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@@ -394,11 +394,16 @@ The hugged and laughed and hugged some more. Until that moment Lulu would not ha Lulu followed her back up onto the ship and helped gather up the pots, taking extra care with Kobayashi's precious rice steaming basket. Kobayashi was Japanese and while he would eat the rice that was grown in the Carolinas because he wasn't about to starve to death, whenever he could he bought rice from ships returning from Asia. He never boiled it, he shook his head at the way the Africans and Lulu's family boiled their rice. Instead he boiled water and put the rice in a woven basket over the boiling water and let the steam cook it. It took longer, but even Tambo admitted it was the best rice he'd ever had. Lulu would never tell Kobayashi, but she liked the Carolina rice better. It was mushier, nuttier. It became part of the fish stews in ways that Kobayashi's rice never did. Although she liked his better when they were eating dried fish or Pemmican at sea. Maybe, she thought as she walked down the path to camp, she liked both kinds of rice. Maybe there wasn't a best rice, maybe there was just the best rice for each thing. That was what Papa always said, there is no best, just best for this, best for that, best for now. -All morning Lulu helps hauled food and gear out of the Arkhangelsk down the trail to the cluster of dunes at the south eastern tip of the island. Here, alongside the mouth of the tk river they used a sheltered area of dunes to make camp. It was exactly where they had stayed for three years now, ever since the northern end of the island shifted and water turned too salty to even cook with. +All morning Lulu helped haul food and gear out of the Arkhangelsk down the trail to the cluster of dunes at the south eastern tip of the island. Here, alongside the mouth of the tk river they used a sheltered area of dunes to make camp. It had been their winter home for three years now, ever since the northern end of the island shifted and the water turned too salty to even cook with. Her cousins continued to make their camp at the north end of the island. -Kobayashi, Tambo and her father set about constructing their camp, which consisted of little more than a thatched hut, built to a design the Edistow had taught Tambo, who had taught her father, who had taught his children. It was, as all great shelters are, ingeniously simple. A pole structure made of half oak timbers, which gave it strength, and half pine timbers, which were bent to give it shape, was then covered with thatching made of half woven reed mats. Her father and Tambo had the basic structure done by mid afternoon. For the time being they simply draped the main sheet over the top in case of rain. In the next few weeks Lulu, Birdie, her Aunt Māra, Cuffee, Kadiatu and sometimes her parents would help to make the thatching. +Kobayashi, Tambo and her father set about constructing their camp, which consisted of little more than a thatched hut, built to a design the native people, most of whom were now gone, had showed them. It was, as all great shelters are, ingeniously simple. First they set up a pole structure made half of oak timbers, which gave it strength, and half of pine timbers, which were bent to give it shape. The structure was then covered with thatching made of reeds. Her father and Tambo had the basic structure done by mid afternoon. For the time being they simply draped an old, but freshly tarred, sail over the top to stop the rain. In the next few weeks everyone would chip in to make the thatching, which would slowly take the place of the sail cloth. -Her father brought two large flat stones to build a hearth in the middle so the smoke would drift up through the opening. He lit a fire, said a prayer, the threw of some Frankincense resin on the coals. The sweet, light scent of Frankincense filled the hut when Lulu walked in carrying a load of tk and it immediately smelled like home. +With the structure up, Lulu and her sister set about cleaning the inside, picking sticks and other debris out of the sand they'd be walking on and sitting in all winter. Aunt Māra helped then hang the hammocks, which they'd use for bed when the weather drove them inside. Most of the time however, it was warm enough to sleep outside with a sheet and one of Aunt Māra's quilts, which is how Lulu, Birdie and Henri preferred it. The hut was better than being rained on, but the rest of the time they would rarely be in it for more than a few minutes at time. + +When they had too they cooked on a small fire inside the hut and around the solstice it would be cold enough for a few weeks that they'd use the fire place for heat. Lulu and Henri walked the shoreline gathering small stones they could use to build the indoor firepit. Her father and Kobayashi took the pirogue upstream to find suitable stones for to create a small tripod on which they could cook, but the main place they cooked was outdoors using the iron tripod their father had forged using iron scrounged from a shipwreck many years ago. + + +brought two large flat stones to build a hearth in the middle so the smoke would drift up through the opening. He lit a fire, said a prayer, the threw of some Frankincense resin on the coals. The sweet, light scent of Frankincense filled the hut when Lulu walked in carrying a load of tk and it immediately smelled like home. It was still much to hot to have a fire inside though, so she soon retreated to the dunes outside where the long afternoon shadows began to race their way across the clearing they'd be calling home for the next six to eight months. |