10 Pound Bag Ch. 171-175

**** Chapter 171 -- Patent Plans ****

By: Emmeran, 26 June 2021

Editor: nnpdad 28 June 2021

The patent plan caught Michelle completely by surprise, watching the realization in her eyes as she came to grips with the of the vast amount of wealth available was fun. We had stopped in the shade of a huge old oak tree and I simply rested in my saddle and smoked a cigarette while she considered the implications. Michelle was a smart one and well educated, more-so than I was; she'd gone to a good university and gotten degrees in business and animal husbandry. I finished my cigarette and then began to lay out my plans for this scheme.

There was a lot to cover. The most important fact was that we had the schematics and we now had engineers to help us work them. So we discussed the engineers for a while and how to use them in this plan. We turned back to the compound to have a cold drink while we went over this, having her on the same page while I discussed this with the engineers would be a huge help.

Technology-wise we didn't want to try to push too far ahead too fast; we also didn't want to own every single important patent out there. We also had moral obligations to consider in addition to the Patent office fires. We had sit down and discuss all these historical facts and Sonya had to be brought into the scheme. We needed Sonya because we needed someone to put this to paper for us; there were simply far too many details for us to try to keep them in our heads.

So back to the compound we went to suss out the complete concept and get it put to paper before I sat down with the engineers. We still had time before I intended to head back east but we had a lot of work to do before then. Sitting down and sharing out my ideas were a big part of that. I wasn't fool enough to think that I was aware of each and every consideration in the plan; this was a massive play and required input from all angles.

We sat in the shade of the camper awning and with Sonya taking notes we began to detail the overall concept and look for the hidden traps that lay within. There weren't many we could add to this planning party, even Sher'iff and Lucinda, despite their being engineers, needed to be held out until the next day's working session. We needed to have a full grip on the moral implications and extended impact we would be having. The engineers would get lost in the joy of the ideas and have trouble weighing those implications; almost like a kid with a ball, they'd want to play first and think second.

The moral obligation weighed heavily upon me; I simply did not want to steal an innocent inventor's glory. Countering that was my knowledge of time twitching. Michelle and Sonya got the concept, however they simply didn't and couldn't know about the Weaver with the colorless eyes unless they brought it up to me first. They were content to accept that we were a one-off anomaly while I on the other hand knew differently.

As a prime example I suspected that both Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison were twitchers - many of the things they both did were so out of time it was shocking. Tesla introduced advanced technology at an unfathomable rate and Edison stole technology faster than the greatest patent sharks of the twentieth century. Tesla I'd happily deal with; Edison I intended to front-run at every opportunity I got. Those two were just the prime examples, there were many more out there but what I did hope was to avoid stepping on the tender toes of true inventors.

So we had to devise a moral code for our patent program. I would be happy to only own a portion of a patent from a true inventor if I could provide a material improvement to their overall idea. An improvement which would benefit them in the long run yet still allow me to collect a check. This was all about money after all, money and morals.

Discussion around those concepts raged for hours among the three of us. Each of us had our own specific moral codes and each objected strongly if we felt that code was being impinged. So we argued into the evening; it wasn't angry argument just simply standing by our personal beliefs. We stayed constructive and didn't devolve into conflict; the point was to find a solid moral stand which we would all sign on to.

We moved inside the camper to thwart the mosquitoes and we eventually delved into the digital archive to find examples. Our focus turned to identifying low hanging fruit that wouldn't violate our moral stance. Once focused both of them found excellent examples of challenges to our moral code as it currently stood. We simply refined the code from that point and moved on.

Each of them had their own approach, Sonya being a young liberal and Michelle being a moderate conservative. The varied inputs provide ample fodder for thought.

Sweet Matilda brought us supper and cold drinks as we continued on. Both ladies wanted to call it a day at different points but I wanted to be more firmly grounded when I sat down to talk to the engineers tomorrow. Poor Peter was about to have his mind blown.

The mental exhaustion, beer and wine finally started to take effect and we started to get silly. I did allow that they could start their own line of patented "women's mechanical accessories" but we had to stay within certain limits. That didn't make much difference as the evening progressed, the productive conversation had long since departed and we just had fun.

When we finally packed it all in I got a sweet hug and quick kiss from Sonya.

Michelle however simply undressed and climbed into my bed.

**** Chapter 172 -- Engineers in Toy Land ****

By: Emmeran, 29 June 2021

Editor: Tarasandia

Waking with a woman in my bed has always been a wonderful experience for me, you can tell as I still have both my arms. Gnawing one off in order to make a silent escape has never be necessary thus far in my life and hoped to keep it that way; irregardless(sic), Michelle was still an attractive woman whom I was very fond of. She also apparently carried my offspring.

The heat of summer hadn't faded overnight and running the air conditioning was forbidden due to power consumption and acclimatization concerns. Modern folk just ran A/C wherever they went so they pretty much existed in a climate controlled environment; we didn't have that luxury and simply had to get used to the heat if we wanted to be able to sleep at night. We still had the luxury of a cool shower though and middle of the night forays into that area were fairly common.

Breakfast was offered at sunrise as we tried to avoid cooking in the heat of the day. Lots of food was chilled in the large freezer in preparation for lunch and dinner, and both of those meals were usually served cold. We ate a lot of fruit and other light foods; heavier foods were far too much in the Missouri River swelter. Matilda's use of wraps seemed to please everyone: easy to eat, light and tasty, and most importantly, low on carbs during the summer heat. We only had two and a half more months to put up with this relentless heat.

Today was dedicated to getting the engineers rolling which promised to be entertaining. I had three highly educated individuals who had little to no exposure to computers, so I decided to add Clara and Amos to the group simply to expand the brain pool. Clara would give Peter someone to talk to about all of this, and I felt that it would benefit me if Amos was more knowledgeable; Michelle agreed with the decision.

I got Sonya to help me setup everyone in the shade of the trailer awning and then we started handing out tablets and laptops: tablets to the nineteenth century folks, and laptops to those from the twentieth. My thinking was that the folks from the 1980s would be familiar with keyboards; the touch screens would still blow their minds but the rest would be manageable. Everything was logged in and ready to go but they still simply sat and marveled over the tech for a while, Amos was somewhat familiar with the tools but they were brand new to everyone else. Heck, they were only a couple of months old even if we were still in modern times; it was easy to forget how much had happened since April Fool's Day. Had that really been just three and a half months ago?!

**** ****

No offense to the future Apple & Linux fans out there but that just wasn't what I did, so I had stuck with the technology that had worked and made me money over the years. So basically everything but the now pointless phones were based on a future software construct called 'Microsoft Windows'. It was a beautiful system, if overly complicated, and did the job I asked of it. I had managed to avoid attaching religious level support to a product, and that had turned out well for me.

They spent some time admiring the devices and then we got down to business. We had the basic search engine which was attached to our archive and all they had to do was type in a word related to what they needed to see. I didn't take long before they were all engrossed in reading -- they were all brainiacs after all -- and outside of Sonya, none of this had ever been available to them before.

Surprisingly, even Sonya got into it and started chasing information that was relevant to her now; I'd always thought her a bright person, but she now showed a new level of intelligence and, perhaps more importantly, curiosity. Little sister actually had a gleam in her eye when she looked up at me. Her youthful emotional instability may have given me issues earlier, but apparently my instincts about her had been correct: little sister was smart.

We started with simple searches and let them play with that for a while; it wasn't the internet but it still was a huge chunk of cross-linked data. Also, no advertisements or pop-ups. The stumbled-across articles and images, videos and animations were particularly popular with Peter and Clara; there were muffled spells of giggles and laughter as they found some of the fun bits. The entire process was taking far longer than I had hoped.

Thankfully, they didn't question the technology itself at that point; they just marveled at the vast array of information they could touch. I decided to let them play for a while; the more they learned on their own, the more efficient they would become later on. Their ability to make use of the information would be a huge bonus to getting the community setup correctly.

Finally I felt it was time to focus their efforts a little and gave each one a scrap of paper with a technology to study; most of it was basic stuff, things I had looked up previously so I knew the information was there. After a couple of hours of that exercise I put them all to work researching and designing a community bread oven.

Eventually each family would have their own hearth and even their own oven, but that was going to take some time; until then we would go communal. This also forced my team to start researching, designing and planning together using a simple project for starters. They would have to consider the brick making process, the location and structural limitations for what we needed and show it at scale. Of course I needed to find them a foreman to actually run the construction, but until they themselves got their hands dirty everything was just theoretical.

Personally, I was already imagining fresh, hot pizza.

**** Chapter 173 -- Slicing up the Land ****

By: Emmeran, 1 July 2021

Editor: NNPdad, 11 July 2021

'One hundred and sixty acres to any citizen or person intending to become a citizen.' I decided to follow the format Lincoln's administration had laid out. Heck if it was good enough for Abe, it was good enough for me. However, I did add my own personal twist of a sort -- I decided that the Pawnee wanted in on this deal and I was going to make that happen. Help those you can touch and all that; I couldn't save the Crow from the Lakota Sioux but I could help possibly the Pawnee.

I sent for Petalesharo.

Yup that Pete, I needed to somehow get across to him that his tribe needed to place designated land claims under my auspice before the US bureaucracy got involved. The tribes recognized tribal territory but not individual ownership. If you were looking for Ground Zero of the cultural collision between the indigenous and immigrant peoples that just might have been it. Naturally I needed Mouse as well, this might require very delicate translation.

This was a heck of a way to start the day after digging in with the engineers, the last thing I'd left with them was my desire to build this community oven in our yet to be built Grange hall. Today that was their problem and I had to figure out land parcels. It did seem to me that following what I knew would be the future parcel plan for the area made the most sense; any opportunity to avoid future contention should be realized. Fighting with the US Government had to be minimized and it was up to us to think that into reality.

To be honest my motivation for all of this was actually quite selfish, I wanted the world around me to be a certain way and for the first time in my life I had the opportunity to make that truly happen. I started this trip two centuries from now intending on having a sprawling ranch in a happy, prosperous community and I was still pretty intent on achieving that outcome. It would simply require a little more work than I had imagined; so much for early lottery retirement.

Amos was my side kick in this effort, he loved to run the drone and I set him to it. We were at it for three days just to make sure we didn't miss a thing. We pushed the drone to Bingo on each run and several times came close to zero charge. We even ventured out on horseback with the base station and spare battery to extend the range, I wanted to get it right.

We created fresh maps of the entire area and then worked on them with the assistance of Sheriff and Sonya late into the night. Naturally we conversed as we worked and as they began to understand my plan their enthusiasm grew; we were trying to out bureaucrat the bureaucrats. Our detailed and executed plan would be sensible, efficient and existent before the ponderous mechanisms of government could interfere.

Pete and the Pawnee were not so easily converted but they played an important role in this land grab gambit and we wanted to keep them around. They were good people and I liked them, I particularly like their food and their women. Mouse came out of her red tent and started to play a big role again, her timing was lovely as she showed up shortly after Pete came in from whatever mission he had been on.

The Pawnee and I had a tight relationship thanks to Pete but this little venture would not follow with their beliefs and lifestyle very much and would take a little finagling to get their full cooperation. It was probably time to expose Pete to the realities of my situation I hoped to avoid that if at all possible but I needed someone on the inside to help me figure out how to sell the concept. I had Pete and Mouse.

So I mapped the land and I researched the history, then made a decision. I decided to be aggressive so went with a one hundred mile circumference, basically six hundred thousand acres. I was particular not to cross state lines so as not to complicate things initially. East of the Missouri wasn't my concern currently but the value of that as land that I could mostly concede in negotiations might be valuable; I would lay some claim over there also.

The drone couldn't cover that entire area so I relied on my math and maps to figure the area out. I claimed, unofficially, everything out to Pawnee City, up to Tecumseh and back to the Missouri. As I laid out the one hundred and sixty acre plots I simply went north from Rulo, west was mostly mine for the immediate period. Farm land was the first concern, basically I laid out square chunks outside of the forest fence and gave each an identifier. It didn't take long to identify one hundred parcels, roads would be laid around the edge of each parcel.

Town parcels would be dealt with later, I had to start somewhere and the farmland was the proper focus. Now I had to work out how to deal with fair distribution and drawing lots out of a bag seemed to be the fairest approach. The house build effort would then in all fairness go in reverse, if you got to choose your plot first we would build your house last.

The Pawnee who were here and wanted to claim were welcome to join but I was also holding another large chunk of land out west on the Nemaha for them. Their lifestyle needs were a bit different from ours and we'd need to be accommodating while they transitioned. As long we protected a small amount of good land for them they would culturally evolve and adapt. From my point of view it's not like they had any choice, I knew what would happen to them eventually if they didn't.

I was hoping that they would quickly adapt to a modified existence, they did like their lodge houses and villages after all; it's not like they were complete nomads.

It was time to start the land lottery and I needed to speak with Pete soon.

I also had an anxious Mouse clamoring for my attention.

Four days on this project and it was time to put it in action.

**** Chapter 174 -- Back into the Game ****

By: Emmeran, 15 July 2021

Editor: nnpdad 21 July 2021

While focusing on a project like the land grants was technical and fun for me, it was still exhausting in its own way; the pressure to make the correct decisions was huge. Putting a final stamp on the plan was a relief and Mouse was there to make the relief more tangible.

It is truly amazing how a beautiful woman can change your outlook on any situation; just her smile would lift my spirits and change my attitude. The promise of her delicious body wasn't what tipped the scales;, it was her radiant attitude and positive demeanor. Who couldn't be positive and happy with a person like that around? Under the influence of Mouse, I blessed the plan and sent it to print.

'Sending it to print' was a bit of future slang; what actually happened was that we assembled six deer skins into a large piece of leather and Michelle painted the map onto it. We really didn't have the tools to present it in any other public manner, and creating a smooth wooden plank would have taken too long. So we stitched six tanned and squared hides into a large piece of leather and stretched it on a frame, then Michelle drew the lines on it as well as possible.

Michelle had a very steady hand and the map was mostly perfect - far better than I could have done. The lots were outlined and clearly numbered. I mostly sat back and observed as this all happened, it didn't hurt to have a beautiful Mouse at my side to keep me amused and distracted.

The sign was erected in the middle of our little temporary village, just on the side of the road. It was available to everyone and we'd make sure they all got a chance to examine it. That included our boatmen, who were all still here at the present moment.

We were trying to recruit boatmen with families or with family desires so we could add long-term hardworking residents to our town. I wanted them to have a chance to put down real roots here since their occupation would disappear quickly with the onrush of steam-powered boats. I fully intended to be at the forefront of that wave of industrial advancement; our patent plan would help with that.

We had a few reams of paper left for my printer so we printed out a paper copy for each boat captain. They could post it so the crew could consider it on a daily basis during their upcoming trip to pick up our goods in storage down in St. Louis. Being the retentive person I was, I did have a cheap laminator with a very limited supply of lamination sheets; I knew fifty sheets wouldn't last long so I was exceedingly sparing with its use. One sheet for each boat, tacked up on the fo'c'sle of the boat. Weatherproof and basically damage-proof, that cheap laminator was possibly the best twenty-seven dollars I'd ever spent online.