Post by ydderf on May 19, 2015 14:05:15 GMT -6
It was late afternoon when “T” climbed the steep bank from the river to the bench the farm was on. In fact, it was late enough in the day that no one was to be seen working in the fields.
Suddenly with a whoop, two youngsters about 12 years old on horseback cut across the corner of a potato field with their dogs hot on the tail of a black bear. The bear, having run enough, climbed one of the pines, reaching 35 or so feet high within 15 seconds. Children on horse and dogs all skidded to a halt about 10 paces from the tree. While the dogs and the smaller child made enough noise to keep the bear treed, the older and larger one cocked his crossbow. “OK, sis, back off and call the dogs. I'm ready,”said Pete.
“Moving now,” she said in response. Laura backed off 40 or 50 feet into some brush and called out, “Suzy, Tom, Chase, here!” Snapping her fingers twice, the well trained dogs obeyed her command immediately. Within 5 minutes, the bear started down and was clear of the branches hindering his view, giving Pete a clear shot through the bear's left side and into its lungs. The bear fell 15 feet to the ground, snarling and trying to see why its side was hurting. When he hit the ground, he drove the steel shaft deeper, hitting a major blood vessel, causing an end to the pain, and his life, within moments of each other.
“T” remained silent, watching both Pete and his sister, Laura, approach the still bear. Bowing their heads, they together began a semi-silent, semi-verbal prayer to thank the bear for contributing to their household's food supplies. “God, we thank you for the bounty given by you through our Brother Bear. There will be rejoicing at the ranch tonight as we bring this bear home to share. Thank YOU, Brother Bear, for being where we could find you and thank you for providing us with render-able fat, along with much meat, fur, claws, teeth, and other needed things. The brother and sister, pulling out knives, moved to bleed the bear out, calling the dogs for their treat, a feast of blood.
At that point, “T” made himself known by stepping into their line of sight and calling softly to the hunters. “Well-spoken, nice kill. “Pete and Laura, you work well as a team. I've not seen anyone like you two in years! In fact, the only other couple I've seen work their dogs and a bear like that would be your parents.”
“Teach!” Laura cried. “How are you?When did you get here?How did you get here?What did you bring?Did you bring any new books?” All said so quickly, it sounded like a single word. Pete just grinned at his younger sister's enthusiasm. Walking over, he held out a hand of welcome to Teach.
“First, let's get this bear gutted and cooling. Then, I will try to answer all your questions,” responded Teach with a grin, while he shook Pete's hand. “I have a good axe with me,” said Teach. “If you two start to open up the bear and remove his hide so the meat can cool, I'll cut some travois trees and crossbars. I'll be back in an 1/2 hour or so.”
“Sounds good,” grinned Laura. “Want my help? Cutting trees is far less messy than butchering a dead bear.”
“The travois is a good idea,” said Pete to Laura as he watched Teach stride towards a stand of poplar trees a hundred meters away. “The horse will become troublesome if we try to put a fresh bear hide on its back.”
“I've never met a horse that didn't consider a bear to be a mortal enemy.”
“Laura, would you please tether the horse where she can get some grass while she waits for us. Drop off all of our baskets before you get too far away. I'll start to process the bear.”
Teach was back in time to help Pete roll the bear in order to finish removing the hide. Once the hide was off, Pete rolled it into a tight bundle saying, “We need to save the brain to help with the tanning. This guy should make a nice winter coat.”
“If we are saving brains, let's save the tongue and jowls, also,” said Teach. “Waste not, want not.” They immediately rolled the bear onto his back in order to remove the internal organs. “Cut the lungs up for the dogs,” said Teach. “If we're lucky, the rest of the innards will be undamaged and useful.”
“Should I start to clean out the intestines?” Laura asked as she returned from moving the horse to good graze.
“No, not yet. We need to keep them and the stomach from drying. Let's clean them last, once we get beside a creek or take them down to the river,” replied Teach. “Is Three Mile Creek still running?”
“Yes, it had water in it this morning when we crossed it coming here. Plus, there is fresh snow up high,” responded Pete.
“Good! We'll clean them and ourselves there after we finish with the field dressing,” said Teach. “I've an interesting, newly-made saw I picked up in an open-air market in the Loops. It should make cutting the bear simple and straight forward.”
“Not old and wore out like my dad's, but brand new?” questioned Pete.
“Yep, brand new! ...imported from east of the mountains. 'seems the trader brought them by packhorse to his cousin's place, up north of the Loops at 'Tea John', I think he called the place. I can't quite pronounce it like he did. He spent a month on the river, floating down and fighting some pretty horrendous rapids. ...all on a two-log, thirty-foot-long raft his brother built. 'must have been well-built as he made it to the Loops with his trade goods,” said Teach.
“What did it cost?” enquired Laura, watching Teach with something akin to hero worship. “I bet it was expensive, uncle, wasn't it?”
“That's a story for after dark,” Teach said with a grin showing through his beard.
“Let's remove the neck at the shoulders and the two front paws. We'll hang Mr. Bear by his rear paws from the limb there,” said Teach. “I want to try my new saw. If it works like the trader promised, we should have two halves of bear within 12 or 15 minutes. Then, we'll split the halves between the third and fourth ribs, giving us 5 pieces of bear, a skin, two paws and a head.”
“Let's get a travois assembled at least well enough to get us to Three Mile Creek. There, if Laura and two dogs head for home, you and I, Pete, can process the bear meat a bit further, deboning everything, salting what we can and preparing the meat for the smokehouse. ...except for the ribs. We'll leave them for your big sister to cook for tomorrow's supper,” said Teach. “Laura, you can let them know at the ranch that Pete and I will camp at the creek. Tell them there will be liver for breakfast if they come early enough.”
. . .
“Would you like some of my trail mix to keep the stomach growls away till you reach home, Laura?” asked Teach with a grin. Reaching into the front of his pack, he pulled out some moose jerky along with a handful of nuts for Laura. “Here you go, littlest niece. Remember: no galloping! Black has had a long day, also, and he will have a long hard day tomorrow bringing home the travois. Remind your dad we will need some salt for the meat. I’m pretty sure I don’t have enough to salt down the entire animal. Tell him I have some sugar on my raft. In fact, I have 5, 100 lb packs that need to be brought up from the river.”
“Take Suzy and Chase home with you. Leave Tom to be our watchdog tonight,” suggested Pete.
“What about the stories you were going to tell us, uncle?” asked Laura.
“Tomorrow, while we eat juicy, Jackie-cooked ribs, I promise to tell stories until you are tired of my croaking or my throat becomes too sore to say more,” promised Teach.
PART 2 As soon as Teach and the children reached the Three Mile campsite, they began to remove the straps and the travois from Black. As Teach and Pete readied Black for the 40 minute trip home, Laura wolfed her nuts, telling the others, “I can eat jerky as I ride. There is only an hour of good light. Then, 3/4 of an hour of twilight. I'd rather not try to ride after dark, if possible.”
Pete responded,“ If you run out of light, give Black full control. He knows his way home without guidance and has better night vision than you or I.”
Teach grinned, telling Laura, “the dogs are smart remember to follow the dogs' lead if it gets too dark to see. They also know their way home and will protect you and Black if needed , keeping you out of trouble. They consider you both as a part of the pack.”
With a quick smile, Laura grabbed the saddle blanket, cinched it down, stuffed a handful of jerky in her pocket, asked Pete for a hand up and called the dogs. “Come, Suzy! Come, Chase! Let's get started homewards.” With a quick wave to her uncle and brother, Laura began the journey home.
Teach said, “Come on, Pete. Let's get this meat up on the filleting table. I figure it will be way easier on my back if it is off the ground. Once it is all on the table, if you'll cut some stakes to make a corral in the creek, I'll start cutting meat. Once the corral is built, we can rinse the meat and chill it at the same time.”
Pete responded, “The corral from when we filleted and rinsed salmon in preparation for drying is still here and in good shape.”
“Good,” responded Teach. “In that case, let's see if we can get all the meat off the bones in slices that will salt and smoke with little or no trouble.”
“Gosh! I hope Laura or someone remembers to bring the big pot for rendering the lard when they come tomorrow,” mused Pete.
“I'm sure your Mom or Grandma will think of it,” was Teach's response. “When cleaning the fat, be sure there is as little meat as possible with it, as meat bits tend to change the flavour of the lard. I don't mind a little meat flavour in biscuits. It does little, though, to enhance the flavour of peach pie or cookies for that matter,” Teach said while retrieving a butcher's set of knives,that had once belonged tohis grandfather, from his pack. “Think the bear left any potatoes on the surface when you and little sis' started chasing him? If you go find a potato or two, I've an onion, and we'll have a stew later,” Teach said while looking at Pete.
“Sure thing,” replied Pete. “I'll wash up; then, go have a look. I'll take my crossbow and head around the corner over to where the bear was digging.”
Ten minutes later, Pete was back with a pocketful of potatoes and eyes as big as saucers. “There's a herd of bighorn sheep across the field just beyond that big old lightening struck pine there must be 80 or 90 of them! What do you think we should do?” came from an extremely e xcited young lad.
“Wait a moment, Pete!” said Teach. “Let's think about the situation for a few minutes at least.”
“But it'll be dark soon and we'll lose the shooting light!”
“Exactly!” was Teach's response. “What do you suppose would happen if, in this poor light, one of us wounded a sheep rather than kill it? How far can you track in poor light? Perhaps we should concentrate on the bear for tonight. If the sheep are not disturbed tonight, they won't go far. Also, in the morning, we will have more hands to do the work. We don't want to waste meat by killing more than we can process. Do you know how much room there is in the smokehouse?” Is the creek house empty?” “How much salt meat does the ranch have?”
“Well, alright, I hear ya. Some of that sheep skin would make a fine winter coat though” was the response of a dejected Pete.
Going into his 'Teacher' persona, Teach began. “I know that you've heard the stories of 'The Before'. I've told you some of them, and others have told of their before times stories. I think you should be reminded that the greed, the lack of control, the waste of resources, the attitude of 'I want', of 'I need', of 'Me, first', of 'Devil take the hindmost' likely brought on the collapse.
“Resources were limited. If the collapse had not happened, we would only be able to sit down in turns. The population of the world was so large food became scarce. The wars over acreage escalated as grain growing areas began to be used for housing. We are lucky we live in the mountains. We never came to the attention of the warlords. Our small bits of flatland were negligible in the grand scheme of things. The main battles were over the grain growing areas to the east and south of the mountains. Of course there was a huge series of fights over the protein in the oceans and seas. Luckily, the fighting over fish in the world's oceans and seas never caused extinction in our salmon as it did in other food fishes. By the end, just before the sickness took so many lives, many, if not most, people were lucky to eat once a day. In order to receive your once a day meal, you had to register at a large camp. Then, stand in line for hours. Lucky, for all of us here on the ranch, your great, great grandparents left organized society at the beginning of the troubles in order to take care of their parents here in the valley between the mountains.” “As you know parts of our valley get no direct sunshine in the winter months. That helped keep the warlords away because the needed direct sunlight to run their solar powered equipment.”
Again thank you to Kat for editing
My original plan was for short but related stories one per chapter.
Suddenly with a whoop, two youngsters about 12 years old on horseback cut across the corner of a potato field with their dogs hot on the tail of a black bear. The bear, having run enough, climbed one of the pines, reaching 35 or so feet high within 15 seconds. Children on horse and dogs all skidded to a halt about 10 paces from the tree. While the dogs and the smaller child made enough noise to keep the bear treed, the older and larger one cocked his crossbow. “OK, sis, back off and call the dogs. I'm ready,”said Pete.
“Moving now,” she said in response. Laura backed off 40 or 50 feet into some brush and called out, “Suzy, Tom, Chase, here!” Snapping her fingers twice, the well trained dogs obeyed her command immediately. Within 5 minutes, the bear started down and was clear of the branches hindering his view, giving Pete a clear shot through the bear's left side and into its lungs. The bear fell 15 feet to the ground, snarling and trying to see why its side was hurting. When he hit the ground, he drove the steel shaft deeper, hitting a major blood vessel, causing an end to the pain, and his life, within moments of each other.
“T” remained silent, watching both Pete and his sister, Laura, approach the still bear. Bowing their heads, they together began a semi-silent, semi-verbal prayer to thank the bear for contributing to their household's food supplies. “God, we thank you for the bounty given by you through our Brother Bear. There will be rejoicing at the ranch tonight as we bring this bear home to share. Thank YOU, Brother Bear, for being where we could find you and thank you for providing us with render-able fat, along with much meat, fur, claws, teeth, and other needed things. The brother and sister, pulling out knives, moved to bleed the bear out, calling the dogs for their treat, a feast of blood.
At that point, “T” made himself known by stepping into their line of sight and calling softly to the hunters. “Well-spoken, nice kill. “Pete and Laura, you work well as a team. I've not seen anyone like you two in years! In fact, the only other couple I've seen work their dogs and a bear like that would be your parents.”
“Teach!” Laura cried. “How are you?When did you get here?How did you get here?What did you bring?Did you bring any new books?” All said so quickly, it sounded like a single word. Pete just grinned at his younger sister's enthusiasm. Walking over, he held out a hand of welcome to Teach.
“First, let's get this bear gutted and cooling. Then, I will try to answer all your questions,” responded Teach with a grin, while he shook Pete's hand. “I have a good axe with me,” said Teach. “If you two start to open up the bear and remove his hide so the meat can cool, I'll cut some travois trees and crossbars. I'll be back in an 1/2 hour or so.”
“Sounds good,” grinned Laura. “Want my help? Cutting trees is far less messy than butchering a dead bear.”
“The travois is a good idea,” said Pete to Laura as he watched Teach stride towards a stand of poplar trees a hundred meters away. “The horse will become troublesome if we try to put a fresh bear hide on its back.”
“I've never met a horse that didn't consider a bear to be a mortal enemy.”
“Laura, would you please tether the horse where she can get some grass while she waits for us. Drop off all of our baskets before you get too far away. I'll start to process the bear.”
Teach was back in time to help Pete roll the bear in order to finish removing the hide. Once the hide was off, Pete rolled it into a tight bundle saying, “We need to save the brain to help with the tanning. This guy should make a nice winter coat.”
“If we are saving brains, let's save the tongue and jowls, also,” said Teach. “Waste not, want not.” They immediately rolled the bear onto his back in order to remove the internal organs. “Cut the lungs up for the dogs,” said Teach. “If we're lucky, the rest of the innards will be undamaged and useful.”
“Should I start to clean out the intestines?” Laura asked as she returned from moving the horse to good graze.
“No, not yet. We need to keep them and the stomach from drying. Let's clean them last, once we get beside a creek or take them down to the river,” replied Teach. “Is Three Mile Creek still running?”
“Yes, it had water in it this morning when we crossed it coming here. Plus, there is fresh snow up high,” responded Pete.
“Good! We'll clean them and ourselves there after we finish with the field dressing,” said Teach. “I've an interesting, newly-made saw I picked up in an open-air market in the Loops. It should make cutting the bear simple and straight forward.”
“Not old and wore out like my dad's, but brand new?” questioned Pete.
“Yep, brand new! ...imported from east of the mountains. 'seems the trader brought them by packhorse to his cousin's place, up north of the Loops at 'Tea John', I think he called the place. I can't quite pronounce it like he did. He spent a month on the river, floating down and fighting some pretty horrendous rapids. ...all on a two-log, thirty-foot-long raft his brother built. 'must have been well-built as he made it to the Loops with his trade goods,” said Teach.
“What did it cost?” enquired Laura, watching Teach with something akin to hero worship. “I bet it was expensive, uncle, wasn't it?”
“That's a story for after dark,” Teach said with a grin showing through his beard.
“Let's remove the neck at the shoulders and the two front paws. We'll hang Mr. Bear by his rear paws from the limb there,” said Teach. “I want to try my new saw. If it works like the trader promised, we should have two halves of bear within 12 or 15 minutes. Then, we'll split the halves between the third and fourth ribs, giving us 5 pieces of bear, a skin, two paws and a head.”
“Let's get a travois assembled at least well enough to get us to Three Mile Creek. There, if Laura and two dogs head for home, you and I, Pete, can process the bear meat a bit further, deboning everything, salting what we can and preparing the meat for the smokehouse. ...except for the ribs. We'll leave them for your big sister to cook for tomorrow's supper,” said Teach. “Laura, you can let them know at the ranch that Pete and I will camp at the creek. Tell them there will be liver for breakfast if they come early enough.”
. . .
“Would you like some of my trail mix to keep the stomach growls away till you reach home, Laura?” asked Teach with a grin. Reaching into the front of his pack, he pulled out some moose jerky along with a handful of nuts for Laura. “Here you go, littlest niece. Remember: no galloping! Black has had a long day, also, and he will have a long hard day tomorrow bringing home the travois. Remind your dad we will need some salt for the meat. I’m pretty sure I don’t have enough to salt down the entire animal. Tell him I have some sugar on my raft. In fact, I have 5, 100 lb packs that need to be brought up from the river.”
“Take Suzy and Chase home with you. Leave Tom to be our watchdog tonight,” suggested Pete.
“What about the stories you were going to tell us, uncle?” asked Laura.
“Tomorrow, while we eat juicy, Jackie-cooked ribs, I promise to tell stories until you are tired of my croaking or my throat becomes too sore to say more,” promised Teach.
PART 2 As soon as Teach and the children reached the Three Mile campsite, they began to remove the straps and the travois from Black. As Teach and Pete readied Black for the 40 minute trip home, Laura wolfed her nuts, telling the others, “I can eat jerky as I ride. There is only an hour of good light. Then, 3/4 of an hour of twilight. I'd rather not try to ride after dark, if possible.”
Pete responded,“ If you run out of light, give Black full control. He knows his way home without guidance and has better night vision than you or I.”
Teach grinned, telling Laura, “the dogs are smart remember to follow the dogs' lead if it gets too dark to see. They also know their way home and will protect you and Black if needed , keeping you out of trouble. They consider you both as a part of the pack.”
With a quick smile, Laura grabbed the saddle blanket, cinched it down, stuffed a handful of jerky in her pocket, asked Pete for a hand up and called the dogs. “Come, Suzy! Come, Chase! Let's get started homewards.” With a quick wave to her uncle and brother, Laura began the journey home.
Teach said, “Come on, Pete. Let's get this meat up on the filleting table. I figure it will be way easier on my back if it is off the ground. Once it is all on the table, if you'll cut some stakes to make a corral in the creek, I'll start cutting meat. Once the corral is built, we can rinse the meat and chill it at the same time.”
Pete responded, “The corral from when we filleted and rinsed salmon in preparation for drying is still here and in good shape.”
“Good,” responded Teach. “In that case, let's see if we can get all the meat off the bones in slices that will salt and smoke with little or no trouble.”
“Gosh! I hope Laura or someone remembers to bring the big pot for rendering the lard when they come tomorrow,” mused Pete.
“I'm sure your Mom or Grandma will think of it,” was Teach's response. “When cleaning the fat, be sure there is as little meat as possible with it, as meat bits tend to change the flavour of the lard. I don't mind a little meat flavour in biscuits. It does little, though, to enhance the flavour of peach pie or cookies for that matter,” Teach said while retrieving a butcher's set of knives,that had once belonged tohis grandfather, from his pack. “Think the bear left any potatoes on the surface when you and little sis' started chasing him? If you go find a potato or two, I've an onion, and we'll have a stew later,” Teach said while looking at Pete.
“Sure thing,” replied Pete. “I'll wash up; then, go have a look. I'll take my crossbow and head around the corner over to where the bear was digging.”
Ten minutes later, Pete was back with a pocketful of potatoes and eyes as big as saucers. “There's a herd of bighorn sheep across the field just beyond that big old lightening struck pine there must be 80 or 90 of them! What do you think we should do?” came from an extremely e xcited young lad.
“Wait a moment, Pete!” said Teach. “Let's think about the situation for a few minutes at least.”
“But it'll be dark soon and we'll lose the shooting light!”
“Exactly!” was Teach's response. “What do you suppose would happen if, in this poor light, one of us wounded a sheep rather than kill it? How far can you track in poor light? Perhaps we should concentrate on the bear for tonight. If the sheep are not disturbed tonight, they won't go far. Also, in the morning, we will have more hands to do the work. We don't want to waste meat by killing more than we can process. Do you know how much room there is in the smokehouse?” Is the creek house empty?” “How much salt meat does the ranch have?”
“Well, alright, I hear ya. Some of that sheep skin would make a fine winter coat though” was the response of a dejected Pete.
Going into his 'Teacher' persona, Teach began. “I know that you've heard the stories of 'The Before'. I've told you some of them, and others have told of their before times stories. I think you should be reminded that the greed, the lack of control, the waste of resources, the attitude of 'I want', of 'I need', of 'Me, first', of 'Devil take the hindmost' likely brought on the collapse.
“Resources were limited. If the collapse had not happened, we would only be able to sit down in turns. The population of the world was so large food became scarce. The wars over acreage escalated as grain growing areas began to be used for housing. We are lucky we live in the mountains. We never came to the attention of the warlords. Our small bits of flatland were negligible in the grand scheme of things. The main battles were over the grain growing areas to the east and south of the mountains. Of course there was a huge series of fights over the protein in the oceans and seas. Luckily, the fighting over fish in the world's oceans and seas never caused extinction in our salmon as it did in other food fishes. By the end, just before the sickness took so many lives, many, if not most, people were lucky to eat once a day. In order to receive your once a day meal, you had to register at a large camp. Then, stand in line for hours. Lucky, for all of us here on the ranch, your great, great grandparents left organized society at the beginning of the troubles in order to take care of their parents here in the valley between the mountains.” “As you know parts of our valley get no direct sunshine in the winter months. That helped keep the warlords away because the needed direct sunlight to run their solar powered equipment.”
Again thank you to Kat for editing
My original plan was for short but related stories one per chapter.