Chores and supper and then a movie, that was my plan. Chores had to be done, the drone had to scout and the movie was to continue to amaze Holder, supper would be over the top again as well. My goal was to increase his desire to be here rather than any place else; food, entertainment and a vastly improved lifestyle were the key components to that end.

After dinner was standard business, clean the dishes, start the wood stoves, etc. and so on. I flew the drone while all of that went on around me and then it was movie time. We decided to stick with Disney for now, advanced movies would simply confuse people while Aladin or Lion King would make them laugh. Sonya had a serious Disney crush so we had a pretty decent collection to choose from, Snow White was the choice. Popcorn was a requirement as well so I got busy on that.

Holder was reeling at this point from technology exposure overload, I think he fell in love with Snow White. He definitely fell in love with parmesan-butter popcorn, I even gave him a craft beer; the young man was definitely getting a baptism by fire.

I ran an FLIR scan of our area while the movie played, I had to swap out the batteries twice but I was able to observe a much larger area. We seemed to still be secluded but I knew that wouldn’t last for long, I would have a long talk with Holder and Amos tomorrow about how they came here and what they saw. We needed a much better understanding of the world around us. I had a lot of planning to do.

The end of the movie gave us two sleepy kids and one young man who could barely keep his eyes open, I sent them off to bed. Brin accompanied Holder again and Michelle and I closed down the camp.

**** ****

Sleepy sex is good but it’s nothing to write home about either, it’s just comfortable and gentle fun at the end of a long day.

**** ****

Morning came cloudy and overcast, I had a feeling that spring showers were on their way to visit; combined with the upstream melt the rain was about to eliminate any chance of fording the Nemaha river with the Missouri becoming a serious flood threat. Our creek could become a problem also and our corn field and orchard were on the opposite side, the drive over being washed away when this all started.

A very hardy breakfast of potatoes, sausage and mushrooms came after morning chores and the after breakfast coffee was well appreciated. Story time had returned to me and I told the entire core story over again; Holder hadn’t heard all the points of view yet and he needed to hear it a couple times through. How much he bought it would help us understand how to use it in the future.

Matilda brought out a bag of pea seeds a bag of what looked like squash seeds, the peas were easily recognizable the squash wasn’t quite as clear and I didn’t feel like asking. I knew what the ladies were going to do with their morning, our corn field was about to get an upgrade.

Myself and the guys had a pasture to fence and then a bridge to build. The pasture would come first so off we went with Brin, the dog cart and whatever work gloves I could find. We cut and placed posts all morning long trying to encircle the entire pasture before we started running wire, post hole digging is dirty hard work even with the three of us taking turns and we were about half finished when the call to lunch came out.

The fellas and I trooped wearily back to camp to clean up and get some fuel into us, none of us were used to working like this and it was taking it’s toll while our bodies adjusted. It gave me an entirely new understanding of what “pioneer” really meant. Story time was at Michelle and Holder watched her speak intently, she was a fine woman to look at and she had a soothing voice. I hoped that wasn’t a sign of trouble.

Back at fencing again I grilled Holder on the route they had taken to find us. He told me that they had forded the Nemaha up near Canada Creek where the river was wide and shallow and that they’d only had to swim the horses across a very small part of it. Amos had told me pretty much the same thing sans horses and the ability to build a fire to warm up, it was a wonder those kids had made it.

Canada Creek was just down the hill from us to the northwest and was something we’d have to keep an eye on after the spring floods passed. With the floods in mind the heavens decided to open up on us at that moment.

Grabbing our tools we made tracks for the camp site and barely beat the girls there, we buttoned up the site against the downpour as best we could and stoked the fire up high hoping to keep the coals alive. I felt sorry for the livestock and a makeshift barn of some sort would be on the list for next week.

The humans and dogs hid under the awning and just watched the rain and lightning have their way with our little slice of the world. It was impressive.

Sonya made hot drinks for everyone on the stove in the camper, it was the first propane we’d used since arriving in this now.

Once the rain lightened a little bit I asked Holder to tell us his story, he reflected that he’d have to think about it for a bit and organize it in his head for decent telling. Amos made a mad dash for some coals and got the wood stove in the camper going and the women all retreated inside, Matilda put them to work.

I fetched a bottle and a couple of beers and sat with the guys watching the rain come down.

A nice glass of bourbon in I shared my concern about the amount of corn and tomoatoes we had, from what the almanac told me we should get at least 10,000 ears per acre out of the corn field and I was pretty sure we had no way to effectively store it. Holder became a hero to me in that moment when he spoke up and offered that we could just turn it into whiskey.

If he could do that then the young man definitely had a place here on our homestead.