#261
"So, we're just gonna let the plane drop?" Milo halfway challenged the group.
"Well then, tell us what you think we should do about it," Dory challenged right back. "It seems to me that providing a greenhouse of sorts is way higher priority for current food production, than a plane that wont feed us one bit." Almost snippy in her frustration of the airplane, Dory called out Milo's worrying about a subject they couldn't change.
"I guess, nothing." Milo finished lamely. "Both seem out of reach at the moment." he added quietly. "Almost as bad as cleaning out the tunnel, how'er we gonna get that done?" He looked around the room for suggestions and was met with blank stares.
Mark held his say, encouraging the rest of the clan to brainstorm and come up with ideas. Clora reached up and put her hand over his, as it rested on her shoulder.
Toby spoke up. "I counted four panes of glass that need to be repaired in our houses. One for me, one for Milo and two in the main house. We have six panes available, if we take them out of the cabin where the tunnel ends. So right off hand, we don't have enough glass to erect a greenhouse. The best idea Rennie and I have come up with, is to put stones around the heat loving plants to use as a heat sink. Hopefully the sun will warm them, and if there are other suggestions, let's hear them."
Toby took a deep breath and looked at Dory. "In future meetings, if you don't have anything positive to say, then I request you say nothing. We don't need you sniping at us with caustic words. We respect and honor all people and their opinions. Is that very clear and well understood?" Toby stood tall, and it was clear to see he was very angry.
"Yes," Dory's tone was just short of snippy, and then she looked around and noticed she certainly wasn't in the majority opinion. "Yes," she moderated her voice, "I'm sorry, it's just that I'm so frustrated. We came all this way, to wind up in no different circumstances than we had in Iowa. That's not clear thinking, and to spend three months of hard travel to get here is not the best use of our time and resources. What can we do, to grow and re-supply ourselves here; that we couldn't do in Iowa?"
There it was, the 700 pound elephant in the room.
"It was the danger Dory, everyone that stayed in Belnap has been killed. That's why we moved away from there; and if you resented the trip here, why did you come?" Tess snapped at her friend.
"Do we know for sure that everyone was killed. How can we be certain, has someone come by at told you the facts?" Dory was hot and on a roll, frustrated at the cumbersome way the clan operated.
"It happened, you're just gonna have to take my word for it. We have some of the members that weren't at home during the raid and they are trying to get themselves here. There are five of them coming, so we need to clear the tunnel and make the main house livable. Look Dory," Tess was stern and unsmiling; "you may not like the way we operate here, but we've run our business this way longer than you have been associated with us. So it really boils down to, hold your tongue or leave."
The cold hard facts in stark terms had Dory blinking rapidly, and understanding that if she wanted to stay, her preferred manner of meeting and solving problems was going to have to go by the wayside.
"I apologize," she said contritely, and sat down and tried to make herself invisible.
Toby nodded, and looked at Milo. "The floor is yours, you have any ideas?"
"Not really, I need to confer with Honey, but the rock idea sounds workable. I think we would have to go to the quarry to get rock big enough to be of any use."
Tess stirred, like she had an idea to present. "We might try composting between the rows, that does heat, and it might benefit the plants, or provide heat for the rocks."
"Good idea," Toby approved. "We've got the manure making factories, and although horse manure is not the ideal, it's what we have to deal with. Ok people, we need ideas, let's have'm."
There were shrugs and blank looks. Toby said they would spend the day working on home projects, and then tomorrow would be spent in more plowing and enlarging the garden.