cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage, as well as little ears of corn. By the time P&N get back we will be in full harvest mode. It was like the rain sent everything into over drive. I was standing in the garden when SF and Connor returned. SF saw I wasn't moving so he sent Connor to the kitchen with the quail and told him to keep the other children in there. As he got closer he called my name and asked if I was ok. It took me a minute to realize what he was saying and I told him I was better than ok. I started showing him everything and he was just as thrilled. On the way to the kitchen he told me that he and Connor hit the jack pot on the quail. SF said Connor had gotten 3 of them himself and that after they got #6 Connor said they had more than enough. That we shouldn't take more than we need. Aidan and the girls headed to the sandbox. While SF cleaned the quail I worked on getting the snow peas ready. Connor was sitting in the corner cleaning the rifle. Out of the blue he asked SF he knew how to make a sling shot and SF told him he thought he probably could remember if he tried. Connor said he would like a sling shot. That he could go quail hunting then alone. SF was a little gruff and said that we don't leave the yard without going in pairs. Connor started to argue and I laid my hand on SF's arm and told him to explain why we have that rule. SF told him about the bear and about me scaring them and the cougar. He told Connor that we live in the middle of these wild animals and they see us as a threat. We never go anywhere alone and we always wear our whistle and out emergency tool. Connor's hand went to his neck to feel the cord to make sure his was still there. He looked at me with eyes as big as saucers and wanted to know if I really made a rug out of the bear skin. I smiled and told him I sure did, it rolled up ready to put down on the cottage floor this winter to help keep us warm. It was going right in front of the fire place. Connor asked if the head was still on it and I told him no it was just fur. Connor thought a few minutes then said he would stay in the yard unless SF or one of his new brothers went hunting with him and he would make sure that Aidan and the girls stayed in the yard too. Sf looked at him and said thank you that would be a big help and it would take a lot of worry of us if we knew he was helping to make sure everyone was safe. While I finished dinner SF and the boys went to move the animals back up the barn and took care of the nightly chores. Dinner was nice; as much as I love everyone else it was nice just to have bonding time with the children. We talked about chores and what everyone could do to help out. Emma had crawled up in SF lap. She had her finger just a twisting her hair and he took her and told her not to do that that her hair was too pretty to twist into knots and break it. Then he hugged her. She laid her head and was starting to fall asleep. I told him not to let her go to sleep that she was too dirty to crawl in bed that they needed bathes. So he and I the girls and headed to the wash tub and SF asked Connor and Aidan to stack the dishes and to start water to heating so that the dishes could be washed after the girls were in bed. SF headed to the hot spring to get a couple of buckets of water and I got a couple of buckets of water out of the barrels by the house. We made quick work of bathing the girls and getting them in bed. On the way back to the kitchen we discussed possibly adding a morning nap to their routine. That they were not used to getting up so early and staying up so late. Like 7:00 was late but they were just babies still. Aidan and Connor had the dishes washed when we got back. They said they didn't mind especially since I didn't use a lot of dishes to cook with it wasn't much trouble. I hugged them and told them to that tomorrow we would do something fun. Of course they wanted to know what and I told them they would have to wait and see. Sf sent them off to get their own bathes and then told them they could read or play in their room for a while. After they left SF grabbed a couple of lawn chairs and headed to ledge so we could watch the sun set; on the way there he asked just what fun were we going to have tomorrow? I told him that before he left to go over to R place to help he needed to hang a rope down at the pond on that big water oak so that the kids could swing out over the pond. He just smiled and said so the kids could swing out over the pond. I said yep but of course some one would need to be out there in the water just in case and some one would most definitely have to show them how to swing out and jump off. He just hooted and said yes some one would most definitely have to do that. He said I think I have the perfect rope and you know what I think I might find some rope to make a couple of swings for that big ol' tree right over there too. I smiled said that would be nice too.

It looks and feels like rain today. My bones are hurting. It is cloudy and those are some heavy dark clouds. But I have to get some laundry washed and hung out. Hopefully it will dry quickly in the breeze. I am on kid duty again today and loving every minute of it. I was so proud of Connor and Aidan this morning. They did the morning chores. They moved the animals down to the pasture. They milked the goats and the cow and Aidan gathered eggs. SF watched them he said they did it all on their own. Their reward was them and Teddy got to go fishing…some reward they had to catch supper. I showed Becky how to churn butter and I showed Megan how to make tortillas shells. So while I did a couple of loads of laundry Becky churned butter and Megan made a huge stack of tortilla shells. I am using the last of the goat meat and we are having enchiladas for lunch. I already have some pintos ground for refried beans, I have corn rehydrating so we can have fried corn. Dinner is fish. The boys caught a bunch of fish. It was enough to fill up both fish barrels. Aidan caught the most…I got tickled at him he said one good thing about not being able to talk is he doesn’t scare the fish away like Connor and Teddy...LOL. After the laundry done and hanging Sean, Becky and Jacob helped me build a sand box this morning. The girls were in charge of keeping the kittens out of the way. It was a good job for them. Then everyone helped haul sand from the base of the mountain to the sand box. Now the boys are building roads with their cars and trucks. Emma, Sophie and Becky are having a tea party. Megan and I are working on lunch. About the time the others arrived form across the river we could hear thunder off in the distance. Lunch was put on hold to move the animals back up to the upper pasture. The men rode over to W place to move those animals closer to the barn in case the weather turned bad. I hurried to get the sheets and towels off the line. The sheets were dry but the towels were still damp so I tossed them over drying racks in the cottage kitchen. While they were gone I sent Connor on top of the roof to turn a bucket down over the cook stove pipe. The chimney had a cover to keep rain out but the pipe for the stove didn’t have a cap on it yet. Thank goodness we are not using that cook stove yet. V said they had moved everything inside the cave before they left so we didn’t have to worry about that. The men were back just before the bottom fell out. Although we needed I hoped it wouldn’t rain hard all day. After about an hour the rain got softer. It was moving due east so I don’t know if everyone in the valley will get rain or not. I do know that our gardens already look greener. There are still some dark clouds coming over the mountain so hopefully we will get a gentle rain tonight. After lunch I worked the finishing touches of the cottage. I finished up the curtains for the boys room and got them hung. The girl’s room is finished. The kitchen doesn’t have a window but the sitting area does so I need curtains for it. We used the wooden crates that we moved our stuff in as cabinets so I am hanging curtains over them others I used the tops to make doors with and cut the center in shapes and put scrapes of chicken wire on the back. Just for looks. The pantry is in need of attention. I still have to unpack what food is left in the boxes. But right now I am teaching Megan to sew using the sewing machine. She is hemming the napkins we made and doing a pretty go job. I am making floor pillows for the children to sit on I have them cut out and ready for her to sew together. The older 3 boys went back with SF and the others to finish working on R&V’s place. SF said they could hand the bricks up to ladders to those on top. Ray said that he and B had been working on K’s place, they had the place studded out and after lunch they will start on the front wall. R said they would keep cutting wood until they ran out of gas. What they didn’t use on K’s place they would use else where like B’s place or Ray’s place or even shelves and stuff that would be needed. I reminded them we all needed smoke houses. So they will be cutting wood for those also. They were able to get the buck board over there and up the mountain with not much of a problem. However the wagons maybe a little more difficult because of low hanging branches and the hoops and covers of the wagon. May have to trim trees or take the wagon covers off. I noticed Ray and E move on to speaking to each other instead of turning 10 shades of red and finding something else to do by sides looking at the other one. Makes me wonder how Beth and Abby were doing. After lunch the girls went down for a nap. Jacob and Sean went back to the sandbox. Thank goodness they remembered to cover it. I told the children we had to keep it covered when they were not in it so that the kittens didn’t use it as a little box. Megan wanted to learn to sew on the machine so I showed her how to hem the napkins and placemats I had cut out. There were also some big floor pillows that I had cut out for the children. Since furniture is limited I thought big floor pillows would be good for them. I put the finishing touches on the girls a couple of play out fits. I am putting buttons on the shoulder straps so we can let them down as they grow taller. I hope to get through the entire summer with these few little outfits. They are growing so fast I hate to have more than 2-3 outfits but with everything that is going on I get behind in laundry. At lunch I found out that B will be building a soddy on his parents land. He doesn’t want to live in the cave. V said he can’t stand tight spots so he is going to build a soddy. I was surprised but he will be 17 in a couple of months. I really look for him to take the 40 acres between his parents and K’s 40 acres. This weekend they are all going to ride to the lodge and start the paper work for their places. When I finished sewing the last button on I realized that I was the one that was going to have to clean the fish…wait I don’t clean fish. I guess I will this time. Becky had been unpacking the pantry for me and stacking cans on the shelves. I showed her my date codes and showed her how to put the oldest one first. She said that her momma did that too. I was up to my elbows in fish guts when she come running out the cottage with a bucket of dried lemons. She asked if we could have lemonade for dinner. I told her I thought that was a wonderful idea. I sent her to get a bucket of water from the spring so that we could boil it and get the lemons soft quicker. I talked her through making it since I was cleaning fish. By the time it was over we had a 5 gallon bucket of lemonade. It took both her and Megan to carry it to the spring cave and set it the spring to cool. I had totally forgotten about those dried lemons. I need to be sure and put some of those up so we will have them to make cough syrup for the little ones this winter. Megan and I decided to bake the fish, cook rice and greens for dinner. Dessert will be a pound cake with fresh berries and cream. Actually I think I will whip that cream and make it nice and fluffy. Everyone across the river called it a day early. The clouds were still hanging around and no one wanted to get caught a storm. That night at dinner, Ray, W and B said when P&N they are building a bridge. There is a place just before the face of the mountain where the river runs through that is higher and they build it there so that when the water rises it won’t wash out the bridge. V said that by Saturday they should be in their new home. The front is just about finished they still have to a row across the top that needs bricks but they have to make smaller bricks. R said Friday he will be wiring the solar panels and the wind turbine for both their place and K’s place. K’s place has inside walls but no front. I told V it wasn’t so bad being in the cottage we have lights at night now. When we were in the cabin we only had lights in the cave. After the dishes were done everyone decided to head home since it was starting to rain, Ray road with E home again. SF and I had bathed the children, put them to bed and were sitting in the summer kitchen watching the storm over the valley when Ray returned. He asked if R&V were old fashioned I smiled and said very. Ray got a strange look on his face. I laughed and said R doesn’t bite but you will have to ask to court E he is not just going to let it happen. Ray said that is what I was afraid of. SF laughed and told him it wasn’t R he had to worry about but V that E was her baby girl. I swear I think that kid turned white as a sheet. Ray stood and said he was going to head to the barn and turn in. After he left I told SF he shouldn’t have picked on Ray like that. SF grinned and said who is picking you know as well as I do V will be a harder nut to crack than R will be. I just shook my head and returned my attention to the storm and let my mind wander over the mountain and hoped that two other young men had found shelter and was safe and dry.

This morning I had the our grandchildren (the Miller children), Zoe and our children. My yard was alive with laughter and squealing. The adults were across the river making bricks. B had a project for the older boys but two younger boys (Jacob, Sean), Megan and the girls were picking berries behind the bee house. Becky (the youngest Miller girl) and Aidan were pulling weeds. B spent the first part of the morning showing Connor and the oldest Miller boy (Teddy) how to build rabbit cages. As soon as the first one was built and passed B’s inspection he told them they were on their own. B told them they had to build 16 of them. Basically that was two cages per adult (R&V and me &SF counted as 1 we each adult or couple gets 2 does and 1 buck). They kept the rabbits separate on the trip they did not want them to breed and deliver on the trial. They were afraid that the does would eat the kits. So all we have is breeding stock now. Hopefully once the cages are set up and they are settled we can start breeding in the next month or two. The cage was one long cage divided into three sections with a drop down front. They were designed to hang on the side of the barn. But could have legs added and moved if need be. This is the kind of cage that B had used with his 4-H bunnies and they seemed to work pretty well. Each section was big enough to house 4 does but the bucks would be separated out so that they didn’t fight. The bucks would hit the canner as soon as they weighed out at 9-10 pounds. These were New Zealand whites so they can get up to 12 pounds but 9-10 better they are younger and more tender at that weight. B came into the summer kitchen where I was making sandwiches and said ya know you need a bigger barn. I just smiled and said that would be a August project. Hopefully by then P&N would be back and y’all will be in your own place settled. B just nodded. He said mom and dad are happy we are here but I wanted to stay and defend our place. I looked up at this towering 16 yr old and said son defending what is yours is always right but when you know you are out numbered and lives are at stake it is never wise to tempt fate. Your Papa knew that, that is why he made all his boys leave and take their families to safety. He wanted you grandkids to be safe and be able to start over. I looped my arm though his and said B if you had stayed and tried to take on that renegade band that was terrorizing your area and you lost your life what good would all of Papa’s hard been? Y’all would have lost your lives and everything would be lost. This way Papa knew that you had it and you can start over. B just shook his head and said but we left it all behind. I asked what did you leave. He said the land that Papa had worked so hard for. I just smiled. B, you can not “own” the land. We are just keepers of the land. He smiled and said you sound like Granny now. I grinned and said thank you she is a smart woman. B just shook his head and said maybe but we still lost we left everything behind. B you only left material things behind but you still have the most important thing that Papa and Granny could give their family. He still wasn’t getting. B you have their love, you have their 80+ years of knowledge. That you didn’t leave behind, that can not be taken from you and Papa made sure you had all the tools you needed to start over. So what if you don’t have a light to draw by at night you still have paper and pencil you just have to get up early and draw in the sunshine or sketch by the light from the fire place. You haven’t lost anything but comfort and convenience. B just smiled, he said I guess you are right. I just miss papa and granny. I nodded and said I am sure they miss you too. But you will see them again it may not be on this side of the Crystal River but you will see them again. He nodded and said he was going to ride over and help make bricks. I handed him the picnic basket full of sandwiches and fried pies for their lunch. I told him that way they would not loose so much time going back and forth. Lunch wasn’t for another couple of hours so I set up the sewing machine and took the material and patterns to the summer kitchen where Zoe was sleeping. K said that the first part of the night was a little rough but that Zoe had settled down around midnight and slept till about 5:00. I called the twins over and measured them to make sure I got the right size and set about making them little summer outfits. Mrs. Rock had seen to winter coats and boots but for the girls she just sent material and patterns. “By lunch time I had several little outfits cut out. We had sandwiches also for lunch. While we ate I started water boiling for noodles. It took for ever for water to boil up here. Canning season would prove to be interesting. The water finally started boiling so I added the noodles then I set about making a cheese sauce. Tonight we were have mac&cheese and ham casserole. Megan had taken the girls to wash them up and put them down for the nap. Other children were playing in the yard. I went back to sewing when Megan joined me she said the twins had fallen asleep about as quick as their heads hit the pillow. She asked what I was making and I told her summer clothes for the girls. She smiled and said she remembered her mother sewing for her. I asked her how much clothing we they able to bring. She said that they had brought all they could shove in to back packs. Their families were campers so they had big backpacks. She said they had brought mostly winter. They had started traveling back February when it was still cold. She said they finally made the ranch back in May. They didn’t think to bring summer clothes with them. I told her I was sure we could come up with some material to make her a pretty Sunday dress and some pretty shirts. That working in the gardens and with animals she needed to wear jeans to protect her legs. She just nodded. She said she was never allowed to wear pants to church. Her parents had insisted that she dress like a young lady when they went to church. I pointed to the box of patterns and told her to go through those and see what she could find. She picket out a couple but she would wasn’t sure if they would fit her or not. I told her not to worry we would tailor them to fit. I noticed the sun was moving over the mountain and moved on to working on dinner. She asked if I needed help and I asked her to bring an onion, a cabbage and stuff to make corn muffins from the spring cave while I put away the sewing. Megan had the children at the back of the cabin where the wash room was washing them up for dinner when the rest of the group road up. They look like they had gone 10 rounds and lost. The children standing out side impatiently waiting for the adults to wash up. Megan ushered them and got them seated while the adults were headed our way. She poured each of them milk and tea for the adults. K stopped and kissed Zoe on her curly little head. She was busy gumming the carrot. Zoe was teething so the carrot felt good to her gums. After the blessing of the food and everyone was served SF said they had gotten about half of the bricks made that they would need for the two caves. K said that it would be ok if they put up wood walls in her cave. She just wanted to get in there as soon as possible. W said that might be possible if they used hard wood. Ray said that they could borrow the portable saw mill from the gentle that had it but would need gas to run it. R said they had some gas but didn’t know how much left. Ray said he would ride out tomorrow and go talk to the guy. B said he would go with him and help get it back. It was a weary group the mountain that night. There really was no lingering to chat tonight.

Well this morning found me trying to do something with the two little mop heads. Their hair was almost to their waist and it was naturally curly. So after we did battle with the knots in the hair I tried my hand and braiding it, not half bad if I do say so myself. Aidan and Connor both need a hair cut their hair is down in their eyes. I guess we will tend to that tonight. I think I will get out the solar powered genny and use it to run the barber shears that I brought. I guess they will get a buzz cut like my boys used to wear when they were little. Made washing the hair so much easier…soapy wash cloth over the head and face and rinse no more sweaty smell. SF and Ray showed Connor and Aidan how to take the animals down to the lower pasture today. Hopefully before winter we will have more pasture land fenced in and it will come all the way up to the barnyard. I am finding all sorts of surprises that P&N failed to mention. Like SIX KITTENS; that seem to find their way in to the girls’ room at night. So far there have been no accidents but we will need to put a stop to that ASAP. I can’t believe he brought all of these kittens back. I am sending two down to A and then sending one to N’s place and one to P’s place. Then there was the puppy, another saint but that seems to be the children’s puppy that they came with. She is older than Bryce and Millie and she is attached to Aidan she doesn’t leave his side, for which I am thankful. With the addition of the 4 horses (2 Irish Draughts and 2 Morgans) we hope to have everyone riding soon. The girls love to ride around on the donkeys. They don’t seem to be scared; however, they do not like the big horses unless someone is on there with them. Connor has fallen in love with one of the mules well let me rephrase that the mule has fallen in love with Connor. It seems yesterday Connor tried sneaking a couple of carrots out for Waffles but he was put to work doing something else before he was able to feed Waffles. We didn’t realize that he had carrots in his back pocket so when he bent over by the fence the mule picked his pocket. Now every time Connor is near this mule he nudges Connor on the backside wanting more carrots. Connor named him Pokey. I finally read my letter from my brother and he is crazy as ever but he had been squirreling away stuff for my sister and me and as he gets close to us he drops it off with our contacts. V said he sent me a foot locker NOT! it was a darn steamer trunk. It was big enough to get a couple of dead bodies in. Thank goodness it only had hoop cheese, summer sausage, hams, bacon, 50lbs of wheat berries, salt, and yeast and family pictures. There was also some jewelry in there must have been payments for something. He letter stated he was well taken care of and the only that he really needed was ammo and gun cleaning supplies. But it wasn’t safe for him to keep this other stuff so he was sending it to us for safe keeping and for our use. He said that he would like to keep all gold and silver but that if needed to use it. The food was ours. Hummm I wonder if Mr. Q has fixed their loose rock on their fireplace. Today was spent hunting socks and underwear for the children which entailed unpacking box after box and repacking boxes. Mr.&Mrs. Rock had labeled everything as to which family it went to but not what was in the box. Mrs. Rock had sent several different sizes of clothes mostly winter clothes she included a note and said that summer winter clothes could be cut off for summer clothes. She had also included patterns and material for clothes for the girls. There were several boxes of material. With the material reboxed in plastic totes and labeled as to type of material it was stored in the top of the pantry on the top shelves for now. The pantry was huge so it was serving as a pantry/storage area. The winter coats were handled the same way. Finally after the 7th or 8th box I found the box that held their underwear and socks. There were nightgowns as well as pjs for the boys. Other boxes held warm up clothes and flannel shirts wool boot socks and boots. There was a box that had different size jeans in them and I told Connor and Aidan I expected them to wear jeans and boots year round. I did not want them stepping on snakes or getting tangled up in briars. Aidan thought it was cool that he could wear his cowboy boots; however, Connor was hot natured and wanted to run and shorts only. Sorry kiddo ain’t happening not unless you want me to pull out my needle and thread and sew you up. The look of horror on his face after that was enough to keep boots, jeans and t-shirts on. By lunch time I had just about all of the children’s things put away. The night that his parents were killed Connor had grabbed stuffed animals for the kids, pictures of their mom and dad plus he had raided his dad’s safe and stuffed everything in a back pack. He said would didn’t let anyone look in the backpack but he gave it to SF and said that was his family’s important papers at least that is what his dad always called them. He said he didn’t want to ever forget his parents but it was getting hard to remember their faces. I my heart just cried for him. He still would not let me hug him. But I told him no one could ever take away his memory of them and they would live in his heart for ever. He threw his arms around me and just cried. He told me that he would like to call me momma if that was ok. I told him that was fine with me. The girls were already calling me momma Sf pa since that is how P&N introduced us. They boys were make fun and calling us Ma and Pa Kettle and didn’t realize the girls picked up on it. I couldn’t wait to slice into the black hoop cheese so for lunch we had grill cheese and ham sandwiches. OMG they were so goooooood. R&V arrived and we feed them sandwiches also; although, V was too excited to eat. She said they had found a big cave well it was more like caves within a cave. The front was a big dry cave that would be their living area and her kitchen then there was a side cave that would be the bedroom. On the back of the big cave was a tunnel and it led back to a cold spring. She said the bedroom cave had a window…well what she was going to use as a window but it looked out side of the valley. She said they could be the early warning for bad weather coming up out of the west because that is the way the window faced. R said he was going to figure out some way of putting screen he wanted it so it would not reflect the sun. Right now it was covered in vine so it won’t be a problem now but this winter when the vine lost it leaves then that would be a problem. I suggest black or gray screen with shutters opening in. V said that was an idea. They also brought up one wagon to start going through. V said that Nellie had labeled everything as to whose was whose. So the afternoon was spent sorting through wagon one. Most of it was food and R&V’s stuff but there was some stuff in there for us. B&E brought up the wagon that he had been driving. K had stayed back at the cabin with Zoe. E said that she was just sitting and holding Zoe. V said they had gone by W&A and thanked them for giving up Zoe. V said they didn’t know what would happen to K if Ty didn’t make it to the valley but Zoe taking up her time hopefully it would keep her too busy to think about what was happening. I asked what K was going to do about a place and V told me that she had left that up to R. She said there was another cave about a 30 minute ride from them it was high up the mountain but it was one big cave. R thinks it will work for her. Divider wall can be put up it has a spring also. V said that it would make a nice 3 room place. She said R seems to think that the cook stoves will be all that we will need to heat the places during the winter. We are going to do adobe bricks to close in the front of the caves and the adobe bricks to put up divider walls. So hopefully that will help insulate the rooms. I asked when they plan on getting started. She said SF, R and Ray had ridden over now to look at the caves. They were going to see what had to be done. V said they get the sun most of the day so the solar panels they brought would help keep the batteries charged. When I said solar panels she said yes. We stole y’alls idea. We have solar panels and wind turbines plus lots of batteries. She said Buster had hung on my every word when they read the letters a loud to the family. He made sure we had everything possible that we might need. There is more at the Rocking J but it will come on this next wagon train. I had finally got up the courage to ask her why they came here instead of going to WV or SD and she said SD was too cold for R and he did not get along with #1bil in-laws. He said they were a wild bunch. I said and he let Buster and Nellie go there. She said it was so much of letting as it was the only choice. Plus this was Buster and Nellie’s choice for us. They knew how close you and I were and knew that SF and R got along. Buster said that R would some one strong to lead him and Nellie knew could teach me how to survive here. Plus they really were not expecting to survive long enough to reach WV if they did they knew they would have limited time. Buster is 94 now and Nellie is 89 so they are living on borrowed time. The only reason they left is they knew none of us would leave them behind. I told her I was glad they were here. I asked how the trip went and she said she had never been so scared in her life. She and the girls had ridden with T in the truck he was riding in. Several times they ran through road blocks and took on gun fire but everyone got through alive. I must have looked like I had seen a ghost because V asked if I was ok. I told her I wasn’t sure. As much as I don’t get along with my brother I don’t like the idea of him being shot at. She laughed and said he was doing most of the shooting. Oh great….she just laughed. By late afternoon with B, E Connor and Aidan helping (and the girls we can’t forget them) we had stored all the canning jars in the cave. Good thing that was a big cave. The extra lids and rings went to the kitchen pantry for now at least until R&V gets a place. My All American canner was in there I now have two pressure canners and two water bather canners. Nellie had also sent some large pans like gumbo pans. There was a note attached for one. Nellie said this was especially for my veggie soup. It was the largest pan there. She remembered how my soup turned out. It never fails when I make veggie soup (even IRL) I say I am going to make a small batch but end up with 3 or 4 pans full. B was so funny after he reloaded his 4 or 5 boxes of personal items he said y’all know this wagon sure looked smaller when we were on the trail. Between the canning jars and buckets he didn’t have floor space plus he still has his pot belly stove and wood heater in there. All the hams and bacon slabs are now hanging in the cave. R&V wagon was repacked. V wanted all the food stuff out of the wagons she said that they needed to keep critters out. She sent some food down for K&E and she is taking some back with her. But the bulk of is in the cave. It was really the only place we had to keep it cool. Tomorrow we work on the wagon that E was driving. K’s wagon was mostly her stuff and the animal grain and the bulk of that would need to go to W’s for now. That is were all the animals are. Well except for ours. After the children were bathed and in bed I remembered the letters the messenger had delivered earlier. One was P&N they forgot to warn us about the kittens...ya uh-huh they forgot. One was from the ranch. Mr. Rock needed our secret code. Why would he need our secret code? Hummm. Well N&P were headed back there so they give it to him. OH shoot I need to write Mother and make sure her group got in.