Chapter 60: Smoking it Up

It didn’t take long for Matilda to take over our impromptu smoke house and soon strips venison and rabbit meat were hanging from the rafters. When the fish finally came in I’m sure we’d have that also; I saw a lot of dried and pickled goods in my culinary future. We were slowly getting the interior of root cellar dried out, we just kept adding green wood to the small fire and let the smoke do the work for us. That all led me do decide that building a true smoke house would be one of Holders tasks while I was gone on my shopping trip.

We went back to working on the palisade, it was monotonous work but went fairly fast with the three of us working on it. The mules were incredibly helpful in getting the job done. We also had the problem of the shrinking log piles, we’d get this project finished but we would need to spend time felling trees soon after. It was going to be a very busy time for us as we raced against the eventual but inevitable onset of winter, we had eight months to get a lot done.

By the end of day Friday we got the last of the palisade up and in place. We didn’t have gates yet and it didn’t complete enclose our compound as we were still using large sections of the grove as screen also. We’d be clearing those groves down next to allow us to build a full wall around the main camp, protecting our technology was a huge concern to me and I eventually wanted to construct a building specifically to hide them. My plans for the future included a lot more man power and that was an entire issue of its very own. I was considering a trip south specifically to buy some slaves, I would also trade with the local tribes for slaves if given the chance. I needed skilled labor also and that too would be hard to come by.

Saturday and Sunday were spent preparing for my trip. I planned on taking three of the nags on this first journey, I would ride the gelding and use two mares as pack horses. While the ladies worked up my travel kit Holder worked with me on the use of my musket pistols and the breech loader, I had a lot to learn and it was several hours before I felt the least bit confidence in my abilities with either weapon. I would take my 1911 for backup and one of the .22s for a hideaway but those needed to be hidden and protected. I thought of those weapons as my nuclear option.

Sunday morning I scouted down to the Missouri river following game trails as I went, I planned to follow the river north until I got to the Platte and then head west until I found a decent fording spot. I rode the gelding to get with him and get comfortable with my gear setup, saddle and pommel bags were new to me. Pommel holster/bags were used to carry your musket pistols while on horseback, they were handy and well-designed but still changed the riding experience. I felt we could make a couple of minor adjustments and these would work very well. It all reaffirmed to me that carrying weapons around is simply a pain in the ass.

Muskets were simply a pain in the ass no matter which way you looked at them. First of all you just didn’t carry them around loaded, that would guarantee a miss fire every time. Once you had the weapon loaded you had to carry it carefully so as not to disturb the load or the primer and even if you had done everything perfectly the chance of a misfire was still pretty high. Life simply is not anything like the movies, if nothing else go out and fire a musket and watch the inaccuracy on even a short range shot.