It was another early morning but for Patrick this time. Griz wanted to be back with plenty of time to empty and refill the pool before dark. And since they had no idea about where to put the colony, they wanted lots of daylight.
Patrick was able to take the pickup’s GPS and use that for latitude & longitude coordinates for any spot they might want to flag for underwater exploration. Today’s trip was aerial surveillance only.
Patrick, Jazz and Griz each filled a backpack of food & water supplies before strapping the backpacks to their bellies (i.e. wore them backwards) so that their wings would not be encumbered. Patrick also left his wheelchair behind and used a rig of simple straps to keep his tail curled up under his body. “If I start to feel dry, I’ll just drop down to the water for a bit,” he said when Sarah raised the issue of him drying out.
Kathryn never heard the three fliers leave that morning. She had been more tired than she originally thought and so she had overslept by a couple of hours. But she had a running agreement that Sarah was to wake her if it was getting to 10 AM, which she did.
Breakfast consisted of dry cereal, eaten like popcorn, fresh apple juice and cantaloupe wedges.
Immediately following the dishes being washed, Kathryn, Sarah & Raea went outside to do some scouting of their own; to pick a spot for their new orchard.
They found a rectangle plot of grass just southwest of the University building –along Bay Vista Blvd- that would be perfect, according to Sarah. The bonus of that land was that it already had a sprinkler system installed! They’d have to figure out how to get it running again.
They decided to leave the existing palm trees intact and just plant around them.
Kathryn went back for the pickup already hooked up to the shed’s trailer and moved that first, placing it in the awkward strip of grass between Bay Blvd and the rectangle road of the parking lot.
They placed scavenged rope to lay out a pattern for a path down the direct center of the orchard, so that all types could be accessed more easily. Kathryn used the horse-drawn plow to take up the grass and Sarah followed with some bags of gravel they found in another landscaping storage facility.
After that, they laid the rope out again at right angles from the new path to mark out the spacing for each type of fruit tree so that each would have its own section; again, bypassing the little pond located in that spot.
Sarah had found paper and little bits of wire and had made little tiny flags the previous night when she first learned about the trees and so she walked each section, measuring as she went so that each tree would be placed carefully between its neighbors, counting out the flags as she went. In the end, Sarah figured they came out perfectly with the pears, oranges and bananas but ran out of space for the last two apple trees.
“We’ll plant them out by the RV in the parking lot. You know, in case I need a midnight snack,” Kathryn joked. Sarah took her seriously and found a spot for the last two trees on one of the parking lot grass islands. “We’ll wait for the others to come back and we can plant these two together,” Sarah said proudly. Kathryn simply rolled her eyes and they went back to the orchard with all of the trees loaded onto the now empty flatbed.
Using shovels and hooves, Kathryn dug the holes for each tree; Sarah stood ready to remove the pot from each tree, plant it in the hole and wait while Kathryn filled in the soil before sprinkling it with a watering can filled from the pond. Kathryn placed a tiny bit of Earth pony magic into each tree; just enough to stimulate root growth and help with any dehydration the tree might be suffering from.
They managed to plant every one of the 28 apple trees before needing a break for lunch. Sarah wanted Kathryn to simply grow one of the apple trees to maturity and then they could just eat the apples but Kathryn was too tired for that. “Besides, going back to make lunch will give me time to regain my magic again for the other trees and proper food will give me strength.”
Lunch was a simple but nourishing affair; Kathryn caved and made them a pot of tomato soup with salt crackers to break over. “If only we could bake some bread, I’d kill for some grilled cheese right now,” Sarah said. “You’d be dumb arse lucky to find any cheese that’s not gone bad,” Kathryn replied. “Griz had some on her French fries last night,” Sarah pointed out. “Touché,” Kathryn said with a laugh.
“I still can’t see Griz as a guy... I still keep referring to her as, well, ‘her’,” Sarah said. Kathryn nodded. “I feel the same way. Griz is a girl now and it makes no difference to anything. ‘Him’, ‘her’, ‘it’... none of it matters now. We are all beasts... sex will only matter when mating begins.”
Silence reigned for a moment. “Geez Kathy, that’s deep,” Sarah said in a hushed voice.
Both ponies burst out in laughter, startling Raea from her spot on the floor. “Sorry about that Raea,” Kathryn said as she stroked the dog’s head to calm her down.
Lunch finished with the washing dishes and put them away.
Back out in the orchard, Kathryn & Sarah got all of the pear, banana & orange trees planted by the end of the day. Sarah brought along a basket of fruit so that Kathryn would stay energized and she made sure Kathryn got some rest in between the tree sections.
By the time the fliers returned at sunset, around 8 pm, they had the entire orchard planted and a few of them were already in bloom; the trees were all showing signs of health despite being in pots and abandoned for God-knows how long.
As the two ponies & griffon landed in the parking lot next to the orchard, all three dropped their wings in exhaustion. Kathryn was the first to hurry over to them; Sarah was right behind, levitating the basket of fruit with her.
Griz grabbed a pineapple with her claws and broke the tough outer shell with her beak & hungrily devoured the inner fruit. The other two ignored the oranges & bananas for the easier to eat apples, pears and strawberries.
“Don’t eat too much; you’ll spoil your appetite for dinner.” Sarah watched as the three fliers finished off the last of the soft fruits and Griz took up an orange, peeling the skin with her talons. “We’ll be fine... Jazz just decided to go further than the original plan,” Griz said with a shrug.
“I hope you guys got a tiny bit of energy left. We want to show you our newly planted orchard,” Sarah said excitedly, leading the way to the path.
Griz & Jazz walked the path while Patrick hovered along side; his wheels having been left at the main building. They were all impressed at the work having been done and even more at the fact that Kathryn was able to tap into Earth pony magic to help all of the trees.
“And don’t you fret; we had two trees left over. Sarah suggested we save them for planting when you guys got back. And we've already picked the spot,” Kathryn said, placing a shovel in Griz’s claws.
Leading the three fliers, Kathryn & Sarah took them to the parking lot island where Sarah had placed the flags earlier in the day. The two flags had been set on either side of existing trees as Kathryn still did not wish to displace healthy trees just for fruit.
Griz dug the holes while Patrick hovered above them, holding the tree as Sarah removed the pot and then placing it in the finished hole; Jazz filled in the hole and Kathryn added her magic into the roots as Sarah came back with the pond-refilled watering can.
“Tomorrow, Griz, I’d like to see if we can get the orchard’s sprinkler system back up and running but not on a genny. I brought a ton of solar panels with us so maybe we can lay those out on the dirt just north of the orchard and feed that into the pump system.” Griz looked up to Kathryn and simply nodded.
“What are we going to name the twin trees?” Sarah asked out loud. “How about we all sleep on it and decide tomorrow?” Kathryn said with a sigh. The others’ nodded agreement and started towards the main lounge.
Kathryn, not being as tired as she looked, pulled out all of the stuff to make pasta for dinner. She poured the tomato sauce into a pan instead of plugging in a microwave, even temporarily.
Kathryn had whispered to Griz that if she broke up her evening fish and mixed it in her pasta, none of the ponies could smell it anymore. Griz really liked that idea but was too tired to go out hunting tonight. “I don’t need it all the time. The pasta will be fine, Kathy.” Griz said as she curled up on a section of couch for a pre-dinner nap.
Dinner was a quiet affair despite Kathryn & Sarah asking for details. Patrick kept waving them off. “Can we talk about it in the morning? I'm just way too tired,” he said as he watched Sarah tie forks to the hooves of Kathryn, Patrick & Jazz. Sarah could use her magic & Griz her talons but cutlery was not designed for hooves in mind. The ribbon ties worked for now but they would have to think of another solution later for self-use.
Kathryn sensed that Griz had something on her mind. “Griz? Is everything ok? You’re awfully quiet,” she said. “I had been thinking ideas of how to make this colony more productive.... food wise, I mean. Your orchard proved it’s possible... maybe we can do the same for farm crops. There’s a spot of land south of the obstacle course that might work,” Griz gestured with her talons, pointing in general directions.
“Obstacle course?” Patrick asked. “Old dog course,” Griz explained as they all looked from Kathryn to Raea. Kathryn only nodded thoughtfully.
“Is it possible for us to get the farm field planted tomorrow?” Jazz asked, looking to Kathryn who shrugged.
“I had hoped to go scout those water spots with Sarah & Patrick but I guess food is more important. Pat, if you take Sarah tomorrow, you guys can do the underwater locations, ax off any of those with problems or are too cold. Pare your list down to your top five favorites and we’ll go see them later together. Griz, Jazz and I will be planting a new farm field... oh! And getting the orchard sprinklers running. I can’t wait until Campus City gets a land Earth pony,” Kathryn said.
“Maybe this is why you got your transforming magic, Kathy... so you can help both halves to grow,” Sarah said.
Again, Kathryn nodded thoughtfully.
Jazz & Griz took care of the dishes so that Kathryn, Sarah & Patrick could go over the locations they had marked down (despite Patrick's begging to wait until morning), doing an initial paring down; taking out anything too far north or south or too deep. That alone removed 5 locations and kept them closer to home base.
Kathryn drove the truck out to a nearby camera store, grabbing a few GoPro cameras, underwater housings, extra cables and large capacity memory cards.
Upon her return, she labeled each memory card for each location and then marked those locations on a new city map, placing it on the side wall’s cork board. “You’ll find an empty boat, Patrick, and drive that out to your spots using the boat to keep all of the memory cards safe. When you get back, you’ll download all of the photos to the main tablet, use the printers in the office to make some screenshot photos of each and add them to the board. Don’t forget to take depth and temperature readings of each place. We’ll cut the list down from that data to the top five and then we’ll go see those top ones together. But just so you know... it might be at least a week before we can start building the ocean colony,” Kathryn said, finally pausing for a breath.
The others were silent and surprised by Kathryn’s authority but since growing crops & planning cities were her specialties, they would refer to her.
“Now, if you all don’t mind, I'm exhausted and I’ll need more magic tomorrow to get those crops growing. If someone else could take Raea for her walk, I’d be really grateful,” Kathryn said with a sigh, walking out of the building and back to her RV.
June 19th, 2015
Dear Journal,
I'm doing this entry by voice because I'm too tired. *yawn*
Sarah & I spent the whole day planting our new orchard. My Earth pony magic let me jump-start the trees’ growth. We could have fruit by next week.
Griz, Jazz & Patty Patrick went flying on an initial ocean scouting mission. They got some promising spots already. I'm sending Sarah & Patrick back out tomorrow to take photos and water data for me to pour over.
Griz & I are going to be planting a farm field, in a grass section just south of an old dog training obstacle course, and getting the orchard sprinklers hooked up to solar panels. *YAWWWWWN*
If I'm gonna make my home in the ocean, Campus City really needs a land Earth pony and soon. I already feel bad for Sarah and Patrick, having to still live in that fitness center's swimming pool. –Kathryn