Sugar Bush

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As the winter began to wind down the family of Aeryn and Cerric gathered in their one room cabin to contemplate their options. Crops needed to be planted and the house needed to be rebuilt after autumn’s tragic fire. With Cerric still recovering from the injuries that he sustained in the fire it didn’t look like he would be able to do much of either.

“We really need to concentrate on planting before we start rebuilding the house.” Said Rhys firmly. “Once planting is complete then we can start on the house.”

“I agree,” said Cerric quietly but firmly. “But we need to get some extra money to rebuild the house; we just have enough for seed as it is.”

Callum looked up suddenly. Aeryn thought that her youngest was napping by the fire but he suddenly came to life. “The Sugar bush! The money we get from the Sugar bush is just wasted on the spring festival anyhow; we’ll use the Sugar bush money to buy building supplies.”

“What do you mean wait until after planting to rebuild the house?” frowned Aeryn ignoring Callum’s outburst. “I am not cooking and laundering for the entire planting crew in this tiny one room shack!”

“We can cut back on hiring a full crew now that we have the new harrow and the draught team is fully mature. Planting should be a relative snap.” Said Cerric speaking of the two large chevalters he’d been working with, intensely training for the past two years. They were now fully trained and able to follow his every command. The large beasts were now ready to start earning their keep.

“And I can do the Sugar bush myself,” interjected Callum, “I’ll just take Buzz with me and I’ll be fine.” The Buzz he referred to was the old and cranky chevalter, they had tilled the fields with in the past.

“The weather is getting nice so I can move into the barn. Those blankets we’ve been hanging as walls don’t stop the noises you old people make late at night,” grinned Rhys at his parents.

“Why you wise…” Aeryn swatted her oldest son with a towel before she realized that her husband was grinning and blushing at the same time.

“I’m going to have to agree with Rhys on that one, Ma.” Said Callum unsuccessfully ducking a wooden bowl tossed at him by his mother.

“Haven’t you left for the Sugar bush yet?” she asked.

“Wait a minute, he’s not going into the Sugar bush alone.” said Cerric. “First of all it’s too much work for one man and second of all it’s too isolated. What if something happened? How would you get help?”

Callum had an answer ready. “I’ve been talking all winter with Sathig. We devised a few methods that will make it easier. We have all the taps cut so we won’t have to cut any in the bush, we built a steerable sled that should really make collecting a lot easier, and we should be able to combine our Sugar bush plots and even increase production. We’re estimating a 35 percent increase in…”

When Callum started talking numbers Cerric usually knew that any argument he had was lost because Callum’s numbers always worked out. Callum’s estimates of the nitrogen level increase in the fields were dead on when they tried the pieca bean rotation that he proposed. With a defeated sigh Cerric waived his hand giving his grudging blessings on his youngest. Besides, of all the chores that Callum could possibly do on the farm, the Sugar bush was his favorite and everyone knew it. In the old days when they went out as a family to the Sugar bush it was little Callum that was the driving force behind the entire enterprise since the day he could reach the top of the sugar furnace.

The next morning Callum headed out to the Sugar bush an arn before the sun peeked above the horizon. He gave his assurances that he should be done in time to help with the planting, and with a final reminder to everyone that this was ‘free money’ he clucked his tongue at Buzz and they were off, heading to the high country where the cold season still held on. With his family’s good-byes still ringing in his ears he walked beside Buzz who was hauling a heavy load on the wagon; new wooden buckets, the new sled, hundreds of taps, food, blankets, tools, clothing, and dozens of other implements of the trade.

Callum and Buzz followed the wagon path heading away from town, away from the city and towards the hill country. The morning was warm and sunny and the first brave waterfowl were returning from the equatorial regions, the few snows from the cold season were only a fading memory on the shady sides of the hills and ditches. Finally they reached the train tracks; four wooden rails on wooden cross ties stretching off in each direction. Callum pulled large wooden wedges called frogs off the wagon and placed them against the tracks. The frogs were normally used to cross the tracks, and Callum did just that with the first pair of rails. However on the second pair of rails Callum used the frogs and a long pry pole to position the wagon between the rails facing the hills to where the tracks stretched. Callum then took a small set of wheels with a strange axle-cradle assembly off the wagon, placed them on the tracks and using the pole and the wooden frogs that he stacked up, he pried the front of wagon off the ground. Once the wagon was raised he kicked the axle assembly under the wagon wheels then lowered the wagon wheels onto the axle/cradle assembly. Callum repeated the process with the rear wheels and in a matter of minutes the wagon was on the rails and Buzz was plodding along with ease, the ceramic capped rails made the passage of the wagon so much easier.

Onward they traveled, Buzz’s hoofs clopping between the rails, the ceramic covered wooden flanged wheels making the ceramic rail cap sing as they breezed along. Well, relatively breezed along. About as breezed along as a chevalter drawn wagon can go. Normally they would come up behind an boeuf train and have to slow down to follow it. The tracks are publicly owned so anyone with the right wheel set can use the tracks as Callum and Buzz are doing now, but the huge boeuf trains that haul freight and passengers have the right of way. Should you encounter one of the lumbering trains you either follow it, or get off the tracks, sprint ahead, then get back on the tracks well in the lead of the boeuf train. However this bright, late winter morning luck was on Callum’s side as they clip-clopped along. The tracks were nearly level and smooth and pulling the wagon was vastly easier for Buzz so they were making good time. The only occasion they met an boeuf train it was heading in the opposite direction on the other set of tracks. It was huge, a 10 boeuf team pulling twenty wagons. Heading downhill on the nearly imperceptible grade the boeuf team was being used to keep the wagons from gaining speed as gravity pushed them along. The boeuf drovers waived as they passed Callum and a brakeman hopped off one wagon to chat with Callum for a few moments before rejoining the train. It was one of the largest boeuf trains that Callum had ever seen.

Before long the tracks began to wind up into the high country at very gentle pitch, Buzz was able to handle the climb easily. There was still plenty of snow here although the warm weather was slowly arriving. Callum pulled on a warmer jacket as he rode on the wagon behind Buzz and hoped that they didn’t arrive too late for the sap collecting. Finally they came to a faint wagon path that crossed the tracks and Callum halted Buzz. Reversing the process he used earlier Callum freed the wagon from the rail wheels and they crossed out of the tracks and headed up the hill following the wagon path to the Sugar bush.

After pausing to let Buzz slake his thirst in a stream and thoughtfully munch a bag of oats they proceeded on. The sun set behind the hills as they crested a rise and looked down on the small L shaped shack that was going to be Callum’s home for the next moen or two. Callum felt the excitement rising in his stomach, the Sugar bush! How he loved the long days of work in the cool forest, tapping trees and collecting sap, hauling it down to the Sugar shack and boiling it down to grogan sugar crystals for the sweet tooth of the city folk. He was hoping to collect 300 pounds of crystals this year, which could eventually yield over 500 credits of ‘free’ money! Free money meaning that he didn’t have to buy the seeds or plant this crop, just harvest it and process it.

There was a light on in the cabin and smoke curled out of the stone chimney, Callums friend must already be there. Callum stopped the wagon and unhitched Buzz from it, them using a length of rope stretched from tree to tree Callum made a temporary paddock for Buzz, then headed into the cabin.

As Callum entered the cabin and was greeted with a feminine gasp. A short curvaceous young woman stood next to the furnace wearing only a towel, he obviously interrupted her as she finished her bathing. His approving eye roved over her body and he tried to sear this image on his minds canvas to hold for eternity. “You’re not Sathig.” He finally said.

She stared at him like he was crazy. “Do I look like Sathig?” she asked as she dropped the towel.

“A little. You ARE his sister.” He grinned as he pulled off his jacket.

“Shut up and kiss me you twerp.” She said as she melted in his arms. Callum took Eylan, his love, into his arms and their lips met in long passionate kiss. When they finally broke the kiss she gasped “You’re early, I didn’t expect you for a few more days.”

“The folks were easier to convince than I expected.” He grinned.

* * * *

Meanwhile, back on the farm…

(I always wanted to use that line)

Preparation for planting was going smoothly, Rhys obtained the seed needed and was learning to handle the draught team under his father’s stern but fair tutelage. Aeryn spent several days cutting up left over dolo roots for planting. This was physically the hardest of all vegetables they plant because it’s not a seed but a chunk of root and there’s no planting device that can handle it so it must be done by hand. Cut up the dolo root so each piece has a shoot growing from one of the ‘eyes’, then bury the root in well- tilled dirt with a shovel. No mechanical device can do that, none that they’ve seen in the catalogs at any rate. Aeryn thought idly that she should ask Callum if he could develop a planting machine for dolos when he gets back, he’s very clever with that kind of thing.

It was a week after Callum left for the Sugar bush that Kirhan and Shalla, neighbors, friends and parents of Sathig and Eylan stopped by to see how Cerric was doing. They seemed genuinely shocked to see Aeryn perched on a stool out side the one room cabin the family had been living in since the fire. Aeryn was enjoying the late afternoon sunshine as she rested with a bowl of cut up dolo roots on her lap and a sack of dolos at her side waiting their turn under Aeryn’s knife.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“We though you…” started Kirhan. He was lost for words, his precious daughter told him that she was heading to the sugar bush with Aeryn but here Aeryn sits!

“Eylan had told us that…” tried Shalla but she too couldn’t find the words.

“What do you mean?” asked Aeryn but her question was answered when Sathig stepped around the corner and he too was a bit shocked to see Aeryn there but then he broke into a sly grin.

Rhys and Cerric rode up on the wagon hauling the first load of lumber that they managed to scavenge for the new house when they saw the stunned looks on everyone’s face. Rhys saw Sathig standing there and immediately realized that Callum went off to the Sugar bush with Eylan. He saw the angry look on his mothers face and he broke into a grin “There’s going to be a butt whooping tonight!” he grinned.

Cerric saw that look on his wife’s face and shook his head. “Looks like you’re going to be an only child Rhys.”

“Dad! You made a funny!” Rhys was actually shocked that his staid, stick in the mud father actually cracked a joke.

“’s been known to happen.”

“Not in my lifetime.”

Aeryn left for the Sugar bush immediately and alone. She could make better time on the trip if she traveled alone and everyone agreed with her in spirit, but they tried to convince her to wait for the morning if possible, however she wouldn’t be stopped. Cerric pleaded with her one last time to get her to wait until dawn but she wouldn’t hear of it.

“Then take Rhys with you.”

“You need him here for planting more than I will need him for a little hike.”

“Then take Shalla with you!” he pleaded.

Aeryn saw the concern in her husband’s eyes and smiled. “I’d end up carrying her before I got a quarter of the way there. Now don’t fret over me, I was a soldier remember?”

Cerric opened his mouth then chose to leave that thought unsaid. Instead he took Aeryn into his arms. “What are you going to do when you get there?”

“Probably beat the both of them within an inch of their lives. I hope the hike calms me down some. I’ll just cross that bridge when I get to it.”

Cerric looked confused. “There’s no bridge between…”

Aeryn hushed him with a finger to his lips. “It’s an expression.”

Rhys came out of the cabin with a parka and a bulging backpack. “There’s clothes, food, two blankets and an extra pair of boots here for you Ma.”

“Thank you darling.” Aeryn said as shouldered the pack. After the good byes she headed off down the wagon path at a determined pace as the sun set and darkness fell.

They watched her leave and when her figure disappeared into the gloom Cerric asked Rhys with out looking at him. “How many rocks did you put in your mothers backpack, son?”

“Father! I’m shocked! I… I… I… I just don’t know what to say… such a horrible accusation! I thought you knew me better.” He sniffed and wiped an imaginary tear from his eye.

“All right then, how many BRICKS did you put in your mothers backpack, son?

“Four…”

* * * *

The light snow fell softly in the early morning hours drifting down through the branches and softly covering the ground. The weather was perfect for collecting tree sap. The first few days was spent drilling holes in the trees with a ceramic tipped auger, then setting the wooden taps into the holes with a wooden mallet, then finally hanging a covered wooden collection bucket from the taps. As the weather warmed throughout the day the sound of sap dripping into the buckets could be heard through out the Grogan woods, or sugar bush, as the old hill men once called it.

While waiting for the buckets to fill Callum spent the morning hours collecting coal from the nearby vein that ran very close to the surface and hauling it back to the sugar shack. When the coal bin was full he cut and chopped firewood using his bow saw and axe, some of the few metal tools he brought. Once the wood box was full he hitched the sled to Buzz, mounted a short squat barrel on the wagon and headed up the hill to collect the sap. He took a crossbow with him in case he saw some game.

Eylan too rose early and started her day with cleaning out the cinders from the sugar furnace and hauling the ashes to a collection pit, but leaving a bucket full in the outhouse to be used to keep the pit “sweet”. She then returned to the sugar shack to start a wood fire in the furnace, and while the fire was starting to warm the large ceramic belly of the furnace she scrubbed the ‘maze’ on the top of the furnace sparkling clean.

Now that the wood fire in the furnace was burning brightly she could start adding coal to the fire. The coal burned hot, even, and slowly and for the thousandth time she thanked the gods that they had a vein of coal nearby otherwise Callum would be spending most of his time cutting firewood. She carefully adjusted the air intake and chimney flue to insure the fire was getting just the right amount of air. Too little and the fire would snuff out or sputter and “clinkers” would form on the grates and would have to be chipped out, too much air and the fire would get too hot and the furnace might shatter.

Now that the furnace was hot she prepared porridge, biscuits, and antillie steaks for breakfast. When the meal was ready she loaded up a wooden bowl with food and carried it out into the woods and up the hill then left the bowl next to the sleeping figure of Callum’s mother, then headed back to the sugar shack. Standing on the porch of the shack she put her fingers to her mouth and let out a screeching whistle that echoed off the hills. She heard a forest fowl squawk in surprise followed by Callum’s faint cry of “Dren!” and she knew that she ruined his mornings hunt.

He slid down the hill a few moments later and dashed into the shack and scooped Eylan into his arms and planted a big kiss on her lips.

“What’s gotten into you this morning?” she asked as she pushed her playful man away.

“It’s a beautiful morning spent with a beautiful woman in a beautiful forest. What more could a man want?”

“Breakfast!” she answered as she pushed a bowl of porridge to him. “The sap’s starting to flow proper now and it looks to be a warm day so we have a plenty of work ahead of us.”

Callum settled down on a stool at the small table. “Not to mention my mother…”

“I will handle your mother, you just get the sap out of those trees.”

Not long after breakfast was finished Callum headed back up the hill to where Buzz awaited. Aeryn approached the cabin using all her military training to remain silent and invisible. She crept up onto the porch as stealthily as possible and peeked in the window. Elyan was working the fire in the furnace in preparation for the days sugar making. Aeryn was still upset that Elyan was able to sneak up on her as easily as she did this morning. Now Elyan was going to learn how a soldier can creep up on someone! Aeryn slowly opened the door and reached in to set her breakfast bowl just inside the cabin as a calling card when Elyan called out “Aeryn, can you hand me that fire poker next to the door while you’re there?”

Knowing the game was over before it started Aeryn pushed the door open and stepped into the cramped cabin. The furnace and the tools of the trade took up the vast majority of the floor space; most of the living went on in the other room where there was a table, chairs, and folding cots. She sighed and handed the heavy wooden pole to Elyan who still knelt before the open furnace door. Elayn took the pole with a “Thank you” and spread out the fire evenly before adding more coal. With the fire tended to she stood and smiled at Aeryn. “Did you find breakfast to your liking?”

Aeryn sighed and sat on a small stool. “It was fine, thank you.”

Elyan stepped up to the wall and turned a small wooden tap. Immediately tree sap flowed from the tap to a wooden trough that carried it from the tap to the maze on the top of the furnace. The sap, which flowed at a consistency just slightly thicker than water, flowed through the maze of short ceramic walls built on the top of the furnace. The maze insured that the sap flowed back and forth across the hot furnace surface boiling the entire time until it reached the far end of the maze with as much water boiled out as possible. “We’ll be having forest fowl for dinner if you would like to join us,” said Elyan as she carefully watched the boiling sap move through the maze. She was looking for cold spots and hot spots so she could adjust the fire if needed.

“Not if you keep scaring off the birds,” said Aeryn, thinking of the piercing whistle that woke her this morning.

“Callum will get one, he’s a great shot. If not we have plenty of venison and dolo stew for dinner.”

There was a cold silence between the women. The sizzling of the boiling sap filled the air as the women glared at each other. Aeryn finally broke the silence. “Why did you do this? Do you think this is some lovers game out here?”

“We did this so we could spend some time together. With planting and building the new house I won’t be able to see Callum until late summer and then harvest starts.” Said Elyan defiantly.

“What if you become pregnant? Then what? Your little game is going to blow up in your face.”

Elyan held up her left hand and wiggled her fingers. “Do you see a ring there? Until you do there’s going to be no grandchildren for you.” The first syrup was pouring off the maze and into a large crock. Elyan dipped a wooden spoon into it and checked the product for consistency and color. She smiled, satisfied with what she saw. “It’s not a game, we’re here to work. We’ve been cooking sugar for almost a week now and have over 50 pounds already and we’re just hitting our stride…”

But Aeryn wasn’t listening to the details of their work; the word “Grandchildren” hit Aeryn hard. Grandchildren! I’m not nearly old enough to have grandchildren. How dare this slip of a girl suggest it! And what if I was old enough to have grandchildren? So what? “So why don’t you and Callum marry?”

“We will. We’re saving money for a farm of our own. We need your approval first.”

“What about your father’s approval?” Aeryn was a bit taken back. Like many patriarchal societies this one required the fathers approval for a daughter to marry.

Elyan smiled. “Dad loves Callum, and besides, when he finds out what we’re up to, his permission is a foregone conclusion. I bet he’ll insist we get married.” She started to laugh.

“He will at that,” said Aeryn finally letting herself smile, “but why my approval? It’s not tradition to ask the mother of the groom her approval.”

Elyan sighed. “Callum thinks the world of you, he’s so proud of your strength and values your opinion on every subject. It’s I that couldn’t marry Callum if you disapproved of me.”

“Why not just ask me?”

Elyan went back to stiring. “It’s not a good idea to ask a question you don’t know the answer to.”

“So why go through all this, you had to know I would be angry, I may not give approval to your wedding plans.”

Elyan considered Aeryn. “Hasn’t there been anyone in your life that you’d do anything just to spend some time with him?”

Aeryn touched her locket and knew the answer to that question immediately.

* * * *

Callum urged Buzz down the hill with the small barrel on the sled full of tree sap and a nice fowl carcass hanging from Buzz’s harness. He stopped the sled next to a very large barrel that stood on stilt legs next to the cabin. He attached a block and tackle that hung from a beam that extended out from the roof of the sugar shack to the small barrel on the sled and hoisted the small barrel until it was above the large barrel. He then opened a small panel on the top of the large barrel and opened a tap on the base of the small barrel he just hoisted and the tree sap flowed from the small barrel to the larger one. The large barrel fed the sugar furnace and was the main idea that allowed Callum to spend more time collecting more sap rather than hauling small amounts of sap down to the furnace throughout the day as they had done in the past.

As the tree sap he spent the morning collecting emptied into the large barrel he took the fowl into the cabin where he found Elyan and Aeryn stirring syrup until it crystallized into sugar. Their excited chatter stopped when he stepped into the hot, humid cabin. Both women were wearing light cotton shirts and were covered with sweat from the heat and their exertions. Callum on the other hand had spent half the day outside in the near freezing temperatures without his jacket on because it restricted his movements as he darted from tree to tree emptying the collection buckets into the small barrel on the sled. The heat in the cabin felt good.

“Plotting against me?” he asked.

The only answer was “Clean that bird outside! Do you want to get feathers in the sugar?” from both his mother and Elyan. They looked at each other and went back to stirring the thick syrup with wooden paddles. He decided discretion was the better part of valor and retreated to the porch where he plucked the fowl being careful to save the downy feathers for pillow stuffing and one good tail feather for his collection.

Aeryn spent several days with the young couple and never once mentioned her mission to her son, nor did she tell him what she and Elyan spoke of during the day while they stirred syrup and he collected sap. After she left her presence was missed only because of the help she provided. Now that they were alone the young lovers could spend some time together, however the exhausting nature of their work prevented them from enjoying their solitude to its fullest.

Finally the sugar days came to an end. The temperatures remained above freezing in the evening which meant the sap stopped flowing. Now was the time to scrub the buckets and replace the taps in the trees with an enzyme covered plug that allowed the tree to heal. With over six hundred pounds of grogan sugar in granular and cake form and several gallons of refined syrup it was time to boil down the last few drops of the sap then scrub down the sugar furnace and cap the chimney. Time to pack up and go. With heavy hearts they returned to their little farming community knowing that family obligations and farm chores would keep them separated for months. They stopped several times to hop off the wagon and explore their love in the warm sunshine before moving on.

Finally as the sun set they approached Callum’s family farm. He noticed that there were lanterns hanging from every tree branch and corner of every building and shed. Garlands and streamers decorated the farm yard and dozens of friends and neighbors filled the yard.

“My lord it looks like a wedding party!” gasped Callum. His mother stepped into view wearing her finest dress and urged them to hurry along the wagon path. Her ever-present locket glinting at her throat in the remaining light of day.

“Yes it does,” said Elyan with a conspiratorial smile.


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PKAmmoTroop

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