By then he was close, so I held up a hand with four gloved fingers raised as I gloated.
"I'll help," he said as he fell in beside me. Richard had grown to be a good friend as well as a staunch supporter of my goals and methods.
Shane and Morgan joined us and pitched in to help butcher. When he arrived, Shane said, "The timing for this was good. The wild hog meat and venison I brought in last month is almost gone. Soon, I'll go out to replenish the supply while we eat this."
"Be careful, there were signs of a panther in the bottoms downriver, and we hear at least two packs of wolves at night."
"There hasn't been any heavy snow accumulation on the ground for a period of time, so the wolves should be finding enough food...the panther, too. And the black bears should still be hibernating."
"Yeah, you're right."
It was late morning before the butchering finished, the meat was hung in the smokehouse, and a hickory and crabapple fire was started. We parted and went to our homes for lunch.
Near lunchtime, Kira held class in our cabin. I listened to ten-year-olds Tom Jr. and Dominique read as I grabbed enough fried squirrel meat to be my lunch. When I left, seven-year-old Kat started her reading assignment. Kira was adamant all three kids learn to read and write. I didn't see a big need for it. No books or newspapers were being published to read, and our supply of reading materials, both books and magazines, were limited and fifteen-years-old at best. We're even about to run out of paper to write on. There's no mail delivery service to exchange letters, and we're not aware of any other humans to communicate with. So what good is reading and writing if it's not going to be used even on a weekly basis?
Geography is a different matter. Hopefully at some point in the future, descendents of our group might want to strike out and explore the rest of the land mass that was the United States of America, Mexico, and Canada. Those names mean little now, but the depictions of the land, existing roadways, rivers and mountains on maps will be invaluable to future exploration. The locations of bridges may even help for an indefinite period of time. Without traffic on them, steel and concrete bridges may last hundreds of years before deterioration makes them impassible even for light loads.
I left the house and walked to Shane's cabin. Vivian met me at the door with a wide, happy smile. "He's at the horse barn." The sky had clouded over. She looked up. "Feels like it could snow."
"Yeah, first in two weeks." Over her shoulder, I saw and heard her and Shane's two small children and grandson.
Fifty feet from the barn, I glanced to the right. Suzie Radcliff and Sarah Thompson stood at a large iron kettle moving a huge wood paddle through the steaming, bubbling contents. Without stopping, I waved and said, "Hi." They were making lye soap from animal fat and wood ash. The pungent smell drifted on the light breeze out of the northwest. The women had a small cottage industry going and bartered the soap to others for their products or services.
Shane was in the barn mucking out a stall. I stood beside him as he stopped and frowned, "Jessie Pitchford's family is supposed to maintain this stall and two others and look after the draft horses in them, but they seldom do it. I got tired of reminding them and listening to their lame excuses, so I'm doing it myself. I feed and water the horses occasionally or they'd be ready for the glue factory."
I nodded. "Do you remember in high school history classes the stories of the pilgrims landing on the East Coast? They had the same problems with slovenly behavior; some stepped forward to do their share and more while others shirked their duties. Without a strong form of internal government that all must abide by, some tend to ignore their responsibilities to the group. In the case of the pilgrims, half of them starved to death during a harsh winter."
Shane nodded. "Jesse wasn't always that way. He's changed over the years, and if you say anything, you're a butt-hole out to make them look bad. It was so much simpler when we all lived at Deliverance and everyone was assigned duties weekly."
"I know, living in separate housing and cooking and eating individually has diminished the close communal ties we had then."
Shane stood his pitchfork against the stall. "Plus, the constant threat of zombies or outlaws pulled us together. You and I have talked about this several times. I still don't see any way to re-instill that sense of togetherness we had when we started. A majority of the people have changed, and it's not for the better."
"I agree, forcing them to change isn't feasible. That leaves us as the parties who need to change. Me, you, Richard, Jesse and to some extent Morgan are the best hunters in the group. Instead of providing meat freely we should become meat suppliers and trade it for services from other people."
"I like that idea. But what about where we're standing? Who takes responsibility for the livestock? There's this horse barn, a cattle barn and pigs, chickens and goats to look after."
I squatted on my haunches and chewed on a straw stalk as I studied the dirt floor. "We'll have to divide the livestock among the families. Each will then be responsible for the health and maintenance of their property. We'll draw numbers to decide who chooses first and so on. Each can pick a horse or cow to own. Then next summer, the owners will be responsible
