Jack shrugged, “Walk around and not get it on me?”
Dag smiled sadly and hung his head, “If you ever, ever, ever, see that, let me know right away. That stuff would keep the boats from getting waterlogged, and it burns hotter than wood.”
Jack’s eyes went wide with surprise, “Okay... well, what else?”
“Rocks. Not just any rocks, but very white rocks that you can scratch with your screwdriver... that is likely limestone, and if we could get our hands on enough of that...” he just shook his head. “Green rocks too. Not grass growing over them, but actual green rocks, or yellow rocks that smell like Ajax after he’s had too many crabs.”
That got Jack laughing, “Why would you want something like that?”
Dag laughed, “Well, it isn’t much good on its own, but if you mix it with other things you can make everything from medicines to even weapons.”
Jack looked down at his feet, “I see what you mean.”
Dag tapped him on the shoulder, “Not your fault. In time, you’ll know all of this stuff too, but until you do, just bring me anything that looks like it is unusual. You’ll have more misses than hits, but even a few hits can improve life as much as capturing that calf did.”
Calm Before
Gathering Supplies
Dag sighed. Turned out it wasn’t just young Jack feeling restless, but plenty of the young boys were in a hurry to ‘prove’ themselves, and a lot of the older men simply weren’t used to living in one spot this long so had what Dag’s grandfather called ‘itchy feet’ and wanted move. Even with productive work to occupy them, and full bellies, people were still people and found something to be discontent with. He supposed it was human nature, and he should be happy that no one had decided to leave the comforts of the life he was providing on a permanent basis and instead contented themselves to planning elaborate resource gathering trips to scratch their itchy feet.
In addition to Jack’s explorations over the next few weeks, Dag ended up approving the construction of a crude camp upon on the river’s bank where the entrance to the canals was cut. The first attempt they had made to camp there had ended up in disaster. Fortunately, more humorous results than actual loss of life and limb, but the man who would forever after be known as ‘Bait’ fell asleep at his turn on watch. The only thing that saved him from the visiting crocodile in the night was the war club laying by his leg. Not that Bait was able to use it against a crocodile in any way that was remotely effective, but rather that the club got in the way when the monster tried to latch onto his leg and functioned as improvised armor. His fellow hunters woke in time to spear the croc before Bait could be dragged off to the depths of the river, saving his life. His pride however, that was another story altogether.
While comical in hindsight, Dag was realizing more and more that what his people needed most, was the concept of delayed gratification and a little personal responsibility wouldn’t go amiss. Dag just wasn’t certain how to encourage it without resorting to unpleasant punishment and reward systems often used for training animals.
Even with all of the drama, the gathering of supplies before the stormy season went relatively well. Dag spent a lot of time fishing during this time, though he limited underwater exploration because he was simply too tired. Lack of sleep was becoming an issue. His son John had an amazing set of lungs, that he was all too happy to show off in the early hours before dawn. Of course, Dag wasn’t the only one experiencing this. With Shirley giving birth just less than a month after Lavern, Ajax as well as Jack and Pipi were discovering the joys of having a newborn in their room.
Despite the battles with exhaustion, supplies came in smoothly and the village needed to build a smokehouse in addition to the one at the castle just to make sure that none of the meat went to waste. Add to it the promising first handful of olives off of the new trees and future success was looking promising.
◆◆◆
Poultry
After cracking the third egg that was already developing, Dag was frustrated. Jill had been taking regular trips out to gather birds and eggs, but so many of the eggs were too old and already developing birds. This was a great waste because not only did you lose the egg, you also lost the bird it could have been. Dag however wasn’t one to just get frustrated and deal with the situation as is, he knew that there were alternatives, if he could just figure out how to do it.
Something as simple as a rubber band, or more accurately, the lack of one was holding him back from a functional bird trap. He needed to spring load the trap’s mechanism, and was having difficulty figuring out how to do so with the current materials and supplies. He had tried several times to do it with a small bit of wood, but the wood was just too stiff to bend on the lightweight of a bird. Even when he tried to whittle it down to the proper thickness, it still was sub-optimal. He managed to catch a few mice, and even a squirrel like creature, but birds just flew away before the trap could fully ‘spring’.
In desperation, he came up with the idea of using a ‘spring pole’ much like he used on the lathe and the grinding stones. It meant using a much longer piece of wood than he had originally considered, and a long string. He shook his head as he looked at the prototype. It looked more like he was trying to go fishing than hunting birds, however the day he went with Jill’s group to bait and lay out his trap, he caught more birds than he had brought baskets for.
What was more, the found he needed to spend two weeks building a wicker and twine ‘chicken coop’ for them. It was really more of a dove cove given the smaller frame of the birds and their tendency to fly off. They had lost two of their captives in the weeks leading up to the coop’s completion while trying to open baskets to feed them.
Eventually though, Jill and her gathering team learned how to set and bait the traps, and a few live birds were added each day to their take. When the birds calmed down and acclimated to their new accommodations, they started laying eggs that could be gathered fresh each morning. Fried eggs were still lurking in their distant future, but roasted and even scrambled eggs began to appear on the table each morning. No sausage links, but shredded spiced mutton made a reasonable substitute. It wasn’t the quintessential American breakfast, but given their supplies on hand, Dag was beginning to feel a bit more at home.
All of this was taken to the next level as he showed the women how to milk the sheep. It wasn’t like they got a lot out of them, even after weaning off the lambs, but a little farmer’s cheese over scrambled eggs, soon became the favorite morning meal. Of course Dag had a lot of trouble at first sourcing rennet. Natural rennet from the sheep’s stomachs was, of course the easiest answer, but as with most things he was trying for the first time, gathering it was problematic. Then he tried several vegetable sources, and that didn’t go much better.
At least, not for the longest time. Eventually, he did manage to find a reed that seemed a close relative of the simple cattail from back home, and it worked well enough for simple cheeses. Unfortunately for Dag’s dreams of a good cheddar, good hard cheeses were some years in the future. He never would have dreamed it could be so complicated, but in retrospect, he supposed that he should have.
◆◆◆
Kayak
Dag had the village women help him to form a wicker kayak frame. Everyone looked at him as if he was insane, but both they and Dag were used to that. When he covered that frame with skins, and a heavy smear of animal fat, they realized it looked a lot like the boats they now use, and thought of as commonplace to haul things on the canal. However, they couldn’t really figure out how he was going to add cargo in the boat after he had already covered the top in skins.
All doubts fled though, when he was able to put the kayak into the surf, and with the help of what looked to the natives like a very odd push pole, he was able to paddle easily out past the breakers. Dag knew it wasn’t as big of an accomplishment as those gaping on shore believed, he thought it would help him to catch more fish. By having someone on the surface to assist him in hauling back his catch or checking multiple fish traps without having to use the dive suit.
Far from ideal, it leaked, and was far too easy to destabilize. Dag had tried to fix this with an outrigger, but eventually the Kayak proved itself to be more than an interesting toy in Dag’s view. That didn’t mean it wasn’t a helpful training aid in giving the young something to familiarize themselves with the principles of boating. Jack, in particular seemed to really enjoy it.
◆◆◆
Salt Pan
The storms would be coming in soon, and Dag had originally planned to put this off until after the storms had hit, but with the baby crying through the night still, and both he and Lavern tired and getting snippy and sarcastic with each other, he decided that now might be the perfect time for a few days away.
So, gathering up a manual labor team, he loaded down a travois and hitched up the rapidly growing calf to it. Then headed up the beach, just as he had told Jack to do. Jack had come back with a report of the area, but saw nothing out of the ordinary or exceptionally useful. That didn’t really discourage Dag though, he just needed a flat space above the high tide line for his plans.
At the distance of an easy day’s walk up the beach, he called a halt. The area was far larger than he needed, but he liked it for the chance to expand in the future should the need arise. There was actually more room here than the area where he built the castle and village, but there was no nearby source of fresh water. So in the current climate, and with their limited technology, it was waste land not fit for human habitation.
That is why there was plenty of grumbling when Dag had them all start digging. It wasn’t a little project either. He figured while he was at it, he might as well take the time to do it right. Even in the absence of modern tools, six men can move a lot of earth in three days.
After the canal projects, the men had a lot of faith in Dag, so despite the grumbling, they kept at the work. On the third day, however, when Dag cut the fill channel to the high tide mark and flooded all of their hard work with sea water, there were some pretty angry men asking questions.
Dag just grinned at them, then decided to explain the method behind his madness. “Yes, it floods at high tide, then when the tide goes out, the sea water is trapped in the pools. Then the sun bakes down on them and dries them out. You will find that what is left behind is a thin layer of salt. Over a year’s time, this will happen a lot. The layers of salt buildup, and then when we come back, we’ll have enough salt here to salt and dry every animal on the plains.”
The men looked confused, but they had seen crazier things from this man. They had figured out salt and sea water, but weren’t sure that they hadn’t just wasted their time and efforts. Still, the fresh water supply was nearly exhausted, so that meant one last evening camping, then it was back to the village. Dag built the fire big with the last of the locally scavenged driftwood and broke out double rations. The less the travois weighed on the walk back, the faster they would be able to go.
He had started this project as a way to spend a little time away from the family, but now that he had gotten what he wished for, he found he missed them. Sure, little John would wake him up at all hours of the night, and was a little puke and shit factory, but nothing quite made you feel the way he did when he gave you one of those toothless grins, and you realized that at least one person in this world was glad to see you. As for Lavern, when he got back, he would have to see if she and Shirley wanted a break. Maybe move both babies into Oona’s place for one evening... He shook his head, that might work in the era of giving the baby a bottle, but not in this era, where mommy was the only real source of nutrition for the first three to four months.
Dag decided that once they were past that stage, he would talk to Ajax, and get them to all take a little one-day trip, if for no other reason that to give the women a break. That is, if he could convince the girls to be away from their infants that long.
