**** Chapter Seventeen – Building a Library ****

I slept in the next morning, there wasn’t any hurry for me today so I took the moment to rest and enjoy a little more fun with my new friend; Abby seemed to be of the same opinion and was very accommodating. Breakfast was room service and the large shower was a joy after a couple of days of showering in the camper. It was almost 10AM before I checked out and headed back to the campsite; I bade a fond farewell to sweet Abby and got on the road.

On the way back I hit the Tack and Feed for feed, hay and other odds and ends, and the local DIY store and purchased additional supplies: rope, twine, lengths of chain, sandbags and sand and other odd bits. All the things that you always forget when shopping on-line.

It was well past noon when I rolled back into camp. Sonya and Matilda were gone with the rental truck and they appeared to have taken Mila with them. While they were gone I changed back into everyday clothes and unloaded the truck. The hay and alfalfa went into the hay loft, the feed and tack into the tack room and the rest into storage. Then I went to spend some time with Abigail.

I was trotting Abigail around the pasture when the ladies pulled back to the site, Sonya parked next to the rig and they started unloading. I put Abigail up, stowed my tack and went to help, Mila ran and greeted me with enthusiasm. The women seemed to have had a field day out shopping; aside from some late arriving deliveries they picked up, they had hit clothing stores, craft stores, a big box grocery and even found a good butcher shop. Once again the pile of trash from modern day packaging defied comprehension. We filled the bed of the pickup with garbage and I called for a portable dumpster; they were able to deliver the dumpster that day. It was convenient to have basically unlimited fun.

I enjoyed loading the meat into the freezer, the two of them had done very well and the selection was all top quality. We had everything from steaks to sausage; we had beef, pork, lamb and poultry. The dry goods consisted of a lot of things I hadn’t thought of including gallons of vinegar, blocks of yeast and even several flats of Bell Jars. The Craft Store had yielded up yarn, thread, bolts of cloth and even rolls of thick burlap and cotton duck canvas; Matilda’s hand showed here and I was starting to slowly learn a little about her.

The late delivery packages turned out to be the fishing kit my brother had ordered for me. I wasn’t much of a fisherman but I wanted to learn and at least move beyond the beginner stage. There were four poles, a couple of fully stocked tackle boxes and a few other items. He had promised to teach me when I got there so I simply stowed the gear and moved on.

The rig was starting to get properly outfitted and I was getting a better idea of what I would want to carry on future hunting or camping excursions. The garbage dumpster was delivered and we filled it with the trash from the back of the truck.

It was late afternoon by that point and we turned to end of the day chores. Sonya was cooking tonight and Matilda was doing something interesting on the table with a flat of the mason jars and fresh vegetables. She had a pile of celery, green peppers, asparagus, onions and various other yummy veggies, she proceeded to cut all the veggies to length and stuff them into the jars. She filled the jars with cold water, added a little salt, and screwed the lids on tight; I then helped her store the jars in the refrigerator. This wasn’t pickling so it had to be a form of short-term preservation. I tried some of those veggies two weeks later and they were still crispy and firm; so much for my old bad habit of leaving veggies to wilt on the counter for three days.

I left Matilda to her business and went to curry down Abigail; I was taught to always curry my horses immediately after I rode, but I always attended to it by the end of the day. With chores complete, we enjoyed a fine steak and potato dinner with fresh spring asparagus and started to wind down our day.

While Matilda cleared up I discussed with Sonya my thoughts from the previous night regarding online books. It was an interesting visit into the world of the modern city girl Sonya: the very concept of not having the internet or even cell coverage was new to her. I gently explained that out in the woods even satellite service could be spotty at best, and that you definitely didn’t choose your camping site based on data connectivity. It didn’t take much more than that to convince her, and after further discussion it was decided that I would get a ruggedized laptop and she would get a ruggedized tablet.

Internet fired up we ordered away. We then moved on to the eBooks we should get, we each were looking at different types of things with me focusing on camping, hunting, and survival guides while Sonya flipped through recipes, crafts and romance novels. After Matilda finished tidying up and came out to join us, her cat surprisingly crawled out of the bag and curled up in her lap purring. Mila for her part was fast asleep on her blanket, chasing rabbits and sleeping off a fully tummy.

We were selective in our buying until the realization struck me that neither money nor hard drive storage was a problem; after that, we relaxed and had fun. Sonya was still casting her screen and flipping through titles when Matilda spoke up with a sudden “Si!”. Up on the screen was a colorful image of a weaving book, Sonya looked at me and I merely smiled and said, “Sure, let her order too.”

And so it went for about an hour before we realized we should turn in, as we were traveling in the morning and needed to get a good start.

That had been the most relaxing day I’d had in over a month.