That damned rooster!

I slid out of bed and quickly dressed. It was already warm and humid, which wasn’t unusual for late May in this part of the world. It was also tornado weather.

I went outside, to find that Amos and Holder had the morning chores well in hand. Mary had already got the coffee going and Matilda was working with her on breakfast. I actually had nothing to do.

On the other hand, I couldn’t find my ‘chair.’ It had been relocated from its spot around the fire. Instead, I sat down at the tiny camp table and started in on the cup of coffee sweet Mary brought to me. I had my morning cigarette going and was halfway through my first cup of coffee, when Holder and Amos came into view, lugging a long, wooden table.

Without a word, they deposited it between the fire and trailer and left. I decided to sit, wait, and let them have their moment. They came back with benches to match the table. Next came a large chair for the head of the table.

I was stunned and amused at the same time. These young men had done everything I asked them to do and still found time to make this table so we could all sit together. It looked to be able to hold ten to twelve people comfortably. Humorously, our little population had just blew past that mark and they didn’t really know it yet.

It hadn’t been an easy thing to build with the tools we had. It looked like they had split several logs into six planks, which was difficult enough. They had then smoothed them with the meager wood-working tools I had in my tool chest. Those wood-working tools basically consisted of a few chisels and one very cheap draw knife. Close inspection showed that they hadn’t used the chainsaw to do the job. That was a lot of work.

I took my seat in the big chair with pride and simply sat there drinking my coffee, admiring the table. My fellas had done good.

I had to point to the spots next to me before the two sat down. Mary, bless her heart, immediately brought them each a coffee and refreshed mine. Matilda brought me a rock with a good sized indention in the middle of it to serve as an ash tray. I was in the lap of luxury.

It got better. Sonya showed up with two handmade cushions for my chair. I guess they were worried about bruising my sorry ass. I was still trying to figure out exactly what to say, when Matilda set a breakfast plate in front of me with eggs, potatoes, toast, and sausage. I was in heaven with my favorite food at a new table.

A hot skillet filled with egg scramble was set down in the middle of the table. Everyone else plated up and dug in. The new women slowly started showing up and the table overflowed. The camping table was back in use, and some were sitting on the crude seats around the camp fire. A flock of kids would be out next, but the adults could be gone and we’d leave the table to the kids for their meal.

I raved about the food and, after I finished eating, I raved about the table and my chair. I profusely thanked everyone and admired each and every bit of handiwork as verbally as I could. I wondered what other surprises lay in store for this day.

Breakfast finished, I took a moment to speak to everyone at the table and remind them that we had livestock coming in. I also pointed out that we had more men coming to help and that the Pawnee were staying the summer. A lot of questions were raised around that, but I pushed them off until after we dealt with the boat. We had to get them headed back up river to retrieve our goods from the warehouse.

Questions were hitting me from all sides and all I could do was ask them to wait. We needed to clear out and let the kids eat; we’d talk after breakfast was over.

**** ****

While the children ate, I gathered everyone around and handed out camp projects for the morning. Matilda was in charge and Sonya was working with her. There were to make sure everyone knew where the outhouses were. Thank you, Amos and Holder, for those!

They were then to take the children to the stream, and all the adults were to teach the children about being safe at the stream. After that, Mary would take over and teach them some basic weaving, so they would be busy little kids while we got the world straight for them.

I didn’t get any firm objections to my impromptu plan. Besides, Sonya could always put on another movie if things got out of control. I trusted the mothers to handle them, though.

After that, the rest of us headed down to the Rulo Landing. We needed to get our boat underway and begin to lay out our village.

**** ****

Timmons had gone down to the boat first thing in the morning. No surprise there, since the captain wanted to keep being the captain. The rest of us walked down and I began to explain my beginnings of a plan. The rest of us being Michelle, Amos, Holder, Mouse, and Banshee.

We walked to the end of the field road, which led due east. From here, we would start cutting a wagon road down to Rulo Village and Rulo Landing. I had come to the decision that we’d build a village at the top of the bluff and away from my homestead. There was no way it would be done this summer, but we could get the road cut and, hopefully, a trading post and dock set up. We did have the boatmen to help us, when they weren’t underway. That was a lot of additional manpower

We made our way down to the Landing and sat down near the beach to plan with our boatmen. Timmons reported that they all had been off the river so long that they were still fresh and eager for a run up to the fort. Then they might want to do a run down to St. Louis, shortly thereafter. The trip back from St. Louis would require a break once they returned.

I brought up my winter plans of a lodge house for them to live in and a trade/public lodge house next to, and maybe connected to, it. Those were the fastest structures we could throw up before winter hit. We'd need something, because they would need someplace warm to stay. In the meantime, we’d cut a road from my homestead all the way to the Landing, to facilitate the movement of supplies and goods.

With that, I went into detail about what I needed them to do on this next boat trip.