10 Pound Bag Ch. 215-219

I found my wife in the 'Teacher's Office' working on her Pawnee language writing project. She was trying to learn to 'write' Pawnee - in her words. First of all, the 'Teacher's Office' was a rather grandiose description for a small storage room that happened to have a desk and a chair in it. Second, and more interesting, was that in reality she was creating a written version of the Pawnee language, something that had never existed before either in the past or future. If it had existed, there was never an example that I'd ever seen or heard of, in the modern version of my life. Pawnee history was well studied, known and taught as part of history classes in my youth under the banner of 'Regional History.' Apparently that was all about to change.

As a group we headed over to see the beginnings of the first plank-board building to be built in Rulo. It would be sitting on the north side of Main St. and directly in the middle of the block. A cellar had already been dug and was being bricked in as we watched. Posts were stacked nearby and stacks of planks were quickly joining them. This building would become our General Store and Post Office very much in keeping with tradition. We would, of course, build a separate postal building with a sorting capacity in hopes that we could add additional routes.

So the plan called for this to be a two-story building; there would definitely be an awning with a boardwalk out in front of it. We planned to build the boardwalk on both sides of the street to keep any further construction aligned with our pre-planned offset. A hole in the ground with two men laying bricks wasn't much to look at but we took a few minutes to discuss street layout and things such as drainage, sewage and water. We didn't go too far down those rabbit holes because it was a complicated topic and we really needed to get our hands on an expert. Add one more item to the recruiting checklist.

Our next destination was the Smithy. It was a bit of a walk to the industrial sector, located just a bit down the road from the livery. The layout here was large and we had posts in the ground laying out current lots. Each lot had mandatory green space on either side to lessen the risk of a single fire leveling the entire town. Thank you Chicago, for a well learned history lesson.

Our smithy had grown quite a bit since we built the first forge and bellows by hand. We even had a coal storage bin sitting next to it. A small shed had been built for charcoal as well and we had a lot more of that than we had coal. The charcoal was all processed over near the lumber yard and while it was preferred to wood, it was still nowhere near as hot or consistent as mined coal of any grade. There were three apprentices working for the blacksmith now. They were recognizable by the permanent smudge marks on their faces and bulging forearms.

The smith himself was teaching the youngest how to make nails or at least how to make nails correctly. A decent pile of mis-shaped yet probably serviceable nails was at their feet. It was nice to stand in the sunlight and simply take in the sounds and smells of such a place. Hammers rang out, bellows whooshed and heat rolled out from the forges. I remembered to take a moment and enjoy this scene; it was far different from what I had imagined. This certainly wasn't the movies. This was the real thing. This was neat.

Chapter 219 - Smith & Wright Son

By: Emmeran, 22 Sep 2022

Editor: nnpdad 21 Oct 2022

When Jaques, the Smith, finished tutoring his apprentice in the mystic art of nail making, he came over to greet us with a quizzical smile on his face. He wasn't a man who much tolerated interruptions of his busy schedule; that's why I thought he would probably resist sending anyone out recruiting. It didn't take long for him to make himself clear that he had too much work and too many untrained apprentices as it was. Adding more to the mix would simply slow things down further. As good a blacksmith as he was, his personality wasn't much suited for leadership; he was not bad at tutoring but completely uninterested in anything but his craft. I didn't blame him, singular focus tasks fit his personality to a tee. He was probably the most skilled and talented blacksmith on the frontier but as usual, talent and business acumen usually don't go hand in hand.

I needed to find a good partner smith to team with him and handle the customer relations side of the house. It would probably be best to find him an administrative assistant, too, to keep the business running well. He flatly turned us down and went back to his forge, as quick and neat as you please. I'd simply focus on adding a senior smith with more business chops to work for him. Smithing was the only focus of our Jaques Forgeron.

Lunch time was upon us that quickly and we broke up to allow each of a to grab a quick snack and check up on other pressing matters. The temptation was to push on through without stopping since I was headed north after dinner, but as a group we resisted and stuck to schedule. It was a bad idea to run yourself ragged when trying to make sound decisions; that's how bad ideas are implemented. I was running against a daylight clock while at the same time I wanted to have my wits about me should the unexpected occur and the day run late.

It was a short walk back to the town hall to fetch our gallant steeds. Mouse and I held hands and chatted on the way. She was super excited about the baby and was already dropping the phrase 'house' into every other sentence. I resigned myself to the fact that building a house had suddenly been promoted on my 'to do' list, it moved from 'down the road a ways' to 'yup, that'll happen very soon.' I would be printing out and taking along some images from the drone on my next long trip because I needed to choose a good location. Spring would be an incredibly busy time this year.

We trotted back to the compound making very good time. The plan was to pack my bags and prepare for my Fort Atkinson run this afternoon. The goal was to get there before dark, otherwise we'd be sleeping aboard the boat. The nice thing about the mail run was there was room to sleep in the cargo house, we carried a much smaller crew and only about a quarter of the cargo space that our normal boats had. Intentionally running light for this run and burning coal, Sven was hoping for a quick trip, I myself didn't think we'd make it - the numbers just didn't add up. It wouldn't be bad to spend the night on the water; we'd be able to make any adjustments before our maiden run down to St. Louis.

I remembered to pack my good suit and boots just in case. I was ready to go by the time Mouse came back into the trailer with our chow. We ate on the bed and lovey dovey and cozy and then made giggly-laughing love before I had to go. I left Mouse napping on the bed while I took my travel kit and luggage and slipped out the door.

Amos had Lunch waiting for me and rode along to bring him back. He even remembered to pack the cash that I still owed Henry Leavenworth. Brin came along but without a dog for Henry; we still had a lot of dog training to do and we'd be working on getting those puppies trained over the winter.

Our first stop was the Shipwright who worked in the carpentry shop for now. The actual shipwright barn was being built down by the docks. All of the detail work would be done up here and transported down to the barn for installation. Basically the barn was expendable in case the floods got bad during the spring melt some particular year. No sense in trying to fight the river - just understand it and plan around it.

Bucky Johnson was how our shipwright was called and he had a nice family. I had never sat down and heard the story of how they came to be in Rulo but it worked out for us just fine, so I left it alone until it was offered. Like everyone else, he was busy but he need more experienced help and instantly called his son over and told him to grab his travel kit and tools. It seems he expected to send someone along anyway and his son John would not only work the boat but talk to any prospects as well.

That turned out much better than the brusque dismissal the blacksmith had given me. I spoke with John briefly and he'd meet us down at the mail boat in very short order. I gave him a few simple instructions then left for the docks myself. We needed to get on the water soon; days were short this time of year.

Amos loaded Brin and my gear onto the boat while I stopped and passed the latest news with Sonya. That meant I left my meet and greet with her carrying a satchel of papers I had to review. I spoke briefly with Timmons and Sven and then handed Lunch off to Amos. I climbed on the boat and found the coffee and a seat on the cargo house roof. It was time to go.