10 Pound Bag Ch. 190-194

Chapter 190 -- Rulo House at St. Charles

By: Emmeran, 13 November 2021

Editor: nnpdad 24 November 2021

We stopped by the Butcher's shop on our way back down to Mickey's; it was mid-day and I was craving liverwurst for lunch. I also picked up some nice steaks to dine on tonight and a meaty bone for Brin. There wasn't a whole lot I needed on top of that. I did pick up enough steaks to feed everyone I wanted to feed steak to and even had two spares in case Dr. Browne showed up this evening.

As soon as Mickey saw those steaks he was out firing up the grill with a grin on his face a mile wide. I gave the steaks to Cook to prep and wandered around the kitchen to see what else we might be having; well that earned me a firm scolding as I was chased out of the kitchen by a mad woman wielding a kitchen rag like it was a flail.

So I ended up in my reluctant rocker, sipping a beer and contemplating the considerations I'd offer the good doctor and his wife. The need for a doctor in our growing town far outweighed my need to preserve capital; you can't actually grow your capital if your workers are sick and dying. That was a failing of communist socialism, no matter what they espoused from the podium they really didn't give a shit about the ordinary person.

So I had to have a doctor and I had a good feeling about this one.

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The Doctor and his wife showed up about a half hour before supper so we were able to throw steaks on for them also. His wife was taken aback by the location but Sinclaire showed up just in time to gently and politely set her straight on the situation. We served beer and wine and began to discuss the deal while we waited for food.

The biggest sticking point seemed to be her fear of living on the frontier, it turned out to be more of a fear of living simple as up til now she'd always had the finest things ready to hand. At the same time neither of them wanted to go crawling back to family to admit their failure. It was also important to note that she didn't want to sell all of her fine things at auction just to raise the money for the journey. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I would be there at that auction buying up all of her nice things at a tremendous discount.

I used that as the sweetener for my deal. I offered them an opt-out after five years in which I would pay for their return trip home and all of their fine things could stay in the house, but when they were ready we'd ship them to Rulo for them. I also offered them one of the bedrooms to store their personals and heirlooms under lock and key.

But it also had to be noted that all of the servants stayed and that Sinclaire would be moving in immediately and would need use of the study to run our businesses. If they agreed I would pick them up on my way north after my business was complete downriver.

Our food came and we ate. While Mick isn't the worlds greatest grill master the food was still wonderful and hit the spot. There wasn't a lot of talking happening while the food was being consumed, in my opinion there really shouldn't be.

There were a lot of mosquitos around but we stayed on the porch anyway. In my experience mosquitos don't give a shit about doors and windows -- they find a way in regardless. So just get used to them and find something else to complain about.

Sinclaire took the plates in and went to make our after dinner drinks. I availed myself of the outhouse while she was gone to give them some time alone. I went inside immediately after, washed myself up and helped Sinclaire carry the drinks out.

We rejoined the Brownes and I smoked a cigarette while we sipped our drinks. Finally Dr. Browne came out and said, "We'll take the deal."

From that point it was all planning. I would clear his debts here in town and at the bank in St. Louis tomorrow morning and Sinclaire would come by to help them pack. I gave Amos instructions to get them a nice tent before we came back through and Doc Browne would put in an order for all the supplies he would need to start up his clinic upon arrival. There were other trivial matters we discussed and I pointed out to him that he could come down here every once in bit to provide services and try to collect on old debts.

It turned out that they had walked down here to the pub from the house so I lined up Amos and Brin to take them back home again. Sinclaire had business back inside the pub so it ended up being just me sitting out back and enjoying the cool evening breeze.

I sat back and tried to sort out my cash on hand and made sure Sinclaire had plenty of the Bank of Rulo checks left to cover all the local debts and various business needs. The bank in St. Louis happily covered Bank of Rulo checks since we had very significant deposit there still. I gave her forty dollars to provide the Brownes with spending money and off I went for a shower to prepare for bed.

The shower didn't go as smoothly as planned but it's hard to complain about a willing woman joining you under the cool spray of the shower nozzle. We soaped each other off and did the full rinse and dry thing before we proceeded upstairs to see what the night would bring.

Simply put the night brought all sorts of gentle and delightful joys. I slept well that night.

Chapter 191 -- Breathe the Calm

By: Emmeran, 14 November 2021

Editor:

Bellied up to John Byrne's bar sipping a beer and eating fries was exactly where I wanted to be on a day like that day. We shot the shit and filled each other in on happenings in our locales. John and I got along in that lazy, laid back manner of men who weren't feeling overly pressured usually did. We talked weather, crops, autumn hunting and even a tiny bit about our women. Mind you talk about our women was a scarce thing, you didn't want to bad mouth your own woman and you definitely didn't want to insult his by simply agreeing with him. I found that regardless of era normal men didn't talk about women much at all. It's just safer that way.

I spoke to him about my attempts to find a steam boat and the incredible bounty of crops we had which were actually coming through the back door of his restaurant as we spoke. He loved hearing about the buffalo hunt, which was actually a fun story to tell. He served the occasional patron and eventually got around to ask about where I was staying the evening. I very much let him know that besides a quick stop at the bank I intended to hang out like a bum either here or over at the Marine House where he was very much welcome to join me.

Honestly, I had no intention of moving from that chair anytime soon. Tomorrow would be soon enough take care of any serious business. Patrick stopped by briefly to report that he had heard of a steam boat sitting down in Memphis that hadn't moved for a while and might be available. I decided it was worth checking out, we'd offload what produce we could move here and head down river with the pelts. The further we got from the frontier the more valuable the pelts were on the market, I really wanted to see their value down in New Orleans. Of course as soon as I found a steamer I'd be heading back north again; municipal exploration and additional value could wait.

I really wanted see what New Orleans was like in 1822, it had to be an experience worth seeing. Baton Rouge came first and September would follow shortly after, a pole boat trip up-river could take as long a eight weeks so Baton Rouge might be as far as I went that trip. New Orleans could wait until next spring if I could find everything I wanted in Baton Rouge. I had decided it all depended on what I found where.

So I sat and shot the shit with John and caught up with other folk who showed up. I did send a runner to the Marine House to ask them to prepare a room for me and that I'd be arriving later that afternoon. The bank manager quickly learned that I was in town and he showed up at the bar, we were able to conduct our business in the private room so I didn't have to visit the bank. I now owned the Doctor's house and the deed resided in my safe deposit box so that business was finished. I let him know that my book keeper would be around soon to audit the books.

I arranged with John to schedule a tour of the brewery, distillery and warehouses tomorrow. The bourbon was going to be a long term project to even get it to the five year mark but the patience would be well worth the result.

Amos showed up shortly thereafter and together we rode out to the Marine House. We ambled along on our mounts taking our time as I filled him in on the days events; he had been following Patrick around and observing the negotiations to sell cargo. It had been an eye opening day for him and he had managed to learn a lot, that young man was very eager to tell me about it. The lessons learned were good ones for a young man to learn and I assured him that they would come in very handy as his life progressed.

As we approached the Marine House I could see workers still hard at the repair and additions that I had ordered. There was a large sign on the road proclaiming "Construction Provided by Andersson Bros. Construction". The front gate itself had already been repaired and looked to be of the same granite as the rest of the wall, I found out later they had simply used the wall blocks recovered in the creation of the side gates for the repair. There was even a sentry on duty so we dismounted and introduced ourselves. We shook left hands as it didn't appear that his right arm was on the same team as the rest of him any more, it kind of just hung there.

He noticed my glance and commented with a chuckle, "It's a good thing for me I was a lefty to begin with.", I had to chuckle with him and told him I'd see him at supper that night.

Amos and I walked our horses the rest of the way, it was good to stretch our legs and gave us time to stretch our legs and get a first look at the repairs made to the place so far. The main house was in very good shape with new windows, fresh paint and repaired shutters. The shutters were all functional of course, not the vinyl decorative ones used in the modern world. These were solid and sound, they were closed whenever the weather became hostile.

We were met at the front porch by another old geezer wearing something that resembled a uniform, he saluted me briskly and took the horses from us to have them stabled for the evening. Amos and I looked at each other, shrugged and proceeded on into the Marine House to see what else had changed. We had left our packs on our mounts so we didn't have much to do at the moment. Amos wandered back to the servants quarters to see who was there while I simply walked into the study, grabbed a glass from the liquor cabinet and poured myself a nice healthy dollop.

I had barely sat down and lit a cigarette when Grace swept into the room full of excitement and bubbling with things she wanted to tell me. I rose to greet her with a polite hug and she started to babble all over again, I simply held my hand up palm towards her and turned my head away with closed eyes. She got the message and went quickly silent.

After a moment I looked at her and explained that I was having a calm day and wanted to keep it that way, I also invited her to grab a drink and gently update me with all the news. I was back relaxing in my chair when she came back with her wine, just smoking my cigarette and gazing out the window. Grace sat down on the nearby couch, took a deep breath and calmly began to feed me all of the news.

I began to relax again...

Chapter 192 -- Creation to Consumption

By: Emmeran, 15 November 2021

Editor: nnpdad 2 December 2021

Grace had sent out for celebration food for the occasion - we were having sausages with roasted new potatoes, beans and of course, sweet corn. Everyone ate together; we had visitors, residents and staff all breaking bread together. The guards were rotated halfway through supper and the only people not invited to join were those currently being punished resident or servant alike. They were still fed of course but they were ejected from the group meals for a period of time.

The residents were present on a good behavior status: of the five we currently had, four of them came in with an alcohol problem on top of any medical issues or handicaps they had. In some ways the Marine House functioned as a drunk farm; they got room and board with a small stipend as long as they stayed sober and did their assigned work. The better they behaved, the better assignments they got. Obviously the field work was the worst. One step above it was mucking out the barns and cleaning the outhouses; while those jobs stunk you were out of the weather for the most part. Sentry duty was the best, you worked the same hours but under much better conditions.

That covered the basics of how Marine House worked. The barracks were under construction and looked to be nearing completion. The design featured a general area for eating and otherwise hanging out in half of the first floor, the other half of that floor was an open squad bay with no privacy. The second floor was all tiny dorm rooms with just enough room for a bed and a small writing desk, better than they ever had when they were serving. The second floor meant you had your drinking under control and were acting like a sane person again.

Most of the food consumed here was grown here: Grace had picked up the farm next door for a song after it had been devastated by the tornado and was slowly expanding operations onto that property. In the long term Marine House was going to be self-sufficient from creation to consumption. That was my goal for all these projects, the restaurants and bars included. We wanted to take our offerings through the entire life-cycle ourselves, the less we had to rely on outside providers the less money we had to give up to middlemen. We wanted to be a provider of products and services, not a consumer of such.

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After supper I retired to the study for a nice bourbon and some conversation with Grace; she was good company and still very easy on the eyes. The conversation was nice and my belly was full, so it wasn't long before the sun was going down and I was headed off to clean up and go to bed.

I wasn't at all surprised when a soft warm body slid into my bed that night, I wasn't going to kick her out but it sure looked like I'd use up another condom from my diminishing supply. Just another example of time twitchers' well worn lament of 'If only I had known.'

The sex was good though, a nice mixture of tenderness and energy. The snuggles after were amazing also. I slept well that night, a very relaxed and calm sleep.

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Breakfast was pretty good the next morning. It was obvious that Grace's cook had spent some time down with Rachel Byrne to actually learn the skill. Hell, she even learned a few things about herbs and spices and thankfully the toast wasn't burnt again. I didn't see any talent or creativity in the food that came out but it did finally rise to slightly above the edibility line. Nobody likes to sit in a fine dining room and eat crap food. The service demeanor needed some serious work, though. I figured Clara and Peter could help us improve that across the board because they had grown up as minor aristocracy and were used to having servants around. The majority of people around me these days had never dined in a restaurant in their entire lives let alone had a servant wait on them.

The coffee was an entirely different story and that was definitely a product we had to buy - growing it was impossible. Hopefully we'd be able to get some quality coffee in bulk down in New Orleans; in the meantime we'd simply limp along with whatever we could find in St. Louis or Memphis.

After another quick tour of the grounds, Amos and I left for Byrne's. I was scheduled to get a tour of the Brewery and Distillery today as well as to take a quick pass through the warehouses. We stopped by Byrne's for a cup of coffee and more food for Amos; teenagers always seem to be ravenous. After a decent cup the three of us mounted up and he led us over to the brewery/distillery.

There really wasn't too much to see if you've ever been to a brewery before and the only real difference from most modern craft brewers was that they made their own yeast. The kettles were large enough that they could brew one full sized barrel at a time and they were managing to put up four barrels a day on a good day. I had never seen sparging before since most home brewers in the modern age simply bought malt extract.

The still setup was very basic as well; it also could produce a barrel per batch - it simply took longer. To sterilize all the equipment they used vinegar to scrub and steam to sterilize. The sterilization station was pretty clever and I was impressed. John pointed out that cleanliness was the most important step if you wanted a tasty and consistent process.

It was brutally hot in that building and fairly smoky with all of the fires burning, I'm sure it would be a nice place to work in the winter though. We currently had three employees and two apprentices at work and a quick look at the books later showed a substantial cash burn on ingredients, barrels and fuel while we got the thing up and running. John was excited to hear that I had hops and the various grains growing because that would do wonders for the ledger.

That cash burn would turn into cash flow very quickly though as we started shipping the results.

Chapter 193 -- Business as Usual

By: Emmeran, 15 November 2021

Editor: nnpdad 2 December 2021

Warehouses aren't much fun to visit and this little inspection simply reinforced that sentiment; stacked wooden crates of things was pretty much what it came down to. It was a necessary evil and 'Just In Time' manufacturing was relegated to a date far in the future. We had security, we had stout doors and a full inventory list went back north with each boat run. Our supply guy at Rulo Transport checked the new list versus the old versus our transport log and then Sonya checked his work after. It was all very neat and clean, it was also incredibly mind numbing.

We headed out to the office and crew barracks from there to see how that entire setup was running because the comfort of the crews while in port was still important to me. Patrick was in the office shuffling through various paperwork piles when I got there. He had inventories, load sheets and bills of sale from our produce and pelts. He brought me up to speed and told me that all remaining produce and pelts would be on our boat and the now empty boat would return to Rulo with warehouse goods and beer. Well that was good news.

I quickly scribbled out a letter to Sonya asking her to come down and put our accounting situation straight, mentioning that with any luck I'd be able to meet her in either St. Charles or St. Louis on my way back through. Both boats would be leaving tomorrow morning. With that out of the way I toured the barracks and it was looking good, everything was clean and freshly painted. The entire second floor was the barracks with dozens of beds and a small pot-bellied stove right in the center. My signs of 'Things not Allowed' were posted also.

The first floor had the duty desk and the office, with the back two thirds of the first floor consisting of the large kitchen with its equally-sized adjacent pantry, along with the dining hall holding several bench seating tables. It was all very utilitarian with enough comfort for a couple of nights' layover; far better for the guys than sleeping rough while in town.

With the site inspections complete, we went back up to Byrne's where I'd arranged for a final meeting with all of the primaries who were in the area. I hung out at the bar with John while we waited for everyone to show up. We were going to eat in the private function room which was being setup as we waited. Coffee was the natural go-to drink for a get-together such as this. It wasn't a party after all, it was a business meeting.