Two days later, three more pickups pulling trailers arrived. When those trailers were emptied, Maria Gonzales and a helper would join the convoy and return to Deliverance the following morning for another run.
Morgan approached me after supper. He'd come down on the supply run to see our progress first hand. He'd be going back on the return run. "I can see plowing the field across the road is behind schedule. Where does that stand?"
I answered him. "Vince is finished with the bulldozer and ripper, and Tony is waiting for the rest of the tree stumps to be removed. Ed and his crew cut the last tree yesterday and cut it to be dried for firewood. There's a huge pile of big pieces to be split."
Morgan grinned, "Yeah, you suckers are waiting for me to get down here and give me that splitting job, aren't you?"
I said, "That's a hell if a good idea! I'll remember that." We laughed and then I continued. "This morning, Vince switched to the backhoe to dig around the remaining stumps for Ed to have access to set the explosive charges under the main stump. Ed plans to blast the last twelve starting tomorrow or the next day, weather permitting."
Morgan nodded and said, "Thanks." I gave him a tour of the rest of the compound as darkness threatened to settle around us.
My buddy Shane was still in Deliverance with his family. I missed him sorely. Luckily, I had Ed and John and Andrea with me. They were all great friends, but the best thing about them was that they could be trusted to do whatever they promised. Each had strengths that differed from the others and together, with Shane, we made a great team. In addition, we had wonderful people like Doc, Martin, Albert, Maria, Vivian, Verlie, and Anthony. The list went on and on until I could have added everyone in the group.
Our small three-room cabin had two bedrooms and a larger central room where the family spent most of our time. The kitchen area was a corner of that larger room and bordered on miniscule; after all, it hadn't been designed for a family of five to live in full-time. After talking with John about tearing out part of a wall to expand the structure, Kira and I decided to add a third bedroom and expand the kitchen area to add more space for cabinets and a larger table. The small microwave and apartment-sized gas range would be scrapped and a relocated sink, without running water, would have its drain piped through the exterior wall to run on the ground. When the major buildings were completed, I intended to grab several people and start on our project.
We expected the convoy making another run from Deliverance to arrive around dark. At nine that evening, they finally arrived. Despair set in immediately as we spoke to the crews of the three trucks parked near the entrance. Doc was called to examine Bryon Jones; he'd been a passenger in a truck driven by Maria. Jesse Pitchford spoke as the other drivers and helpers sadly gathered around him. "Maria's gone. She wrecked on a sharp curve this side of where Highways 60 and 63 split. The road was wet, and a big tree was down across both lanes. She was in the lead and tried to swerve to miss the biggest limbs; the truck and trailer slid off the road to the left and tumbled several hundred feet down a steep embankment to the bottom. Bryon said Maria warned him when she saw the tree and started braking. She told him to jump right before the truck and trailer tipped over and rolled."
"How bad is Bryon hurt?"
"Not bad. He's skinned and bruised, and his right forearm is busted. He's lucky Maria saw what was happening so fast and made him bail out."
I held my arms up as numerous people asked questions. "Were you able to get to her and bring the body back?"
"No. There's more; it gets worse. In all the tumbling the truck did, the fuel tank ruptured. The truck and trailer ended up side by side against each other. Then the fuel caught fire and burned everything. The trailer was loaded full of food; about half was the vegetables we canned this last summer and fall."
The six survivors facing us were so sad and dejected, you'd have thought they caused the wreck.
I turned to the crowd. "Let's all go inside the main room of the lodge where we can see and talk. Tomorrow morning, we'll go have a look and retrieve Maria. We'll see she gets a proper burial."
I knew from experience what recovering a burnt corpse would entail. I'd have to be very discerning in picking who went along. After the funeral, heavy hearts were sure to slow the work progress for the rest of the week, but eventually we'd all have to deal with the loss and move on.
Two weeks after I'd moved my family to our new home, the first barn was ninety-five percent finished, and framing for the second structure was started. The horse barn would finish first and the cow barn last. The building crews made excellent progress and exceeded my and John's expectations given the setback we'd suffered from losing Maria. John and Anthony felt completion of the second barn would be achieved considerably faster because it was a carbon copy of the first and the craftsmen knew each step without having to stop and consult John or the drawings.
While the barns were being worked, the portable buildings arrived and were set in place. Shane had shown me how to connect the generator to the power panel in the office, and it was functioning with power for lights and our equipment. Like all
