The Journey Home

by K'Anne Meinel

  Stephanie admonished both boys and told them how naughty they were, that they should be helping instead of hindering. She threatened them with spankings and that was the end of their ‘sampling’ of the berries. Both worked hard despite their ages. In a couple of days they had more berries than Stephanie had ever seen in her life and still the thickets were full.

  “You better start drying some of these,” Cass watched amused at all of the full baskets they had in the kitchen on the counters.

  “Some I will dry, but how do I keep the flies and other bugs off of them as well as the birds and little boys?” she said exasperatedly glancing at the boys eating their dinners heartily from all the fresh air and work they had done.

  Cass laughed, “I have some screens that my Ma used to use over them, I’ll haul them out and you can see how to use them.”

  Cass and the boys continued to pick berries for the next couple of days until Stephanie felt they had more than enough. Then Cass went to picking the apples and pears. It was easier with the pears since there weren’t as many trees of them. She even picked up the ones off the ground and kept those baskets separate, stacking them near the well house. The good apples and pears she carefully put down cellar in a cool dark place and the best ones were dipped in wax to store them for winter.

  For a while there were pies and jellies for every meal including breakfast. The smell of sweet permeated the kitchen whenever they came in from work or chores.

  “My goodness, who would have ever thought I’d get sick of fruit?” Stephanie asked Cass one night as she stretched out in their bed.

  “Seems like a lot of work for a little return,” Cass stated but she knew herself from the little she had put away in the past how much work it was. It was worth it in the deep of winter though; the sweet put heart in you just when you thought winter would never end. It was a welcome treat. She had harvested more this year than in years past by having Stephanie canning and preserving it, not nearly as much had gone to waste this year.

  “I’ve put up so much I may never want to eat any of it,” she joked.

  “Is it too much?” Cass asked worriedly, she had worked just as hard but maybe Stephanie wasn’t used to it and harvest wasn’t over.

  “No, I’m just complaining because I CAN,” Stephanie smiled in the darkness, “It’s nice to have too much food.”

  Cass understood then hearing the smile in Stephanie’s voice, the worry about feeding her children had been a problem in the past and Stephanie was just complaining good naturedly. She reached out and squeezed Stephanie’s hand understandingly. She was pleased when Stephanie squeezed back.

  After picking all the good apples they could reach, even with step ladders, Cass shook the trees and they picked up all the fallen apples and stacked these with the ones by the well house.

  Inside the well house was a large press. The pears went in first. The press crushed the fruit and it drained out into a large vat where Cass strained it repeatedly for purity before bottling it in first large stoneware bottles and later in some of the carefully washed and then boiled liquor bottles she had brought back from town. She had made a large fire in the yard and using a shallow cooking pot she had boiled the bottles inside and out and peeled off all their labels. Carefully she poured the juice in the bottles using a funnel and using a bottle capper. She went to town to pick up her boots and the print order she had placed and using the stickers she put on the bottles the label, “Scheimer’s Pear Cider,” on them. When she got the apples, she did the same only the label read, “Scheimer’s Apple Cider.” She put both of them on shelves in the well house to age. The larger jugs she put labels on too so she knew which contained which. There was a lot more of Apple than Pear. She also made juice which required even more straining and pasteurizing or heating of the juice and Stephanie put those up in the house in the cool cellar. She was making apple sauce and canning and drying apples just as fast. The squeezing’s Cass put out in the field so the bees could make sweet golden apple honey and the deer and other critters would come to eat it and it wouldn’t go to waste. When it dried out too much for the critters to eat or the bees to suck out any more nectar she put it on the compost pile to mix in with the garden rot and make rich compost dirt which she turned periodically. Since they only grew the same kinds of apples or pears the flavors should remain consistent, it would only change if they grew other types. Most of the seeds they saved, Stephanie promising to grow the trees from them. Cass ended up ordering Scheimers Apple Juice labels as well when she went to town with her deliveries.

  It was fairly cold by then. Cass began to gather the corn, walking the long rows gathering the ears of corn into a large bag hanging both the front and back from her shoulders, letting the dogs chase out critters that had come to harvest her corn as well. Occasionally she saw pheasants, but mostly they chased raccoons and deer from the field. As she filled her bags she stopped at the end to dump the bags into the bushel bags in the back of the wagon as the horses grazed nearby. Day after day she filled the wagon full and brought it back to the barn. Some people usually brought the shocks but she only cut what she needed until the loft and the bins were full, she had plenty of corn for the poultry and stock. There wouldn’t be extra because she hadn’t room in the field to plant it. She thought more and more about Stephanie’s idea of using the swampy area down the way. She also thought about the field she wanted on the other side of the trees in the meadow. She had a lot of work ahead of her either way.

  Before the ground froze she plowed up a few of the fields and went so far as to plow up the swampy area that had dried up in the summer’s heat and the fall rains hadn’t fallen and filled yet. It allowed her to dig up the reeds that grew profusely around the swamp. It wasn’t too deep in this area and she thought the article Stephanie had come across an excellent idea she was going to try next spring if the water wasn’t too deep, it would all depend on the snowmelt as this swampy area wasn’t spring fed.

  Next she had the boys and Stephanie help her gather nuts, filling bags and bushels with hazelnuts, walnuts, and chestnuts, competing with hoards of squirrels who chattered at them for stealing ‘their’ nuts. She pointed out ‘Stubby’ a squirrel easily recognized by its stump of a tail where the rest had large bushy ones, occasionally they saw a black one, and Cass told them of the rare white one, the rest were various shades of grey and busy gathering as quickly as Cass and the others. Nights were spent cracking and storing the fruits of their labor, baking or parching them to dry them out and store packets of them for winter.

  The first snow came in November and she knew she couldn’t put off butchering anymore. She took Shia with her but not the pups to go search for the pigs. She had a good idea where they would be, they seemed to stay around a salt lick that she had found years ago in the deep woods north of their place, she still owned this section but it was thickly forested and good for hunting or lumber only.

  It took most of the day to find and herd the pigs, they were absolutely wild. While mama had been domesticated she had gone totally wild and her offspring were worse. They were also dangerous, another reason she hadn’t allowed anyone to come with her. Shia had her hands full trying to keep them from trampling her but she knew her job well and her bared teeth, nips, and barking frightened them enough to keep them in line. Occasionally she had to body slam them into position but slowly they got them going towards the farm where a prepared and reinforced pen awaited the mob, mama leading the way. There were too many piglets and various sizes for Cass to believe this was from one litter. There must be a boar loose in the woods somewhere because there were at least two litters in this large bunch. She would have to hunt for him this fall and winter; it was dangerous to have a wild boar in the woods and ‘accidentally’ coming upon him unexpectedly could have dire consequences.

  As they drove them through the barnyard to the specially prepared pen near the woodlot she watched the boys and Stephanie come out on the back porch and called, “Stay there, they’re dangerous,
” as her whip swung out to keep one in line with the others. She herded them into the pen and closed the gate with a sigh of relief. They tried climbing the walls but she had allowed for that, in past years she had seen what wild pigs could do and the walls were high and sturdy made with good wood harvested from the farm. They also couldn’t root underneath. They were there for her convenience, no way were they going to get out. Stephanie and the boys came up to peek at the normal looking pigs. One threw itself at the gate grunting and squealing and the boys backed away alarmed and frightened.

  “You stay away from here,” Cass told them. “They’d hurt you so bad, I don’t want either of you to come near this pen,” she said a little sternly but she knew how dangerous the herd of pigs could be. They were panicked now but she knew they would calm down in the next few days as she fed them. They were fat now but with the corn and other food she gave them they would be even fatter and tastier.

  Stephanie couldn’t believe the size of the pigs and Cass wanted to ‘fatten’ them up. They were already obese and very healthy looking. Cass had explained that feeding them would have cost an arm and a leg but by letting them loose in the woods to run the whole summer they ate roots and nuts and bugs and things and it cost her nothing to feed them. They would taste wonderful when they were fully dressed.

  Cass wouldn’t let anyone but herself near the pen in the following weeks, only she could pour the pails of grain and other food they made for the pigs. A combination of garbage, including apple pressings, and other grains, anything left from the table were all given to the pigs and turned into fat on the bone. Cass butchered a dozen of her geese, another dozen of her ducks, and two dozen of her chickens. The ‘waste’ of these butchering’s went into the pig feed. Pigs could eat almost anything that other animals could not and turn it into meat and fat.

  Stephanie and Cass collected all the feathers. It could be turned into pillows and mattresses and while they had enough now, they could sell what they made. The birds were par boiled and then put up into the loft of the well house hanging and freezing.

  Cass had made arrangements with a couple of the neighbors to come to help butcher the pigs. Stephanie was thrilled to see Melanie and Raymond come into the yard with their children. It was fun to compare the size of their daughters. She was also pleased and strangely a little shy to meet a couple of Cass’s other neighbors, mostly men, but a few with families who came. They set up a couple of huge caldrons in the yard with a large fire under each and a large amount of water. After killing a pig they dipped it repeatedly in the water and then began to scrape off the hair from its hide. The steaming insides were dumped in a large tub to be sorted by the women and turned into sausage and other delicacies. Because there were more than twice the number of pigs they had anticipated butchering, it took a couple of days with everyone helping where they could. Cass was generous though and shared with her neighbors. Everyone left with sausages, sides of pork, hams, and bacon to help them through the winter. It was a dirty and disagreeable job but with plenty of hands it went quickly and efficiently. It was a good chance to socialize and everyone enjoyed themselves despite the work. Cass mentioned the boar and several of the men, hunters all, said they would be on the lookout for the beast.

  The rafters of the now very cold well house were full of sides of bacon, hams, and ribs. Sausages hung from the rafters in the pantry. There seemed too much food to be real as Stephanie wiped her brow. She understood now why Cass had invited so many people to help with the butchering; they would never have gotten all the work done between the two of them. The large kitchen had been full of helpful women. The neighbors had been chatty and helpful and she had made many friends. Melanie and Raymond were their closest and she had so much in common with them with her young baby.

  It was a real pleasure to cook their own bacon and eggs for breakfast. Cass was out in the woods cutting down some of the trees that had died over the summer from them ringing them earlier in the spring. She wanted to clear as much of this section as possible so she could use the meadow next spring for another field. The amount of work that woman did was unimaginable and Stephanie admired her for it. She found herself watching as the woman’s muscles strained her shirts, sweating despite the cool fall weather air. The occasional snowflakes made it feel like winter was any day.

  For Thanksgiving they killed a goose and had Melanie and Raymond and their children over for dinner. Melanie pulled Cass aside to whisper that she thought she was pregnant again. Cass was angry at her for not using something to prevent this. “You’re going to kill yourself with too many children in too many years. You’ll wear yourself out and then where will Raymond and your children be?” she scolded.

  “I know, I thought I was taking precautions, it just happened,” she said sadly. She agreed with Cass and knew how hard it was with too many children to feed but a man needed sons to make a go of a farm especially here in the deep woods.

  Cass promised to help her as much as possible but she knew that Melanie was tired. She had just had the baby five, nearly six months ago and wasn’t strong enough to have another so soon. She hated what her friend was doing to herself. “Do you want me to mix up something for you to lose it?”

  Melanie was horrified, she couldn’t, she was a good Catholic, and this was unthinkable. She promised to take it easy but they both knew in the deep woods on a bare farm it would be impossible.

  Cass informed Stephanie later after they had headed home after an excellent meal together. “Why, that’s wonderful,” Stephanie exclaimed, “I wish I could have another.”

  “No, it’s not wonderful, she could die,” Cass told her brutally, angry that she would think what she did. She didn’t want to lose her friend.

  “Why not?” Stephanie asked puzzled.

  “Because she needs more time to rest, for her body to get its strength back after the other baby, this is too soon. There should be at least two years between babies.”

  Stephanie realized then that Cass was worried about their friend; she had thought only of having another baby, not thinking about what it did to a mother’s body and how tired she had been herself after having Summer. She hadn’t been able to help as much as she would have liked with the harvest and as much as she had done she had to rest a lot and sit down when she should be working. She would like another child someday but didn’t see that as a possibility. Some of the men who had come were bachelors and expressed an interest in her but she hadn’t returned any of their inquiries. She told herself she wasn’t ready yet, she didn’t want or need a husband yet.

  Cass explained what could be done to prevent having another child, even aborting it which horrified Stephanie. She explained it wasn’t God’s choice to kill mothers who wouldn’t be there to raise their brood of children. Good Catholic or no she thought Melanie’s choice a bad one. She also discussed with Stephanie what could be done to make it a healthy pregnancy. Stephanie realized that Cass really was knowledgeable. She knew a tremendous amount about motherhood for having never experienced it herself.

  The following week Cass began hunting in earnest scoping out her trap line. She got two deer that first week and when she found two more hanging in the well house she realized Cal had been around and found a his small catch of fall furs from summer trapping that he left. No note or message of any kind but then she hadn’t expected one.

  She chopped down the corn stalks from the field to feed to the cattle and the couple pigs she had kept, mama included. She was getting mean and this next year if she survived would be her last Cass decided. The lot of young they had butchered had been delicious. So far she hadn’t found sign of the boar in the woods.

  It got cold in a hurry after Thanksgiving but not a lot of snow. It rained a lot too which made it terrible to work outside. She shucked corn on rainy days and the animals kept the barn warm. She thought about her plans for the future and was pleased with their increases in poultry, cattle, and horses. The dogs would sleep companionably alongside her as she worked. Cat
s watched from all points of the barn. The boys often joined her attempting to help but couldn’t manage to get the corn off the dried cobs. She let them rip the dried leaves from the husks and feed them to the pigs they had kept and the cows and put the extra into the bins for later feed. It was a nice friendly time and she answered endlessly funny questions from the boys.

  “Why don’t the chickens have lips?” Timmy asked her one day.

  “Because they have beaks,” she answered, thinking that was an end of it.

  “But how do they eat then?”

  “They peck whatever they are going to eat and use their tongue.”

  “They have tongues?”

  And on it would go, endlessly fascinating and frustrating as Cass had to stay on her toes and not tell them any flippant answer as they both were listening avidly. Sometimes she really had to think about what she was going to say.

  “Where do the baby cows come from?”

  “Their mommies.”

  “No, where do they come out of them?”

  “Their tummies.” She really didn’t want to get into specifics with a now five year old. She tried to keep it general. She could talk circles around him but he was relentless.

  “Do they have babies like Mama did?”

  “Sort of, but did you know they have four stomachs when we only have one?” She turned it on him and away from what she thought was a dangerous subject.

  Stephanie, who had caught this last conversation, thought it was wonderful the way Cass handled her children. She couldn’t ask for a better person to second parent her boys. Cass knew things that she shared willingly with the boys. She worked as hard as a man and was admirable. The boys adored her. She wished there was more than keep house that she could do for this wonderful woman who had saved them. It was more than gratitude though she realized. She had been having unsettling thoughts for a while now. She had woken one morning with her body snuggled up to Cass’s and hastily turned away. She was a healthy young woman and she supposed she should consider one of the men who had come to the butchering but she found she wasn’t interested in any of them. What she had been thinking she was shocked at herself. She knew it was wrong. It was against nature. It was a violation of everything she believed in and yet she couldn’t help herself. She found herself attracted to Cass. She was an amazing woman and the admiration she felt for her had turned at some point in the months they had lived here. She only hoped that Cass would never find out, she was so ashamed.