Patrick and his crew launched for Fort Dickenson. It was expected to be a seven day round trip since the boat was heading up empty; it might be go faster if the weather cooperated. Captain Timmons stayed behind, because he was still persona non grata in the eyes of Leavenworth. I figured a couple of months would fix that, but it was best to let sleeping dogs lie for now.

We discussed the general plan on the way back to camp. We had a lot of immediate needs and pressing issues. Number one on the list was the incoming herds and water. We had been watering the animals by hand up until now, but that wouldn’t do, going forward. Neither was there a windmill in our immediate future. We needed a plan that was a bit more primitive.

Holder came through again. He explained that there was a small brook we could divert into the pasture. We’d have to dig a holding pond of some sort, but it would work. Map study was in order and the tractor might be going to work again. In fact, a lot of topographical study was in order, and we just happened to have an app for that on my phone. It used the Pythagorean theorem, in conjunction with the camera, and presto, you had altitude.

The women all wanted to know about houses - when we’d start building them and where they would be. I should have expected that. Michelle fielded that and explained that we needed to wait until the men showed up before we had that discussion. I got my maps and started drawing out a village. It was a rough sketch and would need a lot of input, but it was a start.

The initial village would be roughly three hundred yards long and two hundred yards wide. It would be six blocks, separated out by usage. That is, we'd have light industrial, commercial, and residential. I would sell or award parcels, as Michelle and I saw fit. I also started to sketch out homestead blocks in the surrounding area. Again, I claimed this entire area as mine, and would sell or grant the parcels as I thought best. This was how a person became rich and powerful; I planned to be that guy.

Michelle and I rode out for one of our talks after a quick lunch. I had set Mary to teaching the kids the basics of weaving and she had them collecting long grass for their first simple project. Matilda had taken Banshee out foraging and Sonya was going over the food, cooking, and washing rules with the new ladies of Rulo.

The talk with Michelle was long overdue and there was a really too much to talk about in one session. It’d probably take a week before we were fully caught up again. I let Michelle go first. I’d kept her on a short leash since I got back, and, boy, did she have a lot to say. I spent an hour and three cigarettes just in listening mode. I was paying attention, but not responding unless asked. Mostly, I just watch Brin scout around and enjoyed Lunch’s easy, comfortable gait. That horse sure was smooth.

Michelle spared me the social drama I had missed; it was all pretty standard day to day crap anyway. She filled me in on projects, crops, and anything else that mattered. We did spend a bit of time discussing maintenance issues and shortages we hadn’t anticipated. A lot of our problems were based on things we just didn’t know about, with our modern upbringing and lifestyle. Holder and the kids solved many of them for us. The rest were still on hold and could be sorted this week.

I gave her a rundown on the incoming herds and got her to laugh when I told about the geese. She was surprised to hear how much our horse herd had grown, and I reminded her that she was in charge of the horse farm. I’d like to be selling horses to the army in a few years’ time and she needed to manage to that expectation.

We thoroughly discussed the brook diversion idea and wound up agreeing it was probably the best solution, but we’d have to consider what we were going to do when things froze solid this coming winter. I hadn’t fully thought about that and realized that I needed to bury our fresh water line deep enough that it would be below the ground freeze. We discussed food and feed for the winter. We would need to send out haying parties, to put aside feed for the winter. I thought we might get two good cuttings from the prairie just west of here, which suggested we needed to cut a road there, also. Well, we’d soon have the manpower. I just hoped that we would have the time. I added scythes to our tool list.

We talked about the boat and the boatmen. We both agreed that the trading post was a great way to start building our little empire, so the dock and related facilities moved up high on our to-do list. We’d have the boatmen do that labor, but I reminded her that we were currently paying most of them in cash. Only Timmons and Patrick were working on shares right now although they were trying to sell any of the family-type guys on converting to share work, also.

Share work meant you had partial ownership. What it meant in my Rulo was that you got land, food, and a piece of whatever part of that business line that you worked in. If you were a boatman, you got a part of the transport and trade business, plus an appropriate parcel of land that we’d all help you build on. If you wanted to farm, we’d set you up for that. But, regardless of where you took shares, you committed to helping to build everything else that went up. Sonya was going to be in scheduling hell, very quickly.

Michelle asked me where I was going to work.

I smoothly replied, “I have a town to run.”