“Takosund blood will work then. All right sweetheart, how hungry are you? I’m really hungry.”
“Let’s eat then. I’m glad; we won’t use your blood.”
“With the size of those needles, so am I.” Des just laughed. They ate and went to bed. Des gave Anna another wonderful backrub. She woke up feeling great and left while Des was still sleeping.
Anna met Doru, Tafka, Mapao, and Kesti at East 2. “Hi guys. There’s a hiccup in our plans. We don’t have enough plastic to make barriers tonight. I’ve got some being processed. But it won’t be ready until tomorrow warm. If you guys don’t mind, watching on some of the almost safe levels, I’ll cut off the small crossing limbs. We will only do the levels, I’ve checked that have no big limbs and no takosund sign on any of the trees.”
“We don’t mind.” Kesti said. Mapao nodded.
“That is fine with me.” Doru added.
Tafka shrugged. “If there is no sign and no big limbs, it is no different than what we have been doing. Where do we start?”
“East 8, then we will head north and see how far we get.” The guys followed Anna to East 8. It actually ended up being easy. Anna jumped rail and used her machete to cut off the limbs that crossed the rail shelf. She cut them back four or five meters from the rail, except for the jumps which she just trimmed the small branches off of. The small branches she threw onto second level. No sense wasting them. She could collect them and make more plastic with the lysordi. She wasn’t sure about the tienara branches. But she knew they would be put to some use. Golsidans never wasted anything.
After East 8 was finished, they went to East 5 which had no jumps, so Anna had to tie a rope to the rail and lean out as far as she could to cut the limbs. They were too small for any big takosund to cross on. The distance of the cutting back would stop the small ones. Even if they could get there, a big takosund wouldn’t cross nearly two meters of open space.
They finished East 8, East 5, Midnortheast 6, Midnortheast 1, and were working on Northeast 5 when Doru called the time. Anna hurried and since it had jumps, she managed to finish Northeast 5. They trotted into the processing room. “Thanks guys. I’ve got to get home.” She waved and ran for the door.
Doru yelled after her. “Run pack-runner, run!” Run Anna did. She heard Doru’s laughter follow her as she raced down the hall.
Des had supper on the table. Tanake was already there. Sato and Fienu arrived just after Anna. “How did the colored cloth turn out, Tanake?”
“Wonderful! I brought a selection. We can work in many different colors and shades. I have already grouped those that look well together.” Tanake smiled widely.
“Good, let’s eat and then we can start on them.” Des said. They enjoyed a good meal. Tanake really liked Des’s salad. No one had disliked it yet. Sato and Fienu had brought over some tienara biscuits. No wonder, they were so popular. They tasted wonderful.
“First, we have to make patterns.” Tanake said as they got up from the table. “We will make them out of this tough cloth.” Tanake unrolled a thick white cloth. “This cloth is very durable. We make for the youngest first.” Tanake pulled out a measuring tape.
They nodded. “I read up on the average sizes. Since they will be wearing them for a couple of annuals, I thought maybe we should make two or three sizes for each growth group.” Anna shrugged.
“Yes, that sounds like a good idea.” Des nodded. “We can make a couple in each size. With a pattern, we can always make more later.” Sato and Fienu nodded.
Tanake logged onto the design page and pulled up a listing of measurements. “Fienu read these off to me, by groupings as I call for them. We will start here, with youngest shirt small. I had the same idea about sizes.” Tanake smiled.
Tanake marked the measurements and outlined the patterns with a straight edge, and dye marker. Des and Sato cut the patterns. Anna wrote down the size, measurements, and quantity needed for each pattern, on the pattern with another dye marker; sleeve, youngest shirt, size small, quantity two.
They ended up with quite an assortment. Three shirt patterns, three loose pants patterns, three vest patterns, three three-quarter tunic patterns (the split short-sleeved shirt that went to mid-thigh), and three snug pants patterns and that was just for the newborns to first transition. “Wow! We still have to do underwear and pajamas. Although the three-quarter tunic might work as a nightshirt, especially if we made some loose shorts to go with it.” Anna sent out images of what she meant.
“Of course, the tunic would be used more often then. Usually they are just for formal occasions. If used as night shirts, they would be worth making for every child. I was thinking of just making several of the formals and having them share.” Tanake said. “Let me design these loose shorts.” Tanake went to the design page and did just that. They made that pattern in three sizes also.
Finally, they started cutting cloth and sewing. Anna worked on a tan pair of pants, so small it amazed her that something so tiny, would be able to walk, learn, talk, and play. “Sato, the winch system should be finished tomorrow. I thought maybe we should hunt the day after.”
“Why hunt so soon?” Sato asked.
“The broiled takosund is mostly used up. Des’s is gone. What about yours?”
“Yes, it is gone. You wish to keep us in fresh meat?” Fienu queried.
“Well, it seems a shame to use what we have in the processor. Plus, it may take a while to perfect this type of hunt. It has never been tried, not the winches, or the luring takosund in with blood.”
“I think it will work. It may be difficult, getting used to the winches. But it should work.” Sato grinned.
Tanake spoke up. “My Doru is close friends with both Kali and Caso. Kali says, the winch system will be finished and tested tomorrow warm. Caso says Jao and the Elders are very curious about what Phwolfe is doing.”
“If you plan to hunt in just two days, you must invite the Phsatorae and Elders to see the winch, tomorrow warm. You need their permission to do the hunt in a Satorae garden with Satorae personnel.” Sato said.
“Of course, I should have thought of that. Is it okay to call them tonight?”
Des answered. “Go call the Phsatorae and issue the invitation. He will contact the Elders.”
“What time, should I tell him?”
“Well, you probably want to check the winch system yourself first. Plus, you need time to design and order, one of those nooses on a stick things. I would say three sixty. That gives you time to prepare for them.”
Anna nodded. She went and made the call. She was yawning, when she finished. She went and talked to the guys. “Tomorrow at three sixty, the Phsatorae and Elders will visit second level of Northwest 3 garden.” She yawned again. “Sorry guys, I think I better go to bed.”
Des got up, gave her a kiss, and then shooed her away. “Go on with you. I will join you in a bit.”
CHAPTER 9
Winch Them In
Anna didn’t feel Des get into bed. But she woke up curled into his stomach with his arms around her. Once again, she was wide awake early. Prime of Golsidan life must mean you didn’t need much sleep. She knew Des and the others were slowly regaining their strength from the annuals on partial rations. But being fully nourished and healthy, seemed to mean she woke up early.
Anna got up and headed to East 7. The plastic wouldn’t be ready till one. She might as well do some gesar syrup and catronu oil. The gesar syrup was non-perishable, a good trade item, and commodities was once again sold out. You could never have too much gesar syrup. Catronu oil stayed good for annuals and it too was sold out. So she harvested gesar and catronu in East 7 where the volunteers had made paths. She carted it to East 1 and used the central station there, where the heat would bother no one. She worked at it till one. She filled fourteen of the sixty liter pots, five of the big presses, and the drying ovens in Midsoutheast 1 through 4 with gesar rinds.
Anna trotted up and over to Northwest 3. She ordered the boards and posts
that she needed to make three of the takosund carts. The wheels she ordered to be made out of the denua fiber reinforced with plastic like her crossbow. It took her a little while to figure out how to mount the wheels. She decided on a denua/plastic rod in a small U-shaped board. Two boards got glued in place, the wheel placed between them, the rod inserted, then a cap over each end, so the rod couldn’t slide out. The carts went together fast. She was working on the last one, when Gresa showed up at two.
“What are you making now, Phwolfe?” He asked.
“Takosund carts to carry in our kills.” Anna showed Gresa the removable sideboards. “No more trying to lift takosund up onto the carts. The winch lowers it in. The boards get removed to slide it out.”
“These will work very well.” Gresa leaned over and looked at the bottoms. “Good, you reinforced the bottoms. Triple layer denua boards, excellent, takosund are very heavy. You wish to see the winches?” Anna nodded. “Come then, I will show you.”
The winches were perfect. The lifting winch had an arm that could extend out for ten feet and could lift twice the weight of the biggest takosund on record. “I don’t know how we can get the cable out further, without damaging the trees. Surely the takosund won’t all be taken within ten feet of the jump.” Gresa shook his head sadly.
“Would pulleys work?” Anna sent Gresa an image. “We could make center grooved wheels of the right size, mount them in triple plastic reinforced boards. Tie it to a strong tree limb, and thread the winch cable through the pulley. It we make say a dozen of them, you could reach as far out as the cable could go. We have to figure out a way, to get the cable out of the pulley without unhooking the takosund.” Anna shrugged.
Gresa smiled and then laughed. “Simple! You pull in the takosund till you get to the pulley. You back off the pressure until the cable is slack. You untie that pulleys rope. You pull it in till you get to the next pulley. You unthread the pulleys on second level after you load the takosund into the carry cart.”
“That would work. How big should they be?”
“Make it about twice the width and diameter of your cartwheels with a two inch center groove. Use the denua/plastic blend for everything. If you have enough plastic, make twenty of them. It is better to have too many, than too few.”
“I’ll go start on it.” It didn’t take long to design or order. Gluing them got to be a little tedious. Anna ordered two six meter ropes for each one. She had made two holes in each pulley board for the ropes. Better to have the strength of two ropes. She didn’t want them to break. When she finished, she threw them in her pack, and carried them up to the second level. She dumped the pack and they slid out in a tangled heap.
“Well, you better make up some oversized tie bags to stuff each of those in to. Otherwise, we will constantly be untangling them.”
Anna ran off to order the bags. After she brought them back, she untangled and bagged each pulley. Gresa glanced over at the stacked bags. “You should hang those on the back of the winch post or else the mewu will chew on them.”
Off Anna ran again. She made a cross out of glued denua boards with dowels sticking out of the horizontal board. She carried it up to second level and glued the vertical board to the back of the winch post, and hung up the pulley bags. “That isn’t bad, Phwolfe. Now, the winch has tested out fine. We have seven mechanics trained to operate it and we picked lots, on the order of hunt we get. Kali gets first hunt. I get fourth. You will meet the others as you go along.”
“The Phsatorae and Elders will arrive at three sixty. They wish to see the winch system. If they approve, we hunt tomorrow.” Anna told Gresa with a smile.
“Well, since it is his hunt, I will tell Kali to be here at three sixty. Have a good day, Phwolfe.” Gresa turned and left. Anna had over an hour left till the meeting, so she went and logged back onto design. She needed to make the dogcatcher’s noose. She would need cable. She called up the supply listing for the East supply depots and found a spool of quarter inch cable.
From the main limbs to the ground measured about six point five meters and you might have to reach out at an angle, so Anna designed a telescoping hollow pole that collapsed down to seven meters and could extend to twelve. The cable loop would be made at the end of the winch cable and hooked onto a lever at the end of the pole. The quarter inch cable feed through the tube. One end hooked to the lever, the other end to a pull release. A spring held the lever tight keeping the loop from slipping. This allowed you two free hands to maneuver with, without worrying about the cable loop shrinking or enlarging because of a loose cable.
Anna ordered up what she needed to make two poles. She ran to East supply depot and got the cable she needed, then trotted back and assembled the poles. As she worked, she got to thinking. What if the takosund was lying flat? How would you put the noose on it then?
Gaff hooks like fishermen sometimes used, would work. Hook it into a jaw hinge, nostril, or eye, and lift the head up so it could be noosed. Anna went back to the design page. She drafted the gaff hook poles to be seven meters long and made out of solid denua/plastic fiber. They’d be lifting a lot of weight. They had screw on extenders that could increase their length up to thirteen meters. But she needed something for the hooks. Denua fiber wasn’t strong enough to puncture any part of a takosund.
The small rib knifes would work. Anna ordered the gaff poles to be made with a hollow tube for the knife handle to be glued in. She ordered six of them. While they were being made, she ran to the takosund knife armory at East 8 and got eighteen of the small rib knifes.
Anna glued six of the knives into the seven meter long gaff hook poles. She wrapped the outsides with glue soaked rope from the knives hilt all the way to the bottom of the pole. The weakest point was at the bottom where the pole bent into a ninety degree angle, hopefully, by gluing the rope all the way around that angle to the bottom of the pole. Even if it broke, the knife could still be pulled up by the glued on rope. She set them on the center station beside the noose poles.
Anna ordered up six gaff poles at three meter for helping to get the takosund over the rail, and then six at one point eight meters for helping to lower it into the carts. She set the knives and wrapped them, laying them on the center station to dry.
Anna loaded everything into a takosund cart and pushed it to the second level. She decided the best place for them, would be secured to the rail. She ran back down and ordered some denua boards with four levels of dowels. She carried the boards up, and glued them to the rail. The noose poles got put on the top level, then the gaff poles below it with the shortest on the bottom. Anna glued a net to the bottom of each dowel. The net got pulled up and tied to the level above, to keep the poles from falling off. The top net tied directly to the rail.
With that finished, Anna trotted back down to the processing room. She still had to figure out how to get a container of blood to the jungle floor. She wanted the blood scent in a well located spot. She wanted to be able to cover it, and pull it up at the end of the hunt. She didn’t want takosunds constantly attracted to this area, which she feared just pouring the blood on the ground would do. She was on the design page when Kali showed up.
“Making more pulleys, Phwolfe. They will work well.” Kali said.
“No, I’m trying to figure out a container to put the blood in. I want to be able to lower it, retrieve it, and cover it. I’ve got a basic design.” Anna motioned Kali over. “It’s a wide shallow bowl with a splayed bottom lip to keep it from tipping over. I’ve got a wide flat top lip, so you can set a cover with a center handle on it. But how do I lower and raise it?”
Kali studied the diagrams and then pointed. “Make a slightly recessed lip so the cover won’t slide around, widen the outer lip and place three or four handles on the top of the lip along the edges. You can lower it with ropes.”
“Or the gaff poles.” Kali stared at Anna. “You’ll see later when I show them to the Elders. This will work great Kali, thank you. You certainly do have a very sharp mind
.”
“I am glad you think so. Gresa and I have discussed it. We would like to enter into a child birth contract with Des and you.” Kali shuffled his feet.
“Gresa, would agree to the mind transfer?” Anna asked. Kali nodded. “There is a waiting list Kali. I’m carrying for Sato and Fienu now, then there’s Jao and Caso, Dasie and Brema, Mapao and Kesti, Liso and Tava, and Tanake and Doru. We would gladly add Gresa and you to the list.”
“Please do. We both wish to have children. Gresa seems bossy and gruff, mostly because he feels unfinished. He wishes to teach children. Teaching is his first trade, you know. He can’t practice it for there are no children to teach.”
“I didn’t realize teaching was his first trade. Now that I know, Wolfe will be approaching him with an offer, before the children are born. We will need people willing to trance teach, and to do historical and general life lessons.”
“He would be most pleased by an offer. He will be very glad, I talked to you. He has been trying to work up his nerve.” Kali smiled shyly.
“I’m glad we talked Kali. Are you willing to explain the winch system to the Elders?”
Kali nodded. “I will do my best.”
Anna ordered up the blood bowl. The Elders began to arrive and then the Phsatorae entered. “So Phwolfe, you wish to have a hunt?” Kantuia asked.
“Yes, Elder, but first I’d like to show you the preparations that have been made. Mechanic Kali has agreed to explain the winch system to you.”
Kali gave a detailed explanation of the winch system. He finished up with “Phwolfe traded for the winch design and installation. The pulleys which greatly increase the winches range were designed and made by Phwolfe. She will have to explain everything else to you.” Kali bowed. Everyone turned and stared at Anna.
“First in running order of use, the noose pole and long gaff pole, after the takosund is dead, we must get a cable on it, so the winch can pull it in. Descending to ground level is too dangerous for a person. These poles solve that problem.” Anna held out the gaff pole and pointed to the noose pole. “We hook onto the takosund through a nostril, jaw hinge, or eye with this pole and lift up to allow the noose to slide around the takosund’s head. The noose gets tightened when the winch pulls up the cable slack. The tightened noose, behind the head will allow the takosund to be dragged and lifted up. We use this mid-length gaff pole to pull the takosund over the rail. I don’t want people up on the rail shelf or leaning over the rail shelf. These poles allow them to stay safely on this side of the rail. Once the takosund is swung over the rail with the help of the gaff poles, it gets lowered into the carts. The carts are designed to carry heavy weight. The sideboards easily slide out allowing the takosund to be removed for processing without lifting it.” Anna shrugged. “That explains the poles and carts.”
Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1) Page 33