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He didn't really want to move away from her, even if they had to get going. No, he seriously wanted to just stay put and hold her. Why the hell did the world have to go to crap? He sighed out and nodded, his lips curling into a smile. "Yes, I'm definitely up to it, let's get some breakfast and get to work. Riding and hunting sounds much more fun that gardening right now," he laughed.

She gave him a kiss and nuzzled into his neck as she turned to face him. "We're finishing the garden BEFORE you start learning how to ride the Lakota way, Marco. I want all those vegetables growing as quickly as possible! Canned supplies won't last forever. Oh! When we go get supplies from town, I want empty jars for canning the vegetables, so we have them during the winter. I knew I was forgetting something the other day when we were thinking up what we were going to need up here."

"I know, I know, that's why I said that we should get going and get it done," he laughed and shook his head. "Gardening is fun and all, but I've never been much for growing things myself...I'm more of an action oriented guy." He grinned and then nodded, turning to head into the house. "We'll have to remember canning jars then, I take it that we have everything else we'll need up here?"

Tisha shook her head. "Not yet. We need a few more things up here. We should have made a list the other day, but it was late. You and Black Elk can make breakfast this morning. I might have a notebook and pencil upstairs to make out a list on, cause everything I'm gonna put on that list will be needed." As they stepped inside, Black Elk looked up from the table and his cup of coffee. Grinning up at Marco, she kissed him, then said, "And you get to tell him who's making breakfast while I start this list." She ran upstairs and started rifling through the rooms, finding a notebook and some pencils after making a mess of the room she was sharing with Marco and her parents' room. Grabbing them, she headed back down the stairs to the kitchen.

While she was gone, Marco had informed him that one of them had to make breakfast. Since Black Elk didn't seem to trust Marco's cooking, he had insisted on doing it himself, hence the reason that Marco was sitting at the table sipping coffee while Black Elk was working on their meal. The husky grinned up at her when she came in, "He volunteered...didn't seem to trust me with making breakfast."

Tisha laughed as she sat next to Marco. "Well, we'll just have to prove to him that you can cook as well as you can hunt. Today you can show him your hunting prowess, and maybe tomorrow you can cook, unless I beat you to it!" She slipped into a seat next to Marco, her leg pressed against his as she put the notebook on the table and flipped to a blank page in it. She chewed on the end of the pencil, then started writing in her normal flowery script, which Marco hadn't seen yet. "Flour, Sugar, Salt, Pepper, Spices, Canned Vegetables, Canned Fruit, Canned Meat, Chips, Cookies, Canning Jars, Canning Jelly, Peanut Butter, Jelly, Bread (if any is available), Medicine (Cough syrups, pain killers), Shampoo, Conditioner, Soap, Razors, Shaving Cream, Notebooks, Pencils, Books, Learning Books for Children."

He laughed and nodded, "We'll see... I don't cook that bad, but up till now it's only been me that has had to eat it." He laughed and shook his head, then glanced down at the paper as she opened it and began writing. He smiled as he watched her jotting things down, "You have nice handwriting...I never knew how some people could get that good." he smiled and slipped an arm around her shoulders. "Books for children? You anticipating having a litter?" he laughed.

She grinned at him, quipping, "Well, I never wanted to be a doctor, so I didn't have to worry about that messy handwriting they have. I wanted mine to show my personality." She kissed him, then looked at the list again, then over at Black Elk, a faint blush crossing her face. "If things are right for me to have children, then I will gladly have yours, Marco. But we have to plan ahead since I know Brielle and Theron are planning on a large family." She gave herself a slap to the head and started writing again. "Seeds, Soil (Cover EVERYTHING in the wagon), Fertilizer, Wood, Plant Food."

He watched while she kept writing, smiling warmly as she told him that she would gladly have his children. He only hoped that he could be the kind of father that he needed to be. That would have to come later though. He said, "Crossbow arrows and any ammo for the guns that we can scrounge. No more will be made so if we can get any more of it that would be great." He licked his lips and glanced up as Black Elk came over with their breakfast.

Tisha nodded and wrote down "Crossbow bolts, ammo, bows, arrows, crossbows, knives, hammers, screwdrivers, hand-held drills." Looking up at Marco, she nodded to the list. "Anything else you think we need?" She leaned towards him as Black Elk put her plate down in front of her, and smiled up at her childhood friend. "Thanks for making breakfast, Black Elk."

The Indian smiled back and nodded, "You're welcome Tisha. I hope it's as good as I used to be able to make it." He went back to the stove to dish out his own and Marco's, then returned and sat across from them. "The tribe will bring some supplies of their own, and we will be able to make arrows and other tools if we need, though it would help if we could have tools from the town. Perhaps we could get two carts and bring both up."

"I'm not sure if any of the old stuff here still works, so after we do the riding lessons and hunting today, we'll use the next few days to see if anything here is in good enough shape to haul a load up. But Aunt Melanie and Brielle only have the one wagon they're coming up with. I figure when we make the trip, we need to have enough folks going down to make sure that nothing gets taken out of the wagon while the others are loading it up from another store."

Marco and Black Elk both nodded in response to her words, they made sense for sure and sounded like a good plan, "I was thinking maybe we could find something else while we're down there..." Black Elk said "Some other kind of cart or something we could hook up to bring up extra stuff, but I suppose that might not be possible." Marco nodded, "We can look though. It never occurred to me, but you know, Gas operated appliances would still work, as would acetylene torches and stuff like that, as long as we have a fire to light them."

"Let's plan on the one wagon, and see what we have here that works. We could probably harness a car to some of the horses, but it might be too much," she said. "Besides, we know we have one wagon, and it only takes two horses to pull the wagon at the most. We have no clue how many would have to be used to pull a car, plus, what use would the car be up here afterwards? Plus, getting one up here would be too difficult. You know as well as I do, only wagons and horses can make it up here."

"Maybe not a car... if we could get one of those wagons that they hook up to lawnmowers and such, with the big wheels...." Marco shrugged. "If we have to make do with only one cart, then we'll make do with one cart and however many people it takes to guard it." He picked up his spoon and began to eat his meal, licking his lips and drinking coffee with it. It really was actually very good, not at all as bad as some stuff he had consumed.

"Those should be able to be found at the same places that the seeds and soil and wood and all that are at, those huge home improvement stores. Maybe hit those first, grab a couple wagons, and the soil and wood and other supplies from there." She paused, looking at the list, then looked at them. "Well, actually figuring out what order we're getting stuff in can wait until we see if there are any wagons here that we can use." She took a bite of the food, then looked at Black Elk. "Still pretty good, boy. But not as good as me," she grinned as she challenged him playfully.

He laughed and shook his head, "I didn't figure it would be...women usually cook much better than men, especially the Lakota women." He winked at her and took several more bites of his food. Marco said nothing one way or the other, though he thought that her food was much better. As long as it wasn't hideous, he didn't care if Black Elk made it. He chowed down on it, and finished in short order, eager to get their work done for the day if at all possible.

"Damn straight, Black Elk. And I got taught by the best. You know you always stayed here when we were up. Mom and Aunt Melanie made the best stuff, and taught me and Bri how to cook and use the best parts of everything to cook." She ate her food, the put some water on to boil. "Can one of you get me a bucket of water? I'm boiling the last of what we had last night for dishes. Umm.... better make it two buckets. I don't want to drink coffee all the time." She snapped her fingers, then ran over to the notebook and jotted down "DRINKS". She wanted much more than just coffee to drink, so that meant tea, juices, sodas, everything they could get their hands on.

Black Elk had seen how she reacted yesterday to being away from Marco for too long, or just by touching him. Because of that, he hopped up and said, "I'll get the water, Tisha." He smiled at her and picked up two of the buckets from the day before, and left the house to go get some water. Marco finished up and stood, walking over to her and putting his plate down, "At least we don't have to worry about water, or wood for the fire." He grinned.

She grinned up at him, then licked his lips. "We better not have to start worrying about that while we're here. One of the reasons this place is so great, the creeks and river for easy access to water. And plenty of trees. But we tend to pick up woof before chopping down trees. Besides, if a limb falls, we can always chop it up." Her eyes lit up and she kissed him again before leaning over the notebook and writing down, "Axes." More and more kept filling her mind as to what they needed, so maybe getting wagons while they were there, even if they had a second working wagon up here would be good.

He nodded, grinning as she remembered another thing to get. "Too bad all the motors and engines use wiring to get spark for the pistons, or we could get a tank of gas up here and run things like that for a long while." He shrugged, "Wishful thinking I guess." Then he smiled as he stepped into place in front of the sink and started washing for her, while she jotted some stuff down, "Do the Lakota and the other indians put up temporary structures when they are here? Or are there enough buildings to house them all?"

"They prefer their teepees to anything else, but there is plenty of houses here. We'll have to see what happens later on. I have a feeling that when we come back up, there will be more mouths to feed. And I'm not talking about the tribe, since they know how to live off the land, but most of these people I'm getting this feeling about are going to be city folk who have no clue." Looking at the notebook, she jotted down, "Candles, Lamp Oil, Hurricane Lamps." Sighing, she forced herself away from the notebook and over to the sink to rinse off the dishes, pausing as Black Elk came in and poured water into the sinks, then she moved in, rinsing and passing the cleaned dishes to Black Elk to dry. She was close enough to Marco, even felt his tail wrapping around her waist, that she was able to handle the slight touches of her fingers against her best friend's.

Marco tilted his head to the side, "What do you mean? You think there will be others coming up here? How many people really know about this place? Or do you think that the Lakota will bring others along? Or are you planning on actually inviting people we run into in town?" He just was wondering what she was getting at. He moved around the kitchen with her, always keeping close, making sure she knew he was right there if she needed him at all times.

Tisha grinned as she noticed how Marco stayed close to her, and leaned up to kiss him lightly. "I don't plan on inviting people, and I doubt many know about this place, but I'm not about to leave anyone stranded if they need help, and I doubt you'd leave anyone to be raped." A shudder ran through her at the word, and she forced the image of the thugs that had attacked her from her mind. "Last year, there were about seventy-five folks in the tribe, of varying ages as well. And probably some pregnant women by now."

He nodded. "Alright, so quite a few people, plus some more that may need help. You're right, I wouldn't leave anyone like that," he sighed out, shuddering himself at the thought of any woman having to experience what Tisha had gone through. Of course, there was only one Tisha, and she was his girl. He smiled warmly at her and nuzzled her with his nose on her neck, then said, "Alright, you finished with the dishes? We should get out and finish up the garden."

"I'm done," she said, handing the last few dishes to Black Elk as she leaned against Marco, waiting for her friend to finish so they could finish the gardening and get to the riding. She was eager to get on Snowflake and let her pure white mare race in the wind. She made sure everything was set for them to head out for gardening, then looked at the guys. "Leave the water bucket, but grab the empty ones. We'll use them to water the garden after getting the last of the seeds planted." She stepped out onto the back porch, looking at the clothes, figuring that after lunch they could bring in the laundry.

The boys nodded and Marco grabbed two buckets while Black Elk got one. They followed her out and both of them headed over toward the creek. They filled the buckets and then put them near the garden, then went back to the shed to help her get everything out that they would need to finish planting the garden and then get it watered. Marco asked her, "Where are we planting the trees? Or will we do that another time and just focus on the garden today?"

"Garden only today. The seeds for the trees can be another day, since they're gonna go around the house." The wagon was packed with the seeds, trowels and spoons for planting, as well as the stakes that would mark the remaining seeds. She pulled her hat on, then put the one on Marco, pulling it down to just barely leave his eyes uncovered. She grinned as she pulled on her knee pads and gloves, handing Marco his. Black Elk knew where to find his stuff, since he often helped with the planting since his best friend was doing it too.

Marco laughed and adjusted his hat, slipped on his pads and gloves, then helped her take the wagon out of the shed, and took over pushing it down to the garden plot. They walked on down and he parked the cart next to the garden, then took out the rake and began to work over where they would plant the rest of the seeds. Black Elk grabbed the hoe and after Marco passed, made a furrow in the ground to hold the seeds.

Tisha grabbed the seeds, stakes and a spoon, following behind them a little more, planting the stake first in front of the rows, then going down the furrows and dropping the seeds in before shifting the soil back over them. Four rows of carrots, four of potatoes and four of onions and they were done planting and would just need to water the garden. With the three of them, it took less time to finish the planting, but as they went along, Tisha noticed a few weeds starting to push up. They were between the rows for the vegetables, so she reached down to them and plucked them from the ground. She hated weeds in her vegetable garden. One of the reasons she wanted wood brought up from town was to set the wood around the garden, dividing up each area a little more.

Once the rows were down and planted, both Marco and Black Elk picked up a pair of watering cans that Tisha had brought, and filled them with water out of the buckets, then went along and soaked the rows where the seeds had just been planted, making sure that they gave them plenty of water before moving onto the next few rows. In short order they had all of the rows watered and were able to put the watering cans down in the wagon. Marco wiped his hands off on one another and then planted them on his hips, "A job well done, if I do say so myself..."

Tisha grinned, then nodded. "It's looking good. Now to put this stuff away, and wash up a little before we go riding. And we need to grab our bows and knives for hunting." She licked her lips before grabbing the handle of the wagon and pulling it to the shed, pulling her gloves and knee pads off in the shed, then her hat. She had her riding hat in the stables, and still had her glasses to shade her eyes from the brightness of the sun. After heading to the porch, she hit her boots on the edge, knocking the soil from them before starting to gather the clothes and take them inside the house and carried them up to the room she was sharing with Marco.

In the room, she grabbed her crossbow and got it set up on her hand, her quiver of bolts easily slipping onto her belt, then tied around her thigh just above her knee. On the other side of her belt, she hooked a couple knives that she usually carried for skinning and hunting. The last things she needed were in the stable, so she planned on waiting until they got there to get them.

Marco and Black Elk both looked satisfied, and helped her take everything back to the shed, then remove their equipment and put it up as well. There was an extra riding helmet which Marco figured he might as well put on, since he was going to be riding bareback and in case he fell off he didn't want to get hurt, that would really mess both him and Tisha up. He followed her up to the house then, and cleaned off his own boots, before heading in and following her up the stairs. As she got her equipment, he grabbed his own crossbow and quiver, then a knife as well. He headed back down to the kitchen and waited.