I never made it away from my chair at that table that morning. The moment people knew I was there they started queueing up to air their concerns with the ‘man in charge.’ I had thought that the council would alleviate this problem for me but I was desperately wrong, some people had a desire to discuss their concerns with the person at the top. In this era they demanded it be a man, it didn’t matter that Michelle had answered their questions before, this group required that their answers be accompanied by a set of testicles and a poorly shaven face.

Throwing apologetic looks in Michelle’s direction didn’t help, I could still see her fuming as previously heard complaints and questions came up. What I did notice is that most of them simply wanted to have their grievances heard by the person at the top of the food chain. The also apparently wanted to have whatever claim to fame there was by having a personal sit-down with me. Sonya sat diligently next to me taking notes and thankfully making the appropriate sounds of understanding and support while avoiding outright agreement.

On the plus side the coffee was good and the weather wasn’t sweltering yet, on the negative side there were a lot of complaints to hear. Rarely did an original and valid complaint come up, most were just some form of a previous complaint regarding changes that were in the plan already. Naturally, some were just outlandish and never going to happen. As a community we were still in the baby steps phase of making sure everyone survived the winter. We would begin to make major strides next spring but long leaps were still quite a ways off.

And so it went, a morning spent having my ear bent by complainers and attention seekers. Not the worst morning of my life but far from the best. Having Mouse at my side made things much easier

After dinner we surveyed the lower pastures and rode the fields. The horses were kept inside a simple single rail fence and the cattle were simply rode herd on to keep them from deciding they had someplace better to go.

Mother Nature had been kind to us and the first cut of hay had finished drying and was in the process of being stacked for transport to the haybarns, you could already see the second growth coming up. We were a little late with the first cutting so we missed a lot of the best of it but we cut far more than we needed and would have plenty to carry us through the winter.

The tomatoes were being harvested and crated up for our first run down river, along with a goodly amount of sweet corn. The amount of buffalo being dried and jerked was amazing to see, the different techniques from different cultures was promising a interesting if not delectable cuisine during the winter. Of course Matilda was filling the freezer with fine cuts of all sorts of meats including some sausages made for her by the local butcher. Winter might be boring but it wouldn’t be hungry.

Neither would it be cold, our team of woodsmen were working non-stop to build the pile up and had them sorted out according to dryness. I had my handy little moisture checker and pleased to see they were spot on with deciding which were dry enough and what was still too green to burn well.

The next few days were spent examining the progress and preparing for my trip to Washington and New York. I was dragging my feet and trying to find excuses to put it off and stay here with my new wife, I had a baby on it’s way and I didn’t want to get stranded there and miss the arrival. Two days of procrastinating soon turned into five before I came up with a good excuse to put the trip off until spring. It was hurricane season on the eastern seaboard.

That being done I sat down with the council and reset my plans for the rest of the year. It was decided that I’d make a trip down to St. Louis to check on things there, and then hustle back here to finish preparing for the winter. Of course Amos and Brin went with me, also, somebody had to watch my back!

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The trip down-river wasn’t as fast as it had been the first time, this time we were loaded down with freshly tanned buffalo hides. It made for a comfortable journey though. We had another boat with us loaded down with produce. It was mainly corn and tomatoes; but it was fresh, early season produce. Needless to say we ate well on the trip down and it gave me a lot of time to relax and think. The boatmen, having seen my attempts to help before, politely declined my assistance so I was basically on a summer cruise.

The first stop was planned for St. Charles, there was a bar there I was rather fond of and they could use some fresh produce as well. Starting next year we’d be shipping beef and pork down to our restaurants as well as anything else we had excess of. If we couldn’t off-load everything in St. Louis then we’d consolidate and continue on down the Mississippi to New Orleans.

To be honest I was still hoping to pick up a small steam boat or just a steam engine if I could find one available, it would come in quite handy for quick trips along the river. To that effect I made sure I had some gold with me, I took Mouse’s dowry gold to keep the accounting easier back home. Frankly, anything I could find would be worth looking at and I had the engineers back home who would be able to figure out how to make the thing work.

It was a relaxed trip down river and I had plenty of time to think. I even figured out a was to hide my trusty hand held computer so that I could read it in public.