Reclamation (Best Laid Plans Book 4) (20 page)

But aside from worries about the outside world things were looking better by the day. Conditions at the shelter were steadily improving, with various projects to make things less crowded and more livable. The crops were growing well in the gardens, the livestock they were caring for were healthy and promised future prosperity, and the hunting and foraging were enough to keep them fed and their diet varied without forcing them to use too much of the wheat purchased in Newtown.

For the most part everyone was healthy and in good spirits. There were a few issues with some people not doing work they'd committed to do, or being too lazy and uninventive to find a way to contribute at all, but although there were the inevitable squabbles nobody had proven unhelpful and argumentative enough to cause serious issues.

Anyone who did have copious amounts of spare time was encouraged to head to town to see if there were ways they could help, and between the reconstruction and other projects there always were.

Fifteen days after the family reached Aspen Hill, content that everyone was settled in and had established a routine, Lewis finally got everything ready to do a task that'd been occupying his thoughts since they went after the sheep.

Going after the bees.

Jane had been very squeamish about the idea of capturing a queen to start a hive of their own every time Lewis brought it up, and for his part he was intimidated by the thought of tackling the challenge alone unless there just wasn't anyone else who wanted to help.

He'd been pretty confident he could find
someone
willing to help him, at the prospect of getting some honey for their trouble. But he preferred to keep it in the family, or at least the families living at the shelter. After their family got back he had a new opportunity to broach the subject, and as he'd hoped Trev was immediately on board with the idea.

His cousin was eager to go after a new source of food, especially a sustainable one, that he could take some pride of ownership in. And Lewis didn't blame him; Trev had been working diligently in the gardens, about the only venture he still had some stake in, but it obviously pained him that he didn't have anything to call his own like the animals the others had purchased, captured, or earned.

With that in mind Lewis was perfectly happy to let him take the lead in honey production if he wanted. If they managed to start their own beehive it would benefit from having someone's undivided attention, and Lewis already had enough on his plate.

Aunt Clair was interested in pitching in too, surprisingly. She'd known some local beekeepers around Greenbush, who she'd kept in touch with after initially approaching them with questions about pollination for her garden. She'd even toyed with the idea of raising her own bees, before deciding that the garden itself was enough work, especially when she could buy or trade fresh produce for raw honey from her friends.

Not only did his aunt want them to go after the honey and even try to capture a swarm if they could, she even offered to come along and help.

Decided, the three of them began planning their trip.

Capturing the queen from the large, well established hive he and Jane had seen in the tree probably wasn't going to happen, since it would be too disruptive to the bees. The best they could hope for there would be to collect the honey stores in a sustainable way and then leave it alone.

Luckily it was spring, and about the right time of year when new swarms split off to form their own colonies. That was better for multiple reasons: it would be less disruptive since the swarm was already positioned to move, the swarm would get up and running in the new beehive more quickly, they'd have a much easier time capturing and moving it, and it would have a better chance of surviving the transition. With some luck and a bit of searching they might be able to find a new swarm hanging on a tree branch, which would be the easiest time to capture it.

They took the necessary precautions before setting out, doing as much research as possible and making the required preparations in the fourteen days before the planned trip up into the mountains.

First and foremost was scrounging up clothing to cover as much of their exposed skin as possible, including ties around the cuffs and collars to prevent the small insects from climbing in. For capturing the swarm if they did their jobs correctly the covering shouldn't even be necessary, but for harvesting the honey they fully anticipated they might get stung at least a few times even with some precautions. As far as they knew none of them were allergic, so that shouldn't be more than a minor discomfort.

For the main hive, which they planned to harvest honey from, they brought a metal pail they could fill with green leaves to produce smoke and calm the bees. They also brought a sturdy watertight sack to put the honeycombs in.

For the swarm they brought a spray bottle filled with sugar water so they could mist the wings of the clump of bees, making them too heavy to easily fly when they shook or scraped the swarm loose into the small wooden container Lewis and Trev had made. The container was dark and comfortably enclosed, with a mesh screen for a lid, and they hoped it would safely carry the swarm back with them.

It may have been a bit optimistic but they also spent some time building a box beehive, complete with niches for screens, to house the swarm once they got back with it. Trev volunteered to find a secluded, out of the way place a reasonable distance from the shelter where they could put it, using the criteria Lewis and his mom suggested, and once they'd come out to approve the location he set up the box there.

There was mixed excitement and apprehension at the shelter over the prospect of having a beehive. More than one person was afraid of having bees around that might sting them, while Terry and April's two boys wanted to come along and see the hive up close when Lewis's expedition took it apart. But while a beehive might've made a few people nervous, no one had any problem with the idea of them bringing back the honeycombs they planned to harvest.

They planned to set out early in the morning. The ideal time to capture a swarm would be in the morning or evening, when the bees were less active, which for this trip meant evening. That meant there was no real need to leave
too
early considering the distance they had to go, even if most of it was uphill. But with the consideration of traveling at whatever pace Aunt Clair could manage they wanted to make sure they had plenty of time to get there. That way they could search the area and capture the swarm before it got too dark to see.

It would also be nice to harvest the wild honey that same day, if they had enough time, so they'd have everything done before setting camp and could get home as quickly as possible the next morning. If things went well they might even be able to travel part of the way home before stopping for the night.

Since there were quite a few things they needed to take with them for the bees they packed light for the trip, with just enough food for a few meals, sleeping bags, a tent large enough for all of them, and Lewis and Trev's rifles and some spare magazines, just in case.

Trev had left quite a bit of ammo behind when he set out for Michigan, .45 and .223 for his Glock and Mini-14. He'd also left behind some spare magazines for the rifle, as well as a few 1911 magazines left over from his first gun that was stolen, way back at that Spanish Fork roadblock during his trip up to Midvale with Matt.

With that in mind one of his first errands after coming home had been trading one of the AK-47s to the town storehouse for one of the M16s they'd captured from the raiders. Lewis had gone along with him at his cousin's request, to give him advice and inspect the weapons he wanted to buy. Their plan was to make it a straight trade, just the gun itself with no ammunition or magazines, since those could be used by the other two AK-47s their dads were still using.

It wasn't a great trade for the town value-wise, but Scott Tillman was fairly generous and didn't charge extra for it, considering Trev would be using it for patrolling. He
did
, however, charge for the 1911 Trev purchased, cutting down a hefty chunk of the town's debt for the food in the cache they'd purchased from him and Lewis. Since Trev still had a few magazines for the pistol Lewis suggested he only purchase a couple more, at least for now.

On the way home Lewis warned his cousin that he should probably do some practicing, since the M16 was a bit different from his Mini-14 and would take some getting used to. It was an unfamiliar shape and weight and it balanced differently, to begin with, and it offered a three-round burst mode as well as semi auto.

It was also intended to fire 5.56x45 ammunition, rather than .223. Thankfully the M16 could still handle .223, while the reverse wasn't the case and the Mini-14 would experience problems with 5.56. Because of that Lewis was glad his cousin had made the switch in weapons in that direction, or all his .223 ammo would now be useless.

After making the purchases Lewis helped Trev look both weapons over and thoroughly clean and maintenance them. Then, almost as eager as his cousin, he agreed to come along when Trev test fired them.

According to his cousin the new 1911 handled roughly the same as his original pistol. Once Trev was satisfied with that he emptied the rest of the magazine to re-familiarize himself with recoil and trigger control for dry fire practice, then holstered the weapon at his hip. He'd lost his underarm holster when he was captured by the Gold Bloc, and Lewis only had a hip holster to offer him.

He could tell his cousin missed the concealed carry holster by his impatient response when Lewis suggested taking the time to extensively practice drawing from his new holster. That seemed like a good opportunity to change the subject by suggesting Trev try out the M16.

It was immediately obvious his cousin got a kick out of burst mode, and Lewis had to convince him to resist the temptation to waste bullets playing around with it. He instructed Trev to focus instead on staying on target through each controlled burst, having him go through a single magazine to familiarize himself with the recoil and muscle movements for dry fire practice. His cousin reluctantly called it good at that, more than satisfied with his new guns.

The morning of the trip dawned clear and reasonably warm, hopefully good weather for swarming. As they made their final preparations to leave Lewis suggested they might do a bit of long distance target shooting while they were up in the mountains if they had the time, which was something to look forward to.

The precaution of bringing the weapons was probably unnecessary, up there on tiny dirt or gravel roads nobody used. Especially with the military set up to the west, which would discourage anyone with criminal intent in the area from getting too bold.

Still, Lewis couldn't imagine traveling anywhere these days without a weapon; he carried them when going to town, and sometimes even around the shelter. A bit of that was in case he spotted any game, but more of it was because experience had taught him it was better to be safe than sorry.

Lewis and Trev carried most of the gear, to keep Aunt Clair unencumbered so she could set a good pace, and as they hopped up on their bikes he motioned for her to lead the way. She obligingly moved out in front, although she looked a bit amused.

“You've done everything but toss me a line so you can tow me along,” she complained. “I'm in my 40s, not my 90s.”

Trev grinned back at his mom, not looking the slightest bit sheepish. “Tell you what. When we're halfway up the canyon we can see if you still object to the entire towing thing.”

She made a shooing motion at them, then waved goodbye to the few family members who were awake at that early hour and had gathered at the front of the shipping container. They were all grinning at the banter, and Lewis grinned back as he waved goodbye to Jane, who stood a bit away from the others. “Sure you don't want to come?” he called.

His wife grimaced. “I've been shot in the gut. Now ask me how much I want to get stung a dozen times.”

That was as close as she'd come to admitting how uneasy the bees made her, and seemed like a pretty final answer. Lewis had to admit he'd miss her, since if the trip lasted overnight this would be the first time since their wedding that they'd be apart this long. Another incentive to hurry things up. “See you tomorrow, then.” With a last wave he stood on his pedals and hurried to catch up to the other two.

In spite of the good-natured ribbing Aunt Clair set a fast pace. Almost too fast, truth be told, as if to show she could keep up just fine. Lewis struggled to find a polite way to remind her about pacing herself for long distances, but before he could think of anything Trev did.

“Hey!” his cousin shouted, pedaling faster to catch up. “All joking aside, keep going like this and we'll all collapse before we're halfway up the canyon.”

Clair stubbornly kept going for a bit longer, then reluctantly slowed down. She was breathing hard, but then again Lewis was a bit winded himself. After a stormy few minutes she braked to a stop, then took a deep breath and looked back at them. “I guess I've been a little defensive. I got mad at you for treating me like I'm in worse shape than you guys, but it's true, isn't it?”

Trev finally showed a bit of embarrassment and ducked his head without answering. “Not as much as you think,” Lewis admitted, feeling a bit embarrassed himself. “I guess we've been driving that point home more than we needed to. We weren't quite this bad with Tom on the last trip we went on, when he was having a pretty tough time. I guess we just overcompensated to try to make it easier for you.”

His aunt's expression softened slightly. “Well you have no reason to be embarrassed for being in good shape,” she admitted. “I had all winter and spring to improve my physical fitness and didn't, and it ended up costing me when I had to haul that wheat for a week. And it made things harder for the rest of you, too.”

She started up again, going at a reasonable, if slightly slow, pace. “I'll do my best, and I promise to let you know if I need a break.”