Matilda served me Steak and an Egg for breakfast; not eggs, but a single egg. Who ever accused her of not having a sense of humor? It made me laugh and tasted good; laughter was something I really needed.

It turned out that two of our hens had gone broody but one was still laying. I decreed then and there that whomever was rehearsing at breakfast that morning got the egg or got to bequeath it on someone else. Silly family games of a sort.

We had two kids, three Mom’s and one Dad; it was a strange sort of family but as the days passed and spring came into bloom we drew closer together.

**** ****

We decided on a calendar, even if we were wrong it gave us further sense of structure. So the day we woke up here became Monday, April 1st, 1822; Happy Fools Day everybody.

Saturday’s were determined to be laundry and house cleaning days, it was also the day that I would start both the trucks and allow them to warm up. I’d even move them a little to prevent the tires from dry rotting, those tires were irreplaceable. I also disconnected the batteries in all the vehicles, batteries were going to be another priceless thing, proper storage and maintenance was a must.

Today was therefore Sunday and Sunday was a day of rest. After some badgering by Sonya we agreed to have a Bible Story reading each and every Sunday morning. We started with that right after breakfast, thankfully she chose a short children’s story to read and we were done with the religious lore in less than half an hour. If someone started preaching there would be trouble with me, I’m not much into humans trying to mold God into their desired deity to gain political influence.

Sunday however didn’t mean chores didn’t have to be done. Livestock and crops had to tended. There was, however some relaxation to be had; Michelle took Amos down to the stream to do some fishing, Sonya found something to read or watch on her tablet, and Matilda and I had some peace and quiet.

Not together, Matilda fussed with Matilda stuff and Esther shadowed her. I started to go through my weapons stash. I simply started with the first box I found. It was like Christmas as a kid.

The first box I opened was a bust, it was simply a box full of cleaning supplies; patches, oils, etc.

The next box was fun, inside all of the packaging was a brace of Harper’s Ferry flintlock calvary pistols complete with pommel bags and holsters. Beautiful replicas of the highest quality. They came with a nicely bound hard cover history and lengthy instruction book. The wooden storage case was a thing of beauty as well. These weren’t the pirate pistols I thought I’d bought but I supposed I had made a better choice in the end. I broke the shipping box down and started a cardboard pile, I was sure Matilda would find a use for that.

On to box #3, it was a long box and I was pretty sure it was one of my muskets. It was, it turned out to be another sublime replica; a hand made replica edition of a Harper’s Ferry/Hall 1819 breach loading percussion rifle. It was another work of pure art and I could see why I bought it; it would look a hell of a lot better over my mantle than an AR-15.

In box #4 I guess I had started to delve into my Louis L ’amour influenced youth, I unboxed a Sharps 50-90. It was long at almost 4 feet in length but not as heavy as I expected. This was a true buffalo gun and would bring down a bear or an elk at 500 yards with ease if you knew how to shoot straight.

Box #5 contained a replica Winchester 1873 .45 rifle, the so called “Gun that won the West” and a Model 1866 “Yellow Boy” also in .45 caliber. These were the rifles we all saw on TV and in the movies, in actuality they were great utility rifles and as replica’s they fired the same cartridges as my M1911.

#6 - Pair of Colt Frontier replica .45 pistols. These were the famous “Spaghetti Western” pistols toted by everybody in a thousand TV shows and movies. I had a variety of holsters to go with them as well, all of them out of place in our new time and usually out of place anywhere but a movie set. There were a set of calvary holsters that held promise though. These holsters were almost as popular as pommel holsters in actual history and allowed you to carry your pistol horizontally across your waist giving you access while mounted as well as when unmounted.

#7 was a Winchester 1873 .22 short. A replica 1873 in .22 caliber, I remember buying this rifle as a training rifle; it was nice but not spectacular. It was still a very nice rifle, .22s were one of the most popular weapons in the old west. More importantly from my point of view I had hundreds of rounds for it.

#8 was a replica Colt Sheriff .22 short revolver. Again this was to be a training pistol and again it was a nice weapon with a short barrel and incredibly effective. I had a shoulder holster for this one.

I had obviously gone nuts shopping that day at the show.

Unpacking and sorting out took several hours, thankfully none of the weapons were packed in cosmoline and all of them were polished and well oiled. Showroom condition if you will. I pulled everything out of the gun safe and lined everything up on our spare cot. We had one heck of an impressive arsenal.

After lunch I started issuing out weapons with the accompanying explanations.

Michelle got the Double barrel shotgun, the .45 1873, and a .45 Frontier with pommel holster. She would look perfectly normal if the year was 1890 but it was not 1890 so she would need to be careful with who saw her with what she had.

Sonya didn’t really want but eventually accepted a .22 auto to use as a hide-away piece. She argued long and hard and I was just as resolute, 1820 was a harsh world and people wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of her. I also reminded her that she might need to protect the children.

Matilda made her .22 auto disappear into her ever voluminous bag and went back to sewing whatever she was making.

And finally I gave Moses the .22 Peacemaker revolver and .22 Winchester rifle; the revolver came with a shoulder holster which we would be able to fit to him with a little bit of adjustment. His eyes grew wide and I think I earned a lot of points with that young man on that day. He seemed to stand a little taller and his view of his situation seemed to have changed.

Young Esther got a pointy stick and a very small camping knife with sheath that I had purchased to use for gardening. The pointy stick made everyone laugh and Esther liked the small knife, Matilda fastened it onto her waist and it looked quite normal in a farm girl kind of way.

I had a few folding knives which I handed out and I had decided I’d go through the fancy knives and reloading supplies later, there was only so much I could handle in a single day. I wasn’t going to issue ammo until the next day when we could hold a safety class and familiarization fire session.

For the most part I would be the one carrying weapons around, everyone else was to keep theirs concealed since their firearms were all from another era. I planned to carry the shotgun and my M1911 around the homestead; I’d carry the muskets when we had contact with civilization. I had a double rifle saddle scabbard I could use when I went out hunting. Our main firearms were all .45 or .22 caliber; replica’s can be made like that which was nice. I doubted the Sharps would ever see much use and I hoped the A2 never would.

I stored my weapons to their appropriate places; some in the gun safe, some in storage and the most commonly used in my tent. We stacked all of the packaging materials carefully into one of the stalls, everything was a valuable commodity now and nothing was going to be left to waste.

Amos and I made dinner, I taught him how to make Mac-n-Cheese; it was a simple joy to watch his amazement at the flavor and texture.

That evening we watched a Disney movie, you should have seen the kids faces. I made popcorn to go with it. Esther curled up in Matilda’s lap and they cuddled together with the cats at their side.

It was stupid fun.