Chapter 14 – The Birth of a Child
James woke to the sound of Britney crying. He rolled over and asked if she was okay. She kissed him and then said, “Not really. This child is pressing against my back so hard I cannot stand to lay down or stand.” She rolled over and sat on the edge of the bed, but suddenly felt a wave of nausea take hold of her gut. She stood up and ran for the bathroom. James followed her to insure she was okay. When she reached the bathroom and sat down on the toilet, she reached for James hand and said, “My water just broke and I am having hard contractions. This child is about to be born. Will you wake Randy and Jenna to help us deliver our child?”
James carried Britney back to her bed and laid her down on her back, Randy checked her and explained to her that her child was on its way. She was rapidly dilating and the crown of the baby’s head was visible. Jenna helped place a mat underneath Britney and tried to keep her calm. The next time Randy checked her, he said, “Britney, this child is coming quickly and we have no time for a saddle block. I will give you some medicine to ease the pain. With just a few more pushes I will be placing this tiny child in your arms.”
Ten minutes passed before everyone heard the scream of a tiny child. Jenna wiped the newborn off and put a tiny knit cap on his head to keep him warm. Once Randy put two clamps on the umbilical cord, Jenna laid the child onto Britney’s chest. The tiny boy quickly quieted and began nursing. Then Jenna laid a warm blanket over Britney and let mother and child bond. Britney began checking over her new son to see if all his little fingers and toes were in the proper place and then covered him back up to keep him warm.
As the clan sat at the kitchen table enjoying their breakfast, James put some scrambled eggs and a piece of toast on a plate along with a small glass of goats’ milk. When he sat down beside Britney and offered her some food, she placed their son in his father’s arms and ate some of the eggs and half of the toast. As she sipped on the milk and watched her son bond with his father, she realized she could not keep her eyes open. Randy kissed her and then took the dishes from her. He carried the tiny child with him out to the kitchen. As he placed the tiny boy into Bonnie’s arms, he saw tears run down her cheeks. He handed her a tissue and said, “Bonnie, please meet your grandson, Donald.”
Randy kept Britney in bed for the rest of the day, hoping she would give her body time to heal before jumping back into her normal busy work schedule. He knew the girl was tough as nails, but for the next few days, she needed to let the rest of the clan care for her and her child.
Bonnie took over the care of her new Grandson so James could help carry in wood to feed the fireplace in the main house. They did not want the temperature to dip below freezing in that area even though they did not live there any longer. They still used the area for food, water and wood storage. They also stored their seed for next year’s garden there, so it needed to remain above freezing during the long cold winter.
After helping carry in firewood, Robert walked out into the main house to think. He was working on a design for a fireplace insert to help reduce the amount of wood they needed to heat the main house. The open fireplace was very inefficient and was very labor intensive. Not only did they have to feed the fire constantly, the labor required to harvest wood was overwhelming. He walked out to the garage and lit a lantern so he could locate the old steel woodstove he had moved up from his house last summer. After he moved some wooden posts and lumber out of the way, he found the stove. He had originally built the stove so that the stovepipe exited out the back, but if he wanted to use it as a fireplace insert and run a new six-inch steel pipe up the center of the brick chimney, he would need to relocate the pipe so it was on top of the stove. He began looking around for some more of the one-half inch thick steel plate he used to build the stove but could not find any. He knew that there was some in the garage at his home down the mountain, but the heavy snows would make getting to his garage difficult. There was some six-inch heavy wall drill pipe was out in the barn, he had seen it a few days ago while looking for some rope. He could easily weld two lengths of pipe together to form one continuous piece from the top of the stove to the top of the chimney. All he needed now was one piece of steel plate a foot square to patch the hole in the back of the stove.
When Robert went inside and poured a cup of coffee, he sat down with Randy, James and Rodney and discussed his thoughts about the fireplace insert. Rodney explained that they could easily strap the cutting torches to the back of the tractor and use the bucket on the front end to move enough snow to reach the garage where the steel was stored. The skies were clear so they planned the trip down the mountain for tomorrow at first light. They spent the next three hours getting the torches roped to the tractor and unburying the woodstove from the corner of the garage.
When they woke in the morning, Randy stepped out the front door and onto the porch. He laughed when he saw that they had another six inches of fresh snow on the ground. As he stood looking out towards the barn, the rising sun reflected off the snow creating the most beautiful sunrise. As he stood sipping his steaming hot cup of coffee, he heard the sound of the county snowplow clearing the main highway.
When he returned to the mineshaft, the girls had breakfast on the table and the men were already eating. As Randy sat down, he told them about the fresh snow and explained that the snowplow was clearing the highway. James laughed and said, “With the road cleared, our journey will be much easier. We will have to plow our way out to the main road and into Robert and Kathy’s garage, but we should have plenty of time to make the trip before darkness sets in. I would hate to be out on that main highway on the tractor in the dark.”
The V-plow on the front of the tractor made quick work of moving the fresh powder snow off the driveway so they could get to the main highway. The snowplow operator had already plowed both lanes of the highway, making travel on the tractor much safer. The trip down the mountain took only twenty minutes, but all four men were cold by the time they arrived at the driveway of Robert’s farm. As Randy cleared the deep compacted snow from the driveway, the other men trudged across the snow to the garage. Weighing on average only fifteen pounds allowed them to move across the snow on their snowshoes without sinking into the two-foot deep snow. Once inside the garage, Robert built a fire in the woodstove so they could dry their clothes, especially their gloves. When Randy backed the tractor up to the garage door, the guys opened it and allowed Randy to back the tractor inside so they did not have to unload the heavy acetylene and oxygen tanks. Once they cut a twelve-inch square piece of the steel plate with the torches, they cooled it in the snow and then loaded it onto the tractor. Once they had dried their gloves and clothing, they put out the fire in the woodstove and began to trip back up towards the Mountain House.
As Randy turned the tractor onto the driveway leading to the Mountain House, they discovered six moose standing in the driveway staring at the tractor. The animals seemed unafraid of the noisy tractor and simply stood where they were. The bull turned and faced them, although he was obviously getting more agitated as time passed. The men all racked a live round of ammunition into their rifles just in case the animal decided to charge them. Randy considered turning off the tractor, but decided against it. Instead, he revved up the engine and made it snort as most John Deere tractors will, hoping to frighten the animals from the driveway. The result of Randy’s attempt to intimidate the large creature simply angered the young bull. The animal put his head down and charged the front of the tractor. When it ran into the face of the plow, it stumbled back a few feet and dropped down to its front knees. Randy backed the tractor up, hoping to give the animal some time and room to reevaluate its decision to charge the green beast. After a few minutes, the other moose decided to move on and wandered off the driveway and down a well-worn animal trail, but the moose seemed unable to stand. After a few moments, they all realized that the moose was bleeding from its nose and mouth. At that point, they decided to harvest the animal and put the meat into the smo
ker. A carefully placed shot to the head put the animal down.
The men scooped up the animal with the front-end loader and headed towards the barn. When they drove up into the driveway, the girls came out to meet them. They had heard the sound of the gunshot and they were eager to discover the reason for all of the commotion. The guys hung the animal from the front-end loader along the edge of the forest behind the barn and gutted it. Then they moved it into the barn and hung it from the rafters where they could skin and cut up the meat. The girls, all except Britney, came out to help and soon had the meat ready for the smokehouse. They always boned out the meat and sliced it thin to make curing it much easier.
While the girls carefully placed the meat on the racks in the smokehouse, the guys moved the tractor to the garage and unloaded the cutting torches and the plate steel they had acquired from Robert’s garage. They spent the next six hours welding the steel plate over the existing chimney pipe hole in the back of the stove and cutting a new hole on top of the stove. Once they had welded a pipe coupling on top of the stove to fasten the new chimney to, they called it a night. The sun had set a few hours earlier and the guys did not intend to install the new steel chimney pipe inside of the brick chimney in the dark. Climbing up to where the chimney penetrated the rock-covered roof was a job left for daylight hours. Since Randy had built the Mountain House back into the face of the mountain, he had constructed the original chimney by chiseling a rectangular opening down through four feet of stone. Then he built the brick chimney up from the floor of the hearth so it stuck up a few feet above the stone roof.
When the clan finished their work, they all met up in the mineshaft. Britney had put baby Donald to bed. Britney helped with the dishes, but soon tired and sat down at the table with a hot cup of coffee. When she commented about how tired she felt and apologized for not pulling her fair share of the workload, James snuggled up beside her and said, “You just delivered a child into this world after carrying it around in your belly for nine months. I think you deserve a few days of rest before worrying about being lazy. I will cover your workload until your beautiful body has time to heal. Until then, I expect you to take it easy and sleep whenever you are tired.” Britney giggled over her husband’s words and rested her head on his shoulder. Then she said, “I think I will follow my husband’s wishes and join my son in bed. I am very tired.” As she slowly walked towards her bed, Bonnie said, “I will help my daughter get into bed and then check on Timothy. I will return in a few minutes.” When Bonnie stepped up near Britney’s bed, she could hear her daughter quietly singing to her son and rocking his cradle that sat beside the bed. She moved up close to Britney’s bed and kneeled down in front of the cradle. Britney smiled and said, “After you kiss and love on this beautiful child for a while, could I bother you to get me a glass of water before you go to bed, I seem to be badly dehydrated.”
Bonnie kissed her grandson (Donald) on the forehead and then went to check on Timothy to make certain he was sleeping. When she stepped up near his bed, he spoke to her. She sat down on the edge of his bed and rubbed his back. Timothy had a million questions about where baby Donald came from and when he would be old enough to play basketball. Bonnie pulled the covers up over Timothy when he could not fight sleep any longer. When Bonnie stood up and walked out of the sleeping area, Jenna hugged her and said, “Thanks for answering all of Timothy’s questions. He is very excited about Donald’s birth. Your answers were exactly what he needed to hear.”
It was past eleven that night before everyone had settled into their beds. The mineshaft was very quiet until the whistle and sonic boom of two meteorites shook the earth and brought everyone out of bed and to their feet. After a moment or two, the only sound remaining in the mine was that of Timothy screaming and Britney trying to calm her own frightened child. Britney finally managed to settle Donald, but Timothy had no desire to go back to sleep. Jenna finally got Timothy calmed down and back to sleep and then crawled into her own bed. Once the mine was quiet, Jenna spoke to Randy and asked, “Will you join me in my bed for a few minutes? I am trembling all over. I don’t know why those meteorites frightened me so badly. Things like that don’t normally frighten me.” As Randy joined his wife and settled her emotions, the others soon fell asleep. The only sound that remained in the dark was that of the gentle breathing of the clan.
When the clan was up and dressed, they quickly ate some breakfast and began work. The girls needed to tend the smokehouse and the men needed to get the new fireplace insert installed and the new chimney flue pipe in place. Jenna stepped out the front door to check on the weather. As she walked out a few steps onto the driveway, she realized she could smell smoke. She looked back towards the house at the chimney, but then realized the source of the smoke was not coming from the chimney on the Mountain House or from the mineshaft, instead she could see a huge plumb of smoke coming from one of the mountains. As she stood looking towards the north, she could see the entire south face of one of the mountains glowing red. The fire was spreading down the mountain and would eventually reach the Sugar River. The fire was at least twenty miles from the Mountain House, but it still scared Jenna to look at it. She ran inside and told the rest of the clan to come outside and look.
As they all stood looking at the fire, they realized that the smoke was blowing towards the southwest, directly towards the Mountain House. Randy explained that they were safe since he had built the home back into the side of the mountain. The only portion that was exposed was the front porch area and they could pile up snow with the front-end loader on the tractor to protect it from the fire. The barn and the garage on the other hand were quite vulnerable to fire. The barn was over eighty years old and tinder dry. Randy had built the garage along the west side of the property, within twenty feet of a pine forest. A fire in the forest would quickly catch the garage on fire. As they stood watching the fire move down the side of the mountain towards the river, they decided to spend the day moving the remaining things that were stored in the garage and barn into the mountain house. The machinery was already in the driveway and should be safe where they sat. The animals would remain in the barn as long as possible, but could be quickly moved into the living area of the house if need be.
After they had secured their belongings inside the main living area and the mineshaft, all but Britney joined in to install the new fireplace insert and the new chimney flue pipe. Having the insert in place would drastically cut their use of firewood; a necessity if much of the surrounding forest was to burn in the next few days. Once they had the flue pipe installed and a fire burning, they began moving firewood from the barn into the living area. The men filled the bucket of the front-end loader with wood and then Jenna dumped it in front of the front porch door. The girls carried the wood inside and stacked it as quickly as Jenna dumped it. As the sun began to set, Robert took over the operation of the tractor and began piling snow to cover the front porch area of the Mountain House. With six feet of snow to protect the wooden structure, they had a fighting chance of keeping a raging forest fire from igniting the structure. There was over ten feet of rock over the top of the Mountain House, enough to prevent the heat from a fire overhead from cooking them alive inside the house. The original miners had dug the mineshaft deep into the side of the mountain and it could withstand most anything that happened in the forest above. They had sealed the original opening on the east end where the miners dumped their tailings down over the cliff to the riverbank well enough to prevent smoke and ash from entering.
The clan could smell the acrid fumes from the fire whenever the wind shifted, but the fire burned down the side of the mountain and into the valley quickly. The heavy snowpack in the forest prevented the undergrowth from burning; only the tops of the trees and the cedar groves burned. The pine trees burned very quickly and exploded into huge plumbs of smoke and flame. Within two days, the fire reached the valley, but stopped burning at the river. All the clan could hope for was that the fire would not jump the river and beg
in moving southwest towards the Mountain House. That possibility existed, but the wind blowing from the west seemed to keep the embers moving back up the mountain towards the east.
A heavy snow on the fifth day stopped the advancement of the fire in the forest. There was still some smoke rising from the larger cedar forests, but the chance of the fire rekindling now seemed much less. All they could hope for now was that the meteorites would not start another fire closer to the Mountain House. If a fire were to start to the west of them, the winds would quickly spread the fire to their homes. Losing any of their properties would be devastating. They had all lived most of their lives here in the mountains. The loss of any one of the farms would be hard to live with.
Chapter 15 – The Changing Seasons
Randy woke to the sound of baby Donald crying and his mother softly singing to him. He smiled to himself as he listened to Britney comforting her newborn boy. As he listened, he heard the child’s cries turn to soft whimpers as he suckled. Randy sat up on the edge of his bed for a moment. When he looked over to the next bunk, he saw Britney smile at him and then return her attention to her child. As Randy stood up, Britney moved a small blanket to cover her breasts and then invited Randy to sit in the chair beside her bed and talk to her for a moment. As the two discussed creating a covered walkway between the porch of the Mountain House and the garage to give them better access to the animals during the winter, James woke and stuck his head down over the edge of the top bunk. After a few minutes, the guys decided to begin cooking some breakfast to feed the hungry clan. The weather had cleared and the wind was calm, a perfect day to hunt. The topic at the table soon turned to the problem of housing the animals during the winter. Britney and Randy had first considered moving the animals into the garage since it was much closer to the house, but storing the straw and feed was still an issue. They all decided at the breakfast table to build the covered walkway from the Mountain House to the barn instead of to the garage. If they intended to build the walkway, they might as well figure a way to go all the way to the barn. They soon decided to dig a trench with the backhoe and then build a cement block tunnel out to the barn, then cover the entire walkway with dirt and gravel. The tunnel would only have to be three feet tall and three feet wide to accommodate the resized humans.
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