temperature began to drop below freezing, a deep hole in the ground could act as a refrigerator, or even, later on, as a deep freeze.
Of course, until the ground froze solid, anything he buried, Wolf could dig up. Jeebee had read that wolves in one zoo had become so adept at burrowing under their fence that the zoo had spent thousands of dollars to pour a concrete apron around the inside perimeter of the enclosure. Facilities with tighter budgets—including, he had read with amusement, one connected with the University of Michigan—discovered that a three- or four-foot apron of wire fencing material was almost as effective. If it was securely anchored to the ground, wolves couldn’t get an effective purchase on it with their jaws, and digging at it was evidently uncomfortable to their footpads or toenails.
At the ranch Jeebee had noted some wire fencing with a two-by-four-inch mesh, of the kind ordinarily used in rural areas. It had been put up around a rectangle of darker earth that had evidently been the family’s personal vegetable patch. A section of that wire would do very well to cover a hole for meat storage in cold weather. Though he should probably find some way of either weighing, or staking, it down so that it could not be taken off of the hole by anyone but himself. Meanwhile, according to the books, wolves did not like to try to scramble over a thin barrier, even no higher than four feet.
While cold weather had some advantages for him, it would also make it increasingly hard to work outside. Cold rain could be expected, turning into sleet followed by snow. Work would not only be difficult, but more dangerous to his health—he couldn’t afford to get sick, out here by himself.
Thinking of the weather reminded him that he would have to find some way of heating the cave’s interior. Body heat would help to a certain extent, in such an enclosed, insulated space, but he would need more than that.
One of the first things to do would be to rig some kind of temporary cover for the cave entrance, to keep out rain and snow while he was working inside. The cover should be something heavier than the plastic sheets he had, which were called tarps but actually were not. Maybe some actual waterproof canvas could be found down at the ranch. Probably even a sheet of something that could be weighted along the bottom edge or otherwise secured to resist wind.
His mind ran on, thinking of a number of things. He was letting it freewheel at the moment without yet making it consider the practical problems involved in doing these things. But then, he reminded himself, it was always better to do the large thinking first and get down to the details afterward. One of the things that had come immediately to mind the minute he had thought of staying was that now perhaps he could set up his backwoods forge.
He envisioned the cave—deepened, ceilinged, walled, and floored inside. It would have the wooden front— there was no reason why he could not extend that front off to one side to enclose a blacksmithy.
The nearly vertical face of the bluff itself curved backward slightly as it went away the stream. So that if he extended the front, he would build out straight in front of that curve. The further part of that front would then have a space behind it, widening out like a slice of pie; he could dig further in to widen it, if necessary, and could further enclose it with a short end wall at right angles to the front section, to tie it back to the bluff face, and add a bit of roof.
He might wall it off from the interior, heated area of the cave, since it would be strongly warmed by his forge, once he had it going. The important thing would be to keep out the rain and snow.
Building the forge, as well as the area for it, and the part of the cave he would live in, was going to keep him very busy in whatever time he had before the ground froze. All at once, he found himself desperately eager to get at it immediately. It was frustrating not to be able to ride Brute right now and use Sally as a packhorse.
Then it struck him that there were things he could do while he waited a few more days for the ankle to strengthen. One was to ride down to the ranch and spend some time examining it for things there he could use. Now that his decision was set, it was time for plans to be made, and careful planning was a part of his nature.
It was still early in the day. He saddled Sally. Now that he knew the area better, he knew a way down to the ranch that avoided the shale slope entirely. It took half again as long as going across the shale. But he still got to the ranch in a couple of hours; and he estimated he could spend at least three hours there before he had to head back to the campsite while there was still afternoon left.
He had brought his crutch along. Not because he could not do without it, but to ease the wear and tear on his weak ankle when he was on foot.
He was astonished at what he found when he got there. It was the first time he had looked at any place like this with the eye of a scavenger, rather than simply as a possible temporary shelter. In the outbuildings he located not only a keg of unused nails, but a large variety of hand tools, including some wire clippers with which he was able to cut loose and roll up a twelve-foot section of the four-foot-high wire fence around the former garden patch.
The sheets and blankets had been stripped off the beds and taken by the raiders. But he found more of both among other household items boxed in a storeroom. He also found old and damaged blankets in an outbuilding. With one of these, he made a pad to fasten behind his saddle and carry the roll of wire. He was tempted to take a great many more things. But on this trip he was not prepared to carry or drag them. All around him, in addition to tools, he began to recognize a number of other items that would be useful in building or furnishing the cave.
He looked enviously at a waterwheel-driven electric generator beside the small stream that flowed near the ranch. It had obviously supplied power to the buildings during power outages or other emergencies. There were poles carrying wires to the house and outbuildings that must run out to a power line along a road too far away for him to see from here. The wire would have connected with rural electricity, back when current had been still coming into this area.
Aside from things he need merely pick up, there was a remarkable amount of wood siding on the house that had escaped the flames. Much more than he would need. In addition, there was a store of unused two-by-fours and planks in one of the outbuildings. Even if the nails in the keg turned out to be less than he would need, there was a wealth of them, as he had anticipated, in the still-standing walls of the buildings.
With some kind of hauling sledge, which he could build of materials here, there were larger or heavier things to take apart and transport up into the hills. With both horses pulling the sledge once snow fell, he could move a good load at a time.
He even looked at a bedstead, which could be taken apart for transporting.
Something like that was a ridiculous luxury—at least at this point. He could, however, make use of kitchen chairs and a table. Also, there were cooking utensils, as well as tableware and some dishes, which he would take. Most of what the ranch house had owned of these items had been taken, but much remained, particularly the cooking utensils, large spoons, spatulas, and other things.
On a sudden inspiration, he checked the number of vehicles still standing about the ranch-house area. There were four cars, three of which looked as if they had been in running condition when the supply of gas had dried up. Also, there were one large and one small tractor and a couple of pickup trucks. One of the trucks still had a blade, for snowplowing or some other use, attached to the front of it.
In addition to these, there was a snowmobile vehicle, and tucked inside its basket was a pair of heavy snowmobile boots large enough for him to wear, which would be invaluable when winter set in. There was also a two-wheel fence-sided trailer and a massive, rubber-tired four-wheel flatbed trailer that would need either a tractor or a heavy pickup to pull it, loaded.
There were both skis and snowshoes, as well as a toboggan. But it was none of these that interested him as much as the batteries in the cars and trucks and tractors. They were all dead, of course. There had been no gas available for any motorized vehicles for over a year. But it had occurred to Jeebee that since they were all late model sealed batteries with their acid locked inside them, he mignt be able to use the solar-cell blanket to bring them up to charge again. Then he could use the batteries themselves to run the interior, ceiling lights of the cars for ordinary illumination in his cave. He could even use them to run one or two of the headlights from the cars, briefly, if for some reason a very bright source of light was needed. It was the way the wagon had run light bulbs off a generator attached to its turning wheels that had turned his mind in this direction.
All of the batteries that he found seemed in good shape. They were all sealed, which meant that the acid would still be safely inside them. He tried turning on the lights of the various vehicles, to see if there was any life in any of them. But, of course, there was not.
