A Comet Visits Earth

A Comet's Tail Ch Twelve

Rebuilding the herd

It was decided that they would wait to breed the herd together until winter. That would help with the warmth. At least, in theory.

They finished harvesting at the end of September and the first week of October. They had a good crop. It would feed everyone and have enough left as seed for next year. The deer, bear, and rabbits meant they would have enough meat without having to kill one of the cows. Besides, they had four more calves that summer.

The puppies had grown up. They now had nine dogs on the ranch. They decided to fix most of the puppies and try to keep the older dogs apart. They didn't want to fix all of the dogs because they would need a continuing supply of dogs for the future.

Lilly took to mothering. Because they had several babies at once, Liz decided to set up a nursery and named Lilly to oversee it. They put the cribs together and the mothers banded together to watch and take care of all the babies.

Mary was due in November, and, as time drew near, she was huge and had to stay in bed most days. Rick decided to sleep in the anteroom until she gave birth. Susan was there to help her.

The first snowfall came in late October. It was light, but the temperature got into the thirties. The garage had been modified to keep the herd warm for the winter. They built birthing stalls for the females when they were ready to deliver. They used the stalls as the place for the males to impregnate the fertile females. They had also built a pen for the older herd which was down to less than thirty. They also had places for the eight bulls, the six they had and the two from the base. They had not given the two new bulls a mate yet.

Rick met with everyone to discuss the idea of growing the herd.

"I believe our children will need a healthy herd in the future to help them. I think we must have at least fifteen to twenty babies for a healthy future. Any ideas or comments?"

Ray spoke up. "We can do it. I see your point about the future. We won't need the young ones for ourselves, but in twenty years our children will need help after our herd has passed."

Susan spoke, "I still don't like the idea of our men impregnating the herd."

Rick nodded. "I have been thinking about that, and I think I agree with you. We don't know what mixed babies would be like. Some could be more like us, some more like the herd, and even worse, half and half. I don't think we need to take that chance."

Everyone agreed with that at once. Once that was agreed, the idea of continuing the herd passed easily.

Rick held up his hands, "Okay, Ray and Lawanda, Select the eight females from the base to be put in with our bulls. They will need to be together for most of the winter. We are going to have a problem with the mates the bulls now have. They are not going to be happy about being separated. Perhaps we could put some of the older males with them for the winter. I am sure the old males would be up to the task, and it should make them move active during the cold months."

It was agreed. Rick, Ray, and Lawanda went to the garage to see how they were coming with the new stalls. Doug and Jesus had been building them for a month now. When they arrived, Doug and Jesus were finishing one set of stalls.

"Rick, here are the finished birthing stalls. We have eight along this wall." They looked good. They were six feet wide and ten feet long. They had feed and water troughs and a place in the back for them to lay down.

On the other side of the garage was the older herd's pen. It didn't take the entire wall. Rick told them to build six stalls for the bull's mates. They could then use the rest of the space in the garage for the younger, neutered herd. They put a fence across the middle of the garage. That would leave enough room for the younger herd. They put the troughs in front.

By the end of October, it was ready. They put straw in and moved the herd from the barn. They now had room in the barn for the cattle and horses.

They moved one of the dogs' house and bed into the front of the garage. One older male would guard each. Their mates went with them and the young dogs stayed in their beds in the barn.

Mary's time came in the first week of November. Liz and Susan attended to her in their bed. She had difficulty. She was older than the others, and this was not smooth. However, after several hours, they had a healthy baby girl. Dorothy Alicia Core.

The babies for that year were finished. Seven babies. A good start for the next generation. They had three boys and four girls. That was a good mix.

They still had Willie and Lawanda, but they weren't due until next June.

Doug and Jesus spent most of the winter in the workshop in the garage. They were turning the bed of one of the pickups into a wagon. By spring they would have a serviceable wagon that could be pulled by the mules.

The Lewis Range of mountains ran behind the ranch. It was the back border of their property. There were a good number of healthy trees growing at the base of the mountains and going part way up the mountains. Next year, they intended to begin cutting selected trees. They would need wood for small log homes to be built for the growing families. The ranch house would not last forever, and it was not going to be big enough for their families. They would begin planning a village next year, and how to build it. The trees needed time to be cured before they could begin.

The winter was brutal. Typical Montana. The herd seemed fine in the garage.

In November, Ray and Lawanda selected the new females to be breed. They had put the bulls into the new stalls when they moved them. However, they took their mates away and put them in with six of the older males. It didn't take the older males long to take to the idea of new females. They were trying to climb on top of them the first night. The females were not happy about new males, but quickly realized it didn't really matter who it was.

Ray and Lawanda took the eight females to the bulls. Once together, they were confused. The bulls were looking for their mates. However, these females were young and exciting. It didn't take them long to

start smelling them and nosing their necks and shoulders. The females initially resisted, but eventually allowed the males to mount them. Ray and Lawanda smiled and headed home.

The new year came in with a blizzard. The solar batteries ran dry in the middle of the night, and they had to use the gasoline engine to get the lights and heat back on. Dawn found the storm finally breaking, and by noon, the sun was breaking through. Doug went and cleaned the solar panels to get the batteries charging again.

The winter was spent working in the workshop, taking care of babies, and taking care of the herd and animals.

The thaw began in March. By the end of March, the snow was gone, and it was nearly sixty degrees. They put the herd and cattle in the pasture, just to get them a little sunlight.

Lilly was so happy in her new role her heart nearly burst. She loved babies, and she spent her day breastfeeding little Mary and helping the other mothers with their breastfeeding. Mary was nearly a year old and was a handful. During the winter months she and Joe had begun having sex again. They had waited until she was fully healed. They were very surprised to find out she was pregnant again at the beginning of the new year. It would be a September baby. Lilly was overjoyed. She wanted a lot of children. She really hadn't any skills in the Air Force, and this is what she wanted to do with her life. Help repopulate the world, one baby at a time.

The new wagon was finished. It had a tongue that could hold all six mules, and they were able to practice with it in the spring until it worked very well.

The cycle began again. Planting, hunting for meat, raising their children, and living their lives.

Once they were finished with the planting, Rick and Doug took a walk into the woods. They wanted to cut a couple of trees down this spring to see what it would take and begin the drying out of the wood. Rick and Doug marked two large trees and went back to the ranch. They gathered the men and put together a plan for how they would cut them down.

They only had axes, and it was going to take a long time. They started rotating the men, each cutting for thirty minutes and resting for one hour. They couldn't finish the first tree in one day and had to come back the next morning. However, by noon the first tree had been felled.

Rick divided the men into two crews. One began working on the second tree, and the others began stripping the branches of the first tree. They stacked the smaller branches in a pile. They would be good for bedding and to start fires when they needed fires at night.

It took them a week, but they finally had two long logs and several stacks of different size branches. They would leave the logs there until next year. Ray came up with a cart and they loaded the branches into it. They took them back to the barn and piled them up behind the barn.

Doug and Jesus decided to begin working on the damming of the stream. They wouldn't need it in their lifetimes, but their kids would. They had years to figure something out, but they could begin surveying and discussing it.

At the beginning of spring, Susan wanted to talk to Rick one night. Mary was busy with her baby. Dorothy was only four months old, and Mary was sleeping in the other room with her.

Richard was seven months old and slept in the nursery most nights. Lilly had turned her and Joe's room into the nursery. She was there with all the children, making sure they were sleeping and getting their mothers if they were hungry. Joe had decided to move into the old nursery. With Lilly pregnant again, they didn't have much time for sex during this time, anyway.

Susan had just recently begun wanting sex again, and they were able to enjoy themselves for most of the winter. However, springtime brought Susan new urges. Lilly getting pregnant again had sparked something in Susan.

"I think I want another child, Rick. There is something about a new life suckling on my breast that brings a warmth I can't explain. Richard is done with breastfeeding, and I am drying up. Mary is having a difficult time producing enough milk for Dorothy. I told her I would help her breastfeed her. It is the most satisfying feeling in the world, having Dorothy on my breast."

"I am healed and having an itch for another child."

Rick looked into Susan's eyes. They had been here two years. It was a lifetime. They did not have a lot of baby-type food, but Wally and Mandy were doing wonders with strained vegetables. The mothers had been keeping their children on their breasts longer than they might have in the old world. It was easier and they could delay using the baby food. However, Richard was only eating the baby food now.

Rick was happy to be able to go back to regular sex with Susan. If she wanted another child, that was fine with him. "If that is what you want, I want it too. Let's do it."

They began the procedure they used for the first time to get pregnant.

By the end of the summer, several of the women were pregnant for the second time. It looked like to Rick that the women wanted to repopulate the world all by themselves.

Except for Liz, most of the women's time was now taken up by children. The men handled the chores and the animals.

By spring, Liz came to say that five of the eight females had gotten pregnant. Ray had taken the five females out of the male stalls and put them together. This brought Rick to a problem he wanted to talk to Ray and Liz about.

"Do we have any idea if these females will have enough instinct to take care of their babies, or are we going to have to do it? The cattle and horses have babies that can walk the same day, and the mother can watch over them without difficulty. Human babies need at least five years to be able to safely walk around a ranch. If we must handle the daily work with each of five babies for five years, this will take all our time."

Liz nodded. "I have been thinking about this ever since we decided to breed the females. I hope instinct will tell the mothers to hold their babies, feed their babies, and keep them warm at night. We will just have to see."

June came with two more babies. Willie and Lawanda hit their due dates.

Robert William Burns came into the world on a warm summer's night the first week of June. Tisha Susan Staples followed a week later. Nine babies. Four boys and five girls. And Lilly was pregnant again and Susan would probably be also soon.

Eleven small children. They needed more beds. Jesus and Juan began making more beds, this time for small children. These beds were put in their parent's rooms.

Abe saw the children being born, but he wasn't sad. Kittie had made him happier than he had ever been before. She was so sweet and happy. They played and walked and made love constantly.

Juan and Queen were in the same position. Juan didn't want children, and Queen was a wonderful companion, as long as you didn't need any conversation. Juan and Abe would take the females out to the stream and let them play in the water. They liked just sitting there watching the two frolic and splash about in the stream. It was only a foot or two deep, and the water from the mountains was clear and cold. It tasted great, too. The four of them would lay on the sunny bank and enjoy the sunshine and warmth of a summer day.

Rick sat on the porch one evening. Susan was breastfeeding Dorothy, and he wanted to enjoy the sunset and think.

They had been here over two years. They had enough electricity for probably twenty years. The children will be adults by the time they have to work out how to manufacture electricity from the stream. They were growing enough food to feed everyone and still have enough seeds for the next year. However, as their family grows, it will take more food to satisfy a growing herd and a family that would double every few years. The gasoline was down to thirty gallons, and there would be no more after that. They would have to till the soil in the field next year by hand. Rick wasn't sure how long the gasoline would still be good. It does go bad after time. The herd had been outside for two years. Their skin was tanned and tough. The elements had given them a form of protection from the environment. He wasn't sure the females would even be able to produce milk. It they couldn't, they would all have a real problem. The four horses were young enough, but they still only had five or

six years left, he estimated. He wasn't an expert on horses, but Bobby knew about horses, and that was his estimate. The cattle had six calves in the last two years, and they had only slaughtered one. They were able to hunt and get enough meat to feed everyone. Deer jerky and bear jerky will last a long time, and they had plenty. They had several boxes of ammunition, but, when that was gone, there would be no more. They were only using it to hunt, and only the good shots were doing the hunting. That was Bobby, Doug, and Jesus. They decided to build traps for small game and save the ammo.

Latisha had found a way to produce feed for the herd, as well as the cattle and horses. They left the cattle in the pasture the entire summer so they could feed on the grass. Bobby had pointed out that there was one field that had not been planted and it was overgrown with high grass. It had been decided that the men would take the sickle out and cut the grass down. If it dried in stalks, they might be able to use it as hay and feed the cattle and horses. That would help during the winter.

Benny and Latisha had developed the plan to cut some wood down without overcutting. They would need a lot of wood to build homes for all the families as they grow. They would have to be smart to not destroy the woods. The chickens were thriving. They would have eggs and chicken for a long time. Lawanda did know how to raise chickens.

They had some seeds that they hadn't used yet. Things like tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins. Juan and Abe decided they wanted to start a garden for these items that weren't grown on a large scale. In the early spring, they had taken a small area not being used near one of the sheds and worked it up and planted these items. They didn't know what they were doing, and everyone assumed whatever they could get would be more than they had before.

Susan got pregnant at the end of the summer. That put her due date around May.

Liz and Ray came to tell Rick one of the herd females was ready to deliver her baby. They went into her birthing stall. Liz laid her down on the straw and prepared her for birth. It was July and there were seven more waiting.

Liz reached into the filly's vagina with her fingers to see if she could reach the head. When she could, she pushed the filly's legs apart and pushed on her stomach. The filly took it from there and began pushing. Liz directed the little one's head out and caught the baby as it came through. When it was out, Liz cleaned it up, cut the cord, and laid it on the mother's breast. Now was the time to find out if she would know what to do.

It didn't take long. As soon as the baby clamped down on the breast, the mother wrapped her arms around it and held it tight. She stroked the baby's face and licked the top of the baby's head. It was as if she knew she needed to clean her baby.

So far so good. Ray would keep a close eye on her until they knew what her limits were. Lawanda was busy with her own baby and Ray was on his own. He had enlisted Joe's help with the animals. Joe liked it. It was something he could do, and the animals, especially the herd, seemed appreciative of his kindness. He would rub down the herd members when he could. It got to the point the herd would come to him whenever he came into the barn. With Lilly so busy with all the babies, and being pregnant again, he enjoyed touching and rubbing on the herd, especially the females. He wasn't thinking of doing anything improper, he just like the touch of a breast or ass every once in a while.

Over the next month, the other seven fillies gave birth. Each was without incident, and they took to caring for their baby as soon as it was on their breast. The first one had licked her entire baby's body and held it beside her in the straw to keep it warm. These were good signs. A month after all eight had been born, it was apparent that mother nature had taken care of the maternal instinct. Each mother cared for her baby. It would still be years before the babies could walk and go into the yard with their mothers, but it was a start.