Reclamation (Best Laid Plans Book 4) (11 page)

“Guess this is where we turn back,” Jane said, eyeing the tangle.

He nodded absently, eyes on a large split evergreen that had died recently enough that brown needles still hung on its branches.

“What is it?” Jane asked, coming up alongside him and following his gaze.

Lewis pointed. “See that? Up where it splits.”

His wife frowned, squinting. “A swarm of bugs? Buzzing around a . . .” her confusion abruptly cleared. “Beehive!”

He grinned. “Right. Never thought I'd see one out in the wild. This is lucky.”

She glanced back downstream to where they could see the road winding up the opposite side of the ravine, although their friends watching the herd were obscured by a thicket. “Do we want to try harvesting it?” she asked, obviously reluctant at the thought.

“That too.” At her wary look his grin widened. “Why just take the honey when we can also take the bees?” Her wary look turned alarmed, and he hesitated in sudden realization. “Oh. You're not allergic, are you?”

“No.” Jane frowned at the misshapen lump of the hive. “It's just, well, we don't know anything about keeping bees. Do we really want to have a swarm of them around stinging everyone when we might mess it up and end up accidentally letting the queen die or something?”

Lewis hesitated. He was well aware of how tricky it could be to handle bees, and the consequences for messing up could be pretty severe. Still, it was hard to ignore any potential source of food, and honey would provide a nice treat as well as a great trade item.

“Maybe we can ask around town to see if anyone has any experience,” he said. “Or I can check my books and see if I've got any on beekeeping. I'm pretty sure I grabbed at least a few. If nothing else we can at least think about coming back and just harvesting the honey, now that we know where the hive is.”

She gave him a relieved look, as if she'd been afraid he was going to suggest they wade in without any sort of protective clothing and tangle with the bees right then and there. “Sounds like a plan,” she said, then glanced downstream. A stray had ambled into view around the thicket, soon followed by another, and they saw Alvin circling to try to head them off as another stray broke away in the opposite direction.

Looked as if their break was over. “Back to work,” he said with a last longing look at the beehive. His wife nodded, and they began picking their way back downstream.

* * * * *

The remainder of the day was fairly uneventful. Any soreness remaining after the previous day's more strenuous ride faded with the easier pace, which involved walking their bikes more often than not. And there was an almost soothing quality to the constant
baaing
of the sheep that Lewis soon became familiar with.

He could get used to having his own herd with Jane. A nomadic life in the mountains didn't sound all that terrible at the moment, and it fit both their natures well.

As the sun began to set the sheep began getting more balky. They didn't stray as often, but they began wandering off the road to graze and became more and more indifferent to any efforts to get them going again. A few even plopped down in the grass to rest.

At that point Tom suggested they call it an early night. Lewis agreed that they didn't know enough about herding to justify pushing limits that didn't need to be pushed, and anyway the sheep hadn't seemed to mind an early start that morning. Getting a strong early start would make up any time they lost by not trying to drive the weary animals onward at a slower pace.

They waited until the next time Pete made his way back to report in, and with his agreement set up camp in a decent meadow where the sheep could graze. It wasn't far from a little trickle of a stream, which made its way down the hillside in a surprisingly deep cut with broad banks the herd could scramble down to get water.

Since none of them were sure whether or not the sheep would like fire, and anyway the group agreed they could do without, they contented themselves with sitting in a loose circle outside the entrances to their tents. None of them had brought more than a few days' worth of food with them, so for dinner they divvied up the last of their supplies, supplemented with wild greens foraged along the road during the ride and as they'd set up camp.

It wasn't the best meal, but it filled them up enough to sleep. It also served as a motivation to finish the trek the next day so they could have a good dinner back at home. Lewis wasn't sure whether Matt would make his way back to them after letting the town know they were coming, and if he did whether he'd bring food. Either way he could handle a day going hungry. It wouldn't be the first time.

He slept well that night, all things considered. Judging by Jane's alertness when he shook her awake the next morning she seemed to have slept well too, and they both wasted no time getting their shoes on and leaving the tent.

Only to discover the sheep had wandered off in the night.

Tom was already pacing the meadow following the tracks. “I shouldn't be surprised,” he called. “No reason why they wouldn't do their own thing when we're not herding them along.”

Pete glared at the few spots of trampled grass where the sheep had slept. “We should've had someone watching them.”

The older man shrugged. “They'd have led us a merry chase wandering away in the dark while we tried to stop them. In a way it's almost easier to just follow them now and get them back going the way we want. They can't have gone far and their tracks are pretty clear.”

“We should've had someone watching over them anyway,” Jane said. She didn't look annoyed by the turn of events; just another thing to take care of. “They might've gotten attacked during the night by some predator and really scared off. Or maybe one person would've been enough to keep them from wandering.”

They all looked at each other. “It's a learning process,” Lewis finally said. “Let's get going.”

It took about an hour to find the sheep, clump them up, and get them back to the road and on their way. The herd had meandered down the meadow instead of following the road in either direction, which made using their bikes more awkward. The second time Lewis had to head off a stray while jouncing over the bumpy terrain he found himself getting almost as irritated as Matt had yesterday.

They pushed the sheep a bit faster to make up for lost time, and after being herded all day yesterday the animals finally seemed to remember that this was something they'd done frequently with their previous shepherds. They trotted along the road with less deviation, and seemed more willing to be turned back when they strayed.

It helped that the way was mostly downhill at a steady slope. Lewis thought the herd naturally moved a bit faster with less prodding from them, and it took almost no effort to coast their bikes along at the same speed. They had to brake far more often than pedal.

Since they had no food they kept the sheep moving with fewer breaks, letting them water at the few places that provided an opportunity but keeping the grazing to a minimum. Lewis hoped that didn't put too much strain on the animals, but with any luck they'd make up for it that night with secure pens and all the grazing they wanted.

By late afternoon they finally reached Aspen Hill Canyon, where they met up with a winded Matt who'd finally come looking for them. There they stopped for a brief break to share the food he'd brought, enough for a small snack for everyone, while their friend caught his breath. Then, grumbling about being turned back so soon, Matt headed back down to make sure everything was prepared.

Their job herding the sheep got even easier once they started down the canyon, since there were fewer places for the animals to go aside from the road itself. Although the downside to that was that if one
did
stray, it disappeared into the undergrowth and was twice as hard to round up again.

The second time the most skittish of the sheep, which Lewis had less than affectionately named Bolt, decided to break away he finally lost his temper and did some shouting himself as he took chase. He managed to calm down again quickly, but he had to admit he'd be more than happy to be done with this and have the sheep secure in pens where they couldn't wander off.

That, or at least figure out how to better handle them, and maybe spend enough time around the herd that he was familiar and trusted so they'd be more manageable. He did want to have a herd of his own, after all, and wanted to do it right.

A bit of a crowd had gathered by the time they brought the herd out of the mouth of the canyon and along Center Street towards the heart of town. There were plenty of fenced in areas around the outskirts and even in Aspen Hill itself, many of which had held livestock before the disastrous winter forced the townspeople to eat anything that was available. Thanks to that finding somewhere to put the herd hadn't been a problem.

According to Matt the townspeople had prepared the acre lot beside the Watsons' house for the herd. They'd painstakingly gone over the fence to make sure it was secure, as well as stretching a tarp over one area to provide shade next to a watering trough. Their friend had also been hard at work with his dad and brother-in-law salvaging scrap wood from fences and ruined houses to raise their own fenced in area beside the shelter, which he'd promised would be done by the time they reached town.

Catherine Tillman met them at the head of the crowd, coming out to meet them and accompany them the rest of the way. The Mayor was so overjoyed at the sight of the returning sheep that she hugged each of them, even an uncomfortable Jane. Thanks to her jubilant mood, when Lewis broached the subject of the pregnant ewes she immediately agreed that he and his wife could take one, as well as the young ram, for their contribution.

The other pregnant ewe was more of a question. Catherine was willing to also give her to a member of the group for the work they'd done, it was just a question of who. Tom and Alvin would be well on their way to starting their own herd with her as well as another ewe, and Matt had certainly earned consideration for all his contributions to the town, even if he'd returned early and arguably done less work in this case.

In the end, though, she agreed Pete should have the ewe and whatever lambs she birthed. The young man had been searching the longest, and while that extra work arguably hadn't been of much value since it hadn't produced any results, it at least deserved some acknowledgement. At the very least it had narrowed down places not to look. Pete seemed stunned by the offer, and once he was certain it was genuine he broke into his first real grin since finding the herd a couple days ago.

Everyone else was also satisfied with the arrangement. Matt, the Hardings, and Lewis and his wife had already agreed to combine their sheep to make their own herd, which now comprised of four ewes and a ram and whatever lambs were birthed. Pete also seemed eager to start his own herd if possible, albeit with a slower start, and Aspen Hill would have the remaining thirteen sheep, including the other ram.

In spite of the town's desperate need for food the Mayor had prevailed on the townspeople to not slaughter any of the valuable animals. It would take some time for the sheep to earn their value with wool and a herd large enough that some animals could be harvested for mutton, but everyone was willing to invest in that future bounty.

There was a lot to be hopeful about, and the mood in town was celebratory as they led the sheep into their new pen, snagging out the specific ones Lewis, Jane, Matt, Tom, and Alvin would be taking back to the shelter. Pete had arranged to have his ewe penned with the rest of the herd in exchange for doing some work caring for the animals, at least for now.

The five sheep clustered at the fence
baaing
plaintively at the others inside, at least until Lewis and his companions said their goodbyes to their neighbors and began shooing the animals along the road to the shelter and their new home.

At first the little herd tried to loop back around to rejoin the sheep they could still hear calling out to them from town, but after a few blocks they seemed to accept their fate and went along more meekly. Maybe they were as tired as the people herding them and just ready to get wherever they were going.

They found Matt and the others back at the shelter, and true to their friend's word they'd constructed a small pen between the two hills, at the foot of the shorter hill on the far side from the shelter itself. It wasn't a large space, which meant they'd have to let the herd out to graze, and there was no shade, but it was good as a temporary measure.

The sheep went quietly into the pen, making their way over to where a few of Lewis's large metal buckets had been filled with water and tied to the fence so they wouldn't accidentally get tipped over. As Matt secured the awkward gate the family had their own moment of celebration, with hugs and handshakes all around.

By that time the sun had set and Lewis was more than ready to wash up, enjoy a meal, and sleep in a proper bed. He had a few ideas for some lengths of wire fencing he'd been storing in the shed and that were now sitting outside. More of those things he'd purchased before the world went crazy just in case he needed them at some point.

It seemed like it wouldn't be too hard to tie together four of them to make a sturdy square pen that would be simplicity itself to move, keeping the sheep enclosed but allowing them new terrain to graze as often as they needed. They could also keep the ram separate from the ewes until he was a bit older and they figured out what to do about breeding.

All in all Lewis was in high spirits as he and Jane said their goodnights and headed for their shed. It was nice to be considering all these possibilities, since they represented a much brighter future. Between sheep, chickens, rabbits, their gardens, hunting, and foraging, the group at the shelter was in a good position to be self-sustaining before too long.

And then there were the bees, if he could figure out how to capture a swarm. But that was an opportunity for another day.

In spite of being exhausted every night and always feeling like he wasn't going fast enough, Trev had still been able to appreciate just how quickly he'd managed to travel on his bike on the way to Michigan. And the grueling 27 hour trip in the truck to get to Newtown had been unbelievable progress.