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"One of these nights we will see the stars Darling...just you and me together." He gave her a squeeze, "I didn't even know beauty like this, or like you, existed until a few days ago." He sighed out, "Now I don't think life would be the same without this sunrise...and it most definitely wouldn't be the same without you." He laughed.

Tisha turned and stretched up on her toes, slipping her arms around his neck. She kissed him passionately. "I'd seen the mornings and the evenings and even the nights, but having someone special to share them with is something I've never experienced before you, Marco." She nuzzled into him, then gave his lips a quick lick. "Let's go get breakfast so we can get this day started."

He slipped his arms around her waist as she held onto him, and he kissed her back, just as passionately. He felt his heartbeat increase and a soft growl came from his throat, a gentle one. His ears laid back and he closed his eyes for a moment, then he sighed out and smiled when she pulled away, "Alright darling...let's go."

Tisha smiled as she walked back into the house with Marco, fixing up the food for them to eat breakfast before tackling the day's jobs. She set two plates out, then a third for Black Elk when the warrior came down from upstairs. She set out a cup of coffee for him as well, but focused on eating her own breakfast and making sure she and Marco had enough coffee to make it through the morning.

Marco sat down next to her and once the plate was filled with the meager food they had, and she was sitting next to him, he began eating. He sipped his coffee and ate the rabbit and fruit in front of him. He was getting tired of rabbit and canned food, but it was what they had until they got the deer smoked up and ready to eat. They would survive. Sometimes he wondered if love was all that would hold them together. He sighed out and they ate in silence.

Tisha started eating, wishing she had something more than just the same food over and over again to eat and share with Marco. Soon though. She knew that soon enough, they would have the vegetables from the garden ready, and hopefully, they could find some various herding beasts to bring up here as well to change up the food supply. She would love to offer some beef or pork or even chicken. But for now, rabbits and deer was all they had. "We can cut a chunk off the deer and have that for dinner tonight."

He nodded and smiled at her words, "Venison sounds good... so does anything but rabbit." He laughed and shook his head, "Not that I'm not thankful... I am, it's just that it get old." He shrugged and sighed, eating more rapidly to get on with their day. He most enjoyed the time he got to spend with Tisha, it made whatever else they had to do all the more easy.

She grinned, then nodded. "We're gonna need our knives today, so I'll cut off a chunk and we can have that for dinner tonight. And so can Black Elk if he's back from hunting by then. Otherwise, he can eat rabbit jerky out in the field."

At that moment, Black Elk came into the kitchen, and shook his head. "I'll be back tonight. Venison sounds much better than more rabbit. There's only so long you can eat rabbit without getting sick and tired of it."

"Not to mention sick of it period..." Marco said, remembering what he had been taught in his wilderness survival training, which he had. He was not clueless when it came to surviving in the wild, he just hadn't done it very much, and not for anyone besides himself. "You can get sick of eating just rabbit...not enough fat in it, that's why you need other stuff with it."

"There's really only four months a year that rabbits are edible. May through August. Any other time, they're toxic to humans, and probably anthros. But venison and other meat will be good for changes in our diets." She sighed. "We need some animals with lots of fat on them too to counter all the rabbits we're eating right now."

Marco nodded and smiled at her, reaching over to pat her arm, "We'll get it all and be just fine. You'll see." He smiled at her and then took a few more bites, before pushing his plate away. He wanted to get working on their day. He pushed his chair back and took his dishes up to the sink.

Tisha smiled up at him, and nodded, finishing her own food and taking the dishes to the sink to wash them. After hers and Marco's were washed, dried and put away, she looked up at the tall, handsome husky. "Let's go get that barn taken care of and the horses out to pasture before tackling the tanning of hides and getting the meat for dinner tonight."

"Right." he said simply, helping her put everything away before heading out on the back porch. He grabbed a pair of work gloves that he had, then took her hand and they headed for the barn together. The tools to clean it were kept in the barn itself, and so they didn't have to take anything with them. They walked along, "I could get used to this I think... though the stress of food and all of that will weigh on you after a while..."

"That's why we start growing stuff now, and when it's time to start harvesting, we can 'can' some of it for later use. Same with smoking the meat we get now, so we can try to get herds up for later use." She tugged him behind her, full of energy first thing in the morning. "Hurry up, Marco. I know this is the best part of the day, playing with the horses, but we still got work to do after playing with them."

The moment she stepped into the barn, she pulled on her work boots and went to the first stalls, clipping a lead rope onto her mare's halter before opening her stall door and leading her out to the pasture. "We just need to remember to put some water out here for the horses that aren't going out on the hunting trip with Black Elk, and water the vegetables before the sun gets too high."

He laughed while she pulled him along behind her toward the barn. She was such an energetic thing. He went along willingly though, nodding, "Right, we won't forget...at least we don't have to lug it all the way back to the house." He grinned as they came up to the doors into the barn. He pulled on another pair of boots that were there, probably her father's. They were a bit loose, but that was alright by him.

He let her lead her horse out, "Do we get all the horses out first? Or do we take one out at a time and clean the stall before getting the next out?"

"Easiest way is to take them all out, then start mucking out the stalls. We'll have to use the old manure pile to put the stuff in, and then in a few days, add some water to the pile and spread the manure over the garden. Free fertilizer as my..." Her breath hitched, and he could tell that it was something one of her parents said. Fighting off the lingering depression of their loss, she tossed her hair back from her eyes, looking up at him.

"We'll leave Black Elk's horse and the gelding in the stables, and hopefully Brute will decide to mount one of the girls if he has a little privacy." After turning out Snowflake into the pasture, she headed back into the barn to get one of the other mares.

Marco nodded and chuckled, shaking his head at the casual way which she talked about Brute mounting the 'girls'. He headed for the stallion's stall, and opened the door to it, taking him by a lead and guiding him from it out to the pasture with Snowflake. He turned him loose there, and then came back to the barn to finish helping her and start working on the stalls.

After the four horses that would be staying at the homestead were turned out to the pasture, Black Elk came out, having finished his breakfast and washed his dishes. He headed to the barn to join them and swiftly got his horse ready as well as the gelding that would be carrying back the meat he caught. "I'll see you both tonight," he said before mounting up and heading out.

Tisha grabbed the buckets for water and handed two to Marco. "Two buckets into the pasture for the horses, then water the plants, then two more into the pasture. Then we'll get the manure wheelbarrow out and start mucking the stalls out."

Marco waved to Black Elk as he took off with his two horses. He hoped that the indian was careful out there hunting... any number of things could happen to a lone hunter in the woods. He shook his head and forced himself not to think of that, instead focusing on their job and on Tisha. He took two buckets and carried them out of the barn toward the stream, then filled them up and carried them back to the pasture to dump in troughs for the horses.

Tisha collected the water in her buckets and used them to fill a couple watering cans, which she then took over to the vegetable garden and slowly walked through the garden, drizzling the fresh water over the churned up soil where the seeds were starting to take root. She knew soon enough they would have to come through here, weeding the garden, but today was not weeding day.

While she watered, the buckets were available for Marco to get more water into the trough for the horses in the pasture. She gave a small sigh, knowing they needed to plant the fruit bearing trees soon enough, but of course, they wouldn't get any fruit from them for a while yet, though the ones her family had planted over the last few years will help out. She wanted to check out the trees tomorrow, or even earlier if the sun was up and they had some spare time to take a look today. Maybe after lunch and before they start working on the hide again.

He took the buckets when she finished using them and brought two more full buckets of water to the horses, then he loaded them up once again, and carried the buckets over to the garden, then took up the spare watering can and filled it. He started on the opposite side of the garden from her, and worked his way over, watering all of their seed rows gently, making sure that everything was nicely soaked but not washed out.

When he emptied one, he got some more water and went back to it. At last the garden was done and he put the can down for a moment to stretch. "Fuck that's hard on the back."

Tisha nodded in agreement. "I know. It's the only thing I hate about gardening. Well, that and weeding. Both can be killer on the back. But it has to be done to keep the wild plants from taking over the vegetables and fruit we need." She finished watering her spots, then stretched herself out, carrying the buckets back to the barn and putting the watering cans she had back in their spots.

He followed her around, putting things back and then heading for the shed, "Let's get the manure wagon and stuff and get these stalls mucked." He wrinkled his nose, "Probably my least favorite job is going to be dealing with horse shit... No, I take that back. It's going to be dealing with the brains later to put on the hide." He laughed and shook his head.

"When we go up to do that, we'll need a bucket with water in it. We'll need to keep the brains moist and our hands washed off. The deer hide will be getting the gunk and hair or fur off it, but the rabbit skins just need the gunk scraped off. I'll show you using the deer hide and you can work on the rabbit skins. Less brains to be used on rabbit skins, while the deer skins take more," Tisha told him as she moved to haul the manure barrows out of their storage place and grabbed a couple pitchforks. "You get one and I'll get one. We'll knock the horse shit out in no time."

Marco took one of the pitchforks and one of the manure barrows, and they carted them over to the bar where they each took one side of the building and started working on a stall. The process was simple, scoop shit, dump shit in barrow, rinse and repeat until all the shit was gone. Then scrape the floor and remove any soiled hay, then dump new hay on the floor and make sure it was scattered out.

Once that was done in one, he moved to the next stall. They talked throughout, from time to time, speaking back and forth though also trying not to breathe too much with the smell of the shit in the air.

Tisha was more used to handling the chore for a week, but still the scent was a bit much for her. "I can't wait until Brielle and Aunt Melanie get here. They're used to this work. When we get the jobs set up for everyone, I think we vote them in to take care of the horses and barn. No stinkies for us, at least not this stinky job. I've got no problem taking on hunting or growing the vegetables or even cooking. But no more hides or shit jobs," she said with a chuckle.

Looking at him as they moved to the next stalls, she smiled. "We'll wash up after this is done, so we don't smear shit all over the hides." Between shoveling out the old shit, she climbed up into the rafters and tossed down the fresh straw and hay for the horses to be spread out on the floor of their stalls, then climbed back down to clean out the next stall.

Marco laughed and nodded, "I agree. The two of them can shovel shit and I don't give a fuck who gets to tan the hides, but no more brains and shit for me." He shook his head, moving from one stall to the next to repeat the process on the last of his side. He got it done quickly enough, "Where do we spread the manure? Or do we have to let it sit somewhere for a while before it can be used on the garden?"

Tisha grinned and shrugged her shoulders a little. "Umm, well, it used to get watered by the system, but without power, I'm not sure how the watering would happen. It kinda needs some watering to keep it moist so that it can be spread easier. Besides, I don't think we really want to water it too much where it affects us like it did this morning. For right now, I think we should put it into a pile, then dump a couple buckets onto it. We can work on that tomorrow for the vegetables, cause the shit will wait, but the hides won't."

Marco knew that you couldn't spread some manure on to plants right away, like chicken poop. It was too 'hot' and would literally 'burn' the plant roots, killing them. You had to leave those for at least three years before you could use them. That was something he had learned a long while ago when he had a friend that was a gardener. He didn't know if it went for all poop though. Right now he just wanted to get the job done. He finished off his stalls, then moved over to help her finish up, "Alright, let's get this shit dumped...fuckin stinky shit..." he laughed.

Tisha wrinkled her nose at the joke, as well as the smell. "Yeah, then let's get cleaned up so we can get brains all over us. Just a joyous day in the life of the world gone crazy frontier. Maybe we can leave the shit in the barrows, and water them down during the day. Tomorrow we can sort the shit out in the garden. Since I'm not sure how much to put down, we'll try out a small amount to see if it helps, then start a pile that we'll have to water daily to make sure that is far enough away that we don't get the stench, but close enough to use to till the soil after the harvest."

He nodded and laughed, shaking his head and then pushing the barrow away from the barn. She had hers as well and they took it out and parked them near the garden, then left them while they put the tools away. Once that was done, it was time to start on the hides, something he wasn't particularly looking forward to.

"Before we get the hides out, let's get this muck off our hands and paws, and we'll get things together for tanning the hides. And we'll need a bucket of water to keep the brains mushed as we work the hides. So first, we'll get things set up with cleaning up and getting these mucking boots off!!"

Marco nodded and said, "Wash off in the stream then?" he grinned and turned that way, heading to it so that he could wash his paws and hands off. Of course, they would have to do it downstream from where they got their drinking water, unless they had a different spot. He supposed it might be better just to get a bucket and rinse off in it.

"Wash off in the stream for now, but bring buckets for us to wash off in during the tanning process. And that water can get used to help ease the 'heat' out of the manure after we're done for the day," she replied, giving him a quick grin before going to wash up herself. They were downstream of their usual drinking water spot, since it would be much easier to get the next set of drinking water from their spot without contaminating it.

Looking over her shoulder, she smiled up at him. "So after we get cleaned up, let's grab a bucket for drinking water and coffee, and then a bucket for washing up during the process. I can get the water on the stove to boil up for coffee and grab our knives while you get the brains. Then we can get the hides together."

Marco nodded and followed her to the stream. He hopped over it and then knelt to rinse off his hands. He scrubbed them in the water, making sure to get anything off of his fur that was stuck to it, then even picking under his nails with a rock, "We're going to have to figure out something to get our hands cleaner...soap I guess, though that won't last long. I read once how to make soap with lye, but I can't remember it now."

He stood a moment later and shook his hands dry, then headed to get the two buckets they would need. He knew that in their situation, sanitation was one of the most important things, along with food and clean water. If they got sick there was no medicine to help them now, they would have to rely on whatever they had. She had grabbed some stuff from her house, he knew, and they might have some up here, but not the kind of antibiotics they would need to stem off a bad infection.

"I know the tribe has a way to keep themselves clean. While they were called 'dirty' and 'filthy' by the white settlers in this area, and across most of the United States, they were actually cleaner people than the whites. An Indian took baths at least once a day, while the whites took one once a week, at the most. We can always ask Black Elk what they use. It will help us in the long run, plus we can always make soap later. Lye hurts too much. It can really burn the skin and I'm not sure how to make it not burn skin."

She looked at him thinking the same thing he was. "We need to grab as much of the alcohol from town as we can. It can be used as an antiseptic if someone gets a bad cut and we need to stitch them up. As I said, I want to grab all the stuff we can medically from town, and as much food and alcohol for medical purposes. We still have to eke out a living up here for the next few months before the seeds start getting ripe enough to harvest."